Ken Burns on the Lessons of Life and History

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2024 //
24

The filmmaker and historian Ken Burns has produced some of the best documentaries ever shown on American television. He has brought history to life with gripping stories of people and momentous events. He is the master of the voice of ordinary people, many of whom are extraordinary.

He recently gave the Commencement speech at Brandeis University. It’s one of the best I have ever read or heard. Here is the link. Read it or listen to it. It’s magnificent.

A memorable paragraph about the current moment:

There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, “The checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.” The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, “a bigger delusion”, James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer.

Categories Citizenship, Courage, Creativity, Democracy, Environment, Freedom, History

A Contest: What Should D.J. Trump’s Punishment Be?

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2024 //
126

Former President Trump will be sentenced by Judge Juan Marchan on July 11. What should be his punishment for the 34 counts on which the jury found him guilty?

Please offer your idea.

Here are a few suggestions.

My partner—a retired history teacher— thinks he should be required to spend 1,000 hours studying the Constitution, civics, and American history. She thinks the course should be taught by Liz Cheney and Jamie Raskin. Since neither has 500 hours to spare, their teaching could be supplemented by noted scholars and high school teachers. Trump would be tested periodically to measure his progress.

I think he should be sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service, working in facilities that serve the poorest and neediest in society. He might serve meals to the homeless. He might assist in places that care for the most severely disabled children and adults. He could change their diapers, clean up after them, do whatever staff asks him to do to ease their days. Maybe he would learn empathy.

What ideas do you have?

The winner will be announced before the actual sentencing on July 11.

Categories Accountability, Civics, Corruption, Democracy, Equity, History, Trump

Idaho: High School Graduate Offers Banned Book to Superintendent at Commencement

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2024 //
24

A high school student in Idaho peaceably performed a quiet but powerful protest against censorship at her graduation ceremonies. For her courage, her commitment to freedom to read, and her sheer chutzpah, I add the name of Annabelle Jenkins to the honor roll of this blog.

An Idaho high school graduate staged an unusual form of protest at her graduation when she offered a book to the school district’s superintendent, who had banned it months earlier.

Annabelle Jenkins was one of 44 graduates to have her name called during the Idaho Fine Arts Academy graduation ceremony on May 23.

After she shook hands with administrators on the stage, Jenkins paused in front of West Ada School District Superintendent Derek Bub and pulled out “The Handmaid’s Tale” from the sleeve of her graduation gown.

Bub stood firm with his arms crossed and declined the book, leaving Jenkins to drop it at his feet as she moved across the stage.

The graphic novel version, written by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault, was one of 10 the school district banned from its libraries earlier in the academic year over its graphic imagery, deemed unsuitable for the student body.

I hope that Annabelle read the full text version of the book, in addition to the banned graphic novel.

Categories Censorship, Character, Citizenship, Courage, Creativity, Democracy, Ethics, Freedom to Read, Grit, Honor Roll, Idaho, Literature

Scott Maxwell: Why Di$ney and De$antis Are Friends Again

By dianeravitch
June 1, 2024 //
3

Scott Maxwell is one of the most astute and fearless journalists in Florida. He regularly blasts politicians and fat-cat corporations when they collaborate against the public interest. He did it again, in his column in The Orlando Sentinel, calling out Disney and DeSantis for their cynical behavior.

He wrote:

Disney — a company that made national news when it announced it was ending campaign donations in Florida — is back in the political game.

This is about as surprising as when Sleeping Beauty woke up before the movie ended. You know, instead of spending the rest of her life in a coma.

See, despite all its high-minded declarations about removing itself from the dirty world of politics, Disney was always going to jump back in the slop.

Why? Because campaign donations are basically legal bribery. And Disney has long been one of the biggest bribers in the state.

In fact, the main reason Ron DeSantis and other GOP lawmakers revolted against Disney two years ago was because Disney cut off their cash.

Sure, the politicians claimed they were upset about Disney standing up for LGBTQ rights. But DeSantis and legislators didn’t go nuclear on Mickey until the company said it was ending campaign donations. Before that, Disney was one of the Florida GOP’s biggest sugar daddies. And the politicians were Disney’s reliable puppets.

The examples were endless. Disney would request tax breaks, protection from lawsuits and mandatory sick-time regulations, even laws that allowed theme parks to get rid of lost-and-found items faster. And the lawmakers who received Disney dollars happily obliged.

