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Washington Post: Why Oklahoma Teachers Are Likely to Strike

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2018 //
29

 

The Washington Post writes here about Oklahoma’s abysmal treatment of teachers and a decade of budget cuts. 

Teachers are working second jobs to make ends meet. Some have to resort to food pantries at the church to feed their families. It is amazing that anyone wants to teach in a state that treats teachers so disrespectfully.

“Oklahoma teachers are among the nation’s lowest paid, and ­despite the governor and lawmakers approving a $6,100 raise this week, educators pledge to walk out Monday if their full demands — including restoration of budget cuts — are not met. For a decade, little has been done to address the plight of the state’s teachers. It is a situation that has forced many to take second jobs, rely on food pantries and donate their plasma to pay the bills.

“The revolt in Oklahoma comes amid a wave of teacher protests that have no recent parallel in the United States. In West Virginia, educators stayed out for nine tense days before winning a pay raise. In Arizona, teachers are threatening to strike unless the state gives them a 20 percent salary increase. In Kentucky, educators shut down at least 20 school systems Friday as they converged on the state capitol to protest pension reforms. “Don’t make us go West Virginia on you,” one protester’s sign read.

“Earlier this year, educators in Oklahoma turned heartbroken — and desperate — as the legislature failed to boost their salaries. Then, about 1,000 miles to the east, West Virginia’s teachers walked off the job, and leveraged a 5 percent raise after shutting down schools. Suddenly, whispers about the possibility of a strike in Oklahoma grew to a full-throated roar, even as teachers agonized over whether they should leave their students behind.

“We had been talking about it forever,” said Randi Cowan, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa who earned $33,746 last year and lives in a home built by Habitat for Humanity. “But then somebody else did it and . . . it just ignited our fire.”

“As in West Virginia, educators in Oklahoma have reached a breaking point, fed up with stagnant wages and cuts to education funding. The idea of a walkout began to gain traction in mid-February after a proposed salary increase failed to win enough support among lawmakers. A ­superintendent circulated a petition asking colleagues if they would support a teacher walkout.

“Then a 25-year-old social studies teacher, inspired by what happened in West Virginia, began a Facebook group titled “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout — The Time is Now!” It has ballooned to 70,000 members, including educators from Oklahoma and West Virginia and supportive parents.

“Educators — backed by the state’s teachers unions — demanded a $10,000 raise for themselves and a $5,000 raise for support personnel. They are also asking the state to restore budget cuts and boost spending on schools by $200 million over three years. If they do not get what they want by Monday, teachers in about 140 school districts — including some of the state’s largest — plan to walk off the job.

“In 2016, Oklahoma ranked 49th in teacher pay — lower even than West Virginia, which was 48th. The average compensation package of an Oklahoma teacher was $45,276 a year, according to the National Education Association, a figure that includes a high-priced health plan and other benefits. That’s far less than educators in neighboring states, making it difficult — for many districts, impossible — to find and keep qualified teachers.

“Oklahoma’s 2016 teacher of the year, Shawn Sheehan, decamped for Texas last year, joining many other teachers who sought higher-paying jobs…

“The state’s funding crisis began at least a decade ago when the recession hit, leading lawmakers to take a cleaver to education spending. Even after the state’s economy recovered, long-standing tax cuts and plunging oil prices constrained state revenue and depleted education funding. In this deeply conservative state, lawmakers have resisted raising taxes — and doing so requires a three-quarters majority of the legislature.

Adjusted for inflation, the amount the state spends per student has fallen nearly 30 percent over the past decade, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”

Thank you, West Virginia teachers for showing the way.

Teachers of Oklahoma, you have our support and admiration!

Categories Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay, Teachers and Teaching

Jacobin: The Reasons for a Teachers’ Strike in “Right to Work” Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2018 //
22

 

Eric Blanc wrote a comprehensive and excellent article in Jacobin about the dire condition of public schools in Oklahoma. Given the legislature’s indifference, even hostility, to public schools, he says it is Oklahoma’s turn to strike.

State legislators haven’t been able to find enough money to pay for public schools, but they have found it easy to divert money from their resource-starved public schools to pay for charter schools.

