Archives for category: Budget Cuts
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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

Teacher: Idaho Doesn’t Care about Education

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2013 //
30

A billionaire family in Idaho has been running ads (“Don’t Fail, Idaho”) disparaging the schools as failures. The Albertson family wants to promote online learning, which will save money but provide worse education. A member of the family invests in K12.

A sad story from an Idaho teacher:

I live in Idaho. I have seen public education dollars drop so low, that we are seeing our largest district in the state, struggling to hold on, using up reserves they once had. The push of charter schools in this state is high.

Idaho has reduced it’s public funding to schools since 2001. The voters of Idaho approved a 1% sales tax increase back in 2006 that was earmarked for education, only for the state to remove other funds that were allocated towards education, to help support a decrease in business property tax. Education lost money in this deal. I know my kids’ school is considered a low performing school, there is high poverty, yet there are great teachers! And, my boys are getting a great education. Charters spread the states’ education dollars further, in an already poorly funded system.

http://www.thenation.com/article/167782/questions-idaho-economist-mike-ferguson#axzz2XvGxwLwm

My boys attend a school that has poor ratings, according to Idaho’s new 5 star rating system. I understand there is high poverty in their school, but there are also great teachers and great learning opportunities. I believe my boys are not only getting an academic education, but an education on how to develop relationships with people from all different backgrounds. This is huge, when being successful in a business/career. Everyone encounters different types of people. A mediocre boss, a great boss, a not so great one, and same with coworkers. It is true in any profession. But, in order to be successful in a company, there must be respect…something that seems to be lacking at times when it comes to teachers. In fact, that’s what got me involved. A parent, who saw the blaming of teachers as the problem with our schools, ludicrous! Something was not right, and boy, did I find out more than I could imagine in this web of destruction of our public schools.

Governor Otter even boasted to a gun company to come and bring their business to Idaho, because we have the most minimum wage workers in the country. Just who is failing Idaho, the people? I think not.

Bottom Rung: Gov. Otter Touts Idaho’s Low Wages To Attract Gun Companies

We had public hearings on education at the state house. There was going to be a public hearing with the Joint Finance and Approppriations Committee, but Governor Otter didn’t feel that was necessary, because we didn’t have a budget issue this year. Oddly enough, the biggest complaint at the education hearings was lack of funding, regardless if you were supporting “traditional” public schools or charters.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/19/2417923/legislaturekills-public-hearings.html

So do we have some high poverty schools? Yes, I guess you can say that. And running these ads of “Don’t Fail Idaho,” are hard to swallow when you know the real truth. Cause no, it is not my kids, nor will I let it be!

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Idaho

Wendy Davis, a True American Hero

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2013 //
25

The world knows Wendy Davis as the state senator in Texas who filibustered for 11 hours straight against an bill that would restrict abortion. Unlike Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” she was not allowed to take a drink of water or go off-topic or even lean on the speaker’s desk.

What you may not know is that this was not her first filibuster. That was in 2011, when she filibustered against the mammoth budget cuts to public education of $5.4 billion, which crippled many schools and turned out to be completely unnecessary ( but the funding was not restored).

For her valiant resistance to the cuts, the Republican leadership kicked her off the education committee, but she continued to sit in on its meetings and even to offer legislation. She joins the honor roll today as a champion of American education and an all-around champion of courage in public life.

She knows more than most people how crucial education is, how it offers a lifeline to those who reach out for it. The following appears in the New York Times:

“My mother only had a sixth-grade education, and it was really a struggle for us,” she said in a 2011 video for Generation TX. She said she fell through the cracks in high school, and shortly after she graduated, she got married and divorced, and was a single mother by age 19.

“I was living in a mobile home in southeast Fort Worth, and I was destined to live the life that I watched my mother live,” she said in the video. A co-worker showed her a brochure for Tarrant County College, and she took classes to become a paralegal, working two jobs at the same time. From there she received a scholarship to attend Texas Christian University in Fort Worth — becoming the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree — and then went on to Harvard. “When I was accepted into Harvard Law School, I remember thinking about who I am, and where I came from, and where I had been only a few years before,” she said.”

Wendy Davis is a true American hero. She has tenacity and guts. She has intelligence and wisdom. That’s a great combination.

She never forgot where she came from or how she got to where she is today.

She doesn’t use her life experience to tell others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. She uses her elected position to extend a helping hand. She knows what free public education meant to her. She wants to keep the promise alive for the millions of boys and girls in Texas who are counting on her.

She is only 50. What a great future she has before her.

Now that Rick Perry is stepping down, I hope she runs for governor.

Categories Budget Cuts, Honor Roll, Texas

President Obama, Please Read This

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2013 //
33

This teacher in Pennsylvania wonders why President Obama is turning his back on the calamity facing students in Philadelphia.

Please send his comment to the White House. After years of budget cuts and layoffs, isn’t it time for action? The Obama girls attend a wonderful school with small classes, experienced teachers, arts, physical education, science labs, a library: shouldn’t everyone?

The teacher writes:

“I teach in suburban Philadelphia in a district which is managing to survive with cutbacks in programming and hiring under Governor Corbett, but my wife teaches in Philadelphia and is experiencing firsthand the devastating impact of the state and city leaders seriously shortchanging public education. In September she currently expects to return to a school with no assistant principal, no counsellor, no nurse, no aids, no librarian, and fewer teachers.

“While I expect the kind of indifference exhibited by our tea party Governor and legislature to public education, I am struck by the almost total dropping of the ball by our President and the Democrats on the issue of saving our schools, especially on behalf of the constituency which worked and voted for their reelection. Is this because the President and those around him making education policy have been bought off by the same education “reformers” who own Governor Corbett?

“I got my answer when I watched the “cutting edge classrooms” town hall for students which was sponsored by the Obama administration on June 6 after the President announced his plan to put more technology in our nations classrooms. Here is the link: whitehouse.gov/show-and-tell. This was billed as the National Show and Tell on connected classrooms. The host was a spokesperson for something called EdSurge and at approximately the 24 minute spot of the presentation she tells the assembled students that she wants them to believe she has a magic wand which could solve any problem in their schools and she invites responses. It is then that a student from Philadelphia explains that her district has a 300 million dollar deficit, that teachers and counselors are being laid off and that she wishes the magic wand would be used by the Obama administration to fix this crisis caused by, what the student refers to as the “Doomsday budget.”

“Incredibly the total response from the spokesperson is to say: okay, Philadelphia wants more funding for its doomsday “project”. That’s it. That’s all she wrote.

“As you said in your letter to the Education Secretary it is a national disgrace to allow the public schools to die, but as long as leaders are more beholden to the technology companies than the students, technology, not learning is what we will get.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Industry, For-Profit, Obama, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Privatization

NBC Station in Philly Echoes Corbett Line

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
11

Journalist Daniel Denvir calls out Philadelphia’s local NBC station. Its coverage parroted Governor Tom Corbett’s claims without doing a fact check.

Denvir shows how little investigative reporting the local media does.

When they say that the teachers’ union is not “sacrificing enough, ” what they mean is that the union should okay the layoffs of teachers of the arts, sports, counselors, security guards, etc.

It would be nice if the various parties could set aside politics and focus on Philadelphia’s students.

Categories Budget Cuts, Philadelphia

How The Privatization Movement Is Destroying Public Education

By dianeravitch
July 3, 2013 //
6

In this post, Richard Eskow describes the manipulation of public opinion by people who call themselves reformers.

The attack on public education, he writes, is an attack on children and our nation’s future.

The playbook has been carefully planned and orchestrated. And the media fell for it, with few exceptions. Instead of calling them “reformers,” he says, they should be known as “demolishers.”

Here is a synopsis of the playbook:

“Pretend that “budgets” are the real crisis — but never mention that corporations and the wealthy are paying less in taxes than ever before in modern history.

“Make scapegoats of innocent people to draw attention away from yourselves. For Social Security they’ve attacked “greedy geezers,” but it’s hard to come up with a catchy equivalent for kids. (“Insatiable imps”? “Avaricious anklebiters”?) So they vilify teachers instead.

“Sell a fantasy which says that the private sector can do more, with less money, than government can. (Never, never mention that private insurance provides far less healthcare than public insurance, at much higher cost. And don’t bring up the mess privatization’s made of prisons and other government services.)

“Find a name that doesn’t use words like “money making.” How about “charter schools”?

“Describe yourselves as “reformers” – rather than, say, “demolishers.” That’s why “entitlement reform” is used as a euphemism for cutting Social Security and Medicare. (Michelle Rhee even called her autobiography “Radical.” Apparently “Shameless” was taken.)

“Employ the political and media elite’s fascination with (and poor understanding of) numbers. Suggest that “standardized” and “data-driven” programs will solve everything — without ever mentioning that the truly ideological decisions are made when you decide what it is you’re measuring.

“Co-opt the elite media into supporting your artificial description of the problem, as well as your entirely self-serving solution.

“Use your money to co-opt politicians from both parties so you can present your agenda as “bipartisan” — a word which means you can “buy” a few “partisans” from both sides.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers

Governor Corbett to Public Schools: Sorry.

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2013 //
10

Governor Tom Corbett passed a budget that shows his disdain for public education, I.e., the future of the state.

Philadelphia got the back of his hand. The burden of paying down the debt created by the state’s own School Reform Commission (which reforms nothing) will be placed on the working class, while big corporations skip away with no responsibility.

One plan, says columnist Will Bunch, is to turn the schools into chicken coops, where nothing happens but bare bones academics because everything else was stripped away by layoffs.

Blogger Yinzercation says the budget doesn’t reach the funding levels of 2008-09.

This governor and legislature and business community don’t care about the children or the future of the state. They would not do to their own children what they are doing to other people’s children.

Categories Budget Cuts, Pennsylvania
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