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Arkansas: Why Do Republicans Hate Local Control?

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2019 //
14

 

Republicans were once the party that advocated for local control of schools. No longer. Now they support state takeovers. This is the Big Bad Wolf technique.  State Control makes it easier to privatize public schools. No need to listen to parents or communities. No raucous school board meetings. No democracy. State control of schools is autocracy in action.

In Arkansas, a state that is almost wholly owned by one wealthy family, the Little Rock School District wastaken over by the state because six of its 48 schools had low test scores. A Democrat proposedto End State Control after five years. That bill failed. A Republican state legislator has proposed to extend state control to nine years.

The Republican legislator puts the onus on the district for failing to improve while it is under state control. This is whacky. If the district hasn’t improved under state control, it’s the state that has failed, not the district. Why punish the district for the state’s failure? Why not hold the state accountable?

This report was published by the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, without a link.

 

“BY CATHY FRYE
“LITTLE ROCK –  Senator Kim Hammer, R-District 33, on Monday filed a bill that would allow the Arkansas Department of Education and State Board of Education to retain control of public school districts for up to nine years.
”SB668 accomplishes this by letting the State Board grant two 24-month extensions if a district that has been under state control for five years still isn’t meeting expectations.
“The bill appears to be a response to Senator Will Bond’s failed legislation that would have required ADE and the State Board to return school districts to local control within five years of a takeover.
“Bond, D-District 32, testified last week in the Senate Education Committee that the bill would apply to any and all school districts taken over by the state.
“Current law states: “If the public school district has not demonstrated to the State Board and the Department of Education that the public school district meets the criteria to exit Level 5-Intensive Support within five years of the assumption of authority shall annex, consolidate or reconstitute the public school district…”
“Bond’s bill, SB553, proposed another option – returning a district to local control as long as it met certain criteria.
“At that committee meeting, ADE Commissioner Johnny Key contended that approval of the legislation would create an uncertain situation where “we’re back to not knowing,” adding that in the case of the Little Rock School District, which is approaching the 5th anniversary of its takeover, “the exit criteria was recently communicated.”
“Per Bond’s bill, the State Board would be able to return a school district to local control if the following criteria were met:
  • “The public school district has adopted a plan to correct the issue or issues that caused the classification of the public school district as being in need of Level 5-Intensive support; and
  • “All public schools within the public school district that is classified as being in need of Level 5 – Intensive support are making demonstrable progress towards the removal of the Level 5-Intensive support classification; or
  • “The number of public schools that are classified as in need of Level 5 – Intensive support within a public school district has increased while under the authority of the state board.”
“The bill further states: “The state board may promulgate rules to establish regarding the criteria by which a public school district may exit Level 5-Intensive support as established under subdivision (c)(2) of this section.”
“In closing for his bill, Bond asked committee members to think about how their school districts would feel about remaining under state control for more than five years. This isn’t just about Little Rock, he said.
“In the end, the bill failed.
“Hammer’s bill has been referred to the Senate Education Committee and could run as soon as Wednesday. The committee meets at 10 a.m. in Room 207. An agenda has not yet been posted.
“Hammer’s bill still offers the State Board the options of annexation, consolidation or reconstitution of school districts. At the end of five years, the State Board could consider those choices or extend the state takeover by another 24 months. When the two-year extension ends, the bill states, the board would then be allowed to grant a second two-year extension.”
Senator Kim Hammer hates democracy and local control. 
From Wikipedia:

Kim David Hammer is a Missionary Baptist pastor and hospice chaplain in Benton, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 28 in Saline County near the capital city of Little Rock.

Bentonville is the home base of the Waltons, where most of them attended and graduated from the local PUBLIC schools. The Waltons, having benefitted from their good public education, are now using their multi billion dollar ($150 billion) to destroy public schools across the nation. Ingrates.

Categories Accountability, Arkansas, Little Rock, Privatization, Republicans, Walton Foundation

Bill Phillis: Time to Repeal Ohio’s Disastrous HB 70, State Takeover Bill

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2019 //
2

When did Republicans turn against local control of public schools? When did they decide thatstate bureaucracies were superior to elected school boards?

