The Wyoming Legislature passed a charter law that allows new charters to open wherever they wish, without the approval of the elected local school board. Governor Mark Gordon neither signed nor vetoed the law, expressing confidence that kinks could be fixed in the future.
The legislation allows the State Loan and Investment Board to approve a charter school. Typically, local school districts have approved charter schools in the state.
The law allows charter schools to potentially be exempt from teaching standards requirements and oversight from the State Board of Education.
“This bill seemingly makes it easier for charters to be established outside the state’s rigorous educational parameters,” Gordon wrote.
It’s bad, but there are only 18 children in Wyoming, so it could be worse.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at Governor Gordon’s remark. Both, I guess.
Charter schools in a rural state such as Wyoming will function more like the one-room schoolhouse of the past.
Policymakers across the country are conducting a smash and grab on public education. They are moving charter decisions up to the state level so that local communities will have little say in charter and/or voucher expansion, and they will have little control over how tax dollars will be spent. Corrupt legislatures and sometimes governors as well are orchestrating a system in which schools can be privatized through top down imposition. I do not know is this is an ALEC plan or not, but the fact that this is occurring across multiple states simultaneously is a concerning policy shift.
89 bills filed across 29 states (NCSL) – might be ALEC, might be Catholic organizations like the state Catholic Conferences.
A co- founder of ALEC, Paul Weyrich-Catholic, whose work was funded by the Koch brothers also co-founded the religious right.
key point: the goals are bigger than money?
Linda If you are saying RIGHT-WING Catholics are organized and support ALEC, you are probably right. If you think ALL CATHOLICS support ALEC and similar “causes,” you would be quite wrong. Come back when you get over your anti-Catholic bias. CBK
A 6-25-2020 letter addressed to Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer asked for federal tax credits for scholarship funds that could be used for private school tuition. The impact of tax credits is that they defund the government.
The letter was signed by the Fordham Institute, Bluegrass institute for Policy, the USCCB, and others. Additional signers included (1) ACE (Catholic Education) Scholarships of Colo., La., Kansas City, Montana, Wyoming, Houston, Philadelphia and Arkansas (2) dioceses or archdioceses of Scranton, Allentown, , N.Y., Patterson (N.J.), Newark (N.J.), Oklahoma City, Boston (3) the schools of St. Ignatius, Regis, Dominican, Loyola (4) the Catholic School Center for Excellence, Catholic Community Foundation, the Catholic Association, National Catholic Education Association, the Jesuit School Network, the Campaign for Catholic Schools, the Az. Catholic Tuition Support Organization, and the Catholic Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts.
The letter with the listing of signers is posted on the internet. Contrasting how few other religious affiliated organizations signed is informative.
“A 6-25-2020 letter addressed to Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer asked for federal tax credits for scholarship funds that could be used for private school tuition. ”
That’s the DeVos national voucher plan.
That’s the next objective for ed reformers- transition to 100% voucher funding. The vouchers will be low value so it will operate as a 50% (or better) cut in public education funding.
It’s a raw deal for the public. Replacing public schools with a low value voucher is a bad trade. They’re hoodwinking the public again.
Chiara “It’s a raw deal for the public. Replacing public schools with a low value voucher is a bad trade. They’re hoodwinking the public again.”
There is unwittingly-stupidly and there is knowingly-deliberately. In either case, the low-level paradigm of thought is “everything is seen through a set of capitalist lenses.” From that view, public schools are cheating because they don’t have to tow the line of profit-making. Let’s get rid of them and build all by a business-model-only.
From a broader view, however, . . . one that doesn’t collapse capitalism into a coverall and powerful political system, . . . public institutions, including and especially schools, are grounded in the foundations of democracy.
Through THAT set of lenses, and though economic concerns don’t leave the field, public institutions have their value at a different level . . . they create the conditions for democracies, even moderated capitalist democracies, to thrive. Take away public institutions along with the rule of law, etc., and by definition, we have a version of oligarchy, or autocracy, or fascism . . . but certainly not democracy or anything close to a “republic.” CBK
But then we’re back to “unwittingly-stupidly” or “knowingly-deliberately.” CBK
I am afraid the neoliberal tank is being driven by some of our more that 600 billionaires that own politicians on both sides of the aisle.
It feels like the country is being run over by a neo-liberal tank. CBK
Straight anti-union propaganda from the ed reform echo chamber:
https://www.the74million.org/article/antonucci-has-teachers-union-pressure-on-cdc-turned-the-governments-best-scientific-guidelines-into-a-bargaining-chip/
It’s really disgusting that so many Democrats support these people. It’s an absolute betrayal of the union members who vote for them. The ed reform “movement” is aggressively and uniformly anti-union, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering who pays their salaries.
It is nice that Biden’s team is back in public schools.
I think the Bush, Obama and Trump appointees were barred from entering a public school- would have resulted in getting kicked out of the echo chamber.
A US Department of Education that isn’t opposed to public schools and public school students- how long has it been since we’ve seen this? Twenty years?
We’ve seen the ed reform echo chamber lobby hard for additional vouchers and charters during the pandemic. and they’ve had a lot o success.
Can anyone with a child in a PUBLIC point to one thing these people have accomplished that benefits any public school student, anywhere?
Their single accomplishment has been mandating testing for public school students. That’s what they accomplished this year- they pushed the same tests they always push.
There are thousands of full time, paid ed reformers. Does anyone know what they do? Since they don’t serve the 90% of children who attend the “government” schools they’re opposed to, doesn’t that just leave 10% of students? Do we really need 100 nonprofits and thousands of 6 figure salaries for people who only work for 10% of students?
One of the familiar ed reform attacks on labor unions is they attack the salaries of labor union leaders.
But no one knows ed reform salaries. How much are they paid to lobby for privatization? Duncan must be making at least 500k a year, and he’s one of hundreds of them. Even the low end of charter/voucher lobbying must pay 100k.
What do Walton and Gates pay for charter/voucher cheerleading? Has to be at least 3 figures to each ed reformer, and there are a LOT of paid ed reformers.
Even if both teachers union leader makes 600k, the salaries on the ed reform side dwarf that. The 74 ALONE must have a payroll that exceeds 1 million and they’re one of many charter/voucher lobbying outlets.
We’ll never know because unlike labor unions the ed reform echo chamber is not transparent, but the hypocrisy of these people complaining about labor union salaries is just amazing.
It’s not just wages. Employees of religious schools, courtesy of the Biel v. St. James Catholic School court decision, lost protections that American workers gained through civil rights employment law.
Justice –
The white, male directors of state Catholic Conferences and those of the Catholic hierarchy get to walk in the shoes of Ms. Biel.
If they don’t get to have that experience,
they should (1) successively lobby to exempt themselves from disability protections afforded to employees who work at American organizations and firms governed by democratic-derived law. (2) They should live consistent with their principles and refuse the Covid vaccines developed through research on aborted fetuses. (3) They should suffer the consequences of the disease and then lose their jobs and benefits.
This is like passing a law that gives businesses the right to open a liquor store in your front yard without your approval. Shameful.
leftcoast . . . the analogy is that, opening liquor stores on front lawns will make the alcoholics happy. CBK
Another example of cutthroat capitalism at work.
“Definition of cutthroat (Entry 2 of 2) 1 : murderous, cruel. 2 : marked by unprincipled practices : ruthless cutthroat competition.” – Merriam-Webster.com dictionary
“Cut throat competition is a term that was widely used to describe the reason for consumer protection regulation, labour law, and enforcement of competition law or antitrust, in the late 19th and early 20th century. In economics, cut throat competition is also referred to as ruinous, excessive or unfettered competition.”
In the mid 20th century the pendulum started to swing back in the favor of cutthroat capitalists as they bribed their way back into power and they are not slowing down. There apparently is no one with enough power to block them as Teddy Roosevelt did.
Lloyd I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I am NOT with Liz Cheney’s general politics, but she is turning heroic in my book. She seems to understand and to care about what’s at stake, that is, the democracy that underpins all party politics. CBK
More than 100 Catholic organizations politic for public policy that is anti-gay, anti-woman and that takes funds from the public sphere for an unaccountable private sector. With indefensible audacity, a tribalist hurls the anti-Catholic label at a person who exposes the authoritarian model that creates misery for Americans who want nothing more than a democratic process of governance to write and approve laws and, for an independent judiciary. The person(s) who has been denigrated repeatedly by being called “anti-Catholic” has done NOTHING to deny rights to those practicing the Catholic faith.
Linda Yes, I’m that person . . . who thinks you will get far further with what is true about your critique if you didn’t continually broad brush all-things-Catholic with what its bad actors are about. That broad-brushing reveals your anti-Catholic bias.
It would be like broad-brushing all-things-Democratic-Party or Republican-Party ONLY with what its bad actors are about, or good, for that matter. There are HUGE distinctions about movements in any organization.
Also, we’ll have a lot more success sinking the entire Republican Party or, better, the Ku Klux Klan, or on the left, the ACLU (or fill in the blank) than anyone will have in trying to sink the whole Catholic Church or any centuries-old historically “here” religious community. CBK
The conservative’s false binary is presented in the above comment.
It contrasts with democracies in Western Europe where politicking by churches is eliminated… not the church. The Catholic Church has been successful in undermining laws aimed at preserving separation of church and state. The following corrections are necessary for American social and economic progress (1) taxation of Church property (2) the prohibition of public funds to churches which currently has led to the Catholic Church as the the 3rd largest U.S. employer.
With the Biel SCOTUS case, the Catholic Church opened the door to all of its employees being exempted from civil rights protection.
Linda As I suggested in my note, I appreciate and join your critique of what IS worthy of it in the Catholic Church, as are many Catholics (See the online publication: The Commonweal, not to mention the present Pope.)
I also think that, your constant over emphasis on Catholics reeks of bias, a selective over-emphasis on Catholics with its concomitant omissions of other powerful forces working against democracy in the culture, like fascist oligarchs; and so a disregard for the whole view. The whole privatization anti-democratic movement is not perpetrated by “the Catholic Church” as it seems you would have everyone believe.
But just like other groups and religious denominations there are those members who do, and those who do not, understand the destructive influence of religious incursions on a hard-won democracy and its institutions that they, of all people, would dearly miss if those institutions were gone.
For those who DO understand it, there are those who pine for a totalitarian future in the name of whatever denomination they belong to (I think we can count DeVos in those numbers); and there are those who just want NOT to be wiped off the face of the earth because of their religious identity, as some among us wish for; and those who do not understand the difference between the ills of secularism and the need for secularity in a religiously diverse world . . . that is, a clear distinction between religious and political life both institutionally and in our thinking. In my view there is much truth in what the Church (all churches, generally speaking) has to say about the ills of secularism.
Finally, I stand behind all that I have said before to you in response to your notes here and add that many things are going on in the Church that you don’t know or apparently care about in your coverall interest in smearing all-things-Catholic. Your obvious biased view turns everything that is right about what you say into a rationalized front for your religious bias. CBK
Phil Zuckerman made the salient points in his LATimes op-ed, “No Reason to Fear Secularization.” (4-9-2021) He distinguishes between secularization’s two origins – coerced and organic.
“Democratic societies that have the highest degrees of secularization are the safest, healthiest, and wealthiest in the world. They enjoy low rates of violent crime and high degrees of well-being and happiness.”
Zuckerman elaborates on the backlash that is seen currently. As expected, he fails (similar to msm) to acknowledge the strides made by the Catholic Church whose politicking is singularly effective in setting back the work of organizations like the SPLC, an organization that was denounced in February in a post at the Catholic News Agency.
We can observe how little credit the Catholic Church gets when the verdict in the case challenging Roe v. Wade is delivered by conservative Catholic jurists. If the pattern of mainstream media coverage seen in the Biel and Espinosa cases continues, the public will remain unaware of the source of the lobbying.
It’s as if, the almost 50 state Catholic Conferences, haven’t publicly admitted they politic everyday… with the result of advancing heterosexual, male hierarchies.
Linda I distinguished in my note between secularity (and said what I meant by it) and secularism, which is the loss of family identity, cohesiveness, community, ethics, morality, and (a general sense of) spirituality in culture. Look around. And I doubt you’d recognize “tribal” if it bit you in the face. CBK
The Catholic orthodoxy is binary, for example one true church and, “non-Catholics”.
The binary thinking of tribalists is reflected in the assumption that people are either for the group or against the group.
Democratic governance relies on acknowledging that for much of legislation there is a range of acceptability. Negotiation is required to achieve majority approval.
In the situation of a pregnancy’s termination, a woman’s health or poverty are immaterial when a religion’s orthodoxy declares a fetus’ life is more important than a woman’s.
Linda Orthodoxy? Things, they are a-changin. CBK