Christine Langhoff is a teacher in Massachusetts, a regular commenter on the blog, and a loyal member of the Network for Oublic Education. She describes what is happening in Boston, which recently hired Tommy Chang as its superintendent. Chang, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad superintendents academy, was a deputy for John Deasy in Los Angeles, who left his post under a cloud and now works for the Broad Foundation, which hopes to put half the students in Los Angeles in privately managed charter schools.
Here is Langhoff’s report:
I. Here in Boston, where the Third Way confab was held, parents FOIA’ed emails between the mayor’s hit man on education and various entities hell bent on following CRPE’s playbook to close 30-50 Boston schools, while moving towards universal enrollment.
II. This afternoon, there was a meeting held for students to participate in the on-going budget discussions. It didn’t go quite as planned:
“ ‘I think the atmosphere is kind of tense in here so we should do an ice-breaker,’ she [a student] said. ‘I have one in mind. It’s a stand-up, sit-down game.’
‘Stand up if you felt patronized by this activity,’ Joseph said.
Every student stood up. Multiple students expressed how they didn’t come to play games. They came to talk about the budget.”
III. And here are some proposals from the Broad superintendent’s negotiating team to the members of the Boston Teachers Union, currently bargaining a new agreement. Even allowing for the usual give and take inherent in the process, this is a pretty extreme starting point. Anyone see anything of benefit to kids in a single one of these proposals?
“Here is a small sampling of where some School Department proposals remain after more than 4 months of bargaining:
Teachers may be excessed from a school without regard to their seniority, but based on their ‘performance.’ Performance will be defined by performance evaluation ratings, which can include Student Impact Ratings as determined by District Determined Measures (DDMs).
Excessed teachers who are proficient or better and who don’t earn a position by the first day of school will be placed in a positon of Suitable Professional Capacity (SPC). Those placed in SPC will retain salary and benefits for a finite length of time. If unsuccessful in finding a position, the person serving in an SPC position will be fired.
The length of time in an SPC position will depend on one’s service years, and whether or not the teacher is from a school that has been closed. (As most know, the city last year commissioned the McKinsey Report, which claims there are 39,000 surplus seats in the BPS and calls for the potential closing of 30 to 50 schools.)
Teachers with a less-than-proficient rating on their last evaluation who are not hired by August 31 will be fired immediately.
Teachers fired, regardless of rating, shall not have a right of recall to any teaching position.
On teacher staffing: Those who take approved leaves, including maternity leaves, for a duration of 6 months or longer will not have an attachment right to their old building & assignment. Any such person without a position on the first day of school shall become an SPC.
Within a school, administrators ‘can reassign teachers to any teaching position … for which they are qualified.’
On length of teacher work day: Teachers will be expected to work a ‘professional day required to perform their required duties.’ Translated, that means that the length of the school day will be solely at the call of your administrator — as will any additional compensation.
The class size maxima in Grades 6 and 9 in Level 3 and Level 4 (Turnaround Schools) shall be increased by one.
On enforcing class size: Instead of ‘an appropriate number of regular teachers shall be hired’ to enforce class size maxima, the obligation now will be that the ‘district (shall) endeavor to hire a sufficient number of teachers.’
Caseload maxima, both individual and system-wide average, for SLPs, OTs, PTs, Nurses, and Guidance Counselors – all limits will be eliminated.
The eight Social Workers hired for the duration of the 2010 to 2016 will be fired.
The SEIMS Agreement will be eliminated. Secondary SPED teachers will lose the benefit of having two administrative periods set aside to do SEIMS paperwork.
Paraprofessionals will be excessed from a school by performance, not by seniority. Excessed paraprofessionals may be eligible for – but are not guaranteed– a positon.
Excessed paraprofessionals who have not secured a position for the following school year by June 15 will be fired.
Fired paraprofessionals with satisfactory performance ratings will be eligible for an interview for one year, however they will not be able to claim a position.
Paraprofessional training: The current $25,000 that funds the Paraprofessional training program will be eliminated.
Paraprofessionals will be able to be placed in any classroom for substitute coverage purposes.
