John Thompson, historian and retired teachers, sees signs of disaster in the policies adopted by Oklahoma’s two biggest cities: Tulsaand Oklahoma City. “reform” (aka Disruption) means closing schools. This is a good time to remind readers that SLAYING GOLIATH, to whic he refers, does not say that Go,oath is dead.it says that Goliath (federal policy, billionaires, Wall Street and other agents of disruption) are brain-dead. They continue to advocate for policies that have failed again and again. They have no expectation of making schools better or improving the lives of children. They exercise power and impose failed ideas because they can. Another point to be drawn from this and other accounts: Wherever there is a Broadie Superintendent, anticipate the hiring of other Broadies and a wave of school closings.
Thompson writes:
What’s up with Oklahoma schools? Whether we’re talking about arming teachers or sextupling funding for Education Savings Accounts (vouchers) for private schools, or the latest charter school malfeasance, the controversies surrounding today’s scandals are grounded in pretty predictable, rightwing politics, as well as the Billionaires Boys Club’s technocracy. But the crises in Tulsa and Oklahoma school system are rooted in education policy and they get less attention.
https://www.ocpathink.org/post/trump-stitt-both-support-tax-credit-scholarships
So, I’ll quickly cover the Oklahoma-grown messes, and then address the most serious threats to public education in our state’s biggest cities. I’ll start, however, by hinting at the common cause of our urban school debacles by citing Diane Ravitch’s Slaying Goliath, and her account of how corporate reformers “admire disruptive innovation, because high-tech businesses do it, so it must be good.”
The online, for-profit Epic charter chain got its fair share of 2019 headlines after an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation affidavit alleged that Epic Charter Schools’ co-founders, David Chaney and Ben Harris, split at least $10 million in profits from 2013 to 2018. They were accused of aggressively recruiting “ghost students” in order to collect $800 per student from a state learning fund for homeschool students.
Epic recently made news when its lawsuit against State Sen. Ron Sharp, for allegedly making false statements against it, was dismissed.
But there was no need to worry about Epic dropping out of the limelight. In January, 2020, the State Education Department (SDE) fined Epic One-on-One virtual charter school $530,000 for excessive administrative spending.
And Epic just provided another nail in the coffin for the claim that charters don’t advance privatization. The Tulsa World explains, “On top of a 10% cut of every dollar of revenue, Epic Charter Schools is paying its for-profit management company millions more in taxpayer dollars every year for school expenditures that are never audited and which Epic claims are shielded from public scrutiny.” So, the World made another open records request.
Epic’s attorney responded, “Once the funds are paid to the management company, the dollars are no longer public funds and, therefore, the records of the expenditures of the learning fund dollars are not subject to the open records statute.”
Despite Epic’s refusal, the World obtained “other records that show the constant shifting of public dollars for the Learning Fund to Epic Youth Services, the private management company that law enforcement investigators say has made millionaires out of school co-founders David Chaney and Ben Harris.” It reports, “These transfers began at a rate of about $120,000 each, 10 to 13 times per year,” and they grew to “$20.3 million for the 2018-19 academic year.”
Not to be outdone, Dove Academy, which is associated with the Gulen charter chain, returned to the headlines. A 2016 audit by the state found that the foundation which manages Dove Charter School collected around $3.182 million more in lease payments for the Dove Science Academy-OKC school site than original purchase cost. Now, the Dove virtual school is being investigated by the OSBI after the SDE accused it of wrongfully obtaining records of 107,000 children who have never enrolled in Dove schools.
https://oklahoman.com/article/5655421/epic-charter-schools-lawsuit-against-sharp-dismissed
In The Know: The ‘Medicaid expansion showdown,’ Epic charter schools fined, and more
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/epic-charter-schools-shielding-million-in-taxpayer-funds-from-public/article_445f6458-c147-5efa-ab29-781c72d64011.html
https://oklahoman.com/article/5655515/oklahoma-department-of-education-reports-dove-to-osbi?&utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Oklahoman%20daily%202020-02-22&utm_content=GTDT_OKC&utm_term=022220
Moving from the eye-catching headlines to the policy role of “Goliath,” the decline of the Tulsa public schools has been more gradual. A decade ago, the TPS accepted a Gates Foundation “teacher quality” grant, which was followed by donations from local and national edu-philanthropists. Soon afterwards, Tulsa’s Project Schoolhouse was praised for its community meetings and “creative problem-solving” when closing 14 schools in order to save $7 to 10 million per year.
Back then, the TPS was a better school system than the OKCPS. Last year, however, Oklahoma City borrowed from Tulsa’s methods and language in order to close and consolidate schools to fund “trade-ups” or ways to expand equity.
https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/project-school-house-released
https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/project-school-house-0
Tulsa had lost 5,000 students and faced a shortfall of over $40 million. The latest headlines have focused on this year’s $20 million in cuts. Schools were closed, janitors lost their jobs, class sizes in elementary schools are to be increased, and the administration reorganized. Since the TPS central office has had 13 Broad Academy graduates, and since patrons have recommended cuts the district’s teacher leadership and central office staff, that plan received more attention than before.
