Archives for category: For-Profit
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The Inside Story of Great Hearts Charter in Nashville

By dianeravitch
September 20, 2012 //
10

We have been following the unfolding saga of the Metro Nashville school board’s refusal to approve a charter for the Great Hearts charter school in Arizona. The school board voted four times to deny the charter. The state board and the education commissioner Kevin Huffman ordered the Metro Nashville school board to approve the charter but it refused. The state is punishing Nashville by withholding $3.4 million from the district. So far, what we know about this affair is what we have read in the local Nashville newspapers. But here is an insider’s report about why Great Hearts has been turned down four times. Please read the Google document that is linked. It contains links and documentation. It is an eye-opener.

The reader writes:

“Wow, this is SO very needed for me as I sit here after a REALLY long day of just shaking my head at the insanity that is going on in the city that I call home (Nashville). I can not tell you how much I appreciate the breath of fresh air from all of your comments.

“Our newly elected board took a stand for ALL of our students with their 4th and final denial of Great Hearts. There was enormous pressure from the Mayor and our state officials and our Governor. The most ironic part of the 3.4 million dollar fine is the fact that it is from the BEP funds that are designated for “non-classroom”. Several things fall under that heading and of them is transportation. So the state has decided to withhold money that would go toward transporting our children to school who are Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL), in zone but not within walking distance or who are disabled.

“Do you know one of the major sticking points for why Great Hearts did not get approval? Transportation! They did not want to provide adequate transportation for students that were outside of the affluent west Nashville location. Their plan was to provide MTA bus passes for (FRL) kids that are old enough to ride mass transit and then they were going to provide limited busing to a specific neighborhood if the demand was great enough. Sounds pretty good until you get to the part that they were only going to do it for 2 years. Apparently after 2 years those kids’ families were magically going to come into some money to be able to buy a car or quit their second job or whatever so they could drive their child to and from school that is across town.

“So it seems that the state has shown us exactly how they feel about our students that need transportation. When they tried to bully the elected board into approving a charter that did not meet diversity requirements via transportation to the school or location of the school it didn’t work. Now they are punishing the very kids that would have been punished by approving a charter that did not give them adequate access. Oh the irony.

“I wrote an open letter to Nashville prior to the last board meeting which lays out the whole mess and the reasons Great Hearts’ business model was not a good fit for ALL of our children and therefore not a good fit for Nashville. You can read it here if you want all the details.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx0LSuayKtIWTlI0Zy1pM2U3WkE/edit?pli=1

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, Tennessee

Did President Obama Embrace the GOP Agenda?

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2012 //
23

The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute has published a paper commending President Obama for standing up to teachers’ unions.

The paper compares President Obama’s support for school choice and evaluation of teachers by test scores as a “Nixon-to-China” paradigm shift.

In other words, the paper suggests, Obama’s education policy has done a full pivot, aligning it with the traditional GOP agenda.

Can anyone explain this?

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, For-Profit, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Unions

What Is The Mind Trust?

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2012 //
11

When I first read that The Mind Trust had proposed a sweeping reorganization of the Indianapolis public schools, I assumed it was another reform scheme to dismantle and privatize public education.

But I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, so I held my tongue. I decided to wait and see.

Today I received an invitation from The Mind Trust to hear one of the nation’s leading voucher advocates and all doubt was dispelled.

When I saw that the event was co-sponsored by the anti-teacher, anti-public school group “Stand for Children,” as well as Education Reform Now (the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ front-group), no further question remained.

Something tells me that Howard Fuller, the speaker, won’t acknowledge that the children in voucher schools do no better than those in public schools. Nor will he admit that black children in Milwaukee schools, whether public, charter or voucher, have NAEP scores about the same as black children in Mississippi. That’s the result of 21 years of competition, with public dollars divided three ways.

Indiana, once so proud of its tradition of public schooling, is now the playground for privatization, for-profit charters, TFA, and entrepreneurs of all stripes.

Time for Hoosiers to wake up before the reformers sell off or give away the public sector.

Categories Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Privatization, Teach for America TFA, Vouchers, Wisconsin

TFA Leading Corporate Reforms in Indiana

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2012 //
15

Read this glowing report about how TFA alums have taken over leadership roles across Indiana, with 11 working in the State Education Department.

This is a state where the Republican Governor and Legislature have passed voucher legislation, encouraged the proliferation of charter schools, and welcomed for-profit schooling. It is the full rightwing agenda, exceeded perhaps in scope and ambition only by Bobby Jindal’s privatization agenda (which is led by TFA alum John White).

Near the end of the article, the reporter finds an experienced educator or two to wonder whether five weeks of training is sufficient, but the rest of the piece glows with adulation for the kids who are reshaping the state along the lines of corporate-style reform.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Teach for America TFA

Who Are the Members of Florida’s Board of Education?UPDATE!

By dianeravitch
September 16, 2012 //
8

This blogger wondered who was appointed to the Florida state board. This is a powerful board that selects the state commissioner of education and sets policy for the children, teachers, and schools of the state. The board has given the green light to charters, vouchers, online schools, for-profit schools, any alternative that anyone can dream of.

Who are these people? Read the post and you will understand.

Read it and you will see how Florida became a Mecca for privatization.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, Privatization, Vouchers

Is It Time to Sell K12 Stock Short?

By dianeravitch
September 15, 2012 //
5

This investment service says the trend is downward, and it’s a good time to go short on K12. High student churn, poor results, increasing government scrutiny do not augur well for the future of for-profit virtual schooling.

Categories For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Will Ohio Investigate K12 Online For-Profit Charters?

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2012 //
3

Stephen Dyer raises the question about whether Ohio will follow in Florida’s path and open an investigation of the K12 for-profit school. In Ohio, K12 has classes of 51 students to a single teacher even though it is paid to have a ratio of 20:1.

That is way profitable for K12, though not for the students.

Dyer’s article includes a link to a story about the sharp drop in K12’s stock price that occurred after news of the Florida investigation broke. That story points out that K12 is under investigation in Georgia as well as Florida.

You do have to wonder at what point Secretary of Education Arne Duncan might speak out against the poor quality of online for-profit charter schools and other for-profit entrepreneurs that raid school budgets and produce terrible results. Will he?

Categories Florida, For-Profit, K12 Inc., Ohio, On-Line Education, Privatization

Why the Teacher Bashing?

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2012 //
17

This Chicago teacher sees a sinister motive in the avalanche of hostility to teachers. Teachers were always considered admirable even though teaching was not well paid and not very prestigious. But these days, teachers have become “enemies,” who soak up money and do little work, who get “paid for breathing” and “tenure for life.” None of this is true. This teacher sees a dark side:

The teacher bashing was key to changing public perception about teachers because in order to squeeze money out of cash-strapped districts, you have to cut personnel. It certainly was unfair and hurt, but it was just a tactic in a larger war to privatize a public good.

This is about Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Generation and Apple iPads delivering online tests 4 or more times a year to every child K-12 in Chicago. And re-selling student data to CPS to evaluate every teacher.

This is about a brutal teacher eval methodology based on junk science. It is imposed at the same time as tough common core tests that most believe children will do poorly on. And all to provide an excuse to fire roughly 6,000 CPS teachers and vastly increase class sizes.

This is about remaking the 3rd largest school district in the nation as a scalable market for Rupert Murdoch’s and Apple’s benefit. This is about hedge fund managers placing their bets on these companies getting huge contracts in the largest school districts — that is why they have flooded Chicago with tv and radio ads demonizing teachers.

And this is about Democrats raising billions of dollars in campaign funding.

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

Should Schools Be Run Like Businesses?

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
5

Listen to an excellent panel discussion, featuring the brilliant Dissent writer Joanne Barkan. She is the author of “Got Dough: How Billionaires Rule Our Schools,” which you should read.

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

K12 Cyber Schools in Trouble Again

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2012 //
3

K12, the giant cyber corporation that sells for-profit schooling, is in trouble in Seminole County, Florida, because the state insists that teachers must be certified. But having certified teachers is more expensive than having uncertified teachers, which cuts into K12’s profit margins.

The Florida Department of Education has opened an investigation into K12.

So, you can see, this is a big problem for regulators, who have this quaint attachment to the idea that teachers should meet a standard of some sort, but also for K12, whose profit margins are at risk.

You will note in the first article that K12 has another problem: The NCAA refuses to accept the credits of K12’s online program Aventa Learning, because of low standards. So student athletes hoping to get a quick and easy degree by point-and-click will have to enroll elsewhere, perhaps in a real school.

Former Governor Jeb Bush has been selling online schooling all over the country, as a win-win (cut costs, make money), and he wields influence in Florida. The investigation should be interesting.

 

 

 

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Florida, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization
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