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Patrick Walsh on the Death of Philosophy in a World of Philistines

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2014 //
22

Many bloggers have commented on the pretentiousness and vacuousness of the gaggle of politicians, entrepreneurs, and hedge funders who have gathered in the Adirondacks of New York and audaciously dubbed themselves the “thought leaders” of our time. They called their meeting “Camp Philos,” to claim association with such intellectual giants as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their goal, they said, was to discuss “education reform,” but it is now generally understood that this term refers to the privatization and monetization of public education. They no doubt spoke of getting the nation’s children workforce-ready, prepared for global competition, primed to ace the next round of standardized tests.

What would Ralph Waldo Emerson say? Would he write about the convergence of crass values, of minds trained for profit making, of souls so devoid of ideals that they confuse commerce with philosophy?

Of everything I have read, whether humorous or serious yet, the best is the musings of a teacher named Patrick Walsh who writes the RagingHorse blog. I can give you but a sample of his critique of this circus of self-celebration and vulgar commercialism.

He writes:

“Needless to say, anyone who can convince themselves that they could place the words “Philosopher’s Camp “ before the words, “education reform” in the same breath they are comparing themselves with the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson is well nigh in need of a good teacher, a course in philosophy 101, or at the very least, a dictionary.

“On the other hand the event – which achieves a kind of horrible sublimity in its sheer vulgarity — is perfectly consistent with the tactics of the long stealth campaign to privatize the school system that built America. Of the privatizers many repugnant tactics, none is more more consistent, intrinsic nor effective than the conscious manipulation of language and images. In the way does a half assed experiment, hatched up in secret by shills and testing companies and financed by a billionaire come to be known as the miraculous Common Core State Standards, the are the answer to all that ills us, the solution to all problems. In this way does the almost Biblical struggle for Civil Rights come to be employed by the privatizer’s public relations department, as a tool to strip teachers of the right to due process and undermine unions. In this way does the word “philosophy”, one of the most transcendent and spiritually charged words in any language, come to be used in Lake Placid, as a fig leaf for yet the latest episode in most rapacious campaign against a public system in American history. The privatizers know little or nothing of education but they do know, as Orwell knew ( see “Politics and the English Language” ) that those who control the language control reality.

“Cuomo, coming off orchestrating what is surely the most egregiously unfair education law in the history of New York state, is the “honorary chairman” of the philosophical retreat. It troubles the philosophical Chairman Governor not at all that no educator was invited to Camp Philos, nor even that those who attempted to attend were summarily rejected, one and all.

“Still, even as I find the privatizers among the most cynical, ignorant and narcissistic people on the face of the earth, I must admit there is one place in which I agree with them, even as I radically disagree with their methods and ends.”

Walsh agrees that American education has failed in its duty to teach generations of students to appreciate the meaning of philosophy.

He writes:

“I would define the failure as philosophical in both nature and cause. Allow me to elaborate. Education is, in its essence, a philosophical endeavor. Yes, of course we need to insure that our citizens acquire enough practical skills so that they can navigate the always unknown road ahead. Yes, of course, it means that schools must do all they can to insure our students have the requisite skills to gain employment in an ever more frighteningly competitive world in which jobs are now routinely “out-sourced” or mechanized out of existence altogether. That said, education is not job training. Job training is a wonderful thing and a necessity but education serves a much larger, deeper, and more vital role, and that is where the philosophical element, directly or indirectly, enters into the picture.

“Accordingly, in the front and center of our education system should be some variations of the following questions:

“What, as a society, do we value ?

What kind of a people are we ?

What do we really believe in ?

Do we live our beliefs ?

What kind of citizens do we wish to produce ?

What does it mean to be educated ?

What, if anything, are our responsibilities to each other ?

How are we to live together ?

“Were it within my power to do so, I would immediately and unapologetically do all I could do to introduce the study of philosophy on some level beginning in the third grade, the age of my daughter as of this writing. And I would make it an essential part of the curriculum in every grade until high school graduation. Implicit with this undertaking would be the understanding that some may not grasp the meaning of the study for years if at all but all would benefit from the exposure.

