At her Congressional hearing, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was asked directly if she would deny federal funding to the Lighthouse Christian zacademy in Bloomington, Indiana, which explicitly bans the enrollment ipof students who are homosexual or who live in a family where homosexual activity is practiced. “Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, cited Lighthouse Christian Academy’s enrollme
The principal of the Crescent Leadership Academy, a charter school in New Orleans, was fired after he was filmed wearing Nazi rings and participating in a “white genocide” tape. The students in the school are almost all African-
Politico Morning Education reports that the U.S. Department of Education f inds that an extraordinary proportion of black and Hispanic students are enrolled in high-poverty schools. The combination of racial segregation and poverty is a
Jeff Bryant has read Betsy DeVos’s speeches slamming public schools and extolling the virtues of public subsidy for private and religious schools. She carefully selects an anecdote to make her case. But she is late to the party. There is now persuasive evidence that students in voucher schools get worse results than their peers in public schools. In addition, many of those who use vouchers are st
Rob Barnett teaches mathematics in a D.C. public high school. He is faced every year with a dilemma. Does he pass or fail the student who is not ready, who has not mastered the course? He notes that D.C.’s graduation rate has soared, yet its NAEP scores are virtually unchanged since 2005. Its PARCC scores are even worse. NCLB and Race to the Top pressured teachers like him to get the graduation r
Arne Duncan used to boast about the rising high school graduation rate, but he never talked about one cause of the increase: online credit recovery. Slate has run a multi-part series on the online credit recovery racket. Imagine a student failing a one-year course, then earning full credit in less than one week. It has its benefits: superintendents get praised for the steady increase in the gradu
John Kuhn is superintendent of a school district in Texas. He is one of the nation’s most eloquent spokesmen for children and public schools. He first came to national attention when he spoke at the Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C. In 2011. He describes the recent legislative session, where an effort was made to improve school funding, but the Semate leaders knowingly sabotaged it. He w
Reader Jack Covey watched Betsy DeVos testify at a Congressional hearing and was startled by what he saw and heard: “What’s scary is Secretary Devos’ tacit claim that, when it comes to schools that receive government funding — charter schools, voucher-funded private schools, etc. — the U.S. Department of Ed.: “— HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT STUDENTS FROM DISCRIMINATION — based on race, ethnic
Betsy DeVos appeared at her second Congressional hearing to defend the Department’s budget priorities. At her first hearing, she said that schools might need guns to protect against grizzlies. What she demonstrated was her masterful ability to evade and obfuscate questions, never giving a direct answer to inconvenient questions. Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin tried to get her to respond to t
James Runcie, the head of the agency in charge of federal student loans at the U.S. Department of Education, resigned in protest when he was directed to testify in support of Betsy DeVos’ policies before Congress. DeVos has been shifting the Department’s policies to favor debt collection agencies, not students.
One of the wealthiest people in Utah is Patrick Byrne, who founded Overstock.com. He is a friend of Betsy DeVos and shares her passion for vouchers. Now, he says, the time is right because she’s in charge. https://www.apnews.com/aaca1fc28be4418e8493b46178c3c60b/Trump,-DeVos-embolden-supporters-of-Utah-school-vouchers Byrne funded support for vouchers in a state referendum in 2007, but it was trou
Howard Ryan, writing in Monthly Review, analyzes the sources of support for corporate reform and privatization. Ryan writes: Over the past three decades, public schools have been the target of a systematic assault and takeover by corporations and private foundations. The endeavor is called “school reform” by its advocates, while critics call it corporate school reform. Finnish educator Pasi Sahlb
Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota has become a hero of public education. Despite the pleas of the entire corporate reform movement in Minnesota, Dayton vetoed a bill that would have created a pathway into teaching for uncertified teachers, legislation needed to maintain a teaching force for charter schools. http://www.brightlightsmallcity.com/minnesota-governor-disrupts-right-wing-education-refor
Jeb Bush was honored by Betsy DeVos’ organization, the American Federation for Children, at their meeting in Indianapolis. Bush’s Foundation for Educational Ecellence is heavily funded by the technology and Bush loves to attack the schools that don’t adopt technology faster. On this occasion, he blamed teachers’ unions for standing in the way of the electronic future. He says they care only for a