Blanc says that the purposeful gutting of public schools has been the project of free market fundamentalists. But it did not start with them.

I urge you to read the whole article. Here is an excerpt.

He writes:

 

Demanding major increases in pay and school funding, Oklahoman educators are set to strike on April 2. The similarities with West Virginia are obvious. In a Republican-dominated state with a decimated education system and a ban on public employee collective bargaining, an indignant workforce teetering on the edge of poverty has initiated a powerful rank-and-file upsurge. But history never repeats itself exactly. To strike and win, Oklahoma workers will have to overcome a range of distinct challenges and obstacles.

Years of austerity have devastated Oklahoma’s education system, as well as its public services and infrastructure. Since 2008, per-pupil instructional funding has been cut by 28 percent — by far the worst reduction in the whole country. As a result, a fifth of Oklahoma’s school districts have been forced to reduce the school week to four days.

Textbooks are scarce and scandalously out of date. Innumerable arts, languages, and sports courses or programs have been eliminated. Class sizes are enormous. A legislative deal to lower class sizes — won by a four-day strike in April 1990 — was subsequently ditched because of a funding shortage. Many of Oklahoma’s 695,000 students are obliged to sit on the floor in class.

The gutting of public education has been accompanied by a push for vouchers and, especially, the spread of charter schools. There are now twenty-eight charter school districts and fifty-eight charter schools across Oklahoma. “Is the government purposively neglecting our public schools to give an edge to private and charter schools?” asked Mickey Miller, a Tulsa teacher and rank-and-file leader. For Christy Cox — a middle-school teacher in Norman who has had to work the night shift at Chili’s to supplement her low wages — reversing these school cuts is her main motivation to strike: “The kids aren’t getting what they need. It’s really crazy. Though the media doesn’t talk about this as much as salaries, I feel that funding our schools is the primary issue.”

Pay, of course, is also a central grievance. Oklahoma’s public school teachers and staff haven’t gotten a raise in ten years – and state workers have waited nearly as long. Public school teacher pay is the forty-eighth worst in the nation. Like in West Virginia, many teachers are unwilling or unable to work in these conditions. Roughly two thousand teaching positions are currently filled by emergency-certified staff with no teaching degrees and little training. Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), the state’s main teachers’ union, explains that “our teacher shortage has reached catastrophic levels because it’s so easy for teachers to move to Texas or Arkansas, or even to another profession, and make much more money.”

Those teachers and staff who stay in state are often forced to work multiple jobs. Micky Miller’s experience is not atypical. During the day, Miller teaches at Booker T. Washington high school in Tulsa. After the school day is over, he works until 7:30 PM at the airport, loading and unloading bags from Delta airplanes. From there, he goes on to his third job, coaching kids at the Tulsa Soccer Club. “I have a master’s degree, and I have to work three jobs just to make ends meet,” he noted. “It’s very difficult to live this way.”

The roots of this crisis are not hard to find. Taxes have not been raised by the Oklahoma legislature since 1990. Due to a right-wing 1992 anti-tax initiative, a supermajority of 75 percent of legislators is now needed to impose new taxes. Yet the need for a supermajority was not a major political issue until very recently, since there has been a strong bipartisan consensus in favor of cutting taxes. Some of the first major tax breaks for the rich and corporations began in 2004 under Democratic governor Brad Henry and a Democratic-led Senate. One recent study estimates that $1 billion in state revenue has been lost yearly due to the giveaways pushed through since the early 2000s.

Republicans swept into the state government in 2010 and promptly accelerated this one-sided class war. Governor Mary Fallin and the Republican legislature have slashed income taxes for the rich. They have also passed huge breaks for the oil and gas companies — not a minor issue in a state that is the third-largest producer of natural gas and fifth-largest producer of crude oil in the country. Even the fiscal fallout of the 2014 oil bust did not lead the administration to reverse course….

 

Please click on the link link and keep reading.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Kentucky: Teachers Walk Out in Response to Legislators’ Attack on Pensions

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
17

Teachers in many districts in Kentucky closed down public schools in response to the Republican attack on their pensions. 

Schools in eight Kentucky school districts were closed Friday as teachers across the state protested Republican changes to their pension system, CBS News reports.

