Jersey Jazzman has posted an obituary for the Merit Pay Fairy. He says it died in Newark, when teachers negotiated a new contract, deep-sixing a Merit Payplan that they endorsed in 2012. JJ demonstrates with facts and evidence that merit pay failed. He begins: The Merit Pay Fairy lives in the dreams of right-wing think tanks and labor economists, who are absolutely convinced that our current teac
This Open Letter appeared in Commonweal. Open the link to see the signatories. Each day more signs point to a tremendous shift in American conservatism away from the prior consensus and toward the new nationalism of Donald Trump. This is evident not only in the recent National Conservatism Conference held in July in Washington, D.C., but also in the manifesto signed by a number of Christians who
The evidence is clear that privately managed charters can get higher test scores by culling, exclusion, and attrition. It’s equally clear that charters drain resources from the public schools that enroll most students. Most public officials seem to understand that it costs more to run parallel systems, one public, one private. But not in Rhode Island, where Governor Gina Raimondo is a big fan of
Stuart Egan read Baker Mitchell’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending charters against critics who say they foster segregation, and he was flabbergasted. Here is his post. He includes Baker Mitchell’s Wall Street Journal article, fulminating against the critics. Then he cites the ProPublica article, Lindsay Wagner’s reporting, and John Merrow’s commentary, all reinforcing that Baker Mitche
The Wall Street Journal editorial pages has been promoting school choice—charters and vouchers—for many years. It sees public education as a government monopoly, not a public service. It has published article after article explaining away the failures of school choice and re-interpreting negative evidence. A few days ago, the paper may have struck a new low when it published a defense of charter
Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP in 1994, was swiftly fired in 2018 after two KIPP graduates accused him of sexual impropriety. Now Feinberg is suing KIPP. Valerie Strauss reports: A founder of the KIPP charter school network who was fired in 2018 after being accused of sexual misconduct is suing the organization, saying the allegations were false and that his career and reputation have been des
The survivors of the Parkland (Florida) massacre created an organization called March for Our Lives, which pulled together a massive event on the Mall in DC in a few weeks after the shootings. At the time, Trump promised swift action, then changed his mind, and nothing changed. Since then there have been other mass murders with assault weapons, and once again Trump promises to act, the NRA tells
Take five minutes and watch as Superintendent Joseph Roy of the Bethlehem Area School District explains how private charters are harming the public schools and the unfairness of the funding formula, which is rigged on behalf of the charters. This year, private charters will subtract $1.8 billion from the budget of public schools in Pennsylvania. Governor Tom Wolf has proposed revising the charter
As the backlash against private charter schools intensifies, even Hollywood recognizes that the grand experiment in privatizing the nation’s public schools is a dying cause. Reed Hastings, billionaire founder of Netflix, made charters a fashionable thing in Tinseltown, but critics have emerged to shatter the money-powered consensus. Some of them woke when charter founder and LAUSD Member Ref Rodr
The New York Times published a fascinating story about the heiress who became obsessed with stopping immigration and limiting population, especially in poor countries. Reporters Nicholas Kulish and Mike McIntire rely on the personal letters and writings of Cordelia Scaife May, the most significant funder of anti-immigration groups, to examine her views. Cordelia Scaife May, an heiress to the Mell
Democratic State Senator Sam Bell called for the removal of Achievement First management after news spread about a pattern of abusive behavior towards students. Achievement First is based in Connecticut and practices “no excuses” discipline. “Dismantling the Achievement First Rhode Island network needs to begin with removal of the Achievement First Corporation from any managerial involvement with
It has been widely reported that charter schools enroll fewer students with disabilities and few of the students they enroll have severe disabilities. The California Teachers Association and the United Teachers of Los Angeles reviewed public records to document the enrollments of students with disabilities in charter schools in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Oakland. The study is titled “State of De
Fruitport, Michigan, will open a new high school designed to offer safe spaces in the event that an active shooter appears on campus. It is quite a commentary on the state of our society. The design of the new sections includes subtle safe spaces that can be used to protect students in the event of a shooting, and long curved hallways that would offer protection too. “To cut down on the sight lin
