Archives for the month of: April, 2019
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Mercedes Schneider on the Tennessee Voucher Legislation and Public Reaction to It

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
12

 

Mercedes Schneider conducted a search to find the voucher legislation just passed by both houses of the Tennessee Legislature. You will not be surprised to learn that the legislation was written by ALEC (the rightwing bill mill funded by DeVos, the Koch brothers, and corporations).

I had a hard time plowing through the dreary legislative language, but if you skip to the end of that section, you will find vitriolic comments directed at the bill’s co-sponsor, Brian Kelsey, by his constituents on his Facebook page. They express outrage and a sense of betrayal.

Let’s hope they remember when Kelsey runs again.

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Koch Brothers, Tennessee, Vouchers

Florida Senate Endorses a Fifth Voucher Program

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
19

 

Spurred on by Governor Ron DeSantis, Jeb Bush, and Betsy DeVos, the Florida Senate endorsed a fifth private voucher program. 

“The bill would create a new Family Empowerment Scholarship — the state’s fifth voucher program — that could help up to 18,000 students pay private school tuition with state-backed scholarships. The program would target youngsters from low-income families but could be open to more middle class ones, too, with an income limit of nearly $80,000 for a family of four….

“Every parent knows what’s best for their individual child, and at no point should we turn over that responsibility to the government,” said Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, one of the bill’s sponsors.”

The new program would be funded with money taken from the state education budget, up to $130 million. Other vouchers programs are “tax credits” given to corporations or individuals. Because this money comes right out of the state budget, it might be subject to legal challenge since it directly violates the state constitution’s prohibition on public money for religious schools.

Republicans are betting that the state courts will ignore the state constitution and the 2012 referendum that went against Jeb Bush’s effort to change that provision of the state constitution.

More than 80% of students using vouchers attend religious schools. Voucher schools “do not have to give students state tests nor meet state standards when it comes to academics, teacher credentials or facilities.”

Florida Republicans continue their  assault on public schools.

Florida is no model for the nation.

On the NAEP, Florida ranks at the national average in 8th grade reading and math. It has large achievement gaps between black and white students. Ignore Florida’s fourth grade scores; they are tainted by the state policy of retaining third grade students who don’t pass the state reading test.

I don’t know whether voucher students are included in NAEP’s sample. The State makes sure they are not included on state tests.

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Bush, Jeb, Disruption, Florida, Privatization, Separation of church and state

Matt Barnum: New Research Shows Vouchers Do Lasting Damage to Student Achievement in Math

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
11

 

Matt Barnum reports that new research from Louisiana shows that the negative effects of vouchers persist over time. 

There used to be a belief that the negative effects were temporary, but apparently the voucher students do not bounce back, as voucher proponents hoped.

New research on a closely watched school voucher program finds that it hurts students’ math test scores — and that those scores don’t bounce back, even years later.

That’s the grim conclusion of the latest study, released Tuesday, looking at Louisiana students who used a voucher to attend a private school. It echoes research out of Indiana, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. showing that vouchers reduce students’ math test scores and keep them down for two years or more.

Together, they rebut some initial research suggesting that the declines in test scores would be short-lived, diminishing a common talking point for voucher proponents.

“While the early research was somewhat mixed … it is striking how consistent these recent results are,” said Joe Waddington, a University of Kentucky professor who has studied Indiana’s voucher program. “We’ve started to see persistent negative effects of receiving a voucher on student math achievement.”

The state’s voucher program also didn’t improve students’ chances of enrolling in college.

The results may influence local and national debates. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is working to drum up support for a proposed federal tax credit program that could help parents pay private-school tuition, and Tennessee lawmakers are debating whether to create a voucher-like program of their own.

If past history is a guide, Betsy DeVos will dismiss the research, as will Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. They want vouchers regardless of their impact on students.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Research, Tennessee, Vouchers

Hillary Clinton Advisor: No Regrets About Our Support for Charter Schools!

