Ken Wagner, who was deputy commissioner of education in New York when Jihn King was commissioner, is now commissioner in Rhode Island. He brings with him the tattered faith in charter schools and standardized testing that marked King’s tumultuous tenure.
Wagner wants public schools to be more like charter schools. It seems only fair that public schools should be freed of the mNdates that charter schools are relieved of.
However, some questions should be cleared up.
Will ill public schools be free to exclude students with disabilities, like charter schools?
Will they be free to exclude students who don’t speak English?
Will they be free to adopt “no excuses” disciplinary codes?
Will they they be free to suspend children as young as 5, repeatedly?
Will they be free to pay their CEO $400,000-500,000?
Will they be free to break their teachers’ contract?
These are a few questions that should be answered before moving forward.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They only desire to rip up contracts and break the union. They will deny that the other factors even exist.
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From the article: “Wagner also wants to give parents the freedom to choose another school, even if it’s in another district. Again, this would be strictly voluntary. And the admission requirements couldn’t discriminate against students based on race, religion or other characteristics. Like with charter schools, the per-pupil funding dollars would follow the child to his or her new school.” This strikes me as eerily similar to a bill that thankfully failed in the RI General Assembly last spring that was modeled on a bill provided by ALEC regarding vouchers/”scholarships.” In that disastrous scheme, students would be able to choose any school–public, charter, or private, in any district–and have the money follow them. Charters have done an abysmal job with children that do not fit their rigid mold of comportment and “achievement,” particularly with children with special learning needs due to neurological, cognitive, perceptual, and sensory disabilities. As a retired teacher of the deaf, I shudder to think what services these receiving schools would be providing for students of various disabilities and of various severity. Where is this man getting his marching orders from? From the model ALEC bill: “(D) The maximum scholarship granted to an eligible student shall be an amount equivalent to the cost of the educational program that would have been provided for the student in the resident school district. Although the scholarship amount is a function of a student’s Individualized Education Plan, the participating school is not required to abide by the Individualized Education Plan. The parent and the participating school will mutually determine the best services and educational plan for the student.” Caveat emptor.
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160121/NEWS/160129756/SHARED/160129756?Start=1
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A local public school district here in Florida permits choice within district schools. As a result, many schools are segregated. Since no transportation is provided, poor minority students tend to stay in local schools. The more affluent, often white students, transfer to a higher performing, mostly white schools. Studies on choice seem to show that parents often choose schools in which the majority of students look like them. Therefore, schools become segregated. We have seen increased segregation in charter schools. How is “choice” in this situation promoting equity?
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Doug, you are so right. Union busting is at the top of the list for charter schools but you’ll never hear them say that out loud.
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During the Fair Formula Working Group discussions, the term “student-centered funding” came up. Search the term and the ALEC legislative model comes up. Also, schools of choice rather than public schools of choice and parental choice based on preference rather than student need. Interesting how the vocabulary used in the charter discussion has changed since the early NCLB days.
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GREAT questions.
I won’t hold my breath though to wait for answers.
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Perhaps they are considering adopting Success Academy’s educational philosophy as described by Ms. Moskowitz in an article that appeared in the New York Times 1/23/16 though they may want to consider the impact of the complaint described below.
“The complaint, which was filed on Wednesday with the Office of Civil Rights at the federal Education Department, claimed that Success Academy repeatedly suspended and, in some cases, pushed out students with disabilities from its schools. It asserted that Success had repeatedly violated the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act by not offering alternative instruction to students with disabilities who were suspended, and by not holding hearings to determine whether the students’ behavior stemmed from their disabilities, and whether the schools needed to provide them with additional services.
“Ms. Moskowitz also discussed her educational philosophy and said that her approach was based on “a different view of children” from that of the larger culture, which she described as seeking to shield children from any negative feelings. She argued that the desire to protect children led Americans to resist setting high academic standards, because doing so would lead to some children falling short.
“A different view of children” indeed!
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so now St. Eva is saying that parents choose her schools for safety, and excessively suspending and tossing out 5 year old children is necessary for safety. When will she explain that only a percentage of kids in K will graduate 8th grade from her hell holes?
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i am not the one to do this, but someone with national data handy should create a visual of all the states now on charter school bandwagon….also, reed hastings (Netflix) and his “all schools should be charters 20 years from now) statement is a red flag that the battle to charterize the world (think GERM) is bigger than most people in the outside world imagine….no matter which group (s) we belong to that are fighting, we need the people outside the choir to become informed…..imho….
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Or like in California, will they be free to hire “teachers” who do not even have a Bachelors Degree? Will they be free from having to hire people who actually have training and education?
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Boooooo
Sent from my iPhone
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“Wagner also wants to give parents the freedom to choose another school, even if it’s in another district. Again, this would be strictly voluntary.”
Ohio has this. Obviously some of it depends on geography- in less populated areas the districts are between 10 and 25 miles apart so you’re really only talking about the parents who can provide their own transportation. In urban areas or suburban areas open enrollment might create “winner and loser” schools but it hasn’t had a big impact here. It HAS created “sending” schools and “receiving” schools- some schools send out more than they take in- but the vast majority of people use their own district. My son’s school is a “receiving” school (more + than -) and open enrollment is fine with me.
