There will be many important elections this fall, with the future of our democracy in the balance.
One of the most notable elections will take place in Arizona, where parents and teachers–organized as SOS Arizona–are facing off against the Koch brothers and the DeVos combine.
The Guardian tells the story here.
Arizona has become the hotbed for an experiment rightwing activists hope will redefine America’s schools – an experiment that has pitched the conservative billionaires the Koch brothers and Donald Trump’s controversial education secretary, Betsy DeVos, against teachers’ unions, teachers and parents. Neither side is giving up without a fight.
With groups funded by the Koch brothers and DeVos nudging things along, Arizona lawmakers enacted the nation’s broadest school vouchers law, state-funded vouchers that are supposed to give parents more school choice and can be spent on private or religiously affiliated schools. For opponents, the system is not about choice but about further weakening the public school system. A half-dozen women who had battled for months against the legislation were angry as hell.
Convinced that the law would drain money from Arizona’s underfunded public schools, these women complained that Arizona’s lawmakers had ignored the public will and instead heeded the wishes of billionaires seeking to build up private schools at the expense of public schools.
“We walked outside the Capitol Building, and we looked at each other, and said, ‘What now?” said one of the women, Dawn Penich-Thacker, a mother of two boys in public school and a former army public information officer. “We had been fighting this for four months. We realized that there’s something we can do about it. It’s called a citizens’ referendum. We said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Little did they know the challenges ahead. They would need 75,321 signatures to get their referendum on the ballot to overturn the law. They formed a group, Save Our Schools, and set out to collect the needed signatures. Opposing lobbyists sneered, saying no way could they do that.
The six women inspired a statewide movement and got hundreds of volunteers to brave Arizona’s torrid summer heat to collect signatures – in parks and parking lots, at baseball games and shopping malls. Their message was that billionaire outsiders were endangering public education by getting Arizona’s legislature – in part through campaign contributions – to create an expensive voucher program.
“We knew something was rotten in the state of Arizona,” said Beth Lewis, a fifth-grade teacher who is president of Save Our Schools. “We drew a line in the sand. We said, ‘We’re not going to let this happen.’” Lewis said Arizona’s schools are so underfunded that some classes have 40 students and her school needs to ask a private citizen to donate money when a teacher needs a set of books for her class.
One study found that Arizona, at $7,613, is the third-lowest state in public school spending per student, while another study found that from 2008 to 2015, school funding per pupil had plunged by 24% in Arizona, after adjusting for inflation – the second-biggest drop in the nation.
Upset that the vouchers law would funnel money toward private schools, Lewis said: “We can’t fund two different school systems. We can hardly afford one.”
Save our Schools submitted 111,540 signatures to the secretary of state in August 2017, but the Koch brothers’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity, sued to block the referendum. A judge dismissed the lawsuit and approved the referendum for 6 November – it’s called Proposition 305. The vote will be closely watched by people on both sides of the debate as the Kochs and DeVos hope to spread the voucher scheme and opponents look to Arizona for clues on how to stop them.
And that’s only the beginning of the story. Read it all. If you live in Arizona, please vote!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
I think people should really pay attention and start to ask questions when ed reformers recite “the money should follow the child”.
Ask them what that looks like, in practice. Is the plan to give a 7k voucher to every parent of a school age child? Because that will be wildly inequitable and it will especially harm families who have children with disabilities.
“The money follows the child” sounds good- like a lot of their slogans it was cooked up by marketing professionals- but what does it mean? Force them to be specific. Force them to describe, in detail, this privatized vision they’re promoting.
There is no real debate in ed reform. They hold conventions that are more like rallies and surround themselves with other true believers. They’re not actually grappling with any of the practical issues privatization raises.
They have NO IDEA how these privatized systems they’re creating will actually function. Force them to admit that.
DeVos is selling you hearts and flowers and everyone “chooses” and no one loses. That’s marketing and promotion. It’s a fantasy. DeVos promoted a voucher experiment in Michigan that allocated 5k for each student. That is a DRASTIC reduction in education funding.That’s where they hope to end up with the voucher schemes. With a drastic reduction in public education funding. That’s why they rely on slogans rather than details.
You claim Q Because that will be wildly inequitable and it will especially harm families who have children with disabilities. END Q
If you think that school choice, and permitting families with disabled children to seek instruction outside the public school system will harm these children, you are wrong.
The US Supreme Court ruled in Endrew F. v. Douglas County school system, that when a public school system cannot provide appropriate instruction to disabled children, that the family has the right to obtain appropriate instruction and programs, from a private school system. Most importantly, the school system must pay the costs.
see:
https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/in-the-news/2017/03/22/endrew-f-case-decided-supreme-court-rules-on-how-much-benefit-ieps-must-provide?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlLix367b3QIVQkGGCh3zzQAcEAAYASAAEgIr2PD_BwE
Students with disabilities who attend private voucher schools have NO federally protected rights. NONE.
Then there needs to be a change in the law, to afford all children, disabled or not, private school or public, with equal protection under the law. Equal protection is guaranteed in the 14th amendment.
I am going to write my congressman, will you?
Charles, knowing that children with disabilities abandon their federally protected rights when they take a voucher, do you still advocate for vouchers?
Let me answer your question this way. First, I wish to preface my remarks by stating that I am not an expert on the education of special-needs students. Nor am I an expert on civil rights. With these provisions, here goes:
I support school choice/vouchers/ESAs. I especially support giving families more flexibility in obtaining the proper education for special-needs children.
I have followed the Endrew F. case closely. The parents were not satisfied with the quality of the instruction provided by their local public school. The family sued, and won their case before the supreme court. The family is willing to waive certain of their rights, in order to get the child the education that is appropriate.
One of the functions of government, is to protect and secure the rights of the people. (See the Declaration of Independence). I see no reason why special-needs children cannot be provided with the non-public education that is appropriate for them, AND be afforded the same rights as special-needs children who are in public schools. No family should be confronted with such a problem.
(I am puzzled as to why this situation is allowed to persist. Families of special-needs children, and the ACLU, etc. should be demanding that all children have the rights protections, regardless of the venue of instruction).
Let me repeat: Children in private schools—including those that receive vouchers paid for with public funds—are NOT covered by federal laws like IDEA.
As you often advise us, if you don’t like it, write your members of Congress.
If you support students with disabilities, you cannot support having the funding for that support degraded by privatizing those public funds to pay for private schools (including charters) that do not have in place necessary the support.
@leftcoastteacher: I certainly support the right of all children to be provided with the educational resources, that will enable them to reach their fullest potential.
Your assertion, Q If you support students with disabilities, you cannot support having the funding for that support degraded by privatizing those public funds to pay for private schools (including charters) that do not have in place necessary the support. END Q.. is wrong.
Funding for the special-needs children will not be “degraded”, it will be increased!!!
The Endrew F. decision has mandated that special-needs children should be provided with MORE educational resources and financing. Furthermore the court decided 8-0 that if the public school system cannot provide adequate instruction,etc. that the disabled child is entitled to be provided with instruction at a private facility, and that the school district must meet the costs.
I enthusiastically support this decision! The entire court, including the liberal/progressives voted in favor of the child.
see
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/how-a-new-supreme-court-ruling-could-affect-special-education/520662/
Charles,
No child with disabilities in a voucher schools has any rights to services. Last time you get to Post this. Three times is enough.
Q No child with disabilities in a voucher schools has any rights to services END Q
Have you read the Endrew F. decision? The SC awarded the plaintiff, with the right to receive educational services from a private school, and the school district has to pay the costs. The decision expanded and improved the rights of the disabled child.
And what is a “voucher school”? There are a number of different non–public schools that accept vouchers. And not all voucher recipients choose to send their children to “bricks and mortar” schools. Some recipients take the voucher payment, and use the funds to meet the costs of home-schooling.
Charles,
For the fourth and last time, children who attend private schools do not have the protection of the federal IDEA law. When they enter a private school, with or without a voucher, they leave their rights to federal protection behind.
Now stop saying this again and again.
This is exactly why nothing changes in our large and now very, very divided district: no matter how many times a community fights for a return to sanity and sanity is promised, “There is no real debate in ed reform. They hold conventions that are more like rallies and surround themselves with other true believers.” Everything remains the same.
When you hear them all recite “the money follows the child” in unison, ask them.
What money? How much money? Do some children get more money and other children get less? Who will decide that? Will the total amount of funding be a reduction?
These slogans and vague ideological generalities are meant to gloss over real questions and real numbers. Don’t fall for it. It’s a sales technique and if there’s anyone who knows sales, it’s the heirs to the Amway scam.
When ed reformers in Michigan tried to pass this scam over on the public (they got caught so it never went thru) the amount per child they settled on was $5,000. That’s a massive reduction in public school funding. Pin them down, or we are going to find ourselves with a cheap, garbage “public education system” that allocates 5k per kid.
People can see how narrow the ed reform debate is themselves:
https://thelinek12.com/
That’s “The Line” – yet another ed reform publishing venture.
It’s all ed reformers. They write all the content and they all agree with one another.
They feature “debates” between Chris Cerf and Ben Austin- two ed reformers who agree with each other about everything. That counts as a “debate” – they tell each other how child centered and wonderful they both are. There’s also the obligatory ed reform labor union bashing, penned by one or another Right wing politician. I think that’s required in each edition of any ed reform outlet- print the anti-labor union screed or no one gets paid.
This is an echo chamber and it is ALL your lawmakers hear.
So we have to tell them about our schools, because we have no advocates or representation in government. They hear PLENTY from ed reformers. They need to hear from public school supporters.
I betcha that in the absence of a National curriculum these “choice” schools will get Koch curriculum – without Helen Keller, but with creationism.
Don’t forget about humans riding dinosaurs.
The Koch’s Kansas is losing population. Bernie’s state, Vermont, is gaining population.
It was just announced that Tom Steyer is donating a big sum to Gillum in the Florida Governor’s race. There’s the possibility that Steyer doesn’t know about the pseudo liberalism of CAP, which would explain why he remains on the CAP Board. With hope, Gillum will persuade Steyer about the threat from the education oligarchy of Gates, Arnold, Waltons, Broad, Kochs, Fishers,….
I actually feel sorry for the students who attend charter schools. They are missing out on a whole of lot learning. Sad.