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Christine Langhoff: The Corporate Reformers Are in Control of Massachusetts Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2017 //
11

Christine Langhoff teaches in Massachusetts and is a member of the Network for Public Education.

She writes:


Massachusetts public education is being run by a cabal of reformsters, many of them affiliated with a local thinkster tank, The Pioneer Institute. Jim Peyser, state Secretary of Education, is a former director of The NewSchools Venture Fund, having run the Pioneer Institute from 1993-2000. Gov. Weld named him as undersecretary of education in 1995, shortly after the introduction of charters to the state, for which Peyser was – and is – an advocate. In charge of higher education is perennial gadfly Chris Gabrieli, failed gubernatorial candidate, who has developed no fewer than three reformy edu-businesses. (Time on Learning – extended day and year no extra pay; TransformEd – measuring grit and feelings; and Empower Schools, which seeks to destroy union contracts and impose a “third way” in urban districts – so far 3 and counting). So, to use the local dialect, all of them are wicked reformy.

Things have not been going so well for Chester. He signed on as chairman of PARCC, but that boat sank under the weight of the Common Core. This past November, when he thought the charter cap would be lifted and privatization could proceed apace, that too went down to an ignominious 2-1 defeat, in the process awakening parents and taxpayers to the charter scam. He has lately signed on to be a Chief for Change. Reformsters, unlike teachers, don’t need tenure because they have sinecures.

I think this latest peevish salvo stems from Chester’s frustration at being unable to simply sign executive orders and command the world as he would have it. Recently, after testimony from Lisa Guisbond of Citizens for Public Schools, he was forced to revise a punitive policy for students opting out:

“On the related issue of state testing, I thought you should know that some teachers are being given these instructions for handling students whose parents have chosen to opt them out:

‘When a student opts out they will remain in the classroom, listen as the test directions are being read and given the test. If after 15 minutes the student doesn’t write anything down, then, and only then, may the teacher remove the test.’

A 4th grade teacher shared her reaction:

‘This is public shaming, will cause emotional harm, and is a travesty to the precious relationship between teachers and students. Remember we cannot say anything except the scripted words on the test document or we are threatened with job termination, legal and or criminal action.’

So we have a fourth grader embarrassed and crying and a teacher who could lose his or her job for consoling the child. The teacher must ignore this child in need and say nothing.

I trust that these instructions are in error, and that your humane instructions from last year, Commissioner Chester, that students should not be pressured or punished for opting out, remain in place. I urge you to communicate this to the field.”

Delay and Revise MA ESSA Plan to Help, Not Harm, Struggling Schools

At the April 18 board meeting, one of the topics under discussion was the use of the scores from this year’s round of testing. Chester proposed to have 2017 scores included in the average for determining school levels. That was nearly unanimously rejected by the Board due to the use of several variants of tests in the past three years. Previously, it had been agreed that schools would be “held harmless” during the transition to a new test.

A recess was called, during which time Secretary Peyser expressed his belief that if the 2017 scores were not included, teachers would deliberately have students tank the exams so that they could increase scores in future years. In other words,he believes teachers across the state would INTENTIONALLY have thousands of children do poorly on tests in order to create a low baseline. NB: At the time of the discussion, we were already halfway through the testing period.

These people have no respect for the work teachers do. They do not believe we have any integrity. They do not treat us as professionals. It is indeed shameful.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Massachusetts, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Will Birmingham Be the Next New Orleans?

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2017 //
12

Public education activists in Birmingham are afraid that their school board is getting ready to appoint a Broadie–or worse–to be the next superintendent of schools. They fear that the plan is to deliberate this crucial decision in complete secrecy, then spring someone on the schools who wants to demolish them and turn them over to profit-driven, unaccountable charter schools. They are aware of what has happened in New Orleans, where academic gains–if any–are limited, segregation remains intact, and communities and are disempowered and silenced.

Read here to see the lengths the board will go to so as to shield their superintendent search from public view.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Alabama, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Orleans, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: How Louisiana Superintendent John White Ran Out of a Contract and Falsely Credentialed Himself

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2017 //
2

Mercedes Schneider, who teaches high school in a Louisiana public schools, points out in this post that State Superintendent John White’s contract expired, so he is now a month-to-month employee.

He can’t get a contract without eight of the state board’s 11 votes, and he only has seven. White, who comes from TFA and Joel Klein’s administration as chancellor in NYC, was appointed during the reign of far-right Bobby Jindal. Now there is a new governor, John Bel Edwards, but Jindal’s appointees still control the state board.

John White managed to give himself credentials as an educational leader just last year, when the new board came in.

He gave himself three education credentials, although he actually lacks the teaching experience necessary for the third one. Schneider guesses he is preparing himself for his inevitable exit and giving himself the credentials to be a district superintendent.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Louisiana

NYSAPE Calls on Board of Regents to Remove Commissioner Elia

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2017 //
24

NYSAPE, the New York State Alliance of Parents and Educators, is a coalition of 50 parent and educator groups across the state. The board of NYSAPE has called on the New York Board of Regents to demand the resignation of State Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

Here is the statement:

“New Yorkers Call on the Board of Regents to
Remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia for Failure to Protect Children

“For the past five years, hundreds of thousands of parents, from every corner of New York State, have called for meaningful changes to our damaging test-and-punish accountability system, resulting in the largest opt out movement in the nation.

“When MaryEllen Elia replaced embattled former Commissioner John King as NYS Education Commissioner two years ago, New York’s families and educators hoped to see improvements. Instead, as Commissioner, Elia doubled down on King’s speculative reforms, and children continue to suffer. Elia further compounded the testing debacle by implementing untimed tests in New York, resulting in substantial numbers of children testing for the entire school day for days on end.

“Elia’s willingness to expand controversial testing, disregard student privacy rights, ignore best practices, and condone the unethical treatment of students has worsened New York’s toxic educational environment and further outraged parents. The Commissioner’s recent defense of a high school assignment requiring students to write an essay in support of Nazi viewpoints has only widened the divide between Elia and the parents and students she is supposed to serve.

“The MaryEllen Elia experiment in New York has failed. It is time for the Board of Regents to remove Commissioner Elia and substantially change course.

“Eileen Graham, Rochester public school parent and founder of the Black Student Leadership said, “When a school resorts to bribing students to take a test, it says more about our dysfunctional education system than any test score. Unfortunately, Commissioner Elia’s lack of leadership has created a corrupt learning environment in which administrators feel pressured to compromise their integrity by promising pizza parties and field trips in exchange for test participation. Not surprisingly, Commissioner Elia has done nothing to publicly discourage this unethical behavior, and in fact seems to encourage it. The exclusion and shaming of students whose families exercise their right to opt out is undemocratic and unconscionable. Our schools and our children deserve better.”

“It is disturbing that Commissioner Elia has gone to such great lengths to convince parents of significant improvements to the NYS tests when students actually take longer than ever to complete them. The Commissioner will stop at nothing to artificially increase test scores including allowing young students to sit for 6 hours of testing for (3) three consecutive days through her unilateral untimed testing policy. These abusive policies must stop and the Commissioner must go!” stated Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE. She went on to say, “Elia’s recent actions defending assignments supporting Nazi viewpoints are indefensible.”

“Commissioner Elia’s failure to keep accurate data on untimed testing is incompetent at best and deceitful at worst. By refusing to ensure that schools are complying with New York State’s 1% cap on the number of instructional hours devoted to the state tests, the Commissioner has shown utter disregard for the well-being of children and opened the floodgates for abusive testing practices with little to no accountability. It’s time to completely remove the Tisch era from SED and remove Commissioner Elia,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent, and founder of Long Island Opt Out and NYSAPE.

“New York’s student body is incredibly diverse,” said Chris Cerrone, School Board member from Erie County, “Our students deserve a commissioner who is sensitive, principled, and unwaveringly dedicated to rooting out prejudice and bigotry. Elia’s lack of a timely ruling to deal with the racist comments made by Buffalo School Board member Carl Paladino shows an inability to stand up forcefully for the dignity of all students.”

“Commissioner Elia’s ESSA Think Tank and its related surveys and regional meetings have been an exercise in futility—and deception,” says New York City public school parent Kemala Karmen, who serves on the purportedly advisory body. “Instead of allowing for ground-up ideas from stakeholders, the Think Tank leadership, under Elia’s guidance, summarily dismisses any proposals that do not conform to their same-old, same-old Merryl Tisch-John King era notions, effectively squandering the ability of the state to create an accountability system that might actually help schools improve. It makes me wonder what boss or bosses the Commissioner is actually answering to.”

“While Commissioner Elia is required to ensure that NYS tests are offered to all students, it is not the job of NYSED to persuade parents to subject their children to tests they deem harmful and meaningless. Commissioner Elia’s failure to provide parents with straightforward facts and information is shameful. We need a Commissioner of Education who values research-based practices and will advocate for students. Unfortunately, Commissioner Elia seems more committed to test compliance than to the children she serves,” said Marla Kilfoyle, Long Island public school parent, educator and Executive Director of BATs.

“Until our education leaders and lawmakers understand that high standards are best evidenced by equitable learning opportunities and not a fetishistic commitment to corporate learning standards and politicized test scores, the opportunity gap will continue to widen. New York State deserves an education leader who values student-centered and developmentally appropriate practices. Now, more than ever, our schools need a transformative leader who will change the conversation from one about test scores to one about equitable resources and research-driven supports. Sadly, Commissioner Elia has fallen far short of the mark,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent and special education teacher.

“Dr. Michael Hynes, Superintendent of Patchogue-Medford in Long Island said, “The Commissioner’s goal should be to focus on the whole child. Schools should be drawing out the talents of children and maximizing their potential. Thus far, Commissioner Elia’s agenda has been the complete opposite. She has failed to show the educators and parents of New York State that the physical, emotional, academic and social growth in children is her number one priority.”

“The Board of Regents must act to remove Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. We deserve a leader who will institute best practices and dignity for all, as opposed to one who continues to undermine the well-being of our children.”

NYSAPE is a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the state.

###

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New York

New Hampshire Governor Appoints Businessman Who Home-Schooled His Children as Commissioner of Education

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2017 //
19

 

 

Wayne Gersen was a school superintendent in New Hampshire for 11 years. He was appalled to learn that the new Republican governor, Chris Sununu, appointed a completely inexperienced businessman, who home-schooled his own seven children,  as the state’s next education commissioner.

 

The only way to block this appointment is by vote of the state’s five-person Executive Council, three of whom are Republicans. If even one of them is a public school parent or graduate, there is a chance of stopping this unqualified nominee.

 

This is a portion of the letter that Gersen wrote to the Executive Council members.

 

“I am writing to express by unequivocal opposition to the appointment of Frank Edelblut as Commissioner of Education. As a former NH Public School Superintendent of 11 years (SAU 16 from 1983-87; SAU 70 from 2004-2011), a Superintendent with 18 additional years of experience in other States, and one who has worked as a consultant for the past six years in Vermont and New Hampshire, I have a great understanding of and great appreciation for the work performed by a chief school officer in a state. I also know that overseeing a state department of education requires an in depth knowledge of how public schools are governed, how they are managed, and the challenges employees in public schools face. It is evident from what I have read about Mr. Edelblut that he possesses no knowledge of the workings of public schools. Mr. Edelblut asserts that his skills as a private businessman are transferable to overseeing a complex public agency. The experience of other businessmen with no public sector experience who take over schools shows otherwise. Mr. Edelblut also asserts that his experience as a CEO provides him with an understanding of “what kids need to be successful”. While he may know what a HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE needs to be successful IN HIS BUSINESS, I do not believe that gives him any sense of what a Kindergartner needs to be successful in Colebrook, Concord, or Contoocook.

 

“Most troubling to me is his lack of experience in dealing with public schools as a parent. If Mr. Edelblut was a successful businessman who ALSO served on his local school board, or who attended his child’s PTA meetings or back to school nights, or who had any children who attended public school I might be open to an assertion that he has some sense of the challenges of public schools. The fact that he chose to homeschool his children instead of working with his local school board or local principal or his child’s teacher experience speaks volumes about his commitment to the cause of improving schools. Parents who are engaged in public education soon gain an appreciation for the hard work required to educate all children and find ways to improve their local schools through teamwork.”

 

If any readers live in New Hampshire, please express your opposition to this absurd nomination. If you don’t live in New Hampshire, contact the governor’s office to let him know that this appointment makes New Hampshire a laughing stock and undermines the hard work of the state’s educators and its students.

 

With appointments like Betsy DeVos and this unqualified nominee in New Hampshire, our nation is not only showing disrespect for public education, but hurtling back to the early nineteenth century, when children went to religious schools, charity schools, charter schools, were homeschooled, or were without any education. Rushing backward two centuries will not prepare our children to live in the 21st century.

 

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, New Hampshire

North Carolina: Ousted Superintendent Wonders: “How Do I Help an Infant in Public Education?”

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2016 //
8

June Atkinson, the incumbent Superintendent of Instruction for the state of North Carolina, was beaten by 33-year-old Mark Johnson on November 8. She was surprised by the outcome. Johnson won 50.8% of the vote; of 4.4 million votes cast, Johnson’s margin of victory was 58,000 votes. 

 

Atkinson had worked for the Department of  Public Instruction for 40 years, the last 11 as state chief.

 

Atkinson is the longest-serving state superintendent in the nation and the first woman in North Carolina to hold the job. She lost to Republican Mark Johnson, the second-youngest statewide elected official in the country. Johnson is a lawyer and school board member in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. He received 50.6 percent of the vote in the Nov. 8 election.

 

During an interview at her office last week, Atkinson shifted between moments of sadness, sometimes crying as she spoke about leaving the job she loves, and moments of frustration as she recalled comments Johnson made during the election, some of which she thought were unfair.

 

“I have two pet peeves. One is it bothers me when people swim in the swamp of ignorance or swim in the swamp of dishonesty,” Atkinson said. “It bothers me that my opponent would say disparaging things about people here in the department, that they are incompetent, that there are a bunch of bureaucrats here who don’t work well. I don’t take that personally because I know what it’s like to run for office. It’s the first time, however, I’ve run for office when I felt as if my opponent was dishonest in what he said.”

 

The two have not spoken about the election outcome, Atkinson said, and she doesn’t know what she’ll say when the time comes. She promises a smooth transition when Johnson takes over in January, but it’s clear the transition will be tough.

 

“It’s really hard for me to figure out what I want to say to him, because I don’t know where to start. I mean, he has taught two years. He’s never run an organization that has almost 900 people. He has never traveled to the 100 counties. He doesn’t have a background,” she said. “So, it’s like, how do I teach or how do I help a person who is an infant in public education to become an adult overnight to be able to help public education in this state?”

 

When asked about Atkinson’s remarks, Johnson responded:

 

“I acknowledge that (Atkinson) has been at the Department of Public Instruction for 40 years, and she has a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said. “I look forward to talking to her and hearing what she has to say about running the department and taking that into consideration as I go forward.”

 

Still, he said, Atkinson should not discount his experience as a teacher, local school board member and lawyer.

 

Johnson was a TFA teacher for two years, and a local school board member for less than two years, which should position him well to take charge of the schools of the state of North Carolina.
Read more at http://www.wral.com/ousted-nc-superintendent-on-successor-how-do-i-help-an-infant-in-public-education-/16236296/#2E8eABKf7wCRS4sO.99

 

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, North Carolina, Teach for America TFA

North Carolina: A Veteran Teacher Writes a Letter to the New State Superintendent

By dianeravitch
December 17, 2016 //
2

Stuart Egan is a National Board Certified Teacher in North Carolina. The state legislature (the General Assembly) just passed legislation removing educational authority from the state board of education and handing it to the just-elected state superintendent of education, who is a Republican with only two years of teaching as a member of Teach for America.

 

Egan wrote to Mark Johnson, the 33-year-old neophyte who is suddenly in charge of the state’s schools.

 

The young man who will control the state school system ran against “the status quo,” which was imposed by the legislature that just put him in charge. Will he tangle with the legislature? Will he fight for teachers? Will he roll back over-testing, as he promised?

 

If you have …, “taken issue with what (you) sees as a lack of support for teachers and schools coming from the department and a failure to respond quickly to such issues as the state’s academic standards and over-testing” will you really seek to empower or enable those very teachers and schools the way that people in the GOP controlled NCGA special session just empowered you before you even step foot inside of your new office?

 

When the chair and vice-chair of the GOP controlled State Board of Education say that the General Assembly overstepped its boundaries in granting you as the incoming state superintendent this much power, then that sends more than one red flag into the air.

 

When two former governors, one of whom is Republican Jim Martin, says the special session has gone too far with bills such as the one which enables you, then sirens are screaming.

 

When the John Locke Foundation says that the power grab that involves the role of your office has gone too far, then many are saying that part of hell is freezing over.

 

So, what will you do now that you will have much to say about charter schools and the Achievement School District, the management of monies for public schools, and who is hired in DPI as well as some who may sit on the State Board of Education?

 

Because if someone who was as experienced as your predecessor was as handcuffed as she and was still able to wage battle against the very forces that have actually controlled the very “status-quo” you seem to have run against, will you be willing to battle those very people for the sake of the students and schools now that they have politically enabled you?

 

Or will you bend to the wishes of those who have placed this power within your office through a politically motivated special session that was undertaken solely as a coup against the fact that a democrat won the governor’s election?

 

I eagerly await your answer through your actions in the coming years.

 

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, North Carolina

Mike Klonsky: Why Antwan Wilson Left Oakland for D.C.

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2016 //
7

Mike Klonsky has some thoughts about why Antwan Wilson, superintendent of schools in Oakland, left his $400,000 a year job to take Kaya Henderson’s job in the District of Columbia.

It can’t be for the money. He will probably earn about the same, maybe more.

Could be because he is a Broadie, and Broadie don’t set down roots in any community.

Must be for the visibility.

The people in D.C. credited him with raising test scores in Oakland, but he was only in Oakland for two years.

He will bring some Broadie ideas with him that folks in D.C. were not expecting, like trying “to dismantle special education.” Although, having weathered nine years of Rhee-Henderson policies of high-stakes testing and privatization, they must have some idea of what they will be getting. More of the same.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Broad Foundation, California, Charter Schools, District of Columbia, Privatization

Angie Sullivan: The Nevada Achievement School District is Only for Public Schools, Not for Failing Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
October 29, 2016 //
7

Nevada imported a woman named Jana Wilcox Lavin to run its “Achievement School District.” She is not an educator. She has a degree in marketing. The Nevada ASD is modeled on Tennessee’s failed ASD, which took over the state’s lowest performing schools and promised to vault them to the state’s top 25% in only five years and failed to do so (most are still in the bottom 5%). Lavin is employed by the United Way at the same time that she plans for the Nevada ASD. She ran charters in the Tennessee ASD and holds it up as a model. Is this what is called an “urban myth” or is it just a hoax? How many teachers and principals will be fired, how many charters will scoop up millions of dollars, and how many will succeed or fail? Place your bets, folks, it is Nevada.

Angie Sullivan, who teaches in a low-income school in Clark County (Las Vegas) writes:

The unfairness of the Achievement School District law became crystal clear during a discussion with Jana Wilcox Lavin.

The law requires a list which includes the under-performing schools in the bottom 5%.

It is apparent that Nevada’s under-performing schools are mainly charters and rural schools. 70% of the under-performing Nevada schools are charters and rural schools.

However the law ONLY allows a public school to be selected for charter take-over.

Severely underperforming charters are not allowed to be taken over by the Achievement School District.

This law is a direct attack on public schools while obviously ignoring the cancerous and tragic Nevada charters.

Also, rural schools which fill the under-performing list will most likely never be selected because there simply is zero appetite by charter schools to take over a rural school. This made me laugh inside to learn -having grown up in the rural communities of Lovelock, Winnemucca, and McDermitt. I would love to see an outsider go into those places and take over the school. I picture the community chasing the outsider out of town with a shotgun.

We also had a frank discussion about the alternative schools – 3 are on the list. These schools fill a specific need in our communities. Desert Oasis for instance is actually a school which serves a unique community of high school students and adult students. Teachers there teach could teach a 90 year old adult student in the same classroom as a 16 year old student. While the data looks terrible for this school, the school is likely to be the most effective we have at actually graduating students. Literally no other school serves the communities Desert Oasis takes on. The Desert Oasis teacher who attended the BEC meeting spoke about helping a student graduate who lied about his age to serve in the American Military during World War II.

For obvious reasons, Jana Wilcox Lavin will be looking into the possibility of the Nevada State School Board moving the Alternative Schools onto a different system because it is not appropriate to grade them as we currently do or include them on this list.

We had a frank discussion about the lists.

Apparently the multiple failure lists which caused 6,000 teachers to panic were produced by CCSD. I’m not exactly sure who or why this destruction and disruption occurs year after year. I would like to investigate this further and ask for the resignation of whomever takes on this task of scaring 140 school staffs – unnecessarily. Media needs to be aware of this scare tactic. Next year, when these lists are published, we all need to ask frankly if it is a “real” list or a scare tactic by the district. If it is not the “real” list – teachers need to stand against this harassment.

Frankly, CCSD blames the Nevada State School Board, I have asked during multiple interviews. Jana Wilcox Lavin stated the only list she has created is the under-performing 5% as required by legislators. And a Nevada State School Board member claims their hands are tied by the legislators.

Everyone blames someone else while public school teachers are bullied and threatened.

Bottom line: There is a list of 47 underperforming schools but the only schools seriously being considered are the 17 regular public schools in Vegas within the urban core. 30% of the schools are targeted. And it will most likely be Limited English Language students who will have their schools taken over.

Nothing will be done about the numerous charters which have extreme failing track records.

Nothing will be done about failing rural schools.

It will be brown children in Vegas with limited English who will be experimented on by the Achievement School District.

Jana Wilcox Lavin claimed the Achievement School District has been successful other places. I have read thousands of pages of University research which refute those claims. I regularly communicate with activist teachers all over the nation who refute those claims.

I follow this unfair and wasteful charter movement very closely – the success of charters nationwide has been very, very limited. The success of charters in Nevada is almost zero. As I have noted, Nevada charters are best at segregation by race, money, and religion.

This is the most blatantly unfair privatization legislation ever implemented. It targets ONLY public schools in urban Vegas and blatantly ignores all the other school failures in the state.

This law is not about helping Nevada kids. It is about public school privatization.

And a very wise BEC Meeting attendee stated: No one ever considers how many bodies will be damaged as we make these changes.

I am tired of being one of the bodies.

No one in power listens to the people directly affected. Teachers, Parents, and Students have zero voice.

Communities which do not want their neighborhood school to participate in this unfair take-over need to stand up for their schools – like West Prep and Tom Williams.

https://ccea-nv.org/dev/wordpress/front-page/roar-of-community-opposition-to-west-prep-charter-school-consideration/

_____________________________

http://www.doe.nv.gov/ASD/

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http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/education/21-ccsd-schools-eligible-be-converted-charter-schools-through-new-initiative

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Nevada, Privatization

Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette Endorses Glenda Ritz

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2016 //
4

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Indiana) endorsed State Superintendent Glenda Ritz for re-election.

http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/endorsements/Return-Ritz-15873647

I add my strong support for Ritz, who has shown courage, integrity, and vision on behalf of the children of Indiana, even as Governor Pence and his allies have kept up a relentless attack on public schools and on Ritz personally.

The editorial says:

“In a year [2012] that saw sweeping Republican victories in Indiana, more than 1.3 million Hoosiers chose Democrat Glenda Ritz for state superintendent. No clearer repudiation of the state’s direction in education policy – school choice, high-stakes testing, Common Core, punitive school letter grades – could be found than in the resounding 2012 defeat of Superintendent Tony Bennett, the face of so-called education reform.

“But newly elected Gov. Mike Pence, the GOP-controlled General Assembly and deep-pocketed reform supporters did not get the message. They immediately set to work to diminish Ritz’s authority – at one point establishing a shadow education agency to undermine her work. The state superintendent has spent much of the past four years battling their obstructive efforts, but she delivered on her pledge to challenge the direction Indiana’s public schools were being taken. Today, Ritz remains the best candidate to prevent development of a two-tier system: private schools allowed to choose their own students and public schools left with fewer resources to serve everyone else. She’s best positioned to finally move to a student-centered testing system and to serve as a check on a voucher program with few safeguards.

“Republican Jennifer McCormick, superintendent of Yorktown Community Schools, has a solid record of serving students and public schools. But her promise to put students before politics is diminished by the tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions she’s accepted from the very individuals and interest groups determined to steer money from public schools for private benefit….

“Ritz, a former school media specialist, defends her record, noting improvements in performance at nearly 200 schools targeted for assistance; supporting student success in career and technical education; an increased number of school safety specialists; continuing focus on family literacy; and a strategy to address a growing teacher shortage.

“The reason I speak about outreach so much is because that’s what my job is really about – serving kids in our schools, making sure they get what they need,” she said. “Where people say they have a perception I don’t work with somebody? I work with everybody. That’s the only way I can move things forward.”

“McCormick pledges to improve communication, which she argues is “very splintered, not real timely and not very manageable to try to find what you’re being told.”

“I would argue we don’t have a lot of real leadership at the (Department of Education) to give us the guidance that would be necessary for superintendents and principals and educators,” she said.

“It’s a valid complaint confirmed by other administrators, but it also ignores the full-court defense Ritz has been forced to employ. She would benefit in a second term from appointing an unofficial cabinet of advisers – retired administrators and teachers who can suggest ways to improve procedures for local school districts, particularly in improving the state’s testing program.

“As a district superintendent, McCormick might be better prepared for administrative duties, but she is not prepared for the inevitable political forces. As of Wednesday, she had accepted more than $195,000 – more than two-thirds of her total contributions – from school choice advocates. Some are the same donors who backed Bennett four years ago. The same legislators responsible for laws harmful to public education will return to the Statehouse in January.

“To ensure the votes they cast in 2012 continue to protect Indiana’s public schools and place students first, Hoosiers should choose Ritz once again.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Indiana
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