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
84

Catherine Brown was a senior advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign. She has long been associated with the neoliberal Center for American Progress. She also worked for former Congressman George Miller, who was a favorite of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the hedge fund managers’ charter-promoting organization.

In this article, published fittingly enough at Campbell Brown’s website The 74, Brown says she has no regrets about supporting charter schools. She defends Beto O’Rourke, whose wife is deeply enmeshed in charter schools in Texas, and who has expressed his admiration for privately managed charters in the past.

Curiously, she feels no embarrassment about embracing a “reform” that destabilizes public schools and that is endorsed by every Red State governor and legislature.

She doesn’t seem to care about the fiscal impact of charters on the public schools that enroll 85-90% of the nation’s students. Why does she prioritize charters over public schools?

It is interesting that she does not address the recent NPE report demonstrating that the federal Charter Schools Program wasted nearly $1 billion between the years 2006-2014 (during the Obama administration) on charter schools that never opened or closed soon after opening. About 1 of every 3 charters funded by the federal program failed.

Nor does she address the daily reports of charter fraud, waste, abuse, and embezzlement.

Nor does Brown mention that 90% of the charters across the nation are non-union.

Nor that their biggest single private funder is the anti-union Walton Foundation.

Oh, no, she favors “high-quality” charter schools, you know, the ones that cherry pick the highest scoring students and post high test scores due to their admissions and discipline policies.

This article is a strong statement of the neoliberal Democrat view of charters, which has helped to defund public schools and undermine teacher unions across the country.

The overlap between the views of Betsy DeVos and neoliberal Democrats is hard to miss.

Note to the Center for American Progress:

Progressive Democrats support real public schools. Progressive Democrats do not support privately managed charter schools. Progressive Democrats do not support a sector that was built to smash teachers’ unions and that is 90% non-union. Progressive Democrats support democratically controlled public schools. 

 

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Funding, Walton Foundation

Oakland: Remember Laurene Powell Jobs’ $100 Million Giveaway Contest to Reinvent High Schools? This One Collapsed

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
7

Remember when Laurene Powell Jobs announced that she was running a competition for ideas to reinvent the high school? She was offering $10 million to each winning proposal, which she called “Super Schools.”

Nearly 700 proposals were entered, but only 10 were chosen.

One of the winners was in Oakland, California, a district that has been subject to nonstop disruption, charters, and and constant meddling by the Eli Broad foundation. For years, the district has been led by Broadies, who have run it into a ditch and failed to revive its fortunes.

The Oakland winner planned to open a Super School that incorporated Mark Zuckerberg’s Summit Learning online platform.

But things went poorly after Oakland’s Broadie superintendent Antwan Wilson was lured to the District of Columbia to be its chancellor (where he was soon ousted after it was revealed that he pulled strings to get his daughter into one of the best public schools, a practice that Wilson had forbidden for others. Wilson is now running an education consulting business.)

Two years ago, the Oakland Super School was abandoned before it opened. 

The turmoil in the district, which has been a near constant for years, made it impossible to open.

Summit Public Schools, which operates a chain of charter schools, with support from the Oakland school district and Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office, submitted a winning proposal for a charter school focusing on personal learning and real-world experiences. The goal was to open the new school at the California College of the Arts on Broadway in Rockridge in fall 2018.

But the effort started to fall apart over the last several months and was ultimately abandoned in recent weeks, The Chronicle has learned. Now, Summit leaders will use the money for one of their existing charter schools in Daly City.

“There are just better ways for us to help kids in the Bay Area,” said Jason Solomon, senior director of advocacy and engagement at Summit Public Schools, which operates eight charter schools in the Bay Area and three in Washington state.

Solomon noted that the team’s entry to build the new school included the support of former Oakland Superintendent Antwan Wilson, who resigned this year to lead the Washington, D.C., schools. On top of the turnover in leadership, the district is grappling with the need to close or consolidate schools given declining enrollment while juggling a $30 million budget shortfall over the next year.

Community groups were unhappy that the proposed charter would be sited very close to an existing Oakland public school that had not yet been disrupted and destroyed.

With Antwan Wilson gone, Summit charters was not sure they would have a champion so they shifted the funding to one of their schools in Daly City.

Summit substitutes computer-based instruction for real teachers, and it has driven out in places as distant as Connecticut and Kansas, by parents and students.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Charter Schools, Disruption, Education Industry, Privatization, Technology

Oakland: A Must-Read Lexicon of Charter Frauds

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2019 //
16

 

Jane Nylund, a parent activist in Oakland, wrote this incisive overview of charter frauds in her district and submitted it to the Task Force reviewing the California charter law. Please copy and forward to the Task Force at:

chartertaskforce@cde.ca.gov

She writes:

For fifteen years as a parent, volunteer, and employee of Oakland Unified, I’ve been witness to what is now a full blown privatization movement in Oakland under our “portfolio district” model. A movement designed to crush our real public schools and privatize them; a movement to close our schools and gentrify our neighborhoods. A movement to allow outside interests and corporations to feed at the trough. And the current laws in California that allow this to happen, unchecked and unfettered. And the absolute failure of any of it to collectively improve the lives of our most vulnerable children. 

 The time for this damaging experiment on our children is over. Stop clutching at the billionaires’ purse strings, while at the same time declaring that more choice is the answer. Here’s why it isn’t.

 Choice in Oakland-Do you want fries with that?

What does choice in Oakland mean? The model here isn’t much different than saturating the poor neighborhoods with cheap fast food. Oh, there’s choice all right-McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, or Taco Bell. Plenty of choice, take your pick. How about a nice juicy steak? Forget it, you don’t need that choice, but here’s some other choices for you. Poor nutrition that fills you temporarily, but ends up starving you of any real sustenance. Saturating neighborhoods with charter schools is the same business model. I heard an East Oakland resident say, in a public meeting, that charter schools were like having drug dealers on every corner. Keepin’ it real….

 Scandals? You want ’em, we got ’em

 Scandal #1-American Indian Charter

The CEO of AIMS, Ben Chavis stole $3.8M from his schools in rent and paid it to his own leasing company which held the leases for his own schools. Self-dealing Gone Wild. He is in jail in North Carolina awaiting trial for money laundering and mail fraud. You’d think the school would be shut down after that? Nope, the school board wilted under the facade of those amazing test scores, gamed in part by shutting out African Americans and SPED from the AIMS schools, as well as having obscenely high rates of attrition. 

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/turmoil-returns-for-charter-schools/Content?oid=9074129  

 Scandal #2-Bay Area Technology School

A Gulen school run by Turkish teachers and a Turkish school board. In a squabble worthy of a B-rated movie, the principal was forced out but somehow managed to flee to Australia with $400,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars in his pocket. Nice gig if you can get it. 

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/former-principal-alleges-oaklands-baytech-school-was-source-of-funding-for-gulen-movement/Content?oid=19390167  

 Scandal #3-Oakland School for the Arts

Full disclosure-I’m a huge arts supporter, and I know plenty of parents who support the school and who have kids there. It’s not the program; it’s the enrollment policy. OSA is an experiment in what happens when a school supported by our former governor is allowed to select its own student body. OSA is now the second wealthiest school in Oakland and has virtually no ELL. How can that possibly happen when the school has a lottery? Easy. You have the kids do an audition and allow the kids into the lottery based on the results of the audition. Private schools do that. Is it discriminatory? Yes, the ACLU said as much.  Does it violate charter law? Yes. Has anyone done anything about it. No, because of big $$$ and the support of Jerry Brown and Friends. Alternatively, Jerry could have supported more arts funding in public schools instead of opening OSA. Food for thought….

 Scandal #4-Castlemont Junior Academy and Primary Academy

This was a script that practically wrote itself. Open charters right next door to the neighborhood elementary, Parker. Next, install a OUSD board member, James Harris on the charter board, as well as Yana Smith, the wife of former OUSD Chief of Schools Allen Smith. While it might have been legal, the perceived conflict of interest was breathtaking. Lastly, watch in amazement as the charters implode a few months later, due to low enrollment. Parker, the real public school has to enroll approx. 85 children from the elementary charter mid-year. It doesn’t get more disruptive than that. Startup funding? Gone….

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/two-highly-touted-oakland-charter-schools-quickly-closed-andmdash-and-now-owe-the-district-money/Content?oid=5091277  

 Scandal #5-Aspire Eres and the annexing of the Derby Parcel

When Reed Hastings says “Jump!”, Aspire says, “How high?” Aspire, in a bid to purchase city-owned public land for charter school expansion, tried to negotiate a backroom deal with the city. The expansion had not even been approved by the school board, but that’s okay because Reed Hastings doesn’t like elected school boards anyway. They just get in the way of his personal business. Public school activists found out, organized the public, pushed back hard, and thwarted the deal. 

https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oaklands-exclusive-deal-to-sell-city-owned-land-to-charter-school-draws-opposition/Content?oid=15872497  

 Scandal #6-the 100% Grad Rate myth

This is one of my personal favorites because of the inevitable comparison of district schools’ to charter schools’ performance. How many more times do we need to see grad rates/test scores stats tossed around on social media, popping up like so many toxic mushrooms. How can a charter school claim 100% (or close to it) grad rates when they lose 40, 50, or 60% of their children in high school? Easy, charters typically don’t backfill. Real public schools backfill; they fill that seat as soon as a student wants it, at any time. Any student, not just the easy ones.

 Scandal #7-Charters are superior to district schools because of their amazing test scores! (Marketing 101)

See Scandal #6. Until charters can claim that they educate the same number of FRPL, ELL, and SPED kids, and also have the same number of suspensions/attrition, there is no valid or fair comparison here. The student populations served (or not) are usually significantly different.

 Scandal #8-the “rightsizing” myth

Portfolio models “rightsize” (translation:downsize) by closing mostly district schools. But the schools don’t close; they are privatized into charters via Prop 39. Out of 18 of the last Oakland district school closures, 14 were converted to charters. This scandal illustrates the utter lack of local control on any charter openings/closings. Easy to open, nearly impossible to close, favoring charter growth by design. OUSD admitted that closing schools doesn’t save money, and yet they (Walton/Bloomberg-bought board) push the narrative constantly. It’s a mantra that’s growing stale but refuses to die.

 Scandal #9-the “high demand” for charters myth

See Scandal #8. How to create demand? Close your neighborhood elementary schools, which then feed into the middle schools (demand dries up there as well). Then, open a charter right near these same schools. Doesn’t take a genius to see how that will turn out. Ask the students at Roots International how they feel about their neighborhood school closure. But our charter-friendly ($$$) school board fully supports this portfolio model; there are charters right around the corner that former Roots students can attend instead. Instant charter demand creation.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11721015/the-big-fight-over-a-small-school-in-oakland-what-you-need-to-know  

 Scandal #10

The fact that all these scandals exist at all, and that public school advocates, as well as tenacious local reporters, have to do the important work of digging up the information and presenting it to the public. This is what accountability looks like in Oakland and the rest of California. We are getting tired of doing the job that the Office of Charter Schools is supposed to be doing, but doesn’t. And this list is far from exhaustive; it’s likely just the tip of the iceberg, because of the lack of transparency.

 Our school district loses $57M a year to unfettered charter expansion. It’s time to get back to some no-nonsense approaches to this problem such as real local control, as well as including impact to district finances. Charter schools don’t have the right to expand just because it’s what the Waltons and Reed Hastings want. The Waltons don’t send their children to Oakland public schools.  District schools aren’t offered the same expansion opportunity and if they were, Oakland Technical would be the size of a small college by now. This failed experiment on our most vulnerable children must end, and I implore the task force to make the recommendations that will serve the needs of ALL students and stop supporting an agenda that clearly favors charter expansion, the theft of taxpayers’ dollars, and not much else. The time is now, and if not now, when?

 Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Competition, Education Reform

Harold Meyerson: Will Trump Get Away with It?

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2019 //
44

 

 

ON TAP Today from the American Prospect
APRIL 25, 2019

Meyerson on TAP

Trump Did What Nixon Did, but Today’s GOP Won’t Convict. The story is told of the 19th-century Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, who was also a noted trial lawyer, that he once represented a plaintiff in a patent infringement suit. His client, an inventor, was suing a would-be inventor who’d come up with a small machine that was indistinguishable from the plaintiff’s own invention. As the trial ended, Webster’s opposing attorney delivered a long summation enumerating the ostensible differences between the two devices. When he finished, Webster arose, looked at the two machines, turned to the jury and said, “Well, if you can see any difference between them, that is more than I can see”—and sat down. The jury quickly ruled for Webster’s client.

This story (which, like many good stories, may be apocryphal) comes to mind when comparing Richard Nixon’s obstruction of justice—which, had he not resigned, would have resulted in his impeachment and conviction—with Donald Trump’s. And, as Webster supposedly said, if you can see any difference between them, that’s more than I can see.

What’s different today, however, is the Republican Party. In 1974, when the House Judiciary Committee voted for articles of impeachment, a number of committee Republicans joined their Democratic colleagues to recommend impeachment to the full House. The most conservative Republicans on the committee, however, voted No on those motions. But a couple of weeks later, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Nixon had to release tapes including discussions of Watergate to the committee. On one of those tapes, Nixon said he’d order the CIA to tell the FBI to stop investigating the break-in because it would compromise national security (which, of course, it wouldn’t). When the tape reached the committee, all the Republicans who’d strenuously defended Nixon during its deliberations—including Mississippi’s Trent Lott—announced they were switching their vote to recommend impeachment. All 38 committee members—not just all the Democrats but all the Republicans, too—said Nixon had to go. And Nixon went.

Comes now the case of Donald Trump. Like Nixon, Trump repeatedly sought to stop the investigation of Russian involvement in his election and related matters. He fired the FBI director, who’d refused to pledge that he’d stop investigating possible ties and actual contacts Trump associates had with Russian officials. He ordered White House Counsel Donald McGahn to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller. He told Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager, to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to order Mueller to drop the investigation and focus solely on measures to prevent future Russian interference in elections. That Trump’s underlings often refused to do what he’d ordered them to do doesn’t mean that Trump didn’t commit obstructions of justice. It just means that his underlings declined to do what McGahn told Reince Priebus, then White House chief of staff, was “crazy shit.”

So how does Trump’s obstruction differ from Nixon’s? That Nixon’s aides took their boss’s commands more seriously than Trump’s took his is a difference, but not a defense. The Judiciary Committee, like its 1974 predecessor, would have to have figures like McGahn and Priebus testify before it to elicit the same sworn testimony that they gave Mueller, just as the various congressional committees of 1973–1974 heard testimony from such figures as Nixon’s former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman. That’s why Trump is insisting that no present or former administration officials be allowed to testify—an issue sure to be decided by the courts.

Say, though, that they do end up testifying and confirming what they told Mueller’s investigators. Would today’s Republicans, confronted with a clear case of obstruction of justice, do what their predecessors unanimously did, and recommend impeachment?

Of course not. Today’s Republican Party—both its elected officials and its rank-and-file members—is a cult, cordoned off from reality by the walls it has erected against any information that doesn’t come from far-right media, which provides it not with information at all, but with propaganda as fictitious (though not as overtly murderous) as anything that the Josef Goebbels machine once churned out. No such media, save on the fringes, were around in 1974, but they’re certainly around now, bolstering the Republicans by creating an alternative universe where reality seldom impinges. Which is why today’s GOP is not a jury that Daniel Webster, with all the evidence in the world, could sway. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

Why Democrats Can’t Punt on Impeachment
Dems’ reluctance to take action is getting harder to justify. By PAUL WALDMAN
The Bad History Informing the Impeachment Debate
Cautious Democrats seeking to avoid impeaching Donald Trump are making a mangle of the past and misreading the present. By DAVID ATKINS
Most Devastating of All: Mueller’s Indictment of Trump’s Character
Even though Mueller apparently doesn’t believe a sitting president can be indicted, he provides a devastating indictment of Trump’s character. By ROBERT REICH

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Categories Education Reform

Bill Phillis: Repeal HB 70 Now!

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2019 //
5

 

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Facebook ‌ Twitter ‌LinkedIn ‌
Toledo Board of Education member: HB 70 is “possibly one of the most undemocratic, mean-spirited, cynical pieces of legislation ever passed in the state of Ohio”
Several state legislators are attempting to repeal or at least put a moratorium on HB 70. Other state officials, including the State Superintendent and Governor, want to repair it.
HB 70, enacted by the 131stGeneral Assembly in a 24-hour period with no public involvement, was a colossal mistake. It merely punishes school districts that serve a high concentration of poverty students.
Ohioans must call for a complete repeal of HB 70. A repair job on HB 70 would be like using chewing gum to repair a leak in the Hoover Dam. HB 70 must be replaced by legislation that provides services to poverty students.
Governance is not the issue. Poverty is.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540| ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| www.ohiocoalition.org
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Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Pastors for Florida Children Organizes to Support Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2019 //
3

 

A new organization has been launched in Florida to support the principle of public schooling and speak out against the diversion of public funds to private and religious schools. Florida’s State Constitution  explicitly prohibits the use of public funds for religious schools. The voters rejected an effort to change the state constitution in 2012. The Republicans who control state government continue to ignore both the state constitution and the will of the voters.

Readers, if you live in Florida and you are Jewish, please encourage your rabbi to join this group and speak out for the separation of church and state. Florida is funding voucher schools whose teachers are uncertified and that teach bigotry and creationism, not science. These schools should not receive public funds intended for public schools.

 

“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 24, 2019

 

Pastors for Florida Children oppose the continued expansion of

private and religious voucher programs

Money is being drained from our traditional public schools that serve 90% of Florida’s children

This week in Tallahassee, the  Florida Senate appears poised to create a new voucher in Florida, the seventh one in recent years. The “Family Empowerment” voucher proposed in SB 7070 appears to be in direct violation of the Florida Supreme Court’s 2006 Bush v. Holmes decision in that public dollars from the general treasury are being diverted to separate, private systems that are parallel to, and in competition with, free public schools.

The Family Empowerment voucher also raises the threshold for who would be eligible. Unlike the Florida Tax Credit voucher (currently available for students from families with a household income that does not exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $47,638 for a family of four), the Family Empowerment voucher would be available for students who have a household income of 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $77,250 for a family of four beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. However, within four years, this voucher would be available for students with a family whose household income is 375 percent of the federal poverty level, or $96,572 for a family of four.

Attached is a letter to Florida elected officials that has been endorsed by 10 statewide denominational leaders and 45 church leaders.

Who We Are

Pastors for Florida Children is an organization of concerned pastors and faith leaders from all traditions that are focused on advocating for the needs of the nearly three-million public school children across the State of Florida.  Our mission is to provide “wrap-around” care and ministry to local schools, principals, teachers, staff and schoolchildren, and to advocate for children by supporting our free, public education system, to promote social justice for children, and to advance legislation that enriches Florida children, families, and communities.”

For more information contact Rev. Rachel Shapard, (904) 502-5158, rshapard12@floridacbf.org

This is the attached letter:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

To Florida’s Elected Officials:

We the undersigned are united in our belief that public education is an essential institution contributing to the common good in a democratic society. We believe government should be measured in part by its commitment to equip all children to be effective citizens capable of living full and meaningful lives and contributing to their society.

In his State of the State speech, Governor Ron DeSantis ostensibly addressed the need to eliminate a 14,000 student waiting list of children seeking to access the existing corporate tax credit voucher system. His call has been taken up by both the Florida House and Senate in the current legislative session (HB 7075 &
SB 7070).

