Archives for the month of: July, 2018
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Denver: Superintendent Tom Boasberg Stepping Down

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
4

Superintendent Tom Boasberg is stepping down in Denver. He continued the Corporate Reform policies of his predecessor Michael Bennett, that is, a strong reliance on high-stakes testing and charter schools. Betsy DeVos praised Denver’s choice policies but criticized it for not having vouchers as a choice.

Denver has seen rising test scores and graduation rates but continues to have one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation among urban districts. Corporate Reform has yet to prove that it can accomplish miracles for the neediest children.

Denver is one of the cities where Reformers like Stand for Children and DFER have spent heavily to assure continued control of the local school board.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Denver

Randy Rainbow on “A Stable Genius”

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
54

I’m breaking all my own rules by posting this but it is too funny not to post.

Randy Rainbow is one of the great satirists of our day.

We have to laugh. That’s the best defense against autocracy, as Mel Brooks reminded us in his show “The Producers,” both a great movie and an even greater Broadway show, which mocked Hitler. Brooks said that “laughter takes away their power.” Let us hope.

Categories Humor

Breaking News: NAACP Comes Out in Opposition to High-Stakes Standardized Testing!

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
27

Today, the NAACP released a statement (“issue guidance”) opposing the use of a single standardized test score to determine students’ promotion or graduation.

Instead, issue guidance calls for multiple measures.

Julian Vasquez Heilig, who attended the national convention of the NAACP as a delegate from California, released the issue brief on his blog, “Cloaking Inequity.”

I encourage the NAACP to delve further into the misuse of standardized testing, which is scored on a normal curve and should never be used to make high-stakes decisions about promotion or high school graduation, not even as part of multiple measures.

Categories Civil Rights, Education Reform, Standardized Testing

AFT Documents Massive Underfunding of Public Schools

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
9

This Report was released by the American Federation of Teachers.

Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect
Report Unveils Link Between GOP Tax Cuts and Gutting of Public K-12 and Higher Education Post-Recession

PITTSBURGH—Governments in 25 states have shortchanged public K-12 education by $19 billion over the last decade, with low-tax Republican states guilty of the worst underfunding, a groundbreaking report by the American Federation of Teachers, released today, reveals.

“A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” details for the first time the devastating impact on schools, classrooms and students when states choose to pursue an austerity agenda in the false belief that tax cuts will pay for themselves.

The comprehensive report offers a deep dive into the long-term austerity agendas and historic disinvestment that sparked the wave of nationwide walkouts this spring.

Among the findings: K-12 education is drastically underfunded in every single state in the United States. When you control for inflation, there are 25 states that spent less on K-12 education in 2016 than they did prior to the recession. But there are signs of the negative impact of austerity even in states with relatively stronger investment in schools.

Chronic underfunding explains why, in 38 states, the average teacher salary is lower in 2018 than it was in 2009, and why the pupil-teacher ratio was worse in 35 states in 2016 than in 2008.

While the recession may have forced budget cuts on our schools, the report exposes how Republican legislators and governors prolonged the damage by cutting taxes for the rich at the expense of public schools.

A majority of Americans instead support repealing tax cuts for the rich and using that money to invest in education, infrastructure and healthcare.

The report measures each state’s “tax effort”—that is, how much they tax, compared with how rich they are. Of the 25 states with the worst K-12 funding, 18 of them have taxed their residents less since the recession. Five of the 11 states with the lowest K-12 funding—Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas—are also among those with the lowest taxes on the rich.

The problem only gets worse in higher education, where 41 states spent less per student, creating a massive affordability and accessibility gap. This explains why tuition and fees for a two-year degree in 2017 rose at three times the rate of inflation when compared with 2008, and why the cost of a four-year degree rose even higher, putting college woefully out of reach for far too many Americans.

“These problems belong squarely at the feet of elected officials, many of them Republicans, who rather than investing in our future, insisted on ushering in counterproductive austerity,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “When legislators choose to prioritize millionaires over children, our country suffers. And when our education secretary says that money doesn’t matter in schools, we tell teachers, parents and children that they don’t matter either.”

