Archives for category: Budget Cuts
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California: Prop 30 Passes, Prop 32 Loses

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
3

Governor Jerry Brown led a successful campaign to raise taxes to fund the state’s public schools and universities.

His Proposition 30 passed with heavy support from Los Angeles County.

Had it not passed, the cuts to education would have been devastating.

Hats off to Governor Brown and Superintendent Tom Torlakson for fighting to increase taxes to pay for educating the state’s children.

Due to prior anti-tax activism, California is now 47th in the nation in education spending.

Proposition 32, which was intended to hobble labor unions’ political activities by eliminating automatic dues checkoff for political contributions, was defeated.

Categories Budget Cuts, California, Education Reform

Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law Repealed

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
6

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was rebuked by voters yesterday as they repealed the law that gave dictatorial powers to emergency managers appointed by the governor to control fiscally distressed districts.

Public Act 4 of 2011 was rejected by a vote of 52-48.

Snyder installed emergency managers to take control of public education in Detroit, Highland Park, and Muskegon Heights. The managers in the two small districts abolished public education and handed the students to for-profit charter chains to run. The Detroit emergency manager imposed a drastic plan to lay off teachers, privatize many schools, and increase class sizes.

The law enabled the governor to suspend democracy and impose one-man rule. It also allowed him to evade the state’s responsibility to provide public schools on every district in the state and to deal with fiscal crises with draconian measures.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Detroit, Education Industry, For-Profit, Michigan, Privatization

Please Vote. Your Vote Matters.

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2012 //
20

If you live in one of the battleground states, I urge you to vote to re-elect President Obama.

Though many of us oppose his Race to the Top, please vote for him for other reasons.

We can’t allow a reactionary, backward-looking Republican Party to take charge of this nation’s future. We can’t allow a rightwing administration to shape the Supreme Court.

I urge you to vote for President Obama. Once he is re-elected, we will continue to pressure him to strengthen our nation’s essential public education system. He might hear us. Romney won’t.

If you live in Washington State, vote NO on 1240 and show the billionaires that you won’t let them start the process of privatization.

If you live in Georgia, vote against the ALEC initiative and preserve local control.

If you live in Bridgeport, Connecticut, vote against the Mayor’s attempt to take away your right to elect the school board.

If you live in Los Angeles, vote for Robert Skeels for LAUSD school board.

If you live in Ohio, vote for Maureen Reedy for the legislature.

If you live in Minneapolis, vote for Patty Wycoff for school board.

If you live in Idaho, vote NO on Props 1, 2, 3: Repeal the Luna laws.

If you live in New Jersey, vote for Marie Corfield.

If you are in Perth Amboy, NJ, vote the “New Visions” slate: Nina Perkins Nieves, Benny Salerno, Jeanette Gonzalez and Maria Garcia for Board of Education.

If you live in Pennsylvania, vote for Richard Flarend.

If you live in California, vote yes on 30 to support public education and no on 32, meant to hobble unions.

Wherever you are, support the candidates who believe in democratically controlled public schools.

Wherever you live, oppose privatization and diversion of public funds to private hands.

Strengthen our democracy by supporting public education.

Support the schools whose doors are open to all.

Support the candidates who will fight for equality of educational opportunity.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Budget Cuts, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Privatization

A Teacher Grades the Houston Independent School District

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
10

This teacher in Houston reviews what is happening in HISD schools.

Anyone know the HISD superintendent Terry Grier?

The teacher’s evaluation:

Another transplanted North Carolina education experience. I teach in Texas in the largest school district that has inherited one of North Carolina’s education mediums, T. Grier. In his ready, shoot, aim masterplan, all teachers are graded on the growth of their students on a year to year basis, as the statistical junkies decide that growth will be measured on EVAAS- a nonpeer reviewed performance analyis program. This is in addition to a whole slew of other tests. We personally ran into an issue where our social studies students were passing 95% of the tests or higher provided by the State, but when the results did not grow past 95% the teachers were penalized! There is no average of, say, three years performance, or a plateau of achievement where the grading stops, but a slap for high achievement – the District refused to reconsider our highly validated protests.