“Children would begin with a study of the word: “philo,” which means “love. “Sophia,” which means “wisdom.” Let them spend a week, a month, a year — whatever it takes – discussing and attempting to grasp those two words alone and the concept of those together, and you cannot help but have a child with an imagination larger because it is more unleashed than before. Help a child understand that this thing called “wisdom” exists and is real and has been honored and revered by the civilized since the beginning of civilization, that it has nothing to do with the accumulation of material wealth, nothing to do with power over others, nothing to do with competition or control, and you have opened the portals of the mind. And you have done something else: you have given a child a way of seeing that affords he or she some mode of mental protection against a corporate assault that, for many, begins at the moment of consciousness. Worse, the assault is designed to wed that struggling to be formed identity with a product, now and forevermore.”

He writes:

“The study of philosophy would not merely make our children “college and career ready” ( whatever those weasel words actually mean), it would help them to understand this mystery called Life in all of its paradoxical, tragic and wondrous nature.

“We now live in a nation where most citizens seem to believe that the word “philosophy” is synonymous with “opinion.” We have all heard vulgar examples in statements such as “My philosophy is to hit a guy before he hits you” or some such foolishness. It is, I would argue, the absence of philosophical knowledge that has contributed to much of America’s horrible and dangerous confusion of technology with science, data with knowledge and knowledge with wisdom. Most of all has led to the groutesques idea that knowedge is power rather than liberation from the need for power.

“This is worse than sad.. No decent society, never mind democracy, can exist in this kind of mass confusion.
And, yes, many of these same people are products of the public school system and yes, that school system failed them. And it continues to fail them.

“When I have asked my students why they go to school and why they study, overwhelmingly they reply with some variation of “ to do well on the test.” This is sick but it is hardly an accident. But why should they think differently? It is, however, a crime. It is the crime of starving the imaginations of millions of children by sheer neglect. And it is a crime that the miraculous Common Core will not only not correct but will, in fact, perpetuate.

“I do not believe in magical thinking. (I leave that for the proponents of the Common Core) I am well aware that the study of philosophy will not automatically and magically open the doors of the imagination. Pre-Nazi Germany had the most rigorous school curriculum but it did little to stop millions from embracing Hitler. Something more is needed. That said, I know this: the absence of something as immense as philosophy can only diminish this nation. As I see it, the problem is ecological. By this I mean if you deprive a child of philosophical awareness you do not get child minus philosophy. You get someone radically different and radically weaker. You get a person whose imagination, the key to all, has been severely diminished.

“The purpose of education is not to be found in the vulgar slogan, “knowledge is power” but the absence of philosophy is one reason why that slogan is so readily swallowed in our increasingly competitive, miserable, punitive land. As philosophers and artists and spiritual geniuses have known for thousands of years, education is the emacipation of the human imagination. The purpose of education is freedom.”

I will not lift all the words of this brilliant blog. I want you to open the link and read it all yourself. These are not the words of a college professor or an eminent theologian, but a classroom teacher in one of the toughest neighborhoods of New York City.

Patrick Walsh is a teacher. He can pass the tests the politicians mandate. Can we say the same of the politicians whose forte is self-promotion?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Cuomo, Andrew, Privatization, Real Education

Good News! Mercedes Schneider’s New Book is Way Ahead of Peterson’s Screed Against Teachers on amazon.com

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2014 //
28

Mercedes Schneider’s hard-hitting new book–A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Educations–which explores the persons and organizations behind the attacks on public education– was officially published on April 22 by Information Age Publishing. She has no public relations campaign, no marketing budget, no press release, no press conferences, no webinars, no flyers, just word of mouth. As of this minute, it is ranked about #5,100 on amazon.com

 

Paul Peterson and his co-authors published a book about the same time called Teachers Versus the Public: What Americans Think About Schools and How To Fix Them, in which they argue that teachers (not the unions, but teachers–those dangerous people who pretend to be your second cousins and your friends) are the enemies of school reform. By that, they mean that teachers are blocking such wonderful reforms as vouchers, charters, merit pay, abolishing tenure, high-stakes testing, and other things they like but teachers don’t. The book was published by the Brookings Institution Press and was heavily promoted. It has the endorsements of such heavy hitters as Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush, and Eric Hanushek. At a webinar last week, Peterson and his co-authors introduced their book to the public. Lily Eskelsen of the NEA bravely joined the panel and asked Peterson whether he planned to abandon his tenure at Harvard. I don’t think he answered her question, and I doubt he will abandon his tenure to set a good example for the nation’s teachers. As of this minute, the Peterson book is ranked on amazon.com at about #128,000.