In Lexington and Louisville — the state’s two largest school districts — hundreds of teachers took sick days or refused to show up for work after state lawmakers passed a bill changing the structure of pension benefits for future teachers.

The strike may be hard for reformers and the libertarians in the GOP to understand: the teachers in Kentucky are not striking for themselves but for their profession.

This wildcat strike follows weeks of protest by teachers to the Legislature and the Governor.

CNN says that the legislature pulled a bait-and-switch, dropping the original bill against which teachers were protesting and putting the changes into a bill about sewage services. Was that a direct insult to teachers?

The action in Kentucky follows the wildcat strike in West Virginia and precedes the likely walkout in Oklahoma, scheduled for Monday April 2. Teachers in Oklahoma demand higher pay (pay in Oklahoma is at or near the worst in the nation despite a booming energy industry in the state that gets huge tax breaks).

These strikes and walkouts are happening in states where unions are not strong. In fact, Kentucky,  West Virginia, and Oklahoma are “right to work” states.

Note to reformers: If the Janus decision goes against the unions, you will still have to contend with the power of organized teachers. No matter what law is passed, teachers who are underpaid and disrespected have the power to walk out. There are not enough TFA scabs in the nation to replace them all.

No teachers, no schools.

Categories Education Reform, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pensions, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia

Oklahoma: Will Teachers Walk Out on April 2?

By dianeravitch
March 28, 2018 //
16

Even the threat of a statewide walkout has its effects.

Politico reports:

 

OKLAHOMA LAWMAKERS SCRAMBLE TO STOP TEACHERS’ STRIKE: A plan to hike teacher pay moving through the state Legislature won’t stop a statewide teacher walkout planned for Monday, the Oklahoma Education Association told Morning Education. State senators are expected to consider a package today passed by the House that would boost teachers’ pay by $6,000 on average, with smaller raises for school support staff and state employees. The bipartisan deal represents “a great step in the right direction,” said association President Alicia Priest, but it is not sufficient to keep teachers in the classroom on Monday.

– “Because the hole is so deep, and because our employees and the students that we serve have been neglected for so long, we have to see the process to the finish line,” Priest said. “We will be walking out on Monday.” She added that after a decade of steep school funding cuts, the union is asking for pay raises and funding boosts that would span two or three years.

– The union said it rejected the plan for teacher raises because it falls short of teachers’ $10,000 ask, and because teachers in districts that pay higher salaries would get only a portion of the raise. Priest added that the bill doesn’t include the raises the union pitched for school support professionals, cafeteria staff and others. And it doesn’t include substantial boosts for district budgets. More details from NewsOK.

– The legislative proposal received a warmer welcome from the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers, which represents roughly 2,600 public school teachers in that city. “We’ve always said we want an adequate and substantial pay raise. This is in that ballpark,” union President Ed Allen told Morning Education. He added that his union would poll members today on whether to continue with the planned walkout. “Everybody wants more money, but this is substantial. I think our membership is going to say, ‘This is a good deal. Let’s take it, and keep working to get more.'”

– So far, 156 of the 512 districts in Oklahoma have agreed to close schools in support of the walkout. Another 17 are still considering resolutions to close schools, while one has rejected the walkout, according to a tracker run by the Oklahoma Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association. The districts that will close Mondayenroll about 70 percent of students in the state, according to the union’s tally.

– It remains unclear whether the walkout will continue beyond Monday. If so, it would run into standardized testing windows set by the state for students in elementary school through high school. An administration of the ACT test for juniors is planned for Tuesday.

– Further west, in Arizona, teachers plan to gather today at the state Capitol to announce their demands of the governor and state lawmakers. According to the Arizona Republic, there is no immediate plan to strike. More here.

 

 

Categories Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay

John Thompson: Why Teachers Might Walkout on April 2

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2018 //
18

 

John Thompson, teacher and historian, explains in “The Progressive” why teachers in Oklahoma are primed for a mass walkout. To be sure, they were inspired by the strike in West Virginia. But they have grievances as compelling as those in West Virginia. Budget cuts. Tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. Low salaries. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn’t care about educating the children of the state.

“Oklahoma ranks in the top five states for oil and natural gas production, and gives $500 million a year in tax breaks to energy companies. But the state also leads the nation in cutting state funding for education, reducing formula funding by 28 percent since 2008.

“While the state has cut taxes on oil, state employees have not received an across-the-board pay raise in twelve years. The state is among the last in the nation in teacher pay. The starting salary for a new teacher is $31,600, and the poor pay and lack of resources has resulted in an acute shortage of teachers across the state.

“But because it will take a 75 percent legislative majority to raise taxes, however, the Oklahoma politics are especially complicated. And that is why stakeholders are united in using the term “walkout” instead of “strike.”

“Corresponding by email, vice president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association Shawna Mott-Wright asks, “Can you imagine being a senior in high school? These poor kids have had their education cut, cut, and cut since they were 8 years old. Our children cannot wait any longer.”

“The likely walkout grows out of a larger problem. Oklahoma Republicans have sought to shrink government so that it can be drowned in a bathtub. Oklahoma’s children have come of age as the state cut health services; killed the Earned Income Tax Credit for the poorest families; slashed funding for mental health; and undermined other social services (all this as it became first in the nation in incarcerating women). The state is tied with Montana and West Virginia for first in children surviving multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences.”

Critics will take aim at teachers for wanting a living wage. But how can they defend the deliberate underfunding of the state’s schools? That hurts children.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Oklahoma: Will Teachers Strike? John Thompson Explains.

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2018 //
3

 

John Thompson, teacher and historian in Oklahoma, writes here about the run-up to a possible teachers’ strike. Teachers’ salaries in Oklahoma are near the lowest in the nation. Coincidentally or not, supporters of school choice are massing this morning Choice advocates are rallying this morning at the State Capitol to demand more funding for charters and vouchers. The choice advocates don’t care about teachers’ salaries, teacher shortage, or the experience of those who teach their children.

 

John Thompson writes:

“Oklahoma gives $500 million a year in tax breaks to energy companies, but it is #1 in the nation in cutting state funding for education, reducing formula funding by 28%. We are either third from last or last in the nation in teacher pay. Teachers have not received a state pay increase for a decade; the starting salary is $31,600 for a first-year teacher. State employees have not received an across the board pay raise in 12 years.

“As the rest of the nation watches the grassroots rebellion of teachers that is likely to lead to an April 2 walkout of both teachers and state employees, outsiders should be aware that before the legislature could address our fiscal crisis, it has had to deal with more pressing priorities.

Another year goes by, and Oklahoma still leads the nation for cuts to education


http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/mar/07/good-jobs-first/are-oklahoma-teachers-lowest-paid-nearly/
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-teachers-continue-wait-for-pay-raise-a-decade-after-last-increase/article/5580331
http://newsok.com/article/5586584?slideout=1

“The first priority which had to be resolved before Oklahoma could address the budget was brought up by my legislator, Rep. Jason Dunnington (D-OKC). He wanted Imad Enchassi, senior imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, to serve as the House Chaplain for a Day. Enchassi is one of the state’s most thoughtful, articulate, and witty leaders. However, the Republican leadership continued to block the iman’s application They changed their rules requiring clergy participating in the House Chaplain Program “be from the representative’s own place of worship.”

“After 250 Christians, Jews, and Muslims showed up in the Capitol rotunda to hear Enchassi lead an Islamic prayer, the Republican leadership had to change the guidelines once again. After all, they needed the rules necessary for keeping political issues out of their daily prayers …

“Sure enough, a second priority emerged when the Senate leadership had to defend a Baptist minister’s 15 minute prayer/serman to that legislative body. He blamed school shootings on gay marriage.

“The pastor said:

‘Feb. 14 (a young man) went into a school and killed 17 of our people, our kids. What is going on? What is going on? … Do we really believe that we can create immorality in our laws? Do we really believe that we can redefine marriage from the word of God to something in our own mind and there not be a response? Do we really believe we can tell God to get lost from our schools and our halls of legislation and there be no response? Do we really believe that?’

http://newsok.com/interfaith-leaders-say-legislatures-chaplain-program-excludes-non-christians/article/5583810
https://www.thelostogle.com/2018/03/02/angry-baptist-minister-makes-triumphant-return-to-oklahoma-capitol/

“The legislative load in the wake of recent school shootings was somewhat easier because Oklahoma had already authorized teachers to carry guns at schools, but the law required 74 hours of training. So surely teachers who care about their students should agree to put their pay on the back burner until the required training was reduced …

“Then the right to carry concealed guns into churches had to be reinforced, once again. Non-Oklahomans should understand why Sen. John Bennett (R-Sallisaw) felt compelled to protect churchgoers’ right to arm themselves against “knuckleheads” and “evil people.” His new priority was legislative action for implementing Matthew 26:52, which says “those who take up the sword die by the sword.”

”But Bennett, who has called Islam a “cancer” and who said that state employees seeking a pay raise are engaging in “terrorism,” didn’t include mosques. Consequently, another Republican had to file a bill protecting guns in all houses of worship.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oklahoma/articles/2018-02-28/oklahoma-panel-oks-plan-to-ease-training-for-armed-teachers
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/guns-in-churches-bill-passes-oklahoma-house-would-extend-stand/article_0209a184-5573-56b7-8adb-3395049f68f8.html
http://newsok.com/article/5570937

“Oklahoma’s refusal to accept Obamacare contributed to the enormous hole in the budget that created the education crisis. So, another priority was passing legislation and preparing Gov. Mary Fallin’s order that work requirements must be attached to Medicaid.

“As the April 2 strike deadline approaches, legislative leaders have suggested legislation allowing ad valorem taxes dedicated to capital expenditures be redirected towards salaries. That would free some rich communities to offer a raise. And the word is that equally eccentric funding ideas will be floated.

“It is tougher to raise revenue in Oklahoma than in West Virginia because a constitutional amendment requires a 75% majority to increase taxes. We should not forget, however, why that provision became law.

“In 1992, after a decade of economic collapse due to deindustrialization spurred by Reaganomics, the oil downturn, the banking and savings and loan collapse, AIDS, and the crack and gangs epidemic, HB1017 was passed. After a four-day strike, the tax was passed, saving our schools, but the backlash killed all but one tax increase since then.

“So, Oklahoma’s April tornado season is likely to be upstaged by a bottom-up teachers’ revolt. It is likely to produce a political battle royal which will be worthy of the attention of readers across the nation. Stay tuned.”

Categories Charter Schools, Oklahoma, School Choice, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teachers, Vouchers

Tulsa: Teacher Turnover Spiked to 35% in Last Two Years

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2018 //
15

Deborah Gist, member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change and former State Commissioner of Education in Rhode Island, is having a hard time holding on to teachers in her job as Superintendent of Schools in Tulsa. 

Gist won Arne Duncan’s praise back in 2010 when she supported the decision to fire all the teachers and school staff at Central Falls High School because of low test scores.

Since then, she took charge in Tulsa, where her tenure has been rocky.

Teacher turnover at Tulsa Public Schools spiked the past two years, with an exodus of 1,057, or 35 percent, of all 3,000 school-based certified staff.

Although Oklahoma’s rock-bottom teacher salaries are often cited by district leaders, a Tulsa World data analysis found a significant portion of those former TPS teachers — 295, or 28 percent — are not in higher-paying states but in other Oklahoma school districts with comparable pay.

Leaving TPS wasn’t easy for Melissa Howard, who worked at Lindbergh Elementary School for 10 years but now works at Glenpool Public Schools.

She loved her principal and school community but grew frustrated by what she described as top-down directives from district administration.

“If I don’t think something is best for my students, it’s really hard for me to buy in. And I didn’t agree with the curriculum,” said Howard. “It was very scripted. … If I wanted to read a script, I would be making a lot more money because I would be working in Los Angeles or New York as an actress.”

 

Categories Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teachers

Oklahoma: Will Teachers Launch a Statewide Strike like West Virginia?

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2018 //
7

 

Oklahoma’s teachers are angry. They are among the lowest paid teachers in the nation, and teacher shortages are growing as colleagues move out of the state or give up teaching for something else.

Teachers across the state are seriously considering a statewide strike. 

One teacher started a Facebook page and with a few days, 52,000 people had signed up for it.

Teachers from the state’s two urban centers gathered at a Moore public library Friday evening to weigh their participation and the timing of any such organized effort.

The meeting attended by about three dozen teachers from seven districts around the state was organized by Heather Reed, a teacher at Lee Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Reed said April 2 is the date currently under consideration because that’s “when it might hurt the most.”

“Our teachers are exhausted, tired,” Reed said.

Also in attendance was Larry Cagle, a language arts teacher at Edison Preparatory School in Tulsa.

“We are at a crossroads where either something positive happens … or we find ourselves coming back in August with a severely demoralized and depleted teaching corps,” Cagle said.

In 1990, a four-day, statewide teachers’ strike forced House Bill 1017 through the Legislature and then a vote of the people. The measure raised taxes for increased teacher compensation in exchange for a series of policy changes, including class-size limitations, mandatory kindergarten, training for school board members and parent education programs.

A new Facebook group called “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout — The Time Is Now!” (bit.ly/ thetimeisnowok) was created late last week and already has more than 52,000 members.

Interesting that this new teacher militancy is happening even as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that is intended to kill teachers’ unions. Oklahoma is a “right to work” state, but that hasn’t stopped teachers from collaborating to demand higher pay and better working conditions.

 

 

Categories Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage, Teachers, Unions

Oklahoma: A Statewide Teachers Striike?

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2018 //
26

 

The teachers in West Virginia did it. They organized a statewide teachers strike to protest low pay and soaring healthcare costs.

Will the teachers of Oklahoma be next? 

“Oklahoma teachers are fed up with state lawmakers. A public school teacher in Stillwater created the Facebook group “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout – The Time is Now!” two days ago, and it has already gained more than 20,000 members.

“Today, teachers gathered in Moore to discuss the possible statewide strike.”

Some think that the state testing time in April would be ideal.

If the legislators don’t care about educating the kids and paying teachers a living wage, Texas has a teacher shortage.

How much longer will states treat teachers like dirt and get away with it?

 

Categories Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay

John Thompson: Oklahoma City Schools Under Siege by Reformers

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2018 //
6

John Thompson, teacher and historian, writes here about the invasion of the privatizers in Oklahoma City.

 

