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Oklahoma: Republican County Chair Recommends That State Stop Paying for Public Schools

By dianeravitch
December 1, 2018 //
48

The Republican Party chair of Canadian County in Oklahoma wrote a letter proposing that the state stop financing public education.

Andrew Lopez, Republican Party chair for suburban Oklahoma City’s Canadian County, signed the letter sent last week. It requested that the state no longer manage the public school system, or at least consider consolidating school districts. Public schools should seek operational money from sponsorships, advertising, endowments and tuition fees instead of taxes, the letter says.

Other Republicans rebuked him and said that they planned to raise education funding.

Rep. Rhonda Baker, a former teacher and current chair of the House common education committee, tells The Oklahoman in an article published Thursday that increasing education funding remains one of her priorities for next year.

“I have always been and will continue to be a supporter of public education,” Baker said.

Oklahoma Republican Party Chair Pam Pollard said Lopez’s letter doesn’t reflect the party’s position.

But Lopez said the GOP lawmakers are betraying party principles, including through increasing the size of government. His letter also called for abolishing abortion and eliminating unnecessary business-licensing agencies.

“In government we have a system that says we believe it’s a good idea to take (money) from you by force to educate other people’s children,” Lopez said. “That doesn’t appear to be a fair deal to me.”

In the recent elections, 16 educators won seats in the Oklahoma Legislature. The education caucus grew to 25 lawmakers in office that come from an education background, whether that be a teacher or school administrator position. Sixteen are Republicans, nine are Democrats. Eight are in the Senate and 17 in the House.

Lopez’s letter demonstrates the importance of building strong support for public education.

The Founding Fathers, acting as the Continental Congress, passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established the template for new states. It prohited slavery in the new states, and it set aside one of sixteen plots in each township for schooling. The ordinance began: “”Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

John Adams wrote in 1785:

the social science will never be much improved untill the People unanimously know and Consider themselvs as the fountain of Power and untill they Shall know how to manage it Wisely and honestly. reformation must begin with the Body of the People which can be done only, to affect, in their Educations. the Whole People must take upon themselvs the Education of the Whole People and must be willing to bear the expences of it. there should not be a district of one Mile Square without a school in it, not founded by a Charitable individual but maintained at the expence of the People themselvs they must be taught to reverence themselvs instead of adoreing their servants their Generals Admirals Bishops and Statesmen.

It seems that Mr. Lopez is unfamiliar with American history.

Categories Funding, History, Oklahoma

No, Robert Pondiscio, School Choice is Not a “Moral Agenda”

By dianeravitch
November 30, 2018 //
152

Yesterday, I participated in a panel discussion at the Washington Post about national issues in education with Robert Pondiscio of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Dean Bridget Terry Long of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This followed a few other panels, including one in which Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his chosen school superintendent Janice Jackson lavished praise on their successful efforts to transform the public schools of Chicago, with nary a dissent.

Our panel did include dissent, since I was critical of school choice and the other two panelists supported it. I was critical of standardized testing, and Dean Long supported it.

Valerie Strauss did a great job moderating and keeping us on track.

In my opening statement, I argued that the key education issue of our time was the defunding of public schools by the federal and state governments. NCLB and Race to the Top had failed, because they emphasized testing and choice. But at the same time that the federal government disrupted schools and misdirected them with mandates, most states pursued a policy of cutting taxes, cutting school funding, and substituting “school choice” for adequate funding. I cited the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities report showing that 29 states spent less on education in the decade after the 2008 recession.

In our discussion of school choice, I said that school choice is the rightwing agenda that has been funded by Betsy DeVos, the Koch brothers, and the Walton family for decades. It was unfortunate that some Democrats joined their crusade to privatize education. I cited the blistering report about charter schools by Integrity Florida, which showed that rightwing money had promoted charters and vouchers and insulated them from any accountability. Furthermore, the money directed to charter schools had undermined the fiscal stability of public schools.

Robert Pondiscio retorted that school choice was not a “rightwing agenda,” it was a “moral agenda.”

In other words, he echoed the religious/moral rhetoric of Betsy DeVos.

He snidely said that both he and I had sent our children to private schools, so why shouldn’t poor families have the same choices?

This, I thought, was a low blow, because my husband and I didn’t ask for public funds to send our children to private schools 50 years ago. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake not to send them to public schools; it would have benefited them. But that is one of many mistakes I have made in my life.

Today, we know that charter and voucher schools do the choosing more often than parents. If you are the parent of a child with special needs, the odds are high that he/she will not be accepted by any charter school unless the disability is very mild and remediable. Furthermore, the public money available for vouchers will NOT enable poor parents to have the same choices as rich parents, since most voucher payments are in the range of $5,000-7,000 and elite private schools are usually $40,000-60,000. So, no, a voucher will not be enough to send your child to the Hill School, where the Trump children went.

He implied that it was “moral” to take money away from underfunded public schools so that a small percentage of students could choose to go to a charter school or religious school. If it was the former, it might close in a few months or it might kick the student out because of his or her behavior or disability; if it was the latter, the children might have an uncertified teacher or be exposed to textbooks that justify slavery and teach creation science.

He did not suggest that states and the federal government should appropriate more money to pay for choice. If there is not more money, then the schools that enroll 95% of the community’s children lose funding, cut teachers, have larger-sized classes, and lose electives and the arts.

It would be easier to argue that underfunding the public schools that most children attend is immoral. And that paying professional teachers so little that they have to work two or three extra jobs to make ends meet is immoral. And that denying the nation’s public school children the resources they need to have reasonable class sizes, professional teachers, the arts, and time for physical activity is immoral.

I offered the examples of Detroit and Milwaukee as school districts awash in school choice where students have not benefited. They are both among the lowest performing districts in the nation. No response from my fellow panelists.

I contend that it is immoral, unjust, and inequitable to advocate for policies that hurt 95% of students so that 5% can go to a private school. It is even more unjust to destabilize an entire school district by introducing a welter of confusing choices, including schools that open and close like day lilies.

Why don’t the advocates of school choice also advocate for funding to replace the money removed from the public schools?

PS: Thanks to Mike Petrilli for sending me the link to our panel.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Funding, School Choice, Vouchers

Angie Sullivan Asks Legislators to Focus On Needs, Not Ideas

By dianeravitch
November 30, 2018 //
8

Angie Sullivan teaches in a high-poverty elementary school in Clark County, Nevada.

She sent this letter, pleading for common sense, to every member of the Legislature.

I love Angie for standing up and speaking out.

She wrote:

I’m reviewing the #NVLeg bill drafts.

There are already 69 education related requests.

Have to be honest.

If you have not consulted with Teachers, worked with CCEA, or done some homework – you could be costing the state and all sorts of folks – a lot of money.

Folks who have to implement educational ideas should be asked about them.

“Great ideas” NEED a money line when they become legislative language.

And a data line. Someone needs to be paid to “track” the data and implementation too.

Sorry folks.

Bad news: Staff, supplies, time all cost money.

You are expensive thinkers.

You are not responsible payers.

Be responsible.

Be real about the cost.

The professional skill, the text or materials, and the professional time to plan and implement. It all costs. Demanding we work for free to implement your great ideas – has got to stop. You need to pay folks. We love you all. No means No. It is abusive and not responsible how folks treat Nevada Teachers.

Pay your bills first now. Make sure basic needs are met. The money goes fast.

If you put something on the plate, you need to take something off. Our plates are full. Do not load us up and drown us.

Or you need to pay for additional staff and new supplies and the hours it takes for your “great ideas” to be put into curriculum.

By the way – I usually LOVE those ideas.

I HATE the lack of appetite for raising money to pay for those ideas.

Nevada Legislators are notorious bipartisan spend-thrifts.

While also being sneaky about unfunded mandates – also known as – do it without money.

Your ideas will NOT magically happen for free on a state-wide level. There are no magic wands. The fairy has left the building. Nobody enjoys working for free. I am looking at all of you old-timers who should know better. You know who you are.

No one except for a few courageous souls have shown real Nevada leadership in getting real education money to the classroom level. That is what you should all focus on as a Bipartisan Southern Caucus. That would make a real difference. We are shorted. Someone needs to work on fixing that.

Education Bills need a Money line. They cost.

Education Bills need a Data line. We need to prove they did what they were supposed to do and someone should be paid to track it. Regular reports should be given to see if it worked.

I spoke to some lovely folks the other day who wanted to import some fantastic ideas from Chicago. When I told them they needed a money line and a data line – they told me they did not. Not something anyone should say to me. Ever.

Let me be frank.

The Nevada Legislature funds at the bottom. The Southern Caucus gets routinely shorted. Therefore…

There is zero extra in the inner city Vegas city classroom. We are running in the negative. Subsidizing classrooms by demanding teachers pay from our own teacher paychecks is routine.

You want a civics program, a drug education program, or a charter school for one student in Eureka- you need to cost that out. And your specific community needs to pay for it. Or raise taxes from the community with that specific need. Ask your neighborhood school if they really need your great idea. Go to your school SOT and ask them if they need that – or if they actually need something else desperately.

Handing me a bunch of expensive stuff I cannot use when my students are in such dire straits is heartbreaking.

I can tell by looking at these BDRs. Some folks are really off-target for my community in East Las Vegas. Way off target for my community soaked in poverty and need. It is shocking how off target.

Just like any budget.

There are things we NEED like:

Fully licensed teacher in every classroom – cost $60 million. (Training for severely underprepared Teachers, vacancies, recruitment, pipeline, retention efforts)

School safety – cost $150 million. (School police, psychologists, social workers, and counselors -as well as school training and procedure education) ** does not include building upgrades like gates and locks and security systems.

Updated reading, math, science consumables/textbooks/General supplies – $235 million ($300,000 each year for 349 schools). **This does not include other programs which also need supplies

Read by Three tutoring – (35,000 students x $2,000) $70 million each year or $140 million

Updated district-wide wifi broad band and hardware/software – $200 million ($500,000 x 349 schools)

Adding to Weighted Funding to meet needs of students with language learning, poverty or special education needs costs – $2 billion. Many of our students require sigificant additional support to learn due to circumstances beyond their control. Weighted funding needs to be increased each year and targeted to address the severe need.

The money goes fast when you focus on the basics.

There are things we want – like a photo in the paper with 12 cute kids we helped plant a garden. Love gardens. If you ask me what I need – it is not a garden right now. And I love gardens. I love ours. But I need a box or paper and a copier that works.

Frankly, I want it all. I know it is important.

Love gardens, art, civics, drug education, Native American education, financial planning education, fingerprinting everyone in the school, diversity training, meeting every child’s personal or “choice” needs. Love Love Love. I wish we could have every important thing. I would pull from my own pocket for all those ideas.

But most of those items are “luxury spending” compared to our significant needs.

We need to stay focused on the huge basic NEED.

Taking from thousands of disadvantaged students to pay for your personal pet projects or something that benefits only one small group – has got to stop.

Some kids do not have a classroom with a book and a teacher.

All students need adequate access first.

And unfunded mandates have put us in the hole. For example: Demanding we test but never updating our computer systems.

Folks wonder why we fail when the tests do not run on old systems?

Common sense.

The lights have to come on, supplies need to be onhand, equipment/technology needs to be adequate, and a teacher needs to stand in every classroom. When you do not make basics a priority – the kids suffer.

Pay the bills first.

Previous great legislation is not even implemented anymore because there is no money. Empowerment legislation money is where? Hiding behind a “new and shinier” teacher leadership ideas? That is not responsible either. Best practice no longer funded should be revisited. Not an exciting job but tried and true.

Folks are new and excited.

I want everyone to have a great session.

Listen up: We need money to pay for your ideas.

And your ideas have to be authentic and research based and educational best practice.

Be responsible.

Please call CCEA. 702-733-3063 They have important priority ideas and bills we really need to make sure every child has access and opportunity.

The Teacher,

Angie

______________

[Here are a list of the 69 education-related bills that have been filed.]

BDR 34-10
Makes various changes relating to education.
Requested by Senator Harris on 8/11/2017

BDR 34-13
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Harris on 8/11/2017

BDR 14
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Gansert on 8/22/2017

BDR 34-23
Revises provisions governing school safety.
Requested by Assemblywoman Miller on 10/11/2017

BDR 33
Establishes in statute the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Requested by Assemblyman Ohrenschall on 2/23/2018

BDR 15-41
Revises provisions governing school safety.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 3/5/2018

BDR 57-43
Requires health insurers to provide coverage for certain equipment for children with disabilities.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 3/19/2018

BDR 17-62
Revises provisions relating to the Nevada Youth Legislature.
Requested by Senator Woodhouse on 5/16/2018

BDR 77
Establishes a school in Nevada for children who are blind, deaf or hard of hearing.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 5/17/2018

BDR 34-82
Revises provisions governing charter schools.
Requested by Assemblywoman Titus on 6/4/2018

BDR 93
Revises provisions governing read by grade 3 in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Thompson on 6/8/2018

BDR 105
Revises provisions governing safe and respectful learning environments in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Carrillo on 6/17/2018

BDR S-107
Makes an appropriation for educational leadership training programs.
Requested by Senate Committee on Finance on 6/18/2018

BDR 15-119
Revises provisions governing possession and storage of firearms.
Requested by Assemblyman Fumo on 6/22/2018

BDR 122
Makes various education reforms.
Requested by Assemblyman Edwards on 6/22/2018

BDR 43-128
Revises provisions governing safety of children.
Requested by Assemblywoman Spiegel on 6/22/2018

BDR 34-132
Requires that instruction in the founding principles of American government be specifically included in public schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 6/28/2018

BDR 133
Revises provisions relating to cannabis.
Requested by Senator Cancela on 6/27/2018

BDR 14-142
Revises provisions governing certain juvenile offenders.
Requested by Assemblyman Hambrick on 6/29/2018

BDR 5-143
Revises provisions governing criminal procedures for certain juvenile offenders who are also victims of crime.
Requested by Assemblyman Hambrick on 6/29/2018

BDR S-144
Makes appropriations for incentives for employing teachers at Title I and underperforming schools.
Requested by Assemblyman Frierson on 7/1/2018

BDR 34-156
Revises provisions relating to the board of trustees of certain school districts.
Requested by Senator Kieckhefer on 7/10/2018

BDR 5-165
Revises provisions relating to school safety.
Requested by Senate Minority Leader on 7/20/2018

BDR 167
Makes various changes to improve school safety.
Requested by Senator Gansert , Assemblywoman Tolles on 7/9/2018

BDR 54-180
Revises provisions relating to the medical use of marijuana or industrial hemp.
Requested by Senator Spearman on 7/23/2018

BDR 34-243
Revises provisions relating to education funding.
Requested by Senator Kieckhefer on 7/24/2018

BDR 247
Makes certain changes relating to education.
Requested by Senator Gansert on 7/24/2018

BDR 23-251
Revises provisions relating to collective bargaining.
Requested by Assemblyman Wheeler on 7/25/2018

BDR 19-252
Designates English as the official common language of the State of Nevada.
Requested by Assemblyman McArthur on 7/25/2018

BDR 34-262
Eliminates certain training required of teachers.
Requested by Senator Hardy on 7/30/2018

BDR 263
Makes certain changes relating to education, including increasing the salary for all members of the board of trustees of each school district, requiring the school board districts in certain counties to have the same geographic boundaries as the county commission districts, and authorizing public schools, including charter schools, to accept pupils on a part-time basis.
Requested by Senator Segerblom on 7/30/2018

BDR 271
Makes certain changes relating to marijuana, including revising provisions governing the transferability of medical marijuana establishment registration certificates, providing for dual licensing of medical and recreational marijuana facilities, providing for state certification of marijuana products sold in Nevada, appropriating $1 million to study the feasibility of creating a marijuana stock exchange in Las Vegas, appropriating $1 million from the existing 10% excise tax on marijuana for medical marijuana research grants to be given out by the Department of Health and Human Services, authorizing local governments to issue offsite marijuana licenses to marijuana dispensary owners to allow for tasting and sale of marijuana products in certain settings such as coffee shops, revising state laws concerning driving while under the influence of marijuana to provide a rebuttable presumption when a person’s blood level is over the legal limit, authorizing District Attorneys to expunge misdemeanor convictions relating to marijuana from a person’s criminal record, and prohibiting employers, under certain circumstances, from testing for marijuana pre-employment or without probable cause post-employment.
Requested by Senate Committee on Judiciary on 7/30/2018

BDR R-279
AJR: Urges Congress to require the United States Census Bureau to ensure a fair 2020 national census.
Requested by Assemblyman Thompson on 7/31/2018

BDR 281
Revises provisions relating to school safety.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018

BDR 282
Makes certain changes relating to school safety.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018

BDR 34-283
Creates the Program to Develop Leadership Skills for Public School Pupils.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018

BDR 34-285
Revises provisions relating to education savings accounts and education funding.
Requested by Senator Hammond on 7/31/2018

BDR 289
Revises provisions governing the care of children by volunteer families.
Requested by Assemblyman Frierson on 7/31/2018

BDR 54-294
Establishes conditions for the performance of certain surgical procedures.
Requested by Senator Parks on 7/31/2018

BDR 305
Revises provisions governing early childhood education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Monroe-Moreno on 8/1/2018

BDR 34-308
Revises provisions relating to Nevada Promise Scholarships.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018

BDR 309
Revises provisions relating to data privacy.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018

BDR 310
Revises provisions relating to education.
Requested by Senator Denis on 8/1/2018

BDR 43-320
Provides for the issuance of a specialty license plate memorializing the historic Westside “Moulin Rouge” to assist with scholarships for low-income high school graduates interested in pursuing the arts.
Requested by Assemblyman McCurdy on 8/1/2018

BDR 321
Revises provisions governing education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018

BDR 323
Revises provisions governing taxation.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018

BDR 324
Makes various changes relating to education.
Requested by Assemblywoman Diaz on 8/1/2018

BDR 368
Makes an appropriation for educational programs relating to history, law and civics.
Requested by Senator Woodhouse on 8/2/2018

BDR 34-383
Revises the eligibility requirements for the Governor Guinn Millennium Scholarship Program.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018

BDR 34-384
Creates a state-funded grant program for university students.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018

BDR 34-385
Revises the eligibility requirements for the Silver State Opportunity Grant.
Requested by Committee to Conduct a Study Concerning the Cost and Affordability of Higher Education (A.B. 202, 2017) on 6/4/2018

BDR 34-386
Establishes a long-term stakeholder group to develop a statewide vision and implementation plan for Nevada’s educational system.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-387
Revises provisions relating to review of the equity allocation model used to calculate a basic support guarantee for each school district.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-388
Revises provisions relating to the licensure and employment of veterans, military personnel and their spouses in Nevada’s public schools.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-389
Creates a task force to study the creation of a tiered career pathway for educators.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-390
Revises provisions relating to school discipline.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-391
Authorizes variable-length renewal of charter contracts.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-392
Provides for the separate regulation of online charter schools.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-393
Extends the English Mastery Council and expands the duties of the Council.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-394
Provides flexibility to school districts to award credit for coursework completed by pupils experiencing homelessness or in foster care.
Requested by Legislative Committee on Education (NRS 218E.605) on 8/9/2018

BDR 34-397
Revises provisions relating to the education of certain children from Nevada who are patients or residents of certain hospitals or facilities located in another state.
Requested by Senate Committee on Finance on 8/14/2018

BDR 31-398 – SB26
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/80th2019/Bill/5909/Overview

Revises provisions governing school finance administration.
Requested by Clark County School District on 8/14/2018
Summary:
Revises provisions governing school financial administration. (BDR 31-398)
Title:
AN ACT relating to school districts; excluding certain money from collective bargaining negotiations and from consideration in determining the ability of a school district to pay compensation and monetary benefits; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
Introduction Date:
Friday, November 16, 2018
Fiscal Notes:
Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State: No.
Digest:
Existing law requires each local government employer to engage in collective bargaining with the recognized employee organization, if any, for each appropriate bargaining unit among its employees. (NRS 288.150) Existing law also establishes a process for the resolution of an impasse in collective bargaining through fact-finding, arbitration or both, but imposes limitations on the money that a fact finder or arbitrator may consider in determining the financial ability of a local government employer to pay compensation or monetary benefits. (NRS 288.200, 288.215, 288.217, 354.6241) Under existing law, for certain governmental funds of a local government other than a school district, a budgeted ending fund balance of not more than 25 percent of the total budgeted expenditures, less capital outlay, is not subject to negotiations and cannot be considered by a fact finder or arbitrator in determining the ability of the local government to pay compensation or monetary benefits. (NRS 354.6241) This bill establishes that for a school district, an ending fund balance of not more than 8.3 percent of the total budgeted expenditures, less capital outlay, is not subject to negotiations and cannot be considered by a fact finder or arbitrator in determining the ability of the school district to pay compensation or monetary benefits.
Primary Sponsor
Senate Committee on Government Affairs

BDR 23-405
Revises provisions relating to collective bargaining.
Requested by Senator Atkinson on 8/23/2018

BDR 34-415 – SB57
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/80th201

Categories Funding, Nevada

Arthur Goldstein: Jeff Bezos Gets a Landing Pad for His Helicopter While My Students Are Packed in Like Sardines!

By dianeravitch
November 29, 2018 //
23

Arthur Goldstein is pretty damned angry at Mayor DeBlasio. The city just loaded billions of dollars of tax breaks onto Amazon and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos, even giving Amazon one of the Department of Education’s buildings in Queens. But Goldstein’s students are crammed into crowded classrooms.

Where are the city’s priorities?

I’m shocked that the city has space to turn over to Amazon but can barely find any for schools. I suppose it’s an extraordinary privilege to be able to provide Jeff Bezos a new helipad, while rolling out the red carpet for thousands of high-paid workers, who may or may not even live here. From my perspective, teaching 34 students in half a classroom, I’m not particularly concerned about where the world’s richest man parks his business, let alone his helicopter.

I’ve been working at Francis Lewis High School in central Queens since 1993, and I can’t recall a time when we’ve been so pressed for space. While I bemoan my half room, some of my colleagues are teaching in windowless converted book storage rooms. After years of complaints, admin found a way to air-condition them. Despite this, the air quality is still sub-standard, according to recent tests conducted by UFT….

It’s all about priorities, and the city that so long claimed to place children first is failing spectacularly to do so. In three or four years our school will have an annex, but who’s to say the DOE won’t just dump another thousand kids on us so we’re as overcrowded as ever?
There might be a time to lavish billions in subsidies on Jeff Bezos, but that time is most certainly not now. Our schools and our kids are more important, by far, than bragging rights for Amazon.

Is this fair?

Categories Bill de Blasio, Billionaires, Class size, Funding, New York City

California: Thurmond Says No New Charters Without New Funding

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2018 //
14

State Superintendent-elect Tony Thurmond urges a halt to new charters unless there was new funding provided for them. He recognized, as few charter advocates do, that opening charters without funding them harms existing public schools.

https://www.politico.com/states/california/newsletters/politico-california-pro-preview/2018/11/20/thurmond-targets-charter-schools-137523

The charter industry, which opposes any accountability, transparency, or regulation, spent nearly $40 million trying to stop Thurmond.

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization

Jan Resseger: Bruce Baker’s New Book is a Must-Read! “Educational Inequality and School Finance: Why Money Matters for America’s Students”

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2018 //
12

Most people, even educators, don’t pay close attention to school finance because the aid formulas get arcane quickly and the eyes glaze over. But nothing is more important to providing good schooling than having the resources to take care of students, teachers, and facilities. In the past two decades, many states have ignored equitable school funding and have chosen to offer “school choice” instead of paying teachers a living wage. As we learned from the widely circulated report of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a large number of states are spending less on their schools today than they did a decade ago. The states that have starved public schools of adequate funding are the same states that have provided choice. It’s a sort of “Let them eat cake” response when people don’t have bread.

Jan Resseger recently reviewed Bruce Baker’s book on school finance and found it to be important and accessible to lay readers. Baker writes clearly and he knows school finance.

Rutgers University school finance professor, Bruce Baker’s new book, Educational Inequality and School Finance: Why Money Matters for America’s Students, covers the basics—how school finance formulas are supposed to work to ensure that funding for schools is adequate, equitable, and stable.

Baker also carefully refutes some persistent myths—Eric Hanushek’s claim that money doesn’t really make a difference when it comes to raising student achievement, for example, and the contention that public schools’ expenditures have skyrocketed over the decades while achievement as measured by test scores has remained flat.

Baker does an excellent job of demonstrating that far more will be needed for our society appropriately to support school districts segregated not only by race, but also by poverty. The final sections of the book are a little technical. They explain the construction of a more equitable system that would drive enough funding to come closer to what is really needed in school districts serving concentrations of children in poverty.

Baker’s book is especially important for updating a discussion of basic school finance theory to account for today’s realities. He shows, for example, how the Great Recession undermined adequate and equitable funding of public schools despite that states had formulas in place that were supposed to have protected children and their teachers: “The sharp economic downturn following the collapse of the housing market in 2007-08, and persisting through about 2011, provided state and federal elected officials a pulpit from which to argue that our public school systems must learn how to do more with less… Meanwhile, governors on both sides of the aisle, facing tight budgets and the end of federal aid that had been distributed to temporarily plug state budget holes, ramped up their rhetoric for even deeper cuts to education spending… Notably, the attack on public school funding was driven largely by preferences for conservative tax policies at a time when state budgets experienced unprecedented drops in income and sales tax revenue.” (p. 4)

And for the first time in a school finance book, Baker explores the impact of two decades of charter school expansion on the funding of public schools. Although the conventional wisdom promoted by the corporate reformers has said that competition from independent charter school operators would introduce innovation and thereby stimulate academic improvement in public schools, not enough people have seriously considered the fiscal implications of slicing a fixed school funding pie into more pieces. Baker examines these fiscal implications of charter school expansion from many perspectives.

Charters are, first, one of those “false promises of cost-free solutions”: “The theory of action guiding these remedies and elixirs is that public, government-run schooling can be forced to operate more productively and efficiently if it can be reshaped and reformed to operate more like privately run, profit-driven corporations/businesses… Broadly, popular reforms have been built on the beliefs that the private sector is necessarily more efficient; that competition spurs innovation (and that there may be technological solutions to human capital costs); that data driven human capital policies can increase efficiency/productivity by improving the overall quality of the teacher workforce. One core element of such reform posits that US schools need market competition to spur innovation and that market competition should include government-operated schools, government-sanctioned (charter) privately operated schools, and private schools…. (T)here is little reason to believe that these magic elixirs will significantly change the productivity/efficiency equation or address issues of equity, adequacy, and equal opportunity.” (pp. 6-7)

Baker also speaks to the philosophical justification frequently offered to justify the rapid expansion of school choice—that justice can be defined by offering more choices for those who have few: “Liberty and equality are desirable policy outcomes. Thus, it would be convenient if policies simultaneously advanced both. But it’s never that simple. A large body of literature on political theory explains that liberty and equality are preferences that most often operate in tension with one another. While not mutually exclusive, they are certainly not one and the same. Preferences for and expansion of liberties often lead to greater inequality and division among members of society, whereas preferences for equality moderate those divisions. The only way expanded liberty can lead to greater equality is if available choices are substantively equal, conforming to a common set of societal standards. But if available choices are substantively equal, then why choose one over another. Systems of choice and competition rely on differentiation, inequality, and both winners and losers.” (p. 28)

Baker addresses Betsy DeVos’s contention that, “Choice in education is good politics because it’s good policy. It’s good policy because it comes from good parents who want better for their children. Families are on the front lines of this fight; let’s stand with them…This isn’t about school ‘systems.’ This is about individual students, parents, and families. Schools are at the service of students. Not the other way around.” Here is Baker’s answer: “The ‘money belongs to the child’ claim also falsely assumes that the only expenses associated with each individual’s education choices are the current annual expenses of educating that individual…. It ignores entirely marginal costs and economies of scale, foundational elements of origins of public institutions. We collect tax dollars and provide public goods and services because it allows us to do so at an efficient scale of operations… Public spending does not matter only to those using it here and now. These dollars don’t just belong to parents of children presently attending the schools, and the assets acquired with public funding… do not belong exclusively to those parents.” (p. 30)

Are charter schools more efficient at improving school achievement measured by test scores and are they fiscally efficient? “(A) close look at high-profile charters in New York City indicates that their success reflects their access to additional resources and a fairly traditional approach to leveraging them… For each of these major operators… the share of low-income (those who qualified for free or reduced-price lunch ), English language learners, and children with disabilities is lower than for district schools, in some cases quite substantially. On average, these schools are serving far less needy and thus less costly student populations than are the district schools.” Baker provides details of major New York City charter networks’ expenditure patterns; what he finds is that the best-funded allocate their instructional expenses in a similar way to traditional public schools: “Collectively, these figures tell a story of high-profile, well-funded CMOs in New York City leveraging their additional resources in three logical and rather traditional ways by hiring more staff per pupil… by paying their teachers more at any given level of experience and degree; and… by paying them more to work longer school hours, days, and years. In other words, they pay more people for more time.” He concludes: “Researchers, policy makers, pundits, pontificators, and even self-proclaimed thought leaders have yet to conjure some new ‘secret sauce’ or technological innovation that will greatly improve equity, adequacy, and efficiency. Human resources matter, and equitable and adequate financial resources are necessary for hiring and retaining the teachers and other school staff necessary to achieve equal educational opportunity for all children.” (pp. 68-79)

Resseger has more to say about Baker’s analysis of the inadequacy of charter schools as a means to promote equity or even innovation (unless that you think that strict discipline and harsh punishment is innovative).

Based on her incisive review, I am ordering Bruce Baker’s book now. I hope you will do the same.

The name of the game in education is money, and we can’t allow the Reformers to give us the Old Razzle-Dazzle to distract us from what matters most, the money to reduce class sizes, the money to pay teachers a professional salary, the money to have a robust arts program, the money to have up-to-date technology, the money to have a librarian, a school nurse, a social worker, and a psychologist. Money matters. Don’t be fooled into thinking that choice is a substitute!

Those who say that “money doesn’t matter” are always people who already have plenty of money. Bruce Baker explains why it does matter and why we must not be fooled anymore. Every child in this nation should get a good education and that requires money.

Categories Equity, Funding, School Choice

Angie Sullivan: Stop the For-Profit Charter Scam in Nevada

By dianeravitch
November 19, 2018 //
9

Angie Sullivan teaches young children in a Title 1 school in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. She writes an email blast to every legislator in the state.

Angie writes:

Folks in other states are banning for-profit charter management corporations.

With good reason.

Whole campaigns are built on banning for-profit scams in other states. We need folks in Nevada to notice this mess.

http://m.wtol.com/toledonewsnow/db_347256/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=yQmm1LBE

Attendance should match testing.

In Nevada we have for-profits corporations claiming they have thousands enrolled but only a few test?

We cannot afford to give $18 Million to a corporation if they are only providing $1 million in educational type services. Note: I did not state learning – because providing a type of service is NOT learning if students do not graduate.

Meanwhile, we elect lawmakers who sit on for-profit charter boards, manage a for-profit branch, or work at a for-profit charter. They will sit in legislative session next year and have their hands on bills to line pockets. Note: I did not say teach kids, because that is NOT the bottom line or mission of a corporation. No wonder no one graduates.

Let’s not repeat mistakes of other states which expanded charters at an alarming rate and now the tax payer suffers. Nevada has a big enough mess already.

Nevada Charters are definitely not a remedy or an example. It is a travesty that a real public school in CCSD is threatened with being turned into a charter. Scary.

It is not fiscally responsible to allow Academica, Gulen Corals, or On-lines to run rampant without the same transparency and accountability required by all public schools.

Time for a for-profit charter moratorium and to clean up this $350 million mess.

CCSD Parents need to be demanding expansion of CCSD Magnets – which are the top schools in the nation – instead of these scammers. And we need funding to maintain quality in Magnets. That is what works. People need to demand what works.

The Teacher,
Angie

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Failure, For-Profit, Funding, Privatization

James Harvey: What the Election Meant for Education in Various States

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2018 //
5

James Harvey, executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable, reports on the implications of the recent elections for education in many states. That organization is the opposite of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, in that its members are certified superintendents, mostly from mid-size school districts.


Lost in the partisan noise around Tuesday’s midterm elections was a lot of school news. A former superintendent is ready to move into the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, initiatives in states across the nation will shape education moving forward, and the changing of the guard in the U.S. House of Representatives portends changes in committee makeup, leadership, and legislative emphases. Thanks to Politico, Education Week, and the Committee for Education Funding, we have early intelligence on some of these developments.

State-by-State News

Arizona: Voters refused to expand the state’s education savings account program, a voucher program that allows families to draw public funds to pay for private school tuition and other education-related expenses.

Alabama: Voters backed a referendum allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools and other public buildings.

Colorado: Voters refused to generate an additional $1.6 billion for K-12 education by raising corporate taxes and state income taxes for people earning $150,000 or more annually.

Connecticut: Jahana Hayes, 2016 National Teacher of the Year, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Oklahoma: Voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have allowed school leaders to tap into funding typically reserved for school construction and use it in other ways such as for teacher salaries. Meanwhile, Melissa Provenzano, assistant principal at Bixby High School, and John Waldron, a social studies teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, won seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives .

Pennsylvania: Mary Gay Scanlon, who served on the Wallingford-Swarthmore school board in suburban Philadelphia from 2007-2015, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

South Carolina: Voters shot down a proposal to allow the governor to appoint the state superintendent of education. The position remains an elected office.

Wisconsin: Tony Evers, a former school superintendent in Oakfield, Verona, and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, went on to be elected state superintendent of public instruction. On Tuesday, he beat incumbent Governor Scott Walker and is set to move into the governor’s mansion in January.

Teachers Seeking Office: Nationwide, NEA identified 1,800 teachers, retired teachers, and academics running for state legislative seats. There is, as yet, no comprehensive count of their success or failure.

Changing of the Guard in the House of Representatives

Insider’s Baseball: The new Congressional makeup means that ratios of CEF Logo Democrats and Republicans on committees in the House and Senate must be revised for the 116th Congress, which convenes in January. House committees will add Democratic slots (and staff) and lose Republican slots (and staff). The reverse will be true in the Senate. Precise ratios await final vote results.

Likely Key New House Committee Leaders:

Rep. Bobby Scott (Va) — Committee on Education and the Workforce, which will probably reclaim its traditional title of Committee on Education and Labor

Rep. Nita Lowey (NY) — Committee on Appropriations (jurisdiction over tax treatment of private school tuition)

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT) — Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education

New Legislative Emphases

Analysts downplay the chances of major new legislation. House Democrats, however, have outlined their legislative priorities. These include a number of education initiatives to be paid for by revising the tax cuts enacted in the 115th Congress:

Making good on the pledge the Federal government first made in 1975 to pay for 40 percent of the excess costs of educating students with disabilities

$50 billion for K-12 school infrastructure and resources

$50 billion over ten years to increase teacher compensation and to recruit and retain a diverse workforce

$107 billion in combined federal, state, and local resources to invest in physical and digital school infrastructure, creating 1.9 million jobs.

Increasing support for Title I schools

Reauthorizing IDEA and the Higher Education Act

More vigorous oversight of the Department of Education and its regulatory actions.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Funding, Politics, U.S. Department of Education

Sue Legg: Twenty Years of School Choice in Florida, Part 3

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2018 //
6

Sue Legg recently retired as education director of the Florida League of Women Voters. She was assessment and evaluation contractor for the Fl. DOE for twenty years while on the faculty at the University of Florida. At my request, she wrote a four-part series reflecting on School Choice in Florida after 20 years.

Twenty years later: Who Benefits, Not Schools!

Florida’s Constitution mandates that the state shall make ‘adequate provision for all students to access a uniform, safe, secure, efficient and high-quality system of free public schools.

The strategies on how to implement or circumvent these values result in constant lawsuits…at least five in the last two years alone. The arguments are not new: civil rights, funding, local vs. state control, and accountability. One might ask: Who benefits in a system that generates so much conflict? Politicians and profiteers, but not the public may well be the answer.

Political Cronyism and Conflict of Interest.

Charter supporters use money and influence to affect policy outcomes. According to Integrity Florida, $2,651,639 was spent on committee and campaign contributions in 2016 alone. Major donors include John Kirtley, who heads Florida Federation for Children and is also chair of Step Up for Students (which distributes a billion dollars in corporate tax credit scholarships to private schools). All Children Matters, run by Betsy DeVos, gave over $4 million to Florida political committees between 2004 and 2010. The Walton family gave over $7 million between 2008 and 2016 to Florida’s All Children Matter. Large contributions by the Waltons, John Kirtley, CSUSA, Academica, Gary Chartrand (a member of the State Board of Education) and others were also made to Kirtley’s Florida Federation for Children. In addition, for profit charters have spent over $8 million in lobbying in Tallahassee. Former Governor Jeb Bush’s foundation ExcelinEd, supports the spread of pro-choice policies in 38 states.

Conflict of interest claims in the Florida legislature have been made against current and former legislators including Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran; legislators Manny Diaz, Eric Fresen (recently found guilty of tax evasion), Seth McKeel, House Education Chair Michael Bileca, Senators John Legg, Anitere Flores, Kelli Stargel, and Ralph Arza (who was forced to resign for other reasons). They have personal ties to the charter industry and held important education committee leadership roles.

Testing Companies.

The A.I.R. testing company received a six-year $220 million contract for the Florida state assessment exams. This contract does not include the mandatory End of Course exams required in high school subjects, the kindergarten readiness test, the English Language Learner test, or the 50 teacher certification tests and the principals’ leadership exam. Add to this cost was the technical debacle resulting from a law requiring all tests to be administered online. Districts did not have the bandwidth.

Private and Charter Schools Expansion.

The Florida tax credit scholarships (FTC) to private schools no longer serves only low-income families. Income eligibility has risen to $63,000 for partial stipends. Funding is increased by 25% per year, but the corporate tax revenue to support them runs afoul of the governor’s agenda to reduce taxes. As a compromise, in 2018 a sales tax ‘donation’ to private schools for new car owners was approved for students with approved claims of being bullied. Students with disabilities may qualify for MacKay scholarships to private schools which may have no qualified teachers to serve them. Parents whose children have severe disabilities are given a stipend and search on their own for assistance.

Categories Accountability, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Disruption, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Fraud, Funding, Privatization

Sue Legg: Twenty Years of School Choice in Florida : Part 1

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2018 //
15

Sue Legg was assessment and evaluation contractor for the Fl. DOE for twenty years while on the faculty at the University of Florida. She recently stepped down as Education Director of the Florida League of Women Voters.

This is the first of a series on the effects of school choice, which she wrote at my request.

Florida Twenty Years Later: Undermining Public Schools

Florida has a long track record in school privatization.

Consequently, I recently had the sobering charge to help Louisville citizens understand what lies ahead if their new charter school enabling law is funded. Florida has 655 charters enrolling nearly 300,000 students, the third largest number in the U.S., and it also spends over a billion dollars per year in tax credit scholarships to 2800 private schools. What does Florida have to show for it?

Privatizing schools was sold to the public as a money saving policy. Education, after all, is the second largest Florida state budget item.

Competition from the private sector, it was argued, would increase quality and save money. State assessment scores would grade students, schools and teachers to assure the public that the ever-increasing education standards were met. This competition myth imploded. Education became a battleground over funding, support for teachers, and the impact of parental choice on neighborhoods.

Twenty years later, Florida schools are nearing a fiscal and social crisis. Not only did the legislature cut funding in 2008, it reallocated money to charter and private schools and put a cap on local property tax revenue for public schools.

Student enrollment grew, and the Hispanic population doubled.

A forest of temporary buildings sprouted on playgrounds to add classrooms.

In my district alone, $168 million has been lost in facility funding. Some of our schools have buckets in classrooms to catch the rainfall and use sandbags to block water from entering hallways. Others are so crowded that lunch begins at 9:30 a.m. Many districts are asking for increases in local sales and property taxes to support schools; others already have. Opponents, however, want to prevent communities from increasing taxes.

Building maintenance is only part of the problem facing Florida’s schools. Its per student funding to support instruction is among the lowest in the nation. Its teacher attrition rate is high. The PTA reports that there were 1482 teaching positions still vacant in January 2018. Two thirds of teachers who leave are for reasons other than retirement. One clue is that the NEA ranks Florida 46th in average teacher salary. As a result, Florida now ranks first in the nation (25%) in inexperienced teachers.

Teaching and learning also have changed in many ways. ‘Test Prep’ begins in February for April state assessments. The districts’ versions of choice include magnet schools and student placement based on test scores within and across schools. The increasing lament is that there are ‘schools within schools’ where some students have access to high quality programs and teachers and others do not.

Choice fragments neighborhoods.

Think, for example, of the charter school in south Florida that opened across the street from an excellent public school, thus reducing its enrollment and funding but not its overhead expenses. An ‘A’ school became a ‘C’ school. Schools in south Pinellas County declined and were labeled ‘Failure Factories’ drawing national attention.

What changed? The choice movement adopted a ‘separate but equal’ philosophy undermining the integration reform from the 1970s through the 90s. Charter and private schools siphoned off the higher achieving students. Other parents who could, moved away leaving under enrolled schools with insufficient funds to support needed equity programs for children in poverty.

Florida educators and parents are fighting back. Lawsuits reflect the issues: vouchers, school funding, tax credit scholarships, invalid teacher evaluation system, local district control over school funding and charter authorization, ‘union busting’, merit pay, third grade retention, students with disabilities, state take-over of local schools, teacher certification, and a proposed separate educational system for charters.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Florida, Funding, School Choice
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