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Saturday, May 25, 2019

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all


KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all




Pennsylvania: Those Disgraceful, Failing CyberCharters
by dianeravitch / 51min
I recommend that you get on the email list of the Keystone State Education Coalition if you want to know what is happening in Pennsylvania. Lawrence Feinberg posts informative articles about the schools of that state. You can contact him at lawrenceafeinberg@gmail.com. One ongoing scandal in Pennsylvania is the story of cyber charters. Pennsylvania has 14 cyber charter schools, and 13 of them are

YESTERDAY

Matt Barnum: Summit Learning Misleads About Percent of Schools That Quit Every Year
by dianeravitch / 21h
Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat reports that the Chan-Zuckerberg tech-based schools called Summit have been underreporting the percent of schools that quit their program every year. After multiple news reports of high school students walking out in protest against the Summit tech platform, Summit responded by saying that only 10% of schools leave every year. That figure, writes Barnum, was widely report
Samuel Abrams on the Coming Charter Expansion in Puerto Rico
by dianeravitch / 22h
Samuel Abrams, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, writes here about the likely effects of the influx of charter schools in Puerto Rico. This is the abstract . With the passage of the Education Reform Act in March 2018, Puerto Rico joined states across the mainland in authorizing charter schools as privately managed government-funded alternatives to conven
In the Public Interest: The Real Cost of Charters=Budget Cuts for Public Schools
by dianeravitch / 23h
Last year, In the Public Interest, a nonpartisan advocacy group in California published Professor Gordon Lafer’s seminal study of the fiscal impact of charters on three school districts in California. Oakland alone lost $67 million in “stranded costs” because of the flooding of the district with charter schools. Stranded costs are the costs beyond the per-pupil tuition that leaves the district, l
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh School Board Rejects Charter School, But State Overrules Decision
by dianeravitch / 1d
The elected School Board of Pittsburgh unanimously rejected a charter school called Catalyst Academy because of concern about its proposed disciplinary policy and its ability to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The School Board’s decision was overturned by the state’s Charter Appeals Board , which was appointed by the former Republican Governor. The members of the CAB have ties to th

MAY 23

DeVos Actually Visited A Public School in Poway, California
by dianeravitch / 1d
Education Week reported that Betsy DeVos visited a public school in Poway, California, and the school was asked to keep the visit a secret so that the Secretary would not encounter hostile crowds of protesters, which might endanger the lives of students or staff or DeVos herself. Of course, DeVos was well guarded. She came with her special retinue of U.S. Marshals to protect her. NBC has estimate
Rochester, New York: Leaked Emails Reveal Secret Plan for State Takeover of Rochester Schools
by dianeravitch / 1d
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle obtained emails revealing that the New York State Education Department and the New York Board of Regents are considering a plan to oust the elected school board, take over the Rochester public schools, appoint a five-member interim school board, and appoint a temporary school superintendent. I wish I knew of an example where a state takeover led to better educ
Good News! Bill to Restrict Charter Appeals Passes California Assembly
by dianeravitch / 1d
The Legislature in California is considering four bills to regulate the state’s unregulated, unaccountable charter industry. Under current law, charters can locate wherever they want, without regard to the fiscal impact on the district they choose. They first apply to the local district; if they are turned down because the local district doesn’t want or need a charter, they can appeal to the coun
Jersey Jazzman Offers Advice to the Media About Covering Charter Schools
by dianeravitch / 1d
Jersey Jazzman, aka Mark Weber, is a teacher in New Jersey who took the time to earn a Ph.D. So he could decipher the studies and research usedto make decisions about schools. In this post , he explains to the media how to cover charter schools. He noticed that Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal to ban for-profit charter schools unleashed a wave of commentary about charter schools. Many people have
Jan Resseger: Teachers in West Virginia Forego a Pay Raise to Block Charters and Vouchers
by dianeravitch / 1d
Teachers in West Virginia stunned the nation in February 2018 by going out on strike and staying out while demanding a pay raise and a commitment from the Governor and Legislature not to support charter schools and privatization. Theywon a pay raise and they had a commitment from Governor Jim Justice to veto charter legislation. Justice is a billionaire, the richest man in the state. A year later
Mercedes Schneider: Disillusionment with TFA, In the U.S. and Brazil
by dianeravitch / 1d
Mercedes Schneider discovered an article by a former TFA recruit, Rolf Straubhaar, who now teaches at Texas State University. Straubhaar compares the experience of Teach for America in the U.S. and the experience of those who joined the TFA offshoot, called a Teach for All, in Brazil. The program in Brazil didn’t last long. It folded. His studies persuaded him that many of the participants in the
XPRIZE: $10 Million Prize for Teaching Without Teachers!
by dianeravitch / 2d
You knew this was coming, didn’t you? The XPRIZE awarded $10 million in awards to programs that teach children basic skills without a human teacher! One of the funders of the award was our very own Betsy DeVos, who loves teachers so much that she wants to get rid of them. They cost too much, and they tend to want unions. They even think for themselves, which is dangerous. The XPRIZE Foundation ha

MAY 22

Journey For Justice Had a Busy Day
by dianeravitch / 2d
Don’t believe the right wingers who claim that charter schools are supported by Black and Brown people. Not only did the NAACP, the nation’s most venerable civil rights group, call for a moratorium on charter schools but so did Black Lives Matter. The Journey for Justice Alliance is a true grassroots civil rights organization. It led demonstrations across the nation today. One of its demands: No
Los Angeles: At First Meeting, Jackie Goldberg Changes Board Dynamics by Challenging Co-Location of Charters
by dianeravitch / 2d
Jackie Goldberg was sworn in to her new office as representative for District 5 on the Los Angeles school board, and she hit the ground running. She criticized co-locations, when charters take space in an existing public school, especially when charters are given preferential treatment. Goldberg’s concerns arose minutes after the board began moving through its agenda. The item was $16 million to
Members of the Sackler Family Flee Manhattan, Moving to Florida
by dianeravitch / 2d
The Sackler family has been rightly criticized for making billions from the manufacture and marketing of opioids. Its Purdue Pharmaceuticals has been hit with hundreds or thousands of lawsuits. Recently, New York State’s aggressive new State Attorney General Leticia James has been targeting individual members of the family, perhaps to claw back some of those billions and use them for victim compe
Nikhil Goyal: Bernie’s Plan for Public Schools
by dianeravitch / 2d
Nikhil Goyal, a graduate student and veteran activist for public schools, is deeply impressed by Senator Bernie Sanders’ ambitious and sweeping plan to pour billions into the schools and to protect public schools from privatization pirates. Writing in “The Nation,” Goyal describes Sanders’ plan as “the most progressive education platform in modern American history.” As a historian, I would drop t
Jennifer Berkshire: When Cory Booker Helped DeVos’s Voucher Referendum in Michigan
by dianeravitch / 2d
This is a stunner. Jennifer Berkshire writes in The New Republic that Cory Booker flew to Michigan in 2000 to help promote vouchers, at the request of Betsy and Dick DeVos. They put a referendum on the state ballot to change the Constitution to allow vouchers. They asked for Booker’s help, and they got it. Booker was a young Newark city councilor when Dick and Betsy DeVos brought him to Michigan
Los Angeles: Charter Chain Founder and Executive Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison
by dianeravitch / 2d
Vielka McFarlane, founder of the Celerity charter chain in Los Angeles, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for misappropriation of $3.2 million from the schools’ accounts. In January, Vielka McFarlane pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle funds for personal use. McFarlane, 56, had for years used her charter schools’ credit card and spent taxpayer money on expe
Rob Levine: How Charters Kill Public Schools, the Example of Minneapolis
by dianeravitch / 3d
Rob Levine, a critic of Ed Deform, created a website called edhivemn.com that tracks funding of education reform orgs in MN – and it has a feature called Charter School Scandals of the Day Levine created a graphic to demonstrate the damage that charters do to public schools. He focuses on the charter schools in Minneapolis, which are well funded and highly segregated. Defenders of charters in Min

