Archives for the month of: September, 2017
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Another Version of Trump’s Strange Speech in Alabama

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
5

Trump went to Alabama to support Republican Senator Luther Strange in a primary fight with alt-right flamethrower Roy Moore.

The Washington Post reported his bizarre endorsement of his candidate.

“HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — President Trump spent the first 25 minutes of a Friday night campaign rally explaining and defending his decision to endorse the Republican establishment’s pick for the Alabama Senate race.

“Then, he basically took it all back.

“I might have made a mistake. I’ll be honest, I might have made a mistake,” Trump told a crowd of several thousand gathered at the Von Braun Center that cheered much louder for him than for the candidate he was there to support, Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed earlier this year to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“If Strange loses a Republican primary runoff election Tuesday, the president said that the media will accuse him of being “unable to pull his candidate across the line” and cast the loss as a “total embarrassment.” Strange is polling behind rival Roy Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who is popular with evangelical Christians and many Trump supporters.

“And, by the way, both good men. Both good men,” the president said of the two Republican candidates. “If his opponent wins, I’m going to be here campaigning like hell for him. But, I have to say this … Luther will definitely win.”

Just to be clear, he doesn’t care who wins.

Categories Education Reform

Who Teaches? Those Who Can’t…..What?

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
7

Who teaches? A post at Spoon Vision:

Those who can’t,
Teach.

For example,

Those who can’t sit alone at a desk all day,
Whose energy demands movement and interaction,
Teach.

Those who can’t abide platitudes like, “kids these days,”
Who take the time to know every young person,
Teach.

Those who can’t be satisfied with a job or even a career,
Whose everyday work must be filled with passion,
Teach.

Those who can’t look the other way while our schools resegregate,
Who believe the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice,
Teach.

Those who can’t stand by while our public institutions are privatized,
Whose collective conscience sees through the rhetoric of “choice,”
Teach.

Those who can’t ignore the history of organized labor in the U.S.,
Who know that “the union makes us strong,”
Teach.

Those who can’t punch a clock,
Whose passion can’t be confined to 8-4 or to August through May,
Teach.

Those who can’t care only about some children,
Who are committed to the success of every student,
Teach.

Those who can’t avoid conflict,
Whose acumen can diffuse the most hostile situations,
Teach.

Those who can’t be happy climbing the corporate ladder,
Who will master their craft, and stay in the classroom for decades,
Teach.

Those who can’t settle for anything less than constant improvement,
Whose minds are always searching for innovative new methods,
Teach.

Those who can’t quit,
Who will continue to educate more students with less money,
Teach.

But please know.

Those who can’t be fooled by political schemes,
Whose organizing can create a political revolution,
Teach.

Categories Education Reform

The Guardian: Trump’s Rant in Alabama Last Night

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
20

Remember when Trump said he knew how to act “presidential”? Remember when he said he would be even more presidential than any president except “the late, Great Abraham Lincoln”?

As we say in Brooklyn, fuhgedaboutit! (Translation: forget about it.)

Last night in Alabama, he ranted and raved and led cheers of “lock her up.” Did the late, great Abraham Lincoln do that in the middle of the Civil War?

He was there to support the aptly named Senator Luther Strange, who was appointed by the disgraced ex-governor Robert Bentley to fill Jeff Sessions’ term in the Senate. His opponent, ahead in the polls, is the far-far-far right extremist Roy Moore, who was twice removed as Chef Judge of the Alabama Court for refusing to remove a plaque of the Ten Commandments from public grounds. Now he is running against homosexuality. Moore is supported by Steve Bannon, the deep thinker of the alt-right, and Sarah Palin, the paragon of morality.

But read what he said!

“The campaign has largely focused on McConnell. Moore has attacked the Senate majority leader as a creature of the “swamp” that Trump wishes to drain while Strange has tried to distance himself from the Kentucky Republican. Strange went as far as to assert in his brief introductory remarks on Friday night that Trump was backing him so that he could have the votes in the Senate to “stand up to Mitch McConnell.” The President later asserted that Strange “didn’t know” the Senate majority leader…

“Hours after John McCain torpedoed Republican hopes to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump expressed his disappointment. He said McCain’s opposition was “totally unexpected and terrible”. He also chided the Arizona Republican for what he saw as hypocrisy. “Repeal and replace, John McCain if you look at his last campaign it’s all about repeal and replace and that’s fine, we still have a good chance [of repealing and replacing Obamacare.” He described his attempts to court senators on health care, saying “I’m on the phone screaming at people all day long for weeks”.

