The Houston Chronicle reports an acceleration in principal turnover since the state took over control of the Houston Independent School District and placed non-educator Mike Miles in charge. The principals of nearly 60 schools have resigned or been removed. A military man, Miles was “trained” by the Broad Superintendents Academy. He is imposing standardized curriculum and instruction across the schools he directly controls (called the “New Education System”).
Even the principal of an A-rated school lost his job.
The memos came in one after the other, a laundry list of grievances listing all the ways Federico Hernandez was supposedly failing as principal of Houston ISD’s Middle College High School.
A teacher used Post-It notes rather than index cards during a lesson, according to one complaint from Hernandez’s supervisor. Others allowed students to sit in the back of a classroom or kept a light off during class. Some implemented multiple response strategies, “but not correctly,” read the memo shared with the Houston Chronicle.
Even though the campus run on Houston Community College’s Felix Fraga campus boasts an A-rated academic performance, those were among the infractions that got Hernandez removed from his job less than two months into the school year.
He is one of at least 58 principals who left their schools, involuntarily or otherwise, in 2023 since Superintendent Mike Miles was appointed to his post by the Texas Education Agency on June 1, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of HISD staffing records. After taking into account schools that share a principal, such as Jane Long Academy and Las Americas Newcomer School, or those that recorded multiple changes between June and December, such as Madison High School, the Chronicle confirmed there have been at least 61 leadership changes across 59 campuses…
Erica Harbatkin, an education policy expert at Florida State University who studies principal turnover, said it is not unusual for administrators to reassign principals in an attempt to shake up under-performing schools. They typically don’t do so during the school year, though, because principals need time to plan and coordinate their staff, and “coming in after the school year started… obviously undermines some of those strategies.”
Harbatkin said replacing a principal is one of the quickest ways to effect change at a school, for better or worse.
“The theory of action behind more contemporary school turnaround and improvement policy is that these schools are in this pattern of low performance, and they need something to get them out, some sort of big external shock … and one of the ways that happens is through replacing the principal,” Harbatkin said.
If not done carefully, however, principal turnover can lead to negative effects on student achievement, Harbatkin said. Her research found that principal turnover “is associated with lower test scores, school proficiency rates, and teacher retention.”
“When principals turn over teachers tend to turn over as well, and if that turnover is not well-planned, if there’s not good distributed leadership in the school or someone who can step into the role, that’s likely to make those negative effects even larger,” Harbatkin said.
No one explained the theory or rationale for removing a principal from a high-performing school. Maybe he failed to comply with an order…
Ebony Cumby, who served as principal at Askew Elementary in west Houston for 12 years, resigned within a week of Miles’ appointment after sitting through the first couple days of principal meetings.
“Throughout that period, there were things that I thought were exciting changes that needed to be made in the district, and there were other things that I could foresee being problematic, especially for a district as large as HISD,” Cumby said.
Cumby said she appreciated Miles’ attempts to “bring more consistency” to the district by standardizing the curriculum and other elements, but she was put off by what she described as “a cookie-cutter way of teaching” that she would be expected to enforce. After over two decades at HISD, she ended up leaving public education altogether for another industry.
“I noticed early on that there were things in place that, whether it was intentional or not, were going to take autonomy away from teachers and require them to conform to a certain way of doing things and really take away their creativity, which as a principal was a big deal to me,” Cumby said. “To kind of hear that its ‘our way or the highway’ did not sit well with me.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Mike Miles is imposing thee very system that education reformers constantly decry as the “factory” model.
One size fits all lessons.
Timed responses.
Strict adherence to lesson delivery and materials.
No surprise that a military man has instituted these broken ideas on Houston.
Just remember that the school choice advocates often use this system of education as their justification for vouchers. Yet, the Republican leadership of Texas is thrilled with the punishment they are doling out to Democratically voting Houston.
Exactly right. The Republican leaders of Texas sent Mike Miles to punish Houston for voting Democratic.
When are these autocrats going to learn that shock doctrine tactics do not work well in education. All it does is cause massive disruption for students and staff, and disruption is harmful to young people. The standardization of education is an equally flawed approach in an institution that works best when it is based on building relationships. Miles is Abbott’s appointed hit man whose goal is extract a pound of flesh from the Houston Public Schools. This is all so unnecessary with Abbott sitting on a surplus budget.
