Jack Hassard: Trump’s Outrageous War on Science

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2019 //
58

Jack Hassard Taught science education for many years. He used to write a blog called “The Art of Teaching Science,” but became so upset about current events that he renamed his blog “Jack Hassard’s Blog.”

In this post, he excoriates Trump’s war on science.

He begins:

Science was under assault last week by an un-educated President and his staff who believe that they can supercede the findings of science when the findings don’t agree with their personal and political views.

When Hurricane Harvey inflicted its wrath on Houston and most of East Texas, I painted an art series of 4 canvases showing how hurricanes harm not only property, but the people who endure the storm. This may be a family or community of friends who are wading through flooded streets to find shelter. I believe that science should be in the service of people. In this case, it was in the service of these people by providing the most up-to-date forecast, and warnings about the storm and its aftermath. When narcissistic politicians intrude into the nature of how science is done, they corrupt the findings, and lend support to the distrust of science and scientists.

Assault on Science

Science has been under assault during the entire period of time Trump has been in office. Scientists in several departments, especially the EPA, and Commerce Dept. have come under dire consequences because of the administration’s anti-science views, and their attempt to oversee and obstruct the process of science.

It’s not the first time. Republicans have had a field day trying to influence the nature of the science that is produced by United States government agencies. Chris Mooney documented this in his book, The Republican War on Science, published 2005, midstream in the George W. Bush administration. In Bush’s assault on science, the principle underpinning of his war was to please political and religious groups.

In Trump’s case, not only has politics and religion played a part, but the most egregious sin committed by Trump is his form of narcissism that is of the loud kind. He brags, he boasts, I’m smart, I’m really smart, he insults, and is obsessed with numbers (see Craig Malkin’s chapter, Pathological Narcissism and Politics in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, edited by Bandy Lee, M.D.). Trump simply can never be wrong or corrected because he’s such an “extremely stable genius.”

Categories Science, Trump

Kentucky PTA Lawyer: The Other Side of the Story

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2019 //
5

I posted Gay Adelmann’s account of her efforts to see the financial records of the Kentucky PTA. Both sides ended up in court.

Kentucky: What is the State PTA Hiding?

I heard from S. Coy Travis, whose law firm represents the Kentucky PTA. He wanted readers to know both sides. I invited him to write a commentary, and he did.

He wrote:

Isn’t Kentucky PTA subject to the Open Records Act? Why does Kentucky PTA think that it doesn’t need to follow a lawful Open Records Act request.

Kentucky PTA is a private nonprofit corporation. While PTAs do work closely with schools, they are not simply an extension of the public school or generally under the control of the school district. As best said by Betsy Landers, past National PTA President, “PTA doesn’t work for the school – it works on behalf of children and families.”

The Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.880 et seq., only applies to public agencies. School districts are clearly public agencies subject to the Open Records Act.

Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, public records of public agencies are subject to inspection unless they fall within a particular exclusion. One of the exclusions are records (a) that are required by a public agency to be disclosed to it by a private entity, (b) that are generally recognized as confidential or proprietary, and (c) that would permit an unfair competitive advantage against the private entity disclosing the records.

Breaking down that analysis:

(a) Kentucky PTA is required by the Accounting Procedures for School Activity Funds a/k/a Redbook to provide the requested records to the school. The school is a public agency under the Kentucky Open Records Act. There is little dispute that this portion of the analysis is satisfied.

(b) Financial records of private entities are generally considered to be confidential or proprietary. There is case law in Kentucky that acknowledges that a private entity’s financial records – including budgets and annual financial reports – are typically considered confidential and proprietary. While there may be great interest in these records, that does not change the fact that they are, generally speaking, considered to be confidential or proprietary. This point is explored more below.

(c) Entities that might be competitors or adverse to Kentucky PTA could use these records to gain an advantage on Kentucky PTA. As one example illustrating this point:

Suppose that a group wishes to reduce the influence of Kentucky PTA by forming unaffiliated parent teacher organizations (PTOs), which focus on the local school only and do not have the advocacy aims of PTA. The PTO organizers, if given access to Kentucky PTA financial records, could use those records to identify PTA chapters with fewer members and/or financial resources. The PTO organizers could then target those schools for development of a PTO instead of a PTA. As another example: Suppose that a charter school advocate wishes to build support for charter schools by pointing out schools with “weak” PTAs in an effort to show that public schools have not fostered parental involvement. This would clearly be detrimental to PTA.

