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Jan Resseger: The Racist, Disruptive Legacy of Arne and Rahm in Chicago

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2019 //
15

 

Jan Resseger reviews fifteen years of corporate education reform led by Arne Duncan and Rahm Emanuel and finds failure, disruption, and racism.

It started in 2004 when Arne launched his Renaissance 2010 initiative, pledging to close 100 “failing schools” and replace them, in large part with charter schools. Rahm continued it by closing 49 schools on a single day.

Resseger relies on the brilliant analysis of the school closings by Eve Ewing, where she showed the pain inflicted on black families and communities by the closings.

Corporate school reform in Chicago, while claiming to be neutral and based on data, has always operated with racist implications. Ewing provides the numbers: “Of the students who would be affected by the closures, 88 percent were black; 90 percent of the schools were majority black, and 71 percent had mostly black teachers—a big deal in a country where 84 percent of public school teachers are white.”(Ghosts in the Schoolyard, p. 5).

Resseger then turns to a new study by Stephanie Farmer of Roosevelt University, which found that the city’s school-based budgeting disadvantaged the poorest schools, where black children were concentrated.

A new report from Roosevelt University sociologist, Stephanie Farmer now documents that Student Based Budgeting Concentrates Low Budget Schools in Chicago’s Black Neighborhoods.

Farmer explains: “In 2014, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) adopted a system-wide Student Based Budgeting model for determining individual school budgets… Our findings show that CPS’ putatively color-blind Student Based Budgeting reproduces racial inequality by concentrating low-budget public schools almost exclusively in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods…  Since the 1990s, the Chicago Board of Education (CBOE) has adopted various reforms to make Chicago Public Schools work more like a business than a public good.  CBOE’s school choice reform of the early 2000s created a marketplace of schools by closing neighborhood public schools to make way for new types of schools, many of which were privatized charter schools.”

There is a rumor in Washington that Rahm wants to be Secretary of Education in the next Democratic Administration. Nothing in his record qualifies him for the job. He failed. Arne Duncan failed. The nation is living  with the consequences of their failed ideas, which were inherited from George W. Bush, Rod Paige, Sandy Kreisler, and Margaret Spellings.

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing

Kentucky: New School Rating System is Likely to Identify Schools with High-Poverty Enrollments

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2019 //
10

Kentucky launched its new school rating system, based on federal law requiring states to rate schools and identify the “lowest” 5 percent. 

Instead of letter grades (the Jeb Bush model), Kentucky will award stars.

Is this a distinction without a difference?

Most of the rating will be based on test scores and growth in test scores and graduation rates and other measures.

The experience of other states is that the ratings invariably show that the schools with the highest proportions of poor students get the lowest ratings.

No one should be surprised, since standardized tests are normed on a bell curve and highly correlated with family income.

Schools with affluent kids get high ratings, and schools with poor kids get low ratings.

Will Kentucky be any different?

Doubtful.

This mandate to rate schools based on test scores is baked into the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Its purpose is supposedly informational, but in fact it is used to identify schools to close. Their students are directed elsewhere, or their school becomes a charter, and vast resources are wasted on structural changes that should have been spent reducing class sizes, promoting arts education, paying teachers more, and supporting strategies that help students do better in school and encourage teacher retention.

But we live in a time of stupid mandates. This law should be rewritten before we write off another generation of students.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Kentucky, Testing

Alabama: Reconstituted Charter Commission Grills Proposed Gulen Charter School

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2019 //
8

 

For some reason, the Gulen charter chain thought that it would be a good idea to open a charter in a rural county in Alabama. Residents of Washington County were outraged, and the charter didn’t enroll enough students to open. The state charter commission asked no questions of Soner Tarim, the leader of Woodland Prep, and gave the school a one-year extension.

But as veteran education writer Larry Lee reports, the commission members changed and now Tarim was asked tough questions about his enrollment and finances and demanded evidence, which he could not supply.

The school is being built by American Charter Development out of Springville, Utah.  Their construction manager was at the meeting.  When Henry Nelson wanted to know why so little progress had been made on the building, this guy told him that it rains a lot in Alabama and that was slowing them down.

Everyone in the room guffawed knowing that Alabama is suffering its worst drought in decades.

