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Chicago: Emails Suggest Rahm Emanuel is Open to Considering a Voucher Program

By dianeravitch
August 11, 2017 //
39

Rahm Emanuel is considering a voucher program for Chicago.

This may–or may not–seem surprising but when I read this, I remembered the only time I met Rahm Emanuel. I was invited to the White House in 2010 to meet with President Obama’s Domestic Policy Advisor, Melody Barnes, his education advisor, Roberto Rodriguez, and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. They wanted to get my reaction to the Common Core standards and their $1 billion proposal for merit pay. I was totally opposed to merit pay because, I told them, it had failed repeatedly for a century. As to the Common Core standards, I suggested that they offer grants to three or five states to try it before imposing it on the entire nation. Find out if it helps narrow the achievement gap or widens it. Learn how it works. They were not interested in my suggestions because they wanted the Common Core in place before the 2012 elections.

Rahm Emanuel was rude. He said he had one question for me: Why do Catholic schools perform better than public schools and should we do anything to help them? I tried to explain the differences between private schools and public schools to him. Whatever I said to him didn’t interest him, and he left the meeting early, letting me know that he had better things to do with his time.

That meeting came back to me when I read that he was open to the idea of vouchers. If nothing else happens in Chicago, Emanuel will go down in history as the only mayor in the United States to close 50 public schools in a single day. One thing is certain about Rahm Emanuel: He has no interest in improving public schools and no hesitation closing them and replacing them with private alternatives.

A recently released cache of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s private emails reveals he had been open to discussing a controversial voucher-like program that could divert millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools.

The release of an April email exchange with Cardinal Blase Cupich about such a program being floated by the Trump administration comes as state lawmakers continue closed-door negotiations over how to fund public schools across the state. The impasse over school funding threatens the delivery of nearly all state education money weeks before the start of a new school year.

WBEZ has learned the discussions among lawmakers include the kind of tax credit scholarship program Cupich had emailed the mayor about this spring. The state-level proposal could divert up to $100 million in state tax revenue to special funds that would help families pay for private school tuition, or help send their children to a public schools outside their home districts.

When asked if the mayor would support an education tax credit program in Illinois, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said Emanuel “has been clear publicly that his priority is the state’s education funding formula.”

In Cupich’s email exchange with Emanuel, the cardinal referenced U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ push to expand private school choice by creating a federal education tax credit program.

The Trump administration hasn’t released specific details, but the idea is to give tax credits to anyone donating to a fund that would allow eligible students to attend a private school of their choosing. The same concept is now being discussed by Illinois lawmakers in the negotiations to overhaul public school funding across the state.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Vouchers

Florida: Agape Christian Academy May Lose Eligibility for Vouchers

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2017 //
9

Agape Christian Academy in Pine Hills, Florida, may be cut out of three different voucher programs because of its failure to meet state requirements.

Most of the students in the school receive vouchers, and the school may be forced to close. The state Department of Education has revoked its eligibility for voucher funding.

For its failure to comply with the state’s demands, the school has been ruled ineligible to receive vouchers for ten years.

Classes resume in public schools and many private schools in Orange County on Monday. DOE called and sent letters to the families of the 40 children who planned to use the McKay scholarship at Agape this year, saying they could transfer their children to a public school or another private school, or they could keep their children at Agape without the scholarship.

“If you choose for your student to remain enrolled at Agape Christian Academy, it is imperative that you understand you will not be receiving scholarship payments,” Laura Mazcyk, the director of scholarship programs and home education, wrote in the letter to families.

Patrick Gibbons, a spokesman for Step up for Students, which administers the Florida Tax Credit and Gardiner scholarships, said the organization had spoken with or left voicemails for the families of all 84 students who planned to use the scholarship at Agape this year.

“It is unfortunate that this happened so close to the start of the school year,” Gibbons wrote in an email.

The school has a history of run-ins with the Department of Education. During the past three years, Agape has failed fire inspections, taken money for a student who was not attending class and submitted required test scores late, records show.

In March 2016, the state suspended scholarship payments after DOE saidAgape falsified fire inspection reports on at least two occasions. A deal was reached a few months later to restore them.

In 2015 and 2016, the school submitted letters they purported were compliant fire inspections from Orange County Fire Rescue. But officials from the fire department said they did not generate the letters. The school had failed at least four fire inspections for various reasons, including having a fire alarm system that didn’t work and exits that were obstructed, according to records.

It is surprising to see that Florida is actually maintaining some standards for voucher schools. But the state’s action should be a warning to religious schools that the state may pull the plug if they don’t comply with what the state wants.

