Archives for category: Supporting public schools
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Why It Matters that LeBron James Is Supporting a PUBLIC School in Akron, Not a Charter School

By dianeravitch
August 8, 2018 //
32

I salute LeBron James for investing his funding in a public school, not a charter school.

Mr. James understands that the overwhelming preponderance of children in this country attend public schools, and we have a responsibility to make them work for all children. Charter schools and vouchers are an escape from the central problem, not an answer. He is way smarter than Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos or John Kasich or Jeb Bush or Rick Snyder or Rick Scott or Donald Trump or Reed Hastings or Eli Broad or any of the other billionaire builders of escape hatches that lead nowhere.

He is investing in wraparound services, as public schools do when they have the resources.

What he is demonstrating is that every public school can be its best when it has the resources to do what kids need.

We don’t need to hand public schools, their building and their public funding over to private entrepreneurs to prove what we know: Good schools are costly when kids are poor. They need smaller classes and additional resources.

This article in The Nation says exactly what I believe: “LeBron’s Education Promise Needs to Become This Country’s Promise.”

Every child should have the wraparound services, the small classes, the job training for parents, the caring environment of a family, that LeBron James’ school will offer its students.

LeBron James’s promise to the students in his school should be the promise that America makes to all its children.

I laughed when I read that Donald Trump slammed LeBron James and called him “stupid.” Trump doesn’t have the brains, the heart, or the accomplishments of LeBron James.

And I laughed again when Melania sent out a tweet congratulating LeBron after her husband mocked him. I hope she visits his PUBLIC school.

Categories Education Reform, Ohio, Supporting public schools

Ohio: A Great New Organization Has Been Launched to Fight Privatization, Theft, and Greed

By dianeravitch
August 7, 2018 //
19

I learned from Bill Phillis’s posts about a great new organization that has just been launched in Ohio.

If you live in Ohio, join it.

The organization, called Public Education Partners, was inspired by Jan Resseger’s post: https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/my-public-education-platform/

Every candidate running for public office, whether school board, state legislature, the governorship, or Congress should be asked to take a stand: Do you support this platform?

Preamble to PEP’s Public Education Platform

The Ohio Constitution (Article VI, sections 2 and 3) requires the state to secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools and provide for the organization, administration and control of the system. School district boards of education have the constitutional and statutory responsibility to administer the educational program. Boards of education have the fiduciary duty to ensure the educational needs of all resident students are met in an equitable and adequate manner.

The state’s first obligation is to ensure that a thorough and efficient system is established and maintained. The state has no right under the Ohio constitution to fund alternative educational programs that diminish moral and financial support from the common school system. Ohio’s system of school was declared unconstitutional more than two decades ago, yet since that time $11 billion have been drained from the public school system for publicly- funded, privately-operated charter schools. This egregious flaw in state policy must be addressed.

Jan Resseger of Cleveland Heights has aptly defined state and local responsibility for education as follows:

A comprehensive system of public education that serves all children and is democratically governed, publicly funded, universally accessible, and accountable to the public is central to the common good.

The education platform premised on the constitutional responsibility of the state of Ohio as stated in the preamble is:

A comprehensive system of public education that serves all children and is democratically governed, publicly funded, universally accessible, and accountable to the public, is central to the common good.
~Jan Resseger

Ohio Public Education Platform

This education platform is premised on the constitutional responsibility of the state of Ohio:

 Provide adequate and equitable funding to Ohio school districts to guarantee a comparable opportunity to learn for ALL children. This includes a quality early childhood education, qualified teachers, a rich curriculum that will prepare students for college, work and community, and equitable instructional resources. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WLdVez25ZjDzzd2irSUwUggj-GflNQuO/view?usp=sharing

 Respect local control of public schools run by elected school boards. There are different needs for different schools of different sizes, and each local school board knows what its students, families, and community values. http://www.nvasb.org/assets/why_school_boards.pdf

 Reject the school privatization agenda, which includes state takeovers, charter schools, voucher schemes, and high-stakes testing. The school privatization agenda has proven to be ineffective at bringing efficiency and cost savings to our schools. https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Privatizing_Public_Education,_Higher_Ed_Policy,_and_T eachers

 Do away with the state takeovers of school districts imposed in House Bill 70. State takeovers of school districts (HB 70), followed by the appointment of CEOs with power to override the decisions of elected school boards and nullify union contracts, is undemocratic, unaccountable, and without checks and balances. http://www.reclaimourschools.org/sites/default/files/state-takeover-factsheet-3.pdf

