Kim Burkett went to Austin with her children to speak out for public schools and her community.
She noticed there were two different rallies. On one side of the building was a school choice rally, advocating for vouchers, attended by 30 people, including lobbyists.
On the other side were thousands of parents, students, grandparents, and educators.
Read her account. It gives a good portrait of the battle not only in Texas, but in many states.
John Kuhn is a superintendent of a small district in Texas. He is also one of the most eloquent champions of students, teachers, and public education. With him on our side, we can’t lose.
Why doesn’t the media give him equal time with Michelle Rhee? He actually educates children. He changes lives. He is an educator.
This was his speech at the Save Texas Schools rally on 2/23/13:
http://www.texasisd.com/article_135671.shtml
John Kuhn’s Rally Speech
By John Kuhn – Supt
Feb 27, 2013, 08:39
Are there any teachers in this crowd?
I want to say something to teachers that our lawmakers should have said long ago: Thank You! Thank you for keeping our children safe. Thank you for drying their tears when they scrape their knees, for cheering on our junior high basketball players, for going up to your room on Sundays to get ready to teach my kids on Monday. Gracias por cuidarlos! As a dad, I thank you.
Coaches, thank you for fixing little girls’ softball swings and for showing our boys how to tie their ties. Thank you for getting our children safely home on the yellow dog after late ballgames, marching contests, and one-act plays.
Thank you for buying all those raffle tickets, hams, pies, discount cards, Girl Scout cookies, insulated mugs and pumpkin rolls, for buying more playoff shirts than any one person could possibly need and on top of all that spending your own money on pencils and prizes and supplies for your classroom.
There are those poor deluded souls who say you take more than you give, and I disagree with them with everything I am. Don’t let them get you down. They wouldn’t last a day in your classroom. You are NOT a drain on this economy; you are a bubbling spring of tomorrow’s prosperity. You’re a fountain of opportunity for other people’s children. As educational attainment goes up, crime, teen pregnancy, unemployment, and prison rates all go down. Squalor and ignorance retreat. Social wounds begin to heal. Our state progresses; our tomorrow brightens. What you do, teacher, is priceless. You don’t create jobs. You create job creators.
Some people don’t understand why you do what you do. They think merit pay will make you work harder, as if you’re holding back. They don’t understand what motivates you. They think the threat of being labeled “unacceptable” will inspire you to care about the quality of your instruction, as if the knowledge that you hold the future in your hands on a daily basis is not incentive enough.
Maybe these sticks and carrots work for bad teachers, but they only demoralize the great ones, and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of great teachers in our public school classrooms today.
Some people have forgotten that good teachers actually exist. They spend so much time and effort weeding out the bad ones that they’ve forgotten to take care of the good ones. This bitter accountability pesticide is over-spraying the weeds and wilting the entire garden.
You stand on the front lines of poverty and plenty, on the front lines of our social stratification. You are the people who shove their fingers into gushing wounds of inequality that our leaders won’t even talk about, and you aren’t afraid. You’re the last of the Good Samaritans, and you aren’t afraid, even as they condemn you for trying but failing to save every last kid in your classroom. You aren’t afraid, and you keep trying, and you haven’t faltered. You deserve to be saluted, not despised. You deserve to be acclaimed. You deserve so much more than the ugly scapegoating that privatizers peddle in the media and our halls of government.
Teacher, bus driver, coach, lunch lady, custodian, maintenance man, business manager, aide, secretary, principal, and, yes, even you superintendents out there trying to hold it all together—you serve your state with skill and honor and dignity, and I’m sorry that no one in power has the guts to say that these days. History will recognize that the epithets they applied to your schools said more about leaders who refused to confront child poverty than the teachers who tried valiantly to overcome it. History will recognize that teachers in these bleak years stood in desperate need of public policy help that never came. Advocacy for hurting children was ripped from our lips with a shush of “no excuses.” These hateful labels should be hung around the necks of those who have allowed inequitable school funding to persist for decades, those who refuse to tend to the basic needs of our poorest children so that they may come to school ready to learn.
