Newark Charter School Continues Their Discriminatory Social Engineering Enrollment Practices – Exceptional Delaware

Newark Charter School Continues Their Discriminatory Social Engineering Enrollment Practices – Exceptional Delaware:

Newark Charter School Continues Their Discriminatory Social Engineering Enrollment Practices

This school is a piece of work!  Remember last winter when I wrote about how a six-year old girl with disabilities was denied admission in Newark Charter School’s lottery?  In less than 24 hours, parents, legislators, and other citizens swarmed their Head of School, Greg Meece, with emails and phone calls and we got the school to bend and let her in the lottery.  Ultimately, she didn’t make it into the school, but it was still a victory for the parents because she got the right to participate in it.  The reason she wasn’t let in was because the board had changed their admissions policy last fall.  They wouldn’t let anyone who would be above the age of five by a certain date even apply.  For this girl, who has developmental disabilities, she just wasn’t quite ready the year before to enter Kindergarten.  The board got rid of their policy at their May board meeting, but they did introduce a new one: students applying for Kindergarten can only apply once.

Here is the issue with that.  For students like the girl who had to get people to rally to get her into the lottery, parents of pre-schoolers with a disability don’t always know if their child will be ready for Kindergarten until the spring, when they have a conference with the pre-school.  This is common practice.  If a parent of a child with disabilities may not be aware of this or thinks their child is ready, and they apply to Newark Charter School, they can’t apply again the next year based on this latest discrimination stunt by the wunderbars at Newark Charter School.  This way they can keep those developmental disability kids out of their school.

The board also changed their admissions policy where it relates to “students of employees” at their June 21st board meeting.  Any newly hired employee’s kid gets preference over the rest of the general public kids in the lottery.  I have to wonder what this school’s definition of an employee.  I wonder how much cafeteria staff they hire so they can get certain kids into the school!

Of course, the Delaware Dept. of Education will say this is legal and their board can pick those kind of enrollment preferences (without any needed recommendations or training on discrimination from the DOE).  Our state legislators, most of them, won’t bat an eye.  Especially the guy who might as Newark Charter School Continues Their Discriminatory Social Engineering Enrollment Practices – Exceptional Delaware:

Carol Burris: Why charter schools get public education advocates so angry - The Washington Post

Why charter schools get public education advocates so angry - The Washington Post:

Why charter schools get public education advocates so angry

There are thousands of charter schools in the United States that enroll a few million students. While they are just a fraction of the number of kids who attend school, the charter movement has been a key part of the choice movement and has affected public education in many ways. It has been 25 years since the charter movement began, and it has not evolved exactly as supporters had hoped, with too little oversight of too many charters.

In this post, Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is now executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education, explains why putting the word “public” in front of “charter school” — which are funded with tax dollars — is “an affront” to people for whom public education is a mission. Burris was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year. She has been chronicling botched school reform efforts in her state for years.

By Carol Burris

When Hillary Clinton mentioned public charter schools in her speech to the National Education Association earlier this month, she was greeted with some boos. Her remarks about sharing “what works” seemed innocuous enough.  So why did the teachers in attendance react so strongly?

The obvious answer is the charter sector’s distaste for collective bargaining.  But the antipathy directed at charters runs deeper than that. Charters, regardless of their original intent, have become a threat to democratically governed, neighborhood public schools, and questions about their practices, opacity and lack of accountability are increasing as their numbers grow.

Placing the adjective “public” in front of “charter” is an affront to those who deeply believe in the mission of public schools. Charter schools are privately run academies funded by the taxpayer. Many are governed by larger corporations, known as CMOs. Some are for-profit; others are not for profit yet still present financial “opportunities.”

Democratic school governance is viewed as an obstacle by many charter school devotees. When addressing the California Charter School Association in March 2015, Netflix billionaire Reed Hastings opined that school boards were obsolete and should be replaced with a system of large non-profit corporations.