 

Mercedes’ book is so under-promoted that it doesn’t even have a jacket cover on the amazon website. Yet her book, with no promotion, no marketing, no press release, is outselling Peterson’s. Maybe the public likes teachers and doesn’t think they are public enemy number 1.

 

Read  Mercedes’ thoughts on the matter. 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Teachers, Vouchers

Jonathan Pelto: The Origins of ConnCAN

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2014 //
6

In an earlier post, I referred to ConnCan, the organization that was the inspiration for 50CAN and lots of state CANS. I said it was founded by hedge fund managers. Leonie Haimson then wrote in and corrected me, saying it was founded by Jonathan Sackler. Now comes Jonathan Pelto of Connecticut to set us both straight. He says we are both right. Here is the story of the origin of ConnCAN:

 

 

Jonathan Pelto writes:

 

 

Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, Inc. (ConnCAN) was formed in 2004 by Jonathan Sackler, who served as the founding chair. However, the role of ConnCAN’s Board Chairman was then transferred to Brian Olson, the co-founder of Viking Global Investors. Viking Global Investors is a hedge fund which currently manages over $10 billion. In addition to being a long-time member of ConnCAN, Olsen presently serves on the Leadership Council of the Newschools Venture Fund.
Following Olson’s tenure as the Chairman of ConnCAN, the position was given to Will Heins, the former Senior Vice President of Greenwich Capital Markets.
Of the twelve present members of ConnCAN’s Board of Directors, at least nine are or were “hedge fund managers,” including Art Reimers, a former partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs.
Three months after Sackler and his allies formed ConnCAN, they also incorporated Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Advocacy, Inc. (ConnAD), which was originally designed to be the lobbying and public relations arm of ConnCAN. The number two spot at ConnAD went to Alexander Troy, who lists his occupation as “private investor.” Troy worked for the hedge fund, Perry Partners during the 1990s and eventually created his own hedge fund company called Troy Capital in 2003.
The primary players behind ConnCAN and ConnAD were also the individuals who financed the creation of Achievement First Inc. in 2003. Achievement First Inc. is the charter school management chain with schools in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Achievement First Inc. was founded by Stefan Pryor and Dacia Toll. Pryor now serves as Commissioner of Education under Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and Dacia Toll is Achievement First’s CEO. Achievement First, Inc. collects significantly more public funds from Connecticut taxpayers than any other charter school or charter management company.
Achievement First’s incorporation papers were signed by Greenwich businessman William Berkley (who remains the Chairman of its Board of Directors) and Jonathan Sackler. Achievement First’s initial Board of Directors also included Alexander Troy.
Today, ConnCAN’s Board Chair, Will Heins serves on the Board of Achievement First’s Elm City College Preparatory School, ConnCAN Board member Andy Boas serves as the Board Chair of Achievement First’s Bridgeport Academy and Alexander Troy serves on the Board of Achievement First’s Amistad Academy.
ConnCAN, ConnAD and a successor group called A Better Connecticut were the leading funders in the record breaking $6 million lobbying and PR campaign to support Governor Malloy’s “education reform” initiative in 2012.
Sackler also is the individual who formed 50CAN and ConnCAN’s Chief Operating Office, Marc Porter Magee, became 50CAN’s President. 50CAN’s Board now includes Sackler, Dacia Toll (Achievement First) and Richard Barth (Kipp Charter Schools and spouse of Wendy Kopp), as well as others.
 

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

New York City Parents: Join Press Conference on May 6 to Protest Lack of Charter School Accountability

By dianeravitch
May 2, 2014 //
8

Class Size Matters
Please distribute to all parents!

 

Parents and elected officials are holding a press conference Tuesday May 6 at Tweed to speak out against the new state law that gives any new and/or expanding charter free space either in our public school buildings or in private space paid for by the city .

