Archives for category: Budget Cuts
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North Carolina: A First Look at the Destruction of Public Education

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2013 //
22

Lindsay Wagner is an excellent journalist at NC Policy Watch. She covers the legislature.

Here is her summary of the slash-and-burn policies that the legislature applied to public education:

1. Vouchers. $10 million set aside. This week, legislators will consider vouchers for students with disabilities. This is an ALEC priority, but ironically students with disabilities have greater rights and protection in public schools than in private schools.

2. Elimination of teacher tenure. Teachers now become temporary employees.

3. Teacher pay. NC teachers are among the worst paid in the nation. This legislation won’t help. “Teacher pay: no raises for teachers, who have only seen a 1% pay increase in the past five years. Supplemental pay for teachers who have master’s degrees is gone, with the exception of those whose jobs require advanced degrees. A scheme for merit pay is included, with highly performing teachers getting bonuses in the second year.”

4. Funding for teacher assistants was cut.

5. Class size limits were removed. Class sizes will grow.

6. Virtual charters: the state board is urged to give them another look.

The North Carolina legislature and governor are systematically dismantling the teaching profession and privatizing public education. These people are cultural vandals.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, North Carolina, Teacher Tenure, Vouchers

Louisiana: $615 Million for Consultants, $0 for Home Care for Disabled

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2013 //
28

Governor Bobby Jindal eliminated a $4 million program that provides home care for people with developmental disabilities. You know, the state can’t afford it.

But the state treasurer pointed out that the Louisiana Department of Education spent an astonishing $615 million on consultants in the five years from 2005-2010.

According to the local media:

“State Treasurer John Kennedy gave Gov. Bobby Jindal an idea last week of where to find dollars to expand home services for the developmentally disabled.

“Jindal vetoed $4 million that would have allowed more disabled to get care that keeps them out of institutions.

“Kennedy said in his “opinion column” that even though “money is tight” there is a way to restore the funding. A “good start” would be for Jindal to reverse his axing of a legislative plan to cut $2 million in consulting contracts.

“The state Department of Education pays tens of millions of dollars to consultants each year, many of whom are out-of-state,” Kennedy wrote. “In fact, from 2005 to 2010, the department issued 5,499 consulting contracts worth $615,773,580.74.”

Some of the $615 million spent for consultants:

Contract #662421; “Create a public awareness campaign targeting multiple
audiences in Louisiana to establish a positive image of high school
redesign;” $341,465.48.
Contract #655743; “Contractor to provide services related to interactions
with media, arrange interviews and provide reporters with information, draft
written materials;” $100,000.
Contract #663689; “Contractor will select and train focused individuals from
within education, as well as former educators, to become leaders in the
RSD;” $200,000.
Contract #672113; “Contractor to provide program that will assist students
to learn valuable social skills through organized play on their recess and
lunch periods;” $94,000.

Categories Budget Cuts, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Special Education

Rahm’s Plan: Another 2,000 Teacher Layoffs

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2013 //
27

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues with his plan to downsize public education in Chicago, while privately managed (mostly non-union) charters proliferate. Rahm recently told Charlie Rose that school reform was his highest priority as mayor.

Here is a statement from a Chicago organization created to fight the endless budget cuts:

Raise Your Hand Coalition:

Press Statement in Response to Layoff Announcement of 2,000 Teachers

July 19, 2013

“The Raise Your Hand Coalition (RYH) is disgusted to learn that Chicago Public schools has laid off another 2000 teachers and staff, bringing the total number of layoffs for the year to 3500. This news lies in stark contrast to the ongoing CPS rhetoric to minimize any impact of budget cuts on the classroom. Now CPS is claiming that there will be “winners and losers.” Even if a few schools have been spared from these widespread and severe cuts, we believe that there are only losers in this scenario.

“RYH started in 2010 to advocate for improved funding because for too long, our children have been subjected to inadequate staffing and basic programs and standards at Chicago Public schools. The situation has only worsened under Mayor Emanuel. After pushing through a “full school day,” our mayor has chosen to prioritize property tax spending on unnecessary and frivolous projects such as $55 million for a stadium for DePaul University, while CPS continues to receive drastic funding cuts that severely impact our children’s ability to thrive and learn. The Mayor’s decision not to use TIF money to offset some of these cuts is deeply disappointing and is forcing many parents to leave the city. Parents who don’t have the option to leave will be stuck sending their children to underfunded schools that lack the appropriate staffing and programs needed to provide a realistic “full school day.” This is a frightening day for the children of Chicago.”

Amy Smolensky
amysmolensky@comcast.net
312-485-0053

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm

A Synonym for “Reform”

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2013 //
35

This reader says that reformers almost never protest budget cuts.

Another word for reform these days is……….neglect.

“I think the “abandonment” idea is really powerful. As the parent of a public school kid in Ohio, I really do feel abandoned by both my state government and the federal government. Ordinary local public schools need not apply!

The crazy state and federal focus on the 5% of schools that conform to the rigid “reform” recipe is something we’re going to regret.

Besides Arne Duncan’s one statement on Philadelphia schools, a statement he made only after being pushed, has one single national “reformer” advocated for a restoration of pubic school funding?

We could use less “innovation” and more simple, competent stewardship of the schools that MOST children attend, existing schools, but I suppose “stewardship” isn’t nearly as exciting and media-friendly as “cage-busting.’

It’s neglect.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers

Will North Carolina Abandon Public Education?

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2013 //
30

June Atkinson, the state superintendent in North Carolina, can’t remember a worse time for public education or a te when teachers were so disrespected.

NC ranks 46th in the nation in teachers’ salaries. Teachers must teach 15 years to reach $40,000 a year. What a disgrace!

It started, she says, 3-4 years ago at the national level. Let’s see, that would coincide with the launch of Race to Top. This is a bipartisan disaster.

Categories Budget Cuts, North Carolina, Teachers and Teaching

Philadelphia: Corporate Reform Takeover Nears

By dianeravitch
July 17, 2013 //
5

As Rahm Emanuel once memorably said, when he was President Obama’s chief of staff, never let a crisis go to waste. Naomi Klein surely agreed in her book “Shock Doctrine,” which showed how crises, both natural and man-made, are used to achieve other goal unrelated to the crisis. Hurricane Katrina made it possible to wipe out public education and the teachers union in New Orleans. The budget cuts and imposed austerity will soon make it possible to crush the teachers union and privatize Philadelphia’s schools.

A teacher in Philadelphia writes, challenging an earlier post that called Los Angeles ground zero for corporate reform:

“Sorry to contradict, but Los Angeles is only at the forefront of the push-back (and a fine thing that is too.) The next big front in corporate “reform” will be in Philadelphia in a little over a month.

“The contract for the PFT is up and we are facing demands from the state-controlled School Reform Commission and their hand-picked Superintendent William Hite, a graduate of the Broad Academy. I and my fellow teachers are facing a demand that we give up $133 million in salary and health benefit concessions, which is bad enough. But we’re also looking at proposals to eliminate seniority, institute performance pay, eliminate contractual caps on class size, and virtually every other fond wish of the “reformers”.

“State and city leaders have engineered a budget crisis and passed only sham fixes, all to set up the PFT to be broken no matter how we react. If we give in to the concessions, we will have lost almost everything the PFT has gained for the schools and teachers since 1968. If not, we will either have a contract imposed on us or we will be forced to strike, but that in itself is illegal according to the law that allowed the state takeover of the district in 2001. The no-strike clause is unique to Philadelphia within the state, so we may be able to successfully challenge it in court, but any way this plays out the SRC and their political masters seem to think that it will give them a free hand to go full bore with every kind of corporate reform. If they succeed, they will have remade the 8th largest school district in the nation into a goldmine of corporatized “education”.

“Unfortunately, they are probably right.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Philadelphia

Steve Rhodes: CPS Cuts Central Office Again and Again and…

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2013 //
11

Steve Rhodes tries to understand how
the Chicago Public Schools claims $600 million in cuts to “central office.”

Rhodes says the claims defy both mathematics and physics.

In fact, the cuts are not cuts, and “central office” does not mean central office.

He writes:

“But this is CPS make-believe land, which is a quasi-quantum place where the rules of earthbound mathematics do not apply.

“[T]he entire central office budget for the current 2012-2013 fiscal year is just $233 million, up from about $200 million in 2010,” Karp reports.

“How do you cut $600 million from $200 million? Just make the claim 400 million times!

“But it turns out Central Office spending is actually up $33 million since 2010.

“Now, CPS claims it has cut $600 million from the Central Office since 2011, so maybe in between 2010 and 2011 the budget went up by $633 million. That’s the only way CPS’s claim can be true.

“But the story gets even more extraordinary.

“The biggest addition since that time was the Office of Portfolio, created in 2011 to authorize and manage new schools.

“The portfolio office went from an initial budget of $5 million to $88 million in 2013, and has now been incorporated into a new Office of Innovation.”

“How is an increase in Central Office spending a cut in Central Office spending? By redefining the terms!”

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago

Sarah Karp: CPS Claims Amazing Budget Cuts

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2013 //
2

In a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, Sarah Karp tries to understand the claim by the Chicago Public Schools that it cut $600 million from central office when the entire budget for central office is $233 million.

Furthermore, the budget for central went up, not down.

By now, there must be no one still employed at central offices of CPS.

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago

Jeff Bryant: “No Excuses” for Abandoning Kids and Public Schools

By dianeravitch
July 13, 2013 //
9

Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network congratulates Arne Duncan for saying that there was “no excuse” for states that fail to fund their schools.

Jeff was quick to point out that the “no excuse” mantra is customarily used by Duncan and other corporate reformers to blame teachers for low test scores.

It is refreshing to hear the same rhetoric directed at governors and legislatures that abandon their responsibility to fund public schools.

Bryant writes:

“In his statement to the Pennsylvania officials overseeing the Philadelphia mess, Duncan urged, “We must invest in public education, not abandon it.”

“So yes, “No excuse.”

“When valued neighborhood schools are shuttered with no more justification than a press release, there’s no excuse.

“When public school administrators are forced to cut learning opportunities that keep students safe, healthy, engaged, and supported. No excuse.

“When teachers and parents have to speak out to prevent larger and larger class sizes…

“When students walk out of school because their favorite subjects and teachers are cut…

“When whole communities have to turn out into the streets to protest the plundering of the common good…

“No excuse. No excuse. No excuse!”

Categories Accountability, Arts Education, Budget Cuts, Class size, Curriculum, Pennsylvania

NY Times: The Destruction of North Carolina’s Progressive Legacy

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2013 //
17

The New York Times wrote a searing critique of the slash-and-burn policies of North Carolina’s governor and legislature. What was once one of the south’s most forward-looking states is rapidly being decimated into a hard, mean backwater.

As we have learned over recent months, the legislature has imposed deep budget cuts on public schools, is taking away salary raises from teachers who get advanced degrees, has abolished tenure, and is doing whatever it can to advance privatization and demolish teacher professionalism. Of course, while cutting the budget the legislators found $5 million for TFA, and they are hoping to expand charters.

Oh, and wouldn’t you know that a graduate of TFA, Eric Guckian, is advising the governor on his harsh education policy. Remember, these are the people who bring excellence everywhere.

But that’s not all. Since the far right took control of the state, writes the Times,

“… state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in the courtroom and access to the ballot.

“The cruelest decision by lawmakers went into effect last week: ending federal unemployment benefits for 70,000 residents. Another 100,000 will lose their checks in a few months. Those still receiving benefits will find that they have been cut by a third, to a maximum of $350 weekly from $535, and the length of time they can receive benefits has been slashed from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks.

“The state has the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the country, and many Republicans insulted workers by blaming their joblessness on generous benefits. In fact, though, North Carolina is the only state that has lost long-term federal benefits, because it did not want to pay back $2.5 billion it owed to Washington for the program. The State Chamber of Commerce argued that cutting weekly benefits would be better than forcing businesses to pay more in taxes to pay off the debt, and lawmakers blindly went along, dropping out of the federal program.”

NC CAN, part of a national organization devoted to privatization and high-stakes testing, has declared this to be the “year of the teacher.” Apparently NC CAN has a sense of humor since the legislature works overtime to beat up on teachers and remove any benefits it can think of. Let’s see if NC CAN campaigns to raise teachers’ salaries or to protect academic freedom.

Categories Budget Cuts, North Carolina, Privatization
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