Archives for category: Charter Schools
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New Mexico: Democratic Governor and Legislature Plan to Cap Charter School Growth

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2019 //
6

Under Republican Governor Martinez, New Mexico was generous to charter schools. The state commissioner for most of her two terms was Hannah Skandera, previously worked for Jeb Bush. Charters got more funding than public schools.

Since the election of Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, the glory days ofprivatization are numbered.

The Democrats who control the legislature plan to cap charter growth and eliminate the funding that favors charters.

This is good news for the underfunded Public Schools, where the rate of poverty is nearly the lowest in the nation, close behind Mississippi.

Real Democrats support real public schools. Real Democrats don’t support privatization or any part of the DeVos agenda.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Education Industry, New Mexico, Privatization

Cory Booker Opens His Presidential Campaign in New Orleans

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2019 //
55

Cory Booker sent a complicated message at his campaign kickoff in New Orleans at Xavier University, where he was sponsored by charter chain and spoke to students.

He told the audience that the power of the people outweighs the power of money.

This is inspirational indeed. It says that those of us fighting the power of the Walton family, the Sackler family, the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the DeVos family, Paul Singer, and the many other billionaires attacking our public schools will WIN and the billionaires WILL LOSE.

We–the people–will defeat the powerful.

We will not let them close our public schools with their lies and propaganda. We will not let them turn other American cities into New Orleans.

We want every aspirant for the presidency in 2020–any party–to say where they stand on the issue of the future of public schools, the future of the teaching profession, and the future of collective bargaining.

Thanks, Cory, for reminding us that the power of the people can beat the billionaires and Wall Street, especially those privatizers and hedge funders now supporting your campaign. Itworked for Obama, but it won’t work for you. We know now about the privatization movement.

Tell us where you stand on privatization, the teaching profession, and unions. Or let us guess.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, New Orleans, Privatization, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teacher Tenure, Teachers, Unions

NY Times: Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About Danger of Opioids

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2019 //
40

Trump says he wants a border Wall to stop the flow of drugs into the US. Actually, the biggest source of the opioids that have killed over 200,000 people is not Mexico or Latin America, but Connecticut. Thatsthe home of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which created and sold OxyContin, which is the most widely used opioid.

The Sackler family of Connecticut became billionaires because of their development and marketing of OxyContin. Their names grace museums around the world. The family collectively has about $15 billion or so. They have always claimed that they had no personal knowledge of the deceptive promotion of their popular and highly addictive drug, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives.

The Sacklers are major financiers of charter schools, having funded ConnCAN, 50CAN, and numerous other organizations that promote privatization of public funds for schools.

Now the New York Times reports that the Sackler family knew what was going on with their opioid drug.

The state of Massachusetts thinks the family members should be held personally responsible for the devastation their drug caused.

How do you sleep at night or enjoy your luxurious lifestyle knowing that the drug that made you fabulously wealthy killed over 200,000 people?

The Times wrote:

Members of the Sackler family, which owns the company that makes OxyContin, directed years of efforts to mislead doctors and patients about the dangers of the powerful opioid painkiller, a court filing citing previously undisclosed documents contends.

When evidence of growing abuse of the drug became clear in the early 2000s, one of them, Richard Sackler, advised pushing blame onto people who had become addicted.

“We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,” Mr. Sackler wrote in an email in 2001, when he was president of the company, Purdue Pharma. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.”

That email and other internal Purdue communications are cited by the attorney general of Massachusetts in a new court filing against the company, released on Tuesday. They represent the first evidence that appears to tie the Sacklers to specific decisions made by the company about the marketing of OxyContin. The aggressive promotion of the drug helped ignite the opioid epidemic.

The filing contends that Mr. Sackler, a son of a Purdue Pharma founder, urged that sales representatives advise doctors to prescribe the highest dosage of the powerful opioid painkiller because it was the most profitable.

Since OxyContin came on the market in 1996, more than 200,000 people have died in the United States from overdoses involving prescription opioids, and Purdue Pharma has been the target of numerous lawsuits.

For years, Purdue Pharma has sought to depict the Sackler family as removed from the day-to-day operations of the company. The Sacklers, whose name adorns museums and medical schools around the world, are one of the richest families in the United States, with much of their wealth derived from sales of OxyContin. Disclosure of the documents is likely to renew calls for institutions to decline their philanthropic gifts.

In a statement, Purdue Pharma, which is based in Stamford, Conn., rejected suggestions of wrongdoing by the company or members of the Sackler family, describing the court filing as “littered with biases and inaccurate characterizations.” The statement said the company was working to curtail the use and misuse of prescription painkillers.

Asked for a response from Richard Sackler and other members of the Sackler family, a Purdue Pharma spokesman, Robert Josephson, said that the company had no additional comment.

In 2007, the company and three of its top executives pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that Purdue had misrepresented the dangers of OxyContin, and they paid $634.5 million in fines. The Sacklers were not accused of any wrongdoing and have not faced personal legal consequences over the drug.

But last June, Maura Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, sued eight members of the Sackler family, along with the company and numerous executives and directors, alleging that they had misled doctors and patients about OxyContin’s risks. The suit also claimed that the company aggressively promoted the drug to doctors who were big prescribers of opioids, including physicians who later lost their licenses.

The court filing released on Tuesday also asserts that Sackler family members were aware that Purdue Pharma repeatedly failed to alert authorities to scores of reports the company had received that OxyContin was being abused and sold on the street. The company also used pharmacy discount cards to increase OxyContin’s sales and Richard Sackler, who served as Purdue Pharma’s president from 1999 to 2003, led a company strategy of blaming abuse of the drug on addicts, the suit claimed.

In 1995, when the Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin, it allowed Purdue Pharma to claim that the opioid’s long-acting formulation was “believed to reduce” its appeal to drug abusers compared with traditional painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin.

At a gathering shortly afterward to celebrate the drug’s launch, Mr. Sackler boasted that “the launch of OxyContin tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white,” according to a document cited in the legal complaint.

Company sales representatives told doctors that OxyContin couldn’t be abused and were trained to say that the drug had an addiction risk for patients of “less than one percent,” a claim that had no scientific backing. Within a few years, Purdue Pharma was selling more than $1 billion worth of OxyContin annually.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Los Angeles: First Charter Strike Ever in California

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2019 //
6

A small number of charter schools have gone on strike in Los Angeles. This is remarkable because charter schools were created to eliminate teachers’ unions. That’s why the Waltons Fund them. That’s why DeVos and the Koch brothers fund them. The remarkable story in the following press release from UTLA is what happened when charter school parents tried to meet with the charter Zceo. Instead of listening to them, he called the police.

MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Anna Bakalis, 213-305-9654
Kim Turner, 213-305-9316

TODAY, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18

Bargaining between UTLA and LAUSD begins at 11 am at City Hall.

• 10:30 am: MAJOR RALLY: “Let the Sunshine In”

Where: Grand Park, in front of City Hall

Musical performances by:
Tom Morello
Aloe Blacc
Maya Jupiter
Marisa Ronstadt

• 3 pm: CHARTER PARENT ACTION

Contact: Ed Gutierrez, 213-595-7949

What: Accelerated parents and students will demand a face-to-face meeting with CEO Johnathan Williams to deliver their petition

Where: The Accelerated School, 4000 S. Main St. Los Angeles 90037

Who: Accelerated parents, students and striking teachers

On Thursday afternoon parents and students of The Accelerated Schools charter network attempted to deliver a petition including hundreds of parent signatures to CEO Johnathan Williams. The petition calls on Williams and the charter schools’ board of trustees to negotiate a fair contract for teachers and to end the bitter strike at the three schools. Parents and students entered the school premises demanding to speak directly with Williams, but rather than meeting to discuss resolving the ongoing work stoppage and its impact on teachers and students, Williams called the police.

Outraged parents are determined to have their voices heard and will be returning this afternoon to again attempt to deliver their petition in support of teachers’ demands. Approximately 80 Accelerated teachers are heading toward the fourth day of their historic strike – the first charter school strike in California’s history.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

A Message from Bernie about UTLA Strike

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
27

Just received. He gets it!

Bernie Sanders
Sisters and Brothers –

There is something happening in Los Angeles that you need to know about and that we all need to do something about.

Today, for the first time in 30 years, more than 30,000 Los Angeles public school teachers are on strike fighting for smaller class sizes and decent wages, for nurses, counselors and librarians in their schools, and against a coordinated effort from billionaires on the right to make money privatizing public education.

Public education is fundamental to any functioning democracy, and teaching is one of its most valuable and indispensable professions.

So how is it that the top 25 hedge fund managers in this country make more money than the combined salaries of every kindergarten teacher?

How is it that the billionaires of this country get huge tax breaks, but our teachers and children get broken chairs, flooded classrooms and inadequate support staff in their schools?

That is what a rigged economy looks like.

In the richest country in the history of the world, our teachers should be the best-paid in the developed world, not among the worst-paid.

So I stand in solidarity with the United Teachers of Los Angeles. Because a nation that does not educate its children properly will fail, and I applaud these teachers for leading this country in the fight to change our national priorities. Today, I am asking you to do the same:

Add Your Name: Tell the striking teachers in Los Angeles that you are following their struggle and stand in solidarity with them. We will make sure your messages of support get to these teachers.

https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/UTLA_strike/?source=em190117-full&t=1&akid=428%2E763065%2EqbbZxA

But what we really need in this country is a revolution in public education.

What we accept as normal today with regards to education, I want your grandchildren to tell you that you were crazy to accept.

And in my view, that conversation starts, but does not end, with early-childhood education.

That is not just my opinion. Research tells us that the “most efficient means to boost the productivity of the workforce 15 to 20 years down the road is to invest in today’s youngest children.”

So it is not a radical idea to say that we need to provide free, full-day, high-quality child care for every child, starting at age three, so that they will be guaranteed a pre-kindergarten education regardless of family income.

That is common sense.

But in the twenty-first century, a public education system that goes from early childhood education through high school is not good enough.

The world is changing, technology is changing, our economy is changing. If we are to succeed in the highly competitive global economy and have the best-educated workforce in the world, I believe that higher education in America should be a right for all, not a privilege for the few.

That means that everyone, regardless of their station in life, should be able to get all of the education they need.

Today in America, hundreds of thousands of bright young people who have the desire and the ability to get a college education will not be able to do so because their families lack the money. This is a tragedy for those young people and their families, but it is also a tragedy for our nation.

Our mission must be to give hope to those young people. If every parent in this country, every teacher in this country, and every student in this country understands that if kids study hard and do well in school they will be able to go to college, regardless of the income of their family, that will have a radical impact on primary and secondary education in the United States—and on the lives of millions of families.

That is what we can accomplish by making public colleges and universities tuition-free, because every American, no matter his or her economic status, should have the opportunity for a higher education. And, at the same time, we must substantially lower student debt.

But getting there will take a political revolution in this country, and a radical change in national priorities.

Instead of giving huge tax breaks to billionaires and profitable corporations, we must create the best public educational system in the country. Instead of major increases in military spending, we must invest in our kids.

And today, the most important step in that direction starts with standing in solidarity with the teachers in Los Angeles.

Add Your Name: Tell the striking teachers in Los Angeles that you are following their struggle and stand in solidarity with them. We will make sure your messages of support get to these teachers.

Through our support for these teachers, we have a chance to reaffirm our support for quality public education and the right of all children to receive the best education possible.

Thank you for standing with them.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

ADD YOUR NAME

Paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders
(not the billionaires)
PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

What I Said at UTLA Rally on January 16 at Alexander Hamilton High School

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
14

This is a video of my brief remarks at the UTLA rally at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles on January 16. Hundreds of teachers, parents, students, and supporters picketed that morning in support of UTLA’s just demands for smaller classes and additional resources for nurses, counselors and other staff. The rally also spoke out against the proliferation of charter schools andprivatization. Teachers and students alike tied the diminishing resources in public schools to the expansion of charters and thepoerful, billionaire-funded California Charter School Association. The day before, on January 15, 50,000 people rallied against charters in front of the CCSA headquarters.

This is my summary of yesterday’s stirring rally. The spirit of the Resistance is strong!

UTLA is making history!

The fight goes on.

The whole world is watching.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Los Angeles, Privatization

Forbes: Choice Zealots Upset by L.A. Teachers Strike, Plan Texas as Their Next Target for Privatization

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
40

To get some insight into the mind of the privatizers, read this article in Forbes.

The author is very unhappy because of the Los Angeles teachers strike, which has called out the billionaires’effort to destroy public education and enjoys overwhelming public support. Besides, he expects that enrollments, including charter enrollments, have maxed out in CA and are likely to decline.

The next target: Texas.

Teams funded by the usual billionaires are moving in to disrupt and privatize public schools in Houston (state takeover), El Paso, San Antonio, Dallas, and elsewhere.in San Antonio, they are abetted by the collaboration of the Castro brothers (alleged Democrats, one of whom is running for the 2020 nomination) and the billionaires. The governor is a hard-right Republican, and the legislature is controlled by Republicans in both houses. Ideal conditions for charter growth. Hard-right Republicans, villainthropists, and neoliberals Democrats.

But, thanks to Beto O’Rourke’s coattails, the zrepunlicans no longer have a super majority in the Senate. And thanks to the determined work of Pastors for Texas Children, vouchers are a dead issue.

So the privatizers are concentrating on districts with a majority of lack and brown children, where they can sing their false siren song about “saving poor kids from failing schools,” while they collect fat six-figure salaries to disrupt and privatize public schools.

My advice to the privatizers: DOMT MESS WITH TEXAS!

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have Become Controversial and Affect Elections

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
6

Shawgi Tell is a professor of education at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York.

In this post, he says that charter schools have become a flash point in elections, and many parents are fighting against them. Charter advocates have tried for years to sell them as “public schools,” but the public is getting wise that they are a form of privatization that harms their public schools.

The intensely controversial nature of nonprofit and for-profit charter schools in the U.S., due in no small part to endless news about the infinite problems plaguing them, is increasingly a major issue in local, state, and federal election campaigns. It is hard to find a political race today where a candidate, especially a school board candidate, is not expected to have some position, hopefully well-worked out, but usually not, on charter schools. Tens of millions of dollars are being spent in some places based almost entirely on whether a candidate supports or opposes charter schools (e.g., California recently). This point is especially critical to appreciate as the tide against charter schools steadily rises. The last thing charter school advocates want is to open the door to disciplined investigation and serious discussion on charter schools. For them, disinformation and propaganda must have the upper hand. Informed, conscious, and oriented people do not serve their agenda.

Currently, more than a dozen individuals are vying for the position of Mayor of Chicago, a powerful position in one of the country’s largest cities, not to mention home to about 125 charter schools and the place from whence education privatizer and former U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, sprung. Elections will be held on February 26, 2019. Incumbent Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is not seeking reelection.

A December 28, 2018 Chicago Sun-Times article titled, “Where 14 candidates for mayor stand on charter schools — their full responses,” exposes the extreme confusion that has traumatized the public and distorted the “great charter school debate” for decades.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

New York City: School Committee Asks for Charter Moratorium

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
11

This letter was sent by the secretary and chair of the charter committee of the Community Education Council of District 15 in Brooklyn.


Dear Community Leaders,

My name is Antonia Ferraro. I am the Secretary and Charter Committee Chair for CEC15 in Brooklyn. I am writing to share some news with you. Community Education Council District 15 in Brooklyn (CEC15) has written a draft of a resolution: Resolution to Oppose an Increase in the State Charter School Cap and City Charter School Subcap. The draft is attached below. CEC15 will have its final public vote on Jan. 29, 2019 at 6:30 pm at PS 131, located at 4305 Fort Hamilton Parkway in Brooklyn. The resolution has been released for a period of public comment.

We hope that you will share this draft with your community and consider writing in support of our resolution.

Attached also is a hearing notice for Success Academy. They are not asking for space at this time, rather the authorization to serve more students. The hearing is this Wednesday, January 16, 2019, at 5:30 pm. Consider voicing your opposition by attending the hearing or writing to the address listed in the hearing notice.

Charter expansion is why our resolution is so crucial. New York City has 39% of the state’s students and houses 71% of the state’s Charter schools. Given this imbalance, the prospect of a Charter School Subcap increase, requires us to ask—What is the vision for New York City public schools? Any amendment to the law that enables further Charter growth without an evaluation of impact, is an unmistakable signal that Charter schools are not merely a vehicle for educational alternatives and threaten to put New York City public schools out of business. Therefore, we ask Albany to impose a Five-Year New York City Charter Moratorium and perform an evaluation of our existing dual education system because education policy should create systems that work together to make progress for all New York children—not systems designed wherein one undermines the other.

I want to emphasize that this is not an anti-Charter school resolution. We realize there are different opinions on the Charter school issue across the 5 boroughs. However, given the numbers, a Charter Cap and/or Subcap increase should be something our city’s parents and educators oppose with a unified voice. The legislative session is upon us and parent leaders can’t miss this opportunity to press pause on Charter expansion at the source—Albany.

Thank you and don’t hesitate to reach to me with questions. Also, please consider supporting CEC15 by attending our Jan. 29th meeting.

Sincerely,

Antonia Ferraro
CEC15 Secretary and Charter Committee Chair
antoniacec15@gmail.com

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, New York City, Privatization

Rachel M. Cohen: The Teachers in L.A. Are Striking Against Privatization, Where are the Charter Democrats?

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2019 //
75

Rachel M. Cohen, writing in The Intercept, understands what’s new about the L.A. strike. The teachers are fighting for their students and smaller class sizes, but they are loudly and clearly doing somthing else: They are fighting against charter schools. They are fighting against the pro-charter policies of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Arne Duncan. They are fighting against the pro-charter policies of Jerry Brown, Andrew Cuomo, Corey Booker, and rising Congressional star Hakeem Jeffries.

Cohen writes:

“The centrality of opposition to charter school growth in the LA protests has put many Democrats in an uncomfortable position. The Democratic Party has long straddled an awkward political balancing act between the charter school and labor movements, which both fund Democratic candidates but war with each other. Today, with people across the country focused on the LA teachers, most Democratic lawmakers have stayed silent, and even those who have weighed in have mostly avoided commenting on the union’s opposition to charter school growth….

“The Intercept reached out to all 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus to ask if they wanted to weigh in on the LA teachers strike and the demands that teachers are striking over. All Democratic senators were also asked to clarify their general views on charter school growth.

“Only seven of them responded.

“A spokesperson for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., referred The Intercept to a tweet Harris posted on Monday in support of the striking teachers, and said the senator is “particularly concerned with expansions of for-profit charter schools and believes all charter schools need transparency and accountability.” In September, California legislators passed a ban on for-profit charters in the state….

“Martina McLennan, a spokesperson for Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., responded with a statement that did not directly address the LA strike:…

“Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s statement also did not directly address the strike. “I support the rights of all workers to join together and fight for better working conditions,” he said. “But it’s shameful that American teachers have to fight so hard just to get the basic supports they need to serve their students. We need to do better as a country investing in public education and public school teachers.”

“Saloni Sharma, a spokesperson for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., referred The Intercept to a tweet Warren posted on Monday in support of the striking teachers. She also added that the senator believes rapid charter school expansion can pose a threat to the financial health of traditional public schools, which is why Warren opposed a ballot measure in 2016 that would have allowed up to 12 new charters to open in Massachusetts per year. “While she generally shares the concerns voiced by LA teachers on this and other issues, she can’t really speak to the charters’ specific impact on LA schools — the LA teachers are the best experts on that,” Sharma said. “We should listen to them.”…

“Ryan King, a spokesperson for Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, said his boss “believes that teachers in Nevada, and across the country, should be treated with dignity and paid a living wage for the work they do in educating our kids. The senator believes that Congress must do all it can to support quality public education in America and ensure our nation’s teachers have the resources and support they need to educate students.”

“Only two other people responded. Jonathan Kott, a spokesperson for Joe Manchin of West Virginia, declined to comment, saying “we are not weighing in on a local issue in California” and that the senator’s “record on charter schools is well-documented.” (Manchin, who voted against Betsy DeVos’s nomination for education secretary, specifically cited her support for charters and private school vouchers as reasons.) Keith Chu, a spokesperson for Ron Wyden of Oregon, also declined to comment.

“Sanders did not respond to a query about his position on charter schools, but he, Warren, and Brown remain the only likely 2020 presidential hopefuls in the Senate who’ve had anything to say about the strike at all. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Cory Booker of New Jersey did not respond to our questions, nor have they publicly commented. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has also stayed notably silent on the teachers strike happening in her own state.”

Feinstein’s silence is odd. She was just re-elected,and she is very wealthy. She doesn’t need the billionaire’s money, she will never stand for election again. Maybe Eli Broad is a close friend?

Unlike the elected Democrats, the UTLA has drawn the connection between the billionaires and the attack on public school, unions, and teachers.

California, a blue state, has more charter schools in the nation. Ninety percent of charters are non-union. One of the reasons that rightwingers love charters is that they are non-union.

UTLA is making a point: Real Democrats support public schools, not privately managed charters.

Real Democrats are not allied with the Waltons, the Koch brothers, and Betsy DeVos.

Every Democratic candidate for 2020 should declare now whether they support the UTLA; whether they support public schools or charter schools; whether they support teachers’ right to bargain collectively.

A tweet is not enough. Hop on a plane and get to Los Angeles and stand with the teachers if you are a real Democrat.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization, Supporting public schools
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