 Promote a moratorium on the authorization of new charter schools while gradually removing existing charters, which take funding and other valuable resources from public school districts. Charter schools remove funds and other resources from public school districts and need to be phased out. For-profit charter schools should be eliminated – tax dollars should never be transferred into private profits. https://knowyourcharter.com/

 Eliminate vouchers and tuition tax credit programs. Voucher schemes take desperately needed dollars out of education budgets and undermine the protection of religious liberty as defined by the First Amendment. https://educationvotes.nea.org/2017/02/08/5-names- politicians-use-sell-private-school-voucher-schemes-parents/

 Encourage wraparound community learning centers that bring social and health services into Ohio school buildings. These wraparound services ensure that the public schools are the center of the neighborhood, and they include health, dental, and mental health clinics, after school programs, and parent support programs. Cincinnati Public Schools has a very successful program: https://www.cps-k12.org/community/clc

 End the test-and-punish philosophy, and replace it with an ideology of school investment and improvement. The tests have narrowed the curriculum to the tested subjects. If national standardized testing is to continue, testing should be limited to the federal minimum guidelines, and there should be no state standardized tests beyond those mandated by ESSA. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer- sheet/wp/2017/01/06/how-testing-practices-have-to-change-in-u-s-public- schools/?utm_term=.45d28f77dcb0

 Remove high stakes mandates from schools, and abolish the practice of punishing schools, teachers, families, and students for arbitrary test scores. Do away with mandatory retention attached to the 3rd Grade Reading Guarantee and high school end-of-course state tests. If parents choose to opt their children out of testing, no one should be penalized. http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Dangerous-Consequences-of-high-stakes- tests.pdf

 Restore respect for well-trained, certified teachers, and return educator evaluation systems to locally elected school boards. Dismiss Teach for America, which is funded by the Eli Broad Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/went-wrong-teach-america/

Eliminate the practice of judging teachers by their students’ scores – research has proven it unreliable. http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/TeacherEvaluationFactSheetRevisionJanuary201 6.pdf

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Ohio, Privatization, School Choice, Supporting public schools, Testing, VAM (value-added modeling), Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

Valerie Strauss on Study Showing that Private Schools Are Not Better Than Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 2, 2018 //
27

On July 13, I posted the abstract from the study referenced here, showing that private schools are not better than public schools when demographic variables are controlled. If you have a school composed of kids from rich and educated families, your school will get higher test scores than a school that is open to all students.

Valerie Strauss has an extended discussion of the study here.She interviewed one of the study’s authors.

University of Virginia researchers who looked at data from more than 1,000 students found that all of the advantages supposedly conferred by private education evaporate when socio-demographic characteristics are factored in. There was also no evidence found to suggest that low-income children or children enrolled in urban schools benefit more from private school enrollment.

The results confirm what earlier research found but are especially important amid a movement to privatize public education — encouraged by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — based in part on the faulty assumption that public schools are inferior to private ones.

DeVos has called traditional public schools a “dead end” and long supported the expansion of voucher and similar programs that use public money for private and religious school education. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 states and the District of Columbia have policies allowing public money to be used for private education through school vouchers, scholarship tax credits and education savings grants.

Related: [There is a movement to privatize public education in America. Here’s how far it has gotten.]

The new study was conducted by Robert C. Pianta, dean of U-Va.’s Curry School of Education and a professor of education and psychology, and Arya Ansari, a postdoctoral research associate at U-Va.’s Center for Advanced Study for Teaching and Learning.

“You only need to control for family income and there’s no advantage,” Pianta said in an interview. “So when you first look, without controlling for anything, the kids who go to private schools are far and away outperforming the public school kids. And as soon as you control for family income and parents’ education level, that difference is eliminated completely.”

Kids who come from homes with higher incomes and parental education achievement offer young children — from birth through age 5 — educational resources and stimulation that other children don’t get. These conditions presumably carry on through the school years, Pianta said…

The Pianta-Ansari study examined not only academic achievement, “which has been the sole focus of all evaluations of private schooling reported to date, but also students’ social adjustment, attitudes and motivation, and even risky behavior, all of which one assumes might be associated with private school education, given studies demonstrating schooling effects on such factors.” It said:

“In short, despite the frequent and pronounced arguments in favor of the use of vouchers or other mechanisms to support enrollment in private schools as a solution for vulnerable children and families attending local or neighborhood schools, the present study found no evidence that private schools, net of family background (particularly income), are more effective for promoting student success.”

