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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

Andre Agassi Charter School Fails and Will be Taken Over by Another Charter Operator

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2017 //
10

Andre Agassi is in the charter school business with his partner Bobby Turner, and they are building and opening charters across the nation. Agassi and Turner raised $750 million for their for-profit venture.

 

Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas, Agassi’s flagship charter school is one of the lowest performing schools in Nevada, and it will be taken over by Democracy Prep Charter School, based in New York City.

 

Agassi should sell tennis rackets and get out of the school racket.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Failure, Nevada, Privatization

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

Nevada: Who is Jana Wilcox Lavin?

By dianeravitch
December 21, 2016 //
6

Nevada wants to create an Achievement School District, where low-scoring public schools can be turned into charter schools and managed by private operators. Nevada wants to copy the failed experiment in Tennessee, whose ASD has not met any of its goals other than to privatize public schools.

 

The person picked to run the Nevada ASD is Jana Wilcox Lavin. A newspaper in Nevada, the Desert Beacon, wrote about her appointment and asked about her credentials to run a school district made up of struggling schools. It checked her background and found that she has a master’s degree in marketing. But she did work for a time at a charter school in Memphis. The Desert Beacon realized that what is really happening is that the state is investing in a “privatization scam.”

 

The Department of Education would like to find private sector “operators” to take over the management of “struggling” schools. Applicants are asked to contact Jana Wilcox Lavin, whose background is in marketing. Leaving a person to ask what qualifications she might have as the “superintendent” of a school district with a BA from Tulane and an MA in Integrated Marketing Communication from Emerson College. Not that those aren’t fine institutions, but exactly how this prepares a graduate and board member of a college prep boarding school in Connecticut (Hotchkiss) to run a charter system isn’t all that clear. As a prep school product I’m not knocking the prep part, but there’s no Public in Hotchkiss, Tulane, or Emerson. As close as Wilcox-Lavin has come to the Public part of the equation may be a stint as the executive director for a charter school operator in Memphis, TN.

 

For some reason, the shocking number of charter schools that are struggling will not be added to the Achievement School District. Some, like the Andre Agassi Charter school, may be turned over to another charter operator. But as of now, Nevada has no plans to address the fact that the charter sector is lower-performing than the state’s public schools.

 

Nevada calls its successful schools “Shining Stars.” Its lowest performing schools are called “Rising Stars.”

 

Despite the failure of charter schools in the state, officials still believe that the answer to low-scoring schools is to turn them over to charter operators. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results?

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Nevada, Privatization

Las Vegas Teachers! Show Up for Board Meeting Today

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2016 //
0

Angie Sullivan calls on her colleagues in Clark County, Nevada, to show up for today’s board meeting:

She writes:

There is a CCSD School Board Meeting tomorrow.

Democrats who worked in bipartisan manner to implement #AB394 need to show up. A lot of work has gone into these plans.

#TeacherVoice

#ParentVoice

http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/education/superintendent-pat-skorkowsky-confronts-ccsd-trustees-role-district-overhaul

Superintendent. Pat Skorkowsky does not deserve to be replaced for attempting to implement the law.

I would question a Casino Business Executive and Government Relations Lobbyist for Caesars – a bankrupt casino – being chosen to lead the district.

http://m.reviewjournal.com/real-estate-millions/check-out-the-home-former-las-vegas-mayor-photos

https://www.google.com/amp/nypost.com/2016/08/26/caesars-could-be-forced-into-bankruptcy-after-judges-ruling/amp/?client=safari

What is going on?

All of this worries me.

This is about power and money instead of kids.

Teachers – Time to show up.

Angie.

Categories Education Reform, Funding, Nevada

Mercedes Schneider: Betsy DeVos on Video Explains How to Turn Corporate Taxes into Vouchers

By dianeravitch
December 7, 2016 //
8

The Nevada state constitution contains this language:

 

Article 11, Section 10: “No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose.”

 

Mercedes Schneider explains how the Nevada Supreme Court did a fancy rhetorical two-step to conclude that the state constitution does not forbid vouchers, it just forbids funding them. Got that?

