Archives for category: Education Reform
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Salt Lake Tribune Denounces Charter Profiteering

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2016 //
13

Day by day, we are making inroads into public opinion. Newspapers in Ohio have been speaking out against the frequent violations of public trust by greedy charter operators. Now the Salt Lake Tribune steps up with a bold denunciation of charter school profiteers. It’s about time.

Inviting the private sector to run schools was a colossal error. For the first time in American history, we have schools claiming to be “public”that operate for public. We have charter schools launched by entrepreneurs, not educators. It is wrong. Many members of the public believe that charters are privately funded, not realizing that it is their tax dollars that are paying off investors.

Here is concrete evidence that the tide is turning. It is an editorial in the Salt Lake Coty Tribune called simply “Charter School Profiteers.”

The editorial board says:

“A handful of private companies have banked more than $68 million from Utah taxpayers over the past three years. The money is delivered through no-bid contracts by people who don’t work for government, but the companies are often connected to political officials.

“An extensive examination of charter school spending by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Benjamin Wood shows several companies that exist only to contract with charter schools. While public schools have always contracted for some services, many charters go so far as to contract for their principals and teachers, providing undisclosed profits to the companies while shielding financial information from the public.

“Under state law, the schools must be operated as non-profits, presumably to avoid people profiteering on public education. Charters that contract with for-profit companies for their largest expenses effectively circumvent that requirement. There is no way for Utahns to know how many of their education dollars are ending up as someone’s salary or profits.

“In the meantime, charters are slowly losing one of their most persuasive arguments: that they can educate students for less money than traditional public schools.

“According to a report from the Utah Foundation released last month, Utah charters collect about 10 percent less per student than regular public schools, but they have cost advantages, too. They have fewer non-English speakers and economically-disadvantaged students. Add in the public schools’ requirements to provide busing, to build inefficient rural schools and to provide such things as gang-prevention services, and the cost difference virtually disappears. Looking at test scores, charters track pretty closely to public schools on average.

“In other words, there is no evidence the free-market capitalism allowed in Utah’s charter school system is providing better results for students.

“But it clearly is producing winners. One company that received more than $4 million last year is headed by the sister of the president of the state charter school board. Another company ($1 million from charters last year) is operated by a state legislator, and two others ($4.7 million and $4.5 million last year) are run by relatives of legislators. (Surprise! All three voted in favor of increasing charter school funding by $20 million last session.)

“One of those relatives promised, “We keep it pretty separate.”

“How many charters operate this way? Hard to say, but it’s not all of them. This isn’t an argument for ending charter schools, but it is a system that begs for reform. Otherwise, the worst is yet to come.

“Long before charters, there were non-profit entities providing K-12 education in Utah. They hired their own principals and teachers, and they still do. That is because there are no efficiencies in creating that second entity, but there can be profits.

“And with profits come profit pressures. Some of today’s charters look less like non-profit schools and more like for-profit proprietary colleges. They market on television and employ sales staffs. As charters become more common, competition for charter students increases. Expect to see these for-profit non-profits apply more sales pressure to prospective parents.”

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3923608-155/editorial-charter-school-profiteers

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Utah

Mississippi: Legislators Strike Back at Superintendents for Seeking More Funding

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
6

Mississippi lawmakers punished the state’s superintendents by defunding their association. This was in retaliation for the superintendents support for Initiative 42, a referendum calling upon the legislature to fund the schools adequately.

 

Mississippi has extreme poverty, and Schools that are underfunded. Imagine the nerve of those superintendents, sticking up for the children!

 

“The move creates an uncertain future for what has traditionally been Mississippi’s most powerful school lobbying group. The long-term power of the association was already in question after lawmakers voted this year to make all superintendents appointive. Traditionally, the elected members of the association, especially those in the state’s largest school districts, have wielded the most political power.

“Initiative 42 would have amended the state Constitution to require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” Supporters said it would have blocked lawmakers from being able to spend less than the amount required by Mississippi’s school funding formula, and would have allowed people to sue the state to seek additional money for schools.

“Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders opposed the measure because it could have limited legislative power and transferred some power to judges. They warned that it could have led to budget cuts to other state agencies. Lawmakers placed an alternative measure on the ballot, which made it harder to pass the measure. Voters ultimately rejected any change by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Inequality, Mississippi

Paul Thomas on John Merrow and the Quality of EduJournalism

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
19

This is a blog about a blog about a blog about the state of education journalism. But that’s okay, because blogs today are where you are likely to find the liveliest writing and reporting.

 

John Merrow wrote recently that this was the golden age of education reporting.

