Jim Scheurich is a professor at Indiana University and a public education activist. He writes here about how School Choice is intended to destroy community. Folks, the philosophy that charter and innovation schools are built on is that your children’s school should be individualized parental choice. This means parents individually search across the Indy area as to where to send their children, wh
PISA—the international test, the Program in International Student Assessment—has set off an insane competition among nations to lift their ranking. Only one country can be #1, and the rankings have political consequences. Rich countries always get higher scores than poor ones. Nations with less poverty get higher scores than those with more poverty. The US typically ranks in the middle, not becau
Relying on the Mueller Report, the New York Times counts at least 140 contacts among the Trump campaign, Wikileaks, and Russian nationals. That’s proof of nothing, right? As reader Bob Shepherd commented, if a Democratic candidate had been so deeply involved with Russian contacts, how would Republicans have reacted?
In New York, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community wields power because it votes as a bloc. Governors and mayors do their bidding. Their religious schools receive millions of dollars of state and federal aid for various services, yet they are completely unregulated. The absence of any oversight has enabled the most sectarian of schools to avoid teaching English, science, and other subjects that are
The Brookings Institution posted a review of the Mueller report’s findings about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The Mueller report “is the most comprehensive account thus far of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. Alina Polyakova outlines what the report tells us about the tactics and intent of the information operations in particular and what we don’t know du
I begin by saying I don’t like selling anything except ideas. That’s why this blog accepts no advertisements. Nonetheless, I recommend this post by Steven Singer, which describes his reaction to the collection of many of my essays in a book called “The Wisdom and Wit of Diane Ravitch.” Any royalties earned by the book will be donated to the Network for Public Education. Steven begins: “Imagine yo
Reed Hastings, the billionaire founder of Netflix, will speak at a tech conference in San Antonio on May 5, where he will be celebrated as a pioneer and innovator. To those who believe in public schools, Hastings is a nemesis and villain, who has advocated the complete elimination of local school boards and their replacement by corporate management of public schools. He has donated at least $100
Peter Greene writes here about the open theft of public funds, transferred from public schools to to charter schools, in Florida . He raises a question that I have often wondered about: When did Republicans become the enemies of local control? The answer in Florida is obvious: when the money is there to pay the legislators to change their views, they change their views. It is not about improving
Mercedes Schneider writes here about a peculiar development that is percolating among “reformer” groups: Bring back racial segregation! While civil rights groups are concerned about the alarming increase in racial segregation in recent years, about the retreat of federal courts from enforcing desegregation decrees, and about the role of “school choice” in promoting segregation, a few leading figu
George Conway is a lawyer. He also is the husband of Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s senior advisor. He wrote an article with the title cited here in this morning’s Washington Post. He writes: ”So it turns out that, indeed, President Trump was not exonerated at all, and certainly not “totally” or “completely,” as he claimed. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III didn’t reach a conclusion about whether
Peter Greene puts his finger on the reason that Secretary DeVos is unmoved by charter failures. In her ideal free-market model, failure is a feature, not a bug. in the free market, businesses open and close all the time. Where is Eastern Airlines, Braniff, TWA? Gone. Stability, in her view, is not desirable. Disruption and churn show that the market is working well. Thats why she is not at all di
Randi Weingarten delivered this speech this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Freedom to Teach Consider what teachers have recently said about why they teach: “I teach because I want to change the world, one child at a time, and to show them to have passion and wonder in their learning.” “I teach so the next generation will question— everything . The classroom should be a
In this post , Alan Singer reviews a study conducted by SMU (Southern Methodist University) about the effectiveness of TFA teachers. He cites an earlier review of the same study by Gary Rubinstein and concludes with Gary that this study is not good news for TFA, even though TFA thinks it is. Singer reviews the study and concludes: “The other finding (?) is that “TFA alumni are generally more effe
This is the second part of John Thompson’s review of Andrea Gabor’s book, After the Education Wars. Gabor analyzes why “Reform” failed and where we go from here. John Thompson writes: A first review of Andrea Gabor’s excellent After the Education Wars concentrated on the progressive reforms that should have informed the improvement of New York City schools. Billionaires like Bill Gates and Mike B
Alexandra Neason of the Columbia Journalism Review asks an important question: Why did the Washington Post write an editorial opposing charter school transparency? The Post has adopted as its slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” A great slogan in these troubling times, but why should charter schools be exempt from scrutiny? She writes: “LAST MONTH, CHARLES ALLEN , a member of the Washington, DC
A coalition of civil rights and parent groups spoke out against Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to create a voucher program , Chalkbeat reports. The Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition, which champions policies that address disparities in education, said Lee’s plan to create education savings accounts would instead end up helping middle-class families. The accounts are a new kind of vou
In this post on Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet blog at the Washington Post, Carol Burris and I respond to Betsy DeVos’s putdown of the Network for Public Education’s meticulous documentation of the failure of the federal Charter Schools Program. Our report, “Asleep at the Wheel,” showed that the U.S. Department of Education had handed out hundreds of millions of dollars–close to a billion dollars
I encourage you to sign up for The American Prospect’s near-daily missive. This one is right on target, written by Harold Meyerson. The commentaries by Harold Meyerson and Robert Kuttner are well-informed, incisive, and wise. Let the Democratic candidates slug it out on the field of ideas and policies, not by this kind of ad hominem attack.. APRIL 17, 2019 Meyerson on TAP How Think Progress Would
St. Louis once again has an elected board after 12 years of state control. It’s hard to know what factors led to the district’s improvement but one factor stands out: the same superintendent Dr.Kelvin Adams has been in charge since 2008. The implicit message appears to be about the value of continuity and stability, which are anathema to Disrupters. The following commentary was posted by St. Loui
The battle has begun about whether to lift the cap on charter schools in New York City. New York City has 235 charter schools serving 123,000 students (about 10% of those enrolled in public schools) and there are no empty slots for additional charters unless the legislature raises the cap. Governor Cuomo, flush with hedge fund cash from his last campaign, wants to raise the charter cap. Now billi
No matter how many scandals and frauds are exposed in the charter industry, the federal money keeps rolling in. Open this link to see which of your favorite charter chains (the Walmarts of education) won millions from their friend Betsy DeVos. Eva got $9.8 million from her friend Betsy. KIPP will secure a total of $86 million over five years for its San Francisco operations. IDEA in Texas scores
Lynn Davenport is a parent activist in Texas. She wrote the following post to alert her fellow Texans about the invasion of Kitamba Consultants, who bring with them the so-called “portfolio model” of privatization. She writes: The LA teacher strike thwarted a concealed plot to use Kitamba consultants to reinvent LAUSD with a portfolio model of privatization. Kitamba has a contract with TEA right
John Thompson, who recently retired as a teacher in Oklahoma, here reviews Andrea Gabor’s fine book, After the Education Wars. His review appears in two parts. He is interested in Gabor’s critique of why “reform” failed and where we go next. He writes: We are near the end of the 21 st century’s second decade, and some fervent corporate school reformers finally seem to be understanding that their
A judge in Berks County, Pennsylvania, ruled that a charter school’s property was not tax-exempt, prompted by some unusual financial arrangements. Judge Madelyn S. Fudeman upheld a ruling by the Berks County Board of Assessment Appeals denying I-LEAD Inc. an exemption from property taxes. The building at 401 Penn St., which houses the I-LEAD Charter School, is assessed at $9.7 million, according
Peter Greene writes here about an exceptionally silly “study” that Betsy DeVos is using to drum up fading public support for charter schools. The study, by choice advocates Patrick Wolf and Corey DeAngelis, attempts to measure “success” by return on investment, converting taxpayer dollars into NAEP scores. Sounds crazy, no? Greene writes: This particular paper comes out of something called the Sc
I will be speaking at Pennsylvania State University in Harrisburg on April 25 at 7 pm. I am speaking at Mukund S. Kulkarni Theatre, Penn State Harrisburg. The address is 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Harrisburg, PA 17057 . Here is the link for the event on the campus website: https://harrisburg2.vmhost.psu.edu/calendar/event/diane-ravitch if you are nearby, I hope you will come and learn about the is
