Archives for category: Privatization
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A Slick Campaign for Privatization

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2013 //
16

The forces advocating privatization of public schools are well-funded and relentless. They cloak their goals in high-flown rhetoric about “saving kids from failing schools.” Or they cynically claim the mantle of the civil rights movement as they seek to disrupt communities and replace public control with private ownership. As the public gets wise, resistance grows.

This comment came from a reader:

I have been researching this whole privitatization of public services since Parent Revolution has targeted my school. Ben and his like are interested in taking publuc services like schools and even libraries to privateers. Always promoted as being able to provide better services. With dwindling tax dollars public entities can unburden themselves of unions, costly health care, and underfunded pensions. Under eleaborate PR campaigns boards and councils are sold on the ideas.

Next, is to convince the public needing the services. The gray area of being ethical is where the privateers work in. Their campaign is well groomed. A student looked at the Parent Revolution web site. He said ( a 5th grader) that it was well written to appeal to parents. Just what parents would want to hear. He researched those opposed to PR and found explicit examples of not doing what they promised. He said “bait and switch”.

Privitization is just another way for the 1% of America to mine new monies for profit to line their pockets. Their desire to help students is only if there is profit to be made. Besides if things don’t work out well and these kids hit the street being undesirables there are privitized psychiatric hospitals and private prisons these people can be warehoused with tax dollars and at a profit.

Categories Parent trigger, Privatization

Parent: A Sad Graduation Day at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, CA

By dianeravitch
June 28, 2013 //
18

Parent Chrissy Guzman-Alvarado is a parent  at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California. This is the school–the only school in California–where the billionaire-funded “Parent Revolution” has been able to wheedle enough parents to sign petitions to close the school and hand it over to a charter school. When some parents who had put their names on the Parent Revolution petition asked to withdraw their signatures, the organization went to court and won a ruling that signing a petition was like an election and they couldn’t rescind their signature. When the court battles ended, only 53 parents in the school of more than 600 students voted to choose a charter school. Guzman was one of the parents who opposed the takeover and closure of her children’s neighborhood school. This is Guzman’s description of the last graduation day at Desert Trails Elementary School:

How the Trigger Left Our Community

It was a beautiful Thursday morning in Adelanto, CA.  Sixth graders were dressed in their Sunday best, parents were lined up with balloons and everyone was preparing for a wonderful ceremony.  So why was there a table set up across the street for recruiting parents to the new charter school?  This was a sixth grade promotion…  All students would be transferring to junior high.  Why the need to harass parents on such a special day?  Desperation? Harassment?  Lack of a Spine?

 

This is just one of the several times we have had to endure harassment from the people who have been hired to take over our school.  Desert Trails Elementary was home to thousands of families, some having been there for several years, some arriving as early as this month.  Today these families watched their students cry their eyes out and mourn loss of their second family – the teachers, staff, principal and even parent volunteers of Desert Trails Elementary.  I was fortunate enough to share this day and many others, filled with great memories, with these families and am truly thankful for the time I spent there.

 

I can say this about the DTE family – they are loved by thousands, probably tens of thousands, of students and their families.  Grateful for what they have done for them.  For attending those Wednesday night Little League baseball games, or private tutoring them on their own time, for working with them until they have gone from a second grade reading level to fourth grade reading level – in less than a year.  These are just a few of the many, many things these families will remember.

 

What they won’t remember is how Desert Trails Prepatory Academy set up a table across the street from the sixth graders promotion ceremony, right under the No Stopping Any Time sign.  They may have not even noticed how when confronted with how low and pathetic a parent felt they were for disrespecting the ceremony they smiled and waved back at that parent.  They will definitely not remember how they stopped parents exiting the parking lot to force a flyer on them or how they remained there until long after the last student had left for the school day.  They won’t think twice about the parents who Parent Revolution used to pull the Trigger and how most of them have been long gone.

 

What I will remember… the RIP Desert Trails Elementary 1995-2012 written in chalk in the quad… The many, many I will miss you’s that were said that day.  The kids chanting Once a Coyote, Always a Coyote. Most of all, I think I will remember standing in the driveway waving to the last few students driving off – looking back at their school with swollen red eyes and tears streaming down their cheeks knowing they will never see their DTE family again.

 

Chrissy Guzman-Alvarado

 

 

Brief biography:  I am a parent who was concerned for the well-being of our community and school when Parent Revolution brought in their organizers in 2011.  After doing much research on the funders, Ben Austin and the previous trigger, I started speaking up against them.  After a few days, more and more parents came up to me and wanted to know more.  After meeting with several parents I learned I was correct in speaking against pRev.  I continued with my fight against them, collecting rescissions and getting parents to speak up.  Unfortunately, we lost in court.  We did the only thing we could – moved forward with our children’s school year and let the lawyers and politics work themselves out.  I was voted PTA President this last school year and ran Desert Trails Elementary’s Journalism Club.  I was on campus, almost daily, since 2008 and have been extremely involved at the school.

