Archives for the month of: December, 2017
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The Tax Bill Includes a 529 for K-12 Tuition, but It Only Benefits the Wealthy

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
49

The tax bill includes a 529 plan for K-12 tuition that will benefit the wealthy families who can put away $10,000 a year tax-free to save for private school.

This article explains how the plan works.

This is a giveaway to the families planning to send their babies to elite private schools.

Funny that someone thought this was worth spending federal money on, but not a cent (thus far) to save the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health insurance for millions of poor children.

Everything is a tradeoff.

Don’t be surprised a few years down the line when Republicans begin seeking massive cuts in social programs–Social Security and Medicare– to pay for the huge corporate tax cut that they will enact next week.

Categories Funding

Michigan: Lies Don’t Help Schools

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
7

[I am reposting this because it was wrongly attributed to Richard Schwartz, when in fact, as I just learned, it was written by the brilliant educator and photographer Susan Lee Schwartz. She sent it to me using her husband’s email, which caused my confusion.]

As readers know, I wrote an article <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2017/12/13/charter-schools/108585724/“>about how to help Detroit public schools. After 25 years of charters, it should be obvious that they have failed and they are now the status quo.

In response, a Michigan blogger associated with the DeVos-funded Mackinac Center misleadingly summarized my article as a plea for “sports teams,” when in fact it made the straightforward proposal that poor kids need what rich kids expect to get every day. But my critic insisted—absurdly—that my big ask was for “sports teams.”

Then came a rebuttal by our friend Susan Schwartz:

“I have been saying for a long time now, that no society or civilization survives if the decisions they make are based on lies.

“In this post-truth society, where propaganda is permitted to compete with facts in the name of ‘free speech, genuine journalism is Not practiced. In this day of ‘balanced’ news, where every opinion gets to be aired as if it truthful, serious conversation is impossible.

“An example of this appeared before me today, regarding the subject of the truth about charter schools. You see, I read and write at the blog of Dr. Diane Ravitch, a brilliant, dedicated educator who was Ass’t Sec’y of State for Bush — who told him how his NCLB act would end public education.

“She is one of Politico’s MOST ‘IMPORTANT AMERICANS’ and is recognized as the top Academic in America; Thus, the Detroit News invited her to write a plan to revive education in Detroit — a city which has been a Petri dish for reformers for 25 years, and where Everything they tried has failed.,

“Diane wrote this proposal.

“Today, she writes about “the response ” that the paper published. “He or she ignored everything I said to focus on what I mentioned in passing… claiming that I believe what public schools need is sports teams. Sports teams? What about the arts, a full curriculum, experienced teachers, small classes, a nurse and social worker, well-tended facilities, robotics, dramatics? Nope. Just “sports teams.””What about “poor kids need what rich kids take for granted.” Nope.”The writer is defending a failed status quo.”DIane’s article was clearly hitting some nerves, otherwise the misrepresentations and defense of charters would not be so calculated to ridicule what she actually wrote.

“Diane, my dear friend, the Daily News ‘balanced’ your expert report with the propaganda from The Mackinac Center for Public Policy– a non-profit free market think tank headquartered in Midland, Michigan — a well-known critic of public institutions, unions, and anything that is not clearly captured for profits.

“No wonder American cannot figure out anything. No wonder so many Alabamans can be sold a predator as a senatorial candidate.

“And, at this moment, the GOP ‘s media is selling a tax plan that is GRAND THEFT from the pockets of the middle class.

“Sigh!”

Thank you, Susan.

Mackinac, stop lying.

MACKINAC, STOP LYING, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE PAID TO DO SO.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Lies, Privatization

Christine Langhoff: Boston Parents Mobilize to Fight Stealth Charters and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
3

Retired teacher Christine Langhoff reports that Boston parents are organizing to fight the new assault on public schools.”Unified enrollment” and the Gates Compact are both intended to confuse parents and put charter schools on an equal footing.

