Archives for category: Vouchers
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Politico: Opposition to DeVos “Snowballs into an Avalanche”

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2017 //
25

Politico reports that the offices of Republican Senators are overwhelmed with letters, emails, and faxes opposing Betsy DeVos, according to Politico. She is the most controversial and unpopular cabinet choice of Trump, and Senators have been overwhelmed by negative comments. Most of them have gone into hiding. Their phone lines are jammed or off the hook.

The reasons for the avalanche of opposition:

1. She is unqualified, having no experience as a parent, student, teacher, or local board member in a public school, which 85% of American students attend 10% in private schools and 5% in privately owned charter schools).

2. She is a lobbyist for privatization of public schools.

3. As she demonstrated in her Senate hearings, she is ignorant of federal law and policy.

4. She is hostile to public schools.

5. If appointed, she will transfer federal funds from public schools to non-public schools.

6. She uses her vast fortune to buy votes of Republican senators.

Parents care about their children and their schools and communities. They object to a Secretary of Education who doesn’t care about their public schools and will hurt their children and their communities while prattling about “great schools.” Indeeed, they may even be aware of the damage DeVos has already done to the public schools of Michigan.

If no Republican breaks ranks, voters must remember in November: 2018, 2020, and 2022. Actions have consequences.

Why in the world does the GOP stand fast behind a nominee who is so clearly uninformed? Could it be the millions she and her family have given them? As DeVos once said, we do expect something in return for our money. Payback day arrived and she is getting what she paid for.

Trump has nominated many people who were unfitted to the mission of their Department, like Dr. Carson for HUD, Scott Pruitt for EPA. But DeVos! Our public schools are at risk.

It is not the grizzly bears that are alarmed by DeVos. It’s the Mama Bears. They protect their cubs.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Fraud, Michigan, Parents, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Is Betsy DeVos a Victim of Gender Bias?

By dianeravitch
February 3, 2017 //
47

Anya Kamenetz, who reports on education for NPR, said that Betsy DeVos is the most controversial of Trump’s nominees, and she wonders why. Some people don’t like her live of privatization, charters, and vouchers. Some people say she is unqualified but then so is Dr. Ben Carson, and he hasn’t generated so much opposition. Some say the unions are stirring up opposition. Some people want to protect their public schools against a woman who doesn’t like public schools.

Ah! But Kamenetz found two people who said that the opposition is multiplied by gender bias. Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute (funded by the DeVos family) says so.

I am not opposed to DeVos because she is a woman. I am opposed to her because she has the capacity to harm a foundational democratic institution. She believes in privatization. She supports vouchers. She may impose creationism when she can. I can think of many reasons to oppose her, but gender is not one of them.

She can do much more harm to our democracy and our children than Dr. Carson.

Let Anya know if you have a reason to oppose her nomination other than her gender.

@anya1anya

That is Anya 1 Anya

Categories Betsy DeVos, Bias, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Vouchers

Phyllis Bush: The Expensive Hoax of Vouchers

By dianeravitch
February 3, 2017 //
24

Phyllis Bush is a retired educator and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education who lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

She writes here about the hidden cost of vouchers, which are a gift of public dollars to private schools with no accountability.

Here is an excerpt:

Vouchers drain state tax dollars from the entire education funding pot. This often causes district budgeting deficits and/or the need for tax increases, referendums and the like. That loss of revenue to public schools increases class sizes and diminishes student resources such as counselors, support personnel, supplemental materials and buses.

From the vantage point of a traditional public school supporter, vouchers are a gift of taxpayer funds given to private schools without any accountability. Additionally, the expansion of choice is creating two separate school systems. In this parallel system, one pathway will be for those who can afford quality choices. The other pathway will be to an underfunded, separate-but-unequal road, marked by poverty and by zip codes. As most people know, public schools are required to accept all students while “choice schools” have the option of choosing the students who fit their agenda. Choice schools are allowed to reject students with behavior issues, students with low scores, students with disabilities, and students who don’t speak English.

The probable result of this further expansion of choice schools will be that the children with the most difficulties will be housed in the least well-financed schools. Sadly, many legislators have chosen to be willfully unaware of the consequences of “school choice.”

While the reformers and the takeover artists and the hedge fund managers talk and talk and talk about the miraculous results of school choice, research shows that these results are uneven at best. As thoughtful citizens and taxpayers, wouldn’t it be prudent if we asked ourselves what is best for our traditional public schools, our communities and our kids?

Perhaps the fundamental question is what does society stand to lose in the name of “school choice?” Whose choice is it, anyway?”

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Indiana, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Texas Tribune: Vouchers Are Not About Kids, They are About Money

By dianeravitch
February 3, 2017 //
18

Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune reviews the upcoming voucher battle in Texas.

The voucher fight is not about kids. It is not about education. It is about who gets the public money. “While it seems to be a fight about education, it’s really a fight about money — about whether taxpayers should foot some or all of the tuition bill for private elementary and secondary education.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants vouchers. Governor Gregg Abbott wants vouchers.

Their big battle will take place in the House, where every year a coalition of urban Democrats and rural Republicans defend their public schools and oppose funding private and religious schools.

Will the coalition stand strong again this year?

Is there any evidence that vouchers will help the children of Texas? No.

.

Categories Funding, Texas, Vouchers

Julian Vasquez Heilig: The Origins of School Choice: Racial Segregation

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2017 //
7

Julian Vasquez Heilig is a scholar of race, inequity, charter schools, and TFA. He also writes a brilliant blog, that is informative and entertaining because of his skillful use of graphics.

In this post, Heilig explores the sordid history of school choice.

Vouchers, he says, have two purposes: profit and discrimination against children of color. (They also get rid of unions.)

This has been demonstrated in the U.S. over many years and internationally.

Categories Accountability, Vouchers

Please Send a Tweet to Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska @Senatorfischer

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2017 //
46

Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska is the deciding vote on the nomination of Betsy DeVos.

Apparently DeVos promised not to force vouchers and charters on Nebraska. But, Senator Fischer is making a decision that will affect every state in the nation, not just Nebraska. State’s like North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, the Rust Belt, the Deep South, the Midwest will see hundreds of millions–nay, billions–of public funds taken away from public schools and transferred to religious schools with no certified teachers and to charter schools that are neither accountable nor transparent, with academic performance no better than public schools and possibly worse.

Senator Fischer’s mother was a public school teacher. Senator Fischer served on her local school board and was president of the Nebraska School Boards Association.

Please reach out to her. Her twitter handle is @senatorfischer.

She needs to know that the future of public education in America hangs in the balance.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Supporting public schools, Vouchers

Billionaire Eli Broad Opposes DeVos

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2017 //
29

Does anyone care? A day late and many dollars short, charter champion Eli Broad came out in opposition to Betsy DeVos.

Why did he wait until after she passed the GOP-controlled Senate committee? She has been under discussion for two months. Why the silence when it might have mattered?

Is he trying to protect charters from competition with vouchers?

Does he want to protect the charter brand from being mingled with the Trump brand?

Whatever his motive, he is not acting to protect public schools.

Would you rather be privatized by charter or voucher? Would you rather be hung or shot?

Categories Betsy DeVos, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Vouchers

Say No to Trump’s Vouchers

By dianeravitch
February 1, 2017 //
23

The best way to stop Trump’s plan to privatize public schools is to say no to vouchers, writes Frank Adamson of Stanford University.

 

“Vouchers violate the American ideal of democracy because they transfer educational decisions from the public domain (through school boards and elections) to private management companies and organizations. This has already occurred in charter schools run by private charter management organizations that refuse public input into teaching and curriculum decisions. Furthermore, these organizations often prioritize profits over learning, using public tax dollars to hire inexperienced, cheaper teachers and pocketing the difference. By permitting entirely private schools, vouchers would further decrease public accountability and create a wall between the public and the education sector, thereby diminishing democracy and the role of education as a public good.

 

“Finally, it is critical to understand that the debate about education vouchers is nested within a larger battle over labor. Vouchers can disenfranchise teacher unions because they disperse teachers across many types of institutions and constrain their capacity to collectively bargain. In Chile, teacher unions were dissolved, teacher salaries decreased by over half, and teaching became deprofessionalized based on non-competitive salaries and working conditions. In the U.S., the push for education privatization comes from foundations of wealthy companies and families, such as the heirs of Walmart, a company notorious for its anti-labor policies and practices.

 

“Trump and DeVos’s proposed voucher system promises to concurrently segregate students by class, ethnicity, and ability level while socially ostracizing individual students based on their ethnicities and identities. This system—driven by underlying agendas of marginalizing labor and generating private profit—will violate three core American principles: the separation of church and state, meritocracy, and democratic participation. In Chile, hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the streets to recapture public education after the vouchers decimated their system; U.S. citizens would do well to protest a national voucher policy before losing public education as a foundation of and for democracy.”

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democracy, Segregation, Separation of church and state, Trump, Vouchers

New Study: Vouchers Enable Discrimination and Segregation

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2017 //
13

Steve Hinnefeld posts a blog about a new study of vouchers showing that voucher schools encourage and practice discrimination.

Study confirms voucher programs discriminate

“Research led by an Indiana University professor confirms what school voucher critics have long argued: Voucher programs receive public funding yet discriminate on the basis of religion, disability status, sexual orientation and possibly other factors.

“The finding is especially timely as President Donald Trump and his designee to serve as secretary of education, Michigan school-choice activist Betsy DeVos, have indicated they will use federal clout and money to push states to expand voucher programs.

“At the time we did the study, we had no idea it would be so relevant,” said Suzanne Eckes, professor in the IU School of Education and the lead author of the research paper. “People are starting to think about these questions, and the topic has not been widely addressed in research.”

“The study, “Dollars to Discriminate: The (Un)intended Consequences of School Vouchers,”was published last summer in the Peabody Journal of Education. Co-authors are Julie Mead, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Jessica Ulm, a doctoral student at IU.

“The researchers examined 25 programs in 15 states and Washington, D.C., that provide public funding for private K-12 schools, including traditional tuition voucher programs and voucher-like programs called education savings accounts. Indiana is one of seven states with a statewide voucher program. Other programs are limited to cities (Milwaukee, Cleveland) or special-needs students.

“The authors say legislators who authorized the programs neglected to write policies that provide equal access for students and avoid discriminating against marginalized groups.

“We argue that each state has an obligation to ensure that any benefit it creates must be available to all students on a non-discriminatory basic — including the benefit of a publicly funded voucher for attendance at a private school,” they write.

“Indiana’s school voucher program, established in 2011, served 32,686 students who attended 316 private schools last year. Nearly all voucher schools are Christian schools, including Catholic, Lutheran and Evangelical or non-denominational schools. The state spent $131 million on vouchers but provided almost no fiscal oversight, according to a report by the IU Center for Evaluation and Education Policy.

“Indiana law bars voucher schools from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. But state law doesn’t mention discrimination by religion, disability or sexual orientation.

“Voucher schools in Indiana can receive extra state money for enrolling special-needs students. But some of the schools have language on their websites that suggests they may not admit students with disabilities – or that they will provide only limited accommodations for students.

“As the study notes, citing a 2014 Bloomington Herald-Times article, some Indiana Christian schools that receive vouchers welcome only families that embrace their religious beliefs, including a rejection of a “gay/lesbian lifestyle” that is “contrary to God’s commands.”

Categories Bias, Bigotry, Civil Rights, Vouchers

Henry Levin: School Choice Increases Segregation Without Improving Achievement

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2017 //
9

Henry Levin, the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, has studied school choice and privatization around the world. Levin says there is no evidence for the efficacy of these strategies.

http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-01-30/little-global-evidence-suggests-school-choice-helps-performance

Levin writes:

“Some have argued that competitive incentives induced by school choice will lead to better educational outcomes. However, there is little evidence to support this claim.

“Sweden has had an educational voucher system since 1992, but its achievement levels on international tests have been falling for two decades. Chile has had such a system since 1980, and there is little evidence of improvement in achievement relative to countries at similar levels of income. Cleveland, Milwaukee, and the District of Columbia have issued vouchers to low-income families, but sophisticated evaluations find no difference between achievement in private voucher schools and public schools with similar student populations. Students from low-income families in Louisiana who have used vouchers to shift from public to private schools have experienced striking reductions in achievement gains relative to similar students in public schools…..

“In England there has been a dramatic shift from schools governed by public councils to academies run by private groups with great autonomy and the ability to select their own students. The results on student achievement show no distinct advantage, and there are similar results for U.S. charter schools based upon careful statistical comparisons.

“Where school choice has shown powerful effects around the world is the systematic separation of students by ethnicity, social class and religion.

“Sweden’s vouchers have increased segregation by social class and immigrant status. Chile’s voucher system has produced one of the most segregated system of schools in the world by family income. In the Netherlands, studies of the school choice system have pointed to school separation of students by ethnicity, immigrant status and family income. A Brookings Institution study found that U.S. charter schools are more segregated racially and socio-economically than public schools in surrounding areas. The Program for International Student Assessment, an important triennial study of international student performance, finds school segregation by social class is associated with school choice.

“Although even public schools have segregation challenges typically caused by residential location, school choice tends to streamline the racial, social class and ethnic isolation of students, as well as separate them by political ideology and religion.”

Categories International, School Choice, Vouchers
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