 

Meanwhile, many thousands of NYC public school students are sitting in vastly overcrowded schools, subjected to excessive class sizes, in trailers or on waiting lists for their zoned schools, with an underfunded capital plan. This is one of the worst charter giveaways ever passed into law, and will create even more inequitable conditions in our city going forward.
Eva Moskowitz charter chain, Success Academy, raised more than $7.5 million in one night, from Jeb Bush and her Wall St. buddies, while claiming she could not afford to rent her own space. Instead, the DOE is being forced to rent three parochial schools for her, and pay for renovations to suit her specifications. Here is yet another shameless ruse in which Success Academy is planning to make big sums off the stock trades of their billionaire supporters.
Clearly the charter lobby wants to drain as much resources and space from the public schools in order to destabilize and further overcrowd the system, or else they would pay for space themselves.
A flyer for our press conference is posted here: http://tinyurl.com/qy3mlaf
Please invite your City Council reps and other elected officials to attend as well.
Hearings follow the press conference at 10 AM at City Hall on the lack of charter accountability, including their egregious practice of suspending and pushing out large numbers of high need students.
Meanwhile, comedian Louis CK’s tweets have made a huge splash on the Common Core math materials given his children as test prep; see Rebecca Mead in the New Yorker, and the tweets themselves. Cynthia Wachtell bewailed the lack of poetry on the Common Core curriculum and exams. Rebecca, Cynthia and Louis are all public school parents, and welcome voices in this debate. Take a look and join the discussion!

 

We just heard today’s 3rd grade math exam was awful. What did you hear from your kids?
Thanks,

 

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New York City, Parents, Privatization

Jersey Jazzman: New Jersey Sends Bradford to New York

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2014 //
7

New Jersey is sharing its riches. Darrell Bradford, formerly of a billionaire-funded group called B4Kids, will move to New York to become CEO of NYCan. This is another of those fake “reform” groups that advocates for privatization as the cure for poverty and the surefire way to get rid of unions.

Jersey Jazzman knows him well and describes his role in advocating for vouchers.

The origin of these CAN groups is Connecticut, where Jonathan Sackler, a billionaire leader in the pharmaceutical industry (see Leonie Haimson’s comments below) and various hedge fund managers organized to advocate for privatization, mayoral control (to speed the pace of privatization), and anti-teacher legislation.

In the psychiatric literature, CAN is an acronym that stands for “child abuse abuse and neglect.”

Welcome to New York, Darrell. If you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere, it’s up to you, New York, New York.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Jersey, New York, Privatization

How Charter School Managers Succeed Fabulously in Busine$$

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
13

A few years ago, I was alerted to the phenomenal success of an entrepreneur-lawyer in Pennsylvania named Vahan Gureghian.

With a bit of googling, I learned that he had opened a charter school in Chester County, Pennsylvania, that enrolled 2,600 students, half the district’s children. Consequently, the district was plunged into bankruptcy, unable to make its payroll, and Governor Corbett appointed an emergency manager for the district who is a devotee of vouchers.

I also learned on google that Gureghian is one of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and committees in Pennsylvania, was Governor Corbett’s largest single donor, and was named to Governor Corbett’s education transition team. As of 2012, he had given some $800,000 to candidates and political groups.

Meanwhile, Gureghian’s empire continued to expand and to produce excellent returns for him.

Here is a quote from a website (linked above) describing Pennsylvania’s biggest campaign donors, which shows what success looks like:

In 2007, Gureghian built a 30,000-square-foot, French chateau-style mansion in Gladwyne that received attention in a number of publications, including Mother Jones. The house had 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a two-lane bowling alley, wine room, media room, 200-capacity great hall, several bars and a moat, according to Mother Jones.

Last year, he paid $28.9 million for oceanfront property in Palm Beach, on which he has proposed building a 20,000-square-foot mansion, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.

In 2009, 18-year-old Kenny Forder of New Jersey posted photos of the Gladwyne mansion on his Homes of the Rich website. Gureghian’s lawyer responded with a cease and desist letter, stating that teenager had violated Gureghian’s privacy, demanding that the photos be removed and threatening a lawsuit.

The letter is posted on the Homes of the Rich website. The photos were removed.

Now, mind you, Gureghian doesn’t claim to be an educator. He runs a business that supplies all the goods and services to his charter schools. That is a very good business.

He recently expanded his charter franchise into Camden, New Jersey, where he can expect to do very well indeed. Jersey Jazzman wrote a blistering critique of Gureghian’s management company, not exactly welcoming its presence in New Jersey.

You know, you really must give these edu-entrepreneurs credit. They see opportunities where others see only educational problems. The really ingenious discovery of charter chain managers is that they can squeeze the fat out of public school operations (like expensive teachers and pensions) and make a handsome profit.

You must hand it to him: Gureghian shows how to create a business plan and strategy that works wondrously well.

His is the kind of operation that Reed Hastings must have had in mind when he told the California Charter Schools Association that he looks forward to the elimination of local school boards and to the day when 90% of children are enrolled in privately managed charter schools.

What a vivid demonstration of the rich innovation that charters produce!

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Pennsylvania, Privatization

John Thompson: Who Does More Damage to Public Education: The Tea Party or Arne Duncan?

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2014 //
59

John Thompson raises a provocative and important question: who is inflicting more damage on teachers and students? Tea Party extremists like North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory or Secretary of Education Arne Duncan?

Thompson, a teacher and historian, describes the assault on teachers in North Carolina, whose governor and Legislature seem determined to destroy public education by expanding vouchers and charters and to dismantle the teaching profession by eliminating tenure, laying off teacher aides, and keeping salaries stagnant.

Thompson writes:

“Which sets of school reforms are inflicting the most damage on teachers and students? Has the right wing Tea Party’s most extreme assaults on public education hurt schools the most? Or, has the Duncan administration’s ill-conceived corporate reforms done the most harm?

“North Carolina was once touted as an exemplar of standards based reforms, and Wake County was praised for its socio-economic integration. Tea Party Governor Pat McCrory and Republicans are phasing out tenure and gutting salaries. As a result, mid-year teacher resignations in Wake schools have increased by an “alarming” 41% this school year. The number of resigning teachers who said they are moving to other North Carolina schools dropped, as there was an increase in teachers leaving for other states. Early retirements have tripled.

“The problem is so extreme that Doug Thilman, Wake’s assistant superintendent for human resources, said at a press conference, “Good teachers are having to make hard decisions to leave our classrooms for a better future somewhere else or in another line of work, in another profession – not in our public schools and not in our state.”

But then there is Arne Duncan’s mad idea that the way to “fix” schools is to fire half or all the staff.

Thompson writes:

“The mirror image of Wakes’ crisis is found in Chicago “turnaround schools.” Chicago’s Catalyst quotes Michael Hansen, senior researcher for the American Institutes for Research, who explains that the Duncan administration’s School Improvement Grant (SIG) are “under-researched.” High attrition following a turnaround has the potential to produce “more harm than help.” (emphasis by the Catalyst)

Ignoring educational research, these expensive turnaround campaigns begin with the mass dismissal of teachers. This immediately reduces the number of African-American teachers serving African-American communities, as well as reducing the experience levels of teachers. Catalyst reports, however, that “large chunks of the new staff–teachers who were hand-picked and spent weeks over the summer getting to know each other, becoming a team and learning how to spark improvement when the school reopened–leave within a few years.”

Catalyst reports “At 16 of the 17 schools that underwent a turnaround between 2007 and 2011, more than half of teachers hired in the first year of the turnaround left by the third year.” Moreover, “Among all turnarounds, an average of two-thirds of new teachers left by year three.” (emphasis in the original)

As the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) explains, such high levels of attrition is problematic because, “It can produce a range of organizational problems at schools, such as discontinuity in professional development, shortages in key subjects and loss of teacher leadership.”

I say that the answer to Thompson’s question is clear. McCrory is gutting public education in his state, and only in his state. Duncan’s idiotic idea of “turnaround” is harming schools and communities across the nation, laying off veteran teachers, reducing the number of African-American teachers, and generating harmful turmoil.

Let’s face it. Duncan has inflicted incalculable harm on public education, especially in urban districts. He became Secretary of Education after eight unsuccessful years as superintendent of schools in Chicago, which was and remains a low-performing district. He was unqualified to be Secretary of Education. In the past, we have had governors with no education credentials, but they at least had the good sense to recognize the reality of federalism, the limitations on their powers, and fact that control of education is a state and local function. Duncan has recognized none of these factors and has used federal funding to impose his will and his bad ideas on districts across the nation. It seems he won’t be satisfied until every teacher is inexperienced (preferably certified by Teach for America), every public school has been turned over to private management, every decision is tightly tied to test scores, and every teacher education institution is run by charter school teachers who grant advanced degrees to one another.

Duncan is a terrific basketball payer but a disastrous Secretary of Education. The real test of public education is whether it can survive two more years of his failed and harmful policies.