And it says this:

“In sum, we find no evidence for policies that would support widespread enrollment in private schools, as a group, as a solution for achievement gaps associated with income or race. In most discussions of such gaps and educational opportunities, it is assumed that poor children attend poor quality schools, and that their families, given resources and flexibility, could choose among the existing supply of private schools to select and then enroll their children in a school that is more effective and a better match for their student’s needs. It is not at all clear that this logic holds in the real world of a limited supply of effective schools (both private and public) and the indication that once one accounts for family background, the existing supply of heterogeneous private schools (from which parents select) does not result in a superior education (even for higher income students).”

Pianta and Ansari note in the study that previous research on the impact of school voucher programs “cast doubt on any clear conclusion that private schools are superior in producing student performance.”

Valerie goes on to refer to an important study by Christopher and Sarah Lubienski:

A 2013 book, “The Public School Advantage,” by Christopher A. Lubienski and Sarah Theule Lubienski, describes the results of a look at two huge data sets of student mathematics performance, that found public school students outperform private school ones when adjusted for demographics.

Categories Education Reform, Research, Supporting public schools

About LeBron James’ New Public School in Akron: The Akron Superintendent Speaks

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2018 //
65

My thanks to Akron Superintendent David W. James for answering the questions that some readers have asked.

And congratulations to superstar LeBron James for supporting public schools in Akron!

Diane,

I felt compelled to provide some additional information based on some of the responses to your blog that I have read here today.

First, LeBron is a wonderful partner of the Akron Public Schools (APS). The I Promise School (IPS) is a public school. We fund the students like we fund all other students in our district of approximately 21,000 students. The school was not built from the ground up, we are using an existing APS facility that was used to house students while their schools were being rebuilt. By the way, we have rebuilt 32 schools so far.
Students are selected by lottery among students from across the district who perform below the 25th percentile in reading. In addition we have an independent auditor from a local financial services firm observe the randomized lottery process.

While opening a new school will result in adjustments among other schools across APS, this is no different than our National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle and High Schools or our Akron Early College High School, where enrollment is from across the district.

In terms of the teachers, they are union members represented by the Akron Education Association, and I am proud of the fact that we agreed to use an interview process to select them. The District and the Association also agreed to the modified school schedule without contention because it is good for kids.

APS funds this school as we fund all other schools within the district. LeBron and his Foundation partners are funding most of the wrap-around supports and extra services above and beyond what we typically provide. For those of us in the public and not-for-profit sectors, we constantly worry about sustainability.

The free breakfast and lunch meals provided to all APS students are also provided to the IPS students. The bus rides provided to APS students in grades K through 8, who live more than 2 miles away from their school, are provided to the IPS students, in accordance with Ohio law. Our resident students are not charged tuition.

Our partnership with LeBron James goes back over 10 years. His commitment to our children is absolutely genuine.

David W. James, Superintendent
Akron Public Schools

Categories Ohio, Supporting public schools

LeBron James Is Proud That He Opened a Public School, not a Charter School or a Private School

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2018 //
27

LeBron James could have followed the well-worn path of other celebrities by putting money into a charter school (e.g., Andre Agassi, whose Las Vegas charter school was so bad that it was handed off to a New York City charter operator).

But, no, he partnered with the Akron public schools to open a public school.

Good on LeBron!

Read here. Or here for the transcript.

View the video, where he says: “We literally have a school. It’s not a charter school, it’s not a private school, it’s a real-life school in my hometown. And this is pretty cool.”

The kids in his schools will have lots of wraparound services and, if they graduate, free college.

LeBron is giving back to the schools that made his success possible. He knows exactly what he is doing.

LeBron is creating a model of what a public school can be if it is well funded.

Categories Education Reform, Ohio, Supporting public schools

Oklahoma: Pastors for Oklahoma Kids Organize to Support Public Schools and Their Teachers

By dianeravitch
July 5, 2018 //
11

This is a report from the newly organized Pastors for Oklahoma Kids, written by Rev. Clark Frailey.

The good news, he says, is that “The Times, They Are A’Changing.”

This is great news for Oklahoma!

He writes:

When entering the Oklahoma State Capitol near the beginning of the session in February, I had no idea what would be in store for Oklahoma over the course of the next few months: the political upset seen in our most recent primary election, record new candidates filing for office, record voter turnout, and the defeat of numerous anti-public school incumbents.

Tulsa World photographer Mike Simons’s image of Representative Scott McEachin looking at his watch as teachers sought an audience with him to advocate for their students became a symbol of the attitude several political extremists took during the April 2018 school shutdown.

While the majority of Republican and Democrat legislators opened their doors for discussion, time and again we would hear about legislators locking out their constituents or not even bothering to show up for work.

Some legislators even bowed so low as to invent stories of perceived threats by the teachers being present. Think on that for a minute: They wanted us to buy the narrative that the Pre-K teachers who wipe little noses and teach primary colors were threatening to them.

