Betsy DeVos is the keynote speaker today at a conference on “The Future of School Choice,” sponsored by Paul Petersen’s Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Kennedy School at Harvard.
Might as well be called “The Glorious and Lucrative Future of School Choice” because there are no critics invited, no supporters of the public schools attended by 85-90% of American students. She will be surrounded by adoring fans, which may help her forget that she is the most unpopular member of the Trump cabinet.
DeVos will be introduced by the dean of the Kennedy School, who is not at all embarrassed to host a conference utterly lacking in balance or fairness. Apparently, he is hoping the students ask questions, since the panelists won’t.
Curiously, the names of the funders–which originally included the foundations of Charles Koch and Bill Gates–have been scrubbed from the program. The only named sponsor is EdChoice.
Click to access future-of-school-choice-agenda.pdf
Hundreds of protestors are anticipated.
https://m.facebook.com/events/131082490873746/
DeVos has devoted her life’s work to privatization of education. Her own state of Michigan has been her plaything, since she has funded so many politicians. Thanks to her intervention, education in Michigan is a hot political mess, and the state’s standing on NAEP has fallen substantially.
She owes her home state an apology.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
SICK!
My comments are short, because I don’t want to throw up all over Diane’s blog.
So DEPRESSING.
NPE should call it’s next conference (after the upcoming one) “The Choice of School Future”
“The Choice of School Future”
“Future of School Choice”?
Or “Choice of School Future”?
Latter is a voice
Former is a suture
I know lottery ticket winners who are anti-DeVos so it won’t be only her adoring fans. I’m going to protest. Was wondering what to write on my sign….The Glorious and Lucrative Future of School Choice?
How about ” I support a woman’s right to choose”
That should catch Betsy’s eye.
That would be a great question from a member of the audience:
Secretary DeVos: Do you support a woman’s right to choose?
Her answer: I support a woman’s right to choose her child’s school.
Do you support a woman’s right to choose?
Put a picture of a grizzly on your sign and scare her away.
Here is the story in the US News and World Report:
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-09-28/devos-to-speak-at-harvard-conference-on-school-choice
You go girl!
As usual, Charles goes to bat and gets all shivery the wealthy Michigan dimwit who hates the public schools she never attended or sent her kids to or taught in. Yeah, “You go, girl, right out of the picture.”
Enrolling your children in publicly-operated schools is not pre-requisite to crafting education policy. Our previous president, sent his children to a religiously-operated non-public school, and no one objected. Notwithstanding his own school choice, Pres Obama worked to eliminate funding for the WashDC Opportunity scholarship program for DC kids.
If you do some research, you will find that many liberal elites send their children to private schools, while working to stifle choice for the masses.
For many years, I have been supportive of a “slumlord” law, to force all politicians who oppose school choice, to send their children to the public schools that they champion.
Would you also be in favor of such a law?
Charles,
News flash! A voucher of $5,000 will not pay for an elite private school.
I support choice. Public schools are free to all. If you choose to leave the public school, you pay to do so.
Community swimming pools are free to all. If you want your own swimming pool, don’t expect the government to pay for it (if you do you will get a wading pool.)
Be Fair. We have been around this track already. I concede that a voucher of $5k will not meet the costs of a school which charges $50k. I can do the math.
Nevertheless, a voucher of $5k can meet the costs of a school which charges $5k. If a school charges $7k, some families may be able to come up with the $2k difference. Some non-public schools may wish to offer a partial scholarship, or the family could secure a scholarship from a third party. Anything is possible. Also, some families, who need to have both spouses working for wages, could possibly begin home schooling, with a voucher of $5k. The future is difficult to predict.
Comparisons to recreational facilities or swimming pools, are dishonest and a false analogy. No community operates a park or a bike path, or a swimming pool for free. All of these activities are paid for from taxes. When I lived in Kentucky, the community swimming pool was partially paid by local taxes, but the pool still charged fees for using the pool. The pool sold one-day admissions and season passes, so what?
The citizens of Fayette county, paid for the recreational facilities, and those who chose not to buy a one-day pass, or purchase a season ticket, did not pay (the entire costs) for a facility that they did not use. Their choosing to not use the pool, by not purchasing a ticket, was in fact a voucher.
