Never doubt that the for-profit sector is ready to close a deal.
Here is the scenario: The results of Common Core assessments set off a panic, as passing rates on tests fall.
Entrepreneurs rush in, selling stuff to schools that have no money.
Schools lay off teachers, social workers, librarians, and guidance counselors, increase class sizes, and shutter programs to buy new stuff.
Works for everyone, no?
That is, except for kids and teachers and education.
With vouchers stalled in the Texas legislature, the privatizers turned to another strategy to create new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
They want a state district for schools with low test scores, where the state can hand the schools over to private organizations.
There is not a shred of evidence that this improves education for the children in those schools.
The models are Michigan, where the state authority turned over to segregated, impoverished black districts to for-profit charter corporations, and Tennessee, where the schools are being turned into charters.
Neither effort has studies or results; they just got started. Both represent the privatization of public education and the decimation of community schools.
I learned about this from the following comment on the blog:
From your home state:
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but it could spell disaster.
The worst schools in Texas could be placed in a special statewide school district to help turn those campuses around under legislation approved by the Senate on Wednesday. The measure by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, would establish the Texas Achievement School District to operate schools that have been rated low-performing for two consecutive years. The campuses would be removed from the jurisdiction of their regular school districts and placed in the new ASD by the state education commissioner, who would also appoint the superintendent for the statewide district.
West emphasized that low-performing schools would not have to be placed in the Achievement School District, calling it one of multiple options that could be used to handle the campuses. Asked how many campuses could be in the ASD if it were now in existence, West said as many as 15 from across the state could be under the management of the district. The ASD superintendent would be empowered with a range of options to improve achievement at the schools, including replacing staff or contracting with an alternative management group. The campus would return to its regular school district once student performance was back on track.
“Studies in other states have shown promise with this approach,” West explained. “This is the right thing to do for children that are trapped in low-performing schools.” Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick said the state must find new ways to address schools that are “perennial failures,” and he asserted that the legislation would support that goal. One senator questioned whether moving failing schools to the new Achievement School District would artificially inflate the performance ratings of their regular school districts, who would no longer have the low-achievement campuses. But West responded that the small number of schools involved would not have much impact on district ratings. Passed on a 26-5 vote, the Senate measure now goes to the House. And also, The Johns Hopkins University (of which I am an alum), is now offering an online MFA for TFA Corps members.
Remember when charter advocates said they could do a better job of educating kids with less money? You probably don’t remember, it was years ago.
The charters have forgotten it too. In Florida, the charter lobby just got $91 million from the Legislature. This is money taken from the public schools’ facilities fund. Now, instead of the facilities belonging to the public, they will belong to the private sector organizations, for-profit and nonprofit, that own the charters. The entrepreneurs keep the public money. It is theirs.
Florida is well on its way to establishing a dual school system, one public, the other charter, both paid for with public funds. Florida has some of the nation’s most aggressive for-profit charter chains, which lobby, give money to candidates, and produce poor results for kids. One of those for-profit charter chains is Mavericks, run by Frank Biden, brother of our Vice President Joe Biden. It has a spotty record. But it will now get facilities funding, thanks to adroit lobbyists and a sympathetic governor and legislature. And public schools will get less.
Dayne Sherman is going to a rally at the state capitol in Baton Rouge on April 30.
The people of Louisiana are waking up to Jindal’s war against the common weal.
Now, says Sherman, even the Legislature is turning against Jindal.
Four big issues stir public antipathy:
First, we have to repeal the tax give-aways passed under Jindal. Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) has a bill to do this very thing. We now give away an extra 2 billion dollars a year since Jindal took office. This is unsustainable, immoral, and just plain crazy. Make no mistake, if we don’t address the tax credits and corporate welfare, our state is toast.
Second, the federal Medicaid expansion has to begin sooner rather than later. According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, the expansion of Medicaid will grant 577,000 Louisiana citizens insurance coverage.
What if we don’t accept the Medicaid expansion? Your local hospital will struggle or fail, and the state will be in the red for decades to come.
Third, we have to stop selling the state piece by piece. We can’t keep giving away state assets at fire sale prices to plug budget holes. It’s ridiculous, downright goofy.
Fourth, higher education must be fully funded in Fiscal Year 2014. Colleges and universities have been cut $625 million since 2008. More cuts are planned for next year. It has to stop now or we will hamstring the Louisiana economy and harm our children.
Sherman should have added a fifth point: Jindal’s effort to privatize public education and intimidate teachers must stop.
In response to an earlier post by Robert Shepherd, asking whether it might be possible to find common ground on contentious issues, Ira Shor, a professor at the City University of New York, answers:
“Dr. Shepherd sounds like a person of good will who is extremely uncomfortable with the rash, untested, arrogant impositions of high-stakes testing so profitable to corps. like Pearson, and through which govt. officials like Jindal, Emanuel, Cuomo, Christie, etc., make whimsical decisions to disrupt communities, families, kids, and teachers, none of whom send their own kids to pub schls. The opposition consolidated by the brilliant work of Dr. Ravitch has not done any damage to pub schls, kids, teachers, or families, so to represent the issue as good will on both sides is unfortunately to define a moral equivalence of power and action which simply does not exist. The unholy alliance of govt, big biz, and billionaires has been on a warpath to seize the vast assets of pub schls and segregate them so that one huge chunk of under-regulated and overfunded pvt charter schls operates with a free hand to score profits while the other chunk of over-regulated and under-funded “regular” pub schls operates with 2 hands tied behind its back. The sides are nakedly drawn here, leaving no middle ground to play in a phantom middle.”
Suppose you were governor of Michigan and you really truly hated public education. Suppose you thought of public schools not as a beloved community institution, but as a government monopoly that must be smashed. Suppose you believe that the free market always knows best.
Suppose further that your earnest desire to get rid of public education was blocked by the state constitution.
Why, you would do exactly what Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is doing. You would have some of your top aides work with a reactionary “think tank” and come up with bold ideas to circumvent the state constitution.
You would say the project was private, and not subject to state open meetings laws. You would hope to rush the new ideas into law while your party controls the legislature.
Does it smell bad? Dors it smell like a skunk? So what. Call the project Skunk Works to mock your powerless critics.
Democratic procedures? That’s for chumps.
A movement depends on public awareness. Here is another important effort to inform the public:
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Update:
The meeting location has been moved to Gaige Hall, room 100.
SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Privatization of Public Education
High Stakes Testing, Charter Schools and more
A Public Forum
Saturday, April 27, 10am-2pm
Rhode Island College
Gaige Hall, Room 100
Join us for this public event on the movement to privatize our public schools. What is behind the push to privatize? What role do government programs like Race to the Top play? What about high-stakes testing and charter schools? And most importantly: What can we do to stop the dismantling of public education and advocate for a better model of a fully public, fully democratic, fully funded public education system?
Sponsored by:
The Coalition to Defend Public Education
Latin American Student Organization at RIC
and LIFE (student organization at RIC)
For more information, call 401-400-0373
AGENDA:
10am: Keynote Speech: Jose Soler, Labor Studies Department, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
10:20-11:20: Panel Discussion: The Privatization of Public Education: The Big Picture
Panelists Include:
Thad Lavallee, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Servio Gomez, Rhode Island College
Monica Teixeira de Sousa
11:20-12:00: Intermission (light refreshments served)
12:00-1:00: Panel Discussion: The Impact of the Privatization Reform Agenda in Rhode Island
Panelists include:
Marcia Rangell-Vassell, Providence public schools parent
Aaron Regenburg, Organizer, Providence Student Union
Brian Chidester, Coalition to Defend Public Education
Jason Stanford wonders why Texas Instruments wants every student to pass Algebra 2 as a graduation requirement. That is the current requirement. And why Texas Instruments feels so keenly about it that it hired high-powered lobbyist Sandy Kress to work the Legislature. Stanford explains why TI is so passionate about this particular subject.
Kress was the architect of No Child Left Behind. He also lobbies for Pearson. He is an outstanding lobbyist. Pearson won a $500 million contract to test kids in Texas even as the state cut funding by more than $5 billion for public schools.
Once you start following the money, it’s hard to stop.
Educators in Louisiana will rally today against Bobby Jindal’s radical privatization “reforms.”
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Media writers, reporters, editors, webmasters, bloggers:
TODAY at the Capitol — Unified Education Organizations to Address Jindal Agenda
WHO: Major State Education Organizations representing Louisiana public schools
WHAT: Press conference to announce unified opposition to re-enacting elements of Acts 1 and 2 of the 2012 Session
WHEN: TODAY — Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 3 p.m.
WHERE: Steps of the Louisiana State Capitol — located at 900 N. 3rd Street in Baton Rouge
WHICH Organizations:
Coalition for Louisiana Public Education
Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA)
Louisiana Association of School Superintendents (LASS)
Louisiana Association of School Executives (LASE)
Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE)
Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT)
An unprecedented alliance of education organizations will hold a joint press conference at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, to announce their opposition to the re-enactment of elements of Governor Bobby Jindal’s education agenda.
Act 1 and Act 2 of the 2012 Legislative Session have both been declared unconstitutional by district courts.
Instead of working with stakeholders on meaningful, research-based education reform, the governor and his allies seem intent on rehashing the same failed policies that have frustrated educators and school boards around the state.
Leaders of organizations including the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE), Louisiana Association of School Executives (LASE), Louisiana Association of School Superintendents (LASS), Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT), and Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA) will announce their unity plans at the press conference.
Look for these contacts today at the Capitol, or call them for more details:
CONTACT: LSBA — Executive Director Scott Richard – (225)769-3191
LASS — President Mike Faulk – (225) 791-0365
LAE — Communications Specialist Ashley Davies – (225) 343-9243 ext. 119.
LFT — Director of Public Relations Les Landon – (225) 923-1037
Coalition for Louisiana Public Education — Founder/Chairman Jack Loup — 985-373-1781
— jackloup@wildblue.net
Thank you for your coverage,
Mary K. Bellisario
Member, Coalition for Louisiana Public Education
bayouduo@bellsouth.net
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Leo Casey, a long-time union activist, here reviews a recent report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute decrying the immense power of teachers’ unions. Michael Petrilli of TBF described the unions as “Goliaths” battling the weak, underfunded “Davids” of the corporate reform movement.
Casey challenges the report and the characterization, pointing out that corporate reformers have deployed vast amounts of money–far greater than the teachers’ unions could ever muster–to destroy the last vestige of teacher unionism. This assures that teachers have no voice at the table when governors and legislatures decide to slash spending on education or to privatize it to the benefit of entrepreneurs and campaign contributors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 