Readers of this blog are well aware of my views. When I have a chance to share them with others who are not readers, I grab that opportunity.
I was recently interviewed by Julia Travers of “Philanthropy Women.”
This is the interview.
Archives for category: Supporting public schools
Citizens for Public Schools needs you now to stand up for public schools in Massachusetts.
Three ways you can stand up and speak out for public education today!
Take a few minutes today to raise your voice about these three important issues for our schools.
1) Less Testing, More Learning
Citizens for Public Schools members will testify at a public hearing before the Joint Education Committee Monday in favor of a moratorium on the high-stakes uses of standardized testing and other crucial reforms to improve assessment in the Commonwealth.
You can make a difference by asking your legislators to support five bills to reform and improve state assessment practices. Collectively, they would: stop the high stakes uses of standardized test results, establish a grant program to develop alternatives to high-stakes standardized testing, inform parents about their rights vis a vis state testing, allow local districts to determine graduation requirements, and make other improvements.
Read more about CPS’s priority education legislation here.
ACT TODAY! #StandUpForPublicEducation and ask your legislators to testify in support of these bills at Monday’s Joint Education Committee hearing, 10am, Room A-1. And then, spread the word. Thank you. (Email us if you would like to testify or submit written testimony to the committee.)
2) Fund Our Future
Thanks to all of you, our message about the urgent need to update the state school funding formula is getting through and resonating! A recent poll found 60% of voters believe our schools are not adequately funded, and nearly 60% are willing to pay more in taxes to fix funding disparities.
And today, parents are filing a lawsuit naming four state education officials for “violating the civil rights of low-income, black, and Latino students by failing to provide them with the same quality of education as their mostly white affluent peers.” (CPS is a member of the Council for Fair School Finance, backing the lawsuit.)
Now’s the time to keep up the pressure on legislators to pass urgently needed education funding legislation!
Contact your state senator and representative to support the PROMISE and CHERISH public education funding bills. Click below to find out if your legislators support the bills, then call to thank them or urge them to take a stand. Urge them to contact the appropriate committee chairs and express their support of these two crucial bills!
3) Keep Play in our Kindergarten Classrooms
A courageous group of Brookline kindergarten teachers are speaking out about program and curriculum practices, implemented without meaningful educator input, causing “everlasting negative impact” on their young students’ social-emotional well-being. In their letter, they say kids need play-based learning, not only stressful academic blocks that aren’t developmentally appropriate, create anxiety and hamper the joy of learning. Watch a video of their public comment here. Click the button below to sign a letter from a group of Brookline parents supporting the kindergarten teachers, and don’t forget to mention that you’re a CPS member in the comments! (You don’t have to be from Brookline to sign.)
Mercedes Schneider delved into the experience of Elizabeth Warren’s senior education advisor.
He entered teaching through Teach for America. I hear that his linked-in profile has been deleted since this post appeared but you might want to check to see if it has been restored.
I have met Elizabeth Warren twice, once in her Senate Office, about 2015, where we had a 30-minute conversation about education. I was greatly impressed by her quick intelligence. Earlier this year, I attended a house party in her honor at the home of a mutual friend in Manhattan and again was taken by her ideas about higher education, her passion, and her articulateness.
I was surprised and disappointed therefore to learn that her senior education advisor is TFA. TFA is a favorite of the Waltons, Eli Broad, and other billionaires who support privatization of public education. The Waltons have given many millions to TFA, at one point a single grant of $48 million; Broad assembled $100 million from a group of his allies for TFA. The organization supplies a large part of the workforce for private charter schools. Its leaders in high policy positions, like Michelle Rhee, John White, and Kevin Huffman have typically been pro-testing, anti-teacher, and anti-union.
I hope Warren clears the air by explaining where she stands on K-12 issues, whether she believes all children should have a credentialed teacher, whether she pledges to eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program (Betsy DeVos’ $440 Million Slush Fund), whether she supports the NAACP call for a moratorium on new charters, and whether she will actively fight to restore and protect teachers’ right to bargain collectively.
There is no more effective advocate for Texas children and public schools than Pastors for Texas Children. Through their dedication and hard work, they have played an important role in blocking vouchers and encouraging the passage of a new state budget that adds billions of dollars for public schools.
|
Our good friends who lead Pastors for Texas Children—the Revs. Charles Foster Johnson and Charles Luke—have great news to report from the Lone Star State. It was a bipartisan victory for five million children, their teachers, and their public schools!
|
Joe Batory was Superintendent of schools in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. In this article, which is part of his new memoir, he tells about the arrival of a large number of Vietnamese in Upper Darby in the mid-1980s, speaking no English. What they brought with them were strong family values, a deep respect for education, and a keen work ethic.
It was amazing to him to see how quickly they learned English and how well they did in public schools and how eager they were to become productive citizens.
In one story he talks about Minh and her progress.
“Minh was a delicate Vietnamese flower who arrived in Upper Darby as an 8th grader. She spoke no English when she entered the Beverly Hills Middle School. Five years later, in 1995, she was graduated from Upper Darby High School No. 1 in the class academically.
“At that point, Minh had completed more college-level Advanced Placement courses at Upper Darby High School than any previous student in the school’s history. As a result, she was granted status as a junior when she started Penn State University in the pre-med program. Minh graduated magna cum laude from Penn State with a pre-med bachelor’s degree in two years.
“At Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson Medical School, despite being much younger than her peers, Minh ranked near the top academically among all medical students. But she was not No. 1. Minh apologized to me for “her failing” in writing.
“Imagine feeling badly because even though you were an outstanding medical student, you were not No. 1. Minh was truly one of the best achievers and most caring persons I have ever met. She is now a successful doctor.”
For millions of students, the American public school remains the pathto a productive life.
I know that from my own family. My mother arrived from Bessarabia after World War 1 with her mother and sister. She didn’t speak any English. She was nine years old. The family settled in Houston. My mother and her sister went to Houston public schools. Her proudest accomplishment was learning perfect English and her high school diploma. She never went to college. Her family could not afford it. But she always was proud that she was a high school graduate, and she evouraged her children to go to college.
Charles Foster Johnson, leader of Pastors for Texas Children, describes an effort to censor and silence those who advocate on behalf of public schools:
Texas Senate Bill 29 was roundly defeated late yesterday afternoon in
the Texas House on an 85-58 vote. The bill would have prohibited local
school districts and other local government authorities such as
counties from taxpayer-supported advocacy in the Legislature. It is a
policy designed for one purpose: to silence those defending and
protecting public education and the public good and to enable those who advocate for privatization
and for personal financial profit.
Dirty little secret? The bill exempted charter schools. The bill would
have empowered them to lobby for even more public funding– without
being hassled by traditional public school advocates.
It failed miserably. The House of Representatives is generally
pro-public education here in Texas. They have held the line against
sweeping privatization efforts. We have repudiated vouchers multiple
times over the past couple of decades, and will never have them,
precisely because these conservative public officials hold to the
principle of local control and accountability that public schools so
beautifully incarnate.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who was behind the entire push, is livid.
His project to dismantle public education and the public good in Texas
is now exposed, and is losing. He lost his cool about it at the Senate
chair last night. He is coming unraveled and his chamber is
desperately broken. Unfortunately, our Governor Greg Abbott supported
the bill also. His only concern is not allowing Patrick to
“out-rightwing” him, so his political obsession is to stake out
whatever non-existent sliver of territory there is to the right of
Patrick.
Of course, this ill-fated bill serves the opposite purpose. Pro-public
education advocates will dramatically increase next legislative
session. Our pastors are in the Capitol every day. Next session we
will have a platoon of them daily instead of two or three. We are
grateful to NPE for joining us in our fight through the perfectly
timed action alert yesterday! Legislative offices were FLOODED with
calls opposing this ridiculous bill. Our strong solidarity together got the job
done!
Pastors for Texas Children and many other groups supporting public schools joined to defeat this proposal. NPE Action contacted its allies across the state of Texas, who joined with many thousands of parents, educators and citizens to defeat this effort to censor advocates for public schools.
Nebraska loves its public schools!
It remains one of the few states to reject vouchers, charters, and the Common Core.
Nebraska’s Legislature said NO again to vouchers!
From: Stand for Schools <info@standforschools.org>
Date: Wed, May 15, 2019 at 2:46 PM
Subject: With your help, we defeated LB 670!
Date: Wed, May 15, 2019 at 2:46 PM
Subject: With your help, we defeated LB 670!
|
The Texas House of Representatives endorsed sweeping legislation to fund public schools. Representative Dan Huberty (R-Houston), chairman of the House Public Education Committee, steered the legislation to a nearly unanimous vote.
“House Bill 3 would increase base funding for each student by $890, fund full-day pre-K for low-income 4-year-olds in most school districts, compress tax rates for all districts and reduce the amount of money wealthier districts pay the state in recapture payments to shore up poorer districts. Because Democrats spearheaded a change in the bill, it would also provide across-the-board raises for all full-time school employees who are not administrators.”
“We are finally reforming public education in Texas, and not by court order, so that’s a pretty important thing,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Dan Huberty, a Republican who chairs the House Public Education Committee. The vast majority of House lawmakers signed on to the bill as co-authors. Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, was the lone no vote.
“The bill will now make its way to the Senate. The upper chamber last week increased the amount it had planned to set aside for public education and property tax reform to match the House’s original proposal.”
Rep. Dan Huberty is a hero of public education. I met him a few years ago at an evening sponsored by Friends of Public Education in Texas. He joins the honor roll of this blog for shepherding a complex bill through the House that will improve schooling for five million children.
A progressive slate backed by the Working Families Party and the Milwaukee teachers’ union swept the school board election in Milwaukee.
I received this statement from Rob Duffey of the Working Families Party:
“Last night in Milwaukee the Wisconsin Working Families Party won big, electing a slate of five pro-public school champions who flipped the Milwaukee city school board from a pro-privatization majority to an 8-1 public school orientation. Milwaukee has long served as a laboratory for experimenting with charter schools and voucher programs to no benefit for students. Wisconsin Working Families Party recruited four of the five winning candidates and coordinated a winning strategy that will profoundly affect the decision making for how system budget priorities are set and how private charter schools will be held accountable.”
The slate was led by public education activist and former union president Bob Peterson.
“This is a day to celebrate Milwaukee’s support for public education,” said Peterson, who had gathered with supporters at the Art Bar in Riverwest.
“I look forward — the entire slate looks forward — to working with all the stakeholders, the entire school board, parents, students, the administration and elected officials locally and in Madison to defend and improve our public schools,” he said.
District by district, we will reclaim our schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 