On January 27 at 7 p.m. (Central Time), Illinois Families for Public Schools and other groups will sponsor a Zoom meeting on the subject, “Confronting the Rise of School Board Disruptions.”
Throughout the country and in Illinois, we have seen the rise of well-funded disinformation campaigns targeting school boards and educators.
This event will cover: Who’s behind the disinformation campaign around masks/vaccines mandates, an erosion of LGBTQ+ rights and the way race is being taught in our schools? How can we band together to support our school boards and staff who are being threatened and to protect public education?
Hear from an excellent panel and connect with others around Illinois who are organizing in their communities to stand up for inclusion, safety, and teaching a full and accurate history in our schools that protects all students
Panelists include:
— Jennifer Berkshire, Co-Author “A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door”
— State Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, Former VP Policy for Erikson Institute and ISBE board secretary and member
— Nathaniel Rouse, Director of Equity, Race, and Cultural Diversity Initiatives, Barrington 220
— Julie Harris, Educator of 31 years Tinley Park CCD146
Hosted by Indivisible Illinois, Illinois Families for Public Schools, Indivisible Illinois Social Justice Alliance and more.
Jan 27, 2022 07:00 PM in Central Time (US and Canada)
Open the link to register and get the Zoom link.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Conservatives in Florida are doing everything they can to micro-manage and ultimately hobble public schools. “House Republicans again are seeking to nix school board members’ salaries, but a proposal filed this year goes much further by increasing scrutiny of the way library books and other school materials are selected.”https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/state/2022/01/21/florida-house-gop-seeks-to-nix-school-board-salaries-greater-scrutiny-of-library-books/6606176001/
I remain haunted by what happened in st. louis from 2006-2008. A democrat Mayor…Francis Slay, and a republican senator…John Danforth were united in a holy principle…..if we can stop voters from getting in the way by who they put on the school board, the sooner the better. We should be calling the shots. We need charter schools, and an appointed board to take care of the leftovers. Mayor Slay appointed Veronica O’Brien to replace someone who admitted to leaving threatening phone messages for a fellow board member and throwing a pitcher of water on a district official. When he told her to jump…she did not bother to ask how high….the riverfront times said she’ll elbow her way around the board majority without qualm. She might not be exactly what the mayor ordered, but she’s not going anywhere soon: Voters elected her in April to a full three-year term. One of her targets was a basketball coach, who had been accused of physically abusing a student…O’Brien was helping him file a lawsuit.6 years after it happened. She had been chosen president of the board, but after having a security detail assigned to protect her, after the murder of the former student, and many other clashes with almost everybody, she was removed. Her replacement as board president, Peter Downs, was a brilliant person, who did not abandon everything that Veronica had offended the big shots, and eventually wrote a book about some of it. They had a good superintendent in Diana Bourisaw…as Downs reported…..Ms. Bourisaw immediately set to work to stabilize staff. In five weeks she placed the 1,000+ teachers
waiting for assignments into jobs, and her staff began revamping the human resources staff so that next
year teachers would know in April where they would work the following year instead waiting until August to
find out. Principals, too, were confirmed in their assignments and given coaching to help them succeed.
And she reaffirmed the missions of magnet schools, and began working to bolster them.
While Ms. Bourisaw worked to bring stability to schools and staff, the school board, as body, acted to
bring more stability to the superintendents. As the board stabilized…Slay and Danforth became upset….it was almost as if the voters….given the chance…..were smart enough to figure out what people were capable of getting things done. Not a principle that Slay and Danforth had much use for, except for their own elections.
I am not sure just how my post appears twice….most likely because of my clumsiness with WordPress…and it might seem irrelevant being from so many years ago…I believe Peter Downs was way ahead of things….maybe Diane felt a bit that way two…Amazon features five reviews of his book, one is from Diane Ravitch…
Editorial Reviews
Review
Downs’s should serve as a warning to all elected school board members that political considerations and privatization efforts are a threat to democratically elected boards of education. What happened in St. Louis could easily happen in any community. — William Purdy, sixteen year elected member and former president St. Louis Board of Education
Peter Downs has written a provocative, informative and timely book about school reform in St. Louis. Its lessons apply to many cities undergoing similar reforms today. — Diane Ravitch, Research Professor in Education at New York University and Brown Chair in Education Policy at Brookings Institution, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
Written from the unique perspective of a citizen, elected school board member and parent who has been deeply involved in the struggle for educational reform, Schoolhouse Shams offers a vantage point that has often been silenced in the scholarship on educational reform. Peter Downs takes the reader into the heart of the school reform debate – the people, the policies, the decisions – to understand the complexities and contradictions of what is really at stake in the school reform debate. Drawing on a decade of evidence, Schoolhouse Shams provides a serious warning about the costs of neoliberal educational reforms, a critique important for urban school districts around the nation. Downs connects local, state and national educational policy in a readable and accessible manner, making the book appealing to critically mind educators, scholars in educational policy and reform, school board members, parents and others seeking to understand the complexity of educational reform. — Rebecca Rogers, Ph.D, associate professor of Literacy and Discourse Studies, University of Missouri St. Louis
In Schoolhouse Shams: Myths and Misinformation in School Reform, author Peter Downs, a business writer and former school board president in St. Louis, Mo., takes aim at what he calls “simplistic, easy-to-implement solutions” to complex education problems. Downs vigorously tackles some of the most prevalent education myths, among them the notions that schools are not as good as they used to be due to desegregation; large-scale assessments are precise and standardized; public schools are wasteful and outsourcing will save money; and privatization and parental choice make schools better and cheaper. The book’s claims are grounded in his experiences with the St. Louis Public Schools, and he doesn’t shy away from pointing fingers. In a narrative that reads like an exposé, Downs identifies the powerful organizations, companies and individuals that enrich themselves by selling false stories to the public, turning education from a public good to a private product. ― School Administrator
Schoolhouse Shams by Peter Downs continues the exposure of corporate-led school reform by dissecting and systematically demolishing the top ten arguments — or shams — that these ‘reformers’ use to make their case, including the efficacy of high stakes testing, the focus on teaching reading skills, and the wastefulness of public versus privatized services. What’s unique about Down’s study is not so much the conclusions themselves, cogent as they are, but the way he gets there. . . .Particularly notable in this regard is Down’s analysis of privatization of public services — both inside and outside of public education — from municipal trash pickup, to school building and grounds maintenance and food services, to publicly funded charter schools. . . .Downs also does a good job of demonstrating how, despite reformers’ claims to the contrary, poor education could not have accounted for the growing white-Black income gap between 1970-2000, given that African Americans made substantial progress in closing the educational attainment gap over the same period. ― Against the Current
About the Author
Peter Downs is a former member and president of the St. Louis Board of Education. He is a business writer and editor of a trade magazine. His children study in public schools.
“indivisible” in the name of the organizations- well done
In other news, evidently the Extreme Court thinks that Harvard isn’t white enough or rich enough what with all this business of letting POC in.
And, in still other news, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has recruited the guy whose name is an insult to amphibians everywhere, Newt Gingrich, to draft a list of regressive, agitprop-ready policies for Republicans to run on in 2022. Critics say that reruns of the 1990’s Newt hit show Cataracts for America would be a flop; Real ‘merican patriots say that the Party doesn’t need a platform. The platform IS Glorious Leader DT Who Shines More Orange Than Does the Sun.
But if this goes forward, I have a suggestion, oh, amphibious one, for a title for the new platform:
Back to the Future. I Mean Way, Way Back!
If Harvard was exclusively White (or Asian) and rich, it would be harder for politicians to find Black ivy leaguers with affinity for the schemes of the richest 0.1% – fewer to carry freight for white billionaires while the public is duped into thinking they are looking out for communities of color.
If Harvard was whiter, richer and had more legacy admissions, the public might reject the idea that tax dollars should flow to the school. But, on reflection, probably not, the taxpayers give a lot of tax dollars to organizations under an umbrella of the overtly discriminatory Catholic Church.
Never the less, the collateral damage cost vs. benefit is worth looking at.
Harvard is a business. It’s interests are long-term and financial and geared toward pleasing donors. Everything it does, it does with that aim.
Harvard’s motto- never meet a dollar you don’t take
I don’t mean to pick on Harvard specifically. Every other elite university is the same.
Diane: This weekend, someone put up a booth on a street-corner entrance of our local Walmart grocery store (30+ miles south of Los Angeles). It was a Trump group and the HUGE sign on its front said:
FXXK BIDEN
Violence here, violence there, violence everywhere. I wanted to ask, but was afraid to approach: From whence this open nastiness? . . . then I saw Newt Gingrich on a morning news program threatening the Congresspeople on the present Commission for studying the insurrection on the Capitol with jail time. I never liked Gingrich, but I never thought he’d go this far, not to mention the recent Kennedy debacle over vaccinations. Tribal politics all the way. . . . CBK
If Gingrich is right, we will be living in a fascist dictatorship.
Diane: Yes, a fascist state. The people in your original posting, however, sound like they have the right questions . . .
First, however, the problem with conspiracy theories is that many actually sound plausible and sometimes they can actually be true. With that in mind, I put to these folks a conspiracy theory . . . that needs to be proved OR disproved with traceable evidence . . . that is . . .
Someone, or some small group(s) of well-heeled people are funding and otherwise organizing and directing threads of LOCAL violence (school boards, election officials, etc.) pursuant of intimidation, and besides the “crazies” whom they easily blame.
Also, as a relevant aside, we need to stop thinking the best of people (like Charlie Brown thinks of Lucy as she places that football) who have proven beyond a doubt that they don’t deserve that best, nor to live in a place with people, black and white and other, whose principles they so obviously hate. CBK
“I never thought he’d go this far…” It certainly begins to feel as if certain public personalities fuss their way into corners on subjects like the virus or CRT in schools, and then don’t have a way back out — so they get to be more and more fanatic.
