Archives for category: Privatization
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Virginia Launches Bold Attack on Public Education

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2013 //
3

The Virginia Legislature passed legislation proposed by the governor that opens the door to privatizing any school in the Commonwealth that is found to be “failing.”

Rachel Levy has the details here

Governor McDonnell’s “Opportunity Education Institution” is an ALEC-inspired dream.

It creates a governor appointed commission that will take over schools with low test scores.

Levy writes:

“The Institution will be run by a board of gubernatorial appointees, which includes the executive director. There is no guarantee that the board would include any people who know anything about education. The board would contract with non-profits, corporations, or education organizations to operate the schools. Funding for the new bureaucracy would be provided by federal, state, and local taxpayers. The “failing” schools’ local governing bodies would be represented on the board in some way, but they would lose decision-making power and would not be able to vote or, from what I can tell, have much meaningful input, besides providing the same share of local funding and being responsible for maintenance of the school building. As for staffing, current faculty at the schools being taken over could apply for a position as a new employee with the OEI or apply for a transfer.”

And more:

“…teachers at the OEI schools would not have to be licensed, so the students who need the most experienced teachers would be getting the least experienced. Nor would those OEI teachers be entitled to the benefits, pay, or job protections that other Virginia teachers are, even if they were employed by the school being taken over prior to takeover. Who will want to work at such schools, or schools that look likely to be taken over? Interestingly enough, the members of the new OEI bureaucracy would be eligible for VRS (Virginia Retirement System) and other benefits that the teachers would lose.”

Levy points out that the tests are supposed to get harder and more schools will fall into the hands of the OEI. The basic idea is to use New Orleans as a model for Virginia, ignoring the fact that most charters in New Orleans have been rated a D or F by the state, and even the reformy Cowen Institute at Tulane said recently that two-thirds of the NOLA charters are academically unacceptable.

And then there is this consideration:

“Finally, eliminating democratic institution and processes in a democratic society is not a cure for dysfunction or low test scores. Certainly, mass failure on the SOL tests signals a problem, but before the state blames and disenfranchises school communities, it really needs to figure out what that problem is and then target its resources accordingly. While many majority poor schools do just fine on standardized tests, I think we all know that the schools with low standardized test scores are often majority poor. Last I checked, being poor isn’t a reason to disenfranchise communities and hand their schools over to outsiders.”

Levy urges you to act now. If you live in Virginia, speak up. Join with your friends and neighbors to stop this raid on the public’s schools.

“So, I urge you to contact Governor McDonnell (804-786-2211) and your state legislators ASAP to state your opposition to the Opportunity Education Institution and to tell them to vote against SB1324S and amendment 12. This bill is likely unconstitutional and it’s bad for Virginia–bad for public education and bad for democracy.”

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

How ALEC Is Changing the Face of Charters

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2013 //
33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Cities Should Not Close Schools

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2013 //
4

Jack Hassard explains here that public schools are part of the fabric of their communities. Closing them tears apart the fabric of their lives. It harms children, families, and communities. It does not save money.

He cites the advocacy of Edward Johnson in Atlanta, a follower of W. Edwards Deming, who has diligently explained the folly of closing schools based on some arbitrary goal set by people who are not educators.

As Hassard writes, “As Deming (1994a) points out, beware of common sense when we think about such issues as ranking children by grades, ranking schools and teachers by test scores, and rewards and punishments. Deming believes that grades should be abolished, and that the ranking of people and schools should not occur. And significant to the issue of school closure, Deming suggests that taking action (such as closing a school today) may produce more problems in the future, and that a better remedy would be investigate why children in poor neighborhoods are not doing well on state mandated tests, and then do something about it.”

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Education Industry, New York City, Parents, Philadelphia, Privatization

Kevin Huffman Refuses to Meet Nashville School Board

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2013 //
11

Kevin Huffman, Tennessee’s State Commissioner of Education, taught for two years as a member of Teach for America. Then he was the TFA “communications director.” That is, the PR guy.

Somehow he got picked to be head of education in a whole despite his minimal experience and his lack of any administrative experience.

