Archives for category: Privatization
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Reader Reminds Legislators: 90% of American Children Attend Public Schools

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
21

 

Reader Chiara posted this comment this morning. Whenever a legislature takes up charters and/vouchers, they forget that public schools exist. From that moment, at least 90% of their time in session will be devoted to the care and feeding of the 10% or 3% or 1% in publicly supported private schools.

“Schools in several of Kentucky’s largest counties were forced to close Friday when teachers angered by the passage of a pension overhaul refused to go to work. The state’s two largest districts in Louisville and Lexington were among at least eight school districts that closed schools due to employee absences.”

“West Virginia, Arizona and now Kentucky. Meanwhile, the “ed reform movement” remains blissfully unaware of this ongoing crisis in….public schools.

“I used to joke that every public school in the country could close and ed reformers wouldn’t notice because they don’t actually work on “public education” but instead work on charters and vouchers. I never dreamed we would actually see that, but we are.

“You know what ed reformers in Kentucky spent the last year on? Charters.

“Meanwhile, the schools NINETY FIVE PER CENT of people in that state were in crisis.

“They don’t work for public school families. They work for some abstract privatized school system that exists only at the Walton Foundation.

“Would someone notify the 4000 employees at the US Department of Education that PUBLIC schools are closing? No one in ed reform will notice- they don’t send their kids to our schools.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Arizona: Will This Public School Hater Be Elected to Congress?

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
30

 

Debbie Lesko is the Betsy DeVos of Arizona. She hates public schools and wants to privatize them. She is active in ALEC, the rightwing corporate bill mill.

Read about her campaign for Congress here, in an article by Graham Vyse in The New Republic.

“Lesko resigned from the state Senate in January to focus on running for Congress, and she’s now the Republican nominee in the April 24 special election for Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District. A darling of the Koch brothers in her own right, she’s the clear favorite to replace former Representative Trent Franks—a Republican who resigned in disgrace last year over sexual-misconduct accusations. Conventional wisdom says Democrats don’t have a shot in this heavily conservative district. It includes former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s political base, and Trump carried the district by 21 points in 2016. But after Conor Lamb’s victory this month in a Pennsylvania district Trump won by about the same margin, Democrats are allowing themselves to hope. “Arizona can be harder than Pennsylvania,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, recently said on Pod Save America. Yet, Pfeiffer argued, the two districts have “essentially the same political dynamic.” “There could be a real shot here,” he said. “There’s a good candidate who won the primary a couple weeks ago.”

“Pfeiffer was referring to Hiral Tipirneni, an Indian-born emergency-room physician and advocate for cancer research, who won the Democratic nomination with a moderate message. Even the conservative publication Newsmax calls her “a strong candidate,” which might explain why the Republican National Committee just invested $281,250 in this race along with $170,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee and $100,000 on the way from the Congressional Leadership Fund. These investments come as polling by Lake Research Partners shows Tipirneni down 14 points, but Lesko’s record should motivate local Democrats looking to notch another upset victory. “Debbie Lesko has made it clear she’s representing ALEC,” Tipirneni told me. “She’s representing the Koch brothers. She’s representing her lobbyists.”

Could the Big Blue Wave that Elected Ralph Northam in Virginia, Doug Jones in Alabama, and Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania topple Lesko?

Most families in Arizona send their children to public schools. Do the public school parents in Lesko’s district know that she wants to defund their public schools?

Lesko has promoted vouchers in Arizona.

“Arizona was the first state in the country to enact Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, also known as Education Savings Accounts, in 2011. Championed by the state’s Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank also tied to the Kochs, these accounts allow families taking their child out of public school to put 90 percent of the child’s share of state education funding toward private education—tuition, tutoring, or other expenses. Eligibility for the program was initially limited to a small group of students, including those with disabilities, but Lesko’s law opened it up to all 1.1 million of Arizona’s public-school kids.”

