Archives for the month of: May, 2017
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Miami-Dade Teachers’ Salaries Are Lower than Ten Years Ago

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
37

A blogger called Kafkateach writes that teachers’ salaries are lower now than they were ten years ago, with any gains wiped out by inflation.

“In 2007, a 15 year veteran would be making almost $47,000. In inflation adjusted dollars in 2017, that amount would be almost $56,000. Most 15 year teachers currently working in Miami Dade currently don’t break $45,000. And apparently, that’s exactly what Miami Dade County thinks 15 years teaching experience is worth if you look at the bottom portion of the 2017 salary teachers who transfer in from another state or district, $45,000. Back in 2007, if a 22 year veteran transferred into the district they would have been entitled to $64,000. Now they will get paid $46,000.”

“In 2007, a 15 year veteran would have made $10,000 more than a first year teacher. Most 15 year veterans in Miami Dade currently make about $4,000 more than a first year teacher.”

It’s trends like these that explain why veteran teachers are leaving, and the ranks of new teachers are shrinking.

Categories Florida, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

Peter Greene: Oklahoma Wants to Save Money by Deporting Kids Who Don’t Speak English

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
21

I know this seems hard to believe, but in recent years we have learned that some state legislators have hearts of stone.

Peter Greene writes about Oklahoma’s bold and mean-spirited initiative: Turning non-English-speaking kids over to the authorities so they will be deported, thus saving the state the cost of educating them.

He writes:

There’s a lot to unpack in the news from Oklahoma’s GOP legislators, but let’s just skip straight to the most awful. From this special caucus of conservatives, looking for ways to close a budget hole:

The caucus said there are 82,000 non-English speaking students in the state.

“Identify them and then turn them over to ICE to see if they truly are citizens, and do we really have to educate non-citizens?” [Rep. Mike] Ritze asked.

The caucus thinks that could save $60 million.

But that’s not all.

The 22-member platform caucus has also decided they can save $328 million by eliminating “all non-essential, non-instructional employees in higher education.” So… what? All administration? Can the janitors. Make the students cook and serve their own meals? What exactly do they think this third-of-a-billion dollar unnecessary payroll consists of?

When will the people of Oklahoma and many other states with equally mean-spirited legislators wake up and vote for their self-interest and the public interest?

Categories Budget Cuts, English Language Learners, Oklahoma

New York: One Week from Today, Your Chance to Elect a Teacher to the State Assembly on Long Island: CHRISTINE PELLEGRINO!

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
0

New Yorkers who live on Long Island in District 9 should vote a week from today in a special election.

Christine Pellegrino, a Democrat, is running against Tom Gargulio, a Conservative Party member from Babylon.

Christine is the real deal. She is a mother, a teacher, a leader in the Opt Out Movement, and a member of the BATs. She was a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She has been endorsed by Our Revolution (Bernie Sanders’ group), NYSUT, and the New York Progressive Action Network.

Christine lives in West Islip, Long Island. She has been a teacher in the Baldwin school district for 25 years.

She is a staunch advocate for public schools. She will be a voice of experience and reason in the State Assembly, speaking for kids and public schools.

She opposes high-stakes testing to evaluate students, teachers, or schools. She supports education geared to the whole child, not testing geared only to basic skills.

Go to her website, pellegrinoforassembly.com. Volunteer, donate, do whatever you can.

But above all, if you live in District 9 on Long Island in New York, turn out to vote for Christine a week from today, May 23!

Categories Accountability, New York, Opt Out, Testing

Texas Southern University Cancels Senator Cornyn’s Commencement Speech Due to Student Opposition

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
66

Texas Southern University canceled Senator Jon Cornyn’s commencement speech, due to student opposition.

Trump gave the commencement address at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s university, where he knew he could expect a friendly reception.

It appears that neither Trump nor DeVos will be giving many commencement addresses, except at small evangelical colleges. Students are not passive, and they know that this administration cares more about the student debt collectors than students. They know that this administration will do nothing to reduce their debt burden. They know that this administration wants to take away their family’s health insurance.