Thank you for your time.  I hope this helps others realize the real impact it had on us.  
Thank you again. 

Chrissy Guzman-Alvarado

Categories Charter Schools, Parent trigger, Privatization

Reader: New CREDO Study Celebrates “Survivorship Bias”

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
15

A reader, Enrique Diaz-Alvarez, offered the following critique of the new national study of charter schools by CREDO. The “improvement” seems to be a result of closing low-performing charter schools. Is this like kicking out the low-performing students and declaring that your test scores are great?

He writes:

Diane, you *must* read the scenario analysis that starts in page 89.

They actually think the survivorship bias is a *feature*, not a bug! They run a bunch of scenarios detailing the dramatic improvement that you get in results if you eliminate from the study different kinds of underperforming charters (in addition to the ones that were closed down, of course), and theyconclude:

“The purpose of these simulations is not to advocate for any particular approach. Rather, the different scenarios make obvious the fact that the impact on quality that accompanies closure is more dramatic and enduring than efforts to improve the current stock of schools. The glimpse of what the future holds provided by these scenarios should quicken the collective resolve to use closure policies where charter schools are clearly underperforming. If the commitment to quality is to be fully realized, everyone
needs to put the interest of students first and use all the resources at their disposal to ensure the best possible student outcomes.”

Hey! Why not close *every* charter school except the top 10%? Why stop there? Shut down every high school in the country except Stuyvesant and Bronx Science! Everyone will be doing calculus in polar coordinates by the time they turn 16 then!

This is demented. What’s going on? What am I missing?

He adds in another comment:

Further on survivorship bias. From the study:

Results for charter students in new schools mirror the 2009 findings: students
at new schools have significantly lower learning gains in reading than their TPS peers.
[…]
The new charter school results in math follow the
pattern seen for reading – the performance of the newcharter schools mirrors the 2009 results.
[…]

*New* charter schools continue to perform worse than public schools!! It seems clear that all of the improvement is the result of pure and simple survivor bias. You start a lot of charters. Some do worse, some do better, but overall they do somewhat worse than public schools. You shut down the bad ones (and kick the poor kids back to the public schools -lest we forget). You repeat the analysis with the non-terrible ones. Voila! You have improved!

And he adds in a third comment:

From the press release: “charters in the original 16 states have made modest progress in raising student performance in both reading and mathematics, caused in part by the closure of 8 percent of the charters in those states in the intervening years since the 2009 report”

So charter measurements the 8% of schools that had presumably worst outcomes??? Did the study do anything to compensate for this massive survivorship bias?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Why Is Wisconsin Destroying Its Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
15

A comment from a reader:

 

Dear Readers,

I have been in public education for more than 30 years. I am a recognized leader and have received many awards for excellence and advocacy for children. Wisconsin right now is the “wild west” of educational practice.

I am deeply committed to excellence in practice. I will advocate for strong models for quality improvement and student learning. As a district Carnegie Foundation is completing a case study on our work with a focus on our quality improvement model. I am working with among the best educators I have had the great privilege to work. The early results are remarkable, and I am confident we will be a national model of excellence.

Our Governor and our legislators are walking away from the needs of our schools and our community. Each of our schools is exceeding state expectations. We are in the top 10% performing school districts in the state.

We have lost 41% of our state aid, our local property taxes have gone up by 19%, and our local legislators have each voted to expand private vouchers across the state of Wisconsin, and an income tax credit for parents sending their children to private schools. Our community will off set the costs of this for the entire state of Wisconsin because we are considered a property rich districts. Our community is middle income, but we are the 3rd largest manufacturing community in the state. Therefore, our property values hold at a greater rate than the values around us.

The politics nationally, and within are state, are losing site of community values, the best interest of local economies, and the future for our state.

As a state we indicate we are committed to quality performance, and preparing students for strong post-secondary transitions.

Locally, we will continue to cut 2 million dollars of programming each year under the revenue limits as our legislators advance a dual system for education.

They know and have acknowledged that they will not be able to sustain adequate funding for public schools.

We have among the strongest schools in the nation. We continue to advance policy that will unravel what our local communities value for their children.

The local legislators have stopped advancing policy to reflect local values. They are passing budgets at 2 in the morning with less than an hour of debate. There is no public input and no evidence to support the voucher expansion.

Wisconsin policy makers are walking away from the strength of their schools.

Sincerely,

Pat Greco
Superintendent
School District of Menomonee Falls

Categories Education Industry, Privatization, Wisconsin

David Greene: Repeal Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
17

David C. Greene says it is time
to restore common sense and sanity to education. Remember common sense and sanity?