The report was accompanied by a key resolution, considered by delegates today at the AFT’s biennial convention, to turn the data into action. “The Fight for Investment in Our Future and the Fight Against Austerity” states, in part, that the AFT “will … investigate legislative, policy and grass-roots solutions to increase investment in public services, including the identification of new revenue streams,” and “will work to channel the activism we are witnessing across the country in this moment into a movement for enduring change by electing pro-public education, pro-worker candidates in November.”

Read the full report here.

Click to access decade-of-neglect-2018.pdf

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Industry, Funding

Tom Ultican: Privatizing Charters Invade San Joaquin Valley in California

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
8

Tom Ultican has been documenting the advance of the Destroy Public Education Movement in different cities. Now, he shows, they are pushing into rural areas, into California’s San Joaquin Valley.

“Efforts to privatize public schools in the San Joaquin (pronounced: whah-keen) Valley are accelerating. Five disparate yet mutually reinforcing groups are leading this destroy public education (DPE) movement. For school year 2017-2018, Taxpayers sent $11.5 billion to educate K-12 students in the valley and a full $1 billion of that money was siphoned off to charter schools. This meant that education funding for 92% of students attending public schools has been significantly reduced on a per student basis.

“In July 2017, California’s State Superintendent of Education, Tom Torlakson, announced that the revised 2017-2018 budget for K-12 education totaled $92.5 billion. Dividing this number by the total of students enrolled statewide provides an average spending per enrolled student ($14,870). The spending numbers reported above were found by multiplying $14,870 by the number of students enrolled.

“The five groups motivating the privatization of public schools are:

“People who want taxpayer supported religious schools.

“Groups who want segregated schools.

“Entrepreneurs profiting from school management and school real estate deals.

“The technology industry using wealth and lobbying power to place products into schools and support technology driven charter schools.

“Ideologues who fervently believe that market-based solutions are always superior.

“The Big Valley

“The San Joaquin Valley is America’s top agricultural producing region, sometimes called “the nation’s salad bowl” for the great array of fruits and vegetables grown in its fertile soil. Starting near the port of Stockton, the valley is 250 miles long and is bordered on the west by coastal mountain ranges. Its eastern boundary is part of the southern two-thirds of the Sierra bioregion, which features Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks. The valley ends at the San Gabriel Mountains in the south.

“Seven counties (Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Merced, Tulare, Kings, Fresno and Kern) govern the valley. Its three major cities are Fresno (population 525,000), Stockton (population 310,000) and Bakersfield (population 380,000). The entire valley has a population of more than 4 million with 845,369 K-12 students enrolled for the 2017-2018 school year….

“In her 2017 report on California’s out of control charter school system, Carol Burris made a point about the unsavory nature of the independent study charter school. She pointed out that these schools have poor attendance, and terrible graduation rates. Unfortunately, they are easy to set up and very profitable. Of all the independent study charters, the virtual charters have the worst performance data and are widely seen as fraudulent. About one-third of the valley’s charters are independent study and half of those are virtual.”

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Greg Windle: Did Philadelphia’s Superintendent William Hite Meet His Goals?

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
5

Greg Windle wrote an exemplary report on the record of Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite, who took Office in 2012.

He makes clear that there are many metrics, not only test scores, and many actors, including the governor and the legislature.

Education writers, take note. This is a treasure trove of information that the people of the city need to know.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Budget Cuts, Funding, Philadelphia

Jersey Jazzman: What the Teacher-Bashing Press Does Not Understand about PARCC and Other Standardized Tests

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2018 //
37

This is a thoughtful and important article by Mark Weber (aka Jersey Jazzman), who teaches in public school in New Jersey and is earning his doctorate in statistics at Rutgers.

He notes that both the New Jersey Star-Ledger and the New York Post were outraged–outraged!–that NJ Governor Phil Murphy plans to abandon the PARCC exam, which is aligned with the Common Core. They accuse Murphy of kowtowing to the lousy teachers’ unions and trying to dumb down the test.

But he points out that PARCC and NJ’s previous standardized test (NJASK) produced the same results.

This is worth your while to read as you will learn a lot about standardized testing and its limitations.

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Jersey, Privatization, Standardized Testing

I Watched This Video of Ronald Reagan and Cried

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2018 //
72

As I watched this video of Ronald Reagan in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, tears rolled down my cheeks.