Categories Florida, Vouchers

Valerie Strauss: What Betsy DeVos Has Accomplished in Six Months

By dianeravitch
August 8, 2017 //
8

Valerie Strauss describes the accomplishments of Betsy DeVos in her short time as Education Secretary. Most would think that such a list would cover less than a page, because none of her priorities has been enacted into law. Fortunately.

But don’t be fooled. She has used the “bully pulpit” to send her message: Choice. Choice. Charters. Vouchers. Charters. Vouchers. Tax credits. Charters. Vouchers. Choice. Choice. Choice.

She has also intervened in telling states how to fix their schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is contrary to the letter and spirit of the law. Then there is the fact that she doesn’t have a clue about how to fix any school, other than closing it down and giving everyone a voucher to a private or religious school.

She has made clear that civil rights enforcement is not high on her list of priorities. In cases of rape, she and her designated Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights have aligned themselves with the alleged perpetrators, not the victims.

She even endorsed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord on climate change. The irony, of course, is that she claims to be encouraging girls to go into STEM fields (aided by that great scientist Ivanka Trump), even as she denies the science of climate change, of evolution, and of anything that is not in accord with her religious views.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, School Choice, Science, STEM, Vouchers

North Carolina: The Great Voucher Hoax

By dianeravitch
August 8, 2017 //
26

The News-Observer of North Carolina, one of the state’s leading newspapers, published an excellent editorial decrying the state’s ill-conceived voucher program. The editorial board recognizes that the purpose of the voucher program is nothing more nor less than to cripple the state’s once-highly regarded public schools, which have done so much to build the state’s economy over the past century.

The voucher is worth all of $4,200, and it does not include the cost of items such as transportation or food. What kind of school can provide a good education on that small amount of money? Over the next decade, the costs of vouchers will increase every year, at the expense of the state’s public schools. A large part of the voucher funding will go to subsidize the tuition of students who are already enrolled in private schools. The newspaper predicts that none of the voucher students will enroll in the elite private schools where wealthy Republicans send their own children.

There’s a cynical side to this entire program as well. Yes, the $4,200 can cover a lot of expense at small church schools, for example, but wealthy Republicans aren’t going to see any of the Opportunity Scholarship recipients in the state’s most exclusive private schools, the ones that cater to wealthy families. Tuition in those schools is often $20,000 and above.

Parents with kids in public schools where arts and physical education programs are threatened, where the best teachers are leaving the profession to earn a better living, might point directly to Republicans in the General Assembly as the culprits. This voucher program was little more than a slap at public schools, which Republicans have targeted since taking control of the General Assembly in 2011.

Republicans in North Carolina should be ashamed of themselves for passing vouchers. The schools that accept voucher students are far inferior to the state’s public schools. Their curriculum, their programs, their teachers, their extracurricular activities, their provision for students with special needs–all are inferior to the state’s public schools.

Those who voted for this program and who vote to harm public schools should be voted out of office. Their goal is not to offer opportunity to students who are poor and struggling; their goal is privatization, regardless of the consequences for the children and the state.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article165488352.html#storylink=cpy

Categories North Carolina, Vouchers

Colorado: “The Most Important School Board Race” in the Nation

By dianeravitch
August 7, 2017 //
3

Douglas County, Colorado, will have a crucial election this fall between its current board majority and challengers. Some say it is the most important school board race in the nation.

Douglas County is the most affluent school district in the state. Yet wealthy Coloradans have showered money on pro-privatization school board members and candidates. On the other side is a pro-public education slate.

The rightwing majority consists of four members on a board of seven. The majority created a voucher program. Its anti-teachers policies have led to a high rate of exodus by experienced teachers.

The Douglas County voucher program is currently under appeal in federal courts.

Two slates are competing in the race for school board.

The differences between them are stark if you read this perceptive article. One is tied to corporate reform/Republican circles, the other is actually pro-public school.

Categories Colorado, Education Industry, Privatization, Supporting public schools, Vouchers

The Guardian: Betsy DeVos is the Most Dangerous ED Secretary Ever

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2017 //
22

David Smith of The Guardian, a British publication, writes that Betsy DeVos “is viewed by many in the sector as its most dangerous and destructive since the post was created by Jimmy Carter in 1979. DeVos, a devout Christian, stands accused of quietly privatising schools, rescinding discrimination guidelines and neutering her own department’s civil rights office. Along with the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, she is said to be at the tip of the spear of Trump’s illiberal agenda.”

Trump doesn’t care for the details of policies he supports. He has left DeVos alone to do whatever she wishes.

Neil Sroka, spokesman for the liberal pressure group Democracy for America, said: “Trump doesn’t care about education, much like he doesn’t care about healthcare in any meaningful way. Betsy DeVos has been given a blank cheque to do pretty much whatever she wants. And what she is doing in the department of education is the dream of the rightwing ideologues who work on education policy.”

Critics point to DeVos’s record in Michigan, where she used her wealth to push legislators to defund public education in favour of for-profit charter schools. Students’ test results have plummeted as a consequence, they argue.

Sroka, who is based in Detroit, said: “What’s so amazing is that Betsy DeVos and the DeVos family have almost singlehandedly destroyed public schools in the state of Michigan. They’ve gone from some of the best in the country to among the worst in the region. It’s mind-boggling that anyone would put her in charge of education policy.”

If Michigan is her petri dish, DeVos has demonstrated that her ideas have failed. And now she is free to push them obsessively on the nation.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Failure, School Choice, Vouchers

The Progressive: Inside ALEC’s Attack on Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2017 //
20

Chris Taylor, a Democratic State Assemblyman from Madison, Wisconsin, joined ALEC so he can learn what the far-right advocacy group is up to. He attended the recent conference in Denver where Betsy DeVos spoke.

He wrote about what he learned here.

He writes:

The issue of the moment for ALEC is public education—that is, undermining it. ALEC members are foaming at the mouth for the now-endless opportunities to further privatize public schools, long a central goal. When he was governor of Wisconsin in the early 1990s, Tommy Thompson implemented the first state voucher scheme in the nation—an idea he acquired from an ALEC conference.

Taylor describes DeVos’s speech.

And he adds:

DeVos, like most of the people at ALEC, dismisses the collective good in favor of the individual benefit. Our public education system was designed to collectively educate the masses, in hopes that democracy would thrive. Her priority, and ALEC’s agenda, are otherwise.

After bashing the federal government and federal program, her answer for change is…get ready…a federal program to promote school choice, charters and vouchers!

Proponents know their universal voucher scheme, where public dollars flow directly to families rather than to schools, makes it impossible for a public-school infrastructure to survive. How do you maintain public school facilities and staff when you have no guaranteed funding?

For ALEC, it is all about tearing down our public-school infrastructure so corporate privatization efforts can move in and make a buck.

Proponents of privatization have abandoned their claim that vouchers offer better education, so now they are selling choice for the sake of choice.

Categories ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Peter Greene: Why Churches Should Hate School Vouchers

By dianeravitch
August 1, 2017 //
15

In Texas, the most effective group fighting vouchers is Pastors for Texas Children. They understand that the state must support all public schools equitably. They also understand that separation of church and state protects religious liberty. They don’t think that churches should become intertwined with politicians.

Peter Greene agrees with Pastors for Texas Children. Churches, he says, should hate vouchers.

“It seems clear that the wall between church and state, particularly when it comes to educational voucher programs, is collapsing like a stack of cheerios in a stiff wind. This is not good for a variety of reasons, but those reasons do not all belong to supporters of public education. Even before I was a cranky blogger, I was telling folks that religious institutions should be right out there resisting vouchers, and that if school vouchers with no regard for the church and state wall ever became law, churches would rue the day just as much as anyone, if not more.

“So what’s my point? Why should churches want to get that stack of cheerios back up and fortified?

“It’s important to remember that the separation of church and state is not just for the state’s benefit– it protects churches as well. Once Betsy DeVos and Mike Pence get their way (I’m not convinced that Trump either knows or understands any of the issues here), here’s how things are going to go south.

“First, tax dollars for education will still be directed by the politicians in capitals. That means that churches will have to become experienced in the business of political pandering. And this is not my prediction for the future– it is happening right now.Caitlin Emma at Politico is reporting today on the Catholic Church’s are meeting with GOP lawmakers and administration officials to see if the Trump-DeVos voucher plan can be implemented in such a way as the be financially beneficial for parochial schools.

“Let that sink in. Church officials are going to try to cut a deal, with politicians, for money. In a no-walls voucher world, churches and other religious groups financially dependent on the good will of politicians will have to make sure they stay on the good side of politicians. Church leaders will have to consider “This guy is odious and spits in the face of everything we believe, but we need him to keep the money flowing to us.” Did I mention that Catholic Church officials are meeting with Trump administration officials? Once several different religions and denominations get involved, just how much religious lobbying will be required to argue how the education dollar pie is sliced up?…

“Where government money goes, politics follow, and when you mix religion and politics, you get politics.* Will a church that wants those public dollars mute its religious character to avoid problems? A study of Catholic schools in voucherfied Milwaukee suggests the answer is yes. Will taxpayers rise up when they think their dollars are being spent on a religious group they object to? That looks like a yes, too.

“That’s before we even start to talk about regulations and laws and rules that may or may not contradict religious beliefs.

“Vouchers are a bad policy idea for so many reasons, but many of those reasons have to do with protecting the very religious institutions that, in some cases, hope to profit from them. And reconsidering the church tax exemption is already being brought up– what does a church do when a politician says, “I can keep that tax thing off your back as long as your political activity is political activity I like.”

“Religious institutions and church-related schools should beware. Vouchers are a trap, and bad news for everyone involved.”

Categories Religion, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

The New Republic: DeVos Is Making “School Choice” Toxic for Democrats

By dianeravitch
July 27, 2017 //
48

Graham Vyse, an editor at The New Republic, shows how Betsy DeVos has created a fissure within the Democratic party over school choice.

By her passionate advocacy for charters, vouchers, and every other alternative to public schools, she has put pro-school choice Democrats like Cory Booker into a bind. Booker has vociferously supported both charters and vouchers, yet as a Democrat with hopes for the future, felt compelled to vote against DeVos. It is somewhat amusing to watch him and others try to put distance between themselves and DeVos when she is carrying out the same ideas they have publicly espoused. Any Democrat who is aligned with DeVos on any part of her repugnant agenda should change parties.

“The ground definitely is more fertile,” said Preston Green, an education professor at the University of Connecticut. “I think President Trump’s support of choice does make it difficult. It might make people think twice about it, and especially DeVos’s selling of it…. You’re definitely starting to see a shift.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s education agenda and criticism from civil rights groups “might have made it easier for those who oppose charters to oppose them more vociferously.”

Brookings Institution fellow Jon Valant made a similar case in February, writing that “the Trump administration’s support of charters and choice may be distracting from—and contributing to—an emerging political threat to school choice programs, especially charter schools: renewed skepticism from Democrats.” In other words, with her extremist position on school choice, DeVos may be harming the very movement she helped build.

The recent report by the NAACP calling for regulation of charter schools is another straw in the wind, a very large straw, suggesting that the Democrats’ embrace of school choice is politically hazardous.

DeVos is a gift to those of us who have warned for years that privately managed charters is a decisive victory for privatization and a significant step away from democratically controlled public education.

The message of her tenure in office is that school choice is a radical rightwing strategy that defunds public schools.

She gives Democrats a new opportunity to separate themselves from the favorite cause of the Walton family, the Koch brothers, and the Republican party.

As the recent Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia showed, candidates who support public schools without qualification can energize their base of teachers and parents. Democrats who favor any form of privatization will be unable to call upon that base.

If Democrats hope to win back a significant share of House seats in the 2018 election, they must put support for public schools at the top of their agenda. That’s where the voters are.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democrats, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Steven Singer: The Rank Hypocrisy of the Destroy-Public-Education Campaign for Defending Segregation

By dianeravitch
July 26, 2017 //
12

Steve Singer calls out the Destroy-Public-Education campaign for their attacks on Randi Weingarten.

It’s not because he is a fan of Randi’s, but because he doesn’t like hypocrisy.

Charter schools are more segregated than public schools, even in districts that have high levels of racial segregation. Charters don’t mind being 100% black or Hispanic. It’s not a bug to their promoters. It’s a feature. In some states, charters are all black and have become White Flight z
Academies.

Vouchers cause racial and religious segregation. Period.

Meanwhile, the Destroy Public Education crowd is acting shocked, shocked, shocked that Randi dared to connect their activities to the racist Southern governors and Senators who championed school choice as their response to the Brown decision.

I saw an email blast a few days ago from Jeanne Allen, the CEO of the pro-privatization Center for Education Reform, who wrapped herself in the mantel of the late Wisconsin legislator Polly Williams, an African American woman who supported vouchers, hoping they would help poor black children. She neglected to acknowledge that Williams was appalled when vouchers became the favorite idea of Scott Walker, who raised the income limits. Poor black children were left behind. Before her death, Williams admitted her error. Poor black children were cynically used by the hard-right Bradley Foundation, the Koch brothers, Scott Walker, and a bunch of white reactionaries who didn’t give a hoot about black children. To think that these people have the nerve to chastise anyone who calls out their racist heritage!

Jeanne Allen called on Randi to resign for daring to connect charters and vouchers with their historical antecedents. Sorry, Jeanne, Randi was right. You are carrying forward the twisted ideals of George Wallace. For doing so, you should resign.

Categories Civil Rights, Corporate Reform, Milwaukee, Segregation, Vouchers, Wisconsin
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