Trump also returned to some of his favourite topics. He talked at length about the wall he hopes to build on the Mexican border, insisting it needed to be see-through. Trump said this was because drug dealers are currently using catapults to send 100 pound bags of drugs over the existing concrete wall and they are landing on people’s heads in the United States. He also responded the familiar cheers of “lock her up” directed at Hillary Clinton by telling the crowd “you gotta speak to Jeff Sessions about that”.

“The president also dwelled on NFL players who take a knee during the National Anthem in peaceful protest. He asked the crowd, “Wouldn’t you love one of the NFL owners when someone disrespects our flag, ‘get that son of a bitch off the field right now.’” He told attendees, “If you see it, leave the stadium, I guarantee things will stop.”

Trump uses his platform not to appeal to “the better angels of our nature” or to educate, but to rant, pander, and vent.

Categories Education Reform

Gary Rubinstein: “I Taught at Houston’s XQ Super School” (A MUST READ!)

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
26

This is one of Gary Rubinstein’s best posts ever.

He watched Laurene Powell Jobs’ extravaganza about her efforts to redesign the American high school into XQ Super Schools. The one where she bought time on four networks.

The one where celebrities said again and again that high schools have not changed in 100 years; Gary does a good job of shredding that myth. Yes, high schools have changed in the past 100 years, but some things should never change and will be found in high schools all over the world.

He notes that the show has had no effect. It seems to have disappeared as soon as it was on the air.

But it didn’t disappear for him because he realized that he taught at one of the XQ Super Schools, a high school in Houston that allegedly was a failing school that was miraculously transformed.

Gary shows that it was not the nightmare school that the producers claimed it to be, nor has it had the miraculous transformation that the show now boasts about.

It was a good school when he was there, even though there was a gang population in the ninth grade.

What he discovers is that the school now has a charter school on campus, which apparently serves as a dumping ground for the kids who are not going to graduate. The regular school raised its statistics by pushing out the bad kids.

No miracle there!

But the school does have a really nice garden. That’s new. That’s good. Is that what caused the claimed spike in test scores? Not likely.

He writes:

One thing that this program definitely accomplished is product placement. It seems that one feature of innovative high schools is that students use a lot of laptops and it seems like most of those laptops are Apple products. While iPads were once considered to be something that was going to be a big part of education, the thing most schools are actually using are a type of laptop called a Chromebook, which is an inexpensive Google product. Since the kids in these schools are using Apple laptops, maybe one purpose of this show was to help with Apple’s competition with Google for the education market.

One thing we did not see a lot of in this was overt teacher bashing. I suppose this is why Randi Weingarten attended and tweeted about how wonderful a program this is. Now even though there wasn’t overt teacher bashing, there was some less direct bashing like the part where celebrities were asked what they wish they learned in high school. Based on their answers, the only conclusion is that their teachers must not have taught those things to them very well.

This program didn’t really seem to resonate with anybody and most people on both sides of the education reform wars have pretty much forgotten about it already. It was a colossal waste of money and shows that being rich doesn’t mean that you necessarily have the right to dictate education policy.

I think that it is not an accident that there was no mention of evil unions or miracle charter schools or school choice in this program. My sense is that reformers realize that most of the talking points from Waiting For Superman don’t work anymore. The public has wised up. They don’t believe as much that teacher’s unions are the problem or that charter schools are the solution. So this program is an attempt to get a new rationale that the public can believe and get behind whatever reforms the reformers want to try, which of course will be more union busting and charters and vouchers. So the new thing is that schools haven’t evolved much in the past 100 years and that’s a problem. All that matters is that the public believes there is some problem, whatever it is. It doesn’t need to be the unions, but it must be something so the 100 year thing will likely be repeated a lot of over the next decade as the new villain for them to save us from.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Houston, Innovation, Privatization

The Gulen Charter Schools: An Exhaustive Exposé

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
27

Lawyer Robert Amsterdam was hired by the Republic of Turkey to investigate the Gulen charter school movement in the United States.