They say 100,000 kids are on a waiting list for charter schools. Let me tell you about another waiting list. There are 5 million kids waiting for this Legislature to keep our forefathers’ promises. There are 5 million children, and three of them live with me, and they’re all waiting for somebody in Austin, Texas, to stand up for them and uphold the constitution. There’s a waiting list of 5 million kids and this government says they can just keep waiting. How long must they wait?
If you support public schools I want to tell you about a new website. Go to texaskidswaiting.com and add your child’s name to the public school waiting list, the list of kids waiting for this government to provide adequate school funding. That’s Texaskidswaiting.com.
Our forefathers’ promises must be kept. We want fair and adequate resources in our kids’ schools. We want leaders who don’t have to be dragged to court to do right by our children.
It’s not okay to default on constitutional promises. It’s not okay to neglect schools until they break, to deliberately undermine our public school. These traditional institutions have honorably served their communities for generations. It’s not okay to privatize a public school system that strong and generous people built and left to us; it’s not okay for Austin to confiscate buildings built by local taxpayers and give them away to cronies and speculators.
These buildings aren’t just schools, they’re touchstones. They’re testaments to our local values. The Friday night lights that have illuminated our skies for decades, the school gyms that have echoed with play since the Greatest Generation was young—these aren’t monuments to sports. They’re monuments to community. They’re beacons of our local control, of the togetherness we cherish in our hometowns and city neighborhoods. We don’t want education fads imposed on us by Austin or, even worse, out-of-state billionaires.
What we want is simple, tried, and true. We want what this state promised in 1876. And to those who want to take away that promise, I know some moms and trustees and local businesspeople who will say what brave Texans have said before: “Come and take it.”
Two years ago I asked state leaders to come to our aid; they responded by cutting school funding by billions. But help did come: it came from you. The people of Texas are the cavalry that will save Texas schools. Two years ago may have been the Alamo; but this year may well be our San Jacinto.
I will end by saying this to the advocates who are bravely defending public education: thank you. And one more thing: do not go gently into that good night. Stand and fight, and save our schools.
Thank you.
You have to see this wonderful video of a basketball game in Texas between two high school teams.
It is about the kindness that adolescents can show for one another.
It’s about a young man with a disability who loves basketball.
It’s about the love that others showed to him.
Kathleen Porter-Magee of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute explains here why the anti-testing movement is wrong. She describes what she calls four “myths.”
Myth #1: teachers should be allowed to teach what they want, or “let teachers teach.” This is a very bad idea, she says, because teachers will have low expectations if you don’t tell them what to do.
Myth #2: emphasizing testing causes “drill and kill” instruction. Nothing could be farther from the truth, she says, because the really successful students are those who get engaging instruction. Don’t pay attention to the hundreds of millions of dollars that districts and states are spending on test prep materials.
Myth #3: tests can’t measure what really matter. What they do matter is very important so don’t worry that they don’t measure everything. Of course, very few people say that tests should not be used, but that they should not be used for rewards and punishments. When used diagnostically, they can be helpful. When used for high-stakes, they corrupt instruction.
Myth #4: standardization doesn’t work. Porter-Magee likes standardization.
It would be easy to knock down each of these “myths” and her facile answers.
The real danger of high-stakes testing is that they ruin education. Children cannot be standardized. Each one is unique. Yes, standards are helpful as guidelines but not as rigid prescriptions. The greatest dangers of high-stakes testing are that they narrow the curriculum only to what is tested. They encourage states and districts to game the system. They promote cheating (e.g., D.C.). They are based on the pretense that standardized tests are scientific instruments. They are not. They are prone to statistical error, random error, human error, measurement error. No one’s life should hinge on these fallible instruments.
Porter-Magee should google Campbell’s Law and study it. Also, read Daniel Koretz’ book “Measuring Up.”
What lessons do we teach young people about government when they see the lies told about their schools and their teachers by public officials? Are we teaching them that elected officials can say anything at all, with no regard for truth or reality?
This is a letter from a high school student in Florida. Please read it. She makes more sense than the deciders in DC and Tallahassee or the pundits.
Esther, don’t give up hope. We need your good sense to turn this nation and your state around.
She writes:
I am a high school student who attends a public school in Seminole County and I applaud you for this blog. This past year especially I have felt as if every other second I’m being force-fed a meaningless statistic about how wonderful the education is in Florida and how we are excelling by leaps and bounds, while I watch teachers and students alike suffer the consequences of these careless political decisions.
Our school’s media center is also a “Hub for Technology” computer lab to be used by teachers for testing, and 124 out of the 180 school days it is being used for just that – PERT, EOC, FCAT, AP, SAT, ACT, semester exams – when are teachers supposed to have the time to teach? We worry about budget cuts (to an already laughable budget), but while faculty and staff are being laid off and programs cut, the money is being handed away to test makers. These tests give us meaningless figures to show everyone we can that we’re “progressing” but personally I believe we are regressing.
And the evaluation systems for both teachers AND students are so ridiculous, it’s as if the public school system is a parody of itself. The pressure a teacher is put under to have all of the correct phrases, learning goals, and “percentile gain” methods on display in their classrooms; I honestly don’t know how they manage to do it. Stopping to have every high school student hold up a hand gesture and gauge their understanding on a lesson every time one is taught, just because these Marzano techniques were highly effective in ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS is, to me, insane.
I don’t even know what to do about any of this either aside from hope that someone with power, someone with common sense, someone with a love of EDUCATION, realizes what is going on and decides to take action. Because seeing my teachers crumpling under stress due to the greed of heartless politicians is something that I can hardly stomach.
Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford, New York, public schools wrote the following for his colleagues among NewYork superintendents:
“If you want to see Superman solve the problem of the day with the fix of the day, go to
the movies or buy a comic book. If you want to see a student motivated intrinsically with
drill-skill learning and a standardized test, go the DMV. If you want to make money off the
backs of kids, open a small business that sells video games, not tests.
If you want to see authentic learning, go to a public school where you will find a proud
principal who will gladly engage you in dialogue with professional teachers and introduce
you to remarkably dedicated staff members.
And then proceed to the entire school district where you will find a humble superintendent observing in schools, meeting with our citizens committee or civic partners, and planning with an elected board or district leaders; a superintendent who revels in the connections, the learning, and the organizational capacity to sustain success.”
Students in Providence, Rhode Island, will hold a Zombie protest against high-stakes testing outside the Rhode Island Department of Education headquarters on Wednesday afternoon.
State Commissioner Deborah Gist may not be there, as she is participating in a conference at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute in DC on Tuesday with Michelle Rhee about “cage-busting leadership.”
The students are the ones in the cage.
They would like to bust out of the cage created by NCLB and Race to the Top. RI won RTTT funding to make the cage stronger.
They want the freedom to think and the freedom to learn, free of bubble testing and mandates from D.C. and the state.
If you are a parent or student or concerned citizen, support the students of Providence!
Help them bust out of the cage of high-stakes testing.
MEDIA ADVISORY
CONTACT: Aaron Regunberg | Aaron@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | 847-809-6039 (cell)
“ZOMBIES” MARCH ON DEPT. OF EDUCATION TO PROTEST HIGH-STAKES TESTING
WHAT: Members of the Providence Student Union and other high school students dress as zombies and march from Burnside Park to RIDE, where they will dramatically demonstrate the deathly serious impact that the state’s new high-stakes testing graduation requirement may have on youth in Providence by staging a “die-in.”
DATE: Wednesday, February 13th
TIME / PLACE: 4:00 p.m. “zombie march” begins at Burnside Park in Providence
4:20 p.m. zombies demonstrate outside of RIDE (on the Westminster Street-side of the Shepard Building)
The event will have strong visuals and chants. Students will be available for interview.
###
The Providence Student Union is a youth-led student advocacy organization bringing high school students together to ensure youth have a real voice in decisions affecting their education. Learn more at www.providencestudentunion.org.
A few weeks ago, I posted a column by Mike Petrilli defending the idea that charters skim the best, most ambitious kids from public schools. The column was refreshing in that Mike abandoned the usual reformer pretense that charters enroll “exactly” the same children as public schools and get amazing results. Mike said that charters are for “strivers,” not for the others.
Here is a story about a non-striver and his teacher. Would the charters want him?
Note that his teacher is in Mayor Bloomberg’s ATR (absent teacher reserve) pool. These are teachers who lost their jobs when the mayor closed their schools. They float from school to school, at great cost to their dignity. Through no fault of their own, they are humiliated by the NYC Department of Education.
The Journey for Justice brought civil rights activists from across the nation to Washington, D.C., where they presented their demands to Secretary Duncan.
This is an important development because until now the leaders of the corporate reform movement have called themselves leaders of the “civil rights issue of our times.” This phrase has been bandied about by Joel Klein, Condoleeza Rice, Mitt Romney, Michelle Rhee, Michael Bloomberg, and Arne Duncan, as they applaud the closing of schools in minority communities, attack unions, and privatize public schools.
Now grassroots activists are speaking out in defense of their schools and communities. They are reclaiming the leadership of the civil rights from the 1%. Add to this the determination of the Garfield teachers in Seattle, the student protests in Portland, Oregon, and Providence, Rhode Island.
Something is in the air. Teachers, students. school boards, and parents are beginning to see what is happening, to understand that what is happening in their community is not a local issue but a determined, coordinated effort to privatize their schools.
Spring is coming.
Here is a first-hand account of the events associated with the Journey for Justice:
1/30/13
Dear SOS,
Many activists went to Washington, DC on a “Journey for Justice” to protest the school closings that are targeting our minority students living in impoverished communities.
Hear what transpired and be inspired.
This email came from Jaisal Noor- his coverage of the day
“Parents and Students Demand Nationwide Moratorium on Schools Closings
//”Journey for Justice” activists rally in DC to DOE investigate alleged Civil Rights violations in school closings
link: http://youtu.be/pCGrkb1qc7o
Chicago Parent and Activist Jitu Brown at “Journey for Justice” Hearing in DC
//Part 2 of TRN’s coverage of the “Journey for Justice” DOE Hearing on School Closings
link: http://youtu.be/1PX7y9-GWzI
New Orleans Parent and Activist Karran Harper Royal at “Journey for Justice” Hearing in DC
//Part 3 of TRN’s coverage of the “Journey for Justice” DOE Hearing on School Closings
link: http://youtu.be/c00PWQl8wLk
JAISAL NOOR: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND STUDENTS FROM 18 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY GATHERED IN WASHINGTON, DC THIS WEEK TO DEMAND A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS.
FEDERAL PROGRAMS LIKE RACE TO THE TOP OFFERED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO CITIES AND STATES FOR RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FIRING STAFF AND SHUTTING SCHOOLS DOWN. WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TOUTED THE COMPETITIVE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM AS A WAY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AND BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND THE WORKFORCE, MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAY THE CHANGES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.
(CLIP HELEN MOORE) “I came here to demand, I am demanding an education for our children. We pay the money, we have a right to have our kids educated”
THAT’S HELEN MOORE, A DETROIT EDUCATION ACTIVIST. SHE WAS ONE OF HUNDREDS WHO ATTENDED A HEARING TUESDAY IN WASHINGTON DC CALLING FOR A NATIONAL MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS. BROWN WAS PART OF A GROUP THAT FILED A TITLE VI CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT LAST SUMMER CHALLENGING THE POLICIES. SHE SAYS SCHOOL CLOSINGS IN DETROIT, A CITY ALREADY MARKED BY HIGH RATES OF UNEMPLOYMENT, VACANT HOUSES AND FORECLOSURES, ARE DESTABILIZING THE COMMUNITY.
(CLIP HELEN MOORE) “The neighborhood start going down as the families start moving out. They don;t want to be told what school to go to because there is no other school.
WHEN A SCHOOL IS CLOSED, THE STUDENT POPULATION OFTEN HAS TO TRAVEL TO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL BUILDING OR RE-APPLY TO GO BACK TO THEIR SCHOOL. ADDITIONALLY, THE STAFF IS OFTEN REPLACED AND RESOURCES ARE REGULARLY CUT, SOMETIMES IN FAVOR OF A CHARTER SCHOOL THAT IS OPENED IN THE SAME BUILDING.
