Archives for the month of: September, 2018
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9/11: Forever in Our Hearts and Memories

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
39

I have relived the story many times and probably told it here too.

On 9/11/01 I was sitting at my dining table reading the morning paper and enjoying a cup of coffee when I heard/felt a mighty crash. I live(d) in Brooklyn Heights, two blocks from the waterfront, and my first thought was that it must have been a horrendous crash on the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway. My partner Mary called from work and told me to turn on the TV, something terrible had happened at the World Trade Center. Some thought a small plane had crashed into one of the towers. I turned on CNN, and I saw the smoldering tower. I rushed out the door, ran the two blocks to the nearest point to view the harbor, and as I looked up, I saw the second plane hit the second tower. I saw it. I still see it. The first tower was burning, now the second was burning. I stood there with about half a dozen people and we were speechless. I ran home to listen to CNN and hear what they were saying. They were saying “Terrorism.” I ran back to the harbor front, but now there was a dense cloud of smoke coming my way. Soon, I could see nothing at all.

Mary came home. We walked to the nearest hospital to offer blood, but they said they weren’t accepting any. We saw streams of people walking from Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge, looking dazed. They were covered in soot. Some carried briefcases, some were shoeless. We wanted to help. There was nothing we could do.

Soot from the fires began to drizzle down on the neighborhood after the wind shifted our way. The cars were covered in soot. There was an acrid smell in the air, the smell of burning plastic, burning…steel, bodies, something awful. The smell lingered for weeks. The memories, forever.

In the backyard of our brownstone, tiny pieces of paper fluttered to the ground. It was a blizzard, almost like snow. Tiny pieces of paper that once had been in someone’s files, on their desk. One of them was intact, except for burn holes. It came from someone’s desk. I covered it in plastic and saved it. I don’t know why.

Soon, there was silence, eerie silence, punctuated only by the sound of jets overhead and sirens, endless sirens. All traffic, all subways, all buses, all movement stopped. Just sirens.

In the silence, everyone whispered. We learned what was happening by watching television, even though it was happening within our sight (when the wind shifted).

People stood along the Promenade, the beautiful walkway in Brooklyn on the Harbor with a full view of the Manhattan skyline, to see what could be seen. People brought candles and flowers, and left them there. Someone hung a photograph of the Twin Towers, preserved in hard plastic, and hung it on the fence along the Promenade. It remained there, undisturbed, undamaged, for over a year. One day it was gone.

On my block, a young couple with a child had recently moved to New Jersey to be in the suburbs, the leafy suburbs. The mom died in the Towers.

Everyone knew someone.

Mary’s niece worked in the second Tower. She got out before it collapsed, thank God, but she and her co-workers–in shock–started walking north and didn’t stop until they reached Harlem, where one of them lived (miles away). Her parents didn’t know if she was alive or dead for hours.

The neighborhood fire company was one of the first to respond. Most of them died.

It was a day I will never forget.

It was a day New Yorkers will never forget.

The fire stations in New York City have tributes to and photographs of the men who died that day.

I saw a bumper sticker a few days ago that said, “There is one hell of a fire department in Heaven.”

Categories Personal

D.C.: Help Elect an Ally to the State Board of Education

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
7

Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the D.C. State Board of Education. She co-authored a book recently with Deborah Meier called ”These Schools Belong to You and Me.”

DFER has funded her opponent. They are outspending Emily 4-1. Please help her. Let’s crowd source her campaign with whatever you can afford to donate. She is far better equipped to serve the children of D.C. than her DFER-funded opponent, who will push more charters (the city’s schools are already 50% charter). Emily has promised to end the Rhee teacher evaluation system IMPACT. DFER favors more top-down punishments for teachers.

