Archives for category: Budget Cuts
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Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter Bets on Privatization

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2013 //
3

An earlier post today described the devastating budget cuts to public education by Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Corbett. Districts across the state are laying off staff, cutting librarians, teachers of the arts, and school nurses and guidance counselors. No city has been harder hit than Philadelphia, which has been under state control for over a decade. The following commentary was written by Ken Derstine, a retired teacher in Philadelphia.

Ken writes:

Philadelphia’s Democratic Mayor Nutter’s role in these events should be noted. Nutter, currently the President of U.S. Conference of Mayors http://www.usmayors.org/about/orgleaders.asp,
is Mayor of a city whose public schools are in crisis. After ten years of starvation budgets to build up charter schools http://tinyurl.com/kphmwmm, last week the School Reform Commission passed a Doomsday budget which will devastate an already struggling School District cutting school staff to only a principal and classroom teachers.

It is in this situation that Nutter on Tuesday held a special press conference in Harrisburg with charter school operators to lobby for Corbett to fund schools….so that Philadelphia can expand charter seats! His only prescription for the struggling public schools has been that there must be “shared sacrifice” in the new contract of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers starting September 1st, with wage and benefit concessions of $133 million.

Nutter is hoping to capitalize on Corbett’s ALEC inspired agenda of privatization of public schools. The Philadelphia School District was taken over by the state in December, 2001. The School Reform Commission which runs the District has brought in the Philadelphia School Partnership and Boston Consulting Group to oversee the privatization of public schools. In FY09, charters were 15% of the District budget. In FY14 they will be 30% of the budget.

The charter management companies have come into conflict with the SRC over the last few months. The SRC in March called a moratorium of expanded charters at this time because of the budget crisis. A number of charters defied this moratorium and enrolled students even though it violated the contractual enrollment caps in their charter. When the SRC refused to pay for this over enrollment, the charter companies went to Corbett’s Secretary of Education and he took the money out of state funds that had been approved for the Philadelphia School District. It is in this situation that Mayor Nutter is in Harrisburg lobbying for more money for charter schools. 21 charters want 15,000 new seats which the District estimates would increase charter costs to about $110 million annually.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Philadelphia

Pennsylvania Parents Mobilize to Protest Governor Corbett’s Budget Cuts

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2013 //
3

Pennsylvania blogger Yinzercation reports that parents and concerned citizens are pressing their legislators to reverse Governor Corbett’s policy of defunding public schools.

Philadelphia has been under state control for a decade. Now parents and activists are demanding the restoration of a democratically elected board. The School Reform Commission “passed a draconian budget, wiping out public education as we know it. The plan cuts 3,000 more employees (including teachers); completely eliminates counselors, librarians, and secretaries; provides only one nurse for every 1,500 students; and gets rid of athletics, music, and art. [Philly.com, 6-4-13] As Philly parents have pointed out, this is a plan to warehouse students, rather than educate them. [Philly.com, 6-2-13]”

“Allentown has just proposed a plan to cut over 150 employees – nearly all teachers, and most of those in art, library, and physical education.”

Districts across the state are reeling because of Corbett’s ALEC agenda of cutting the schools while bestowing generous tax breaks on corporations.

In Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter seems to be deeply concerned that state funds are not available to permit charters to expand their enrollment, even though many existing charters are either failing or under investigation for corruption. Nutter has not spoken up for public schools, which most of his city’s children attend, only the privately-managed charters.

Categories Budget Cuts, Parents, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

North Carolina: Public Schools First Rallies Against Cuts

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2013 //
11

ACTION ALERT!
publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Help Us Deliver 15,000+ Signatures
to Governor McCrory on Thursday!

It’s time to wake up the people of North Carolina and let them know that our public schools are in danger! Pending bills in the General Assembly could devastate our schools as we know them — lifting the cap on classroom sizes, eliminating classroom positions, slashing eligibility for Pre-K, authorizing vouchers that send public money to private/religious schools, and funneling public money into for-profit schools with no oversight.

Join us for a press conference and rally as we deliver our petition to Governor Pat McCrory! Children are especially welcome to join us — let’s show our lawmakers who will pay the price if they go through with these terrible ideas.

If we don’t let our friends and neighbors know what’s going on, no one will — and it will be too late!

Join Us

Thursday, June 6 at 4:30 PM

State Capitol Building
1 E Edenton Street
Raleigh, NC 27601
Public Schools First NC
(919) 576-0655
info@publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Vouchers

Is School Reform Really About Economic Development?

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2013 //
8

Leslie T. Fenwick, dean of education at Howard University, argues that what is called school “reform” is really about urban land development, not about improving the lives of disadvantaged minority children. She says, follow the money to understand the “reforms.”

Dean Fenwick doesn’t mince words. She writes:

“The truth can be used to tell a lie. The truth is that black parents’ frustration with the quality of public schools is at an all time righteous high. Though black and white parents’ commitment to their child’s schooling is comparable, more black parents report dissatisfaction with the school their child attends. Approximately 90 percent of black and white parents report attending parent teacher association meetings and nearly 80 percent of black and white parents report attending teacher conferences. Despite these similarities, fewer black parents (47 percent) than white parents (64 percent) report being very satisfied with the school their child attends. This dissatisfaction among black parents is so whether these parents are college-educated, high income, or poor.

“The lie is that schemes like Teach For America, charter schools backed by venture capitalists, education management organizations (EMOs), and Broad Foundation-prepared superintendents address black parents concerns about the quality of public schools for their children. These schemes are not designed to cure what ails under-performing schools. They are designed to shift tax dollars away from schools serving black and poor students; displace authentic black educational leadership; and erode national commitment to the ideal of public education.”

What is needed to change the stagnant status quo? Read the article.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Parents, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

Why Is Philadelphia in Crisis?

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2013 //
22

Philadelphia is once again facing catastrophic budget cuts that threaten to gut public education.

Who is killing Philadelphia’s schools, asks journalist Daniel Denvir. Here is the sordid story.

The state has had control of the Philadelphia schools since 2002. It took control because of a budget deficit. The state School Reform Commission made the deficit worse.

Paul Vallas took over as superintendent and launched the nation’s most sweeping privatization plan. It failed. Vallas left the district with an even bigger deficit.

Now the School Reform Commission wants to have another go at privatization, even though a number of the city’s charters are under criminal investigation. The Mayor supports a pro-voucher group that has become increasingly vocal.

Governor Tom Corbett has slashed the state’s support for public schools. The state is threatening more cuts. Will public education survive in Philadelphia?

Does anyone have the nerve to say “it’s all for the kids”?

Categories Budget Cuts, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Vallas, Paul

Pennsylvania: Cyber Charters Are a Scam

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2013 //
5

Pennsylvania is overrun with cyber charters. There are 16 of them competing for customers, sucking money out of real public schools, supplying a terrible education. Some are under investigation. The legislature protects them because of campaign contributions.

Meanwhile public schools are suffering due to budget cuts while these sham schools make profits.

They have extracted $4 billion from the state’s taxpayers in inflated costs, padded enrollment data, and legislative beneficence. This is legal graft.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, On-Line Education, Pennsylvania

Who Are the Public School Haters?

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
22

It is clear by now that there is a very small number of very wealthy people who just don’t like public education. They don’t like teachers who work in public schools and want to strip them of any and every right, privilege, and status. They want to treat them like fast-food workers or salesmen who work on commission.

Given the chance, they would take the public’s money and give it to voucher schools, religious schools, entrepreneurs, to anyone who wants to start a school or an online business, regardless of their experience or qualifications. No one can take seriously their claim that they want to improve education or that they are “doing it for the kids” or they “put kids first” or they want to make kids “globally competitive.”

None of this is true.

Here Mike Deshotels explains who the haters are. They need do do some rethinking about the damage they are doing to our students, our teachers, and our nation.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Stand for Children, Vouchers

TFA Cleans Up in North Carolina, Where Privatizers Run Legislature

By dianeravitch
May 27, 2013 //
16

As an earlier post showed, Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota vetoed $1.5 million earmark for Teach for America, noting that the organization has $300 million in assets and thus no reason to be charging the state for its bright but poorly prepared recruits. But TFA scored big in North Carolina, where the reactionary legislature handed over $6 million a year to TFA. This from a parent activist in North Carolina:

The NC Senate just passed their version of a budget in which State support for TFA will total $6 million in both years of the biennium.
We had an outstanding program, the NC Teaching Fellows program http://www.teachingfellows.org.  That received the ax.  Two of our legislators filed a bill to restore the program, but the bill doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The bigger picture so far with the state budget looks like this:
 
Here’s the Senate’s education budget:
http://www.ncae.org/wp-content/uploads/Education-Section-F.pdf?j=1681267&e=zkids@yahoo.com&l=14260_HTML&u=21281549&mid=1077648&jb=119
 
Here’s what the NC Association of Educators thinks of the budget:
http://www.ncae.org/whats-new/give-the-senate-budget-an-f-viral-campaign/
 
NCAE President’s letter to House Speaker with recap of destructive budget cuts in the version passed in the Senate:
http://view.email.nea.org/?j=fe9515777566017f7c&m=fe8e1570726302797d&ls=fe2c1276776d017f741771&l=ff021574776204&s=fe541c74776303787217&jb=ff6415717c&ju=fe5c16717367037b7011&r=0
Categories Budget Cuts, North Carolina, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

Rahm: No Money for Schools But Millions for….

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2013 //
31

Even as Rahm Emanuel says he has no money for schools, none at all, the cupboard is bare….. He somehow managed to find $55 million to build a private basketball stadium. Now, this is a mayor with priorities!

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Closing schools, Education Industry, Emanuel, Rahm

Are Teachers Overpaid? The Last Word Comes from Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2013 //
30

A few years ago, a study released by the American Enterprise Institute concluded that teachers are overpaid.

Not so, writes CNN contributor LZ Granderson. In this wonderful article, he shows the every day courage of teachers–most recently demonstrated when a devastating tornado hit an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma, and last December when teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, died shielding their students.

Here is the AP story about the Oklahoma tornado, showing how quickly teachers protected their children.

When the think tank desk jockeys have long been forgotten, we will still remember our teachers.

Categories Budget Cuts, Teachers and Teaching
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