That certainly included Ron DeSantis. When the company wanted to be exempted from the governor’s planned crackdown on social media back in 2021, Disney cut DeSantis a $50,000 check, told his staffers how to write the law and — voila! — it included a special carve out for any company that “owns and operates a theme park.”

Some people believe Disney is a liberal company. But this company will give to anyone in a position to do favors — Republican, Democrat or serial killer.

Some hardcore Disney fans don’t like to hear that. They like to believe Disney has a genuine moral compass. Not when it comes to campaign donations.

Disney gave money to both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the same campaign cycle. (You can decide for yourself what kind of ideological value$ that $ugge$t$….)

Now, Disney has definitely given Florida Republicans way more money than Florida Democrats over the last couple of decades — not because Mickey and Minnie are big backers of the NRA, but because Republicans have all the power.

Disney cut the Republican Party of Florida about a dozen checks for as much as $100,000 apiece during the 2022 cycle — and then threw in another $148,000 worth of free resort rooms, theme park tickets and other goodies. Disney gave Florida Democrats less than half that.

Disney also gave a lot of cash directly to some of the most anti-gay politicians in the state. That included every sponsor of the infamous “Don’t Say Gay”/”Parental Rights” law, as well as the attorneys general who tried to keep same-sex couple from marrying one another. When hard-core lawmakers fought to prevent LGBTQ citizens — including some of Disney’s most loyal cast members — from ever adopting children, Disney cut those politicians checks to help them stay in office.

The only reason Disney paused its campaign donations was because this column and newspaper exposed the company’s two-faced political giving — funding anti-gay politicians while flying rainbow flags and promoting equality — which prompted Disney employees and even Abigail Disney to revolt.

But as soon as Disney announced it was cutting off the politicians, the politicians attacked, making it clear that if Disney wouldn’t pay, the politicians weren’t going to play.

Well, Disney is apparently paying again. As the Sentinel reported last week, State Sen. Geraldine Thompson acknowledged Disney was helping sponsor a fundraiser for her re-election campaign.

If Disney was looking to dip its toe back into the donation pool, Thompson seems like a relatively safe way to do so. The Windermere Democrat, after all, is a popular, moderate veteran elected official.

I suppose it’s possible that Disney will be more selective about its future donations and refuse to fund politicians who espouse values that run counter to the ones the company claims to have. But I doubt it. Especially since some of the same GOP politicians who spent the last two years demonizing Disney seem eager to start cashing their checks again.

Florida Politics reported last month that GOP party chairman Evan Powers was ready to move past the anti-Disney ruckus, saying he “always believed that Disney will come back to the table.” And DeSantis recently did Disney a big favor when he decided to put his former staffer — the one who’d worked with Disney lobbyists behind the scenes to do the company favors — in charge of the theme park’s government district.

Keep in mind: DeSantis previously accused Disney of “sexualizing” children and being cozy with the “Communist Party of China.” But now he’s doing the company favors and issuing statements that say he wants to help the company promote “family-friendly tourism.”

Money seems to solve all sorts of relationship problems in politics — which is precisely why we all knew Disney would start dishing it out again. And why I expect to see the company dish a lot more to the powerful pols who want it. Otherwise, the company may find itself being labeled communist pedophiles again.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

Categories DeSantis, Ethics, Fake, Florida, Funding

Indiana: Vouchers Gain Momentum as Income Limits Are Removed

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2024 //
11

Indiana started small with vouchers. They were supposed to “save poor kids from failing schools.” But it was the old camel’s-nose-under-the-tent routine. The real goal of voucher advocates was not to help poor kids escape “failing schools,” but to subsidize upper-middle-class and wealthy families who already had children in private schools.

And although 87% of Indiana’s students are enrolled in public schools, the Republican governor and legislature continue to expand the voucher program.

A new state report described the voucher expansion. Mind you, no one claims that students are getting a better education in nonpublic schools, just that are getting public money to subsidize the costs.

WFYI, the NPR station in Indianapolis, summarized the report:

Enrollment in Indiana’s private-school voucher program surged to 70,095 students in 2023-24. That’s a 31 percent increase compared to the previous year, the largest ever jump in a single year.

The state paid $439 million in tuition grants to private parochial or non-religious schools — 40 percent more than in 2022-23, according to a new state report.

The jump in voucher use comes after nearly every Indiana family became eligible to receive a voucher. A 2023 law repealed most requirements for students, such as previous enrollment in a public school, and it allows upper-income families to use public money to help pay for a private-school education. A family of four making $222,000 qualified for the Choice Scholarship Program in the recent school year.

