Republican legislators in West Virginia want to tie pay increases for teachers—which they were promised when they went on strike last year—to the introduction of charter schools and vouchers. They think that school choice will raise test scores, which it won’t.
Governor Justice said he won’t support charter schools. The state can’t afford it. Presumably he won’t support vouchers either, which not only reduce revenues but lower test scores.
Governor Justice comes out against one W.Va. big education bill
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Wow…what a bunch of fools.
The Governor’s action is honorable.
W.Va.’s Sen. Manchin is slime along with his daughter, made infamous by her Epipen pricing decisions as Mylan CEO and, by the route she took to getting a degree from West Virginia’s PUBLIC university.
“They think that school choice will raise test scores”
Actually Diane, as Dean Baker likes to point out, “we don’t know what they think”, we know what they claim and what their actions are. What they think is quite a different story.
They have access if they were at all interested to the same information that we do.
I think they are determined to crush unions and are instituting the policy to do so. I think they could care less about the Children of West Virginia.
Exactly right.
Finally, a representative that will actually look at evidence rather than hype, spin or “incentives.” More states need to take a realistic look at what charter drain is doing to their schools, communities and budgets. The math behind privatization does not work, and it never has. Charters have failed to deliver on their promises, and states cannot run parallel systems for the same dollar. Sinking public taxes into somebody else’s profit is a loss for the state. Other states need to take a hard look at the losing realities of privatization.
Hudson:
“It’s the basic intellectual dynamic of parasitism. In nature, parasites don’t simply attach themselves to a host and suck out blood. In order to do that, they have to numb the host. They need an anesthetic so that the host doesn’t realize it’s being bitten. Then, biological parasites in nature have an enzyme that they use to take over the brain. The brain of the host is tricked into thinking that the parasite is a part of its body, to be protected.
(Propaganda) is not about reality. It’s about the internal consistency of assumptions. It’s to build a beautiful system that, if it really worked, would be so appealing that students will be willing to suspend disbelief. That is what a good science fiction writer would do. The trick is to make readers willing to accept the assumptions that they’re given at the outset.”
IOW, the test score trick/propaganda doesn’t end by using it.
Q Presumably he won’t support vouchers either, which not only reduce revenues END Q
I do not get the connection. Revenues are the tax payments, which the citizens pay to the government. In states, which have vouchers/ESAs, tax revenues continue to be collected, with as much force as in states which have a public-school monopoly.
There are two things, we can all rely on. Death and taxes.
Vouchers are usually tax credits for corporations and rich individuals, not direct payments to religious schools. The state gets less tax revenue. In Florida, the state loses $1 Billion a year in tax revenues.
A common good is only referred to as a monopoly by those who want to deceive.
For-profit schools-in-a-box owned by men like Gates or Z-berg will have market dominance in communities, similar to the Walmart model, which qualifies as a monopoly.