She writes:


Parents called a meeting on Sunday afternoon, organized on FaceBook, and with a few hours’ notice, some 150 people were in attendance. A previously scheduled School Committee hearing strected to 7 hours on Wednesday, as an overfilled meeting room spilled out into adjacent corridors with parents and teachers (many who are also parents) giving voice to their anger. The various excuses coming from the mayor and the superintendent’s offices have pacified no one.

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Here’s a parent’s report: https://schoolyardnews.com/parents-say-no-to-new-start-times-at-marathon-school-committee-meeting-e9489b794c94

Behind all of this is the Gates-funded Boston Compact, which seeks Unified Enrollment that would put charter and Catholic schools on the form parents must use for enrollment in public schools, and seems to be a piece of the transportation issue given as a rationale for all these schedule changes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ODfIL1gGu8DiHan87MPE2azE6IM3ynSN/view

Thomas Birmingham is credited in the lore of ed reform as the legislator who put Massachusetts on the shining path to glory with his 1993 legislation. It gave more state money to public schools, and grew out of a lawsuit about equity. It also allowed the first charters to open in the state. Now Birmingham is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Pioneer Institute, which is a proponent of directing public money to charters and religious schools. On Friday, Birmingham published an article in a Boston Catholic paper proposing that Catholic schools receive public money. He claims that because the Blaine Amendment was founded on anti-Catholic bigotry of the 1850’s, it should be overturned.

https://www.thebostonpilot.com/opinion/article.asp?ID=181036

Remember, the Catholic Church in Boston not only failed to protect children from sexual abuse at the hands of its pedophile priests, but in a conspiracy that led all the way to the Cardinal, they hid the truth, allowing rape and abuse to continue as they moved offenders from one parish to another. Perhaps in an era where Betsy DeVos seeks to destroy that wall between church and state in our public schools, it seems an opportune moment to push for public funding of Catholic education. The #MeToo movement ought to be a reminder that it is not.

Categories Boston, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, School Choice, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

California Audit: Charter School Leader Used School Credit Card for Weapons, Clothing, Personal Expenses

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
7

An audit of a charter school in Chico, California, found possible financial fraud. California has a weak charter law and one of the worst records in the nation for holding charter schools accountable and monitoring fraud.

A former Blue Oak Charter School administrator is alleged to have used school credit cards to purchase weapons, movies and clothing, according to an audit conducted by the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team.

The Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team, a state agency tasked with providing financial guidance and reviews to California school districts, audited Blue Oak this year in response to concerns brought forth by the school and the Butte County Office of Education.

The team analyzed financial documents from 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, and found that fraudulent activity may have occurred in that period, according to the Extraordinary Audit report released on Nov. 16. The school’s executive director during that time was Nathan Rose.

The 380-student Waldorf school experienced significant financial challenges in recent years and was over budget for several years and struggling with cash flow, Executive Director Susan Domenighini said.

The board became concerned that something “wasn’t right,” and approached Chico Unified School District, the agency tasked with overseeing the school, for additional support and eventually asked the Butte County Office of Education request that FCMAT conduct an Extraordinary Audit.

The findings of that audit, released earlier this month, indicate there may have been misuse of school funds on the part of the former school executive director and noted that “deficiencies and exceptions” and the school’s internal control environment increased “the probability of fraud, mismanagement and/or misappropriation of funds.”

The report states that the school’s then executive director and other administrators routinely used school credit cards for travel expenses and meals, and that the executive director charged meals, snacks and beverages to school credit cards without an identifiable business purpose.

Although no administrators were named in the report, Nathan Rose served as Blue Oak’s executive director from June 2012-June 2016. After leaving Blue Oak, he went on to serve as the superintendent/principal for Pine Ridge Elementary School District, a position he held for several months.

One section of the report states the former executive director “extensively” used credit cards established as school accounts and issued in his name for food, fuel and other purchases that may have been of personal benefit. Some of those purchases include weapons, tactical gear and military radios; a Birchbox monthly beauty product subscription service; iTunes, Amazon On Demand and IndieFlix downloads; numerous fast food purchases; clothing and accessories; Disney Resort transactions; liquor store transactions and more than $3,990 in unsubstantiated expenditures to Costco, among other expenses.

