Archives for category: Privatization
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Game On in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
October 8, 2012 //
13

The reform/privatization strategy is now in full operation is states across the nation.

This is the way it works:

First, set an impossible goal, say, 100% proficiency for all students.

Second, say that there can be “no excuses,” no reference to social conditions in which children live.

Third, insist on accountability for schools, teachers, and principals. If they can’t meet the impossible goals, fire the staff and close the school.

Fourth, hand the school over to private management.

Mission accomplished!

Oklahoma is in the midst of this process, as this teacher describes here. The schools will be graded. Many will fail, by design. Does anyone still believe this is about improving education?

You know what comes next. This Oklahoma teacher writes:

Oh, it’s much worse than just testing…the use of this data will “fail” schools and then trumpet their failure. In order to earn an “A”, a school must score nearly 94%. The easy-to understand resources on the OKSDE website are anything but simple and transparent. The district Superintendents (nearly 200, I believe) who objected to the release of scores have been called names by our State Super and our Governor. Dedicated professional educators have been attacked personally.

The State Superintendent likened them to the kid who runs home to white-out his report card before his parents get home. Remember, she’s speaking to career educators…which she is not. She was a speech pathologist for a few years, became a dentist, and helped open a charter school in OKC because her own children were struggling in public schools. She sees herself as the heroine of DON’T BACK DOWN.

The spokesperson for the SDE says they’ve worked with districts, getting their input. I was at the Public Comments meeting, at the SDE…scheduled by the SDE. NO ONE representative from the SDE attended the meeting except the lawyer who pushed ‘play’ on the tape recorder. We all spoke to a tape recorder…superintendents, principals, school officials, legislators, PTA state officers, and I was the lone teacher…we were all ignored. Is THIS how our SDE works with us? Unfortunately, the answer is ‘yes’.

Our state officials are bullies, and they bully with smiles on their faces, with the knowledge that the media won’t pursue the story to the ultimate truth.

Tomorrow the grades come out…the same grades Mitt Romney thinks are such a good idea. My firm belief is the grades will show exactly what high-stakes testing shows: poverty matters. So, once again, schools and teachers and districts will be punished and publicly shamed because we serve poor children.

Pray for us.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Oklahoma, Privatization

A Conversation about the Goal of Reformers

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2012 //
9

I wrote a post about the attacks on teachers, which got some interesting responses.

Reader A wrote:

This has absolutely nothing to do with teacher quality. This has everything to do with:

1. Destroying unions;

2. Destroying public education;

3. Hijacking tax funding for education to for-profit corporations;

4. Control of the public to perpetuate the 1%.

But Bill and Arne won’t say that in public.

Reader B replied:

@mooseinsquirrels: In attacking the problem, it’s important to outline the ultimate motives of those who’d destroy unions, etc. Otherwise, it sounds as if teachers see themselves as the primary victims. My hope is that we can refine our rhetoric in a way that makes plain the stakes for society generally.

Some in the 1% do see a big money pie of which they’d gladly enjoy a slice. But destroying unions and demeaning the profession are primarily steps in the industrialization of education. Students are raw materials, teachers are workers on the assembly line and computers are robots. Efficient manufacture demands standardized tools, techniques and outputs. Unions create friction and therefore must be eliminated.

Degradation, not destruction, is the likely outcome for public education. The system will be partially privatized, but others will profit as contractors with what remains of the public system. Just as KIPP will never accept Diane’s challenge to take over an entire system, the smarter education entrepreneurs will avoid taking over the entire system when they peel off some kids, generate feel-good numbers, and collect a profit.

Ultimately, we must convince parents in all classes that 1) education is best when it draws out the talents and passions of children, and 2) the industrialization of schooling has the effect (and perhaps the design) of squelching them.

@lets_be_reasonable: Your analysis tacitly accepts the industrialization of education metaphor. Teacher quality is measured by product quality which is measured by how much someone will pay for it. I propose we rehumanize the product and reject any value-added metric. It’s sickening.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

Spread the Word about October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools!

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2012 //
77

I will write about this every single day from now until October 17.

Please write your thoughts about what needs to change in federal education policy and send a letter to President Obama by that date.

You can write it now and follow instructions here.

Anthony Cody, experienced middle school science teacher and fabulous blogger, has offered to coordinate our campaign to write President Obama on October 17.

We call it the Campaign for Our Public Schools.

Our campaign is meant to include everyone who cares about public education: students, parents, teachers, principals, school board members, and concerned citizens. We want everyone to write the President and tell him what needs to change in his education policies.

Tell your friends about the Campaign. If you have a blog, write about it. Wherever you are, spread the news. Join us.

Here are the instructions:

You can send your letter to Anthony Cody or to this blog.

Or you can send it directly to the White House, with a copy to me or Anthony.

Anthony will gather all the emails sent to him and me and forward them to the White House.

1. Email your letters to anthony_cody@hotmail.com.

2. Or submit them as comments to this blog. You can respond to this post or to any other post on this blog about the October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools.

All letters collected through these two channels will be compiled into a single document, which will be sent to the White House on Oct. 18.

In ADDITION to this,

3. You can mail copies of your letters through US mail to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 20500

4. You can send them by email from this page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

If you choose to write or email the White House, please send us a copy so we can keep track of how many letters were sent to the President.

One more thought: when you write to the President, also write to your Senators and Congressman or -woman and to your state legislator and Governor. Send the same letter to them all.

Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering.

Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education.

Let’s act. Start here. Start now.

Join our campaign. Speak out. Enough is enough.

Diane

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Obama, Parents, Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, US Education

What Race to the Top Has Accomplished

By dianeravitch
October 6, 2012 //
65

Let’s give credit where credit is due.

Because of Race to the Top, most states are now evaluating teachers based in significant part on student test scores. The American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education say that the methodology for doing this is inaccurate and unstable. The ratings bounce around from year to year. Such ratings reflect which students were in the class, not teacher quality.

Because of Race to the Top, more states are permitting privatization of public schools.

Because of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, all schools are labeled by their test scores.

Because of Race to the Top, there is more teaching to the test, more fear and anxiety associated with testing, more narrowing of the curriculum, more cheating.

Because of Race to the Top, many schools in poor and minority neighborhoods will be closed.

Because of Race to the Top, many principals and teachers will be fired.

Is this what President Obama meant when he referred to the “results” of his Race to the Top? It explains why Romney applauded it and specifically hailed Arne Duncan.

This reader has a different view of Race to the Top:

In addition to the intimidation and demoralization of teachers, Race to the Top is having its intended results: the destabilization, fragmentation and privatization of the public schools.

In their public utterances on education, Obama and Duncan are frauds, but the education reform complex is being managed by very intelligent and far seeking -venal, but far-seeking – people. They know exactly what they are doing, and more often than not are getting their way.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Duncan, Arne, For-Profit, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Romney, Mitt, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, US Education

Why Privatizers Don’t Care About Evidence

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2012 //
25

A reader writes:

This is the reason why no one listens to all the sound reasons presented so far.

“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.” ~ Karl R. Popper

Categories ALEC, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, Race to the Top, US Education

ALEC Triumphant in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
October 5, 2012 //
10

I wrote a post about radical legislation in Pennsylvania that will authorize the Governor to create a charter commission with power to overturn local decisions. This legislation was written by the corporate-funded organization ALEC.

The Louisiana legislature passed the radical ALEC agenda last spring. Teachers lost tenure; unqualified people can become teachers. Test scores determine teachers’ careers. More than half the state’s students are eligible for vouchers, with some going to fundamentalist schools. Charters will pop up everywhere. Students can take their tuition money to online schools that get poor results, or to any snake-oil salesman that hangs out a shingle and pretends to be an educator.

Everything comes out of the minimum foundation funding for public schools, which is supposedly illegal, but who cares? Lots of new opportunities to make a buck in Louisiana or any other state that passes ALEC model legislation.

A reader in Louisiana notes that the proposed governor’s commission, stripping local boards of their decision-making powers, has already passed in his state:

This legislation was passed in Louisiana last spring. Don’t let this happen to Penn -teachers get the word out to fight this. This December our Board of Education will present the first list of applicants to fall under this new provision and they have shown that they decry true accountability. My school district,St. Tammany Parish, is the highest performing large school district in the state with highest average ACT score in the state and above the national average. We have never allowed charters but we are now expecting to be invaded. One prospective charter operator is advertising on Craig’s List for personnel to open an “international school.” He is a former instructor of Muslim studies at the Air Force Academy (5years) from Edinburgh, Scotland. Where do these charter promoters come from and how do end up here.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Louisiana, On-Line Education, Pennsylvania, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure

Pennsylvania Governor Pushing ALEC Law

By dianeravitch
October 3, 2012 //
9

Governor Tom Corbett wants charter “reform.” He is trying to persuade the state legislature to allow him to create a commission that could authorize charter schools over the opposition of local school boards.

As a Pennsylvania blogger says, this puts the fox in charge of the henhouse.

This is ALEC model legislation. It’s on the ballot in Georgia next month, where ALEC allies hope to eliminate local control.

This is not conservative. It is radical. Since when do conservatives destroy local control to advance the monied interests?

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

My Candid Views about School Choice

By dianeravitch
October 3, 2012 //
1

This is part 2 of my interview by Abby Rappaport of the American Prospect. This came at the end of a long day in Austin, after I gave two speeches, one in the morning to the Texas School Boards Association and Texas Association of School Administrators, and another in the afternoon to parents and teachers. I was too tired to choose my words. I said what I think.

In part 1 of the interview, we talked about testing and accountability.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization, Texas, US Education, Vouchers

A Line in the Sand

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
2

The billionaires want charter schools in Washington State.

It is very distressing to them that the voters have already turned down charter schools three times. So they have put up a few millions to try again. This time the charter referendum closely tracks the rightwing ALEC model. It allows either a majority of parents or teachers to give away the public school to a private charter corporation, even if the school is a good school. It also creates a super-commission to create more charters over the opposition of local school boards.

These are mechanisms found in ALEC’s privatization model laws.

Here are the facts from Melissa Westbrook of “Say No on 1240,” the parent group that is fighting to protect public education and to stop privatization of education stave in Washington State. Please help them if you can:

Dear Dr. Ravitch,

I’m a long-time public education activist in Seattle and also write a blog, Seattle Schools Community Forum. I am also now the Chair of the No On 1240 campaign here in Washington State. You mentioned our efforts recently in your blog.

We are once again – for the 4th time – fighting off the establishment of a charter school system here in Washington State. We have fought off charters three times at the ballot box – 1996, 2000 and 2004 – and multiple times in our Legislature.

We are only one of nine states that do not have charters and we are virtually the ONLY state that has ever brought the establishment of charters to the ballot.

The Washington State Supreme Court ruled this summer that the Legislature is not fully-funding our existing schools; Washington State does not even fund our schools to the national average. So it begs the question of bringing on more underfunded schools and thinning the pot of education dollars to already struggling schools.

As in previous elections, this one is back by wealthy businessmen and this being Washington State, that would be Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft fame. The entire Yes campaign is made up of about 10 families, all with connections to Microsoft and Amazon to the tune of $4.5M. They also include a Walmart heiress from Arkansas and the head of Netflicks in LA.

Our campaign, No On 1240, is a grassroots campaign of parents and community members. (There is another No campaign started by the teachers union, the Washington Education Association, that we are working with but we wanted to be a separate campaign so that pro-charter supporters could NOT say the only people saying no were unions.)

Beyond the interesting fact that Washington State has fought off charters before, here are some other key issues that make this of national interest:

– a trigger section is embedded in this initiative. As you likely know, all other trigger laws are separate but the writers of this initiative put it into the initiative. The trigger is the harshest in the entire country.

It would allow a charter group, as part of the proposal, to submit a petition with a majority of signatures by EITHER teachers or parents to take over ANY existing school, failing or not.

It is breathtaking in its aggressiveness. The charter then takes the school community, building and all, with no public notification that this is happening. They would not have to pay rent to the district and the district would have to provide major maintenance to the building.

– it would give charters the right of first refusal to any school building for lease or sale at or BELOW market value. If you are a cash-strapped district, you have problem and, of course, it is never a good deal to have to sell public property for less than it is worth.

– it creates a Charter Commission that is politically appointed, once appointed has no oversight from anyone, elected or not, AND all members have to be pro-charter (this is actually in the initiative wording). I note that in Georgia they have a ballot measure about having a charter commission being able to ok charters.

Our campaign is having a Money Blast on Thursday, October 11th to try to get a one-day blitz of fundraising.

We are hoping to raise awareness about the charter issue here in Washington State as well as the Money Blast.

If we manage, against Bill Gates & Company, to fight off charters – for the 4th time – it will be a major national line in the sand. I know that other states are starting to look around and ask, “Where are these results charters promised? Where is the accountability and ease of closing low-performing charters that was promised?”

I think the question is out there – are charters really that great and is it worth the investment of our scarce education dollars?

Attached is more information about the campaign and the initiative text.

Could you please write a thread about our fight and our one-day Money Blast on Thursday the 11th? We have to fight off Bill Gates and the charter movement that wants to take over our public schools.

Do not hesitate to contact me for more information.

Best wishes,
Melissa Westbrook, Chair
No On 1240

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privatization, Washington State

Michelle Rhee’s Plan to Destroy Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
33

Michelle Rhee is is a one-person PAC. She is raising hundreds of millions of dollars from rightwing billionaires and foundations and corporations to subsidize her program.

What is her program? Destroy teachers’ unions; eliminate tenure and seniority; privatize public education. Having failed to transform the public schools of the District of Columbia, she now wants to privatize public education everywhere.

When I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I learned from a Democratic state senator that Rhee had poured $105,000 into a race between a liberal Democrat and a conservative Democrat. The difference between them? The conservative Democrat supports vouchers. My informant said, “Candidates here will jump through hoops for a contribution of $1,000. Getting $105,000 is unimaginable.” Rhee bought the election. The voucher-loving Democrat won. He added: Most of Rhee’s money goes to conservative Republicans.

She is trying to buy a seat in Connecticut now. A reader writes:

Rhee’s fraud of an organization has nothing to do with students, teaching or learning. It is a political lobbyist group that secretly slithers around the nation passing our billionaire donated cash to influence and bribe politicians. Her dirty donations push the privatization, anti-union, anti-public school, collective bargaining busting, teacher trashing dogma down their throats. Here she is a pariah and getting her money is the kiss of death here in CT:

http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/10/01/michelle-buy-yourself-an-election-rhee-returns-to-undermine-democracy-in-connecticut/

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/is_michelle_rhee_trying_to_buy_a_seat_in_the_5th/#comments-31483

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, For-Profit, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Tennessee, Unions, US Education, Vouchers
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