When I started the new blog format, I said I would repost blogs from others only in rare instances. This is one of those rare instances. Peter Greene has written a devastating analysis of the oligarchs’ plans to attack public school teachers and defund public schools in Arizona. You need to read this story. The privatizers’ game plan is on full display, in all its ugliness. It’s a reverse Robin Hood scheme, which will steal from everyone so as to reward the rich.
Here are a few excerpts from the exceptionally vicious legislation that has been filed:
Arizona has lost its damn mind, this week passing some of the stupidest, most aggressively anti-public ed laws anywhere, including an absolutely insane law requiring teachers to file lesson plans a year in advance.
Arizona has always been a strong contender for most anti-public education state in the county. They’ve had trouble convincing teachers to work there for years (at one point they were recruiting in the Phillipines), using the one two punch of low salaries along with rock-bottom spending on classrooms (this is the state wherethe house GOP leader contended that teachers were just working second jobs so they could buy boats). In the meantime, they have done their best to foster charter profiteering and set up vouchers at the expense of public ed. Did I mention that Arizona is the Koch home base?
There was no reason to be surprised when Arizona’s teachers rose up in revolt. Governor Ducey made noises about recognizing the problem, but he’s been trying to slap teaches around ever since. Arizona legislators have come after teachers and public schools before, but this week is really something special.
This week Ducey issued an executive order requiring all schools to return o in-person learning by March 15, with exceptions only for the counties (there are three) with high transmission–there, the middle and high schools can stay remote. No other exceptions, no consideration for local concerns, issues, situations, etc.
But now for the legal highlights of the week.
SB1058 is the one I mentioned above. In this bill, every school (charters get hit with this foolishness, too) must, by July 1 of each year, post, where parents can see it, all lesson plans, materials, activities, textbooks, videos, online stuff. Parents in Arizona already have the right to review all materials, so nthis is just a next step. “It should be reasonably easy to access the information.” This bill passed the Senate on Tuesday.
This is more than just an unnecessary burden on teachers. It’s more than just a way to legislate bad teaching (if you already know what you’re doing in class on a particular Tuesday five months from now, you are not doing a great job teaching). It also makes each teacher’s lesson planning–their professional intellectual property–open to the public. Starting a charter school but you don’t know a damn thing about teaching? Just log on and lift your curriculum, scope, sequence, plans, etc from any actual teacher…
All of this comes on the heels of a massive voucher expansion in Arizona, worth noting because it was one more example of the state’s GOP working in direct defiance of Arizona voters, who decisively rejected voucher expansion just two years ago.
It’s an ugly frustrating mess. What exactly is your next move if you’re in a state where the reaction to “If you keep this up, you’ll destroy public schools” is “Good.”Jeb Bush is a big fan of Arizona’s work, mostly because it so closely follows his own playbook in Florida. It all points to an ugly future in which the wealthy can buy the education they want and not have to pay taxes to educate Those People’s Children.
Seriously, if you want to place bets on which state will be first to destroy its public schools, you wouldn’t be wrong to bet on Arizona. It is a wholly-owned Koch franchise.
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I posted this at OEN. https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Peter-Greene-on-the-Destru-in-General_News-Diane-Ravitch_Education-Funding_Education-Laws_Educational-Crisis-210311-823.html#comment786660
With your commentary.
I am so astonished at the trajectory that I see for the future.. The kings always win, but we have to keep fighting, or these oligarchs will create a permanent class of ignorant, poverty-stricken human beings — serfs to do their work.
Ed reform was always headed in this direction. All the nonsense about “improving public schools” was just that- political marketing to get them into power to privatize all of K-12 education.
They couldn’t sell privatization honestly so they pitched it to the public as “improving public schools” and then did absolutely nothing to “improve public schools” but instead lobbied for and got privatization laws all over the country.
Wholly ideological. They oppose public schools because they are PUBLIC and because they often involve LABOR UNIONS.
I just wonder if the public will figure out this bait and switch – this flim flam they pulled off- before they’ve privatized the whole sector.
Ed reform accomplishments in response to the pandemic:
pass privatization laws all over the country
mandate public school students take standardized tests
Once again, nothing productive or positive for public school students or families come out of this “movement”. They contribute absolutely nothing to our schools or students, yet we’re paying thousands of them in the federal government and state governments.
“….insane law requiring teachers to file lesson plans a year in advance.” Insane doesn’t even come close to describing the outrageousness of such a law. Somebody in the state legislature thought this was a good idea? It’s a good idea if you want to destroy a school system and sabotage, cripple and encumber the teachers with meaningless paperwork on a massive scale.
Who in the bureaucracy would have the job of reading those lesson plans?
Check out what the Idaho legislature is doing to undermine public education during the current session. Reductions in qualifications to teach (in some cases high school is enough) and abandoning Powerball (14 M to ed) as well as Fed Gov grant to early childhood education.
S. Robertson
Thanks for this article. I will no longer submit lesson plans hereafter. My lesson plans are proprietary, like the equations Sanders used for VAM. My lessons are trade secrets. Think what might happen if my wisdom gets into the hands of the Communists.
🙂
This move by the legislature is to retaliate against teachers for standing up for “red for ed.” The legislature as in Florida is driven to move as much money as it can out of public education and into private pockets. I have a feeling that many people in Arizona would not want to dismantle public schools since they did vote for Mark Kelly for senator in the last election. States like Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania need to work hard to defeat the hard right wing members of their legislatures. It is the only way to spare the public schools from an avalanche of bad ideas.
Associated Press- 2-1-2021, “Advocates (Az. Catholic Conference, Az. Policy, and Goldwater Institute) Push Wide Ranging New Az. School Voucher Bill”
Who in creation is going to teach in Arizona? In my final job, I used to spend hours preparing lesson plans in the required format and detail for a week in advance and almost never completed them as planned. I never knew what I was going to be teaching until I got to school in the Fall (special education) and often was inventing a large portion of my materials myself.
By the way, I am glad that you still post things like this. As mad as we get at wordpress on occasion, it is fairly easy to comment on their blogs. The threads on your blog are informative as well as entertaining.
How terrible is this. It’s devastating. Where do we go from here?
I’m still confused by this, I’ve read sb 1058 a few times over the past few weeks. Are teachers being asked to provide documentation of what they did the previous by this July 1 date, or what they will be teaching in the coming year? Either way, it’s a mess, but it’s important to be accurate with this when it’s being discussed so heavily.
Teachers are being asked to turn in the lessons plans for the upcoming year by July 1.