Archives for category: Education Reform
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Tom Ultican Reports on What He Learned at the NPE Conference

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2018 //
7

Tom Ultican was everywhere at the Network for Public Education Conference in Indianapolis. He attended the keynotes and a full slate of workshops.

Here is his report.

Tom will bring you with him as he listens attentively at every session.

He concludes on this happy note.

A Personal Perspective

Almost four years ago, I attended my first NPE conference in Chicago. I was very motivated by what I saw and heard, however, I did have a concern. It seemed like the movement was dominated by older white teachers like me, who were approaching retirement age. I thought that did not bode well for the future of our movement to save quality public education.

This year the conference was even more motivational with a big positive difference. A large wave of diverse youthful professionals have taken leadership. The future looks very bright with so many brilliant young people who are growing their expertise in research and organizing. These youthful leaders are determined to save our public schools. They are standing up for a social good that is not related to Mammonism or self promotion. They are the resistance that is winning.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Network for Public Education, Privatization

Arizona: Parents Use Voucher Money for Personal Purchases, Not Education

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2018 //
23

Arizona’s State Auditor identified more than $700,000 in voucher money that was mis-spent for cosmetics, music, movies, clothing, sports apparel, and other personal items. Some even tried to withdraw cash with their state-issued debit cards. The state has not recovered any of the money. The legislature passed a bill to expand the voucher program, which gives parents a debit card for their e Peres, to every student in the state. Auditing will be even more difficult. Millions will be wasted. And many of the state’s children will go without an education.

On November 6, Arizonans will vote on whether to give a debit card to every parent in the state. If you don’t want universal vouchers, vote NO on Prop 305.

The Arizona Republic reports:


Arizona parents have made fraudulent purchases and misspent more than $700,000 in public money allocated by the state’s school-voucher style program, and state officials have recouped almost none of that money, a new Auditor General report has found.

The findings are the latest blow to a program that Republicans have touted as a model for school choice that has been replicated nationwide, but has faced serious questions about lax financial oversight.

The audit, released Oct. 25, found the state Department of Education, charged with administering and regulating the program, repeatedly failed to flag accounts at high risk for fraud.

That allowed parents whose children were enrolled in the Empowerment Scholarship Account program to make numerous improper purchases on state-issued debit cards, even after the accounts should have been frozen or closed.

The program began as a way to help parents of children with special needs find the educational services best suited to their kids. In 2017, Republicans in the Legislature expanded the program to make all of the state’s 1.1 million public-school students eligible to use tax money for private school tuition.

A grassroots group of parents and public education advocates who oppose the expansion collected tens of thousands of signatures to refer the law to the ballot as Proposition 305…

A “yes” vote on Proposition 305 keeps the newly expanded program in place. A “no” vote rolls back the 2017 expanded law….

The Auditor General found some parents used the ESA cards for transactions at beauty supply retailers, sports apparel shops and computer technical support providers. Auditors also found repeated attempts by some parents to withdraw cash from the cards, which is not allowed and can result in getting kicked off the program.

The audit also concluded education officials did not properly monitor parents’ spending, even after questionable purchases were denied, including on music albums deemed noneducational, Blu-ray movies, cosmetics and a transaction at a seasonal haunted house.

Categories Arizona, Education Reform, Fraud, Vouchers

Laura Chapman on Ohio’s Nonsensical and Destructive Report Cards for Schools

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2018 //
15

The idea of giving A-F grades to schools was a Jeb Bush invention. It is an almost perfect mirror of the poverty or affluence of the students in the school. Schools with high poverty levels will get low grades. This sets them up to be stigmatized as failures and to become juicy targets for tskeover and privatization. The privatizers keep the students they want and toss away those they don’t want. Meanwhile, the public money flows to private hands.

Laura Chapman here examines Ohio’s school report cards, which contain “multiple measures” to end up with the same result as a report card based only on test scores, which themselves measure family income and education.

She wrote this comment:

“The key components of the 2018 Ohio School Report Cards.

The six components are:

Achievement,
Gap Closing,
Improving At-Risk K-3 Readers,
Progress,
Graduation Rate,
Prepared for Success.

Districts and schools receive A-F grades on each of the six components and most of the individual measures for each component (e.g.a letter grade is assigned to Ohio’s EVASS metrics based on test scores. EVASS is a version of totally discredited VALUE-ADDED Metrics).

For the first time, districts and schools will be assigned overall letter grades. (e.g., Your school is D. Your school is an F.)

Here is the pitch for this ridicule-worthy scheme.

“Report cards are designed to give parents, communities, educators and policymakers information about the performance of districts and schools – to celebrate success and identify areas for improvement. This information identifies schools to receive intensive supports, drives local conversations on continuous improvement and provides transparent reporting on student performance. The goal is to ensure equitable outcomes and high expectations for all of Ohio’s students.”