School staff could not account for several items purchased with school credit cards, some of which were shipped to the then executive director’s residence, including an Epson home cinema, a Fuji underwater camera and folding knives.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Fraud

Adam Kuranishi: I Failed the edTPA

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
66

The following article was written by a graduate student and Celia Oyler, his professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In this article, co-written by a teacher and a professor, the authors examine possible explanations for why Adam (first author), a New York City public school special educator, failed the edTPA, a teacher performance assessment required by all candidates for state certification. Adam completed a yearlong teaching residency where he was the special educator intern of a co-teaching team. He received glowing reviews on all program assessments, including 12 clinical observations and firsthand evaluations by his principal and one student. In this article, the authors analyze Adam’s edTPA submission showing evidence of how he met his teacher education program’s expectations for teaching inclusively in a heterogeneous Integrated Co-Teaching classroom using frameworks from Universal Design for Learning and culturally sustaining pedagogy. They speculate that this pedagogical approach was in conflict with the Pearson/SCALE (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity) edTPA expectations or scorer training. They conclude by discussing the paradigmatic conflicts between the Pearson/SCALE special edTPA handbook and the aims and practices of inclusive education

Numerous people have complained about Pearson’s edTPA. Not because its standards are too high but because it does not accurately identify good teachers. At a time of teacher shortages across the nation, what is the point of using a test that weeds out good teachers along with some who are not so good. Shouldn’t human judgement count for more than a standardized test?

Categories Pearson, Standardized Testing, Teacher Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Shortage

Anika Whitfield: Democracy Won in Alabama

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
7

Anika Whitfield is a civic leader and pastor in Arkansas. She is active in Grassroots Arkansas, pushing back against state takeovers of public schools.

She writes:

“The people decided, the people voted and no money, no threats, no evil bullying, no voter suppression kept the people from speaking up against injustice, immorality and inequity. Tonight we saw votes roll in across a state where the mass media had convinced voters that a man, who had a record for breaking the law though he took an oath more than once to uphold it as a professional, would win an election because fear (false evidence appearing real) and deceit were the new order of the day. However, or if I could borrow a colloquial term, howsoever, the media and the pollsters were wrong. Victory came through the intentional votes of people of acute awareness in real matters that matter to real people. Victory came through the daily sweat, tears, sacrifices, and resources of people who were sick and tired of being sickened by tired people who do more harm than good with their false rhetoric and their hypocritical actions based in a distorted theology. People who call spades spades while delivering justice through the ballot spoke with a resounding voice in Alabama tonight. This wasn’t just about political parties. This was about stopping manufactured privilege and unchecked power. This was about putiting legs to “no more unchecked power,” “no more murdering truth on my street,” “no more hijacking Evangelical Christianity,” “no more bombing innocent people with your hands and your hate filled heart.” This was the beginning of the penning of a new song and a new day in America where we will truly begin to hear freedom ringing in the hood and in the workplace, in the courtrooms and on the Congressional floor. This was the page turner from the previous chapters of a horror story, to the triumphant victory over the cowardly villain and his weak-minded cohorts.

Democracy is winning and we ought to do more than just ride the wave. We ought to create some more waves so that more people can enjoy the ride with us. After all, until everybody is free, none of us are!

Congratulations Alabama voters, Senator-elect Doug Jones, and America for a beautiful moment in our history. Looking foward to more beautiful moments like this with more consistency!

Three cheers for Democracy at its best!!!

Categories Alabama, Democracy

Gary Rubinstein: Is YES Prep Failing It’s Black Students?

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
4

For years, Teach for America has pointed to YES Prep charter schools in Houston as the epitome of charter success. In her most recent book, Wendy Kopp identified YES Prep as an example of the miracles wrought by charters.

