Archives for category: North Carolina
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Raleigh, NC: Show Your Support for Public Schools This Saturday

By dianeravitch
April 18, 2013 //
5

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.”

Categories Democrats for Education Reform, North Carolina

Governor Hunt, Where Are You?

By dianeravitch
April 17, 2013 //
9

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?

Categories Class size, North Carolina

Why the Tennessee Bill to Punish Welfare Families for Low Test Scores Was Wrong

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2013 //
17

Kay McSpadden writes frequently about education issues in North Carolina. Here she explains why the Tennessee bill to cut welfare benefits to families if their children didn’t get high test scores was a disaster. Fortunately, key Republican legislators put a halt to it and it never came to a vote.

I try not to read comments on blogs, other than this one, where I read them all.

But I couldn’t help read the ones that followed Kay’s compassionate post and was appalled by several, especially this one:

“I’m not going to profess to be a Christian scholar Joe, but would you cite for me one passage where Jesus calls on people to forsake their own family in order to take care of someone else’s family?”

Wasn’t there something called the Golden Rule?

North Carolina has some awful legislation of its own, hurtling toward passage. Right now, there is one that will remove any due process protections for teachers (aka, “tenure”). Who will dare to teach about evolution or anything controversial? The angry commenters will drive them out.

Categories North Carolina, Poverty, Teacher Tenure, Tennessee, Testing

Ladd to NC Legislature: Do Not Privatize Public Education

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2013 //
7

This article by Helen Ladd of Duke University is absolutely “must” reading.

Ladd is a major economist of education.

The same article might be written for many states.

North Carolina was once renowned for its commitment to public education.

But now the legislature is starving the funding for public education: “Per-pupil spending on K-12 education in North Carolina is now 46th in the country, teacher salaries are 48th and the General Assembly has been cutting funding for our university and community college systems, once the envy of other states.”

Worse, the legislature seems determined to create a dual school system, one public, the other run by privately managed charters, vouchers, and for-profit vendors.

Here is the utterly predictable result:

“Proponents of this private vision push for reduced spending on traditional public schools, unfettered expansion of charter schools, transfer of school management to private firms that view education as a business opportunity, school vouchers that shift public funds to private schools and scholarships for private school tuitions financed by tax breaks to corporations and wealthy individuals.

“This private vision espoused by Republican leaders diverts attention from the public purposes of schooling and reduces accountability for the use of public funds. Perhaps most important, this anti-public education vision leaves little room for principles of social justice and the commitment to equal educational opportunity for all students.

“When education becomes primarily a private affair, benefits flow disproportionately to those with the most means to work the system to their advantage. The losers are typically disadvantaged children who end up in under-resourced traditional public schools with large concentrations of low-performing and challenging-to-educate students. The role of education as an engine of opportunity for every North Carolina child is downplayed in favor of greater benefits for those already advantaged.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/10/2816261/the-perils-of-a-private-vision.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Vouchers

NC Legislators Decide Not to Establish a Religion

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2013 //
17

A group of Republican legislators in North Carolina decided against introducing legislation that would allow the state and its counties to establish an official religion.

They planned to argue that the Constitution prevents Congress from establishing a religion, but not states or counties.

There was enough outcry to persuade them to hold off.

Categories North Carolina, Religion, Separation of church and state

How ALEC Is Changing the Face of Charters

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2013 //
33

When the charter school movement began in the early 1990s, the promise of advocates was that charters would be held accountable for results. There were two promises, really: one was that there would be accountability; the other was that there would be results. If the results didn’t happen, the schools would close.

Now there is a new approach to charters, sponsored by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). To learn more about ALEC and to see its model legislation for education and other issues, look here.

It is a tenet of ALEC that charter schools should be completely unregulated, unsupervised, and unaccountable. The goal is choice, not accountability or results.

ALEC pretends to be conservative but pushes model legislation to give the governor and sometimes his allies the power to appoint a commission to override local school boards.

You see, ALEC doesn’t like local school boards. It likes bigtime corporate power. It likes the free market. Those pesky local school boards are so close to the people in their district that sometimes they actually want to protect the local public schools and refuse to authorize more charters to take away students and funding.

I posted recently about radical ALEC legislation in North Carolina, which would not only create an ALEC-style state commission to override local school boards, but would exempt the charters from the necessity of having ANY certified teachers. They would also be exempt from criminal background checks. They would be exempt from conflict of interest laws. The members of the state charter commission would also be exempt from conflict of interest laws so they could vote themselves a few more charters if they choose.

If you read my post and the link therein, you will see that one of the strong supporters of the proposed law is currently collecting $3 million a year in management and rental fees from the charters he oversees. Why shouldn’t he want more? Maybe he will be appointed to serve on the state commission that authorizes and doesn’t regulate charters.

Valerie Strauss here reports that half the states have ALEC-style charter laws allowing the governor to override local control.

No accountability, no oversight, no transparency, no laws, no regulations. Just money for the taking.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization

Response to Absurd N.C. Charter Proposal

By dianeravitch
March 28, 2013 //
14

A reader comments on the post this morning about a Republican proposal to give a new state charter board authority over charter schools, to low charters to hire as many uncertified teachers as they wish, to eliminate criminal background checks for charter staff and operators, etc.:

He writes:

So let’s get this straight…the same GOP who wants tougher standards, tougher evaluation systems for public school teachers, a school grading (rating) system using an A-F model based on standardized test scores, etc…now want to circumvent state law requiring that at least half of the staff at a charter school hold teaching licenses, as well as remove background checks as a requirement for school personnel. Oh, and only be accountable to a “board” made up of members who are handpicked by the owner of the charter school. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Folks, you can’t make this stuff up! I don’t know who is more stupid…the guys making the laws to fix education, or the citizens who believe their solutions will work. I solved our public education woes well over a decade ago. Want something that will actually work? Just ask me.

“Republican state Sen. Jerry Tillman, the sponsor and committee co-chairman, gave a gruff assessment of the state board’s view on charters since lawmakers eliminated a cap on the number of schools in 2011. He said charter schools are too restrained to be successful.”

“Tillman cited an example of a pharmacist who wasn’t able to teach chemistry because he wasn’t a licensed teacher, saying the pharmacist had more experience than most teachers. “Any time you’ve got a piece of bologna that has two sides to it, I don’t care how thin you slice it, you’ve got to look beyond what might appear on the paper,” he said.

*Laughs* Oh Tillman, you foolish, foolish little man. Just because someone is an expert in a field does not make them a good teacher. Case in point: Some years ago, in a Charlotte high school, a former Duke University professor decided she wanted to “make a difference” and work with minority, at-risk kids and “share her vast knowledge of the field in which she was an expert.” She lasted one year. The kids ate her up and spit her out. Duke. One of the most prestigious Universities on the planet. Expert in her field. Lasted ONE year.

Am I the only one tired of the lawmakers, educrats, and faux-reformers who write the laws and make decisions on education, while not having a degree in the field? It would be like me telling a physician how to treat his patients, and I don’t have a background in the medical field.

I think some of these guys think just because they went to school makes them knowledgable on how to fix a school. Remember, just because you know how to drive a car does not make you a mechanic.

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina

North Carolina Republicans Want Unregulated, Unsupervised Charter$

By dianeravitch
March 28, 2013 //
32

North Carolina Republican State Senators have filed legislation that would remove oversight of charters by the State Education Board and turn it over to a new board hand picked by the governor.

Charter schools would no longer be required to submit applications to local school boards. All meaningful supervision and oversight would be eliminated.

Local school boards would be required to lease available space to charters for $1 a year. Charters would be accountable to the new state charter board, not the local board.

This legislation appears to be based on ALEC model legislation, which is intended to allow charters to flourish while gutting local control.

And here is where it gets scary.

The charters would no longer be required to assure that at least half the teachers are certified.

Charter schools would no longer be required by law to conduct criminal background checks of their staff.

The law would have no provisions barring conflicts of interest for members of the new charter board, implying that charter operators might be appointed to the board to advance their self-interest.

In the public comment period, Baker Mitchell, the incoming chairman of the NC Alliance for Public Charter Schools testified in favor of the bill. He “owns The Roger Bacon Academy, which is contracted to run two public charter schools in Brunswick County. In the 2009-10 fiscal year, Mitchell received more than $3 million from the two charter schools for management fees and the cost of renting the buildings from another company Mitchell owns….”

He is just the kind of person likely to be appointed to serve on the state’s new charter board.

The only thing public about these charters is the money they take from unsuspecting taxpayers.

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina

A Wonderful Editorial Supporting Teachers: Please Read It

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2013 //
7

When I was in North Carolina last week, I spoke in Raleigh at an event pulled together on short notice by NC Policy Watch, a state watchdog for the public interest. As it happened, I spoke just a few days after State Senator Phil Berger introduced a horrendous piece of legislation that he claimed would produce “excellence,” by removing all job protections (i.e., due process) for teachers), by tying teacher pay to test scores (aka merit pay), and by removing any salary increments for those who earn a master’s degree or have additional years of experience. Everything tied to test scores. (The video is here.)

While there I learned that it takes a teacher in North Carolina fourteen years of teaching to reach a salary of $40,000 a year.

When I hear stats like this, I grind my teeth thinking of the pundits and think tank gurus who collect six-figure salaries advocating that teachers should be cut down to size and have their benefits reduced and their salaries tied to student test scores.

I loved my time in Raleigh. The cherry blossoms were in bloom (it was snowing in New York), the audience was enthusiastic, and the best gift of all was this wonderful editorial that I received in my email today. When there are editorial writers like this one, a man who clearly understands the futility of what is now called “reform,” and the damage that the so-called “reformers” are doing to the education profession and to our nation, my faith is renewed that the privatizers and teacher-bashers won’t win. At some point and it will not be long, the public will get it too.

Categories Corporate Reformers, North Carolina, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Raleigh, NC, Editorial Opposes Anti-Teacher Proposal

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2013 //
8

North Carolina is one of the red states with a super-majority of Republicans in control of he legislature.

So Republicans can do anything they want, as they control state government.

The editorial today in the Raleigh News Observer defends teachers. The editorialist sharply rebukes Phil Berger’s punitive, mean-spirited education “reforms.” That’s welcome news.

The editorialist points out that the predictable consequence of letter grades will be to stigmatize schools, not improve them.

What’s more, he defends teachers. Picking on teachers is a favorite ploy of the state’s politicians. Given that North Carolina is a right to work state and teacher pay is nearly the worst in the nation, this ploy looks like bullying.

Bullying is bad when kids do it in school, why is it okay for the president pro tem of the state senate to bully teachers? Phil Berger seems to think that the schools will improve if teachers have no right to due process, if they can be fired for any reason at all. He confuses tenure for university professors (which is close to an ironclad guarantee of lifetime job protection) with due process rights for teachers, which guarantees nothing more than the right to a hearing before they can fire you.

Berger wants to eliminate due process. He wants teachers to be fired if their students get low test scores. Teachers of kids with disabilities and teachers of English language learners will be axed. Students can withhold effort and fire their teachers. Does Berger have a plan to recruit teachers to work in a state where teachers are public enemy #1?

Categories Merit pay, North Carolina, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure
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