Ciedie . . . you are probably right, they have “cornered” themselves and some would DIE before they would admit fault, or what they actually know to be true. We are in a very dark time of regressive intelligence and the concomitant disappearance of moral and spiritual strength. CBK
Excellent. This Rogues Gallery of Disruptors are organized and well-funded from deep within Plutocrat Paradise. The Panel will at least help good citizen SEE the behind the screen/scene manipulations. Public Schools and School Board Meeting destruction is just one part of a Master Agenda, courtesy of those who consider themselves the Masters Of The Universe. They purchased most of our current Supreme Court. They also picked up the TAB on the disgraceful Anti-Vax Protests in DC yesterday and in Europe. This is not a naturally-occurring democratic phenomena. Quite the reverse. Follow Youngkin’s March On Virginia to understand better how it is done and follow the money to see Who Benefits.
Guardian- “U.S. Conservatives linked to rich donors wage campaign to ban books from schools” (1-24-2022). The article identifies links to Charles Koch, Leonard Leo and Dick Uihlein. Crickets from Bill and Melinda Gates and Josh Edelman?
Daily Beast 1-20-2022- “New Filing Reveals Another Billionaire Behind the Big Lie”- Dick Uihlein
Not to the point of the post above, but I just wanted to share this:
Teenagers. And heroes.
EXCELLENT! Thanks for posting this, Diane!
Look for another VERY important virtual program on TESTING coming up February 12th.
(Announcement will most likely be made at the end of the school board virtual this Thursday.)
Thanks to IL Families for Public Schools & Indivisible IL, making our voices heard.
I remain haunted by what happened in st. louis from 2006-2008. A democrat Mayor…Francis Slay, and a republican senator…John Danforth were united in a holy principle…..if we can stop voters from getting in the way by who they put on the school board, the sooner the better. We should be calling the shots. We need charter schools, and an appointed board to take care of the leftovers. Mayor Slay appointed Veronica O’Brien to replace someone who admitted to leaving threatening phone messages for a fellow board member and throwing a pitcher of water on a district official. When he told her to jump…she did not bother to ask how high….the riverfront times said she’ll elbow her way around the board majority without qualm. She might not be exactly what the mayor ordered, but she’s not going anywhere soon: Voters elected her in April to a full three-year term. One of her targets was a basketball coach, who had been accused of physically abusing a student…O’Brien was helping him file a lawsuit.6 years after it happened. She had been chosen president of the board, but after having a security detail assigned to protect her, after the murder of the former student, and many other clashes with almost everybody, she was removed. Her replacement as board president, Peter Downs, was a brilliant person, who did not abandon everything that Veronica had offended the big shots, and eventually wrote a book about some of it. They had a good superintendent in Diana Bourisaw…as Downs reported…..Ms. Bourisaw immediately set to work to stabilize staff. In five weeks she placed the 1,000+ teachers
waiting for assignments into jobs, and her staff began revamping the human resources staff so that next
year teachers would know in April where they would work the following year instead waiting until August to
find out. Principals, too, were confirmed in their assignments and given coaching to help them succeed.
And she reaffirmed the missions of magnet schools, and began working to bolster them.
While Ms. Bourisaw worked to bring stability to schools and staff, the school board, as body, acted to
bring more stability to the superintendents. As the board stabilized…Slay and Danforth became upset….it was almost as if the voters….given the chance…..were smart enough to figure out what people were capable of getting things done. Not a principle that Slay and Danforth had much use for, except for their own elections.
A judge removed the family service account of the coach and Tim Bacon’s (not sure what the noun should be….altercation seems a little off)….A writer from the Post Dispatch got angry at me for printing what he told me….the police told them Tim had been shot because of a girl or drugs……..he did not tell me he believed them..he did not tell me he did not…..https://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/irons-story-takes-tragic-turn/article_10279b17-3223-5077-85ca-d1bbf4b393d3.html In what is being called a “violent coincidence,” a man planning to sue former Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons for injuries he alleged happened in an altercation six years ago was gunned down early Friday by three assailants.
Timothy Bacon, 21, was shot repeatedly at 1:45 a.m. Friday while walking to a store to purchase cigarettes.
Witnesses say one of the men then walked up to Bacon’s motionless body and shot him twice after the hail of bullets felled him.
Jerome Dobson, Irons’ attorney, told the American that his client has not been contacted by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in connection with the slaying.
“No one from the police department has talked to either of us in connection with this senseless crime,” he said.
“It’s a terrible situation. We feel for the victim’s family.”(2006 was the year).
I consider Veronica a friend……..not that I agree with everything she did and said…….but she put up a fight most often on behalf of students. I feel honored when Peter Downs, who occasionally pops in to hear some blues bands where I might be playing my sax….was someone the state had no business discarding. https://www.amazon.com/Schoolhouse-Shams-Misinformation-School-Reform/dp/1610488342