How are America’s public schools really doing? - The Washington Post

How are America’s public schools really doing? - The Washington Post

How are America’s public schools really doing?

It’s hard to find a public official today who, when talking about public schools, doesn’t talk about what a mess they are. Failing.

Some of them are, in fact, failing kids, but are they all?

This piece takes a look at the broad question of how public schools are doing, written by Jack Schneider, an assistant professor of education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the author of “Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality.” He co-hosts the education policy podcast “Have You Heard” and is at work on a book about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the broader push to dismantle public education. Follow him on Twitter @Edu_Historian

[‘A Nation at Risk’ demanded education reform 35 years ago. Here’s how it’s been bungled ever since.]

By Jack Schneider

How are America’s public schools doing? The question is a fundamental component of any contemporary education policy discussion. Yet it is also notoriously difficult to answer. With nearly 100,000 schools spread across roughly 13,000 districts, the scale of the enterprise is beyond what any set of individuals can see and experience. Continue reading: How are America’s public schools really doing? - The Washington Post

How are charter schools influencing LAUSD labor negotiations? – Daily News

How are charter schools influencing LAUSD labor negotiations? – Daily News

How are charter schools influencing LAUSD labor negotiations?

If teachers go on strike this school year, it would be the first amid a backdrop of a growing charter school movement that has not only drawn students from the Los Angeles Unified School District, but has also taken teachers with them.

The last time Los Angeles teachers went on strike was in 1989. The California Charter School Act was signed into law in 1992 and charter school growth in Los Angeles particularly exploded within the last two decades.

Los Angeles is now home to the largest number of charter schools in the nation. Charter schools are typically non-union.

“Our members see very clearly the privatization agenda of those who are leading and funding the charter school movement in California,” union president Alex Caputo-Pearl said in an interview.

Contract negotiations between United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors, and the district reached a stalemate this summer. And the two sides did not reach an agreement through mediation, district officials said Friday.

“By UTLA’s own admission, the only reason UTLA participated in Mediation was to ensure that it could move quickly to a strike,” district General Counsel David Holmquist said in a statement.

RELATED STORY: LA parents demand ‘equitable education’ as prospect of first LAUSD teachers strike in decades looms

The next step is fact-finding before a strike can legally be called. Caputo-Pearl estimated a fact-finding report wouldn’t produced until late November or early December. This summer, teachers overwhelmingly authorized its union leadership to call for a strike. If there is a strike, it likely won’t be for several weeks.

At the bargaining table, there are a number of proposals regarding charter schools that the union has put forth.

“The district has not been willing to come back with a counter proposals on them, which is part of the reason we’re in mediation,” Caputo-Pearl said Thursday.

Teacher union membership has declined over the past decade. In 2008, the number of teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors in L.A. Unified totaled 43,000. That figure has fallen to 33,000 today. This is partly due to layoffs that occured after the 2008 recession. Also, a number of teachers left the district for charter schools.

UTLA does represent about 1,000 charter school teachers. Teachers at district schools that have converted into charter schools, known as affiliated charters, are part of UTLA as are some independent charter schools. Caputo-Pearl makes a distinction between these schools when he Continue reading; How are charter schools influencing LAUSD labor negotiations? – Daily News

Los Angeles teachers are a step closer to a potential strike after mediation with district ends - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles teachers are a step closer to a potential strike after mediation with district ends - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles teachers are a step closer to a potential strike after mediation with district ends

The union representing Los Angeles teachers moved one step closer to a possible strike Friday after ending mediation sessions with the L.A. Unified School District.

Union officials accused the district of “failing to offer any substantial proposals to reinvest in our schools.”

For its part, district leaders announced that they had filed a complaint with a state oversight board. They allege that the union has failed to negotiate in good faith and that any strike would therefore be illegal.

The union “has trounced through the impasse procedure in bad faith, in order to have cover to initiate a strike,” trying to “shortcut the process and achieve its bad faith objectives,” according to the district filing with the Public Employment Relations Board.

The filing also accused the union of making “histrionical demands that the mediation process wrap up quickly.”

The two sides had three sessions with a professional mediator, starting Sept. 27 and ending Friday.

The district is offering teachers a 3% raise retroactive to July 1, 2017, plus an additional 3% retroactive to this past July. The second half would not be permanent unless the county certified the district as financially healthy for the length of the agreement. The district has settled with most other employee unions on terms similar to these.

The teachers have asked for a 6.5% raise that goes back an additional year, to July 1, 2016.

The dispute goes beyond wages.

“The district thinks they can buy us off with a modest pay raise, but our fight has never been just about salary,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said in a statement. “What’s driving educators is the absolute need to fix what we see every day: too many overcrowded classrooms where kids have to share desks, schools with a nurse only one day a week, and overloaded psychologists and counselors doing their best to triage the socio-emotional needs of our students.”

