Denver teachers voted to strike, but it is not clear when or if it might begin.
The leadership is preparing for a strike, Mercedes Schneider points out, by informing central office staff that they are expected to act as scabs in the event of a strike.
Jeremy Mohler of “In the Public Interest” has written a brilliant analysis of the disaster of privatization: bad for people, bad for the economy, bad for democracy.
He begins:
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion to raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent has reignited a long overdue debate about taxation. The idea that lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy is key to a healthy economy—known as “trickle-down economics”—has been the mainstream political consensus since the 1980s.
By explaining that massively increasing taxes on the super-rich can help fund social programs like Medicare for All, tuition-free college, a jobs guarantee and a Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez has rightly disrupted the politics of austerity that has dominated both major political parties for decades.
Now is the time to burst a similar—and deeply related—bubble: The myth that the privatization of public goods and services “saves taxpayer money.” Much like trickle-down economics, privatization is a choice—meaning, it’s ideologically and politically motivated. And it’s pushed by the same corporate interests that profit from its implementation.
Like austerity, privatization has boomed at all levels of government since the 1980s. There were more government employees when Ronald Reagan won reelection in 1984 than when Barack Obama won reelection in 2012. It’s estimated that three-quarters of workers that serve the American public actually work for private contractors. The Pentagon alone obligates more than $300 billion to contractors each year.
This shift has been backed by the claim that the “free market” is more efficient and innovative than government. Privatizers argue that outsourcing school cafeteria workers, bus drivers or nurses at Veterans Affairs hospitals cuts costs for taxpayers. Yet they don’t mention that such cuts often come out of workers’ paychecks—if those workers are even lucky enough to keep their jobs. When privatization policies are carried out, “innovation” often simply means layoffs and decreased wages and benefits.
And when it comes to saving money, the evidence is mixed at best. In many cases, privatization turns out to be far more costly. A 2007 survey found that over half of the local governments that placed services back under public control did so because privatization didn’t cut costs. After Iowa hired insurance corporations to manage its Medicaid program in 2017, the average cost of insuring people climbed nearly three times as fast as when it was under public control. An Indiana toll-road built using private financing—known as a “public-private partnership”—launched in 2014 by then-Gov. Mike Pence turned out to be $137.3 million more expensive than if the state had used traditional public financing. Charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, are costing San Diego’s school district $65.9 million a year. And then there’s healthcare, an area where the United States spends twice as much as other countries thanks to a “free market” of private doctors, nurses, hospitals and drugs.
Politically, privatization kills two birds with one stone for fiscal conservatives. It reinforces the idea that public budgets are inevitably “tight,” rather than because taxes have been cut to the bone, particularly for the wealthy. But more directly, it weakens labor unions representing teachers, sanitation workers and other public sector employees.
This report is a 50-state analysis of privacy laws, compiled by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. Its leaders are Rachael Strickland of Colorado and Leonie Haimson of New York.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/the-state-student-privacy-report-card/
The billionaires assembled at Davos are frightened by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez!
She proposed raising taxes to 70% for those who have over $10 million a year in income. The tax kicks in over $10 million.
Poor dears!
Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are worried about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). So says CNBC, which reports that the multimillionaires and billionaires at the annual elite gathering are all but quaking in their expensive winter boots at the thought of her proposed 70 percent marginal income tax rate. “It’s scary,” claimed Scott Minerd, a high-ranking executive at investment firm Guggenheim Partners. Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio predicted the call for a 70 percent top tax rate would pick up steam ahead of the 2020 election. Michael Dell, the head of Dell Technologies, with an estimated net worth of slightly more than $31 billion, proclaimed that it wasn’t necessary. “I do not think it will help the growth of the U.S. economy.”
But no one could top Ken Moelis, the head of the Moelis & Co investment bank, who claimed the freshman congresswoman’s proposal would “be disastrous for the economy,” because it would take away the incentive to work. He also asked:” “What’s going to happen to the two-workforce family? You forget where 70 percent starts to kick in.”
For the record, Ocasio-Cortez would like to see that top marginal rate kick in at $10 million. I don’t know too many families earning that sort of money even if they send all their children and assorted pets to work, and I doubt you do either, unless you live next door to the owner of a hedge fund.
If their taxes above $10 million are raised, they will have NO incentive to work!
They will be the idle rich! A hamburger at Davos costs $56!
How can a person scrape by on only $10 million plus 30% of added income?
This is what they should worry about. OXFAM just reported that 26 people have more wealth than 3.8 Billion people.
“THE COMBINED WEALTH OF the 26 richest people in the world is the same as the combined wealth of the world’s poorest 3.8 billion people.
“According to Oxfam’s Public Good or Private Wealth report, the number of billionaires has doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, and their wealth has grown by 12 percent. Over the same period, the wealth of the world’s 3.8 billion poorest people declined by 11 percent.
“Released a day before the world’s richest and most powerful gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam’s report shows that the “growing gap between the rich and poor is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging our economies and fueling public anger across the globe.”
