Charles Kerchner, a scholar at the Claremont Graduate School in California, has some interesting reflections on the LAUSD vote against the Eli Broad plan to take over half the students in the district.
He writes to contradict the reformers’ claims that they are above politics. Quoting a paper by pro-reform Paul Hill of the University of Washington and an associate, Kershnernotes that reformers are just as political as unions and others who push back. Although they don’t like to admit it, reformers are an interest group. (I add: their power derives not from numbers but from money.)
He writes:
“The rhetoric of school reform treats portfolio creators as free of political interests in contrast to rapacious teacher unions and self-protecting school administrators. Because they, and the schools they create, are free from politics, they can innovate and adapt rapidly, outpacing the sluggish pace of incremental reforms within traditional school districts…..
“The foundations, philanthropists, and civic elites that Hill and Jochim call “the reformers” want something. They want dominance over public education. They want to rebrand the word public as something other than the delivery of schooling by a government agency called a school district.
“In order to do this, they need to take away resources controlled by that system: jobs held by teachers, access to school building and property, control over the means of training and hiring.
“Placing school reform in this context invites bare-knuckle politics. And that’s what has resulted.
“It’s not about who has the best idea; it’s about who can gather and sustain the most power. As the authors note at the end of the paper, politics is the strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes time and involves setbacks.
“So, when someone comes to your town with the promise that they can change your failed urban schools, do it quickly, and make an end run around urban politics, don’t believe them.”
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The process described in this post outlines the game plan of education “reform.” What they do not address is how the government has been aiding and abetting corporations and foundations in this power struggle. They do not describe the amount of cash that has flowed to policymakers to serve up public education to the rich and powerful. Nor do they describe the amount of chaos and upheaval that has been inflicted on teachers, students, families and communities. They also do not mention that the so called “reform” has failed to offer any lasting innovation or impressive results unless trying to force school districts to purchase more hardware, software, and test products is considered innovative.
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Touché, retired teacher! It’s up to us to frame these false named “reforms” as agendas of special interests and hold our elected officials accountable for resisting them.
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YOU BET!
There are millions of teachers in 15,880 districts
it is THAT isolation that makes teachers believe they are alone, but TOGETHER, we vote and we can talk, too. We just need leaders to do the planning, and implement it like the incredible people who took BerniE Sanders out of obscurity and showed the nation who he is!
I am a founding member, and I remember how YOUNG these people are when I first heard them tell us that WE COOULD DO IT! Well, they did!
BATS HAS GREAT PEOPLE to lead, and the NPE is JEWEL, to find voices that can speak the truth, as they do here, when Diane posts them, but we need to reach the people to UN-confuse them.
I am too old to do it, or I would be out there TELLING IT LIKE IT IS.
ISN’T IT TIME WE TOLD THE TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE???????
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As I say often… they do this to teachers because there is not a shred of accountability for their actions. The banisters did their little dance on the American people because no one ws topping them… and they will do it agaiN, because they paid not penalties.
Only the law stops the psychopaths and criminals who have no empathy, but talk big about rights!
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Here is the operant paragraph of today’s editorial from the LA Times, which is paid for by Eli Broad and his claque of pretenders (see their full disclosure which appears repeatedly with most of the education issues on which they report).
“A better move would be to call on Great Public Schools Now to provide a place at the table for the district’s new superintendent, Michelle King, to participate in the planning process. If the new nonprofit organization hopes to overcome resistance in the community, it needs to be more open about its planning and it needs to open the process to public discussion — after all, whether charter schools or not, these are all public schools.”
“The Times receives funding for its digital initiative, Education Matters, from the California Endowment, the Wasserman Foundation and the Baxter Family Foundation. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Broad Foundation to support this effort. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content.”
What a pile of manure…the only way these charter schools are public, is that We the People, we the public, are forced to pay for them…with NO oversight by the public or the school system.
So now Broad and Company wants the new Superintendent of LAUSD to sit at the table as a participant with his hit squad to charterize the rest of LAUSD…or at least for now, up to 50% more charters which take away from public education. Their fantasy seems to be that Michelle King will now work for them and be a subject to Myrna Castrejon…and of course Eli.
It is shocking to see that Broad lawyers and PR firms now use as their mouthpiece, this hard core, non educator, lobbyist for CCSA who spent her time twisting arms in Sacramento who now thinks she is on the same level as the new Superintendent of LAUSD.
As to Myrna Castrejon, a political hit woman who works for charter schools, here is her Times dossier.
“The organization driving a controversial effort to vastly expand charter schools in Los Angeles has selected one of the state’s most visible charter school advocates as its first executive director.
Myrna Castrejon, 50, is leaving her position as a lobbyist and strategist for the California Charter Schools Association to lead Great Public Schools Now, a nonprofit organization established to carry out the charter expansion strategy, which was first developed by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and his foundation.
In her new position, Castrejon will become the face of an initiative that is stoking tumult among educators and push-back from the Los Angeles Unified School District. An early proposal called for raising $490 million to enroll half of the district’s students in charter schools over the next eight years.
Castrejon, senior vice president of government affairs for the charter association, begins her new role Feb. 22. She said a key priority will be reaching out to leaders of the nation’s second largest school district who, just two days ago, publicly opposed the plan developed by the Broad Foundation.
L.A. Unified Supt. Michelle King on Thursday echoed concerns raised by the school board, saying she does not support any initiatives that propose to “take over” the district by encouraging students to enroll in charters.”
How many of the California legislators are under the influence of Broad and his endless cash? We know for a fact that the former mayor of LA, Anthony Villaraigosa, who is now preparing to run for Governor, is prime among these sellouts to the big money. He is so close to Eli and John Deasy, he can taste them.
Have we lost all control of American society and democracy to Broad his band of oligarchs? How can they form a new 501c3 and think it will be the vehicle to infiltrate the school district and usurp it totally, from Superintendent to BoE to every piece of LAUSD real estate?
The arrogance and sheer chutzpah of this power grab is mind boggling.
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The paying public still does not know exactly how much federal money DoEd is dishing to charters. After requesting information from DoEd for over a year, the Center for Media & Democracy received a report that’s full of black holes. After piecing together the available information CMD calculated the federal government has spent $3.7 billion fueling the charter school industry.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13015/education-department-releases-list-federally-funded-charter-schools-though-incomplete
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LOS ANGELES’ TIMES’ EDUCATION MATTERS says…
“A better move would be to call on Great Public Schools Now to provide a place at the table for the district’s new superintendent, Michelle King, to participate in the planning process.”
BACKGROUND:
“Great Public Schools Now (GPSN) is a private sector school governance entity totally separate from the actual LAUSD governance that has been in place for over a century. Unlike the LAUSD Board of Ed, none of those in charge or working at GPSN have ever been elected by the taxpaying citizens within LAUSD, or the parents of LAUSD students. Nor have any of their own children attended LAUSD schools. GPSN is an entity whose ultimate goal it is to execute a hostile takeover of the entirety of LAUSD, and which is run privately by billionaires totally unaccountable and non-transparent to the public or to the LAUSD Board of Ed.