Every January, the start of National School Choice Week marks the beginning of The Oklahoman editorials in support of charter and private school expansion. Given the $16.5 million grant by Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education to the Walton-funded Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, and the state’s charter school conversion law, which allows the state to override school systems that turn down charter applications, this annual event marks the beginning of an increasingly dangerous school privatization season.
https://schoolchoiceweek.com/states/oklahoma/
http://newsok.com/feds-send-16.5m-to-oklahoma-for-charter-schools/article/5565941
This year’s editorials in favor of school choice expansion indicate an even more worrisome assault on public schools is likely. A former Oklahoma City Public School System (OKCPS) board member wants to break the 46,000 student system into an overwhelmingly black district, a predominantly Hispanic district, and a more affluent no-majority district. The most extreme 2018 proposal was recently made by City Councilman David Greenwell. He wants to convert the OKCPS into a city-sponsored charter district!
http://newsok.com/conversation-underway-about-improving-okc-school-district/article/5584577
The Oklahoman subsequently editorialized that the resignation of the OKCPS superintendent, Aurora Lora, illustrates the “sort of churn” that makes it “nearly impossible” to “move the needle” on school improvement for the 85% low-income district. It didn’t mention that Lora is a graduate of the Broad Residency in Urban Education. Neither does it mention the reasons why educators opposed the micromanaging she was taught by Broad, and how Broad sees the cultivation of churn as a feature, not a flaw, of its corporate governance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/08/20/Local/Graphics/Broadmemos.pdf?tid=a_mcntx
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/broad-foundationsplan-to-expand-influence-in-school-reform/2012/08/20/c118e134-eb0a-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_blog.html?utm_term=.e00562a71ec5
The editorial called for “truly significant change from the status quo” where “all ideas should at least be considered.” It then buried the lede, “Brent Bushey, head of the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center said his group backs ‘quality options’ for students and that he hopes Greenwell’s comments lead to more talk about more quality options.”
In the disrespected field of education, it isn’t unusual for privatizers, to say that “everything should be on the table.” But, how many Americans would want a Commander in Chief who says he won’t “rule anything in or out” in terms of nuclear confrontations?
Okay, given Donald Trump’s mindset, that’s a touchy metaphor, so let’s use a medical analogy: Would we want a medical system that is free to conduct whatever experiments it wants, or that would institutionalize risky procedures in order to treat certain conditions without a careful study of their unintended consequences? 
The corporate reform Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, and a steady stream of supporters of the so-called “portfolio model” of reform, continue to promote charter expansion. But I’ve yet to hear of a portfolio proponent who would put the inherent dangers of their plan on the table for public discussion. Whether they believe it or not, charter advocates still claim that their schools can serve the “same” kids as neighborhood schools, and that a robust accountability system can somehow prevent the mass exiting of students who make it harder to raise test scores.
I don’t expect true believers in charter portfolios to get into the weeds of school improvement and explain why they could succeed in Oklahoma City with the models that failed in Tennessee, Nevada, and elsewhere, even though our charters would have at least 50% per student less funding than those of other states. Neither do I anticipate an explanation of why Indianapolis’s well-funded “reforms,” that are being marketed for OKC, have produced student performance gains that are the same as the OKCPS “status quo.” But, shouldn’t they acknowledge the downsides of the so-called successes that our business leaders have been hearing promoted in private discussions? Denver is finally admitting that its achievement gap is one of the worst in the nation, and New Orleans and Memphis can’t deny that they are third and first, nationally, in “disconnected youth” or kids out of school, without jobs.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/upshot/a-better-way-to-compare-public-schools.html
https://co.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2015/10/07/report-denver-ranks-last-among-50-cities-on-income-based-achievement-gaps/#.VvHlzhIrK3U
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/04/18/393849058/in-new-orleans-young-lives-adrift
I hope, however, that OKC leaders will ask whether a policy, which is likely to result in thousands of school-aged kids walking the streets during the day, should be “off the table.” I would also hope they would ask why Tulsa’s Deborah Gist, and her team of Broadies, have failed so miserably. Tulsa’s poverty rate is below that of Oklahoma City, and their schools have benefited from huge investments by the Gates Foundation and other national and local edu-philanthropists, but only two urban districts have produced lower test score growth from 3rd to 8th grade. Perhaps we need a conversation about why the test-driven, choice-driven, technocratic model pushed by the Billionaires Boys Club has been such a failure. 
https://www.broadcenter.org/alumni/directory/?fwp_alumni_keyword=tulsa
The cornerstone of accountability-driven, competition-driven corporate reform was once called “earned autonomy.” Now, the basically same concept is pushed with a kinder and gentler spin. The idea is to reward schools that exhibit high test scores with the freedom to offer holistic learning. Regardless of what you call it, the plan is to impose top-down, teach-to-the-test, even scripted instruction, on lower performing schools. The approach is designed to stack the competition between choice and neighborhood schools in favor of charters.
https://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/Portfolio_components_2.pdf
I want to stress, however, that I support a public conversation. After I wrote a rebuttal to the former OKCPS board member seeking to break up the system, he and I have had a couple of hours of discussions. He doesn’t want more segregation but he’s tired of the micromanaging. We both want more site based management. After all, most educators and stakeholders who I know are tired of the social engineering imposed by Broadies.
http://newsok.com/former-teacher-lets-not-divide-okc-schools/article/5583744
But the conversation must follow the principle of, “First, Do No Harm.” We must not treat our children like lab rats. All win-win policies should be on the table, but we shouldn’t contemplate discredited theories such as earned autonomy, which actually means earned dignity, that may benefit some while severely damaging other students. For instance, do we really want to repeat the all-charter NOLA experiment if it means that 18% of young people will be out of school and out of the workforce? Should advocates be empowered to deny autonomy to schools they are competing with? Should today’s well-funded market-driven activists be empowered to permanently privatize our future children’s public education system? 
OKCPS board spends hours on process to define goals
Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Oklahoma, Privatization
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