Yet the governance of public schools is one of the purest and most responsive forms of American democracy. Sunshine laws and public meetings allow citizens to have a say in how their children are educated and how their tax dollars are spent. Even in cities with mayoral control, there is some limited voice through the election of a mayor. In 2010, the then-D.C. Why charter schools get public education advocates so angry - The Washington Post:

Leaked email shows how Seattle Mayor Ed Murray plans to take over the school board | Seattle Education

Leaked email shows how Seattle Mayor Ed Murray plans to take over the school board | Seattle Education:

Leaked email shows how Seattle Mayor Ed Murray plans to take over the school board

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray

If Mayor Murray wants to address the “achievement/opportunity gap” in a way that is more appropriate to his office, he needs to focus on a living wage for all in Seattle and affordable housing. That will go a long way in helping children succeed in school and in life. Leave education to the educators not politicians, attorneys and business interests.

The school board in recent years has become troublesome to business interests and those wanting to privatize the Seattle public school system. The board members have accomplished much through hard work and collaboration with each other and the school community, winning successes for students, teachers and families.

In the meantime, Seattle’s Mayor Murray has been busy in the last few years assembling his own Department of Education and working on privatizing preschool, using levy dollars to threaten established city and county subsidized preschools with a percentage of money taken away by the number of children who do not perform, per assessments, up to an established standard set by the city.

This is what Mayor Murray refers to as ensuring a quality education for all.

He also thinks it’s a good idea to use imaginary unused classroom space for the preschool program.

Now he is after the Seattle School Board.

Seattleites are aware of what has happened around the country with mayoral control and want no part of it so the Mayor has come up with another way to control the school Leaked email shows how Seattle Mayor Ed Murray plans to take over the school board | Seattle Education:

Big Education Ape: Mayoral control of schools worked for New York City, but other poor districts haven’t been so lucky - City & Region - The Buffalo News - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2015/04/mayoral-control-of-schools-worked-for.html

Turkey’s Failed Coup Puts Spotlight on a Rural Pennsylvanian Town - WSJ

Turkey’s Failed Coup Puts Spotlight on a Rural Pennsylvanian Town - WSJ:

Turkey’s Failed Coup Puts Spotlight on a Rural Pennsylvanian Town
Accusation by Erdogan that cleric Fethullah Gulen plotted the takeover has stirred up the sleepy community where he lives

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan pinned the coup attempt that gripped the country on a self-exiled cleric living in the U.S. named Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denies any involvement. Here's a closer look at this influential preacher. 

SAYLORSBURG, Pa.— Chris Fehnel, who lives near this Pocono Mountains town, was bored one day last year, so he and a friend pulled up to a former summer camp where Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen lives.

“We asked the guard if we could go inside,” Mr. Fehnel, 22 years old, recalled recently while sitting outside Scorecard Sports Bar and Grill down the road.

The request led to a little adventure that took on new significance for him this week, when Mr. Gulen was accused by Turkish President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan of plotting a coup from his compound in the woods here, about 90 miles from New York City.

“I have a message for Pennsylvania,” President Erdogan announced, amid arrests in Turkey of thousands of soldiers and teachers with alleged links to Mr. Gulen and his network of charter schools. Mr. Erdogan called on the U.S. to extradite the cleric for his alleged role in the July 15 coup, which the Turkish government has said killed more than 250 people.

The accusation, which Mr. Gulen denies, shined an extraordinary light on this sleepy community of about 1,100 people. News is typically so slow here that a car accident in May involving Mr. Fehnel was a top story in the local paper because it caused a traffic jam. A main attraction is an 11-acre corn maze called Mazezilla; another draw is a Hindu ashram, Arsha Vidya Gurkulam, that sometimes is mistaken for the Turkish retreat.

ENLARGE

The entrance to the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center, run by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, in rural Saylorsburg, Pa., is seen in this 2014 photo. Mr. Gulen, who Turkey alleges was the mastermind of the recent coup attempt, has lived at the private compound for more than 15 years. PHOTO:CHARLES MOSTOLLER/REUTERS

The drama at the cleric’s retreat “sure makes this town more interesting,” said a man walking through the ashram in a traditional Indian white dhoti.

On Saturday, some protesters supporting President Erdogan pulled up in front of the ashram and began calling for Mr. Gulen to go back to Turkey and turn himself in. They were soon redirected about a mile and a half down some winding roads to a former summer camp with a small sign outside that says Golden Generation.

The 26-acre property was purchased for about $250,000 in 1992 by the Golden Generation Foundation, according to Yuksel Alp Aslandogan, executive director of a Gulen-affiliated nonprofit in New York called Alliance for Shared Values, who was in Saylorsburg to field questions over the Turkish government’s allegations.

Mr. Gulen, 77, moved here in 1999, Mr. Aslandogan said, because it was “a tranquil, beautiful environment not far from New York City.”

Roughly 120 protesters found their way to the entrance and began a “peaceful protest,” according to State Police public information officer David Peters. It was one of a handful of protests in the past few years, since Mr. Gulen had a falling out with his onetime ally President Erdogan.

ENLARGE

An aerial view of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in Saylorsburg, Pa., in July 2013. PHOTO:REUTERS

At Mr. Gulen’s request, Mr. Aslandogan said, Mr. Erdogan’s supporters were offered juice and snacks “to show them our attitude.” Most refused.

The retreat is on a rural street, where small ranch houses mingle with old wooden barns and farms.

An elderly woman outside a house next door said police advised her to block off her driveway over the weekend in anticipation of protests. She said she has lived in the house for more than 50 years and asked not to be named.

“I have never seen the guy,” she said. “I don’t believe he exists.”

Golden Generation hosts dozens of visitors at a time, mainly from Turkey, in a group of Turkey’s Failed Coup Puts Spotlight on a Rural Pennsylvanian Town - WSJ:

Big Education Ape: TBFURMAN: Who's Running These Schools? Part 3 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/tbfurman-whos-running-these-schools_24.html

Tim Kaine on Education | U.S. Senator for Virginia

Issue | Issues | Tim Kaine | U.S. Senator for Virginia:

Tim Kaine on Education

 A well-educated population is the key to having the most talented nation on earth. Today, the U.S. is 12th in the world in the percentage of 25-34 year olds achieving postsecondary degrees. If we are to win the race for talent, we need a long-term plan that develops the best workforce in the world.

Virginia’s innovative investments in education – from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate and workforce training – have turned our state into a magnet for talent.  Talented people generate creative ideas for companies and jobs, and great businesses locate in places where they know they can hire capable workers. In order to return America to the top in the world in educating our population, we have to look at reforms like broadening our early childhood education system, creating more rigorous K-12 curriculums, renewing our focus on career and technical education and dramatically reducing the cost of college.

As Governor, I invested in every aspect of Virginia’s education system. I worked with the legislature to expand the number of children enrolled in Pre-K by nearly 40 percent. I also championed a successful $2 billion higher-education construction bond package that built facilities colleges and universities across Virginia need to attract the best students and faculty. This ongoing commitment to expanding and improving education opportunities paid off:  In 2007 Education Week ranked Virginia the state where a child was most likely to have a successful life.

I brought my passion for education to the Senate, where I co-founded the bipartisan Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus.  From working in my dad’s ironworking and welding shop to teaching at a technical school in Honduras, I’ve always been a strong believer in the importance of high-quality CTE programs. .  As co-chair of the CTE Caucus, I’ve introduced bipartisan legislation like the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act to raise the quality of CTE programs at schools in Virginia and across the country. This bill improves the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to better meet the needs of a 21st century workforce and ensure students have access to the highest-quality CTE programs. I’ve also led efforts to include CTE in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act by including career and technical programs in the definition of ‘well-rounded education’ alongside math or science, supporting professional development for CTE teachers, and strengthening career counseling in schools. 

I’ve long been concerned about the prevalence of sexual assault and data showing that young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four consistently experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence.  In December, I met with students involved in One Less at the University of Virginia, a group of advocates for survivors of rape and sexual assault, to hear their opinions on what more can be done to prevent sexual violence on college campuses and support survivors. Some of the students I spoke with said they were never taught about sexual assault before college orientation, and they believed incorporating information into secondary school curriculums could help educate students about dating violence prevention and what constitutes consent. Following this discussion, I went to work on crafting the Teach Safe Relationships Act, legislation that encourages schools to teach students about safe relationship behavior as a tool for preventing sexual assault on and off our college campuses. 

I’m pleased to report that Congress passed a bipartisan education reform bill in December 2015 called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This bill replaces the long-expired and broken legislation known as No Child Left Behind. It will make changes that educators and families support, like decreasing the emphasis on standardized testing and giving states the flexibility to close achievement gaps. I’m also pleased that the bill will allow elementary and secondary schools – for the first time – to use Title IV funds for instruction and training on safe relationship behavior among students. I authored this provision because I believe it will help prevent sexual assault, not just on college campuses, but for all young people in the 16-24 age range who are most vulnerable. Additionally, ESSA includes my provisions to improve access to K-12 career and technical education (CTE) programs. 

From early learning to postsecondary education, I believe education is key to growing a talented workforce. As Senator, I introduced the Strong Start for America’s Children Act, legislation to expand access to high-quality early learning programs for children from birth to age five. As a parent, I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that pre-K can have on our children. I also understand the importance of a quality higher education at an affordable cost. That’s why I co-sponsored the Supporting College Access and Success Through Dual Enrollment Act, legislation to help students earn college credits in high school in order to cut the cost of earning a college diploma. I also co-sponsored The Net Price Calculator Improvement Act of 2014, bipartisan legislation to give students and families a better estimate of college costs before they apply to schools. I also successfully urged the U.S. Department of Education to allow students to apply for federal student aid earlier in the college application timeline and allow them to use prior year tax data to expedite the approval process so students have a better sense before they apply or get accepted into a college how much financial aid they will receive. 

We must address access to quality, affordable education if we want to remain the most competitive workforce in the world.Issue | Issues | Tim Kaine | U.S. Senator for Virginia:

How Paul Tough's Helping Children Succeed Helped this Teacher Better Understand Our Craft - Linkis.com

How Paul Tough's Helping Children Succeed Helped this Teacher Better Understand Our Craft - Linkis.com:

How Paul Tough’s Helping Children Succeed Helped this Teacher Better Understand Our Craft

Paul Tough’s Helping Kids Succeed includes many depressing statistics, most of which contribute to an indictment of the contemporary school reform movement. However, Tough cites other evidence which helps explain why reformers were so vehement in demanding transformative change and blowing up the education “status quo.” The evidence Tough cites from Robert Pianta, Joseph Allen, James Stigler, and James Hiebert includes the facts that are the most painful for teachers to contemplate.

Pianta’s researchers studied elementary instruction and “found that in almost every school they observed, the instruction students received was repetitive and undemanding, limited mostly to the endless practice of basic skills.” Pianta et. al also found:

Students in schools populated mostly by middle-class-and-above children were about equally likely to find themselves in a classroom with engaged and interesting instruction (47 percent of students) as in one with basic, repetitive instruction (53 percent of students). But students in schools serving mostly low-income children were almost all (91 percent) in classrooms marked by basic, uninteresting teaching.
Stigler and Hiebert documented an international pattern that was complementary to what Allen, Pianta and their team saw in American classrooms. In contrast to the normative basic skills approach to math, in Japan, “41 percent of students’ time in math class was still spent on basic practice — churning through one problem after another — but 44 percent was devoted to more creative stuff: inventing new procedures or adapting familiar procedures to unfamiliar material.”

On the other hand, it is hard to say how much of the retrograde instruction in high-poverty American schools is a longstanding norm, and how much of it reflects ways that output-driven school reform took lousy schools and made them worse. When I entered the inner city classroom in the early 1990s, I was stunned by the great How Paul Tough's Helping Children Succeed Helped this Teacher Better Understand Our Craft - Linkis.com:

TBFURMAN: Who's Running These Schools? Part 3

TBFURMAN: Who's Running These Schools? Part 3:

Who's Running These Schools? Part 3

Who's Running These Schools? Part 3

And now, Part 4.

I've been writing this from-the-hip series on the mysterious governance of the Gulen-linked charters in Chicago, and none of this post will make sense to you unless you get some context.

Preface
Part 1
Part 2

So, today I was going to look at one of the other Concept schools to see if they had a faux board or governance committee or what have you, but I've decided to back up here because a lot of this work has already been done, as I discovered last night.

Back in May, Dan Mihalopoulos reported that Concept was still getting federal money via a grant in spite of the ongoing FBI/DOE investigation. It was a good piece; go back and read it.  Just as a reminder, Dan uncovered a little nugget of fake-boardery in that piece; he talked about one of the members of an alleged "advisory board" who basically came right out and admitted there was no such board in reality.

Finch, a lawyer in private practice, said Concept vice president Salim Ucan offered him a spot on the advisory panel four or five years ago. 

