More Cheering from Wall Street for School Closures
Good news for Wall Street! More school closings!
Does Wall Street think it would be a good idea to close down all public schools? Think of the savings to municipalities if we just stopped offering free public education!
A reader writes:
And Bloomberg reports this about Philadelphia school closures:
Closing 12% of Philadelphia Schools Creates Winners: Muni Credit
from Bloomberg
“The nation’s fifth-largest city anticipates saving $24.5 million a year by shutting 29 of its 249 buildings in June. The average building is 64 years old, according to a financial audit. More than 82 percent of students are
Does Wall Street think it would be a good idea to close down all public schools? Think of the savings to municipalities if we just stopped offering free public education!
A reader writes:
And Bloomberg reports this about Philadelphia school closures:
Closing 12% of Philadelphia Schools Creates Winners: Muni Credit
from Bloomberg
“The nation’s fifth-largest city anticipates saving $24.5 million a year by shutting 29 of its 249 buildings in June. The average building is 64 years old, according to a financial audit. More than 82 percent of students are
Report: Detroit’s New Emergency Manager Has Tax Liens on His Home
Governor Rick Snyder selected an emergency manager to put Detroit’s financial house in order.
The EM will have dictatorial authority and will displace all elected officials and have the power to break all contracts.
A report in the Detroit News says the new emergency manager has his own financial problems:
The EM will have dictatorial authority and will displace all elected officials and have the power to break all contracts.
A report in the Detroit News says the new emergency manager has his own financial problems:
Who Is Right? Students or Adults?
“And a little child should lead them.”
The Providence Student Union had the audacity to ask successful adults to take the math section of the test that will determine whether they graduate from high school. Three dozen brave souls accepted their invitation to take a test made up of released items.
The results will be released today.
Some Warwick, RI, students sent some angry, possibly tasteless tweets to State Commissioner Gist. None of these students are part of the Providence Student Union. They were threatened with disciplinary action. The
The Providence Student Union had the audacity to ask successful adults to take the math section of the test that will determine whether they graduate from high school. Three dozen brave souls accepted their invitation to take a test made up of released items.
The results will be released today.
Some Warwick, RI, students sent some angry, possibly tasteless tweets to State Commissioner Gist. None of these students are part of the Providence Student Union. They were threatened with disciplinary action. The
Wall Street Cheers Philly School Closures
Joy Resmovits reports on Huffington Post that Moody’s rating service is happy about the school closures in Philadelphia. She writes;0:
“School Closures: Good For Wall Street? Philadelphia recently voted to close 23 schools, and a Moody’s analyst thinks that the move, which frees up privately-run charter organizations to set up shop, is a good thing financially. Why? The analyst writes that it shows the district is willing to cut costs even when faced with tremendous opposition. “The SRC has introduced deep expenditure cuts over the past 18 months, reducing a fiscal 2012 deficit of $720 million to $20.5 million through a variety of revenue and expenditure measures that
“School Closures: Good For Wall Street? Philadelphia recently voted to close 23 schools, and a Moody’s analyst thinks that the move, which frees up privately-run charter organizations to set up shop, is a good thing financially. Why? The analyst writes that it shows the district is willing to cut costs even when faced with tremendous opposition. “The SRC has introduced deep expenditure cuts over the past 18 months, reducing a fiscal 2012 deficit of $720 million to $20.5 million through a variety of revenue and expenditure measures that
What About the First Amendment?
An earlier post reported that students in Warwick, Rhode Island, were being disciplined because of tweets they wrote about state commissioner Deborah Gist. Who was reading the tweets? Who has that job?
A reader commented:
“This is scarier than all the testing malarky… we need to guard the first amendment with all the zeal the NRA uses to protect the second amendment! We’ve already indoctrinated kids that walking through metal detectors is
A reader commented:
“This is scarier than all the testing malarky… we need to guard the first amendment with all the zeal the NRA uses to protect the second amendment! We’ve already indoctrinated kids that walking through metal detectors is
Schneider: NCTQ and the Corporate Reform Agenda
In recent weeks, Mercedes Schneider reviewed the members of the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality.
She did so because NCTQ is now often perceived as a nonpartisan, independent evaluator of teacher education programs, teacher colleges, and teacher quality. It has been the recipient of grants from many foundations, including Gates. Its investigation into the nation’s teacher preparation programs is considered authoritative by US News and World Report. Its report on teacher quality in Los Angeles, produced in cooperation with the Gates-
She did so because NCTQ is now often perceived as a nonpartisan, independent evaluator of teacher education programs, teacher colleges, and teacher quality. It has been the recipient of grants from many foundations, including Gates. Its investigation into the nation’s teacher preparation programs is considered authoritative by US News and World Report. Its report on teacher quality in Los Angeles, produced in cooperation with the Gates-
TeacherKen on Three Decades of Reform
Kenneth Bernstein is an award-winning NBCT who recently retired as a teacher of government. He is now caring for his wife, who is recovering from a major illness. He usually blogs at the Daily Kos but has taken the time to share his insights here as a comment. Thank you, Ken.
He writes:
We have had a decade of the “reforms” of No Child Left Behind. The approach embodied therein actually is traceable back 30 years, to the release of A Nation at Risk, continued through Goals 2000 which claimed that it would result in America being first in the world in math and science by that date, has seen policy doubling down through Race to the Top and the proposals in the Obama administration’s “Blueprint,” and now we continue the
He writes:
We have had a decade of the “reforms” of No Child Left Behind. The approach embodied therein actually is traceable back 30 years, to the release of A Nation at Risk, continued through Goals 2000 which claimed that it would result in America being first in the world in math and science by that date, has seen policy doubling down through Race to the Top and the proposals in the Obama administration’s “Blueprint,” and now we continue the
Sirota: Getting Rich Off School Children
David Sirota of Denver has been trying for some while to send a wake up call to the American public: billionaires and entrepreneurs are scoping out the schools as an emerging market for their goods and services. What they call “reform” has nothing to do with education and everything o do with money, power, control, and ideology. What they call “reform” is a shell game to hoodwink the public and divert attention from privatization.
As Sirota writes:
“…though it is rarely mentioned, the truth is that the largest funders of the “reform” movement are the opposite of
As Sirota writes:
“…though it is rarely mentioned, the truth is that the largest funders of the “reform” movement are the opposite of
Diane in the Evening 3-18-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Students in R.I. Punished for Their Tweets by dianerav The ACLU is protesting disciplinary actions taken against high school students in Warwick, Rhode Island. The students tweeted something negative about State Superintendent Deborah Gist. Whatever they tweeted was not reported in this story. The story said: “Several students called Gist names on Twitter following a story in the Journal in which about 35 adults took a portion of the New England Common Assessment or NECAP, deeming it very difficult. Several qu... more »