The cancellation of Senator Cornyn’s speech suggests that campuses will not be friendly environments for anyone supporting the mean policies of the Trump administration.

Categories Higher Education, Resistance, Students

Steve Zimmer: The Case Against Myself

By dianeravitch
May 16, 2017 //
18

Los Angeles votes today on whether to re-elect Steve Zimmer to the board of education or to choose a man who is a puppet of billionaires who want to turn the schools over to unregulated private operators.

Steve deserves to be re-elected, and Imelda Padilla deserves to join him on the board.

Steve wrote a stunning article in Huffington Post, in which he offers four reasons why someone might decide to vote against him. He also refutes the outright lies on which Nick Melvin’s entire campaign is based.

He writes:

I want to present four legitimate arguments against me. These are good and fair reasons to vote against me on May 16th.

I know this is unusual, but because my opponent has lied so much about my record, I thought I would just go ahead and do this myself. I hope you will share this with your friends and family and explain to them that everything they are reading about me is a lie whether it is on the television, on the radio, or wrapped around their Sunday newspaper. Give them the real reasons to vote against me. Here they are:

1. I believe independent charter schools need to be regulated to ensure that they serve every student that comes to their school house door. I believe independent, privately operated charter schools must be accountable for all public funds they receive. I believe charter schools should operate in the district that authorizes them. If you believe independent charter schools should be completely de-regulated, you should vote against me.

2. I have moved resources to meet the needs of district students living in the highest concentrations of poverty, including thousands in my own district. In real and understandable ways, this has been difficult for certain schools in my district. But I believe it is the only moral way to do this job when 83% of students in the LAUSD live below the poverty line. Some voters may be concerned about these decisions and choose to support my opponent who has only focused his campaign in the more affluent areas of the district.

3. I have been endorsed by the teachers and school employees of our district. I work with our teachers and I work with their union. I vote against their recommendations when I think they are wrong. But it is a priority for me to build trust with the people who deliver education to our students, to be allies in our struggle for equity, to make significant improvement in LAUSD schools. If you don’t believe I should engage our teachers and their unions then I understand why you would vote against me.

4. I oppose the ranking of teachers, students, and schools. I oppose high stakes standardized testing. I believe that the things that are the most beautiful and wondrous about children can never be measured by a standardized test. If you believe we should be constantly testing and ranking students, teachers and schools then I understand why you wouldn’t support me.

This is what I have done. I understand some people can’t vote for someone who has done this.

But Nick Melvoin hasn’t used any of these reasons. Instead he has lied and he has distorted. I can’t stop someone from lying, but I can certainly tell you that this is not how you should win an election. Here are some of the lies he tells about me:

Nick’s Lie #1: The iPads were my program

The Actual Truth #1: The iPad program was started by Melvoin supporter John Deasy. I voted to end the program once it became clear that Deasy had lied to the school board and lied to the public.

Nick’s Lie #2: I created a $1.4 billion deficit.

The Actual Truth #2: The Board has balanced our budget every year. With the Governor’s latest announcement , we will have our budget balanced for 10 years straight.

Nick’s Lie #3: I lowered graduation standards

The Actual Truth #3: We raised the rigor for all students by ensuring that all students be enrolled in college preparatory courses. While we increased rigor, we have raised graduation rates to record levels, from 56% to over 75%

Nick’s Lie #4: I laid off teachers

The Actual Truth #4: I anchored the difficult negotiations that allowed us to save our schools and save thousands of jobs

Nick’s Lie #5: I cut arts education

The Actual Truth #5: I stopped the cuts to arts education and have added over 18 million dollars to the arts budget each year.

I respect the democratic process and I value debate about the important issues facing our public schools. But that’s not what’s happened in this election. I am not perfect and I try to be a better board member every day. If Nick and the California Charter Schools Association waged an honest campaign, I would not be writing this argument against myself. It terrifies me that such an important election could be determined solely on lies and distortions. It should scare us all.

There is much more than even the control of our public schools that is on the line this Tuesday.

Our democratic values and the value of truth itself seem to have worked their way into this moment. I am proud to stand for honesty and service. I hope we can set a better example for our kids.

