Gary Rubinstein heard that Teach for America corps members were persuaded not to take part in teachers’ strikes.
But did they stay neutral?
They are scabs if they don’t strike. They risk their Americorps funding if they do.
What do they do?
What do you think?
We will have more commentary on the Denver teacherss’ strike. Here, Fred Klonsky reminds us of the much-ballyhooed, but ultimately failed merit pay called ProComp, that substituted merit pay for adequate salaries.
Don’t pay attention to Democratic Senator Michael Bennett, who claims to favor the teachers but was superintendent of the Denver public schools who launched corporate reform and lost many millions in tricky financial deals while he was in charge. He was anti-union when he was superintendent and is a big supporter of VAM.
Denver teachers are likely to go out on strike, CNN reports, due to absurdly low salaries.
They can’t afford to live in the city where they teach.
A city and state that refuses to pay a decent middle-class wage to its teachers doesn’t care about its children or its future.
Of course, Denver is the city that Corporate Reformers admire because it has adopted the “portfolio model” of charters intermingled with public schools, instead of paying its teachers appropriately.
CNN reports:
For 14 months, teachers in Denver have been negotiating with Denver Public Schools for more pay. On Saturday, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association said talks had broken off and they’ll walk on Monday.
Denver teachers voted to strike, but it is not clear when or if it might begin.
The leadership is preparing for a strike, Mercedes Schneider points out, by informing central office staff that they are expected to act as scabs in the event of a strike.
Administrators enjoy bonuses as teachers mull strike.
Denver is spending more than $3.2 million for bonuses given to administrators at various levels, according to documents released by the district. That is an average $16,645 per administrator and a maximum of $37,000. Every administrator, 197 total, merited a bonus, with a minimum bump of $10,000 (among the administrators whose data was made public).
Those same administrators earn nearly $20 million in yearly salary for the district, an average wage of over $100,000 a year. Nearly half a million of the bonuses go to administrators with no school or student responsibilities.
The revelations come on the heels of an analysis showing DPS has one administrator for every seven and a half teachers, more than twice as many as comparable area districts.
The Teacher Revolt continues!
Fred Klonsky reports here that 93% of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association voted to strike.
Denver has been the epicenter of merit pay since 2005. It has confused and demoralized teachers.
The city school board is completely dominated and bought by reformers, who hold every seat, thanks to out-of-state money. The board has jumped on the portfolio model, closing public schools and opening charter schools. Typically the charters and other alternatives are non-union. Betsy DeVos has praised the Denver model, and hopes it will one day add vouchers.
Read Tom Ultican’s appraisal of the failure of Denver’s portfolio district.
Be it noted that Colorado just elected a Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who started two charter schools, and strongly supports school choice, not public schools.
Reformers are desperate for good news. Everything they have tried hasflopped. Their exemplary district, New Orleans, is highly stratified. Forty percent of its charter schools are rated Dor Fby the state, and they are overwhelmingly segregated black. The New Orleans scores on state test are below the state average. This, in a state whose NAEP scores are rock-bottom. On NAEP, the only jurisdiction that Louisiana is better than is Puerto Rico.
But Reformer Propaganda neverrests. Their latest miracle district is Denver. Retired physics/AP Math Teacher Tom Ultican took a look at Denver’s celebrated portfolio model, and concludes that it is a hoax, a failure.
He begins:
Here is a predictable outcome from the portfolio district. On Jan. 18, 2019, a press release from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) says,
“After ten hours of negotiations today, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools were unable to reach an agreement on a fair compensation system for 5,700 teachers and special service providers. DCTA members will vote Saturday and Tuesday on whether or not to strike.”
The portfolio model which promotes disruption as a virtue is anti-union. It is not conducive to stable harmonious relations with either labor or communities and it is anti-democratic. Denver is held up as an exemplar of school reform; however the outcomes look more like a warning. Increasing achievement gaps; a bloating administration; significantly increasing segregation; ending stable community schools; and stripping citizens of their democratic rights are among the many jarring results.
In this post, Jeanne Kaplan tells the 15-year story of “reform” in Denver, which has recently been lauded by Betsy Devos and the Learning Policy Institute at Stanford University as a stellar example of school choice.
She describes how the board was persuaded to choose an insider when Michael Bennett stepped aside to join the U.S. Senate, in order to cover up a shady financial transaction. Kaplan was a member of the school board at the time that Tom Boasberg replaced Michael Bennett.
Now, she says, the board has only one candidate–an insider–to keep the shell game of choice going without asking questions about outcomes for students.
Superintendent Tom Boasberg is stepping down in Denver. He continued the Corporate Reform policies of his predecessor Michael Bennett, that is, a strong reliance on high-stakes testing and charter schools. Betsy DeVos praised Denver’s choice policies but criticized it for not having vouchers as a choice.
Denver has seen rising test scores and graduation rates but continues to have one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation among urban districts. Corporate Reform has yet to prove that it can accomplish miracles for the neediest children.
Denver is one of the cities where Reformers like Stand for Children and DFER have spent heavily to assure continued control of the local school board.
Democrats for Education Reform is an organization founded, funded, and led by hedge fund managers who support charter schools and high-stakes testing. They raise money to elect likeminded people across the country and are a key part of the Dark Money world of fundraisers for privatization of public schools.
On Saturday, the Colorado Democratic Party passed a strong resolution opposing privatization of public schools and demanding that DFER stop calling themselves “Democrats.”
Here is the story of the state Democratic convention, as reported in Chalkbest.
Colorado has been fertile ground for corporate reform, and DFER has been a source of funding for candidates for the state board, the Denver board, and other critical races. Senator Michael Bennett, once a superintendent of the Denver public schools, is a DFER favorite. So are two current candidates for governor, Jared Polis (who is so rich he doesn’t need DFER money) and former TFA State Senator Michael Johnston, who drafted the state’s harsh and ineffective teacher evaluation law.
“Vanessa Quintana, a political activist who was the formal sponsor of the minority report, was a student at Denver’s Manual High School when it was closed in 2006, a decision that Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, then Denver’s superintendent, defended at an education panel Friday.
“She said that before she finally graduated from high school, she had been through two school closures and a major school restructuring and dropped out of school twice. Three of her siblings never graduated, and she blames the instability of repeated school changes.
“When DFER claims they empower and uplift the voices of communities, DFER really means they silence the voices of displaced students like myself by uprooting community through school closure,” she told the delegates. “When Manual shut down my freshman year, it told me education reformers didn’t find me worthy of a school.”
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