The Albert Shanker Institute studied teacher diversity in nine important cities: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
What they learned was that the proportion of black teachers had declined, in some cities dramatically over the past decade.
All of these cities–to a greater or lesser degree–have been targets of corporate reform.
The black share of teachers’ positions declined by 1% in Boston’s charter sector, 24% in New Orleans, nearly 28% in Washington, D.C.
Is there a principle here? The more corporate reform, the fewer black teachers?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well, the more they bring in TFA, the whiter the “teacher” landscape becomes, right? Isn’t that what they did in New Orleans, lock, stock, barrel? Reformers don’t care about neighborhoods or cultures–they are only interested in the ka-ching, and it seems that ka-ching includes owning everything that has been purchased with taxpayer dollars when the charters fail and close up shop.
In the end, won’t it all be about the real estate grab?
AND, they aren’t concerned about who they put out of work either. How does raising unemployment of the people in the neighborhoods where TFA and the reformers stampede in help the students?
Test scores don’t matter when Johnny’s family can’t afford a roof over his head and breakfast and clothes, etc.
The ruin left in their wake goes so much deeper than just closing a public school, than just putting qualified teachers out of work.
“In the end, won’t it all be about the real estate grab?”
Charters, as prominent parts of the for so-called education reform agenda, have always been, among other things like wealth, power and social engineering, about real estate.
In urban areas, charters are closely tied to gentrification and real estate development. Thus, it’s no wonder that one of the biggest real estate developers in NYC’s Harlem sits on the Board of Evil Moskowitz’ Success Academies.
…and we have Teachers Village on Broad Street in Newark – which y’all know about. I took a walk down there recently. No matter how they try, I don’t see the “successful gentrification” of downtown Newark. There is nothing after 5pm worth pursuing; it becomes a ghost town, especially in winter.
I wonder whose kids will attend those 3 charters. I know the housing portion will be filled with a perhaps revolving door of young, white, greedy TFAers.
In Forbes magazine, 2013, by Allison Wiggin.
“About the only thing charters do well is limit the influence of teachers’ unions. And fatten their investors’ portfolios.
In part, it’s the tax code that makes charter schools so lucrative: Under the federal “New Markets Tax Credit” program that became law toward the end of the Clinton presidency, firms that invest in charters and other projects located in “underserved” areas can collect a generous tax credit — up to 39% — to offset their costs.
So attractive is the math, according to a 2010 article by Juan Gonzalez in the New York Daily News, “that a lender who uses it can almost double his money in seven years.”
It’s not only wealthy Americans making a killing on charter schools. So are foreigners, under a program critics call “green card via red carpet.
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“Wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools,” says a 2012 Reuters report.
The formal name of the program is EB-5, and it’s not only for charter schools. Foreigners who pony up $1 million in a wide variety of development projects — or as little as $500,000 in “targeted employment areas” — are entitled to buy immigration visas for themselves and family members.
“In the past two decades,” Reuters reports, “much of the investment has gone into commercial real estate projects, like luxury hotels, ski resorts and even gas stations. Lately, however, enterprising brokers have seen a golden opportunity to match cash-starved charter schools with cash-flush foreigners in investment deals that benefit both.”
More at.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/09/10/charter-school-gravy-train-runs-express-to-fat-city/
Wealthy foreigners are driving up real estate prices in Manhattan and Los Angeles. Many of these investors are from China, Russia and the Middle East. They figure they will have a safe haven if things get difficult in their homelands. Much of the priciest real estate in some of our cities remains largely vacant.
As for the tax incentives, we need to change those laws so they don’t apply to schools. Students are not just “markets” or line items in a portfolio. They should be entitled to stability, and the market has the opposite impact on them. Parents should pressure their representatives along with civil rights groups to change this law.
Well, of course. At the end of the day, it’s all about the “benjamins.” Not fixing low-performing schools, not doing something about the poverty in our country, not serving our under-served students, not supporting and training and respecting teachers.
Money.
Oh, and, while we’re at it, making sure that the oligarchs have a steady supply of workers (and voters) who will accept the bones they are thrown, and not question anything.
It’s a win-win. For them, at least.
Many black teachers are older veterans and were targeted in Los Angeles teacher jail. When I was there, black teachers made up 8 or 9 percent of the district but made up most of teachers in teacher jail. In addition, many young people see no sufficient compensation or future in teaching. Most black teachers in Los Angeles now are Africans, Belizeans or other foreign groups.
I think there is another factor at work. We have African-American godchildren. We have many African-American friends in our parish. None of their children has chosen to be a teacher. Why? It is a relatively low-paying career. African-Americans who are successful academically are going into business, the law, medicine, nursing, engineering. My African-American godson has his BS in Engineering and started at $65,000 a year. That is well above the starting salary for a teacher. Even a military career is a better career than being a teacher. Let’s face it; America considers teaching to be an afterthought. It is a second rate profession and little respected. That has always been so and it is more true with each passing year. All the compliments and kudos will do nothing to change that. In some states and some places teachers are relatively well-paid but in other places they are underpaid. And charter schools will diminish the profession even more. When young people see no security and no future in teaching the numbers applying will drop even more than they have been. Altruism only goes so far.
All I know is I would find it difficult to encourage anyone to go into teaching at this time. Very sad state of affairs.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the number of male teachers in the K – 12 system has declined dramatically from more than 30% to about 15% in the last fifteen years.
Lloyd, all I know is that here in Denver, I’m being pushed out as a very rare, male, early elementary, special educator, Latino teacher, in a school 95% plus and district 65% plus district. They are beating me down with their insanely complex evaluation system, applied to me and other veteran educators by young mostly millennium, mostly white female “peers”! I ‘m sure that my being an active Union member has nothing to do with it. LOL
Not only are we replacing more diverse (and stable, and higher quality) teaching staffs with less diverse TFA temps, we are using federal funds to pay off their college loans, when those funds could have gone to much more needy and diverse scholarship applicants.
Please note that public schools are also letting black teachers crash and burn. I drive through my extremely diverse neighborhood and think about how I couldn’t even get into the system for an INTERVIEW and then hear about the low morale of some of my black teacher friends. Wonder if making it mandatory that teachers either need to have grown up in or live in the school’s zip codes to get the gig would muddy the Lilly white fields up a bit.
Donna: you got me to thinking…
Thoughts. From a maximum rheephorm “thought leader.” “Dr.” Steve “Strap Up There Will Be Head Injuries” Perry.
From a former teacher at his Capitol Prep School, Ebony Murphy-Root.
[start]
The school lacked the warm, fuzzy, familial atmosphere of any of my previous schools—not even the lower school which served small children as young as three—but I figured this was part of the ‘no excuses’ package. In morning meetings, Perry often talked about “franchising” Capital Prep. He was fond of the ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us’ language that President Bush had used. Once, in the spring, after the girls lacrosse team lost a game to Fairfield, Perry went on a tirade about how the girls on our team were ‘disgusting’ and ‘out of shape’ compared to the lithe, slender, mostly white girls from down state. I was livid at this attack on teenage girls’ bodies and as I looked around the ‘bull pen’ it was the first time I saw that others were also offended by Perry’s rhetoric.
…
Still I knew I needed to work on my classroom management. The easy going yet firm style that had come naturally to me at other schools didn’t work with a segment of my students at Capital Prep. When I finally got up the courage to speak to my supervisor about the rampant use of the ‘n’ word and other racially abusive language, he chuckled smugly, asking: “Did you grow up around a lot of black people?” I was taken aback, unsure of what he meant.
[end]
So for all you shills and trolls out, a “thought” experiment: if this is how a black teacher is treated by a leading rheephormster “of color”—how surprised can anyone be that, well, read the posting and the rest of the account by Ebony Murphy-Root.
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/08/teacher-what-i-learned-when-i-taught-at-steve-perrys-no-excuses-school-in-hartford/
And what can you say about a fella helping lead the self-proclaimed “new civil rights movement of our time” that when it comes to color coding the teaching staff and students:
“We want it to snow in here.”
Black only counts for the color of the bottom line. $tudent $ucce$$: it isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.
It’s just that I have this little problem: if you’re a “thought” leader, shouldn’t you have “thoughts”? You know, good ones? Not self-serving ones that are toxic to so many others?
I guess I just don’t get this whole rheephorm thigamajig…
😎