Categories Education Reform

An Urgent Appeal from Pastors for Texas Children!

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
24

Pastor Charles Foster Johnson wrote this urgent appeal on behalf of Pastors for Texas Children:

Dear PTC Friends,

What we feared all along this legislative session is now happening.

A special-needs voucher provision has been attached to the school funding bill by the Senate Education Committee.

In short, the pro-voucher Senate will not allow any increase in money for our neighborhood and community schools until and unless they get some kind of voucher policy in Texas.

The pro-voucher people are desperate. Powerful monied interests far outside the state of Texas want to profit off our children. They won’t quit until they tap into this market.

We know how wrong it is to fund the private education of a few with money dedicated to the public education of the many.

We know how unjust it is to corrupt the public trust through a subsidy for private interests.

We know how unwise it is to promote yet another government entitlement and expansion program that intrudes into our private schools.

Most important, we know how unrighteous it is to violate God’s gift of religious liberty by using government money to promote religious causes.

So, as much as our children need the increased funding, we must say NO to the privatization of God’s gift of public education.

Please call your state senator and state representative NOW and urge their opposition to this bill, CSHB21 (Committee Substitute House Bill 21). Attached is all the information you need. You can find their Austin phone numbers here: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/

Please pray for our Senate and House members. Please spread the word today to other pastoral and lay colleagues.

Do it for our children. ALL our children.

We thank God for you and your witness!

All best,

CFJ

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Tracy Bartley, An L.A. Parent, Writes a Letter to Eli Broad

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
18

Billionaire Eli Broad decided long ago that one of his missions in life would be to privatize public schools, even though he and his wife are graduates of Michigan public schools. He has never explained his passion to stamp out the institution that educated him. He has spent years funding organizations committed to diverting public dollars to private hands. I once was invited to meet him in his glamorous penthouse apartment in New York City, and he explained that he didn’t know anything about education, but he knew management. He believes that non-educators should run education, especially if they surround themselves with people who have degrees in business and business experience. When I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, he funded a “manifesto” declaring that principals should be managers, not educators. He started a Superintendents Academy to train urban superintendents in his philosophy. A startling number of his graduates have failed or been driven out by the local community. He has learned nothing from the failure of his business ideology in education. But children are not widgets. He doesn’t understand that.

This is the man behind the candidacy of Nick Melvoin for the Los Angeles school board, the man who wants to replace Steve Zimmer and has unleashed a barrage of negative ads.

A parent, Tracy Bartley, received a letter from Broad that was part of a mass mailing that his organization sent to everyone in Steve Zimmer’s district. Tracy is a parent activist who has spent years developing school gardens. She is for real. Unlike Eli Broad, she is committed to improving the Los Angeles public schools, not closing or privatizing them.unlike Eli Broad, her children are students in the public schools he wants to control and privatize.

Tracy wrote:

Eli Broad
2121 Avenue of the Stars
L.A., CA 90067

Dear Eli,

Enough IS enough.

Since you last wrote to me encouraging me to vote for Nick Melvoin for LAUSD school board, I have doubled down on my own research into the claims you’ve made regarding Steve Zimmer and his opponent.

– While Nick Melvoin has earned endorsements of a FORMER Senator, FORMER Secretary of Education, and two (!) FORMER Mayors of Los Angeles, Steve Zimmer has been endorsed by our CURRENT Mayor Eric Garcetti, a strong and smart CURRENT Congresswoman Maxine Waters, CURRENT Secretary of Instruction for the State of California Tom Torlakson, and numerous others including activist Dolores Huerta, and public education policy activists Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch. (Full list here: http://stevezimmerforschoolboard.com/endorsements/) These are the leaders taking us forward in Los Angeles, in California, and across the country, and I am impressed that they want Steve Zimmer fighting alongside them.

– Studying Nick Melvoin’s LinkedIn profile, it appears that he “worked in the Obama Administration” as a White House intern for four months as well as a turn as a clerk at the ACLU for four months. Contrast this with Zimmer, who spent 17 years at LAUSD schools and the last eight working as a tireless advocate for our kids as our school board member, fighting for them in Sacramento and Washington.