Charles,
Answer this: Why did Obama decide to send his children to a private school after he became president and moved into the White House?
In the last century, only one US president has sent his kids to DC public schools.
Here’s the answer to the question so you won’t have think about it.
“The decision also surely relates to the state of public schooling in Washington, DC. President Obama conceded that the decision to send his daughters to the prestigious Sidwell Friends School was in part due to the quality of education in the DCPS system.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-us-presidents-send-kids-to-private-school-2016-12
Why is the quality of DCPS considered so poor?
The answer is not incompetent teachers or failing schools — its child poverty.
“While the overall child poverty rate has declined to 26.7 percent — a drop of three percentage points since 2010 — there has been a slight uptick in Wards 3, 4 and 8. Ward 3 had a child poverty rate of 2.9 percent in 2015, compared with Ward 8’s 49 percent. Some of the increases could be attributed to rising housing costs. Ward 3’s rate was previously 2.4 percent; Ward 8’s was 48.3 percent.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-dc-families-get-richer-staggering-disparities-persist-report-finds/2017/04/17/8fa41700-238a-11e7-b503-9d616bd5a305_story.html?utm_term=.731d401be1c0
According to Children.org, 1 child in every 7 will be born into poverty in the United States.
https://www.children.org/global-poverty/global-poverty-facts/facts-about-poverty-in-usa
But in DCPS, the child poverty rate is almost 2 children in every 7.
And what did a Stanford study say about the impact of poverty on education?
“Achievement of U.S. disadvantaged students has been rising rapidly over time, while achievement of disadvantaged students in countries to which the United States is frequently unfavorably compared – Canada, Finland and Korea, for example – has been falling rapidly.”
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html
Why does living in poverty affect children when it comes to education?
Find the answer here: 10 Facts About How Poverty Impacts Education
http://www.scilearn.com/blog/ten-facts-about-how-poverty-impacts-education
Q Why did Obama decide to send his children to a private school after he became president and moved into the White House? END Q
Wrong question. The Ex-Pres had made up his mind, long before he was president. He was a senator from Illinois, and well-aware of the abysmal quality of the publicly-operated schools in WashDC.
I consider sending children to the public schools in WashDC, to be child abuse.
Nonsense.
D.C. has been controlled by “reformers” for 10 years.
It is utopia.
The conditions in the Washington DC public schools were not created by the schools or the teachers. They started with children being born into poverty and five or six years later, the problems caused by poverty walked through a classroom door to a kindergarten class.
There is no magic wand to get rid of the effects of poverty on a child. The research is overwhelming.
That’s why so many corporate charters get rid of so many of these children or don’t accept them in the first place. When you can cherry pick the children you want, then you have the power to select children that have not been damaged by growing up in poverty.
The United States is not going to test or corporate charter school its way out of this challenge.
Charles, as Obama was president, his daughters needed Secret Service protection. Their position was special and Obama did not ask taxpayers to pay for the very high tuition as Sidwell Friends. I, as do all serious educators, want to see ALL public schools adequately funded and providing the best services possible. Those who want to separate their kids off in Catholic, Lutheran, Adventist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Orthodox Jewish, Conservative Jewish, Reform Jewish, Islamic, Evangelical, Scientology, or other religious private schools are free to do so but they should not ask government to force all taxpayers to pay for that sectarian schooling.
I believe it is actually spelled with a “d” in this case — “udopia”
Q Those who want to separate their kids off in Catholic, Lutheran, Adventist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Orthodox Jewish, Conservative Jewish, Reform Jewish, Islamic, Evangelical, Scientology, or other religious private schools are free to do so but they should not ask government to force all taxpayers to pay for that sectarian schooling END Q
True, the state does not have control over parent’s decision to send their children to non-public schools. See Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510
Nevertheless, parents also are free to send their children to religiously-operated universities, and to “force” the taxpayers to pay for it. Students/families get BEOGs to attend Catholic University, and no one objects. Why is there all this weeping and wailing, when a family sends their child to a sectarian high school, with taxpayer assistance? I just don’t get it.
