Archives for the month of: May, 2017
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Plan to Attend the BATs Annual Conference in Seattle in July!

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
3

If you are a BadAss Teacher, or if you want to be one, or if you want to learn about their activities, you will not want their fourth annual conference in Seattle this summer.

BATs will be heading into summer with their 4th Annual Education Conference in Seattle, Washington at The Seattle Labor Temple.

Titled Back to School With BATs the conference, to be held on 7/22, will focus on Whole Child Education and cultural diversity.

How can we meet the social/emotional/cultural needs of our children?

The 7/23 event at Westlake Park will have participants engage in a powerful restorative justice circle!

#WeChoose public education, not the illusion of choice.

Keynotes for the event will be Dr. Wayne Au and Dr. Denisha Jones.

For event information and registration please go here: https://sites.google.com/view/backtoschoolwithbats/home

To learn more about the BATs”

Twitter @BadassTeachersA #TBATs
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/BadAssTeachers/
Instagram @badassteachersa
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/nationalbats/
BAT Blog http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/

Categories Education Reform, Real Education, Teachers and Teaching

Louisiana: Charter Schools Are the New Vehicle for Racial Segregation

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
13

The Washington Post reports from a town in the Louisiana Delta.

VACHERIE, La. — At the new public charter school in this Mississippi River town, nearly all the students are African American. Parents seem unconcerned about that. They just hope their children will get a better education.

“I wanted my girls to soar higher,” said Alfreda Cooper, who is black and has two daughters at Greater Grace Charter Academy.

Three hours up the road, students at Delta Charter School in Concordia Parish are overwhelmingly white, even though the surrounding community is far more mixed.

As the charter school movement accelerates across the country, a critical question remains unanswered: whether the creation of charters is accelerating school segregation. Federal judges who oversee desegregation plans in Louisiana are wrestling with that issue at a time when President Trump wants to spend billions of dollars on charter schools, vouchers and other “school choice” initiatives.

In February, a judge found that Delta Charter had violated the terms of the parish’s court-ordered desegregation plan and asked the parties to submit proposals for how to move forward. The local school board in Concordia not only is seeking reimbursement of millions of dollars, but also wants the judge to require the charter school to cancel its enrollment and start over with the aim of creating a more diverse student body. That would include offering transportation to the school — something that could make it possible for more black students to attend.

The nation’s schools have become more segregated by race and class over the past two decades, according to federal data, and some research indicates that charter schools are more likely to be segregated than traditional public schools. Some charter advocates say they are more interested in creating good schools for marginalized children as quickly as possible — no matter the consequences for the racial makeup of enrollment.

Choice gives Southern whites the opportunity to restore racial segregation without saying so openly.

The great retreat from the goal of desegregation is underway, rolling back advances wherever they occurred, and charter operators are more than willing to lure students who are all black or all white. Charters are the new segregation academies.

As an aside, the article cites Urban Prep Academy as a charter in Chicago where 100% of students graduate and enroll in college. This is a myth that was exploded by Gary Rubinstein years ago. Urban Prep has high attrition and its students have lower test scores than students in Chicago’s public schools.

Categories Charter Schools, Louisiana, Segregation

“Don’t Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats”

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
109

I wrote this article for The New Republic.

https://newrepublic.com/article/142364/dont-like-betsy-devos-blame-democrats

It explains how Democrats set the stage for DeVos’ anything-goes approach to school choice by their advocacy of charter schools. Charters are the gateway to vouchers. We have seen many groups like Democrats for Education Reform try to draw a sharp distinction between charters and vouchers. It doesn’t work. Once you begin defaming public schools and demanding choice, you abandon the central argument for public schools: they belong to the public.

The political side to this issue is that the Democratic Party sold out a significant part of its base–teachers, teachers unions, and minorities–by joining the same side as ALEC, the Walton family, and rightwing conservatives who never approved of public schools.

Their pursuit of Wall Street money in exchange for supporting charters helped to disintegrate their base. To build a viable coalition for the future, the Party must walk away from its flirtation with privatization and support the strengthening and improvement of our public schools.

Please share this article widely.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Unions

Ohio: Major Newspaper Calls for Charter School Accountability and Transparency

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
8

One of the most heartening developments in recent years is the awakening of major newspapers in Ohio to the massive scandals surrounding their state’s charter industry. These scandals have come about because of the money nexus that connects charter operators and politicians. Charters in Ohio have a dismal academic record, and also a dismal financial record. This happens because the laws were written by charter lobbyists and protect the operators from full financial disclosure.

