I posted this previously with the wrong link. This is the correct link: http://www.federationforchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AFC-2016-Election-Memo_Final.pdf
Betsy DeVos, billionaire and Trump nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education, is chairman of the board and chief funder of the American Federation for Children.
The organization advocates for charters and vouchers. If you scan its activities and news releases, you won’t find any mention of public schools. On her website, they are the invisible dragon that the AFC wants to slay.
When the election was over, the staff compiled a list of the victories for school choice. School choice means schools choose; school choice means segregation. School choice means privatization. In DeVos’ world, school choice means autonomy without accountability. School choice means the death of public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/01/where_rich_devos_and_his_famil.html#25
Where the devos family spends their money. please note the MILLIONS given to public education, both k12 and State universities
You are innumerate and not a very good shill either. Did you think people wouldn’t click on your link?
I surely hoped they did!!! That shows millions to Grand Rapids public school, to state university and others.
I wish you folks could look at things a bit more balanced.
Rudy,
The Koch brothers are great patrons of the arts, but they are destroying our democracy by buying elections.
Rudy,
I looked through the slide show of the DeVos family, and I see that other branches of the family have given to the Grand Rapids public schools, but not Betsy and Dick.
But George Soros, the unions and lawyers who have donated millions upon millions to the Clinton campaign are different, right? They are honest, concerned people who have nothing but the best in mind for the American people, right?
Balance, dr.
I wish we could agree on the fact that politics from EITHER side has gone down the drain.
Rudy,
I believe that George Soros has enhanced the democratic process through the Open Society Institute, both here and in Eastern Europe. Nothing he has done has harmed democracy. The spending of the DeVos family, the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and other billionaires too numerous to mention, is intended to impose their choices on the public. Soros has done nothing of the kind.
The unions are an integral part of democracy.
Clinton would have been a far superior president than the man who lost the majority vote but won the Electoral College. She is better educated, wiser, more experienced, and understands the workings of government. Trump has failed to sit in for his daily intelligence briefings. They must bore him.
Right. Like I said, these groups have nothing but the best in mind.
They are buying what you claim the republican donors are buying: influence to create a world they want.
For me, I would rather have a world where abortion for convenience’ sake, euthanasia, drugs etc are not acceptable. Where I have a choice whether or not to be a union member, where I can work where I want, run my family the way I want without interfering democrats who think they do a better job of raising my children.
A world where a 13 year old cannot have an abortion without parents permission, where I can own guns were I to be inclined to do so, and where society will hold people accountable for preventable messes.
Where lawyers do not get rich off the misery of people but where justice is what matters, not their 66%. Where people who are hurt by products are the ones who actually get the lion share of the verdict. Where stupid lawsuits are refused.
Why else do you think lawyers support the democrats?? They want to prevent tort reform by any means possible -because that hurts their business.
A world where education is what it should be: education where both sides of arguments are shared, without prejudice. Where parents accept the responsibility of supporting teachers, teachers who do not make parents out to be ignorant for not accepting evolution as a fact (and boy, can a case be built for the ridiculousness of evolutionary thinking!).
But wouldn’t it be great when we are able to find balances between these extremes!
No, Rudy, both sides don’t have the best of intentions. One side preaches hatred for gays, Jews, Muslims, and others. It doesn’t believe in paying a minimum wage. It wants to put government in control of women’s bodies. It views women as less than men. It wants everyone to be compelled to live by its rules. It wants to destroy public schools. I don’t like that side.
No, Rudy, both sides don’t have the best of intentions. One side preaches hatred for gays, Jews, Muslims, and others. It doesn’t believe in paying a minimum wage. It wants to put government in control of women’s bodies. It views women as less than men. It wants everyone to be compelled to live by its rules. It wants to destroy public schools. I don’t like that side
Hogwash and baloney. It is not the “one side…” it is segments of the one side, just like segments of the one side (Democrats) were at one point in time, just as bigoted and racist as the rest of the nation.
The Rev. Wright – preached hatred
Current aspirant for Democratic chair – follower of Farrakhan – Anti Semite
Al Sharp – Accuses people of crimes before allowing the process to take place – and then refuses to apologize when wrong, but in the meantime, ruined the lives of young people
Jesse Jackson – “Blackmailed” businesses into favors by threatening to call for boycotts
No, it does not want “control over women’s bodies…” It looks to stop a society from tossing out humans into the trash bin by the hundreds of thousands a year.