He certainly lacks any political skills. He treats the duly elected Metro Nashville school board as if they are peons and he is their master. He refuses to meet with them. Where did he get these arrogance.

The state is about to adopt radical ALEC legislation to snuff out local control so the big charter corporations can set up shop without the trouble of asking for permission from a local school board. They can just go to Huffman and all his buddies will get their charters and make big bucks.

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization, Teach for America TFA, Tennessee

David Sirota: Who Is Behind School “Reform”?

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2013 //
14

This video by David Sirota of Denver gives a clear and concise explanation of how school reform became big bu$ine$$.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Superintendent: Make This the Year We Said No

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2013 //
23

Bedford Central Superintendent Jere Hochman poses the inevitable questions:

How did we let this happen?

Could we have stopped it?

What can we do now?

It must end. It will end. What is happening in education today is nothing less than educational malpractice. It is not education. It is bad for students.

Hochman writes:
Absolutely no excuse for cheating, threatening teachers, and the culture of lying.

But where were we in 2002 when NCLB was passed unnoticed under the shadow of 9/11? Why did those of us writing and criticizing the testing movement not press harder? Where were the professional organizations (NCTE, NCSS, NCTM …)? Why did we allow Mr. Obama to drink the Kool-aid left on the DOE table? Why didn’t we expose the Michelle Rhee’s, the quick fix reformers, and charter scammers when we saw what was happening Why did we allow our state legislators to fall into line so they could get re-elected based on test score results (or criticize the other guy for not getting them)?

Atrocities in history raise two questions: 1) How in the world could anyone be so evil, so toxic, so driven that such atrocities occurred? 2) Where were the bystanders and how could they let it occur?

Occupy DOE, keep writing, and then let us all make 2013-2014 be the year the professionals and parents took back public education.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Industry, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Where Does Michelle Rhee Live?

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2013 //
24

Michelle Rhee keeps raising interesting questions. It is hard to ignore her, because she is the face of the corporate reform movement, the one who goes on television to complain about the huge numbers of “bad” teachers and the importance of weakening or eliminating collective bargaining and the great value of privatizing public schools. Apparently, despite her four years in D.C., plus the additional years of her deputy Kaya Henderson, the District of Columbia still has way too many “bad” teachers because it continues to be at the bottom of NAEP rankings. When will we see D.C. rise to the top as Rhee predicted?

Is she a public school parent? Yes, one daughter attends a public magnet school, and the other attends an elite private school. Both in Tennessee.

Where does she live? In interviews in Tennessee, she says she lives in Tennessee, but she is also the wife of the mayor of Sacramento and lives in California. Does she vote in Tennessee or California?

Is she a Republican or a Democrat? She says she is a Democrat, but most of the candidates supported by StudentsFirst were Republicans. Of 105 candidates her group funded, 90 were Republicans. Sort of strange for a Democrat. She poured almost a million dollars into Tennessee to guarantee that the Republicans gained a super-majority. In one Democratic primary, she gave $100,000 to a voucher-loving conservative Democrat to beat a liberal pro-public school Democrat.

And the few Democrats she supported were in favor of vouchers and other Republican ideas. She has also given millions to defeat collective bargaining, which Democrats tend to support. Or used to.

She is a woman of mystery.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

A Wise Connecticut Journalist Figures It Out

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2013 //
20

Those who understand the dangers of privatization and the fraud perpetrated when charters claim they do a better job with “the same kids” can take heart whenever someone in the mainstream media sees what is happening.

Here is a journalist in the Connecticut Post who has figured out what is going on. The charters are skimming the kids in poor communities who are least expensive to educate, then crying that they don’t get enough money. Hugh Bailey has a commonsense idea: Send the money where the needs are greatest. Not to the charter schools, but to the struggling inner-city public schools, which have the kids the charters don’t want.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Privatization

What Do Katrina, Camden, and Chicago Have in Common?

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2013 //
4

This just arrived in the morning email

It is a question for a multiple-choice test.

Write your own.

Here goes:

I am part of a small group of educators (hoping to grow teacher and parent awareness – via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NJ-Educators-United-to-Protect-Public-Education/350194368424508 – where – among other articles – we have been transcribing and posting YouTube “homerun” statements that you have made via speaking venues).

Anyway, here are my simple thoughts and a sample standardized question:
————————————————————-
Does history repeat itself? You bet!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/01/duncan-katrina-was-the-best-thing-for-new-orleans-schools/
http://uftelections2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/mike-fiorillo-on-duncans-katrina.html

“The following paragraphs are in response to a post at GothamSchools after Sect’y of Education Arne Duncan remarked that ___________ was the “best thing” for the __________ school.

‘This despicable statement by Duncan represents a common motif among Democrats and Republicans alike, and validates Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine thesis, namely, that ruling elites create or opportunistically use crises to implement policies that would otherwise be blocked. In the case of New Orleans, it’s the wholesale privatization of the school system, with the schools being turned over to large charter school chains…Where were these people when the urban schools were suffering from decades of neglect and under-investment? They certainly weren’t teaching in them, or sending their children to them. Why are they only now proclaiming their “passion” for education, which is based solely on their lust to dominate and control them, driven by an agenda that, PR rhetoric aside, is about their will to power and profit?’”

Proposed Standardized Test Question: Take out the words “Katrina” and “New Orleans” from the above excerpt and fill in the blank:

a.) State Takeover; Camden
b.) School Closings; Chicago
c.) All of the above

While I am a believer in optimism in the face of difficulty, the reformers have taken this to a new, unholy level:

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
— John D. Rockefeller

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, New Orleans, Privatization

Vouchers Don’t Work: Evidence from Milwaukee

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
6

Now that 17 states have authorized vouchers to “save kids from failing schools,” it is time to review the evidence from Milwaukee, which has had vouchers for 22 years.

The “independent evaluator” of the Milwaukee and D.C. voucher programs is Patrick J. Wolf of the University of Arkansas. As we learned during school choice week earlier this year, Wolf is a strong supporter of school choice and he even wrote an editorial saying that his home state of Minnesota needs more school choice because it was in danger of falling behind Arkansas in doing so. How much more independent can an evaluator be? It is perhaps also noteworthy that the University of Arkansas is generously funded by Arkansas’s biggest philanthropy, the Walton Foundation, which pours millions every year into charters and vouchers and anything that has the possibility of undermining public schools.

Not even Wolf’s evaluations have shown any test score advantage for students who get vouchers, whether in DC or Milwaukee. This is the DC final-year evaluation. The main finding of the final-year evaluation: “There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP [Opportunity Scholarship Program] affected student achievement.” Remember that boosters for vouchers seldom use the V word; they prefer the euphemism “opportunity scholarship.” The family gets an “opportunity” to take their child from a public school, where he or she has low test scores, to a private or religious school, where he or she will also have low test scores.

The Wolf evaluations claim an advantage for voucher students in graduation rates. But consider this. In Milwaukee, according to this analysis (see the summary here) of Wolf’s evaluation, 75% of the students who started in a voucher school left before graduation. So of the 25% who persisted, the graduation rate was higher than the Milwaukee public schools. But what about the 75% who dropped out and/or returned to MPS? No one knows.

The Milwaukee voucher schools have never outperformed the public schools on state tests: See here and here. The only dispute about test scores is whether voucher students are doing the same or worse than their peers in public schools.

Accountability? Read here about some very low-performing schools in Milwaukee that have never been held accountable. One of them opened in 2001. Over the past 11 years, it has collected $46.8 million but its students perform worse than those in the public schools. Some choice.

And anyone who looks at the NAEP reports on urban districts will see that after 22 years of vouchers, charters, and competition, Milwaukee is a poster child for the failure of vouchers, charters, and competition. The students in those schools all perform about the same level. No sector is better. The Milwaukee schools are ranked among the lowest performing of the urban districts tested by NAEP, ranking just above sad Detroit.

If choice was the answer, Milwaukee should be at the top of the nation’s urban districts. But it is near the bottom. Why? Because choice is not the answer. Addressing the causes of low test scores is the answer, and choice does not address the causes of low test scores: poverty and segregation.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Privatization, Vouchers
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