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Charter Supporters Win Control of Los Angeles School Board

By dianeravitch
May 17, 2017 //
55

The two pro-charter candidates swept to victory last night in Los Angeles.

Nick Melvoin, the candidate of the charter industry, beat Steve Zimmer, 57-43%.

Charter teacher Kelly Fitzpatrick-Nonez beat Imelda Padilla, 51-48%.

It was the most expensive school board race in U.S. history. At least $14 million was spent, most of it by the charter forces to defeat Zimmer. Inthe two districts, only 75,000 people voted.

This marks the first time that the board of LAUSD has a pro-charter majority.

It was an exceptionally dirty campaign.

Melvoin falsely accused Zimmer of responsibility for the iPad debacle, which was in fact the pet project of former LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, a supporter of Melvoin. Deasy currently works for billionaire Eli Broad, who has proposed to put half the students in Los Angeles in privately-run charter schools.

When the new board members are installed, Eli Broad is likely to get his wish.

Zimmer’s campaign, whose lead supporters were teachers unions, is accused of associating Melvoin with Trump and DeVos. This claim is true, as Trump and DeVos agree with the goal of rapidly expanding charters as a form of privatization, and prominent donors to Melvoin’s campaign, as the article in the Los Angeles Times article acknowledges, are anti-union and Republicans.

But Melvoin took cover and won as an Obama Democrat, which in the case of education, is indistinguishable from a DeVos Republican.

Charter operators want a larger share of LAUSD construction funds and more of its buildings. They will now encounter no opposition from the board.

“Whatever their allegiance, the winners of the board seats will confront an ocean of challenges, including the seemingly inevitable growth of charters and the strain that places on the district’s budget and its ability to serve students at its own schools.”

LAUSD will now become a dual school system, with no constraints on charter growth.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Los Angeles: Early Returns Favor Privatizers

By dianeravitch
May 17, 2017 //
9

The results are just starting to be reported in the Los Angeles school board election. First to report are the absentee ballots, which put the corporate reformer Nick Melvoin into a 60-40 lead over Steve Zimmer. The turnout was very low. Imelda Padilla trails 52-48.

You can watch the official returns here. They are updated every 40 minutes.

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/election/results.html

Eli Broad must be opening Dom Perignon. He is on the verge of buying control of the public schools.

If he breaks it, he owns it.

Categories Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Tracy Bartley, An L.A. Parent, Writes a Letter to Eli Broad

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
18

Billionaire Eli Broad decided long ago that one of his missions in life would be to privatize public schools, even though he and his wife are graduates of Michigan public schools. He has never explained his passion to stamp out the institution that educated him. He has spent years funding organizations committed to diverting public dollars to private hands. I once was invited to meet him in his glamorous penthouse apartment in New York City, and he explained that he didn’t know anything about education, but he knew management. He believes that non-educators should run education, especially if they surround themselves with people who have degrees in business and business experience. When I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, he funded a “manifesto” declaring that principals should be managers, not educators. He started a Superintendents Academy to train urban superintendents in his philosophy. A startling number of his graduates have failed or been driven out by the local community. He has learned nothing from the failure of his business ideology in education. But children are not widgets. He doesn’t understand that.

This is the man behind the candidacy of Nick Melvoin for the Los Angeles school board, the man who wants to replace Steve Zimmer and has unleashed a barrage of negative ads.

A parent, Tracy Bartley, received a letter from Broad that was part of a mass mailing that his organization sent to everyone in Steve Zimmer’s district. Tracy is a parent activist who has spent years developing school gardens. She is for real. Unlike Eli Broad, she is committed to improving the Los Angeles public schools, not closing or privatizing them.unlike Eli Broad, her children are students in the public schools he wants to control and privatize.

Tracy wrote:

Eli Broad
2121 Avenue of the Stars
L.A., CA 90067

Dear Eli,

Enough IS enough.

Since you last wrote to me encouraging me to vote for Nick Melvoin for LAUSD school board, I have doubled down on my own research into the claims you’ve made regarding Steve Zimmer and his opponent.

