Archives for category: Education Industry
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Michael Feuer: Advice to Secretary DeVos on How to Save Her Tenure in Office

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2018 //
30

 

Michael Feuer, dean of the graduate school of education at George Washington University, offers Betsy DeVos tips on how to make her time in office tolerable and perhaps useful. 

This is his first suggestion.

“The most important goal of the agency is to help improve public schools.

“Americans have voted with their feet: Even after 50 years of debate, advocacy, and research into mechanisms designed to privatize education, roughly 90 percent of our kids still attend traditional public schools. The secretary’s prior efforts notwithstanding, vouchers have not been taken up by large shares of the public, where they have been tried the results have been mixed at best and the American public and the high court remain uncomfortable with use of public funds to support religious education.

”Given her need to set priorities she should focus on bettering public schools — a central institution in all our communities.”

He has five other ideas for her.

Given her long history of advocacy for privatization, it doesn’t seem likely that she will take his advice.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Privatization

Steven Singer: Twenty-One Reasons Why People Hate DeVos

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
9

 

In the course of the infamous interview of Betsy DeVos on 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl asked DeVos why she was the most hated member of the cabinet. DeVos said she didn’t know but assumed she was “misunderstood.”

Steven Singer asserts that DeVos is not misunderstood at all. She should wonder no more.

He offers twenty-one reasons why she is hated. 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Industry, Privatization

Betsy DeVos to National PTA: Public Schools Stink!

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2018 //
51

 

When she delivered her keynote remarks to the National PTA, Betsy DeVos took potshots at 60 Minutes, claiming the show edited her remarks. She apparently did not explain in what way she was misquoted.

“So, now that I have the opportunity to speak unedited, I’m not afraid to call out folks who defend stagnation for what it really is: failure,” she said, criticizing those who are against school choice given that U.S. students are ranked 40th in math, 23rd in reading and 25th in science compared to other countries.

“The Education secretary is a proponent of school choice, which encompasses policies such as letting students attend religious or charter schools with public funding.”

DeVos did not acknowledge that the US placed dead last in the first international assessment in 1964.

She did not acknowledge that the US was never a high scoring nation and typically scores around the median.

She did not acknowledge that test scores are the result of child poverty and that any effort to raise test scores must address as child poverty.

She did not acknowledge that the US is #1 in child poverty among the OECD nations.

She refuses to acknowledge that school choice does not produce higher test scores. On the whole, school choice lowers test scores. The prime example of the effects of school choice is Michigan, where NAEP scores have fallen since Betsy DeVos’s choice policies were imposed. The other examples are Milwaukee and Detroit, which demonstrate the null impact of choice. Milwaukee has charters, vouchers, and public schools that must take the kids the choice schools don’t want. Detroit has loads of charters. Both are among the lowest scoring urban districts tested by NAEP.

She has an agenda, but it has already failed. She is an ideologue and zealot, who pays no attention to evidence, not even in her own state.

She would destroy public education if it were in her power. But we will stop her. She is already an object of ridicule. It won’t get better.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Michigan, Milwaukee, Privatization

Tom Ultican: How DeVos and Her Allies Destroyed the Public Schools of Detroit

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2018 //
12

California teacher Tom Ultican has been systematically deconstructing the “Destroy Public Education Movement,” one claim, one city at a time.

In this post, he explores the disastrous consequences of the policies of school choice zealots, especially the DeVos family. Every intervention made things worse, especially for the poorest children, who live in Detroit. They were not simply abandoned. Their schools and city were ransacked by raiders of DPE.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Failure, Hoax, Michigan, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider: DeVos Tries to Recoup Her Embarrassment on Twitter

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2018 //
4

 

Mercedes Schneider describes Betsy DeVoid’s effort on Twitter to recover from her awful interview on 60 Minutes, which made her appear ignorant and clueless, even about her own state.

In the interview, she feigned ignorance when Lesley Stahl said that the state’s scores on NAEP dropped precipitously over the past decade of choice, which Betsy engineered. But Lesley Stahl knew.

The best Betsy could come up with was that Detroit charters—which select their students— have higher scores than Detroit public schools. But even the charter scores were abysmal.

If Betsy wants to argue the miracle of choice, Detroit is not a good example. No miracle.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Detroit, Education Industry, Privatization

Julian Vasquez Heilig: KIPP and #NotUs in California

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2018 //
5

 

Julian Vasquez Heilig calls BS on KIPP in California, where they are pushing a KIPP charter into a community that doesn’t want them.

The local district, already financially drained by charters, rejected them. The county district rejected them. As in, go away. Now they are applying to the state board, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the California Charter School lobby.

