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How a Leading Rightwing Group Views the Election

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2012 //
0

The Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., is one of the nation’s leading advocates for privatization of public education. Its leader, Jeanne Allen, was an education policy analyst at the rightwing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, before she founded CER in 1993:

The Center for Education Reform has long advocated for charters and vouchers. It has nothing to say about improving public schools, only that they should be replaced by private management or vouchers.

CER is closely allied with other conservative groups committed to privatization, like ALEC, the Heartland Institute, Democrats for Education Reform, and Black Alliance for Educational Options. CER claimed credit for helping to write the Heartland Institute’s version of the parent trigger law, which served as a model for ALEC.

If you want to track the advance of privatization, keep your eye on the Center for Education Reform.

This is CER’s take on the 2012 elections (to see the links, go to the CER website):

The Center for Education Reform Analysis:
How Education Reform Fared on Election Day

WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Education Reform analyzed Tuesday’s results through the prism of education reform. Our EDlection Roundup provides our analysis on races up and down the ballots, including:

The White House: The Center congratulated President Obama and offered thoughts about how he could refocus education issues in his second term.

Governors: Two states, North Carolina and Indiana, will be inaugurating reform-minded Governors. They join the 23 other states who are also led by reformers. Is yours one of them? See our Governor grades.

Senate Races: We take a look at the results of four Senate races where candidates were strong reformers, and where two – Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) – were victorious.

Ballot Initiatives: There were education reform ballot initiatives in Georgia, Idaho, and Washington. We look at the results, which included a decisive victory in Georgia.

Superintendents: We examine the results of Superintendent races, with a special look at the disappointing defeat of Tony Bennett, a stalwart reformer.

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CER, since 1993, is the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S. Additional information about the Center and its activities can be found at http://www.edreform.com.

The Center for Education Reform
(tel) 800-521-2118 • 301-986-8088 • (fax) 301-986-1826
cer@edreform.com • http://www.edreform.com

Categories ALEC, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, ConnCAN, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Parent trigger, Privatization, Vouchers

Indiana GOP Insists that Votes for Ritz Mean Nothing

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
4

In an article today, Indiana GOP leaders announced their determination to pursue Tony Bennett’s anti-teacher, pro-privatization agenda even though Bennett lost his bid for re-election.

Bennett’s challenger, Glenda Ritz, collected more votes than Mike Pence, the Republican who won the governor’s seat.

She won despite Bennett’s expenditure of  ten times as much as she had for the campaign.

She won despite the support of national rightwing groups promoting Bennett as the exemplar of school “reform.”

But the GOP thinks the voters didn’t really mean it, or made a mistake, or maybe the voters didn’t know what they were doing.

They hope to ignore the mandate at the polls.

Ritz has a Herculean task moving forward with a Republican governor, a Republican legislature, and laws mandating policies intended to destroy public education.

All she has on her side are the votes of 1.3 million Hoosiers.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, Vouchers

Tony Bennett Blames Unions, Common Core

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
7

In an interview with Education Week, defeated Indiana superintendent blamed his loss on the teachers’ union and on his support for the Common Core standards. He said that his challenger Glenda Ritz drew away some of his conservative base by criticizing the Common Core.

Bennett’s loss stunned supporters in the rightwing reform world.

It looks like Florida is in his future. He is a favorite of Jeb Bush, and Bush is a major player in Florida politics.

He fears that Ritz might find creative ways to strangle his beloved voucher program by regulation.

Remember when education politics was dull? No more.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Florida, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Vouchers

Bill Ayers Writes a Letter to the President

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
11

I won’t go into the baggage associated with Bill Ayers. During the campaign of 2008, his name came up again and again and was hurled as an accusation against candidate Barack Obama.

I recall Sarah Palin saying that Obama was guilty of “palling around with terrorists,” or words to that effect.

I did not approve of or condone what he did in the 1960s.

Bill Ayers is not the same person he was forty years ago. Today, he is a respected education thinker. But then, none of us is the same person we were 40 or 20 or even 10 years ago.

People grow and change. If they are willing, they learn.

Ayers has written a letter to President Obama that expresses the views of many educators today.

He calls on the President to rethink his policies.

He reminds him of the great advantages that the University of Chicago Lab School offered to the Obama children, the Ayers children, the Duncan children, and the Rahm Emanuel children even now.

Isn’t this what we should want for all children?

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Unions, US Education, Vouchers

The Most Important Education Vote Yesterday

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
17

The most important education vote yesterday occurred in Indiana.

As the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette pointed out in its editorial, this election has national implications.

Tony Bennett had become the face of rightwing reform in America.

His mission was to bring the ALEC agenda to life in the Hoosier State.

He was head of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, the group of state superintendents that were most eager to privatize public education, expand charters and vouchers, turn children over to for-profit corporations, and reduce the status of teachers.

He was honored by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute as the “reformiest” state superintendent in the nation.

The Wall Street hedge fund managers and assorted billionaires pumped $1.5 million into his campaign for re-election.

He was soundly defeated by veteran teacher Glenda Ritz.

Ritz raised $325,000 for her campaign to restore public education in Indiana.

Ritz won over Bennett by a comfortable margin of 53-47.

She got 1.3 million votes, almost 100,000 more votes than Mike Pence, the Republican running for governor, who barely eked out a victory.

Make no mistake: The people of Indiana said “no” to Tony Bennett’s radical plans to turn public education into a free-market of choice and competition, based on high-stakes testing.

The people of Indiana elected Glenda Ritz to rebuild their public school system and to wipe away the misguided, mean-spirited “reforms” imposed by Bennett.

This is a victory for the parents, citizens and educators of Indiana.

Most important, it is a victory for the children of the state of Indiana.

Now, they will have a chance to have a good education, not to be consumers in a vast shopping mall of test-based choices, not to be data points for corporations bent on turning a profit.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Vouchers

President Obama Re-Elected, and Now…

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
26

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, supporters of public education must redouble our efforts to end educational malpractice and rejuvenate American education.

It’s time to stop the privatization of public education.

It’s time to stop using invalid methods to judge teacher quality.

It’s time to stop high-stakes testing.

It’s time to stop closing schools.

It’s time to stop teaching to the tests.

It’s time to end the obsession with data and test-based metrics.

It’s time to support students and teachers and public schools.

It’s time to enrich the curriculum with the arts, history, civics and foreign languages for all children.

It’s time to think about what’s good for children, what will really improve education, and what will truly encourage creativity and ingenuity.

It’s time to think about reviving the spirits of educators and the joy of teaching and learning.

The election is over. The struggle for the heart and soul of American education continues.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, US Education, Vouchers

UPSET: Tony Bennett Loses in Indiana!

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2012 //
26

Tony Bennett has conceded.

Bennett is the quintessential reformer: pro-charter, pro-voucher, pro-privatization. Anti-union, anti-teacher, surrounded in state education department by 11 TFA staff.

Head of Jeb Bush’s rightwing Chiefs for Change.

Rumor in Florida is that the state board of education wants Tony Bennet as state commissioner to implement the rightwing agenda in that state.

Congratulations to the educators in Indiana! Time to reform and rehabilitate your state’s education system.

Congratulations to Glenda Ritz, a genuine educator!

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Vouchers

Rightwing Groups Pour $$$$$ into Tennessee

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
2

StudentsFirst and another far-right group called Tennessee Federation for Children are pumping huge amounts of money into state legislative races for candidates who support vouchers and charters.

Tennessee Federation for Children is affiliated with the pro-voucher organization called American Federation for Children, run by billionaire Betsy DeVos of Michigan. AFS honored Michelle Rhee and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin for their efforts on behalf of vouchers in 2010.

This report in the Tessessean says:

The Tennessee PAC affiliated with StudentsFirst, a Sacramento, Calif.-based organization led by former Washington, D.C., Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee, has pumped $376,266 into Tennessee this year. That sum includes contributions to a handful of local school board contenders in Nashville and Memphis but far more to candidates seeking state legislative seats. Most of the recipients are Republicans.

StudentsFirst’s Tennessee PAC, formed last year, spent $66,150 in the Volunteer State over the past month alone, according to financial disclosures submitted last week.

During the same four-week time frame, a PAC called Tennessee Federation for Children, a branch of a Washington organization that expanded to Tennessee this spring, accounted for $145,302 in contributions and other expenditures. The group spent $248,539 in Tennessee altogether this year, with money going to direct mail efforts and to pro-voucher candidates.

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When I was in Chattanooga in September this year, a Democratic candidate told me that a campaign gift of $1,000 was considered huge, so you can imagine the power of this kind of money for conservative Republicans and a few rightwing Democrats.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Tennessee, Vouchers, Walker, Scott

Wisconsin Raises Standards, Voucher Schools and MPS Schools Plummet

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
12

Wisconsin decided to raise the passing mark on its tests, and the results were not pretty in Milwaukee.

90% of students in voucher schools were found not to be “proficient” in math or reading.

In the Milwaukee public schools, 85% were not proficient in reading and 80% were not proficient in math.

Governor Scott Walker has solved the problem for the voucher schools.

In his new legislation expanding the voucher program to more students, the schools will no longer be required to take the state tests.

Therefore, their proficiency rate will not be known or reported.

In the future, there will be no more comparing the results of voucher schools and public schools in Milwaukee.

Categories Accountability, Vouchers, Wisconsin

Will the East Coast Learn from the Gulf Coast?

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2012 //
10

Thomas J. Adams, on the faculty of Tulane University, has a startling and funny column at Huffington Post about what the East Coast can learn from the Gulf Coast.

Now, New York, New Jersey, and other states have had their own version of Hurricane Katrina. Ours is Sandy.

Adams says we can do what New Orleans did:

The absolute first thing you have to do is fire all your public school teachers. Just fire them. We all know education is broken in this country and that teachers are to blame. So why not take this opportunity to do what you helped us do back in 2005? It might create a bit of confusion when the power gets turned back on and the debris gets removed, but that’s a small price to pay for our children’s future. Besides, if there’s a shortage of teachers we can help with that the same way you helped us. We certainly have a surfeit of energetic recent college graduates who we’ll happily send up there to fix your ailing schools. They may have no experience and most peer-reviewed education research concludes they’re not as effective as your former teachers, but they bring energy to the classroom! Sure, they may only stay for a year or two, but their M.B.A. and law school applications will be so much stronger because of it and they’ll make quality education a national issue.

Then he says, what follows easily is complete privatization and new opportunities:

After you get rid of your teachers it will be that much easier to turn control of your schools over to a variety of non- and for-profit groups. Don’t worry, you need not be concerned about whether these schools are effective or not, whether they cherry pick students, cook their test scores, get rid of education professionals in favor of computers, what kinds of salaries their board members are taking in, etc. As you’ve told us many times on countless of your leading editorial pages, this is the model for education reform in the country. In fact if you’re as lucky as us, this will lead you down an easy road to a voucher system in the next few years. Educational equality will come shortly thereafter, I promise.

While the privatization fever is raging, next to go is public housing, then free clinics.

Read it and remember that Arne Duncan said that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing ever to happen to education in New Orleans. I’m waiting to hear if he says the same about Hurricane Sandy.

Categories Charter Schools, For-Profit, New Orleans, Privatization, Unions, Vouchers
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