 

I posted his comments and urged Paul Thomas to respond.

 

Paul did indeed respond, and he was not at all pleased with Merrow’s judgment.

 

Paul disagrees that we live in the best days of education writing. He says Merrow is “delusional.”

 

First, Merrow’s assertion can be true only if edujournalism was criminally horrible in the past to which he is comparing today’s journalism—which is negligently horrible.

 

 

Next, since Merrow mentions the Education Writers Association (EWA), his delusional post represents perfectly a central problem with edujournalism reflected in EWA: edujournalists are trapped within an insular norm of reporting that includes both traditional flaws in journalism (objective journalism anchored in reporting “both sides” dispassionately) and contemporary market forces that are contracting mainstream media, resulting in press-release journalism by journalists without the necessary expertise or experiences needed to report on a discipline or field….

 

The primary mainstream outlets for edujournalism are negligently horrible—unable to rise above press-release journalism, to see through the political manipulation of journalism and education, to listen to professional educators and researchers, or to critically examine assumptions about children/students, teaching and learning, and the purposes of school.

 

And worst of all, he says, is that education journalists today have no historical lens with which to view stories and so they report old news as new news. They think they have discovered something innovative when they encounter a phenomenon that is unknown to them, but well know to experts in the field. And too: they frame educational quality within a simplistic and flawed context that outcomes are primarily about individual effort (students, teachers). 

 

In short, they lack the depth or breadth to question the system in which education is embedded. And that produces press-release journalism.

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Media

Donovan Livingston: At the Core, None of Us is Common”

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
14

Donovan Livingston was the student speaker at the commencement of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2016.

 

He said:

 

 

“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin,
Is a great equalizer of the conditions of men.” – Horace Mann, 1848.
At the time of his remarks I couldn’t read — couldn’t write.
Any attempt to do so, punishable by death.
For generations we have known of knowledge’s infinite power.
Yet somehow, we’ve never questioned the keeper of the keys —
The guardians of information.

 

 

Unfortunately, I’ve seen more dividing and conquering
In this order of operations — a heinous miscalculation of reality.
For some, the only difference between a classroom and a plantation is time.
How many times must we be made to feel like quotas —
Like tokens in coined phrases? —
“Diversity. Inclusion”
There are days I feel like one, like only —
A lonely blossom in a briar patch of broken promises.
But I’ve always been a thorn in the side of injustice.

 

 

Disruptive. Talkative. A distraction.
With a passion that transcends the confines of my consciousness —
Beyond your curriculum, beyond your standards.
I stand here, a manifestation of love and pain,
With veins pumping revolution.
I am the strange fruit that grew too ripe for the poplar tree.
I am a DREAM Act, Dream Deferred incarnate.
I am a movement – an amalgam of memories America would care to forget
My past, alone won’t allow me to sit still.
So my body, like the mind
Cannot be contained.

 

 

As educators, rather than raising your voices
Over the rustling of our chains,
Take them off. Un-cuff us.
Unencumbered by the lumbering weight
Of poverty and privilege,
Policy and ignorance.

 

 

I was in the 7th grade, when Ms. Parker told me,
“Donovan, we can put your excess energy to good use!”
And she introduced me to the sound of my own voice.
She gave me a stage. A platform.
She told me that our stories are ladders
That make it easier for us to touch the stars.
So climb and grab them.
Keep climbing. Grab them.
Spill your emotions in the big dipper and pour out your soul.
Light up the world with your luminous allure.

 

 

To educate requires Galileo-like patience.
Today, when I look my students in the eyes, all I see are constellations.
If you take the time to connect the dots,
You can plot the true shape of their genius —
Shining in their darkest hour.

 

 

I look each of my students in the eyes,
And see the same light that aligned Orion’s Belt
And the pyramids of Giza.
I see the same twinkle
That guided Harriet to freedom.
I see them. Beneath their masks and mischief,
Exists an authentic frustration;
An enslavement to your standardized assessments.

 

 

At the core, none of us were meant to be common.
We were born to be comets,
Darting across space and time —
Leaving our mark as we crash into everything.
A crater is a reminder that something amazing happened here —
An indelible impact that shook up the world.
Are we not astronomers — looking for the next shooting star?
I teach in hopes of turning content, into rocket ships —
Tribulations into telescopes,
So a child can see their potential from right where they stand.
An injustice is telling them they are stars
Without acknowledging night that surrounds them.
Injustice is telling them education is the key
While you continue to change the locks.