So, while Kentucky PTA respects the goals of the Open Records Act, Kentucky PTA does not agree that the Open Records Act legally applies to Kentucky PTA or that the records that Kentucky PTA (through its local units) is required to disclose by law should be subject to an Open Records Request. Kentucky PTA believes that the current request is not supported by a correct interpretation of the law. For Kentucky PTA, this case is entirely about the “how” and not the “what” that is at issue.

How can Kentucky PTA claim its financial records are confidential when it discloses that information to members at local meetings?

First, it’s important to again remember that Kentucky PTA is a private entity, not a government agency or program. Second, Kentucky PTA has roughly 105,000 members, and we encourage our members to engage with local units. And yes, our local units regularly share financial information with members during PTA meetings. But, to put the Kentucky PTA membership number in context, there are approximately 4,468,000 people in Kentucky. This means that, out of Kentucky’s entire population, only 2.3% of the people in our state are Kentucky PTA members. While we gladly share information with our members, Kentucky PTA does not regularly share detailed financial information with the general public except as otherwise required by law. The essence of privacy rights is that private entities get to control how their information gets disseminated to the general public. In other words, the private entity gets to decide what to share, what not to share, how to share it, etc. Kentucky PTA takes its role in the public education sphere seriously and carefully balances its privacy interests against the goal of being transparent and ensuring public confidence in PTA.

Put into a different context: Just because a person might choose to share information with the person’s friends and family does not mean that the person does not still consider the information confidential to anyone outside those groups.

Why did Kentucky PTA sue an activist?

Technically, the named defendant in the lawsuit is the public agency – the school district. This is because the public agency currently possesses the records, and as such, is the defendant in an Open Records Act lawsuit. Ms. Adelmann was named not as a defendant but as a “real party in interest.” This means that Kentucky PTA acknowledged, from the outset, that Ms. Adelmann has a legal interest in the legal question at issue in the case and deserves a full and fair opportunity to be heard on the issue. Contrary to the narrative that Kentucky PTA has tried to keep Ms. Adelmann in the dark or hide anything, Kentucky PTA wanted to ensure that she had the chance to say whatever she wanted to say and be a part of this process.

Why doesn’t Kentucky PTA want to see the activist get these records? Why didn’t Kentucky PTA just give the records to the activist?

Actually, Kentucky PTA has already agreed to provide the requested records to Ms. Adelmann. Kentucky PTA is currently in the process of gathering those records and digitizing them so that they can be produced to Ms. Adelmann. However, Kentucky PTA is almost exclusively made up of volunteers, so it will take time to get these records. Additionally, many of the requested records, though produced to the schools, are not produced to the state PTA office, so we will have to collect those from our local units.

We have also heard that Ms. Adelmann feels that she did not get a sufficient response from Kentucky PTA when she requested these records from local units. Kentucky PTA is not aware of any request made at the state level or the specifics of who in local PTAs Ms. Adelmann asked for these records. To date, she has not provided Kentucky PTA with any corroboration of the efforts she made to get these records directly from PTA at any level before resorting to her request under the Open Records Act, and she has repeatedly acknowledged that she did so more for her own convenience. Regardless, Kentucky PTA is currently working on developing written protocols to ensure that there are more clearly-established and understood procedures for member document requests in the future.

Is this a good use of Kentucky PTA’s resources?

We’ve all heard the phrase, “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” Likely, those who have children or have worked with children have stressed this lesson many times. Kentucky PTA fully agrees with this assessment, and that is the driving belief behind this legal action. Again, Kentucky PTA is not trying to hide anything – it fully intends to produce the requested records to Ms. Adelmann. However, we do believe that the question of “how” those records are produced has been completely overlooked. Using an analogy that education activists in Kentucky can appreciate, Kentucky PTA believes that trying to get the records of a private entity through an Open Records Act request is a lot like trying to pass a pension reform bill by calling it a wastewater bill – no matter what anyone may believe about the merits, the process is flawed.

Additionally, much of the legal work performed for Kentucky PTA, including most of the time spent on this litigation, has been done on a pro bono basis. As a supporter of public education and its allies, Kentucky PTA’s general counsel has done his absolute best to keep the costs on this case as low as possible, including substantially reducing the hourly rate when work has been billed.