SETH GALANTER IS WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS. HE SAID THEY ARE INVESTIGATING PEOPLE’S CONCERNS AND THE 6 TITLE VI COMPLAINTS THAT WERE FILED:
(CLIP SETH GALANTER)” When we look at these things, i need to emphasize, we cannot deal with every harmful decision that happens. sometimes people are negatively affected, but that doesn’t mean civil rights violation. THe question we are asking is if there’s an intent to discriminate or decision to make an illegal closing. Not only investigate weather to close schools, which schools to close, and how these decision impacted and affect on students. ”
AFTER THE HEARING, HUNDREDS OF PARENTS AND STUDENTS MARCHED TO THE MARTIN LUTHER KING MEMORIAL FOR A RALLY, CONTINUING THEIR CALL FOR JUSTICE. JOEL VELASQUEZ , A PARENT FROM OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA SAYS HE FOUGHT PLANS TO SHUT HIS SON’S SCHOOL BY LEADING A 3-WEEK LONG SIT-IN AT LAKEVIEW ELEMENTARY.
(CLIP JOEL VELASQUEZ) “After a year of trying to meet with officials, superintendent, we were left with no options, we took our school back. ”
HE WAS JOINED AT THE RALLY BY OAKLAND EDUCATOR AND ACTIVIST MIKE HUTCHINSON WHO SAYS SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND INCREASED CHARTER SCHOOLS ONLY TARGET THE CITY’S LOW INCOME COMMUNITIES
(CLIP HUTCHINSON) “If you look at a map of Oakland, we have the flatlands and the hills. In the flatlands, which are less affluent, that’s where all the school closures have happened, thats where all the charters are. There are no school closures and charters in the hills. If charter schools and school closures are the best option I would expect them to be applied across the board, but I haven’t seen that happen”
A DELEGATION FROM NEW ORLEANS, THE CITY WITH THE HIGHEST PROPORTION OF CHARTER SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTRY, ALSO TRAVELED TO DC. STUDENT TERREL MAJOR SAYS HIS PUBLIC SCHOOL GETS LESS RESOURCES THAN THE CHARTER SCHOOL THAT SHARES THE SAME BUILDING.
(CLIP TERREL MAJOR)”Like when the storm Issac came, after we came back from the storm, – their side of the cafeteria- we sit on different sides, their side of the cafeteria and our side was damaged for weeks. It made me feel lesser than, that I didn’t really matter in our own school.”
MAJOR CALLS THAT DISCRIMINATION. DESPITE THE CHALLENGES, SOME ARE ENCOURAGED BY THE GROWING GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT AGAINST SCHOOL CLOSINGS, INCLUDING NEW ORLEANS PARENT AND ACTIVIST KARRAN HARPER ROYAL.
(CLIP KARRAN HARPER ROYAL) I think we are at a turning point because there are people organizing around the country. In Seattle its testing, we are organizing around school closures, there are teachers organizing around evaluation systems. We are at a critical point because we are not getting the desired outcomes. ”
IN ADDITION TO A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS, ACTIVISTS ARE CALLING FOR SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION, INCREASED RESOURCES AND A COMMUNITY-BASED INPUT PROCESS . ORGANIZERS HAVE VOWED TO RETURN TO WASHINGTON IF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DOES NOT TAKE ACTION. REPORTING FOR THE REAL NEWS AND FSRN, THIS IS JAISAL NOOR IN WASHINGTON.”
—
Melody
Colorado Information Coordinator
Save Our Schools
saveourschoolsmarch.org
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/285175064843594/
The School Reform Commission of Philadelphia plans to close 37 schools to save money while opening charter schools.
Parents, students, teachers, and others are fighting back.
The city’s schools have been under state control for the past decade.
The School Reform Commission was urged by management consultants–the Boston Consulting Gtoup–to privatize more schools, even though Philadelphia tried it a decade ago and it didn’t work.
Diane Ravitch's blog 