This is her website:

https://emily4education.com

My friend Joan Snowden in D.C. writes:


Dear Friends

I hope this note finds you well after a hot but enjoyable summer. I am writing because I need your help. My dear friend Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the DC State School Board of Education from Ward 1. Emily is an accomplished educator, DC parent and social activist. She has a PhD in education policy, teaches at Georgetown University, runs a non-profit called Artful Education and previously trained teachers in DC at the Center for Inspired Teaching. Her most recent book, co-authored with world renown educator and MacArthur Prize winner, Deborah Meier, “These Schools Belong to You and Me-Why We can’t Afford to Abandon our Public Schools” makes an important and compelling argument on why we must stop the privatization of public education.

This is a critical election for the DC community. Privatizers have designs on our schools. Privatizing the schools in the Nation’s capitol would be a feather in their cap. Despite these privatizers best efforts, report after report has indicated that the hoped-for education miracle under Mayoral control and other policies have been a bust. Finally members of the DC Council and others are now beginning to listen to parents and teachers about what is wrong and what better reforms would look like. We are starting to have a more honest conversation about whether the top-down, standardized test-driven strategies long pursued by DC “reformers” are the right ones.

DC needs an educator and parent on the State Board now more than ever. But Emily’s challenger is a bank manager with absolutely no education experience and no children in the DC system. Until very recently he served on the board of Directors for DFER (Democrats for Education Reform-DC). If you don’t know about DFER, this link should help. Wall Street hedge fund managers started DFER in 2008 to promote the privatization of public education in key districts nationally and to counter the influence of teacher unions. They overwhelm local elections with outside cash. With DFER’s help, Emily’s opponent has already raised $60,000 for this race. Emily needs help to counter this negative, outside influence. You can be a big help.

Emily is the experienced educator, parent and underdog candidate. She may not have a big political machine behind her, but she is well organized, has the support of an army of committed parents and educators and is a serious contended.

Please join us 6-7:30 on Thursday, September 20, 2018 at my home in D.C. to meet Emily. If you can’t make it, please contribute to her campaign. She needs your support so that she can print literature and build out her campaign infrastructure to assure a win. If you can, please make a contribution Here. The maximum amount is $200 per contributor, which means she needs as many people contributing at that level as possible. Please share this request with your networks.

We must stop privatization efforts and preserve public education in the District of Columbia. Please get involved and enlist your friends. Thanks in advance.

Please RSVP to j-snowden@rcn.com. I look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

Joan Baratz Snowden

Categories Democrats for Education Reform, District of Columbia, Education Reform

Arizona: Legislator/Charter Operator Sells His Chain for Millions, Or, How to Get Very Rich in the Ed Biz

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
26

This is a world-class scandal. And it is all legal!

Arizona’s State Representative Eddie Farnsworth sold his for-profit charter chain to a non-profit for about $30 Million and will reap millions in profits, then get a management fee to continue to operate them.

“Yet another millionaire is made, thanks to the latest in charter school scheming.

“This time, it’s state Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, who has figured out a way to sell his charter school business – the one built with taxpayer funds – and make millions on the deal and then likely get himself hired to continue running the operation.

“Which now converts to a non-profit and thus will no longer have to pay property or income taxes.

“Sweet plan. Sickeningly so, when you consider that Farnsworth is making his millions off of tax money intended to be used to educate Arizona children.

“Other charter schools are getting rich

“Farnsworth is just the latest operator to use charter schools as his own personal ATM – one that shoots out public funds.

“The Republic’s Craig Harris has spent all year reporting on operators who are getting rich – or at least, making a tidy pile of cash – off publicly funded charter schools, aided by laughable state laws that require hardly any oversight or accountability.

“There’s the Arizona Charter Schools Association’s No. 2 guy, using his position to throw business to a company he co-owns with his wife by giving her the names of students looking for a charter school. She scores a bounty for every student (and the tax dollars that go with that student) she delivers to certain charter schools.

“There’s BASIS Charters Schools founders Michael and Olga Block, who scored $10 million in fees to manage the charter chain of schools last year.

“There’s American Leadership Academy’s founder Glenn Way, who scored at least $18.4 million profit by getting no-bid contracts to build charter schools thanks largely paid for with public money.