New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has given fat salary hikes to members of his inner circle. Some are earning more than Superintendents in other districts. Some have never been teachers. Some have odd job titles. What does the “Deputy Chancellor for School Climate and Wellness” do? What does the “Deputy Chancellor for Community Empowerment and Partnerships” do? What does the “Depu
Blogger Ed in the Apple reports on education and politics in New York City and New York State. In this post, he reviews Chancellor Richard Carranza’s tenure in the city. This is the most startling insight to me: The dominant education issue last year was the segregated nature of the admission process for the Specialized High Schools, and the entrance examination, the Specialized High School Admis
In the latest Ohio state budget, there are big giveaways to religious and private schools. The Legislature expanded the state’s voucher programs. Originally, vouchers were supposed to “save poor kids from failing public schools,” but in the new expansion, vouchers are available to high school students who never attended a public school. That is, they subsidize students in religious and private sc
Betsy DeVos has awarded more than $200 million to the IDEA charter chain to expand in Texas and beyond. IDEA plans to swamp San Antonio, El Paso, and other cities. IDEA promises that all students will graduate and go to college, but it doesn’t promise that all students will make it to senior year, or that they will make it in college (earlier studies by Ed Fuller, then at the University of Texas,
The Clark County Education Association (Las Vegas) announced that teachers will strike on September 10 if they can’t reach a settlement with the district before then.
ON TAP Today from the American Prospect AUGUST 20, 2019 Meyerson on TAP How the Media Should Cover Corporations Now. Yesterday’s restatement of corporate purpose from the Business Roundtable is a clear acknowledgment that America’s economic pooh-bahs have realized they’re about as popular as a strain of bacteria. There is much to be said about this about-face, in which the Roundtable said that th
Steve Bullock entered the Democratic primary race late, and he starts at the back of the pack. He needs to have 130,000 individuals contributions in order to qualify for the next debate. I am asking you to send Steve Bullock $1 to keep him on the stage and to encourage him to talk about what he has done to improve public schools in Montana. What he has going for him is two things: 1) he is the on
When teachers in West Virginia launched the Education Spring of 2018, one of their demands was “no charter schools.” The state’s public schools are already underfunded, and public school teachers had low pay compared to nearby states. The teachers understood that the addition of charter schools would mean fewer resources for public schools. Given that West Virginia is a largely rural state, there
When then Governor Christie and then Mayor Cory Booker persuaded billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to give $100 million to impose corporate reform on Newark, performance pay for teachers was the heart of their plan. Pay the “best” teachers for getting high scores, eliminate “bad” teachers, and Newark schools would be transformed. In a major blow to the corporate reform movement, the latest teacher cont
Fraud after fraud is associated with virtual charter schools, especially when they are created by entrepreneurs with the purpose of making money. They do make money, but they don’t educate students. Why do legislators and governors allow this scam to proliferate? Every educator should shout their outrage at the ripoffs, happening in state after state. Virtual charter schools are the epitome of “e
The Education Research Alliance at Tulane University has accomplished a spectacular feat with its latest report about the “academic progress” (or lack thereof) of the all-charter district in New Orleans. The report claims that the disruption strategy of school takeovers and closures is responsible for the academic improvements in the district, but at the same time admits “The average school impro
One of my favorite columnists is Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe, who writes the daily Fast Forward, which always cites interesting tidbits from the Old Farmers’ Almanac, plus her observations on the news: Trump has another Golf Recovery Monday, with nothing on his public schedule, although it may last more than one day since it’s actually a Vacation Recovery. A few things from the weekend: —
After each mass shooting, Trump promises to take action, to get tough, etc. Then he hears from the NRA and passes the ball to Congress. In the Senate, Mitch McConnell sends any restrictions on guns to the trash heap. James Hohman writes in the Power Post: Following his now well-established pattern after mass shootings, Trump continues to back away from his initial support for “strong background c
In New Orleans, the nation’s first all-charter district, a quarter of students are “chronically absent.” But help is on the way! A new initiative, funded by the DeVos Foundation and the Grand Rapids public Schools, will educate students and parents about why it is a very bad idea to miss school.