L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner said he also would like to increase staffing and offer larger pay raises but that the district can’t afford it. Meeting the demands of what the union calls its Continue reading: Los Angeles teachers are a step closer to a potential strike after mediation with district ends - Los Angeles Times

Private, charter schools at heart of gubernatorial candidate differences

Private, charter schools at heart of gubernatorial candidate differences

Private, charter schools at heart of gubernatorial candidate differences

Will Illinois’ real education governor please step forward?

Although the two major-party candidates in this year’s historically expensive campaign for governor have both pledged to be the “education governor,” Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker are on opposite sides of key education issues, particularly those involving charter school expansion and private school funding.

For those looking beyond the state’s crippling financial issues for reasons to favor one candidate over the other, education provides some clear distinctions.

There’s the ultra-political. Should Chicago have an elected school board? Pritzker says yes. Rauner says no.

Then, there’s the highly controversial. Should a private school tax credit scholarship program that most public education supporters oppose be expanded? Rauner says yes. Pritzker says no.

The candidates veer back into the same lane when it comes to investing more in public education and addressing widespread funding inequities in school districts across the state. But even then, education leaders say, they speak different languages when it comes to how that will happen.

“This election is going to have a big impact on public education in Illinois,” said Brian Harris, president of the state’s Large Unit District Association. “Both Pritzker and Rauner — they both say they want to be the education governor, but they have a different perspective on it.”

Most education leaders shied away from endorsing. Their organizations — save the Illinois Education Association — will not make official declarations or contributions in the race despite their agreement that much is a stake.

“Our position on both candidates is that we would hope that they would provide low-income kids with the same Continue reading; Private, charter schools at heart of gubernatorial candidate differences

League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County Urges “No” Vote on Proposition 1 – Seattle Education

League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County Urges “No” Vote on Proposition 1 – Seattle Education

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF SEATTLE-KING COUNTY URGES “NO” VOTE ON PROPOSITION 1

From the League of Women Voters of King County October Newsletter

The Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County unanimously voted to oppose Seattle Proposition 1, the Families, Education and Preschool Promise (FEPP) Levy. In addition to urging the city to convene a coalition to address concerns about the proposed levy before taking further action.

Although the Board’s decision to oppose Proposition 1 was unanimous, it was not made lightly. Children from low-income families deserve high-quality preschools. High school graduates deserve to attend college, even when they cannot afford it. But the levy’s vague language and regressive nature make it an inappropriate vehicle for funding these priorities.

Chief among the League’s concerns is the confusing language in the proposition on how levy funds will be spent. Specifically, the measure providers that:

Proceeds may only be leveraged to support Seattle School District and Seattle Colleges, programs or functions with the existence of a current, effective Partnership Agreement (emphasis added). (Prop. 1, Sec. 10)

This clause creates the possibility that levy funds will flow to charter schools, a possibility that city officials have yet to deny. The League has consistently opposed public funding of charter schools because they lack transparency and public accountability. They can also exacerbate segregation and educational disparities.

Moreover, the League has opposed the use of levies as long-term funding sources, particularly in areas where funding responsibility lies with the state. “Taxpayers cannot continue to bear the burden of filling the funding gaps in our communities, the importance of these services notwithstanding,” said LWVS-KC President Stephanie Cirkovich. “Homeowners can expect their taxes to increase by an average of $112 annually under this levy, and they deserve to know how those funds will be spent.”

The League also opposes the Levy because it prioritizes special programming over basic education. Officials concede that it would reduce funding for K-12 over the expiring levy, straining Seattle Public Continue reading: League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County Urges “No” Vote on Proposition 1 – Seattle Education

Delaware Charter School News: As School Closes Abruptly for Low Enrollment, State Receives Fed Grant to Expand | deutsch29

Delaware Charter School News: As School Closes Abruptly for Low Enrollment, State Receives Fed Grant to Expand | deutsch29

Delaware Charter School News: As School Closes Abruptly for Low Enrollment, State Receives Fed Grant to Expand

In examining the two most recent charter school stories on Delaware Public Media (“Delaware’s Source for NPR News”), I was taken with the irony of charter school reality.

The most recent story as of this writing is dated October 12, 2018, and is entitled, “First State Hopes to Expand Charter Seats with Federal Grant.” An excerpt:

The Delaware Department of Education has received a $10.4 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve the state’s charter school system.

Officials say the funding will support sharing best practices between charter schools and other public schools and strengthening the charter school authorization process.  It will also provide sub-grants to new charter schools for planning and existing charters for expansion.

Thus, even though there are only so many students in the state (which means that increased charter presence not only puts charters into increased competition with “other” public schools), expanding the charter presence could well put existing charter schools in competition with each other for student enrollment (and, by extension, funding).

Even so, the unlikely line about “sharing best practices” is included, even though competition dictates every school for itself in order to survive (and to possibly figure out how to lure your students to my school).

The article continues by noting that the Delaware Department of Education Continue reading: Delaware Charter School News: As School Closes Abruptly for Low Enrollment, State Receives Fed Grant to Expand | deutsch29