Standardization is for nuts and bolts and screws, not for kids. Kids differ A LOT, and a diverse, pluralistic economy needs people with differences that have been celebrated and nurtured.
Think back over the great teachers you’ve had and HOW VARIED they were. There are MANY WAYS of being a great teacher. Miles clearly a) hasn’t a clue, b) is simply cooking up excuses to get rid of people who aren’t bootlickers, or c) both.
Miles has no idea what it means to be a teacher. He is accustomed to commanding which is how the military operates. All he knows how to do is hand out orders and issue punishments for failure to comply.
Exactly the case. His actions are those of an utter incompetent, totally outside of any area of expertise that he might have. Shameful that he was foisted upon the teachers and students of Houston.
It’s child abuse to put a clueless droid on autopilot like this guy in charge of a school district.
A military retired guy once came to teach at my school. He was well-liked by the school and community, and people responded well to his military attitude, especially the students. I thought he would someday make a good teacher if he liked it. But then he was evaluated with the model we all had to put up with. He just quit.
I have often written here that there are two sides to the voucher debate, and this example from TX is an example. For students, parents, teachers, and principals subjected to incompetence and malpractice from incompetent administrators–what other options are there?
My local district with ONE elementary school had a my-way-or-the-highway principal with no plan for the acceleration of capable students as required by state law, leaving me with no alternative but to teach my kids at home for 4 years.
Years later, I was an arts teacher at a middle school (MS) with inadequate facilities which limited what I could do. I made no complaints or requests, but it turned out the HS teacher–who was also my department chair– had plans in that direction too. She asked me if next year I would move to the HS next door where we could share facilities, swap classes, and the MSers and HSers could learn from each other, etc. She got approval from both principals and the superintendent.
I spent four 10-hour days over the summer moving my classroom and equipment. All was set. Then, just before school started we got a new MS principal who cancelled our arrangement, AND a new superintendent who did not want to get involved either way.
What other choice did I have? WE got the proper approvals, WE did all the work, WE were the certified experienced professionals, SHE was the department head who initiated it. And then on the first day back for teachers, the new guy canceled it.
My choice was to go to the personnel director immediately and resign. As I rode my bike back to start packing everything up AGAIN, the new principal called out to me from the sidewalk “Mr. M, why aren’t you at your meeting?” “I’m sorry, but I just resigned” I said politely, and pedaled back to my classroom.
Two hours and eight full boxes later, word had gotten around. Two of my colleagues came to the room and told me the new principal had reversed his position thanks to many complaints. My department head and I proceeded as planned, had a great year, and got along fine with the new principal.
In my opinion, all teachers need a union and a willingness AND a plan to resist AND-if necessary–MOVE ON when the idiots take over our beloved asylums. Alas, the poor children…
Mark,
That’s not a good argument for vouchers. Most of the vouchers pay for kids already in private and religious schools. Suppose the public doesn’t want to pay for religious education? Religious schools are free to discriminate. Or pay for schools that exclude kids who are Black or gay or have special needs? Or subsidize the tuition of rich kids in elite public schools?
Diane, I understand the abuses you mention, and agree. That’s why I wrote “There are TWO sides to the voucher debate,” and went on to describe how my small town PUBLIC school violated state ed regulations with IMPUNITY.
There are many more examples of politicians, law enforcement, school board members, administrators and teachers ignoring policy and state ed and safety regulations. But somehow these are not important because–I guess– they’re infrequent and not serious enough in the judgement of some.
Like the Campaign for Fiscal Equity in NY State which was finally “settled” in 2006, then ignored for another decade or two. The city school district where I was teaching in 2006 spent $11,000 per year per student, while the surrounding suburban district spent $15,000 (if I remember correctly).
Then there’s Uvalde TX, where at least one teacher decided the locked door policy didn’t apply to her, and/or the custodian didn’t bother to fix it, and/or the principal didn’t follow up; and then the 70 cops on the scene couldn’t decide who was in command and whether they had enough guns.
What SHOULD parents and citizens do if their school is mismanaged, violates ed laws and regulations, and then ignores their concerns?