Therefore, the Los Angeles Times’ EDUCATION MATTERS op ed says that…
TRANSLATION
“GPSN should invite the actual LAUSD leader, Superintendent King, elected by the people (via the 7 Board of Ed Members) to take ‘seat at the table’ over at GPSN to participate in a hostile takeover process of LAUSD, a process that will ultimately destroy democratic control of LAUSD schools, and cause the extinction of the very governance body that King is in charge of.
“The endgame for GPSN is for all public schools — or almost all, as they may need a rump remnant of public schools in which to dump the kids who are more expensive and more difficult to educate — to be turned over to this same private group run by billionaires out to profit from the privatization of education.”
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I mean, seriously. Should Superintendent King accept such an invitation to “sit at (THAT) table”? That she should knowingly and willingly participate in destruction of LAUSD as we know it????!!!
Do the folks and EDUCATION MATTERS seriously think that King is that stupid, or corrupt?
GPSN is not exactly hiding their “hostile takeover” intentions. Read the very words of Nicholas Melvoin, the ”the director of policy, communications, and legal counsel of Great Public Schools: Los Angeles”
https://www.the74million.org/article/opinion-maybe-a-hostile-takeover-is-precisely-what-the-los-angeles-unified-school-district-needs
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NICHOLAS MELVOIN:
“School Board President Steve Zimmer denounced the effort — which would create 260 new public schools over the next eight years—and even went so far as to decry it ‘an outline for ‘a hostile takeover.’ But if I were a shareholder of LAUSD — and as a taxpayer, I guess we all are — I might welcome a hostile takeover.
“In fact, a hostile takeover might be precisely what our district needs.”
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My favorite line:
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NICHOLAS MELVOIN: “Is the charter plan guaranteed to succeed? Of course not. And if it fails, we’ll try something new.”
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And what if, in the process, and in the course to that failure, you end up making things worse — far, far worse… irreversibly worse?
Oh that’s right. You and your fellow private sector vultures will “just try something new.”
The article I cited was from Campbell Brown’s “THE 74” website, and describes the writer, Nicholas Melvoin, as “a teacher in Watts”. Melvoin gives the impression that he was just a teacher who chanced upon the leaked document of the Broad-Walmart plan … The Great Public Schools Now Initiative… and wanted to add a “teacher’s” perspective of support for school privatization.
https://www.the74million.org/article/opinion-maybe-a-hostile-takeover-is-precisely-what-the-los-angeles-unified-school-district-needs
The article misleads folks into thinking that Nicholas Melvoin is merely a teacher unconnected to the Broad-Walmart Plan — though in obvious sympathy with it — who just happened to read the plan, and was chiming in on Campbell’s website:
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NICHOLAS MELVOIN:
“When I read the recently released memo outlining a plan to create more high-quality public charter schools in LA … ”
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Since there’s no mini-bio anywhere on this page nor any mention of anything but Melvoin’s teaching — a deliberate choice by Melvoin and Campbell Brown — and the only thing Melvoin will tell us is that he was “a teacher in Watts,” he’s misleading anyone reading this.
Indeed, what Melvoin fails to admit was that—at the time he “read the recently released memo”—he was a paid employee of the very same Great Public Schools Now Initiative.
To be precise, he is, according to a website of his law school alma mater …
http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/nicholas-melvoin-vergara-v-california
” … the director of policy, communications, and legal counsel of Great Public Schools: Los Angeles. A new education start-up, GPS:LA is working to put together a coalition to elect reform-minded candidates to the Los Angeles school board—the governing body of the second-largest school district in the country.”
Melvoin was and currently is being paid not just to read the Broad-Walmart Plan (the Great Public Schools Initiative), but also promote it in articles like the one on THE 74, as part of his job … a six-figure job in the neighborhood of $100,000 – to – 300,000, if the pattern in salary of others similarly involved holds … especially for an employee with an NYU law degree.
Go here:
http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/nicholas-melvoin-vergara-v-california
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NYU Law School website:
“Following his graduation from NYU Law, Melvoin will continue in the field of education rights as director of policy, communications, and legal counsel of Great Public Schools: Los Angeles. A new education start-up, GPS:LA is working to put together a coalition to elect reform-minded candidates to the Los Angeles school board—the governing body of the second-largest school district in the country.”
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A TFA temp, Melvoin taught for two — count ’em — two years in LAUSD, where, concurrent with his teaching, he promoted the specious — and later reversed-in-the-courts —- Reed lawsuit meant to eviscerate seniority protections under the false guise of caring about the education of poor and minority children.
Now, he’s getting rich while working to privatize the public schools in Los Angeles.
Just as with Campbell’s refusal to admit and hide who her billionaire backers are — profiteers out to get rich privatizing public schools — and her falsely claiming that it’s “the parents” are driving both the Vergara lawsuit in California, and the similar lawsuit in New York, it appears that sleazy deception is also part of Melvoin’s modus operandi as well.
If not, Melvoin should go back and re-write the article with the truth, or include it in a mini-bio somewhere.
Also, if I’m wrong about the salary, feel free to correct me.
One more thing, his quote …
“Is the charter plan guaranteed to succeed? Of course not. And if it fails, we’ll try something new.”
Seriously, THAT is supposed to pass for public policy? Who elected him or Broad or any of these school privatizing billionaires to impose this stuff, anyway?
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Yes, and here is what Lenny posted http://www.perdaily.com/2016/01/lausd-is-a-business-that.html
LAUSD is a business that for generations has been more concerned with the well being of its exclusive “agreed vendors” of goods and services than it has been for the successful formation of its students. The uncontested reason for this behemoth to have existed in the first place as the second largest school district in the United States is what is called the economics of scale, where in theory a larger entity like LAUSD with its enormous buying power should be able to get the best price for the goods and services it needs at the lowest wholesale market price. But the opposite reality has remained for generations where you could go into any retail store and buy pretty much anything for less than LAUSD pays for it, while getting a newer more up to date model or version with better warranties.
So, given that the sole reason for this generationally dysfunctional LAUSD to exist with its incessant scandals like Belmont High School being bulit on an irremediable toxic waste dump or an Ambassador Hotel school being built with talking benches and way over budget or a $1.3 billion iPad scandal that remains unaddressed years after it was uncovered, why does LAUSD remain unreconstructed generation after generation to the continued undoing of the vast majority of its primarily poor and minority students?