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Teach for America, Testing

Michael Fiorillo: Reformers’ Game Plan

By dianeravitch
April 27, 2014 //
158

Reader Michael Fiorillo deciphers the corporate reformers’ game plan:

The Final Solution to the Teacher Question:

– Proclaim austerity for the public schools, while continuing to expand charters.

– Create incentives for non-educators to be in positions of power, from Assistant Principal on up.

– Maintain a climate of scapegoating and witch hunting for “bad teachers,” who are posited as the cause of poverty and student failure, doing everything possible to keep debate from addressing systemic inequities.

– Neutralize and eventually eliminate teacher unions (the first part largely accomplished in the case of the AFT). As part of that process, eliminate tenure, seniority and defined benefit pensions.

– Create and maintain a climate of constant disruption and destabilization, with cascading mandates that are impossible to keep up or comply with.

– Create teacher evaluations based on Common Core-related high stakes tests for which no curriculum has been developed. Arbitrarily impose cut scores on those exams that cast students, teachers and schools as failing, as was done by NYS Education Commissioner John King and Regent Meryl Tisch.

– Get teachers and administrators, whether through extortion (see RttT funding) threats or non-stop propaganda, to accept the premises of “data-driven” everything, even when that data is irrelevant, opaque, contradictory, or just plain wrong.

– Get everyone to internalize the premises and language of so-called education reform:

– Parents are not citizens with rights, but “customers” who are provided “choices”
that are in fact restricted to the decisions of those in charge, based on policies
developed by an educational industrial complex made up of foundations,
McKinsey-type consultants and captive academics.

– Students are “valuable assets” and “products,” whose value is to be enhanced
(see the definition of VAM) before being offered to employers.

– Teachers are fungible units of “human capital,” to be deployed as policy-makers
and management see fit. Since human capital depreciates over time, it
needs to be replaced by fresh capital, branded as “the Best and Brightest.”

– Schools are part of an investment “portfolio,” explicitly including the real estate
they inhabit, and are subject to the “demands” of the market and the preferences
of policy-makers and management.

– Create an intimidating, punitive environment, where the questions and qualms are either disregarded or responded to with threats.

– Get the university education programs on board under threat of continuing attack. Once they are on board, go after them anyway, and deregulate the teacher licensing process so that it’s easier to hire temps.

– Eliminate instruction that is deemed irrelevant to the most narrowly-cast labor market needs of employers, getting rid of art, music, dance, electives, etc., thereby reducing the focus of education to preparation for passive acceptance of low-wage employment.

– Embed software and electronic gadgets in every facet of the classroom and school, from reading to test-taking, with the intention of automating as much classroom input and output as possible.

– Use the automation of the classroom to enlarge class size – something explicitly promoted by Bill Gates – and transform teachers into overseers of student digital production that is connected to massive databases, so that every keystroke is data to be potentially monetized.

– Cash your bonus checks, exercise your stock options, and declare Excellence and Civil Rights achieved.

Categories Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Data and Data Mining, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Technology, Computers, Testing

NY Times: Walton Family Foundation Funds Charter Movement

By dianeravitch
April 27, 2014 //
71

Readers if this blog have long known that the Billionaires Boys Club has pledged its allegiance to the privatization of American public education. Among the Billionaires Boys Club, we include the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foubdation, the Walton Family Foundatioon, and hedge fund managers. They are allied with ALEC and other rightwing “think” tanks, all of which are in live with charters and vouchers.

Motoko Rich wrote in Saturday’s Néw York Times about the dedication of the vastly wealthy Walton Family Foundation. The Waltons do not like public education. They do not like unions. They like charters and vouchers. They spend $160 million every year to spread the gospel of privatization and to destroy the public schools that are the heart of most communities.

With their support, the US is recreating a dual school system: one that chooses its students and the other that accepts all. Further, they have got the media cheering for segregated schools, determined as the Waltons are to establish the success of all-black schools.

They use their vast wealth not to pay their workers a living wage but to destroy their communities, killing off mom and pop stores, and destroying their local public school, replacing it with a corporate chain school.

Altogether a great triumph for the cold and mean face of American capitalism, which cares not at all for family , community, tradition, or humane values.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

Will Camp Philos Exclude Public School Parents and Teachers?