We don’t have the kind of huge income disparities I see in Chicago or NYC or DC between districts or schools though, so maybe this area is a bad example for open enrollment. We don’t have “rich schools” and “poor schools” – they’re all mixed income- which is of course tied to real estate.
Maybe they should couple open enrollment with affordable (rental or purchase) housing markets and they’d get a more representative mix of students in every school 🙂
They’re creating a market of charter schools. I don’t know why they can’t create a real estate market.
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Reporter Matt Taibbi, writing about R.I. Gov., Gina Raimondo’s gubernatorial campaign,
” a key supporter was John Arnold…. 14% of the state’s fund was handed over to a trio of hedge funds, including Dan Loeb’s…..All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers. Rhode island’s state workers are forced to subsidize their own political disenfranchisement.” and Raimondo is a Democrat.
For re-enfranchisement and for the ouster of neoliberals and Republicans, go to DemocracyAwakening.org. They have plans for a major rally in D.C., in April.
When Bloomberg says he’s o.k. with the election of Clinton, we know Bernie should be our candidate.
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I followed ENRON really closely at the time because it was so shocking. It wasn’t just a private sector failure. It was a private sector/public sector failure because the company’s growth was wholly dependent on purchasing politicians who would deregulate in accordance with ENRON’s demands.
It’s what we now call “crony capitalism”.
Lo and behold, such a short time later, we have one of them bankrolling “ed reform”. It’s mind-boggling.
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For in-depth forensic analyses of RI’s pension “reform” (aka looting) please see Ted Siedle’s projects. Here’s a place to start. http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2015/12/16/will-sec-fbi-and-doj-prosecute-any-hedge-fund-and-private-equity-looting-of-rhode-island-pension/#7830e6fa596f
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Good points.
Because site based management in public schools still means accountable to all citizens (that is all families) and I don’t mean accountable in terms of test scores.
Don’t charters represent a pipe dream that ignores the reality and limits of humanity and the inevitable, but ultimately beautiful, hurdles of living in a democracy? Don’t charters represent an intolerance for human frailty that is unAmerican? But we don’t see that because the rhetoric has taken us so far down the garden path that now we are sort of lost in the woods? Like any kind of addiction or denial?
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I like open enrollment because it’s in a way throwing down the gauntlet- if politicians say they’re “for” equity in public schools they should be willing to take a real political risk and open enrollment is a real political risk.
Creating a new system of privatized schools is politically popular because the only “status quo” it upends involves low income public schools. No one objects to that because it doesn’t change high income public schools.
If they’re really bold and innovative they’ll take a real political risk and open up the existing system. I’d support that as long as low income public schools weren’t just left twisting in the wind.
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Our district has a magnet system and it works beautifully. (Asheville City Schools, Asheville NC).
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A search for “RINPR” (Rhode Island NPR) “Raimondo Names Chief Innovation Officer” is followed with a commenter’s description of links between for-profit education consultants and RI’s neoliberal decisions to undermine democracy.
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If by charter schools, Wagner means “Success” Academy we’re in doo-doo up to our eyebrows.
The details of the complaint against SA are horrific violations of the rights of all children to a Free Appropriate Public Education:
“Throughout the school year, Union Square officials frequently made calls to M’s parents during the school day, with calls starting shortly after M had been dropped off to school. On one occasion, Union Square officials made a call to M’s parent at as early as 7:43 a.m. In addition to incessant calls, school officials made implied threats to call ACS and did call ACS at least once. As a result, ACS officials visited M’s home around 1am one evening. Later, on another occasion, ACS requested that the local Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina check a family residence, where M’s mother had left her children to be cared for while she was undergoing cancer treatment, to ensure M and his younger sister were there. Ultimately, ACS determined that Union Square’s allegations were unfounded.” (ACS is NY’s child protective services)
It’s mind boggling that SA would be so vindictive as to sic authorities on a family whose mother is in treatment for cancer.
“H entered second grade during the 2014-15 school year. H’s skills continued to lag behind those of his peers and his grades were low. His mother again suggested that her son should be in a self-contained class, and she was again told that he was on a waiting list. Harlem 2 never offered to provide SETSS or other appropriate supports or services.
At the beginning of third grade, during the 2015-16 school year, H’s mother began receiving calls about H’s behavior. Teachers reported that H became very frustrated when doing work he did not understand. On one occasion, H’s mother saw him holding a school paper with a large “F” on it while he was standing in line with other students at dismissal time. H was upset. H’s mother confronted the teacher and the principal and was told that Success policy states that students who fail a quiz cannot put the paper away until the parent picks the student up. The next day, H was teased by other students who had seen his failing grade. After that, H’s mother renewed her request for a change in H’s class size.”
These people clearly have no right to be “educating” anyone’s children. It’s what happens when you allow politically connected amateurs to take over the functions of good government and treat schools as a vanity business.
Read more here, but only if you have a strong tolerance for abuse of small children and their families.
https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/296108562?access_key=key-3EovXnHSN8b6jZUIMnzn&allow_share=true&escape=false&view_mode=scroll
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Thought: it doesn’t have to be either/or. Take the best part of public schools (public service, control, and “accountability,” at least theoretically) and the best idea from charter schools (“innovation” and minimization of “bureaucracy,” at least theoretically). Don’t forget to remove the profit motive.
Then we can get started with the real reform (in its original meaning and benevolent intent.)
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