Why the double standard?
If anyone thinks that my claim that WashDC public schools are terrible is “nonsense”, please see
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-best-schools/5335/#main-findings
Charles,
D.C. public schools have been controlled by Betsy DeVos’ friend Michelle Rhee and her deputy Kaya Henderson for 10 full years. DC has vouchers and charters. You say that all that choice and D.C. is a failure! That’s your first admission that school choice doesn’t work.
Thank you!
Cause and Effect
Childhood poverty effects the public schools in Washington DC. That why they rank so poorly on that list.
School choice will not change the effect of poverty on children.
Rank and punish tests that profit corporations will not change the effect of poverty on children.
Bashing teachers and their labor unions will not change the effect of poverty on children.
A study out of Stanford University discovered that childhood poverty is a challenge in every country. What’s interesting is that the United States is doing a better job raising the scores of children that live in poverty.
What do the publicly funded, private sector corporate charters doing to improve this situation: NOTHING. They cherry pick the students they want to take and/or keep and dump the rest back to the public schools.
That Stanford Study found:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/january/test-scores-ranking-011513.html
In addition, here’s a study from Canada found:
“Over the past decade, the unfortunate reality is that the income gap has widened between Canadian families. Educational outcomes are one of the key areas influenced by family incomes. Children from low-income families often start school already behind their peers who come from more affluent families, as shown in measures of school readiness. The incidence, depth, duration and timing of poverty all influence a child’s educational attainment, along with community characteristics and social networks. However, both Canadian and international interventions have shown that the effects of poverty can be reduced using sustainable interventions. Paediatricians and family doctors have many opportunities to influence readiness for school and educational success in primary care settings.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/
Q DC has vouchers and charters. You say that all that choice and D.C. is a failure! That’s your first admission that school choice doesn’t work. END Q
I am saying nothing of the kind. Do not put words in my mouth.
The public schools in WashDC consistently rank near the bottom in almost every category. In reading, math, SAT scores, the nation’s capital is always bringing up the rear.
see
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/04/do-vouchers-actually-work/524676/
Charles,
The D.C. Public schools do exactly as you want: half the kids in charters, vouchers for those who want them, under the control of “reformers” for a decade…and you say it is the worst school system in the nation.
What else should I conclude: school choice doesn’t work. D.C. has plenty of it.
One more thing that Charles seems unaware of is that in 1981 DC voters were allowed to vote on a tax-credit voucher scheme for tax aid to parochial and private schools. It was defeated at the polls by 89% to 11%, the greatest margin of defeat scored by the voucherizers in the 28 state relevant referenda over the past 50 years. The people spoke!
Q The D.C. Public schools do exactly as you want: half the kids in charters, vouchers for those who want them, under the control of “reformers” for a decade…and you say it is the worst school system in the nation. END Q
Do not put words in my mouth. I am not a DC resident, and I do not have input in how their public schools are operated. There are about 44% of the school system’s eligible children in charter schools. This is the fourth-highest participation in the nation. see
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-has-the-nations-fourth-highest-concentration-of-charter-school-students/2015/11/11/9c8fd494-88aa-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html?utm_term=.04bdee2b25a9
The Opportunity scholarship program is not open to all families who wish to participate. Only 32% of the families are eligible. see
https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice/programs/district-of-columbia-opportunity-scholarship-program/
Only 1,166 children receive the scholarships (voucher). There were 47,548 students enrolled in DC public schools in 2014-2015. Obviously, not everyone who wishes to receive a scholarship will get one.
Obviously, the reformers who controlled the DC school system, have not delivered the required results.
Only about 78% of the eligible school children in DC, attend the public schools. This is the lowest participation rate in the nation. This statistic alone, should shout out at anyone, that the DC schools are a train wreck.
Q The public schools in Washington, D.C., spent $29,349 per pupil in the 2010-2011 school year, according to the latest data from National Center for Education Statistics, but in 2013 fully 83 percent of the eighth graders in these schools were not “proficient” in reading and 81 percent were not “proficient” in math. END Q
see the article:
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/
Q Government has manifestly failed the families who must send their children to these schools, and the children who must attend them. END Q
I do not have to claim that the DC public schools are the worst in the nation. The data speak for themselves.