As I reported earlier, I had a long conversation about education policy with top staff in the Bernie Sanders campaign. Among other things, I explained that charters are a first step on the privatization path that leads to vouchers and that charters cause deep cuts to public schools. I emphasized that charter schools are privately managed and areNOT public schools. I could not have been clearer in
A teacher at a BASIS charter school shamed a black student by teaching a lesson about the civil rights movement by inviting the class to isolate him. BASIS is known for its high test scores and its exclusionary practices. “A Phoenix mother says her 9-year-old son was forced to walk through his class as his teacher and fellow students yelled at, humiliated and berated him during a lesson on school
Bob Braun is one of the keenest investigative reporters in the nation, who worked for New Jersey’s leading newspaper—the Star-Ledger—for half a century. Now, retired, he keeps watch over the corporate privatization of New Jersey’s public schools, especially those in Newark. That city, it’s schools, and it’s children have been in a Reformer Petri dish for decades. The schools were taken over by th
I wish that the New York Times were not behind a paywall. I wish you could read this article in full. It is an interview with Melinda Gates. You would get a sense of a very rich and very privileged woman who doesn’t realize how out of touch she is with the lives of ordinary people. The interviewer wants to know how she feels about her privilege, given the rise of tide of anger against elites and
Ann O’Leary is Chief of Staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Previously she was education advisor to Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She is a lawyer and a very accomplished person , with a long history in Democratic politics. She was leading the Clinton transition team right before the election of 2016. For several years, she was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress,
Michael Bonds, former president of the Milwaukee Public Schools’ Board, was charged in federal court for taking kickbacks from a charter chain. “Bonds is accused of conspiracy and violations of the Travel Act for allegedly accepting kickbacks from executives of the Philadelphia-based Universal Companies in return for votes beneficial to the company between 2014 and 2016. Two unnamed executives of
That is an easy question. Betsy DeVos believes that parents can choose really dreadful ”schools,” where their children won’t learn anything about the modern world and it’s okay. But Betsy’s not a pundit on FOX News. She is Secretary of Education. People listen to her incoherent babbling and try to make sense of it. As the AP reports , Betsy has decided to ignore evidence that her own Department—d
This is a link to an article on Leonie Haimson’s blog that describes the public school parents’ rally on the steps of City Hall. You will see a photo of a parent holding up a handmade sign: “MY CHILD IS NOT YOUR CUSTOMER.” There is a post and a video. The post begins: This afternoon, in front of the NYC Department of Education headquarters, NYC public school parents told Mayor de Blasio to stop b
Eight school districts in Ohio are suing Facebook for recruiting students for the failing online charter school ECOT (Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow). Real public schools that enroll and educate real students lost money to the for-profit virtual charter school, whose owner pocketed millions and ultimately went bankrupt rather than pay back any of the millions it collected from the state. Over t
Glenn Branch writes here about four states that introduced bills to prohibit teachers from “indoctrinating” their students: Arizona, Maine, South Dakota, and Virginia. This is a solution in search of a problem, he says. Despite efforts to pretend otherwise, the real targets here are evolution and climate change. Any state that passes a law requiring teachers to present “both sides” would be compe
Anthony Cody was taken aback when he saw that pundit Alexander Russo was critical of the media for ganging up against Betsy DeVos when she explained at a budget hearing why she was defunding the Special Olympics. Russo seemed to think that the media critique of DeVos may have been the work of “advocates and trolls,” special interests blowing up a story that was a Nothingburger. Russo treated the
Mercedes Schneider brings us up to date on the disruption caused by charters in Baton Rouge, most of which are failing schools. Apex Collegiate Charter School in Baton Rouge notified parents it is closing. Yet its website announces that it is accepting applications for next year. It has been open three years, and it has an F rating from the state. Two other charter schools in the city are closing
The family of a 2-year-old with limited mobility needed a wheelchair but could not afford the cost of a wheelchair, $20,000. The Farmington, Minnesota, public high school “Rogue Robotics Team” did it. Great and talented kids. No one mentioned theirvtest scores.
For years, the charter industry in New York has boasted about its superiority compared to public schools and claimed that there were long waiting lists of students clamoring for admission to charter schools. We now know that there never was a waiting list. The charters were given access to the names and addresses of public school students so they could bombard them with marketing materials in sea
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders wrote a stinging letter to the Center for American Progress, the presumptive think tank of the Democratic Party establishment. (Sorry, no link available to me, but the story appeared today in the New York Times.) ”Senator Bernie Sanders, in a rare and forceful rebuke by a presidential candidate of an influential party ally, has accused a liberal think tank of underm
Our blog poet, self-identified as SomeDam Poet, wrote the following poem about testing, opting out, and New York State Commissioner MaryEllen Elia. Reading the poem requires cultural literacy about arcane education jargon. “The Mywayman” (after “The Highwayman”, by Alfred Noyes) PART ONE THE VAM was a torrent of darkness among reformy goals The school was a ghostly galleon tossed upon rocky shoal
Reformer groups and programs and projects pop up so often that I’m tempted to call them mushrooms, although stinkweeds would work too. I met Matt Gandal, described below, when he worked for Checker Finn at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. As long as the foundations keep pumping money into their hobby, there will be more mushrooms. She wrote this comment a month or so ago: Laura Chapman describes
There is hope for a change in Kentucky politics. FOX News says that Governor Matt Bevin is in trouble in his re-election bid because he picked a fight with teachers. “Matt Bevin is Kentucky’s third Republican governor in the last half-century – and if he’s re-elected this year, he’d be the first in party history to win a second term to that office. “It likely won’t be easy. ”Bevin gained national
Carol Burris is the executive director of the Network for Public Education. She is a lifelong educator, first a teacher of Spanish, then an award-winning principal of a high school in New York. She writes here to explain briefly why charter schools are unnecessary and are not public schools. “When I was a high school principal, I also ran an alternative school called The Greenhouse. It was small–
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is outraged that The Audacious Project is honoring the Waterford online preschool program, which will use this platform to expand their efforts to open additional online preschools. Early childhood experts agree that this is harmful to children. I say it is a mean and stupid idea. Efforts to put little children in online schools should be denounced, no
Yesterday I wrote about the decision to approve a Gulen charter school in rural Washington County by the Alabama Charter School Commission, despite the fact that the state paid the National Association of Charter School Authorizers to review the proposal and they turned it down. There is little or no demand in the county , which has good public schools, for a charter. The CEO of the charter plans
LeBron James’ new public school in Akron, Ohio, but it’s already showing remarkable progress by the only metric the public understands: test scores. Readers of this blog understand the deficiencies of standardized tests. But in this case, they are bringing attention to the most interesting and high-profile effort in the nation to reform education for the city’s neediest children. Bill Gates has t
Bill Raden of the California progressive website Capital & Main is one of the state’s best education writers. In the latest issue , he brings good news about the victory of David over Goliath, plus an important insight into the rigging of the state law by Netflix billionaire Reed Hastings. First, the good news: “ In a David vs. Goliath win , a coalition of East L.A. families, teachers and communi
Bill Phillis of Ohio urges the repeal of the state takeover law, HB 70: It appears that the HB 70 CEO in the Lorain City School District is at odds with the Board of Education, school personnel, the Police Department and the Mayor. The CEO and the Police Department are in a tiff over a School Resource Officer matter . The Board of Education’s Vice President says it is time for the CEO to go. HB 7
Bob Shepherd is teaching in Florida after a career in education publishing. He left this comment on the blog about his teaching experience in Florida. His contributions to the blog are consistently brilliant. On a personal note, Bob reached out to me and offered to edit my new book. We have never met. Knowing how amazing he is, I happily accepted his offer. For weeks, Bob and I exchanged chapters
Katie Porter is a freshman in Congress. She ran for Congress in the 45th District in California, which has not elected a Democrat since the District was created in 1953. Porter was born in Iowa and had an elite education, studying