See if it has the same effect on you.

I wasn’t in Berlin, but I watched it as a young adult.

I was happy when I heard it then.

Now it makes me weep.

Categories Education Reform

Washington Post: Trump Openly Colluded with Putin Today

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2018 //
48

Trump stood by Putin and agreed with Putin while attacking the FBI. Putin offered to help Mueller. This is surreal.

The Washington Post editorial said:

THE ENDURING image of the U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki on Monday will be that of President Trump standing next to Vladi­mir Putin and suggesting he found Mr. Putin’s “powerful” denial at least as persuasive as the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous finding that Russia intervened in the 2016 election. Coupled with another groundless attack on the FBI and an apparent endorsement of a patently disingenuous offer by Mr. Putin to collaborate with the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Mr. Trump appeared to align himself with the Kremlin against American law enforcement before the Russian ruler and a global audience.

Mr. Trump had said he would raise the issue of Russia’s interference in the election with Mr. Putin, but the result was a series of statements that could have been scripted by Moscow. Mr. Trump said that, while Daniel Coats, the United States’ director of national intelligence, had told him Russia was responsible for hacking into the server of the Democratic National Committee, “I don’t see any reason why it would be.” He referred to various discredited conspiracy theories about the hack while lambasting the FBI. When offered an open-ended opportunity to cite any behavior by Russia that had contributed to poor relations, the president sidestepped, saying “I hold both countries responsible.” As Mr. Trump apparently sees it, Russia’s invasions of Ukraine and Georgia, war crimes in Syria, poison attack in Britain and the shooting down of a Malaysian civilian airliner over Ukraine are morally equivalent to the policies pursued by previous U.S. administrations.

It’s not yet known what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin discussed in their private meeting, or whether they reached any tangible agreements. Both leaders suggested there had been accord on securing Israel’s border with Syria, and on providing humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees, though they offered no details. Even if he obtained nothing concrete from Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin scored a symbolic triumph by appearing to stand as an equal with the U.S. president in a relationship with “special responsibility for maintaining international security,” as he put it.

While Mr. Trump’s insistence on granting Mr. Putin that status was misguided, it paled beside his betrayal of the FBI and his own senior intelligence officials. Incredibly, Mr. Trump appeared to endorse a cynical suggestion by Mr. Putin that Mr. Mueller’s investigators be granted interviews with a dozen Russian intelligence officers indicted in the DNC hack in exchange for Russian access to associates of William Browder, a financier whose exposure of high-level corruption and human rights crimes in Moscow led to the adoption by Congress of the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on those responsible. Mr. Putin’s citation of bogus Russian charges against Mr. Browder was matched by Mr. Trump’s garbled reference to “the Pakistani gentleman” who was falsely alleged by right-wing conspiracy theorists to be behind the leak of DNC emails.

In Helsinki, Mr. Trump again insisted “there was no collusion” with Russia. Yet in refusing to acknowledge the plain facts about Russia’s behavior, while trashing his own country’s justice system, Mr. Trump in fact was openly colluding with the criminal leader of a hostile power.

Categories Education Reform

Donald J. Trump, the Benedict Arnold of Our Times

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2018 //
52

Donald Trump took an oath at his inauguration to protect the Constitution of the United States.

“Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Today, Trump met with a foreign leader who sought to undermine our Constitution and our democratic government. He did not defend the Constitution.

Chris Cillizza called today “the most shameful moment of the Trump presidency.”

He wrote, in part:

“President Donald Trump had a golden opportunity on Monday to stare down Russian President Vladimir Putin and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election was totally unacceptable, and that if anything like it continued going forward, there would be major and serious penalties to pay.

“Instead, standing next to Putin at the US-Russia summit in Helsinki, Trump did the opposite.

“I hold both countries responsible,” Trump said in response to a question from the American press about Russia’s interference. “I think that the United States has been foolish. We’ve all been foolish. We’re all to blame.” He went on to deride the FBI, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the US intelligence community,
I mean, WHAT? W-H-A-T?