 

Bill Phillis reports on his blog:

 

Lorain City School Board President asking the Governor to intervene in the chaos HB 70 is causing in Lorain
When Lorain Schools were snatched away from the elected Board of Education, board members initially embraced the transference in a move to improve educational opportunities. But soon thereafter, they found the “new deal” was a failure and began to push back. Former Board President Tony Dimacchia has been very active in pressing for relief from the menaces of HB 70.
Now, new President of the Lorain Board of Education Mark Ballard has written to the Governor asking for repeal of HB 70. Mr. Ballard contends he is being denied his right to fulfill his role as an elected board member.
Every Ohioan that favors democratic community control of public schools should be lobbying for the complete repeal of HB 70 of the 131st General Assembly.
HB 70 was concocted by a State Superintendent and a Governor, both of whom have moved on. The time is right to rid Ohio of this disastrous policy claptrap.
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540| ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| www.ohiocoalition.org

 

 

Categories Ohio, Republicans

Republicans Kick Off “School Choice Week,” But Not a Single Democrat Joins Them!

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
38

This week is School Choice Week, which ironically was inaugurated in 2011 by President Obama.

School Choice, we now know, has been a bust. It defunds public schools and allows charters and vouchers to cherrypick the students they want.

Not a single Democrat showed up to celebrate National School Choice Week. Thank the striking teachers for that!

Nothing like a strike to concentrate the mind!

This week, Republican lawmakers held a press conference on Capitol Hill to kick off National School Choice Week, an annual event that began in 2011 under President Obama who proclaimed it as a time to “recognize the role public charter schools play in providing America’s daughters and sons with a chance to reach their fullest potential.” This year, Democratic lawmakers took a pass on the celebration. You can thank striking teachers for that.

In the latest teacher strike in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school system, some 30,000 teachers walked off the job saying unchecked growth of charter schools and charters’ lack of transparency and accountability have become an unsustainable drain on the public system’s financials. The teachers have included in their demands a cap on charter school growth, along with other demands, such as increased teacher pay, reduced class sizes, less testing, and more counselors, nurses, librarians, and psychologists.

#RealDemocratsSupportRealPublicSchools!

#RealRepublicansSupportTheirCommunityPublicSchools!

#GoodCitizensSupportMainStreetNotWallStreet!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democrats, Education Industry, Privatization, Republicans

Kentucky: GOP Demands Teachers’ Emails to See if They Were “Political”

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2018 //
35

The GOP filed an open records request for reachers’ email, including some who ran for office, in what is seen as a fishing expedition intended to intimidate teachers.

The Republican Party of Kentucky has sent a wave of open records requests for the work emails of several teachers, including some who ran for office in November’s election — a move it said was a way to see if there was widespread misuse of government resources.

But some educators see it as an intimidation tactic.

While the GOP has declined to say how many requests it has submitted or for whom, at least some of the requests are for Democratic candidates who lost their elections.

“I think the reason they’re doing it is they want to make everybody afraid to run again, afraid to run against the establishment next time,” said Dustin Allen, a teacher in Laurel County who made an unsuccessful bid for the Kentucky House’s 87th District.

Categories Kentucky, Republicans, Teachers

Michigan: Lame-Duck Republican Legislature Approves Letter Grades for Schools, Nixes Commission to Override State Board

By dianeravitch
December 13, 2018 //
6

Lame-duck legislature’s are whittling away the powers of incoming Democratic governors in Wisconsin and Michigan.

The Michigan Legislature narrowly approved a school grading system although such grades have no value and most legislators know it. School grades based on test scores typically stigmatize schools in poor communities while doing nothing to help them.

However, the Michigan Legislature did not approve a commission with powers greater than the state board (at least, not yet).

Schools will be graded A to F on five measures under a bill passed by the Michigan House of Representatives at 3 a.m. Thursday. But the compromise bill watered down an effort by the GOP to grab power over Michigan schools.

House Bill 5526 narrowly passed the House, 56-53, wrapping up a marathon burst of legislating that began Wednesday morning and stretched hours past midnight in Michigan’s frantic lame duck session.

The bill was unpopular among Democrats and some Republicans because of skepticism that giving schools grades would improve learning, and because the bill, up until the early hours this morning, created a powerful education commission that usurped broad authority over school accountability schools from the State Board of Education, the education department and incoming Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Because the majority of those commission members could be appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on his way out the door, the commission was seen by critics as a way to undercut control of Michigan schools from Democratic Gov.-elect Whitmer, and from the state board, which will become majority Democrat in January.

Categories Accountability, Michigan, Republicans

John Thompson: How a Democrat Won in a Gerrymandered Red, Red District in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2018 //
3

John Thompson writes here about the surprising victory of Kendra Horn in a Congressional district that had been gerrymandered to remain permanently Republican. I thank John for telling me about Kendra Horn, who is a supporter of public education. On his recommendation and after a review of her website, I was happy to endorse her. When so many political races are decided by razor-thin margins, every endorsement counts. I would like to think that my endorsement caused a few pro-public education voters to pay attention to Kendra Horn. Thompson describes a meeting of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee, which is horrifying and fascinating in its openly expressed nativism and anti-Semitism, as well as its contempt for public schools and teachers. The feverish and overwrought fear of “socialism” in this very conservative state, whose legislature has long been a subsidiary of the oil and gas industry, is surprising.

John Thompson writes:


Julian Castro says that voters want authentic candidates. America may not need traditional politicians. But we need traditionally sane leaders.

Oklahoma’s election of Kendra Horn to congress is more than one of the nation’s “biggest lurch to the left in America’s 2018 midterm election.” It is also a case study in what it takes to turn a historic Republican district, made safer by extreme gerrymandering, into a sane Blue island in a sea of Trumpism. And its lessons are relevant across the nation.

As political scientist Mike Males says about Oklahoma County:

‘The gerrymandered district combining once-Republican Oklahoma City with two reliably GOP rural counties, went for Donald Trump by 13 points in the 2016 presidential election. It handily elected Republicans to Congress since 1975, including two-term incumbent Steve Russell by margins topping 20 points.’ Fivethirtyeight.com gave Republicans 6-in-7 odds of 2018 triumph.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC) has a different view. Although it did not mention Diane Ravitch’s endorsement of Horn, Oklahoma rightwingers have been blaming Jewish billionaires like George Kaiser and Mike Bloomberg. In a recent meeting caught on youtube, scorn was expressed about the “Jerusalem news media,” prompting laughter.

Although they used questionable terminology, the conservative OCPAC started with a valid point. Oklahoma City has attracted large numbers of young professionals. The economic take-off (in a state that has mostly been stagnating,) has been a “magnet for liberals” from east and west coasts. According to one speaker, these “inplants” have prompted something that I have never seen, local television news’ nonstop celebration of pop culture, millennial opinions, and the “feelings” of young people.

Other newcomers, immigrants, were said to be “good neighbors and workers.” But they tell pollsters that they are “for the people” and that is “socialism.” So immigrants are “not bad people necessarily” but they “don’t make good citizens.”

However, OCPAC says that Oklahoma has been producing homegrown socialists. For years, teachers have been “indoctrinating children, making leftists of our children.” Their president said, “Government education is the bane of American civilization.” In 2018, Oklahoma almost saw a “total takeover of state government by the education industry – teachers.” Teachers supposedly registered Republican enmasse in a campaign to “take over” the party.

OCPAC also protests a “massive purge of conservatives” that is fed by dark money, but being implemented by local socialists. Not everyone at the meeting believed that teachers were leading this “massacre.” Former Rep. Mike Reynolds said that educators are just “useful idiots” for trial lawyers who hope to repeal tort reform as they then run the state. Reynolds said that he was expressing opinions, not proven facts, but he believes this assault on conservatives is a part of the efforts of billionaires still angry that the University of Oklahoma returned stolen Nazi art, purchased by a rich Jew. The return was supposedly opposed by Kaiser and an unnamed billionaire.

Given these threats, it was explained that Republicans “can’t leave Oklahoma County whole.” It was argued that 2022 redistricting must incorporate voters from three congressional districts. As in the good old days, Democratic voters in Oklahoma City need to be dumped into districts bordering on Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado!

On the other hand, Males’ analysis of Horn’s victory casts doubt on whether gerrymandering will be enough to defeat Horn, a likable, warm, and diplomatic candidate who walked her district. He explains that between 2014 and 2018, “voter turnout in the district surged by 23 percent for Republicans and a volcanic 110 percent for Democrats, with every precinct showing substantially increased Democratic voting.” He found that Russell won most of the city’s “40 rural White precincts, hard-core Trump territory,” but they became significantly more Democratic. He reports, “Of the 80,000 new voters, Democrats won two-thirds in rural areas, three-fourths in Oklahoma City, and 88 percent in the suburbs.”

Yes, Males shows that millennial districts voted Democratic by margins exceeding 75 percent but he also found that “gated, guarded Gaillardia, 15 miles from downtown, overwhelmingly White and wealthy, tripled its vote for Democrats, while the district’s two arch-red rural counties doubled their Democratic votes.”

I wonder what the defeated congressman Steve Russell thinks about the older population in Gaillardia who voted for the personable Democrat who enjoys listening. Throughout his campaign, Russell couldn’t hide his contempt for those who disagree with him. After the election, he blamed his loss on Millennials and then said about that generation, “time and experience will engage this important population with the values that matter as they marry and raise families. I am optimistic about the potential of our country’s future but saddened by its self-indulgence and lack of respect for one another.”

When asked by NPR’s Robin Young about Russell’s rude words, which she called “a bit of a ‘dis’,” Horn brushed off his animosity and said that we won because we engaged all types of people of all ages, “we changed the way campaigns are run here.”

https://www.thelostogle.com/2018/11/14/steve-russell-blames-campaign-loss-on-millennials/

http://www.wbur.org/npr/670077244/kendra-horn-oklahoma-5th-district

Categories Bigotry, Oklahoma, Republicans

Jim Sleeper on Republican Derangement Syndrome

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2018 //
51

Journalist Jim Sleeper recalls the moderate brand of Republicanism that he grew up with in Massachusetts.

He is shocked to see how the national party has been captured by fringe extremists who are no longer on the fringe, nor are they “extreme” in the context of a Trump-captured party.

It’s not enough to observe, however rightly, that Republicans have been deranged by the much-ballyhooed sins of what a concerted conservative campaign derides as “Social Justice Warriors,” what Rush Limbaugh calls “feminazis,” what Trump and his minions call invading Mexican rapists and terrorists, and other such bogeymen. Only a few of those are carriers or casualties of what’s generating Trumpism itself: the disease of turbo-marketing that’s reducing American education, entertainment, social media, politics and the dignity of work itself to levels determined by a mania to maximize profits and shareholder dividends, no matter the social costs.

The few conservatives who still hope to advance the ordered, principled republican liberty that my Massachusetts exemplars upheld can no longer convincingly reconcile that hope with their movement’s and the Republican Party’s obeisance to every whim and riptide of corporate, global capitalism that’s destroying the liberty they claim to cherish and that’s generating a lot of what’s wrong in the bogeymen they vow to defeat.

The Republican party of Eisenhower and Rockefeller is dead. It has been replaced by the ideology of Donald Trump, an ideology that does not hesitate to play with racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and every other intolerant idea in the lexicon. Just in the past few days, Trump has made a point of belittling black female members of the press, as part of his war on the press. The Republican leadership doesn’t care.

Categories Education Reform, Racism, Republicans

Max Boot: Vote Against Republicans. Every Single One.

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2018 //
19

Max Boot, who recently renounced his ties to the Republican Party, urges you to vote for Democrats. He begins by quoting Joe Biden. He is sickened by the Trump dominance of his former party.

“


I am sick and tired of this administration.

“I’m sick and tired of what’s going on.

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I hope you are, too.” 
— Joe Biden 


[Boot writes ]

I’m sick and tired, too.


I’m sick and tired of a president who pretends that a caravan of impoverished refugees is an “invasion” by “unknown Middle Easterners” and “bad thugs” — and whose followers on Fox News pretend the refugees are bringing leprosy and smallpox to the United States. (Smallpox was eliminated about 40 years ago.)




Donald Trump has irreversibly changed the Republican Party. The upheaval might seem unusual, but as Opinion writer Robert Gebelhoff explains, political transformations crop up throughout U.S. history.

I’m sick and tired of a president who misuses his office to demagogue on immigration — by unnecessarily sending 5,200 troops [editor’s note: now upped to 15,000] to the border and by threatening to rescind by executive order the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the United States.


I’m sick and tired of a president who is so self-absorbed that he thinks he is the real victim of mail-bomb attacks on his political opponents — and who, after visiting Pittsburgh despite being asked by local leaders to stay away, tweeted about how he was treated, not about the victims of the synagogue massacre.


I’m sick and tired of a president who cheers a congressman for his physical assault of a reporter, calls the press the “enemy of the people ” and won’t stop or apologize even after bombs were sent to CNN in the mail.


I’m sick and tired of a president who employs the language of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish financier George Soros and “globalists,” and won’t apologize or retract even after what is believed to be the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history.




I’m sick and tired of a president who won’t stop engaging in crazed partisanship, denouncing Democrats as “evil,” “un-American” and “treasonous” subversives who are in league with criminals.


I’m sick and tired of a president who cares so little about right-wing terrorism that, on the very day of the synagogue shooting, he proceeded with a campaign rally, telling his supporters, “Let’s have a good time.”


I’m sick and tired of a president who presides over one of the most unethical administrations in U.S. history — with three Cabinet members resigning for reported ethical infractions and the secretary of the interior the subject of at least 18 federal investigations.