Why didn’t Kentucky PTA take action in the past in response to other Open Records Act requests?

There was a previous Open Records Act request made by a local newspaper a couple of years ago for PTA records. However, there is no evidence that Kentucky PTA knew about the request prior to the school district releasing the records. In an Open Records Act case, once the records have been released, there is really no remedy. In the current instance, Kentucky PTA was made aware of the request through local PTAs contacting the state office before the records were produced, giving Kentucky PTA the opportunity to intervene for the above-stated reasons.

If Kentucky PTA is giving the activist the records, why is it planning to appeal the trial court decision?

The decision by the trial court in this case has no precedential value for any future requests. Until there is a published appellate opinion, there is no controlling law on this question. Kentucky PTA believes that it and other entities required to produce records to the government by law would benefit from an analysis of this portion of the Open Records Act.

Categories Accountability, Kentucky

Steven Singer: Time to Close Every Single Charter School, Every One

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2019 //
41

Steven Singer, a teacher in Pennsylvania, has concluded that there are no good charter schools. The problem, he says, is not implementation but the concept, which, he insists, is wrong.

He writes:

The problem with charter schools isn’t that they have been implemented badly.

Nor is it that some are for-profit and others are not.

The problem is the concept, itself.

Put simply: charter schools are a bad idea. They always were a bad idea. And it is high time we put an end to them.

I am overjoyed that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are starting to hear the criticisms leveled against the charter school industry in the face of the naked greed and bias of the Trump administration and its high priestess of privatization, Betsy DeVos. However, I am also disappointed in the lack of courage displayed by many of these same lawmakers when proposing solutions.

Charter schools enroll only 6 percent of students nationwide yet they gobble up billions of dollars in funding. In my home state of Pennsylvania, they cost Commonwealth taxpayers more than $1.8 billion a year and take more than 25 percent of the state’s basic education funding. That’s for merely 180 schools with 135,000 students!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Mineola, N.Y.: A Third-Grade Classroom Where Students Spend 75% of The Day on Their iPads

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2019 //
33

Four years ago, the Hechinger Report described a third-grade class in an affluent suburb of New York City where children spend 75% of the day on their iPads.

Is this the future?

It is not a cost-saver, since there is still one teacher and a class of 20+ students. In most tech-infused projections, this is called “personalized learning,” and it is pitched as a way to cut costs by increasing class sizes.

At Governor Cuomo’s urging, New York passed a $2 billion bond issue to pay for new technology in the classroom. Districts on Long Island, pride themselves on their adoption of the latest technology. Technology and STEM are the rage.

Read, then use your iPad or computer to write a comment.

Categories New York, Technology

North Carolina: Republican Legislators Trash Democracy

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
13

 

Republican legislators in North Carolina pulled a fast one on the Democrats. After assuring them that no votes were scheduled, the Republicans took advantage of the Democrats’ absence to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the Republican budget.

https://apple.news/ARwmvDp7KQ1O0PQfx-alHAA

NBC reported:

“North Carolina House Democrats are calling foul on their Republican colleagues for voting to override the governor’s budget veto on Wednesday while most Democrats were not present.

“The uproar began after GOP Rep. Jason Saine made a motion early Wednesday morning to reconsider the budget that was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper earlier this year, according to The Raleigh News & Observer.

“Democrats excoriated Republicans on social media and the few who were present in the House at the time of the vote furiously protested the decision. Only 12 Democrats were in the House, but they did not all have an opportunity to vote and their microphones were cut off, the paper reported. The vote passed 55-9. The issue now moves to the state’s GOP-controlled Senate.

“How dare you do this, Mr. Speaker!” said Democratic Rep. Deb Butler, who was surrounded by fellow Democrats on the House floor as she shouted in protest at the decision, according to a video posted online by a Democratic colleague. “If this is the way you think democracy works, shame on you. This is not appropriate and you know it. The people of North Carolina, you will answer to the people of North Carolina.”

“House Democratic leader Darren Jackson told the paper that he informed Democrats that they did not need to be present because Republican Rep. David Lewis said there would be no recorded votes. The North Carolina House is a 120-member body and Republicans hold a 65–55 majority. However, last year Democrats won enough seats in the House to end the GOP’s supermajority, which had allowed them to override a veto.”

Governor Cooper was attending a 9/11 memorial service when the Republicans trucked him and their Democratic colleagues.

 

Note from an activist in N.C.:

“The NC House voted this morning to override Governor Cooper’s veto of the republican budget. Cooper wanted to expand medicaid and also increase school funding, teacher salaries. The ‘News and Observer’ noted in an editorial today that NC ranked 37th in the nation when Republicans won control of the General Assembly in 2011. Today, the same editorial noted that our state now ranks 48th overall in per pupil spending.

“The Senate still also needs to vote but it’s probably going to happen (Cooper’s veto will be overridden). Republicans only need one vote in the NC Senate and they’ll bribe somebody. They tried all summer to get 5 votes in the house but failed so they used 9/11, of all days, to ramrod through their agenda.”

Links below
N&) Editiorial 9/11/19
BUDGET
VIDEO
Categories Accountability, Democracy, Fraud, Funding, North Carolina

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family Reach a Deal That Leaves the Family Billionaires

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
24

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family have reached a settlement that will leave the family with many billions of dollars.

The company is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy imminently. The settlement, which was described by two people involved in the negotiations, involves the dissolution of Purdue Pharma as it now exists, the formation of a new company that will continue to sell its signature opioid, OxyContin, with the proceeds going to a public beneficiary company that will pay the plaintiffs. Purdue Pharma also will donate “rescue” drugs, several of which are in development, for addiction treatment and overdose reversal.

The Sackler family will pay $3 billion in cash over seven years.

The settlement does not include a statement of wrongdoing.

The company declined to comment.

The settlement is a landmark moment in the long-running effort to compel Purdue Pharma, the company whose drug is seen as an early driver of the crisis, and its owners, the Sacklers, to have their day of reckoning for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from overdoses and the calamitous systemic costs.

The settlement comes scarcely six weeks before the start of the first federal trial in the sprawling opioid litigation in front of a federal judge in Cleveland who has recently issued tough pretrial rulings against the defendants — drug manufacturers including Purdue, as well as drug distributors and chain retailers. Although other manufacturers have already settled in that case, as well as in an earlier state opioid trial in Oklahoma, the Purdue agreement is the first so-called “global” arrangement. Negotiated by a team of five lawyers representing nearly 2,300 lawsuits in federal court, as well as by lawyers for the states, the resolution would end almost all of the cases against Purdue…

But because the deal falls short of what some state attorneys general had insisted upon, they have said that they will continue to pursue the Sacklers themselves. In recent weeks, perhaps in anticipation of legal fortresses built by the Sacklers to guard their fortune, which Forbes estimated to be about $13 billion, more states, including Virginia, New Mexico and Delaware, have been filing cases against members of the family. The states have used anarray of legal tactics, hoping for an even bigger payout from the Sacklers and to force them out of the pharmaceutical business altogether.

A critical sticking point has been the timing of the family’s sale of its global pharmaceutical business, Mundipharma, and the contribution the family would make from the proceeds. Some attorneys general, including those from Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut, who have not signed on to the settlement, had been pressing the family to sell the company immediately and to discontinue manufacturing drugs for international markets. And regardless of what price Mundipharma fetched, the attorneys general said, they wanted the Sacklers to commit an additional $1.5 billion up front.

The family refused to do so.

“Connecticut has not agreed to any settlement,” William Tong, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement. “Our position remains firm and unchanged and nothing for us has changed today.” He added: “I cannot predict whether Purdue will seek bankruptcy, but all I can say is we are ready to aggressively pursue this case wherever it goes — whether it is in the Connecticut courts or through bankruptcy.”

 

Categories Accountability

Ann Cronin: Healing from Our Current Wreckage

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
1

Ann Cronin posted about the efforts of some Americans to heal divisions instead of widening them. 

She writes here about one of those Americans who sought to bridge differences.

Grief doesn’t ever go away, but Manal Ezzat, a Muslim woman and engineer with the U.S. Army who was present at the attack on the Pentagon, took her grief and used it to connect with others in need. She was the project manager for the Army’s space in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. After the attack, she was in charge of redesigning the area where the attack had occurred. She knew immediately that it should not return to being offices. Recently with the approach of the 18th anniversary of that awful day, Ezzat said that she still can’t fully understand that tragedy and yet can never forget it. She said about the chapel, ” We just wanted to make it a peaceful place that could help wipe away the tragedy.”

Categories Education Reform

Robert Kuttner: The Case for Patriotism

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
19

Robert Kuttner writes and edits “The American Prospect.”

He reminds me of myself. I am a patriot but since the 2016 election, I have not felt patriotic. I have been ashamed of my president and my nation. Hateful, crazy people had taken control of our government. It seemed like every ounce of compassion and respect for the rule of law had been stamped out.

Kuttner explains why we must recapture our country and restore “the better angels of our nature.” Love of country means love of our neighbors. Love of country means rebuilding its infrastructure. Love of country means respect for democracy and the rule of law. Love of country means protecting the Constitution.

 

Kuttner on TAP

On This Anniversary of 9/11, the Case for Patriotism. I noticed a large American flag outside the home of a neighbor, marking this fateful anniversary. My first reaction, I am ashamed to admit, was to wonder if there might be a Trump voter in my nice liberal neighborhood. But then I thought, hey it’s my flag, too.

As we head into 2020, it’s time for a serious game of capture the flag. Patriotism is too valuable to leave to Donald Trump and the far right. But let’s define it properly.

Patriotism today means an America that is once again a beacon to the world, and not the world’s laughingstock. Economic patriotism means operating trade and industrial policies to reclaim jobs and industries using technologies invented here, and to develop new ones.

Republicans have allowed multinational corporations to give away those industries and jobs, abetted by trade policies supported by too many Democrats. (Corporations may be “citizens,” but it’s hard to find less of a patriot than a U.S.-based multinational.)

Patriotism, progressive style, means massive investment in our public systems, so we can be proud once again of American infrastructure. Instead, our public facilities are museum pieces.

After World War II, everyone was a patriot. Not only had American military might defeated the Axis, but the war effort had modernized the U.S. economy. The great public works of the Roosevelt era were a wonder.

During the Vietnam protests, when some radicals were burning flags, the venerable socialist leader Norman Thomas objected: Don’t burn the flag, wash it. Amen.

Progressive patriotism has some catch-up work—to extend the idealistic promises of the Constitution to Americans of all races once and for all. Then we can be fully proud of America with no asterisks or footnotes. We might even make America great again. ~ ROBERT KUTTNER

 

Categories Education Reform

Providence: Acting Superintendent Wastes $187,000 on “Inspirational” Books

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
8

The public schools of Providence have been taken over by the state because of very low test scores. The interim superintendent Frances Gallo is the same person who threatened to fire the entire staff of Central Falls High School in 2010 because of its very low scores. Central Falls was taken over by the state. It still has the lowest scores in the state.

From the Boston Globe, which is behind a pay wall:

After a tough summer, the interim superintendent of Providence schools wanted to do something uplifting for students returning to class in a system labeled as one of the most troubled in the country.

She searched through Amazon and selected a motivational book, ordering thousands of copies at a cost of $187,000. The plan was to have all middle and high school students read it this month.

But after teachers and school board members complained that “Shoot Your Shot: A Sport-Inspired Guide To Living Your Best Life” was filled with religious overtones, Frances Gallo asked educators to pause their use of the book in class…

Gallo, who retired from running Central Falls schools in 2015, was named Providence’s interim superintendent shortly before Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green announced the state would take control of the struggling district.

The state’s intervention comes after a report from researchers at Johns Hopkins University found the school system is plagued by widespread dysfunction, poor test scores, and abysmal building conditions. One member of the research team cried after visiting a school. Others called Providence the worst district they had ever encountered…

Gallo said the purchase of the books is a relatively small expenditure inside of a school budget that is approaching $400 million, but the district has been forced to put off technology upgrades and cut partnerships with nonprofit partners in recent years due to a lack of funding.

Read the full story:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/rhode-island/2019/09/11/providence-schools-spent-inspirational-books-now-has-plans-use-them/cAarWBtBAv8DiqMI1sK3VJ/story.html?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Providence, Rhode Island

NY State Teachers Retirement Invests In K12 Inc.

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2019 //
13

Why do teachers’ pension funds invest in stocks of corporations that are actively undermining public schools and their teachers?

K12 Inc. manages a chain of online charter schools that are noted for low performance, high attrition rates, and low graduation rates. Their teachers never meet students. They have large classes, no union.

https://mayfieldrecorder.com/2019/08/30/new-york-state-teachers-retirement-system-takes-position-in-k12-inc-nyselrn.html

Categories Education Reform, K12 Inc., New York, Pensions, Teachers, Virtual Charter Schools
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »