Steven Singer: These Are My Questions for the Democratic Candidates

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1. Stephen Ronan says:

   December 12, 2019 at 2:37 pm

   Singer: “Shouldn’t all public schools be required to accept all student who live in their coverage areas and not be allowed to cherry pick students?”

   Wow that would be a radical change to the public schools in many cities. Close, for example, the three exam schools, the pilot schools, the arts academy in Boston? Does Singer advocate that? Sure would increase the waiting lists for many of our oversubscribed charter schools…

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   • dianeravitch says:

     December 12, 2019 at 3:46 pm

     Don’t worry about it, Stephen. Most of the wait lists are phony.

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   • Linda says:

     December 13, 2019 at 9:06 am

     White, disaster capitalists closed down the public schools of New Orleans. That’s one way to create waiting lists for corporate and Catholic schools?

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     December 13, 2019 at 5:28 pm

     Public schools DO accept all students who live in their coverage area. Having a magnet school does not mean that other students are left on the street. A magnet program can be inside a public school or in a separate building; an honors program can be inside a public school or in a separate building; an arts program can be inside a public school or in a separate building.

     But whether a magnet or arts or vocational program is within the same building or in a separate building, the bottom line is that the students who are not in those programs are being educated in public schools! Because every student has a place in a public school system. You seem to think that a magnet school can dump a kid without the public school system having any obligation to that kid. That only happens with charters and with private schools. Which is why charters are not public schools.

     The reason so many public school parents I know, including in Boston, are now disgusted with the charter school movement is that they cannot be honest. Charters are now viewed like the Republican party. Maybe they have some good ideas, but the entire charter movement – the entire Republican Party — has been taken over by the most dishonest and greedy folks and it has empowered the most dishonest and greedy folks. Anyone who doesn’t play along is drummed out. Until the leaders of the charter movement start demonstrating a modicum of honesty and ethics, most people are going to reject them.

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2. John says:

   December 12, 2019 at 2:42 pm

   “He won’t get to ask them all”
   Could be worse, no reform organizations were invited at all to this AFT-run event.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     December 12, 2019 at 3:45 pm

     Tough, isn’t it, John, when charters and their billionaire supporters are accustomed to buying every venue and there is just one that they couldn’t buy.

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     • John says:

       December 12, 2019 at 4:23 pm

       I have to laugh at that. This event is 100% bought and paid for, which is why dissenting groups are not invited. It’s telling that the democratic candidates don’t have a problem having the AFT decide who gets to ask questions. I guess $33 million in direct donations gets you that. The candidates will pander and the interests of students, families, and the country will only be discussed where they align with teachers’ interests. Booker and Bennett may challenge and will probably get booed given the crowd.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 12, 2019 at 4:44 pm

       John,

       You have some nerve to make such absurd allegations. Your bought and paid-for sector sucks public dollars away from public schools, open to all children to support charter leaders who pad their bank accounts with salaries up to $700,000 a year, and thefts of millions of public dollars.

       All bought and paid for by rightwing reactionaries like the Waltons, the DeVos family, Charles Koch, and a long list of billionaires

       Shame on you. The fact is that you and your cronies don’t want to have any space that is not invaded by charter shills.

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     • John says:

       December 12, 2019 at 5:04 pm

       What is absurd about it? It’s literally an AFT event and they’ve demonstrated their bias by not inviting anyone who might ask a question that might not align with their positions.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 12, 2019 at 6:54 pm

       John, you are wrong. AFT invited charter organizations and they declined to participate.
       They prefer to protest, aided by a PR firm that is part of the Trump campaign.
       Sorry, but their true colors are flying.
       Trump-DeVos colors.

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     • Linda says:

       December 13, 2019 at 9:16 am

       John has the gall to complain about $33 mil., cobbled together from teacher citizens across the country, who through a democratic process decide to reduce their paychecks in order to preserve America’s most important common good.
       On the other hand, Walton heirs take billions from consumer dollars and spend them to destroy the common good, to drive down worker wages, to replace democracy with oligarchy and, to impoverish the Main Streets of local communities.
       If people see the movie, Dark Waters, and wonder what kind of person drove the decisions at DuPont, John is them.

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       December 13, 2019 at 5:43 pm

       John is doing what Donald Trump always does.

       John is projecting.

       When John says that an event is “bought and paid for”, he is projecting his own situation. John’s silence at the outrageously high suspension rates of African-American Kindergarten children at some of the most praised charters was bought. He put his own interests above children’s.

       “the interests of students, families, and the country will only be discussed where they align with teachers’ interests.”

       When John says that the only interests that will be discussed are those that align with “teacher’s interests”, he is projecting what charters do. The charter movement only discusses the interests of families where they align with charter CEO and right wing billionaire funders’ interests.

       John understands that children who are drummed out of charters must never be discussed. Families who testified about their child’s treatment in the NAACP report about charters must never be discussed. Attrition rates must never be discussed. Poor families getting a good education in public schools must never be discussed. The approved “realities” that may be discussed at pro-charter events are the violent behavior of African-American six year olds in charters, the million or billion students on charter wait lists, and the children who charters imply would be abject failures like all poor kids in poverty stricken public schools are, and owe their entire success to charters brilliant and perfect teaching.

       Projection.

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3. Ohio Algebra II Teacher says:

   December 12, 2019 at 3:01 pm

   I would be more than comfortable allowing Mr. Singer to ask every question in the event! I will be watching. Hard to not be hopeful.

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4. Ohio Algebra II Teacher says:

   December 12, 2019 at 3:03 pm

   Just noticed that Senators Bennet and Booker will also be in attendance. I’d very much want to know Steven’s questions for these two traditionally public ed destructive senators.

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5. retired teacher says:

   December 12, 2019 at 3:30 pm

   These are fantastic questions, and I would be thrilled to hear the answers. I hope this event is not another opportunity for the press to ask softball questions like the NEA event held earlier in Houston.

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6. Stephen Ronan says:

   December 12, 2019 at 6:05 pm

   Here, they’re less flawed than they used to be. Perhaps less flawed than you imagine.
   http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/enrollment/fy2020/waitlist.html

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     December 13, 2019 at 6:14 pm

     “This initial 2019-2020 waitlist report finds the following:”

     INITIAL?? It looks like this simply reports the number of applicants who applied less the number who get chosen in the lottery as of the day of the lottery.

     “The information provided below reflects the number of students who applied to charter schools but did not gain admittance as of March 15, 2019.” AS OF MARCH 15???

     This looks like another attempt to deceive by a truly dishonest charter industry.

     Why would they not report what these numbers are at the start of the next school year when final numbers are reported?

     These numbers are irrelevant “as of March 15”, as I suspect you know.

     We now know that colleges do this, too. Game the system by marketing to get lots of applicants (some no longer even charge an application fee). Admissions are desperate to get a student to fill out enough of an application so they can include him in the total so they look desirable.

     It would be much more relevant if charters reported their YIELD rates over public schools. What percentage of the original lottery winners took their seats? Unlike private colleges, charters couldn’t game it by only offering seats to those most likely to attend.

     A charter has 5,000 students who enter the lottery. Excluding siblings, the first 75 non-sibling names drawn are the “winners”. Of the first 75 non-sibling lottery winners, how many enroll? That would tell you a lot more than using irrelevant numbers and pretending that they are somehow accurate when they seem to be.

     I suspect the yield rate of that first 75 students would be very low as of September. And even lower in October, November and December in some charters where many lottery winners learn they are not students the charter is willing to teach.

     One of the things that makes parents distrust charters so much is that the charter movement won’t do a deep dive into charters because they clearly do not really want to learn the truth. It makes no sense as the idea is to learn from charters and the best way to learn is to find out as much as you can about the good and the bad.

