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Michigan: Governor Snyder’s Plan to Destroy Public Education

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2014 //
17

Dale Hansen in the Detroit News explains in this blog post how Governor Rick Snyder has underfunded the public schools while claiming (falsely) to have increased funding.

By the way, the title of his article is: “Governor Rick Snyder Is Working to Destroy Public Education.”

He shows how the Governor is pushing teachers out of the pension system, contributing to its woes as there are fewer teachers to pay into it.

He shows how the Governor favors charter schools, and will continue to convert public schools into charter schools wherever and whenever possible.

More than 80% of the charters in Michigan are operated for-profit, meaning that taxpayers’ dollars are going to pay off investors and stockholders, not into the classroom where they belong.

Hansen writes:

Regardless of all of these potential problem areas, Rick Snyder and Michigan Republicans know that every school they deem failing will simply be converted to a charter school, which pulls more students out of traditional public schools. This means less teachers contributing to the public retirement fund and with fewer teachers contributing it requires the state to kick in more. The perception then becomes that greedy teachers are taking money out of the classroom and that public schools are expensive and inefficient.

This is the self-fulfilling prophecy Republicans hope will be the undoing of public schools. The Republican solution to inefficient and expensive public schools makes public schools more inefficient and expensive. It’s a win-win for Republicans. They make public schools look bad while simultaneously putting more kids on the charter school gravy train.

The question of money in education is important but when it comes to the Michigan governor’s race the better question should be, what do we want our education system to look like in the future? Do we want schools that are subject to local checks and balances or a couple massive corporations that make their money based on quantity, not quality? Because regardless of how much either candidate pledges to spend, their goals are profoundly different.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Michigan, Privatization, Testing

Microsoft and Pearson Join Forces to Create Common Core Curriculum: Are You $urprised?

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2014 //
110

A reader forwarded the following story.

Microsoft and Pearson will join forces to build “the first curriculum…for a digital personalized learning environment that is 100 percent aligned to the new standards for college and career readiness.”

Now we see the pattern on the rug.

It begins like this:

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 20, 2014

Today Pearson announced a collaboration with Microsoft Corp. that brings together the world’s leading learning company and the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions to create new applications and advance a digital education model that prepares students to thrive in an increasingly personalized learning environment. The first collaboration between the two global companies will combine Pearson’s Common Core System of Courses with the groundbreaking capabilities of the Windows 8 touchscreen environment. The Common Core System of Courses is the first curriculum built for a digital personalized learning environment that is 100 percent aligned to the new standards for college and career readiness.

“Pearson has accelerated the development of personalized digital learning environments to improve educational outcomes as well as increase student engagement,” said Larry Singer, Managing Director for Pearson’s North American School group. “Through this collaboration with Microsoft, the global leader in infrastructure and productivity tools for schools, we are creating a powerful force for helping schools leverage this educational model to accelerate student achievement and, ultimately, ensure that U.S. students are more competitive on the global stage.”

“Personalized learning for every student is a worthy and aspirational goal. By combining the power of touch, type, digital inking, multitasking and split-screen capabilities that Windows 8 with Office 365 provides with these new Pearson applications, we’re one step closer to enabling an interactive and personalized learning environment,” said Margo Day, vice president, U.S. Education, Microsoft Corp. “We’re in the middle of an exciting transformation in education, with technology fueling the movement and allowing schools to achieve this goal of personalized learning for each student.”

In addition, iLit, Pearson’s core reading program aimed at closing the adolescent literacy gap, will be optimized for the Windows 8 platform. Designed based on the proven instructional model found in the Ramp Up Literacy program, which demonstrated students gaining two years of growth in a single year, iLit offers students personalized learning support based on their own instructional needs, engaging interactivities, and built-in reward systems that motivate students and track their progress.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1748922#ixzz2uLL0Nx7J

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pearson

Nevada: Teacher Explains How Corporate Reformers “Play” with Education

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2014 //
32

From Angie Sullivan in Nevada, where the rich play, kep taxes low, and are privatizing the public schools:

“Some of the most wealthy people in the world live in Nevada.

What do billionaires and business people do for fun in Nevada?

Reform public education of course!