Teachers were baited with the prospect of “bonus” money, and assumed we were like pipe salepersons who would do more for a bigger payday. A teacher might earn up to $7,000…great, but there have also not been any raises for over 4 years. The bonus money available has been reduced by half, so the District reduced the teachers who could obtain a bonus – no senior level teachers, art, electives, nor foreign language because??? those subjects do NOT have to be tested. In our case, high performance ran into an effective ceiling. So now, bonus money has shrunk, teachers salaries have been reduced, a bait and switch incentive atmosphere has been created. Incentives in business are great, this is not business. Teachers do not get to select inputs and the inputs change, perhaps dramatically, year to year; or we average over 37 kids in a class compared to 30, but that should’nt really effect performance. It defies good science to measure unlike test groups.

Morale in our District is terrible, particularly with the school administrators who cringe when the headquarters decides on some new hoop teachers and students need to jump through. For example, we are supposed to drop students into category buckets within the first month so we can establish their goals…what sense does that make? who knows kids after a month? and then the system crashed, or dropped data or just didn’t work. Nobody holds senior administration accountable.

So fair is fair, how are Grier and the District grading themselves in the Broad competition they flaunt? 1) on the basis of how many kids take the SAT 2) how many kids take Advanced Placement courses and 3) how many more kids graduate. Fine as it goes, but a) the District paid for the SAT for all 10th graders b) it pays for any AP tests and recruited teachers and kids who were completely unprepared for this incredibly rigorous course load (SpEd kids were enrolled in some cases!) and c) created an on-line self paced Grad Lab program that is never backstopped for performance nor any real check on comprehension. There are no effective teacher unions in Texas (no strike state), so no one can blame that factor on Texas’ dismal performance of Houston’s. Maybe it is the super? From North Carolina Greenboro, then San Diego…any comments from other teachers who taught under T. Grier and dealt with the North Carolina experience?

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Merit pay, Testing, Texas

Why Robert Skeels Should Be Elected to LAUSD Board

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2012 //
1

A retired educator in Los Angeles writes:

Los Angeles is the only city in the big 3(New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) that is not run by a mayor. It almost happened and is still a threat. Several years ago, when Mayor Villaraigosa did not get control of the schools, he threw money and support behind friendly board member candidates. This has been a disaster for Los Angeles children. One of the mayor’s favorites, Yolie Flores Aguilar, presented a plan to put LAUSD schools out to bid. This lead to disruption and more privatization. As a result, funding for traditional schools has been severely cut back with thousands of teachers laid off including librarians and nurses.

Robert Skeels has been a tireless advocate for all the children in LAUSD and if elected, would unseat Monica Garcia, one of the mayor’s favorites. This would end years of gridlock and political cronyism. It is even more important now because the candidates running for mayor next year have not shown independence from Villaraigosa’s failed policies, even though mayoral control in New York and Chicago has been an unmitigated disaster for the educational system in both these cities.

As an example, our mayor successfully pedaled the “Parent Trigger” law at a meeting of mayors from across the country even though the Parent Trigger has NEVER been implemented. It failed miserably in Compton, CA and now, in Adelanto, CA, a recent parent vote to pick a charter under California’s Parent Empowerment Act attracted only 53 voters, even though the school itself serves close to 700 students. And they call this Parent Empowerment?

Robert Skeels has revealed the true nature of the Parent Trigger whose two attempts in California were backed by Parent Revolution, which in turn is backed by the top school privatizers in this country. The tide is turning, with more and more members of the public realizing that there are hidden agendas within the privatization of our public schools. We need more potential board members, like Robert, to come forward and turn the tide all across the country to wrench control out of the hands of those whose only interest is to financially profit off of our public school children.

Categories Budget Cuts, California, Charter Schools, Los Angeles, Parent trigger

Shadowy Group in Arizona Fights 1% Sales Tax for Education

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2012 //
3

A shadowy group called Americans for Responsible Leadership is spending $750,000 to fight a proposal to raise the sales tax in Arizona by 1% to fund education.

The group claims it favors accountability and “transparency,” but refuses to disclose who is putting up the money to fight Proposition 204, which would make permanent a currently temporary sales tax.

Prop 204 would provide stable funding of education in the state, which is badly needed.

If you live in Arizona, please go to the polls to protect your schools.

 

 

Categories Budget Cuts

The Very Expensive Mandates of Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2012 //
32

The states unlucky enough to “win” Race to the Top funding are arriving at a startling conclusion: Race to the Top mandates cost more than the money that was awarded to the state and the districts.

Ken Mitchell, a superintendent in Rockland County, New York, did the math.

Mitchell determined that school districts in his county are spending far more than they receive as they try to implement the mandates. When you consider that Governor Cuomo enacted rigid tax caps on every public school district in the state, it means that costs (for Race to the Top) are soaring at the same time that the district cannot raise new sources of revenue. The result: layoffs, program cuts, larger class sizes.

Mitchell writes that in six districts in his county, the cost of RTTT implementation will be $11 million, but the revenues will be only $400,000. This is a deficit of more than $10 million that must be covered by district funds. Where will the money come from?

When you consider that there is no research base to support the initiatives demanded by the Race to the Top, this is, as he puts it, “a grand and costly experiment that has the potential to take public education in the wrong direction…” That is putting it politely.

The word is getting out. Race to the Top has no research base. Race to the Top is a burden on the states that “won” the money.

It will be a burden on the districts that have the misfortune to “win” funding.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles were wise to refuse to sign on to their district’s application.

If they won, the district would soon by laying off teachers to pay for consultants and experimental programs of no value.

Race to the Top makes guinea pigs of the nation’s public schools and their pupils.

I will vote for Obama despite this terrible program.

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Reform, New York, Race to the Top

Using Rap to Support Education

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2012 //
0

Two California teachers have created a rap video to exhort peope to vote “yes” on Proposition 30, which raises taxes on incomes over $250,000 to fund education, and to vote “no” on Proposition 32, which is intended to take away automatic contributions by members to their unions, a longtime goal of anti-union activists.

The video describes the “pre-school to prison pipeline.”

Pay now or pay later.

Categories Budget Cuts, California

Michelle Rhee Shows Her True Colors

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2012 //
38

Michelle Rhee is endorsing and funding rightwing candidates across the nation, showering cash on those who are opposed to teachers’ rights and unions and support privatization of public education.

In Ohio, she is using her StudentsFirst millions–collected from anonymous billionaires, millionaires and corporations–to support opponents of public education.

An Ohio blogger writes:

Now, here in Ohio, Michelle Rhee’s true colors simply cannot be ignored.  Rhee has chosen to fund multiple candidates in Ohio who are running for the Ohio House this year, citing their individual votes to support the Kasich budget that cut public education funding by $1.8 billion as a reason for StudentsFirst’s support.  Let me restate that: StudentsFirst supports these candidates because they supported Kasich’s budget that cut $1.8 billion from school funding.
PlunderBund (http://s.tt/1rpCF)

Of all her endorsements in Ohio, the most disgusting is that Rhee is supporting a candidate with no education experience running against Maureen Reedy, an experienced and admired teacher. The two are candidates for an open seat in the 29th district.

Maureen Reedy was a teacher for 29 years. Rhee claims to “love” effective teachers. Maureen Reedy was Ohio’s Teacher of the Year in 2002. But Michelle Rhee is supporting her Republican opponent.

Maureen Reedy has pledged to expose the frauds that allow profiteers to waste millions of taxpayers’ dollars in Ohio. She has pledged to support public education in the state legislature. And that is why Rhee opposes Maureen Reedy.

This election tells us who Michelle Rhee is. She supports far-right Republicans, not Democrats. She supports those who voted to defund public education. She supports those who advocate for privatization of public education and who benefit from ineffective, for-profit schools. She does not support effective teachers. She opposes effective teachers.

Forget what she calls herself.

Judge her by her actions.

She is a rightwing Republican who hates public education and those who support it.

Want to know why Rhee opposes Maureen Reedy? Here is an excerpt from an article Reedy wrote for the Columbus Dispatch:

Charter schools are a poor investment of Ohio’s education dollars and have a worse track record than public schools in our state; there are twice as many failing charter schools as successful ones, and one in two charter schools is either in academic emergency or academic watch, compared with only one in 11 traditional public-school buildings. Five of seven of Ohio’s largest electronic-charter-school districts’ graduation rates are lower than the state’s worst public-school system’s graduation rate, and six of seven of the electronic charter schools districts are rated less than effective.

And finally, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow has failed in every identified state category for eight years, a worse track record than the Cleveland City School system, which is under threat of being shut down by the state. The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow is run by unlicensed administrators. Lager, in addition to his $3 million salary, earned an additional $12 million funneled through his software company, which sells products to his charter-school corporation. Just how much does the average teacher in the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow earn you may ask? Approximately $34,000 per year.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Ohio, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Vouchers

Missouri Public Schools Under Siege

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2012 //
4

Citizens in Missouri have awakened to the rapid advance of the privatization movement. They have formed an organization called Missouri Public School Advocates to awaken the public and push back against the privatizers.

Missouri Public School Advocates
A Strong Voice for Missouri Public Schools

Calling All Public School Supporters!

The Public Schools are under siege throughout this country.

In Missouri, serious efforts by the State General Assembly to dismantle quality Public School programs date back to the implementation of term limits in 2002 and the large scale change in the membership of that body in 2004.

Learn more about what we do here.

The effort to downsize government and greatly reduce the available resources to fund the Public Schools and the effort to privatize the delivery of education services and erode the strength of the Public Schools is coming from right wing intellectual think tanks, wealthy corporations and individuals, and state legislators who either genuinely believe that the Public Schools are failing or see the delivery of education as a golden opportunity to secure government funding for private enterprise.

Because of these efforts, State Support for the Public Schools is at a low ebb.

Now a group of Distinguished Educators have said, “Enough is enough”. We have formed a non-profit organization entitled MISSOURI PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES to unite Public School Supporters throughout the State and make a difference.

We want your help to Stop State efforts to reduce Public School funding and to Stop State action to subsidize private education entrepreneurs. JOIN THE MISSOURI PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES AND LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.

Missouri Public School Statistics

>In 2010, 8 out of 10 Missouri Public School Districts reduced their number of classroom teachers. There are now 2500 fewer teachers for Missouri kids.

>For the current school year, the State Foundation Formula is $420 million dollars below its statutorily required level.

>Missouri now ranks 46th out of 50 states in average salary for Public School teachers and is more than $10000. per teacher below the national average.

>With regard to State Support of total Public School funding, Missouri is even worse ranking 47th. Missouri pays only 30.6 per cent of K-12 funding while the national average for State Support is 45.5 per cent.

>And in 2011, Missouri sank to 47th in per pupil funding for State Colleges and Universities. The average rate of tuition for Missouri’s four year institutions of higher learning has nearly doubled over the last decade.

How Do I Join Missouri Public School Advocates?

Go to the Missouri Public School Advocates (MPSA) website at mopublic
schooladvocates.org and click on Membership Button. Our current roster of MPSA members is listed online.

Memberships start at just $10.00!

When you become a member of MPSA, you will:

>Ensure that the Public Schools have a strong voice speaking out on their behalf,
>Unite Public School supporters throughout Missouri under an inclusive umbrella, which will provide real policital clout,
>Support candidates for the Missouri General Assembly who are truly Public Education Supporters.

About MPSA
MPSA is completely non-partisan. We are open to anyone who is a supporter of the Public Schools.

We believe the Public School is the Institution that has done the most to make our country great.

This Institution has provided an opportunity for every child to acquire an education and to become a productive and self-supporting human being.

For all inquiries or other communication, please contact us at the information below.

Contact Information
Address:
14373 Conway Meadows Ct. E.
Chesterfield, MO 63017
Email: Gary Sharpe, President
info@mopublic
schooladvocates.org
Phone: 573-230-3388

Please send all correspondance to Gary Sharpe at 14373 Conway Meadows Court E., Chesterfield, Missouri 63017 or info@mopublicschooladvocates.org. Thank you.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization
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