“Make no mistake what happened in Finland on Monday: An American President — contrary to the unanimous findings of his intelligence community and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee — sought to split blame with a foreign adversary who actively interfered in an American election to help him and hurt his opponent. And he did so while standing next to the Russian President — a man who heads a country that not only sought to sway the 2016 election through interference but also invaded and annexed Crimea and allegedly poisoned a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil.

“It was the most stunning moment yet of a presidency filled with them. (On a domestic scale, his “both sides” response to the racially motivated violence in Charlottesville was equally stunning, but Monday’s summit sets a new bar for the global implications of Trump’s actions.) Not only has Trump actively worked to realign geopolitics with his attacks on the European Union and NATO but, as of Monday, he made clear that he trusts Putin at least as much — and maybe more — than his own intelligence officials.

“Asked directly how he reconciled the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had meddled in the election with Putin’s denials, Trump punted — saying both sides made good points and believed their view strongly. Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denials,” said Trump. What clearer evidence could you ask for that Trump sees Putin as just as credible as the AMERICAN intelligence community?

“I mean, Putin denied he meddled in the election strongly. So we have to believe him, right? RIGHT???”

Cillizza also wrote on CNN about what he called the worst tweet of Trump’s presidency:

President Donald Trump has sent a lot of bad tweets. He’s tweeted things that aren’t true. He’s tweeted personal attacks about everyone from Hillary Clinton to Mika Brzezinski and back. He’s called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man.” But a tweet he sent Monday morning — just hours before sitting down with Russian President Vladimir Putin — has to be the worst.

“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!,” tweeted Trump.
Let’s be very, very clear about what Trump’s tweet suggests: That the reason the US and Russia have an adversarial relationship is because of the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Staggering. Stunning. Surreal.

Remember that the intelligence community — unanimously! — has concluded that Russia actively interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump and hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina concluded the same earlier this summer. Special counsel Robert Mueller charged a dozen Russians last week for their roles in what the charging document made clear was a broad and deep operation to influence the US presidential election.

Simply put: With the exception of a handful of Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, there is simply no one in a position to know who thinks that a) Russia didn’t meddle in the 2016 campaign and b) wasn’t trying to help Trump and hurt Clinton.

But wait, there’s more! Last week, Dan Coats, the Trump administration’s Director of National Intelligence, was blunt in his assessment of Russia’s ongoing assault on the United States’ infrastructure. “The warning signs are there,” Coats said in a speech at the Hudson Institute. “The system is blinking. It is why I believe we are at a critical point. Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.”

Andrew Tobias has a single word title for his latest post: Treason.

He wrote:

About the joint press conference he and Putin held a few hours ago, former CIA director John Brennan tweeted — as you’ve doubtless seen by now —

Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???
/strong>

Where indeed? Is Putin really the good guy here and the FBI and Mueller (and Canada) the threats to our nation’s safety?<

Really?

This is a comment by a reader, Max McConkey of Arizona:

“Treason is quite a loaded word, conjuring up Benedict Arnold, the scariest person in our 7th grade history books. My iPhone dictionary defines it as “violation of allegiance to one’s country.”

“I marched in the streets with millions of others in protest to the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, and we were called traitors by some. Our defense: we loved our country and were protesting to, as citizens, help make it better. When Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam and condemned the US, her behavior was roundly criticized as treasonous — and, frankly, it made even many of us who believed the war wrong uncomfortable. Years later Fonda apologized for having attacked her country while physically standing in Hanoi.

“So what genuinely constitutes treason? I would posit the behavior of the President of the United States today in Helsinki was clearly treasonous. It was a demonstrative “violation of allegiance” to the US on foreign soil, in the company of the president of Russia — a country that committed cyberwar against the United States. (Imagine if those cyberattacks had been physical missiles … Congress would have already declared war.) What Trump has done in the company of the enemy country’s leader is far, far worse than any statement ever made by Hollywood actress Jane Fonda.

“A federal judge should today indict the president on charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, and Air Force One should be met in Washington by law enforcement, detaining Trump for treason. Congress should immediately pass resolutions of impeachment and begin the process for trying the president. I am convinced that, if the republic survives, US history books of the future will equate Donald Trump with Benedict Arnold.”

Categories Education Reform
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