Schools Matter:
Disaster Capitalism, Dugger, Indiana, and the Fall of Community Schools
Charlatan Steve Perry exposed for the world to see!
Public School Funds Feeding International Private School Chain, Basis Education, Inc.
Schools Matter All Week
By Doug Martin Since my last article on the possibility that two schools in tiny Dugger, Indiana may be closed soon by the Northeast School Corporation of Sullivan County, I have unearthed something shocking that residents, teachers, parents, and students should know, and it points to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and brother and son of two past U.S. presidents. As I detail in one chapter
Spot on, from the Chicago Sun-Times:By Ann M. Lousin November 27, 2013 2:58PMPresident Obama has proposed tying financial aid to American colleges and universities to a “rating system” of higher education. The administration has conducted a number of public forums at college campuses over the last few weeks to purportedly collect input on the proposal. We can only hope these forums enable the pres
Nashville Metro has acknowledged the impending $23 million shortfall in next year's budget is due to the drain from corporate charter schools. As a result, the school board has decided to cut its losses by restricting the spread of these segregated zero-tolerance chain gangs. With the TN Department of Education staffed by TFA cultists and losers from the Gates Foundation, there is plenty of gnas
mark as read
By Doug MartinAs Naomi Klein shows in her frightening book Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, for decades the big plan of America’s millionaires and billionaires and the government officials they buy with campaign money has been to slash taxes (“austerity" is their pretty name for it) so that funding is drained from public services across the board. Not only does this save the oligarchs money they don't hide overseas, it also creates a public crisis where private companies can sneak in, take control of public services, fire workers, and make a healthy profit. For Indiana ed
Charlatan @drStevePerry exposed for the world to see! http://t.co/iDjFd9GXH8 pic.twitter.com/IflQ6Qfsm7— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) November 28, 2013 Ebony Murphy-Root's courageous exposure of one of the most pernicious corporate neoliberal education reformers is a must read: 'Did You Grow Up Around Black People?' My year working for "America's Most Trusted Educator" The comments under this reprint of the piece are worth visiting as well: A powerful and haunting report from a former Capital Prep teacher
Since the late 1990s, Arizona has become a tax haven for corporate charter operators, including Basis Charter Schools. Basis has built a school and real estate empire, in fact, from public school money that has allowed them to expand their mostly white schools to Texas and Washington, DC, where they are under a federal Civil Rights investigation at present. Business is so good, in fact, that Basis Charter Schools has spawned the creation of an exclusive private school chain that has plans to become a multinational schooling corporation, Basis Education, Inc. to educate the children of the eli
NOV 27
The Opt-Outers are Outed
Found this posted over at @thechalkface HT to Shaun Johnson. Now it's time to move on and change the discussion and have a conversation about what should replace the test and punish curriculum.Need a new vision of what education should look like.New York MagazineThe Opt-OutersWhat happens if enough New York parents say they don’t want their kids to take tests?By Robert Kolker Published Nov 24, 201
NOV 26
Charter Schools Are About Business, Not Education
From NEPC:NEPC report finds 44% of charter school students in 2011-12 attended schools operated by EMOs
Contact: William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Jamie Horwitz, (202) 549-4921, jhdcpr@starpower.net
Gary Miron, (269) 599-7965, garmiron@gmail.comURL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/nzhgjupBOULDER, CO (November 26, 2013) – A new National Education Policy Center report pu
NOV 25
Whatever Happened to the Fair Housing Act? and Why It Is Crucial to Fair Education
Below is information on an amazing piece of investigative reporting, presented this past Saturday on This American Life. Please do have a look and listen. Also, see the opportunity to participate in the an ongoing investigation on school segregation.A Year Later, Feds Inch Forward on Fair Housing by Nikole Hannah-Jones ProPublica, Nov. 22, 2013, 11:43 a.m.by Jeff Larson and Nikole Hannah-Jon
Asbury Park NJ Where is the Democracy?
Seems to be an epidemic across the country. Democracy? What's that? In the new world of test and punish from the corporate cronies, democracy is history. Of course, the Christie Administration is only looking out for the best interests of the students, you know the guy who has done so much for NJ public schools that a court had to reinstate $500 million in aid to poor districts.This Asbury Park P
Tony Bennett and Mike Pence’s CECI
ByDoug Martin Since my first article where I outedthe vast amount of taxpayer money Pence is paying staff at his Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI) to usurp supt. of public education Glenda Ritz, Mike Claytor, an accountant and Democratic candidate for state auditor, has publically called for an audit of Pence’s new dual education agency, saying the CECI violates Hoosier government
Rushing into high-tech testing
Sent to the Buffalo News, Nov. 25.Buffalo educators are concerned about whether students are tech-savvy enough to take the new computerized tests, and whether districts will have up-to-date equipment. (Pencils out, keyboards in for future exams," Nov, 25). But only a few people are asking whether we should rushing into high-tech testing. Williamsville Superintendent Martzloff points out that
Privatized Custodial Services Bring Corporate Windfalls and Dirty Schools to Memphis
Since school fragmentation consolidation went into effect in Shelby County (Memphis) Schools, the lawyers in charge of SCS have been trying to save every dime they can to pay for the $212 million dollar donut hole created to pay for corporate welfare charter reform schools for the urban poor. Part of the savings came by way of relieving staff custodians of their jobs as the County accepted an offe
NOV 24
Massachusetts Halts Common Core - Damaging to Students
Hold on there - wait. There is still intellectual curiosity and common sense in Massachusetts. There are now 15 states pushing back on the Common Core and PARCC. From Brittany Corons,The FoundryFor one thing, as Sandra Stotsky—one of the leaders of Massachusetts’s 1993 education reform movement who resigned from the Common Core review committee—argued, the diminished emphasis on literature would a
Where to Begin on Frank Bruni's Stupidity and Ignorance
Every time I see another stupid, clueless and poorly written NYT editorial on education, or having anything to do with education, I am saddened by the lack of journalistic integrity that was and should be a part of one of the nation's leading newspapers.Frank Bruni really outdid himself today with this pile of garbage, titled "Are Kids Too Coddled" in his defense of Arne Duncan's same st
Teach Campaign Star RIFed Last Year Just Before Tenure
Alexandria Hollet is one of the young, female white teachers chosen by Microsoft-TFA to provide 40 second testimonials on teaching for Arne Duncan's new campaign to attract the vulnerable and uninformed into what was once a profession. With corporate ed policies in place to demean, abuse, blame, punish, and fire teachers for another generation of failed testing accountability practices, there is
NOV 23
Arne Duncan Needs to Do His Homework
THE SCIENCE IS IN. THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR: PAUL THOMAS LISTS THE WIDE BODY OF PEER REVIEWED ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND STUDIES BY A VARIETY OF SCHOLARS, AND IT IS CLEAR THAT ARNE DUNCAN HAS FAILED. HE HAS NOT RECOGNIZED THE BODY OF RESEARCH OR READ ANY OF THE STUDIES ON HOW RTTT, NCLB AND COMMON CORE ARE IMPACTING SCHOOLS ON THE GROUND.IF HIS FRIEND, PRESIDENT OBAMA, WILL NOT FIRE HIM AND REPLACE HIM WI
Teaching at KIPP: An Extended Interview
I am working on a book that will be published in 2014 about teaching at KIPP schools, and the most significant source of my data comes from extended interviews with former KIPP teachers. The following interview represents the first complete transcription from those interview files. This interview with “Adam” was conducted the year following his experience as a KIPP teacher. While each participan