About a year earlier, 50 pastors from across Oklahoma had converged at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City in an effort to see if our shared concerns about the state of public education in Oklahoma were on the same page. We found common ground in our concerns and Pastors for Oklahoma Kids was formed.

Since then our fledgling grassroots group has expanded to hundreds of faithful and church leaders across Oklahoma that support our work advocating for public school children.

We were blown away when our Sunday night candlelight prayer rally in front of the state capitol following the first week of the walkout in April grew exponentially from our projected 30 to hundreds of Oklahoma’s faithful.

That night we received reports from others in our network that prayer vigils broke out across the state in Ada, Stillwater, Tulsa, and beyond.

While a bit cliche, Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit, “The Times They Are a Changin” keeps playing over and over in my mind. The teachers of Oklahoma sent a message in the first available election following the walkout: the time for games with our kids is over.

Teachers led the good fight but we know they should not stand alone for our kids. Pastors, small business owners, parents, grandparents and anyone who loves their local community need to be involved in the defense of our good community public schools.

For years now, these schools have faced relentless and unwarranted attacks by politicians and outsiders who want to privatize our public schools.

These deep-pocketed outsiders continue dumping thousands of dollars into our local elections to influence good Oklahomans to vote for their nefarious plans. But we are holding fast and remember the core identity and values we all share of community: watching out for one another and investing in the future.

Teachers, parents, and the community sent a powerful message to all current and future legislators: Leave our schools alone. Invest in our future. We are watching you.

The times they are definitely a-changin’ in Oklahoma.

Categories Oklahoma, Supporting public schools

School Choice is Not Good for American Education

By dianeravitch
June 22, 2018 //
41

I wrote this article, which was posted just online by the Washington Post.

Charters are not “progressive.” They pave the way for vouchers. They divert funding from public schools, which enroll 85% of American students. They are more segregated than public schools. Ninety percent are non-union. The far-right Walton Foundation is spending $200 million a year on charters and Betsy DeVos is currently spending $400 million, which may soon increase to $500 million. The vaunted “high performance” charters have either higher attrition or cherry pick their students.

Our nation is evolving a new dual school system, with one system choosing its students and the other required to find a place for all who apply.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democracy, Education Reform, Segregation, Supporting public schools, Unions, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

CTA to Friends of Public Schools: Support AB 276!

By dianeravitch
June 15, 2018 //
6

The California Teachers Association calls on all friends of public schools to support AB 276, which sets standards for accountability and transparency for charter schools across the state.

Charter Legislation to Stop Waste, Fraud and Abuse Up for Critical Vote

Please take a minute to contact your Senator %%Senator Full Name%% at %%Senator Phone%% and urge %%Her or Him%% to SUPPORT AB 276 by Assembly Member Jose Medina.

As responsible educators and Californians, we need to hold ALL public entities accountable for their use of taxpayer dollars, particularly when it comes to our schools.

The ongoing proliferation of charter schools is hurting students in our neighborhood public schools because of the lack of transparency and accountability, and the disparity in requirements under which charter schools operate.

The Senate Education Committee is set to vote on AB 276, which requires charter school governing boards to comply with laws promoting transparency and accountability to parents and the public in the operation of public schools and the expenditure of public funds; holding charter schools to the same requirements as traditional public schools. However, ALL senators need to hear from you since AB 276 might be up for a floor vote.

It just takes 60 seconds to contact your Senator! Those taking funds away from our neighborhood schools are also contacting lawmakers to pressure them to keep things the way they are, so it is imperative we reach out to our senators now and urge them to STOP this waste, fraud and abuse!

Contact Senator %%Senator Full Name%% at %%Senator Phone%% and urge %%Her or Him%% to SUPPORT AB 276 by Assembly Member Jose Medina.

Recent headlines are mind-boggling!
More than $149 million of waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars has been documented in California’s charter school environment, hurting our students and communities.

Having private and secret meetings to discuss how tax dollars will be spent is not acceptable.
Too much is at risk when our students are counting on sound financial decisions that will ensure they get the quality public education they need and deserve.

The only ones benefiting from our public schools should be the students, and ultimately our community.
AB 276 prohibits charter school board members and their immediate families from financially benefiting from their schools. Public schools’ conflict of interest laws and disclosure regulations should also apply to charter schools that receive public funds.

Streamlined regulations for charter schools were never intended to grant operators total authority over taxpayer dollars without any accountability.

Show us the money!
We must require companies and organizations that manage charter schools to release to parents and the public how they spend taxpayer money, including their annual budgets and contracts. The public’s business should be transacted in public. Public agencies must take their actions openly and their deliberations must be conducted openly.