”KIPP is now trying to insert more schools into the San Francisco Bay Area. But they are having a problem. They ran into some snags in the local authorizing process. First, the local district said that there are now more charters than neighborhood public schools and they are teetering on financial disaster. Their march towards bankruptcy is occurring even with increased funding from the state the past few years because the loss of students to charters has resulted in massive budget shortfalls. After their 3-2 denial by the district, KIPP then went to the county for their second and final attempt at local authorizing. However, that didn’t go well for KIPP because the county wanted assurances that that KIPP would abide by AB 1090, which is a California financial conflict of interest law. KIPP refused to abide by California financial conflict of interest laws. What!?

“Charters talk on and on about how interested they are in transparency and accountability #NotUs. They tell legislators that they are abiding by the law #NotUs. Then they tell other people that the law doesn’t apply to them (See video below) #NotUs. This sort of malfeasance goes on and on because we allow charters to talk out of two sides of their mouth. We also allow the “good” charters to say, “We are good” and of course there is some “bad.” #NotUs Which ultimately provides cover for the entire sector at the expense of transparency and accountability for children, families and taxpayers.”

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Florida: Parents Push Back Against Privatization

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2018 //
17

 

Carol Lerner posted this comment in response to a post about the new $100 million tax credit voucher program in Illinois:

 

“The article says it is the largest “first-time” tax credit scholarship program. Florida, at nearly $1-billion, has the largest tax credit scholarship program in the nation. And what is particularly horrifying is that it can increase (as stated in legislation) by 25% per year (which it has been doing each year thus far). At that unbelievable rate, in 15 years the spending on these voucher scholarships would exceed the current education budget of $21-billion and in 20 years, it would be almost as large as the entire current $87.2–billion Florida state budget. That is unlikely to happen but it just shows how absurd a 25% growth rate is.

“Florida gets its money for this $1-billion and rising program by diverting corporate income and other taxes to two non profit scholarship-funding organizations (SFOs): Step Up for Children and AAA Scholarship Foundation. Step Up for Children gets the lion-share of the money for which they get a 3% cut. They also actively solicit money from corporations. Step Up for Children was set up by John Kirtley, a close associate of Betsy DeVos.

“Now with the passage on Monday of Florida House Bill 7055, the amount of money diverted to vouchers that should be going into the general treasury is further expanding as is the source of the money. The legislation stipulates that money to fund sending students who are victims of bullying to private schools will come from a consumer sales tax allowing residents to allocate $110 in sales tax when they purchase a car or transfer registration from another state. So now, it is not just corporate taxes but also consumer taxes that are tapped. A recent article indicated that state revenue projects for this year are down and cuts will have to be made. It is no wonder revenue is down despite a supposid booming economy.

“There is a growing backlash to these privatizing maneuvers in Florida and pretty much all but a few Democrats in the State legislature are on the correct side. (Of course, the Republicans far exceed the Democrats, especially in the FL House of Representatives but this might change a bit in November.) Where I live in Sarasota, a group of us set up last summer an organization, Protect Our Public Schools (POPS), to fight school privatization. The impetus for this was the passage of HB 7069 legislation (a big giveaway to charter schools, particularly corporate-managed charters among many other really awful things). From the start we tied fighting privatization to working for a high quality education for all students. Since the Parkland shooting, we decided to expand our mission to include addressing school violence in all its forms. We are attending school board meetings, holding public forums, staffing tables at marches (e.g., The Women’s March, the upcoming March for Our Lives) and getting a great response. I have developed a presentation on school privatization in Florida and have been invited to present to a bunch of Indivisible groups and just the other day was invited to address the local UU Church. So the movement is growing but our enemies are strong and very well funded and are increasingly using dark monies to target and replace pro-public education school board members.

“If anyone knows people from other parts of Florida working on school privatization issues, please let me know. Given the fact that Florida has an increasingly state-run education system, it is important that we all work together.”

I encouraged Carol and other Floridians to contact Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education to learn about other allies in Florida as well as Sue Legg, education director of the Florida League of Women Voters. She has many allies in the state.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Missouri: An Eloquent Appeal by a Member of the State Board of Education on Behalf of Black Children

By dianeravitch
March 9, 2018 //
5

http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/mike_jones/public-education-and-child-endangerment/article_2d7dd154-2183-11e8-bd15-ff4cd5090b84.html

 

Mike Jones is a member of the Missouri State Board of Education. He expects that Governor Eric Greitens will not reappoint him, as he has been remaking the board to satisfy his privatization agenda. Greitens is currently under indictment for invasion of privacy, involving matters of sexual indiscretion. Greitens appointed a majority , who promptly fired the state commissioner Margie Vandeven. But his board has not been confirmed by the senate.