The program’s expansion is a direct result of the Indiana Statehouse Republican supermajority’s efforts to expand policies that allow families to choose what they believe is the best school, or type of school, for their children.

Researcher R. Joseph Waddington, who studies Indiana’s school choice systems, said the monumental growth is not surprising.

“Without question, a lot of the enrollment growth in the voucher program is a result of that increase in income eligibility,” said Waddington, the director of Program Evaluation and Research at University of Notre Dame. 

The number of families who earn more than $200,000 a year and receive vouchers increased nearly tenfold. The report does not detail how many of these families were already attending a private school and became eligible for a voucher in the past year. 

“But there is growth in other parts of the program as well, even for lower income families,” Waddington said. 

The number of participating families earning less than $100,000 grew by 14 percent from year to year. [Note that the increase for this group was 14%, compared to a ten-fold increase for families earning over $200,000 a year.]

Kindergarten student participation grew by 4 percent — the most of all grades. That increase is directly tied to the repealing of the previous eligibility requirements, according to the report.

This year, 6 percent of all Indiana public and private-school students received a voucher, according to the report. Traditional public schools make up nearly 87 percent of enrollment — about half a percentage point less than the previous year….

As Indiana has expanded its voucher program to more high-income families, critics also contend that the state is paying tuition for students who would have attended private school without a voucher.

The report shows roughly 67.5 percent of students using a voucher have no record of prior attendance at an Indiana public school in 2023-24 — an increase of around almost 4 percentage points from the previous year.

Categories Education Industry, Funding, Indiana, Vouchers

Thom Hartmann: How Putin Helped Elect Trump in 2016

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2024 //
31

Thom Hartmann posted some of his thoughts about the election, and they are well worth reading. I particularly enjoyed his reporting on Trump’s friendship with Putin in 2016, which refutes Trump’s constant claim that he was exonerated by the Muelker Report. He wasn’t.

I also appreciated his sharp takedown of The New York Times for repeatedly running negative stores about Biden in its front page.

Here’s a part of what he wrote:

— How 2016 WAS stolen — with help from Russia! Bette Midler recently asked on X, “Can you imagine what would have happened if Hillary Clinton had claimed the election was stolen?” That simple tweet has sent the right-wing-o-sphere into a paroxysm of hysteria. But the more we learn about what happened in 2016, the clearer it is that without Putin’s intervention — from hacking Hillary’s emails to spending millions of dollars and investing hundreds of thousands of man-hours on social media — Clinton would have easily won the election. As Frank Vyan Walton writes over on Daily Kos:
“Don Jr. met personally with a Russia lawyer in order to get dirt on the Hillary campaign. They were told by Russian operatives about the GRU hack of the DNC emails system months before it came out. Trump said ‘Russia if you’re listening…’ Trump kept working on the Trump Tower Russia project until mid-2016 and lied about it, while secretly in negotiations with Dmitri Peskov. Paul Manafort gave internal polling data to a GRU operative, Konstantin Kilimnick. Carter Page was told about the sale of 19.5% of Rosneft stock even though it was a sanctioned company and he couldn’t legally profit from that. Roger Stone was in contact with a Russian operative, Guccifer 2.0, and arranged for Wikileaks to release the Podesta emails in order to distract from the Access Hollywood tape. Michael Flynn suggested Trump would drop sanctions on Russia if they didn’t react to Obama expelling their diplomats for…. wait for it… interfering with the election. Five members of Trump’s entourage — Papadopoulos, Stone, Flynn, Van Der Zwaan and Cohen —  were prosecuted and convicted for lying under oath about their contacts with Russia.  They all did time, the cases were proven.” There’s more over at Frank’s Kos article, which is well worth the read. 

— Is Putin trying to move his border into the Baltics? You Betcha! Russia has a small slice of land bordering the Baltic Sea that’s a Russian territory called Kaliningrad. This week the Russian Ministry of Defense, in a move reminiscent of China’s encroachment on Taiwan’s territorial waters, put Europe on notice that they intend to declare part of that sea as Russian territory, an extension of Kalainingrad’s territorial waters. The leaders of the Baltic states are freaked out, as Putin moves the world, one step at a time, closer to the possibility of World War III. 