No, it does not view women less as men. You may not have noticed, but there were more women running for office on the Republican side the non the Democrat side??
And where is the record of the Democrats on education?
Obama – Democrat.
Duncan – Democrat.
Emanuel – Democrat.
Clinton – Democrat.
NCLB – Bi-Partisan
And according to the posts on this blog, many, many more Democrats who are accused of wanting to ruin public education
Rudy,
You are wrong. Keith Ellison is not a follower of Farrakhan and he is not an anti-Semite.
Please name one Democratic party official who was elected on a platform of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and hatred of The Other.
I can name plenty of Republicans who were, beginning with Trump.
From politico regarding Keith Ellison of which Rudy was fulminating in his latest hysterical screed: At that time, there were allegations that Ellison was tied to the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan. Ellison said he’d never joined the group, although he had helped organize a Minnesota delegation to the 1995 Million Man March, where Farrakhan spoke. Ellison apologized for failing to “adequately scrutinize the positions” of Farrakhan and other Nation of Islam leaders. “They were and are anti-Semitic, and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/ellison-makes-push-for-democratic-national-committee-post-231282
Did you get that Rudy, Ellison denounced the Nation of Islam as being anti-semitic. So update all your garbage.
Which is what I said… It was 20+ years ago, and he put it down as a youthful indiscretion. Which is okay with me. He wondered why it should be brought now (and he is expecting it too, especially from his own party, since he is running for a higher position!!!).
So, on the one hand we have a “youthful indiscretion…” that should not be brought up, but a video tape from 1999 was okay to bring out to the open – and be held against? Notice the double standard, again?
More for Rudy from the washingtonpost: He [Ellison] added at the time: “I have long since distanced myself from and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic ideas and statements, as well as other issues. I have a deep and personal aversion to anti-Semitism regardless of its source, and I reject and condemn the anti-Semitic statements and actions of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and Khalid Muhammed.
“https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/15/why-keith-ellison-is-a-bold-pick-for-dnc-chair-and-a-controversial-one/?utm_term=.f9bd356a83ad
Gosh, Keith Ellison disavowed people who practice anti-Semitism in a way we have never heard from Donald Trump when he talks about the white power organizations who were always at this rallies.
And Trump was telling his racist followers that Obama was a Muslim or Kenyan — just not an American born citizen — for 5 years until just a few months ago. I’d say that’s a lot more troublesome than someone’s views from 20 years ago.
Although something about how Rudy posts makes me think he doesn’t find the alt right’s views nearly as troubling as he finds any Democrats. Hmmm…..
Rudy, this is really quite ominous. Take a look:
I thought Gordon Gekko was fictional!
Rudy – my sense of balance doesn’t include dissembling, equivocating nonsense. Betsy DeVos is self-avowedly committed to dismantling the public school system, or as she would refer to them, government schools. You know this, but you prefer to play ridiculous semantic games and otherwise troll this site.
My children attend public schools. Betsy DeVos and the rest of the privatization cabal are the ones who decided to wage a war over the existence of public schools. So this fight isn’t my choice, but if you attack the interests of my children I’m not going to just roll over. As the outdated expression goes, “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Not only death to education, search for truth but death to the planet which sustains us. Perhaps the cockroaches will survive but no homo sapiens. I for one am glad I am of the age I am and will not live to see the worst of what is to come. Not my view, but the views of 98% of the world’s best scientific minds and their prognostications are already proving accurate. {Truth is no longer relevant.] Ignorance, lies et al proliferate..
God help us.
That’s homo supposedly sapiens, eh!
Wrong link
Public schools are a national treasure. The foundation of democracy. Hopefully a great neighborhood public school is always at least an option. Who would want to do away with that?
This is the best, most accurate and representative piece on what the DeVos family–over 25 years–has done to public education in Michigan. Slowly, subtly, they have damaged the Holland public school system, trading on racism and fear to chip away at a once-highly respected and functional system. Please understand: Holland used to be an all-white, all-Christian, largely Dutch town. When diversity arrived, DeVos & Co. planted one of their first “innovative” charters there, Black River. Holland’s white enrollment has plummeted 60 percent. The linked article explains how DeVos used charters (because vouchers necessitated a change in state legislation, which they could not get through) as a strategy to bust integration and bust teachers unions, in the place where they had the most success: western Michigan.
My best friend was a teacher for many years in Holland. As Hispanic (and it’s mostly Hispanic) families moved in, white families moved out. The dis-integration of a sturdy, well-run public district–the kind of district you wouldn’t expect to go under, because it once had considerable public support… This is not “low-hanging fruit”–a chronically stressed urban or rural district in poverty. This is the next phase…
Please read: http://bridgemi.com/2016/11/betsy-devos-and-the-segregation-of-school-choice/
I tried to read the AFC memo, but the link took me elsewhere. Please send the proper link. Thanks.
Charles,
I am reposting with the correct link. Later today.
I tried to get the AFC memo, but I wound up here:
Click to access rep-ellison-relationship-with-israel.pdf
I am delighted with the selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. She will advocate for school choice. We have a mix of public, private, and parochial schools at the university level, and soon we will have a choice of public,private, and parochial education at the K-12 level.
The late Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman was a strong advocate of school choice.
See : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6WN4RjEdlI
If public schools are failing, they should be phased out. Do not just keep throwing money at them
The teacher’s unions (NEA/AFT) are all going ballistic at this choice. GOOD! The unions and the school bureaucracy have made our nation’s public schools a vast wasteland.
As Deep Throat said “Follow the money”.
Wow, cema, you are reading from the right wing school “choice” script word for word. You sound like a plant. You are parroting all the school “choice” cliches, bumperstickers, bromides, propaganda and outright lies. Yes, follow the school choice money trail; it leads to Gates, Broad, Koch, DeVos, Icahn, Bezos, Dell, Bloomberg, etc. Maybe cema is Betsy DeVos herself? Nah, she would hire some flunky like cema to do the dirty work.
I have been advocating quality public, private, and parochial education for many years. I am not a politician, nor am I Betsy DeVos. I am a telecommunications engineer, and a concerned private citizen. I have no children in any school. You do not have to have cancer, to know it is a bad thing.
No one hired me.
(This comment is in reply to Joe’s wager, that I would not reply. Please do not count it against my quota)
CEMAB4Y
Public education is not a “bad thing.” It is a civic responsibility. Would you turn fire and police services over to private providers and give everyone a vouchers to buy protection? Do you think that public beaches and public parks should be give to private managers? They could charge whatever fee suits them.
Q (to) CEMAB4Y
Public education is not a “bad thing.” It is a civic responsibility. Would you turn fire and police services over to private providers and give everyone a vouchers to buy protection? Do you think that public beaches and public parks should be give to private managers? They could charge whatever fee suits them. END Q
Since you asked, I must answer. I am not saying that publicly-supported education is a bad thing. I am a product of publicly-financed education. I went to public schools from 1st grade through university. I got Pell Grants and financing on the GI Bill, and exercised my free choice, and attended a public university (Western Kentucky University).
I agree that financing education is a civic responsibility. I want to live in an educated society. I feel that it is a solemn responsibility, between the generations. If our citizens are going to compete with the Germans and the Japanese, we will have to be as educated as they are.
The analogy of police and fire protection is false. Citizens pay for property-related services, through property taxes and thence through the public purse.
I also support government-related public parks,etc. I may never see Yellowstone, or Yosemite. But I want my government to reserve these spectacular public areas, for the public good. And also, for future generations.
The town of Paradise Valley AZ has private garbage collection. The city decided that the task could be done more efficiently than by the government. See
http://www.ci.paradise-valley.az.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/197
Our nation used to have monopoly telecommunications. (This is my career, so I know). Since the break-up AT&T, telecommunications services have exploded in the USA. AT&T bought up the patents for cellular service in 1946, and sat on them. If we still had a monopoly, we would not have the plethora of telecommunications that we now enjoy.
When the government-monopoly of K-12 education is demolished, we can expect a similar explosion of education services, that we now see in telecommunications.
(This is a response to your inquiry, please do not count it against my quota)
Cemab4y,
Telephone services are not a civic responsibility. K-12 education is. Everyone pays for it, even if their own children are adults and even if they have no children at all. The comparison is not apt. I guess you don’t believe in public libraries either.
Continued:
I have lived in Germany, France, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq and Afghanistan. The telecommunications services in these nations are very poor (compared to ours). The government runs the telecommunications there, and the phone services are much more expensive than ours, and the service is lousy.
(correction). The government runs the telecommunications there (in Western Europe and elsewhere). Service is poor and expensive. Ask anyone if they would like to go back to the days of only one phone company.
I am delighted to support public financing of education at the K-12 level. I have no children, but I must live in this society. Our kids will be our workers, one day. They must compete with the Japanese and the Germans.
As to libraries, I am all for them. I gladly support the Fairfax county public libraries. I do not use them frequently, I admit. But I am glad to have them, and I recently voted in favor of an expansion of library services here in Fairfax.
BTW- It was a philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who started thousands of public libraries in the USA.
cemab4y,
Okay, I have posted 5 or 6 comments today. Enough. This blog is not a conversation between the two of us. Save your thoughts for tomorrow.
Many people (including me) think that telephone service was better and far less expensive when My Bell was a monopoly.
Of course, Andrew Carnegie started 2,500 public libraries in the US and elsewhere. He didn’t own them, he gave them to the public. He didn’t dictate what books to put in them. He made a gift to the public, a perfect example of philanthropy, one of the greatest ever.
Welcome newcomer!
It’s a tough place for those who have little knowledge of what good discussions of “a better education for all” might be.
Be that as it may, you stated “If public schools are failing, they should be phased out.”
The most important word in your statement is “if”. And since your first clause is demonstrably false as not many public schools are “failing” (and can you elaborate on what that means, please, gracias). And as a matter of fact most do a wonderful job considering all of the insane educational malpractices (as discussed over time here, go back and read them) that have been foisted upon public schools.
So your initial assumption is false. Go back and start over.
NAEP results as are all standardized test results are completely invalid. To use invalidities to make a judgement or assessment about anything can only result in falsehoods, therefore it is not wise to use said results.
The problem lies in what constitutes a valid assessment of schools. Using student test scores for something other than what the test is designed for is unethical. An 8th grade math test is designed to assess a student’s ability in that level of math, that is all. It says nothing about the school in so far as far too many non school factors go into each student’s knowledge of math. It is a common logical fallacy (hell it’s used here all the time and I call anyone out, even the proprietor of the blog, for doing so) that can only result in unethical and fallacious conclusions.
To answer your question “Who isn’t?”: I am against said practice as the schools are a public, common good and the object should be to improve the teaching and learning process, not to deny education for all.
Please define what an “excellent school” is. (Without reference to the invalid and unethical standardized test scores).
Also, I suggest you go back and read what the NAEP score cut points and definitions are, not that they are valid to begin with but it will help to know. Here’s a start: https://dianeravitch.net/?s=NAEP
You can choose any metric you like, and you will find poorly performing schools, and excellent schools.
See
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-12/news/ss-2367_1_sunkist-elementary-school
and
http://crossroads.newsworks.org/keystone-crossroads/item/99093-two-schools-15-miles-and-worlds-apart
Coming up with a valid metric, which defines “Excellent” and “Poor” is a chore, I admit.
You can use a subjective appraisal: I saw a report one time, where an educator can tell when he is reaching a student, because “I can see it in their eyes”.
You can use standardized tests. I freely admit, that tests can produce results that can give an inaccurate reading on the learning achievements of the testee.
One indicator which is highly reliable, of the overall condition of an area’s public schools, is the rate at which the public schools are being utilized by the schoolchildren in that community. In WashDC (near where I live) the utilization rate is 79%. The lowest in the entire USA.
If that statistic alone, does not tell you something, what will?
That final statistic you cite tells me nothing about the DC schools as there can be many factors involved as to why schools are being underutilized.
Schools are “good” or “bad” based on social class everywhere on Earth including the USA .
Ever heard of a city state or nation where the poor kids do better than the rich?
Me either.
Education success has little to do with curriculum pedagogy teacher training or anything else.
If you EVER want to make a SERIOUS change in education results you must virtually ELIMINATE poverty. Failure to accomplish this is the reason for America’s PISA results.
We in Canada are virtually identical to the USA in every aspect of education EXCEPT poverty where our poverty % about 10% is half the American rate.
Riiiight. And that’s why previous generation did so poorly because they were poor??? If that’s your solution, you don’t understand the problem.
Rich kids to bad too, which may come as a surprise to you!
Blaming poverty is not the one and only answer. Our district has poor kids who outperform the rich ines.
Good education has a lot more to do with parental involvement than with poverty. Parents with multiple jobs, single parents – when they are interested in their child’s education will set rules and stick to them. They will make sure homework and assignments are complete and ready when needed.
But when the parents don’t care, wealth or poverty makes no difference.
This is all nonsense. The OECD has made it clear to America that it is FAR behind other nations due to the level of poverty exacerbated by concentration s of poverty.
Failure to understand that belies a profound ignorance of educational equity. Read some David Berliner for starters.
Of course the odd rich kid does poorly and the odd poor kid does well. We are discussing the preponderance of cases.
This goes back as far as Coleman in the US. Please familiarize yourself with some basic research and not talk off the top of your head. You make yourself look very foolish.
Doug,
What do you consider to be “education success”? TIA, Duane
Canada Finland Japan Singapore. On PISA
OR
Way over 50% having post secondary education like Russia Israel and Canada.
Massachusetts and Minnesota = success
Louisiana Mississippi = failure
Results of PISA = complete invalidities.
No indicator of “education success” there.
Says you. That does not make it so.
No, not just me. Onto-epistemologically speaking, in other words from a conceptual foundational point of view, Noel Wilson has shown all of the errors and falsehoods and psychometric fudgings that permeate the standards and testing process which render said process completely invalid.
Have you read Wilson’s work?
So according to you there is no problem with American education. We have no reason to believe that Finland is doing better than Mexico. No reason to believe that Korea is doing better than the Phillipines.
Be serious.
I don’t like testing. I have fought testing especially high stakes testing all my life BUT to say that we just don’t know and can’t say that Massachusetts is doing better than Mississippi because testing is invalid is a joke.
You can say it all you want. NAEP is clear.
Nobody is buying what you are saying.
Massachusetts is doing better than Mississippi because Mass has had generations of enlightened leaders, while Mississippi has not emerged from the ravages of slavery and Jim Crow; its people are impoverished. Schools reflect society.
Agree 100%
Being serious. I couldn’t care less what those supposed comparisons are. My primary focus is for this country to provide the education for ALL children that each child needs in order to ensure that the primary purpose of public education as delineated in many states’ constitutions: “The purpose of public education is to promote the welfare of the individual so that each person may savor the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the fruits of their own industry.”
And no NAEP isn’t clear. Have you read Wilson to understand why? Until you can refute and/or rebut what Wilson has proven then you, Doug, are the one is in denial of the realities of the harms of said educational malpractices.
And quite frankly I don’t give a damn if anyone is “buying” what I am saying. Determining truths are not the realm of the marketplace or politics.
Again, please show me any rebuttal/refutation of Wilson’s work that you know of or yours and I’ll gladly respond to those.
And no, I never said anything about there being “no problem with American education”. Those are your words not mine. I’ve laid out here many times what the problems are and they have nothing to do with standardized tests, other than the fact that that educational malpractice drives curriculum instead of curriculum and classroom context driving assessment.
Again nonsense.
The successful nations like Canada and Finland do almost nothing different than Americans except allow for far less poverty.
What is nonsense? You have me confused.
The statistic should tell you a lot. 79%, or only 4 out of 5 of WashDC school age children are utilizing DC schools. This is without a school choice plan. The few charter schools that exist, have long waiting lists.
It means public education is seriously underfunded.
Cema4by, nearly half the kids in DC attend charters. That is not a small number.
That is all it says. 4/5 attend public schools. That stat, again, means nothing in regards as to why it is so.
Seems like we have some reform trolls. Maybe time to ignore them.
To whom does the “we” refer? And to whom are you calling out for being “reform trolls”?
You are being ignored
Gracias por ignorarme. Es que para mí es muy dificil hablar con un ignorante que no puede contestar preguntas fáciles. Pero sé que nos chocaremos otra vez. Hasta entonces basta contigo.
I am “gobsmacked” that any serious person would maintain that the public schools in our nation’s capital are anything but a disaster. Here are some additional data: (and these data are for PUBLIC schools, NOT charter schools)
WalletHub has compared the statistical data for all 50 states and WashDC. Here are some of their findings:
WashDC is 47th overall, and 50th in school system quality.
WashDC has the highest dropout rate 51 out of 51.
Our nation’s capital has the lowest math test scores.
WashDC has the lowest reading test scores
The capital city schools have the lowest SAT scores
The one statistic that DC schools excel in, is that they have the lowest bullying incidents.
Is it any wonder, that 79% of the school children in WashDC, do NOT attend any publicly-operated school of any kind? Including charter schools?
see the article at
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/
cemab4y,
Nearly half the schools in DC are charter schools. Isn’t that what Trump and Betsy DeVos wants?
DC has low scores because DC has high poverty. White, affluent kids do very well in the DC schools.
That’s why DC has the largest achievement gaps in the nation among urban districts. Affluent whites with high scores, poor blacks with low scores.
You are very poorly informed, I am sorry to say.
Low scores are an indicator of high poverty.
Q Nearly half the schools in DC are charter schools. Isn’t that what Trump and Betsy DeVos wants?
DC has low scores because DC has high poverty. White, affluent kids do very well in the DC schools.
That’s why DC has the largest achievement gaps in the nation among urban districts. Affluent whites with high scores, poor blacks with low scores.
You are very poorly informed, I am sorry to say.
Low scores are an indicator of high poverty. END Q
Did you read the article? The statistics reported in the article are for DC public schools. The schools, public and charter, are not delivering a quality education to the schoolchildren.
Here are the data from 2014-2015
District Of Columbia Public Schools DC
charter 37,680
non-charter 47,550
total 85,230
percentage in charter schools 44%
see http://www.publiccharters.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/enrollmentshare_web.pdf
Trump/DeVos are on record as supporting school choice, the whole “basket”, public/private/parochial/charter/savings accounts, vouchers etc. This is beyond dispute.
I agree that WashDC has high poverty. I ride the train through this city, twice a day. The city has crime, drugs, a huge homeless population, a high percentage of children live in single-parent homes, huge number of welfare/food stamp children, etc .etc. No dispute here.
There are a number of contributing factors, to the problem of DC public schools absolute failure.
I would assert, that there are very few white, affluent children in DC public schools. The fact that only 79% of DC schoolchildren even attend these schools, should be self-explanatory. This is the lowest utilization rate in the entire nation (Tied with Obama’s Hawaii).
Although I have no children in DC schools (nor any schools). I am very well-informed about the problems and nature of the public schools in our nation’s capital. I have lived here (except for my deployments abroad) since 1983. I watch this disaster of public education every day.
WashDC voted about 90.9% for Hillary Clinton. There is no constituency to improve the public schools in Washington DC. President Obama (who sends his daughters to Sidwell Friends) has fought school choice for DC school children. Hillary (who also sent her daughter to Sidwell Friends) would have fought choice for DC parents, as well.
Now we will see. Stay Tuned.
But DC had Rhee and Henderson! They know how to fix schools.
Two bits to a dollar I won’t get a reply from cemab4y.
Not sure why my comment is in moderation. Any idea why Diane? Or is it a wordpress thing?
I lose!
Thanks Betsy.
Milton Friedman’s “school choice” didn’t work out so well in Pinochet’s Chile. The blood-soaked tyrant was the one who enacted all that free market crap in Chile. Free marketeers and fascism, perfect together.
Ms Ravitch wrote…
“If you scan its activities and news releases, you won’t find any mention of public schools.”
Not true, clearly AFC advocates for open enrollment, especially for disabled children.
Ms Ravitch are you against open enrollment for disabled children in cases where a child’s zoned district is not meeting a child’s need?
Cynthia Weiss,
What is the point of “open enrollment” when charters can rid themselves of disabled students who they find too troublesome to teach?
School “choice” too often means that the school chooses the kid — just like PRIVATE schools do! That’s not a bug, it’s a feature of school choice. That’s why private schools don’t accept every child. And it is why the so-called “best’ charter schools also happen to be the ones where the most at-risk kids disappear. Poof! And don’t let the door hit you on the way out, say those charter operators. Your kid is not profitable and that is all that matters. But we’ll tell the world that his parent — who enrolled his kid because he wanted a great school — just “changed his mind” with a very hard shove from the administrators there. Hey, it’s always a “choice” to keep your child in a place that will put a target on his back for abuse since he isn’t wanted, or pull him out after months of psychological damage cause him to act out. Once once you pull your child, the charter’s financial And MORAL responsibility ends! They don’t have to spend a penny more. That’s a FEATURE of privatization!
Good luck finding a charter school to teach your disabled kid if it turns out his needs are too expensive. And don’t expect DeVos to provide publics that are FORCED to take your disabled kid to be funded unless you happen to be one of the white Christian families that people like Betsy DeVos care about.
George Carlin had something important to say about this, and Trump and DeVos fit into this paradigm.
The attachment was about Keith Ellison rather than AFC. Thought you’d like to know. Karen Gibson
Enjoy the day, it is a gift. 626-429-4785
>
Gibson, thanks.
I corrected my error. Try again.