Archives for the month of: March, 2016
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The Voucher Assault on Oklahoma Public Schools Intensifies

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
3

An educator and parent in Oklahoma writes here about the legislative effort to install vouchers in Oklahoma. As the previous post argued, the effect and intention of this movement is to destroy public education. No voucher proposal has ever been approved by voters in any state. As legislature maneuvering continues, the bill may not get out of committee. But that is not certain.

 

 

He writes:

 
“Our Oklahoma legislature just passed House Joint Resolution 1062. http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=hjr1062

 
This bill will put on the State Ballot a question that will ask to repeal Article 5 Section II of the Oklahoma Constitution.

 

“Section II-5: Public money or property – Use for sectarian purposes.

 

“No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.
http://oklegal.onenet.net/okcon/II-5.html

 

“This section is known as the Blaine Amendment.

 

“Back in June, the state Supreme Court decided that the religious display on public property violated the OK State Constitution. http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=476438

 

“While the authors claim they want this amendment passed to allow the 10 commandments monument to be placed back at the State Capitol, others believe it is being passed in lockstep with other legislation bills in front of both chambers regarding Education Savings Accounts (Vouchers).

 

“HB2949 http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB2949 The bill establishes a school voucher program for students beginning in the 2016-2017 school year.

 

“SB609 http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=SB609 There is hereby created the Oklahoma Education Empowerment Scholarship Savings Program to be administered by the Office of the State Treasurer to provide an education empowerment scholarship savings card for qualified expenditures to support the education of qualified students in this state.

 

“Our State is truly under attack from all sides regarding vouchers, regardless of the recent research that these programs are having a negative impact on student achievement in other states and districts.

 

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Oklahoma, Vouchers

Rob Miller: The Voucher Movement Will Kill Public Education in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
8

Veteran educator Rob Miller of Oklahoma writes on his blog about the nefarious goals of the voucher movement. For his courage in speaking out for public schools, he was previously named to the honor roll of this blog.

 

He writes:

 

 

“Can you hear that noise?

 

“The sound is the thud of a hammer pounding the final nails in the coffin of our state’s free and equitable public education system.

 

“As I type these words, Governor Fallin’s office is sending out thousands of robocalls to Oklahoma homes encouraging citizens to contact their lawmakers to support passage of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) this week.

 

“We already know that the Governor is strongly in support of ESAs after going on record during her State of the State Speech stating she supported the legislation 100% and would sign it as soon as it reached her desk.

 

“Representative Jason Nelson and Senator Clark Jolley’s voucher bills (HB 2949 and SB 609, respectively) serve as the nails which, if pounded into place, will forever change the landscape of education in Oklahoma.

 

“This voucher legislation will begin the final dismantling of our schools. By providing some parents with the ability to use public funds to support their child’s private or home school education, our state will begin the descent down the slippery slope towards the inevitable “vouchers for all”–the true aim of the power brokers behind these bills.

 

“This will essentially allow for the re-segregation of schools, if not on racial lines then certainly on lines of privilege. Those who can afford an education unencumbered by accountability and state mandates will have their escape valve.

 

“As such, parents seeking an educational setting for their children which emphasizes critical thinking, creativity and lifelong learning over test preparation will be able to use their shiny new ESA card to buy it for their progeny.

 

“For those children left behind, we will have education for the masses. Once public schools have been starved of resources, they will have little choice but to open the revolving door to less expensive, inexperienced teachers to turn on the computer or recite the scripted lesson plans.

 

“It doesn’t matter if these young apprentices burn out in only two or three years from boredom and unrealistic expectations. We’ll just bring in the next ones from the pipeline.

 

“We are in a final battle over the bedrock of a functioning democracy: our public school system.”

 

Read on. He explains how vouchers will destroy public education, and why that is their purpose.

Categories Education Reform, Oklahoma, Vouchers

Boston: EduShyster Interviews the Student Protestors

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
1

EduShyster joined the thousands of students who were protesting the budget cuts. She wanted to know what they were thinking. She got an earful.

Categories Boston, Resistance, Students

Boston: Those Gutsy, Smart, Brave Students Who Beat Back the Budget Cutters

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
14

Who do you think is really powerful? I will tell you: students and parents. When either group gets organized, they have real power. Consider the parents who opted out in New York: they made Governor Cuomo beat a fast retreat. No one knows how to stop them. No one can stop them.

 

And now there are the high school students in Boston. They organized a protest against massive budget cuts. They planned meticulously. And thousands of students walked out, ready with signs of protest. The students are fighting for what they need and deserve: a well-resourced education. This should be their right. They should have to fight for it. But they are fighting, and their voices are powerful.

 

 

Hours before more than 3,500 of their peers would march out of their classrooms toward Boston Common, a small group of high schoolers was glued to a group chat on their phones. It was 3 a.m., and they needed to make sure everything was ready for the district-wide protest they’d spent the past week organizing.

 

Were the posters finished? Yes. Was the meeting place finalized? Yes. Did they all promise that, no matter what, they would leave their classrooms at 11:30 a.m.?

 

Duh.

 

“There’s this stereotype that young kids don’t know what we’re doing and should let adults handle things because it’s their fight more than ours,” said Jahi Spaloss, a senior at Boston Green Academy. “But we’re the ones in school. This fight is ours.”

 

Elected officials were sure that adults were behind the protest. Wrong. The students organized it and carried it out. It was their idea.

 

The notion of a walk-out was hatched on Feb. 27, when three sophomores at Snowden International High School attended a leadership conference at Harvard University and felt inspired after they learned about successful college protests against racism and sexism.

 

“We knew that all the schools in the district would be impacted by the budget cuts,” said Jailyn Lopez, a sophomore at Snowden who helped organize the protest. “We knew at our school that we might lose foreign language programs and teachers we liked. We decided to do something about it.”

 

Their first step was writing a letter explaining the budget cuts, which they posted to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Feb. 29. In the letter, they warned: “Your school will have less extra-curricular activities, if any at all. If students are engaged in school, there would be less cracks for our youth to even look towards violence. We have lost too many young lives already.”

 

The students used social media to communicate, plan and reach other students.

 

Over the weekend, the district sent out a series of robocalls and texts to inform parents that students would be marked absent if they walked out of class. But that only increased the students’ determination.

 

“It gave us more motivation,” Lopez said. “This was something we organized and we felt like people were trying to discourage us from standing up for what we believed in. And after all the calls, we felt like even more people knew about it and wanted to stand up for their schools too….”

 

At 11:30 Monday morning, the mobilization began.

 

Students from grades 6 through 12 stood up and walked out of their classrooms, chanting: “They say cut back, we say fight back,” and “What do we want? Education!”

 

In the end, more than 3,600 students flooded the streets, a number that amazed even the organizers themselves.

 

Afterward, Mayor Walsh said he’d like to find out who organized the protest and hoped the adults behind it “start to feed the young students in our city with accurate information.”

 

The mayor’s office tried to mollify the students by saying that there would not be $50 million, as first reported, but only $30 million.

 

A student leader responded.

 

But [Brian] Foster said the students don’t feel as if that’s true—which is why they decided to take a stand.

 

“It’s kind of like they’re saying, ‘Don’t worry it’s not $50 million, it’s $30 million,’” he said. “That doesn’t answer anything. Even if it’s a $1 deficit, it’s the idea that you’re taking away from students’ futures.”

 

Students said this was not a one-time event. If the city goes through with cuts, they will be back on the streets again.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Boston, Budget Cuts, Resistance, Students

I Watched Bernie on Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
124

I watched the replay of the Ohio Town Hall specifically to understand what Bernie said about charter schools.

 

The teacher who posed the question was a TFA charter teacher. She asked a leading question. She asserted that in Ohio, charter schools lead the state in helping poor black and Hispanic children, then she asked whether they should play a role in solving the problems of these children.

 

To begin with, her assertion was inaccurate. It was propaganda for charters, which in Ohio have experienced numerous financial and academic scandals. In addition, she failed to mention that charters are far more likely to be low-performing than public schools. (See: here and here). Ohio has charter operators who give large campaign contributions and evade accountability. Some Ohio charter owners have made millions.

 

Bernie Sanders responded that he supports public education, and he supports public charter schools. He then talked about the importance of public schools in building our society and the value of neighborhood public schools. He added that he wants to have innovation and experimentation in schools; he referred to schools in Vermont that are innovative, and stumbled about whether they are public charter schools. Someone, perhaps the host, said, “magnet schools,” and Sanders quickly agreed.

 

At that moment, I realized that Senator Sanders doesn’t know that most charter schools are privately managed and that all charter schools, even if they are part of a corporate chain or run for-profit, call themselves “public charter schools.”

 

I am convinced that Senator Sanders does not know much about charter schools. I am also convinced that he sincerely believes in the importance of public schools.

 

Someone needs to sit down with him and explain that charter schools span the spectrum, but that many are run to make money, that many exclude English language learners and children with disabilities, that charters take resources away  from neighborhood public schools, and that many are run by corporate chains.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform

NPE Action Fund Sends a Message to Bernie

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
13

The NPE Action Fund–the political arm of the Network–sent this message to Bernie Sanders, encouraging him to continue to speak out on education issues.

Categories Networkfor Public Education Action Fund

What Did Bernie Mean?

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
51

I just saw a tweet from the politics editor for the Daily Beast. She heard Bernie Sanders speak in Ohio today.

She tweeted this:

“@woodruffbets: Sanders: “I believe in public education and I believe in public charter schools. I do not believe in privately controlled charter schools”

Readers of this blog know that all charters–whether they are privately controlled, whether they operate for-profit or not for profit–call themselves “public charter schools.”

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, led by Nina Rees–former education advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and later to Michael Milken–does not differentiate between “public charter schools” and some other kind.

Please, someone who works in the campaign, let Bernie know that all charter schools call themselves public charter schools because they get public money. Religious schools that get public vouchers do not call themselves “religious public schools.”

Help me understand what Bernie meant.

The

Categories Charter Schools

Ask Your Senator to Vote “No” on John King

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
8

Tomorrow the US Senate will vote on the appointment of John King as Secretary of Education. He failed as the Commissioner of Education in Néw York. His rapid adoption of Common Core and teacher evaluation based on test scores led to a massive parent opt out. He battled parents to impose his agenda. He is no different from Arne Duncan.

The Network for Public Education urges you to contact your senators and be heard.

Categories Network for Public Education, U.S. Department of Education

Good News: Human Go Player Beats Machine

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
17

A Korean grandmaster of the game Go finally beat a computer designed by Google. 

 

After losing three times in a row, Lee Sedol finally found weaknesses in the computer that beat him.

 

Lee had said earlier in the series, which began last week, that he was unable to beat AlphaGo because he could not find any weaknesses in the software’s strategy.

 

But after Sunday’s match, the 33-year-old South Korean Go grandmaster, who has won 18 international championships, said he found two weaknesses in the artificial intelligence program.

 

Lee said that when he made an unexpected move, AlphaGo responded with a move as if the program had a bug, indicating that the machine lacked the ability to deal with surprises.

 

AlphaGo also had more difficulty when it played with a black stone, according to Lee. In Go, two players take turns putting black or white stones on a 19-by-19-line grid, with a goal of putting more territory under one’s control. A player with a black stone plays first and a white-stone player gets extra points to compensate.

 

Lee played with a white stone on Sunday. For the final match of the series, scheduled for Tuesday, Lee has offered to play with a black stone, saying it would make a victory more meaningful.

 

South Korean commentators could not hide their excitement three hours into Sunday’s match, when it became clear that Lee would finally notch a win. AlphaGo narrowed the gap with Lee, but could not overtake him, resigning nearly five hours into the game.

 

I am for the human. Let the machines cheer for the machine.

Categories Education Reform, Technology

Sanders Calls Rahm “A Terrible Mayor”

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
24

Thanks to a reader who posted this link about Bernie Sanders’ denunciation of Rahm Emanuel, in the days leading up to the Illinois primary. (I don’t thank him, however, for implying that my failure to post it was an effort to protect Hillary; I don’t actually read every newspaper in the U.S. and had not seen this story until this morning.)

 

Bernie Sanders, whose campaign in Illinois has been fueled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s biggest critics, is using the unpopular mayor’s support for Hillary Clinton to cut into her home state lead as he stumps in Chicago and Champaign-Urbana in the final weekend before Tuesday’s primary vote.

 

Pounding on the Emanuel and Clinton connections is a major part of Sanders’ strategy. It can be seen in his paid advertising in the Chicago market in the campaign’s closing days and in my exclusive interview with him Friday night before he rallied before several thousand supporters at Argo Community High School in southwest suburban Summit.

 

“I think he’s been a terrible mayor,” Sanders told me.

 

A few minutes later, at the rally, the crowd roared when Sanders said, “I want to thank Rahm Emanuel for not endorsing me. I don’t want to be endorsed by a mayor who is shutting down school after school and firing teachers.”

 

Emanuel has been absent from Clinton’s presidential bid for months, politically toxic to her because of the police shootings, his closing of Chicago public schools and his own mega fundraising from the very corporate interests Sanders deplores.

 

Nice to learn that Rahm Emanuel has become “toxic” to presidential candidates, since he has been toxic to Chicago’s public school teachers and students for the past four and a half years.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Politics
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