A judge in Colorado tossed out the voucher program enacted in Doulas County.
The Associated Press reports:
“A Denver District Judge has ordered Douglas County schools to suspend a program that allowed parents to use vouchers at private schools.
“The Denver Post reported that Denver District Judge Michael Martinez on Wednesday ruled that Douglas County’s School Choice Grant Program is not substantially different from its predecessor the Choice Scholarship Program, which was struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court as unconstitutional last year.
“After the high court ruled that Douglas County’s voucher program violated the state constitution’s ban on using public funds for religious schools, the district in March introduced a new program that would allow taxpayer money to help cover non-religious private schools.
“Martinez ruled that the new program was too similar to the previous program.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s obvious that the autocratic, often fraudulent corporate charter and voucher school cheerleaders have no respect for the U.S. Constitution, voters, and the legal system in the United States. Once they are elected, with help from very deep pockets, they will do anything they can to subvert the U.S. Republic, state constitutions, the U.S. Constitution, the law, etc.
Amen!
Two more stories out of Douglas County:
Story No. 1) the new interim Superintendent is a charter school executive.
She was the “sole finalist,” doncha know?
Gee, I wonder how THAT came about 😉
Since the Douglas County corporate reformers still hold a 4-3 board majority — with their opposition being the 3 newly-elected anti-coporate reform slate — that’s exactly how the vote went.
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/02/douglas-county-school-district-selects-charter-school-director-as-interim-superintendent/
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The executive director of a pre-K-8 charter school in Douglas County is the “sole finalist” in the Douglas County School District’s search for an interim superintendent.
The DCSD Board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to select Erin Kane from two finalists who interviewed with the directors earlier Tuesday evening, according to a news release.
Kane is executive director of schools at American Academy, a pre-K-8 charter public school with a STEM emphasis. As executive director, Kane oversees business operations, financial management and academic success of the school’s two campus locations. She manages a $17 million budget and about 200 employees, including principals, directors, teachers and support staff.
An additional American Academy pre-K-8 campus is scheduled to open in the Lincoln Meadows area of Parker in fall 2017.
The DCSD Board is scheduled to meet in two weeks to officially appoint Kane as interim superintendent.
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One of the commenters wrote:
W.E. Coyote • 2 days ago
She seems singularly unqualified. Basically a business manager promoted to run a huge school system? Zero teaching experience. Never been a teacher, principal, etc. Another profiteer making a fortune off the charter school trend.
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AND…
Story No. 2) the inspiring saga of Grace Davis:
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/159571/dougco-student-activist-grace-davis-coming-of-age
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“DougCo student activist Grace Davis’ coming of age
“At age 16, Douglas County Schools’ biggest firebrand aims to spend her last two years of high school speaking for teachers who are afraid to speak for themselves
“Grace Davis is many things: a 16-year old incoming junior at Ponderosa High, a member of her church’s youth group, school choir and golf and volleyball teams, and a concerned student.
“What she isn’t – not even close – is a puppet.
“That’s how one Douglas County School Board member depicted Davis after she organized a student demonstration in March decrying high staff turnover and teacher dissatisfaction at her school. Jim Geddes, a director on the board, accused her of being used by the teachers’ union to advance its agenda against teacher evaluations, pay-for-performance and other reforms instituted by the board’s conservative majority.
“ ‘What happened at Ponderosa is unfortunate. I don’t think that was an appropriate way to express your-all’s agenda, through your students, to use your students that way,’ Geddes told teacher representatives at a March 15 board meeting. ‘It was tremendously derogatory of Douglas County schools.’
“Davis finds the district’s narrative of her being puppeted ‘infuriating.’ Part of the problem in the school system, she says, is that it’s being run by a board majority that doesn’t believe students – the group most affected by school board policies – have their own opinions about those policies or their own free will to express them. She’s disheartened by the assumption that students can’t think or act on their own.
“ ‘What that tells me is there’s not much respect for children and that their expectations for us are very low,’ she says.”
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and on it goes.
It’s been amusing to watch ed reformers push vouchers in state after state, because they’re supposedly NOT pushing vouchers but are instead about “great public schools!”
Another broken promise. More and more they drop the word “public” completely. The language shift, in my opinion, indicates the shift that’s already taken place in the “movement”.
It may not matter- vouchers were a big flop in Ohio although lobbyists and lawmakers promote and expand availability every year. It turns out people actually support public schools. Ed reformers in Ohio seem perplexed by this- doesn’t everyone agree all public schools are failing? Apparently not.
If they want to privatize public education, why not just say so? Are they ashamed? Afraid the public would catch on? They’re obviously committed to this ideology- why not just sell it honestly?
Vouchers have been a flop everywhere but ideologues don’t care
Diane – the ideologues don’t care if students succeed, so long as there is a profit to be made. Vouchers are a terrific way to frame the illusion of choice to the unsuspecting public, but the reality bears little resemblance to successful educational outcomes. We are up against a group of profiteers who won’t be swayed by commentaries, facts or data. The ideology is one of profit, not choice…
They aren’t ideologues but are idiologues. Idiologues use idiology* the way a chef uses a knife.
*Idiology (n.) Ideology based on errors and falsehoods, the ideology of idiots.
In “today in the ed reform echo chamber” news, here’s The 74:
https://www.the74million.org/
Charters, charter politics, teacher union politics and testing.
The only time actual, existing public schools are even included is when they’re promoting testing public school students.
The consistent omission of anything positive or even substantive regarding public schools except for 1. denigration of unions or 2. promotion of testing is really pretty remarkable when you think about it, and it’s like that on all the ed reform sites.
If you arrived from another country and read only ed reform sites you would believe all US schools are charter schools and the number one priority of US lawmakers is testing.
It would be okay if this were just a bunch of lobbyists or some fringe political group, but ed reformers dominate DC and most state governments. This echo chamber IS the status quo.