But Gary Rubinstein noticed a strange anomaly in the performance of YES Prep. It doesn’t seem to know how to educate black students. All but two of its schools in Houston serve mostly Hispanic students. The two that enroll a high proportion of black students are F-rated by the state.

Its five high schools have received many plaudits. But they enroll tiny proportions of black students.

It’s founder Chris Barbic bailed out of the Tennessee Achievement zschool District when he saw he was on a track to failure.

What gives?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Houston, Teach for America

Laura Chapman: Reformers with Too Much Money and Time Making Trouble for Public Schools

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
11

What is laughingly called “Reform” is actually an interrelated group of education policies that have failed repeatedly. Reformers are never discouraged by failure. They ignore evidence. They like to fund any effort that will demoralize teachers and lead to privatization of public schools.

Laura Chapman reviews some of the current crop of reform efforts built on guess, conjecture, and ideology.

She writes:

“The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is trying to dominate policy in Kansas City. It has a parallel in Indianapolis called the Mind Trust.

“The Kauffman Foundation is part of the Education Cities network promoting “new” and “great” schools, but it is not just a member. It is a major contributor to that network, along with the Broad, Walton Family, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael and Susan Dell foundations. Education Cities is part of a large network of “reform” organizations.

“Empower Schools.org, for example, is an adjunct to Education Cities. Empower Schools says: “We work with policymakers and education system leaders to adopt “Third Way” policies, structures, and strategies that allow for schools of all types, including both traditional district schools and schools led by proven and promising independent leaders. We capture and share the most promising Third Way practices to inform and shape the national conversation on education reform.”

“In other words, Empower Schools is far more than a starter of a “conversations.” The network connects 18 programs/organizations, among these the New Teacher Project, Relay Graduate School of Education, Teach for America, and others intent on de-professionalizing education.

Click to access An-introduction-to-the-Third-Way.pdf

“The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation also funds the “Education Innovation Cluster” initiative, part of a USDE funded Digital Promise program (Obama era) and intended to bring together in one mega network people and groups identified as entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, educators, and other community stakeholders (families, local government, non-profits) to “design, launch, iterate on, and disseminate breakthrough learning practices and tools.”

“Breakthrough learning practices and tools” really refers the expanded use of on-line learning, competency-based awards such as badges and certificates for students and teacher education, learning enabled with mobile devices and so on. USDE appears to have outsourced this program http://nextgenlearning.org/blog/education-innovation-clusters-help-way

“The Kauffman Foundation has also been praised as a reason for Kansas City to be included in The U.S. Education Innovation Index: Prototype and Report, a rating system for cities released in September 2016 by Bellwether Education and the Digital Promise Innovation Clusters.

“This index measures “innovation activities “and conditions of urban schools along 42 indicators in nine categories: Innovation Culture (e.g., mayor control, Gates compact); Need for Academic Improvement ( e.g., scores of schools on state tests), Collaboration and Coordination Mechanisms (e.g., OneApp), Talent Supply and Quality (TFA a plus), Innovation-Supporting Institutions (e.g., the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, the Mind Trust in Indianapolis).
Innovation-Friendly Policies ( e.g., tax incentives) , Innovation Investment (venture capital flowing to education startups), District Deviation (a measure of how public schools budget money across eight categories compared to other similar school districts in the state), and Dynamism (a fancy word referring to the opening and closing of schools, market churn for schools). More detail on the rating system is outlined in Table A2: “Indicator Scoring Method.”

“This “innovation index” project from Bellwether was inspired by a similar effort on an international scale and funded by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/Measuring-Innovation-in-Education-USA.pdf.

“Bellwether’s index was also influenced by another index, published in 2013: Alive in the SwAmp 3. Assessing DigitAl innovAtions in eDucAtion.” That quirky typeface is in the title. The title is also prescient.

“Alive in the Swamp was published with support from Pearson, NewSchools (venture philanthropy), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It features colorful charts to show the potential influence of technology on learning and color-coded rating scheme for digital innovation in education.

“One of the authors of the digital index is Michael Fullan, a distinguished Canadian scholar in education whose ideas have been used to develop a “School Quality Improvement Index for California’s “CORE” distracts. The second author, Katelyn Donnelly, is an economist and director of Pearson’s venture fund for low-cost schools in the developing world. The examples of innovation cited in the report include Rocketship Education, School of One, Kahn Academy, and Learn Zillion, each of these rated for likelihood of producing “transformative outcomes.” These examples certainly tell us about inhabitants and supporters of the swamp-lands in education. See especially, page 13 and Appendix A.”

Click to access alive_in_the_swamp.pdf

Categories Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

In Response to My Article, a Truly Stupid Defense Of Detroit Charters

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
13

I just saw an article which purported to respond to my article in the Detroit News saying that charters were an abject failure in Detroit.

I wrote:

“The only way to improve education in Detroit and Michigan is to admit error and change course.

“Michiganders should acknowledge that competition has not produced better schools. Detroit needs a strong and unified public school system that has the support of the business and civic community. There should be a good public school in every neighborhood.

“Every school should be staffed with credentialed and well-qualified teachers. Class sizes should be no larger than 20 in elementary schools, no larger than 24 in middle and high schools. Every school should offer a full curriculum, including the arts, civics, history, and foreign languages. Every school should have a library and media center staffed by a qualified librarian. Every school should have fully equipped laboratories for science. Every school should have a nurse and a social worker. Every school should be in tip-top physical condition.

“Students should have a program that includes physical education and sports teams, dance, chorus, robotics, dramatics, videography, and other opportunities for intellectual and social development.

“That is what the best suburban communities want for their children. That’s what will work for the children of Detroit and the rest of Michigan.”

This is the response. https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/no-sports-at-charters-good-teams-cant-undo-a-poor-school

The writer of the response claims that I believe what public schools need is sports teams. Sports teams. What about the arts, a full curriculum, experienced teachers, small classes, a nurse and social worker, well-tended facilities, robotics, dramatics? Nope. Just “sports teams.”

What about “poor kids need what rich kids take for granted.” Nope.

He or she ignored everything I said to focus on what I mentioned in passing.

The writer is defending a failed status quo.

Time for fresh thinking, not the failed charter idea.

Categories Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Reform, Ignorance, Stupid

Tax Cuts and the End of Corporate Social Responsibility

By dianeravitch
December 16, 2017 //
41

The GOP Tax Plan drops the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Republicans say it will bring jobs to American workers. Democrats think it will bring larger dividends to shareholders.

What is remarkable, however, is the changed role of the corporation in relation to its workers.

“The corporate behemoths of postwar America — General Motors, General Electric, DuPont, IBM and the like — behaved in markedly different ways than those of today. They provided pensions for retirees. What they paid workers was a small percentage of what executives got, but it was not an infinitesimal fraction. And they paid a much bigger cut in federal taxes.


The corporations were, or at least aspired to be, part of the American bedrock.


“For years I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa,” a GM chief famously told Congress in 1953.
The Republican tax plan moving toward passage in Congress promises to erase one of the last remnants of that era, pushing the corporate tax rate to its lowest point since the 1930s.


“The higher corporate rate was a holdover from a time when companies not only paid a larger share of taxes but provided more for workers, too. They put a larger portion of corporate income into paychecks and were much more likely to provide pensions.


“The notion of the corporation as a social institution was a defining feature of the mid-20th century — but that has been fading,” said Benjamin C. Waterhouse, a historian of business and politics at the University of North Carolina and the author of “ The Land of Enterprise ,” a history of American business. “These days, the broader trend has been that corporations have experienced an increase in political rights and a decrease in social responsibility.”

Today, the notion of corporations having a sense of social responsibility seems antique.

In the view of Republicans, social responsibility is a cost that corporations can not afford. Nor can they afford pensions. But they don’t blink at the thought of paying their top executives tens of millions of dollars a year.

Categories Economy
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