 

 

Education is no equalizer —
Rather, it is the sleep that precedes the American Dream.
So wake up — wake up! Lift your voices
Until you’ve patched every hole in a child’s broken sky.
Wake up every child so they know of their celestial potential.
I’ve been a Black hole in the classroom for far too long;
Absorbing everything, without allowing my light escape.
But those days are done. I belong among the stars.
And so do you. And so do they.
Together, we can inspire galaxies of greatness
For generations to come.
No, sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning.
Lift off.

Categories Education Reform, Real Education

Boston Globe: College Debt Crisis is Worse than You Thought

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
36

The Boston Globe published an alarming story about the college student debt crisis. It goes like this: colleges recruit/lure low-students with promises of a better life; the students are poorly prepared; they don’t graduate; they start life with a heavy debt, not a better life.

 

 

An example:

 

Dean College sits on a pretty, leafy campus in Franklin. A former two-year college, it began offering a selection of bachelor’s degrees only about a decade ago. It now accepts about 70 percent of the students who apply, the same rate as Fitchburg State University. Last year, Dean sent a financial aid award letter to an accepted student whose family, the federal government had determined, was so poor that the “expected family contribution” (EFC) to that student’s education was zero. The college awarded the student a Dean Presidential Grant of $17,000 and another nearly $13,000 in institutional, federal, and state grants, meaning that almost $30,000 of the bill was covered and never had to be paid back. Sounds great, right? Yes, until you look at the larger numbers on the award letter. The total cost of attendance — tuition, room, board, and fees — was $53,120. That meant the gap that this “zero-EFC” student had to cover through loans and other means in order to attend was more than $23,000. Per year. Over four years — and with only modest rises for inflation factored in — that total gap could be expected to climb to around $100,000, not counting future interest payments. That’s a ton of debt, particularly for a degree from a college whose median annual salary for alumni 10 years after enrolling is just $32,700.

 

To Dean’s credit, about half of its students who pursue a bachelor’s degree manage to graduate. Contrast that with Becker College in Worcester. On its website, Becker talks about being able to trace its roots back to two signers of the Declaration of Independence. It does not, however, mention what US Department of Education data from 2012-2013 show: namely, that just 16 percent of Becker’s students managed to graduate in four years, a number that inches up only to 24 percent when the time frame is extended to six years, the federal standard for completing a bachelor’s degree. In other words, 3 out every 4 students who enrolled as freshmen at Becker failed to graduate. Nor does the website mention that, after all grants and discounts are applied, a typical zero-EFC low-income student is required to come up with more than $25,000 every single year to cover the costs of attending Becker.

 

This seems to be the operating calculus at many small, private, nonselective or less selective colleges across the region, which routinely accept more than 60 percent of applicants. Consider the average annual “net” prices — after discounts and grants have been deducted — that these colleges are charging students coming from families whose total adjusted gross annual income is $30,000 or less. At a surprising number of colleges, this annual net price represents nearly all of that family’s total income for the year.

 

It is hard to remember that college was once affordable, that community colleges were once free, that all public colleges were heavily subsidized by the state and federal governments. As these examples show, many young people and their families simply can’t afford the high cost of college, even though a diploma will increase their lifetime of earnings.

Categories Education Reform, Higher Education

Kansas Supreme Court Demands Equitable Funding or Will Close Schools

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
12

The Kansas Supreme Court threw out the legislature’s latest school funding plan and told the legislature to draft a new, equitable one by June 30. If the legislature fails to enact such a plan, the Court will close the schools.

 

Governor Sam Brownback has very little wiggle room because of the tax cuts enacted when he was elected. He is threatening to cut higher education and Medicaid to direct more funding to K-12 schools.

 

 

“The ruling was the latest volley in a long battle over public education in Kansas. A lawsuit from a coalition of school districts led the Kansas Supreme Court to order the Legislature in 2014 to increase funding to poorer districts.

 

“The court and the Legislature have been at odds ever since. In February, the court said that a solution proposed by lawmakers, to use block grants to allocate funds, had failed to address inequities in schools. In response, the Legislature passed a bill that it said gave poorer districts a fair share of funding. Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, signed the measure in April.

 

“In a 47-page ruling, the court rejected that bill, saying the Legislature’s formula “creates intolerable, and simply unfair, wealth-based disparities among the districts.”

 

“This case requires us to determine whether the state has met its burden to show that recent legislation brings the state’s K-12 public school funding system into compliance with Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution,” the ruling said. “We hold it has not.”

 

“The Legislature is expected to meet Wednesday before it officially adjourns for the session.
Ray Merrick, the House speaker, said in a statement, “The court has yet again demonstrated it is the most political body in the state of Kansas.”

 

“Dumping the ruling at 5 p.m. the day before a long weekend and holding children hostage,” Mr. Merrick said. “This despite the fact that the Legislature acted in good faith to equalize the record amounts of money going to schools.”

 

“Satisfying the court could mean spending tens of millions more on public schools, a measure that Mr. Brownback said could be achieved by making more cuts to higher education and Medicaid.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Kansas

Denis Smith: Waste, Fraud, and Corruption in the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
6

 

Denis Smith, retired school administrator who worked in Ohio’s charter school office, writes here about the stench coming from the charter industry, not only in Ohio, but in other states.

 

 

Imagine for a moment that you’re in a California television studio and Alex Trebek turns to you and two other contestants in a Final Jeopardy! segment. The famed host asks: “Name the five most commonly used words uttered about the charter school industry.”

 

 

If you answered “Will the defendant please rise?” you might have the potential to be a Jeopardy! champion. On the other hand, you may not have to be a Jeopardy! high-performer to know that as scandals in the for-profit education world continue to pile up, the number of charter school industry culprits and defendants continues to grow, as sure as there is stink on…

 

 

Well, gentle readers, since we are all in polite company, perhaps that simile can be completed privately. But yes, malodorous conditions aside, it’s quite clear that there are plenty of defendants in the proliferating, malodorous charter school industry. Plenty.

 

 

As we saw recently, there’s something about voodoo accounting that seems to be part of the DNA of charters. Here in Ohio and across the country, stories abound of treasurers mishandling millions of Ohio tax dollars, and management companies buying property and issuing leases to the school at exorbitant rates, with one Columbus school paying 81% of its state aid in rent. Add to this the sad tale about board members and school leaders of a Cleveland charter school that were indicted for payments to shell companies set up to be the repositories of state funds.

 

 

All the while, charter school scandals and corruption continue unabated. Everywhere.

 

Smith recounts the latest charter school scandals. Taxpayer funds wasted; schools closed; profits for entrepreneurs; inflated enrollments; lease deals; kickbacks.

Categories Education Reform

Ohio: State Investigates Online Charter Schools: Better Late than Never

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
9

The Ohio Department of Education under John Kasich has not been known for vigilance when it comes to the virtual charter school industry. However, increased media attention to Ohio’s pockmarked charter sector has caused the state to look into its underperforming and highly profitable virtual charters.

 

What they discovered was ugly. Inflated enrollments. Lack of evidence that students participate in instruction for the required 5 hours a day. An industry that profits while students fail.

 

The investigation focused on the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), owned by one of the state’s major contributors to Republican campaigns. William Lager has received nearly $1 billion in public funds since 2002. The money to pay for a failing online school was taken from Ohio’s public schools.

 

The New York Times wrote about ECOT a few days ago and pointed out that the online school has the largest proportion of students who fail to graduate of any high school in the nation. Only 20% finish on time.

 

Actually, it is worse than it appears. Stephen Dyer noted that ECOT accounts for 5% of the graduates in the state, but it accounts for more of the students who fail to graduate from high school than all the state’s districts combined!

 

This is a failing school! It should be closed.

 

The state may revise a regulation or two. Don’t expect anything dramatic, like shutting down the state’s lowest performing school, or basing pay on performance. That’s for public schools, not Ponzi schemes that contribute to Kasich and friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, High School Graduation, Ohio, Virtual Charter Schools

Chris in Florida Explains Why Teachers Are Leaving

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
30

Chris in Florida is a regular reader of the blog who teaches in that state. Florida is now experiencing a serious loss of teachers, as experienced teachers leave and the number of  new ones  are not enough to take their place. Is this what the reformers want? Did they plan to destroy the teaching profession or did they forget to consider the consequences of their actions?

 

 

Chris writes:

 

“My teaching friends, most of whom are retiring early thanks to having a spouse with a great pension plan or a high-paying job, have been urging me to apply for a coaching job in my district because they say I need to share my knowledge and experience with more than just my own class.

 

“I wouldn’t even consider it because A. it requires a master’s degree just to apply yet B. if you are hired as a coach you lose the paltry $1,800/year increase that a master’s degree brings you. Got that? Moving ‘up’ and taking on more responsibility actually nets you LESS pay.

 

“I have 2 master’s degrees but only get the one measly $1,800 bump (divide that by 26 yearly paychecks and I get a whopping $69.23/paycheck for completing an MA at a prestigious university with a 4.0 GPA.

 

“The step system is now outlawed; districts can’t use seniority or degrees in determining salary, though most still have the vestiges of one in place until the merit pay law goes into full effect next year.

 

“The union’s playbook on this was to negotiate a Memo of Understanding with the Superintendent that held teachers harmless until the law must be put in place permanently.

 

“The hope was that lawsuits, public outcry, and lobbying would get the law repealed or replaced. It didn’t happen during this year’s legislative session and so next year things are going to get REALLY dangerous and ugly for any teacher who doesn’t teach upper middle class white kids in our district, about 5 or 6 schools out of nearly 40.

 

“Public shaming and lobbying is less than worthless. The leaders of the Florida legislative bodies and their spouse/families all profit handsomely from charter school and voucher-related businesses and they pass multiple laws every year that further enrich themselves and their cronies.

 

“When multiple newspapers from around the state called them out for double-dipping and conflict of interest they told the voters to buzz off. They will all move into very lucrative consulting and lobbying positions after the mandatory retirement after 2 terms in the legislature so they don’t care what voters think or say at all.

 

“No other salary increases are possible unless you give up your seniority and due process rights and going the ‘bonus’ program, which to no one’s surprise, went only to teachers at upper middle class white schools. No one at a Title I schools qualified for that ‘bonus’ or the SAT/ACT ‘bonus’ because of their students’ test scores.

 

“I am less than a decade away from retirement and I realize that, because I dedicated my life to teaching poor children of color, I will never own my own home, appliances like a washer and dryer or refrigerator, have a new car, or be able to afford much more than beans and rice until I die.

 

“This is the reward Florida gives a National Board Certified teacher with 2 master’s degrees and over 20 years experience.

 

“I’m glad for the teachers who are able to leave and build a new life. I waited too long, I guess, and now will have to look at ways to continue working until I die once the DROP program forces me out.

 

“I never cared about money throughout my career or my life; I just wanted to teach kids to love learning like I did. Now, I guess, I am paying the price for my naiveté but I don’t regret a moment.

 

“I just wish we could jail all the reformers, starting with JEB! Bush, and take back our beloved profession and save our public schools before I’m gone.

 

“I’ll keep praying!”

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Florida, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teacher Tenure

Laura Chapman: Your Tax $$ at Work, Opening Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2016 //
13

Our reader and tireless researcher Laura Chapman has unearthed some interesting details about the expensive habits of the U.S. Department of Education, which relies on outside pricey consultants. For what it is worth, when I worked at the Department, there was a press officer but no outside PR form. Maybe that was the secret of Duncan’s success.

 

Chapman writes:

 

“The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ work is made possible through the generous support of the following organizations:

 
Laura and John Arnold Foundation,
Doris and Donald Fisher Fund,
The Kern Family Foundation,
Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation,
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
William E. Simon Foundation

 

And ….drumroll…

 

The National Charter School Resource Center sponsored by the US Department of Education (USDE), complete with logo. Take a look at the website that serves as a publicity machine for the charter industry, paid for with your tax dollars and mine.

 

https://www.charterschoolcenter.org

 

“The publicity for USDE’s charter school promotions is managed by Safel Partners.
Safel Partners. Is “a management consulting firm enabling education reform nationally and locally.”

 

“USDE is a “client” of Safel Partners. Among Safel clients are these:

 

“Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Safel Partners analyzed the national financial-aid landscape to inform the foundation’s portfolio strategy.

 

“Laura and John Arnold Foundation: Safel Partners analyzed teacher-effectiveness investments in four urban districts.

 

“Education Pioneers: Safel Partners helped the organization scale by redesigning operational processes.

 

“George W. Bush Institute: Safel Partners created a strategic principal-training plan.
Teach for America Houston: Safel Partners developed regional a strategic plan for the organization. http://safalpartners.com/clients

 

“USDE has employed many PR and “consulting” firms to market policies. I do not know when that practice began but WE have paid Safal Partners, Inc. $9,644,514.78
“to obtain technical assistance for the U.S. Department of Education Charter Schools Program for a range of activities, including online assistance, meetings, reports, studies, and assistance in a variety of focus areas, that could include human capital resources, facilities, authorizing, accountability, students with disabilities, English learners, military-connected children, and others.”

 

“Notice that this contract seems to allow Safel Partners to subcontract in order to obtain technical assistance…meaning that is probably does not have in-house talent for the job.

 

“If you are interested in tracking other USDE programs and their costs, you can download this spreadsheet, and do key word searches. Many of these contracts extend beyond the end of the Obama administration. https://www2.ed.gov/…/contracts/…”

Categories Education Reform, Media, U.S. Department of Education
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