Ever since NCLB used school closures as an accountability tool, some reformers have been devoted to that disruptive policy. Mass closures are often seen as praiseworthy examples of running schools in a businesslike manner. And they provide opportunities for major administrative reorganizations. So, it should be no surprise that Superintendent Deborah Gist chose to save $5 million by cutting 90 jobs, but not in a straightforward manner. One would ordinarily think that budget cuts, closures, and staff reductions would be enough of an “extraordinarily difficult” challenge. However, Gist described her plan as a path to “dramatic progress” and “transforming outcomes.”
National readers don’t need to dwell on Gist’s details but they should note the way she summarized a large part of her plan:
Delete 55 district office positions and 124 school support positions; and … create 51 district office, 136 school support and 20 school-embedded positions. The potential changes, if approved by our board, would impact our Information Technology, Innovation and Design, Finance, Bond, Campus Police, Talent Management and Teaching and Learning teams, and, most particularly, our Exceptional Student Support Services team.
A couple of years ago, as the OKCPS rid itself of a Broad-trained superintendent, our district leaders praised Project Schoolhouse’s community conversations, while noting that Tulsa faced a worse mess than we did. Newly elected OKC board members seemed to understand that they had inherited a crisis created by reformers’ commitment to “transformational change.” They focused on building partnerships to provide trauma-informed and holistic instruction; restore counselors, science, music, and art, while moving away from teach-to-the-test; and started towards wraparound student services.
The OKCPS had been saved by immigration, but as it slowed and charters grew, the district lost 700 students per year. It was widely agreed that some schools needed to be closed.
But in a dramatic surprise, the goal of disruptive transformational change took over. The OKCPS used a school closure process, known as Pathways to Greatness (P2G), to “reinvent” schools. It closed 15 buildings and reorganized most of the rest. Again, national readers will be less interested in the details than the impossible length of the “to do” list that the district adopted.
It was supposed to be a virtue of P2G that it will:
Will impact every student, staff member and family in OKCPS … Our plans would likely include big changes such as new school boundaries, school consolidations or closures, the way grades are structured for Elementary, Middle and High School, as well as school buildings being repurposed to meet other needs in the community.
It also required structural changes in reconfigured buildings, the transfer of teachers to staff-reorganized schools, the reorganization of bus routes and hiring additional drivers by the first week of school. The third task proved impossible and resulted in students waiting for hours at bus stops. The district also chose to add to its list by changing application procedures for magnet schools, and reorganizing administrative services for “creating strategic systems and processes that will bring stronger support and accountability at the school level.”
Responding to the widespread backlash that P2G prompted, Superintendent Sean McDaniel said, “This was radical change that upset the apple cart for thousands of people, so we know that there was and still is heartburn and anxiety, and people are upset,”
McDaniel also summarized the additional changes:
We’re invested in this new ILD structure to allow for that additional instructional support. Our new consistent grade bands will provide support, collaboration opportunities. New feeder patterns will allow our students to stay together longer and feel more connected as they move through high school.
OKCPS acting superintendent: ‘We need to talk about feelings’
https://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/summer-of-change/Content?oid=6442542
So, how did P2G turn out?
The disruption almost certainly contributed to an increase in fights and suspensions. The rate of student population decline has doubled. If the district is correct, after P2G, the rate of student loss increased to an average of 1,000 per year over seven years. But the decline could become much worse. A district spokesperson cited research indicating that P2G could follow the pattern in other districts’ reorganizations, possibly resulting in a 10 to 15% drop in student enrollment.
According to the numbers the spokesperson provided, the price tag for such a decline could be about $20 to $30 million in state funding, not including lost federal funds. It would be unclear how much of those costs would be attributable to P2G. But, they would add to $32 million of transition costs which the district acknowledged near the end of P2G FAQ Update in February, 2019.
In other words, the OKCPS followed Tulsa down the path of transformational and disruptive change. Both exemplify the destructive feature which Ravitch documents in Slaying Goliath. My sense is that Goliath chose that path for Tulsa, while the OKCPS is inadvertently stumbling towards that outcome.
In her two previous, ground-breaking books, Ravitch changed the terms of debate over public education. She previously reframed the battle over the “Billionaires Boys Club” which drove “corporate reform,” and “privatization.”
Ravitch once said that her favorite line in my book manuscript was, “Inner-city schools need more disruption like they need another gang war.” (But that was years before editors could have read her full indictment of corporate disruption, and I couldn’t keep the phrase from being deleted.)
Ravitch now characterizes data-driven, choice-driven reformers as “Disrupters.” Across the nation, as well as in Oklahoma, “The most important lesson of the past few decades is that “Reform doesn’t mean reform. It means mass demoralization, chaos, and turmoil. Disruption does not produce better education.”
The second most important lesson for Oklahomans, who had seemed to have beaten back the worst of Goliath, is that we’re like the guy who killed a rattlesnake, but nearly died after being bitten by the decapitated head. In Oklahoma, the future looks much better for most public schools, but the TPS and the OKCPS could become the last casualties of our reform wars.
Oklahoma City Public School District announces drop in enrollment
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The problem with Gist’s latest restructuring is it is pure fantasy. They deleted 174 positions then added back 139. The difference in pay is between $1.7M and $2.3M. When they try to explain what they are doing and how it is going to save money none of it makes any sense. Just look for yourself.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/tps-offers-deeper-glimpse-into-non-personnel-district-office-reductions/article_1eb084a5-d521-5aad-8be6-edb7fbb77b64.html
They are going to bring outsourced services in house to save money. But 2 years ago they outsourced them to save money.
They are going to change bell times to save money. But 2 years ago they changed bell times to save money.
They are going to shift expenses from one account to another. They are still expenses. Just because you take the money out of your right pocket and then put it in your left pocket doesn’t save any money.
They are also going to shift how they provide transportation contracts. If you look at the OSDE website, you will see TPS charges less per student to provide transportation to charter schools then it costs them. Makes you wonder if there has been an illegal gift to the charter schools.
Then there is the reduction in technology services. You know the technology Gist’s administration insisted we needed to provide better services and outcomes for students.
Then if that wasn’t enough of an insult. The opinion section of the Tulsa World had this lovely articled pinned by Lynn Schusterman patting herself on the back for bringing TFA into TPS.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/columnists/lynn-schusterman-teach-for-america-s-opportunity-for-tulsa-public/article_3e89ff60-0454-5c24-b0d6-6f808df99110.html
Maybe that’s what they teach at the Broad Academy. It all sounds topsy-turvy.
War is peace. Spending is saving.
Orwellian education
Thanks. Those recent news reports blew my mind. I couldn’t believe they’d produce real savings and yoy clearly know the details.
In a recent Tulsa World publication, “Tulsa children’s author and illustrator Betty Casey says her cartoon, Emergency Certified Parents, came to her as she was thinking about the idea that parents have suddenly been thrust into the role of teachers. She says it’s a misconception that just anyone can be a teacher, a lesson a lot of parents are learning these days.”
Hilarious, and true! There are a number of TPS’ Emergency Certified teachers who can’t handle the responsibilities of being an educator. Many of these teachers come to work unprofessionally dressed, half-drunk, and red-eyed. Many of them could not hack being in their former roles, and now are desiring to be a teacher. If you are not successful in the business, nonprofit, or healthcare world, you think you going to find success in the teaching world? Not!
Many of these emergency teachers lack the ability to understand dyslexia to advocate for a strong phonics program like Barton or Orton-Gillingham methods. Too many of these individuals are unable to write a complete logical thought, let alone a sentence. And, many of them are incapable of running a data analytics program heavy in statistics let alone teach first-grade math. Maybe that is why less than 50% of Emergency Certified teachers, pass the test – a test that is literally written at the 3rd-grade reading level. Many of these so-called teachers leave within two years, but some do stay around.
What happens when individuals don’t pass the test? TPS leaders made Tulsa World headlines when 16 people for being fired for not obtaining their certifications fast enough. Supposedly, TPS will fire you if you don’t fulfill certain obligations unless that is you are a friend of a friend, a daughter or a son of a TPS favored educator or a minority in a minority-majority school. If you are smart and savvy enough to pull data and look through databases, you will see many TPS so-called teachers, especially those who are black don’t have to oblige by these rules. One of many examples of this is Areonne O. Gordon, who has a bachelor’s degree in Business and Accounting from Langston University. Ms. Gordon, received her originally emergency certification in 7/1/2017, for which she taught for two years in TPS, and now teaches science since the state has granted her permission in 07/2019. Another example is Rickey Washington, a band teacher at Carver Middle School, who has taught in TPS since August 2016 according to his Facebook page. Mr. Washington received an emergency Vocal/General Music certificate in the summer of 2016, and when he could not complete his obligations by July 2018, Mr. Washington received an Instrumental/General Music certification, which is set to expire this summer. When an anonymous complaint was sent to the Oklahoma Attorney General, the Oklahoma Department of Education’s employees manipulated the database, taking pertinent emergency certification license information out of the database to hide the truth from the general public. Can we say, there is no lack of ethics or morals in either system?
Wonder if Mr. Washington can’t pass his certification obligations? He’ll keep on being a TPS teacher. A popular educator at North Central High School is Written Quincey, his real name is Jason Robertson. Interesting, as he has no teaching license, not even a certification, according to the Oklahoma State SDE database. Furthermore, a mystery is if he is able to even teach in Oklahoma, according to his LinkedIn account, he attended but didn’t graduate from the University of Cincinnati. Nate Goodman, who serves as the algebra teacher and assistant athletic director, Tulsa Central High School, has no license either not even an emergency certified teaching license, according to Oklahoma SDE information.
Wonder what happens to white teachers who don’t play by the rules? According to TPS’ Broad Grads, they are pushed out of the system. TPS has revealed that they have low expectations for blacks, because if you can’t pass a test or do your job – we will keep you! A lot of parents are finding out not everyone is cut to be a teacher, but that is misinformation to TPS. A lot of minority parents are finding out TPS has failed their kids for years, but this is misinformation to TPS, too.