I have waited a few days to digest the exciting events of last weekend.
My first thought is: I wish you had been there.
You would have seen teachers, parents, school board members, superintendents, researchers, college students, and lots of others who want to save their schools from privatization and save their students from endless over-testing. They came not to defend the status quo, but to fight the status quo.
At every NPE conference–in Austin, Chicago, Raleigh, Oakland, and Indianapolis–the spirit and goodwill were infectious. The same was true in Indianapolis.
Many people saw friends that they met at last year’s conference, or met their favorite blogger or researcher.
Every year, I hear the same statement: “This was the best conference yet.” And I believe it.
This was the first year that NPE awarded the Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Activism. The winners were the teacher-activists in Arizona who won the right to put a referendum on the ballot about vouchers. This was a high point of the first day. The award will be given out every year for teachers, parents, and other activists who display courage, tenacity, and heroism on behalf of public education and the common good.
I won’t report on all the keynotes but want to be sure that you watch Pasi Sahlberg.
Pasi Sahlberg was amazing. He talked about the “Global Education Reform Movement” (GERM) and accompanied his talk with slides and even a video (all of which were posted by him on Twitter @pasi_sahlberg. Pasi wrote the wonderful book Finnish Lessons and Finnish Lessons 2.0. His new book, with William Doyle, is Let the Children Play. Pasi talked about the birth of GERM as a reflection of the exuberant belief in the 1980s that markets and standardization solved all problems. Pasi showed the spread of GERM, especially in English-speaking countries. He is now based in Australia, and he told us that the government of New Zealand has dropped national standards and will soon eliminate national testing. He predicted that Australia would drop its NAPLAN tests and standards in the not-distant future. You can watch him on this video; his presentation begins at 27:00.
I attended several panels. One was exhilarating, another was very sad.
The exhilarating one was a presentation by teachers from Arizona who are active in #RedForEd and in the effort to stop a legislative plan for universal vouchers. The teachers pointed out that 95% of the children in Arizona attend public schools, which are underfunded. They described their fight against the Koch brothers, whom they beat in court when the brothers tried to get their referendum knocked off the ballot. The vote on the referendum takes place November 6. VOTE NO on PROP 305! Congratulations to these wonderful teachers, who have done all this work on their own dime and stood up to the most powerful rightwing machine in the nation!
The other panel was a presentation by four Puerto Rican activists, who described the effort to close and privatize the Island’s public schools. The Governor is working with the hedge fund managers who are salivating over the chance to close down public education. Nothing seems to stand in their way, although it was clear that the Island’s teachers are adamantly opposed to the takeover. A woman named Julie Keleher was imported to do the dirty work for Wall Street.
I also sat in on a panel led by Mercedes Schneider, Darcie Cimarusti, and Andrea Gabor, in which they explained in detail how to “follow the money.” They gave specific directions about sources that tell you who is funding what, how to unearth “Dark Money.” The session was packed, and attendees took notes. Darcie is our communications director and half-time staff at NPE, she is a school board member in her community, and she is an expert on following the money.
The closing speaker was the national chairman of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson. I will post his remarks as soon as the video is available. He was eloquent and spoke without a note. He talked about the systemic racism that has harmed African American children and teachers for many generations; about promises made and broken; and about the importance of making the child the center of all education. He was brilliant in recounting the history of legal efforts to establish rights for black children and about efforts to sabotage those rights. He gave us all a lesson in legal history. He stayed to answer every question. The leaders of the NAACP in Indiana and Indianapolis expressed their great concern about the Mind Trust and its plans to privatize the public schools of Indianapolis. The session–and conference–ended with yet another standing ovation.
It was a wonderful conference, well organized, well attended, filled with energy. As soon as videos are prepared for the sessions that were live-streamed, I will post them here.
I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am to be a part of this inspiring organization, how happy I am that Carol Burris is the executive director, how grateful I am to the other members of the board, and to the many volunteers that made it work. NPE can’t match the dollars of the billionaires, but we far exceed them in numbers, passion, dedication, and conviction. NPE expects to support grassroots organizations in every state for many years to come. We expect to work with them in making our schools better and more responsive to the needs of our children.
The next conference will be better still!
NPE conference? It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
YAY! Thank you for this report, Diane. Go NPE.
I truly wish I could have been there. You, NPE and thousands of individuals have energized a movement to educate American parents about what true education means for their children as you re-energize teachers who are scapegoated and abused by corporate education deformers.
Thanks. Now, what I would like to see is teachers and thers who care about public education writing letters to editors (especially to papers like Education Week) and pushing the public school cause and fighting back against the privatizers, Trumpists, Pencians, DeVos worshipers, etc. Time is of the essence. Our public schools can’t defend themselves. We the People must do it.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. I was there in spirit.
And, Diane Ravitch, bless you.
I was there and it was awesome. So good to hear Jitu Brown. He is making it happen in Chicago and with J4J, We Choose. The conference made so clear that we are powerful when we all join hands and work together.
Thank you Diane Ravitch and NPE!
Diane, This is SO encouraging! Thank you for sharing the information. My theory has always been that play is the work of children. 42 years in Scouting (boys and girls), 12 years of doing after-school programs, and several years of religious ed for children as well as being a mother of three and a step-mom of three have confirmed this as far as I’m concerned. I wish I had been there too!! Kas Winters (From Arizona and I’ve been wearing lots of RED!)
It’s great that there’s an education group outside the echo chamber.
Here’s a piece that is supposedly about “school choice” but is actually about charter schools:
https://www.the74million.org/article/school-choice-is-great-but-to-have-schools-worth-choosing-there-must-be-equity-access-and-diversity-say-authors-of-new-report/
I think ed reformers lose their billionaire funding if they so much as mention public schools. It’s as if public schools don’t exist. And, boy, public school students have paid for this neglect- they have lost every year the echo chamber has been in power.
They simply don’t have advocates in government or think tanks. If it wasn’t for teachers unions you would NEVER hear about them- 85% of schools! Just disappeared.
It is just nuts that in a country where 85% of families use public schools there is ONE advocacy group for those students and families and it runs on bubble gum and duct tape.
Public schools need advocates in government, and they don’t have any.
hear, hear
Unfortunately, some of the self-proclaimed progressive politicians who are in power are trumpeting how “progressive” they are as they run for president (Cory Booker) or House leadership positions (Hakim Jeffries). But these folks are snakes who, from their powerful perches, sabotage our public schools. They must be exposed. I’d love it if one of “our side’s” great researchers would write an article or book called something like “Privatizers of the Left.”
a kind of SCHOOL PRIVATIZING FOR DUMMIES 🙂
Thanks to all for a wonderful conference, including the volunteers who seemed to be everywhere they were needed. I learned a lot and just sent some follow-up information on ESSA’s new per-pupil spending reports to a school board member in Californa. Also appreciated meeting people whom I have admired as contributors to this blog.
Nothing like this or the NPE exists in America.
You, Carol, Anthony and the others should be proud of your contribution.
You are truth- sayers, watchers who keep a true eye and ear to what is afoot.
Thank you.