If you think that DC public school system, does exactly what I want it to do, you are wrong.
The D.C. public school system is exactly what you and DeVos want.
Charters for anyone who wants them. Vouchers for many–most don’t want them, as most don’t want them anywhere else. Many of the children who “win” vouchers don’t take them, and they get higher test scores than those who do. The dropout rate from the voucher program is staggering.
Q One more thing that Charles seems unaware of is that in 1981 DC voters were allowed to vote on a tax-credit voucher scheme for tax aid to parochial and private schools. It was defeated at the polls by 89% to 11%, the greatest margin of defeat scored by the voucherizers in the 28 state relevant referenda over the past 50 years. The people spoke! END Q
I am aware, that the DC voters rejected the referendum you cite, back in 1981. The District has limited home-rule, but the federal government still has the last word, in a wide variety of issues. The Feds passed the opportunity scholarship program, and it is the only federally-sponsored school choice/voucher program in the nation.
(I live in Virginia, in the WashDC metro area). There are many things that DC voters want, and the feds will not permit them to have. (A majority, but not all) Residents want to have gambling casinos in the district. The congress has forbidden it, and I predict that DC will probably never have legalized gambling (other than the lottery).
There are many more families that would choose to accept an opportunity scholarship, if they could. The program is now accepting applications. see
http://servingourchildrendc.org/our-program/apply/
It does not matter what the “people spoke” 36 years ago. Now, in 2017, many DC families want school choice.
Charles,
If a referendum were held in D.C. today, I bet the voucher program would be abolished. It was imposed by Congress. The Republicans in charge did not want a popular vote. D.C. does not have self-determination.
We know you love vouchers and charters, and D.C. has both. You say that D.C. is an abject failure. How can it be an abject failure if it has so much school choice? Isn’t it a showcase for the things you and DeVos support?
According to the non-partisan Institute for Educational Studies, parents who participate in the WashDC opportunity scholarship program are highly satisfied with the results. see
Click to access 20104032.pdf
Again, Do you have any polling data, or other information, which would indicate that WashDC citizens/parents would want to abolish this program?
Since less than 78% of eligible children in WashDC participate in the government-provided-publicly-operated school system (the lowest in the entire nation), why would anyone believe that the parents/children would want to abolish the choice/opportunity program?
The parents are satisfied but the US Department of Education evaluation report showed that the children’s test scores went down compared to peers in public schools.
Also, another evaluationby US ED showed high attrition rate.
What is your evidence that voters approve a failing program?
Q What is your evidence that voters approve a failing program? END Q
This question is somewhat meaningless. In WashDC, the Opportunity Scholarship program, was created by the Congress, and not by the voters/citizens of the District. It is the only federally sponsored K-12 school choice program in the USA.
The voters never approved it, so there is no evidence that voters approve a “failing program” .
The program is there, notwithstanding the fact, that the voters did not approve it.,
As to the program being a “failing program”. I would disagree. The parents/children who are participating, appear to be well-satisfied. Every year, there are more applicants, than there are slots available. This fact should convince anyone, that the program is a success.
Parents are satisfied. The program is failing because students who enroll with a voucher fall behind their peers in public schools, and a large proportion return to public schools.
Charles,
You asked for evidence that the program is failing.
The federal Department of Education commissioned a study.
Read the results.
Kids with vouchers fall behind their peers in public schools.
https://dianeravitch.net/2017/04/27/new-study-shows-negative-effects-of-vouchers-in-d-c-program/
Charles,
You asked for evidence about the efficacy of the voucher program. You will hear audacious claims that are simply not true.
The reality is that only 27% of the kids who received vouchers persisted in the voucher program in D.C.
That is an attrition rate of 73%.
https://dianeravitch.net/2017/05/15/william-mathis-on-the-illusory-graduation-rate-of-students-in-d-c-voucher-schools/
I don’t consider that a success story.
Charles, you have been very busy on this site in the last 24-hours with your endless ranting. To get this sudden burst of energy, you must have binge-watched for 24-hours straight your favorite Alt-Right fake conspiracy theory, news sites and/or you took a dozen super-colon cleanse capsules all at once.