Legislators are planning to take money directly out of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) to fund private and religious schools.
Supporters say that this legislation will benefit students disproportionately affected by inadequate public school resources, but they ignore the harm done to the more than 90% of children who remain in our neighborhood public schools.

Supporters also claim that they are giving parents who are economically disadvantaged the opportunity to provide a high quality education for their children that they might not otherwise be able to afford. They overlook the fact that this system potentially exposes the children attending these private and religious schools to a parallel educational process with no accountability, no standards and no certification.

Supporters of both arguments are simply wolves in sheep’s clothing, devouring the public school system of education as we know it and of which we are products. This proposal will undermine and slowly dismantle public education, in that, academic programs will be cut; safety and security will be compromised, and educational support operations will become more inefficient and ineffective.

Public dollars designated for public schools should not be taken away from our already underfunded, traditional neighborhood schools and given to private and religious schools. Florida already ranks 46th in teacher salaries and is in the bottom 10 nationwide in overall funding for public schools.
The real wolves in the effort to privatize and individualize public education are those who have as their goal the overturning of the 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Holmes. This case fundamentally held that public school funds cannot be used for private and religious school purposes.

Our elected leaders have a duty to fund public schools for all of God’s children; not subsidize private and religious education for those who would gamble taxpayer money on a parallel educational system that will have virtually no oversight or accountability. Florida citizens should not be forced into a constitutional confrontation between those who choose private and religious schools and those who choose their neighborhood public schools.

We pray that you will not abdicate your duty, as an elected official, to provide a quality free public education for all. Let us learn from Esau. Do not exchange Florida’s future for a bowl of porridge.

DENOMINATIONAL SIGNATORIES
Rev. Bartholomew Banks, President
Progressive Missionary and Educational Florida Baptist Convention, Inc.
Rt. Rev. Kenneth H. Carter, Jr., Resident Bishop Florida Area, The United Methodist Church
Rt. Rev. Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Presiding Bishop
5th Episcopal District, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
Rev. Raymond Johnson, Ph.D., Coordinator Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida
Rev. Joyce Lieberman, Executive and Stated Clerk Synod of South Atlantic Presbyterian Church (USA)
Rt. Rev. Billy G. Newton, Presiding Bishop
29th Episcopal District, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
Rt. Rev. Adam J. Richardson, Jr., Presiding Bishop,
11th Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church
Rt. Rev. Thomas Scott, Bishop Florida District, Church of God
Rev. Pedro Suarez, Bishop
Florida-Bahamas Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
Dr. Willie J. Williams, President
Florida State Primitive Baptist Convention

Church Leadership Signatories
Rev. Dr. Clint Akins, Seeker Fellowship, Ft. Walton Beach
Dr. Joan Averett, Memorial United Methodist Church, Fernandina Beach
Rev. Barbara Awoniyi, New Life United Methodist Church, Tallahassee
Nina Coe, Morrison United Methodist Church, Leesburg
Rev. Kevin Collison, Island View Baptist Church, Orange Park
Sarah Crawford, First United Methodist Church, Starke
Rev. Andy Creel, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Monticello
Martha Creel, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida District 1 Representative, Monticello
Christine Hyde DeNave, Sanlando, United Methodist Church, Longwood
Linda DeWolf, First United Methodist Church, Ocala
Rev. Dr. Jeffrey DeYoe, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Ft. Myers
Rev. Jimmie Dickey, 11th District African Methodist Episcopal Church, Tallahassee
Rev. Haley Eccles, Murray Hill United Methodist Church, Jacksonville
Rev. James T. Golden, 11th Episcopal District of the AME Church, Bradenton
Joyce Hanson, Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville
Rev. Dr. Janes A. Harnidh, United Methodist Retired, Longwood
Rev. Dexter Lamar Harris, Mt. Olive Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Orlando
Elder Lee Harris, Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church, Jacksonville
Sue Hawthorne, Lake Gibson United Methodist Church, Lakeland
Rev. Britt Hester, Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, Jacksonville
Britt Holdren, Hope United Methodist Church, Trinity
Margaret Hughes, Methodist, Lakeland
Betty Huber, First United Methodist, Orlando
Pamela Huffington, First United Methodist Church, Kissimmee
Elder Charlotta Ivy, Sowing Seeds Sewing Comfort Ministry, Tallahassee
Gloria Jones, Crestview
Rev. Tyron Jones, Williams Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Winter Haven
Cynthia Smyth Johnson, St. Peter’s United Methodist Church, Wellington
Jennifer Kelly, First United Methodist Church, Port Orange
Rev. Dr. Russell Meyer, Florida Council of Churches, Tampa
Rev. J. Phillip Miller-Evans, Church of the Beatitudes, St. Petersburg
Rev. Dr. James T. Morris, Central Florida District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Orlando Dorothy Nichols, First United Methodist Church, Port St. Lucie
Rev. Joe Parramore, New Journey Ministries, Quincy
April D. Penton, Trinity United Methodist Church, Tallahassee
Angel Pittman, Touching Miami with Love, Miami
Rev. John Powers, First United Methodist Church, Clearwater
Rev. Susan Rogers, The Well at Springfield, Jacksonville
Rev. Chris Sanders, Asbury United Methodist Church, Orange Park
Rev. Rachel Gunter Shapard, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida, Jacksonville
Rev. Earle F. Sickels, Calvin Presbyterian Church (USA), St. Augustine
Regina Simpson, The Heart Church, Tallahassee
Rebecca Stone, Anona United Methodist Church, Largo
Karen Suters, St. Matthew, Winter Haven
Nicki Taylor, Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa
Judie Thomas, Hyde Park United Methodist Church, Tampa
June Townsend, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Tallahassee

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Florida

Los Angeles: The LA Times Prefers a School Board Member with Neither Experience Nor Knowledge

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2019 //
8

 

The Los Angeles Times wrote an editorial endorsing Heather Repenning over Jackie Goldberg for the LAUSD seat in a special election. The editorial admitted that Jackie Goldberg has the experience and knowledge that her opponent lacks but the Times preferred a blank slate.

Repenning admittedly knows little about education issues but she previously worked as an aide to Mayor Eric Garcetti. In the primary, and she said she would not take charter money. Now that she is in a runoff with the far better qualified Jackie Goldberg, Repenning has decided that it is okay to take money from the charter billionaires. 

The Times lauded her as independent. The fact that she is now the favorite of people like billionaire Republican Bill Bloomfield is evidence that she is not independent. She will cast her vote, if elected, to support the Eli Broad privatization and Disruption agenda.

The Times posted some of the letters to the editor that it received objecting to its endorsement of an unqualified candidate, including one from me.

One letter came from a retired principal, who wrote, “The Times is repeating the mistake it made when it endorsed Ref Rodriguez in 2015 and other candidates bought and paid for by billionaire privatizers.” Rodriguez operated a charter chain at the time of his election, but was removed from the board after he was convicted on felony counts for campaign finance violations. He did not step down until the board had selected the unqualified, inexperienced Austin Beutner as superintendent of the nation’s second largest school district.

This is the Times’ description of Jackie Goldberg:

“She’s brimming with experience, smarts and humor — and connections. She’s been a teacher and served as a member of the school board, the City Council and the state Assembly, and she knows everyone involved in the world of education in California. To say that her chances of winning the May 14 runoff are high would be an understatement.

”Nor would it be a terrible thing if that happened. Goldberg’s institutional memory and her talent for digging to the heart of an issue would be of value to the board.”

So why didn’t the Times endorse her? Because the teachers already endorsed her.

Educators know and trust Jackie.

The charter billionaires know and trust her opponent.

I say to the voters of District 5: Vote for the candidate with experience and knowledge.

Don’t let the billionaires buy another seat on the school board.

Vote for Jackie Goldberg on May 14.

She will represent you, your children, and your schools, not Eli Broad and the other billionaires.

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Los Angeles
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