The state board of education in Colorado has decided to turn over schools in three districts to a for-profit management corporation that claims it can turn the schools around, at a cost of millions of dollars. Where there the firm has ever turned any schools around before isin doubt. The political connections of the firm are not. Read here about the story and a deep dive into the history of MGT C
Tom Ultican has written a scathing critique of TFA as a faux “progressive” political operation whose true goals are to promote privatization and to destroy the teaching profession. TFA supplies the teachers for private charter schools, 90% of which are non-union. TFA is Bad for America TFA is the darling of the billionaires. Almost every billionaire foundation has dropped millions into TFA’s big
Teach for America is very successful at fund-raising. It has a very impressive board of directors, chaired by Meg Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and one-time Republican nominee for governor of California. Another board member is Tennessee billionaire Bill Haslam, who most recently was governor of that state and a strong proponent of vouchers. And Greg Penner, a member (by marriage) of the
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Republican-controlled legislature passed a tax cut of $500 million that will apply only to the state’s biggest corporations, excluding 99% of all businesses. https://digitaledition.orlandosentinel.com/html5/mobile/production/default.aspx?pubid=7f2e94da-42a6-42b3-91be-f4782530a2d0&edid=d491e409-f75d-4016-8652-f74f7e2d6e68 The tax bill was quietly passed last y
Jan Resseger describes the after-effects of former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s crash program to cut corporate and income taxes and expect an economic boom. The boom never came, but public services were strained to the breaking point. Jan quotes liberally from Governing magazine: Governing Magazine just published an extraordinary profile of Kansas state government —what was left of it after Sa
The reason that parents and teachers are giving Nick Melvoin a rating on YELP is in response to his plan to rate teachers, mainly by the test scores of their students. Jeb Bush invented the template for grading schools from A-F, based mainly on their test scores. It became a convenient way to close public schools and turn them over to charter operators. It is an dumb idea for many reasons, becaus
Teachers and parents have listed Nick Melvoin on Yelp as a business, and they are rating him. Nick is one of the leading charter advocates on the LAUSD school board. He was elected because of millions from the charter lobby and its billionaire allies. https://www.yelp.com/biz/nick-melvoin-lausd-board-member-los-angeles His ratings are terrible. If he were a teacher, he would be fired.
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO compensation has grown by 940% since 1978. Worker compensation, however, grew only 12% during the same period. The report was written by economist Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe. Mishel led EPI for many years. The media always describes EPI as “left-leaning” because it is critical of economic inequality. It’s research is impeccable.
Two first-grade children found a gun in an unlocked case in South Bloomfield Township last spring. Highland Local Schools officials were alarmed to learn that a gun used as part of a concealed carry program to protect students was found by two first-grade students who removed it from its unlocked case. The incident played out in mid-March in an administrative office beside Highland Elementary Sch
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Trump’s large crowd of union workers at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania were given an ultimatum: attend the rally or lose a day of pay. The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak or take the day off with no pa
Do you want to understand why Pennsylvania’s charter school law needs to be reformed? Let Steven Singer explain. Singer teaches in Pennsylvania. In this post, he describes the dangers that privatization poses to his school district. I work in a little suburban school district just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is slowly being destroyed by privatization. Steel Valley Schools have a pro
Pennsylvania’s largest charter school is the Chester Community Charter School. It is owned by Philadelphia lawyer Vehan Gureghian, who is a major donor to the Republican Party in the State. He was the biggest contributor to former Republican Governor Tom Corbett. What is surprising about his political donations is how little it takes to win the affection of the party in power. The Chester Communi
Three years ago, the Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale declared that the state’s charter law was the worst in the nation. The scandals and frauds were frequent, and many public school districts teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the Republican Legislature had no interest in reforming the charter law. A major charter owner was the single bigge
Texas Public Radio describes Betsy Devos’s audacious plan to overwhelm San Antonio with charters created by two corporate chains: IDEA and KIPP. Some of the new charters will open in middle-class areas with good public schools.