The Turkish government is headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is engaged in political struggle with Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is a cleric who lives in seclusion in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Turkish government is Islamic, and Gulen is an Islamic cleric. I can’t say that I understand the political issues, but I do know that Erdogan is not a democratic leader, and there are no heroes here. After a recent failed coup attempt, Erdogan blamed Gulen and proceeded to repress civil liberties and jail thousands of suspected Gulenists.

Fethullah Gulen remains safely ensconced in his mountain retreat. He controls one of the biggest charter chains in the United States. It was surpassed in numbers recently by KIPP as the largest corporate charter chain.

American film maker Mark Hall recently produced a film about the Gulen schools. It is called “Killing Ed.” He tried to interview Gulen but was not admitted to the compound. He interviewed former Gulen teachers and they told him about kickbacks and other dubious practices that would not be tolerated in public schools.

The New York Times has reported on the Gulen practice of handing out big contracts to Turkish contractors, without choosing the low bidder. Similar practices triggered a state audit in Georgia. The FBI raided Gulen schools in the Midwest as part of an investigation of white-collar crime.

A couple of years ago, I was interviewed by Mr. Amsterdam. He told me he had uncovered gross violations of law and ethics by the Gulen schools. I told him that what bothers me about the Gulen schools is the idea that American public schools are controlled by foreign nationals. One of the central purposes of the American public school is to teach children their rights and responsibilities as citizens. How can that be outsourced to foreign nationals? As a thought experiment, I asked, how would Americans feel about their public schools being taken over by nationals of Russia? Chile? Cambodia? Are Americans so hapless and incompetent that we can’t manage our own public schools and staff them with American teachers? It is perfectly reasonable to hire foreign teachers, especially to teach their own language, but why should an American “public school” be turned over lock, stock, and barrel to a Turkish organization? It is not as if Turkey is one of the best performing nations in the world. It is not.

Amsterdam listened patiently but said his primary concern was massive corruption.

He has just published a very large book called “Empire of Deceit,” documenting the massive misuse of public funds for Gulen schools, the misuse of the H-1B visa program to import Turkish teachers, the practice of tithing to the Gulen organization, and the way that Gulen schools steer contracts to Turkish contractors. He has documented practices that would never be tolerated in public schools.

You can go to his website and find a list of all the Gulen schools in every state.

You can also download the book for free.

All of this is troublesome, but for me the most troublesome aspect is the idea of outsourcing public schools to foreign nationals, no matter which nation they represent. Public schools belong to the public, and they should not be outsourced or given to private corporations.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Citizenship, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Gulen Charter Schools, Privatization

Donald Cohen: Why Is Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital Investing in Charter Schools?

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
35

Donald Cohen, executive director of “In the Public Interest,” an organization that fights privatization of public services, writes about the curious combination of people who poured serious money into the Massachusetts charter school battle last fall.

When the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance forced a pro-charter school political organization to reveal its donors, guess which words jumped off the page? Bain Capital.

Of the more than $15 million Families for Excellent Schools spent pushing last November’s controversial ballot initiative to increase the number of charter schools in Massachusetts, $1.4 million came from Bain investors, including Romney’s fellow cofounder Josh Bekenstein.

The initiative was voted down—parents, teachers, and residents mobilized to protect traditional public schools—but until now we had little proof that a shadowy gang of private investors and billionaires were leading the charge.

Donors included the owner of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, the billionaire hedge fund manager Seth Klarman, Alice Walton of the Walmart family fame, and even Massachusetts’s current chairman of Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the venture capitalist Paul Sagan.

So why does Bain and a handful of billionaires want more charter schools?

We really don’t know, at least yet. Like everything in finance, the tangled knots and paper trails are seemingly endless.

Maybe they’re just being nice and philanthropic, trying to help, as Romney himself once called them, “inner city kids.” But maybe they’re up to something else.

In our report on California’s charter schools, we dug into the $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars and subsidies spent in the past 15 years to help private groups lease, build, or buy school buildings. Due to a severe lack of regulation, some of this money has ended up in the pockets of investors and executives.