The reason is that power corrupts and absolute and unnecessarily centraized power corrupts absolutely. While something like the economics of scale might be reluctanty tolerated in order to attain the greatest economies in the purchase of goods and services for LAUSD, what is never addressed is that the agglomeration of such power also brings with it the likely danger of indemic corruption especially where highly centralized adminstrative decisions about business are being made by ex- teacher administrators with little or no experience or ability in business or law necessary to stand up to sophicated vendors who have over the years moulded LAUSD into an entity that serves their economic interests and not those of the district and what should be its primary mandate to educate its students.
Now Into this fray comes new LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King who has moved up in this purposeful flawed de facto segregated and academically underactiving culture for the last 30 years not by making waves, but rather going along to get along. In fact, when you look at who gets chosen at LAUSD for the superintendent (or any admnistrative position), it seems that the most important qualification for this top position is the assurance that you will do nothing to change its vendor friendly and student toxic culture.
Whether it is Michelle King or her most recent predecessors Ramon Cortines and John Deasy, the hallmark of this illusory type of leadership and reform is that it only addresses the effects of long-failed LAUSD public education and never the underlying causes. While her first suggestion upon entering the superintendent’s job to have exclusively all boy and all girl campuses is supported by competent academic authorities, it never addresses the far more damaging continued practice of LAUSD to continue socially promoting students who arrive in kindergarten already behind. Instead of positing an early intervention program that addresses each student’s subject academic level irrespective of age, it seems that LAUSD under Michelle King will continue to socially promote ill-prepared students to assured failure, whether they are in a mixed gender or single gender school.
The same is true for her second goal of “making sure every student graduates.” Again this can not be done with nice sounding empty rhetoric without addressing the student’s underlying prior grade level standards deficits in a timely age-sensitive manner- something that up until now has remained conspiciously absent in all prior LAUSD superintendents’ plans that never question clearly failed social promotion to assured subsequent academic failure.
But one should not just blame LAUSD administrators, since it is human nature to not change unless one knows that there are negative consequences for premeditated generational LAUSD failure. So far, this has not been the case at LAUSD where neither local, state, nor federal oversight have done anything to hold LAUSD administrative failure accountable. So if a socially promoted student without any of the skills that are supposed to be subsumed under a high school diploma arrives at junior college where 75% continue to fail, take remedial class, and disproportionaly drop out, no governmental agency charged under law with oversight of LAUSD ever steps in and says, “What’s going on here and who’s fixing the grades and CAHSEE exams that these students have supposedly passed?”
It is not lost on me that new LAUSD Superintendent Michelle King is African American and a woman. One can only hope that she might finally comport herself in a manner finally befitting the needs of what remains a close to 90% de facto segregated school district 62 years after Brown v. Board of Education said, “Separate but equal…is inherently unequal.” Yes, I still believe in Santa Claus and The Tooth Fairy.
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Susan…over a decade ago, when there was a push to break off the vast San Fernando Valley from LAUSD, and for the Valley to form its own district, I was not on board. However, with approximately 675,000 students in the 7 district areas that comprise LAUSD, I have changed my mind, as have many of us.
Lenny’s point is well made. This huge enterprise which has been mired in corruption and inefficiency for many decades, seems not to be manageable. I tend to agree with some Angelinos who are pushing to reconstruct LAUSD into 6 – 7 independent districts. The danger however, it that it would further segregate the inner city students.
We lifelong residents, and those of us who are educators, are tortured by the lack of input and hands-on control, lack of transparency of the district and the BoE, and the system of elected members who either are not educators, and/or also are not skilled in business management. We do not need more ‘Voteria’-impacted, multi- millionaire charter school candidates and toadies of Eli Broad.
We do need more people willing to run for BoE who have some training in business management plus a background in education. We got lucky that Scott Schmerelson who was willing to come out of retirement, with his many decades of experience as a teacher and senior administrator. He has become the major hope on the BoE to make reasoned decisions while also holding back the Broad/Rheeformers from taking over the district.
We had hoped that McKenna and Vladovic, with similar creds to Schmerelson, would also function positively to protect the public schools against the charter onslaught of the billionaires, but it seems that these two men have become stuck in their own personal issues. And Ratliff, who is a both a Columbia-trained attorney and an elementary school teacher, has been a staunch defender of public education, has been pushed to a background role by the testosterone overload on the Board. I still have faith that she will vociferously support Schmerelson’s position as he speaks loudly against the ‘Broad-billionaire clique’ takeover, and that there will be a far more fair changing of the guard when Zimmer completes his role as a BoE member and as the current Prez of the Board.
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How sad.
You point out how difficult innovation is in the public sector.
I heard an NPR podcast of Freakonomics, where the guest pointed out that innovations always slow, but in the private sector, failure is not an option… (going out o business is not tolerated) so the people who run the show must find solutions beyond their comfort zone and personal needs.
He described how in the public sector failure to reach desired objectives does not stop implementation of bad policies.
All I can say, is we have no choice but to keep trying. This is not about children, it is about the future of our nation, because schools are the only way to income equality.
Small units do work. Our magnet school worked so well it grew big an unwieldy and is GONE! If it works in the public sector, it disappears when another ego takes charge and bring his/her own shitload of opinions and policies.
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WELL SAID ANALYSIS to the underlying philosophy of the deformers.
I listened to a wonderful podcast, yesterday, but missed the beginning, which now that I read it, is good background for how these conclusions were reached in a a remarkable, long-term empirical study, focused on geopolitical predictions, with nearly 300 participants. This study became the basis of a book that Tetlock titled Expert Political Judgment”…http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691128715/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0691128715&linkCode=as2&tag=freakonomic08-20&linkId=OWW5UPK5OMJQTJIB
It was a sly title because the experts’ predictions often weren’t very expert. Which, to Philip Tetlock, is a big problem. Because forecasting is everywhere.
Here is the link, and be warned, it is NOT about education, but uses politics and even football as metaphors for the subject at hand …which is FORECASTING… something we are trying to do, in order to stop the billionaires from their plan. Kierchner’s piece leads to such predictions, so this comment is appropriate here.
http://freakonomics.com/2016/01/14/how-to-be-less-terrible-at-predicting-the-future-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/
BUT HERE are some of the crucial points with I took away from a far-ranging discussion on geo-politics and predictions, but which apply to the serious discussion ongoing here.
Dubber says: “So here we are. a couple of non-experts in the realm of geopolitics being asked to make a series of geopolitical predictions” becasue we teachers, are trying to fathom the ongoing events on the stage of public education… to predict what happens next.
Dubber (somewhat later in the discsuuon) asks an EQ,,, what I call an “essential question,” one where th answer leads to insight.:
” Let me ask you this: if you were asked to introduce one question into an upcoming presidential debate, let’s say, that you feel would give some insight via the candidate’s answers, the insight into their views overall on forecasting — our limits and the need for it — what kind of question would you try to ask?
TETLOCK replies: What a wonderful question that is. You’ve taken me aback, it’s such a good question. You’d have to go to the link for the answer, because here I am just introducing the idea that we need to FORECAST what to do next… and it needs to work…. more about tolerating unworkable ‘innovations’ in another comment.
I love essential questions, Diane, don’t you?
And I think it is a very important question Diane, here at this blog, where so many people are trying to ‘forecast,’ what will happen if…..
Dubber asks about what the study revealed about the style of A super forecaster!
TETLOCK: They tend to be more actively open-minded. They tend to treat their beliefs not as SACRED POSSESSIONS TO BE GUARDED but rather as testable hypotheses to be discarded when the evidence mounts against them.
One of the more distinctive differences between how superforecasters approach a problem and how regular forecasters approach it is that superforecasters are much more likely to use what Danny Kahneman calls the outside view, rather than the inside view.
That’s another way in which they differ from many people. They try not to have too many ideological sacred cows. They’re willing TO MOVE FAIRILY QUICKLY in response to changing circumstances. Foresight isn’t a mysterious gift bestowed at birth. It is the product of particular ways of thinking, of gathering information, of updating beliefs. These HABITS OF THOUGHTS can be learned and cultivated by any intelligent, thoughtful, determined person.”
That, describes ME — and those words –HABITS OF MIND — caused a BELL to go off in my head… DING DING DING.
They were the words the new standards researchers USED DAILY in the seminars to describe our task as teachers… to develop in children HABITS OF MIND of THOUGHT, and as Tetlock says THEY CAN BE LEARNED AND CULTIVATED.
They didn’t tell us HOW to do this… but I tried… I shared how I did it, how my mindful habits helped me to find meaning in text, in what I read. I used the words ‘habits of mind’ often with the kids, and the parents, so everyone knew the task was about THINKING…not writing,( or test-taking!)
That, dear Diennne and Jack, is what Learning LOOKS like…teachers sharing what they know about analyzing and comparing. It is NOT obscure but it is easy to observe i.e. is easy to observe (i.e.teachers offering rewards to kids who cultivate such MINDFULNESS over the year that they sit in that room and it is easy to SEE changes in performance (writing and speaking) when children begin to use thinking skills.
I am tired of talking about tests… I am DETERMINED to talk about learning, and FORECAST WHAT CAN CHANGE if teachers begin to talk to parents and the public about REAL LEARNING and what REAL TEACHERS do.
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“In order to do this, they need to take away resources controlled by that system: jobs held by teachers, access to school building and property, control over the means of training and hiring.” ( long post)
“Control over the means of training and hiring”… are the latest missions of the Gates Foundation’s new funding for Teacher Transformation Centers. There are four, with networks attached to each. All are aimed at stripping teacher education from higher education, making teaching a matter of on-the-the job training substantially located in districts with toolkits provided from the likes of Relay Graduate School of Education, Doug Lemov’s no-nonsense tricks-of-the trade, and so-called “high leverage” teaching strategies, along with a limited array of approved texts for teachers (two from Pearson), and a Gates-funded Inspectorate system incubated by the National Council for Teacher Quality (also heavily financed by Gates).
NCTQ is infamous for ratings of teacher education programs by employing workers recruited from Craig’s list to gather and rate course syllabi, reading lists and the like from “uncooperative” teacher ed programs. The error-ridden and misleading stack ratings are published in US News and World Report. A new “customer friendly” website steers prospective teachers to programs with similar ratings adding costs and some performance measures of graduates. http://www.pathtoteach.org/approach.jsp
NCTQ’ s Inspectorate is intended to replace all current accreditation systems for teacher education. Here is the policy agenda: ” http://www.nctq.org/teacherPrep/review2014/findings/nationalPolicies.jsp
Begin quote (my comments in parentheses)
1. Make it tougher to get into a teacher preparation program. Institutions need to admit only college students who are in the top half of their class. (Elsewhere the aim is top third)
2. Make it tougher to be recommended for licensure. States need to choose the right licensing tests — tests that will assess each and every subject a teacher could be assigned to teach — and make sure that the cut-scores are set high enough to ensure that new teachers really know their stuff (These “every subject, every grade” tests are intended to remove generalists from every subject and grade. Elementary teachers must have a strong minor in math, science, one of the social studies, and pass state or national tests in each)
3. Hold programs accountable for the effectiveness of their graduates by using data on novice teacher effectiveness, employing value-added analysis of student test scores and growth (VAM) to identify programs producing the most effective graduates (Effectiveness means the production of test scores and gains in these that exceed expectations. Note that the NCQT is deliberately going against recommendations of the American Statistical Association and American Educational Research Association in retaining test scores as a measure of teacher effectiveness and in using VAM).
4. Make program approval — and re-approval — contingent on passing rigorous on-site inspections. NCTQ has served as an incubator for an inspectorate run independently by TPI-US in partnership with the UK Tribal Group. Programs in Texas and New Mexico have participated in pilot inspections. (See more on the Inspectorate below)
5. Make the student teaching requirement meaningful. States should only allow student teachers to be placed with classroom teachers who have been found effective and in districts according to their capacity and needs. (This shifts key decisions about student teaching placements to districts and some sort of “pipeline” of jobs for those districts)
6. Base state funding on the specific indicators of quality of teacher preparation such as -time graduation. (On-time graduation is a dubious indicator of “quality.” NCQT has about eleven “indicators of quality.” The latest addition is for specific college assignments, creating lesson plans that include six and only six essential strategies said to be “evidence-based.” Of these most focus on memorization. One places high value on repeated testing as an aid to remembering)
7. Set a fixed cap on the number of licenses in each teaching area to be issued each year in order to address significant oversupply of new teachers. (This is a statewide or regional intervention in the labor market for teachers, every year).
8. Lower tuition for high need areas such as special education and STEM preparation programs. (Visual art has been a high needs subject in several states in recent years).
9. Enforce teacher prep standards, including cut scores on licensure tests, through the program approval process. Note the high value placed on test scores. A good case of myopic vision.
The Gates-funded Inspectorate “Teacher Prep Inspection U.S. (TPI-US) is a non-profit based in Florida, adapted from a British system. TPI-US is being led by Dr. Edward Crowe, co-founder of Teacher Prep Analytics (TPA). In 2014, before the recent Gates grant, TPA led four “trial inspections” of elementary preparation programs at Southern Methodist University, the University of Houston in Texas, New Mexico State University, and Eastern New Mexico University. Additional inspections were being conducted in 2015 in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and North Carolina. The Helmsley Charitable Trust is working in tandem with the Gates Foundation on this initiative. TPS has a long history of contracts with Teach for America and groups promoting charter colleges of education.
The recently passed ESSA legislation echoes the idea of chartering teacher education through “teacher academies.”
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Kerchner zeros in on the singular issue of how this has become a forced national conversation based on both politics, power and cash.
He says….
“They want to rebrand the word public as something other than the delivery of schooling by a government agency called a school district.
“In order to do this, they need to take away resources controlled by that system: jobs held by teachers, access to school building and property, control over the means of training and hiring.
Placing school reform in this context invites bare-knuckle politics. And that’s what has resulted.
It’s not about who has the best idea; it’s about who can gather and sustain the most power.”
Broad and his group of powerful professional tricksters keep coming up with new ways to manipulate the public. They have used well-orchestrated street theater, bussing in paid actors to give testimony to the BoE, and other mendacious actions to get their end which is to privatize everything that should be public services…and to kill all unions that might protect the workers.
It is a massive national movement by these oligarchs who hide behind the faux title of ‘philanthropy’ and helping the little people. They own most media, and they also have moved into university manipulation using their endless assets to buy into Schools of Education nationwide, even at venerable public institutions such as U. of California. This onslaught is so treacherous that it is only by educating the public, and that includes working teachers who too often do not want to be bothered with it all, and pushing for action from a united group which fights this together, that we can hope to retain free universal education.
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Well said… no where else are you saying this, because here, this IS the conversation.
Your words are so important… I wish that you and all the teachers would band to gather and get the attention of the people AIR TIME, TO SAY IT TO THE PEOPLE.
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Yes…Susie Lee…it would be beneficial to get some air time, but unfortunately the local PBS station is funded by the Broad Foundation and some of their uber wealthy ilk. Ain’t gonna happen.
The only station that has invited me, and some of my cohorts, is KPFK which has limited distribution, and is really like preaching to the choir. I would happily be interviewed by Tavis Smiley or Val Zavala, and could bring my most respected colleague, USC emeritus Education professor, Steve Krashen….but it is not to be.
Dr. Krashen however does get his letters to the editor of the LA Times printed. He should be on air every day. His voice is profound, and he discusses students living in abject poverty as the cardinal sin of the billionaires who avert their glance from this cause of academic problems.
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Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
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What’s underlying all of this is the notion that a group of self-appointed wealthy elites should be running everything, and that democracy be rendered impotent. Curmudgucation’s Peter Greene calls this the “Betterocracy”. It’s also what’s behind the remaking of universities, replacing the ideal of “citizenship” where all citizens participate in a democracy with “leadership” of elites who are in charge because, because, … well because they’re so much “better.”
Harper’s covered this here:
http://harpers.org/archive/2015/09/the-neoliberal-arts/
BELOW is Peter Greene’s essay on the “Betterocracy””
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/06/betterocracy.html
(I’m posting it here in its entirey, as I can’t excerpt it… it’s all good, as they say)
————————————–
“Tuesday, June 2, 2015
“Betterocracy … by Peter Greene
“This thread runs through many reformster ideas and many of my responses to them. I just wanted to gather thoughts about ‘Betterocracy’ in one place.
“Many reformsters have one fundamental point in common– they don’t really believe in democracy. They believe in ‘Betterocracy.’
“Betterocracy rests on one simple fundamental belief– some people really are better than others. It’s not necessarily the possession of a particular quality, though Betters are usually smarter, wiser, and possessed of superior character. It’s that Betters are made of the right stuff. They come from good stock. They are just better than others.
“This is not a new thing.
“Back in the earlier days of romance and story, we find tales of princes who were reduced to tatters and penury, but whose Inner Quality always shone through, and they always rose to their proper princely place. Our Puritan forefathers believed that God had chosen certain people, and you would be able to spot the Chosen because God would reward them for being Better. Horatio Alger made a career out of penning stories of young men possessed of fine character and plucky grit, whose innate superiority eventually lifted them to the level of society to which they truly belonged.
“Some folks interpret the idea of American Democracy to be, ‘All humans are equal.’
“But other folks believe that promise is, ‘Any human can become a Better.’
“We have always had signifiers of Betterness. In the bad old days, those signs that you might be a better included traits such as Being White or Having a Penis. More progressive bettercrats have come to understand that such signifiers are unreliable, but when they talk about opening the tent to folks of all race, gender and religion, it’s not that they believe that all Black Muslim women are equal to white Christian guys. They just mean they are open to the possibility that a Black Muslim woman could turn out to be a Better, too.
“In fact, many bettercrats are delighted to find non-white, non-wealthy, or non-men who are Betters because it proves we really do live in an enlightened and liberal age. But they still don’t believe in democracy, and they still believe that some people are better than others.
“Non-believers in betterocracy often imagine that Betters are simply greedhounds in pursuit of stuff and money and power and prestige just to have those things. I don’t believe that’s true. Bettercrats like those things because they are signfiers of Quality. They are proof that the Betters really are Better. The money, the prestige, the stuff– why would they have all of that unless they were Better? The right schools, the right clubs, the right houses in the right neighborhoods– these are all proof that they really are Better.
“Bettercrats can actually be dismissive of the stuff. After all, they have the stuff because they deserve it, and so if fate somehow burned down the house and rabble took the money, the Betters would still get it back. They deserve it, and as long as the universe is functioning properly, the Betters will not be denied their due. Failure is a temporary glitch and only happens on a real or permanent scale to Lessers.
“Betters can come in all political stripes, defined mostly by disagreements about what the signifiers of Betterness actually are. Conservative vs. liberal bettercrats mostly argue whether anyone who’s not white and penis-deprived can be a Better (mostly no), and how to treat the Lessers.
“Because a Bettercratic country has to be organized in strata. We must sort and stack, because Betters and Lessers should be subject to different regulations, different laws, different punishments, and, of course, different educational systems.
“Betters can be allowed to roam free, and while they may need to get an occasional course-correction or wake-up call, we know they’re The Right Kind of People. Lessers, however, have all sorts of Naughty Tendencies and we must do what we can to hold their Lesser natures in check.
“So a ‘Better’ who is, say, busted for drugs, shouldn’t have to suffer the rest of his life for a youthful indiscretion, but a Lesser who is busted needs to be taught a lesson without mercy. Betters should be cut some slack, but if you give a Lesser an inch, he’ll take a mile.
“Betters occasionally need a hand or some help, and that’s only right. Betters owe it to other Betters to lend a hand, and of course Betters deserve every bit of help they get. But Lessers are always looking for a handout, and to give them help is just to encourage their dependent, lazy, lesser nature. Betters who have had a hard moment or two need understanding and support, but Lessers should be allowed No Excuses.
“Bettercrats are in a tizzy these days because we have a problem as a country– too many portions of the government have been taken over by Lessers, who in turn are pandering to large groups of Special Interest Lessers. This is Very Bad, because unchecked, Lessers will do Terrible, Bad Things. In fact, they might demand money and power and other trappings of success to which they are not entitled (though Better’s will use the word ‘entitled’ to mean “thinking they deserve things that they do not deserve). They don’t seem to understand that the fact they need help proves that they don’t deserve help.
“Bettercrats expect Lessers to KNOW THEIR PLACE. After all, they wouldn’t be poor and powerless if that wasn’t what they deserved. After all, the nicer word for betterocracy is ‘meritocracy,’ the system in which people get what they deserve– and not everybody deserves the best. If they deserved it, they would have it. Trying to give it to them is just violating the natural order.
“So we need different education systems– one to prepare Betters for lives of well-deserved privilege, money and power, and another to prepare Lessers for their proper role in society. Better schools are for providing opportunities and enrichment for America’s future leaders. Lesser schools are for training America’s future employees. In addition, in the dreams of liberal-minded bettercrats, the system should also provide a means of discovering and rescuing Betters who are, by some accident of birth and zip code, trapped amongst the Lessers. This rescue mission makes bettercrats feel more progressive.
“But, again– progressive bettercrats do not believe that all humans are created equal; they believe that individuals from almost any background could turn out to be Betters (but only if rescued from the influence of Lessers).
“And if the two-tier system is set up and managed in such a way that it reverse the regrettable trend of giving Lessers too much control, too much power, too much say– well, that’s a bonus.
“Bettercrats know that not everybody should have a say. Betters should be in charge. Lessers should not. Letting just anybody have a vote, even if he’s a Lesser, leads to bad, messy, stupid decisions. Preferable to sweep away voting rights (from electing Presidents to choosing school boards) in predominantly Lesser communities.
“Dump the school board, and install leadership by a Better.
“Do not engage or discuss with the members of the community; if they deserved to have money, power,or a say, they would already have it.
“Bettercrats sometimes succumb to anger– why don’t these Lessers see that their schools suck, their children are ignorant, their neighborhoods are holes, and that their communities are awash in unworthy Lessers. Some of them don’t even have the decency to feel bad about it. Man, if we could just get some solid proof that their world sucks and rub their faces in it until they finally hollered uncle and begged for their Betters to come straighten everything out for them.
“But some of (the unworthy Lessers) just keep acting like they deserve to have a voice, like they have a right to love their lives and their families and their communities.
“The bottom line is that bettercrats believe that democracy is, really, a bad idea. Some people just don’t deserve to have a say. Some people just don’t deserve to be in charge of anything. Some people just aren’t important. Some people just don’t matter. Some people just can’t have nice things.
“Bettercrats may, out of generosity and a general sense of noblesse oblige, give Lessers the nice things that they don’t deserve, but those will be nice things that the Betters have selected, and Lessers can have the nice things under terms dictated by the Betters.
“Why shouldn’t Betters have an outsized disproportionate influence on government? The fact that they have the money and power to wield influence is proof that they are right to do so.
“None of this is democracy, not even a watered-down republic-styled democracy. Bettercrats mostly would not recognize democracy (they most commonly call it ‘socialism’).
“And that’s why we’ve got the refomster programs that we have. Our Betters are trying to give the Lessers the system they deserve while rescuing Betters who have been trapped by zip codes in dens of Lesser iniquity. Our Betters are creating a system that disenfranchises Lessers (who, after all, do not deserve to be enfranchised in the first place because if they deserved to have power, they would have it). Our Betters are trying to create a system that further reinforces their own power and control, because they deserve to have them. Our Betters are even trying to get Lessers to understand that they are, in fact, Lessers.
“The genius of America is that of a country that makes room for all voices and treats them all as equals, tied together and forced to create systems that accommodate all our citizens. It envisions a level playing field in which all voices and ideas can compete in the grand marketplace of thought. We have never fully lived up to that genius, but Betters do not even recognize it as genius to begin with.
“Right now their lack of vision is bad for education, but in the long run, it’s bad for the entire country.”
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Love Peter. Read him all the time, but missed those…Thanks
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Below is an old half-hour TV interview with Eli Broad pontificating on LAUSD, moderated by veteran L.A. television newsman Conan Nolan. By the way, the show that Eli is on — NBC’s News Conference — is a show that goes back 50 years … to 1966… and has a very prominent place in Los Angeles.
To start with, the premise of this is ridiculous. Broad gets this respected show to discuss LAUSD, as if he were on a par with, or possessing power equivalent to the actual LAUSD Superintendent.
He was never elected to any position that governs LAUSD schools.
He has ZERO background in education — as a teacher or administrator, or anything.
All he has is a lot of money. (For more on this, SEE Peter Greene’s essay on the “Betterocracy”… the notion that control of public schools by un-elected, preening, self-appointed wealthy elites should replace actual democracy of all citizens when it comes to public schools’ governance:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/06/betterocracy.html
PETER GREENE: “Betterocracy rests on one simple fundamental belief– some people really are better than others. It’s not necessarily the possession of a particular quality, though ‘Betters’ are usually smarter, wiser, and possessed of superior character. It’s that ‘Betters’ are made of the right stuff. They come from good stock. They are just better than others.”
” … ”
” ‘Bettercrats’ know that not everybody should have a say. ‘Betters’ should be in charge. ‘Lessers’ should not. Letting just anybody have a vote, even if he’s a ‘Lesser,’ leads to bad, messy, stupid decisions. Preferable to sweep away voting rights (from electing Presidents to choosing school boards) in predominantly ‘Lesser’ communities. Dump the school board, and install leadership by a ‘Better.’ Do not engage or discuss with the members of the ‘Lesser” community; if ‘Lessers’ deserved to have money, power, or a say, they would already have it.”
The whole essay is worth worth the read.)
Yet here is Broad — one of those unelected, preening, self-appointed wealthy ‘Betters’ — being interviewed on L.A. television, as if his word on LAUSD schools is more important than anyone else’s … including teachers, administrators, and other LAUSD officials who’ve been on the job for decades.
Would Conan Nolan be interviewing some other billionaire about how the police and fire departments should be run — or turned over to private management (“Acme Charter Police Services”) — or on exactly which individuals should be placed in charge of the LAPD / LAFD, or remain in charge, etc? Why is it this way with public schools?
Three years prior to this interview, Broad almost single-handedly chose LAUSD’s superintendent. Via his puppets, then-Board Member Yolie Flores and current Board Member Monica Garcia, Eli Broad had rammed through John Deasy’s hiring as LAUSD Superintendent in a secret closed door meeting… after ZERO public input or discussion, no other multiple candidates were even considered.
In the interview, Broad is demanding that the LAUSD Board keep Deasy — this is in the aftermath of both Deasy’s involvement with both I-pad and MISIS scandals, and dwindling public support for Deasy remaining on the job. The notion, then and now, was that Deasy’s ascension to Superintendent was a collosal mistake, but Eli won’t back down from his support of Deasy.
Again, why is Eli Broad given this half-hour TV show forum, with the implied respect that comes from such an appearance? Why is he treated as if he has any real expertise or authority when it comes to LAUSD schools? He never taught a day in his life. He never worked as a principal or school administrator one day is his life. He has zero credentials when it comes to education.
All he has is a lot of money.
But what really gets me is when Broad talks about Teach for America teachers. He claims that, with only 5 weeks of reportedly dubious training, TFA Corps Members are superior to veteran LAUSD teachers who have a Bachelor’s & Master’s in Education, a full credential, and decades of experience. He just states this demonstrably false claim as if it were a self-evident fact … water is wet … sugar is sweet … TFA temps are better teachers than credentialed veterans.
Go to:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/NewsConference_-Eli-Broad_-_We-Should-Have-Done-More__Los-Angeles-274187301.html
Here’s the interchange: (approx. times… 02:30 – 03:36 underline mine)
——————————————————–
CONAN NOLAN: “- Have you lost your enthusiasm
for the Teach for America program? I know your
foundation has provided money for this effort
to take college kids- ”
ELI BROAD: “-mm-hmm-”
CONAN NOLAN: “- and have them commit two years,
frequently to a low income school … uhhh… is that… ?
Is that good for education?”
ELI BROAD: “I think it’s great for education.
We’ve been involved with Teach for America
for fourteen years. They get the best
students out of liberal arts colleges to go
into teaching for at least two years, and
then most of them stay on in education
in one way or another.”
CONAN NOLAN: “Some have suggested
that the… the period for training prior to going
into a classroom isn’t extensive enough
for those young students or young
graduates who end up in… the…
Members of various teachers
unions call it “Teach for Awhile”, not
“Teach for America”.
ELI BROAD: “Well, you know these Teach
for America teachers do better—especially
in teaching Math and other subjects—than
veteran teachers, and yes, they can
improve the way they train their teachers,
and they’re doing that.”
———————————————
This is such a blatant falsehood.
It’s the “big lie”… if you repeat it often
enough, and for a long enough period
of time, people figure, “Well, it MUST
be true.”
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I just caught something else from this interview with Broad … a contradiction, if you will.
On the subject of experience, Eli Broad tells Conan Nolan that he believes that experience matters greatly in certain areas, but in others (i.e. with schools)… ehhh … not so much.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/as-seen-on/NewsConference_-Eli-Broad_-_We-Should-Have-Done-More__Los-Angeles-274187301.html
(1:50 – 2:25)
———————————
CONAN NOLAN: “When you look at the City Council of Los Angeles, in the city of L.A., not many business people on that. In fact, I don’t know of ANY. Would you like to see a few more people who had experience with a payroll in leadership positions?:
ELI BROAD: “I sure would.”
CONAN NOLAN: “Uhh … Why is that important?”
ELI BROAD: “It’s important because they know the … they know they have to meet a payroll. They know what, what has to be done. They know what customers need. They know what costs are.”
——————————–
Interesting.
Eli says that you’re not qualified to sit on the L.A. City Council unless you have a background in business, and all that experience in all the in’s and out’s of running a business. and all the details that go with that.
Experience matters, after all.
However, IT’S PERFECTLY OKAY FOR SOMEONE WITH -ZERO- EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION LIKE HIMSELF, SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER WORKED A DAY AS A TEACHER, NEVER WORKED A DAY AS AN ADMINISTRATOR, NEVER WORKED A DAY IN ANY SCHOOL IN ANY CAPACITY ….
… to appoint himself the de facto Superintendent of a sort of “shadow” School Board that he runs and that no citizen ever elected him to, and then RE-ENGINEER THE SECOND LARGEST SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES TO HIS LIKING.
Huh???!!!
Here’s what Broad might have said when asked the same questions about education and the experience necessary:
————————
CONAN NOLAN: “When you look at your Great Public Schools Now (GPSN) organization — your group that’s out to convert LAUSD existing public schools to privately-run charters — there are not many teachers, school administrators, or many people with any experience whatsoever in education in your group. In fact, I don’t know of ANY. Would you like to see a few more people who had experience in education in leadership positions at GPSN?”
ELI BROAD: “No.”
CONAN NOLAN: “Uhh … Why is that NOT important?”
ELI BROAD: “It’s NOT important because billionaires like me — even though my fellow wealthy elite GPSN reformers and I have ZERO educational experience — actually know MORE about how to improve education, and actually have GREATER EXPERTISE on how to run a school district than those others that you mentioned… you know, those low quality members of a corrupt, failed status quo that put adult interests ahead of children’s interests.
“We wealthy elites actually care MORE about the education of poor and middle class children, and have MORE expertise in educating them than the people who work in those schools ever day.”
“Didn’t you get that memo, Conan?”
—————————-
The same goes for Broad’s support for TFA in the quote from the earlier post. People who’ve never set foot in a classroom and with only five weeks of training, are somehow better teachers than veterans with two degrees, a credential, and decades of experience.
This is about taking the career of teaching from
… a REPSECTED PROFESSION on a par with doctors, lawyer, engineers, etc. … with intensive, long-term education, training, apprenticeship with student teaching… with job protections, respect, and decent pay commensurate with that respect,… and one that is done for decades
and drag it down to that of …
… a LOW-LEVEL SERVICE JOB such as fast food, office temping, retail, etc. … with minimal training, no apprenticeship, no job protections, little respect, lousy pay … and one that is done 2-5 years tops, then OUT and onto your real career.
I actually had that debate with an actual TFA teachers. “Would you hire or go to a doctor or lawyer who’s never been to medical school or law school?”
Her response, “Yeah, but those aren’t like teaching. Those are REAL professions.” And she was saying that to a career teacher.
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Here’s a great MSNBC interview with Joanne Barkan on the influence of Broad, Gates, Walton, etc.
What Peter Greene calls “Betterocracy”, Barkan calls “a democracy deficit.”
Her first answer is at about 00:47
00:47
JOANNE BARKAN: “Well, I think there are two problems: the first is what I call a ‘democracy deficit’ that (Bill & Melinda Gates) have a tremendous amount of influence — not just them but also the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation. They have a tremendous amount of influence in shaping the public debate, in terms of designing and even implementing government policy…
” … but they’re accountable to NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, and the public schools belong to the people, to the parents, and the teachers, and they’re paid for by the voters. And so that ‘democracy deficit’ is extremely important.
“And the other is what I would call a ‘quality deficit.’ The Gates Foundation very consistently has been experimenting, but (what they’re doing in the experimenting) is not based on really solid research. ”
The interviewer is incredulous that Barkan or anyone could ever doubt Gates’ altruistic intent.
Yeah, right.
Because this interview is so short — and the interviewer sort of sucks — I recommend reading the entirety of Barkan’s article here:
Here’s the opening paragraphs, and the concluding paragraphs:
(CAPS are mine, JACK)
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/got-dough-how-billionaires-rule-our-schools
—————————–
“Got dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools”
JOANNE BARKAN:
“The cost of K–12 public schooling in the United States comes to well over $500 billion per year. So, how much influence could anyone in the private sector exert by controlling just a few billion dollars of that immense sum? Decisive influence, it turns out.