The 20 ‘Coverage’ Paraprofessionals hired to service those students with the most severe Special Needs when their regularly-assigned paraprofessional is absent will be fired.
Substitute teachers who are both certified and recommended for hire will no longer be guaranteed up to four interviews.
Per diem substitute teachers who work more than 120 or 150 days will no longer receive a $1000 or a $1500 bonus, respectively.
And finally — On the school calendar: The superintendent shall determine when the school year begins, in mid-August or September, and whether there is a February break.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a long time teacher bargaining team member, that proposal from the district sounds a lot like they want to provoke a strike. I guess when your goal is privatizing public ed, it never hurts to demoralize and demonize the current work force. They certainly don’t seem too interested in making their district the kind of place teachers feel valued and respected. Sadly, a lot of that is going around lately.
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The proposals are similar to what a decimated and defeated Washington, D.C. teacher union members agreed to.
“Teachers may be excessed from a school without regard to their seniority, but based on their ‘performance.’ Performance will be defined by performance evaluation ratings, which can include Student Impact Ratings as determined by District Determined Measures (DDMs).”
TRANSLATION: teachers now have the at-will status of a fast food worker … no matter how effective or well-regarded you are by parents, current students, former students … we can gin up an unsatisfactory rating, and fire you … and will do so, especially if you’re high up in the salary scale.
“Excessed teachers who are proficient or better and who don’t earn a position by the first day of school will be placed in a positon of Suitable Professional Capacity (SPC). Those placed in SPC will retain salary and benefits for a finite length of time. If unsuccessful in finding a position, the person serving in an SPC position will be fired.
“The length of time in an SPC position will depend on one’s service years, and whether or not the teacher is from a school that has been closed. (As most know, the city last year commissioned the McKinsey Report, which claims there are 39,000 surplus seats in the BPS and calls for the potential closing of 30 to 50 schools.)
“Teachers with a less-than-proficient rating on their last evaluation who are not hired by August 31 will be fired immediately.
“Teachers fired, regardless of rating, shall not have a right of recall to any teaching position.”
TRANSLATION: If you’re a teacher who is “excessed: because of …
1) declining enrollment due to a new charter opening nearby that poaches your school’s students — spending huge money to recruit them away from your school;
2) your school is being closed entirely (and 30 to 50 are planned on being closed) …
no matter how good you are as a teacher, no matter how impressive your track record (i.e. as measured by, say, former students attaining college degrees) you’ll be placed in the category of “SPC,” where you’ll only keep your salary and benefits for a little while longer, unless you can find a principal to hire you, which you won’t because those principals are under direct orders from management not to hire veterans — only low-paid, compliant newbies will now get hired.
After going through the mock charade of applying to schools that you really never had a chance to get hired in the first place, you are then fired… again, regardless of quality… you could be a multi-year “Teacher of the Year” winner, and you’re still toast.
For a teacher wanting to teach elsewhere, the only smart move is to resign to keep a termination off your resume. Since many will go this route, this will help management avoid having to pay unemployment costs.
———————————————
“On teacher staffing: Those who take approved leaves, including maternity leaves, for a duration of 6 months or longer will not have an attachment right to their old building & assignment. Any such person without a position on the first day of school shall become an SPC.
“Within a school, administrators ‘can reassign teachers to any teaching position … for which they are qualified.’
“On length of teacher work day: Teachers will be expected to work a ‘professional day required to perform their required duties.’ Translated, that means that the length of the school day will be solely at the call of your administrator — as will any additional compensation.”
———————————————
TRANSLATION: For those newbies, and for the small number of veterans that survive the human resources massacre, your working conditions as a teacher are going to suck… seriously suck.
Even if you take an approved leave, including maternity leave, we can use that to fire you… by going through the sham SPC process, which is just a version of slow firing.
If you survive all of this, and somehow remain teaching, you will have lost all your previous rights. For example, you can be placed anywhere … i.e. a forced to teach in any class, in any grade, in any subject whether you like it or not, if you fit the nebulous definition of being “qualified” for that class, grade, or especially subject. If you refuse the forces assignment, you’re fired, or you can resign to avoid having a termination on your employment record.