What do Casino Tycoon Elaine Wynn, Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, and Zappos Tony Hsieh have in common? Teach for America and ALEC inspired education reform. The return on investment model should be applied everywhere!

All this experimentation with public education – without research or time tested results , wouldn’t bother me so much if the situation were not so financially dire in the State of Nevada. Last in the nation in funding, huge at-risk populations, and limited funds to siphon for billionaire fly-by-night ideas.

Did you know that Nevada will vote on a 2% tax on businesses earning $1 million or more in November 2014? This has our education reforming billionaires really twisted. Nevada is one of the few states that does not tax corporations. This attracts billionaires who are adverse to paying . . . anything.

Did you know that Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon.com has a warehouse outside of Fernley, Nevada in the desert?

Did you know that this ecommerce company pays taxes based on location of warehouse?

Did you know that Amazon.com has a history of union-busting and treating labor poorly to maximize income?

Did you know that Amazon.com is a known tax evader and does all it can to not pay its fair share?

Did you know Jeff Bezos belonged to ALEC and ALEC aided him with his Amazon.com loopholes?

Did you know that Jeff Bezos is really excited by charter schools, privatization and union-busting? Bad news for public schools.

Did you know that Amazon.com bought Zappos?

Did you know that Tony Hsieh is the founder and still works at Zappos – which is now located in downtown Las Vegas – revitalizing the area?

Did you know that Tony Hsieh is involved with Teach for America and plans to continue to bring at least 1,000 TFA to Vegas?

Teach for America are young and excited but they aren’t trained to be teachers – unless you think a few weeks is enough. 150 Teach for America were hired in Vegas at the same time 1400 fully licensed Teachers were pink slipped resulting in union-busting.

Did you know TFA mingle with Zappos employees, even going on spring break trips and retreats together?

Did you know that Victor Wakefield, Executive Director of Teach for America, is married to Nevada State School board member (former TFA) Alexis Gonsalez-Black, Zappos?

Did you know that Elaine Wynn, Casino Tycoon, and Tony Hsieh, Zappos donated heavily to the Nevada State Election Campaigns of Alexis Gonsalez-Black and Allison Serafin? President Elaine Wynn, Alexis Gonsalez-Black and Allison Serafin who all have connections to big money and Teach for America sit on the Nevada State Education Board. Hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars spent on unpaid board seats — one has to ask . . . why?

Did you know that during the last legislative session the NV assembly prevented TFA from receiving additional tax payer funds for its non-profit. And TFA then went to CCSD and asked for additional funds – this was rejected. And then TFA went to the City of Las Vegas – and received money from the city . . . unprecedented “education funding” to a cash flushed non-profit? Public Schools recently endured one billion in budget cuts but there is money for this?

Did you know that Teach for America is becoming a major political player and national campaign contributor – as a non-profit?

Did you know that Governors in other states refused to give TFA money because they had so much? $350 million in net assets.

Did you know that education philantrophy makes a nice non-profit tax shelter.

Did you know that Elaine Wynn is President of the National Non-Profit Communities in Schools- which declares an unbelievable and most likely unprovable – drop out prevention (return on business investment) success story?

Wynn donates hundreds of thousands across the nation to Communities in Schools – she is so kind!

And her international $135 million giving to Macau was even cause for investigation! The SEC called the gift suspicious; More suspicious is Wynn’s appointment by the Governor of Reno to the Nevada State School Board while being investigated?

Does anyone see a pattern with these business oriented billionaires and their plans for public schools? When public education is a large portion of the state budget and you are a billionaire partially because of sketchy business practices and tax dodging . . . it makes sense that you want to distract everyone by reforming public schools instead of paying your fair share and funding schools adequately.

Nevada needs the community to vote for the TEI in November 2014.

The high rolling billionaires need to pay their fair share this time around instead of coming up with “great education ideas” that don’t work.

http://www.theeducationinitiative.com/

Angie”

Notes and Links:

Jeff Bezos

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-known-for-patience-focus-on-detail-in-his-business-ventures/2013/08/05/477a8806-fe13-11e2-96a8-d3b921c0924a_story.html

Amazon is required to collect the tax only in states where it maintains a physical presence, such as a warehouse. But Amazon now is supporting the bill, which has passed the Senate and is pending in the House. State sales taxes no longer pose a real threat to Amazon; with an emphasis on same-day shipping, the company is building distribution warehouses across the country and would have to pay the tax anyway.

The Bezos Family Foundation — whose board includes Bezos, his parents and other family members — gave more than $11 million in 2011 to an array of national organizations such as Teach for America, Stand for Children and the KIPP Foundation, according to tax filings. The foundation also gave grants to scores of individual schools around the country as well as several charter school chains, including Uncommon Schools, which operates schools in New York and Massachusetts.

http://askville.amazon.com/address-Amazon-warehouse-Sparks-Nevada/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=9142399

Amazon.com Inc
1600 Newlands Dr E
Fernley, NV 89408

(775) 575-8000

http://www.amazon.com/Locations-Products-Careers/b?ie=UTF8&node=14237861

Fulfillment and Warehouse Centers

We receive, pack, and ship tens of millions of items from our global network of fulfillment centers.
North America
* New Castle, Delaware
* Coffeyville, Kansas
* Campbellsville, Kentucky
* Hebron, Kentucky
* Lexington, Kentucky
* Fernley, Nevada
* Red Rock, Nevada
* Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
* Carlisle, Pennsylvania
* Lewisberry, Pennsylvania
* Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/41846337.html?device=tablet
Close of facility in Red Rock, Nevada – Fernley still opened

http://www.housmans.com/boycottamazon.php
Amazon are Union Busters
Amazon have a little-reported, but undeniable record of preventing their work force from unionising. In 2001, Amazon.co.uk hired a US management consultancy organisation, The Burke Group, to assist in defeating a campaign by the Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU, now part of Unite the Union) to achieve recognition in the Milton Keynes distribution depot. It was alleged that the company sacked four union members during the 2001 recognition drive and held a series of captive meetings with employees.
Unionbusting

http://www.housmans.com/boycottamazon.php
Tax dodging and union busting

Amazon’s workplace practices have come under fire in recent years. News outlets have detailed everything from the exhausting nature of warehouse work (employees can walk as much as 15 miles daily) to ambulances waiting outside a facility to collect workers who overheated because of a lack of air conditioning. Warehouse workers in Germany have walked out several times over wage issues. Some later traveled to Seattle to picket in front of Amazon’s headquarters.

Read more: How Amazon Crushed the Union Movement | TIME.com http://business.time.com/2014/01/16/how-amazon-crushed-the-union-movement/#ixzz2tHJIic4x

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
Purchase of Wasington Post

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/16/jeff-bezos-washington-post
Bezo’s Politics called into questions

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/08/07/the-politics-of-jeff-bezos/
Donations to keep from being taxed
Family big support’s of charter schools
Donations on both sides of the aisle.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/08/05/jeff_bezos_inscrutable_libertarian_democrat.html
Donation to gay marriage equality
Donations to various candidates
Donations to defeat taxes

http://www.alternet.org/media/what-will-washington-post-be-under-jeff-bezos
But what has not made news is Bezos’ careful activism on behalf of big business and some of the richest Americans. In 2010, a coalition of Washington state public interest groups, teachers and socially minded wealthy Americans like Hanauer and Bill Gates Sr. supported Initiative 1098, which would have established the first-ever income tax in the state. If passed, the initiative would’ve established a tax on adjusted gross income for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and $400,000 on married couples or domestic partners. By taxing high-income Washingtonians, the initiative would also have allowed for a reduction in property taxes and the expansion of certain business tax credits.

http://www.thenation.com/article/168109/protesters-confront-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos#
Amazon has also taken heat for its membership in ALEC—the American Legislative Executive Council—a corporate-funded group that backs right-wing politicians. ALEC also drafts and promotes laws like those that effectively disenfranchised large numbers of minority voters, the “Stand Your Ground” legislation that has resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin and a number of other people, and the anti-union laws brought to national attention by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

And Amazon was behind the curve in withdrawing from ALEC, lagging well behind companies such as KFC, Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Intuit, McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Kraft Foods. Most of these companies left ALEC more than a month ago, when revelations about its role in “Stand Your Ground” gave renewed momentum to demands that corporations leave it.

But then, ALEC has treated Amazon very well. It has defended the “Amazon loophole” that allows online sellers to avoid charging sales taxes the way other businesses do. This unfair advantage has given Amazon a lot more clout against neighborhood bookstores and retail book chains—clout it has used to drive many of them out of business.

Bezos is a libertarian who reportedly exults in the fact that Amazon’s loophole prevents the government from collecting taxes. He appears to exemplify a certain kind of Internet or computer entrepreneur—call them “digital libertarians”—who can be visionaries in technological and cultural ways and yet blind to social and economic realities.

http://news.rapgenius.com/The-bilderberg-group-list-of-attendees-for-2013-bilderberg-group-meeting-annotated#note-1837452
Bilderberg Group

Jeff Bezos: Worse Than We Thought


Privatization and Union-Busting

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175627/jeff-bezoss-other-endeavor-charter-schools-neoliberal-education-reforms

There’s one area where Bezos has been hyper-active, but it is largely unknown to the general public: education reform. A look at the Bezos Family Foundation, which was founded by Jackie and Mike Bezos but is financed primarily by Jeff Bezos, reveals a fairly aggressive effort in recent years to press forward with a neoliberal education agenda:

• The Bezos Foundation has donated to Education Reform Now, a nonprofit organization that funds attack advertisements against teachers’ unions and other advocacy efforts to promote test-based evaluations of teachers. Education Reform Now also sponsors Democrats for Education Reform.

• The Bezos Foundation provided $500,000 to NBC Universal to sponsor the Education Nation, a media series devoted to debating high-stakes testing, charter schools and other education reforms.

• The Bezos Foundation provided over $100,000 worth of Amazon stock to the League of Education Voters Foundation to help pass the education reform in Washington State. Last year, the group helped pass I-1240, a ballot measure that created a charter school system in Washington State. In many states, charter schools open the door for privatization by inviting for-profit charter management companies to take over public schools that are ostensibly run by nonprofits.

Other education philanthropy supported by the Bezos Foundation include KIPP, Teach for America and many individual charter schools, including privately funded math and science programs across the country.

But will Bezos’ interest in changing education policy affect his control of the Post? Only time will tell.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18129-jeff-bezoss-other-endeavor-charter-schools-neoliberal-education-reforms

The most troubling part of Amazon’s record, as it might relate to Bezos’ ownership of thePost, is Amazon’s December 2010 decision to shut down WikiLeaks’s server access after the group published a trove of State Department cables. Robert McChesney, citing Amazon’s move to pull the plug on WikiLeaks, released a statement today condemning the sale.

Tony Hsieh – Zappos
The http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100601/why-i-sold-zappos.html
acquisition closed on November 1, at a valuation of $1.2 billion (based on Amazon’s stock price on the day of closing). Our investors at Sequoia made $248 million. Our board was replaced by a management committee that includes me, Jeff, two Amazon executives, and two Zappos executives. As CEO, I report to the committee every quarter, and Zappos is responsible for hitting revenue and profitability numbers. But unlike our former board of directors, our new management committee seems to understand the importance of our culture — the “social experiments” — to our long-term success. In fact, one Amazon distribution center recently began experimenting with its own version of Zappos’s policy of paying new employees $2,000 to quit if they’re unhappy with their jobs.
The acquisition closed on November 1, at a valuation of $1.2 billion (based on Amazon’s stock price on the day of closing). Our investors at Sequoia made $248 million. Our board was replaced by a management committee that includes me, Jeff, two Amazon executives, and two Zappos executives. As CEO, I report to the committee every quarter, and Zappos is responsible for hitting revenue and profitability numbers. But unlike our former board of directors, our new management committee seems to understand the importance of our culture — the “social experiments” — to our long-term success. In fact, one Amazon distribution center recently began experimenting with its own version of Zappos’s policy of paying new employees $2,000 to quit if they’re unhappy with their jobs.

http://retailindustry.about.com/b/2013/07/22/happy-amazappian-anniversary-for-jeff-bezos-and-tony-hsieh-how-two-visionary-leaders-leveraged-success-in-four-short-years-amzn.htm

Four years ago today on July 22, 2009, Amazon.com finalized an agreement to acquire Zappos.com for $807 million. Since both of these internet-based retail companies have a global reputation for their customer-centric missions and associated fanatic customer loyalty, the union of Amazon and Zappos was logical, expected, and controversy-free. By all reports today is an anniversary of AmaZappian bliss for leaders Jeff Bezos and Tony Hsieh, who have both been busy leveraging their success over the past four years.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/10/add-education-zappos-downtown-investment-forays/

As Zappos prepares to relocate to downtown Las Vegas, its growing list of investments in the area now includes more than $1 million to lure dedicated teachers to the area’s schools.

Teach For America, which trains teachers to work in schools that serve children from households in poverty, will receive a donation of $300,000 from the company and $1.2 million from CEO Tony Hsieh.

Allison Serafin, a special consultant to Clark County Schools Superintendent Dwight Jones, also went through Teach For America’s program after graduating from Texas Christian University in political science and social work.

“It completely changed my life,” Serafin said. “I was able to see firsthand through the experience of teaching my sixth-graders that the students were brilliant and capable.”

Serafin, who works by contract with the School District, called Teach For America one of “many excellent partners who share the same commitment to students … and a commitment that all children can achieve.”

http://vator.tv/competition/las-vegas-valley-alternative-spring-break

Zappos Spring Break – Teach for America
What is it?
The Teach For America – Las Vegas Valley & the Zappos Family of Companies Alternative Spring Break is intended to spark bold, new innovations that expand opportunities and close the achievement gap in the Las Vegas Valley community. Applicants will submit a response to one of three challenges being posed via video by three Las Vegas Valley corps members. Twenty five students from across the country will be selected and will be invited to join Teach For America- Las Vegas Valley, the Zappos Family of Companies, and Las Vegas Valley community leaders for an all expenses paid alternative spring break trip to the Las Vegas Valley in March. Programming will be Monday to Friday (with travel on Sunday, the 18th and Saturday, the 24th) and will include travel, all meals, activities, and housing, which will be with current Las Vegas Valley corps members. Participants will continue the spirit of social innovation and tackle community, school, and business challenges in Las Vegas with the Zappos Family of Companies, Teach For America corps members and staff, and other Las Vegas Valley community leaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_For_America
According to a 2009 USA Today article, Teach For America has been criticized by opponents who claim that the program replaces experienced teachers with brand-new employees who have had only five weeks of training during the summer and are brought in at beginners’ salary levels. John Wilson, executive director of the National Education Association, sent a memo in May 2009 stating that union leaders were “beginning to see school systems lay off teachers and then hire Teach For America college grads due to a contract they signed.” Wilson went on to say that Teach For America brings in “the least-prepared and the least-experienced teachers” into low-income schools and makes them “the teacher of record.”[16]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/may/20/legislative-showdown-brewing-over-2-million-teach-/

Fixing Cities: Fixing the world

For Hsieh, though, this was part of the appeal. Transforming downtown Vegas would “ultimately help us attract and retain more employees for Zappos.” For the city itself, it would “help revitalize the economy.” More important, it would “inspire,” a word Hsieh uses often. Hsieh closed his presentation at the faux log cabin high above the desert with the sort of fact he seems to always have on hand: up to 75 percent of the world’s population will call cities home in our lifetime. “So,” he concluded, “if you fix cities, you kind of fix the world.”

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tony-hsieh-las-vegas-zappos/

1,000 Teach for America Core Members
But now, he has to build the neighborhood. Much of the plans are already in the works. Plans are being finalized for 21,000 square feet of “co-working” space along the lines of General Assembly in New York. The small business development team is exploring building a back-office technology platform that the mom and pop shops can share to handle accounting, inventory, payroll and the like. Hsieh has made a $1.5 million deal with Teach for America to bring 1,000 core members and alumni to live and teach in the area. He is talking to the creators of the Burning Man festival about supplying art to the neighborhood. Party buses? He and his team are in the process of acquiring and revamping a dozen. Oh, and Hsieh is also part of a group trying to buy the Las Vegas 51s, the farm team; cue the new stadium plans.

http://edushyster.com/?p=1912

There remains but one question for us to answer, dear reader: is there a way for the tax payers of Nevada to increase their stake in the excellence project that is Teach for America? Good news again. In his state-of-the-union address, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval announced that the state is ponying up $2 million to bring still more TFA recruits to the Sagebrush State. Of course not everyone here is rolling out the welcome mat for the excellence express. Take the residents of Towne Terrace, a down-at-the-heels apartment complex in downtown Las Vegas, purchased by Zappos magnate (and Alexis Gonzales-Black employer) Tony Hseih who dreams of repopulating the entire area with more than 1,000 TFA corps members and alum. Except that the residents of the Towne Terrace made it exceedingly clear that they had no interest in being evicted to make way for excellence. Oh well, next time…

http://downtownproject.com/2012/teach-for-america-has-a-lot-to-celebrate/
In addition to this week’s activities and the recruiters’ conference in May, our local TFA team has more excitement to look forward to in the very near future. They’ll be welcoming their new corps members for induction week during June and will be relocating their offices to Downtown in July.

Alexis Gonzales-Black
Holacracy Implementation Team
Las Vegas, Nevada (Las Vegas, Nevada Area) Human Resources
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisgonzalesblack?_mSplash=1

http://www.alexisfornv.com/

http://www.doe.nv.gov/State_Board_Education_Members/

$50million in education initiatives? Downtown Projects
http://downtownproject.com/2011/downtown-project-designates-50-million-in-funding-for-education-initiatives/

Victor Wakefield ( married to Alexis Gonzales-Blavk) TFA Leadership Nevada
Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers to Las Vegas is an important aspect of Downtown Project’s education initiatives as it partners with Teach for America. “The largest ingredient in school quality, just like in urban success, is human capital—the talents of the teachers,” writes Glaeser. It’s a sentiment echoed by Victor Wakefield, executive director of Teach for America-Las Vegas Valley.

Victor Wakefield

http://www.teachforamerica.org/where-we-work/las-vegas-valley

Nevada funding for cash flush TFA

http://www.lasvegassun.com/vegasdeluxe/2013/jul/23/las-vegas-city-council-weighing-support-embattled-/

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/apr/11/money-okd-bring-150-more-teach-america-educators-c/

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/teach-for-america-rises-as-political-powerhouse-98586.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/25/why-minnesota-governor-vetoed-teach-for-america-funding/

http://www.communitiesinschools.org/press-room/resource/philanthropist-elaine-wynn-makes-5-million-donatio
Elaine Wynn Chair National Communities in Schools

Mrs. Wynn has been a member of the Communities In Schools’ board of directors since 2000, assuming the Chair position in 2007. Under Mrs. Wynn’s leadership, the organization has focused on data-driven results, including the release of a five-year, third-party evaluation, a return on investment report, and annual program results demonstrating that the organization’s cost-effective model is effective in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/former-wynn-partner-okada-calls-macau-donation-suspicious-2-.html

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/dec/17/governor-taps-elaine-wynn-state-education-board/

Kazuo Okada, a co-founder of Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) who is locked in a legal battle with his former partner Steve Wynn, accused the company of making a “suspicious” $135 million donation to a Macau university.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Economy, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit

Milwaukee: Poster District for the Failure of Corporate Reform

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2014 //
19

Bob Peterson here writes about the fate of Milwaukee which is a model city for almost every bad idea of the corporate reform movement.

Milwaukee has had vouchers and charters since 1990. The voucher schools and charter schools do not outperform the public schools. The public schools have disproportionate numbers of students with special needs, who Re not wanted by the voucher and charter schools.

Some of the charter and voucher schools are abysmal and should never have been funded or kept open.

On the NAEP, Milwaukee is one of the nation’s lowest performing districts.

The current school board now wants to turn its lowest-performing schools into charters, even though their record is no better than public schools.

The public schools are slowly and surely dying. The children are not benefitting.

One of our nation’s basic democratic institutions is being abandoned by those responsible for its health.

This is called “reform.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Milwaukee, Vouchers

Teacher: Who Is Making Real Money? Vendors.

By dianeravitch
March 2, 2014 //
118

A teacher describes the incessant arrival and departure of vendors, each with a different program and remedies:

“From what I noticed as a teacher, the extra money given to the low performing schools was used to pay VENDORS. Our school district paid some company to come in and “help” the teachers. The guy walked around a lot, then hired people from all over the US. My “helper” came to MI all the way from Vermont. She probably made more than me and her plane fare and hotel was paid.
We got a new Algebra program called Carnegie. I went to training for 2 weeks and then once a month. After two years, all the trained teachers were gone. I was the only one left. Then that was abandoned and we got the TI-inspire calculators. I was trained on that and loved it. After all the training, they sent me to an elementary school. I noticed the teacher had the calculators but not the laptop and router that is part of it.

“Now they had me teaching reading and we had 2-3 reading programs going on at once and vendors running all over the schools having meetings. We bought thousands of books and then the school was taken over by the EAA. (Check that state school takeover out).

“My point is that the vendors are making promises and they get money and the kids are the guinea pigs.”

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit

Help These Kids Go to Finland!

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
15

A friend passed along this email.

What an awesome threesome!

The Boston Consulting Group (whose reports always recommend privatization, as in Philadelphia); the Harvard Business School; and the Gates Foundation.

Lots of bright young men and women, probably graduates of our finest private schools. They will redesign public education for other people’s children. They need some good ideas.

I propose they take a field trip to Finland. There they will see happy, healthy children; no standardized testing; strong academic and vocational-technical programs; and a well-prepared, highly respected teaching profession.

What are the metrics? That will be their challenge!

Time for fresh thinking! Time to break the mold! Abandon the status quo of high-stakes testing and privatization!

Here goes:

“As part of an effort to improve the competitiveness of the United States, BCG has partnered with Harvard Business School and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to bring business and education leaders together to better understand how they can collaborate and transform America’s PK-12 education system.

“The BCG-Gates-HBS PK-12 research focuses on best practices for partnerships between business leaders and educators to accelerate improvement in America’s schools. The research has identified three high-leverage ways in which business leaders can engage with educators to bring about significant change for the better:

* Laying the policy foundations for education innovation
* Scaling up proven innovations that boost student outcomes
* Reinventing the local education ecosystem in cities and regions

“It is our pleasure to share with you two joint research reports on these important topics. We hope the first report, Lasting Impact: A Business Leader’s Playbook for Supporting America’s Schools, will inspire business and education leaders to work together on the urgent task of transforming the nation’s education system. The second report, Partial Credit: How America’s School Superintendents See Business as a Partner, summarizes the findings of a nationwide survey of school superintendents on business’s role in education.

“In 2014, we aim to spur action on many of the ideas that have been captured in the research so far. We welcome your thoughts and input on the material.

Best regards,

J. Puckett
Leader, Global Education Practice Tyce Henry
Principal
Nithya Vaduganathan
Principal

The Boston Consulting Group”

Categories Boston Consulting Group, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

What Matters Most in Teaching Can’t Be Quantified

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
29

Another great column from Myra Blackmon in the Athens (Georgia) Banner-Herald, explains the education industry and its obsession with data.

She writes:

“Some folks believe that if you can’t quantify something, it isn’t worth bothering with. People in power are often so obsessed with the data, the numbers, and the profits they often lose sight of the people behind the information.

Such is the case with the massive educational “evaluation” being pushed by so-called reformers. Many of these high-level reformers — Bill Gates, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others — know little or nothing about teaching and learning in our public schools. Bill Gates’ children attended Lakeside Academy in Seattle, where tuition approaches $30,000 a year. One of Michael Bloomberg’s daughters was featured in a documentary “Born Rich” about growing up with tremendous wealth.”

PS: the editors should note that Bill Gates put $200 million into the Common Core standards, not $200,000 (which would be chicken feed for Gates).

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pearson, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Ohio: Do Legislators Really Want the Best Education for Children? Or…

By dianeravitch
February 20, 2014 //
7

A reader asked the question:

 

Money for Education Misplaced
If Ohio legislators truly want the best education for all children then why are most public school students from third to tenth graders required to take 17 standardized tests, written by a variety of educational vendors, while private school students take one, the OGT?

Why is the state of Ohio giving tax credit scholarships for some students to attend one of at least 20 private schools that teach creationism and the age of the Earth to be between 6-10,000 years old?

Why are legislators defunding public schools to handover nearly a billion dollars annually to for profit businesses to manage charter schools?

The Columbus Dispatch reported in September 2013 that nearly 84,000 Ohio students, or roughly 87 percent of the state’s charter-school students, attend a charter ranked D or F by the state. For comparison, 75% of public schools were rated C or better. Since 1997, roughly 30% of the charter schools have closed and their median life is 4 years. Furthermore, charter schools now receive $5,745 per student from money that is deducted from the state aid going to the student’s home district.

So the state is taking money out of a system that could use it and spending it in a system in which 87% of their schools are rated poorly and 3 in ten 10 have closed over the last 15 years.

Charter schools also are exempt from hundreds of references in Ohio Revised Code. For example, charter schools do not have to follow the detailed prescribed curriculum like math, science, and reading that are required in public schools nor do they have to annually report the names, salaries, college experience, degrees earned, or type of teaching license held by their staff; hard to believe.
The irony to all of this is lawmakers must feel certain regulations would hurt charter schools, which is why they are exempted, yet legislators have no problem using these laws to regulate public schools and their students.
Ohio does have tough laws to close charter schools but loopholes in the law keeps these failing schools open under a new name and new management. It is time to let charter schools fund themselves and to keep public dollars in public schools.

 

Matt Bistritz
Twinsburg
216-990-3630

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Ohio, Privatization

The Perils of Privatization: Good News

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2014 //
1

A report from “In the Public Interest,” an organization that tracks privatization.
The outlook for the profiteers is not so bright. That is good news. So is the news from Alaska and Maine.

“National: As U.S. revenues of for-profit education companies slump, they look overseas for greener pastures. “Outside the U.S., it’s a wide-open area to run in without as much scrutiny,” says Michael Moe, chief executive officer of GSV Capital Corp. There is speculation that as part of a reshuffle of the Washington Post’s parent company, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway may acquire Kaplan. Kaplan International teachers will be rallying this Thursday at Kaplan’s New York office to demand a fair contract. “A year-and-a-half after voting overwhelmingly for Guild representation, Teachers at Kaplans International Colleges are still fighting for a contract that provides basic benefits for the 90% of the workforce that is part-time. Management refuses to budge. Kaplan ESL instructors, backed by their students, say enough is enough.”

I was also happy to learn from this site that school voucher legislation is stalled in Alaska because two Republican senators are worried about how vouchers will affect public schools. I testified by telephone to the Slaska legislative committee, and I am pleased to see that the committee is thinking through the consequences of this reckless proposal. Many realize it has nothing to do with education.

In Maine, a state legislative committee voted 11-2 to impose a moratorium on virtual charter schools, which is a priority of Governor Paul LePage, a disciple of Jeb Bush. There is interest in a virtual charter controlled by the state, not by external for-profit corporations. Legislators may have been thinking of the 2012 award-winning news story about the political and financial interests–the profit motive–behind the push for virtual charters in Maine.

About once or twice a month, In the Public Interest sends out an email newsletter highlighting major issues and the latest news on privatization and responsible contracting. We keep you informed on new resources and efforts around the country to protect democratic control of public services and assets. *We never ask for donations.*

http://www.facebook.com/InThePublicInterest

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization, Vouchers

Pennsylvania Cybercharters: The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

By dianeravitch
February 18, 2014 //
3

A reader offers this perspicacious view of Pennsylvania’s cybercharter industry. There are 16 of them in the state. The founders of two of the major cybercharters are currently under indictment for siphoning millions of dollars of public funds:

The reader writes:

“Running a cyber-charter in PA is as good as printing money. No oversight and a system that completely ignores the actual costs of the system. If the Commonwealth of PA went shopping for used cars the same way, it would walk onto the lot and tell the salesman, “Here’s twenty grand. Pick out any car for me that you want, and keep the change.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Pennsylvania
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