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A Cruel Hoax: Mississippi Honored for “Innovation”

By dianeravitch
July 8, 2016 //
16

The Education Commission for the States, a once reputable organization, recently decided to honor Mississippi with the 2016 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation.

Among other things, Mississippi was honored for expanding charter schools, prioritizing early literacy, and adopting an A-F grading system for schools (invented by Jeb Bush), which closely tracks the family incomes of students. Maybe Jeb Bush and Arne Duncan should have gotten the Frank Newman Award for Innovation. Mississippi was just going with the flow.

Unmentioned in the award was that the Governor and State Legislature of Mississippi fought successfully just a few months ago to block an increase in state funding for the public schools of Mississippi.

Also unmentioned is that Mississippi has adopted the strategy of not promoting third graders unless they pass a standardized test, which has no evidence of success. About 15% of students do not pass, although some will qualify for a “good cause exemption.” The law was amended this year to raise the bar and flunk more children.

The ECS statement says that Mississippi saw “historic gains” on NAEP at both 4th and 8th grades. But this is not true. The state registered no gains in eighth grade, in either mathematics or reading. There were gains in fourth grade, but Mississippi is nonetheless one of the lowest performing states in the nation.

What kind of standards does ECS have for making this award? Is the award meant to recognize states that refuse to fund their schools adequately and that enact legislation to privatize the public schools and to penalize students?

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, Mississippi

Mississippi: Yes for Charters, No for Funding

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2016 //
2

Last year, the people of Mississippi had a chance to increase the funding for their woefully inadequate public schools, and the legislature and governor did everything in their power to reject the proposal, even creating an alternative measure designed to confuse voters. Act 42, which would have compelled equitable funding was voted down. Act 42 failed to win approval. Here is the background.

The legislature’s answer to school improvement: charter schools. These are the schools of choice that segregationists have wanted since the Brown decision.

Some in the legislature want to take the next step and authorize vouchers, to thoroughly undermine public schools.

The first two charters in Jackson are finishing their first year: one is struggling, the other is part of a corporate chain and is off to a good start.

Categories Charter Schools, Equity, Funding, Mississippi, Privatization

Mississippi: Legislators Strike Back at Superintendents for Seeking More Funding

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2016 //
6

Mississippi lawmakers punished the state’s superintendents by defunding their association. This was in retaliation for the superintendents support for Initiative 42, a referendum calling upon the legislature to fund the schools adequately.

 

Mississippi has extreme poverty, and Schools that are underfunded. Imagine the nerve of those superintendents, sticking up for the children!

 

“The move creates an uncertain future for what has traditionally been Mississippi’s most powerful school lobbying group. The long-term power of the association was already in question after lawmakers voted this year to make all superintendents appointive. Traditionally, the elected members of the association, especially those in the state’s largest school districts, have wielded the most political power.

“Initiative 42 would have amended the state Constitution to require the state to provide “an adequate and efficient system of free public schools.” Supporters said it would have blocked lawmakers from being able to spend less than the amount required by Mississippi’s school funding formula, and would have allowed people to sue the state to seek additional money for schools.

“Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders opposed the measure because it could have limited legislative power and transferred some power to judges. They warned that it could have led to budget cuts to other state agencies. Lawmakers placed an alternative measure on the ballot, which made it harder to pass the measure. Voters ultimately rejected any change by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, Equity, Funding, Inequality, Mississippi

New Era of Segregation Expands in Mississippi as Legislature Endorses More School Choice

By dianeravitch
April 15, 2016 //
16

The segregated states of the Deep South fought desegregation tooth-and-nail for years after the 1954 Brown decision. The white leadership did not want white children to go to school with black children, period. Their first response was to declare that they would never desegregate: never, never, never. As pressure from the federal government and the courts accelerated, southern officials found a new tactic to preserve segregation: school choice. School choice, they knew, would protect the status quo: White children would “choose” to stay in white schools, and black children would “choose” to stay in black schools. Eventually the federal courts struck down every school choice plan, recognizing that it was a blatant effort to avoid the letter and spirit of the Brown decision.