“The parents/children who are participating, appear to be well-satisfied. Every year, there are more applicants, than there are slots available. This fact should convince anyone, that the program is a success.”
Gee, that argument doesn’t seem to stop the closure of public schools. By all reports the overwhelming majority of people like their own public school. That didn’t stop the closure of many neighborhood schools in Chicago. I’m sure other posters can give you other examples of people trying to save their public school.
Q Gee, that argument doesn’t seem to stop the closure of public schools. By all reports the overwhelming majority of people like their own public school. That didn’t stop the closure of many neighborhood schools in Chicago. I’m sure other posters can give you other examples of people trying to save their public school. END Q
I do not follow your reasoning. In WashDC, the percentage of eligible children, who actually attend WashDC public schools, is the lowest in the nation. This statistic should reveal that a substantial number of WashDC parents/children are not satisfied with their local public school.
When students depart from a school district for any reason (like when the closure of Kodak, decimated Rochester NY), the public schools must down-size. Some school buildings will have to be closed, like in St. Louis. This in the inevitable result of a dynamic economy.
Most taxpayers are loath to pay to keep an empty school building open.
The full title is “The Future of School Choice: Helping Students Succeed.” My sign will say “The Glorious and Lucrative Future of School Choice: Helping Greedy Vulture Capitalists Succeed.”
I hope your sign does not keep you out.
Maybe you should hide it behind one that says “I love Betsy”
Years ago I attended an all-day conference at Harvard on education. The Harvard doubledomes were all for vouchers. The best speaker of the day was a black prof from some college in Alabama or Georgia who rightly showed why the Harvard snooties were wrong.
Edd, there won’t be a dissenter at this conference.
Sign on the door at Kennedy School
“No dissenter at this center.”
“No Dissenter”
No dissenter
At this center
Just recanter
And repenter
To anyone who is planning to attend:
Feel free to use the above as a sign at the conference.
It’s a “conversation about empowering parents”
Except public school parents. They’re specifically and deliberately excluded from all high-level ed reform planning sessions.
They can join the conversation if they abandon public schools.
I hope she gives another rousing speech where she labels all public schools as failing and full of students who are doing nothing but “waiting for the bell”
Great way to kick off the school year, US Department of Education- travel the country telling students their schools suck, but only public school students- obviously children in charters and private schools are all thriving. As we all know, because you keep telling us.
Luckily no one in a public school listens to her since she doesn’t lift a finger for them and is completely irrelevant to public school families. There would be slightly less public school bashing in her absence but I’m sure one or another ed reformer could pick up the slack.
I don’t see Betsy as much of a draw. I can’t remember an occasion when one of her speeches could be termed anything but hackneyed.
Well, Zombie movies are generally quite popular, so you never know what will draw a crowd.
And some people might just go to get the latest on grizzly bears in schools.
Where else can you get that?
Chuckle. You have a point. 🙂
The faux “scholarship” to be puked out at this event insures that Harvard, where class warfare and grooming the Overclass of the future has been a major part of the curriculum for almost four hundred years, remains consistent in its traditions.
Audrey Amrein Beardsley has an ew article out Sept 25…. “Houston’s experience with the Educational Value-Added Assessment System (R) (EVAAS) raises questions that other districts should consider before buying the software and using it for high-stakes decisions. Researchers found that teachers in Houston, all of whom were under the EVAAS gun, but who taught relatively more racial minority students, higher proportions of English language learners, higher proportions of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, and higher proportions of special education students, had significantly lower EVAAS scores than colleagues teaching elsewhere in the Houston district. Hence, results suggest that the EVAAS does not, at least in Houston and perhaps elsewhere, offer states, districts, and schools the precise, reliable, and unbiased results that go far beyond what other simplistic [value-added] models found in the market today can provide, as the software owner, SAS Institute Inc., claims. Rather, evidence shows that EVAAS estimates in Houston, and likely elsewhere, may be biased against teachers who teach disproportionate percentages of certain type of students in their classrooms.” These tests are wrong for our STUDENTS. They are not valid tests. They are a waste of money ….