– I wouldn’t expect anything less from Nick than having a “genuine and selfless commitment to children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, special needs or socio-economic class.” This is L.A. after all! (I love my city!) And I am sure you would agree Steve Zimmer has the same commitment. Along with the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, Planned Parenthood, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights… Steve Zimmer has a proven track record on this front.

– I struggle with the “Nick is a teacher” bit I’m afraid. I don’t feel 2 years a teacher makes. My mom was a teacher. I should say IS – because I think it is a calling rather than a profession 95% of the time. Steve Zimmer IS a teacher. I’ve witnessed his past students interacting with him at events. I’ve seen how he greets students at our community schools. It is very much who he is. I don’t get that from Mr. Melvoin. If he was a teacher, he’d be a teacher. (Yes – there is the adjunct position at LMU – though from my research it appears this is not a current gig, and was a special situation through TFA, am I right?)

So, you tell me we “need a school board member who will advocate for our children. who will strengthen our public schools ,and who will work tirelessly on behalf of families to make sure every child receives a world-class education.” I’ve found that. It is Steve Zimmer. You say he is supported by “special interests and bureaucracy” but I see it as 35,000 teachers alongside labor groups that work to ensure our schools are safe, clean, healthy environments for our kids to learn in. I see people doing much with little funding. I see communities forming around neighborhood schools. I see my LAUSD family. On the other side, I see a half dozen or so billionaires with a specific privatization agenda backing the special interests behind Nick Melvoin. I’m not ok with that.

As for a candidate who will work against the new administration that “preys on our fears… and engages in reckless information…” I will not “allow the election of our school board – the stewards of our children’s future – to be determined by damaging falsehoods.” I will continue to dig, and I fear learn more about the incentive for you, and the others in the privatization movement backing Mr. Melvoin. I’ve already learned of Doris Fisher’s (The Gap) support of Tea Party and Conservative candidates as well as her funding the opposition to Prop 30 (!), and Alice Walton’s (Walmart) donations to the privatization efforts of Betsy DeVos and the PAC supporting the election of Donald Trump. With you, and others, they are both supporters of Nick Melvoin’s campaign via the CCSA / Parent Teacher Alliance.

So, today, my husband and I will sign on again to volunteer for Steve Zimmer’s campaign. We will walk our community. We will call our neighbors. We will encourage them to cast their ballot for the best candidate for all LAUSD kids – for all LAUSD families.

Steve Zimmer for School Board 2017

Thank you,
Tracy
Proud LAUSD Mom

p.s. Looks like you spent $131,708.60 on printing and postage for your letters! What this could’ve done for a neighborhood school orchestra, or a school garden, community school park, or to fund an outdoor education experience! Oh well.

It’s your money.

It’s our kids.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Parents, Privatization

Nancy Bailey: Time for DeVos to Resign

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
39

Nancy E. Bailey writes here about Secretary Betsy DeVos’s unpleasant experience at Bethune-Cookman University, where she was booed by the graduates of the class of 2017.

She thinks it was a travesty that the students were not allowed any say in the choice of their commencement speaker. After all, the day is meant to honor them and their accomplishments.

Instead, they got a speaker who is in a job for which she has no qualifications, a woman who has acted to protect predatory lenders and debt collectors, a woman who has never shown any commitment to advancing civil rights.

The students know that public education is a basic democratic right, and they did not respect this representative of an administration pledged to privatization and stripping away their families’ health care.

Bailey writes:

On a day designated for students—a day to honor their achievements—they have to listen to a woman of privilege tell them how she understands their struggle. They cannot even end their college journey without hackneyed political browbeating.

Perhaps if DeVos had the right ideas about schooling, her appearances would be more palatable. Perhaps if she really wanted to help public schools work for all children, but that’s not what she is about.

Betsy DeVos is the topping on the cake after Duncan and Spellings. She is the final straw, meant to end public education altogether—to put in place a system that rings true to her religiosity—a separate system of the haves and have nots. She is welcoming back the time before Brown v. the Board of Education. But my guess is she saw herself as Joan of Arc on that stage Wednesday.