MAY 21

Congressional Leaders Take DeVos to Task and Demand Answers
by dianeravitch / 3d
A group of leaders in Congress wrote to Betsy DeVos to complain about her Department’s failure to demand accountability from the Charter Schools that win federal funding. She has $440 million to hand out to charters, and she has chosen to shower millions on corporate charter chains like IDEA, KIPP, and Success Academy. All of these chains are super rich. They don’t need federal aid. The charter i
Bad News for the Sackler Family
by dianeravitch / 3d
The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures and markets (ed) OxyContin, a highly addictive opioid. More than 200,000 people have died of opioid addiction. The Sackler family is listed by Forbes as one of the richest families in America with a net worth of $14 billion. The Sackler name is engraved on museums, libraries, and universities. Some of those institutions have remov
URGENT: Contact Your Senators and Urge Them to Fund Public Schools, NOT the Charter Slush Fund!
by dianeravitch / 3d
Please open and read this action alert from NPE Action. We urge all concerned citizens, parents, and educators to contact your Senators and encourage them to cut the budget of the federal Charter Schools Program (“charter slush fund”) and use the $440 million currently budgeted for Title 1 and the nation’s neediest children. NPE wrote a report on the federal Charter Schools Program and documented
Texas: GOOD NEWS! Texas House Rejects Bill to Ban Lobbying for Public Schools, But Allow It for Charter Schools
by dianeravitch / 3d
Charles Foster Johnson, leader of Pastors for Texas Children, describes an effort to censor and silence those who advocate on behalf of public schools: Texas Senate Bill 29 was roundly defeated late yesterday afternoon in the Texas House on an 85-58 vote. The bill would have prohibited local school districts and other local government authorities such as counties from taxpayer-supported advocacy
Watch My Interview with Lauren Steiner, Taped Yesterday
by dianeravitch / 3d
Lauren Steiner is an activist who is actively engaged in fighting privatization in California. She has a regular program on Facebook, where she interviews people like me. She interviewed me yesterday about charters, billionaires, neoliberalism, and other issues. The California Legislature is deciding right now about bills to regulate charters and make them accountable. I reactivated my FB account
Jeff Bryant: The Waste of Millions of Federal Dollars on Charters in Louisiana
by dianeravitch / 3d
Jeff Bryant reports here on the waste of millions of federal dollars poured into charter schools in Louisiana. Usually, when the media writes about New Orleans, they tell you about success stories, but they don’t mention the many failures. Between 2006 and 2014, on the watch of both Margaret Spellings and Arne Duncan, millions of dollars were awarded to open or expand charter schools in New Orlea
Jersey Jazzman Debunks the “Newark Miracle”
by dianeravitch / 3d
Whenever anyone mention an education “miracle,” scoff. We had the “Texas miracle,” the “New York City Miracle” (that lasted only as long as MIchael Bloomberg was Mayor), and countless others. Now that Cory Booker is running for President, we will hear about the “Newark miracle.” Don’t believe it. To understand the statistical legerdemain, read Jersey Jazzman’s explanation here about Newark . JJ i
Stuart Egan: Graphics That Demonstrate the War on Public Schools in North Carolina
by dianeravitch / 3d
Stuart Egan has gathered some powerful graphics that demonstrate the war on public schools and their teachers in North Carolina. You will see, for example, that school grades are not a measure of school quality. They are quite decisively a measure of the affluence or poverty of the students who attend the school. The schools are underfunded, teachers are underpaid, and fraudulent measures are use
Peg Tyre Asks for Your Help: How to Encourage Creativity
by dianeravitch / 4d
Peg Tyre, veteran journalist, needs your help. If you write her, please copy your comment here. You don’t have to, but it would be nice if you did. I know her and trust her. Peg writes: Japan & S. Korea Want Their Schools To Produce Innovators. Curious About What That Looks Like? I am too! Policy-makers and parents in Japan and S. Korea are determined to get rid of the shallow, rote learning, and

MAY 20

John Merrow: Why I Am a Betsy DeVos Fanboy
by dianeravitch / 4d
There is something very funny about imagining John a Merrow as anyone’s fanboy, but in this satirical post, he admits that he is bewitched by Betsy DeVos. John is quite the humorist. His April Fools’ Day posts are always hilarious, the more so because so many of his readers are fooled. Remember, friends, satire! He begins: Full disclosure: Although I have never met or interviewed Education Secret
Guess Which Democratic Senators Celebrated National Charter School Week?
by dianeravitch / 4d
These are the Senators sponsoring a resolution to celebrate National Charter Schools Week. You will notice that the Democrats who signed on as sponsors include Cory Booker (NJ), Michael Bennett (CO), Dianne Feinstein (CA), and the two Senators from Delaware (Coons and Carper). Let’s hope that the Democrats who did not sponsor this resolution had a finger in the air and realized that the winds are
Nancy Bailey: Shame on PBS for Its Misleading Program on Reading Instruction
by dianeravitch / 4d
Nancy Bailey critiques PBS for running a feature about dyslexia that misrepresents the current state of reading instruction. The report was presented on the PBS Newshour and co-sponsored by Education Week. She writes: Schools must provide adequate reading programs and reading remediation for students who need more assistance. But the recent report on dyslexia recommending intensive phonics for al
Arizona Legislators Plan to Use Public $$ to Pay Tuition at Out-of-State Private Schools
by dianeravitch / 5d
Arizona Republicans hate public schools. Even though 85% of the children in the state attend public schools, the Republican legislators seize every opportunity to pay for alternatives to public schools. Now they want students who enroll in out-of-state private schools to have vouchers paid for by the taxpayers of Arizona. Last year, the Legislature tried to make vouchers available to every studen
Peter Dreier: College Student Debt Is a National Scandal
by dianeravitch / 5d
Peter Dreier read the previous post about the billionaire Robert F. Smith giving a grant to erase the debt of the class of 2019, and he wrote to express his strong belief that government action is needed, not the generosity of philanthropists. For college students across the nation, their student loans are a crushing burden that cause some to drop out and others to decide that they can’t afford a

MAY 19

Billionaire Pledges to Pay Student Debt of 2019 Morehouse College Graduates
by dianeravitch / 5d
Investor Robert F. Smith was invited to give the commencement address at Morehouse College, an all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith is the wealthiest black man in America, with a fortune estimated at $4-5 billion. Smith began his speech by talking about his good fortune, having been bused to an integrated public school in Denver. Smith described being bused to a high-performing,
Edd Doerr Responds to George Will: Americans Don’t Want Their Tax $$$ to Subsidize K-12 Tuition
by dianeravitch / 5d
George Will is under the misapprehension that separation of Church and State was imposed after the Civil War by James G. Blaine, thus explaining why state constitutions have “Blaine amendments” forbidding the use of public dollars for religious schools . It is true that there was a wave of anti-Catholic bigotry before and after the Civil War, but support for separation of church and state long pr
Fred Smith: New York Is Wasting Instructional Time for Benefit of Test Publishers
by dianeravitch / 5d
UPDATE. Fred Smith, testing expert, warns parents that New York begins using their children as guinea pigs starting tomorrow when field tests start in 869 schools in NYC and 2,490 schools across the state. More than a quarter million children will be forced to take a useless test. The tests are meant to field-test future test questions. They don’t count. They waste students’ time for the benefit
Chalkbeat Reporter Tried to Attend Board Meetings at Charter Schools, But…
by dianeravitch / 5d
Koby Levin, reporter for Chalkbeat, tried to attend meetings of the board of 10 charter schools in Detroit. It was challenging, to say the least. When parents have an issue with their child’s school, there’s at least one place where they’re guaranteed a hearing on anything from school finance to student discipline: a school board meeting. Yet in Detroit, a city with an infamously troubled school
Southern Poverty Legal Center On Florida Vouchers
by dianeravitch / 5d
The SPLC wrote to Governor Ron DeSantis to protest the latest Florida voucher plan, which takes money intended for public schools, without the fig leaf of tax credits. The SPLC writes: By signing S.B. 7070 into law yesterday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis set his state on the path to further decimate its public schools through an unprecedented expansion of private school vouchers. Florida already div
California: Gov. Newsom Tightens Enrollment Rules for Charter Schools, No Exceptions
by dianeravitch / 5d
Governor Gavin Newsom acted to tighten enrollment rules for charter schools, which have been credibly accused of excluding or pushing out students with disabilities and students who get low scores. Three years ago, the ACLU of Southern California and the public interest law firm Public Advocates identified charter schools that advertised their exclusionary policies on their websites, but have sin
Pearson’s Plans for 2025: Make Sure You Are Seated When You Read This
by dianeravitch / 6d
Pearson has plans for the future. Its plans involve students, education, and profits. Pearson, of course, is the British mega-publishing corporation that has an all-encompassing vision of monetizing every aspect of education. Two researchers, Sam Sellar and Anna Hogan, have reviewed Pearson’s plans. It is a frightening portrait of corporate privatization of teaching and of student data, all in se

MAY 18

Bernie Sanders’ Bold Plan for Education
by dianeravitch / 6d
Senator Bernie Sanders has produced an excellent plan for education . Thus far, he is the only candidate to address K-12. His first principle is crucial: Every human being has the fundamental right to a good education. Read the plan. Sanders’ commitment to funding education is breathtaking. He intends to triple the funding of Title 1 for the neediest children. He proposes a national floor for per
NYC: Join Me to Celebrate “Class Size Matters” On June 19
by dianeravitch / 6d
If you live in or near New York City, this is the one event you cannot miss. You will meet heroes of the Resistance. The dinner on June 19 is a joyous occasion where great people who care passionately about better education for all children meet, drink, and dine, o behalf of Class Size Matters, the organization founded by Leonie Haimson to fight for smaller classes, higher funding, Student Privac
Jackie Goldberg: Why I Love This Woman!
by dianeravitch / 6d
Capital & Main interviewed Jackie Goldberg about her views, her vision, her hopes for the future. My heart sang and my brain hummed as I read her inspiring words. Reading Jackie’s words was like eating comfort food. I kept saying to myself, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Read the interview and you will see what I mean. Jackie knows we are in the middle of a war to save public education. She knows that there is
A Day in Columbus, Ohio: Honoring Bill Phillis and Meeting Student Journalists from Kentucky
by dianeravitch / 6d
On May 16, Public Education Partners of Ohio hosted a conference that featured a dialogue between me and Bill Phillis, the former deputy state superintendent who has been fighting for adequate and equitable funding of the state’s public schools for many years. The main event of the day was the discussion between Bill Phillis and me. Bill talked about his intention to keep going until his work is
John Thompson On Deeper Learning
by dianeravitch / 7d
John Thompson is a historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma who blogs frequently. Reading In Search of Deeper Learning: the Quest to Remake the American High School , by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine, is like reading the 


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