This teacher in Wisconsin disagrees.
When your class sizes grow larger, it’s personal.
When the classroom lacks the resources it needs, it’s personal.
When this teacher’s family must make do with less, it’s personal.
When the governor takes advice from businessmen but not educators about how to fix schools, it’s personal.
It just isn’t personal for Governor Walker.
If you want to know why so many politicians think so highly of charters, there is a basic rule of politics that explains it all: Follow the money.
The most visible organization promoting corporate reform is called Democrats for Education Reform, known as DFER (commonly pronounced “D-fer”). DFER is the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group. It always has a few non-hedge funders on the board, especially one or two prominent African-Americans, to burnish its pretentious claim of leading the civil rights movement of our day. Kevin Chavous, a former council member from Washington, D.C., fills that role for now, along with the DFER stalwart, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. DFER has its own member of the U.S. Senate, Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado. It has also raised money generously for Congressman George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and Labor Committee.
This group bankrolls politicians, woos them, raises campaign cash for them, and persuades them of the advantages of turning the children of their district over to privately managed schools. Watch their website to see which politician they favor this month and scan those they have recognized in the past.
In New York City, Hakeem Jeffries, DFERs’s candidate for U.S. Congress, announced his support for tax credits for religious schools on the day after he won the election. His support for charter schools was already well known. Unless there is targeted new funding, support for charters and religious schools comes right out of the budget for public schools, which are already stressed by cuts.
A reader writes:
One of the most shocking pieces of news out of the Pennsylvania school funding crisis created by Gov. Corbett was the cost-cutting plan by many districts to ELIMINATE KINDERGARTEN. What an incredibly stupid and short-sighted idea. It would take decades to recover from such a decision.
The kindergarten idea was introduced to the United States in the 1870s, an import from Germany.
It was first established in St. Louis, which was in the forefront of educational innovation in those times due mainly to a far-sighted educator named William Torrey Harris. Harris believed in the importance of a sound public education. He believed in teaching the classics. He believed that maintaining good public schools was a public responsibility.
Now, in Pennsylvania, due to relentless budget-cutting, many districts are planning to eliminate kindergarten. Thus, what is called “reform” today brings us back almost to where we started. We are turning back the clock, privatizing schools (it’s the civil rights issue of our time, remember?), increasing class size (to close the achievement gap?), cutting the arts and physical education (frills?), and now districts find that the public doesn’t want to pay for kindergarten. I can’t remember which part of the reform agenda that is. Can you?
Diane
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has preached a formula that warms the hearts of the far-right base of his party: Tax cuts for the big corporations, budget cuts for public schools and social services. Some districts in Pennsylvania are planning to eliminate kindergarten, and some are teetering into bankruptcy.
The only positive outcome is that Corbett’s poll numbers have dropped to 36% approval, and there is a chance that his party will lose its control of the Legislature.
Are voters in Pennsylvania beginning to understand the harm done to their children and communities by the policies of politicians like Corbett?
Our society cannot continue to fatten the fat calves while starving the herd.
We can’t continue to promulgate policies that benefit the wealthiest while impoverishing our essential public services or giving them away to profiteers.
Diane
The Detroit News reported the latest plans for the beleaguered Detroit Public School district. Under state control for three years, Detroit is now run by an emergency financial manager with dictatorial powers.
First the good news: “Detroit Public Schools’ proposed 2012-13 school year budget supports a system of schools focused on innovation and robust school choices, data-driven programs to enhance teaching and learning, including new Individual Learning Maps for every child, and highly qualified teachers selected after new teacher evaluation and interviewing processes,” Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts said. Roberts is a former auto industry executive.
Now the bad news: “For the second year in a row, DPS is cutting its budget by nearly a quarter, from $1.03 billion last year to $784 million for the new fiscal year. It cut $231 million from its budget for the 2011-12 year as well as 800 staff positions.” This year, there will be 1,900 layoffs, as 15,000 students are transferred to the new state authority in charge of failing schools. “Class sizes will remain at 25 in grades K-3, and rise by three to 33 for grades 4-5 and 38 for grades 6-12, returning to levels from 2010-11.” Last year, the teachers took a 10% pay cut.
Now the really good news: The district will have a surplus of $11.9 million at the end of the current fiscal year!
Think about it: Some of the poorest and neediest children in one of the most economically depressed cities in America will have some of the most crowded classes in the nation.
The district is on life support. But never fear, there will be “highly qualified teachers,” “innovation,” “robust school choices,” “data-driven programs,” etc. The lyrics are familiar, but there is no music.
Diane
A reader writes from California about the churn and instability caused by the toxic combination of annual budget cuts and an open door for unregulated charters. I met a teacher in Los Angeles recently who told me he had been “pink slipped” six years in a row, called back each time, then pink-slipped again. What does that do for morale? I think that is called the collateral damage of reform. The glimmer of hope at the end of the letter refers to the fact that Governor Brown is trying to restore a portion of the funding that was cut, and State Superintendent Tom Torlakson–who taught science–is a champion for public education.
And one other notable development in California: the teachers in San Diego reached a tentative agreement with the district to defer any wage increases in an effort to save the jobs of 1,500 of their colleagues. It would be impressive if some of the technology billionaires in California offered to pay higher taxes to save the jobs of teachers and other public sector employees.
I am a public school teacher in California and I have watched with horror the past several years as our budgets have been slashed. I have seen good, decent, hard-working teachers laid off every single year and then brought back because, after all, you can’t lay off 50% of a school’s faculty and have 30+ empty classrooms! I am not joking when I say 50%, either. In the current round of layoffs, my school (which has @ 65 teachers – counting counselors, and other certificated staff) saw a layoff list of 25 people. My school district, which serves a huge population of native Spanish-speaking students has lost 60 million from its budget in the past 3 years alone.
When Governor Terminator was in office, it was a sheer disaster! I was pleased and continue to remain pleased at Governor Brown. This tax proposal is almost a last ditch effort. If it fails, it will literally be armageddon in some/most of our schools.
Speaking of charter schools, my former principal left to go open a new charter school (she was the first administrator – not the person actually funding it). The charter school was open for @ 5 months before closing because, in a typical lack of oversight, the charter founder had embezzled millions from the school. Every single teacher who left tenured positions (including my former principal) lost their jobs when the school district took over the failed charter school. 10 years ago, this wouldn’t have been a total disaster as there were plenty of teaching jobs. Today, there are thousands of out of work teachers – including those from this charter school.
California is truly a paradox, but I believe it may be on the right path.
An article describing the situation in North Carolina defines the four steps needed to attack and dismantle public education. It is a scenario based on ALEC model legislation, which is now being faithfully implemented in many states.
Step one is to cut the budget of the public schools.
Step two is to divert public school money to privately-managed charter schools.
Step three is to divert more public school money to private and religious schools, either through vouchers or tax credits.
Step four is to declare that the public schools will get better because of competition and to declare them failures when they don’t, due to budget cuts and the exodus of motivated students to the publicly-funded alternatives in steps two and three.
And don’t forget: It’s all about the children!
Diane
In recent years, the governor and legislature in Texas have cut billions of dollars from the budget for public education.
They have shown their priorities. By keeping taxes low, they can grow new jobs, or so they say.
But at the same time, they are destroying the public schools that prepare the next generation for citizenship and work and innovation.
A Texas colleague sent me an article to show what the cuts are doing to one small district. The Hutto school district must cut more than $1 million from its $37 million budget. A local tax increase was turned down last November. The district will go back to the voters to ask again.
The district is imposing a fee of $200 a year for students to ride the bus to school, with no break for poor kids. The district is selling advertising on the buses and licensing the right to use its mascot symbol. In April, the district laid off arts teachers, counselors, and nurses. It increased the fee for participating in extracurricular activities to $100.
Faced with endless cuts, districts are moving back to a time in our history–now seen only in very poor nations–where access to education was limited by what families can pay.
If only education reformers were as passionate about paying for education as they are about privatizing it.
Where is “Superman” when you really need him?
Diane
When the budget cuts start, the first victim is usually the arts.
The people who make the financial decisions think that the arts don’t matter.
How wrong they are. Why do they prioritize the budget for assessment over the budget for singing, dancing, and the joyful activities associated with the arts?
Do they think that students come to school just to be tested? Don’t they understand anything about the need for expression, the need to feel joy in creating and designing and singing and acting together?
Students know. Teachers know. Parents know. Why don’t the politicians and the policymakers know? Weren’t they once children?
Life without the arts, school without the arts, is nasty, brutish and way too long.
In districts across the country, the arts are in jeopardy because of budget cuts and misguided priorities. Districts are digging deep to pay for more tests even as they axe the arts.
One district that is fighting back is Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Upper Darby is facing massive budget cuts, and the arts are on the chopping block. Parents and community members created a video that is joyful to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8RNhMo4Ks
Every district should create a video to showcase the talents of its students. Kids are amazing. The bands and orchestras and string groups and jazz groups and dance groups and drama groups are better than anything you will watch on television tonight.
Can your district do what Upper Darby did? Maybe it will educate the budget cutters if we can get them to watch.
Do not let them kill the younger generation’s creative spirit, its joy in performance, the sheer exuberance that the arts unleash. We are the adults. We owe it to them to prioritize what matters most, to them and to us.
Diane
In district after district, budget cuts are decimating the curriculum. Teachers are laid off, programs are cut, class sizes are rising, libraries are closing.
This is insane. We are supposed to be in the midst of a great education “reform” movement, but for reasons that are not obvious, the alleged reformers never say anything about budget cuts. They don’t care if the public schools are devastated. They claim to care about education, but budget cuts don’t seem to cross their radar screen.
The more they are silent, the more it demonstrates that they don’t care about education; they don’t even care about children. They care about power. They care about gaining control of public schools and of the funding stream that goes to public schools.
So, those who are silent reveal their fundamental beliefs. The more that public schools are impaired, the better the case for privatization.
In fact, we can discern a train of events. First, the reformers’ favorite experts assure us that we spend way too much on education. Second, the message is amplified by public figures like Bill Gates, even Arne Duncan (remember his claim at the conservative American Enterprise Institute that reduced budgets are “the new normal”?). Third, public schools feel the devastation of the budget cuts as class sizes rise to 35 then 40 or more; as the arts are eliminated; as libraries close; as facilities are untended because custodians were dismissed. In the final act of this play, the reformers step forward to save the children from their “failing” schools.
Those who claim to be reformers should speak out against the budget cuts or lose all credibility. If they do not, we will know them for what they are and we will know what they want.
Diane
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