“Then there’s Primavera online school, where most of the public funding has gone not to educate students but to elevate the company’s investment portfolio. Damian Creamer, the school’s founder and CEO, last year scored an $8.8 million “shareholder distribution” from the for-profit company that now runs Primavera, according an audit filed with the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools.

“Taxpayers pay twice for the same schools

“Now comes Farnsworth with his Benjamin Franklin Charter School scheme, approved Monday by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools.

“Under the arrangement, Farnsworth is selling his for-profit four-school operation to a non-profit run by a trio of handpicked pals who will now select someone to run the schools. Farnsworth has applied for the job.

“According to state records, Farnsworth will score at least $11.8 million in profit from the deal. He’ll also keep nearly $3.8 million in “shareholder equity” accumulated over the years since starting the suburban charter school chain in 1995. But Farnsworth declined to disclose the total profit he will make on the deal.

“I make no apologies for being successful,” he told the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools.

“And you wonder why Farnsworth has fought efforts to require better oversight and reform of Arizona’s charter schools?

“The Republic’s Harris reports that when the sale closes, taxpayers will have paid twice for the same schools – once to essentially pay the mortgage on the Farnsworth-owned buildings and now to assume more debt in order to buy the buildings.

“And – by the way – it’s all legal

“The most outrageous part of this outrageous story is that what Farnsworth is doing is apparently legal.”

Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic reported on Farnsworth’s meeting with the state charter board (which includes other charter operators):

“[Farnsworth] told them he was requesting the change in organization to strengthen the finances of the roughly 3,000-student school chain. Farnsworth said the new structure will allow Benjamin Franklin to avoid property taxes and to qualify for federal education funds.

“The Legislature gives charter operators up to $2,000 more per student in state education funding than traditional district schools. That’s because charters cannot access local property taxes for building debt.

“Farnsworth acknowledged he would make a profit on the deal.

“Board member Erik Twist, who runs the Great Hearts charter schools, tried to press Farnsworth on how much he stands to gain. But Chairwoman Kathy Senseman interrupted him and changed the direction of the discussion.

“Farnsworth told the board that if he had wanted to make money, he merely could have sold the schools and cashed out.

“I make no apologies for being successful,” Farnsworth said.

“The transfer plan calls for the new non-profit operator to hire a contractor to manage the schools, an arrangement similar to other charter chains like Basis and American Leadership Academy.

“Records submitted to the Charter Board appeared to show Farnsworth had already been hired to manage the schools, but he said the document was a “draft” intended to give board members an understanding of the management contract.

“That’s what happens at Basis schools, many of which rank atop U.S. News & World Report’s “best schools” lists. A private contracting arrangement has paid about $10 million in “management fees” to a private firm run by Basis founders Olga and Michael Block.

“Farnsworth told the board, however, that he had submitted an application for the contract to the company’s new three-member board, all of whom he recruited and are his friends.

“Rebecca McHood, a Gilbert resident who attended the meeting, called the board vote “crazy.”

“They just gave a charter to a non-profit, but they didn’t vet them,” said McHood, a charter school critic whose relatives attended Farnsworth’s schools. “Here we are paying for his private property with our tax dollars, and then he can sell them.”

“State to pay twice for campuses

“Farnsworth built his school chain over more than two decades ago and became its sole owner in 2017, when he used $2.2 million of Benjamin Franklin funds to buy out his partners, Sharon Clark and Roy L. Perkins Jr., records show.

“That deal also made him sole owner of LBE Investments, a Gilbert company that owns the four campuses and leases them to Benjamin Franklin. Both companies are headquartered at 690 E. Warner Road in Gilbert.

“Once the planned sale to the new non-profit business closes later this year, taxpayers will have paid for the same schools twice. That’s because Benjamin Franklin, for years, has used education funding from the Legislature to make lease payments to LBE Investments, records show.

“(A 2017 audit showed Benjamin Franklin paid $4.9 million a year in lease payments, and that the remaining lease balance for three elementary schools and one high school was $53.9 million.)

“Farnsworth told the Charter Board that an appraisal of the schools is underway, and they will be sold at fair-market value.

“Documents submitted to the Charter Board indicate the plan is to borrow $65.7 million through the Arizona Industrial Development to purchase the schools. A sale for the projected loan amount would result in an $11.8 million profit for Farnsworth by retiring the outstanding lease balance.”

Why do Arizona taxpayers acquiesce to this blatant Profiteering with money intended to educate children?

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Categories Arizona, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, Scandals, School Choice

Jan Resseger on Dale Russakoff’s Article about Dark Money Vandals in Arizona

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
12

It is useful to read Jan Resseger on anything but especially her summary of Dale Russakoff’s fine article about the Dark Money that robbed the schoolchildren of Arizona. (In case the Russakoff article is behind a pay wall.)

Resseger describes what happened as “cannibalizing” the schools.

This was no accident. What happened to Arizona was a deliberate effort by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the DeVos’ American Federation for Prosperity to execute a plan:

1. Reduce income taxes to zero
2. Defund public education
3. Shift school funding to charter schools and vouchers

She writes:

“What has driven political leaders in Arizona to collapse the state education budget, cut taxes, and expand school privatization? Russakoff explains: “In 2016, the Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law issued a report called “Secret Spending in the States,” finding that dark-money political contributions in Arizona increased from about $600,000 in 2010 to more than $10.3 million million in 2014, the year Ducey was elected governor… In his 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Ducey ran on a pledge to cut taxes every year and drive income tax rates in Arizona ‘as close to zero as possible.’ That year, six dark-money groups spent almost $3.5 million supporting him or attacking his opponents… In 2017, the Koch brothers’ political advocacy arm, Americans for Prosperity, named the Arizona voucher-expansion bill its No. 1 education-reform priority in the country. The American Federation for Children, another bundler of anonymous contributions, funded by the family of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and focused on expanding school choice through charter schools, vouchers and private school scholarships, made it their top priority in the state… For weeks after leaders of Save Our Schools delivered their petitions to the secretary of state, a phalanx of activists from Americans for Prosperity and the American Federation for Children submitted multiple daily objections to individual signatures…. When the state nonetheless certified more than enough signatures as valid, lawyers representing the Koch network filed legal challenges that went all the way to the State Supreme Court but ultimately failed.”

“Russakoff quotes Kelly Berg, a 20-year high school math teacher from Mesa and lifelong Republican, describing her sudden realization last May—as she sat through an all-night deliberation of the State Legislature—of the enormous barrier she and her colleagues face: “We were told to sit down when we stood in agreement…. We were told to remain quiet when applauding when a teacher, who was in tears, was pleading for support for our classes and our students… We were disrespected. We were mocked. We were listened to, but not heard. That’s what radicalized me… As the kids would say, ‘I’m woke.’ ”

“Please do read Dale Russakoff’s fine article. She connects all the pieces of this story—school funding—the role of taxes for buying public services—the impact of tax cuts—the role of far-right money buying politics—the ideology of privatization—and the cost to state budgets and to local school districts when a state undertakes to run a system of private tuition neo-vouchers along with a system of charter schools along with the state’s public school districts all out of one fixed pot of money.

“As Russakoff narrates Arizona’s story, she is also providing an account of what has been happening in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Indiana.”

When you meet progressives who favor charter schools but not vouchers, send them a copy of Dale Russakoff’s article, or Jan Resseger’s summary, so they understand that they have been duped by the billionaires who are behind the curtain. Charters are part of the Dark Money plan to destroy public education.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Dark Money, Education Industry, Koch Brothers, Privatization

David Sirota: “Yes, Let’s Wipe Out Trump, But Take Neoliberal Democrats with Him Too”

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
47

Investigative reporter David Sirota is now a regular writer for The Guardian. In this scorching, fiery, take-no-prisoners article, he details the betrayal of Democratic policies by prominent Democrats, who have laid the groundwork for Trump and his enablers in the destruction of American democracy.

He writes:

Amid an upsurge of populist energy that has alarmed the Democratic establishment, a new wave of left-leaning insurgents have been using Democratic primaries to wage a fierce war on the party’s corporate wing. And, as in past presidential primary battles, many Democratic consultants, politicians and pundits have insisted that the party must prioritize unity and resist grassroots pressure to support a more forceful progressive agenda.

Not surprisingly, much of that analysis comes from those with career stakes in the status quo. Their crude attempts to stamp out any dissent or intraparty discord negates a stark truth: liberal America’s pattern of electing corporate Democrats – rather than progressives – has been a big part of the problem that led to Trump and that continues to make America’s economic and political system a neo-feudal dystopia.

Dislodging those corporate Democrats, then, is not some counterproductive distraction – it is a critical front in the effort to actually make America great again.

Right now, there are eight blue states where Democrats control the governorship and the legislature, and five other blue states where Democrats have often had as much or more legislative power than Republicans. These states, plus myriad cities under Democratic rule, collectively oversee one of the planet’s largest economies. Laws enacted in these locales can set national and global standards, and in the process, concretely illustrate a popular progressive agenda. Such an agenda in liberal America could rebrand the Democratic party as an entity that is actually serious about challenging the greed of the 1%, fighting corruption, and making day-to-day life better for the 99%.

Instead, though, liberal America has often produced something much different and less appealing: Democratic politicians who constantly echo courageous populist themes in speeches, news releases and election ads, and then often uses the party’s governmental power to protect the status quo and serve corporate donors in their interminable class war.

Take California: a state where Democrats control the governorship, every state constitutional office and a legislative supermajority. With healthcare premiums rising, polls show 70% of Americans support the creation of a government-sponsored healthcare system. Considering that Canada’s healthcare system first began in its provinces, California would seem a perfect place to create the first such system in the United States. There is just one problem: Democrats are using their power to shut down single-payer legislation as they rake in big money from private insurance and drug companies.

On the opposite coast, it is the same story. A solidly Democratic New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have declined to take up single payer, and have also refused to pass legislation closing special “carried interest” tax loopholes that benefit a handful of Wall Street moguls. As those tax breaks drain public revenue, state officials simultaneously plead poverty in justifying cuts to basic social safety net programs – even as they offer massive taxpayer subsidies to corporations such as Amazon and play host to an endless series of pay-to-play corruption scandals that see wealthy campaign contributors enriched at the public trough.

Even in deep blue Rhode Island – where Democrats are so dominant the 113 member legislature has only 17 Republicans – then-treasurer Gina Raimondo and her fellow Democrats chose to stake their brand on a plan that eviscerated retirement benefits for teachers, firefighters, cops and other public sector workers. Raimondo, a former financial executive whose firm received state investments, also shifted billions of dollars of public workers’ retirement savings into politically connected hedge funds and private equity firms that charge outsized fees, but often generate returns that lag a cheap stock index fund…

Then there is Chicago, the most reliably Democratic stronghold of the heartland’s cities with a mayoralty that enjoys more inherent institutional power than almost any other.

There, the administration of Democratic stalwart Rahm Emanuel has used that power to initiate one of American history’s largest mass closures of public schools and layoff hundreds of teachers. During Emanuel’s tenure, public workers’ retirement savings were invested with financial firms whose executives have bankrolled Emanuel’s political apparatus. Emanuel’s administration also reportedly oversaw a police dark site where suspects were allegedly imprisoned without charge – and the Democratic mayor’s appointees infamously blocked the release of a videotape of Chicago police gunning down an unarmed African American teenager.

With the city subsequently suffering an explosion of gun violence, racial strife and economic inequality, Democratic donors responded by lavishing Emanuel with massive campaign contributions and Democratic voters reelected him. When Hizzoner later announced his retirement amid the trial over the police shooting, Emanuel was immediately lauded as a great hero by the most famous face of the Democratic party, Barack Obama.

After reciting a long litany of betrayals, Sirota lists the progressive candidates who are upending the Democratic party.

These progressive challengers and others like them have each run unique campaigns, but all have embodied the core belief that anti-Trump rhetoric alone is not an adequate response to the emergencies at hand. Democrats’ record in liberal states and liberal cities over the last decade makes a strong case that they are correct – and so now the revolution is on.

That may bewilder the Democrats’ permanent political class that has gotten used to steamrolling the public, losing elections and still remaining in charge of the party – but, really, the only confusing thing about this uprising is that it took this long to finally ignite.

Categories Democrats, Disruption

New York: Cuomo Campaign Smears Cynthia Nixon as an Anti-Semite, Which is Demonstrably False

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
42

Andrew Cuomo is a disgusting politician. His campaign distributed flyers calling his underfunded opponent Cynthia Nixon an ant-Semite. This is absurd on many levels, since Nixon and her wife are raising their children as Jews.

Cuomo is currying favor with the Orthodox Jews, who are a powerful voting bloc. He already made a deal with them not to investigate the abysmal policies of yeshivas that don’t teach in English and don’t teach science or other modern subjects. Torah study is just fine, but it is not a preparation for 21st century life.

The New York Times has already endorsed Cuomo’s re-election, based on his experience. Strangely, on the day after it endorsed him, it published an editorial about the sewer of corruption in Albany, swirling around the ethically challenged Governor Cuomo, whose top aides have been convicted of taking large bribes.

Years ago, when Andrew’s father Mario ran for Mayor against Ed Koch in New York City, mysterious posters appeared in the conservative neighborhoods of Queens, reading “Vote for Cuomo, not the Homo,” a slur against Koch’s unacknowledged sexuality. No one accepted responsibility but at the time it was assumed that it was the work of son Andrew.

Now Cynthia Nixon has laughingly turned that nasty slogan around and said, “Vote for the Homo, not the Cuomo.”

The latest campaign finance reports show Cuomo with $35 million, mostly from hedge funders, Wall Street, and big corporate names. Nixon has $2 million in individual contributions.

Here is today’s New York Times editorial about Cuomo’s latest smear, for which he of course takes no responsibility:

This is dirty politics, nearly as sleazy as it gets.

Days before Mr. Cuomo’s primary race for re-election on Thursday, the New York State Democratic Committee has sent voters a campaign mailer falsely accusing his challenger, Cynthia Nixon, of being “silent on the rise of anti-Semitism.”

It says she supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. She does not. It accuses Ms. Nixon of opposing funding yeshivas, private religious schools attended by many of the city’s Orthodox Jews. She has never said that.

“With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance,” the mailer reads. “Re-Elect Governor Andrew Cuomo.”

This is the lowest form of politics, and the most dangerous, exploiting the festering wounds and fears along ethnic and religious lines.

“I didn’t know about the mailer,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday in Manhattan. “I haven’t seen the mailer.”

Sorry, Mr. Cuomo, but that strains credulity.

Mr. Cuomo dominates the state Democratic Party. It acts ethically or abominably at his direction, or at the very least, with his campaign’s blessing.

The committee no doubt sent this garbage in the cynical hope that it would prove effective with Orthodox Jews, who generally vote as a bloc, making them a sought-after constituency for New York politicians.

Geoff Berman, executive director of the state Democrats, said Saturday on Twitter that the mailer was “a mistake and is inappropriate and is not the tone the Democratic Party should set,” saying it wouldn’t happen again. Sunday, he went further, saying the party would “work with the Nixon campaign to send out a mailing of their choosing to the same universe of people.”

Even if that were possible so late in the campaign, it’s not enough.

Mr. Cuomo has an obligation to personally apologize and condemn these outrageous attacks. Voters deserve to hear Mr. Cuomo describe Ms. Nixon as a worthy opponent who abhors anti-Semitism. He should make sure that message gets to Orthodox voters ahead of Thursday’s elections. And he should fire the party official who came up with the idea for the flier.

While Mr. Cuomo is at it, he might also mention that Ms. Nixon attends a Manhattan synagogue. Saturday night, her rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, issued a joint statement with her wife, the teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten, on Facebook, calling the charges in the mailer a “baseless lie.” Other Democrats have also condemned Mr. Cuomo and the Democratic Party for the flier.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat who hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the primary, said in a statement released by the Nixon campaign on Sunday: “I am doubly offended and aghast that my party organization would produce and mail such a false, damaging attack on Ms. Nixon and then watch the Governor and key staff act surprised they had done this. Shameful.”

Given all the ethical lapses in Mr. Cuomo’s administration, of which he has also pleaded ignorance, this smear is appalling. It is the kind of cynical behavior that detracts from Mr. Cuomo’s often-impressive ability to govern. If he is not careful, it could make voters feel they have no choice but to vote for someone else.

Mr. Cuomo deserves a third term because of his potential to lead. He should stop squandering that potential now. To be sure of it, New York Democrats need to turn out in large numbers on Thursday to support every reform-driven candidate possible — for the Legislature, for attorney general, even for party committees. They can teach Albany a lesson it won’t soon forget.

What matters more? Experience or character? Cuomo has none of the latter and deserves to go down to defeat.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

Fawning Over Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs and Her XQ Competition to “Reinvent” the High School

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
53

Politico Morning Education reports on Laurene Powell Jobs venture into redesigning the American high school:

FIRST LOOK: A GUIDE FOR STATES ON REVAMPING HIGH SCHOOL: A private philanthropic effort led by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, has given millions of dollars to high schools across the country with the goal of rethinking the traditional notion of high school and better preparing students for success in life.

— Now that initiative, called XQ: The Super School Project, is out with a guide for state policymakers on how to do that. “To prepare for the future of work, we must set a clear agenda to prepare the future workforce — and that agenda ties directly to our high schools,” Russlynn Ali, CEO and co-founder of XQ, told Morning Education. “We need high schools that are designed intentionally for the modern world.” Check out the guide here.

— What does that look like? XQ cites examples from high schools that it has funded. For example, the Grand Rapids Public Museum School received a $10 million grant from XQ. The school, which opened this year, is housed on a floor of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “The curriculum will focus on big issues related to sustainability, technology, and design explored through a local lens — the history, culture, economy, and ecology of the Grand Rapids region itself,” XQ’s guide for state policymakers says. “Students will take on projects that contribute to the community in tangible and positive ways. One project is designed to become the largest river-restoration initiative in the United States.”

Forgive the apparent digression, but this guide should be read in conjunction with a new book by Beth Macy called Dopesick, about the opioid addiction epidemic. More than 300,000 Americans have died in recent years, 72,000 just in 2017. More will die next year. Many of them will be high school students. A wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee book that makes the XQ competition sound like something from the 1950s.

Categories Billionaires

Do You Live in Tulsa? “Backpack” Is Coming to You!

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
5

Lucky you!

TulsaKids magazine is hosting a screening and panel discussion of Backpack Full of Cash on September 20th followed by a week long run of the film at the Circle Theater there.

Here’s TulsaKids Magazine blurb about the event and the link to their page http://www.tulsakids.com/Web-2018/Backpack-Full-of-Cash-Screening-and-Panel-Discussion/

When: Thursday, Sept. 7, 7-9:30 p.m.

Where: Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave.

What and Why:

With the expansion of charter schools in Tulsa and around the state, parents and others interested in public education have questions. What is a charter school? How are charter schools funded? Who controls charter schools? Last spring, Oklahoma teachers walked out to call attention to, not only low pay, but lack of resources in the schools. Are charter schools helping or hurting already strained resources?

To help you learn more, TulsaKids Media is sponsoring a screening of the documentary “Backpack Full of Cash” followed by a panel discussion on Thurs., Sept. 20, 7 p.m., at Circle Cinema.

Panelists include: Dr. John Cox, public school superintendent and candidate for Oklahoma State Superintendent; Eric Doss, director of quality charter services, Oklahoma Public School Resource Center (former administrator for Tulsa School of Arts & Sciences); Jennettie Marshall, Tulsa Public Schools Board member; Rob Miller, superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, Oklahoma Assistant Superintendent of the Year; Darryl Bright, Citizens United for a Better Education System.

Come join this important community dialogue.

Remember: Students and Teachers always get a discount at Circle Cinema! Tickets are $9.50 for adults, and $7.50 for students, teachers, military and seniors.

Learn more about the film at http://www.backpackfullofcash.com., and purchase tickets at http://www.circlecinema.com.

Categories Education Reform, Media, Oklahoma, Resistance

Newark: Charter School Network Accused of Disproportionate Suspensions of Students with Disabilities

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
9

No excuses!

Newark’s largest charter-school network suspends students with disabilities at a disproportionately high rate, violating their rights, according to a new complaint filed with the state.

The complaint alleges that North Star Academy gave suspensions to 29 percent of students with disabilities during the 2016-17 school year. The network disputes the complaint’s allegations and says the actual figure was 22 percent.

North Star removed students with disabilities from their classrooms for disciplinary reasons, including suspensions and expulsions, 269 times that school year, according to the complaint filed by an attorney at the Education & Health Law Clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark. The complaint is based on state data and reports by parents who contacted the clinic.

Those numbers stand in sharp contrast to ones at Newark Public Schools, where students with disabilities were sent out for disciplinary reasons just 87 times that school year, according to state data. Overall, just 1.3 percent of special-education students and 1.1 percent of all students were suspended in 2016-17, according to the attorney’s analysis of state data. Excluding North Star, the city’s charter schools together suspended about 9 percent of students with disabilities, the analysis found…

North Star is part of the Uncommon Schools network — one of several large charter-school organizations whose reliance on strict discipline and demanding academics is sometimes called “no excuses.” Some of the schools have softened their discipline policies in recent years, but others have held firm, insisting that their no-nonsense approach to misbehavior creates a safe, orderly environment where students can focus on academics.

According to the complaint, North Star continues to take an exacting approach to managing behavior. Each week, students receive behavior points in the form of “paychecks.” They can lose points for even minor infractions, such as not paying attention in class or violating the school-uniform code. If their points dip below a certain level, they can be sent to detention or suspended, the complaint says.

The complaint alleges that some students with disabilities struggle to follow the rules, and wind up being punished at a higher rate than non-disabled students. Federal data from the 2014-15 school year appear to support that claim. In that year, students with disabilities made up 7.2 percent of North Star’s enrollment, yet they received 16.5 percent of in-school suspensions and 12.9 percent of out-of-school suspensions, according to data compiled by the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights

Categories Charter Schools, Discipline and Suspensions, Education Industry, Education Reform, Environment, Joy, New Jersey, Newark, Special Education

North Carolina: Church Leaders Join the Struggle to Save Public Education

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
30

The North Carolina Council of Churches has joined with parents and other supporters of public education to push back against the privatization movement in North Carolina.

“NC Faith Leaders for Public Education Training in Salisbury
9:30-11:30 a.m. Sept. 12
The Council has committed anew to support public schools in our communities and to advocate on behalf of public education in our state. In this two-hour session, learn to engage in both support and advocacy by joining NC Faith Leaders for Public Education, a network of faith leaders and community members committed to supporting public schools.
https://www.ncchurches.org/priorities/public-education/ to learn more about NC Faith Leaders for Public Education.”

Their help is desperately needed.

The barbarians are inside the gates.

Radical extremists gained control of the legislature in 2010 and enacted an agenda that will intensify inequality, restrict voting rights, and crush public education. The courts have repeatedly struck down their gerrymandered districts. The Tea Party legislature enacted charter schools, including for-profit charters; vouchers; online charter schools; replaced the highly successful North Carolina Teaching Fellows program (which prepared career educators) with Teach for America; and waged war on the teaching profession.

North Carolina was once the most progressive state in the South. No more.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ignorance, Injustice, North Carolina, Privatization, Resistance, Teachers, Vouchers
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