He writes the following on his blog (http://t.co/WSUIlWARVk):

Support State Bills to repeal acceptance of Race to The Top in your state.

I am almost 64 years old. I have spent all but 4 of those in NYS public schools either as a student, teacher for 38 years, coach, or teacher mentor.

This was on the front page of my local newspaper…. I bet it is not unlike yours. STATE FAULTS GRAD PREP. According to the state, and what they have given the ridiculous name of The Aspirational Performance measure… to be college and career ready, a high school graduate must score at least a 75 on their English Regents and at least an 80 on an Algebra Regents.

I went to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation because I passed a test in the 9th grade. I received a BA (cum Laude) from Fordham University, an MA from CCNY, and have earned an additional 90 graduate credits….

However, according to the State’s APM, I was neither college nor career ready because I never got higher than an 80 on ANY math Regents…. even at the Bx HS of Science.

How many of you are HS graduates? How many, like me would not have been “C&C ready”?

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I met 16 year-old Tyree 2 years ago while mentoring his TFA semi trained teacher in the Bronx. He was still in the 8th grade. He was on the verge of being tossed out of his Bronx middle school even though everyone knew he was one of the brightest kids there.

He and I connected. When I asked him why he was failing, he said… “I can’t stand this. Why should I be doing the same “frckn” thing since I was in 3rd grade?

He is typical. They took his passion, his curiosity, and his humanity and replaced it with boredom.

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When did we lose our way? The founding fathers knew that in a democracy public schools were necessary to have an informed citizenry.

Public schools are not just to develop reading and math scores. Public schools are meant for the development of well-rounded adults able to contribute to their communities in whatever way they can, as college professors and auto mechanics, computer scientists and sanitation engineers.

Public schools are meant to teach not just academics, but citizenship, and humanity.

Public schools, next to family, are the most important institution in the socialization process of developing mature capable adults in our society.

When did they turn into factories creating test scores, not adults?

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Many of you see your boys and girls, little and big, hating and getting stressed in school precisely because of what schools are increasingly forced to do in this DOE controlled prescribed manner.

But why is there a prescribed manner?

I taught American History for years. One extremely important era was the post Civil War Gilded Age when US Congress was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the powerful Trusts of that era.

A very famous political cartoon of the time depicted a legislative chamber watched over by HUGE figures of trusts represented by the FAT INDUSTRIALISTS of the era, like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie.

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Similarly, education bills all over the country today are being guided by our version of these Fat Cats: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, and the Walton Family….

Today they are profiting from the education of our children by buying politicians from DC to Albany and indoctrinated them with their pseudo-science and their INADEQUATE $700 million BIG BUCKS!!!

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee and countless other so-called educational reformers have hijacked our education system. They provide corporations like Pearson profit at the cost of our children!

They “embrace science whenever it supports their sacred values, but they’ll ditch it or distort it as soon as it threatens a sacred value.”

…Like the Common Core and Standardized testing.

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NYS, for better and worse, has had K-12 syllabi and curricula for decades that other states hoped to emulate. It wasn’t perfect, but it was not prescribed. It wasn’t forced down the throats of schools, teachers, and children. They replaced it with Race to The Top formulas and The Common Core.

We have to make our political leaders regret that decision to be bought off, bribed, and blackmailed by Arne Duncan’s and the Federal DOE.

—————————————————————————————————-

I went to elementary school in a poor working class integrated South Bronx neighborhood. I learned to love school in 2nd grade because I was encouraged to learn by Ms. Rita Stafford, a teacher who thoroughly engaged all of us… We learned astronomy by hanging a solar system from the ceiling. We learned how to help our parents in neighborhood stores by learning long division. We learned how to fight for civil rights and for what is right by writing letters to President Eisenhower during the Little Rock crisis. We were published in the NYT.

SHE is why I am here today.

I am the SEED she planted!

Because we love our children we must fight for their right to have a teacher like my Ms. Stafford, and perhaps many of yours who planted the seed of who you are today.

Because we love our children, we must fight for the education they and the future of this country deserve.

We must be sure we allow our children to flower as we have.

Fight to repeal RTTT in NYS.

Fight to get Assembly Bill A7994 passed.

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With apologies to Quentin Taratino, and the movie Inglourious Basterds..

“Ed deformers ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a teacher hating, kid smothering maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed.

“…But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When we joined this command, we took on a debit. A debit we owe our children personally. “

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

North Carolina Legislature Puts a Few Limits on Charters

By dianeravitch
June 25, 2013 //
28

North Carolina’s SB 337 has been revised to add just a few limits to charter autonomy. There will not be a separate charter-friendly board to authorize charters; that responsibility will remain with the state board, which will likely be tilted towards charters anyway.

The original bill would have allowed all charter teachers to be uncertified. Currently, 75% of charter teachers in K-5 must be certified. The new bill drops that to 50%, instead of zero.

Charter teachers will be subject to criminal background checks. That’s a relief. And charters will be expected to reflect the racial diversity of their area.

Educators were less than thrilled with the low standards for charter teachers. One said, “Standards only seem to matter if you teach in a traditional public school system.” Another said, “A license is an assurance to the public, just like when I go to the doctor and look for his license to practice medicine…Do we want electricians and pharmacists to not have licenses? Do we want to create a professional system in which professionals are unlicensed?”

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/06/25/mixed-signals-on-charter-schools/#sthash.vsshLO2t.dpuf

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, North Carolina, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

Karen Lewis Connects the Dots

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
14

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told the Chicago City Club that the city’s elites were failing the city’s children and public schools. She blamed school closings on public officials, “rich white people,” and banks that decided to disinvest in black communities. She singled out Bank of America as an institution that had exacerbated inequality.

“Lewis said, “there is nothing radical about me other than I want each and every student in Chicago to get the best education we have to offer,” and added the union is more than willing to work with the Board of Education and the Emanuel administration to solve the myriad issues facing the school system, but “we can’t work together on these issues because they keep creating new problems.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Privatization

Florida Teacher: Please Tell Me About Groups Fighting Back

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2013 //
24

From a reader:

“As a public school teacher in Miami, FL I would like to reach out to you and express my similar hope in developing a long-term coalition and eventual movement of teachers, parents and community to fight back against the pro-corporate anti-public education policies being pushed in FL. If someone knows of any organization or coalition that is already up and running please let me know. There are thousands of disgruntled parents, students, and teachers in schools in Miami whom I think would act and fight back alongside other across the state if there was an entity to unite us. I strongly propose we create this if it doesn’t yet exist.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Florida, Privatization, Support for public schools

Duncan Taps Charter Executive as His Chief of Staff

By dianeravitch
June 21, 2013 //
35

Arne Duncan has never disguised his preference for privately-managed charter schools over public schools. He especially favors “no excuses” schools.

So it is not surprising that–according to Joy Resmovits at the Huffington Post, he has invited Emma Vadehra, the chief of staff of Uncommon Schools, which is known for its rigid discipline and high suspension rates, to be his chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education.

As Resmovits notes:

“For Vadehra, the move would be a return to the Education Department, where she worked as deputy assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development until leaving for Uncommon in 2011. In that job, she developed a reputation for being a policy whiz kid. Before that, she worked as the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) chief education adviser on the Senate’s Education Committee. She has a law degree from Yale Law School and graduated from Brown in 2002.”

Before she joined the U.S. Department of Education in 2009, she also worked for Uncommon Schools.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

South Carolina Will Adopt Privatization Strategy

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2013 //
2

Public education in South Carolina, already suffering because of underfunding and intensely segregated schools in some districts, will sustain another blow. The privatization movement claims another victory. Now parents will be able to get a tax-credit when they send their children to little religious academies where the teachers are uncertified and the curriculum is Bible-based.

South Carolina poised to become 23rd state with private school choice

Adopted state budget includes tax-credit scholarships for students with special needs

COLUMBIA, SC (June 19, 2013)—South Carolina is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact private school choice, pending Gov. Nikki Haley’s signature. Today the House and Senate approved the conference committee’s state budget report, which includes a tax-credit scholarship program for students with special needs.

Under the proposal, taxpayers can receive a credit worth no more than 60 percent of their state tax liability when donating to nonprofits that distribute private school scholarships to children with special needs. Scholarships cannot exceed $10,000 per pupil. The statewide limit on tax credits distributed is $8 million. According to 2011-12 data, more than 12 percent of South Carolina students are identified as having a disability that would qualify them for the program.

“This is an important step toward giving South Carolina parents access to the schools that work best for their children,” said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. “Although it’s available only to a small percentage of students, we applaud state leaders for taking this historic action.”

Currently there are 15 tax-credit scholarship programs operating in 12 states. Just this year, Alabama created its first such program, while Georgia and Iowa increased their caps on available tax credits. Including vouchers, education savings accounts, and individual tax credits and deductions, there are 42 private school choice programs in 22 states and Washington, D.C.

“South Carolina is part of an ongoing trend in which private school choice is growing and reaching new states,” said Enlow. “And, encouragingly, states that have small school choice programs are expanding them to assist more families.”

States that specifically make students with special needs eligible for school choice are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia. For more details on those programs, and others, visit www.edchoice.org/ABCs.

About the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, solely dedicated to advancing Milton and Rose D. Friedman’s vision of school choice for all children. The Foundation promotes school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization
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