— Here’s a poll that I’ll bet won’t show up on the front page of the New York Times. The Times admitted yesterday that the “Biden is losing” polls they’ve been trumpeting for months in an effort to force the president to do a sit-down interview with the paper’s owner/publisher have been based on phony information. Instead of polling exclusively “likely voters” based on their having voted in the 2020 election, they’ve been polling Democratic voters who didn’t bother to vote last time and probably won’t this time. In fact, as D. Earl Stephens reports at his excellent Substack newsletter Enough Already, the more likely somebody is not to vote this year, the more likely they are to say they’ll vote for Trump. Even worse, a new Navigator Research poll finds that 58% of Americans want our government to crack down on corporate price gouging and 53% want the feds to do something about the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs. These are all strong Democratic and Biden issues, but don’t expect to see this poll on the front page of the Times; that’s reserved for the latest Trumpy news. 

— Speaking of polls, do you know what that money Michael Cohen confessed to “stealing” from Trump was for? It was $20K out of a paper bag with $50,000 cash in it that was paid to online services company RedFinch to juice an online poll about Trump. Seriously. They were apparently paid to post thousands or hundreds of thousands of phony online votes to swing the 2016 poll to make Trump look more popular as a businessman than he really was. It reminds me that when he came down the escalator in 2015, the crowd waiting for him was a group of actors paid $50/hour to hold Trump signs and cheer. Why aren’t our media reporting this? And how many polls today are Trump paying to juice?

Categories Biden, Corruption, Elections, Trump

Thomas Ultican: New Book by Reading Experts Debunks “Science of Reading”

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2024 //
38

Thomas Ultican, retired teacher of advanced mathematics and physics, reports on a new book by literacy scholars, The book, he concludes, demolishes the hype associated with “the science of reading.” Ultican believes that states should not mandate how to teach reading. I agree. Legislators are not teaching professionals or literacy experts. They should not require teachers to follow their orders.

Ultican writes:

Two eminent professors of instruction and literacy teamed up to write “Fact-Checking the Science of Reading.” P. David Pearson of UC Berkeley and Robert J. Tierney of University of British Columbia are Emeritus Professors with high reputation in their respective countries.

In the introduction, they inform us that Emily Hanford’s 2022 “Sold a Story” podcasts motivated them to write. In particular, they noted:

  1. “A consistent misinterpretation of the relevant research findings; and
  2. “A mean-spirited tone in her rhetoric, which bordered on personal attacks directed against the folks Hanford considered to be key players in what she called the Balanced Literacy approach to teaching early reading.” (Page XIV)…

After reviewing their findings, Ultican concludes:

SoR advocates say when teaching reading, the “settled science” of phonics “first and fast”, should be applied. They are working to make it against the law to disagree, claiming other forms of instruction cause child harm. SoR reading theory may have some holes but their political power is unquestioned and global. Laws mandating SoR have been enacted in 40 US states, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries. These rules limit teacher autonomy and attempt to make reading a scripted subject. (Page XII)

The Orwellian labeled science of reading (SoR) is not based on sound science. It more accurately should be called “How to Use Anecdotes to Sell Reading Products.” In 1997, congress passed legislation, calling for a reading study. From Jump Street, establishment of the National Reading Panel (NRP) was a doomed effort. The panel was given limited time for the study (18 months) which was a massive undertaking, conducted by twenty-one unpaid volunteers. NRP fundamentally did a meta-analysis in five reading domains, ignoring 10 other important reading domains. In other words, they did not review everything and there was no new research. They simply searched for reading studies and averaged the results to give us “the science of reading.”

SoR’s real motivation is to sell products, not helping children struggling to read. Scholars like Pearson and Tierney are ignored and swept away by a podcaster with no credentials. 

For the sake of the future, we must stop legally mandating SoR as a solution to a fraudulent“reading crisis” and put our trust in education professionals.

Categories Education Industry, Fake News, For-Profit, Literacy, Science

Register Now for NPE’s 2025 National Conference in Columbus, Ohio

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2024 //
0

It’s never too soon to reserve a spot at the next annual conference of the Network for public Education! The conference will bring together champions of public schools from across the nation to learn from one another.