(State representative Brett  Easterbrook of Washington County attended the meeting and said to me afterwards, “If you can’t tell the truth about where you live and the weather, how can you believe anything these folks says?” )

Categories Accountability, Alabama, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Gulen Charter Schools, Privatization

Tom Ultican: The Failure of Privatization in New Orleans

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2019 //
14

 

New Orleans is supposed to be the lodestar of the Corporate Reform Movement (or as I call it, the Disruption Movement), but the experiment in privatization is a costly failure, as Tom Ultican demonstrates in this post.

The old, underfunded school system was corrupt and inefficient. The new one is expensive, inefficient, and ethically corrupt because of its incessant boasting about what are actually very poor results.

Comparisons between the old and new “systems” are dubious at best because Hurricane Katrina dramatically reduced the enrollment from 62,000 to 48,000. As Bruce Baker pointed out in reviewing a recent puff study, concentrated poverty was significantly reduced by the exodus of some of the city’s poorest residents, who resettled elsewhere.

Ultican cites Andrea Gabor’s studies of the New Orleans schools to show that the lingering heritage of segregation and disenfranchisement has been preserved in the new all-charter system. The schools that enroll the most white students have selective admissions and high test scores. The majority of schools are highly segregated and have very low test scores.

Be sure to open this link and scroll down to “Individual School Performance,” where you will see that the majority of charter schools in BOLA perform well below the state average.

Do not look to New Orleans for lessons about school reform. But do admire it as a shining example of propaganda and spin paid for by Bill Gates and other billionaires who don’t like public education, democracy, or local school boards.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Education Industry, Failure, New Orleans, Privatization, Students, Teach for America

Tennessee: Gov. Lee Packs State Charter Commission with Charter Zealots

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2019 //
9

 

Governor Bill Lee Hayes public schools, even though most children in Tennessee attend them.

He packed the new State Charter School Commission with people who love to hand public money to private corporations to operate schools that choose their students and operate without accountability.

Tennessee is opening the state treasury to out-of-state corporations, entrepreneurs, and grifters. Come get taxpayer dollars to open schools and drain money from the public schools!

Here are the members chosen by the Governor.

The commission consists of CEOs, politicians, charter school board members. 
 
  • Tom Griscom, of Hamilton County, a former director of White House communications under President Ronald Reagan, long-time aide to the late U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, and former executive editor and publisher of the Times Free Press in Chattanooga
  • David Hanson, of Davidson County, is managing partner of Hillgreen, a private investment firm, and serves on the board for Teach for America and Nashville-based charter network Valor Collegiate Academies. 
  • Alan Levine, of Washington County in East Tennessee, CEO of Ballad Health and a one-time adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
  • Terence Patterson, of Shelby County, is the CEO of the Memphis Education Fundand former head of the Downtown Memphis Commission. He was also the chief of staff for Chicago Public Schools, later becoming the director of the Office of New Schools in Chicago, where he managed 113 new charter schools.
  • Mary Pierce, of Davidson County, was a leading charter school advocate during her one term as a school board member with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.
  • Christine Richards, of Shelby County, a former general counsel for FedEx
  • Derwin Sisnett, of Shelby County, co-founded Gestalt Community Schools, a Memphis-based charter school network. He is the founder and managing partner of Maslow Development Inc., a nonprofit organization that develops communities around high performing schools.
  • Eddie Smith of Knox County, is a Republican who served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 2014 until 2018, when he was ousted by Democrat Gloria Johnson.
  • Wendy Tucker, of Williamson County, is an attorney and adjunct professor at Vanderbilt School of Law. A member of the state Board of Education since 2014, she has been an advocate of children with special needs.

Maybe one or two people who care about kids slipped through. The majority can be counted on to undermine public schools for the benefit of privatizers from out of state.

Shame on Governor Bill Lee.

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

New York City Joins Forces with Corporate Reformers

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2019 //
41

 

Mayor Bill DeBlasio joined in partnership with Laurene Powell Jobs’ XQ Institute and the hedge-funders’ Robin Hood Foundation to create new schools and transform existing schools. The corporate reformers are not offering much money—only $15 million (crumbs from the billionaires’ table)—but they are getting the Mayor to admit that amateur “reformers” know more than the city’s professional educators. You might say that this deal is a vote of no-confidence in Chancellor Richard Carranza.

Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, has been consistently critical of the DeBlasio administration for ignoring the importance of Class size reduction. She is also critical of this alliance. On the NYC Parents blog, she wrote:

Robin Hood is spending “up to $5M” to create up to “10 New Imagine schools” – and will be involved in the selection process — which means the DOE is giving up authority over the design of these schools to the assorted #corpreformers there for as little as $500K each. #XQ is funding $10M for “up to 10 HS” either new or redesigned schools.

Thus the DOE must be putting in $17M more – to create or “transform” 35 additional schools, as the application specifies that “20 of the 40 schools selected will be existing schools to redesign, and 20 will be new schools.”

In other words, she says, NYC is “a cheap date.”

De Blasio Administration Announces Community-Centered Public-Private Challenge to Open 20 New Schools and Transform 20 Existing Schools Across 5 Boroughs

October 3, 2019

$32 million public-private partnership with initial support from XQ Institute and Robin Hood will transform learning at 40 schools

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza today announced the Imagine Schools NYC Challenge, a public-private partnership to create 20 new schools and transform 20 existing schools across New York City into schools of the future. The XQ Institute will support plans for both new and existing high schools, while Robin Hood will support new schools across all grade levels. Launching with an initial investment of $32 million in public and private funds, Imagine Schools NYC will be a model for community-driven school innovation within the City’s Equity and Excellence for All agenda.

“This is a big endorsement of public education in New York City. With this support, we’re going to help educators, students and communities come together to design new schools and re-design existing ones that will challenge our kids and increase academic rigor. I want to see great schools in every neighborhood,” said Mayor de Blasio.

“We are successful when we do things with communities, not to communities or for communities. We are changing the paradigm with Imagine Schools NYC – coming together with educators, students, families, and community partners to design radically different schools from the ground up, and to redesign existing schools to meet the demands of the future. Additionally, this first-of-its-kind public-private partnership will impact not only the 40 “Imagine” and “Reimagine” Schools, but also inform our work to innovate and advance equity and academic excellence across all 1,800 of New York City’s public schools. We’re ready to go, and we know New Yorkers are ready to answer the call,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza.

“Community-driven design teams will build upon the strengths New York City is known for—best-in-class leaders, teachers, and programs,” said Russlynn Ali, Co-Founder and CEO of XQ. “The City’s deep commitment to community agency gives school teams the tools, permission, and flexibility to think and act boldly so all students get what they need—and ensure those visions are sustained. That is why we are so excited to partner in this effort to harness the power of community to transform City high schools into engines of excellence and equity.”

“We are eager to work with the City and Department of Education to launch new schools with new visionary leaders at the helm who are well-poised to serve the children in our most under-resourced communities, and to expand the sharing of effective practices between charter and district schools,” said Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood. “We know how critical this work is to increasing economic mobility in New York City.”

This initiative will produce at least 20 new (“Imagine”) or transformed (“Reimagine”) high schools, with at least one new high school in each of the five boroughs. The remaining 20 schools will be a mix of elementary and middle schools. All 40 Imagine NYC Schools will serve as models for the system. They will be innovative, academically rigorous, community-driven, inclusive, and intentional in their commitment to serve all students. The 20 new schools will not have selective admissions. The City is committed to developing all 40 Imagine NYC schools and funding their implementation and is actively seeking additional funders to join this exciting initiative. Private funds for this initiative will go through the Fund for Public Schools.

Through the Imagine Schools NYC Challenge, educators, students, families, and community partners will be empowered to co-construct unique proposals for schools of the future. Across the City, design teams will come together to develop proposals for new or existing schools with a focus on Equity and Excellence for All.

Imagine Schools NYC will focus on the transformation of the student learning experience. Examples of the kinds of actions school design teams could propose include: authentic, real world learning (internships, apprenticeships, college courses and visits, projects in the community); innovative themes; college, community and industry partnerships; changes to curriculum to align with interesting, high-skill, high-demand sectors; focus on arts, civic engagement, technology or a STEM subject.

“We know our schools are more successful when parents, educators, students and community are at the table, deciding what their school needs to engage, support and enhance education. We need buy-in from the children and adults in the building as well as the community at large,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

“We have seen it time and again – whether expanding the largest computer science education program in the country, or providing a record number of students with internships and early work experiences – when the private sector partners with our public education system the big winners are students, families and communities,” said Darren Bloch, Director of the Office of Strategic Partnerships. “This partnership with the Fund for Public Schools, the Department of Education and these prolific education funders, will help advance a powerful new model for designing public schools around educational best practices through a community driven approach. We are deeply appreciative to have the XQ Institute and Robin Hood working with us to achieve this ambitious goal.”

