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Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The $3.5 Trillion West Coast Public School Privatization Plan

Schock Market seeks auction of public schools--for $3.5 Trillion

Schock Market seeks auction of public schools--for $3.5 Trillion


BEND, Ore., Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet startup, Schock Market, Inc. (www.schockmarket.com) will seek to auction off the public school systems of OregonWashington, and California—for half a trillion dollars.  Success would extrapolate to a $3.5 trillion sale for public schools nationwide.
The auctions are being managed through newly-conceived reservation markets.  These markets have been pioneered by Stanford University graduate, Spencer Schock.  Schock hopes U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, will support the experiment.
The markets are designed to unfold in phases.
In the first phase, individuals and businesses register as investors at www.schockmarket.com/Profiles/Register.  Investors attempt to predict savings that may be achieved by privatizing government agencies.  When investors guess well, they may earn payouts, potentially in the millions of dollars.
In the second phase, corporations bid on these same government agencies.  In the case of schools, corporations will bid to purchase and operate public schools within a state.
During this second phase, proceeds from privatization are revealed to taxpayers.  The California K12 market, for example, could conceivably reap $436 billion for California citizens.  If so, every Californian would receive a check for $11,000.
In the final phase, completed markets are approved through statewide voter initiatives.  These initiatives are backed by winning corporations as well as investors and taxpayers seeking the payouts described above.
Benefits
Schock suggests that democratic societies fail to embrace innovative solutions, often due to uncertainty associated with free markets.  This hesitation causes voters to choose safe, but underperforming, government services over free markets.
Reservation markets resolve this problem by providing a high definition look into the future of a proposed market.  It is important to note that reservation markets do not model a future outcome.  Instead, reservation markets are the future outcome.  Schock achieves this distinction by replacing a single financial transaction, with a multitude of reservations.
Schock suggests knowing market winners in advance will provide citizens with an opportunity to privatize much of the public sector, including schools.  Says Schock, "Reservation markets represent an opportunity to reboot Western civilization . . .  and earn a windfall profit, for everyone, while doing so."
Cost
Individuals and businesses may invest at Schock Market for $3 per month. 
The site opens with three education markets:  Oregon K12, Washington K12, and California K12.  The potential taxpayer payout for each is $36 billion$69 billion, and $436 billion respectively.
SOURCE Schock Market, Inc.

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Schock Market seeks auction of public schools--for $3.5 Trillion


Big Education Ape: Charter-School Movement Grows—for Real-Estate Investors - WSJ - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2015/10/charter-school-movement-growsfor-real.html

Big Education Ape: Charter Schools: ALL ABOUT THE MONEY - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/esj-capital-partners-llc-bought-four.html

Big Education Ape: Q&A: Will the New Charter School Bill Impact Commercial Real Estate? WTF is a PRIVATE CHARTER SCHOOL? - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/07/q-will-new-charter-school-bill-impact.html