2025 NPE/NPE Action National Conference in Columbus Ohio.

Start: Saturday, April 05, 2025 • 8:00 AM

End: Sunday, April 06, 2025 • 3:00 PM

Hyatt Regency Columbus • 350 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215 US

Host Contact Info: info@networkforpubliceducation.org

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Network for Public Education, Ohio

Florida: Home Schooling Numbers Increase with Public Funding

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2024 //
5

Home schooling is booming in Florida, thanks to vouchers paid for with tax dollars. Governor DeSantis was recently a keynote speaker at the state homeschooling association, and he said that Florida is now the nation’s leading state for homeschooling. He said, “When you think about education and your kids, as a parent, the kids are in many ways an open book. And do you want to turn them over for eight hours a day to some indoctrination factory? Of course not. And so you want to be able to have choice to be able to direct the education and upbringing of your kids.” Ten years ago, 77,000 children were homeschooled. Today the number is 155,000.

Homeschooling families receive vouchers of $7,000-$9,000 for education expenses. However, some parents have used the voucher to pay for trampolines, swim goggles, snorkels, masks, fins, skateboards, and for televisions up to 55 inches and admission to theme parks.

I assume some parents are qualified to teach their children at home. I’ve met a few. But I also assume that even more parents are totally unqualified to teach their children at home. I fear that the increase in the number of children taught at home will result in a larger pool of poorly educated, ignorant Americans, whose education leaves them unprepared for the 21st century. Unlike DeSantis, who went to Florida’s public schools, before going to Harvard and Yale Law School, the state’s home-schooled children will not be taught by certified teachers of history, science, mathematics, and literature, nor will they have access to advanced courses. They will learn what their parents know. They will avoid the strict accountability that the state considers essential for public schools. Their parents, if they have three children, will get nearly $30,000 from the state, and be free to immerse their children in ideological, political or religious zealotry or to teach them total nonsense. This is insane.

The Orlando Sentinel reported:

TALLAHASSEE — A state voucher program that began in the 2023-2024 school year is on pace to at least double as applications roll in from families who teach their children at home in search of funds to make a range of purchases.

What’s known as the Personalized Education Program provides voucher money to students not enrolled full-time at public or private schools. The program was established through a 2023 law (HB 1) that massively expanded the state’s voucher programs…

The law allowed for the Personalized Education Program to provide vouchers for 20,000 students in its inaugural year, and the program almost hit its cap, with vouchers for 19,514 students funded.

It’s allowed to grow by 40,000 students a year under the law, meaning the maximum capacity would grow in the 2024-2025 school year to 60,000 students.

As of late last week, 39,690 applications had been submitted for the coming school year, and 31,991 vouchers had been awarded, with months to go for applications to come in, potentially increasing the number toward the maximum of 60,000.

As the homeschool vouchers increase year by year, in time there will be even more homeschooled students, and the state will pay out more than a billion dollars annually.

A side note: last fall, I visited Germany. I learned that homeschooling is banned there. In our society, teachers must pass exams to demonstrate their competence, but parents who homeschool do not. We subsidize the cultivation of ignorance. Florida leads the way.

Categories DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Home Schooling

Mississippi: Fourth-Grade Reading “Miracle” Disappears in 8th Grade

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2024 //
21

Much has been written about “the Mississippi Miracle,” the dramatic increase in fourth grade reading scores. New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristoff brought national attention to the phenomenon and remarked that these amazing results were due to the “science of reading” (phonics), not any new funding for the state’s woefully underfunded schools, nor any reduction in poverty or segregation..

At the time, I criticized Kristoff’s naïveté, because he failed to notice that the state’s fourth grade NAEP scores rose, but its eighth grade scores had not. What kind of miracle fades away over time? Of what value is evanescent progress? Kristoff attributed the stunning improvement in fourth grade scores to the “science of reading,” and minimized the significance of the state’s policy of holding back third graders who didn’t pass the reading test. Winnowing out the weakest readers lifts the average scores of those who are promoted to fourth grade. A manufactured miracle.

Julia James, a reporter for Mississippi Today, wrote recently about the disparity between the fourth grade scores, which rose impressively, and the eighth grade scores, which didn’t. The headline says that the state “fell short” of an eighth-grade reading “miracle.” In fact, Mississippi’s eighth-grade reading scores were completely unchanged over the period from 2011-2021; actually, the scores were slightly lower in 2021.

The balance of the article concerns ways to raise eighth grade reading scores.

But there is no thought given to whether there really was a “miracle” in fourth grade or just old-fashioned gaming of the system.

Incidentally, the Mississippi State Superintendent who oversaw the fourth grade reading “miracle” is now the state superintendent in Maryland, where she hopes to produce the same results. Let’s hope that those gains are sustained into eighth grade.

Categories Literacy, Propaganda
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