Regarding the length of the school day, the administrators can extend the day as many hours as they like — with no extra pay, with teachers having absolutely no say in the matter… and again, if you don’t like it, you’re fired, or you can resign to avoid having a termination on your employment record.
———————————————
“The class size maxima in Grades 6 and 9 in Level 3 and Level 4 (Turnaround Schools) shall be increased by one.
“On enforcing class size: Instead of ‘an appropriate number of regular teachers shall be hired’ to enforce class size maxima, the obligation now will be that the ‘district (shall) ENDEAVOR TO hire a sufficient number of teachers.’ ”
TRANSLATION: Note how the adding of just two “weasel words” changes everything. By adding “endeavor to”, that means management has to only “try” to adhere to class size limits, and hire sufficient teachers to maintain the contractual class size. If they claim they “tried” — with no required proof or metrics of proof met to substantiate that claim — then they can raise class size sky high.
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Make no mistake here.
Put together, all of this is nothing short of a holocaust for the Boston Public School students and the parents of those students. This can only lead to a irreversible downward spiral that will end in the total elimination of public schools in Boston — some with centuries of history and tradition — and lead to the the end of democratic governance of schools, much like New Orleans. Unlike New Orleans, however, those executing this abomination didn’t need a Katrina as a pretext for doing so. They self-engineered their own Katrina.
Check out the corporate ed reform mantra on the “Students First” website’s main page — and organization funded by Broad, Gates, Walton, & others that are beind what’s happening in Boston):
https://www.studentsfirst.org/
STUDENTS FIRST: “We’re a non-profit working to ensure that every child has great teachers and great schools.”
No, you’re NOT, and YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THAT YOU’RE NOT, so could you please stop lying?
In fact, you’re “working to ensure” the EXACT OPPOSITE” of that objective, AND YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE. “Reforms” like those in Boston will only lead to a low-quality, poorly-trained, corp of short term teachers and other school staff, and who will then replaced every two years or so, with more low-quality personnel.
The only subgroup that will be better off will be the bosses of charter chains who will profit from the replacement of public schools with privately run charter schools. Every other subgroup — parents, community members, teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses other school employees — will be immeasurably worse off.
Campbell Brown says the same thing bout the lawsuits to wipe out teachers’ due process are about “fighting to give every child the opportunity to learn from a great teacher,”
This last quote is from a press release put out from her Parents for Educational Justice org at:
http://edjustice.org/newspress/press/
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On the subject of years of experience leading to a higher quality of teachers, an article by Peter Greene about a study confirming that notiopn — one that synthesizes over 30 other studies on the matter — was just posted on the HuffPost.
Note how the study’s recommendations ARE THE EXACT POLAR OPPOSITE OF THE PROPOSALS THAT BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRESENTED TO THE TEACHERS’ UNION — the ones listed and discussed above. To the folks in charge of Beantown’s schools, it’s all about cheaping out on the line item of teachers, kids education be dammed.
Tommy Chang, Mayor Walsh, and the rest of the outside corporate ed reformers controlling Walsh and Change know full well that what they are doing will do great harm to the education of children there, but that’s just fine with them, if it leads to school privatization, and greater profits from doing education on the cheap.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/maybe-old-teachers-dont-s_b_10404600.html
PETER GREENE:
“A repeated refrain among some reformsters is that we need to get rid of tenure, job protections, and seniority rules for teachers because the system is clogged with washed-up uncaring has-beens and when budgets are slashed and staffing is cut, it’s the hot young rock stars of education that are thrown out on the street (oddly enough, their concern over this issue never translates into calls to knock it off with the budget slashing, but that’s another conversation).
“But what if older teachers didn’t suck?
“This month the Learning Policy Institute released a new research brief, ‘Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness?’ The report is a meta-analysis, a study of studies that looks at thirty studies over the last thirty years. And it turns out that maybe older teachers don’t suck.
” … ”
“The LPI study offers three recommendations:
“First, increase job stability.
“No kidding. Here’s a thought — since teachers do their best work as they accumulate more experience, why not come up with a system that encourages teachers to stick around. Like, a system that offered tangibles like higher pay for longevity and intangibles like job security that favors the more experienced teachers. Incentivize sticking around. Just a thought.
“Second, create a collegial atmosphere.
“Create a system where teachers are encouraged to cooperate, not a system that incentivizes non-cooperation. The calls to make it easier to fire old teachers, the systems for making pay and job security based on “beating” the other teachers in your school — these are exactly wrong.
“Third, look at longevity in high needs schools.
“If teachers do their best work after years in the classroom, then schools that have nothing but beginning teachers who are steadily churned in and out (as they complete their two year stint with TFA or move on to other schools) are schools that are not getting the top quality in staff. Staffing your turnaround charter with nothing but newbies and led by operators with no actual classroom experience — that’s not just an educational issue or an economic issue, but an equity issue as well.
“Staffing your most challenging district school with your youngest teachers and offering them no incentives to stay there for the long haul (from pay to resources to a capable principal) is, once again, an equity issue.
“As always, I cast a somewhat dubious eyeball at educational research, but the implications here are fairly clear — it would be useful to stop looking at experienced teachers as fat big ticket items that need to be trimmed from budgets and instead see them as a major driver of excellence within schools.
“Is every experienced teacher a paragon of educational awesomeness? Of course not. But the research seems clear enough — teachers generally age like fine wine (or the stinky cheese that my wife likes for some reason), and it would strengthen the educational system to encourage the teacher pool to age long and well.”
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Why teach ? This huge emphasis on teacher evaluation when most districts previously had reasonable procedures for it that worked fine, is just a power grab and has nothing to do with real learning. Why go into teaching ? It is already by its nature a difficult job. Why add this pressure on top of it.
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The “reform” item they allude to but rarely talk about is union busting. They want to roll back any and all job protections so that teachers work at the discretion of the unprofessional superintendents of schools. They want to turn teaching into a low wage temporary job and deprofessionalize it. They want to redesign the power and compensation structure so most of the money and authority stay at the top. If districts turn over the management to uncertified business managers that can toss out labor contracts , there will be more hatchet jobs on schools, unless organized parents can stop the bleeding.
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Broad Academy grad and disgraced LAUSD former Supt. John Deasy, who also had worked for Gates, said that teachers should only work at teaching for five years, and then go get a real job…or words to that end. He put teaching for real trained professionals only a step higher than TFA kids. Too bad he did not study the Danish system which respects teachers and puts them on the same pay level as doctors.
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And Chang worked for Deasy in LA before heading off to attack Beantown. Affiliated charters division, basically.
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Leftie pal….According to what I have read online, Cortines urged him to move on when the interim Supt. said he would sweep the district clean of the Broad/Deasy hangers-on…as with Matt Hill too. Gossip was that he was, in essence, fired. What is your view of his departure?
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You know everything I know. No way to know for sure with Cortines, Ellen, how much sway Eil Broad had with him. It certainly was, as Diane wrote, clouded. Broad’s moves always are.
Chang was superintendent of ISIC, which Cortines folded to consolidate the local districts into four offices. I’m not sure the people Cortines put in place to head the local districts were any more cooperative with teachers than Deasy’s people were. In many cases, they were the same people. (Still are.) I don’t know if having affiliated charter schools and hybrids run by a separate local district office is good or bad. And I don’t know if going from superintendent of LAUSD’s ISIC division to superintendent of Boston Public Schools is a move up, down, or sideways.
I do know that when Deasy and Chang left LA, schools here started getting better, but not by that much…
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And I do know that Eli Broad and Bill Gates are still rich, and still hold many strings on the left leaning coast.
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…as well as in Boston.
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In Knoxville , TN we have successfully gotten rid of our Broad superintendent. He is leaving the position because teachers and voters have replaced most of the school board that got him here 8 years ago! Now we must repair the damage!
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Judith,
Congratulations to Knoxville for voting in a new board and losing your Broadie superintendent!
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Where’s he going so, the receiving community can be notified?
Both Pahara Aspen Institute and Broad credentials, IMO, are badges of dishonor.
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Thanks for keeping up the heat on the Boston politicians who are determined to end public schooling in the city which is home to the first public school, founded in 1635.
Here’s a very poignant post from a second grade BPS teacher, reflecting what her students wish for in an dream school:
https://deyproject.org/2016/06/10/boston-second-graders-imagine-their-dream-school/#comment-15338
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Christine…I just this AM referred to you an activist Boston parent who had contacted me privately about Supt. Chang.. Wonder if you might post an email address so local parents and activists can contact you and get info, and perhaps serve as a rallying fulcrum. Ellen
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ellen!
But Diane has it right, I’m just reporting the news; not making it. Local parents and activists don’t need me to serve as a fulcrum – they are crushing it. There have been multiple actions since January, led by parents, students and community members at City Hall, the State House, in the streets and on Twitter. Save Our Public Schools was active in today’s Pride March, for example.
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Congrats Christine, for having such wonderful activists to report on…wish by osmosis, they could infect LAUSD with their enthusiasm and support of public schools.
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Why are these Broad Toads allowed to proliferate? All they bring with them is destruction and hatred.
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The Executive Director of the Boston Plan for Excellence, is an Aspen Pahara Fellow ( Pahara is Gates funded, and, IMO, has the same agenda as Broad). Tommy Chang is on BPE’s Board.
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The BPE has been trying to sabotage the Boston Schools for at least the past 20 years. With the alignment of the politics at the federal, state and city level BPE has more coalition members than ever. Those of us who have followed its rise have an alternate noun for the E of the acronym – excrement.
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All states need to establish minimum standards for principals and superintendents, and it should include having been a successful teacher and completion of a variety of required courses in educational leadership. An MBA or fake Broadie trained person is not the same. They have no business running schools if they know nothing about education. States need stricter rules, not laxer.
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These are the moves that McKiMcKnseynsey & Co. have been marketing with variations that guaranteed online learning in large classes can be part of the contracts. No job security, longer hours, uncertain and quixotic decisions on the length of the school year,–all part of the template. A related model is that of a franchise where just-in-time-hires and permanent subs fill “slots.” The idea of having “excess slots” is exactly like having “excess seats.” Anyone who talks about excess seats or “high quality seats” does not care who operates schools or who staffs them as long as there is “coverage” and marketing potential for sustainability.
I expect to see a version of this in Cincinnati unless it can be stopped. A fast track TFA recruiter turned fundraiser for this model is working on a plan for a takeover of schools with management from a self annointed, unelected nine-person board, in this case with the aims pf out “Accelerator” articulated by Bellwether:
1. To focus on each school’s performance, not its operator;
2. To embrace and support all successful schools whether they’re District, public charter, or Catholic, and
3. To focus on the development and expansion of schools and school models that deliver outstanding results.”
Noteworthy and shameful is that the Catholic schools are named, other religious schools are not, and that the whole plan rests on redirecting public funds with no public accountability and no separation of religious indoctrination from the content and methods of teaching. A “successful school has “high quality seats.” The language is taken for granted, not recognized as bizarre.
CRPE’s playbook includes coopting local foundations, CEOs, mayors, and local elected officials then announcing what must be done without and public engagement, often rapidly and with millions of start-up dollars on the table, leaving the local school board freedom of persuasion and action.
WithThis so-called “third wave” has been carefully nurtured by the Obama administration with the intentionally mis-named RESPECT project — a project conceived by McKinsey and Company. RESPECT stands for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching. Educational Success. You can see some of the parallels with the Broadie plan with a lot more spin from professional wordsmiths. Full McKinsey report is here: Byron, A., Kihn, P,& Miller, M. (2010, September). Closing the students gap: Attracting and retaining graduates to a career in teaching. Retieved from http://mckinseyonsociety.com/closing-the-students-gap/
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McKiMcKnseynsey & Co. should be McKinsey & Co. Note that Chelsea Clinton has experience and connections from her time there.
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Laura…your link does not lead us the page. So, Chelsea has been part of the deform movement with this company….wonder if Hillary’s friend and client, Eli Broad, got her that job?
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Article from the entrepreneurship site of McKinsey….tells all…all that we are fighting against that is…..
Why US education is ready for investment
As education transforms, the traditional and highly limited openings for private companies are growing wider. Investors should take note.
August 2015 | Jake Bryant and Jimmy Sarakatsannis
US education is a $1.5 trillion industry and growing at 5 percent annually. On the face of it, those figures warrant attention from investors. But most of that spending is hard for investors to access: education is everywhere seen as a public good, entrusted to government and nonprofit institutions, and most spending is on personnel. For-profit companies have historically achieved scale by stepping in to provide education where society has left gaps—by acting as school operators in K–12 and higher education or by providing ancillary services such as tutoring, day care, and test preparation. Private companies have also found niches in corporate training and textbook publishing, though the latter
is a heavily consolidated industry.
This decades-old picture is now changing in several ways. The pressure on schools to deliver a higher-quality product is intensifying as the labor market demands better-skilled workers and students and families enjoy greater transparency into schools’ performance. Moreover, students are coming to education with greater needs. Most US public-school students in the primary grades now come from low-income households, and about half of post-secondary students need remedial-level instruction when entering college. Finally, technology is disrupting education, as it has so much of modern life and business; more than a third of today’s college students have taken at least one course online.
These forces are causing traditional providers to rethink how they serve their students—and providing a moment for investors to reconsider the sector. The number of annual private-equity deals has more than doubled, from 30 in 2007–10 to about 70 in 2012–14. Venture-capital investment hit a record high in 2014 of $1.87 billion, up 55 percent from 2013.
These deals have mostly been dedicated to the traditional investment theses—school operators, large publishers, tutoring and test-preparation services in traditional education settings—as well as corporate training. In the future, investors will likely pursue more fine-grained opportunities as the paths to growth and scale in the space become more diverse. We have identified nine investment themes in education, all driven by the broad forces upending the sector. Here we focus on three of the most prominent—one each in pre-K–12 education, postsecondary education, and corporate training.
Digital resources for K–12 schools. Primary and secondary schools are adopting digital curricula at unprecedented rates, yet teachers report they have trouble finding digital products that meet their needs. We surveyed teachers and found that 60 percent lack the digital instructional resources they need. The gap is the worst in science and language arts in the early grades, where more than 70 percent of teachers can’t find what they need.New companies are sprouting up to answer these needs. These companies are benefiting from the widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards, which makes investments in product development relevant to a significant base of potential customers. Many of them are subscale and not yet on investors’ radar but could be ripe for roll-up.
Completion services for postsecondary institutions. The focus has shifted from a race to enroll new students to a realization that sustainable growth will only come from helping more students who start a college education actually complete it. Enrollment growth is slowing. And both public attention and government regulations are pressuring colleges and universities to help more of their students graduate and find jobs. Schools are therefore looking to get help from three types of companies: marketing and recruiting services that specialize in finding the kind of student who is likely to succeed, remedial-curricular companies that can help at-risk students catch up to their peers quickly, and companies whose risk analytics can flag students who need intervention throughout their time in college. These companies are worth a look from investors. Many are already at scale, and others are teaming up to provide powerful end-to-end “completion” offerings.
Digital innovation in corporate training. Employers increasingly say that university graduates are not ready for the workplace. Only 40 percent of US employers believe their new employees have the skills they need to succeed. Many are therefore investing more seriously in training their employees themselves, aided by a new generation of online companies whose sophisticated and comprehensive offerings make returns on such investments more certain. The game in corporate education is changing quickly. Recent deals have focused on new types of players (such as informal-learning players and skills-oriented “boot camps”) and are integrating the once-distinct offerings of HR services providers, learning-management systems, and training providers. Investors will want to look closely and move quickly.
Jake Bryant is a consultant and Jimmy Sarakatsannis is an associate principal in McKinsey’s Washington, DC, office.
