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Angie Sullivan: Nevada Schools Need the Basics: Paper, Books, Teachers, Stuff Like That

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2017 //
42

The latest missive from second-grade teacher Angie Sullivan, who works in the underfunded public schools of Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) and teaches children who are mostly poor and ELL.

 

Listen to teachers. This is why the Southern Caucus needs to work together instead of bicker about politics.

 

Yesterday I got my computer printer fixed – sort of. There is a band inside that is stretched and broken. So the paper bunches up and jams. We have a new computer specialist from the private sector who told me he was going to try to get me a new printer. Like I said – he is new. There is a reason I have the world’s oldest printer in the first place. He reported to me that he was going to try to find an illusive printer in a closet someone heard of one time because my printer is officially too expensive to repair.

 

Why is my printer important?

 

I have no access to actual reading or math workbooks. I have six reading workbooks and 10 math workbooks. This is not helpful when I have 17 kids. I can go on-line and print a class set of the pages I need if my printer works.

 

I can go to the computer lab which is way across campus if it is not being used. Unfortunately it is stuffed most of the day with a tight schedule because all our equipment is older and kids are mandated to do a certain amount of time on the computers to meet grant requirements etc. All the students are crammed in there on every computer that is working with our antiquated wifi trying to meet requirements.

 

I can copy the workbook pages on the copier if that is working. But you guessed it – the copier is worn out because all the teachers are making their own materials. I’m not the only one without supplies. The one copier has something wrong in its memory and the pages go sideways in the middle of the copy run cutting off the important information. The other copier jams. And the two “extras” are older copiers which everyone tries to avoid using because they are worse than the two other ones I have described. The copiers make all teachers crazy.

 

My routine is to buy a case of paper from Costco with my own $27. Drive to the school on Sunday – using my own time off-contract to work on making materials. I can go to the empty computer lab to run my pages. Sometimes the copiers work better on the weekend because the machines have cooled off enough to operate. Sometimes.

 

I spend my own money and my own time to get the basics for my kids. And I’m not alone. Most every great educator in Vegas is probably doing the same.

 

I do this because I’m trying to give my students the basics – a reading workbook page and a math workbook page.

 

Then as a hobby and for free – I lobby for my at-risk language learning students in the middle of the night. Frankly, no one else cares enough to spend the time I do to try to bring a voice from the classroom to people in power. I tell the truth because you need to know. I tell the truth because I love my kids.

 

When I read about the political posturing over vouchers, achievement school district, funding etc. These games are political meat but terrible for progress.

 

I get furious.

 

Listen up crazytown. And I’m talking to everyone.

 

Real kids do not have a workbook page.

 

You want to know why we are last in education. It is basic.

 

It is not because I have love for the Governor, respect for Roberson, or bordering hate for Ford. All of which is true because I follow politics that affect my classroom closely.

 

Policy makers did not listen to teachers.

 

School boards did not listen to teachers.

 

No one listens to the women who teach kids to read.

 

Men in charge did not listen to teachers.

 

School boards went crazy not listening to teachers.

 

Administrators run around trying to implement unfunded mandates non-stop by whipping labor who have zero supplies because they do not listen to teacher.

 

Playing politics is destroying Vegas public schools because you did not listen to teachers.

 

You blame the only people who are actually trying to get the job done because you did not listen to teachers.

 

While you are busy trying to win an election, make a name for yourselves, or get to where you are going – kids do not have the basics.

 

I will always love the Governor for putting the money back he took in the first place. It doesn’t escape my notice – he took it in the first place. A billion dollars heals many wounds.

 

I will always love the bold moves of Roberson. Even as I fight for Vegas schools to not be forced into privatization by unfair and unbalanced Achievement School District. My hate for ASD which attacks the civil rights of my community does not mar my respect for someone who is trying to make bold effective change. I get to vote at my school and I owe that to Gardner and Roberson. ASD is still junk. Still love Roberson.

 

I try to get over the abuse Ford has heaped on teachers in his immaturity and poor leadership. It doesn’t escape my notice that the neoliberal democrats have been significantly more damaging to my situation than the conservative right. I’m trying to forgive so that we can move forward. Hard to do as Ford screams at me and tells me to remove him from a list I do not have.

 

Frankly the men in charge are oblivious as they posture and politic. They really have no idea what needs to happen for improvement. I’m trying to tell them.

 

I really need some basic things for my kids. I can only keep trying to tell them. Like paper and books.

 

Paper.

 

Books.

 

And every child needs a real teacher.

 

I need the leadership in Southern Nevada to make a political football out of something else. The horse trading instead of intentional measured well thought planning is killing public schools. Midnight deals to please people screaming loudly from rich white neighborhoods cannot drive policy in a community which serves more poor children than any other large district. We serve the poor. We serve the language learner. We serve the needy and the broken. That is who is failing and those should be our focus is we are to improve. It is the south who needs to advocate for kids.

 

Please do not horse trade and manipulate public schools. The Southern Caucus has a unified voice if you work together. Unified as a Southern Caucus – you can do whatever you decide you want to do. You have enough votes if you are not divided.

 

There are real things that have to be done with Vegas public schools. The Southern Caucus needs to work together instead of battle about large “reform”. Surely you can put aside the things that are divisive and get things for your community.

 

The inequity in funding has to get fixed. The Nevada Plan costs us all. The Southern Caucus needs to find the things they can agree on to work together.

 

There is an inherent unfairness in the Nevada Plan. I need the Southern Caucus to make things better.

 

Kids in poor neighborhoods in Vegas do not have a workbook or a teacher. These kids will fail because they do not have the basics.

 

Everyone is wondering what is wrong.

 

I just told you.

 

Is anyone listening?

 

It is basic

 

So basic it doesn’t make for great politics.

 

Books

 

Paper.

 

Teachers.

 

The Southern Caucus needs to keep our own money until every child has a real teacher and supplies. The money needs to get to those who need the basics.
O God hear the words of my mouth, hold the poor and disenfranchised children in your hand. Help those in power to affect positive change for kids. Do not allow powerful men to trample on kids to get ahead. Please help teachers to speak out for children. Hold us in Your Hand.

 

All I can do is weep.

Categories Funding, Nevada

Research Report on Charters in New Orleans: Spending Up for Administration, Down for Instruction

By dianeravitch
January 17, 2017 //
12

The Education Research Alliance for New Orleans released a report today that has some troubling implications for those who think charter schools will reduce the cost of schooling by eliminating bureaucratic “bloat.” Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the charter school idea was germinating, advocates claimed that charter schools would save money because there would be fewer administrators and a sharp reduction in central office costs. But this turns out not to be the case in New Orleans.

 

The report by Christian Buerger and Douglas N. Harris of Tulane University is titled:

DOES SCHOOL REFORM = SPENDING REFORM?

THE EFFECT OF THE NEW ORLEANS SCHOOL REFORMS ON THE USE AND LEVEL OF SCHOOL EXPENDITURES

The key findings are these:

  • New Orleans publicly funded schools spent 13% ($1,358 per student) more per pupil on operating expenditures than the comparison group after the reforms, even though the comparison group had nearly identical spending before the reforms.
  • Spending on administration in New Orleans’ publicly funded schools increased by 66% ($699 per student) relative to the comparison group, far more than the overall spending increase. Of this increase, 52% ($363 per student) is due to a rise in total administrative salaries. Roughly one-third of the increase in administrative salaries is due to hiring more administrators, and the remainder is due to higher average salaries per administrator.
  • Instructional expenditures in New Orleans’ publicly funded schools actually declined by 10% ($706 per student) relative to the comparison group. This decline is driven by a drop in spending for instructional staff benefits ($353 per student) and in instructional staff ’s salaries ($233 per student). Almost all of the decrease in total instructional salaries is due to lower average salaries per instructor, though new teachers still earn more today than teachers pre-Katrina who had the same years of experience.
  • Transportation spending and other expenditures, which typically include contracts to outside firms, each increased by 33%. However, student support expenditures and maintenance were largely unchanged.

The authors note that the charters lose the advantages of economies of scale.

 

There is no one right way to use educational resources, and it is worth noting that these changes in spending levels and patterns came alongside a large improvement in education outcomes for students. Still, these results are somewhat surprising given the common concern that traditional school districts spend too much on large bureaucracies. We find that charter schools spend even more in that area.

 

Whatever the reasons, it is clear that the post-Katrina reforms led to more spending in total and different spending patterns in New Orleans’ publicly funded schools…

 

Critics point out…that district rules and union contracts serve useful purposes, freeing up school leaders to focus on instruction, preventing problems, and creating good working conditions and compensation for teachers. There are also concerns about transparency in how charter schools use funding, especially in the case of for-pro t charters that might be more likely to use funds for private gain over student bene t. While New Orleans does not have for-pro t charters, some of the same issues may arise with non-pro ts, which can use increases in revenue to pay higher salaries to their leaders….

 

In larger traditional districts, schools can share a single system for accounting, busing, and food service. As an additional example, districts can have a single lawyer on retainer rather than having each separate CMO hire its own. Individual charter schools also tend to have fewer students than traditional public schools, creating the same economies of scale problem with extracurricular activities and other specialized services.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, New Orleans

New York Times Editorial Warning on Betsy DeVos

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2017 //
24

For the past twenty years, the New York Times has fawned over charter schools. Not in its reporting but in its editorials.

 

In its editorial about the Senate’s rush to confirm Betsy DeVos, the Times acknowledges that charters are not a cure for education problems.

 

“Beyond erasing concerns about her many possible financial conflicts, Ms. DeVos also faces a big challenge in explaining the damage she’s done to public education in her home state, Michigan. She has poured money into charter schools advocacy, winning legislative changes that have reduced oversight and accountability. About 80 percent of the charter schools in Michigan are operated by for-profit companies, far higher than anywhere else. She has also argued for shutting down Detroit public schools, with the system turned over to charters or taxpayer money given out as vouchers for private schools. In that city, charter schools often perform no better than traditional schools, and sometimes worse.”

 

The Times has gone up a steep learning curve on this topic. Now if only the editorial writers can continue to understand that school choice is not a cure for low-performing students, not even a band-aid. As voters in Massachusetts showed last November, when they rejected a proposal to expand the number of charters, the main effect of charters is to drain resources from existing schools. Slicing up the education budget into multiple sectors impoverishes them all and enriches only the corporations that operate charters.

 

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Funding, Michigan, Vouchers

Angie Sullivan: Why Nevada Ranks Last in the Nation

By dianeravitch
January 7, 2017 //
1

Angie Sullivan, second-grade teachers in Clark County, Nevada, wrote the following missive to the state’s legislators and journalists:

 

 

Behold! The Nevada Plan!

 

http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2017/01/06/report-nevada-schools-place-last-in-nation/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

The national grade and the grades for individual states are based on three custom Research Center indices that look at the role of education in promoting an individual’s chance for success over the course of a lifetime; overall school spending and equity in funding across districts; and academic performance, including changes over time and poverty-based gaps.

 

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919951&rssid=25919141&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Few%2F%3Fuuid%3D8F26560C-C7AB-11E6-942D-3099B3743667&intc=EW-QC17-TOC

 

It is not enough to pronounce Nevada failing.

 

Let us be frank about WHY!

 

Nevada’s education system is failing because 50% of the DSA is diverted to primarily white rural schools. This gives 25% of Nevada’s children adequate funding for public education.

 

Many rural areas also benefit from mining proceeds which cannot be accessed by the south.

 

Oddly enough a large percentage 25% of the lowest performing list are rural schools.

 

75% of Nevada’s children are in the south. They must make do with 50% of the DSA. The south serves more poor, disenfranchised, and language learners than any other area.

 

Only 1% of CCSD’s schools are on the lowest performing list. CCSD actually does better than the rest of the state when comparing the overall numbers with significantly less funding. The problem is that 1% in Vegas is a huge number. And it is the poor and already suffering who have no schools without teachers.

 

The point is: CCSD is actually very effective with 99% of it’s kids. Better than the rest of the state with significantly less money.

 

Southern caucus – your children need you to advocate and fight for them.

 

The answer will never be charters or forcing a Vegas public schools from the middle of a “list” to be a charter. Especially when the ASD states it will not take over a rural school or a charter even though they compose 50% of the lowest performing list. That does not solve the main funding issues. It keeps us last.

 

If Nevada wants to get off these lists: They need to solve the real problem.

 

Please write your legislator.

 

http://mapserve1.leg.state.nv.us/whoRU/

 

Ask them to fight for Vegas kids.

 

We cannot continue to rank last because we have built systems which favor some at the detriment to others.

 

This funding issue and this system developed in the 1960s has got to go.

 

Southern Caucus: You have a common cause. Please put your differences aside and work together for Vegas kids. We applaud your efforts last session under Republican leadership. We are expecting some leadership this session from the Democrats.

 

O God hear the words of my mouth. Let our representatives work on issues which will help us make progress. Hold Vegas children in Your Hand.

Categories Funding, Nevada

Bill Phillis: Republican Leaders in Ohio Offer a Trojan Horse For School Funding

By dianeravitch
January 6, 2017 //
26

Bill Phillis is a wise educator in Ohio, now retired, who served as deputy state commissioner in an earlier administration, one that supported public schools. He is passionate about equitable funding.

 

In this post, he warns about a deceitful funding plan just introduced in the legislature. 

 

Representative Andrew Brenner concocted an ALEC-style funding bill that pretends to be equitable but is in fact a universal voucher plan.

 

Two years ago, Brenner called publichttps://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/23/ohio-you-cant-make-this-stuff-up/ schools “socialism.” His way of responding to critics is to say “they must have gone to public schools.”

 

 

 

 

Categories ALEC, Fraud, Funding, Ohio, Vouchers

Mike Klonsky: BREAKING NEWS: Rich Schools Get High Grades, Poor School Districts Fail

By dianeravitch
January 5, 2017 //
21

Mike Klonsky is a nervy guy.

 

In this post, he explains why some schools and states get high marks while others are “failing.” 

 

Let Edweek know.

Categories Education Reform, Funding

DeVos and the Charter Fraud in Michigan: $1 Billion Down the Drain

By dianeravitch
January 5, 2017 //
16

Michigan has one of the worst charter sectors in the nation, according to the Detroit Free Press, which conducted a year-long investigation of charters in the state. The people of Michigan pay $1 billion a year for a sector in which 80% of the charters operate for profit, in which there is neither accountability nor transparency, in which conflicts of interests don’t matter. Billionaire Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick and other members of the DeVos family control education issues in the Republican-dominated legislature with their generous campaign contributions. Governor Rick Snyder is DeVos’s personal puppet. And the state continues to waste public money on failing schools because they are privately run. No regulation needed!

 

This is Billionaire Betsy DeVos’s idea of how education should work!

 

The Detroit Free Press writes:

 

Michigan taxpayers pour nearly $1 billion a year into charter schools — but state laws regulating charters are among the nation’s weakest, and the state demands little accountability in how taxpayer dollars are spent and how well children are educated.

 

A yearlong investigation by the Detroit Free Press reveals that Michigan’s lax oversight has enabled a range of abuses in a system now responsible for more than 140,000 Michigan children. That figure is growing as more parents try charter schools as an alternative to traditional districts.

 

In reviewing two decades of charter school records, the Free Press found:

 

Wasteful spending and double-dipping. Board members, school founders and employees steering lucrative deals to themselves or insiders. Schools allowed to operate for years despite poor academic records. No state standards for who operates charter schools or how to oversee them.

 

And a record number of charter schools run by for-profit companies that rake in taxpayer money and refuse to detail how they spend it, saying they’re private and not subject to disclosure laws. Michigan leads the nation in schools run by for-profits.

 

“People should get a fair return on their investment,” said former state schools Superintendent Tom Watkins, a longtime charter advocate who has argued for higher standards for all schools. “But it has to come after the bottom line of meeting the educational needs of the children. And in a number of cases, people are making a boatload of money, and the kids aren’t getting educated.”

 

According to the Free Press’ review, 38% of charter schools that received state academic rankings during the 2012-13 school year fell below the 25th percentile, meaning at least 75% of all schools in the state performed better. Only 23% of traditional public schools fell below the 25th percentile.

 

Advocates argue that charter schools have a much higher percentage of children in poverty compared with traditional schools. But traditional schools, on average, perform slightly better on standardized tests even when poverty levels are taken into account.

 

In late 2011, Michigan lawmakers removed limits on how many charters can operate here —opening the door to a slew of new management companies. In 2013-14, the state had 296 charters operating some 370 schools — in 61% of them, charter boards have enlisted a full-service, for-profit management company. Another 17% rely on for-profits for other services, mostly staffing and human resources, according to Free Press research.

 

Michigan far exceeds states like Florida, Ohio and Missouri, where only about one-third of charters were run by a full-service, for-profit management company in 2011-12, according to research by Western Michigan University professor Gary Miron, who has studied charters extensively.

 

While the Free Press found disclosure issues with both for-profit and nonprofit companies, the state’s failure to insist on more financial transparency by for-profits — teacher salaries, executive compensation, vendor payments and more — is particularly troubling to charter critics because the for-profit companies receive the bulk of the money that goes to charter schools. In some cases, even charter school board members don’t get detailed information.

 

Without that, experts say there is no way to determine if a school is getting the most for its money.

 

Authorizers in Michigan receive 3% of the state tuition money for every student who attends a charter school they authorize. That means millions of dollars flow to the authorizing groups, who have no responsibility or accountability. Anyone can open a charter school in Michigan. Charter schools can fail and be reauthorized. Charter operators can run failing schools and get to open new ones. Success is unimportant. Michigan is a free-for-all with public money.

 

State law sets no qualifications for charter applicants

 

In Michigan, anyone and everyone can apply to open a charter school. There are no state guidelines for screening applicants.

 

And in many cases, authorizers have given additional charters to schools managed by companies that haven’t demonstrated academic success with their existing schools.

 

Central Michigan University, for example, gave two additional charters to schools managed by the for-profit Hanley-Harper Group Inc. in Harper Woods, before its first school had any state ranking and despite test scores that showed it below statewide proficiency rates in reading and math. The school’s first ranking, released last year, put it in the 14th percentile, meaning that 86% of schools in Michigan did better academically.

 

“We have a product, yes, we are trying to sell and constantly working to make … better and better and better,” company founder Beata Chochla, who has run several small businesses, including janitorial and home health care, told the Free Press in an interview.

 

Ferris State University has authorized a fourth Hanley-Harper school, expected to open this fall in Oak Park.

 

“We were convinced they had a good plan,” Ferris State’s interim charter schools director Ronald Rizzo said, adding that critics who believe an operator should have a successful academic track record before adding schools are “welcome” to their views.

 

Authorizers also have been slow to close poor performers. Among the oldest and poorest performing schools in metro Detroit:

 

■ Hope Academy, founded in Detroit in 1998, ranked almost rock-bottom — in the first percentile — in 2012-13.

 

■ Commonwealth Community Development Academy, founded in Detroit in 1996, ranked in the third percentile.

 

Both schools are authorized by Eastern Michigan University, which said in a statement that it is not satisfied with either. Yet just last year, EMU renewed Hope Academy’s charter.

 

The article includes a list of recent charter scandals:

 

■ A Sault Ste. Marie charter school board gave its administrator a severance package worth $520,000 in taxpayer money.

 

■ A Bedford Township charter school spent more than $1 million on swampland.

 

■ A mostly online charter school in Charlotte spent $263,000 on a Dale Carnegie confidence-building class, $100,000 more than it spent on laptops and iPads.

 

■ Two board members who challenged their Romulus school’s management company over finances and transparency were ousted when the length of their terms was summarily reduced by Grand Valley State University.

 

■ National Heritage Academies, the state’s largest for-profit school management company, charges 14 of its Michigan schools $1 million or more in rent — which many real estate experts say is excessive.

 

■ A charter school in Pittsfield Township gave jobs and millions of dollars in business to multiple members of the founder’s family.

 

■ Charter authorizers have allowed management companies to open multiple schools without a proven track record of success.

 

Want to get rich quick? Move to Michigan and open a charter school.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Fraud, Funding, Michigan, Privatization, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

James Harvey: We Do Not Spend More than Other Nations on Schools

By dianeravitch
January 4, 2017 //
4

James Harvey is executive director of the National Superintendents Roundtable. See their excellent report “The Iceberg Effect,” which put international comparisons of schools into a broad context.

 

He commented today, in response to an article claiming that we spend more than other nations and get worse results:

 

The “we spend more than anyone less for poorer results” argument is specious. We’d really need a forensic examination of finances to get a better fix on this, but American schools carry in their budgets hugely expensive line items for benefits and health insurance, transportation, and athletics that other nations pay for in municipal budgets or through community groups (in the case of athletics). An apples to apples comparison would either eliminate those costs from American school budgets (to get a better fix on true educational expenditures) or calculate, for schools elsewhere, equivalent contributions from outside the school system.

Categories Funding, International

Rhode Island: No-Excuses Charter Chain Gets Ok to Triple Enrollment

By dianeravitch
December 30, 2016 //
18

Rhode Island state officials gave their permission to triple the enrollment of politically connected no-excuses charter chain Achievement First.

 

As reported here previously, increasing the enrollment of these charters will drain students and millions of dollars from the public schools of Providence.

 

Thousands of children in the Providence public schools will suffer budget cuts so that a much smaller number may enroll in a dual system under private control.

 

The final decision is up to the mayor of Providence, who is also chair of the charter chainboard.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Providence, Rhode Island

Arizona: A Proposal to Hold Schools Accountable Based on Test Scores

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2016 //
12

 

Arizona spends less on schools than most states. The governor, Doug Ducey, is determined not to raise taxes. The public is willing to spend more to improve education but the governor wants to hold the line.

 

Robert Robb, an editorial columnist for the Arizona Republic has an idea: cut the schools loose from school boards and judge them by standardized tests. And hold everyone accountable for results.

 

Arizona currently spends, from all sources for all purposes, $9,500 per K-12 student. That’s low compared with other U.S. states. But it is in the range spent by countries in Western Europe.

 

For example, Finland spends roughly the same per pupil as does Arizona, and it has one of the highest performing school systems in the world, based on international test scores.

 

However, to have high performance with existing dollars would require blowing up the existing delivery system and substituting a new one built from scratch.

 

What would such a system look like?

 

It would be entirely financed and controlled at the state level. Funding for all purposes, operational and capital, would be folded into a single, lump-sum, per pupil grant. The grant would go to whatever public school the student attended.

 

The principal at that school would have control of the elements of educational success: money, personnel and curriculum. Local school boards and central school district business offices would be neutered or abolished.

 

That would put in place the infrastructure of educational success. But actual success would be ensured by a rigorous regimen of accountability through testing. Failing to achieve the educational benchmarks set by the state would have consequences for all — administrators, teachers and students.

 

Arizona has never had such an accountability- through-testing regimen.And the state Board of Education is fleeing in the opposite direction, bent on adopting a new school grading system even more meaningless and useless than the previous one.

 

This is a surprising proposal because it echoes the failed test-and-punish accountability regime of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Both efforts said that test scores should be used to measure success and to hold everyone accountable. Fifteen years later, what is there to show for these multi-billion dollar initiatives? They aimed to produce higher test scores, and by their own goals and measures, they failed.

 

Mr. Robb must have a lot of faith in standardized testing if he thinks, like Margaret Spellings, Sandy Kress, and Arne Duncan, that they are the best way to identify success.

 

Since he brought up Finland, he should look into that nation more closely. Start by reading Pasi Sahlberg’s wonderful book, Finnish Lessons, or Finnish Lessons 2.0. What he would learn is that students in Finland don’t begin formal academic instruction until they are 7. They never take a standardized test until the end of high school. Their teachers are carefully selected, well prepared in a five-year program (that is hard to get accepted into), and given substantial autonomy over how and what to teach. Children have recess after every class, rain or snow or shine. The arts and physical education are very important. Creativity and play matter.

 

Please, Mr. Robb, learn more about Finland, and compare what you see in Arizona to what the Finns do.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Testing
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