Archives for category: Privatization
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Michigan Plan to Dissolve School Districts

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2012 //
30

As readers of this blog know, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan is determined to break up public education and encourage privatization as rapidly as possible.

He has been relying on a group called the “Oxford Foundation” to devise his plans. As we now know is customary among corporate reformers, the group is named deceptively. it has nothing to do with Oxford and it is not a foundation. while the website has a section about “transparency,” the website contains no names.

Transparency is for the little people.

This article in the Detroit Free Press identifies the leader of the “Oxford Foundation.” He is Richard McLellan, a lawyer who was a founder of the free-market think tank Mackinac Center. Like the Center, he is a strong advocate of vouchers.

McLellan’s time has come. He has the ear of a governor who hates public education as much as he does.

And guess who is funding the privatization activities? Eli Broad.

They will say it is for the benefit of poor minority children. Don’t believe it.

Poor and minority people never benefit by destruction of the public sector.

When the public sector is privatized, follow the money.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Michigan, Privatization, US Education, Vouchers

The Real Story Behind the Bridgeport Election

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2012 //
7

The recent election in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was a major setback for corporate-style “reform” in that city.

The mayor launched a well-funded campaign to persuade voters to give up their democratic right to elect their school board and to give him control of the public schools.

Miraculously, despite his huge advantage in money and power, the mayor lost. The voters said no. Democracy won.

As Stamford attorney and civil rights advocate Wendy Lecker explains here, the state government has disregarded the message. Governor Dannell Malloy continues with his regime of high-stakes testing, school closings, nullification of local democracy, and privatization, carried out by State Commissioner of Education (and charter advocate) Stefan Pryor.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Testing, Vallas, Paul

About That Bipartisan Consensus to Privatize Public Education

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2012 //
24

If ever evidence was needed about the bizarre mind meld between the Obama administration and the far-right of the Republican party, here it is.

Secretary Arne Duncan is giving the keynote to Jeb Bush’s Excellence in Education summit in Washington, D.C. on November 28. Another keynote will be delivered to the same gathering of the leaders of the privatization movement by John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, who headed the Obama transition team in 2008. This is sickening.

Jeb Bush’s organization supports vouchers, charters, online virtual charters, and for-profit organizations that run schools. It also supports evaluating teachers by student test scores and eliminating collective bargaining. Jeb Bush believes in grading schools, grading teachers, grading students, closing schools, and letting everyone “escape” from public schools to privately-run establishments. The free market is his ideal of excellence, not public responsibility, not the public school as the anchor of the community, but privatization.

Here is the press release (Podesta’s keynote was announced earlier):

 

Arne Duncan to Give Keynote at the
2012 National Summit on Education Reform
WASHINGTON – The Foundation for Excellence in Education today announced U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will deliver a breakfast keynote address for the fifth annual Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform. This keynote will take place at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC, Nov. 28.

Prior to becoming the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan served as the chief executive officer of  Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country. Among his most significant accomplishments during his tenure as CEO, an all-time high of the district’s elementary school students met or exceeded state reading standards, and their math scores also reached a record high. At high schools, Chicago Public Schools students posted gains on the ACT at three times the rate of national gains and nearly twice that of the state’s. Also, the number of CPS high school students taking Advanced Placement courses tripled, and the number of students passing AP classes more than doubled.
Unfortunately, we have reached maximum capacity for the Summit, and registration is closed. However, you can enjoy this exciting event from the comfort of your own computer. All keynote speeches and general sessions will be streamed live at www.ExcelinEd.org/Everywhere, and all strategy sessions will be filmed and available after the event. Click here to view this year’s agenda.

Members of the press are welcome to cover the conference, including keynote and strategy sessions, however, participation in Q & A times are reserved for attendees. For more details and to apply for credentials for this event, please click here.

The Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform annually immerses lawmakers and policymakers in two days of in-depth discussions on proven policies and innovative strategies to improve student achievement. For all things related to the Summit, check out the #EIA12 app at http://bit.ly/W6wubM. This mobile app puts the event agenda and information about speakers, strategy sessions and our partners at your fingertips.

 

Categories Bush, Jeb, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Florida, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Michigan Is On Its Way to Ending Public Education

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2012 //
42

Governor Rick Snyder must hate public education. Certainly his advisors do.

He has some group of rightwing operatives who have pretentiously named themselves the “Oxford Foundation,” although they are not a foundation and they have nothing to do with Oxford University or Oxford Healthcare or Oxford anything.

This GOP group issues reports on how to disestablish any public responsibility for public education.

The only thing public will be the money. The providers will not be.

Here is the latest scheme from these advocates of privatization.

It is a voucher plan that allows students to take their public money to any private vendor.

It also allows charter schools to have selective enrollment–only those with high test scores, or only those who meet whatever criterion the school chooses–and to charge tuition.

The proposal says nothing about accountability–that, apparently, is only for public schools.

Are the people of Michigan ready to abandon public education?

Are they ready to accept Jeb Bush’s plan to make choosing a school akin to selecting a carton of milk?

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Michigan, On-Line Education, Privatization, Testing, Vouchers

Why the Grassroots Will Win

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2012 //
34

People often ask me: How can parents and teachers hope to beat the big money that is buying elections in state and local races around the nation? What chance do we have when they can dump $100,000, $200,000, $500,000 into a race without breaking a sweat?

True, they have a lot of money. But they have no popular base. The only time they win votes is when they trick voters with false rhetoric and pie-in-the-sky promises. They call themselves “reformers,” when they are in fact privatizers.

They claim they know how to close the achievement gap but their standard-bearer, Michelle Rhee, left DC with the biggest achievement gap of all big cities in the nation.

They claim to be leading the “civil rights issue” of our day, but can you truly imagine a civil rights movement led by billionaires, Wall Street hedge fund managers, ALEC, and rightwing think tanks?

They say they love teachers even as they push legislation to cut teachers’ pensions and take away their job rights and their right to join a union.

There are two reasons they will fail:

First, none of their ideas has ever succeeded, whether it’s high-stakes testing, charters, vouchers, merit pay or test-based teacher evaluations.

But even more important, the public is getting wise. The public has figured out the corporate reform strategy. In state after state, parents are organizing.

Here is one great example in Texas, of all places.

Similar groups of parents are organizing in every state. Even students are getting active in the movement to protect the commons.

When the public gets wise, the privatization movement dies.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Parent Groups, Parents, Privatization, US Education

EduShyster Finds the Biggest Turkey Idea of School Reform

By dianeravitch
November 17, 2012 //
8

EduShyster has done it again.

Imagine a conference on the freshest, boldest education idea of ever. Who would you want to hear from? Of course, those two ex-chancellors Rhee and Klein, who both had their chance and made no difference other than to introduce the concept of disruption to an entire school district.

And here is the idea of the year: schools should operate like law firms! Read on. Don’t laugh.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Humor, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching

The Boston Globe’s Mad Love Crush on Charters

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2012 //
4

EduShyster has done it again.

This time she nails the Boston Globe.

This is the Boston Globe’s dream as expressed by its lead education writer:

“There’s a lot at stake in the takeover of the Gavin by UP Academy. If it succeeds at raising student achievement with an identical student population, then the main complaint of charter school critics will lose its resonance. If relatively inexperienced teachers can do what veterans can’t — namely turn around a school where only one out of four students performs at grade level — then the public cry for longer school days, merit pay, and stricter teacher evaluations will grow louder.”

How great would that be? If the test scores go up at Gavin, now taken over by UP Academy, every inner-city school could have teachers with high expectations but no professional training. All that is needed is a four-year degree, preferably from an Ivy League college or university. Every teacher could be judged by the rise or fall of student test scores. All unions would be abolished. No tenure, no seniority, just test scores. That solves all problems, right?

EduShyster explains the secret of UP’s success.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Humor, Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teach for America TFA, Testing, Unions

Nebraska Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2012 //
11

This just in from a teacher in Nebraska. The state did not get any Race to the Top funding, and therefore didn’t “win” money that would cost them more to implement than they “won.” It is taking a “wait and see” approach to Common Core standards. It doesn’t want the U.S. Department of Education to tell Nebraskans what to do. It doesn’t have any charters.

The state is trying to do what is best for children. Imagine that! The public schools are supported by the public.

Is Nebraska still part of the United States? How did we overlook the amazing common sense that still exists there? Good luck to Nebraska in keeping the privatizers at bay.

I realized when I read this letter that Nebraska belongs on our honor roll as a champion of public education. It supports its public schools. It lets teachers teach. It has not rushed to do the latest thing. It has thus far ignored the privatizers.

Welcome to the honor roll, Nebraska! Stay strong!

Come to Nebraska. A state led by a common sense dept. of education and a smart, reasonable teachers’ union. We don’t rush to jump on every new educational bandwagon (Nope, we didn’t get any Race to the Top money and the verdict’s still out on Common Core–we’re one of the few ‘wait and see’ hold out states) and try to comply with mandatory standards while doing the least amount of damage to our kids. We aren’t averse to change–indeed, we’re always looking to be on that cutting edge, however, if we’re going to spend hard earned tax dollars, it had better be worth it. I’m a high school special education teacher and co-teach algebra and geometry. I work with a tough population and my school isn’t perfect. Lots of hard work. But the difference is that public education is supported in our state. We have no charter schools. I feel appreciated by my students, my co-workers, parents and administration just about every single day. Now, it’s not a Shangra-la…I DO work with teenagers, many with behavior dsorders, and don’t always agree with administration or co-workers. Our state legislature passed a law and implented a state-wide test many educators aren’t crazy about. We are under the same gun to improve test scores as any other state and that can be stressful. However, we are encouraged and celebrated whenever we infuse creativity, active learning, and technology into our classrooms. In a nutshell, we’re held accountable, the state testing is a pain and possibly a waste of time, but overall I feel the higher ups try to stay out of our way as best as they can. The biggest threat to our educational system here is out of state money with an agenda to privatize education and run it like a business–a fate experienced by other states. I only hope we can fight them off and maintain what we have.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Honor Roll, Privatization, Race to the Top

Pedro Noguera’s Good Agenda Going Forward

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2012 //
11

Pedro Noguera, my colleague at New York University, took my place as blogging partner with Deborah Meier at “Bridging Differences.”

In his latest column, Pedro says that it is not enough to recognize that No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have failed. It is necessary to shape a new agenda.

Pedro offers these three elements to a new agenda.

1. “The federal government should call for the creation of a comprehensive support systems around schools in low-income communities to address issues such as safety, health, nutrition, and counseling. This should include the expansion of preschool and after-school programs and extended learning opportunities during the summer.” Since the federal government is unlikely to fund what is needed, states and localities should develop public-private partnerships to make it happen.

2) “The federal government must support a new approach to assessment that focuses on concrete evidence of academic performance—writing, reading, mathematical problem-solving—and moves away from using standardized tests to measure and rank students, teachers, and schools.”.

3) “The federal government needs to call upon the states and school districts to undertake careful evaluations of struggling schools to determine why they are failing to meet the needs of the students they serve before prescribing what should be changed. Instead of simply closing troubled schools such a strategy would require a greater focus on enrollment patterns (i.e. have we concentrated too many “high-needs” students in a school?) and ensuring that schools have the capacity to meet the needs of the students they serve rather than merely judging them under the current accountability systems.”

I heartily agree with Pedro’s diagnosis. If children are not healthy, if they are hungry, their ability to learn is negatively affected. The value of preschool and after-school programs is well-established. In state after state, these programs are being cut, while testing is expanded. I would go even further, as I do in my book, and say that class-size reduction must be part of the new vision, especially where the children with the greatest needs are enrolled.

The problem here is that we can’t get federal or state policymakers to change course unless they recognize that the present course–the strategy of high-stakes testing, accountability, choice, and school closings–has failed. I note that Pedro does not mention the Common Core standards, which has now become the linchpin of federal school reform.

Going forward, I think, requires that we persuade President Obama that Race to the Top is not working and must be replaced by a new vision. Pedro has well described the outlines of that vision.

But we can’t assume that the President will change course until he recognizes that four more years of the Bush NCLB strategy won’t help our children or improve their education. Twelve years is enough. It’s time to think anew.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing, US Education

Charters Expand Despite Lack of Evidence for Their Success

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2012 //
24

Joy Resmovits has a good article at Huffington Post describing the growth of charter school enrollments and the absence of adequate oversight.

Currently, about 5 percent of all American students are enrolled in these privately managed schools. In some urban districts, the proportion is much larger. The districts with the greatest number of students in charters are New Orleans, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Flint, Michigan. In 25 districts, at least 20 percent of students attend charters.

With the support of a bipartisan combination of President Obama, Congress, conservative governors, and rightwing groups like ALEC, these numbers are sure to grow. And the privatization of one of the nation’s most essential public services will continue.

The article mentions that local school boards “argue” that charters reduce their funding. That’s not an argument, that’s a fact. When students leave to attend charters, the public schools must lay off teachers, increase class sizes, cut programs. The more charters open, the more the public schools decline, especially when they lose their most motivated families and students. This is not simply a matter of transferring money from Peter to Paul, but crippling Peter to enrich Paul.

If charters had a stellar reputation, the logic might be on their side. But there are few studies that show charters outperforming public schools even on the crude measure of test scores. With only a few outliers, most studies show that charters do not get different results when they have the same kinds of students.

Chester-Upland, Pensylvania, schools may be an example of what happens when well-funded charters (funded by the district’s own revenues) grow as the host dies. The CU schools have been under state control for nearly 20 years. The local charter is not only thriving but providing handsome profits for its founder. Meanwhile the public schools, having lost half their enrollment to the charter, are dying. A state emergency manager just issued a lengthy report with high benchmarks for future success.

The plan calls for school closings and sets goals for academic gains. The bottom line in this plan for recovery is that the public schools will be extinguished if they can’t meet ambitious targets:

““If the district fails to meet certain scholastic performance goals, such as federal annual progress targets, by the end for the 2014-15 school year, the plan calls for the schools to be run by external management operations such as charter schools, cyber charters, and education management companies.”

Is this the future of urban education in the United States? Will this be the legacy of the Bush-Obama education program?

Categories Charter Schools, For-Profit, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), On-Line Education, Pennsylvania, Privatization, Race to the Top
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