The Columbus Dispatch has had enough. In this editorial, it calls for legislation to compel charters to open their books for public inspection. Where public money goes, public accountability must follow.

No function of state government is more important than its constitutional obligation to “secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” Education is the bedrock of democracy. That is why the Ohio Constitution, since 1851, has obligated the state to provide an education to each of its citizens.

How thoroughly and how efficiently the state fulfills this mandate should concern every Ohioan, every year, every generation.

But Ohioans’ ability to judge the state’s performance is threatened by state lawmakers’ willingness to hide from public view how the charter-school industry spends a sizable portion of taxpayer dollars.

In an era of privatization of much of primary and secondary education, taxpayers should insist that state lawmakers provide complete transparency of the expenditure of public funds for education.

State Rep. David J. Leland, D-Columbus, has introduced legislation to accomplish this goal. In fewer than 100 words, the bill declares “funds that the department of education pays to a community (charter) school or nonpublic school . . . are public funds and shall be subject to the same requirements related to permissible expenditures and audit by the auditor of state as public funds allocated to school districts.

“If a community school uses public funds to pay for services of an entity to manage the daily operations of that school or to provide programmatic oversight and support of that school, those funds maintain their status as public funds upon transfer.”

In recent years, Ohio earned an unwelcome reputation for having the nation’s worst oversight of the charter-school industry. No surprise, then, that Ohio has had some of the nation’s worst-performing charter schools.

The editorial goes on to detail the changes that are needed.

What this represents is a welcome recognition by the major media that charter schools cannot continue to operate as private schools with public money. A recent court decision in Ohio ruled, in accordance with the charter-friendly law, that anything purchased by the charter with public funds belongs to the charter operator, not the public. If the law is rewritten, that giveaway of public money must be ended.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Ohio, Privatization

News Flash! Bill Gates Discovers Multiple Intelligences

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
43

To those of us who have been around education for a while, we know that Howard Gardner of Harvard University was first to write about the idea of multiple intelligences. This has been the guiding idea of much of his work, recognizing that some young people are gifted in one area, but not in all areas. All of these intelligences are worthy and should be cultivated. His seminal book, Frames of Mind, was published in 1983 and attracted enormous attention.

But, lo! Bill Gates himself has just discovered multiple intelligences! Maybe he read about it and forget the source.

Gates built his career on strong logic and mathematical skills, establishing himself as a brilliant coder with a knack for solving technical problems. But he admits he lacked other strengths, such as strong interpersonal skills.

In a series of posts on Twitter, Gates shares the things he wishes he knew when he was just starting out in his career.

“Looking back on when I left college, there are some things I wish I had known,” Gates writes.

“Intelligence takes many different forms,” Gates says. “It is not one-dimensional. And not as important as I used to think.”

Do you think this will change his view on standardized testing as the only valid measure of students, teachers, and schools?

I doubt it.

But it is strangely encouraging to know that he has discovered multiple intelligences 34 years after Gardner pronounced them to be valid and important. Gates should give credit where credit is due. It is kind of like someone who arrived on the shores of Cape Cod in 1792 and announced that he just discovered America.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

Bruce Baker: The Relationship Between States’ Charter Schools and Fiscal Effort

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
10

Bruce Baker at Rutgers University created a valuable graph that shows the relationship between every states’ number of charter schools and its fiscal effort.

Some states appear to think that opening charters relieves them of their responsibility to fund public schools. They choose to “reform” by handing schools off to private entrepreneurs, thus relieving the state of the duty to provide adequate and equitable funding.

Image-1

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Funding, Privatization

Texas: The Fight Over Vouchers Shifts to the House

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2017 //
15

Pastors for Texas Children reports on the voucher battle in Texas. Vouchers were defeated overwhelmingly in the Republican-controlled House a few weeks back, but like a zombie, they have risen from the dead at the insistence of voucher zealot Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Let’s hope that Speaker of the House Joe Strauss and Dan Huberty, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, both good Republicans, stand firm against public funding for private schools.

http://pastorsfortexaschildren.com/legislative-updates/pastors-for-texas-children-statement-on-senate-passage-of-hb-21-with-vouchers-attached

Pastors for Texas Children Statement on Senate Passage of HB 21 With Vouchers Attached

May 22, 2017

In the dead of last night, the Texas Senate, for the second time this legislative session, passed a voucher policy that transfers public tax money to private schools.

