Louisiana Educator Speaks Out Against Privatization
Mike Deshotels is a retired educator in Louisiana who blogs at http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/. He sent the following letter to the media: “To the Editor As an experienced, retired educator I feel I must speak out about the serious damage being done to public education in Louisiana by Governor Jindal and State Education Superintendent John White. Many educators are shocked and disappointed
What Happens If NFL Listens to Arne
This is a very funny spoof of federal education policy. Imagine Arne Duncan and Roger Goodell, the president of the NFL, calling a joint press conference to announce a new program called Race to the End Zone. Imagine an agreement that all teams will use the same plays. Now the NFL will have no failing teams! “We in the NFL love the Common Core Curriculum that Mr. Duncan is pushing on schools here
Why The Silence in Newark?
Newark is another “ground zero” for corporate style reform. Test scores are low, poverty rates are high, but remember there are No Excuses! Cami Anderson was hired by the state to lead the turnaround. Mark Zuckerberg put up $100 million. A turnaround firm was hired to do the turnaround. Cory Booker says that Newark will be a national model. But when a reporter asked for basic information about th
Textbook Censorship in Indiana
Ten years ago, I wrote a book about the censorship of textbooks and tests by groups from every extreme of the political spectrum. Every group had its own political agenda, and the mechanism that made them successful was the state textbook adoption process. When the state board has the power to make publishers rewrite language that someone opposed. Texas and Caligornia were the worst offenders, bec
Bad News: Top Lawyer for Dems in Senate Comes from Gates Foundation
Millions of parents and teachers watch and hope that Congress will scrap the failed policies of the Bush administration called NCLB. It is this worrisome that the chief counsel for the Democrats on the Senate HELP committee was a senior policy person at the Gates Foundation. Gates is infamous for its religious devotion to measurement. “What cannot be measured cannot be controlled” is the line we
Not Too Late to Profit from Public Education $$$
There is still time to register for the big conference that will show you how to make big profits from the tax dollars supposed to be spent on children and teachers. Hey, those teachers are making out like bandits, with some of them hauling in $40,000 a year, even as much as $75,000 a year, and all they do is teach 35-40 kids at a time. Why shouldn’t you learn the secrets to extracting millions
A Shocking Display of Candor in Bridgeport
Ann Evans de Bernard is retiring as principal of a Bridgeport, Connecticut, K-8 school. She decided it was time to tell the truth about urban education. She explained that rises and falls on average test scores mean nothing because of the high mobility rate of her students. They move in and move out with stunning frequency. What do the scores mean? Nothing. The kids persevere despite many obstac
Following the Money Trail in Chicago
This investigative article by Steve Horn traces the money trail that ties together the major players in the corporate reform movement in Chicago. From President Obama to Arne Duncan to Rahm Emanuel, the thread that ties them all together is the Joyce Foundation. As the privatization movement advances, its path has been well prepared by the city’s power brokers, who have decided not to support publ
President Obama and the New Elitism
Paul Horton, a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, wrote the following open letter to President Obama: July 12, 2013 Dear Mr. President, I am very concerned about how you decided to go the way that you did with your Education policies. I was recently told by a close friend of the yours that “Arne’s Team looked at all of the options” and decided to go with its current policies
How “Reform” Killed My School: The Tragic Story of Delmont Elementary School
The following account of Delmont Elementary School was written by Jill Saia, who was its principal. I have deleted the “Dream School” folder on my computer. I am hoping that enough time has passed since our school was closed that I can write about it clearly and rationally, even though what was done to us was neither clear nor rational. For the last ten years that folder on my computer has contain
Diane in the Evening 7-17-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: What You Need to Know About CPS Budget CutsAs we learned in earlier posts (and see here), Chicago Public Schools cuts the central office budget every year. It is ruthless with the central office budget. No one works at headquarters except possibly Barbara Byrd-Bennett. This reader has studied the budget and offers an overview: “Sin