If parents don’t like the way their school is run, they should see the superintendent. They should see school board members. They should organize demonstrations and protests. They should bring in the media. And above all, they should vote in the school board election.
Uvalde school did not have 70 law officers. It had 370 converge. Total confusion.
How would vouchers solve problems? 3/4 are claimed by kids already in private schools.
Diane, you write–
“If parents don’t like the way their school is run, …..above all, they should vote in the school board election.”
—-How’s that working out in TX, FL, and the other extreme right wing states and districts you bring to our attention?
“Uvalde school did not have 70 law officers. It had 370 converge. Total confusion.”
—-That just emphasizes my point: 370 cops unprepared and untrained, AND without any trained leaders. And after HOW MANY mass murders at schools?? Is it really a surprise that some parents throughout the US look at these problems and incompetencies and conclude that THEY the parents can better choose how to spend THEIR share of education funding?
“How would vouchers solve problems? 3/4 are claimed by kids already in private schools.”
—–We are talking about two DIFFERENT situations, Diane.
—–I NEVER advocated for using education funds to subsidize right-wing parents who are paranoid about their children interacting with the lower castes.
—–I ask INSTEAD about that small but important category of public school children who are the victims–year after year AFTER YEAR! — of incompetence, underfunding, fraud, neglect, and/or violation of laws by some of their teachers, administrators, school boards, politicians and law enforcement.
——-Why is it a surprise when they seek a solution elsewhere? You are talking about the “problems” –PLURAL–in the entire system. I look at ONE neglected, unserved student at a time, and am not surprised when another option like a charter school is chosen.
Mark,
Vouchers are enacted statewide.
They enable rich kids tuition to be subsidized by the state.
They destroy separation of church and state.
The elite private schools don’t take vouchers.
Pop up private schools with uncertified teachers take vouchers.
Religious schools where kids are indoctrinated into one religion take vouchers.
Voucher schools may discriminate on any grounds they wish to exclude children of a different religion, those who are gay, those with disabilities.
Vouchers restore segregation.
As Diane points out, vouchers are HUGELY REGRESSIVE. They take taxes from the poor and subsidize the education of the rich.
Diane,
You offer no solution for the non-rich, non-religious, non-stable family, often non-white kids who get left behind by public school inequities.
You wrote in another response to another reader in this thread:
“The Republican leaders of Texas sent Mike Miles to punish Houston for voting Democratic.”
—What is your solution for the children in Houston who will have this punishment unleashed on them? I wonder if any parents think their public school system has been stolen from them and are now looking for vouchers or charter schools or ANY kind of alternative?
—-All I am saying is that there are OTHER types of abuse in public education besides the ones you are fighting against, and there are OTHER victims who will seek relief–maybe vouchers, maybe home school, maybe no school, whatever–for OTHER reasons.
Please define “voucher” and “charter school” and any other related terms. Perhaps I am misusing them.
Following the Great Recession, when my K-6 Title One public school job was cut, I worked part-time for 2 years in an independent (not part of a chain) AZ 5-8 “charter school”. Tuition was “free” meaning paid by the state. Is that payment a “voucher?”
Here are the facts I observed during my two years there, which are NOT what you say invariably define “vouchers”—–
Diane: “Vouchers are enacted statewide.” Me—AZ had a large number of state funded alternative schools across the state: voucher, charter, independent, whatever the terms are.
D: “They enable rich kids tuition to be subsidized by the state.” —We had very few rich kids. Our charter school students came from the same population as the Title One school I taught at previously, 7miles away.
D: “They destroy separation of church and state.” —-I never saw any religious practice, nor heard of any requests from parents.
D: “The elite private schools don’t take vouchers.” —-This was not an “elite” school.
D: “Pop up private schools with uncertified teachers take vouchers.” —-This school had no uncertified teachers that I knew of. There was even a certified special ed teacher who previously worked at the same AZ public school that I worked at for 5 years previously. She left the public school because they were always over the allowed ratio of students and aides to teacher. After all, this was AZ which had the 2nd lowest state funding per student (“Thank God for Mississippi”) and is now up to 5-6th from the bottom.
D: “Religious schools where kids are indoctrinated into one religion take vouchers.” —I saw no religious practices in 2 years.
