Archives for the month of: December, 2020
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus: It’s Called Public Education

By dianeravitch
December 25, 2020 //
10

This is a beautiful article by Jennifer Raab, president of Hunter College, which is part of the City University of New York. It appeared in the New York Daily News. When Virginia O’Hanlon attended Hunter College, the City University was tuition-free. In 1976, CUNY began to charge tuition, but it remains far less than private colleges and universities, and many students can piece together aid packages from state and federal funds.

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” It may be the most famous sentence in the history of local journalism.

Virginia O’Hanlon of 115 W. 95th St. was just 8 years old when she composed a letter to the editor, writing: “Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”

Yes, there is, the paper guaranteed her. “He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.”

Those in the know must have been shocked to learn that the words came from the pen of veteran journalist Francis Pharcellus Church, brother of the Sun’s editor. Known to colleagues as a hard-boiled cynic, Church had never written so sentimentally. Now he tenderly assured young Virginia: “Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.”

Soon enough, thanks to free public higher education, Virginia saw those wonders for herself. Many of today’s newspaper readers know about the editorial. It has been widely reprinted, in the Daily News among many other papers, each year since it first appeared. It has inspired musical pageants.

But few know what happened to Virginia — or that her path in life actually followed Church’s advice to imagine the best.

The daughter of an NYPD coroner, young Virginia soon began harboring dreams that stretched beyond St. Nick’s annual visits. She aspired to teach — and motivate — children herself. So 10 years after writing to the Sun, Virginia O’Hanlon enrolled at Hunter College, which then, as now, educated many of the teachers employed by the New York City school system. Crucially, Hunter offered higher education to women of all races and religions — a rarity at the time of the school’s 1870 founding.

Graduating in 1910, Virginia went on to earn a Master’s and Ph.D., lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic, and taught grade school for decades. Eventually, she became junior principal of PS 401 in Brooklyn, a school renowned for providing an early version of “remote learning” to chronically sick children confined to the borough’s hospitals.

In 1949, Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas returned to Hunter to address students at her alma mater (and of course, retell her Santa Claus story). She retired in 1959, and died nearly 50 years ago, in 1971.

Her life — both the storybook version and the equally uplifting reality — serves as a reminder not only of faith questioned and reignited, but of the opportunities New York public education continues to provide, even now, amid the most stressful and prolonged crisis in city history.

In fact, when CollegeNET recently released its annual Social Mobility Index rankings of America’s colleges, it did not look at all like the usual “Best Colleges” lists topped by Ivy League names. The index, which analyzes colleges’ success at graduating low-income students into well-paying jobs, was front-loaded with public universities. Hunter ranked 9th out of 1,449 schools.

More than a century after Virginia matriculated, Hunter’s student population still offers a springboard to opportunity. Hunter has already served as the launchpad for, among others, Bella Abzug, Martina Arroyo, Ruby Dee, Pauli Murray, Dr. Rosalyn Yalow — and from our high school, such luminaries as Elena Kagan and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Always, we’ve taken particular pride in students, from here and overseas, who are the first in their families to attend college.

Just look what the most recent graduating class is up to. Elliot Natanov, the son of immigrants who fled anti-Semitism in Uzbekistan, is now pursuing a career in sports medicine. Ahmet Doymaz, who immigrated from Turkey as a child, studies cancer and cell regulation. Evelyn Tawil, daughter of Syrian refugees, is pursuing a graduate degree in landscape architecture. Jennifer Dikler, whose parents fled Russia, won a coveted Luce Scholarship to study trade policy in Asia.

Among recent grads, Margarita Labkovich became a Schwartzman Fellow in 2020 and will spend a year at Beijing’s Tsinghua University before returning to medical school and resuming her career as chief operating officer of Retina Technologies (she already holds two patents). And Thamara Jean, daughter of a Haitian-born synagogue superintendent, now attends Oxford University as Hunter’s first-ever Rhodes Scholar. These remarkable young people are soaring above their circumstances, with Hunter’s full support at their backs — and no debt collectors at their front doors.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus: it’s called public education.

Categories Higher Education, Hope, New York, New York City, Supporting public schools

Biden Picks Former President of Broad Foundation as Deputy Chief of Staff

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2020 //
74

President-Elect announced that Bruce Reed will be his Deputy Chief of Staff. This is alarming news, though not surprising. Reed previously served as Biden’s chief of staff when he was vice president. The toxic Broad Foundation gave grants to some of Betsy DeVos’s favorite causes.