– While Nick Melvoin has earned endorsements of a FORMER Senator, FORMER Secretary of Education, and two (!) FORMER Mayors of Los Angeles, Steve Zimmer has been endorsed by our CURRENT Mayor Eric Garcetti, a strong and smart CURRENT Congresswoman Maxine Waters, CURRENT Secretary of Instruction for the State of California Tom Torlakson, and numerous others including activist Dolores Huerta, and public education policy activists Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch. (Full list here: http://stevezimmerforschoolboard.com/endorsements/) These are the leaders taking us forward in Los Angeles, in California, and across the country, and I am impressed that they want Steve Zimmer fighting alongside them.

– Studying Nick Melvoin’s LinkedIn profile, it appears that he “worked in the Obama Administration” as a White House intern for four months as well as a turn as a clerk at the ACLU for four months. Contrast this with Zimmer, who spent 17 years at LAUSD schools and the last eight working as a tireless advocate for our kids as our school board member, fighting for them in Sacramento and Washington.

– I wouldn’t expect anything less from Nick than having a “genuine and selfless commitment to children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, special needs or socio-economic class.” This is L.A. after all! (I love my city!) And I am sure you would agree Steve Zimmer has the same commitment. Along with the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, Planned Parenthood, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights… Steve Zimmer has a proven track record on this front.

– I struggle with the “Nick is a teacher” bit I’m afraid. I don’t feel 2 years a teacher makes. My mom was a teacher. I should say IS – because I think it is a calling rather than a profession 95% of the time. Steve Zimmer IS a teacher. I’ve witnessed his past students interacting with him at events. I’ve seen how he greets students at our community schools. It is very much who he is. I don’t get that from Mr. Melvoin. If he was a teacher, he’d be a teacher. (Yes – there is the adjunct position at LMU – though from my research it appears this is not a current gig, and was a special situation through TFA, am I right?)

So, you tell me we “need a school board member who will advocate for our children. who will strengthen our public schools ,and who will work tirelessly on behalf of families to make sure every child receives a world-class education.” I’ve found that. It is Steve Zimmer. You say he is supported by “special interests and bureaucracy” but I see it as 35,000 teachers alongside labor groups that work to ensure our schools are safe, clean, healthy environments for our kids to learn in. I see people doing much with little funding. I see communities forming around neighborhood schools. I see my LAUSD family. On the other side, I see a half dozen or so billionaires with a specific privatization agenda backing the special interests behind Nick Melvoin. I’m not ok with that.

As for a candidate who will work against the new administration that “preys on our fears… and engages in reckless information…” I will not “allow the election of our school board – the stewards of our children’s future – to be determined by damaging falsehoods.” I will continue to dig, and I fear learn more about the incentive for you, and the others in the privatization movement backing Mr. Melvoin. I’ve already learned of Doris Fisher’s (The Gap) support of Tea Party and Conservative candidates as well as her funding the opposition to Prop 30 (!), and Alice Walton’s (Walmart) donations to the privatization efforts of Betsy DeVos and the PAC supporting the election of Donald Trump. With you, and others, they are both supporters of Nick Melvoin’s campaign via the CCSA / Parent Teacher Alliance.

So, today, my husband and I will sign on again to volunteer for Steve Zimmer’s campaign. We will walk our community. We will call our neighbors. We will encourage them to cast their ballot for the best candidate for all LAUSD kids – for all LAUSD families.

Steve Zimmer for School Board 2017

Thank you,
Tracy
Proud LAUSD Mom

p.s. Looks like you spent $131,708.60 on printing and postage for your letters! What this could’ve done for a neighborhood school orchestra, or a school garden, community school park, or to fund an outdoor education experience! Oh well.

It’s your money.

It’s our kids.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Parents, Privatization

Florida: Chaos at Palm Beach Charter School

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
10

Florida is a welcoming state for charter school. It is easy to win approval to open, there is virtually no supervision or accountability, and public money flows freely based on enrollment.

In this environment, problems are inevitable.

The latest mess is the Eagle Arts Academy, a charter school in Palm Beach.

http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/post-investigation-eagle-arts-charter-chaos-are-kids-being-educated/MGH23lilkJ4eN5LRAM694L/

“Like hundreds of families before them, Jill Sheffield and her mother walked the halls of Eagle Arts Academy last summer with growing excitement.