Jones published this thoughtful and insightful reflection on the state of education of Black children in Missouri. He is spot on. 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Missouri, Privatization, Race

Oakland Mom Has a Question

By dianeravitch
March 8, 2018 //
24

 

I can’t vouch for any of the details in this comment but it is posted and now in the blogosphere. So I invite readers who are familiar with the details to write comments and, if needed, corrections. I offer the same invitation to any of those mentioned her, to set the record straight.

She writes:

”Was hoping someone on this thread could advise on a similar contract issue here in Oakland. During the 2016-2017 school year, our board, under the approval of Antwan Wilson, sole-sourced a contract with Blueprint Schools Network. Blueprint would provide Math Fellows, via Americorps, for tutoring in 5 middle schools here. How much? How does a cool $1M sound? (with the add-ons). You’d think for that kind of money, our high-needs students would get actual educators with master’s degrees. Nope, Americorps volunteers only had to have a high school diploma. Half of the original contract for $835,000 (!) went to administrators in Blueprint Schools. The actual Math Fellows, were paid a pittance of around $25,000 with health benefits for one year, plus a $5K bonus upon completion.

“BSN is headed up by Matthew Spengler. Who is he? Harvard ed-reformer who was principal of a small district high school here, Met West. He then went on to work as a Director at Harvard’s EduLabs figuring out all kinds of neat experiments he could use on our students. Then, he found some superintendents who were willing to farm out their students for Mr. Spengler’s ed experiments, including, you guessed it, Antwan Wilson and Denver Public Schools. Next, Antwan Wilson shows up in Oakland, with Mr. Spengler close behind, ready to peddle his “tutoring” Math Fellows to our highest-needs students. And, bingo, the Board approves a sole-source $1M contract, just like that.

“Blueprint Schools end game is really data-mining. OUSD pays a fortune for an unproven program from an organization whose mission is to apply charter reforms to public schools. BSN gets all the data they want; I’m sure the participants/parents have no idea.

”This sole source agreement for essentially low-paid, unskilled “teaching” labor for $1M just doesn’t pass the sniff test. I’m going out a limb and saying it’s both illegal and immoral, but here we are. Any advice?”

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

Angie Sullivan to Bill Gates: No Thanks for the Sand

By dianeravitch
March 7, 2018 //
21

 

Angie Sullivan teaches first grade students in a low income school in Clark County, Nevada. She circulated this letter about the serial failures of the Gates Foundation and the damage done to her students:

“http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/02/teacher_evaluation_efforts_haven%27t_shown_results_bill_melinda_gates.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw&override=web

Millions of students harmed.

The damage done to public schools most likely unable to be repaired in my career.

Learn a lesson: Billionaires do not teach kids. Money does not teach kids. Businesspersons do not teach kids. Politicians are dumb as dirt on education issues.

Teachers teach kids. Teachers survived this assault. Experience Skilled Teachers grabbed on to all within our reached to save as many as we could. While the community demanded destructive disruption which traumatized Kids. Everyone owes us for not running away while you abused us.

18,000+ CCSD Teachers did not deserve the disrespect and hate heaped on us for two decades. It has to stop.

Teachersare key to education reform, education innovation, and education progressive ideas.

All politicians, union officials, and operatives who took money from “Reformers” should be ashamed. Those folks were selling tricks, gimmicks, and fads. There is no short-cut. Educating children is work and requires resources.

Unfunded mandates do not work. Whipping teachers to improve student scores left scars but did not produce impressive results. We have nothing to teach with. No one has a box of paper. The fads gave us whiplash. It is abusive.

“Good ideas” not based in authentic research and best practice do not work.

Squawking advocates for “choice” squandered more resources than we have in my state to create a worse system in Nevada than we had before. Those “choicers” better get that sinking ship called Nevada Charters under control before they bankrupt the state. The market has spoken – Nevada Charters cannot educate or graduate students as well as the neighborhood schools. Nevada Charters do segregate by race, religion, and money.

Huge huge failures all of the above.

Billions and billions wasted on these scams:

– common core
– abusive teacher evaluation systems
– abusive students evaluation systems
– standardized testing run amuck
– excessive and intrusive data collection on children
– business practice disguised as “education reform”
– segregating and failing charters

The mission of public schools is to create an educated participating citizenship. Hard to measure with a finite test all the different intelligences Teachers are charged with instilling, amplifying, and creating within their students. Citizens should be well-rounded and problem-solving. Nothing a test can measure.

Educating young people is an expense. All parents are well aware that children are an expense. It is an necessary investment in Nevada’s Future.

My students are now and always will be more than a score.

Why don’t you come “interview” me at my school about my “data” again? I dare you.

Find anyone who knows or loves my students more than me.

I weep for the waste. My impoverished language learning kids really needed real resources and they got sand.

Just sand.

Disrespectful blood soaked sand.

Angie.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Testing
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