Parents have blocked implementation by putting a refendum on the ballot. Vouchers have never won a public vote. The vote frightens voucher advocates.

The state’s voucher program operates with little or no oversight or accountability. Parents have used their debit cards to buy legitimate school supplies, then returned them for credit and spent state money on personal expenses. At least one report says the ESA was used to pay for an abortion.

The special election for the Congressional seat will be held on April 24. If you live in her district, be sure to vote.

Categories Arizona, Privatization

Tom Ultican: Oakland Is California’s Petri Dish for Destroying Public Education

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
8

 

In this stunning review of Oakland’s recent history, retired teacher Thomas Ultican shows how that city’s school district was completely captured and nearly destroyed by a succession of Broadie Superintendents.

The “Destroy Public Education Movement” was launched in 2001 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown, who started Oakland’s first charter school.

The district fell into debt, and the state took control. Under state control, Oakland schools were managed and mismanaged by a series of Broad-trained Superintendents. Oakland became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Broad Foundation, and each superintendent opened more charter schools than his predecessor.

“Like the Republican politicians in Detroit, Democratic politicians in California pushed OUSD into financial disarray. And like Detroit, Oakland’s financial issues were driven by declining enrollment stemming from the same drivers; privatization, gentrification and suburban development.”

Broadies, writes Ultican, have a long-established track record of disruption, discord, and fiscal mismanagement.

In Oakland, one Broadie followed another, driving demoralization and disarray.

There is at last, he writes, a new superintendent who is not a Broadie. Her name is Kyla Johnson-Trammell. If the billionaires get out of her way, she might be able to restore stability in the district.

Ultican writes:

“A constant theme promoted by the DPE movement is “every student deserves a high-quality school.” When you hear a billionaire or one of his minions say this, you and your community are targets and your about to be fleeced.

“The United States developed a unique education system that was the envy of the world and the great foundation upon which our democratic experiment in self-governance was established. Over two centuries, we developed a system in which every community had a high-quality public school.

“These schools had professionals who earned their positions by completing training at accredited institutions. Government rules and oversight insured that school facilities were safe, and the background of all educators was investigated. In urban areas like Oakland there was a professionally run public school in every neighborhood.

“Could it have been improved? Of course, and that is exactly what was happening before the deceitful attack on public education and teachers.”

He is hopeful that the new homegrown leadership might extract Oakland schools and students from the billionaires’ Petri dish.

 

Categories Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Oakland, Privatization

Rick Hess: Reformers Were Too Gullible About D.C. “Successes”

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
44

 

This is a really good article by Rick Hess of the DeVos-funded American Enterprise Institute about reformers’ credulous embrace of every claim made by D.C. and using it as their model for the success of “reform.” Having elevated D.C. as their paradigm, they were unprepared for and blindsided by the recent graduation-rate scandal.

He faults the Washington Post, for its infatuation with Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson. And he faults President Obama for saluting a fake graduation rate increase.

Kudos to Rick for his fearless chastising of his compatriots.

He writes:

“Lots of self-styled “reformers” had good reason to observe DCPS through rose-tinted glasses. A wealth of advocates, funders, consultants, researchers, and friends had a rooting interest in DCPS’s success — and had every incentive to focus on the good news. This includes the senior author of this piece, who counted many DCPS leaders as friends of long standing — and who wrote admiringly about some of their efforts.

“After all, Washington, D.C., as much as any city over the past decade, served as a laboratory where philanthropists, policy analysts, and high profile media outlets converge. Philanthropists have poured more than $120 million into the school system since 2007. By 2010, the nation’s largest 15 philanthropies were spending more on K-12 education in D.C. than in any other school district in America.”

Curiously, he places some of the blame on critics of these fraudulent reforms, because their criticism made the reformers circle their wagons.

Maybe the reformers should have listened to critics like Guy Brandenburg and others who blew the whistle early on, instead of closing their ears and circling the wagons. Maybe they should have taken seriously the testing scandal that USA Today reported in 2011, instead of sweeping it under the rug.