One of these days I may count how many data points Ohio has shoved into the convoluted report card. Some are hardwired by the fools elected to the state house. Others are there in part from federal regulations. The rest are the product of a belief system that says, in effect measurement is an objective and infallible substitute for good judgment. Of course, the Report card grades track the relative affluence of the districts in Ohio and they are meaningless for Charter Schools. A recent conversation with a state school board member, running for re-election revealed total ignorance of problems with the value-added metric or the cost of the SAS contract for that misleading exercise.

reportcard.education.ohio.gov

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ohio, Privatization, Testing

New York City: Harlem Residents Tell New Chancellor Their Concerns about Charter Invasion

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2018 //
20

New York City’s Chancellor Richard Carranza held a town hall meeting in Harlem and must have been surprised when the biggest concern expressed was the proliferation of charters.

The meeting “was dominated by parents’ fears of charter schools expanding in the neighborhood.”

What a surprise to listen to parents instead of the charter lobbyists.

The latter must have forgotten to pack the room with hundreds of students in matching T-shirts, chanting about the need to close public schools and open more charters.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, New York City, Privatization

ACLU of Northern California Condemns Pro-Marshall Tuck PAC for Misleading Attacks on Tony Thurmond

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2018 //
10

Marshall Tuck’s billionaire funders have given his campaign $30 million, double what his opponent Tony Thurmond has raised.

Tuck’s campaign has used his money to run negative attack ads against Thurmond. Things got so bad that the ACLU OF Northern California issued a statement condemning Tuck’s PAC for misuse of its name in misleading advertising.

These vicious campaign ads raise an important question about Marshall Tuck’s character. Should someone who plays dirty be the education leader of California? Is Tuck so desperate to win that he will stoop so low? Are these Trumpian values appropriate for an educator?

Here is the Northern California ACLU statement.

The Thurmond campaign responded:

Contact: Madeline Franklin
209-210-8950

ACLU of Northern California Condemns Pro-Marshall Tuck PAC EdVoice For Misleading Attacks on Tony Thurmond

Thurmond campaign called for TV ads citing ACLU to be taken down after ACLU of Northern California called EdVoice tactics misleading and damaging.

San Francisco – Thursday, November 1, 2018 – ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC) Executive Director Abdi Soltani sent a strong letter to Bill Lucia, EdVoice Executive Director, condemning his organization’s decision to use the ACLU name in mailers attacking Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Thurmond campaign called on Marshall Tuck to join them in calling for an apology to California voters and to demand TV ads also using the ACLU name to be taken down.

“I am writing to express my strong disappointment in EdVoice’s decision to use the ACLU name in your direct mail in a manner that is confusing voters and harming the ACLU of Northern CA,” wrote Soltani. “We have already publicly clarified that we have nothing to do with this mailer or your campaign. EdVoice is not a fly by night organization, and with your decision, you have damaged your reputation and standing with the ACLU-NC.”

Mailers and TV ads attacking Thurmond and prominently featuring the ACLU name are paid for by “Students, Parents, and Teachers Supporting Marshall Tuck for Superintendent of Public Instructio 2018n, a Project of EdVoice,” which is a committee funded by several pro-charter school industry billionaires including Netflix CEO and EdVoice board member Reed Hastings.

The ACLU of Southern California also released a statement on the “misleading” mailer. Soltani demanded a meeting with Lucia and the board chair of EdVoice after the election to discuss their strong concerns, while the Thurmond campaign suggested that Tuck join in calling on EdVoice to publicly apologize and take down TV ads which are still using the ACLU name.

“It’s worst form of politics to exploit the ACLU name to mislead voters into supporting Marshall Tuck,” said Madeline Franklin, Thurmond’s campaign manager. “The sad irony here is that the ACLU of California gave Tony Thurmond a 100% legislative voting record. Tony’s spent his entire career as a social worker and public servant serving the same kids the ACLU fights for, including foster youth, students of color, and youth in the juvenile justice system.”

Franklin continued:

“If Marshall Tuck has any regard for the ACLU’s core values for individual rights, including Californians’ voting rights, he should join the Thurmond campaign in calling on his supporters to publicly apologize to the California voters who have been misled by these egregious ads and call for the remaining TV ads to be taken down immediately.”

###

Categories Accountability, California, Cheating, Education Reform, Lies

California: The Out Of Town Billionaires Who Want to Buy and Privatize Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2018 //
22

California has more charter schools than any other state. In part, this is because Governor Jerry Brown is a charter school ally, having opened two charters when he was mayor of Oakland. This great progressive governor had a blind spot about charters and ignored the proliferation of charters that were fraudulent and openly embezzled money from taxpayers to fatten their own wallets.

The study linked below lists the billionaires who bought the LAUSD election in 2017.

These are the same billionaires who are now bankrolling Marshall Tuck in his bid to become State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In that role, he would manage the growth of the charter industry and the decline of public schools. This is exactly the goal of Betsy DeVos.

A vote for Tony Thurmond is a vote to stop privatization and to improve public schools.

See the entire report on “out of town billionaires” here.

Learn the names of those who want to purchase the public sector and hand it over to pother entrepreneurs.

Will the voters be hoaxed?

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Fraud

Bruce Baker: The Inconvenient Truth About New Orleans’ Reforms

By dianeravitch
November 1, 2018 //
7

The National Education Policy Center interviewed Bruce Baker about his review of a much-ballyhooed study of the impact of market forces in the New Orleans schools.

The Education Research Alliance at Tulane University released a study last July declaring that the privatization of almost every school in New Orleans was a great success. That very day, Betsy DeVos gave $10 Million to ERA to become a federally-funded National Center on School Choice. The report was written by Douglas Harris and Matthew Larsen.

Bruce Baker, a researcher at Rutgers University, has studied charter schools, school funding and equity for years. He was commissioned by NPE to review the ERA study.

His conclusion: Harris and Larsen had minimized the importance of demographic changes following the hurricane and the enormous influx of new funding. These changes alone, he said, could have accounted for the effects in New Orleans documented by the ERA.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Funding, National Education Policy Center, Network for Public Education, New Orleans, Philanthropy, School Choice, Segregation

Do Foreign Exchange Students Act As Spies?

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2018 //
54

Daniel Goldin, educatuon editor of Pro Publica, has written a new book about spying by foreign exchange students.

This practice has been rumored for years but no one has pinned down evidence.

Emily Richmond of the Education Writers Association wrote about his new book:

In his recent book, “Spy Schools,” veteran higher education journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Golden builds a compelling case that the globalization of American universities has made them fertile territory for espionage. Using case studies and sometimes stunning revelations, he shows how foreign operatives are exploiting access to get a better understanding of U.S. policies and practices, and, in some cases, to steal valuable scientific research. On the flipside, American intelligence agencies are cultivating foreign students in the U.S. in hopes of grooming them to become informants when they return to their home countries. How did Golden uncover some of these practices, and what’s been the fallout from his reporting for the schools and programs he featured? What makes American colleges and universities particularly vulnerable to espionage? And what can campuses do to better protect their intellectual property? Plus, Golden—the education editor for ProPublica—shares story ideas for reporters covering international students at local postsecondary institutions.

Goldin wrote a book about how very rich people buy seats for their children in elite universities, and one of his examples was Jared Kushner, whose fathers gave Harvard $2 Million plus the year before Jared plied. He was accepted over several others from his high school who were better qualified.

He is the author of The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates.

Categories Education Reform, Higher Education

Stephen Dyer: The ECOT Scandal Was Even Worse Than We Knew

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2018 //
17

Stephen Dyer of Innovation Ohio, a lawyer and former Ohio legislator, reports that the ECOT scandal is worse than previously known.

He writes:

New state funding reports indicate that ECOT had nearly 8,000 fake students in its last full year of operation. According to the Ohio Department of Education, its last year of operation, ECOT couldn’t account for about 20 percent of its students. However, the monthly finance reports ODE puts out suggests the number may have been closer to 55 percent.

First of all, the last year ECOT was fully operational was in the 2016-2017 school year. So I’m using that as a baseline for comparison.

In the 16-17 school year, ECOT received $103.6 million for 14,208 students. This year, it’s zero dollars. A lot of news stories have tried to figure out what happened to all those students. One of the challenges appears to be that they may not have actually had all those students….

ECOT graduated about 2,000 students in 2017, but even subtracting out those students from the 7,791 “missing” students means 40 percent of the ECOT total is unaccounted for — about double the rate that was found by ODE.

So there seems to be something going on here.

I would sure like to know how many, if any of the 7,791 students ECOT claimed it had in 2016-2017 that aren’t in charter schools anymore were actually ever there to begin with. Because it looks like the state’s 20 percent assessment may be significantly lower than first thought.

Follow him as he connects the dots.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Fraud, Ohio, Scandals, Virtual Charter Schools

Two Ministers Ejected from Jeff Sessions Event After One Quoted the New Testament.

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2018 //
38

See this video of Jeff Sessions’ event in Boston. A Methodist minister interrupted him, quoting Matthew.

“Brother Jeff, as a fellow United Methodist, I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need,” Green said.

“Green then recited Matthew 25:42-43, which begins: “For I was hungry, and you did not feed me. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me.”

“Sessions replied, “Well, thank you for those remarks and attack, but I would just tell you we do our best every day.”

“After security officers escorted Green out of the room, a second minister, the Rev. Darrell Hamilton II, the pastor for formation and outreach at First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain in Boston, then rose to his defense.”

Officers ejected Rev. Hamilton as well.

So much for these fake Christians.

Categories Education Reform
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