This is the most curious news story of the week, written by the GoLocalProv News Team.”*
It says that the fate of the reform of the Providence public schools lies in the hands of the Providence Teachers Union, led by Maribeth Calabro; she, the story warns, may be able to veto the new state commissioner’s plans to transform the Providence public schools. It does not mention that the state commissioner taught for two years in New York City as a fast-tracked Teach for America teacher, has no prior experience as either a school principal or superintendent and has kept her plans to transform the district a deep secret.
But here is where the article goes strange.
In 2011, newly-elected Providence Mayor Angel Taveras fired all the teachers in Providence — it was a big and bold decision, and it was reversed within days.
Not too many politicians, especially Democrats. will take on teachers unions in this country and especially in the heavily union-based Rhode Island.
The action in 2011 drew national attention. In a statement, the American Federation of Teachers national President Randi Weingarten called the decision “stunning,” especially given that the union and city “have been working collaboratively on a groundbreaking, nationally recognized school transformation model.”
“We looked up ‘flexibility’ in the dictionary, and it does not mean destabilizing education for all students in Providence or taking away workers’ voice or rights,” said Weingarten, whose organization includes 1.5 million teachers and staff. “Mass firings, whether in one school or an entire district, are not fiscally or educationally sound.”
Well, the teachers union claim that Providence Schools were a ‘transformational model’ did not prove to be correct. Providence Schools are considered to be among the worst in America.
Infante-Green has said she believes she has the power to “break contracts.”
The News Team seems to believe that firing all the teachers in the district is a “big and bold” idea that is worth a try. The mayor wanted to do it in 2011, but the union got in his way.
Apparently the News Team wants the state commissioner to fire all the teachers now and is egging her on to do so.
Exactly how will that improve the district?
Exactly how will that affect morale?
Who will want to teach in a district where teachers are disposable, like tissues?
Will Teach for America supply the new teachers after the existing workforce has been fired? Will they agree to stay longer than two years?
Where is the evidence that firing all the teachers is good for students?
*The original version of this post misattributed the article to the Providence Journal, which is owned by Gatehouse Media.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Find all the schools in the country where this model has worked wonders over the past twenty years. Are none cited in the opinion piece above? I wonder why not?
Here is the link
https://www.golocalprov.com/news/20-to-watch-in-2020-maribeth-calabro
Diane, the link is to an online newspaper, GoLocalProv which is separate from The Providence Journal and a competitor. The piece on Maribeth Calabro is part of the paper’s new year’s Lifestyle series called 20 to Watch in 2020. It’s more a brief background on what’s happened and a guess as to what’s going to happen. Given the new commissioner’s background and statements to date, and the fact that teacher contracts have been broken and pensions have been devalued in the recent past, it’s likely that Calabro will be much in the news this year.
Thanks, Carole,
I corrected the entry and made clear that these are two separate publications with different owners.
Rhode Island is the most Catholic state in the U.S. Reportedly, the Providence bishop is highly political. This summer he tweeted that Catholic schools are a viable alternative to public schools. Gov. Raimondo, the hedge fund governor, reportedly sends one of her children to Catholic schools. She appointed Infante-Green. Which religion do you suppose she is?
The USCCB states at its site that they are strong advocates for parental school choice and have been since the beginning.The first city to privatize all of its schools was New Orleans which is in a state that is unique in the south for its large Catholic influence.
The theocracy in the Middle East, where women and children are treated as chattel, has its counterpart in the U.S. under the influence of the alliance of the Catholic church and evangelicals. Politicians like Raimondo and Mary Landrieu (DFER) use and are used.
The strings behind the “unsigned” at the Providence Journal may reflect its ownership or the power structure in Providence. Prior mayors of Providence understand corruption.
A government of the people, by the people and for the people is a threat to both authoritarian religious leaders and profit takers.
Mercy College, historically affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, is Infante-Green’s alma mater.
“The theocracy in the Middle East, where women and children are treated as chattel, has its counterpart in the U.S. under the influence of the alliance of the Catholic church and evangelicals.” OMG Linda you keep jumping the shark. US may seem closer to a theocracy to you because Catholics & Evangelicals w/political clout have succeeded in (a) getting public funding for their schools in some places, or (b) undermining access to abortion. Not sure of your evidence of two groups’ alliance, also wondering how children as chattel fits into their values. Regardless, this is a far far cry from forbidding women to drive or go to school, or forced arranged marriages, or stoning female adulterers & sexual mutilation of female children, which are among the images suggested by “the theocracy in the Middle East where women and children are treated as chattel.”
RI may not be as Catholic as claimed – & fewer than 1/2 residents of Providence area self-identify as Catholic https://www.wpri.com/news/eyewitness-news-investigates/heres-why-ri-may-be-the-most-catholic-state-but-not-the-most-catholic-place/ –but in any case, chalking up deform-ed policy in RI to Catholics is simplistic…
Mercy College does not favor Catholics for admission, nor is it some breeding ground for anti-woman/ child policies… So Infante-Green has a Catholic-sounding surname & went to Mercy: really, Linda? You continually infer politics & values to an imagined zombie Catholic bloc, & now you look for supporting evidence of Catholic malfeasance behind garden-variety ed-deform in % Catholic population, & surname/ alma mater of Ed Commissioner.
Bethree-
It took less than 5 years for Saddam Hussein’s secular nation to return to its past, governed by religious leaders who denied women their rights. Women’s voting rights can easily be taken away in a Constitutional rewrite. Some powerful conservatives are currently building and gaining support for a Constitutional convention. A tech billionaire, raised as an evangelical, who spoke at the Republican National Convention when Trump was selected, was known prior, for saying, women voting in a capitalistic democracy is an oxymoron. His opinions have been cited at the Catholic Information Center in D.C. , which is linked to a slew of politicians and Robert P. George. Jonathan Turley, the George Washington University Constitutional lawyer who spoke at recent impeachment hearings, provides defense for polygamy.
The Manhattan Declaration provides evidence of a religious alliance as does other information I’ve cited in comments at the blog.
Soon, GOP women in the U.S. House are projected to number, 11, while GOP men are projected at 186.
It’s alarming that bishops gave $2.5 mil. to an alternative organization created to replace Planned Parenthood, an organization that promotes exclusively the, 75% successful, rhythm birth control method. Media reported about pharmacists who confiscated women’s birth control prescriptions and/or refused to fill them on religious grounds. Additionally, women and girls’ health is jeopardized by draconian heartbeat bills in the states that prohibit doctors from performing D&C’s in circumstances when fetuses in utero are no longer viable. A woman in Ireland unnecessarily died from toxic shock syndrome because of similar laws.
Last year, if you had asked the American people about the likelihood that a religious hierarchy would be running taxpayer funded school systems, the response would have been incredulity. Four years ago, if you had asked the citizens of New Orleans to picture the city without any public schools, they would have scoffed. After William Barr’s Justice Department wins Espinosa, what part of democracy will citizens lie down and lose next? Barr is infamous for saying religion should be introduced at every opportunity.
If I saw or read in media, disclaimers from the evangelical and Catholic “factions” (Catherine King’s descriptor) instead of silence in response to Bishop advocacy in public policy, it would be easier to distinguish agenda schism. Evangelical elders proclaimed environmentalism as unChristian. Did the Bishops announce that they were wrong or, did they just provide a weak statement of support for taking care of the planet ? Have the bishops given $2.5 mil.to fight climate change?
I am scared by people like you who see no threat. And, I understand you don’t want to hear it but, until Diane stops me, I will ring the warning.
The question is, what’s the threat. Yes, clocks can be turned back in short order, but this is surprising only to those unaware of the continual sub rose planning and pushback by troglodytes. But we’re not returning to a past we never had. That ed-deform turns out in practice to be a combo of selling snake-oil and keeping minorities down, e.g., or that religious factions [I like the word 😉 ] attempt to return us to purity movements of 1870’s-WWII [but keeping in mind that pharmacies still dispensed condoms & cervical caps throughout]– predictable.
It’s good to expose the sub rosa– I know that’s your intent, & many examples you just cited are worth monitoring. What I “don’t want to hear” is sniffing out Catholics by surname and association, and imputing to them the extreme politics of a few. It’s right on the border of prejudice and conspiracy theory.
The threat I see is the economic enabling of those and countless other anti-democratic factions: money in politics, i.e., decades of trickle-up economic policy leading to amassing of large private/corporate fortunes maintaining those policies, leading to spiraling income inequality to polarization to enfeebling the vote etc. Following ed-reform policy alone proves any Tom Dick or Harry with multiple billions can already impose any hare-brained scheme on the public as long as it’s in an arena not squarely wthin mainstream voters’ focus. So: tax & trade & labor policy, wealth distribution, restoration of public goods, etc. Without changes there, we can monitor all we want & do nothing beyond hand-wringing.
Where do you think a person among the 99% can have effect (assuming they aren’t conservative) ?
(1) Talking with billionaires like Charles Koch and the politicians they own who don’t hold town meetings or,
(2) Talking within and to the leadership of churches to which they belong?
If you presume the USCCB, state Catholic Conferences, the Catholic League, Catholic Vote, Robert P. George, the allied evangelicals, the U.S. Attorney General, Leonard Leo, etc. have no influence in the votes of politicians, and that their legal teams have no influence on courts, then offer a third suggestion to my list.
Our conversations have a Ground Hog Day quality to them. My opinion- you don’t want to hear an inconvenient truth.
“State Sen. Deidre Henderson-Utah, plans to file a bill in the 2020 legislative session …polygamy would be (put) on par with a traffic ticket.”
In opposition, the video, Escape Polygamy, features a young woman who describes how polygamy law provides protection for children who report their abuse.
My heart goes out to the young people of Providence. The are caught in the middle of an irrational political plot designed to destroy their public schools. Teachers and unions are convenient targets for privatizers. They get in the way when the wealthy cabal plans to destroy public schools. The corporate media, bought by the wealthy, cheers on the destruction. We have seen this play before.
and across the nation that wealthy cabal is growing
And where are they planning on finding all new teachers, when teachers are becoming harder and harder to find? Do they think that perfect teachers just grow on trees?
TOW
A list of amicus brief filers in the Espinosa case was posted by
Laura Chapman in the thread that follows, “The Most Important Case…”, a couple of days ago. Interesting collection of religions.
The newspaper and like minded agents of disruption believe there is a very long line of great teachers, waiting to replace all who were fired.
Or TFA.
Corporations want to turn teachers into widgets. If you give them a script, you’ve provided coverage. If you sit all the students in front of screens, you’ve found an even cheaper form of “education.”
I was not aware that GoLocalProv was affiliated with the ProJo.
If you are correct, Jay, that is great news. ProJo will write a pro-common good/democracy editorial and sign it…wait…
The names of journalists/reporters who are part of GoLocalProv News Team are a mystery.
I did find the name of at least one journalist who is or was part of the GoLocalProv News Team. Molly O’Brein had used a platform called Muck Rake to monitor her performance. She has worked in television and print journalism. https://muckrack.com/media-outlet/golocalprov
My hunch is that the GoLocalProv News Team is operating with more than one free lance journalist. The Providence Journal paper is owned by Gannett, recently engaged in massive consolidations and layoffs of local reporters. https://www.cjr.org/opinion/gannett-gatehouse-merger.php
You may be right. I’ll check it out and correct if necessary.
Golocal is really called GoLocalProv – it is a web based news site-that started in Boston with Josh Fenton and then he moved to RI. It started in 2010. Some critics refer to it as an often-abrasive tabloid-esque news website but it really is the “go to” local Web experience that breaks the biggest local stories – sports, weather, news, politics, arts, entertainment – and allows users to go as deep as they wish. Branded, credible, and respected contributors from RI create the stories and content. Information is delivered through multimedia, written, and video platforms. It features more than 50 contributors with his chief reporter, Kate Nagle.
GoLocalProv has done something that few digital local companies have been able to do – be a part of people’s everyday lives,” said Josh Fenton, CEO of GoLocal24, the Providence-based company now in its 10th year. They even have a partnership with local TV. ABC Channel 6 launched a show called In the Arena and hosted by a former Prov Mayor, Joe Paolino. It promotes RI events in the community. GolocalProv did hire a former Projo editor who also worked for Wall St Journal) Robert Whitcomb (Projo has lost many reporters and continues to crash & burn) and he does a weekly column called Digital Diary. They have a facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GoLocalProv/
GoLocalProv’s business model will fail if they plan to grow viewership with the fake left of Raimondo (CAP’s in retreat). The demographics of the progressive movement and its growth in numbers ($34,000,000
was Bernie’s haul last quarter) tells the story of the future.
The messengers of alt-right lite conservatism have been forced into positions of the hard core alt right e.g. Michelle Malkin to survive.
GoLocalProv, to succeed, will have to carve a path between right wing business advertisers and left wing readers. The site’s off to a rocky start by trashing the local community’s democracy and threatening Main Street with the loss of the economic multiplier effect from local education dollars spent locally.
Jay –
Are you a prof at the University of Rhode Island, part of the Collaborative and, co- author of, “Advancing a Shared Understanding of Personalized Learning…” ?
If so, a couple of requests- (1) It’s best practice for a non-profit like the Collaborative to have a site tab listing its funders. (2) Where can I find a listing of your grants? Those scholars who self appoint to influence public policy should make available to the public the sources of their income, you agree?
If you are the prof at University of R.I., I will speak for the citizens who sacrificed to make available, quality, non-legacy admission schools for graduates like you and who fund the salaries of the professors at public universities, we appreciate your gratitude. Please consider paying it forward.
The proposal of New America (Eric Schmidt’s spin tank) is for state universities to share state funding with private universities- less money for non-legacy admission colleges- lower quality- fewer professors- more software.
Much the same thing is going on in NJ, regarding the highly slanted reporting of some of NJ’s newspapers. The Star Ledger editorial board and Tom Moran are charter school cheerleaders and rabidly, viciously, nastily, spittingly ANTI the NJEA. For them, the NJEA is the great, leering evil Satan, the NJEA Satan is worse than the regular satan headquartered in the normal run of the mill hell. Moran never passes up an opportunity to swift boat/smear the NJEA and portray the NJEA as the cause of the problems in NJ schools (which happen to be highly rated nationally). According to him, the NJEA has too much power and supposedly throws too much money around trying to influence the elections. They always cite how many millions the NJEA spends lobbying the legislature but never seem to mention the amount of money the school reformers spend on school privatization. Biased reporting at its worst.
The story reminds me of one of the most remarkable and not-talked-about stories of the Obama presidency. Of course this is not an ideal time to say negative things about the former president, however in his first weeks in office he was a huge supporter of this decision. Without knowing many of the facts of the mass firing, he supported this decision and spoke out against an entire city’s teachers. It was stunning, horrifying, and as far as I know, he never walked it back.
That Arne Duncan, John King, RTTT, and CCSS followed under his leadership made sense, given the views he expressed at the beginning of his presidency regarding education.
Sad. Sad.
He was elected in 2008. The mass firing effort was 2010-2011. That was well into his first term, not early. He and Duncan called the decision to fire all the teachers in Central Falls, RI, “courageous.” They never retreated from the view that bad teachers cause low scores and that scores should be used to identify and fire bad teachers. In his 2012 State of the Union address’s, Obama referred to Raj Chetty’s dubious claim that teachers were solely responsible for lifetime earnings.
Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 11/9, showed us all Obama’s betrayal of the people of Flint. Obama’s position on education served the tech industry’s profit taking and its purpose was repaying debts for his election. What Obama did to Flint’s residents wasn’t expediency, it showed us his core.
Maybe this will help explain the misleading “crap” published in that piece.
“GateHouse Media, a chain backed by an investment firm, is buying USA Today owner Gannett Co. for $12.06 a share in cash and stock, or about $1.4 billion. The combined company would have more than 260 daily papers in the U.S. along with more than 300 weeklies.Aug 5, 2019”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/05/gatehouse-gannett-usa-today-1448395
The article appeared in GoLocalProv, ownedby Gannett.
It did not appear in Providence Journal, owned by Gatehouse.
Josh Fenton corrects below. GoLocalProv is independendently owned.
Gatehouse’s ownership makes for interesting reading.
Leon Black and two of his sons (Environmental Solutions Worldwide) have been asked questions by media in reference to Jeffrey Epstein (after his conviction). Black’s Apollo firm is described as financing the Gatehouse – Gannet merger.
Let’s cut through the persiflage and look at the facts that are easily available and have been for quite some time to those who took the time to look.
Diane is right. The Commissioner in RI, had she taught here, would not qualify for tenure under the laws of the state. Immediately, she is far less experienced and qualified than the vast number of teachers with 5 or more years of teaching in the public schools. So, did she focus on gaining her experience in the classrooms of colleges and universities while earning advanced degrees in educational theory and practice. No again. She earned a Master’s degree, a degree that most teachers in RI earn in their first 5 years of teaching, a requirement for continued certification in RI. Commissioners in RI do not stay long here for a variety of reasons but that suggests a major fault, the lack of consistency, security, and effectiveness of the educational leadership at the very top of the state’s efforts to provide a quality education for all students. Of course there are many very successfull school districts and individual schools but that comes not from the state leadership but in spite of it. There are school boards, superintendents, principals, and highly dedicated teachers that carry on every day for their students despite the failure of commitment of the political leaders in state government.
Gina Raimondo is the current governor. She chose the Commissioners that are no longer here and the one that is now. Raimondo lives in Providence but sends her children to private schools. Evidently Providence Public Schools are not up to her standards. She has been in RI state government for almost a decade now in one position or another, but the parents of Providence students have not received the support from her or her administration as she says there is plenty of money already there and the issues revolve around leadership. So enter the TFA Commissioner to lead the change. First she appoints the former superintendent from the failing Central Falls school district. For those not familiar with Cental Falls, it is the smallest city in RI, and has been under state control for approximately 20 years. It has a high immmigrant population and 20 years of state supervision has not made much of a measurable difference. Rating-wise it is the lowest performing district in the state despite two decades of state intervention. Then the new commissioner hires her son’s godfather, the most recent superintendent in Central Falls, to be her top assistant and to focus on the Providence situation.
And GoLocal and the Providence Journal attacks the Providence Teacher’s Union president as a hinderence to quality education? Does that make sense or are GoLocal and the Journal just overlooking the most obvious problem for political reasons?
And, here’s the kicker, the Commissioner says she has the authority to cancel legally binding contracts, no doubt on her bosses advice, who has repeatedly ignored both state and federal laws for almost a decade now and the union president is the obstacle. Where has Raimondo been for the last decade that she’s missed all this ineptness? Oh yeah, all over the world raising money for her political purposes as education, by her account, has been ignored.
Thanks for writing the comment, David.
It’s a travesty that hedge fund loving Raimondo chairs the DGA.
News media relies on advertising revenue but, that depends on audience reach. How many readers abandon right wing news outlets daily?
GoLocal is an independent locally owned news organization in Providence, RI. Please correct this article. Thank you, Josh Fenton
The article has already been corrected.
Perhaps your “news team” might consider apologizing to the hardworking teachers of Providence, for the insinuation that they should all have been fired in 2011–and perhaps now.
After reading your post and comments, Diane, Fenton may expect better from his staff and, he may have a heightened awareness about the conflicts. It is a hope for the future of democracy that Fenton is a journalist who has the standards expected by the nation’s forefathers and by the profession.
Linda, the victory is that he read the post, and in the future, he might question what he prints.
Theocracy in Rhode Island-
“R.I. Catholic Conference….good Christians immerse themselves in public policy…Catholics vote…Diocesan government liaison directed by Bishop Tobin…how to help…a voice in the legislative process through direct, easy e-mail contact with your state and federal lawmakers…issues…education…support parental choice…
broader assistance to…attend school of choice…”
And, the page for the R.I. Women’s Conference describes a program, “vendors, swag bags,…live music..talks…What is Wine”…” The two featured speakers are a woman whose photo makes her look like a model. She is a “Catholic Evangelist” and, the other has appeared on Fox, has 6 kids and specializes in issues, one of which is, John Paul II (the prosperity Catholic’s favorite pope). Her webpage has posted blurbs from printed articles which include, “Planned Parenthood Embraced Eugenics” and, other negative paragraphs about birth control.