“A FEW BILLION DOLLARS IN PRIVATE FOUNDATION MONEY, STRATEGICALLY INVESTED EVERY YEAR FOR A DECADE, HAS SUFFICED TO DEFINE THE NATIONAL DEBATE ON EDUCATION; SUSTAIN A CRUSADE FOR A SET OF MOSTLY ILL-CONCEIVED REFORMS, AND DETERMINE PUBLICV POLICY AT THE LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL LEVELS. .
“In the domain of venture philanthropy—where DONORS DECIDE WHAT KIND OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION THEY WANT TO ENGINEER AND THEN DESIGN AND FUND PROJECTS TO IMPLEMENT THAT VISION — investing in education yields great bang for the buck.
“… ”
“The report intrigued me because it shows another aspect of how Gates operates on the ground. More important, it HELPS EXPLAIN WHY THE BIG THREE (Broad, Walton, Gates) CAN KEEP MARKETING AND SELLING REFORMS THAT DON’T WORK.
“Certainly ideology—in this case, FAITH IN THE SUPERIORITY OF THE PRIVATE BUSINESS MODEL — DRIVES THEM. BUT SO DOES THE BLINDING HUBRIS THAT COMES WITH POWER.
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN OR SEE BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT YOUR ARE RIGHT. ONE STUDY AFTER ANOTHER SENDS UP A RED FLAG (that the policies are failing), BUT NO ONE IN THE ED REFORM MOVEMENT BLINKS. Insanity, defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, applies here.
“Can anything stop the foundation enablers?
“AFTER FIVE OR TEN MORE YEARS, THE MESS THEY’RE MAKING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLING MIGHT BE SO UNDENIABLE THAT THEY’LL SAY, ‘Oops! That didn’t work,” then step aside.
“BUT THE DAMAGE MIGHT BE IRREPARABLE:
— thousands of closed schools’ worse conditions in those left open;
— an extreme degree of ‘teaching to the test;’
— demoralized teachers’ rampant corruption by private management companies;
— thousands of failed charter schools;
and
— more low-income kids without a good education.
“Who could possibly clean up the mess?
“All children should have access to a good public school. AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD BE RUN BY OFFICIALS WHO ARE ANSWERABLE TO THE VOTERS.
“”GATES, BROAD, AND WALTON ARE ANSWERABLE TO NO ONE. Tax payers still fund more than 99 percent of the cost of K–12 education. Private foundations should not be setting public policy for them. PRIVATE MONEY SHOULD NOT BE PRODUCING WHAT AMOUNTS TO FALSE ADVERTISING FOR A FAULTY PRODUCT.
“THE IMPERIOUS OVERREACHING OF THE BIG THREE UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY JUST AS SURELY AS IT DAMAGES PUBLIC EDUCATION.”
– – – – – – – – – –
JOANNE BARKAN, who graduated from public schools in Chicago, lives and writes in Manhattan and on Cape Cod. Her next article on education will focus on teachers and their unions.
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Thank you Jack, Ellen and Peter for your precious time and knowledge to reinforce all readers in this forum about the danger of our SOON-TO-BE disappeared American Public Education.
I would love to repeat words of wisdom from Ellen and Peter.
1) From Ellen:
[start paragraphs]
Broad and his group of powerful professional tricksters keep coming up with new ways to manipulate the public. They have used well-orchestrated street theater, bussing in paid actors to give testimony to the BoE, and other mendacious actions to get their end which is to privatize everything that should be public services…and to kill all unions that might protect the workers.
They own most media, and they also have moved into university manipulation using their endless assets to buy into Schools of Education nationwide, even at venerable public institutions such as U. of California.
This onslaught is so treacherous that it is only by educating the public, and that includes working teachers who too often do not want to be bothered with it all, and pushing for action from a united group which FIGHT THIS TOGETHER, that we can hope TO RETAIN FREE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION
[end paragraphs]
2) From Peter:
[start paragraphs]
“So we need different education systems– one to prepare Betters for lives of well-deserved privilege, money and power, and another to prepare Lessers for their proper role in society. Better schools are for providing opportunities and enrichment for America’s future leaders. Lesser schools are for training America’s future employees. In addition, in the dreams of liberal-minded bettercrats, the system should also provide a means of discovering and rescuing Betters who are, by some accident of birth and zip code, trapped amongst the Lessers. This rescue mission makes bettercrats feel more progressive.
“The genius of America is that of a country that makes room for all voices and treats them all as equals, tied together and forced to create systems that accommodate all our citizens. It envisions a level playing field in which all voices and ideas can compete in the grand marketplace of thought. We have never fully lived up to that genius, but Betters do not even recognize it as genius to begin with.
“Right now their lack of vision is bad for education, but in the long run, it’s BAD FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY”
[end paragraphs]
In short, all conscientious Americans whether we are parents, teachers, students, veteran teachers and retirees in educational sector, MUST UNITE to fight for FREE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION from K-12 WITH A WHOLE CHILD CONCEPT.
In order to build a strong country, children must begin with a whole child education concept = recess, resources, counselors, nurses, library, and most of all, appropriate-age-level curriculum in liberal arts, music, stem, and civic/historic/geographic field trips.
Criminals who commit to destroy local community, are penalized with jail sentence. So why would these greedy billionaires get away with jail sentence in committing to destroy the welfare of Public Education = putting “”today”” young and middle-class Americans into the modern slavery in the future DICTATORIAL work force??? Back2basic
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They get away with it because they are not merely billionaires… the titans are KINGS.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/global-wealth-inequality_us_56991defe4b0ce4964242e09
These people are shaping the world to their own needs, and they do not want an educated public…The masses need to be manipulated, and frightening them , stressing them is the best way. So, ensuring that they are unskilled and kept in poverty, means that the people are too busy to see the manipulation.
I read this slowly.It is not short… but when you see who these men are, real sociopaths , then you can grasp why or nations going down so fast.http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924
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Thank you my dearest Susan very much for the best link of confirmation of Koch’s crooked business.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924
I must admit that I admire Charles’ spirit in his expression regarding his retirement, like
“I’m going to ride my bicycle till I fall off.” Hahaha
In the same vein, all conscientious Americans must unite and fight back all crooked strategies in destroying American public education, like
“We are uniting and fighting till we drop death to retain American Universal Education”
There are lots of lessons to learn how to counter Charles Koch’s ideology in that link.
His ambition is all about making profit regardless harming other human beings whereas
American TRUE Educators’ ambition is all about to cultivate all young learners’ citizenry responsibility and joy of learning for life regardless of living hardship. Love. May
Here is Charles’ advice:
[start quote]
He advocated the “BAREST POSSIBLE OBEDIENCE” to regulation and implored, “Do not cooperate voluntarily, instead, resist whenever and to whatever extent you LEGALLY can IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE
[end quote]
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