Archives for category: Bush, Jeb
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A BAT Attends Florida Governor’s Ed Summit

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2013 //
5

Michael Weston, Hillsborough County teacher, attended
Florida Governor Rick Scott’s three-day education summit. But
Governor Scott had better things to do. He
was busy meeting with Jeb Bush, who is the state’s
education expert. They discussed the future of education in
Florida. Parents were not happy that the Governor skipped the
chance to meet with them. Weston is a BAT, and
this is what he saw.

Here is a sample:

“In spell checking this document, I bounced “accountability” off the
Thesaurus. “Culpability” came up. Switching to the dictionary, the first
word to catch my eye was “blame”. “Blame” puts the no-governor Governor’s
Summit into better perspective. Why do politicians hate teachers so? What
did we ever do but educate them? Are they twisted to a dense ball of rage
inside because teachers attempted to instill a code of responsibility,
decency and morality in them; a code they cannot live up to? Are teachers to
blame for politicians as well?”

Categories Bush, Jeb, Education Reform, Florida

Paul Thomas Fact-Checks Jeb Bush

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2013 //
7

Jeb Bush has developed a narrative that is by now familiar: our schools are failing; the nation is in danger because of our failing schools; competition, high-stakes testing, and accountability will spur innovation and achievement; we need choice, charters, vouchers, merit pay, an end to job security for teachers; tying teacher pay to student test scores.

No one in the mainstream media bothers to question any of these claims. Every one of them is patently false.

Paul Thomas rebukes the media for reporting instead of investigating. He fact-checks Bush.

Paul Thomas is fearless, articulate, and prolific. He has the advantage of 18 years experience as a high school teacher in South Carolina. He is now a professor at Furman University, which has the dubious distinction of being recognized by the National Council on Teacher Quality as one of the four best teacher education programs in the nation.

In my new book, “Reign of Error,” I demonstrate with graphs from the U.S. Department of Education and citations from research by independent scholars that every one of Bush’s assertions is demonstrably untrue.

Categories Bush, Jeb

Holding Kevin Huffman Accountable

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2013 //
15

EduShyster here describes Kevin
Huffman’s relentless campaign to demoralize Tennessee
teachers and make Tenessee the worst state to be a teacher. She
suggests that the time is soon coming when Huffman will be held
accountable. Not by the state board, which rubber stamps his bad
ideas even when they aren’t informed of the details. No, he will
face the accountability of angry parents, teachers, and other
citizens who have grown tired of his destructive tactics. That day
will come, rest assured. Even his membership in Jeb Bush’s Chiefs
for Change won’t save him from the wrath of
Tennessee’s Angry Moms</a, who created their own Facebook
page.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Teacher Evaluations, Tennessee, Testing

Another of Jeb Bush’s “Chiefs for Change” Steps Down

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2013 //
13

Stephen Bowen, state commissioner of education in Maine,
announced
that he was resigning his post to take a job as “director
of innovation” for the DC Council on Chief State School Officers.
He is the second member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change to resign
in the past few weeks. Tony Bennett of Florida w the other; he
resigned when news broke about rigging the A-F grading system to
raise the grade of a school run by a political donor. Last year,
Bowen was at the center of a scandal
revealed by journalist Colin Woodard. Bowen was taking
instruction and even model legislation to promote digital learning
from Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. FEE gets
subsidies from the tech corporations that stand to profit as
digital learning expands. Bowen previously worked for a
conservative think tank in Maine. The interesting aspect of this is
the apparent transformation of the CCSSO, which was for many years
a staunch defender of public education. Bowen clearly was a charter member of the privatization movement, of which his mentor Jeb Bush is a prominent leader.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reformers, On-Line Education

Ed Berger Gives a Test to the “Reformers”

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
3

Blogger Edward Berger has a test for those who claim to be reformers.

What do you know about teaching? How long did you teach? What gives you the authority to tell teachers how to teach? And that’s just the beginning.

He concludes that most reformers are quacks.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privatization, Testing

Mark Naison: The Fatal Arrogance of Our Elites

By dianeravitch
August 12, 2013 //
41
http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com/2013/08/to-nations-elites-teachers-are-losers.html
To The Nation’s Elites, Teachers are “Losers!”

There is a reason that people like Bill Gates, Chris Christie, Rahm Emmanuel, Jeb Bush, Andrew Cuomo, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and yes Barack Obama will never really listen to teachers voices. And that is because, in the competition for money, power, and position, which is what is all the that really counts to them, they see themselves as winners and teachers as losers. Regarding themselves as examples of what talent and ambition can achieve, they look at someone who spends their life in the classroom as lacking in drive and imagination, and therefore undeserving in having a voice in shaping the way we train the next generation of citizens and workers. Whether or not they will say this in their speeches, they certainly say it to one another, in their private meetings, and high powered policy seminars. It is why the only teacher training organization they really trust is Teach for America, because that organization shares their view that really talented people would only remain a teacher as a passage to a more rewarding career. Unless you understand this– you will never understand why editorial writers, television personalities, corporate leaders, and elected officials systematically exclude teachers voices, and why the policies they ultimately support prove disastrous on the ground. Every section of the American Elite is poisoned with a fatal arrogance, and getting through to them with sound arguments is well nigh impossible. They only understand and respect power.

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/
Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teach for America TFA

Jeb Bush Criticizes Our Hero Matt Damon

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2013 //
50

Jeb Bush attacked superstar Matt Damon because he put his kids in private school in Los Angeles.

Bush sent his own children to private school.

He went after Matt because Matt spoke up for public schools in 2011. Matt went to public school in Cambridge.

But everyone should support public education, no matter where their children go to school. Everyone pays for them. They benefit all of society.

Corporate reformers love to criticize private school parents who support public schools. They feel justified in sending their kids to elite schools because they believe in choice.

But they try to silence those who act on the principle that public schools are a public responsibility, and you are free to pay for private or religious education with your own money.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Florida, Indiana, Los Angeles

What Jeb Bush Said to ALEC

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2013 //
14

ALEC has established its reputation as the organization funded by major corporations to promote deregulation, privatization, and whatever else benefits the big corporations.

In this speech, Jeb Bush spells out his agenda, which closely aligns with that of ALEC: Vouchers, charters, deregulation of teaching, virtual charter schools, for-profit charters, and Common Core.

The only particular where ALEC and Jeb diverge is Common Core.

Some ALEC members surely see Common Core as an initiative of the Obama administration and a federal takeover of education.

Others, like Jeb, see Common Core as an opportunity to make public schools look bad and to see hardware, software, and other stuff to schools and tap into that rich market.

Of course, Jeb didn’t mention that charter schools and voucher schools don’t post higher test scores than public schools, nor did he have time to acknowledge that virtual charter schools have lower test scores and lower graduation rates than public schools.

And he spoke before the New York state scores on Common Core were released, showing that the charter sector as a whole did far worse than the public sector.

But note the care he takes to couch the argument for privatization in terms of protecting minorities and advancing the needs of those at the bottom.

That must have appealed to ALEC members, who are not famous for their interest in civil rights but are busily trying to get rid of public education in their respective states.

Categories ALEC, Bush, Jeb

George Clooney Slams Hedge Fund Guys Who Don’t Know His Business

By dianeravitch
August 7, 2013 //
38

In this article, George Clooney lets hedge fund manager Dan Loeb have it.

Loeb has bought a piece of Sony Films and is now telling Sony what to do, and Clooney will have none of it.

His words will sound eerily familiar to all those who are fed up with the hedge fund managers who are pouring millions into charter schools and who think they know how to reform the nation’s public schools (testing, competition, no-excuses, harsh discipline, etc.).

Clooney says,

““I’ve been reading a lot about Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund guy who describes himself as an activist but who knows nothing about our business, and he is looking to take scalps at Sony because two movies in a row underperformed? When does the clock stop and start for him at Sony? Why didn’t he include Skyfall, the 007 movie that grossed a billion dollars, or Zero Dark Thirty or Django Unchained? And what about the rest of a year that includes Elysium, Captain Phillips, American Hustle and The Monuments Men? You can’t cherry pick a small time period and point to two films that didn’t do great. It makes me crazy. Fortunately, this business is run by people who understand that the movie business ebbs and flows and the good news is they are ignoring his calls to spin off the entertainment assets. How any hedge fund guy can call for responsibility is beyond me, because if you look at those guys, there is no conscience at work. It is a business that is only about creating wealth, where when they fail, they get bailed out and where nobody gets fired. A guy from a hedge fund entity is the single least qualified person to be making these kinds of judgments, and he is dangerous to our industry.”

Dan Loeb is on the board of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain in New York City. He recently donated $3 million to the chain. He was the first honoree at the Success Academy gala last May.  Loeb said, ”

“Success is a completely disruptive business model,” Loeb said in the ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental. “Not only does your money go to changing kids’ lives, but if we really succeed, we’ll set a higher bar for all schools to meet.”

The Success model includes teachers whose intensity is a mix of Internet startup and trading desk, and a vast amount of training, maniacal attention to data and replicable processes, Loeb said.

“It’s the Google of charter schools. We’re growing faster, it’s logarithmic,” he added, saying that 11,500 students will be enrolled in two years, up from 7,000 in August.”

And what a gala it was!

Loeb sat next to Jeb Bush. The keynote speaker for the evening was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was introduced by Merryl Tisch, chair of the New York State Board of Regents.

 

 

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers

Cheats for Change Makes Its Debut

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2013 //
12

A new website called Cheats for Change has been created in the wake of the Tony Bennett scandal.

Please take a look. It is very funny.

For those of you who do not follow education politics closely, Cheats for Change is a parody of Jeb Bush’s group called Chiefs for Change.

Bush and his Foundation for Educational Excellence (FEE) created Chiefs for Change to advance the Jeb Bush agenda of charter schools, vouchers, testing, competition, accountability, removing teacher tenure, and replacing teachers with technology.

There are eight “chiefs for change” a la Jeb Bush and the Florida miracle.

Tony Bennett, who previously served as chair of Chiefs for Change.

The current chair is Hanna Skandera of New Mexico.

The other members of Chiefs for Change are:

John White of Louisiana

Stephen Bowen of Maine (he had a little problem about pushing online learning in Maine)

Deborah Gist of Rhode Island

Chris Cerf of New Jersey

Kevin Huffman of Tennessee

Janet Barresi of Oklahoma

These are the leading lights of the testing, choice, and privatization crowd. Two (White and Huffman) are TFA alumni. Three (Cerf , White, and Gist) are Broad Academy alumni.

Categories Broad Foundation, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Humor, Privatization, Technology, Computers, Vouchers
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