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2014 //
120

Three public school teachers and parents signed up for “Camp Philos,” the meeting in the Adirondacks where Governor Cuomo plans to meet next week with other politicians committed to privatizing our nation’s public schools. The three say they were turned away. By limiting attendance at this event to those with deep pockets and to political sympathizers, the sponsors of the event— Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform Now, and Governor Cuomo—have made clear that they do not want to hear the voices of parents and educators. How can the event’s featured panel discussions about “Groundbreaking Approaches to Teacher Preparation” and “Collaborative Models for Changing State and Local Teacher Policies” be fairly addressed without the participation of educators and parents? Who cares more about the children-their own parents or elected officials? Who knows the children best–their own parents or Governor Cuomo? Who knows more about the needs of schools–teachers or elected officials? Would you let Governor Cuomo or any of the other elected officials babysit for your children? Why would you trust them to redesign the nation’s education system? Governor Cuomo never attended public school, never sent his children to public school, and never taught. Exactly what are his qualifications for reforming the nation’s or his own state’s schools?

 

 

Bianca Tanis wrote the following report:

 

We are deeply dismayed by what seems to be a deliberate attempt by the organizers of Camp Philos to exclude members of the teaching profession and public school parents from their retreat. By limiting attendance at this event to those with deep pockets, corporate influence and “insiders,” Democrats for Education Reform, Governor Cuomo and the hedge fund billionaires who contribute to both have made it clear that the voices of those on the front line in education are not invited. How can the event’s featured panel discussions about “Groundbreaking Approaches to Teacher Preparation” and “Collaborative Models for Changing State and Local Teacher Policies” be fairly addressed without the participation of educators? What does Governor Cuomo have to hide?
When Bianca Tanis, a parent and educator and one of the founders of NYS Allies for Public Education went to register on April 17th, she noticed that the online registration was no longer available and the website said to call the event administrator. Although Bianca left 3 messages with the administrator, she never received a call back. Today, April 22nd, She managed to reach Sean Anderson, the Chief of Staff for Democrats for Education Reform. She did not identify herself as an educator. He stated that even though “they are pretty full, there are still openings.” He advised Bianca to email Kate Gavulis as she was handling “the arrangements.” Bianca emailed Kate Gavulis and quickly received a response indicating that there were no openings.
The same day, Bianca spoke with Gail DeBonis Richmond, a retired teacher, who had registered successfully on April 15th and received two confirmation emails. Suddenly, with no explanation, Gail received a refund on April 17th. When she inquired about the refund, Gail was told that they had filled to capacity before she registered. Unlike the organizers of Camp Philos, Gail had engaged in complete transparency and had listed her affiliation as “retired teacher.”
In an article published on April 19th in which Joe Williams, president of Education Reform Now and the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, was asked whether teachers would be attending the retreat. Williams responded that “teacher administrators” would be there. This begs the question, which ones? Will they be educators pre-selected by Teach for America or by Educators for Excellence, corporate reform organizations aligned with DFER’s ideological positions? Will they be charter school administrators, or perhaps John King, the NYS Education Commissioner and a former charter school operator himself?
( You can read the article here: http://adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/542473/Local-man-will-host-national-education-conference-in-Lake-Placid.html?nav=5008)
Three weeks ago, Marla Kilfolyle, a parent and educator, emailed the organizers of Camp Philos to request that they waive the $1,000 fee and allow her to attend. While Marla emailed the organizers in good faith, hoping that they would see the value in including the voice of an experienced educator, she never received any response to her email or request.
The exclusive nature of this meeting makes it clear that contrary to their claims, DFER and the Wall Street financiers who fund the group are not interested in collaboration, but are intent on using their wealth and access to wield disproportionate influence over public education. This is despite the fact that they have no teaching experience and in the main, do not send their children to public schools.
New Yorkers have had enough of secret deals and politicians serving the narrow interests of billionaires. It is time to open up the education debate to include true stakeholders, public school parents and teachers, who know best what is wrong and what is right with our public schools. Camp Philos is an egregious violation of the public trust and of the ideals of public education. The benign image of a rustic, Adirondack retreat to discuss how best to serve public school children belies the sinister nature of this brand of “education reform.”
Sincerely,
Gail DeBonis Richmond
Marla Kilfolye
Bianca Tanis

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Cuomo, Andrew, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, Parents, Privatization
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