D: “Voucher schools may discriminate on any grounds they wish to exclude children of a different religion, those who are gay, those with disabilities.”
—-We had no students with extreme disabilities beyond the dozen kids in special ed. I didn’t see any indications of religion or gay, just a small school where everyone got along and any problems were promptly dealt with by teachers and principal.
D: “Vouchers restore segregation.” —-Our student pool was the same as the rest of our large county, about 90% Anglo and 10% Hispanic. Between the public school and the charter school–7 miles apart–I had 2 black students in 7 years.
A charter school is an independently operated school that receives per pupil state funding, as public schools do; it is organized under a charter granted by a state or local authority, often a school district.
A voucher is some set amount of money provided to parents of school-aged children that they can spend on ANY type of school, including private and/or religious schools. In some states, voucher payments are means-tested. Often they start out as means-tested and then become available to all parents of schoolchildren. Voucher payments drain enormous funds away from public education budgets and in states with the latter sort of programs, largely fund part of the educations of students ALREADY IN private or religious schools. So, wealthy parents can use taxpayer money to pay, partially, for the expensive private or religious schools that their kids were already attending. So, voucher programs tend to be regressive taxation by means of which the poor subsidize the rich.
So, Mark, you are confusing charter and voucher schools and statements that Diane made about one or the other of these types of schools with statements about the other type. Every state has a per pupil state allotment. Schools get funding from the state according to their enrollment. Charter schools and regular public schools get funding in this way. The difference is that charter schools are run by people outside the regular public school system and are not as accountable as public-school officials are. There is a LOT of graft in charter schools, with charter management organizations skimming for private profits funds that were supposed to go to students, teachers, facilities, etc.
A voucher system is one where the state sets aside a sum for tuition and/or books that can follow the student to a private or religious school. Typically, the voucher amount is less than what high-end private schools charge–far less. But rich families can apply for and get a voucher to offset part of what they are already paying for private school. This drains state funding that might have gone to public schools.
I wonder how many red states, other than Florida and Texas, have also elected hardcore fascsit state governments.
Red or Blue state is somewhat indicative, but not always relevant. It’s about money buying influence and, eventually, complete power. The excesses of education “reform” are too often swept under the rug or just allowed to rot in full view. It’s a bipartisan effort.
I started teaching for the NYCDOE at 40. My principal and AP were both former teachers who “got it”. They were excellent. Five sites in Brooklyn. Not perfect; but exemplary in the area of special education.
Then Bloomberg took over. Similar to Miles; he imposed rules that, although successful in his field of expertise, were not exactly “proven” in the field of education. And, like Miles, he did not want to hear any voices of dissent.
Knowing that I had come from a management job; my principal showed me a memo from then chancellor Klein; referring to her as a “frontline manager”.
“I thought I was a principal. An educator.” was her memorable line.
She retired a year later.
My AP took over the job. She retired the next year.
Mr Miles is doing this because he can. The foxes are running the chicken coop and have been at it for more than two decades, now.
Gitapik,
Have you read my book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”? There is a chapter about the Bloomberg-Klein years.
I have not read it but, now that you mention it; will do so in the not so distant future. I loved “Reign of Error”.
Funny, though: if you’d asked me a few years ago; I’d probably have been less inclined to read it. Similar to the season dedicated to Baltimore’s public schools in “The Wire”: it’s just too close to home. I couldn’t watch that season until years later.
Being in the midst of that debacle was unbelievably difficult. I seriously can’t stress that enough, to anyone who’s reading this. The demands were way beyond unreasonable. They were, at best, ill informed. At worst (which is more the point); purposely demoralizing and ill intentioned. Then to come home and watch (or “read” in the case of your book) a show about it was just too much. Needed a break in a big way.
But there’s now enough distance between those past events and myself in the moment that I’m more than just interested in reading “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”, now. Thanks for mentioning it, Diane.
“She retired a year later.
“My AP took over the job. She retired the next year.
“Mr Miles is doing this because he can. The foxes are running the chicken coop and have been at it for more than two decades, now.”
Any thoughts on the victims–the students either special ed or low-middle achieving? Any options open to them? Any data on how many moved away, changed schools, sot a charter or voucher, moved to home school?
Mark, the point of these takeovers is to destabilize the public schools by defaming and defunding them, while driving away students and families from them. Once public schools no longer exist in a meaningful sense- which is the end goal – the commodification of education will be complete. Some people of means will still be able to procure an effective education for their progeny. If you see the public school system as a cornerstone of democracy, eliminating it is a vicious attack.
As for the rest of the kids, who cares? Collateral damage. Child labor is making a comeback in a big way.
Mark: Christine’s not just blowing smoke here. Whether you question the motives or not; the end goal is to destabilize and, eventually, dismantle our public education systems.
As for data; I don’t have specific numbers but I can provide information and observations, based on my personal experience and knowledge, from which anyone can draw their own conclusions:
1) The vast majority of the kids I taught, labeled “Emotionally Disturbed”, came from impoverished families. The available charter schools had competitive enrollments and excluded kids with special needs, as a general rule. There’s also plenty of data driven evidence which shows charter schools as being no better if not worse than public schools in academic outcomes. The problems are much deeper rooted than what a “nose to the grindstone” or similar approach is set to deal with. And vouchers were not (and are still not) an option in NYC when I was teaching. The money being offered through vouchers isn’t going to give much bang for the buck unless it’s supplemental for those with greater means, anyway. It’s a simplistic approach to a widespread and complicated need.
I don’t know of any of my kids’ families who opted for home schooling or a charter school. And precious few sought a different public school. We ran a good program and, if asked, we had answers for why it and the rest of the city schools were being changed to the detriment of their kid’s education.
2) One of the reformer mantras was “raise the bar and they’ll learn to jump higher”. Many of my students gave up when their functional grade level remedial programs were replaced by general ed age/grade level material. It was even more ridiculous in the area of autism. Trying to get a kid who’s deep on the spectrum up to grade level in math when the parents just want them to learn basic life skills is a disservice to the family/society and a waste of valuable time and resources when you’re trying to organize and teach a group with varying skill levels.
A basic here is to realize that defunding and hamstringing any large scale program will reduce its effectiveness. To create that situation and then point the finger, saying, “See! It’s not a good program” is a tried and true recipe for failure.
Christine and gitapik,
Seem’s like you are saying that no matter how bad a school becomes–even when being destroyed by “reformers”–every parent must still keep their children their without complaining no matter what.
All I am saying is that it is understandable when some parents reach a breaking point and seek other options rather than continue to subject their children to what they perceive as neglect or malpractice.
Are you really saying that every public school and staff always completely meets the needs of every child, and no criticism is ever valid no matter who the staff is or what they do or what condition the building is in?
“ Are you really saying that every public school and staff always completely meets the needs of every child, and no criticism is ever valid no matter who the staff is or what they do or what condition the building is in?”
Of course not and I know that’s one of the teacher bashing points that’s used quite often. It’s simplistic and demeaning.
There are bad teachers. There are bad administrators. I’ve worked in the corporate world. There are ineffective people in all levels of management who somehow hold onto their positions, as well.
There are some who take their jobs more seriously than others. Some are more capable than others as well. That’s life. It’s important that a community be vigilant and do all it can to hold its public employees accountable for their actions.
It’s just as important that a community own up to its responsibilities of adequately funding and maintaining its institutions so that they can operate in an optimal manner.
Mention “taxes” and you get a lot of sideways glances. It’s become a dirty word. Politicians don’t even want to whisper it to those who can afford to pay them the most. But where else do we get the money to fund these institutions? And if they’re raised but then watered down in their distribution (charters and vouchers siphon money away from public schools), how can you not expect a downturn in the effectiveness of the services rendered?
I know a lot of young people who are avoiding the teaching profession. The class sizes are too big. The buildings aren’t well maintained. Salaries and benefits are too low in many areas. All of this requires funding. Funding that comes from tax revenues.
Then there’s the aspect of respect. Knowing that you’re portrayed as WOKE, self serving union maggots just working for your pension doesn’t exactly attract the best, brightest, and most motivated. Add to that admins with MBA credentials, checking little boxes instead of watching the actual lesson with an experienced eye that might actually help a teacher who could use some guidance…
We should stand up and call out the bs whenever we see it. There will always be problems that need to be corrected. What I’ve seen, directly, and read about on a national scale, however, is a collected and organized effort to exacerbate and politicize these inevitable problems through underfunding and negative media manipulation.
Well said, Gitapik!!
Btw:
I just reread both Christina’s and my own posts. Twice. I also read Bob and Diane’s replies to your points, earlier in the discussion.
I don’t see anything in any of these writings that even remotely suggests we are saying that all schools are perfect and beyond reproach. I don’t know why you would write that as a question/talking point, in the first place.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the occupation of our K-12 schools by the forces of Education “Reform” led by Billy Gates and David Coleman and Jeb Bush and Arne Duncan has led to a DRAMATIC reduction in the quality of curricula (teacher materials used and topics covered) and pedagogy (instructional techniques employed). K-12 curricula and pedagogy have dramatically devolved under the Common Core + testing regime. That’s why many of us here write about the problems with this approach and why Diane has written numerous books that deal with these problems. I am a strong advocate of public schools, but my own daughter sends my grandkids to private Catholic schools because our local public schools have completely devolved into places with garbage curricula and garbage pedagogy based on drilling for the test, whereas our local Catholic schools still have strong, knowledge-based curricula. Fortunately, not all publics schools are like this. Many are filled with courageous teachers and administrators who have resisted the deforming “reforms.”
Yes.
The reformers manufactured a crisis related to our public education system (starting with the publication of “A Nation at Risk”) and then, through financial/political influence, pressure, and intervention, have now created the very crisis that they were erroneously pointing to, back then in the ‘80s.
It would be easy for the reader to think, “Conspiracy theorist. Disgruntled dyed in the wool union teacher. Or simply misinformed”.
But nothing is more compelling than direct personal experience. I worked in corporate management for over a decade, prior to teaching. I recognize the strengths, weaknesses, limitations, necessities, and excesses of both areas in the workforce.
There was more autonomy for both teachers and admins when I first started teaching. I saw, first hand, the gradual and then steep erosion of that autonomy, replaced by ill informed corporate bureaucracy (which was easy enough to recognize), starting around my fifth year. Then I heard about this; Diane’s blog. A forum which exposed what I was seeing in my NYCDOE environment as a national phenomenon.
No idle conjecture on this site. Informed discourse on important events and concepts.
Thank you, Gitapik.
I taught years ago. Then I had a long career in publishing. And at the end of my career, I went back to teaching for a few years. I was ASTONISHED at the devolution of curricula and pedagogy and the loss of teacher autonomy and the extent of the current micromanagement under the criterion-referenced, teach-to-the -test regime initiated by Gates and Coleman, whom I have likened to two drunks plowing their car upon onto a sidewalk and over a crowd of pedestrians and then driving away, oblivious to the destruction they have caused.
cx: teaching materials, not teacher materials
Mark,
I believe parents should always act in their child’s best interest. If they want to change schools, they should. As a matter of public policy, it’s not a good idea to fund charters and vouchers. If parents want a private or religious education, they should pay for it themselves. Charters and vouchers exacerbate segregation. Some charters are all of one race or one ethnicity. Voucher schools may discriminate in any way they wish.
“Some charters are all of one race or ethnicity.”
—I would like to hear more about those charters that are NOT “of one race or ethnicity,” because it suggests something else might be going on beyond the usual charter school politics.
I enjoy learning about problems and attempted solutions, whether in public or alternative education and funding ESPECIALLY when any type of school solves nagging problems and achieves excellence.
“Voucher schools may discriminate in any was they wish.”
—And discrimination apparently continues in the selective public high schools in NYC. How about an update on that?
As you well know, admission to NYC’s selective high schools is based on one test offered on one day. That policy is state law and city officials can’t change it. The number of Black and Hispanic students admitted is small. I oppose the test-based selection. But only a court could overturn it.
I do not think that test-based selection is equivalent to a charter school that is German-themed and all white or created solely for Somalian students or Hispanic or Black students (cf. Minneapolis).
Nor is it comparable to a Christian schools that admits only students of their own sect. Or a voucher-receiving school that excludes Jews, gays or students with disabilities.
“We should stand up and call out the bs whenever we see it. There will always be problems that need to be corrected.” –gitapik
Thank you. This has been my point. I rarely see this acknowledgement here, nor an acknowledgement that unaddressed bs and problems in public schools MIGHT contribute to the attacks on public schools.
Mark,
The public schools don’t lack for critics.
What you don’t seem to understand is the difference between sincere, legitimate criticism and the criticism that is bought and paid for by billionaires like Betsy DeVos and Charles Koch who want to destroy public schools, not make them better.
You fall right into their trap.
NCLB and Race to the Top we’re both willing partners of the billionaires who wanted to privatize everything because they set impossible goals that guaranteed universal failure.
No one believed that every single student would score “proficient” (an A) by the year 2014.
VAM set teachers up for failure. Teachers in rich communities were all brilliant; teachers who were foolish enough to teach kids who were impoverished, ELLs, or had disabilities were bad teachers.
This unattainable Utopianism thwarted efforts to improve schools.
Mark, there are many of us who write on this blog about changes that we think need to be made in public schools related to a great many subjects such as curricula, pedagogical techniques, educational technology, staffing, assessment, and so on. This is hardly a critique-free site regarding public schools.
But it appears one must not mention those students and families who have been so ill-served by the LACK of those changes, that they feel compelled to seek an alternative in charters or vouchers.
Every complaint I’ve ever had about public schools, I’ve seen corrected or not exist in the three Title One districts I’ve worked in during 19 years.
Some schools need to stop complaining and denying and just get to work. We may not be able to stop the exodus of racist and elitist families, but we can properly serve the rest.
I don’t know wtf you are saying, Mark. People write on this blog ALL THE TIME about issues they have with the treatment of subgroups of children in our schools. In particular, the host of this blog has written EXTENSIVELY about inequity in our schools. So what TF is your point?
Thank you, Bob. I have given up responding to Mark. There are many problems in public schools. None of them will be solved or fixed by giving public funds to private schools. No accountability. No need to hire certified teachers. Free to discriminate.
Diane,
YOU “fall right into the trap” of defining any probing question to be extreme criticism “bought and paid for by billionaires like devos and koch.”
Please quote where in my many posts I have ever supported that ilk OR their policies. What I HAVE written about is my frustration of many decades with the problems in schools that are NOT seriously addressed, often denied.
Thank you for acknowledging that there are “legitimate” critics of public education. Again, explain why you consider me NOT to be “legitimate”, and show me how I have “fallen right into their trap”.
Being a “legitimate critic” of education and understanding that SOME students and families ARE neglected and desperate are not mutually exclusive.
Public education is not only under attack, it is being transformed in many states and districts in our country. While we fight the broad problem, what about the INDIVIDUAL students and families who are oppressed by these attacks?
When curriculum is censored as “woke”, when “don’t say gay or black” becomes policy, when harassment and bullying is ignored, at what point will it become understandable to you that a student and family sees no other choice but to seek relief in a publicly funded charter school, voucher, etc.?
Probably you will never see that as acceptable, but I’m only asking if things could EVER get so bad that you might UNDERSTAND the plight of children and families under attack like that. I hear those attacks are already starting in some states, but maybe I’m just “falling into their trap” again.
Everything you describe has been part of the decades long plot to destroy public education.
Districts and communities pay for public schools for everyone, not just their own children. In a privatized world, no one will support a bond issue for other people’s children, esp when they are attending voucher schools that don’t admit all and that use the Bible as their textbook.
Don’t Say Gay, book banning, underfunding, etc all come from supporters of privatization.
When you say I should consider “the other side of vouchers,” I don’t understand what’s good about asking taxpayers to fund religious schools that would ban their own children.
“Don’t Say Gay, book banning, underfunding, etc all come from supporters of privatization.”
So, no matter how often kids get harassed of beat up, they must never complain and leave that school??
“When you say I should consider “the other side of vouchers,” I don’t understand what’s good about asking taxpayers to fund religious schools that would ban their own children.”
What’s good about it IS– ANYTHING’S good that keeps a child from being bullied and beaten or denied needed services.
Using tax money to fund exclusive religious schools is not legitimate, but tax money is used in other ways. If a student is at physical or mental risk in a dysfunctional uncooperative public school, WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST? I say “whatever works” –voucher, charter, investigative reporters, lawsuits…. It’s irrelevant whether it’s public money, private money, pro bono, whatever. WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?