     When the charter movement goes to such lengths not to closely examine longitudinal attrition rates of their lottery winners, parents understand that the movement is no longer about doing what would help kids, but doing what most helps charter CEOs and the people who want to privatize public education.

     It’s a shame as there were some good ideas, but the movement is led by such untrustworthy and dishonest folks that any ideas are worthless.

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     • Stephen Ronan says:

       December 13, 2019 at 10:28 pm

       NYC public school parent: “This looks like another attempt to deceive by a truly dishonest charter industry.
       “Why would they not report what these numbers are at the start of the next school year when final numbers are reported?”

       The reporting requirements are determined by government employees, not by charter school staff.

       Do an online search for:
       “massachusetts department of education charter school wait lists”
       And you’ll find that they indeed do additionally report those numbers at the start of the next school year, but those haven’t been published yet by our state department of education for the current school year. You’d readily find those figures posted for last year.

       I agree with you that it would be of some interest to know the rate at which those who are accepted actually enroll.

       NYC PSP “When the charter movement goes to such lengths not to closely examine longitudinal attrition rates of their lottery winners…”

       As I recall, I have, in the past, unsuccessfully encouraged you, yourself, to study the charter school attrition data in Boston, which undercuts your theory that charter schools with the most academically successful students have the highest attrition rates…
       And I have, for example, referred you to the attrition data here:
       http://www.doe.mass.edu/bese/docs/fy2016/2016-02/item3-tabA1-1.docx
       e.g., see pp 30-31.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 13, 2019 at 11:30 pm

       Stephen,

       In NYC, the charter with the highest test scores is Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy. Half the children who win the lottery do not attend. Children are not accepted after the fourth grade. The first class to be admitted had 78 students. 15 graduated.

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     • Stephen Ronan says:

       December 13, 2019 at 11:43 pm

       When CREDO evaluated charter management organizations for their networks’ effects on math and reading Brooke here in Boston rated higher than Success Academy…. and Brooke has remarkably low attrition…

       Click to access cmo_final.pdf

       To extrapolate heedlessly from Success or Brooke or any other particular CMO would be a mistake.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 14, 2019 at 7:45 am

       Stephen,
       Now that Brooke has “cracked the code” and proven its vast superiority, has it shared its secrets with the public schools?

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     • Stephen Ronan says:

       December 14, 2019 at 10:36 am

       To quote a math teacher at a Brooke charter school writing on Jennifer Berkshire’s blog (she herself has visited his classroom and been very favorably impressed):

       “mathteacher SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 AT 3:11 AM
       Here’s an idea of how to get dialogue going: start visiting each others’ schools. From most of what I read here, it’s clear district teachers almost never visit charter schools. They base most of what they say on articles, blogs, etc. We have TONS of visitors through our school each year, but they mainly come from from charter schools or ed reform groups from around the country, or from schools outside of the US.

       “A few years back, we were visited by some Boston Public teachers. One arrived wearing a Boston Teachers’ Union t-shirt (professional and appropriate!) and asked a million hostile questions. But by the end of the day, he was telling us how impressed he was with our model and how he wished they could replicate it at his school.

       “I think many ed reform types have been in district schools (urban and suburban). I have as a parent looking at BPS schools for my own kids, on professional development days, and before my teaching career as an out-of-school-time educator. As a child, I attended a suburban district in New York. Many reformers have previously taught in district schools.”

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 14, 2019 at 10:58 am

       Please name the “reformers” who have “taught in district schools.” Betsy DeVos? Alice Walton? Bill Gates? Eli Broad? Charles Koch? Michael Bloomberg?

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     • dianeravitch says:

       December 14, 2019 at 11:58 am

       Deborah Meier never opened a charter. Her CPE 1 in New York City is a public school. Mission Hill is not a charter, it’s a unionized pilot school. Deborah is a dear friend. She opposes charter privatization and supports teachers unions.

       Try again. Which charter deformer was a District teacher? Betsy DeVos, the Queen of charters? Campbell Brown?

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