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Ellen: This link should get you the report from McKinsey Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and Retaining Top-Third Graduates to Careers in Teaching.
http://www.gtlcenter.org/products-resources/closing-talent-gap
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Great Britain and Boston: Corporate Ed. Reformers Think Alike
The following article from across the pond talks mostly about university students, but also touches on K-12 (or the equivalent in the United Kingdom), and last year’s attempt by those in power to eliminate all public education.
Here’s how the article ends — by saying that, with the corporate reform movement in the U.K., they believe that their mistake was not their (so far) failed attempt to turn all traditional public schools into “academies”—the equivalent of privately-managed charter schools here in the U.S.
Campbell Brown celebrated this attempted coup, and that was covered on the Ravitch blog here:
No, on the contrary. Those British corporate ed. reformers believe that their only mistake was letting the cat out of the bag about what they were doing.
The lesson learned?
Well, they’re taking a page out of gameplan used by corporate ed reformers in Boston, and their stooge, Mayor Marty Walsh:
STRATEGY: Do it all on the downlow, mislead the public with vague talk (SEE PETER GREENE”s expose of this at the end of this post), and hope that by the time anyone notices, it will be too late to reverse the process.
In the words of those Brits, they “won’t make that same mistake” of talking about it publicly. Instead, they’ll just quietly “get on with making things happen, and keep communication to minimum.”
Here’s the ending of the article
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/ehsan-masood/great-british-higher-education-sell-off
“The government recently – and unsuccessfully – tried to turn all schools into Academies, but Morgan was forced into an embarrassing U-turn because of a backlash from Conservative local authorities and Conservative parliamentarians. The ministers won’t make the same mistake. Better to just get on with making things happen, and keep communication to an absolute minimum.
“That is why if you care about the exploitation of our children for profit …
“If you care that parliament and not Whitehall should have oversight of universities …
“If you care about preserving high quality public education, a genuine and rare British success story …
“If you care that we have learnt none of the lessons that lax regulation creates instability major problems (such as the 2008 financial crisis) …
” … then speak up now, by writing to your MP, or in any other way.
“Because without your voice, the government will get its way, without question.”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/ehsan-masood/great-british-higher-education-sell-off
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As promised, here’s Peter Greene’s hilarious parsing of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s non-denial denials that Walsh employes to mislead Bostonians, and get them to put their guard down, and not catch on to Walsh’s and corporate ed. reformers’ agenda until it’s too late.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/ma-boston-schools-remain-opaque.html
Contained in Peter’s article are some of the contents of secret emails unearthed through some activists’ FOIA request. The emails show money-motivated corporate ed reform outsiders advising the mayor and his staff on WHAT he/they should do. and HOW he/they should do it and most importantly HOW THEY SAY IT.
In particular, the corporate ed reformers give precise direction on how one should communicate to (READ: mislead)the public. For example, Marty and his staff — as well as Boston Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang and his staff — must cease all use of the verb “close” when it comes to, well, “closing schools,” as if using different and misleading verbiage makes a damn bit of difference in the actual outcome.
There’s other corporate ed reform semantic tricks — or in the corporate reformers’ jargon, “rework the verbiage” when communicating about school closings — contained in these emails.
We’re not closing schools. We’re “right-sizing the district.” Incredibly, the emails not only reveal the plans to close the schools, but unlike say, Chicago, or New Orleans, the corporate ed. reformers in control of Mayor Walsh plan to sell off the buildings or property. This will all be done with zero input or consent of the public, who are, in theory, supposed to be the owners.
Peter does a great job here, as usual:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/ma-boston-schools-remain-opaque.html
PETER GREENE:
“And Mayor Marty Walsh continues to deny his plans to close down school buildings, despite folks having found evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile, the education course in Boston is charted by an assortment of ‘advisory’ groups like Boston Leaders for Education, a group that selflessly pushes reform and charters even though it includes guys like Michael Tooke, a venture capitalist and investment banker, plus an assortment of other venture investment guys who I’m sure have no connection to or profit from various Boston charters.
” … ”
“If there is anyone in the Boston area who does not know that Mayor Walsh and BPS plan to close a few dozen schools, my condolences go out to that person’s family, and I hope he or she comes out of the coma soon. The emails contain further proof that the report from McKinsey, the high-priced consulting group and often a favorite tool of reformsters, was to be used as a basis for closing thirty-six or so schools.
“But somehow Walsh still cannot bring himself to own up to this. He was out of the country when QUEST released their report on the e-mails, but he still has a response:
“ ‘While I appreciate the input of the McKinsey report, it is only a starting point for analysis,’ Walsh said, ‘and I have made it clear that I am not comfortable with any proposal that would close schools until we complete our comprehensive facilities master plan.’
“This is a favorite weaselly construction in Boston. BPS also replied to the QUEST release with:
” ‘There are currently no plans to close any school facilities. While Boston Public Schools appreciates the analysis of external partners and organizations, one evaluation report will not determine the future of our schools. After the completion of the BuildBPS facilities master plan, an informed 10-year road-map will be created to align allocated investments in Boston’s school facilities with the district’s 21st-century educational priorities. We look forward to continued community engagement throughout this process.’
“I imagine Walsh taking a call from his girlfriend.
” ‘Do you want to eat supper with me tonight?’ she asks.
” ‘I have made no plans for eating at this time,’ he replies. ‘I certainly have no intention of eating until I am experiencing hunger. At that time, I may develop plans for consumption of food-related materials, but at this time I must state categorically that I have no plans to eat, ever.’
“So, yes, he’s going to eat, and yes, he fully intends to close school buildings. What I find fascinating at this point is his utter refusal to just say so, to just fess up to what everybody already knows.
“Instead, leaders keep throwing around vague pronouncements about ‘right-sizing the district,’ while the emails reveal conversations about how to ‘rework the verbiage,’ a directive from the mayor’s Director of External Relations & Opportunity Gap Initiatives Ramon Soto in an email in which he also notes that he has concerns about “stating ‘sell/lease 30-50 buildings’ as part of a strategy.’ So not just close down buildings, but sell them off. Just don’t tell anybody, because they’ll probably be angry. Another directive in the emails reminds officials not to use the word ‘close’ anywhere.
“This active avoidance of transparency is habitual. The city continues to insist that Boston Public Schools are getting their biggest pile of money ever, which is kind of like telling a McBurger McAssembler that thanks to a two-cents-an-hour raise, he is now getting the highest wage he’s ever earned at Micky D’s. The truth, readily available to anyone with eyes, is that BPS’s 1.3% increase is peanuts compared to the 4% increase in the full budget. It’s also peanuts compared to the increases for other school districts across the state.
“It’s true that BPS enrollment continues to drop, a foreseeable outcome of ratcheting up the charter pressure. Boston is working from the same old playbook on how to gut public schools and replace them with charters (a book literally written by current MA Secretary of Ed James Peyser back when he was cuing up charters for venture capitalists).
“It’s understandable that Walsh and his cronies don’t want to just come out and say,
” ‘We’d like to gut the budget for the public schools so that they can fail and be shut down or sold to the many charters that we’d like to see take over the system. We’re going to give public schools the least amount of money we can get away with, and we are going to put them out of business and turn Boston into charter heaven. ‘
” ‘Because ka-ching.
” ‘Oh — and we’re going to call the whole thing BuildBPS because we dig irony — it’s kind of like a Peacekeeper Missile. We will build BPS by destroying it.’
“But they’re unwillingness to actually speak plainly and honestly leaves them shoveling out bovine fecal matter by the metric ton in a manner that’s just insulting, like that kid in class who insists he did not throw that paper wad at you, even though you just watched him do it.
“Among the emails QUEST also found a note from the above-mentioned Michael Tooke who wants to ask, basically just how big Walsh’s balls are:
” ‘Does Boston have the courage to take an immediate and diverse solution to these underperforming institutions, including closure (in concert with a thoughtful and complete facilities plan), redesign as in-district charters, addition of independent charters or insertion of new school leadership with true autonomy?’
“I don’t know if Boston’s leaders have the courage to gut public education, but it continues to be clear that they don’t have the courage to speak plainly about what they want to do.”
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