EduShyster has noticed a brilliant new reform idea. Tear down the school, build a high-rise with luxury apartments on the site, then let the rich live right on top of the children. What a brilliant idea.
As one young man says in the article quoted, “It’s a win-win.” Or a win-win-win.
This just arrived in the morning email
It is a question for a multiple-choice test.
Write your own.
Here goes:
I am part of a small group of educators (hoping to grow teacher and parent awareness – via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NJ-Educators-United-to-Protect-Public-Education/350194368424508 – where – among other articles – we have been transcribing and posting YouTube “homerun” statements that you have made via speaking venues).
Anyway, here are my simple thoughts and a sample standardized question:
————————————————————-
Does history repeat itself? You bet!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thing-for-new-orleans-schools/
http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/mike-fiorillo-on-duncans-katrina.html
“The following paragraphs are in response to a post at GothamSchools after Sect’y of Education Arne Duncan remarked that ___________ was the “best thing” for the __________ school.
‘This despicable statement by Duncan represents a common motif among Democrats and Republicans alike, and validates Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine thesis, namely, that ruling elites create or opportunistically use crises to implement policies that would otherwise be blocked. In the case of New Orleans, it’s the wholesale privatization of the school system, with the schools being turned over to large charter school chains…Where were these people when the urban schools were suffering from decades of neglect and under-investment? They certainly weren’t teaching in them, or sending their children to them. Why are they only now proclaiming their “passion” for education, which is based solely on their lust to dominate and control them, driven by an agenda that, PR rhetoric aside, is about their will to power and profit?’”
Proposed Standardized Test Question: Take out the words “Katrina” and “New Orleans” from the above excerpt and fill in the blank:
a.) State Takeover; Camden
b.) School Closings; Chicago
c.) All of the above
While I am a believer in optimism in the face of difficulty, the reformers have taken this to a new, unholy level:
I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
— John D. Rockefeller
A reader did some sleuthing when presented earlier with the question of who was paying for an ad buy of at least $18,000 to support the Alabama Accountability Act:
He writes:
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
So, alabamaaccountability.com/ is owned by Domains by Proxy LLC, a company that has already been identified as engaging in troubling activities (in particular in the political domain, seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domains_by_Proxy)
The organizations featured on Alabama Accountability’s website as “supporters” are Heritage Foundation, the Alabama Policy Institute, and The Business Council of Alabama. We already know enough about Hertitage – and hope someone around here from Alabama might chime in. The Alabama Policy Institute is lead by Gary Palmer, who is a self-described founding director of the State Policy Network – a subsidiary of ALEC. Their policy director, Cameron Smith, most recently worked for Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Alabama Policy Network likes charters, vouchers, anti-union, and public funding for religious school.
In the article, two board members of Alabama Accountablity are mentioned, Kate Anderson and Ashley Newman. Is this the same Ashley Newman who is on the Board of Directors of Reform Alabama (http://reformalabama.org/about-us/board-of-directors/)? This org supports charter schools, merit pay for teachers, and teacher ed accountability based on teacher “performance.” And is Kate Anderson the same one profiled here http://yellowhammerpolitics.com/blog/power-influence-whos-next/ as someone who raised $5.7M for GOP candidates?
Inquiring minds want to know….
Jersey Jazzman has done his usual spectacular research job and discovered that a new charter operator is poised to enter the Camden “market” of school choice.
It happens to be the same for-profit charter operator who runs the Chester Community Charter School, who happens to be the single biggest campaign contributor to Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett. Since he opened his charter, the Chester public schools have gone bankrupt and been taken over by a state fiscal manager.
For good measure, Jersey Jazzman uncovers the buying of Democratic politicians who agreed to turn their city’s children over to the privatizers.
Privatization is not just a Republican thing. Amazing what campaign contributions can do.
Even more amazing is that it costs less to buy politicians in New Jersey than in Pennsylvania.
I have written many posts about the scam and sham of cyber charters. They are highly profitable for their owners and investors, but study after study shows that they provide a poor education. Whatever their value for adults, whatever the value of an online course for a rural student, the cyber charters are a pitiful substitute for a real school with real teachers and real students and real human interaction.
