Who Should Save Detroit?
Detroit’s state-appointed emergency manager is not only increasing the number of privately managed charter schools, but has imposed a contract that will permit class sizes of 41 in grades K-3 and 61 in grades 6-12.
This is a disgrace, as the children of Detroit are being sacrificed to save money.
Frankly it is strange that the district schools will be replaced by charter schools, because charter schools in Detroit underperform in comparison to the district schools.
As the public schools are strangled and as the emergency manager literally drives children out of them and into the charter schools, the question arises as to whether public education will survive at all in Detroit. Or will the
Why NCLB and Race to the Top Fail
This is a disgrace, as the children of Detroit are being sacrificed to save money.
Frankly it is strange that the district schools will be replaced by charter schools, because charter schools in Detroit underperform in comparison to the district schools.
As the public schools are strangled and as the emergency manager literally drives children out of them and into the charter schools, the question arises as to whether public education will survive at all in Detroit. Or will the
Why NCLB and Race to the Top Fail
After my last book was published, I did some radio interviews and got some interesting feedback.
One of the most informative responses came from a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, Harry Frank, who has written textbooks about measurement and evaluation.
His observations about testing and evaluation were brilliant. What he wrote helped me understand why NCLB had failed. As I re-read this letter, I understood better why Race to the Top will fail. For one thing, it assumes that the
This Ohio Teacher is Running for Office
One of the most informative responses came from a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, Harry Frank, who has written textbooks about measurement and evaluation.
His observations about testing and evaluation were brilliant. What he wrote helped me understand why NCLB had failed. As I re-read this letter, I understood better why Race to the Top will fail. For one thing, it assumes that the
This Ohio Teacher is Running for Office
Maureen Reedy, a teacher in Ohio for 29 years, was Ohio teacher of the year in 2002. Now she is running for the Ohio House of Representatives.
She deserves the support of every taxpayer, parent, and citizen in Ohio.
She is angry at the waste of taxpayer dollars for bad, deregulated charter schools. Forget what you read in The Economist about the miracle of privately managed charters. As she points out below, half the charter schools in the state are in academic emergency or academic watch, compared with only one in 11 public schools.
She is especially outraged by the rapacious cyber charters. As she points out in this article, two of Ohio’s major
John White, Are You Listening?
She deserves the support of every taxpayer, parent, and citizen in Ohio.
She is angry at the waste of taxpayer dollars for bad, deregulated charter schools. Forget what you read in The Economist about the miracle of privately managed charters. As she points out below, half the charter schools in the state are in academic emergency or academic watch, compared with only one in 11 public schools.
She is especially outraged by the rapacious cyber charters. As she points out in this article, two of Ohio’s major
John White, Are You Listening?
John White, here is a school that needs your help. Don’t close it. Don’t treat it as a sinking ship whose students should just get out before it’s too late. This is a community school. Do not let it die. Do not make things worse. You are the captain of the ship. If it goes down on your watch, it’s your fault. Give these teachers support. They are trying to make a difference. Can you help them?
I am a Louisiana teacher who thanks you for your tireless advocacy of public education in general and your focus to Louisiana in particular. The past year was a difficult one for me personally and professionally. I teach students in one of the so-called “failing” schools and know first hand how hard we work and how much we are
Another Teacher Beaten Down
The toxic brew called “reform” is ruining public education. But this should not be surprising. This is the intent of the reformers.
They never will say so in their public statements. They will say they want “great teachers.” But they demonize and demoralize the teachers we have now.
What plans do they offer to replenish the teaching profession after they have driven away so many who are dedicated to teaching?
Magic. Out of nowhere, these “great” teachers will appear, teach for a few years and disappear.
Let’s face it. We are confronting a major crisis in education. It’s not because our schools are failing. They are
What Is Legal Fraud?
I am a Louisiana teacher who thanks you for your tireless advocacy of public education in general and your focus to Louisiana in particular. The past year was a difficult one for me personally and professionally. I teach students in one of the so-called “failing” schools and know first hand how hard we work and how much we are
Another Teacher Beaten Down
The toxic brew called “reform” is ruining public education. But this should not be surprising. This is the intent of the reformers.
They never will say so in their public statements. They will say they want “great teachers.” But they demonize and demoralize the teachers we have now.
What plans do they offer to replenish the teaching profession after they have driven away so many who are dedicated to teaching?
