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Texas: Don’t Take Over Houston’s Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2019 //
10

 

State takeovers of struggling school districts have a very poor track record. Two education leaders in Houston call on state officials to support the Houston Independent School District,  not to dissolve local control.

Ruth Kravetz is co-founder of Community Voices for Public Education and Zeph Capo is President of the Texas AFT. They speak out for democracy.

I have a stake in HISD. I attended public school there from kindergarten through high school graduation. The Houston public schools prepared me to enter a selective college. My mother, fresh off the boat in 1919, having fled war-torn Europe, enrolled in Houston public schools and learned to speak English. Her high school diploma was one of her proudest possessions.

They write:

The Texas Education Agency should heed evidence from around the country that state takeovers of schools harm students and communities. The public needs to know that the rules for assessing school performance, and rating them by letter grade, are capricious and biased, and are archetypal examples of grandfathering at their worst.

They give numerous examples of failed state takeovers. In Tennessee, Ohio, and elsewhere. They could have added Michigan, where state takeovers have been a disaster.

Categories Houston, Texas

Larry Lee: What Does Texas Know, But Alabama Does Not Know?

By dianeravitch
July 2, 2019 //
2

 

Larry Lee has been following the saga of the Gulen charter that plans to open in a rural county in Alabama.

In this post, he notes that the Texas State Board of Education turned down the same charter leader that Alabama’s charter commission approved.

He wonders what led a bipartisan majority in Texas to reject the charter application.

Texas has many Gulen charters. Why did they reject this one?

Categories Alabama, Charter Schools, Gulen Charter Schools, Texas

News from the Pastors for Texas Children

By dianeravitch
June 17, 2019 //
2

 

Our allies the Pastors for Texas Children have repeatedly blocked vouchers in Texas, and they are now celebrating a significant boost in state funding for public schools. They have helped to start similar organizations in other states to protect the separation between church and state.
Dear Friend,

Our nation is wracked by a politics of division, where special interests and big donors set the political agenda for both sides of the aisle. State budgets, which should be reflections of our shared character and moral values, too often reflect the lie of scarcity, promoting an agenda of runaway privatization that harms God’s common good.

More often than not, this agenda involves slashing crucial funding for public education, cutting services to the most vulnerable among us: Texas’ children. 

But Pastors for Texas Children won’t give in to this agenda for one simple reason: we’re a Spirit-driven, people-powered organization, not beholden to any political party or special interest group. During this year’s legislative session, we successfully lobbied for legislative action on the pro-public education priorities that Texans and our legislators hold dear.

We still have a long way to go until we fully recognize robustly funded public schools as the cornerstone of our shared life together, but this was truly a transformative legislative session and a major step on our journey. And we couldn’t do it without you. 

Scripture reminds us that communities flourish when good stewards of God’s grace serve each other with the gifts we have received (1 Peter 4:10). And you have been a steward of PTC’s work and mission in the world. Please consider more ways to steward our work as our legislative witness winds down and our year-round work continues:

  1. Pray for us.Without your prayers and support, we could not do what we do in Texas and around the nation.
  2. Give a gift to sustain our work. A recurring gift of just $5/month helps us sustain our work and our witness.
  3. If you’re part of an organization, business, or church that would be interested in attending next week’s PTC Benefit Luncheon (6/18) at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, email Brandon Grebe today about reserving a spot.

May God bless you, friend.
-Pastors for Texas Children
Copyright © 2019 Pastors for Texas Children, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have signed up as a partner on our website.Our mailing address is:

Pastors for Texas Children

PO Box 100502

Fort Worth, Tx 76185

Categories Education Reform, Funding, Separation of church and state, Texas

News from Pastors for Texas Children

By dianeravitch
June 5, 2019 //
1

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.

 

Dear Friend of Pastors for Texas Children,

My name is John Noble. I’m currently a ministerial student at Brite Divinity School at TCU in Fort Worth, and I serve as the ministry intern for PTC. In this role, I work to connect our network of faith leaders, educators, and community partners to our sacred work: ministry to and advocacy for Texas’ public school system.

This ministry has been one of my life’s greatest blessings. Through this work, I’ve had the opportunity to see the community gather at our many Celebrations for Public Education, where we come together to celebrate the common blessing of Texas public schools. I’ve rallied at the Capitol with pastors, teachers, parents, and community leaders advocating a pro-public education budget, and I’ve met with legislators to discuss the moral urgency of fairly funding our schools through a clean HB3.

I love PTC because we minister to the needs of to all Texas children and educators in our work. But this ministry is only possible with community support. 

As a PTC partner, you are part of a network of 2000 faith leaders across the state that makes our work possible. You are part of a bipartisan consensus in Texas, declaring that public education is a sacred good and a constitutional right. Acting together, unified across lines of difference, our pastors, faith leaders, educators, and community partners have laid the groundwork for a Texas that puts the needs of our kids first.

Another reason I’m proud to work with PTC? We’re 100% independent. We’re not beholden to any political or special interest group. Our faith-driven mission is guided by one question: what’s best for the children of our state and nation? That independence also means we depend on the generous financial support of our network. Right now, there are two ways that you can continue to support PTC in our pro-public education ministry:

  1. Be a part of our Benefit Luncheon. On Tuesday, June 18, we’re hosting our annual fundraiser luncheon, honoring rural education hero Dr. Don Rogers. If you’re a part of an organization that supports our ministry, consider sponsoring a table at the event. Registration closes next Monday, June 10, so check out our website and contact Brandon Grebe to make your reservation today!
  2. Give a Gift to PTC: Want to support PTC as an individual? Sustain our work with a financial contribution on our website. Grassroots donors are the backbone of our organization (our average online donation is $46).

I know that the church, in its social witness and diverse denominations, is called first and foremost to serve the poor and the vulnerable, especially poor and vulnerable children. I don’t know anyone living that mission and doing that work better than Texas public educators. Your gift to PTC helps us serve them.

In Christ,
John Noble
Copyright © 2019 Pastors for Texas Children, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have signed up as a partner on our website.Our mailing address is:

Pastors for Texas Children

PO Box 100502

Fort Worth, Tx 76185

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Privatization, Separation of church and state, Supporting public schools, Texas, Vouchers

Pastors for Texas Children: Great News for Public Schools in the Lone Star State!

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2019 //
8

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!
       The 86th Session of the Texas Legislature, just completed on Monday, May 27, was the most productive on behalf of our 5.4 million schoolchildren in recent memory. Certainly, it was the finest session in the six years Pastors for Texas Children has been in existence.

The signature policy achievement of this legislature was House Bill 3, which secured over $5 billion dollars in new funding for our 8500 Texas public schools, enacted a significant teacher pay raise, implemented full-day, high quality Pre-Kindergarten instruction—and did all of this without any standardized test contingency and without any substantive push for a private school voucher. While some regressive forces in state government wished to use our surplus of $10 billion plus dollars to “buy down” rising property taxes, more generous and aspirational voices prevailed to allocate this bounty for investment in the public education of our children. While the return on that investment is delayed until the child reaches adulthood, there is no better investment in the future prosperity of our great state than good public schools.

Furthermore, our message that public schoolteachers are the messengers of God’s Love and the keepers of God’s Common Good, joining Christian pastors and church leaders in this high and holy calling, resonated more harmoniously with policymakers than ever before.

Clearly, the voices of faith leaders and faith communities played a key role in this huge step forward of the enactment of HB3. Quality public education for all of God’s children is protected by the biblical mandate for justice as well as by the Texas State Constitution. It is a moral imperative embraced by civil society.

We were in the capitol every day making visits, holding significant conversations, praying with House and Senate members– but we were also in the Texas communities urging pastors and church leaders to do the same with their own legislators!  It is this dual approach that is so effective. It was our privilege to carry that message every day of this session to our 181 House and Senate members.

This historic legislation is not perfect. There are fixes and corrections that need to be made in it in the 2021 session. But, as an old preacher said years ago, “Something doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be good.” Clearly, HB3 is a huge first step in the right direction in correcting funding lapses of the past decade, and in restoring Texas to its rightful place of leadership among our United States in per pupil spending on our children.

The work is not finished. Now that the Session is over, we can focus exclusively on the great work to mobilize churches and pastors for local school assistance. This is the fun part! We love taking this powerful message to our Texas communities!

  None of this could have been done without you. Your moral witness and direct advocacy on behalf of God’s “least of these”—our precious children—advanced healthy education policy this session. It also helped produce the kind of legislature that supports public education as a provision of social justice and opposes its privatization for personal financial gain. “Well done, good and faithful servants.” We thank God for you!

Stay Involved with PTC at the June 18 Benefit!

The end of the session is just the beginning of our year-round ministry to Texas’ public schools, and we have a great way for your organization to support our important work!

PTC’s  Benefit Luncheon, honoring rural education hero Dr. Don Rogers, is on Tuesday, June 18, and we still have plenty of tables available for your congregation, company, or organization to sponsor!  Check out our website and contact Brandon Grebe to make your reservation today!
Support Our Ministry: Give a Gift to PTC
Our mailing address is:

Pastors for Texas Children

PO Box 100502

Fort Worth, Tx 76185

 

Categories Funding, Supporting public schools, Texas

Texas: Good News on School Funding!

By dianeravitch
May 26, 2019 //
8

Our friends, Pastors for Texas Children, have been strong allies in the fight to improve public schools.

They daily remind us that support for good public schools is bipartisan. Both chambers of the Texas Legislature are controlled by Republicans, and many of them support their community public schools. Working with members of both parties, PTC and many parent groups repeatedly defeated vouchers in Texas. 

Now Charles Foster Johnson brings good news about school funding. 

We are gratified to report that the stalemate has ended on House Bill 3, the historic public school funding bill passed with virtually unanimous approval by the House of Representatives earlier this session. The bill has been held up for weeks over intense debate about certain measures attached to the bill by the Senate, mainly around property tax relief policy. 

While we are waiting for the actual bill language, it is clear that our neighborhood and community Texas public schools will get several billion new dollars in funding, that this support will not be contingent on our children’s performance on any standardized test, that teachers will receive a desperately needed pay increase, and that full-day, high-quality Pre-Kindergarten instruction will finally be implemented.

This is a new major development in the growing pro-public education wave sweeping our state and nation. It comes as the result of your incredible work and witness. HB 3 is a significant step in the ongoing journey to provide our children the education they deserve, God demands, and Texans desire. 

Our pastors and church leaders were in the Capitol every day of this 86th Legislative Session, building relationships with House and Senate members and staff, praying with these legislators, influencing them about the moral mandate to create school policy that will advance God’s Common Good. 

Modernizing school finance while offering tax relief is a complicated endeavor. The Legislature has heard our voice and received our witness about the moral imperative to fund our schools, fairly compensate our teachers, and give our youngest and poorest children the head-start they need in their education. Without your persistence and participation through phone calls, emails, sermons, messages, and visits– and those of countless tens of thousands of other fellow public education advocates doing likewise– this simply would not have happened. Well done, good and faithful servants!

As we end this legislative session next Tuesday, we look forward to getting back to our main work of helping local schools– and building community support for public education as the key institution of stable and civil society. We thank God for the privilege of doing this work, and doing it with dedicated leaders like you.

Categories Funding, Texas

Texas: GOOD NEWS! Texas House Rejects Bill to Ban Lobbying for Public Schools, But Allow It for Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2019 //
10

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.

Categories Accountability, Bias, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Texas

Betsy DeVos Gave This Charter Chain $225 Million. It Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test

By dianeravitch
April 29, 2019 //
10

 

Betsy DeVos recently gave $116 million to the IDEA charter chain, mostly to expand in Texas. Previously, she had already given millions to IDEA, altogether this lucky business has received $225 million in federal funds.

In El Paso alone, IDEA will open 20 new charters. That’s bad news for the El Paso public schools, because IDEA is known for pushing out the kids it doesn’t want and sending them back to the public schools, which will have to slash their budgets to adjust to lost enrollment.

Veteran Texas educator Tim Holt says that this IDEA invasion doesn’t pass the smell test. Parents and taxpayers are being fooled. He wrote this before DeVos gave IDEA its latest plum, $116 million.

“In the next few years, IDEA plans to increase from one school today in El Paso to over 20, making them larger than either the Anthony, Canutillo, San Eli, Fabens, or Clint ISD’s in terms of number of campuses. (“IDEA’s big goal is to serve 100,000 students by 2022” in Tejas according to the IDEA website.

“That would make them larger than Ft. Worth or Austin ISDs, which each have about 88,000 students each.) Of course, local districts are concerned because they get funding based on the number of students attending. Less students means less money. Even if it is for a year or so, as parents find out IDEA is not such a good fit for their kids. Less funding means more crowded classes, elimination of popular programs (say adios to that Mariachi band your young Vicente Fernandez wanna-be is in)…

“Public charter schools like IDEA use a combination of taxpayer funds, grants, and large-scale private donations to operate. Like public schools, they are accountable to meeting standards, but unlike public schools, they are businesses, beholden to those with a financial vested interest in their success or failure.

“Did you get that? They use your taxes to fund their business. You are paying for them whether they last a year or a decade. They can, as a business, pick up and leave at any time, shuttering their doors with no notice as many charter schools have done across the nation. Nothing prevents this.

“And like any business that needs to grow to get money, they have to advertise. Check out the slick work of this ad agency on behalf of IDEA.

“Smelly.

“Public schools in Texas have locally elected officials, that are responsible for watching the checkbooks of the districts. Don’t like the way money is being spent? You can vote them out and replace them. Not so with Public Charter Schools like IDEA. The Board of Directors of IDEA schools are mostly made up of well-to-do east Texas business people.

Think your kid is represented at the table? Check out the IDEA Board. Look like people from El Chuco? Yeah, maybe a meeting of the El Chuco Millionaires Club, but other than that, no, they are not your type. Unless you think that Dallas and Houston millionaires are your type.

Stinky.

“IDEA schools have a model of teaching that looks something like this: Curriculum is canned, pre-scripted and designed in such a way that even non-teachers can conduct classes. It is designed solely to focus on the standardized tests, that all students must pass. It is homework-heavy even though study after study has found that a heavy homework load is probably overall detrimental to students learning. Failure on tests mean dismissal from the school.

“Sorry kid, we don’t take no dummies.

“Since it is a scripted curriculum, IDEA can hire non-teacher teachers, ones that do not have any kind of education experience or degree. Think about that: Anyone that can read a script can teach at IDEA. That is perfect for young, inexperienced Teach-for-America rookies, from where IDEA likes to recruit their teaching ranks. Less experience equals less expensive to pay.

“Less pay means the chances that the teacher can deal with “non traditional” or troubled students is low. Want something for your kid that is innovative? Don’t bother enrolling at IDEA. Success is measured by how many pages the teacher can plow through in a week on the way to the test.

“Smells bad…

”Now consider this: On top of the millions in Federal funds that the State has awarded to IDEA, if they achieve their goal of having 100,000 students, that means, that every year, $915,000,000 will NOT be going to Texas’ traditional public schools, your neighborhood school, but into the hands of for-profit businesses that have little to no local accountability.”

Well, it’s a terrific article. Read it all.

And don’t believe those pundits who say that Betsy DeVos is so hemmed in that she can’t do any harm. Her $225 million gift to IDEA will eventually cause Texas public schools to lose nearly $1 billion a year, every year.  Really good for the IDEA bank account.  Terrible for the millions of children in Texas public schools.

That really stinks.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Funding, Graduation rates, Privatization, Texas

DeVos Funnels $116 Million to Open 20 Charter Schools in El Paso, Which Will Devastate Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 22, 2019 //
84

 

 

Should Amy O’Rourke, Beto’s wife, send a thank-you note to Betsy DeVos?

Betsy DeVos has awarded a huge grant of $116,755,848 to the IDEA charter chain to open 20 new schools in El Paso. IDEA opened its first El Paso charter last fall.

In 2017,  DeVos gave $67 million to IDEA.

IDEA has received a grand total of $225 million from the federal Charter Schools Program.

The size of this grant is unprecedented, so far as I know.

Congress should ask DeVos why she gave such a staggering amount of money to the IDEA charter chain.

This rapid charter expansion is likely to swamp the underfunded El Paso public schools, if not eliminate them.

The grant will be funneled through CREED, where Amy O’Rourke plays a leading role. Amy is Beto O’Rourke’s wife.

CREED’s charter program, which is part of a larger gentrification project, has previously been supported by the Dell Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Hunt foundation, and the Gates Foundation.

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/education/2018/09/10/idea-opens-its-first-two-el-paso-charter-schools-plans-more-2023/1157132002/

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/education/2017/10/09/creeed-has-raised-20-m-least-half-go-charters/710557001/

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opinion/2018/09/22/charter-schools-offer-choice-but-public-must-know-impact-column/1385283002/

The superintendent of a neighboring district, Jose Espinosa, warned parents to be wary of charter schools like IDEA that boast of a 100% college acceptance rate; what they don’t tell parents is that you can’t graduate until you have been accepted by a four-year college, some of which are open admissions colleges that accept all applicants.

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Texas

Alan Singer: Does TFA Stand for Totally Fraudulent Assessment?

By dianeravitch
April 18, 2019 //
6

 

In this post, Alan Singer reviews a study conducted by SMU (Southern Methodist University) about the effectiveness of TFA teachers. He cites an earlier review of the same study by Gary Rubinstein and concludes with Gary that this study is not good news for TFA, even though TFA thinks it is.

Singer reviews the study and concludes:

“The other finding (?) is that “TFA alumni are generally more effective than non-TFA-affiliated peer teachers across all regions (as indicated by mostly blue indicators for that group).” There is a big problem with this finding. More than half of TFA corps members leave their initial placements in low-income schools after two years and only 60% even stay in the program for a third year to complete their contract. Five years after entering the program, 85% of former TFA corps members, the highly rated TFA alumni cohort, have either left teaching or after securing teacher certification have transferred to higher performing schools. Basically the TFA survivors, on the average, rate as more effective, because non-career corps members have already quit teaching and most of those who remain are working with students who already score higher on standardized tests.

“Although the Southern Methodist report did not call for disbanding Teach for America, it should have, based on the evidence. Maybe instead of corps members, TFA should just become a corpse.”

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Teach for America, Teachers and Teaching, Texas
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