Now comes the inside scoop from a teacher in a cyber charter school. It is very thing it’s critics feared and worse. It is all about making money for the corporation. It is bad education. That is, if you care about children or education or the future of our society.
A story today in the New York Times gives an overview of the rapid advance of voucher programs, now found in various forms in 17 states.
What is missing from the article is context. The defenders of unlicensed education quoted are the heads of the unions and spokesmen for LLC school boards. The advocates for vouchers are referred to as “nonpartisan,” like the far-right American Federation for Children. AFS was created by the wealthy DeVos family in Michigan and has been pushing the demolition of public education for many years.
Also unmentioned is the power behind the scenes: ALEC, the far-right organization that has drafted model legislation for the voucher and tax-credit laws, using their 2,000 state legislators to promote them.
Nor does the article raise the obvious questions: where is President Obama? Where is Arne Duncan? Did Race to the Top, with its promotion of choice to “escape failing public schools” (and go to privately managed charters) aid and abet the voucher movement?
Who will be held accountable for these assaults on a basic institution of our democracy?
Jeff Bryant decries the phony bipartisan consensus surrounding education “reform.”
He wonders where are the progressives.
He compares the bipartisan consensus around education reform to the bipartisan consensus that prevailed before the war in Iraq, when dissenters were marginalized and ignored.
But he sees hope in the growing rebellion against high-stakes testing.
More and more parents and students understand that what is happening does not work, will not improve education, and will inflict grievous wounds to public education.
How long can our policymakers continue to demonize teachers and expect that “better” or “great” teachers will magically appear to take the places of those who left in disgust?
I share his view that the current reign of toxic policies will not last forever. Not a one of them has any evidence behind them, and not a one of them works to improve the quality of education.
Failure cannot survive indefinitely. The American people will indeed awaken to the great hoax called education “reform” and reclaim their schools.
I received this email from a high school teacher in Memphis. Please read it and understand that we must organize against the destruction of public education in America. This, plus the court approval of vouchers in Indiana yesterday sends an ominous message: the radical reactionaries are determined to destroy public education. We must fight back. We must awaken parents and civic leaders.
This comes from Memphis:
“Diane,
“Public education in Memphis/Shelby County is on the verge of collapse.
“Gates gave $90 million to Memphis City Schools, and now he’s calling the shots: increased class sizes, no extra pay for advanced degrees, merit pay based on test scores, etc.
“The initial budget for the first year of operation for the merged district is already $145 million in the red.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/feb/12/memphis-shelby-school-board-ups-the-ante-in/
“Yet last night the school board voted to continue paying $350,000 a month to a four-person team from Parthenon, a consulting group, to develop a merit pay system to stick it to teachers.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/mar/26/unified-memphis-shelby-school-board-rejects-pay/
“That’s $87,500 per month per Parthenon team member. In a year, each team member will gross $1,050,000 for Parthenon. $4.2 million altogether. (Meanwhile, they’re looking to cut teacher pay and health and retirement benefits.)
“The best part: No one on the Parthenon “education” team is a classroom educator. They’re all business strategists, investors, lawyers, and—surprise, surprise—former members of the Gates Foundation. http://www.parthenon.com/Industries/Education
“Help expose these corporate reformer frauds!”
Coach Bob Sikes wonders if Florida Republicans will learn a lesson from Georgia Republicans.
In Georgia, the Republicans pulled back on a so-called Parent Trigger bill, which would enable a vote of parents to convert their community school into a privately managed charter school.
In Florida, the Jeb Bush foundation and the Chamber of Commerce are beating the drums for the “parent trigger” again, even though it has only been used once in the nation (in California) and no one knows the results. Why not faith-based legislation?
What does it matter if Florida has closed over 200 failing charter schools? What does it matter if half the schools on the state’s list of failing schools are charters?
Why delay when corporations stand ready and willing to make a profit by extracting money from public schools and sending it to their investors?
In Mississippi, the speaker of the House of Representatives announced that he was appointing a proponent of charter schools to the state board of education that oversees public education.
The nominee was home-schooled.
Is Mississippi moving boldly forward into a world without public schools or dumbly backward into a world that predates the establishment of public education?