Magic. Out of nowhere, these “great” teachers will appear, teach for a few years and disappear.
Let’s face it. We are confronting a major crisis in education. It’s not because our schools are failing. They are
What Is Legal Fraud?
A reader asks a reasonable question, perhaps wondering why states like Ohio and Pennsylvania continue to authorize cyber charters despite their abysmal results.
He brings up Michael Milken, who was convicted on charges of securities fraud and tax violation and sent to jail in 1990. According to his bio on Wikipedia, Milken made $1 billion a year and was paid out about $1.1 billion in fines and settlements of claims. One way to understand what is happening in education today is to read Connie Bruck’s book about Milken, the junk bond king, in Predator’s Ball. Junk bonds and leveraged buyouts led to lots of “creative destruction” of familiar brand names.
Today, Milken is a leading figure in the education reform movement.
He is one of the founders of the nation’s biggest cyber charter chain, K12. His foundation invests in merit pay
Good News from New Jersey
He brings up Michael Milken, who was convicted on charges of securities fraud and tax violation and sent to jail in 1990. According to his bio on Wikipedia, Milken made $1 billion a year and was paid out about $1.1 billion in fines and settlements of claims. One way to understand what is happening in education today is to read Connie Bruck’s book about Milken, the junk bond king, in Predator’s Ball. Junk bonds and leveraged buyouts led to lots of “creative destruction” of familiar brand names.
Today, Milken is a leading figure in the education reform movement.
He is one of the founders of the nation’s biggest cyber charter chain, K12. His foundation invests in merit pay
Good News from New Jersey
Jersey Jazzman reports that New Jersey will not approve the state’s first online for-profit virtual charter school. K12 has been told to come back next year, perhaps on the hope that citizen outrage will have died down by then. Jersey Jazzman, you may recall, memorably referred to New Jersey as “the cesspool of school reform.”
This is a big win. The most important message here is that citizens make a difference when they organize and speak up against politically powerful forces who are trying to grab taxpayer money and call it “reform.”
This is two wins in a row against the K12 giant, first in North Carolina, where the school boards banded together to stop the raid on their own strained budgets, and now in New Jersey, where concerned parents and educators blew the whistle.
It’s important to remind everyone that the reformers are vulnerable. They are vulnerable to public exposure
Beaten Down But Don’t Quit
This is a big win. The most important message here is that citizens make a difference when they organize and speak up against politically powerful forces who are trying to grab taxpayer money and call it “reform.”
This is two wins in a row against the K12 giant, first in North Carolina, where the school boards banded together to stop the raid on their own strained budgets, and now in New Jersey, where concerned parents and educators blew the whistle.
It’s important to remind everyone that the reformers are vulnerable. They are vulnerable to public exposure
Beaten Down But Don’t Quit
The combined pressures of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have been very demoralizing for teachers across the nation.
These misguided federal policies have encouraged the most rightwing forces at the state level, and in state after state, Tea Party governors and legislatures are slashing the education budget, attacking teachers’ tenure and seniority, and devising ways to outsource public dollars to private hands.
Almost everyone feels it except the politicians, who don’t seem to care.
This reader is responding to an earlier post.
There’s plenty of demoralization out there. I hate to call attention to it because I don’t want to encourage anyone to leave the classroom.
You have to stay and fight the troglodytes who surround public education. You have to stay for your students. Most important, you have to stay so you can be there when this facade of meanness and shortsightedness and ignorance comes tumbling down. It will. It’s a house of cards..
This reader moved on. Hopefully she will continue the fight from a different locale.
I have only been teaching for 6 years, but I have seen it happening from the first year and getting worse with each successive year. I have been that voice shouting against the dominant voice, writing a blog, publishing op-eds in the paper, lobbying state legislators, speaking on the radio and in town halls, doing whatever I can to get through to anyone who might actually still care. I have been the union steward in my school the past two years, recruiting new members and trying to get existing members active.
I just resigned from my teaching position last week, after accepting a job in communications for SEIU. I will miss the kids, and many of my colleagues; but I will not miss the hoops we jump through, or the hamster wheel we run on as another commenter put it. I will not miss the new evaluation system, the pins and needles it puts all of us on and the grief it brings me as union steward. I will not miss the endless regime of testing, testing, testing. I will not miss that flat-but-slowly-bending-downward line of a career that education promises…no hope for moving up (unless you want to be in administration), just staying the same–if you’re lucky–or making less for doing more. I will not miss the disrespect shown us by politicians on the right and, unfortunately, too often on the left as well; by the media; by some administrators, by some parents, by some students, by commenters on stories on education online, where some people feel free to call teachers all sorts of choice names, as if they never learned anything from a teacher themselves. At the end, I really think it is the disrespect I am most relieved to leave behind. Working for a labor union, I know very well I am not done getting disrespect from the pubic–but at least there will now be a political edge to my work where I could reasonably expect to see my work criticized. As a teacher, I should never have been criticized for going in and working my hardest to educate my students every day, and also for speaking out for what I saw to be in their best interest. That was my job and it was an important one. If we see signs of child abuse, we are required by law to report it. To ignore it is actually a crime, both morally and legally. Yet if we see our students’ future being robbed from them by big vested corporate interests, we are expected to say nothing, to go along to get along…and if we do speak up, we have to expect abuse. It’s insane.
So, another one bites the dust. Would I have kept teaching forever? I don’t know; I often think probably not. But did these changes drive me out faster than if they had not been happening? Absolutely. And, perhaps more relevantly, they “radicalized” me. I am leaving education not to go work in the private sector to participate in the capitalist system and make more money, but to work in labor, because I believe in it and because the system has convinced me it is perhaps the single most important area I could be working in.
These misguided federal policies have encouraged the most rightwing forces at the state level, and in state after state, Tea Party governors and legislatures are slashing the education budget, attacking teachers’ tenure and seniority, and devising ways to outsource public dollars to private hands.
Almost everyone feels it except the politicians, who don’t seem to care.
This reader is responding to an earlier post.
There’s plenty of demoralization out there. I hate to call attention to it because I don’t want to encourage anyone to leave the classroom.
You have to stay and fight the troglodytes who surround public education. You have to stay for your students. Most important, you have to stay so you can be there when this facade of meanness and shortsightedness and ignorance comes tumbling down. It will. It’s a house of cards..
This reader moved on. Hopefully she will continue the fight from a different locale.
I have only been teaching for 6 years, but I have seen it happening from the first year and getting worse with each successive year. I have been that voice shouting against the dominant voice, writing a blog, publishing op-eds in the paper, lobbying state legislators, speaking on the radio and in town halls, doing whatever I can to get through to anyone who might actually still care. I have been the union steward in my school the past two years, recruiting new members and trying to get existing members active.
I just resigned from my teaching position last week, after accepting a job in communications for SEIU. I will miss the kids, and many of my colleagues; but I will not miss the hoops we jump through, or the hamster wheel we run on as another commenter put it. I will not miss the new evaluation system, the pins and needles it puts all of us on and the grief it brings me as union steward. I will not miss the endless regime of testing, testing, testing. I will not miss that flat-but-slowly-bending-downward line of a career that education promises…no hope for moving up (unless you want to be in administration), just staying the same–if you’re lucky–or making less for doing more. I will not miss the disrespect shown us by politicians on the right and, unfortunately, too often on the left as well; by the media; by some administrators, by some parents, by some students, by commenters on stories on education online, where some people feel free to call teachers all sorts of choice names, as if they never learned anything from a teacher themselves. At the end, I really think it is the disrespect I am most relieved to leave behind. Working for a labor union, I know very well I am not done getting disrespect from the pubic–but at least there will now be a political edge to my work where I could reasonably expect to see my work criticized. As a teacher, I should never have been criticized for going in and working my hardest to educate my students every day, and also for speaking out for what I saw to be in their best interest. That was my job and it was an important one. If we see signs of child abuse, we are required by law to report it. To ignore it is actually a crime, both morally and legally. Yet if we see our students’ future being robbed from them by big vested corporate interests, we are expected to say nothing, to go along to get along…and if we do speak up, we have to expect abuse. It’s insane.
So, another one bites the dust. Would I have kept teaching forever? I don’t know; I often think probably not. But did these changes drive me out faster than if they had not been happening? Absolutely. And, perhaps more relevantly, they “radicalized” me. I am leaving education not to go work in the private sector to participate in the capitalist system and make more money, but to work in labor, because I believe in it and because the system has convinced me it is perhaps the single most important area I could be working in.