“New Yorkers have been clear: they want academically challenging schools, with real world learning opportunities like internships, high tech training, and serious, fun pathways to college, strong careers, and amazing futures. Students and educators have also been clear: they want schools that are diverse, inclusive, and supportive of all students. Today Chancellor Carranza, listening to educators, students and parents, is issuing a call to action to all of New York City: Let’s develop great schools together,” said Karin Goldmark, Deputy Chancellor for School Planning and Development.

XQ Institute

The Department of Education will partner with XQ Institute, a national leader in transformational high school design, on XQ+NYC, the initiative’s work in grades 9-12.

XQ’s school-design process empowers educators, students, and community members to create high schools where all students realize their full potential—schools that are academically challenging, authentically diverse, and aligned to the skills and knowledge young people need to be successful in an ever-changing world.

Based on research and expert practice, the process helps teams engage thoughtfully and creatively with big priorities for high school design and redesign—like listening to the voices of students, getting a diverse cross-section of the community involved, activating teachers and other educators, and looking beyond the day-to-day constraints that often stifle innovative thinking. These schools will manifest key design principles of excellent, equitable high schools: a strong mission and culture; meaningful, engaged learning; caring, trusting relationships; youth voice and choice; community partnerships; and smart use of time, space, and technology.

Dynamic plans for new high schools as well as transformational models for existing schools will emerge from this effort. XQ Institute has committed $10 million to support the implementation of up to 10 high school plans, with the goal of joining XQ’s national cohort of community-developed schools – models for driving equity, excellence, and innovation.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood, New York City’s largest poverty fighting nonprofit, is partnering with the Department of Education in two ways: First, Robin Hood will commit up to $5 million to support the creation of up to10 new Imagine Schools dedicated to serving the most historically under-resourced students in New York City. Robin Hood will partner with the Department of Education on a rigorous selection process resulting in school designs with the greatest promise of eliminating opportunity gaps for underserved students.

Second, Robin Hood will support both current and new district school leaders in driving transformational change through a $1 million expansion of the DOE’s District-Charter Partnership work centered on proven, effective professional development.

Student and Community Centered Design Process

Starting immediately, and continuing over the next three years, design teams have the opportunity to apply to become Imagine Schools.

Design teams, some of which have already begun forming across the City, will work together to submit initial concept proposals starting in October 2019. Selected teams will advance to additional application rounds in Winter and Spring 2020, with the first round of Imagine and Reimagine school designs announced in May 2020.

The application is available online, and the DOE has a robust outreach strategy to ensure all communities are aware of and apply to participate in this opportunity. So far, through the spring and summer, the DOE has invited principals to attend design day sessions. Department representatives have attended community events and distributed flyers in neighborhoods across the City to raise awareness. The DOE will use its social media, website, parent and family email lists, and parent leadership bodies to encourage teams to participate in the coming weeks.

“It is always a good day when there’s investments made in public schools. Imagine Schools NYC is a community driven initiative addressing many, many needs and is a game changer for students. Educators, students, parents and community stakeholders will be able to develop innovative school models that will provide real-world educational experiences for our students,” said Council Member Mark Treyger, Chair of the Committee on Education. “It’s time to build curricula around the diverse strengths of students and in alignment with 21st century opportunities and needs. I look forward to touring an Imagine School in the near future.”

“This is a bold and forward-thinking initiative where students and communities are called to interact and design their own schools and educational futures. Excellence will emerge when all voices are at the table. As dedicated agents of design learning, design thinking, and implementing, we anticipate the powerful school environments that will come from partnering with designers and creative educators.  Thank you for bringing design practice to its best purpose and position—to this invitation to all New Yorkers to participate in building the platform for creating extraordinary schools.” saidFrances Bronet, President, Pratt Institute.

“Simply stated, re-imagining schools that lift student voice, promote intellectual curiosity, embrace community partnerships, and position students to succeed in the 21st century marketplace, are all key ingredients for success.” said NeQuan C. McLean, President CEC 16.

“We are excited by the limitless possibilities of the Imagine Schools NYC initiative. Highlighting voices of students, families and the community alongside educators to expand our understanding of schools outside of a physical building. This opportunity to envision schools that challenge and radically change what education can be – prioritizing knowledge and embedding schools as the heart of the community. We are all in!” said Sheree Gibson, Co-Chair, Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council (CPAC).

