Archives for the month of: April, 2018
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Is It Unseemly for Teachers to Strike for Higher Pay and Funding for Schools?

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
57

 

Is it unseemly for teachers to strike for higher pay? Is it inappropriate behavior?

Some people think so.

“It’s not a good look on a master’s degree. It’s beneath them. However, it’s not beneath them to qualify for food stamps or use food pantries or wait tables or drive uber or mow lawns or sell blood or quietly scratch for survival under unfair wages. It’s not beneath them to teach on broken chairs out of ripped up books. That’s kind of noble. (Give those teachers an apple.) But unseemly demands? Pressure upon politicians? Coming out en masse? Inconvenience? No, no, no. Take that exploitation quietly and with forbearance.”

Advice to teachers, with or without a master’s degree or a doctorate: Just do it. God helps those who help themselveslves. You know your legislators. They will give you nothing unless you pressure them and embarrass them. The lobbyists are squeezing tax breaks out of them. Bring your collective strength to the table. Ignore the naysayers. Continue the struggle. And know that millions of people are with you.

Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

Dr. Martin Luther King
“Fire hoses can’t deal with a million people … Dogs can’t bite a million people.” — The Atlantic

OEA Pres. Alicia Priest:

“Educators across Oklahoma have said, ‘Enough!’ Their frustration is justified, but that frustration — because of years of broken promises — turned into courage, and that courage turned into energy, and that energy into momentum, and that momentum created this moment that forced that legislature to act.” — FB Video

(Quoted yesterday by Michael Klonsky)

 

Categories Education Reform

Freeport Teachers Association Urges Parents to Opt Out Their Children Out of Testing

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
15

Well, here is a breath of fresh air.

The teachers in Freeport, Long Island, New York, issued a statement explaining why parents not only have the right to opt their children out of the state tests, but explain why the tests are pointless.

Some important state and local officials have engaged in tactics meant to intimidate parents—threatening their their children and their school will suffer punishment if they dare to opt out.

The Freeport Teachers Association says these are false threats. Parents have the right to opt out.

The tests are meaningless because they are scored over the summer, and the results are returned when the students have a different teacher, who will learn nothing about individual students from the scores.

The tests continue to have no value for children with disabilities and English language learners.

The FTA goes further to urge parents to opt their children out of the tests because it is the only way to force the state to change to a more useful form of assessment.

Parents, you and you alone have the power to compel change. Use it!

For their courage and professional integrity, I place the Freeport Teachers Association on the Honor Roll of this Blog.

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Categories Courage, Education Reform, Honor Roll, New York, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing, Students

Why is the Los Angeles School Board Rushing to Name a New Superintendent?

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
10

 

The Los Angeles Unified School District school board is not unified at all. The charter industry managed to capture a slim majority in the last school board elections (in the most expensive local school board election in history), and it runs the board 4-3. Unfortunately for the charter industry, the man that was supposed to be president of the board was Ref Rodriguez, who faces multiple felony charges and is supposed to go on trial for various financial crimes. Ref stepped down as president but refuses to leave the board. The board is rushing to hire a new superintendent while Ref is still there. If he stepped aside, the board would be forced to negotiate with the other three members of the board.

John Rogers and Donald Cohen urge the board not to name a new superintendent until it can forge a bipartisan consensus.

That sounds like a reasonable course of action, but if the board took that advice, it wouldn’t be able to name an unalloyed charter advocate to run the schools.

There are many names in play. I have heard about a dozen names, some of whom currently run other school districts. The last name I heard was not an educator but Austin Buetner, who was publisher of the Los Angeles Times before he was fired. The Guardian says he was fired because he was in cahoots with Eli Broad, the master puppeteer of privatization.

I have also heard the names of superintendents who are known for closing public schools (as per Broad’s directions) and replacing them with privately managed charter schools.

 

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Los Angeles

Jan Resseger: Why Teachers Are Walking Out, Part 2

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
18

Jan Resseger has an excellent roundup of the conditions that are driving the walkouts in “right to work” state.

The walkout is a very effective tool. No teachers, no school.

Nothing drives a legislature crazy as much as a wildcat strike because they can’t sit down with a union leader and tamp down the rage and expectations.

It seems that the rightwing strategy of passing “right to work” laws and going to court to reduce dues-paying members (the upcoming Janus decision in the U.S. Supreme Court) has backfired. Unions channel teacher demands. Despite these laws, teachers can still walk out, close down the schools, and win their demands, as long as they stay united. West Virginia, with its long history of militancy, started the movement. Now Oklahoma. Now, Kentucky. Who is next? Arizona? New Mexico? The Deep South states, where salaries are abysmal?

What was the trigger? Was it the student activism that followed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School? Did the mass demonstrations inspire teachers to say to themselves, “enough is enough”? Pay me a living wage or I won’t teach. The straw that broke the camel’s back. The last straw.

Categories Education Reform, Resistance, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Unions

Why Teachers Are Walking Out: GOP Economic Policy of Starve Government, part 1

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
26

 

This is a historic moment. Teachers are walking out and standing together to confront hostile legislatures.

Paul Waldman writes in The Washington Post that teachers are walking out because of the predictable failure of GOP economic policy of starving government of resources.

Just look at the chart he includes showing average teachers salaries in blue and red states.

New York, California, Massachusetts, and D.C. (all blue) have the highest salaries.

South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and West Virginia (all red) have the lowest salaries.

Who will walk out next?

 

Categories Teacher Pay

Federal Report: Students with Disabilities Lose Their Rights if They Use a Voucher

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
19

States that establish vouchers follow a strategy of putting the camel’s-nose-under-the-tent. They usually begin by offering a  voucher for students with disabilities. Then they add a voucher for children who are low-income or a voucher for students in schools with low test scores (to “save poor children from failing schools). Then another, and another, and another until everyone is eligible for a voucher to go to a private or religious school, defunding the state’s public schools since the money follows the child.

But the students with disabilities who use a voucher take a huge risk because they abandon the protection of federal law, for which disabilities groups have worked so long. The General Accountability Office issued this warning in November 2017; now that Trump and DeVos are in charge, don’t expect to see these warnings in the future.

The Education Law Center reports:

GAO REPORT: TAKE A VOUCHER AND FORFEIT SPECIAL EDUCATION RIGHTS

By Jessica Levin

Over half of the state programs providing vouchers for private schools are targeted to students with disabilities, and proposals for new or expanded voucher programs continue to be introduced in state legislatures across the country.

Given the growth of vouchers for students with disabilities, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about the impact of vouchers on special education rights is alarming. The report, Private School Choice: Federal Actions Needed to Ensure Parents Are Notified About Changes in Rights for Students with Disabilities, issued in November 2017, found the availability and accuracy of information provided by states to parents seriously lacking. Parents are often not informed that special education rights are drastically diminished when students with disabilities use vouchers to attend private school.

Students with disabilities enrolled in public school or placed in a private school by a local education agency have robust rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The centerpiece of the federal law is the right to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) with the individualized programs and services students need to access a FAPE.

In sharp contrast, students “parentally placed” in a private school – including those using vouchers – lose their right to FAPE and to receive some or all of the special education and related services public schools are legally obligated to provide under IDEA. These children also lose the right to be educated with their nondisabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate (the “least restrictive environment” requirement) and forfeit IDEA’s procedural protections against inappropriate discipline.

In enacting voucher programs, states do little or nothing to inform parents of the legal ramifications of using vouchers. Shockingly, the GAO report concluded that “in school year 2016-17, 83 percent of students enrolled in a [voucher] program designed specifically for students with disabilities were in a program that provided either no information about changes in IDEA rights or provided information that [the U.S. Department of] Education confirmed contained inaccuracies about these changes.”

Additionally, the GAO’s review of a national sample of the websites of private schools participating in voucher programs found that no more than half even mentioned students with disabilities. Fewer than a quarter of the websites for private schools participating in voucher programs designed specifically for students with disabilities provided information on key special education issues, such as the types of disabilities served by the schools and whether teachers were trained to work with students with disabilities.

The GAO report recommends federal action. First, Congress should consider requiring states to notify parents of the changes in federal special education rights when parents place their children in a private school. The IDEA does not currently require such notice, and the U.S. Department of Education (USED) has taken the position that it has no authority to do so. Second, USED should review the information states are currently providing on changes to legal rights and protections for students in voucher programs and work with states to correct inaccuracies.

The GAO report is a stark reminder that students with disabilities forfeit many legal rights and protections when they use a voucher for private school. In highlighting the serious lack of notice about these changes, the report provides compelling support for the case against authorizing or expanding voucher programs for students with disabilities. States should not be spending scarce public dollars on voucher programs that not only fail to serve students with disabilities, but also undermine their legal rights.

Jessica Levin, Esq., is an attorney at Education Law Center. ELC is a partner in Voucher Watch with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles.

Education Law Center Press Contact:

Sharon Krengel

Policy and Outreach Director

skrengel@edlawcenter.org

973-624-1815, x 24

 

Categories Education Reform, Special Education, Vouchers

Will Seattle Risk Another Broadie as Superintendent?

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
2

 

Dora Taylor, parent activist, wonders why the Seattle school board would consider another Broadie, in light of the city’s horrible experience with another Broadie.

“Many of us painfully recall our last Broad Superintendent, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and the pain she brought with her through school closings, successful programs being decimated, an increase in bureaucracy, nonsensical rifing of teachers and a regime of fear.

“This kind of disruption has been felt by other districts who hired superintendents trained by the billionaire Eli Broad who thinks all schools should be privatized.”

Categories Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Seattle

Arizona: Koch Brothers Lose in Court, Seek to Quash Referendum Against Vouchers

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
7

Parents and teachers in Arizona gathered over 100,000 signatures to force a referendum on the unlimited expansion of vouchers. The Koch brothers and the DeVos family are pushing for vouchers, and they sent in their top legal team to try to stop the referendum. They are terrified of democracy.

They fought the referendum in court and they lost. The parents and teachers won. The referendum was going forward.

Now they have a new trick up their sleeve. The masters of dark money will get the legislature to repeal the original bill and re-enact it, so as to block the referendum. The SOS Arizona team will have to start all over, by gathering signatures for a new referendum and hiring lawyers to defend the referendum.

The Koch brothers and the DeVos family are hereby added to the blog’s Wall of Shame. They hate public schools and they hate democracy.

Please send a contribution to SOS Arizona to help them continue the fight for public schools!

This came in today from SOS Arizona:

Just when we thought we were safe…They’re at it again. Within 2 weeks of the Arizona Supreme Court’s dismissal of the dark-money lawsuit brought against SOSAZ, the Legislature is preparing to repeal Prop 305 entirely or replace it with another ESA expansion bill. 

From the moment we turned in 111,540 signatures last summer, voucher supporters have been scheming to “bait and switch.” Especially since polls have indicated that Prop 305 will likely be defeated if voters have their say. Voters know that vouchers hurt our schools, our kids, and our state.

Bottom line–the state with the WORST funding for schools should be the LAST state to divert public funds to private schools.

How can you help ensure that Prop 305 will get to the ballot so we can defeat the voucher expansion once and for all?

  • Call Governor Ducey’s office at 602-542-4331 and say you oppose any voucher expansion replacement bill;
  • Contact your representatives and senator now to let them know any replacement bill is unacceptable. Hint: here is how they voted on the original voucher expansion bill last year.
  • Sign the SOSAZ Pledge to Vote No on Prop 305, and ask 10 of your friends to do the same;
  • Talk to 10 friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Our passionate volunteers are our biggest allies. Help us get the word out!

Our work to protect our volunteers’ hard work and signatures does not come cheap. Please help us meet our bills with a one-time or recurring donation today.

Thank you for all you do!

Beth Lewis

Chair, Save Our Schools Arizona PAC

Categories ALEC, Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Democracy, Vouchers, Wall of Shame

Oklahoma: Thousands of Teachers Walk Out and Head to State Capitol

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
9

Frustrated by years of budget cuts and stagnant wages, thousands of teachers in Oklahoma walked out and joined the protest in the State Capitol.

A Facebook group formed overnight to start the revolt. In one day, it picked up 21,000 members

It went from one 25-year-old teacher to 70,000 people in three weeks. Margaret Mead said that a small group of thoughtful, dedicated people could change the world. It is happening in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

State legislators pride themselves on low taxes, especially on oil and gas production. They do not pride themselves on paying teachers a living wage.

It takes a 3/4 legislative majority to raise taxes.

Students are just as angry as teachers. They are being teachers. In one school, they cancel sports games because the roof leaks in the gym.

Thousands of teachers in Kentucky walked out and joined the protest in the State Capitol. 

What kind of a country is this anyway? Billionaires want lower taxes and don’t care about the future of our nation.

Oklahoma teachers: Stay strong. We are with you!

Kentucky teachers: Stay strong. We are with you!

Remember in November who stood with you!

Categories Education Reform, Oklahoma

St. Louis: Dark Money Enters Suburban St. Louis School Board Elections (Correction!)

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
15

 

School districts in Missouri customarily have nonpartisan school board elections. No more. Tomorrow voters will go to the polls in the Parkway District (a suburb of St. Louis) to select two new school board members. Five candidates are running for two open positions on the school board.

An organization has entered the race to endorse candidates who are opposed to abortion, sex education, and student protests.

It has endorsed two of the five who are running.

Who is paying for this group’s campaign activities?

No one knows.

The group calls itself Advocates for Educating Taxpayer Accountability.

How ironic that a group that hides the names of its contributors says it favors “accountability” when it refuses to be either transparent or accountable.

Why are they hiding? Why don’t they announce their names?

Categories Dark Money, Fraud, St. Louis
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