This is not about God or the students. Privatization has never been about the welfare of the student. And it is not about religion either, though they might make you think it is. It is about money and it is about race. School privatization has always been about that.

Betsy DeVos should resign. But she was placed in this position by one vote if we can believe that. The problem is many Republicans and Democrats sold out on public schools a long time ago. The Washington mindset really is Betsy DeVos. I know it and you know it.

So boo away students. Remember this day as you journey forth. Maybe you can make America really great again. The rest of us are betting on that.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Duncan, Arne, Higher Education, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt

Florida: Chaos at Palm Beach Charter School

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
10

Florida is a welcoming state for charter school. It is easy to win approval to open, there is virtually no supervision or accountability, and public money flows freely based on enrollment.

In this environment, problems are inevitable.

The latest mess is the Eagle Arts Academy, a charter school in Palm Beach.

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/post-investigation-eagle-arts-charter-chaos-are-kids-being-educated/MGH23lilkJ4eN5LRAM694L/

“Like hundreds of families before them, Jill Sheffield and her mother walked the halls of Eagle Arts Academy last summer with growing excitement.

“Touring the sprawling campus, the shy 11-year-old and her mother followed the school’s director across the dance studio’s shiny wood floors, through the guitar-filled music room, and into the gleaming computer lab, listening as he explained the school’s focus on arts and creativity.

“Everybody walking out of there was just like ‘Oh my God, this school is going to be amazing,’” Jill’s mother, Ashley, recalled later.

“But when school started in August, many classrooms had no textbooks. The principal resigned abruptly in the first week. The second principal was gone a few weeks later. The third one left two weeks after that.

“Soon, teachers were being fired or leaving in droves. Mothers complained that their children were not being enrolled in art classes. And then a fed-up parent put together an online petition to remove the school’s director, who responded by calling police.

“Before long, Jill and her mother realized that instead of signing up for an idealized education in academics and arts, they were watching a school be consumed by chaos, an unraveling that many parents say made it impossible for their children to learn and — in some cases — set their educations back by a year or more.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When it opened in 2014, Eagle Arts – blessed with a compelling arts-themed marketing pitch and an enviable location on the campus of a former private school – had the makings of a marquee school.

“But by the time classes started this year, educators say erratic leadership, financial mismanagement and constant staff turnover had left the publicly financed charter school — one of Palm Beach County’s largest — opening its doors with a D grade from the state, a trail of spending controversies and some of the lowest student achievement in the county.

“Since then, parents and former employees say the school has been shaken by even more upheaval as its quick-tempered founder, Gregory James Blount, assumed direct control and drove it into deeper crisis, engaging in repeated confrontations with teachers, parents and administrators, including shouting fits that happened, in some cases, within earshot of children.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, Hoax, Privatization

Susan Ochshorn: The Danger of Universal Pre-K

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
20

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s major initiative in education was implementation of universal pre-K for four-year-olds. Now he has announced his plan to provide universal pre-K for three-year-olds. The earlier initiative was popular, so what could go wrong?

The Mayor needs the state to fund it with $700 million, which is far from certain.

Leonie Haimson, founder of Class Size Matters, says there are too many overcrowded classrooms, and the Mayor should attend to them before launching a new initiative.

Susan Ochshorn of ECE Policyworks fears that the cost of the new grade will be other than financial. She worries that the addition will banish play from the lives of three-year-olds.

She writes:

“I was over the moon when de Blasio pioneered free preschool for four-year-olds. New York’s children and families had been waiting since 1997, when Republican Governor George Pataki first enacted legislation. The state’s movement toward universal access and adequate financing has been erratic, at best, and the mayor’s initiative was bold. But with kindergarten as the new first or second grade, expectations for preschoolers have increased. The pressure is on.

“The tradeoff for early education’s legitimacy and funding has been painful—a Faustian pact. The kind of playfulness that we see in the smartest mammals has lost its pride of place. Our littlest children have been abandoned, left to wander in the desert. We need to bring them to the oasis, before it’s too late.”

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Education Reform, Play
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