 

But here we are, eighty years later, with segregation on the rise and school choice in the ascendancy as its vehicle.

 

Southern states are adopting charters and vouchers because their long-frustrated effort to return to segregated schools is at last feasible. Not only is it feasible, in some circles, it is fashionable. Now the media celebrates all-black schools and ignores the fact that they are segregated. The subtext is: Look at this! An all-black school with high test scores! Isn’t that great?

 

Mississippi just passed legislation to establish vouchers for children with special needs and to permit more charters. The “vouchers for children with special needs” is a first step towards a broader voucher plan that grows to include low-income children; then to include children in schools that have low test scores; then to include more and more children, until everyone gets a voucher. The not-so-subtle joke is that the voucher is not large enough to pay the tuition at a first-rate private school, so most of the children will have a voucher to go to a religious school whose teachers are uncertified and whose resources are meager. Worse, the children with special needs abandon the legal protections that the public school guarantees when they leave the public system.

 

Other states, such as Ohio, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Florida, and Maryland, have endorsed voucher plans (which are never called vouchers but some euphemism, like “opportunity scholarships.) The irony in these states is that their constitutions explicitly prohibits the diversion of public school funds to religious schools, yet legislators proclaim their fealty to constitutional principles even as they pass laws to send public money to religious schools. Vouchers for children with disabilities is the camel’s nose under the tent, to get the movement started.

 

The rise of vouchers is not a response to popular demand. Vouchers have been put to voters in several states, and every time they have been soundly defeated, even in red state Utah. The revival of the voucher movement is nothing more than ideology and politics taking charge of schooling. School choice is not the “civil rights issue of our time,” as its proponents claim; it is the predictable way to roll back civil rights in our time.

 

After 25 years of experimentation with charters and vouchers, we know that they do not get better results than public schools unless they choose their students and kick out the ones who don’t have high test scores and don’t adhere to strict requirements for obedience. Charters and vouchers drain money from public schools, which still educate the vast majority of children. Once school choice gets rooted in a state, the subject consumes all the energy of legislators. It is as if the 90% who attend real public schools became invisible.

 

Despite the absence of any advantages and the presence of scandals, frauds, and discrimination, more and more states are falling victim to the false promise of “school choice.” As one Florida superintendent explained it to me, charters enable parents to keep their children away from “those children.” Both charters and vouchers increase racial segregation, religious segregation, and economic segregation.

 

These trends are ominous for our democracy.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Mississippi, Privatization, School Choice, Segregation, Vouchers

Who Funded the Opposition to Spending More on Education in Mississippi? (Hint: Can You Spell K-O-C-H?)

By dianeravitch
December 12, 2015 //
11

Mississippians went to the polls recently to vote on Initiative 42, which required the state legislature to fully fund the public schools. The initiative failed.

 

Who funded the opposition to Initiative 42?

 

Not Mississippians. According to this account of the post-campaign financial filings, 75% of the money to fight Initiative 42 came from outside Mississippi.

 

Here is a report on the scoundrels that don’t want to spend another penny on the education of children in Mississippi. How about those Koch brothers! They are billionaires, yet they put up nearly a quarter of a million dollars to block any increase in funding the education of children in Mississippi! What’s up with those guys? Why do national Republican PACs fight the fair funding of little children? Why is this an issue for them? I don’t get it. Here is an example of deceptive labeling: a group called “KidsFirst Mississippi” accepted the Koch money to oppose funding education for the kids. It should rename itself “KidsLast Mississippi” in the spirit of accurate advertising.

 

The article says:

 

Post-election campaign filings are revealing that opponents of Initiative 42, mostly from outside the state, spent much more money to defeat it than they were required to report before the polls closed. Initiative 42 would have changed the Mississippi Constitution to force the Legislature to follow state law and fully fund education or be subject to judiciary consequences. Campaign-finance reports for registered PACs and PICs were due on Nov. 10 for committee spending in October.

 

The Improve Mississippi Political Initiative Committee is the PIC that primarily ran the “No on 42” campaign with TV ads and a website, promoting fear that one (presumably black) judge in Hinds County would control education funding if 42 passed. Records filed Nov. 10 show the group spent $844,750 to defeat the citizen ballot.

 

About 82 percent of that money came from one donor: the RSLC Mississippi PAC, which is the state PAC arm of the Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based 527 political organization dedicated to “elect down-ballot, state-level Republican leaders.”

 

The RSLC Mississippi PAC gave $600,000 to the Improve Mississippi PIC in October, the PIC’s October campaign-finance report showed. Because RSLC Mississippi PAC did not donate to individual candidates in this election cycle, the PAC was not required to file reports, Secretary of State spokeswoman Pamela Weaver wrote in an email to the Jackson Free Press.

 

However, the RSLC Mississippi PAC’s latest report shows that it also donated $30,000 to The Watchdog PAC and $100,000 to the Mississippi House Republican Caucus PAC in September. The Watchdog PAC’s October campaign finance report reveals $100,000 in year-to-date donations from the RSLC Mississippi PAC on Oct. 9.

 

The Watchdog PAC then donated $90,000 to the Improve Mississippi PIC on Oct. 14, 19 and 27. If the Watchdog PAC used RSLC’s donation to fund its Improve MS PIC donation, which is unclear, the Republican State Leadership Committee gave $690,000 of the $844,750 donations used to defeat Initiative 42 through the PIC.

 

The Republican State Leadership Committee did not respond to requests for phone interviews, but instead provided emailed statements. RSLC is a national organization that focuses on state-level Republican leadership, largely through individual PAC arms for states. Funding for the 527 comes from several large, national corporations. According to 2014 Open Secrets data, RSLC’s top donors last year included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Reynolds American, Las Vegas Sands and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, who together donated more than $6 million. Walmart Stores and Koch Industries were also on the top-10 highest donor list.

 

Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ national advocacy organization, donated $239,097 to the KidsFirst Mississippi PAC, the other prominent anti-42 PAC, which placed radio, Facebook, Google and other media ads against Initiative 42, campaign-finance records show. The KidsFirst PAC only reported spending $123,193 on its October campaign-finance report.

Categories Education Reform, Funding, Mississippi

Jeb’s Foundation for Educational Excellence Celebrates Mississippi’s Higher Standards Day After State Defeats Funding Schools

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2015 //
21

This is incredible timing. Yesterday, voters in Mississippi turned down an initiative to increase state funding for public schools. They were urged on by Governor Phil Bryant and the Republican leadership of the Legislature, who feared that the courts would tell the Legislature what to do instead of letting the Legislature under-fund the schools all on their own.

The next day, today, former Governor Jeb Bush’s former Foundation for Educational Excellence (now headed by education expert Condoleeza Rice) saluted Mississippi for raising its standards! How cynical to think that higher standards and harder tests will improve test scores. This is like telling a student who can’t clear a 4-foot bar that you will help him by raising it to 6 feet. How cynical can one be? This is a slap in the face to every parent, teacher, and student in Mississippi.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 5, 2015 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org

RELEASE: Mississippi Raises Expectations for Students
State Leaders Continue Trend towards Readiness for College and Career

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Mississippi State Board of Education accepted rigorous new performance level cut scores for the state test given to students last spring. The vote signals the desire of Mississippi leaders to continue raising rigor for students and ensuring they have demonstrated a thorough understanding of grade-level content and are on track to being ready for college-level coursework or the workforce.

“This is yet another example of Mississippi’s clear commitment to raising expectations for its students. Governor Phil Bryant, Lt. Governor Tate Reeves, Speaker Philip Gunn, the Legislature, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright, as well as the State Board of Education have revolutionized education policy in the Magnolia State, and we are starting to see some promising results for Mississippi’s students,” said Patricia Levesque, CEO for the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd). “Last week, Mississippi posted gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Today, the Board of Education took another crucial step toward reform, ensuring that Mississippi’s students become better prepared for college and career opportunities. I applaud the Board as well as the incredible efforts of Mississippi’s educators, parents and community leaders, who are taking ownership of these reforms to better prepare young Mississippians for life’s increasing expectations.”

Mississippi’s new proficiency expectations are aligned with student performance on the NAEP, which is considered the gold standard for measuring student proficiency. The difference between NAEP and individual states’ proficiency expectations are wide and varied. This discrepancy is called an “honesty gap.” Later this month, if Mississippi follows the lead of setting more rigorous high school expectations, the honesty gaps for elementary and middle school will also close.

“Our teachers have worked incredibly hard over the past few years to help students reach these higher standards, and they should be commended for getting our students off to a strong start on their journey to college and the workforce,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.

Requiring more of students will always be harder than requiring less. But Mississippi education officials have demonstrated a strong commitment to raising their proficiency expectations and creating an education system where every child masters the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful.

Visit ExcelinEd’s website http://WhyProficiencyMatters.com/Mississippi for more facts, graphics and sharable content. Join the conversation online with #ProficiencyMatters.

Categories Mississippi

Mississippi Votes Against Funding Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2015 //
16

Act 42 failed in Mississippi. It would have required the state to fully fund public schools. The Republican legislature and governor fought it by proposing an alternative, deceptively named Act 42A, which maintains the status quo. Under the alternative, the legislature is free to spend whatever it chooses.

When people sign on to the ideology of choice, they begin to think like consumers, not citizens. “I take care of my children, you take care of yours.” They forget about their responsibility for the children of the community and the state. They abandon any obligation to other people’s children. They forget that education is a civic responsibility and an investment in the future.

Amanda Koonlaba, a teacher in Mississippi who worked for passage of Act 42, reacted:

“Mississippi- where we like 50th so much we will even accept 51st in education. The other states can sigh in relief and keep saying “at least we aren’t Mississippi”

“But, the sleeping giant is awake. I hope MS leg is ready. The success or failure of our schools is on their hands. The 90% of our children in public schools have an army rising up.

“I hope the “we are working on it” and “let us handle it” is not forgotten. We want solutions. Not shifting of tax payer dollars to private schools. Not massive tax cuts for corporate buddies. We want real solutions. Not rhetoric. Get in there legislators. Get dirty on the mess of poverty, underfunded schools and children and teachers who need help. Call the educators in your districts. Bring them in. Ignore the lobbies.

“We are watching. We won’t be silent. #FedUpWith50th”

Categories Mississippi

If You Live in Mississippi, Get Out and Vote for Initiative 42

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2015 //
0

Please vote today to support and fund the public schools of Mississippi.

Vote for Act 42. Do not vote for the alternative intended to confuse voters.

Read this to understand why Initiative 42 matters. It was written by a kindergarten teacher in Mississippi.

In 1997, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law promising to provide each public school district in Mississippi enough financial support to furnish an adequate education to every K-12 student. That law is called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), and has only been followed twice since it was passed. This has resulted in a shortfall of over a billion dollars since 2009. That is a billion dollars that would have provided textbooks, technology, and certified teachers. Instead, Mississippi’s students have just had to do without.

In 2014, nearly 200,000 Mississippians from every county and both political parties took a stand and signed petitions to have Initiative 42 added to the ballot on November 3, 2015. This would amend the state constitution in a way that makes public education a priority instead of an afterthought. Initiative 42 closes a loophole that has allowed the Legislature to break the MAEP law for so long.

If you want to have a better future in your state, invest in education now.

Categories Funding, Mississippi

If You Want to Help Mississippians Who Are Fighting for Their Public Schools, Please Donate

By dianeravitch
October 21, 2015 //
0

A few days ago, I wrote a post about the battle in Mississippi about adequate funding for the public schools.

The positive proposal is called Initiative 42.

The supporters of Initiative 42 are trying to get the Legislature to keep its promises. Their opponents are defending the status quo of underfunded schools, which will harm the children of the state.

If you want to help, please send a contribution:

You can donate here http://42forbetterschools.org/donate/

Categories Funding, Mississippi

Amanda Koonlaba: Can the People of Mississippi Save Their Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
October 19, 2015 //
7

Amanda Koonlaba, an art teacher in Tupelo, Mississippi, explains here that Mississippi is in a pitched battle to fund its public schools adequately. The issue is joined in a political struggle over Initiative 42, which would require the adequate funding of public education. Initiative 42 is opposed by the forces of privatization, which prefer to open privately managed charters, hand out vouchers for religious schools, and block any increase in funding for the public schools.

Koonlaba writes:

In 1997, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law promising to provide each public school district in Mississippi enough financial support to furnish an adequate education to every K-12 student. That law is called the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), and has only been followed twice since its was passed. This has resulted in a shortfall of over a billion dollars since 2009. That is a billion dollars that would have provided textbooks, technology, and certified teachers. Instead, Mississippi’s students have just had to do without.

In 2014, nearly 200,000 Mississippians from every county and both political parties took a stand and signed petitions to have Initiative 42 added to the ballot on November 3, 2015. This would amend the state constitution in a way that makes public education a priority instead of an afterthought. Initiative 42 closes a loophole that has allowed the Legislature to break the MAEP law for so long.

After citizens signed these petitions, the very first thing the Legislature did when they went back into session was to pass an alternative to Initiative 42.

The alternative was intended to confuse voters, to protect the status quo, and to prevent any increase in funding for public schools.

The leaders of the opposition to Initiative 42 have ties to the Koch Brothers and Americans for Prosperity.

And ALEC, the enemy of the public good, is involved too.

This spring, the Legislature passed a school voucher bill straight from the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) playbook. ALEC helps corporations, idealogues, and their political allies pass legislation that privatizes schools. This legislation is written behind closed doors and then passed around from state to state. All a lawmaker has to do is fill in the blanks with the name of their particular state. It benefits large corporations and directs public tax dollars to private entities. ALEC is funded by the Koch Brothers. Interestingly, Jeb Bush, who is also closely connected to Americans for Prosperity, attended [Governor] Phil Bryant’s signing of this bill in Jackson.

The passage of Initiative 42 is crucial for the future of the children and public schools of Mississippi. It is a chance for the public to say NO to the 1% that rule ALEC and the other privatization advocates.

It is a chance for citizens and local communities to stand up for their public schools and stop the corporate assault on them.

Koonlaba writes:

Initiative 42 is a light in the darkness of this attack on Mississippi’s public schools. It is a chance for the citizens of Mississippi to stand up to the Legislature and remind them that they work for citizens not privatizers. Mississippians want their public schools to remain public and be fully funded.

However, Mississippians need help sorting through what the Executive Editor of the Clarion Ledger, Sam R. Hall, called “a load of horse crap” from the opposition to Initiative 42. Luckily, several groups are working to help Mississippians do this to get the initiative passed.

The Parent’s Campaign and the Mississippi Association of Educators have been working to educate the public on the initiative. 42 for Better Schools is the actual campaign to pass Initiative 42 and is a coalition of Mississippi public schools supporters and organizations. A grassroots group called Fed Up with 50th emerged to support school funding issues. They write on their Facebook page that

“We are law-abiding, tax-paying Mississippi voters—Republicans and Democrats—and we are FED UP! We are FED UP with failing schools, low graduation rates, poor teacher support, crowded classrooms, crumbling buildings, not enough textbooks or computers—all the things that make us 50th in education year after year. More than anything, we are FED UP that our legislators continue to BREAK THE LAW and underfund our schools, STEALING from our children and SELLING OUT their future to special interests.”
If Initiative 42 passes on November 3, Mississippians will have won a major battle but will have much work still left to do. If it doesn’t pass, the war will be lost.

Initiative 42 is a chance for Mississippians to tell the corporate entrepreneurs that their children and their public schools are not for sale.

If they stand together, the people of Mississippi can beat the 1%.

Categories Budget Cuts, Equity, Funding, Mississippi, Privatization
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