Archives for category: Budget Cuts
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Bob Wise: Building the Digital Future in the Classroom (Beware!)

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2018 //
63

 

Bob Wise is a former Governor of West Virginia and currently president of the Gates-funded Alliance for Excellent Education. He co-authored a report in 2010 with Jeb Bush called Digital Learning NOW, which attempted to promote a vast expansion of technology in the school and classroom with minimal oversight.(I wrote about the report in my book “Reign of Error.”) The purpose of the Wise-Bush report was to urge states to spend more on hardware and software, lest they fail to prepare for the future and/or fall behind other states. The report was financed by the EDTech industry. Each year, the Digital Learning Council issues a “report card” and grades the state by whether they have spent enough on technology. Here is the 2014 report. Such reports rely on the instincts of state officials to want to be #1, even if the goal is wrong. Who would want to be #1, for instance, in infant mortality. Behind the report card is a marketing strategy.

Maine, under its current Governor Paul LePage, jumped aboard Wise and Bush’s digital learning train. A seasoned reporter, Colin Woodard, followed the money and produced this scathing critique, which won the prestigious Grorge Polk Award in 2012 for Education Reporting.

In this article, Wise continues to push technology, but does so on the assumption that there is a “diminishing supply of teachers” and “static state budgets.” Teachers in states like his own West Virginia are fighting those assumptions, on the belief that teachers can and must be paid more and that corporations should pay higher taxes. The possibilities of paying teachers a professional salary and expanding the tax rolls are not on Wise’s agenda.

Funny, I wrote an article in the same publication about the risks of misuse of technology. I mentioned the risk to student privacy; the failure of cybercharters; the lack of evidence for “blended learning” or “personalized learning”; the money spent by tech companies to place obsolete or ineffective products.

Wise mentions none of these risks. He is a cheerleader for EdTech.

Here is an axiom: Learning happens most and best when children interact with human teachers who are in the same room.

Buyer beware. Caveat emptor.

Categories Budget Cuts, Bush, Jeb, Funding

Michigan: Poor Community Under Emergency Management Sold Playground Equipment in Search of $$

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2018 //
10

 

Chris Savage of Eclectablog writes here about the disaster of Governor Rick Snyder’s “emergency manager” plan for poor school districts.

In Muskegon Heights, Governor Snyder installed an emergency manager because the poor, almost all-black district had run out of money. Instead of bailing out the district, which was the state’s responsibility, Snyder put an outside manager in charge. He proceeded to give the district to a for-profit charter operator, Mosaica. After two years, Mosaica departed because it couldn’t make a profit.

The emergency manager had to borrow more money.

Finally, in 2016, the school district was returned to local control. However, things are still not good. In fact, the district is still dealing with the fallout from the state takeover of their schools. As it turns out, in an effort to find every last nickel and dime under the sofa cushions, the Emergency Managers sold off everything that wasn’t nailed down.

That includes the playground equipment. Apparently the Emergency Manager thought the kids could just do without things like swings, slides, and monkey bars to play on at recess.

Now the children have a bare playground.

Does anyone care? Obviously no one in the state government cares. If they can’t raise the money locally, why should the state care. If they were white kids, that might be different. But they are not.

Chris Savage writes:

The day of funding schools using crowd sourcing efforts like GoFundMe drives appears to be at hand.

I have another idea. How about requiring the failed Emergency Manager to pay the cost of new playground equipment?

Categories Budget Cuts, For-Profit, Funding, Michigan

Oklahoma: Tax Cuts, Deficits, No Pay Raise in 10 Years

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
11

 

To understand how bad things are for teachers, children, and public schools in Oklahoma, read this article. 

Oklahoma is a red state that followed the ALEC script. Cut taxes, cut taxes, deregulate, cut taxes.

It was supposed to produce economic growth. It didn’t. It created massive deficits and underinvestment in public services.

Nearly 200 of the state’s 550 school districts were closed as 30,000 teachers rallied at the Capitol along with other public employees.

“Teachers are demanding that state legislators come up with $3.3 billion over the next three years for school funding, benefits, and pay raises for all public employees. On Monday, lawmakers didn’t give an inch.

“That made teachers even angrier…

”Oklahoma’s teachers are rebelling against a decade of state tax cuts that triggered deep cuts in education spending, forcing about 20 percent of public schools to switch to a four-day-week schedule and pushing average teacher salaries to rank 49th in the country. Teachers haven’t gotten a raise in 10 years.

“Oklahoma is still dealing with a budget crisis after lawmakers have slashed business taxes and top income tax rates year after year. A round went into effect in 2009; then taxes were lowered further in 2012 and 2014. The tax cuts were supposed to lead to an economic boom, but instead, they triggered a massive budget gap of about $1.5 billion each year.

“To deal with the shortfall, the government cut spending everywhere. The cuts to education were so deep that 20 percent of the state’s public schools had to switch to a four-day school week. Oklahoma teachers made an average salary of $45,276 in 2016, according to the National Education Association. The last time teachers got a raise from the state was in 2008.”

Who will be the first to admit that the ALEC playbook is a disaster? Will any legislator blame ALEC and resign?

Now that we know the bitter fruit of deep tax cuts year after year,  will the public wake up?

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Oklahoma

Jacobin: The Reasons for a Teachers’ Strike in “Right to Work” Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2018 //
22

 

Eric Blanc wrote a comprehensive and excellent article in Jacobin about the dire condition of public schools in Oklahoma. Given the legislature’s indifference, even hostility, to public schools, he says it is Oklahoma’s turn to strike.

State legislators haven’t been able to find enough money to pay for public schools, but they have found it easy to divert money from their resource-starved public schools to pay for charter schools.

Blanc says that the purposeful gutting of public schools has been the project of free market fundamentalists. But it did not start with them.

I urge you to read the whole article. Here is an excerpt.

He writes:

 

Demanding major increases in pay and school funding, Oklahoman educators are set to strike on April 2. The similarities with West Virginia are obvious. In a Republican-dominated state with a decimated education system and a ban on public employee collective bargaining, an indignant workforce teetering on the edge of poverty has initiated a powerful rank-and-file upsurge. But history never repeats itself exactly. To strike and win, Oklahoma workers will have to overcome a range of distinct challenges and obstacles.

Years of austerity have devastated Oklahoma’s education system, as well as its public services and infrastructure. Since 2008, per-pupil instructional funding has been cut by 28 percent — by far the worst reduction in the whole country. As a result, a fifth of Oklahoma’s school districts have been forced to reduce the school week to four days.

Textbooks are scarce and scandalously out of date. Innumerable arts, languages, and sports courses or programs have been eliminated. Class sizes are enormous. A legislative deal to lower class sizes — won by a four-day strike in April 1990 — was subsequently ditched because of a funding shortage. Many of Oklahoma’s 695,000 students are obliged to sit on the floor in class.

The gutting of public education has been accompanied by a push for vouchers and, especially, the spread of charter schools. There are now twenty-eight charter school districts and fifty-eight charter schools across Oklahoma. “Is the government purposively neglecting our public schools to give an edge to private and charter schools?” asked Mickey Miller, a Tulsa teacher and rank-and-file leader. For Christy Cox — a middle-school teacher in Norman who has had to work the night shift at Chili’s to supplement her low wages — reversing these school cuts is her main motivation to strike: “The kids aren’t getting what they need. It’s really crazy. Though the media doesn’t talk about this as much as salaries, I feel that funding our schools is the primary issue.”

Pay, of course, is also a central grievance. Oklahoma’s public school teachers and staff haven’t gotten a raise in ten years – and state workers have waited nearly as long. Public school teacher pay is the forty-eighth worst in the nation. Like in West Virginia, many teachers are unwilling or unable to work in these conditions. Roughly two thousand teaching positions are currently filled by emergency-certified staff with no teaching degrees and little training. Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), the state’s main teachers’ union, explains that “our teacher shortage has reached catastrophic levels because it’s so easy for teachers to move to Texas or Arkansas, or even to another profession, and make much more money.”

Those teachers and staff who stay in state are often forced to work multiple jobs. Micky Miller’s experience is not atypical. During the day, Miller teaches at Booker T. Washington high school in Tulsa. After the school day is over, he works until 7:30 PM at the airport, loading and unloading bags from Delta airplanes. From there, he goes on to his third job, coaching kids at the Tulsa Soccer Club. “I have a master’s degree, and I have to work three jobs just to make ends meet,” he noted. “It’s very difficult to live this way.”

The roots of this crisis are not hard to find. Taxes have not been raised by the Oklahoma legislature since 1990. Due to a right-wing 1992 anti-tax initiative, a supermajority of 75 percent of legislators is now needed to impose new taxes. Yet the need for a supermajority was not a major political issue until very recently, since there has been a strong bipartisan consensus in favor of cutting taxes. Some of the first major tax breaks for the rich and corporations began in 2004 under Democratic governor Brad Henry and a Democratic-led Senate. One recent study estimates that $1 billion in state revenue has been lost yearly due to the giveaways pushed through since the early 2000s.

Republicans swept into the state government in 2010 and promptly accelerated this one-sided class war. Governor Mary Fallin and the Republican legislature have slashed income taxes for the rich. They have also passed huge breaks for the oil and gas companies — not a minor issue in a state that is the third-largest producer of natural gas and fifth-largest producer of crude oil in the country. Even the fiscal fallout of the 2014 oil bust did not lead the administration to reverse course….

 

Please click on the link link and keep reading.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay, Teachers

John Thompson: Why Teachers Might Walkout on April 2

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2018 //
18

 

John Thompson, teacher and historian, explains in “The Progressive” why teachers in Oklahoma are primed for a mass walkout. To be sure, they were inspired by the strike in West Virginia. But they have grievances as compelling as those in West Virginia. Budget cuts. Tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. Low salaries. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn’t care about educating the children of the state.

“Oklahoma ranks in the top five states for oil and natural gas production, and gives $500 million a year in tax breaks to energy companies. But the state also leads the nation in cutting state funding for education, reducing formula funding by 28 percent since 2008.

“While the state has cut taxes on oil, state employees have not received an across-the-board pay raise in twelve years. The state is among the last in the nation in teacher pay. The starting salary for a new teacher is $31,600, and the poor pay and lack of resources has resulted in an acute shortage of teachers across the state.

“But because it will take a 75 percent legislative majority to raise taxes, however, the Oklahoma politics are especially complicated. And that is why stakeholders are united in using the term “walkout” instead of “strike.”

“Corresponding by email, vice president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association Shawna Mott-Wright asks, “Can you imagine being a senior in high school? These poor kids have had their education cut, cut, and cut since they were 8 years old. Our children cannot wait any longer.”

“The likely walkout grows out of a larger problem. Oklahoma Republicans have sought to shrink government so that it can be drowned in a bathtub. Oklahoma’s children have come of age as the state cut health services; killed the Earned Income Tax Credit for the poorest families; slashed funding for mental health; and undermined other social services (all this as it became first in the nation in incarcerating women). The state is tied with Montana and West Virginia for first in children surviving multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences.”

Critics will take aim at teachers for wanting a living wage. But how can they defend the deliberate underfunding of the state’s schools? That hurts children.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Trump Organization Sets Up “Reform” Group in New York

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2018 //
10

 

Don’t be fooled. Another phony organization has set up shop in New York to cut taxes, attack unions, and reduce government services.

It is called Reclaim New York. 

It wants to eliminate waste and corruption. So do we all.

The founder, chair, director, and treasurer is Rebekah Mercer, who has been the financial backer of Breitbart and Steve Bannon (she is said to have cut off Bannon after the expose “Fire and Fury” was published, which quotes Bannon extensively about Trump’s flaws). Her father is billionaire Robert Mercer, who bankrolls the alt-right.

Reclaim New York incorporated in 2013 as a tax-exempt nonprofit. Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News and a mastermind behind Trump’s nationalist campaign, was a founding director. Laurence Levy, a longtime associate of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, filed the paperwork.

The stated mission was to be non-partisan. Tax filings show that the Mercer Family Foundation provided about $1.3 million of Reclaim’s $2 million in revenue during its first three years, including the group’s entire $1.25 million in revenue in 2015, the most recent year for which filings are publicly available.

Muir refused to say what Reclaim’s budget is now or who else is funding operations.

In 2016, a related organization called Reclaim New York Initiative incorporated as what’s technically called a “social welfare organization.” Such organizations have earned the moniker “dark money” groups because they can typically shield the names of donors from the public. New York State rules, however, do require some disclosure.

It’s through this entity that Reclaim does its lobbying.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was a founding director of Reclaim New York Initiative. Disclosure forms filed with New York state show Robert Mercer provided $70,855 in March last year to launch the lobbying unit.

One of Reclaim’s most visible projects is building a giant, searchable database of government spending. The group says it has filed 2,500 public records requests with government agencies across the state, including tiny villages and school districts, asking for their “checkbooks” — records of all expenditures in a given year.

Reclaim sued 11 local agencies for either denying the requests or not complying quickly enough. When it won, Reclaim fought for lawyers’ fees. One Rockland County village implored the judge to impose what it called “The Mercer Mercy Rule” and not require the cash-strapped village to pay the legal bills for the billionaire’s nonprofit. The judge agreed.

The group also holds workshops across the state in hotel conference rooms, restaurants and other local gathering spots. The events feature a presentation on New York’s “affordability crisis” and training on how to use public-records laws to keep an eye on local officials.

Watch out for Reclaim New York. It wants to destroy our state and local governments.

 

Categories Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Democracy

“Yes, Charter Schools Do Take Money Away From Public Schools”

By dianeravitch
February 28, 2018 //
17

 

It is hard to understand why anyone thinks that charter schools have. O fiscal impact on public schools. There is only one pot of money for education, and not many (or any) states are expanding that pot. The Trump administration wants to cut the federal education budget and divert more money to charters and vouchers.

This is a post about a new study by Duke University economist Helen Ladd and John Singleton that nails down the fiscal Harm that charter schools do to public schools.

Here is the summary.

Here is the study.

Here is the abstract:

”A significant criticism of the charter school movement is that funding for charter schools diverts money away from traditional public schools. As shown in prior work by Bifulco and Reback (2014) for two urban districts in New York, the magnitude of such adverse fiscal externalities depends in part on the nature of state and local funding policies. In this paper, we build on their approach to examine the fiscal effects of charter schools on both urban and non-urban school districts in North Carolina. We base our analysis on detailed balance sheet information for a sample of school districts that experienced significant charter entry since the statewide cap on charters was raised in 2011. This detailed budgetary information permits us to estimate a range of fiscal impacts using a variety of different assumptions. We find a large and negative fiscal impact from $500-$700 per pupil in our one urban school district and somewhat smaller, but still significant, fiscal externalities on the non-urban districts in our sample.”

Public schools that are underfunded must cut their budgets so that a small minority of students can attend charter schools. It makes no sense.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Disruption, Funding

Trump Budget: More for War, Less for People

By dianeravitch
February 13, 2018 //
8

Here is an outline of Trump’s budget proposal, which is actually Mick Mulvany’s budget.

Deficits forever.

More spending for the military.

Deep cuts to domestic programs.

Deep cuts for education but $1 Billion for School Choice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/02/13/daily-202-trump-budget-highlights-disconnect-between-populist-rhetoric-and-plutocrat-reality/5a8261a530fb041c3c7d7838/

Call your Congressman or woman.

Call your Senators.

Shoot it down.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, School Choice, Trump, Vouchers

Politico: Trump Budget Targets Education for Cuts, Charter Schools, and Vouchers

By dianeravitch
February 12, 2018 //
19

This from Politico this morning:

Open the post for the links. DeVos is having lunch with Trump and Pence today. Apparently that is the only event on Trump’s not-busy calendar. He will spend the rest of the day watching TV.

 

By Kimberly Hefling | 02/12/2018 10:00 AM EDT

With help from Caitlin Emma, Mel Leonor, Michael Stratford and Benjamin Wermund

BUDGET DAY TO SHOWCASE EDUCATION WISH LIST: The release of the administration’s first full-fledged budget proposal later this morning will spotlight President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ priorities for 2018 and 2019. On the higher education front, we already know the White House will suggest broadening eligibility for Pell grants, tweaking requirements for trade licensing and growing apprenticeships in its $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan in an effort to boost workforce training.

– Last year, the Trump administration called for a $9.2 billion, or 13 percent, cut to department spending – cuts congressional appropriators largely ignored. Administration officials indicate they will propose drastic reductions to nondefense programs in today’s blueprint, meaning education programs are likely to see proposed cuts yet again.

– A big caveat: Congress raised the strict caps on how much the government can spend in the next two years when it passed its fiscal package, H.R. 1892 (115), early Friday amid the overnight government shutdown. As POLITICO’s Sarah Ferris has reported, Congress is even less likely to pay attention to the president’s funding request because it was written before the budget deal was reached. That’s important to keep in mind – especially in light of the inclusion of a $2 billion boost to higher education each of the next two years that congressional leaders agreed last week to spend.

– The White House said it would release an “addendum” to its proposal reflecting the raised spending caps because it was too late to rewrite the document. We’ll be watching closely to see how that affects education spending.

– The budget request will land at 11:30 a.m. and the Education Department has a 2 p.m. conference call to discuss it.

– Here are some things to watch for:

– School choice: Last year, support for school choice in Trump’s proposed budget came at a cost. The president proposed big and unpopular cuts across the K-12 spectrum, on everything from teacher training to after-school programs. But he also proposed about $1 billion to encourage public school choice, $250 million for private school choice and a 50 percent boost for charter schools. Education policy watchers are watching to see whether similar priorities – and cuts – are pitched for K-12 programs. House and Senate GOP appropriators largely rejected the school choice proposals, although they did vote to give a small boost to charter schools – just not at the level the administration wanted.

– STEM: Trump last year issued an executive order directing DeVos to spend at least $200 million in existing grant funds per year on the promotion of high-quality STEM education and, in particular, on computer science education. Education Innovation and Research grants could be one place where the Trump administration signals that priority.

– Career and technical education funding. Trump called for more vocational schools in his State of the Union address, and has repeatedly touted career and technical education since taking office. That didn’t stop his administration from proposing a more than $1 billion cut last year to the programs that support the type of vocational education he says he wants to bolster and expand.

– Education Department workforce reductions: The Trump administration has taken steps to streamline government agencies, including efforts to cut personnel. In recent months, 69 Education Department employees accepted buyout offers. The budget blueprint may spell out proposals for additional workforce cuts.

– School infrastructure funding: There have been no indications that the administration will include funds for crumbling school buildings in its infrastructure push, but many public school advocates have been pushing hard for a share and will be watching to see if any of the funds are targeted for K-12 upgrades.

– Student aid programs. Higher ed watchers are looking to see if the administration will again call for deep cuts , including cutting $3.9 billion from the Pell grant surplus and eliminating entirely the $733 million Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which provides grants to help low-income students attend college. Last year, it also called for cuts the TRIO and Gear Up programs, which help low-income students prepare for college. House and Senate appropriators mostly ignored these recommendations, although appropriations committees in both chambers did agree to cut billions from the Pell grant surplus.

– Early education: The Trump administration cited insufficient Head Start Funding for its decision last month to waive an Obama-era rule requiring Head Start centers to offer full-day preschool year-round to at least half of their students by next summer. Preschool supporters are watching to see if the administration will again propose no funding increases for Head Start. Last year, the administration also proposed axing the Preschool Development Grants program, which Congress created in the Every Student Succeeds Act to target 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families – a recommendation rejected by congressional appropriators.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Vouchers

Chicago: High School Students and Parents Demonstrate Against School Closings at Private High School Attended by Rahm’s Children

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2018 //
18

 

A large group of students, parents, and activists demonstrated against the closing of their schools at the elite University of Chicago Lab School Where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s are students. 

“On Wednesday, high school students, parents and education activists gathered near the University of Chicago Laboratory School, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave., to speak out against the proposed closings of their neighborhood elementary and high schools. The group staged a “tent city” outside of the Lab School, which is where Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children attend school.

“We have stood up and demanded that the school’s in Englewood be fully funded just as schools in other neighborhoods,” said Erica Nanton, a community organizer, and Illinois co-chair for the Poor People’s Campaign. “We have been ignored, pushed aside and students have been silenced. “We come today on the grounds [in a] place where Mayor Rahm Emanuel does care.”

“The group consisted of parents and students and education advocates from the Grassroots Education Movement, Harper High School, Paul Robeson High School, Hope High School, National Teacher’s Academy, Hirsch High School Students, Hyde Park High School and the Journey for Justice Alliance.

“The group presented demands that they are asking the city and Chicago Board of Education to consider before shuttering their neighborhood elementary and high schools for good.

“What if we were your children [Mayor], Rahm Emanuel,” asked Mackenzie Turner, a freshman at Paul Robeson High School in Englewood. “None of our schools are just schools we are a family. We came together and bonded and built that school.”

“Jakil Benson, who is also a student at Robeson High School, echoed Turner’s thoughts.

“We don’t have art classes or music classes or things to help us find our gifts. We want to be doctors, lawyers, and musicians. We are being sabotaged by you, Rahm Emanuel,” Benson said. “We have low enrollment because you took our funds away these decisions affect our future. We still deserve a better education.”

“During the press conference, Lab students inside of the school cheered in support of the group.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm, Resistance
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