Archives for category: Charter Schools
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Leonie Haimson: Is Colorado’s Rebuke to DFER a Turning Point in the Battle Against Privatization?

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
15

 

Leonie Haimson writes here about the stunning rebuke administered by the Colorado Democratic Party to “Democrats for Education Reform” last Saturday. 

It is hard to overstate the commanding position of DFER in that state. Senator Michael Bennett is DFER-approved. So are two of the leading Democrats running for Governor. DFER’s Dark Money has captured the Denver school board.

Until now, no one has stood up to them. No one could match their cash.

Will DFER survive this denunciation? Of course. But their stamp of approval might turn into a stigma for real Democrats. Real Democrats do not support the DeVos privatization agenda. Real Democrats support public schools u dear democratic control.

Leonie writes:

”Let’s hope that the Colorado vote is a turning point, and that it is no longer politically or ethically acceptable for progressive Democrats to act like Republicans when it comes to education policy.”

Wouldn’t that be great?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Colorado, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, DFER, Education Industry, Privatization

Puerto Rico: President of the Teachers Association Denounces Privatization of Island’s Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
12

Mensaje: Aida Díaz, president of the Teachers Association of Puerto Rico (AFT), spoke on television and denounced the privatization of the Island’s public schools.

 

Good afternoon and thank you for allowing me to enter your homes.

• For decades, the public education system, its students and teachers, have had to fight hard battles to advance the right to an education of excellence,

• The rights acquired by teachers have been threatened by the administrations on duty. The Association of Teachers has successfully confronted them in the courts, administrative forums and the Legislature.

• All administrations have attempted against public education and its teachers, but never, never, have we witnessed an effort to dismantle our education system as Governor Rossello and Secretary Keleher intend to do. We had never seen such a clear intention to run over our teachers and students.

• First the Governor and his Secretary told us that they had to close schools and closed 167.

• Then, they awarded operators with 100 charter schools and educational vouchers, opening the door to fraud.

• And I wonder … and I know that you too, to benefit whom? To the teachers and the students, or is it to advance the interests of the Fiscal Control Board and the vulture funds?

• Governor Rosselló and Keleher now want to close 283 schools. If we allow it, they mean 450 schools closed in less than a year. 35% of schools.

• There are 450 affected communities, over 8,000 displaced teachers and thousands of families and students whose lives were interrupted without foundation. To the tragala!

• Has anyone thought about the effect that these closures are going to cause the small businesses that depend on our schools, the corner shop or the lady who sells “limbers” to keep her house?

• Has anyone thought of those teachers, who with their own money bought materials because the government does not help?

• Has Secretary Keleher thought of the thousands of students with health conditions whose parents walk to their schools to give their children medicine because there are no nurses?

• If the enrollment of students was reduced by 15%, how is the closure of 35% of the schools justified?

• How does the Governor allow his Secretary to disparage our people, opening a call for outside managers, with a payment of $ 125,000 per year?

• These acts reflect the little respect we have for our people.

• The Governor said he was not going to do more of the same, and he’s right. No one has tried to close down a third of the schools, run over thousands of teachers, displace thousands ofstudents, close Montessori schools because they refused to become charter, and affect thousands of small businesses.

• No Governor has placed public education in the hands of third parties or given a blank check to a Secretary who disparages our people.

• GOVERNOR: ENOUGH!

• Do not criticize the Control Board when your actions are so aggressive towards teachers and our students. We are paying too high a price for the irresponsibility of the Government.

• Paulo Freire, said “teaching demands to know how to listen”.

• Governor, you have an obligation to hear the voices of thousands of teachers, parents, students, small businesses, whose lives will be marked by the closing of 35% of schools. Listen to the mayors.

• Governor, listen.

• The Association, as the exclusive representative of the Magisterium will continue taking firm actions to protect the future of our education system. The voices of children, parents and teachers are silenced by NO ONE

• Therefore, teachers, parents, students and communities, join us to create a human shield to protect our education, next Wednesday, April 25 from 3:30 in the afternoon, at the Capitol. To defend our schools!

• The voice of the people must be heard because the future of our children depends on the present they live.

May God bless and protect Puerto Rico

To see and hear her speak, you can watch the video.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

California: Two Charter-Loving Billionaires Give $8.5 Million to Villaraigosa Campaign

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
16

 

Did you ever imagine that the passion for privatizing public schools would motivate two billionaires to dump a fat gift into Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for governor?

Who else but Reed Hastings and Eli Broad would consider their love for school privatization to be the leading issue in the governor’s race?

“Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pledged $7 million and Los Angeles real estate entrepreneur Eli Broad promised $1.5 million to an independent expenditure organization called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, which is run by the California Charter Schools Association Advocates.

“Antonio Villaraigosa will be a governor for all Californians, keeping the American dream possible in California with good schools, safe neighborhoods, affordable health care, and opportunities for everyone to succeed,” said Gary Borden, executive director of the charter schools group…

”[Gavin] Newsom is leading most polls, while his fellow Democrat Villaraigosa is fighting it out with Republican John Cox, a Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County) businessman, for second place, according to a nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California survey this month. Only the top two finishers in the June 5 primary, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election in November.

“Villaraigosa’s campaign had $5.9 million in the bank at the end of 2017, the most recent campaign finance disclosure period. Newsom had $19.5 million.

“You knew it was going to happen. Here you have entrenched political interests where there are billions of dollars at stake,” said state Treasurer John Chiang, who has been mired deep in the polls behind Newsom, Cox and Villaraigosa.

“Villaraigosa has long been an advocate for charter schools. The education platform on his campaign website says that “poor families also deserve the right to access high-quality schools and publicly chartered schools often provide that access. High-performing public charters playing by the same set of rules as other public schools are laboratories for innovation and creativity.”

“Steve Smith, spokesman for the 2.1 million-member California Labor Federation, which endorsed Newsom, said the cash infusion to the independent expenditure group “shows that the Villaraigosa campaign hasn’t gotten off the ground, so the billionaire charter school guys came to his rescue.”

The Network for Public Education Action Fund has endorsed State Treasurer John Chiang for Governor because of his unequivocal support for public schools. Perhaps the infusion of charter school money for Villaraigosa will help Newsom decide where he stands (he has already been endorsed by the California Teachers Association).

Categories Billionaires, California, Charter Schools

What Cuomo Said about Public Schools and Teachers in His Last Campaign

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2018 //
44

Lest we forget. This is the real Andrew Cuomo. 

I said when he ran for his second term in 2014 that he sounded like Scott Walker.

Vowing to break “one of the only remaining public monopolies,” Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he’ll push for a new round of teacher evaluation standards if re-elected.

Cuomo, during a meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board, said better teachers and competition from charter schools are the best ways to revamp an underachieving and entrenched public education system.

“I believe these kinds of changes are probably the single best thing that I can do as governor that’s going to matter long-term,” he said, “to break what is in essence one of the only remaining public monopolies — and that’s what this is, it’s a public monopoly.”

He said the key is to put “real performance measures with some competition, which is why I like charter schools.”

Cuomo said he will push a plan that includes more incentives — and sanctions — that “make it a more rigorous evaluation system.”

Cuomo expects fierce opposition from the state’s teachers, who are already upset with him and have refused to endorse his re-election bid.

“The teachers don’t want to do the evaluations and they don’t want to do rigorous evaluations — I get it,” Cuomo said. “I feel exactly opposite.”

He backed off because of the success of the Opt Out movement, after 200,000 students chose not to take the state tests.

He formed a commission and tempered his language. But he continues to privilege charter schools, because that’s where the big campaign contributions come from, the ones that have built a war chest for him of $30 million.

Will the unions that he blasted in 2014 support Andrew Cuomo in 2018?

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Teacher Evaluations

Kentucky: No Teachers, No Schools, Walkouts Grow

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
17

 

The teacher walkouts continued and grow larger in Kentucky, where teachers are massing by the thousands in the State Capitol to protest changes to their pensions. The two largest districts in the state are closed.

“School districts across Kentucky will once again shut down as teachers plan to flood the state Capitol on Friday to rally for public-school funding and protest newly signed changes to public pension programs.

“As of Thursday afternoon, at least 36 districts had decided to close Friday, citing teachers calling in sick or the likelihood that they would. The closures include public schools in Louisville and Lexington ― the two largest school districts in the state….

“That frustration began to boil over last year when the Legislature, fully in Republican control for the first time in nearly a century, passed a bill to allow charter schools in the state.

“The issue was the potential “diversion of public money into charters,” said David Allen, a former president of the Kentucky Education Association…

“That laid the groundwork,” Allen said.

”Then, in January, Bevin proposed drastic cuts to schools and public education programs, even though funding was already tight. In inflation-adjusted terms, Kentucky’s K-12 budget was down 16 percent since 2008, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

“Bevin’s proposal prompted dire warnings from school superintendents around the state, who said some cuts would push Kentucky’s poorest school districts to the brink of insolvency….

”Many Kentucky teachers, meanwhile, have come to believe that Bevin’s approach to education isn’t driven by the interests of taxpayers or its public schools. They see it as part of a broader movement, led by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to further privatize education by deliberately undermining public schools.

“It’s a dismantling, step by step by step, of public education,” said Pam Dossett, a teacher in Hopkinsville. “So they can sit back and say, ‘Our public schools, they’re not working.’ And then they can replace them all with charter schools.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Funding, Kentucky, Pensions, Resistance, Teachers

Tom Ultican: The Problem of Fake Teachers, Fake Administrators, Fake Schools

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
20

 

Tom Ultican has been chronicling the doings of the Destroy Public Education Movement, as it tears a path through urban districts across the nation.

In this post, he tackles the DPE invention of new credentials for people who didn’t have time to get real ones.

He begins like this:

”The destroy public education movement (DPE) has given us teach for America (Fake Teachers), Relay Graduate School (Fake Schools) and the Broad Superintendents Academy (Fake administrators). None of these entities are legitimately accredited, yet they are ubiquitous in America’s major urban areas.

“There was a time in the United States of America when scoundrels perpetrating this kind of fraud were jailed and fined. Today, they are not called criminals; they are called philanthropists. As inequitable distribution of wealth increases, democratic principles and humane ideology recede.

“It is time to fight the 21st century robber-barons and cleanse our government of grifters and sycophants.

“Philanthropy in America is undermining the rule of law and democratic rights. Gates, Walton, Broad, DeVos, Bradley, Lily, Kaufman, Hall, Fisher, Arnold, Hastings, Anschutz, Bloomberg, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Dell and the list goes on. They have afflicted us with teach for America (TFA), charter Schools, vouchers, phony graduate schools, bad technology and bogus administrators implementing their agendas.

“Without these “philanthropists” and their dark money schemes none of this would exist. Public schools would be healthy and teen-age suicide rates would be going down; not up. Instead we have mindless testing, harmful technology and teaching on the cheap.

“This “philanthropy” is about profits, reducing tax burdens on the wealthy, imposing religious dogma and subjugation of non-elites. It is harmful to America’s children. The attack on public education was never primarily about benefiting children. It certainly was never based on concern for minority populations.”

Read the rest.

Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

Seattle School Board Hires a New Superintendent

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2018 //
14

 

The Seattle School Board hired Denise Juneau, currently the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, as its new superintendent. Seattle is strongly opposed to privatization, and Juneau share those values. She is a Native American who grew up on a tribal reservation and is strongly committed to equity.

The State of zwashington is currently involved in a protracted legal fight over charter schools. They were rejected by voters three times in state referenda. However in 2012, Bill Gates and other billionaires assembled a large campaign fund for a new referendum, outspent the opposition 17-1, and the referendum passed by 1%. The opponents—the League of Women Voters, the PTAs, the NAACP, The School Boards, and the teachers—sued to stop charters from getting public funding. The State Supreme Court held that charters are not public schools because they do not have elected school boards. Gates and friends started opening charters anyway and used their political influence to persuade the legislature to fund them with lottery money. There are currently 10 charter schools in the state, enrolling 2,500 students, or 1/4 of 1% of the state’s students.

Seattle voted heavily against charters. Green Dot in Los Angeles is apparently planning to open in Seattle.

The battle for public schools continues, with a strong leader in Seattle.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

How Tests May Be Used to Privatize Public Schools, for Fun and Profit

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2018 //
18

 

A blogger who is a middle-school teacher with 30 years of experience writes here about how tests are the entry point for privatization. The privatized schools won’t get better schools but once they get their clutches on public schools, they don’t let go. The rewards of privatization are considerable. The private sector gets to seize the assets and resources of the public sector at no cost. What a deal. Entire communities have been gobbled up and disappeared.

“How can parents and communities end the insanity? Be informed. Click on the links to supporting materials if you want to know more. Go to nysape.org run by and for parents. Have your children opt out. Refuse consequential use of scores… including evaluating your child’s teacher, impacting your child’s access to gifted programs or remediation, your school’s report card. Demand that tests be used diagnostically not as a tool for stack ranking or predatory take over of public institutions. And, like all important things, remember that involvement is the key. The best school is not the creation of an external entity, but the product of the living partnership of a community. Instead of investing in high stakes testing, invest in a relationship with your child’s teachers. Partner with them and with the other stakeholders in the community. Together, we are responsible for the education of our children and for protecting a future in which they can participate fully. Be part of a thriving real community.”

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

Stock Tips for the DeVos For-Profit Education Era

By dianeravitch
April 9, 2018 //
13

 

The business media recognize that Betsy DeVos is changing federal policy to make room for for-profit education, both for K-12 charters and for higher education. She is rolling back regulations intended to curb the excesses of predatory for-profit “colleges,” known for preying on and exploiting veterans, the poor, and unwary students.

So here is a business analysis of the stocks that are soaring with the expectation that the DeVos is great news for educationally unsound for-profit colleges.

The basic story is that DeVos’ Department of Education has made clear that it sides with the predators, not the prey. Students will continue to be cheated. DeVos doesn’t care.

For-profit charters and for-profit virtual charters and for-profit higher education strike me as morally reprehensible. They may make money for investors, but they are educationally bankrupt.

By it’s nature, the for-profit corporation owes its first duty to investors, not students. It must turn a profit or go belly-up. Thus, it must cut costs, and the easiest way to do this is to cut the cost of teachers by hiring inexperienced teachers and giving them large classes. They are also incentivized to seek the easiest to educate students and avoid expensive ones who need extra attention.

Many of the for-profit charters are trying to cut costs by putting kids on computers. They call it “blended learning” or use the oxymoron “personalized learning.” But it is cheap education no matter what you call it.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Fraud, Higher Education

Delaware: Charter Principal Sentenced to Jail for Theft

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2018 //
6

 

The former principal of the Academy of Dover, a charter school in Delaware, was sentenced to prison for embezzling school funds. 

“Noel Rodriguez, the former principal of a Dover charter school, was sentenced to 13 months in prison and ordered to pay $145,480 in restitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews handed down the sentence Friday in Wilmington.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to one count of federal program theft in November.

According to court records and statements made in open court, between 2011 and 2014, while serving as principal of the Academy of Dover, Rodriguez embezzled $145,480 from the school.

The Department of Justice said he made personal expenses to four unauthorized credit cards that he opened in the name of the school, abusing the voucher program, and using the charter-school issued procurement credit card for his own personal purchases.

Rodriguez used the embezzled funds to purchase camping equipment, electronics, personal travel, and home improvement items, among other things.”

He got off with a lighter sentence than the charges he faced.

”In 2016, Rodriguez was indicted on four counts of federal program theft. Each count carried a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, along with fines and restitution, the Department of Justice said at the time.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Delaware, Fraud
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