Under Speaker Joe Straus’ leadership, House Bill 21 came to the Senate with a structural reform provision for school funding calling for $1.6 billion additional dollars for our schoolchildren.

But due to the legislative bullying of their leadership, the Senate stripped that provision by almost two-thirds—and attached a voucher amendment to the bill that would divert already strapped public education funds to private schools.

The bill now returns to the House of Representatives where that voucher amendment must be removed. The House has already repudiated voucher policy by a more than 2/3 thirds vote earlier this session.

It is simply wrong to underwrite private education with public funds, even if that voucher is for children with special needs. 90% of our Texas schoolchildren are educated through the public school system supported by the public trust. Private school vouchers provide for the few at the expense of the many. They are inherently unjust.

When the voucher supports a religious school with public dollars, whether Baptist, Catholic, Muslim or Wiccan, it is a government establishment of a religious cause. In doing so, vouchers violate God’s principle of religious liberty for all people without interference from any government authority.

It is abundantly clear that the leadership of the Texas State Senate does not believe in public education for all children. For them to persist in saying so is a deception that we take no pleasure in confronting. Such hypocrisy is morally unacceptable.

Our Texas schools serve 5.3 million children, the majority of whom are poor. To transfer and redistribute wealth away from them to private schools through vouchers is offensive to God and decent people everywhere. We are grateful for a Texas House with the courage to say no to this corruption of our common good, and we pray for a Texas Senate that is willing to do the same.

—
Charles Foster Johnson, Pastor, Bread Fellowship of Fort Worth
Executive Director, Pastors for Texas Children
P.O. Box 471155
Fort Worth, TX 76147
(c)210-379-1066
http://www.pastorsfortexaschildren.com
http://www.charlesfosterjohnson.com

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Trump Budget Seeks Deep Cuts in Medical Research and Disease Prevention

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2017 //
25

Just when you think it can’t get worse, out comes another budget proposal that will harm public health.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/22/trump-budget-seeks-huge-cuts-to-disease-prevention-and-medical-research-departments/

“President Trump’s 2018 budget request to Congress seeks massive cuts in spending on health programs, including medical research, disease prevention programs and health insurance for children of the working poor.
The National Cancer Institute would be hit with a $1 billion cut compared to its 2017 budget.

“The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute would see a $575 million cut, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would see a reduction of $838 million. The administration would cut the overall National Institutes of Health budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion.”

Funding for public health and medical research has traditionally been bipartisan. Will the Republican members of Congress go along with a plan that will cut these vital activities for the sake of tax cuts and military spending?

Categories Trump

Politico Reports on Expansion Plans of School Privatization Group

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2017 //
22

Politico’s Morning Edition posted this description of 50CAN, the pro-privatization organization that was started by hedge fund managers and big pharma in Connecticut:

FIRST IN MORNING EDUCATION: 50CAN’S GROWTH PLAN: The national education reform advocacy group, 50CAN, hopes to hire 1,000 new advocates by the year 2023. That’s a key part of the organization’s new growth plan, the first of its kind since 50CAN launched in 2011. The organization hopes those advocates will lead at least 250 policy campaigns across every single state to push on goals like more charter schools and holding schools and teachers accountable. At least two thirds of those policy pushes “will be at the neighborhood or regional level,” the plan says. 50CAN now cites 64 policy “wins” across 13 states, including a push for an A-F school grading system in Tennessee and a “more equitable public charter school funding in New Jersey.” To ensure future policy victories, 50CAN says that by 2023, its entire network of advocates “will be connected together through a best-in-class technology platform where they can plan campaigns, execute strategies and tactics, track and analyze campaign data in real time and gain key insights into how to increase their odds of success.”

50CAN will be pushing the DeVos-Jeb Bush agenda in every state. Charters and A-F ratings, which set up public schools for takeover to charter chains.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Some DAMPoet on the Best High School in the Nation!

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2017 //
6

Our blog poet, who goes by the sobriquet Some DAMPoet (Devalue Added) responded to the story about the rankings of the best high schools in the country, which were notable for their high attrition rates and their selectivity. The very best high school, in one ranking, had only 24 graduates of the 43 that entered ninth grade; the number two high school had only 11 graduates of an entering ninth grade class of 17.

“100% Graduation”

It really can’t be beat
Our graduation rate
Our senior, you should meet
His scores are really great

Categories High School Graduation, Hoax, Humor
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