Zoe is in the sixth grade in North Carolina. She decided to opt out of the state tests.her parents supported her. At first, the school told her there would be no repercussions. But when testing day came, her family got a letter warning that she would not be allowed to come back to school unless she took the test. Zoe and her dad started the Blue Hat Movement.
You can read about it here.
Zoe refused to take the test and was asked to leave the building. She is a straight A student.
Same old story in North Carolina as elsewhere: big money from reactionary millionaires funding the theft of public education. American Federation for Children is based in Michigan. It supports vouchers.
Wake the town and tell the people.
Large, out-of-state donors fuel North Carolina’s school “choice” movement
More than $90,000 funneled to state legislative campaigns in 2012
By Lindsay Wagner
In March of 2012, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis and ten other state lawmakers flew to Florida on the dime of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC), an organization known for endorsing conservative education reform initiatives, including school vouchers.
In the year that has followed, North Carolina has absorbed a flood of more than $90,000 in campaign contributions to lawmakers friendly to the school choice movement.
The stated intent of last year’s trip was to educate North Carolina lawmakers about Florida’s tax credit scholarship program, which encourages companies to donate scholarship money for low-income children to attend private schools by providing matching state tax dollars. Critics of the Florida program say it’s a thinly-disguised voucher scheme that diverts funds from the public school system to send kids to private institutions that are not held to the same high standards applied to public schools.
The Florida trip, which cost $8,300, was clearly billed as “educational,” rather than “influential,” by PEFNC in an effort to ensure that the trip did not violate NC lobbying laws.
Since the Florida gathering, lawmakers in the North Carolina legislature have introduced more than 20 bills related to school choice. Rep. Marcus Brandon, one of the eleven lawmakers who went to Florida, argues that “it is unconstitutional not to give students a choice” when it comes to their education. He has introduced six bills related to school choice this session, including two bills that would bring vouchers to the state.
Brandon was also one of several lawmakers who, in 2012, received campaign donations from PEFNC’s PAC as well as individual PEFNC funders.
Though not indicative of any apparent unlawful activity or purpose, the story of where this money originated and how it flowed shines a revealing light on a movement that bills itself as a grassroots effort driven by the demands of average families.
American Federation for Children
Earlier this month, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a copy of the American Federation for Children’s (AFC) “2012 Election Impact Report.” The report reveals that AFC, a well-known national school choice advocacy organization, funneled more than $90,000 to the 2012 election campaigns of Republican and Democratic North Carolina lawmakers who support school choice, with the help of two local PACs in North Carolina.
Legislation is advancing in North Carolina that will harm the state’s underfunded public schools and strike a blow against its beleaguered teachers.
North Carolina is a right-to-work state, so there is no collective bargaining, and teachers have no voice in policy decisions about education.
Among the worst of the new bills is a proposal to fund a voucher/tax credit program, removing $90 million from public schools so that 1% of the state’s 1.5 million students may attend private and/or religious schools.
Another bill would strip away due process rights from teachers, so that teachers would have no right to a hearing if fired, no matter how many years of experience they have.
The new legislation would restrict eligibility for preschool, reducing the number of children who may enroll, and remove class size limits for some elementary grades.
Make no mistake (President Obama’s favorite expression, mine too): this legislation will save money in the short run but will cost the state far more in the long term. The Legislature is planning not only to harm public education, but to harm the children who benefit by being in preschool and in classes of reasonable size.
Former Congressman and State Superintendent Bob Etheridge said: “To the folks now running our state government in Raleigh, education reform is just another code word for cut, slash and burn.”
Governor Pat McCrory, who supports the radical anti-teacher, anti-public education agenda, has just named Eric Guckian as his Senior Education Advisor. Guckian was regional director of New Leaders in North Carolina (which recruits “transformational” leaders) and before that, was executive director of Teach for America in the state. He has been a consultant for the Gates Foundation and worked with KIPP. The following comes from the Governor’s press release:
“I am honored and humbled to serve as a member of Governor McCrory’s team,” said Guckian. “This is a critical time for education in our state, and I’m looking forward to working with committed teachers, leaders and community members to ensure that all of North Carolina’s students, regardless of circumstance, achieve an excellent education that will put them on the pathway to a better life; a life of honor, prosperity and service.”
Guckian joins John White in Louisiana and Kevin Huffman in Tennessee as TFA alumni in state-level positions serving reactionary administrations.
The North Carolina legislature is about to approve a massive giveaway of public property to private charter operators.
The charter corporation will be able to get public property for $1, then open a “school” staffed by uncertified teachers. No criminal background check required.
Call the cops!
Legislators in North Carolina are on track to create a voucher program that would divert $90 million from the state’s underfunded public schools.
NC Policy Watch says beware. Deregulation in other voucher programs has left at trail of fraud, corruption, and abuse of taxpayer dollars, with no benefit to the students. Despite the claims of voucher cheerleaders, students in voucher schools perform worse than their peers in the public schools.
Going for vouchers means an abandonment of accountability, for students and for taxpayer dollars.
Public Schools First NC summarizes the legislation as follows:
“School Vouchers: Did you know…
“House Bill 944 contains some interesting provisions. As we said when the bill was filed, it benefits relatively few students and will unlikely serve the low-income children for whom it was ostensibly created.
“If you read the fine print, here are just some of the details:
“If families received the maximum amount of the voucher ($4200) then based on the funding, only 9,524 students could be served in year one, growing to 11,905 in year two. NC’s public schools serve nearly 1.5 million students.
“Information about vouchers and the application process will be available on a Web site. The bill does not indicate how families who do not have easy access to the Internet will obtain the information.
“Vouchers are awarded based on the order in which applications are received–not based on relative need.
“Aggregated standardized test performance data of voucher recipients is not part of the public record and must only be reported if a private school has more than 25 students receiving vouchers.
“Private schools accepting vouchers are only required to provide an annual written progress report to a student’s parent or guardian
“A private school is only required to conduct a financial review if it accepts students receiving more than $300,000 in scholarship grants (a minimum of 72 students).
“Only the highest ranking staff member at a participating private school would be subject to a background check.
“Imagine what our public schools could do with the $90 million proposed to fund this limited program!”
Public Schools First NC – PO BOX 6484 Raleigh, NC 27628 (919) 576-0655
publicschoolsfirstnc.org
This is crazy, or is it?
We learned the other day that Texas Instruments is a big promoter of Algebra 2 as a graduation requirement in Texas. Why? Civic spirit, love of education, or the fact that TI supplies most of the graphing calculators needed for Algebra 2?
Now we learn from this report that a company selling cursive writing materials is a major proponent of a law requiring same in North Carolina.
Please do not misunderstand the issue here.
I believe that everyone should learn cursive writing, both to do it and to read it.
But I don’t believe that state legislatures should dictate how teachers teach or what methods are best.
I also am a firm believer in the value of knowing the multiplication table by heart, but I don’t think that lawmakers should mandate it.
I love memorizing poetry but that should not be subject to legislation either.
States like North Carolina should have high standards for teachers. They should have at least a year of study and practice before entering the classroom. They should pass tests in the subject they plan to teach. They should have support and mentors.
If they are truly professionals, let them teach.
If you live in North Carolina, join with parents, teachers, and other citizens, join the fight to save public schools. Join Public Schools First North Carolina.
And please attend this meeting:
To educate or not to educate in NC
Apr 12, 2013 | Written by Patsy Keever OPINION
Our rulers in Raleigh are answering that question for us with bills that they could vote into law to change everything from how Carolina and State are funded, to whether tax money ought to be used for church schools, to whether or not “Hamlet” needs to be taught to “tech” kids. If our local legislators do not hear from us, they will vote on these bills in a vacuum — which is contrary to representative democracy.
We have two education commandments in North Carolina. The first was spoken a century ago by Gov. Charles B. Aycock, our first education governor, “You cannot do the best for your child unless you also do the best for my child.”
The second is from our state Constitution, which mandates that “The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools, which shall be maintained at least nine months in every year, and wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.”
Pretty simple. Education for all of our students is our ultimate long- range economic development tool, our best defense against politicians who would mislead us, and our moral and constitutional duty. How do we work together to ensure that all of our children get the best possible education? How do we ensure that the limited funds are fairly distributed? How do we ensure that our school personnel have the tools and resources they need? How do we incorporate the best ideas into all of our schools? How do we keep a positive attitude and continue to do the best for all our children?
What can you do?
On April 23, from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Asheville City Schools boardroom on Mountain Street, Public Schools First North Carolina, a statewide nonpartisan nonprofit is hosting a gathering of parents, school personnel and the general public to provide information about pending legislation, to identify resources and to hear ideas and suggestions from the attendees. Asheville City Schools Foundation and Children First are co-sponsors of the meeting.
At a time when the citizens of Asheville and Buncombe County are facing water control issues, airport control issues and election issues, we cannot lose sight of the most long-lasting and important responsibility — our children’ s education. We can choose to sleep through this — but in doing so, who knows what nightmares may come? And that is the rub. See you on the 23rd.
Patsy Keever is a former teacher, former Buncombe County commissioner, former state representative and current public school advocate.
In their eagerness to drag the schools and children of their states back to the early 20th century, legislators in North Carolina and South Carolina want to mandate the teaching of cursive writing. (North Carolina Los wants to pass a law mandating that all children memorize the multiplication tables.) these legislators usually spend their time coming up with ways to privatize public schools.
In this comment, handwriting expert Kate Gladstone explains why the cursive mandate is a bad idea.
Kate Gladstone writes:
The NC cursive bill is ill-advised and ill-motivated. Below are the most explainable reasons it is so: and all members of the NC Senate have by now received (from me and from some colleagues of mine(0) the same damning facts.)
By the way, I’ve recently learned that SOUTH Carolina has introduced [April 9th] an identically worded bill, against which I must now direct my efforts. The South Carolina bill is still in committee, and I am writing the committee-members an e-mail to try killing it there. For now, below) is my conclusion on the NC bill.
The originator of the “Back to Basics” bill, Rep. Pat Hurley (of Asheboro), has documentably committed misrepresentations during the presentation that she made, in support of that bill, to her fellow legislators.
Here is why I am concerned about Rep. Hurley with regard to this matter:
The extensive presentation already made to the legislature by the bill’s sponsor (Rep. Pat Hurley) documentably contains serious evasions or misrepresentations of fact. These are visible in the publicly available (WRAL-TV) video of her testimony — which was presumably under oath — to the North Carolina House Education Committee: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/video/12268754/
In her presentatio, Rep. Hurley asserts that the importance of cursive has been proven by research done by persons whom she identifies only as the “PET scan people.” She states that this research established that the human brain “doesn’t work” (direct quote) while one is keyboarding, and that “only one half” (direct quote) of the brain actually works while one is print-writing. (It takes cursive writing, she alleges, to allow the entire brain to work).
Since her presentation does not give a checkable source for that very surprising statement, I asked her office to please send me the research, or at least a citation that could back it up. The material she chose to send in response (which I will happily forward to anyone, on request: handwritingrepair@gmail.com ) turns out, on inspection, to be seriously discrepant with the claims she makes to the House Education Committee about the research findings. (In other words: the research doesn’t say what she claims it says.) Specifically, the research she misrepresents — like other research, to be described and cited below — does not support her claim of a superiority for cursive or her claim of an essential role for cursive handwriting in education, and therefore it does not support a legislative mandate for cursive handwriting instruction.
In her presentation to the House Education Committee, Rep. Hurley denies the legality of signatures not written in cursive, which she describes as “no signatures” (direct quote), although the legality of these signatures is asserted and protected by the state and federal laws that she is sworn to uphold.
Specifically: a. The UCC 1-201(37) — North Carolina General Statutes § 25‑1‑201(37) — specifies that “‘Signed’ includes using any symbol executed or adopted with present intention to adopt or accept a writing.” b. Further, the North Carolina General Statutes 12-3(10) state, for use in statutes: “Provided, that in all cases where a written signature is required by law, the same shall be in a proper handwriting, or in a proper mark.” (Admittedly, Rep. Hurley may be choosing personally to exclude printed handwritings from the category of “a proper handwriting” — if so, she has not pointed to any legal defense or rationale for such exclusion.)
Yet another legally questionable representation made by Representative Hurley during her presentation to the House Education Committee is her claim that non-cursive handwritten signatures (e.g., printed signatures) need to be observed by two witnesses. In North Carolina, as in most states, the only signatures or marks needing witnesses are those made on a will (North Carolina General Statutes, Section 31, 3.3, on attested wills) — and in that case, two witnesses are required for all signatures (including, in other words, for cursive signatures as well as for non-cursive signatures).
Concerns other than misrepresentation of research include the significant body of research which has not been represented at all in the deliberations. This research — also forwardable by me on request — shows that the fastest, most legible handwriters do not join all letters, but only some letters: making the easiest joins, skipping the others, and using print-like shapes for letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. Such facts throw a revealing light on efforts to mandate a form of handwriting which requires joining all letters and using different shapes for cursive versus printed letters.
Reading cursive, of course, matters vitally. However, cursive’s cheerleaders forget that one can learn to read a writing style without learning to produce it. (If we had to learn to write every style that we needed to read, we would have to learn to read and write all over again whenever anyone invented a new font.)
For this reason, it is odd that the documents most often adduced (as the presumed evidence that writing in a particular style is the only way to learn to read that style) are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Some material in each document — the Constitution’s “We the People,” for instance — is penned, not in any form of cursive at all, but in “Olde Englishe” Blackletter. Are Rep. Hurley and her supporters, crusading for cursive on the grounds that “you can’t learn to read it unless you write it,” going to call next for a mandate of “Olde Englishe” Blackletter in the elementary schools?
Reading cursive — when one does not have to learn how to write the same way — can be taught in 30 to 60 minutes to any small child who has learned to read ordinary printing. Why not just spend an inexpensive hour teaching children to read cursive — then use the time saved, and the money saved, to teach them to use some more practical form of handwriting themselves?
Most adults, after all, no longer use cursive.
In 2012, a survey of handwriting teachers (source available on request) attending a national conference sponsored by the Zaner-Bloser firm — a well-known handwriting publisher which strongly advocates for cursive — revealed that only 37 percent of these devotees of penmanship (fewer than two-fifths!) actually used cursive for their own handwriting; another 8 percent wrote in print. The majority — 55 percent — wrote a hybrid: some features of their handwriting resembled cursive, but other features of their handwriting resembled print-writing (This compares well with the research noted above, on the handwriting habits of highly effective handwriters.) Knowing this, why (and how) prioritize cursive?
The idolatrous worship cursive is not supported by fact, or by law, or by common sense. Neither should it be supported by a legislative mandate.
HandwritingThatWorks.com
Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
and the World Handwriting Contest
A teacher in North Carolina contacted me to let me know that Students for Education Reform, an offshoot of DFER, will hold a rally this Saturday from 2-5 pm at Halifax Court in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
No doubt they will mimic their parent group in demanding more high-stakes testing, more privatization, more evaluation of teachers by test scores (but NOT in charter schools), and other aspects of the corporate reform agenda.
With the NC legislature poised to pass legislation to create a state commission to open charters that are exempt from criminal background checks, exempt from conflict of interest laws, exempt from diversity requirements, and free to hire uncertified teachers, this is not an opportune time to show support for this radical agenda.
Just last week, the California Democratic Party passed a resolution specifically naming DFER as a front for corporate interests and Republicans. DFER in fact was created by Wall Street hedge fund managers to introduce disruptive change into public education. Everything they advocate has demoralized teachers, closed schools, and harmed children and communities.
Show up to demonstrate your support for public education.
This is the letter:
“Dr Ravitch-
“Good afternoon. I’m a teacher in Raleigh, NC, and an avid
reader of your blog…I wanted to let you know that various university
branches of SFER are planning a rally at Halifax Court (which is
directly behind the state legislature and adjacent to our Department
of Public Instruction building) in downtown Raleigh on this Saturday
the 20th from 2-5pm.
“I’ve been made aware of this by a local college student who invited me
and my colleagues via our school email addresses. I have written her
back explaining at length my concerns about SFER, in hopes to educate her and her peers on the true goals and origins of that organization.
I also explained to her that I will attend the rally, but to oppose
the efforts of SFER, and not to support them.
“Might you be able to publicize this rally on your blog in hopes of
drawing teachers and parents to show up to demonstrate for our
children and against SFER?
“Thank you so very deeply on behalf of every professional educator I
know for your tireless efforts in support of education.”
Governor Jim Hunt spent years persuading the North Carolina legislature to reduce class size.
Now he is out of office, and the radicals in the legislature want to abolish all limits on class size, allegedly in the interest of “flexibility.”
It is certainly not in the interest of improving education or helping kids. The research showing the benefits of small classes in the early grades, especially for the neediest children, is powerful.
North Carolina is ready to throw the neediest children under the bus.
Governor Hunt, where are you?
Diane Ravitch's blog 