 

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, District of Columbia, Education Industry, Education Reform, Fraud, Privatization, Testing

Newark: The Poison Pill That Chris Christie Left for the Public Schools of Newark

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
11

 

When Corey Booker, then Mayor of Newark, and Chris Christie, then Governor of New Jersey, persuaded  Mark Zuckerberg to give them $100 million to transform the schools of Newark, they told him that Newark would become the New Orleans of the North and that it would become one of the highest performing districts in the nation. Hahaha. As Dale Russakoff explained in her book The Prize about Zuckerberg’s millions, most of the money went to consultants and to pay off debts to the teachers’ union.

Nonetheless, Christie delivered on his end of the bargain. Newark is on track to have more than 40% of its students in charter schools. Ten years ago, less than 10% were in charter schools.  

The state has signed off on nearly 7,000 more charter seats to be available by the 2022-23 school year, according to state data compiled by Sass Rubin, who teaches at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Policy. If all those seats are filled and district enrollment stays flat at about 34,200 students, then the share of students who go to school in Newark and attend charters could climb as high as 44 percent.

No one knows whether the demand will meet the supply, but that doesn’t matter. The supply will be there thanks to the Christie administration.

Some said it made sense to stockpile extra seats during the charter-friendly Christie administration, under which the number of charter students doubled. “While the getting is good, and Christie is approving just about anything that sounds stable, why don’t we just go and apply for additional charters so we can have those in our pocket?” asked one charter leader, describing the thinking of some of his school’s board members.

So now we must eagerly await the results to see whether Newark becomes a model for the nation, as Booker and Christie said it would be. Or do we have to wait for Newark to become 100% charter? Apparently the goal is to prove that poverty and segregation don’t matter, and that charters can succeed despite those factors. Let’s see.

But the problem with Newark becoming 100% charter is that then the charters would have no place to send the kids they don’t want. As this report by Mark Weber and Julia Sass Rubin shows, the charters systematically under enroll students with disabilities and English language learners. If charters must take all of them, it might drive down their test scores.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, New Jersey, Newark, Privatization

The Financial Payoff of Prison Privatization

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2018 //
12

Donald Cohen of “In the Public Interest” reports that operators of private detention facilities are delighted with the Trump crackdown on immigrants . It is generating huge revenues and profits!

Last fall, Chief Executive Officer George Zoley of the publicly traded private prison corporation GEO Group told shareholders he was “very pleased” with recent financial results after the company “experienced improved occupancy rates across a number of our ICE [immigration detention] facilities” — and now we know why.

In an early March filing to those shareholders, GEO Group divulged that total compensation last year for its top corporate executives nearly doubled, jumping from $10.9 million to $20.3 million. Zoley really made out. Stock awards, which the corporation gives out when it profits more than it expected, boosted his compensation from $5.1 million to $9.6 million.

The GEO Group CEO better have thanked President Donald Trump for the big payday.

Trump deported less people last year than the Obama administration did in 2016, but he arrested 30 percent more suspected undocumented immigrants. That means more people were held in immigration detention centers, which are primarily run by GEO Group and its main rival, CoreCivic (formerly CCA). GEO Group also manages the electronic monitoring used on some undocumented immigrants through its subsidiary BI Inc.

There are big bucks in privatization, whether it is prisons, schools, or veterans’ hospitals.

 

Categories Privatization

Florida Offering Big $$$$ Inducements and Freedom from State Laws to Woo Corporate Charter Chains

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2018 //
20

 

The Florida Legislature is firmly controlled by advocates for privatization, some with direct conflicts of interest because of their ties to charter chains. Last year, it passed the “Schools of Hope” law, creating a new program to bring in charter operators to compete with or take over low performing schools.

There has not exactly been a gold rush by charter operators but two have stepped forward and are having trouble meeting the state’s minimal criteria. (I got a one-day complimentary subscription to Politico Pro, so you may not be able to access the full  access the full article).

“A controversial program signed into law in June called “Schools of Hope” gives charter school networks designated as “Hope Operators” the ability to open a “School of Hope” within five miles of a persistently low-performing public school. Those operators, collectively, get access to a pot of tens of millions of dollars to cover startup costs, personnel and specialized educational offerings, plus are given the flexibility of being exempt from a long list of state public education laws.

“The State Board of Education will Tuesday consider Hope Operator applications for two charter school networks: Texas-based IDEA Public Schools and Somerset Academy, managed by Academica, a Miami-based network of schools that took over Jefferson County schools and may not meet the requirements for Hope Operator status.

“To become a Hope Operator, charter networks have to meet certain criteria laid out in the new law, which is itself currently the subject of litigation brought by school districts that compete with charter schools for students.

“Among those criteria is a requirement that at least 70 percent of a charter network’s students be eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch. But across Somerset Academy’s more than 60 public charter schools, the Florida Department of Education estimates only 60 percent of their students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (89 percent qualify at IDEA schools)….

”The laws states that state education officials must also determine that the student achievement of the charter network “exceeds the district and state averages of the states in which the operator’s schools operate.”

When the “Hope”law was enacted, legislators expected an abundance of applications, but thus far there have only been these two.

Thanks to Congress, there is plenty of money there for charter operators. Florida seems to favor the corporate operators, the fast-food style of franchising and outsourcing.

If Florida legislators think that state laws are unnecessary for charter operators, why are they necessary for public schools?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Thomas B. Fordham Institute Praises DeVos for Getting $400 Million for Privately Managed Charters

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2018 //
15

 

Betsy DeVos may be mocked by the media and parents, but she has a friend in Mike Petrilli at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. 

Is TBF angling for a federal grant? Mike was an original member of the “NeverTrump” movement, but now he is very impressed by Betsy DeVos. He is star struck, in fact.

Congress has handled her budget requests unsympathetically. She asked for deep cuts in the ED Department’s budget, but Congress increased spending on the programs she wanted to eliminate. The ED budget is actually larger, not smaller.

Betsy wanted $1 billion for school choice, but Congress killed that.

The only win she got was an increase in the funding of charter schools, which now goes up to $400 million a year.

This is a big win for ALEC, the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and all the Red State governors who want to privatize public education. Make no mistake, it is a win for Donald Trump.

The big push to eliminate public schools in urban districts will resume, thanks to Congress.

This surely makes Corey Booker, one of DeVos’s strongest supporters, happy, along with Andrew Cuomo (NY), Dannel Malloy (CT), and Jerry Brown (CA).

Democrats who say they oppose the DeVos agenda of privatization (like Senator Patty Murray of Washington State) got rolled by DeVos.

New funding for charters, despite the scandals and frauds association with them, will be at least $600 million from the federal government, with its $400 million a year, and the Walton family’s $200 million a year.

If charters were really saving lives, as Petrilli claims, why are Detroit, Milwaukee, and D.C. still among the lowest performing districts in the nation, even though they are all charter-heavy?

When public money goes to private entrepreneurs without accountability, that is an invitation to fraud. And there are plenty of fraudsters lined up to take the money and run.

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

NYC: Parents Sue to Block Closure of PS 25, a High-Performing Elementary School in Bedford Stuyvesant

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2018 //
21

 

Three parents at PS 25 in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, are suing to stop the closure of one of the city’s highest performing elementary schools. The Department of Education said the school was too small.

“The lawsuit hinges on a state law that gives local education councils the authority to approve any changes to school zones. Since P.S. 25 is the only zoned elementary school for a swath of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the department’s plans would leave some families with no zoned elementary school dedicated to educating them, forcing students to attend other district schools or enter the admissions lottery for charter schools.”

Question: Why didn’t DOE and local superintendent recruit additional students to 25?

Next question: will the building be emptied and handed over to another charter?

Next question: Why are charter operators focused on killing public schools in black communities, leaving them with no choice but a charter?

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, New York City, Privatization

North Carolina: “Opportunity School District” Fails Before It Begins

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2018 //
8

Here is a good laugh.

North Carolina wanted to copy Tennessee’s Achievement School Sisteict, but the ASD was an abject failure. So the North Carolina ASD became the NC Opportunity School District. It was supposed to take control of low performing schools across the state, but due to popular resistance, it ended up with a well-paid superintendent and only one school.

Here is the report from Public Schools First NC:

“Innovative School District – Public Schools First NC

“Southside Ashpole Elementary School Selected for 2018-19 School Year

“On November 2, 2017, the State Board of Education selected only one school for the Innovative School District for the 2018-19 school year: Southside Ashpole Elementary School, Rowland, NC.

“This school is a part of the Robeson County School System. The local community in Robeson County was very upset about this decision and held many community meetings to show their disagreement with this school takeover. According to state statute, once selected for takeover, Robeson County School Board either could close the school or join the ISD. On January 9, 2018, the Public Schools of Robeson County School Board approved the transfer of Southside Ashpole Elementary in Rowland, NC into the Innovative School District beginning in the 2018-19 school year.

“School Works, a third-party evaluation firm contracted by the ISD, is tasked with evaluating any operator applications submitted and will report to the ISD Superintendent on their findings. The application process for being an operator of an Innovative School District is here. Applicants presented their proposed plans to improve student and school outcomes to the NCISD Superintendent. NCISD received applications from The Romaine Group and Achievement for All Children. Public school advocates note neither entity has a strong, proven performance history. The Romaine Group, a for-profit Michigan based organization manages eight schools in Maryland and one in NC. The NC school, Capitol Encore Academy in Fayetteville, is a K-8 charter that earned a ‘D’ according to 2016-17 school report cards. Achievement for All Children is a new nonprofit, created by supporters of the school choice movement including a wealthy donor who helped support the bill that resulted in the creation of an Innovative School District. Many have questioned applicants’ ties to the controversial bill and pointed out that they stand to benefit financially from being chosen as operators.

“SchoolWorks evaluated the operator applications and found that at the time of assessment, neither entity met the requisites established by the ISD guidelines. According to press release issued on February 1, 2018: “Based on the reports received from SchoolWorks, at this time neither entity met the high expectations imposed by the ISD. The ISD now plans to convene negotiations with both entities to gain additional insight on their respective capabilities and approaches to improving student achievement at Southside Ashpole.” The ISD Superintendent asked for an additional 60 days to decide on an operator. Critics and supporters of the ISD model expressed concern over the small number of applicants. Once the State Board approves the Innovative School operator they will be given a 5-year contract.

“Concerns about NC’s ISD

“Where takeover districts have been implemented, there is no evidence that they offer high-quality educational alternatives to children from low-income families.

“According to Dr. Mercedes Schneider, a New Orleans educator, “Just over 6 percent of high school seniors in the Recovery School District scored high enough in English and Math to qualify for admission into a Louisiana four-year college or university straight out of high school. Five of their 16 high schools produced not a single student who met these requirements.”

”From Chris Barbic, the Texas charter school operator named superintendent of the Tennessee Achievement School District in 2012, “As a charter school founder, I did my fair share of chest pounding over great results. I’ve learned that getting these same results in a zoned neighborhood school environment is much harder.” Barbic resigned at the end of 2015.

”A Vanderbilt University study of Tennessee’s ASD found “that the vast majority of teachers exited schools once they came under the auspices of the ASD. Therefore, the ASD faced a significant need to hire new teachers in their first year. Among the new hires, nearly a third were novice teachers.”
The following year, Vanderbilt researchers found that the ASD did not had a marginal effect on student test scores, while district-led turnaround efforts had “moderate to large positive effects in Reading and Math.”

”Tulane University Prof. J. Celeste Lay warned the state of Georgia not to model its school takeover after New Orleans: “Like other businesses, schools operating within market models must also turn a profit. The principal at my nearby charter school makes over $300,000 per year, a 246 percent increase from her salary before the school was chartered. For-profit management companies charge schools 15-20 percent of school revenue. Taxpayer dollars go into hefty administrator salaries and corporate profits instead of reducing class sizes, upgrading facilities, or recruiting and maintaining high-quality teachers.”

”An Education Week commentary concluded that “a growing body of independent investigations shows that the preferred strategies of closing and chartering schools in takeover districts open the public treasury to fraud, waste, and abuse. … Whether the arrangement is called a portfolio district, a recovery district, or, most egregious, an ‘opportunity’ or ‘achievement’ district, the goal of these policies is the same: the transfer of local, public funds and decision-making to non-accountable, often remote- or chain-charter operators.”

 

“A Center for Popular Democracy comprehensive review of existing state takeover districts found: “The rapid proliferation of the takeover district as an educational panacea is alarming. There is little clear evidence that takeover districts achieve their stated goals of radically improving performance at failing schools. At the same time, children, particularly students of color and those with special needs, face greater risk of discriminatory discipline and enrollment practices in takeover districts. Furthermore, hastily created districts with opaque governance structures breed fraud and mismanagement.”

”In August 2016, Tennessee’s state auditor found massive problems with the fiscal management of its ASD. The Times Free Press reports that analysts found “seven key areas where ASD did not establish processes over key human resources and payroll functions, including segregating duties; maintaining personnel files; verifying education credentials; documenting time and attendance; completing performance reviews; documenting approvals of bonuses and pay raises; and exiting employees.”

”In 2017, Tennessee’s legislature seriously curtailed the purview of the ASD, taking away the district’s ability to start new schools and restricting its authority to take over struggling schools. The state also cut its leadership team and consolidated management offices. Chalkbeat reports: “Education Commissioner Candice McQueen says the state will no longer default to the Achievement School District when considering how to help Tennessee’s lowest-performing schools. … Tennessee will lean on more local district-led turnaround initiatives.”

”The structure of NC’s ISD, as detailed in the legislation itself, offers no more safeguards than the others discussed. Former NCGA analyst Kris Nordstrom wrote of the aforementioned TN report, “The researchers note, ‘the turnaround space for charters (in an ASD) is indisputably different from their usual circumstances, and as such calls for a very different type of schooling operations.’ The Tennessee program failed despite relying upon private charter operators with ‘a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge and experience.’

”North Carolina’s ASD program is similarly set up for failure. Despite the assurances of the bill sponsors, there are no ‘guardrails’ to ensure success.”

”Low-performing schools in North Carolina are making significant progress, according to a recent study on the existing program designed to improve low-performing schools known as Turning around North Carolina’s Lowest-Achieving Schools (TALAS) found that: “TALAS made significant investments in professional development, comprehensive needs assessments, school improvement planning, and instructional and leadership coaching in low-performing schools. These investments have paid off in improved outcomes for students. The primary threat to this progress is the high level of staff turnover that occurs in these schools and the increased level of spending on professional development that is required for new staff members each year. ASDs would make the turnover problem in low-performing schools even worse.”

”Since the lowest achieving schools have almost exclusively high-poverty student populationsand come from high-poverty districts, these reforms are doomed to fail. Telling cash-strapped districts to reform schools by adding administrative layers (like an innovation zone office) or mandating higher pay for staff (as in the principal turnaround model) with no funding beyond local “discretionary funds” is meaningless. Turning around our lowest achieving schools cannot happen without a significant commitment of resources and time.

”Students at low-performing schools deserve reforms that ensure better academic and social outcomes. Giving the state control of local public schools will introduce more uncertainty and less stability to our most vulnerable elementary schools without guaranteeing their students’ success.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, North Carolina, Privatization
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