“We believe that Imagine Schools has the power to create meaningful learning experiences that extend beyond the traditional classroom walls whereby students own and direct their own learning,” said Fiorella Cabrejos, principal of Fordham Leadership Academy.

“What our system needs isn’t just new schools—it’s schools that listen to all the voices that are part of the system – the students, parents, teachers, and surrounding communities – and create radical change in response. The Imagine Schools NYC initiative has created a path for this kind of innovation in school design, encouraging opportunities for school design teams to engage with their communities. It’s amazing to see how excited people get to share their ideas about school design. The Imagine Schools NYC initiative is what our city- and our school system overall – needs,” said Meredith Hill, Assistant Principal of Columbia Secondary School.

“The Imagine Schools initiative brought students like me to the table, empowering us to own our education and create a better one for future generations. Student voice is critical to changing the way we learn, and I’m honored to have been a part of this much needed, innovative partnership,” said Makai Bryan, a 12th-grade student in Manhattan.

More information on the process is available at https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/initiatives/imagine-schools-nyc.

pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov(212) 788-2958
Categories Accountability, Bill de Blasio, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York City

California: A Charter Chain So Awful That the Charter Lobby Expelled It

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2019 //
3

Inspire Charter Schools does not inspire confidence in its academics, its finances, or its integrity. Inspire makes money by getting state money to underwrite home schooling, with state-subsidized field trips and lots of folderol.

Things got so bad that the Inspire chain was kicked out by the California Charter Schools Association, the powerhouse lobbyists for the charter industry. There is just so much embarrassment that the CCSA can tolerate and this is one of those rare occasions. In the past, CCSA has defended criminal charter operators, but drew the line at Inspire and called for an independent audit of its financials.

The California Charter Schools Association has expelled the Inspire home charter school network from its membership and is now calling for a third-party investigation, citing concerns about the network’s operational and governance practices.

At the same time, a group of county superintendents from across the state has asked a state agency to audit Inspire, though the scope of that audit request and the list of superintendents requesting it have not yet been finalized.

Meanwhile, a tiny California school district said it believes an Inspire school it oversees has been violating state law. The district, Winship-Robbins Elementary, said it may shut down the school if it fails to address several concerns that the district has about its finances, academics and organizational practices.

The California Charter Schools Association announced in a statement posted Tuesday on its website that the association and its Member Council have decided to revoke Inspire’s membership. They made that decision based on a review of Inspire that the association had launched in October after hearing concerns from other charter schools….

An investigation by The San Diego Union-Tribune in August found that Inspire has grown rapidly in recent years in numbers of schools and students while relying on heavy loan borrowing, consistently posting below-average academic performance and engaging in what several say are questionable organizational practices.

Inspire allots $2,600 or more of public school funds to each student annually to spend on a list of thousands of vendors who sell field trips, academic and extracurricular classes, curriculum and more, including items such as horseback riding lessons and ski passes.

Public scrutiny of Inspire grew after 11 people were criminally indicted in May in relation to another statewide charter network called A3. San Diego County prosecutors accused A3 executives of manipulating enrollment numbers and using charter schools to funnel more than $50 million into their own pockets.

Among other “unethical” practices, Inspire was poaching students from other charter schools with promises of free tickets to Disneyland!

Another critic is Terri Schiavone, the Founder and Director of Golden Valley Charter School in Ventura. Schiavone says her school is one of many that are losing students to Inspire Charter.

“They target a school and then they try to get as many of their teachers and students as possible,” Schiavone said.

Schiavone said families and teachers are enticed by incentives like using instructional funds to buy tickets to Disneyland and other theme parks. Schiavone says there is a lack of oversight and accountability.

No one is making sure teachers are checking up on students’ work, and Schiavone says parents can buy whatever they want from vendors who she says are not fingerprinted or even qualified.

“It’s very desirable for some parents to enroll in schools in which nobody’s looking over their shoulder,” said Schiavone. “They can utilize whatever curriculum they want, including religious curriculum, which is illegal if using public dollars.”

Inspire found parents to defend the glory of home-schooling with public subsidy.

A few days ago, Inspire announced that its CEO and founder was taking a leave of absence. 

 

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Home Schooling, Privatization

Louisiana: Vote for Pro-Public School Candidates on October 12

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2019 //
4

Louisiana will hold elections for its state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on October 12. This year, as in the past, out-of-State billionaires are spending heavily to keep control of the state board to promote privatization policies. During the tenure of State Superintendent John White, a former deputy to Joel Klein in New York, the state’s ranking on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Is near the absolute bottom in both mathematics and reading, in both 4th and 8th grades. New Orleans has gone all-Charter and its score are in the bottom third of the state’s districts while its schools are highly segregated and stratified. This much is clear: Disruption has won control of the state board but done nothing to improve education.

BESE recommendations from veteran educator Michael Deshotels –
 
Dear Friend of Public Education:
 
With just a few days left before the election of a new BESE, you can help restore sanity and independence to our State Board of Education.
 
Out of state donors are making huge contributions to elect candidates that LABI  and John White will totally control. You will surely see their ads in your mailbox and on radio and television. Do not be deceived! These are not friends of public education. They will be committed to John White,  school privatization, obsessive testing, crushing test prep., etc.  But the results of these so called reforms have been terrible using the very measures they (the reformers) think are so important; Our ranking on NAEP is the worst ever! Why would we want to continue failed policies? Just so that LABI never has to admit that they were wrong, that they know noting about education, and that our students are suffering instead of thriving because of their takeover of education?  See this latest post on my blog. http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com
 
Here is my abbreviated voting guide listing independent minded, solid public education advocates. Please do your best to get them elected!
 
District 1: including St. Tammany and Jefferson. I recommend Lee Barrios
 
District 2: including Orleans, St. Charles, St. John, St. James and part of Assumption: I recommend Dr. Ashonta Wyatt
 
District 3: including St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Mary, Iberia, St. Martin, part of Iberville and part of St. Landry: I recommend Janice Perea.
 
District 5: including Northeast LA and down to Rapides and Evangeline Parishes. I recommend Dr. Stephen Chapman
 
District 6: including EBR, Livingston, Ascension, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes. I recommend Gregory Spiers
 
District 7: including Southwest LA. I recommend Timmie Melancoin
 
District 8: including part of EBR, East and West Feliciana, St. Helena, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Avoyelles, part of St. Landry part of St. Martin, and part of Assumption. I recommend Vereta Lee.
Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Louisiana, New Orleans, Privatization, Vouchers

Bill Phillis: Beware Privatizers Running for Local School Boards!

By dianeravitch
October 3, 2019 //
16

 

Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, warns that privatizers run for local school boards, as they have in Atlanta and other cities. Teach for America has a special outfit called “Leadership for Educational Equity,” which trains its recruits to go into politics and helps to fund their campaigns.

Bill Phillis writes:

Anti-public school advocates run for seats on boards of education to attempt to completely privatize districts

Privatization of the public common schools takes many forms:
·        Charter schools
·        Vouchers
·        Tuition tax credits
·        Education savings accounts
·        Portfolio districts
·        State takeover that can eventually result in turning the district over to private operators
 
The most ruinous privatization tactic is for privatizers to take control of boards of education
 
Michelle Dillingham, with the Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition, reports that some “fierce” school choice candidates are running for board of education seats in Cincinnati. The Justice Coalition has published a list of “qualities” that voters should look for when choosing a candidate. Topping the list of “qualities” is “a deep commitment to public education.” Public education is the adhesive that has held the American social order together. The education privatization craze has contributed to the fragmentation of our social order.
Phillis links to an article that explains what is happening in Cincinnati, where a TFA alum is running for the school board.
The article by Michelle DillIngham begins:

This November, voters in the Cincinnati Public School District will elect four members to the seven-member Board of Education. One contender, Ben Lindy, the founder and director of the Southwest Ohio Teach for America, has drawn significant controversy among supporters of public schools.

In his recent guest column, “Be proud of schools’ progress, but don’t settle,” (Aug. 31), Lindy’s repeated his use of the term “equity” and a “quality education for every child” are hard to swallow. The controversy surrounding Lindy comes as no surprise to those who follow the influence of Teachers for America and their agenda on public school districts.

TFA is a multi-million-dollar national organization whose main operation is to place non-education major college grads into temporary two-year teaching assignments in urban classrooms with less than two months of preparation. After their two years, the majority of TFA candidates abandon teaching and move on to other fields.

It is not hard to see why professional educators, who have invested in and achieved significant graduate and undergraduate education training, oppose this business strategy for staffing classrooms.