“I was asked to be on it and never heard anything further,” Finch said Friday.

So, it isn't hard to find the grant that Dan found; it's here.  It was submitted on July, 11 2014, and it indicates clearly who is supposed to be on the "Concept Schools Board of Directors" (p. e85). Those people are below.

So, that's interesting. If you know what you're looking at, you can tell that this board is comprised of mostly insiders and one very unwitting outsider: Judge Ross. Hopefully, down the road, I'll be able to figure out how they glommed onto her. Dan Mihalopoulos already mentioned the Judge Ross angle.

Interestingly, the IRS 990 for 2014, which covers either calendar year 2014 or the tax year running 7/1/2014 - 6/30/2015, showed a different set of people than the one reported on their grant application. Here is the board reported to the IRS.

So, something's going on there. I'm not sure what. It appears to me that on July 11, 2014, the CEO of Concept signed the federal grant application, indicating that his board of directors was comprised of Group X, while later on (they filed their 990 on January 11, 2016), Concept indicated to the IRS that its board was comprised of Group Y during the time period in which the grant application was filled out.

Is it possible that the grant application wasTBFURMAN: Who's Running These Schools? Part 3:

 

Big Education Ape: Turkish rivalry comes to San Jose amid allegations about Magnolia charter schools - Mercury News - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/turkish-rivalry-comes-to-san-jose-amid.html



Big Education Ape: Apple Education Services Posts Its Privacy Policy… in Latin | deutsch29 -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/apple-education-services-posts-its.html

Big Education Ape: What Would it Take for US to Extradite Muslim Cleric to Turkey? -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/what-would-it-take-for-us-to-extradite.html

Big Education Ape: Yo Campbell Brown Cat got your tongue? I Guess There is NO Talking Turkey w/ YOU! -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/yo-campbell-brown-cat-got-your-tongue-i.html

Big Education Ape: TBFURMAN: Who's Running These Schools? -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/tbfurman-whos-running-these-schools.html

Big Education Ape: Video shows Gülen urging followers to secretly infiltrate Turkish state institutions - Daily Sabah - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/video-shows-gulen-urging-followers-to.html



Big Education Ape: Video shows Gülen urging followers to secretly infiltrate Turkish state institutions - Daily Sabah - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/video-shows-gulen-urging-followers-to.html

Big Education Ape: Turkey seeks probes of American charter schools it says are linked to Fethullah Gulen - The Washington Post - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/turkey-seeks-probes-of-american-charter.html


Big Education Ape: The Republic of Turkey Wants the State of Texas to Investigate Gulen Charter Schools. | deutsch29 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-republic-of-turkey-wants-state-of.html


Big Education Ape: Gulen versus Erdogan battle spills over into Germany | DWCOM -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/gulen-versus-erdogan-battle-spills-over.html

Big Education Ape: What Do the Corporate Reformers and Campbell Brown Have to Say about The Gulen Charter School Scandal - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/what-do-corporate-reformers-and.html

Big Education Ape: Turkish exile sparks questions about Congress travel, charter schools -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/turkish-exile-sparks-questions-about.html

Big Education Ape: Turkey widens post-coup purge, demands Washington hand over cleric | Reuters -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/turkey-widens-post-coup-purge-demands.html

Big Education Ape: Fethullah Gulen Should Not Be Operating American Charter Schools. | deutsch29 -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/fethullah-gulen-should-not-be-operating.html

Big Education Ape: Reclusive Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, blamed for failed coup in Turkey - LA Times -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/reclusive-muslim-cleric-fethullah-gulen.html

Big Education Ape: US would consider extradition request for exiled cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/us-would-consider-extradition-request.html

 Big Education Ape: Fethullah Gulen: The Islamic scholar Turkey blames for the failed coup - The Washington Post - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/fethullah-gulen-islamic-scholar-turkey.html

Big Education Ape: Jersey Jazzman: What We Don't Know About Gulen-Linked Charter Schools, And Why That's a Problem - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/jersey-jazzman-what-we-dont-know-about.html

Big Education Ape: Coup in Turkey: Is Fetullah Gulen Behind It? | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/coup-in-turkey-is-fetullah-gulen-behind.html

