Earlier today, the Rocketship charter chain, known for saving money by putting kids in front of computers and using Teach for America, has withdrawn its proposal to open two charter schools in Morgan Hill, a town of 40,000.
Credit goes to local activists, who organized to support their local public schools.
Meanwhile, Rocketship has targeted Memphis, Milwaukee, and other cities with their special brand of low-budget schooling for poor kids.
Owen Davis, writing for Alternet, lists ten big victories for public schools in 2013.
He begins:
“If what’s past is truly prologue, there’s a good chance 2013 will be remembered as the year the free-market education reform movement crested and began to subside. After a decade of gathering momentum, reform politics began to founder in the face of communities fighting for equitable and progressive public education. Within the year’s first weeks, a historic test boycott was underway, civil rights advocates confronted Arne Duncan on school closings, and thousands were marching in Texas to roll back reforms.
“Perhaps we should have sensed this coming: the Chicago Teachers Union strike in the fall of 2012 foreshadowed the education struggles that would take center stage in 2013. In addition to fair contract provisions, they called for a new course for public schools: well-rounded curriculum, fewer mandated tests, more nurses and social workers, an end to racially discriminatory disciplinary policies, and early childhood education, among other demands.
“The CTU’s chief victory lay in galvanizing public education advocates across the country around a vision for public education that took full form in 2013. At the same time, the year saw reform bulwarks like Teach for America and the Common Core standards suffer unprecedented shocks.”
The tide is turning. Corporate reform is not collapsing, not yet, but it is running into a firestorm of resistance. Rough sledding ahead for the corporate reformers as the public wakes up and parents organize to stop the theft of heir public schools and the joy of learning.
For the past dozen years, New York City has had a procession of school chancellors who were not educators: a banker, a prosecutor, a publisher, a former deputy mayor.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio made a daring–and wise– decision to select a professional educator to run the nation’s largest school system, which enrolls 1.2 million students. His search narrowed to three excellent candidates, all of whom are career professional educators: Joshua Starr, superintendent of the Montgomery County public schools, known for his strong stand against standardized testing; Kathleen Cashin, a member of the New York Board of Regents, who has valiantly opposed its unwise emphasis on high-stakes testing; and Carmen Farina, a seasoned educator and former deputy chancellor in the city school system.
De Blasio selected Farina, who promises to bring a new era of collaboration with parents, teachers, and principals. She brings humor, passion, and intelligence to the job. She spoke at the announcement about the joy of learning, a term unheard in the past dozen years. She spoke of celebrating the good work of dedicated professionals.
It is a new day in New York City. The era of punishing, blaming, and shaming professional educators is over. De Blasio announced that he will immediately scrap the A-F grading system that Mayor Bloomberg picked up from Governor Jeb Bush. He will initiate a moratorium on school closings and charter co-locations. Watch for more changes in store.
This is a great turn of events, not only for New York City, but for the nation.
Thank you, Mayor de Blasio.
Congratulations to our new Chancellor, Carmen Farina.
I do my best to explain the assault on public education. It is unprecedented in American history. Public schools have always had critics, but never has there been a calculated effort to replace public schools with privately managed schools. And let’s be frank: that movement has succeeded because of bipartisan support and the availability of hundreds of millions–or billions, if you include Race to the Top–in government and private funding to undermine public education.
Here is a new interview, this one with “District Administration.”
Make no mistake. We can stop this movement if we recognize what is happening and unite.
Join your local or state group to support public education.
Contact the Network for Public Education, and we will help you find a state or local pro-public school group.
Pennsylvania blogger Yinzercation explains the stunning victory of the education justice movement in Pittsburgh. Parents, educators, and community members organized, mobilized, and elected new members to the school board.
The new board canceled a contract with TFA and reversed the closing of an elementary school.
Santa came early in Pittsburgh
Mark Funkhouser, the director of the Governing Institute in Washington, D.C. and former mayor of Kansas City, wrote a terrific article recognizing how social media–specifically, this blog–is changing the national conversation about education.
While Funkhouser focuses on the debate about Common Core, he acknowledges that the underlying issue goes to the heart of our democracy. Blogging and social media have given parents and teachers a means of speaking back to the powerful.
This blog in particular has created a means by which those who lack vast resources of money and political power can be heard, and just as important, can find allies.
He mentions the role of the blog in supporting the Badass Teachers Association, as well as the Network for Public Education.
What he sees is that I have relied on my readers to inform me and each other as we struggle to protect our children from excessive testing and our public schools from privatization. Together, we are powerful. We are redefining democracy to allow many more voices to be heard, not just those who own the media.
In 2011, Rocky Killion, the superintendent of schools in West Lafayette, Indiana, had an idea: What if we made our own documentary about the schools? What if we became our own production crew? What if we traveled the country and interviewed experts with our questions?
They did it, and the film premiered in Lafayette to an enthusiastic audience of 1,000 people.
The tile of the film is “Rise Above the Mark.” It was directed by Purdue University student Jack Klink, with author Angie Klink, Jack Klink’s mother was scriptwriter. Political analyst Steve Klink, Angie Klink’s husband, was an executive producer. Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Coyote narrates.
The article says:
“The film was funded completely by donations made to the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation; no tax dollars were used.
“That’s what the film is about: Let’s have a conversation,” Killion said. “Are we on the right track? If we want to become world class and have the world’s best competitive system, why wouldn’t we look at the best education systems and learn from them?”
“The film opens on an emotional Diana Rathert, a fifth-grade teacher who retired early from WLCSC after 38 years. As Rathert speaks about why she retired, she breaks down into tears.
“I still love what I do and I loved it up until the end,” she said. “But I feel like the legislators have beaten us down, and I hope some way we find a way to fight our way back up to the top.”
“It’s a scene that sets the tone for the 65-minute film, which aspires to shift the national discussion surrounding the education reform movement and speaks out against “corporate reform,” including the increase in public charter schools and an increasing reliance on standardized testing.
“Through stories of those like Rathert’s, the film’s creative team hopes to put a face to those teachers directly affected by reform movements that champion private school vouchers, charter schools and other measures that they say put more restrictions on teachers.”
I was interviewed and I can’t wait to see “Rise Above the Mark.”
Chris Christie is a leading candidate for the Republican nomination in 2016.
Jersey Jazzman here reveals what Christie has done about the high school in the state Capitol, Trenton Central High School.
Listen to the students. Watch the video. The high school sends kids to Ivy League colleges, but Christie rants about “failure factories.” He never acknowledges that New Jersey is one of the nation’s highest performing states, and his policy towards the districts with high concentrations of poverty and racial segregation is privatization and, as Trenton High School vividly demonstrates, neglect.
As the video shows, the building is literally falling apart, crumbling, parts of it are unsafe.
On education, Chris Christie deserves an F.
Pennsylvania is home to some of the nation’s most unscrupulous charter operators, some of whom are under criminal investigation or on trial for fraud and misappropriation of public funds. But say this for some of the sleaziest: they give generously to political campaigns. That is why the Legislature is considering SB 1085, which would allow new charters to open without local approval.
If you want to protect public schools in Pennsylvania from reckless privatization, if you want to maintain local control, take action now to oppose SB 1085.
Here is advice from the pro-public education Keystone State Education Coalition:
SB1085 ALERT:
Charter School Reform bill is on the PA Senate calendar for December 3rd.
Call your state senator; urge them to vote no on SB1085 which would remove local control over tax dollars.
Use this link to find contact information for your state senator:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/contact.cfm?body=S
1. If you are concerned about SB1085 giving unelected charter operators the power to spend tax dollars without any local oversight or control, please call your state senator’s office and let them know ASAP.
Urge them to maintain local control over tax dollars by locally elected, locally accountable school boards; urge them to vote no on SB1085.
SB1085 would allow colleges and universities to authorize new charter schools without local approval.
SB1085 would eliminate enrollment caps on charter schools. This will allow for the unfettered expansion of charter schools in PA.
SB1085 would increase the initial term of a charter from 3 years to 5 years, and allow a charter school to be granted a 10 year renewal
SB1085 would allow two or more charters to consolidate and transfer oversight to the PA Department of Education; local taxpayers would still pay the tuition
SB1085 would remove the provision that requires charter applications to be evaluated based on the extent to which the school may serve as a model for other public schools.
2. Please forward this alert to any interested public education stakeholders.
3. If you have a few minutes more to spare, please consider calling any or all of these Senate officers:
Majority Leader Senator Dominic Pileggi
(717) 787-4712 FAX: (717) 783-7490
dpileggi@pasen.gov
Majority Whip Senator Patrick Browne
(717) 787-1349 FAX: (717) 772-3458
pbrowne@pasen.gov
Majority Caucus Chair Senator Michael Waugh
(717) 787-3817 FAX: (717) 783-1900
mwaugh@pasen.gov
Majority Caucus Secretary Senator Robert Robbins
(717) 787-1322 FAX: (717) 772-0577
rrobbins@pasen.gov
Majority Appropriations Chair Senator Jake Corman
(717) 787-1377 FAX: (717) 772-3146
jcorman@pasen.gov
Majority Caucus Administrator Senator John Gordner
(717) 787-8928 FAX: (717) 787-9715
jgordner@pasen.gov
Majority Policy Committee Chair Senator Edwin Erickson
(717) 787-1350 FAX: (717) 787-0196
eerickson@pasen.gov
You can also use this Education Voters PA link to send an email to your state senator opposing SB1085:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6041/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8833
Sue Peters is a parent activist who had the courage to run for election to the Seattle school board. The big money bet against her. They were wrong. Sue won, and she won decisively. I am happy to say that she was endorsed by the Network for Public Education, and I hope that our endorsement got her a few extra votes.
Sue wrote a letter to thank the board of the NPE and to describe the tough campaign in which she prevailed. Her victory gives heart to all of us who are pushing back against the corporate reform movement. We will make our public schools stronger and better for all, not by handing them off to private management, but by engaging the public in the work of supporting them.
Dear Diane and members and supporters of the Network for Public Education,
Once again, I am pleased to extend my thanks to you and NPE for your invaluable support and endorsement of my grassroots candidacy for Seattle School Board. I am thrilled to announce that we won – convincingly!
On Election night, we led by 51-48 percent, and that lead has only grown with every new vote tally. We are now approaching a 9-point margin, at 54-45 percent. That is nearly a 14,000-vote lead.
Why Our Win Matters:
This is a victory not only for my campaign, but for communities, families, and educators everywhere who are the key stakeholders in public education, but whose voices are not always heard in the national debate over education reform, or in our own local school district.
This is also a victory for authentic, grassroots democracy. Seattle voters did not allow a small group of moneyed interests to buy this election.
My opponent’s campaign and political action committee (PAC) spent a record-breaking $240,000+, much of it on negative campaigning, most of it bankrolled by a small group of wealthy proponents of corporate ed reform and charter schools.
The PAC attacked my candidacy four times throughout the campaign with progressively more mendacious and offensive mailers. The attacks focused almost entirely on defending the Gates Foundation, in a bizarre and unsuccessful attempt to discredit me, and completely ignored the important issues facing our school district like overcrowding, inequity of resources among our schools, excessive testing and low teacher morale.
This amount of money and such tactics are unprecedented not only in Seattle but Washington State for a school board race.
Thankfully, voters were not fooled by the distortions and diversions.
I am proud of my authentic, fiscally responsible, volunteer-driven campaign, which remained focused on the issues and maintained its integrity.
I am also grateful to everyone who helped us counter the barrage of misinformation, and to those of you who promoted my candidacy personally. I want to particularly thank Dr. Diane Ravitch, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and national education historian, who recognized that my campaign represented a national battle over the integrity and future of public education. Her support gave important legitimacy to our campaign and to my efforts over the years to engage on education issues, as both a journalist and parent.
I believe my near decade of experience with the Seattle Public School District resonated with voters, as well as my clear commitment to keeping the public in public education.
Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Sue Peters
Parent, journalist, public education advocate,
and Seattle School Board Director-Elect
Diane Ravitch's blog 