In the last several years, TFA has extracted over $600,000 in “finder’s fees” from our school district. Yet, a majority of TFA recruits do not stay with Cincinnati Public Schools after their two-year contract ends. TFA operates like a temp agency, paying a $5,000 “bounty” per recruit for a two-year commitment. It would make more sense to spend recruitment monies with higher education partners who can refer actual education majors.

School districts in other states have already figured out TFA is not a good return on their investment. Districts in Texas, South Carolina, California and Pennsylvania have all recently ended their contracts with TFA.

The TFA lobby has successfully diverted millions of taxpayer dollars, meant to educate the children of Ohio, to their company. Lindy was not successful in his run for state representative in 2016, but he was able to extract millions of public education tax dollars from the state legislature for TFA.

In April 2019, his joint testimony before the Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Finance Committee helped secure another $4 million in the upcoming biennial budget for “support for ongoing development and impact of Teach for America alumni working in Ohio.” I guess he thinks TFA recruits who only spend two years in our urban classrooms now deserve another $4 million for their alumni’s “development.”

TFA is funded by billionaire elites, including the Bill Gates, Eli Broad and Walton Family Foundations. This helps explain Lindy’s confidence that he will be able to raise $250,000 to campaign for a seat whose pay is capped at $5,000 per year. It is well documented that TFA’s most influential alumni are proponents of school district takeovers, high stakes student testing, for-profit charter schools, and anti-union efforts – the most familiar to readers is likely Michelle Rhee (whom Lindy directly worked for), but there are others.

TFA, she writes, is closely tied to the Trump-DeVos privatization agenda.
Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Teach for America

D.C.: KIPP’s Sweet Deal in the District of Columbia to Scoop Up Closed Public Schools

By dianeravitch
October 3, 2019 //
6

Parent activist Valerie Jablow is a whistle-blower about charter school abuse in the District of Columbia.

In this post, she describes the sweet deal that KIPP has worked out to its benefit.

It is a “game of insiders,” she writes.

Ferebee-Hope is a perfect example of how the mayor on down is enabled by law and practice to ignore every member of the public regarding the future of DCPS school facilities. In the case of Ferebee-Hope, however, the consequence of that disregard to the poorest ward in the city is dire–and appears to accrue directly to the benefit of one charter (and mayoral benefactor), KIPP.

Destroying Ward 8 Education Rights

Between November 2013 and January 2014, and about 6 months after public comment ended, a clause was inserted in the Comprehensive Planning and Utilization of School Facilities Amendment Act of 2014 that allows the mayor to turn any DCPS school over for a charter at any moment. (Yes, really: see D(ii) of that link to the law.) As DC public school expert Mary Levy has noted, there was no discussion of this clause by council members at the bill’s mark-up. Indeed, until the legislation was approved by the council in April 2014, no one in the public was aware at all of this provision (nor had a chance to object to it before it was approved).

In the case of Ferebee-Hope, it thus appears the mayor is simply exercising her right to turn the facility over for charter RFO without public deliberation.

But the loss of Ferebee-Hope as a school of right has far-reaching ramifications for Ward 8 DCPS schools of right, some of which are projected to be overcapacity in that area in less than a decade. Without Ferebee-Hope, there will be no way to accommodate those students in their schools of right in that area—which means that any student population in that area (currently very high and projected to grow 16% by 2025, per an August 8 community presentation by the deputy mayor for education (DME)) will inevitably benefit whatever charter school locates in Ferebee-Hope…

Charter schools in DC often complain that they struggle for facilities–but some appear a bit more, uh, equal to that struggle than others.

Indeed, this scheme ensures that whatever the public wants, or doesn’t want, with respect to their DCPS facilities can ultimately get reduced to whatever a charter school wants or doesn’t want–depending on how well-informed that charter school is, of course. Though we may never know the insider’s game here fully, certainly DCPS deputy chancellor Melissa Kim knows well KIPP’s ambitions, having worked for the charter before directly coming to DCPS as a central office administrator–and after showing no hesitation about the possibility of future DCPS closures.

Public facilities are simply closed and handed over without public involvement to private corporations. Anything wrong with that? Yes, everything. It is a theft of public property to give it away to a private charter corporate chain.

Categories Accountability, District of Columbia, Education Industry, KIPP Charter Schools, Privatization
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