 

She then shows a video of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, telling a Florida lawyer how corporate taxes can be used to provide vouchers for use in any school, including religious schools. This, despite the fact that the Florida state constitution explicitly says in Article 1, Section 3:

 

“There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof. Religious freedom shall not justify practices inconsistent with public morals, peace or safety. No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”

 

This, despite the fact that the voters of Florida rejected an effort to change this portion of the Florida state constitution to allow vouchers for religious schools in 2012. The so-called “Religious Freedom Amendment” was voted down by 55-44%.

 

US Secretary of Education nominee and “true pioneer of the school choice movement across the country,” Betsy DeVos, explains how the educational tax credit enables what would be public money (collected in the form of corporate taxes) from becoming public money at minute 4:45 in the 2015 Youtube video below in which Edward Pozzuoli, the president of Florida-based Tripp Scott Law Firm, interviews then-American Federation for Children (AFC) Chair DeVos, about tax credits.

 

The entire 9-minute video is an eye opener; DeVos talks about how the AFC does it all: finds the school choice candidates (she’s particularly keen on private school choice); puts “political effort” behind electing/defeating candidates; “works on the policies… the actual legislation,” and “helps parents and kids to find schools and schools to find parents and kids.”

 

“Reformers” intent on replacing public schools with for-profit charters and religious schools don’t let a little thing like the state constitution get in their way. Conservatives used to call themselves “strict constructionists” when it came to the federal or state constitution. They insisted on abiding by the original intent of those who wrote the constitution. It turns out now that they believe quite the opposite and are ready to reinterpret the clear language of state constitutions to achieve their goal of privatization.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Florida, Nevada, Vouchers

Education Law Center on the Nevada Voucher Decision

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2016 //
7

Molly Hunter of the Education Law Center sent me its news release on the ruling in Nevada that the state cannot take funding dedicated to public schools and use it for “education savings accounts” (ESA), a thinly disguised voucher.

 

A Nevada judge enjoined the implementation of the voucher program last January.

 

In the 2016 election, Democrats in Nevada gained control of both houses of the legislature. They do not need to repeal the ESA legislation, although they could. All they need to kill the vouchers is to not allocate any funding to ESAs. The state courts made clear that the funding could not be taken away from the public schools, a policy embedded in the state constitution.

 

 

From the Education Law Center:

 

September 29, 2016

 

Education Law Center welcomes the Nevada Supreme Court decision in Lopez v. Schwartz firmly declaring the state’s Education Savings Account (ESA) voucher program unconstitutional and permanently blocking its implementation.

 

The Court’s ruling makes clear that the Nevada Legislature violated a constitutional prohibition against the use of public education funding for any purpose other than the operation of the public schools. The ESA voucher program would have diverted funds from the public schools for private education expenditures.

 

This decision strikes at the heart of the ESA voucher program, which was designed to remove significant amounts of funding from public school budgets to pay for private school tuition and other expenses, even for the wealthy. The court’s sweeping ruling permanently blocks the program from being implemented in the future.

 

“The Court confirmed that the parent plaintiffs’ claims were correct – the state constitution expressly directs that funds appropriated by the Legislature for public education be used for that purpose and that purpose alone,” said David G. Sciarra, ELC Executive Director, and, along with ELC attorney Jessica Levin, a member of the pro bono legal team representing Nevada parents and children in the voucher lawsuit.

 

ELC is a partner in Educate Nevada Now (ENN), a Nevada campaign in support of public education founded by the Rogers Foundation. ENN and the Rogers Foundation provided crucial support in the voucher lawsuit. With implementation of the voucher program now blocked, ELC will continue to work with ENN and the Rogers Foundation to improve the educational experiences of the half million children in Nevada’s public schools.

 

Here is a brief chronology of the case, Lopez v. Schwartz, also from the ELC:

 

On September 9, 2015, a group of parents whose children attend Nevada public schools filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s new voucher law. The lawsuit, Lopez v. Schwartz, has generated media attention and interest from parents, educators and taxpayers.

 

In June 2015, the Nevada Legislature passed Senate Bill 302 (SB302) establishing a controversial program to use public funding to pay for private schooling. For students who qualify, the voucher law directs the State Treasurer to deposit taxpayer funding into private bank accounts – called “Education Savings Accounts” (ESAs) – to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, online classes, home-schooling expenses, transportation to and from private schools, and other private services.

 

ESAs are funded by diverting the per pupil funds provided by the Legislature for Nevada public schools. The ESA amount is based on the statewide average per pupil amount guaranteed in the state budget to operate the public schools. The vouchers are either 90% or 100% of that amount, or between approximately $5,100 and $5,710. For each ESA, the State Treasurer deducts the per pupil amount from public school district budgets, which then reduces the funding available to educate public school students.

 

Nevada parents sued because ESAs will take critically needed funding away from public schools and lower the quality of education for their children. ESAs will also reduce public school funding, causing cuts to teachers, support staff and other vital programs for the 450,000 Nevada children attending public schools across the state, many of whom are children with disabilities, English language learners (ELL), and students at-risk of falling behind or dropping out.

 

The Nevada Constitution prohibits taxpayer funds provided by the Legislature for the operation of the public schools from being used for any other purpose. The parents claim that the voucher program violates this constitutional ban by diverting the funding necessary to educate their children in the public schools to pay for private school vouchers.

 

The parents also claim that the voucher law violates the Nevada constitution by lowering the amount of funding provided in the Nevada state budget for public education and by using public funds to pay for private schools that are not required to serve all students, are not subject to anti-discrimination laws, and are not accountable for student performance like the public schools are.

 

In January 2016, the parents won their motion for a preliminary injunction in the trial court, which halted implementation of the voucher program. State Treasurer Dan Schwartz appealed the trial court decision to the Supreme Court of Nevada, which heard oral arguments in July 2016. On September 29, 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the ESA voucher program is unconstitutional because it violates the prohibition on use of public school funds for other purposes, and permanently blocked its implementation.

 

 

 

 

Categories Nevada, Vouchers

GOOD NEWS in Nevada: Supreme Court Strikes Down Funding of Vouchers

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2016 //
12

Nevada’s legislature enacted the most sweeping voucher legislation in the nation. The state courts have affirmed its constitutionality, although last September the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down the funding portion of the voucher program. Meanwhile, the state continues to send out applications for “education savings accounts” as though the latest ruling from the highest court never happened.

 

It was an odd ruling. Figure out the logic here:

 

The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the state’s education savings account law, ruling that while the premise of using taxpayer money for private education was constitutional, the method used to fund the ESA program was not.

 

The high court ordered a permanent injunction against the law — viewed as the most sweeping school choice legislation in the country — that was passed last year on a party-line vote by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

 

What is especially odd about the ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court is that the state constitution of Nevada has clear, explicit prohibitions against spending public money on sectarian (religious) schools:

 

Article 11 of the state constitution includes this language:

 

Sec: 9.  Sectarian instruction prohibited in common schools and university. No sectarian instruction shall be imparted or tolerated in any school or University that may be established under this Constitution.

 

Section Ten.  No public money to be used for sectarian purposes. No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose.

 

Could it be any clearer? No public money to be used for sectarian purposes. No public funds of any kind or character whatever, State, County or Municipal, shall be used for sectarian purpose.

 

What part of this does the Nevada legislature and voucher advocates not understand?

 

As it happened, Democrats recaptured control of both houses of the legislature last month, with slim majorities. They have a chance to defund the ESA program altogether, if they have the will.

 

Nevada still has a Republican governor who wants to keep vouchers alive. The ACLU of Nevada is challenging the state for continuing to invite applicants for a program that has been enjoined by the state Supreme Court.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has taken issue with the state treasurer’s office for continuing to accept Education Savings Account applications, two months after the Supreme Court had struck down the funding part of the program.

 

The ACLU argues that the treasurer’s office shouldn’t be accepting new applications on its website for a program that was found unconstitutional.

 

“I think it’s particularly misleading to parents to ask them to sign up for a program that isn’t funded and can’t be funded,” said ACLU of Nevada Legal Director Amy Rose.

 

The ruling further divided both sides in the debate over the school-choice law, which creates state-funded savings accounts for parents who seek education outside of the public school system.

 

A group that supports public education called Educate Nevada Now declared that the legal ruling against “Education Savings Accounts” made it possible to address the real needs of children in the state’s schools.

 

An Education Savings Account (ESA) is a voucher that diverts taxpayer money constitutionally allocated for public schools to private schools. The voucher program threatened to strip away nearly $40 million from Nevada public schools. The same funds could be better served if they were allocated to fund Pre-K, Special Education, ELL, and the many programs that are currently underfunded.

 

Educate Nevada Now wrote:
On November 18, 2016, Judge James Wilson of the Eighth Judicial District Court issued an order ending Lopez v. Schwartz, the case that challenged Nevada’s controversial Education Savings Account (ESA) voucher program. Judge Wilson entered a permanent injunction halting the program based on the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling declaring the ESA funding scheme unconstitutional.

In its ruling, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed Judge Wilson’s earlier decision, finding the voucher program “violates Article 4, Section 19 and Article 11, Sections 2 and 6 of the Nevada Constitution…” These are the sections of Nevada’s Education Article that expressly prohibit the use of public school dollars for other purposes – including vouchers for private education.
A little over a year ago, a group of courageous parents from across the state took a stand in court against ESA vouchers. They were concerned that millions of dollars would be diverted from the public schools to pay for private schools and other private education expenditures. With many public schools woefully underfunded, the voucher bill meant Nevada’s nearly 440,000 public school children would face further cuts to the critical programs, staff, and services they need to succeed in school.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on September 29, 2016, and Judge Wilson’s order permanently blocking the voucher law put an end to the ESA voucher program. The law in our state is now clear: funds appropriated by the State Legislature for public education can only be used for one purpose – funding our public schools.
It’s time now to renew the effort to strengthen Nevada’s public schools. Yet voucher proponents are still trying to find a way to resurrect the failed ESA program. They are asking legislators to find $40 million in the state budget to subsidize private school tuition for children in families that previously signed up for vouchers, even though most of those children already attend private schools, and their families can afford the tuition without a government subsidy.
Nevada faces a $400 million dollar budget deficit going into the 2017 Legislative Session. Our state consistently ranks near the bottom of the nation on measures of educational success. For example, Nevada offers very limited access to high quality preschool, a research-proven program to boost academic progress. The state’s school funding system ranks at or near the bottom in funding fairness, according to an annual report released by the Education Law Center.
We are now at a crossroads. We simply can’t afford to spend scarce education dollars on subsidizing private education for a handful of students. Instead, we need to join together to lift up all students. This starts with a serious investment in public education to fund urgently needed initiatives, especially in those schools serving high numbers of at-risk students.

 

During this Legislative Session, let’s do the right thing for all Nevada children and make sure our neighborhood schools have what they need to provide every student with the opportunity to succeed.

 

A voucher by any other name is just as bad for the vast majority of kids who attend public schools

Categories Funding, Nevada, Vouchers

Angie Sullivan: This is What the Schools of Nevada Need

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2016 //
3

Something amazing happened in Nevada in the 2016 election. Democrats won control of both houses of the legislature. There is still a Republican governor.

 

Angie Sullivan is a second-grade teacher in Nevada who often writes letters to legislators and journalists, to keep them grounded in the reality of the classroom. Nevada has what is very likely the worst performing charter sector in the nation; most of the state’s lowest performing schools are charter schools. It also has a voucher program with no income limits, that is utilized by affluent families to underwrite private school tuition. It is starting an “achievement school district,” modeled on the one that failed in Tennessee and the one that voters in Georgia just rejected, where state officials may take over public schools with low scores and hand them over to charter operators.

Here is Angie with her good-sense newsletter:

Read this:

http://m.reviewjournal.com/opinion/lawmakers-must-work-together-fund-schools

Educators have been forced to become issue based in our state. We can no longer afford to depend wholly on either party. We have to get things done and work with any ally.

We have to get things done.

We will not get everything we want but we have to make headway.

Last session I was proud of the leadership in my state.

Teachers are used to compromise – we do it everyday to make headway for kids. Please be willing to do the same again this session.

These are my asks.

_______________

First Ask: A real teacher in every classroom –

In the recent past, politicians, administrators and businessmen have scape-goated Nevada’s education problems onto those working directly with students – the teachers.

This has lead to unfunded mandates, witch-hunt type behavior, firing professionals, and driving off good teachers in our state. This never made sense – since the classroom teacher is directed by many others and very little is in our control at any level. My day is outlined and many classrooms are micromanaged to the point of damaging students. And the supplies are very limited. Teachers were blamed none-the-less.

These attacks on professional teachers occurred on both sides of the aisle.

Less productive.

We are the front line. We never were the enemy.

Now we have at-risk schools filled with under-prepared people struggling to become an educator. It is the poor, the disenfranchised, and the needy who do not have a teacher for several years in a row. If a child has an IEP and a special education need, they probably do not have a prepared professional to implement the plan.

This is reform?

We need to step back from attacks on collective bargaining, whittling teacher due process, and proclamations that skilled teachers are the problem. Filling our schools with temporary labor is damaging a generation of students – mainly students of color.

Spending all our time looking for the “lemon” instead of retaining the “good guys” is costly in more ways than one.

_______________________

Second Ask: Stop funding scams and craziness.

In an effort to produce quick results, Nevada grabs ideas from other states. These ideas have not proven themselves and flaunt questionable research. None have proven effective with populations as diverse as ours. These Nevada legislative ideas are failing on epic levels and need to be cleaned up.

– Charters are a disaster in Nevada. The amount of fraud, embezzlement, and criminal type behavior occurring in Nevada’s charters is astounding. The bipartisan legislature who supported and implemented reform by charter needs to put some teeth into laws to clean this mess up. I’m adding up the cost and it is millions and millions.

– Read-by-Three which is grant based will fund programs in the north. 75% of the students in need are in the south but the way the language was built – only a drizzle of funding will help students who are most likely to be punished by this legislation in Vegas. Again Nevada demands rigor without giving students and teachers resources to get the job done. Punishing 8 year olds without giving them adequate opportunity is a violation of civil rights. Read-by-Three has only been successful in states willing to fully fund early intervention. And that costs a significant amount of money. States which implement Read-By-Three as Nevada is doing without funding – fail miserably. This is not tough love – it is a crime.

-ASD [Achievement School District] is scary. Due to our lack of per pupil funding, Nevada cannot attract viable charter operators. We spent $10 million on a harbor master, Allison Serafin, to attract charters to Nevada. What a waste. We will now replace 6 failing public schools with charters who have failed elsewhere. To be watched over by the same system that allows the charter systems in Nevada to fail on an epic level already. Just how much are we spending on the Charter Authority and other groups responsible for overseeing charters? Do we continue to ask public schools to be accountable while ignoring the atrocious failure of charters? And we force charters on communities of color with the ASD – in the name of school choice. Force is not choice.

– ESA [Education Savings Accounts–or vouchers] is scary. A treasurer will determine education curriculum and spot check for fraud. Parents will “police themselves”. Blank checks will be given to mainly white affluent parents to take wherever they like or allow children to lay on the couch. And those checks will go to 8,000 applicants in the amount of $40 million in tax payer money. While lack of regulation sounds like a great idea, in Nevada education it leads to waste and fraud. This is a nightmare of waste ready to happen.

We have little money for real research based best practice but have spent millions on unproven and failing reform.

Ten years of reform and limited gains. Some reform may have damaged a generator. Of learners. Time for a return to the steady growth produced by funding best practice. It’s not fancy or flashy but it works.

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Third Ask: Funding Fairness.

The Southern Caucus needs to advocate for our children.

In a bipartisan manner, the southern caucus needs to work and make progress for our children. Teachers and students need our legislators to do the heavy lift for the kids in our area. Frankly we need money.

The south generates most of the revenue for the state. 80% of the DSA (Distributive Schools Account) is funding put there from Clark County.

Clark County receives 50% in return. This is the antiquated Nevada Plan.

Also the south does not have access to mining proceeds which many rural communities can also tap for school funds.

I am not advocating a grab from other schools. I am advocating for restructuring that is fair to all students wherever they reside.

The south serves students who traditionally need more financial support to be successful.

CCSD [Clark County School District: Las Vegas] has huge numbers of children in poverty.

Our students cannot continue to endure class sizes of 40 plus.

We cannot continue to ignore early intervention so vital to future success.

We have to continue to fund and expand Victory and ZOOM schools.

CCSD was considering an ELL plan which is necessary. The cost would be $1 billion to fund at a level appropriate for our learners in Clark County.

We cannot continue to train educators who leave for greener pastures. We need committed and permanent educators to see a return in teacher development investment. We need to invest in teacher pipelines and retention of excellent and fully qualified professionals. We also need teachers who reflect the faces we see in our community. It is very expensive to endure teacher churn as skilled labor looks for a better deal.

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Final Ask:

Listen up both sides of the aisle . . .

Everything costs.

Unfunded mandates that may be easily implemented in a tiny rural district, can cost multiple millions to implement in CCSD with 380,000 students and 36,000 educators.

That great idea a random legislator has – needs to have a price tag on it. Just one thing – can rob a classroom of supplies. A great idea – can mean my students do not have books. The pot is limited. The budget is already stretched thin. We have to prioritize and necessities need to come first.

We cannot continue to do more with less.

Unfunded mandates are killing public schools. Do not send that idea without cash.

Just don’t do it.

I’m looking at everyone here because I have seen it non-stop. Most returning law makers are guilty.

If we are running at a deficit of $300-$400 million, please know unfunded mandates will rob from another need.

If there is zero money. There is zero money. No money – no reform. No money – no new ideas. No money – no change. It is not that different from a budget at your house. It is not that we do not want things, we just cannot afford it right now.

Whipping teachers like we are going to row faster on a Viking ship – just leaves us too whipped to teach.

Unfunded mandates are usually implemented by teachers from our own pockets – we pull from our personal bank accounts, our families, and our time to implement that great idea. Many unfunded mandates are half implemented and just waste time and money because they are impossible. It is a burden.

Ideas cost money.

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Listen to me.

I am without guile.

My hands are clean as I work to teach seven year olds to read.

These are my asks.

I have spent a lifetime educating children. I am from Nevada where we used to fund near the top and achieve results near the top too. I have watched my state’s educational success plummet as our per pupil spending has declined. That is a fact proven with real data.

Educating students costs.

Competition has not and will not improve Nevada’s system.

Tough love, fads and gimmicks are draining precious resources.

Teachers will fail if we do not have what we need to do the job.

Some things are more important than winning and losing a political game.

Please work together for kids this session in a well thought out way that makes progress.

You expect a lot from teachers.

Teachers need resources spent the right way to make progress.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Nevada, Privatization, Teach for America, Teachers and Teaching, Vouchers

Angie Sullivan: Nevada’s Failing Charters, a Disgrace

By dianeravitch
November 30, 2016 //
20

Angie Sullivan, second grade teacher in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada, sent our her bulletin to legislators and journalists:

As far as I discern from the data available on the Nevada Report Card:

Nevada has 22 charter providing services to High School Seniors.

Five charters did not report data in 2015-2016:

Founders Academy (State Charter)
American Prep Academy (State Charter)
Global Community (CCSD)
Leadership Academy of Nevada (State Charter)
SSCS – Silver State High School (State Charter)

Leaving 17 Nevada charters which reported graduation data.

This is how many seniors failed to graduate in these charters:

Innovations Charter (WCSD) – 1554 Seniors; 1262 failed to graduate.

Nevada Connections (State Charter) – 1923 Seniors; 1238 failed to graduate

Delta Charter (CCSD) – 826 Seniors; 684 failed to graduate

Nevada Virtual Academy (State Charter) – 1127 Seniors; 411 failed to graduate

I Can Do Anything High School (WCSD) – 560 Seniors; 400 failed to graduate

Beacon Academy of Nevada (State Charter) – 803 Seniors; 380 failed to graduate

Odyssey Charter ( CCSD) – 792 Seniors; 376 failed to graduate

Rainshadow HS (WCSD) – 188 Seniors; 141 failed to graduate

Quest Academy (State Charter) – 42 Seniors; 8 failed to graduate

Coral Academy Reno (State Charter) – 34 Seniors; 8 failed to graduate

Andre Agassi (CCSD) – 34 Seniors; 7 failed to graduate

Explore Knowledge (CCSD) – 29 Seniors; 7 failed to graduate

Academy for Career Education (WCSD) – 59 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate

Coral Academy Vegas (State Charter) – 42 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate

Nevada State High School (State Charter) – 181 Seniors; 2 failed to graduate.

Alpine Academy (State Charter) – 21 Seniors; all graduated.

Overall Nevada Charters provided services for 9015 Seniors and 4928 failed to graduate. Perhaps more – since 5 charters did not provide data.

Tell me now why we are in a rush to turn our public schools into charters?

Aren’t charters supposed to be the experiment and competition for public schools? You would expect the graduation rate to be at least as high as a neighborhood public schools correct.

What is being done about these failing charters?

If CCSD and WCSD took out their failing charter data – their graduation rates would greatly improve.

Charters are worse than the regular neighborhood public schools. Legislation needs to get this mess under control. Failing charters have to be closed. This is ridiculous.

This is expensive and a scam.

Categories Failure, Graduation rates, Nevada
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