For example, two schools in Stockton, California, are renting space for three and half times the market rate from a company with business ties to the CEO of the charter operator that oversees them.

Los Angeles’s Alliance network of charter schools has received more than $110 million in federal and state taxpayer support for its facilities, which are not owned by the public, but are part of a growing empire of privately owned real estate now worth in excess of $200 million.

The bottom line is, there’s lots of taxpayer money sloshing around in an unregulated market, and few people know where it’s going.

For some well-meaning educators and parents, charter schools are about innovation and alternative learning. But for the investors and billionaires behind the growing charter school industry, they seem to be about something else altogether: private control of taxpayer money.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Nancy Bailey: Children Need Toys More Than They Need iPads

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2017 //
30

Nancy Bailey is disturbed to see that Toys R’Us is in bankruptcy, and that media report that children prefer electronic devices to toys.

I usually find Nancy spot on, but I have a small disagreement. On the few occasions I went in to Toys R’Us to find a gift for a grandchild, I couldn’t find toys, just electronic devices or boxes. I won’t miss Toys R’Us.

I recall a birthday party for my third grandson, probably when he was 7. When it was over, he was disappointed that everyone had brought what he called “boxes.” That meant prepackaged stuff.

I don’t want to make a gross generalization, which I just did. But I think he wanted real toys. The kind of toys that Nancy writes about.

Think of your favorite toy, as she suggests. If you can remember. For me, it was a baseball or basketball. A book. I longed to have a real leather baseball glove. Clay that I could shape into different things. My sister collected dolls dressed in the clothing of other cultures. We used Mama’s pots and pans to bang drums.

The really fun toys are the ones that allow you to play or imagine. Not the prepackaged boxes.

My grandson, who will be 11 on Monday, loves stuffed animals (still). He has an iPad, and we play Words with Friends. He loves to read. He loves to read about science and history. He likes to build things with Lego blocks. He likes to take toy knights and build castles and invent games for them.

Free the children’s minds.

Categories Play

John McCain Will Not Vote for Graham-Cassidy Healthcare Bill

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2017 //
36

John McCain announced that he cannot vote for the Graham-Cassidy healthcare bill. Unless Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine change their votes, this bill is dead.

CNN reports:

Sen. John McCain announced Friday in a statement that he cannot “in good conscience” vote for the GOP’s latest plan to overhaul Obamacare, likely ending Republicans’ latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal,” the Arizona Republican said in a statement. “I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried. Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will (affect) insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it. Without a full CBO score, which won’t be available by the end of the month, we won’t have reliable answers to any of those questions.”

McCain’s “no” vote makes it very likely Republicans won’t be able to repeal and replace Obamacare before September 30, as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he would not back the effort and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is also expected to vote “no” on the proposal.

Republicans need at least 50 votes to pass the measure under the process of reconciliation.

McCain was one of three most-watched members on the fence and considered a key vote on the bill. Without his support, Republicans would need to get Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, as well as Collins to sign on. It’s unlikely considering the fact that Collins said Friday afternoon that she was leaning against the bill and had key concerns that the legislation did not do enough to protect individuals with pre-existing conditions.

Categories Health

Andy Borowitz: Trump Fans Keep Their Guns, Lose Their Healthcare

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2017 //
4

Andy Borowitz, humorist for the New Yorker, finds it interesting that Trump supporters are passionate about their guns, but not about their health insurance.

Categories Education Reform

If You Live in Boston Area, Mark the Date, October 19!

By dianeravitch
September 22, 2017 //
3

On October 19, the distinguished scholar Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University will speak at Wellesley College in the Annual Diane Silvers Ravitch Class of ’60 Lecture on Education and the Common Good.

The lecture is free and open to all. It begins at 7:30 pm in Alumnae Hall Auditorium.

Please mark the date on your calendar.

The first speaker in the series in 2015 was me.

Last year’s speaker was Pasi Sahlberg of Finland.

Linda D-H is the speaker for 2017.

The series will feature a leading educator and/or scholar every year. The thread that binds them all is concern for “the common good,” the public welfare of America’s children.

Please join us for what promises to be a great, thought-provocative, informative evening!

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching
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