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How Did David Beat Goliath in Indiana?

By dianeravitch
November 15, 2012 //
7

Conservatives can’t believe their hero Tony Bennett lost.

Bennett had the support of the national conservative establishment.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute had crowned him the American Education Idol.

He had nearly $1.5 million to spend.

Republicans loved his attacks on unions.

The Obama administration loved his support for the Common Core standards.

He is president of Jeb’s group of rightwing superintendents called Chiefs for Change.

He is on the board of directors of the Council of Chief State School Officers (its president is Tony Luna of Idaho, whose teacher-bashing laws were repealed by the voters).

Education Week invited Bennett to lead a forum on “Road Maps to Success” in implementing the Common Core in March 2013 (that should be a hoot, especially since one of the session will be held in Indianapolis!).

And he got shellacked in the election by a political novice.

Glenda Ritz received 100,000 votes more than Mike Pence, who was elected Governor.

The pondering goes on and on.

How did David beat Goliath?

Here is one effort to explain it.

Let’s see: teachers, principals and superintendents were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

The unions were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

Parents were angry at the avalanche of testing. There are lots and lots of parents. That would matter.

Hoosiers who graduated from public schools, who loved their teachers, who respect the importance of public education figured out that he was doing his best to turn it over to entrepreneurs.

Maybe that’s what did it.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Vouchers

Good News from Florida

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2012 //
7

I should have reported this sooner, but other election returns distracted me.

Jeb Bush’s latest privatization scheme suffered a major setback at the hands of Florida voters.

He and his allies pushed Amendment 8 to allow public funds to flow to religious schools. As usual with “reform” measures, this one had a misleading name. It was about “religious freedom,” but voters recognized it was a voucher scheme and they rejected it overwhelmingly.

Other bad news for the Bush machine: Tony Bennett, the head of Bush’s Chiefs for Change, was whipped.

Tony Luna pushed Bush’s expensive but profitable (for tech companies) ideas about mandatory laptops for every student and mandatory online courses, as well as merit pay and union-demolition. Happily, the Luna laws were crushed and repealed by Idaho voters.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Florida, For-Profit, Idaho, Indiana, Privatization, Religion, Testing, Vouchers

Sirota Exposes the Big Lie Technique

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2012 //
6

David Sirota, an author and talk-show host, here analyzes the election results and says they exposed the Big Lie of the corporate reform movement.

The public is not hankering to privatize their public schools.

The corporate leaders and rightwing establishment dropped millions of dollars to push their agenda of privatization, teacher-bashing and anti-unionism. They lost some major contests.

I will be posting more about some important local races they lost.

We have to do two things to beat them: get the word out to the public about who they are and what they want (read Sirota).

Two: never lose hope.

Those who fight to defend the commons against corporate raiders are on the right side of history.

Nothing they demand is right for children, nor does it improve education.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Colorado, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, Idaho, Indiana, Merit pay, Parents, Privatization, Stand for Children, Students, Technology, Computers, Testing, Unions, US Education, Vouchers

How a Leading Rightwing Group Views the Election

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2012 //
0

The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., is one of the nation’s leading advocates for privatization of public education. Its leader, Jeanne Allen, was an education policy analyst at the rightwing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, before she founded CER in 1993:

The Center for Education Reform has long advocated for charters and vouchers. It has nothing to say about improving public schools, only that they should be replaced by private management or vouchers.

CER is closely allied with other conservative groups committed to privatization, like ALEC, the Heartland Institute, Democrats for Education Reform, and Black Alliance for Educational Options. CER claimed credit for helping to write the Heartland Institute’s version of the parent trigger law, which served as a model for ALEC.

If you want to track the advance of privatization, keep your eye on the Center for Education Reform.

This is CER’s take on the 2012 elections (to see the links, go to the CER website):

The Center for Education Reform Analysis:
How Education Reform Fared on Election Day

WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Education Reform analyzed Tuesday’s results through the prism of education reform. Our EDlection Roundup provides our analysis on races up and down the ballots, including:

The White House: The Center congratulated President Obama and offered thoughts about how he could refocus education issues in his second term.

Governors: Two states, North Carolina and Indiana, will be inaugurating reform-minded Governors. They join the 23 other states who are also led by reformers. Is yours one of them? See our Governor grades.

Senate Races: We take a look at the results of four Senate races where candidates were strong reformers, and where two – Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) – were victorious.

Ballot Initiatives: There were education reform ballot initiatives in Georgia, Idaho, and Washington. We look at the results, which included a decisive victory in Georgia.

Superintendents: We examine the results of Superintendent races, with a special look at the disappointing defeat of Tony Bennett, a stalwart reformer.

###

CER, since 1993, is the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S. Additional information about the Center and its activities can be found at http://www.edreform.com.

The Center for Education Reform
(tel) 800-521-2118 • 301-986-8088 • (fax) 301-986-1826
cer@edreform.com • http://www.edreform.com

Categories ALEC, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, ConnCAN, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Parent trigger, Privatization, Vouchers

Support Indiana Superintendent-Elect Glenda Ritz

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2012 //
7

Parent groups in Indiana have posted a petition on change.org calling on the elected officials of the state to respect the voters’ choice of Glenda Ritz. In early statements, the governor, the governor-elect and some legislative leaders indicated tat they would stand by Tony Bennett’s agenda, which the people of Indiana rejected. Parents called on the state’s leaders to abide by the democratic process.

This is the Indiana petition. Please sign it and circulate it on blogs and Facebook pages:

“Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as our new Superintendent of Public Instruction by a large margin. She received roughly 1,300,000 votes–about 100,000 more votes than the governor-elect, Mike Pence. Now, however, Governor Daniels refuses to acknowledge that our election of Glenda Ritz sent a clear message on the direction of school reform, saying instead: “The consensus and momentum for reform and change in Indiana is rock solid.” Governor-elect Mike Pence is also choosing to interpret the election results as a “strong affirmation on the progress of education reform in this state,” (Journal Gazette 11/8/12). On the contrary: when Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as superintendent, we rejected the top-down, corporate reform model imposed by the state. We embraced Ritz’s platform and her research-backed proposals to support and improve our public schools.”

http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-daniels-governor-elect-pence-the-indiana-state-legislature-honor-our-1-300-000-votes-for-glenda-ritz

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Indiana, Parents

Why Tony Bennett Lost

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2012 //
7

Conservative commentators–and Tony Bennett himself–blame Bennett’s loss on his support for the Common Core standards. They say that Bennett lost the votes of some Republicans who oppose the standards as federal over-reach. It’s hard to over-state how Bennett’s loss shocked and bewildered conservatives. He was their super-star.

Before that hardens into conventional wisdom, please consider the different view of this Hoosier:

Bennett and his policies were incredibly detrimental to the education of Hoosier children. Hatchet men were placed as trustees of universities – not to support strengthened teacher education program, but to demean and demolish programs that are internationally perceived and practiced as excellent. An all out war was waged to de-professionalize teaching, which would result in putting less-qualified teachers in classrooms, raise class size, and force teachers to teach to tests rather than teach for critical and creative thinking. Why? Follow the money folks. . . who stands to gain financially if PUBLIC schools are declared failures and forced to close? Who is financially invested in charter schools? Who stands to gain if children are taught to accept the authority of someone else’s interpretation of facts rather than learn to question, explore, and discover? Who would rather have a population of followers than thinkers?

That’s why Bennett lost – and why Ritz won. Truth does matter, and news media who served the interests of big bucks and insidious political agendas rather than the interests of an honestly informed populace did themselves in . . . Parents and teachers looked for more reliable sources of information, because parents want the best for their children. They want their children to thrive!.

Unfortunately, it looks as if those who promoted Bennett have not given up the idea that with enough money, lies, and time they can wear the public down and hoodwink Hoosiers into accepting lesser standards for teacher preparation, un-inspired didactic instructional approaches, and curricula that value test statistics above the curiosity, imagination, and deep intellect of our children. I’m hopeful that parents’ love of their children and desire of all Hoosiers to see our children truly thrive will continue to resist Bennett’s political backers in the statehouse and allow Ritz to lead us along a path to true academic growth and freedom for our children.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization

What Are “Reformers” Saying About the Election?

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
11

Andy Rotherham writes a regular column on education for TIME.

This is his take on the election.

He supports the testing, accountability, charter agenda that Beltway insiders refer to as “the bipartisan consensus.”

I think of it as the Democratic embrace of the Republican agenda. Andy worked in the Clinton White House during the time of “triangulation” and the “third way,” when Democrats learned to love high-stakes testing and charters.

This path, I believe, now converges with the privatization movement, ALEC, the Waltons and the Koch brothers.

Are there Democrats who still remember the traditional Democratic agenda of equity and professionalism?

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Idaho, Indiana, Unions, US Education

Privatizers Capture Control of Indianapolis School Board

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
5

It was very exciting that Glenda Ritz managed to oust uber-privatizer Tony Bennett in Indiana, but meanwhile the privatization movement gained ground in Indianapolis, where a group called the Mind Trust has called for the abolition of the school district.

Its candidates captured control of the school board in yesterday’s election, promising the moon, the sun, and the stars once public education was abolished and replaced by private management.

And the voters fell for it.

As the linked article shows, Ritz will have a rough time dealing with the new governor and legislature, who are firmly opposed to public education and antagonistic to the wisdom and experience of a veteran educator.

Being politicians, they think they know how to reform schools. No experience necessary.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Indiana, Privatization

Indiana GOP Insists that Votes for Ritz Mean Nothing

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
4

In an article today, Indiana GOP leaders announced their determination to pursue Tony Bennett’s anti-teacher, pro-privatization agenda even though Bennett lost his bid for re-election.

Bennett’s challenger, Glenda Ritz, collected more votes than Mike Pence, the Republican who won the governor’s seat.

She won despite Bennett’s expenditure of  ten times as much as she had for the campaign.

She won despite the support of national rightwing groups promoting Bennett as the exemplar of school “reform.”

But the GOP thinks the voters didn’t really mean it, or made a mistake, or maybe the voters didn’t know what they were doing.

They hope to ignore the mandate at the polls.

Ritz has a Herculean task moving forward with a Republican governor, a Republican legislature, and laws mandating policies intended to destroy public education.

All she has on her side are the votes of 1.3 million Hoosiers.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, Vouchers

Tony Bennett Blames Unions, Common Core

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
7

In an interview with Education Week, defeated Indiana superintendent blamed his loss on the teachers’ union and on his support for the Common Core standards. He said that his challenger Glenda Ritz drew away some of his conservative base by criticizing the Common Core.

Bennett’s loss stunned supporters in the rightwing reform world.

It looks like Florida is in his future. He is a favorite of Jeb Bush, and Bush is a major player in Florida politics.

He fears that Ritz might find creative ways to strangle his beloved voucher program by regulation.

Remember when education politics was dull? No more.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Vouchers
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