I’m sick and tired of a president who flouts norms of accountability by refusing to release his tax returns or place his business holdings in a blind trust.


I’m sick and tired of a president who lies outrageously and incessantly — an average of eight times a day — claiming recently that there are riots in California and that a bill that passed the Senate 98 to 1 had “very little Democrat support.”


I’m sick and tired of a president who can’t be bothered to work hard and instead prefers to spend his time watching Fox News and acting like a Twitter troll.


And I’m sick and tired of Republicans who go along with Trump — defending, abetting and imitating his egregious excesses.
I’m sick and tired of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) acting like a caddie for the man he once denounced as a “kook” — just this week, Graham endorsed Trump’s call for rescinding “birthright citizenship,” a kooky idea if ever there was one.




I’m sick and tired of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who got his start in politics as a protege of the “bleeding-heart conservative” Jack Kemp, refusing to call out Trump’s race-baiting.


I’m sick and tired of Republicans who once complained about the federal debt adding $113 billion to the debt just in fiscal year 2018.


I’m sick and tired of Republicans who once championed free trade refusing to stop Trump as he launches trade wars with all of our major trade partners.


I’m sick and tired of Republicans who not only refuse to investigate Trump’s alleged ethical violations but who also help him to obstruct justice by maligning the FBI, the special counsel and the Justice Department.


Most of all, I’m sick and tired of Republicans who feel that Trump’s blatant bigotry gives them license to do the same — with Rep. Pete Olson (R-Tex.) denouncing his opponent as an “Indo-American carpetbagger,” Florida gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis warning voters not to “monkey this up” by electing his African American opponent, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) labeling his “Palestinian Mexican” opponent a “security risk” who is “working to infiltrate Congress,” and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) accusing his opponent, who is of Indian Tibetan heritage, of “selling out Americans” because he once worked at a law firm that settled terrorism-related cases against Libya.


If you’re sick and tired, too, here is what you can do.

Vote for Democrats on Tuesday. For every office. Regardless of who they are. And I say that as a former Republican. Some Republicans in suburban districts may claim they aren’t for Trump. Don’t believe them. Whatever their private qualms, no Republicans have consistently held Trump to account. They are too scared that doing so will hurt their chances of reelection.

If you’re as sick and tired as I am of being sick and tired about what’s going on, vote against all Republicans. Every single one.

Categories Bigotry, Citizenship, Lies, Racism, Republicans

Laura Chapman: In Search of the Tentacles of the Privatization Movement

By dianeravitch
August 31, 2018 //
64

Laura Chapman, retired arts educator and diligent researcher, has created a partial portrait of the privatization movement.

My guess is that the privatization movement consists of a small but significant number of billionaires and several hundred of their lackeys, shills, and front groups. As you will see, it is almost impossible to tell the Republicans from the Democrats.

Laura writes:

I have been building some spreadsheets on who is funding what. There are so many interconnected initiatives that Jeb Bush and friends are part of.

For example. Bush’s projects are connected with another big reform outfit: Partners for Innovation in Education (PIE) an outfit with at least 180 affiliates (in my spreadsheet) all connected to many others and all seeking national, state, and large metro area policies that favor charter school expansion (marketed as innovative), along with Teach for America (mostly on the job training), and active interference with teacher union contracts.

The PIE website still includes a guide for “Rabble Rousers” who were given quidance on how to work on legislated policy changes to favor charters, TFA and privatizers and how to enlist active support from civic and business organizations. It is a guide for lobbying and controlling narratives about education in the press.

The 47-page PIE Rabble Rousers handbook (2010 funded by the Joyce Foundation) includes this statement about the process of changing state policy:

“Most of the groups we spoke with (about shaping state polcies) declined to involve educators on their governing boards; if they did so, those groups do not make up a majority of the governing board. The rationale was clear enough: if the goal is to be a voice for the public’s interest, educator involvement confuses that message. As one group leader explained: “Educators already have the overwhelming voice in our state capital through their various associations. If we brought the interest lobby to our meetings, our discussion would get rutted in the same issues that already complicate the public debate. Our goal is to have a conversation that looks at the issues differently, considering only the students without the adult agendas.” An even blunter explanation was: “We tell our teacher associations that when they invite our leaders to vote on their boards, we will include union representation on ours (p. 32).” http://pie-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/rabble-rousers.pdf

Since that 2010 publication, PIE has shifted its strategy to include carefully selected educators. Most are working in charter schools or they have been willing to be indoctrinated into PIE’s agenda. Indocrination is the correct word.

In Oakland, CA, for example, the bait for PIE’s program has been a two-year “fellowship” with $1000 for the first year, and $2000 for the second year for attendance at two-hour meetings twice monthly plus readings and research. (I could not determine if the “year” was a calendar year nine month school year). In a series of tasks, the Oakland Fellows were given preferred data about their union to think about, along with model language for changes.

There are similar programs in multiple metro areas and states, with teachers working as if hired hands of PIE, token payments or emblems of prestige by virtue of becoming “fellows” or “ambassadors.”

Here is a list of organizations and financial supporters of “teacher voice” in the PIE Network–all recruiting teachers to advocate for policies favoring TFA, charters, and dismantlying unions and more under the banner of “innovation.”

Advance Illinois “Every Student World Ready”; Chalk Board Project; Ed Allies (Minnesota); Educators for High Standards; Go Public Schools (Oakland CA); Hope Street Group (multiple states); National Network of Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY, nominated by governors of states and celebrated by the Council of Chief State School Officers); Rodel Foundation of Delaware; State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE, Tennessee); Stand for Children Louisiana; Teach Strong (National, with one year “ambassadors” who lobby politicians), Educators for Excellence (in Boston, Chicago, Connecticut, Los Angeles , Minnesota, New York); Teach Plus (in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts); and Texas Aspires.

PIE Board members are powerbrokers. Many are veterans of reformy projects to undermine public education through draconian standard-setting, exemptions for and expansions of charter schools, and killing collective bargaining by teachers.
1. Derrell Bradford, Executive VP of 50CAN, recruits state executive directors, fellows, and YouCAN advocates; known for leadership of legislated tenure reform in New Jersey.
2. Rachael Canter, Executive Dir. and co-founder of Mississippi First. Two years Teach for America; successfully lobbied for Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013.
3. Jonah Edelman, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children Leadership Center and Stand For Children with affiliates in 11 states (Edelman is son of civil rights activist and lawyer Marian Wright Edelman). A political scholar (Ph.D Oxford, Yale) with deep family connections to the Democratic Party. SFC works for privatization with major funding from the Gates and Walton foundations among others. Major promoter of Read-by-Grade-Three policy.
4. Chris Korsmo, CEO of the League of Education Voters, backed by The Broad Foundation and supporters of projects to undermine teacher unions.
5. Scott Laband, President of Colorado Succeeds, coalition of business executives for corporate friendly education, including school policies that subsidize workforce preparation.
6. Patricia Levesque, CEO Foundation for Excellence. Was Jeb Bush’s Chief of Staff for education promoting corporate friendly education, six years as Staff Director for education policy in the Florida.
7. Lillian M. Lowery, Ed.D. V.P. of Ed Trust’s PreK-12 Policy, Research, and Practice, former state superintendent of schools in Maryland and state secretary of education in Delaware.
8. Nina Rees, President and CEO of National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, first Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.
9. Aimee Rogstad Guidera, former president and CEO of the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign for enganced surveillance of K-12 school and “teacher of record” performance, with a variant tracking workforce outcomes of pre-K to post-seconfary workforce outcomes.
10. Evan Stone, Co-CEO and Co-Founder in 2010 of Educators for Excellence. Yale University thesis on No Child Left Behind in urban school systems, Master degree in teaching, Pace University.
11. Suzanne Kubach, Executive Dir. PIE Network. Appointed to California State Board of Education, former Chair of Los Angeles Charter School Board. Ph.D. in Education Policy, University of Southern California.
12. Tim Taylor, co-founder and Executive Dir. America Succeeds, founder of Colorado Succeeds, seeking corporate friendly policies.
13. Jamie Woodson, Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), Former legislative leader for expansion of Tennessee’s public charter schools. J.D., the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

And that is just for starters. What “innovative policies” are being marketed in your state, by whom, and why?

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Koch Brothers, Privatization, Republicans

Denis Smith: Meet the Republicans Who Impeached Clinton for Lying But Protect Trump

By dianeravitch
August 29, 2018 //
38

Denis Smith introduces you to “Profiles in Cowardice.”

This is the Republican leadership who grovel before Trump.

Smith lists those like Senator Lindsey Graham who voted to impeach Clinton because he lied about having an affair. Trump had an affair, multiple affairs, lied about them, made illicit payments, violated campaign finance laws, etc. But that’s ok.

Why?

Categories Republicans
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