Big Education Ape: KILLING ED: 120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/01/killing-ed-120-american-charter-schools.html

 Big Education Ape: Update: Gulen Harmony charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing Dallas Morning News - http://go.shr.lc/1qV85Hm

Big Education Ape: Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident - WSJ - http://go.shr.lc/1OW1ZfV

Big Education Ape: Magnolia Science Academy - A Gulen Charter School: Gulen Magnolia Science Academy links discussed at LAUSD board meeting -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/06/magnolia-science-academy-gulen-charter.html

CURMUDGUCATION: Poverty (7/24)

CURMUDGUCATION: Poverty (7/24):

Poverty

I am on a two-week vacation, driving cross-country with my wife to spend time with family in Seattle. In my absence, I have dug into the archives and pulled up some reruns for you. Though what I most suggest is that you check out the blogroll on the right side of the page. There are some outstanding bloggers, and if there are some folks you've never sampled, there's no day like today.

Getting out of Poverty

Helping people escape poverty and trying to end it are two different goals.

Poverty and the Moral Imperative of Education

Why is it that we need such elaborate and often-specious arguments to support providing a decent education form poor children?

Poverty Matters (ex 2,364,339)

Yet one more data point (this one from Chicago) showing that poverty matters in education. What a shocker!

Milwaukee's New War on the Poor

Milwaukee shows how to turn the war on poverty into the war on the poor.

Excuses? Maybe a Few

That time reformster Chris Barbic gave up and quit his job running the Achievement School District. He was going to move the bottom 5% of schools into the top 25%, but he failed. Want to guess what he learned gets in the way of improving schools?

CURMUDGUCATION: Poverty (7/24):

The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom

The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom:

The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom

Those in charge of public schools and politicians are hypocrites when it comes to the rhetoric surrounding a teacher shortage!

School districts around the country are describing hundreds of classrooms they can’t seem to fill. This has been a manipulated ploy to get rid of veteran teachers and employ alternative, revolving door teachers who will settle for smaller salaries.

For example, in Orlando they are crying that they are short 300 teachers. It is a similar story in the rest of the state. Yet, Orlando signed on to Teach for America in 2015, instead of trying to address the problem of teacher retention.

The State of Florida began courting TFA in 2010. They were not alone, following the lead of the U.S. Department of Education which chipped in with a competitive $50 million grant. This was part of a larger piece of the privatization pie.

From the New York Times:

The $650 million was given out in awards of three levels. The four largest awards of nearly $50 million each went to groups proposing to greatly expand programs, like Teach for America and the KIPP charters, that the department viewed has having been proved successful.

It isn’t like school administrators and politicians don’t know they have a problem retaining teachers in Florida or around the rest of the country. The State treats The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom:

Trump Pledges To 'Rescue' Kids From Failing Schools

Trump Pledges To 'Rescue' Kids From Failing Schools:

Trump Pledges To ‘Rescue’ Kids From Failing Schools

He also warned that new immigrants could ‘overwhelm’ schools and hospitals.

During the Republican and Democratic conventions, The Hechinger Report will publish a new story each day, examining what the party proposals might mean for the future of education. Our staff reporters will provide education coverage from Cleveland and Philadelphia.

Education got only the briefest mention in Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Cleveland on Thursday.

“We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice,” he said.

He also blamed the current administration for failing the inner cities when it comes to education and warned that Hillary Clinton would allow in too many immigrants who would “overwhelm your schools and hospitals.”

Trump’s speech mirrored the rest of the convention in that it was focused more on foreign threats, the economy and the dangers of a Hillary Clinton presidency than anything else. Education policy was mentioned by only a handful of speakers.

Those who did talk about education either listed it as something Donald Trump would “fix” when he became president, called for more parental say in where children attend school or expressed disgust with the Common Core State Standards, a set of math and English learning targets currently used in 42 states.

MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS

Donald Trump Jr. pumps his fist after speaking about his father, Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump, during the second day at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio,

The Trump sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, made the most substantial remarks on education. Eric Trump said his father finds the state of the American education system humiliating and told teachers “forced to walk through metal detectors” that his father was “running for you.” His brother had even stronger language to describe what he sees as the failure of the American public education system.

“Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “Now, they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet Era department stores Trump Pledges To 'Rescue' Kids From Failing Schools: