This video shows a panel discussion at the meeting of the National Urban League’s annual meeting.
There are four members of the panel, but the fireworks happen between Julian Vasquez Heilig, a noted scholar, and Steve Perry, who calls himself “America’s Most Trusted Educator.” Perry is opening a charter school in Harlem this fall. He has run a magnet school in Hartford, Connecticut.
Of course, Julian has the advantage in that he is deeply knowledgable about research and has a strong philosophical commitment to democratic governance and social justice. In addition to being a researcher, a professor, and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education, he is education chair of the NAACP in California.
I think you will find it interesting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Interesting that the President of the Urban League (at the beginning of the video) thanks the Walton Foundation for funding their Town Hall. Isn’t the Urban League aware that Walmart gets money from under paying their employees, denying them benefits (while funding organizations that are fighting single payer health care), and driving community stores out of business?
Good catch, phla.ken.
Either they don’t know (which I find difficult to believe), or they don’t care.
Why is Steve Perry allowed to be around children?
“But I’ve wanted since the campaign for The President to punch somebody in the mouth. Dead up. Like, “Sit down boy, I’m the boss here!” And I feel like as somebody who works with children. At no time do I give the impression that I’m gonna listen to their opinion, that’s not what I’m about. I’m not here to be part of it, I’m not here to negotiate with you.”
Steve Perry, 2011
Tough love is one thing; self-love and abuse is something else.
Steve Perry just came to Ohio to promote charters and bash public schools!
“Auditor of State Dave Yost will host Ohio’s first statewide Charter School Summit this summer to provide school educators and administrators with financial, professional and academic training.
The two-day summit, held in cooperation with leaders of the charter school community, will take place Aug. 11-12 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus and will feature nationally known experts on school choice and leading authorities on Ohio education, including…”
https://ohioauditor.gov/trainings/charterschoolsummit.html
I have no earthly idea why he is an “authority” on Ohio education, or why the public is funding charter school promotion and marketing events.
“Nobody ever learned how to hit a homerun by watching film of strikeouts,” Yost said. “The summit will focus on what is working in the school choice movement – and there is much that is excellent.”
Rah, rah, rah.
Why doesn’t this cheerleading approach apply to public schools, I wonder?
Surely the unfashionable and ignored public sector schools are doing SOMETHING right?
Perry is a walking talking point encyclopedia for the privatizers.
He wouldn’t even try to discuss Vasquez’s central point that choice can be provided on a community basis (rather than privatized chains).
I teach in an inner ring suburban Detroit disctrict that offers all of the following options for 9-12: traditional college prep education, CTE through an affiliated public multi-site county wide vocational center, an alternative school with small class sizes for kids who can’t acclimate to the traditional school and an IB program.
Through community engagement, we may create another option in the next few years. And parents can choose these options regardless of where they live in the district. And we are very economically and ethnically diverse. So it isn’t a wealthy neighborhood.
From a citylimits.org article about Steve Perry:
“Because of its status as a magnet school in the Hartford Public School district, Capital Prep is allowed to enroll students from outside its geographic district. As a result, Capital Prep serves an amalgamation of students, according to data compiled by the Connecticut State DOE, comprised of just 43 percent underprivileged students, three percent LEP and nine percent learning disabled.”
“With an attrition rate of over 40 percent, Capital Prep has been accused of compelling these underperforming and at-risk students to transfer schools in order to maintain strong statistics.”
Wow, surely Steve Perry is thrilled that the SUNY Charter Institute will oversee his new school in Harlem. That’s the kind of statistics SUNY deems to be irrelevant and if Mr. Perry feels like suspending 20% or 30% of the students, he should go right ahead since SUNY likes charters with high suspension rates, too.
No wonder he is “America’s Most Trusted Educator.” No doubt he will soon be one of SUNY’s most trusted one, too.
Reblogged this on Matthews' Blog and commented:
And it is indeed interesting.
Steve Perry should not be allowed to run another school. He should not be in contact with teachers, parents or kids.
http://wnpr.org/post/hartford-board-education-chairman-calls-investigation-principal-steve-perry#stream/0
Steve Perry is a joke of an opportunist. That “America’s most trusted educator” thing is either copyrighted or a registered trade mark, I forget which, but I’ve seen the little symbol for one of those after the phrase on his official publications or website. Another bloated ego riding the reformy gravy train, nothing more.
There is no comparison between these 2 men. One is knowledgeable and we’ll spoken on the topic and an educatorcth ed other is a politician and nothing else.