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Michelle Rhee’s Plan to Destroy Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
33

Michelle Rhee is is a one-person PAC. She is raising hundreds of millions of dollars from rightwing billionaires and foundations and corporations to subsidize her program.

What is her program? Destroy teachers’ unions; eliminate tenure and seniority; privatize public education. Having failed to transform the public schools of the District of Columbia, she now wants to privatize public education everywhere.

When I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I learned from a Democratic state senator that Rhee had poured $105,000 into a race between a liberal Democrat and a conservative Democrat. The difference between them? The conservative Democrat supports vouchers. My informant said, “Candidates here will jump through hoops for a contribution of $1,000. Getting $105,000 is unimaginable.” Rhee bought the election. The voucher-loving Democrat won. He added: Most of Rhee’s money goes to conservative Republicans.

She is trying to buy a seat in Connecticut now. A reader writes:

Rhee’s fraud of an organization has nothing to do with students, teaching or learning. It is a political lobbyist group that secretly slithers around the nation passing our billionaire donated cash to influence and bribe politicians. Her dirty donations push the privatization, anti-union, anti-public school, collective bargaining busting, teacher trashing dogma down their throats. Here she is a pariah and getting her money is the kiss of death here in CT:

http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/10/01/michelle-buy-yourself-an-election-rhee-returns-to-undermine-democracy-in-connecticut/

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/is_michelle_rhee_trying_to_buy_a_seat_in_the_5th/#comments-31483

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, For-Profit, Privatization, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Tennessee, Unions, US Education, Vouchers

A Chicago Parent and a Hero of Public Education

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
1

Matthew Farmer is a parent in the Chicago public school system. He is an articulate lawyer who understands that the children of Chicago have been shortchanged by the city’s leadership.

He is fearless in defending the teachers, defending the children of Chicago, and standing up for better public schools.

You may recall his outstanding cross-examination of the billionaire member of the Chicago Board of education (in absentia).

Matthew Farmer is a hero of public education.

Farmer took offense when Michelle Rhee inserted herself into the Chicago strike issue and sided with Mayor Rahm Emanuel against the teachers’ union.

The strike gave her a new opportunity to lament the woes of American education and blame it on the teachers and their unions.

Matthew Farmer was having none of it. Who is for the children of Chicago, he asks. Who was fighting for smaller classes? Who was on the side of the children, including Matthew Farmer’s?

Not Michelle Rhee. The real object of her article was to drive a wedge between the Democratic Party and labor unions. She would like nothing better, as she makes clear, than to sever any connection between organized labor and Democrats. Odd that she cares, since most of her campaign efforts and public relations have gone to benefit conservative Republican governors.

Categories Chicago, Democrats, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Honor Roll, Unions

US Dept of Ed: More Millions for Teacher Evaluation

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
12

The Gates Foundation has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into teacher evaluation programs.

The US Department of Education has used its billions in Race to the Top funding to push for teacher evaluation programs.

The spigot is still open!

The big winner of the latest grants is the District of Columbia, which presumably already has Michelle Rhee’s IMPACT program. But nonetheless, it just won another $23 million of our taxpayer dollars.

Millions more went to Los Angeles and to charter schools. The teachers’ union in LA still has not agreed to accept test-based evaluations. Seems someone there has read the research and knows how useless this stuff is.

Arne Duncan is certainly priming the pump where it matters least.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. Department of Education, Unions

Poor Boxoffice for Anti-Union Film

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2012 //
11

The film “Won’t Back Down,” which publicizes the idea that parents should seize control of their public school and turn it over to a charter operator, has been heavily promoted. The movie was shown at both national political conventions by Michelle Rhee; it had a glamorous opening in New York City and extensive publicity as part of NBC’s Education Nation, and full-page ads in major newspapers, as well as expensive ads on network television.

But opening weekend for WBD was a disaster. According to industry sources, WBD had the worst opening weekend of any film in wide distribution (more than 2,500 screens) in 30 years. That’s quite a record.

Pundits can ponder why. Maybe in the midst of a terrible economy, the prospect of seeing a movie in which the union is the villain isn’t all that appealing. Maybe it is time for a movie about heroic teachers in Chicago who stand up to the powerful elites in their city and fight to make sure that their students get small classes, art teachers, social workers, and textbooks on the first day of school. The leading figure could be a brilliant woman who is a chemistry teacher with 20 years of teaching experience. She is articulate; she is unintimidated by the rich and powerful men who try to silence her.

Do you think?

Categories Education Reform, Parent trigger, Unions

My Speak-out in Austin: UPDATE!

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2012 //
14

I spent the last three days in Austin and had a great time. I’ll write about it on the flight home. I’m sitting on the JetBlue flight and the doors will close in 3 minutes.

Thought you might want to see this interview with me and Evan Smith. Only 24 minutes.

I take it back. I posted this as the doors were closing. When I landed, I learned that the link didn’t work. I wrote the producer and found out that it won’t go live until October 18, when the show airs. At that time, I’ll post the link and make sure it works.

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Ravitch, Diane, Testing, Texas, Unions, US Education

CTU Votes on Contract Tomorrow

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2012 //
5

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union will vote on October 2 whether to ratify the contact negotiated with the city.

In the press release about the contract, CTU says these are the gains in the new contract for students and teachers:

Should members vote to ratify the contract it will force the Board of Education to:

· Hire over 600 additional teachers in Art, Music, Phys Ed and other subjects – helping to make the school day better not just longer.
· Maintain limits on class size – pushing back Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to remove all class size limits and threats to crowd 55 students into a class. The CTU also won a small increase in funding to decrease class size and was also able to add a parent Local School Council member to the “Class Size Committee” for every overcrowded school
· Make needed textbooks available to teachers from the first day of work and to students on the first day of school
· Promote racial diversity in hiring at CPS – fighting against the dramatic loss of African American teachers in Chicago’s schools
· Lower the focus on standardized testing by defeating merit pay and beating the percentage of our evaluations from test scores down to the legal minimum. This will allow more focus on teaching rather than high stakes testing
· Provide more attention to students from their school’s Social Workers and Nurses – under new rules to lessen workloads and prevent the growth of paperwork for our already overstretched clinicians.
· Establishes a Workload Committee to investigate work load sizes for social workers, psychologists, SPED teachers, classroom assistants and counselors in schools with high caseloads. It also provides funding to alleviate excessive workloads.
· Spend any new state money to fund school personnel to hire up to 100 additional social workers and clinicians
· Provide new protections for special education students, making class size violations grieveable.

CTU President Karen Lewis will cast her ballot at Dyett High School, a popular school that has been targeted by the district for closure.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Unions

About Dr. Steve Perry

By dianeravitch
September 29, 2012 //
11

CNN contributor Steve Perry is an ardent critic of unions and everyone else who is not supportive of the corporate reform movement.

Bruce Adams of Buffalo took the time to review Dr. Perry’s recent book.

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Unions

A Clueless Review of Anti-Union, Anti-Public Education Film: UPDATE WITH LINK!

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2012 //
28

The Los Angeles Times published a review–maybe it is an article, not a review, it is hard to tell–of the anti-union, anti-public education film “Won’t Back Down.” The article reaches no judgments about anything, other than the opening box office, which does not look good.

It says that critics claim the film is anti-union, but its director and writer don’t agree. Critics say that the producer is a rightwing zealot, but the director and writer say it doesn’t matter. Presumably the conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz, who also underwrote “Waiting for Superman,” just wanted an inspiring parent-teacher story. An uplifting story about how parents and teachers together can take over their public school and give it to a private corporation and live happily ever happy.

Anyone who knows anything about education issues knows that the point of the story is to promote the “parent trigger” law, which has converted no school anywhere as yet. The “parent trigger” law was first passed in California, and is now model legislation heavily supported by the far-right group ALEC and the equally far-right group Heartland Institute. But ALEC and Heartland and Anschutz don’t have a political agenda.

But here is the good news:

Opening weekend expectations for “Won’t Back Down” remain soft, with the $19-million movie on track to pull in less than $5 million when it opens against the sci-fi time travel film “Looper” and the animated comedy “Hotel Transylvania.”

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Parent trigger, Privatization, Unions

Referees for America?

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2012 //
10

Jersey Jazzman takes note of the media hysteria about those NFL referees who replaced the experienced, unionized referees. Even Governor Scott Walker was upset when the inexperienced referees made a call that led to a loss by the Green Bay Packers.

Do we need “Referees for America” to step in when the unionized referees go on strike? Apparently the football lovers of America say no.

Maybe experience and qualifications matter.

And remember how the media piled on teachers in Chicago for their outrageous salaries? Was it $56,000, $74,000?

Well, a reader sent this important information:

The refs make $150,000 for 6 months of part time work. They want $200,000. I haven’t seen those numbers thrown around in the media. Every time they talked about the teachers in Chicago they threw out the bogus $74,000 average salary. Then some pundit would always add they only worked 8 months out of the year as well. Everyone bemoaned the greedy overpaid teachers.
I was watching Morning Joe yesterday and Joe Scarboro, who couldn’t get enough of trashing the teachers in Chicago last week, was up in arms over the greedy NFL owners refusal to pay for experienced refs.

Categories Teach for America TFA, Unions

An Ironic Story

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2012 //
39

Viola Davis, the film star who appears in the anti-union, pro-charter movie “Won’t Back Down,” recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Davis is a graduate of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. This is the school that was targeted for closure in 2010, where there was a pitched battle between the district/state leadership and the teachers in the school. When Davis won an Academy Award in 2010, she gave a shout-out to her alma mater, Central Falls High School, and that gave the teachers there a big boost.

So now she is a star in a movie that encourages parents and teachers to “seize control” of their public school and turn it into a privately managed charter school. This is known as the “parent trigger” and is advocated by the rightwing group ALEC, which developed model legislation to encourage privatization of public schools.

When she appeared with Ellen, she was fund-raising for the Segue Institute, a charter school in Central Falls, not for the high school that educated her. Ellen gave her a check for $10,000 for the charter school.

The film will be shown in Central Falls, cosponsored by the charter school and the Central Falls Drama Club, to benefit the charter school.

One more irony: Ellen, who is openly gay, is promoting a film produced by Walden Media, owned by Philip Anschutz, an evangelical and fervent conservative, who funded anti-gay campaigns in Colorado and California.

So many ironies.

Categories Parent trigger, Unions
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