A reader explains the logic behind North Carolina’s budget cuts and other school “reforms”:
“They cut millions in education in NC to give corporations $365 Million in tax cuts.
“So with Citizens United, they have financed their own re-election campaigns for next year by giving the corporations the money to donate.
See how Teabagastan Politics work?”
Dr. June Atkinson, the state superintendent of instruction in North Carolina, said, ““For the first time in my career of more than 30 years in public education, I am truly worried about students in our care.”
Lindsay Wagner summarizes the damage done to public education by the North Carolina legislature:
It cut more than $500 million from the state’s public schools.
It passed a voucher program to allow students to take public money to private and religious schools.
And more:
The 2013-15 biennial budget introduces a raft of spending cuts to public schools that will result in no raises for teachers, larger class sizes, fewer teacher assistants, little support for instructional supplies or professional development, and what could amount to the dismantling of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program. Teachers can also say goodbye to tenure and supplemental pay for advanced degrees.
Wagner asks, “Is this the beginning of the end for public education in North Carolina?”
The privatization movement is in full swing in North Carolina. What was once the most progressive state in the South is now leading the attack on public education. For the first time since Reconstruction, the governorship and both houses of the Legislature are in the hands of Republicans, and these are not moderate Republicans who want to preserve a strong public education system. These are radical privatizers who want to send public monies to private schools, religious schools, and entrepreneurs.
The governor’s education advisor, Eric Guckian, is a Teach for America alum. TFA won $5.1 million in the new budget.
Asean Johnson, a nine-year-old student in Chicago, read the riot act to the Chicago school board. He told them they should be helping schools, not closing them. He made more sense than any of the grown-ups on the other side of the podium. He had only two minutes, and he used them well:
“With tears sliding down his cheeks Johnson told the school board, “You are slashing our education. You’re pulling me down. You’re taking our educational opportunities away.”
Will they listen?
At a discussion of equity and excellence in education in Pennsylvania, John Sarandrea, the superintendent of the Néw Castle district, said:
“I don’t have any problems saying this, because it’s true: Poor kids are getting the shaft right now,” he said to loud applause from the audience.
“How can you possibly not invest in these children early, knowing what will be the outcome if you don’t?” Sarandrea wondered. “It’s negligence. It’s criminal.”
The state has cut nearly a billion dollars from the school budget in the past three years, while giving out corporate tax breaks and opening charter schools. The most successful charter operator–who manages the Chester Community Charter School–is Governor Corbett’s biggest campaign contributor. Vahan Gureghian has made millions managing and supplying his charter school. The local district, meanwhile, has gone bankrupt.
William Hite, the superintendent of the cash-starved Philadelphia district, said a new state funding formula was needed:
“He said any formula for distributing state aid should consider the number of students who live in poverty and are learning to speak English. Hite said Philadelphia has a larger share of those students than any other district in the state but has less money to spend to educate them.”
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.
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.
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
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.”
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.
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.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 