We deserve to know how our schools are being run, and our state deserves an education system that is free from unfair advantages and double standards. Companies and organizations that manage charter schools must open board meetings to parents and the public, similarly to public school board meetings.

Read more about AB 276:
Fact Sheet | Letter | Details

Categories Accountability, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Funding, Privatization, Supporting public schools

Steven Singer: Why the Best Charter School Is Not As Good As The Worst Public School

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2018 //
12

Steven Singer here explains why any public school, no matter how “bad,” is better than ant charter school, no matter how “good.”

He begins:

But if one had to choose between the worst public school and the best charter school, you’d still be better off with the public school.

Does that sound crazy? Does it sound ideological, partisan, or close-minded.

I don’t think so.

Imagine if we said the same thing about tyrannies and democracies.

There are good tyrannies.

There are bad democracies.

Still, I’d prefer the worst democracy to the best tyranny.

Why?

Because even a badly run democracy is based on the principle of self rule. The government gets its right to make and enforce laws from the consent of the will of the governed.

Even if our representatives are corrupt and stupid, even if our federal, state and local agencies are mismanaged and disorganized – there is the potential for positive change.

In fact, the catalyst to that change is embedded in democracy, itself. Egalitarian systems founded on the principle of one person, one vote tend toward fairness, equity and liberty much more than others.

Bad leaders will be replaced. Bad functionaries will be retrained or superseded. Bad agencies will be renovated, renewed, and made to serve the will of the people.

However, in a tyranny, none of this is true.

Even if you have a benevolent tyrant who does nothing all day but try to do whatever is best for his or her subjects, that is a worse state of affairs.

Eventually the tyrant will change. Absolute power will corrupt him or her absolutely. Or even if this bastion of human goodness is incorruptible, he or she will eventually be deposed, replaced or die.

And there is nothing – absolutely nothing – to ensure the next tyrant is likewise benevolent. In fact, the system is set up to increase the likelihood that the next ruler will be as selfish, greedy and malevolent as possible.

This is because it is the system of tyranny, itself, that is corrupt – even if those that fill its offices are not.

The same goes for good charter schools.

Categories Charter Schools, Democracy, Privatization, Supporting public schools

Montgomery, Alabama: Vote for Larry Lee for School Board

By dianeravitch
May 22, 2018 //
4

Larry Lee is running for school board in Montgomery, Alabama, on the Republican line. I hope that many people vote for him and elect him. He is passionate about improving schools for all children. He is very well qualified to serve on the school board and would be a champion for students and teachers.

The school board election is June 5.

Larry Lee is a native of Alabama who is dedicated to helping public schools. Larry headed a rural education group and traveled the state to identify high-performing public schools where principals, teachers, and parents in rural schools are doing their best to help their children get a good education despite meager resources.

Since he announced his candidacy, Larry has been harshly criticized by some key figures in the Republican Party.

Larry believes in public schools. That’s where the kids are. Larry knows that charters and vouchers don’t solve the problems of the children or the schools.

The campaign to stop Larry Lee turned vicious. In the closing days of the campaign, he was called a racist. Larry Lee cited his deep support in the black community, and he denounced the charges as “more trash.”

Behind the attacks on Larry is the Business Council of Alabama, which supports privatization of public schools.

Larry wrote,

“There is a battle going on for the heart and soul of our public schools. And really for the heart and soul of Alabama.

“So that battle has now landed on District 2 of the Montgomery School Board. A few square miles of east Montgomery are now a microcosm of what is taking place from Bayou La Batre to Bridgeport and from Smith’s Station to York.

“Last night I sat in a packed auditorium of a Montgomery elementary school while the 5th grade performed their own version of a Broadway musical. It was delightful. Mamas and daddies clapped and took pictures and beamed when Johnny or Mary had a featured part.

“This was Alabama at its best. This is what public schools are all about. About teachers who work tirelessly to teach some very awkward young man how to “dance” or some shy young lady to step to a microphone and recite lines with 500 pair of eyes staring at her. It’s about the PTA giving the principal a check for $25,000 to be used to make her school better.

“It’s about the smell of popcorn and five-year old little sister squirming on the floor at the front of the room while big sister sings and dances.

“I know that. It’s sad that others don’t. That instead, they think a school board election is only about bending others to their own will.

“I am glad the battle continues.”

Larry Lee is the real thing. He is running for the school board to fight for better schools. I hope the people of his district elect him to stand up for their children and their public schools.

If you wish to donate to Larry’s campaign, here is the link. He would be grateful for a donation of any size. It is time the children have an advocate on the school board.

Categories Alabama, Education Reform, Supporting public schools
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