“Touring the sprawling campus, the shy 11-year-old and her mother followed the school’s director across the dance studio’s shiny wood floors, through the guitar-filled music room, and into the gleaming computer lab, listening as he explained the school’s focus on arts and creativity.

“Everybody walking out of there was just like ‘Oh my God, this school is going to be amazing,’” Jill’s mother, Ashley, recalled later.

“But when school started in August, many classrooms had no textbooks. The principal resigned abruptly in the first week. The second principal was gone a few weeks later. The third one left two weeks after that.

“Soon, teachers were being fired or leaving in droves. Mothers complained that their children were not being enrolled in art classes. And then a fed-up parent put together an online petition to remove the school’s director, who responded by calling police.

“Before long, Jill and her mother realized that instead of signing up for an idealized education in academics and arts, they were watching a school be consumed by chaos, an unraveling that many parents say made it impossible for their children to learn and — in some cases — set their educations back by a year or more.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When it opened in 2014, Eagle Arts – blessed with a compelling arts-themed marketing pitch and an enviable location on the campus of a former private school – had the makings of a marquee school.

“But by the time classes started this year, educators say erratic leadership, financial mismanagement and constant staff turnover had left the publicly financed charter school — one of Palm Beach County’s largest — opening its doors with a D grade from the state, a trail of spending controversies and some of the lowest student achievement in the county.

“Since then, parents and former employees say the school has been shaken by even more upheaval as its quick-tempered founder, Gregory James Blount, assumed direct control and drove it into deeper crisis, engaging in repeated confrontations with teachers, parents and administrators, including shouting fits that happened, in some cases, within earshot of children.”

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

Hawaii: Why Import Corporate Reformers from the Mainland?

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
15

Andy Jones’s a high school teacher in Hawaii. He writes here with profound dismay about the search for a new superintendent for the schools of Hawaii.

He was not sorry to see the current superintendent go. She was an avid supporter of test-based accountability and data-data-data.

“This week we learned that the new superintendent will likely be one of two products of the current educational Big Box: a nationwide collection of individuals with graduate degrees from institutions (many of them recent startups) that support a transformation of public education according to post-traditional business models – what critics refer to as the “corporate educational reform movement.

“This model – one to which Matayoshi adhered and which was largely responsible for facilitating the national failure that was No Child Left Behind (NCLB) – is founded on the idea that, where public education is “broken,” it can be “fixed” through methods that emphasize top-down standardization and systemic compliance.

“That’s precisely the model the state is doing its best to move away from – a desire encapsulated in the Blueprint for Public Education drafted by Governor Ige’s ESSA Task Force, as well as in the Hawaii State Teacher Association’s Schools Our Keiki Deserve report.

“A quick Google search on the proposed candidates leaves little room for optimism that either candidate is prepared or likely to jump start Hawaii schools out of their post-NCLB limbo and into the brighter, more wholesome future envisioned by HSTA and the Governor’s Task Force.”

Jones finds reasons to avoid both candidates when he googles. Both have red flags in their history.

He adds:

“The local educational community has requested candidates with deep teaching experience, extensive personal knowledge of Hawaii and its public school system, a collaborative mindset, and a commitment to teacher empowerment. The board’s selections demonstrate failure to acknowledge the input they solicited on their own survey.

“It may seem hyperbolic to ask for some sort of an explicit mandate for board members to do what is right. But perhaps because board members are appointed rather than elected, they don’t appear to be particularly concerned about holding themselves accountable to community opinion.

“Through the various missteps reported in the media over the past months, it has become clear that an appointed Board is not serving the interests of Hawaii schools and the children they serve.”

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Hawaii, Testing

Bernie Endorses Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2017 //
11

The critical runoff election for school board in Los Angeles is Tuesday May 16.

There are two crucial races. One is Steve Zimmer Vs. Nick Melvoin. Melvoin has received millions from leaders of the charter industry, such as Eli Broad, Alice Walton, Michael Bloomberg, and Reed Hastings. He is the beneficiary of millions from people who do not live in Los Angeles.