“While the richest people have seen an increase in their fortunes of $900 billion, or $2.5 billion a day, over the last year, the poorest 3.8 billion people, almost half of the world’s population, are living on less than $5.50 a day, the report found.
“Despite the growth of their fortunes, these people, as well corporations, are paying lower tax rates than they have in decades, according to Oxfam, which cites President Donald Trump’s tax plan as an example.
“The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens,” said Paul O’Brien, Oxfam America’s vice president for policy and campaigns.“
The District of Columbia has a voucher program that enrolls fewer than 2,000 students.
The latest evaluation of the program has shown that students do worse than their peers in public schools.
Vouchers Found to Lower Test Scores in Washington Schools https://nyti.ms/2pemnp7?smid=nytcore-ios-share
https://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=NCEE20184010
Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein just co-sponsored legislation to extend the DC vouchers until 2024.
Why is Senator Feinstein supporting the GOP-DeVos agenda?
When will Congress stop funding this failed experiment?
Two parents whose children attend highly regarded progressive public schools were shocked to learn that Commissioner MaryEllen Elia had approved a plan in which their schools are rated failing.
The Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies (BCS) and Central Park East One (CPE1) are the public schools where we send our children.
They’re excellent schools, well known for their progressive practices and their history of supporting the whole child. Both are schools in “good standing, high performing and high impact,” according to city’s Department of Education standards. Because of their student outcomes and enriching environments for diverse learners, hundreds of students apply for spots in these schools…Yet a week ago, parents learned that the state’s Education Department put both BCS and CPE1 on its new list of 124 supposedly struggling schools, designating them as among the worst schools in the entire state….
No, their schools are not failing. But the New York State Education Department is.
Audrey Watters writes here about the promises and realities of EdTech.
Why the boom in education technology? Is it the pursuit of the total transformation of schooling? Is it marketing, competition and the pursuit of profits? Is it an effort to cut costs by replacing humans with machines?
Watters writes:
OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, more than $13 billion in venture capital has been sunk into education technology startups. But in spite of all the money and political capital pouring into the sprawling ed-tech sector, there’s precious little evidence suggesting that its trademark innovations have done anything to improve teaching and learning.
Perhaps, though, that’s never really been the point. Rather, it may be that all the interest in education technology has been an extension of a long-running campaign to make over American schools into the image of corporate endeavor—to transform education into a marketplace for buzzword-friendly apps and instruction plans, while steadily privatizing public institutions of learning for the sake of enhancing the bottom lines of the business interests promoting investment-friendly school “reforms.”
Public Education Partners in Ohio has declared this week as Public Education Week. Time to stand up and be counted. Time for elected officials to show which side they are on.
Public Education Week
WHEREAS, traditional public school districts in Ohio serve more than 1.8 million students and employ more than 245,000 Ohioans; and
WHEREAS, all children in Ohio should have access to the highest-quality education possible; and
WHEREAS, Ohio citizens recognize the important role that an effective education plays in preparing all students to be successful adults; and
WHEREAS, quality education is critically important to the economic vitality of the Buckeye State; and
WHEREAS, public education not only helps to diversify our economy, but also enhances the vibrancy of our community; and
WHEREAS, Ohio has many high-quality teaching professionals who are committed to educating our children; and
WHEREAS, public education is celebrated across the country by millions of students, parents, educators, schools and organizations to raise awareness of the need for effective public schools;
THEREFORE, WE do hereby recognize January 20-26, 2019 as PUBLIC EDUCATION WEEK and call this observance to the attention of all Ohioans.
https://publiceducationpartners.org/2018/11/13/ohio-public-education-week-is-january-20-26-2019/
The Teacher Revolt continues!
Fred Klonsky reports here that 93% of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association voted to strike.
Denver has been the epicenter of merit pay since 2005. It has confused and demoralized teachers.
The city school board is completely dominated and bought by reformers, who hold every seat, thanks to out-of-state money. The board has jumped on the portfolio model, closing public schools and opening charter schools. Typically the charters and other alternatives are non-union. Betsy DeVos has praised the Denver model, and hopes it will one day add vouchers.
Read Tom Ultican’s appraisal of the failure of Denver’s portfolio district.
Be it noted that Colorado just elected a Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who started two charter schools, and strongly supports school choice, not public schools.
The charter schools of California continue to be riddled with corruption, and to date, the state has ignored the multiplying scandals. California has more Charters than any other state (about 1300) and virtually no regulation.
Another leader at the Celerity Charter Network will Be Charged with Embezzlement and other charges.
“The former CEO of Los Angeles charter school network Celerity Educational Group is expected to be arraigned next month on federal charges of conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle public funds.
“Grace Canada, 45, of Torrance is the second ex-Celerity official to be charged with corruption by Los Angeles federal prosecutors. Celerity founder Vielka McFarlane pleaded guilty earlier this month to a conspiracy charge that she misspent $2.5 million in public education funds intended for students.
“Canada — currently principal of Kelly Elementary in Compton — was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in downtown Los Angeles on nearly the same charges as McFarlane and is expected to be arraigned on Feb. 11, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