MARKET OVERVIEW
Reservation markets have many potential uses.  In the example below, we discuss the most common application, which is privatization of a government agency.
U.S. taxpayers oversee trillions of dollars in public services.  Taxpayers must choose a government agency or market solution to deliver these services.
Market solutions enjoy a reputation for efficiency.  On the other hand, market outcomes cannot be predicted with certainty.  For this reason, taxpayers often choose government agencies to deliver public services.  For example, only 13% of the U.S., $4 trillion-dollar federal budget is outsourced to private contractors.
Reservation markets address this shortcoming of markets by:
a) Revealing the hidden value of privatization to taxpayers.
b) Revealing market outcomes to taxpayers, before they vote for those outcomes.
In this example, we also discuss the important role investors play in this discovery.
MARKET EXAMPLE
Imagine Schock Market launches a reservation market exploring privatization of a county landfill.  Savings will be split between investors, taxpayers, and local environmentalists seeking restoration of a nearby, polluted stream.
In the first phase, investors enter the market and attempt to predict the savings that will be achieved through privatization.  
When bidding, investors attempt to acquire reservations at a price at or below the actual savings from privatization.  Investors that bid well are eligible to receive a payout. Investors that bid too high, are ineligible to receive a payout.
Over time, market prices will plateau.  Why? Because investors are concerned that the market is reaching full valuation.  If they now bid too high, they risk losing their payout.
The role of investors is to reveal for the public, the value of privatizing a government agency.  When a market plateaus, we assume this value has been revealed and the market is closed.
In the second phase, the market is reopened for corporations.  Corporations that specialize in waste management bid on purchasing the landfill and operating it for the local community.  Imagine the winning bid is $30 million for the purchase of the landfill and $10 million in operational savings over ten years.  In this case, the total windfall for taxpayers is $40 million.
In this phase, the winning corporate bidder is announced along with the total savings of $40 million.
The payout to investors is also announced.  A payout might be 1% of the windfall, or in this example, $400,000.  This payout will be shared among investors that acquired reservations priced at or below a market value of $40 million.
The payout to environmentalists is also announced.  Let’s say the environmentalists have been promised 5% of the windfall or $2 million for restoration of the polluted stream.
Finally, the payout to taxpayers is announced.  Imagine the $40 million in proceeds will be distributed to 50,000 county residents.  This equates to a $752 check for every man, woman, and child living in the county ($40 million - $400,000 for investors - $2 million for environmentalists = $37.6 million / 50,000 = $752).
In the final phase, the now completed market is launched as a voter initiative for county residents.  The initiative is backed by investors, the winning corporation, environmentalists, and taxpayers all wanting their payouts.
If the initiative passes, the landfill is privatized.  The winning corporation purchases the landfill at the agreed upon price.  Money from the sale of the landfill and ongoing operational savings provides for payouts to investors, environmentalists, and taxpayers.
KEY POINTS
Schock Market replaces a financial transaction with a multitude of competing reservations.  This creates a sort of crystal ball where market activity today, reveals an outcome that will occur in the future.
This crystal ball is of immense value to voters.  In the past, voters choosing market solutions could only hope for the desired outcome.  Now, voters can choose a market solution and know in advance what the market outcome will be.
Also note that Schock Market creates advocates for change.  In our example, the investors, winning corporate bidder, environmentalists, and taxpayers all have a financial stake in overcoming the status quo.  They want their payout, so they push for change. This represents a new dynamic for voter initiatives.
INVESTORS
Investors play a critical role at Schock Market.  Here is an overview of their role:
Investors are U.S. citizens that have registered at Schock Market.  The cost of participation is a $3 per month subscription.
Investors receive $5 million in their account at time of registration.  (This high value is required if investors are to make meaningful bets in a nation where government spending and assets are counted in the trillions.)
It is impossible for investors to lose their $5 million.  When an investor cancels a reservation, 100% of the funds spent on that reservation are returned to the investor.
Investors review open markets at Schock Market.  Investors then choose a market in which they would like to predict savings from privatization.
Investors that make accurate predictions are eligible to receive a payout or percent of the actual savings from privatization.
To receive a payout, investors must secure reservations for a price at or below the actual savings from privatization.  Using our example above, investors that make bids at or below a market value of $40 million are eligible for a payout.
Investors that bid above the actual savings from privatization are ineligible for a payout.
Investors compete for a limited number of reservations in each market.  Investors attempt to pay a low price for a reservation and hang on to that reservation for as long as possible.  Payouts are based upon how much time an investor accumulates in a market, at or below the actual savings from privatization.
A low-priced reservation may be taken from an investor by a new investor bidding more for that same reservation.
In this manner, competition for reservations causes the price of reservations to rise over time.
As markets approach what many consider full valuation, investors become cautious and slow their trading.  Why? Because these investors don’t want to bid too high and have all of their accumulated time become ineligible for a payout.
At this point, the market has plateaued and is thus telegraphing a likely maximum savings from privatization.  Investors have fulfilled their role which is to inform the public about possible savings.
At this time, the market is closed to investors.  It is then reopened as a market for corporate bids.
Each reservation market is a proposal.  It is a form of free speech.
Many obstacles stand between this free speech and actual implementation of the market proposal.  Some reservation markets may be contrary to existing local, state, or federal laws, making implementation impossible without changes to applicable law.  Schock Market makes no representation as to whether any particular reserve market will result in tax savings, voter initiative, privatization, or any changes or outcomes proposed by investors or other participants.  Schock Market cannot guarantee that our market proposals will be implemented or that investor payouts will be paid.
All investing is subject to the Market Rules, available here:www.schockmarket.com/marketrules.
http://www.schockmarket.com

Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019?

Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019?

Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019?


WHAT will happen if, as the 2019 legislative session gets rolling, it appears common education isn't in line for another big boost in funding? Will teachers strike again, as they did this year?


It wouldn't be surprising if the answer is yes. And why not? The threat of a walkout paid off handsomely in 2018, with the Legislature approving large tax increases for pay raises that were even larger than the teachers' union had demanded. The new revenue also went to boost pay for support staff and for additional school funding.


All this was approved before the strike, which lasted two weeks and was used to demand more money, including some that wouldn't have necessarily ended up going to education. The end of the strike left many walkout attendees frustrated that the Legislature didn't do more.


Lawmakers this year approved a record $2.9 billion appropriation for common education, but got little to no thanks. The walkout spurred dozens of teachers to file for legislative seats, and more than four dozen made it through to November's ballot. Meanwhile, members of the Legislature who voted against the tax increase were labeled “anti-education” and, in some cases, lost their primaries or runoffs.


That sentiment — if you don't see things as we do, you're the enemy — is sure carry over to next year, fueled by the Oklahoma Education Association with the guidance and support of its parent group, the National Education Association, which directed the Oklahoma walkout and others around the country this spring, and the American Federation of Teachers union.


The AFT sponsored an event Saturday at Northwest Classen High School called “Stand Up Continue reading: Could another Oklahoma teacher walkout happen in 2019?




LA teachers are ready to walk | SocialistWorker.org

LA teachers are ready to walk | SocialistWorker.org

LA TEACHERS ARE READY TO WALK
Image result for UTLA


EDUCATORS IN United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) voted overwhelmingly in late August to authorize a strike in a vote in which an impressive 83 percent of members cast a ballot.
Now a showdown looms in the coming months between a fired-up union and a labor-hating school superintendent — a showdown that could add important new dimensions to the wave of educators’ strikes that began last spring in West Virginia.
If LA teachers do walk off the job, it will build on the strikes this fall in Washington state to show that the miserable conditions facing teachers and public schools aren’t confined to Southern states run by Republicans, but exist in some of the richest and most Democratic states in the country.
A teachers’ strike would also shine a national spotlight on the network of militants who have won leadership in the UTLA; increase pressure on other “blue state” union leaders to use their resources and legal protections join the rebellion started in states dominated by anti-union Republicans; and expose the ways that even supposedly pro-labor laws are used to keep workers from using their power to strike.
Finally, a UTLA strike would show — just as the 2012 Chicago teachers strike did — the importance of “bargaining for the common good” by taking up issues of racial justice and other community concerns, and linking those to issues of teacher pay, in order to build effective resistance to the divide-and-conquer tactics of those trying to destroy public education.
Image result for UTLA

CALIFORNIA — THE home of the most billionaires in the country, as well as mega-corporations like Apple, Chevron and Disney — also has the nation’s highest poverty rate when cost-of-living is factored in, and ranks 43rd out of the 50 states in per-pupil funding.
More than 80 percent of students in the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD) live at or below the poverty level. The town that gives us #OscarsSoWhite has a public school system with 90 percent students of colorand class sizes “limits” that can reach 46 for many high school classes.
“My classroom is so crowded with student desks that my students and I sometimes can’t get from one side of the room to the other unless we walk outside and enter through the other door,” UTLA activist Gillian Russom wrote in an article for Socialist Worker earlier this year.
“I teach at a large high school with a sprawling campus which once had 18 Continue Reading: LA teachers are ready to walk | SocialistWorker.org





FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work | deutsch29

FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work | deutsch29

FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work


On September 25, 2018, WFTV reported that eighth-grade social studies teacher, Diane Tirado, says she was fired for refusing to assign 50 percent credit to students who did not hand in assignments.
IMG_1264
Diane Tirado
According to the Florida teacher certification website, Tirado was first licensed in 1999.
Tirado began teaching at West Gate K-8 School in Port St. Lucie, FL, in August 2018. She was terminated on September 14, 2018; apparently no details about the terminating event were included since Tirado was still in her probationary period for employment at West Gate K-8.
Upon being fired, Tirado left a message for her students on her classroom’s white board: “Bye Kids. Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in. Mrs. Tirado.”
Tirado posted a picture of her message on Facebook on September 15, 2018:
IMG_1259
Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
The West Gate CIO (chief info officer) denies that such a policy exists. From the Continue reading: FL Teacher Fired for Giving Zeros When Students Did Not Turn in the Work | deutsch29



The straw man in the new round of the reading wars - The Washington Post

The straw man in the new round of the reading wars - The Washington Post

The straw man in the new round of the reading wars

Image result for National Council on Teacher Quality,


The “reading wars” never go away — at least not for long.
What exactly are they? Fights in the education policy world about the “best way” to teach reading to kids — as if there were a single best way.
So what are the “reading wars” and when did they start? They go back to the 1800s, when debate began about the best way to teach kids to read. Horace Mann, the influential educational reformer who was secretary of education in Massachusetts, argued against teaching the explicit sounds of each letter, arguing that students would then not learn to read for meaning and that they should first learn to read whole words.
A debate over emphasizing “phonics” or “whole language” has been voiced ever since — at least by scholars and policymakers, who often don’t bother to pay attention to what teachers are actually doing in the classroom.
The debate flared in 2013, when the National Council on Teacher Quality, a group created by a conservative think tank to diminish the influence of teacher education schools, published negative ratings of many of these institutions and attacked their literacy instruction.
Rachael Gabriel, associate professor of literacy education at the University of Connecticut, wrote a piece for this blog at the time critiquing the ratings — and now she is back with a new piece looking at a flare-up in the reading wars, sparked by some articles in the news media attacking “balanced literacy.” Though the term suggests that is a combination of whole language and phonics, it is actually more. Gabriel explains:
By Rachael Gabriel
We are seeing new articles in the media saying that American elementary school educators don’t understand the science of how to teach kids how to read — and even if they do, some resist it. Continue Reading: The straw man in the new round of the reading wars - The Washington Post