The other is Imelda Padilla vs. Kelly Fitzpatrick Nonez. Nonez is a charter school teacher.

Steve Zimmer has been endorsed by Eric Garcetti, the Mayor of Los Angeles, and other current city officials.

He has also received the endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders.

If you live in one of their districts in Los Angeles, please vote on Tuesday. The future of public education in Los Angeles depends on your vote.

Vote for Steve Zimmer.

Vote for Imelda Padilla.

Save public education!

CORRECTEDBernieFB050517-(1) (1)

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Texas: Republicans in State Senate Try Again to Push Through a Voucher Bill

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2017 //
19

You know about the camel’s nose under the tent? That’s the game that Texas Republicans are playing in an effort to establish a foothold for vouchers. They have copied this tactic from other states. It goes like this: We don’t want vouchers for everyone; we want them just for this very small, very needy, very deserving group of children. If they get that bill passed, within a year or two, another group is added, then another, then another, until vouchers are available for everyone.

Just weeks ago, the Texas House of Representatives, firmly in the hands of Republicans, defeated the Senate’s voucher bill. It was widely assumed that vouchers were dead for this year. But, no, Senate Republicans added a voucher program only for children with disabilities to an important school finance proposal. Its advocates choose to ignore the fact that children with disabilities are protected by federal law in public schools, but not in private schools. They also ignore the fact that private schools for children with disabilities are far more expensive than the voucher they will offer.

The Senate’s version of the bill does not not yet have a legislative fiscal note. The Center for Public Policy Priorities estimates that it could mean about $8,300 for students to use with about $450 going back to the district.

With no income qualification cutoffs attached, the group estimates that Texas schools could lose about $37 million annually after the first year of ESAs if just 1 percent of eligible students used them.

Supporters of public education were happy about the school finance proposal, but they had to backtrack on their support when they saw that the Senate had added vouchers to the bill. For the public school supporters, this is a poison pill. Given the strong opposition to vouchers in the House, there is a good chance that the Senate voucher provision will not survive.

The members of the House must decide if they want the camel’s nose to enter the tent, knowing what will come next.

Categories Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Special Education, Texas, Vouchers

California: Charter School Will Close Because of Founder’s Audacious Misuse of School Funds

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2017 //
8

The California State Board of Education accepted its staff recommendation and voted not to renew the Oxford Preparatory Academy charter school in Chino. The school will close June 30.

Parents defended the school, and one member of the board made a last-ditch plea for the school but he was outvoted.

“But board members grappled over the fate of the high-performing school that might be fatally encumbered with unknown debts accrued by its ousted founder, who is under investigation by district attorneys in two counties for alleged fraud.

“Did the school do wrong, or did an individual do wrong?” asked state school board member Bruce Holaday. “I’m still wrestling with that.

“Holaday offered a motion to approve the school’s appeal, but with a long list of new oversight requirements. The motion died, with a 4-6 vote. No other board members offered another motion, and 14 months after Chino Valley Unified staff first publicly raised questions about the financial health of the school, Oxford Preparatory Academy was out of options…”

“California Department of Education staff recommended that the state school board deny Oxford’s appeal, based on what Charter Schools Division Director Cindy S. Chan called “unrealistic” recovery plans.

“This audit report is horrific,” Chan said of a 2016 report from the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, made up of financial staff from districts across the state. The audit accused OPA founder Sue Roche of “laundering” money through Yorba Linda-based Edlighten Learning Solutions, a company she and her family ran.

“An open investigation by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office also factored into the department’s recommendation to deny the appeal, Chan said.

“We are skeptical that any corrective action addressing all of the issues could be put in place” in time for the new school year, she said. “It looks like they’ve made efforts, but it’s just too short of a time.”

“Founded in 2010 by former Chino Valley Unified principal Roche, the school initially had a warm relationship with the district. Superintendent Wayne Joseph urged the school board to approve its initial charter and its first charter renewal request.

“That changed last year, when district officials expressed doubt about Roche setting up for-profit companies to provide services to OPA, using public school tax dollars for private profit.

“An audit commissioned by the school showed Edlighten still controls $900,000 in OPA funds, according to Joseph.

“In part, we included this list of items to follow up on, for law enforcement,” Michael Fine, chief administrative officer of FCMAT, told the state school board Thursday. “We don’t know that fraud has occurred. We believe there’s sufficient evidence that there may have been.”

“Among that evidence is a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, in which OPA reportedly characterized the company as being an integral part of the school. But two months later, to the district and FCMAT, OPA officials “disputed that they were one and the same and that (Edlighten) held assets,” Fine said.”

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Privatization

Will the Trump-DeVos Alliance Win Control of Los Angeles Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2017 //
13

“In the Public Interest,” an organization that keeps track of privatization of the public sector, points out that Trump and DeVos have a lot riding on the outcome of the school board election in Los Angeles on May 16.

Their allies have invested millions of dollars in gaining control of the school board so they can turn students and schools over to private hands.

If they can defeat Steve Zimmer and Irma Padilla in run-offs, they will be able to divert public funding to charter entrepreneurs and corporate charter chains. They will squash democratic control of public schools. They will send tax dollars to corporate entities that are neither accountable nor transparent. They will widen the reach of an unregulated industry that has been marred by scandal, theft, fraud, misappropriation of funds, and self-dealing.

Citizens of Los Angeles. Stand up for democracy and public education! Vote for Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Fraud, Los Angeles, Privatization

Good News: Vergara-Copycat Lawsuit Tossed Out by Judge in New Jersey

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2017 //
11

A judge in New Jersey threw out a lawsuit intended to remove teachers’ seniority rights. This is the third loss for the corporate reformer groups that have tried to use the courts to strip away teachers’ job security. The “reformers” blame teachers and unions for low test scores while ignoring overwhelming evidence that poverty is the proximate cause of low scores.

The first was the Vergara lawsuit in California, where a group called “Students Matter,” founded by a Silicon Valley billionaire, claimed that teacher tenure (due process of law) denied poor children equal opportunity. The plaintiffs won in the lowest court. They lost on appeal. And they lost again when they appealed to the states’ highest court.

A group found by former TV personality Campbell Brown called the Partnership for Educational Justice filed copycat suits in other states. One was tossed by a lower court.

Earlier this month, a judge in New Jersey dismissed a legal challenge to teacher seniority rules.

Rachel Cohen of The American Prospect reports on the corporate reformers’ latest defeat in court:

“Another legal effort to weaken teacher job protections through the courts has been dismissed, this time in the Garden State. On Wednesday afternoon, a New Jersey Superior Court judge tossed the latest case, ruling that the plaintiffs—six parents from Newark Public Schools—failed to prove that seniority-based layoffs harmed their students.

“Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ), a national education reform group that aims to challenge teacher job protections across the country, funded the New Jersey lawsuit. Originally filed in November, the case marked the third time PEJ has gone after tenure provisions. Their first case filed in New York in 2014, is currently before the state Supreme Court. In October, a Minnesota district judge dismissed PEJ’s second suit, filed there in 2016. That case has since been appealed.”

Campbell Brown’s news site, The 74, reported the outcome of the case.

“A New Jersey judge swiftly dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that challenged state rules requiring school districts to base teacher layoffs on seniority regardless of performance in the classroom.
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson told a Trenton courtroom that the plaintiffs had failed to establish how seniority-based layoff rules known as “last in, first out” were harming their children.

“I don’t see any link other than speculation and conjecture between the LIFO statute and the denial of a thorough and efficient education to these 12 children,” Jacobson said.

“The lawsuit, HG v. Harrington, was filed in November on behalf of a dozen Newark students, claiming that “last in, first out” mandates governing teacher layoffs violate their right to a “thorough and efficient” and “equal” education system under the state Constitution.

“The complaint was sponsored by The Partnership for Educational Justice, a national education reform nonprofit founded by 74 co-founder Campbell Brown. Named defendants include the New Jersey State Board of Education and Newark Public School District.

“The American Federation of Teachers and the New Jersey Education Association, considered “intervening” defendants in the case, filed the motion to dismiss.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Jersey, Newark, Teacher Tenure, Teachers
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