Carol Burris writes here about “National School Choice Week” and who pays for it.
She writes:
Planning and managing National School Choice Week is a year-long endeavor. National School Choice Week is an organization, yet it has no donate button, nonprofit status statement, nor 990 income tax form that I can find. It does have a president who used to work for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at the American Federation for Children, a 501(c)(4) lobbying and advocacy group founded by her billionaire family.
The week has an official dance and on its website is a “happiness blog” on which representatives of an online charter chain, connected to the for-profit K-12, encourage everyone to paint a rock to show their love for “choice.”
It also has lots of right-wing billionaire bucks behind it. In 2016, Media Matters, a progressive nonprofit that researches conservative groups, did a masterful job of exposing where the money comes from to fund National School Choice Week. The week was started by the right-wing Gleason Family Foundation that also funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Uncommon Charter Schools, the libertarian Cato Institute and anti-union organizations that promote “right to work.”
The peculiar issue about school choice is how the right-wingers were clever enough to hoax Obama and Duncan, Cory Booker and Hakim Jeffries.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The post’s final paragraph- is money a peculiar motivation?
I don’t see the link?
Thanks, Susan, fixed the link.
The last paragraph…..greed has no sides (Dem or Rep). And I don’t think Duncan, Booker and Jeffries (along with a long list of others) were fooled by any “hoax”, as they were in for the profit.
“Public schools suck” week.
That’s where tens of thousands of FEDERAL public employees and our federal government denigrate scold and lecture LOCAL public employees and the local government entities who run public schools, and promote privately owned and managed charter and private schools.
It’s ludicrous.
Rather than add some practical, useful value or support or assistance to any public school, anywhere, they all get together and bash public schools and cheerlead charters and vouchers.
And we them pay for this! Amazing.
Maybe it doesn’t matter. Ed reform doesn’t offer anything of value to public school students, teachers or families anyway. They’re irrelevant to 90% of families in the country. This way they can give one another awards without the distraction of the inconvenient public school “sector” they all oppose.
Federal government is not tasked to fund, manage or provide curricula to public schools, this is states’ prerogative. What is ludicrous is asking the fed for money while at the same time criticizing attempts to create national curricula.
What is ludicrous is the money that rains down on foundations, institutes and Koch faculty at public universities. The scum reflect a demographic monolith that privatizes schools for the benefit of oligarchs. Change that to demonic monolith.
Our public school is taking a grant from a local organization for summer reading intervention this year.
That’s what they were up to while DC ed reformers draped themselves in yellow scarves and spent days scolding, lecturing and smearing public schools, and promoting charters and private schools.
Irrelevant to 90% of people in the country. Not returning any value.
I wonder whether this intervention is needed because the original instruction used Whole Language method.
The really wonderful thing about the grant offer we got from the local charity is this: our school actually wants and needs help with lower-income students reading remediation in the summer. They didn’t have to be bullied into taking it and no one had to privatize the school or fire all the teachers or usurp the locally elected school board. No one had to spend millions of dollars on slickly produced marketing events because, wonder of wonders, the local school actually wants and needs THIS help.
This is probably too small-ball for the geniuses of ed reform- I suppose we can’t ask such brilliant visionaries to actually pitch in.
From Chalkbeat …
My question: What will Jared Polis do? Will he support public school teachers?
The looming teacher strike in Denver will not affect the district’s 60 charter schools, which are operated independently. Yesterday, the city’s two biggest charter school operators sent letters to students’ families assuring that their schools would be open. The DSST charter school network also noted that it recently gave its teachers a 12 percent raise. STRIVE Prep told Chalkbeat it is planning similar raises next year.
Those raises are slightly higher than the district was offering its own teachers. The union voted to strike after rejecting an offer that district officials said would have given teachers a 10 percent raise next year, on average.
Meanwhile, Denver Public Schools has asked Gov. Jared Polis to intervene in the contract dispute — which could have the effect of delaying a strike. Polis hasn’t announced a decision yet. Stay tuned to Chalkbeat today for updates.
— Melanie Asmar, reporter
HOLDING PATTERN After meeting with Gov. Jared Polis for roughly an hour Wednesday morning, Denver Public Schools officials formally requested state intervention in a potential teacher strike. In a press release late Wednesday afternoon, Polis said he had not made a decision. Chalkbeat, Denver Post, 9News
3.
RIPPLE EFFECT The day after news that Denver teachers union members had voted to strike, Denver’s largest charter school operators reassured families their schools will keep operating as usual and sought to highlight their own efforts to better compensate teachers. Chalkbeat
4.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST During a strike, Denver Public Schools plans to pay substitutes twice the regular rate, or $212 a day. Their normal rate? Just $106 a day, which is less than other big-city districts such as Los Angeles and Boston. Chalkbeat
NOW HIRING Denver Public Schools is on the hunt for stand-in teachers as a potential strike looms over the state’s largest school district. Denver Post
I’m reading ed reformers today and they’re all criticizing the LA teachers contract. That’s their sum total contribution to Los Angeles public schools.
We have an entire class of paid people who are professional public school critics. That is their job description, and as far as PUBLIC schools that is the only purpose they serve.
Was there really an unmet need for a huge group of adults who criticize public schools for a living? Is that why billionaires created this employment market and staffed it with echo chamber denizens? That’s what public schools were missing? We didn’t have enough powerful and well-connected people scolding us and showing us the error of our ways?
You know, they keep telling us this agenda is very popular, but the facts on the ground seem to contradict the narrative almost monthly now. Denver is supposed to be the ed reform poster child. Why are those teachers so fed up they’re walking off the job? Is that maybe a SLIGHT hint that the narrative doesn’t fit the reality in these places?
Fewer people are accepting the lies from the billionaire echo chamber and their paid propagandists. More people understand that “reform” is mostly about gaining access to public money. They are finally catching on to all the negatives associated with it too.
No tax dollars to charter schools!
If you think I’m exaggerating I would encourage everyone to go read ed reformers.
Here’s Betsy Devos, doing what she does every single day (and it’s ALL she does)-
“And I’ve talked a lot about that lately. Some ask why that’s necessary. Well, education is the least disrupted “industry” in America. And, let’s not kid ourselves, it is an industry. The one-size-fits-all approach is a mismatch for too many kids. Every student is different and therefore learns differently. And education is too siloed.”
They’re professional public school critics- it’s all they offer and all they produce.
They don’t feel any compunction to actually offer something of practical value to public schools- instead they see themselves as “visionaries” who “reinvent”.
DeVos is delivering a compilation of slogans that get passed around the echo chamber she inhabits and calling that “work”. The actual work of schools? Ed reformers don’t lower themselves to that- that’s for the non-visionaries.
Aren’t they embarrassed at how low quality and cheesy this stuff is? No one in the real world even uses “disruption” anymore- that slogan is ten years old and it was dumb ten years ago.
Can’t we do better than this? Can’t we get some people in government who actually value public schools and want to contribute something other than criticism?
Betsy should disrupt her own family.
Betsy’s shallow, vapid, tone deaf, dogmatic, stupid, undereducated, clueless and a candidate for King Louis’ headless royal court.
Hasn’t her family suffered enough?
In Ohio, Public Education Partners has countered this the last 2 years with our own “Celebration of Public Schools.” Proclamations have been made across the state and a ceremony with student performers was held at the Statehouse today.
Trying to change the narrative….
Katie,
Excellent, positive action!
Public Education Week
WHEREAS, traditional public school districts in Ohio serve more than 1.8 million students and employ more than 245,000 Ohioans; and
WHEREAS, all children in Ohio should have access to the highest-quality education possible; and
WHEREAS, Ohio citizens recognize the important role that an effective education plays in preparing all students to be successful adults; and
WHEREAS, quality education is critically important to the economic vitality of the Buckeye State; and
WHEREAS, public education not only helps to diversify our economy, but also enhances the vibrancy of our community; and
WHEREAS, Ohio has many high-quality teaching professionals who are committed to educating our children; and
WHEREAS, public education is celebrated across the country by millions of students, parents, educators, schools and organizations to raise awareness of the need for effective public schools;
THEREFORE, WE do hereby recognize January 20-26, 2019 as PUBLIC EDUCATION WEEK and call this observance to the attention of all Ohioans.
https://publiceducationpartners.org/2018/11/13/ohio-public-education-week-is-january-20-26-2019/
Five professors at PUBLIC universities while also “Policy Scholars” at the Bluegrass Institute which hawks the privatization of public schools. Same 5 guys have associations, 1 to 2 separations from the Koch’s. The DeVos’ Americans for Children posted its blather about School Choice Week at the Bluegrass site this week.
Prof. JOHN GAREN, University of Kentucky- This summer UK distanced itself from funder, Pappa John, over his use of the “n”-word. Pappa John and the Koch’s, together, had financed one of those campus anomalies exposed by UnKochMyCampus.org.
Prof. STEPHAN GOHMAN, University of Louisville
Prof. GARY HOUCHENS Western Kentucky University
Prof. ERIC D. SCHANSBERG, Indiana University Southeast
Prof. BRIAN STROW, Western Kentucky University
How in the world did I ever grow up in Boise? Idaho is at the bottom, with Utah, in funding for its schools. The solution, of course, is ‘hit the teachers and make them work’, the lousy slackers. Ignorance is bliss in Idaho, home of the famous potatoes. [I remember when Idaho’s license plates had a picture of potatoes on it.] My father had a garden and wondered why Idaho was famous for potatoes when he couldn’t grow big ones.
………………..
SURVEY: IDAHOANS WANT ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EDUCATORS
Devin Bodkin 01/22/2019
Most Idahoans think it’s a good idea to base teacher and school effectiveness on student achievement.
A statewide survey, “The People’s Perspective,” found a majority of Idahoans prefer the idea of rating the state’s public schools based on multiple achievement indicators.
More than seven in 10 of those polled said it’s generally a good idea to rate and publicize all of Idaho’s public schools based on multiple indicators, such as test scores, graduation rates and student growth. Twenty-six percent said it’s a bad idea.
More than three of four respondents thought it’s generally a good idea to measure teacher effectiveness by assessing students’ skills and knowledge when they first come to a teacher and to measure them again when students leave. Twenty percent said it’s a bad idea.
Approximately two in three said it’s generally a good idea to require students to pass a standardized test to show they have learned what they were supposed to before getting a high school diploma. Thirty-two percent said this is a bad idea….
Idahoans are increasingly comfortable with charter schools. Charter schools received resounding support — 75 percent said they favor charter schools, described as “public schools that have a lot more control over their own budget, staff, and curriculum, and are free from many existing regulations.” Only one in five respondents opposed them.
https://www.idahoednews.org/news/survey-idahoans-want-accountability-for-educators/