This report from TYT (The Young Turks) describes why we should keep a close watch on Reed. He is not a friend of public schools. The Broad Foundation has spent many millions of dollars underwriting charter schools and funding campaigns for candidates who oppose public schools. Eli Broad has tried to buy control of LAUSD to replace more public schools with charters.

Reed has been an outspoken proponent of charter schools for decades, championing their rise inside the Clinton White House, where he led the Domestic Policy Council. But although Reed has publicly drawn the line at for-profit charter schools and vouchers, the Broad Foundation funded organizations that support both. 

Reed also frowned on community, or “mom-and-pop” charter schools, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2014, “There are high-quality charter management organizations that do extraordinary work.” He said, “School districts have made the mistake of thinking they know best.”

Pressed about Eli Broad’s controversial donations to pro-charter candidates for Los Angeles school boards, Reed said, “My general experience with political elected bodies is that the odds of them being thoughtful and well informed are never very good.”

It’s not clear how involved Reed was in directing the foundation’s funds, but in his L.A. Times interview, Reed named some of his allies. “We’re looking to partner with other like-minded foundations — Bloomberg, Gates, Walton, the Emerson Collective,” he said. (The Emerson Collective is a project of Laurene Powell Jobs.)

Reed did not name Dick and Betsy DeVos, but they had spent years building alliances with Democrats interested in education reform. Eli Broad, a Democrat, had sat alongside Dick DeVos on the Children’s Scholarship Fund advisory board co-chaired by John Walton. And although Broad in 2017 publicly opposed DeVos’s nomination to lead the Dept. of Education under Trump, he and Reed were backing her groups just a couple years before. 

DeVos Connections

The Broad Foundation had already been funding groups tied to the DeVos family when Reed came on board in November 2013. 

The Alliance for School Choice, for instance, was an early proponent of charter schools, including for-profits. A partner of Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children, the Alliance’s founding board included both her and Walton.

According to In These Times, the two groups were “at the center of the pro-privatization movement.” One of the Alliance’s first project directors, James Blew, is now DeVos’s assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development.

Soon after the Alliance launched, the DeVoses reached out to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who was then a Newark City Council member. Booker joined the group and found common cause with the DeVoses. The board has also included Carrie Walton Penner, the Walton Family Foundation chair who was reportedly close to Hillary Clinton.

Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Reform, Privatization

Fred Smith: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2020 //
9

We have a pride of poets on this blog. The following was written by testing expert Fred Smith, who advised the New York City Board of Education back in the days before Testmania. Fred now advises opt out parent groups.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and in the Snow House

Sat a duck-assed old fat man with botoxic spouse. 

This may be my last chance to go through the list,           

And give gifts to people who’ve made me real pissed. 
    

Whether I like them or hate, it’s ever the same,                 They’re bound to go down in my endless blame game:     
             
To my faithless AG and once true legal goon,                      Yeah, Bill Barr you left me, so come kiss my moon.


As to Mitch, the traitor, who upped and caved in,            Here’s a carton of face masks to cover your chin;         And for Rudolph, the red-faced, sputt’ring buffoon,                  What would be more fitting than a golden spittoon;       

The prize for Pompeo requires some thinking,                Backtracking on hacking without even blinking;             And as for that Birx, as well as for Fauci,                      A pox on both jerks for making me grouchy;                   

And to my dear friends, Pelosi and Schumer,                  A set of false teeth and an unbenign tumor;                    

Bah, to Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett             I’ll strip off their robes for not being my parrot;               

To NBC cable, O’Donnell and Maddow,

Go choke on your words and walk in the shadow;           Which goes for Jake Tapper and for Wolf Blitzer,           Two cups of egg nog and a cyanide spritzer;                    

The Judiciary Committee and Adam Schiff                     A one-way train ride heading off of a cliff;                      

As for Masha, Vindman and Fiona Hill,                          You dared utter the truth; here’s a poisonous pill;            

This thing ‘bout the virus and how many have died?                 Qanon swears that every one of them lied;                      

I now know there are 300,000 folks hidin’;                       No presents for the “dead” who voted for Biden;              

Of course, can’t forget those phony Obamas,                  Who should be sent packing to some land full of llamas;               

And I have to keep waiting until two weeks hence          To decide what determines the fate of Mike Pence;

But there’s a place in my heart for Betsy DeVos; I’d love to spend a few minutes inside her clothes.

On Ivanka, on Kayleigh, on a Stormy day,On Kelly or any blond who’ll pull my sleigh.
Loyalty to me must be undiminished; 

One step out of line and you know you are finished,                 ‘Cept for Putin, who says I lost the election;                   
For some weird reason I can’t spurn his defection.   

 But I digress, there are more who sorely peeved me,                 Who think I’m a fool and those who have grieved me:    

Including all foreign leaders, ‘cause they are foreign,      Save for Bibi and Britain’s Elizabeth Warren.               

I’ll give them all coal to stuff in their crotches;               And spoiled milk to SNL which nobody watches.         

And let me see what I have for Stephen Colbert;             Ah, it’s something set for ticking under his chair.             

Forget about pardons and exoneration,                    Maybe I just need an extended vacation                          Where I won’t have to pretend to read any book,              And I’ll have full time for golf and being a crook. 

Now it’s almost midnight on this Xmas Eve,                   And it’s time for me to be taking my leave,                     But I’ll keep right on tweeting my message of cheer                 To see what more I can do in the new year.       

                       –  Fred Smith

Categories Humor, Trump

My Review of Three Important Books About Education

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2020 //
15

I think you will find this book review interesting. I reviewed Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism; Steve Suitts, Overturning Brown: The Segregationist Legacy of the Modern School Choice Movement; and Derek W. Black, Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy.

The review is titled “The Dark History of School Choice.” It appears in the New York Review of Books, which is the most prestigious literary journal in the U.S.

You can read the opening paragraphs, then it goes behind a paywall. However, you can request to read review in full for free.

The Dark History of School Choice


Categories Accountability, Education Reform, History, Racism, Segregation

John Thompson in Oklahoma: Grifters Gonna Keep Grifting

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2020 //
2

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher, writes often about what is happening in Oklahoma. It is often not good for public schools and teachers because of the state’s awful legislature, controlled by oil-and-gas billionaire Harold Hamm, and its Republican Governor Kevin Stitt. The best education leader in the state is state Commissioner Joy Hofmeister, who continues to protect students and teachers from political shenanigans.

Here is the latest from Thompson:

As the COVID pandemic began in Oklahoma City, before Trumpian-style pressure to reopen bars, in-person restaurants and large gatherings, and before the resistance to masks and other public health tools sparked a super-spread, it looked like the public and nonprofit sectors were uniting in a team effort to protect public health. Clearly, online charter schools had advantages over traditional public schools in providing virtual and hybrid instruction, but there was reason to hope that the corporate reform wars could be put behind us (at least in terms of local charter leaders.)

The for-profit EPIC Charter Schools wasn’t likely to change its financial and political misbehavior, but its years of experience in delivering online instruction gave it a head start in providing virtual learning during the shutdown. Sure enough, its enrollment soared to around 30,000.

On the other hand, due to years of financial shenanigans, it was inevitable that multiple investigations would prompt penalties, headlines, and other bad news for EPIC, and it seemed certain that it would continue to fight back bitterly, as opposed to making a good faith effort to improve instruction. And there was no chance that its allies – state, and national corporate reformers and politicians committed to uncontrolled competition – would slow their privatization campaigns.  

The bad news for EPIC et. al came as predicted. A state audit showed that EPIC improperly classified $8.9 million, and a follow-up report found an additional $800,000 in misclassified administrative spending. The state Board of Education demanded the return of $11 million. The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board moved to terminate its contract with Epic One-on-One. Governor Kevin Stitt apparently retaliated by removing members of two state boards for votes that didn’t conform to his education agenda.  

And the initial good news overshadowed a new set of problems for EPIC. A five-month investigation by Oklahoma Watch and Frontline revealed that many EPIC graduates’ are unprepared for college. The investigation found that students “described a system that made it easy to speed through classes and little or no structured counseling.”  (The data was released at the beginning of the pandemic, but it describes a dynamic that could become more crucial to EPIC’s effort to retain its new influx of online students.) 

In 2015, the 35% of Epic students met all four of ACT’s college readiness benchmarks – in English, math, reading and science. As enrollment increased, just 4% of 2019 students met the benchmarks, compared to 15% statewide. Perhaps prophetically, EPIC’s graduating class’ average ACT score dropped from 20.5 in 2018 to 16.5 in 2019.

Similarly, Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier have reported more bad news for competition-driven reformers. For instance, the Oklahoma City Public Schools had twice rejected Sovereign Charter School’s charter, but in 2018 it was sponsored by Rose State community college. Rose State is also reported to be considering the charter sponsorships of Santa Fe South charter schools, and W.K. Jackson Leadership Academy, now a private religious school.

By the summer of 2020, Sovereign was down to 40 students after Oklahoma City Public Schools rejected it twice. Sovereign took out a $700,000 loan, but its enrollment didn’t increase enough. So, the State Department of Education put it on probation.

Then, what State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister characterized as a “rickety structure” was proposed. Sovereign would merge with Santa Fe South, which would assume its facility’s lease, as well as its debt. Ironically, that building complex had been the home of the once-influential Seeworth Academy charter school which was taken over after a financial scandal.

At this point, the privatizers’ big, remaining weapon is an attack on urban schools and teachers unions for not reopening in-person instruction.  ChoiceMatters, the rightwing the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA),  Governor Stitt and Secretary of Education Ryan Walters, and a new organization, Oklahoma Parent Voice, pushed the agenda that “Enough is Enough,” and schools must immediately reopen. But their rally at the Capitol only attracted about two dozen parents.

The campaign to immediately reopen urban schools is clearly an anti-union, anti-public school tactic. But it may be undercut by the fact that almost all Oklahoma City charters closed their in-person instruction around the time the November super-spread forced the OKCPS to limit itself to virtual instruction.

A recent survey of teachers by the Oklahoma Education Association found that teachers are “stressed,” “overwhelmed,” and “scared.” About 12% of respondents had contracted COVID-19,  the teachers’ estimated average stress level was 7.7 on a scale of 10. 

When charters reopen, are their teachers likely to be less scared?

But maybe the rightwing won’t need to invest so much political capital in attacking teachers and unions. After all, Gov. Stitt may have found a new way to stimulate the economy. He made “a direct pitch to boost tourism in the state. Stitt stars in a 30-second promotional video encouraging those in neighboring states to visit Oklahoma. The video conveys a message that Oklahoma is open for business, and underscores the business friendly approach Stitt has taken to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Health, Oklahoma, Safety, Virtual Charter Schools

Massive Tax Giveaways Tucked into COVID Relief Bill

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2020 //
14

There is no money in the COVID relief bill for states and cities that are verging on bankruptcy due to the collapse of tax revenues. Those states and cities support our schools. But there was lots of money for special interests.

The Washington Post reports that Congress tacked on billions of dollars in tax breaks to their favorite lobbyists. When a bill is more than 5,000 pages long, it takes time to find out what goodies were included for favored industries.

Congress on Monday unveiled a 5,593-page spending bill and then voted on it several hours later, with lawmakers claiming urgent action was needed to rescue an ailing economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.


But tucked in the bill was over $110 billion in tax breaks that strayed far from the way the bill was marketed to many Americans. These giveaways include big tax cuts for liquor producers, the motorsports entertainment sector and manufacturers of electric motorcycles.


These measures, added onto the broader spending bill, are known as “tax extenders” — tax breaks targeted at specific, sometimes niche industries. And routinely extending these “temporary” measures has become something of a year-end tradition, despite loud complaints from some lawmakers who allege the votes largely benefit special-interest groups who stand to gain financially from the outcome.


These tax extenders are designed to be temporary but are frequently renewed, often at the urging of industry lobbyists, and done so during late-night votes at the end of the year. (The Senate vote Monday took place shortly before midnight.) The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the extenders benefiting industry and special interests included in the stimulus bill would cost over $110 billion over 10 years.



Tax experts and good governance advocates have criticized such short-term tax relief extensions, arguing they hide the true cost of the cuts and advantage industries with the most well-connected lobbyists.
“They are a gravy train for members and lobbyists, who repeat the same exercise every year or two,” Howard Gleckman, a tax policy expert at the Urban Institute, said in an email. “The lobbyists get to keep billing hours. The members get campaign money from the same people. Many of these are classic special interest tax breaks that do not benefit the overall economy in any way.”




The federal government collected $3.4 trillion in taxes in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, but it typically allows more than $1.5 trillion in annual tax breaks, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Some of these are locked into the tax code. Others, however, were initially designed to last only a year or two but continue winning extension after extension because of intense lobbying.


President-elect Joe Biden has been critical of the plethora of tax giveaways, but he will find that both Democrats and Republicans have been steadfast in their supportive of certain tax breaks. And to win passage each year, the tax breaks are bundled together into one package for votes to draw maximum support.




Congress is scrambling to pass a coronavirus stimulus bill before the end of 2020. Here’s what you need to know about what’s included in the legislation.

The enormous new bill packages together emergency economic relief, government funding and tax cuts. The economic relief component of the bill is worth around $900 billion. The legislation included a slew of provisions that had nothing to do with coronavirus relief or funding the government, including many of the tax extenders.


One measure, for instance, makes permanent a cut in excise taxes for producers of beer, wine and distilled spirits, which first became law in 2017 as part of the Republican-led tax cut package. The cuts were due to expire without congressional action, and the alcohol industry had pushed hard for their renewal, arguing that their businesses had been decimated by the pandemic. The industry has supporters among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who in turn pushed their leaders to include a bill making the cuts permanent “in the next appropriate legislative package.”

Categories Funding

Education Week: Where Cardona Stands on the Issues

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2020 //
125

Eve Blad wrote in Education Week about where Miguel Cardona, Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education, stands on the issues:

On reopening schools during the pandemic: He favors in-person instruction, but has not mandated it. He recommends face masks.

“We all know remote learning will never replace the classroom experience,” Cardona wrote in a November opinion piece published in the Connecticut Mirror. “We also know that the health and safety of our students, staff, and their families must be the primary consideration when making decisions about school operations. The two are not mutually exclusive.”

Charter Schools: He has not taken a strong position for or against charter schools, but the state board has not approved any new charters since he took office in August 2019.

“Charter schools provide choice for parents that are seeking choice, so I think it’s a viable option, but [neighborhood schools] that’s going to be the core work that not only myself but the people behind me in the agency that I represent will have while I’m commissioner,” he said during his state confirmation hearing.

During the campaign, Biden promised to stop federal funding of for-profit charters, a small segment of the industry. Charter advocates are pleased that he is not an opponent, but progressive groups are wary because charters drain funding from neighborhood schools. [My note: Connecticut has only 21 charter schools, including the no-excuses Achievement First, three of whose charters are on probation because of their harsh disciplinary methods. This action was taken last February, while Cardona was state chief.]

High-stakes testing: Before he was selected, Cardona made clear that he wants to resume annual testing this spring.

In a Dec. 7 memo, the agency said the state would conduct testing as planned this year, even as some schools remain closed for in-person learning and others are dealing with the fallout of interrupted schooling. 

“State tests are the most accurate guideposts to our promise of equity for ALL,” that memo said.

The state plans to assess all students and report the data, but it will not use students’ test scores or to identify schools that need improvement, the guidance said.

[My note: Please, someone, tell Dr. Cardona that testing does not produce equity. Tell him about Finland, where there is no high-stakes standardized testing, and every school is a good school. Tell him that Finland aimed for equity and got excellence. Give him a copy of Pasi Sahlberg’s book Finnish Lessons 2.0, or the Doyle-Sahlberg book Let the Children Play. Tell him that test scores report gaps but do not close them. Tell him that the high-performing nations of the world do NOT test every student every year. Do not waste hundreds of millions of dollars on standardized testing. Teachers should write their own tests, because they can test what they taught and get rapid feedback about what students learned.]

English Learners and Students of Color:

Cardona wrote his doctoral dissertation on closing the achievement gap between English-language learner students and their peers.

As a Latino American and former English-language learner himself, he has said he relates to students of color and those who speak other languages at home.

(My note: These statements show he cares but it says nothing about what he will do.)

Teachers and Unions Cardona worked well with teachers and unions and will help Biden collaborate with the two big teachers’ unions, who were major supporters of his campaign. After four years of DeVos and eight contentious years with Arne Duncan and John King, the unions are looking forward to having a good relationship with Cardona.

Categories Cardona, Miguel, Education Reform

Pennsylvania: For-Profit Charter Destroys Public School District

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2020 //
16

I recently received a letter from a teacher in Chester-Upland, Pennsylvania. I have written about this district many times, as a large charter company owned by a Philadelphia lawyer is draining it of resources and students for his low-performing charter school. The district is like a lamb led to slaughter, with rapacious wolves ready to gobble it up. See here and here and here and here. See Carol Burris on the takeover of the district here. See Peter Greene on the evisceration of the Chester-Upland schools here (also posted on the blog here).

In case you think that Chester Community Charter School is “helping save poor students from failing public schools,” consider that only 7% of the charter’s students were proficient in math, compared to a state average of 45%, and only 17% of its students were proficient in reading/language arts, compared to a state average of 63%.

Why would state and county officials permit a failing for-profit charter school to take over an entire public school district? Is it because the district is overwhelmingly low-income and black and no one cares?

The teacher asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

He wrote:

My name is XXXXXXXXXX, and I’m a teacher in the Chester Upland School District, which is located in Chester, Pa. Chester is a predominately black, low income, high crime area. We have had 3 students murdered this year, and several others shot. Even though it is a dangerous area, I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else because I love the kids, and I want them to succeed. But our leaders are greedy, and our district is going to be sold off to charter schools if we don’t receive some sort of help.

Here is an overview of what has been taking place:

The city and school district are in a financial crisis. Because of the financial situation, the owner of a for-profit charter school in Chester asked a judge to give his charter, Chester Community Charter, permission to take over all of the elementary schools in the district. Here is the article: https://www.inquirer.com/education/chester-upland-charter-schools-expansion-community-gureghian-20191118.html   

The judge denied the request, but this past spring the Republican judge approved outside management for all grades in the district. Here is the article:  https://www.delcotimes.com/news/chester-upland-ordered-to-open-its-doors-to-charters/article_70e92906-9707-11ea-b5f8-3383e996854a.html

It seems that the entire district is going to be run by one or several different charter schools which would dissolve all public schools in the city. Besides New Orleans, this is almost unheard of in our country.

A few months ago, the district hired a new superintendent with a checkered past. She was recently fired from her position in New Haven, Conn., which you can read about here:

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/superintendent_birks_buyout/

It seems that it is quite a coincidence that Dr. Birks is also a supporter of charter schools. She also became one of the highest paid superintendents in the state which is surprising considering her history and the financial state of the district.

Our school board is being paid by charter schools; there doesn’t seem to be any other explanation. One school board member put out a flyer last December, recruiting community members to come to the courthouse to support the charter schools. Those community members that agreed to show up were provided dinner afterwards, and had their names put into a raffle to receive free TV’s and other devices. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a conflict of interest. 

On January 14th, 2021 RFP’s (Request for Proposals) will be held for charter schools to show why they should take over schools in the district. Unfortunately the review board for the RFs is filled with charter school supporters. The community hasn’t had any input about this process. Here are the board members:

Anthony Johnson the board president, receiver Dr. Juan Baughn, Fred Green (who is a board member that rarely attend meetings, and charter advocate for CCCS), Lamont Popley (during the board meeting on December 17th, Baughn said Mr. Lamont Popley was a member of the review board, he’s the principal at Toby Farms. His staff members asked him about this and he said this was the first he heard about being on the review board. He said he hadn’t spoken to Baughn since the spring), 2 other board members, plus Leroy Nunery (former consultant for the school district of Philadelphia’s charter school office), and Jack Pund (he sits on the board of several charter schools, including Agora.)

This would not happen in a white school district. This is racially motivated. This poor community is being taken advantage of, and being sold to the highest bidder, and no one cares. If this community wasn’t poor, and black, people would be outraged with what is going on. But no one is helping. We need help.  

Thank you.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Failure, For-Profit, Pennsylvania, Racism, Shame

Education Week: What Is in the COVID Relief Bill for K-12 Schools?

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2020 //
13

Andrew Ujifusa explains here what the latest COVID relief bill contains for education. Republicans refused to fund cities and states, which supply most of the funding for schools. They also insisted on setting aside $2.75 billion specifically for private schools. It remains to be seen whether charter schools will double dip into both the public school money and the money set aside for small businesses, as they did in the previous COVID relief.

K-12 schools would receive about $57 billion in direct aid under a new $900 billion federal COVID-19 relief deal reached over the weekend by congressional negotiators. 

The vast majority of that amount, $54.3 billion, would be for public schools in an education stabilization fund, and 90 percent of that must ultimately go to local school districts, including charter schools that function as districts. According to the legislation, schools could use the relief to address learning loss, to improve school facilities and infrastructure to reduce the risk of transmitting the coronavirus, and to purchase education technology. This funding would be available through September 2022. 

Education organizations that have long pushed for additional aid for schools grappling with the effects of the pandemic characterized the bill, which is much smaller than some previous proposals, as a down payment. President-elect Joe Biden has suggested he will pursue an additional relief deal after his inauguration.

The legislation does not include more funding for the E-Rate program that supports internet service for schools and libraries. The bill does provide $3.2 billion to an emergency broadband connectivity fund. 

There is also $4.1 billion in a fund for governors to direct to both K-12 and higher education. Of that fund, $2.75 billion is reserved for private schools. This funding cannot be used to support tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, and other forms of school choice. Private schools seeking this aid must agree not to obtain additional funding from the Paycheck Protection Program. In addition, private schools that serve low-income students and have been “most impacted” by the virus are supposed to get priority for this funding. 

The aid included in the bill “will help states deliver safe, high-quality education, expand access to technology, and recover academic learning loss,” Carissa Moffat Miller, chief executive officer of the Council of Chief State School Officers, said in a statement.

The deal does not include relief for state and local governments, a major source of contention during COVID-19 negotiations; a large portion of such aid would end up benefiting K-12 school budgets. 

The bill says states must agree to maintain a certain level of education funding that’s proportional to prior funding levels, in order to receive the aid; however, the secretary of education may waive this requirement for states experiencing a “precipitous decline in financial resources.”

The $57 billion in direct K-12 relief is more than four times what school districts received under the CARES Act that the federal government enacted in March, which provided $13.2 billion to districts. Yet it is less than what was included in previous relief bills introduced by Democrats and Republicans over the last several months. However, the K-12 relief is close to what a COVID-19 relief bill that House Democrats introduced in May would have provided. 

Ronn Nozoe, chief executive officer of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, called the agreement “woefully inadequate as the final word on COVID relief for schools.” The organization had pushed for $175 billion for K-12 relief and $12 billion for the E-rate program.

“Budgets are shrinking while needs are expanding from the pandemic,” Nozoe said in a statement. “Schools need funding not just to stabilize budgets shaken by local economies, but to accelerate learning after the pandemic. Unless Congress gets serious for the long term about supporting their own public schools, we’ll be cutting into bone—fewer teachers, larger classes, and less social support for kids at precisely their time of greatest need.”

While praising new funding for schools and vaccine distribution, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten faulted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “obstructing the resources states and localities need to respond to the pandemic.”

“I worry that the package will be grossly insufficient to alleviate the hardships so many Americans are suffering,” she wrote in a column posted on the union’s website.

Congress was expected to approve the package Monday and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature. Unlike previous proposals by GOP lawmakers backed by Trump, the new deal does not require schools to hold in-person learning to receive aid. 

Educators have been pressuring Washington for months, ever since the CARES Act became law, for more relief. 

Although a large share of schools have reopened for in-person instruction, many in the education community say that schools need additional aid to address ailing HVAC systems, implement COVID-19 mitigation measures, and shore up shaky budgets amid fiscal uncertainty. 

The deal is similar to a bipartisan relief plan unveiled last week with respect to its K-12 provisions. Earlier this month, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, told Education Week that the next stimulus deal would represent “bridge funding” before another relief deal eventually is reached under the incoming Biden administration.

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, Privatization

Politico: Will Dr. Cardona Push 2021 Testing?

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2020 //
60

Not many people outside Connecticut are familiar with President-Elect Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education. He went to public schools. He has worked in public schools his entire career. His children go to public schools in Meriden, where he lives. He is not aligned with DFER or Chiefs for Change or any billionaire-funded “reform” group.

Politico points out two stances that Dr. Cardona has taken that will concern many parents and teachers. In his own state, he has pushed to resume annual testing this spring, despite the pandemic. Also, he has prioritized reopening schools, which will please some but anger others.

For those of us who question the value of annual testing, a policy not found in any high-performing nation, the resumption of high-stakes testing will be a mistake when so many children have had unequal opportunity to learn. DeVos offered blanket waivers in the spring of 2020 but said she would not do it again in 2021. Students and teachers should not be required to take tests that are sure to demonstrate what we already know: Students in affluent districts will get higher test scores than students who are in impoverished districts. The gaps between them will be larger do to unequal access to education during the pandemic. There! I just told you what we will learn if we give tens or hundreds of millions to the testing industry in March.

Decisions about reopening schools should be made by local officials, not the federal Department of Education. Such decisions should take into account the availability of resources and the local conditions. We are in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Conditions vary, and so should responses.

Categories Accountability, Cardona, Miguel, Connecticut, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Standardized Testing, U.S. Department of Education
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »