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

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

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Tom Ultican: The Failure of Privatization in New Orleans

by dianeravitch / 7min

New Orleans is supposed to be the lodestar of the Corporate Reform Movement (or as I call it, the Disruption Movement), but the experiment in privatization is a costly failure, as Tom Ultican demonstrates in this post. The old, underfunded school system was corrupt and inefficient. The new one is expensive, inefficient, and ethically corrupt because of its incessant boasting about what are actual

Tennessee: Gov. Lee Packs State Charter Commission with Charter Zealots

by dianeravitch / 1h

Governor Bill Lee Hayes public schools, even though most children in Tennessee attend them. He packed the new State Charter School Commission with people who love to hand public money to private corporations to operate schools that choose their students and operate without accountability. Tennessee is opening the state treasury to out-of-state corporations, entrepreneurs, and grifters. Come get t

YESTERDAY

New York City Joins Forces with Corporate Reformers

20by dianeravitch / 21h

Mayor Bill DeBlasio joined in partnership with Laurene Powell Jobs’ XQ Institute and the hedge-funders’ Robin Hood Foundation to create new schools and transform existing schools. The corporate reformers are not offering much money—only $15 million (crumbs from the billionaires’ table)—but they are getting the Mayor to admit that amateur “reformers” know more than the city’s professional educator

California: A Charter Chain So Awful That the Charter Lobby Expelled It

22by dianeravitch / 22h

Inspire Charter Schools does not inspire confidence in its academics, its finances, or its integrity. Inspire makes money by getting state money to underwrite home schooling, with state-subsidized field trips and lots of folderol. Things got so bad that the Inspire chain was kicked out by the California Charter Schools Association , the powerhouse lobbyists for the charter industry. There is just

Louisiana: Vote for Pro-Public School Candidates on October 12

200+by dianeravitch / 23h

Louisiana will hold elections for its state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on October 12. This year, as in the past, out-of-State billionaires are spending heavily to keep control of the state board to promote privatization policies. During the tenure of State Superintendent John White, a former deputy to Joel Klein in New York, the state’s ranking on the National Assessment of Educa

Jan Resseger: New Study Shows that Schools Don’t Fix Poverty

by dianeravitch / 1d

Jan Resseger analyzes a new study by Sean Reardon of Stanford University that demonstrates what has been widely known for decades: Schools alone don’t cure poverty. Those who insist that they do are either uninformed, selling something (TFA founder Wendy Kopp has claimed that inexperienced teachers can overcome poverty and close achievement gaps caused by poverty), or just don’t want to pay taxes

Tennessee: Underfunded District May Close Its Schools

200+by dianeravitch / 1d

Now that Tennessee is controlled by Republicans who don’t like public schools, the money needed to operate them is slow to reach the districts. Andy Spears of Tennessee Education Report reports that Sullivan County is contemplating closing its schools, at least temporarily, because the county commission is holding up necessary funding. Unfortunately, Tennessee has had two consecutive Republican g

OCT 03

Bill Phillis: Beware Privatizers Running for Local School Boards!

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Bill Phillis, founder of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, warns that privatizers run for local school boards, as they have in Atlanta and other cities. Teach for America has a special outfit called “Leadership for Educational Equity,” which trains its recruits to go into politics and helps to fund their campaigns. Bill Phillis writes: Anti-public school advocates run

D.C.: KIPP’s Sweet Deal in the District of Columbia to Scoop Up Closed Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 1d

Parent activist Valerie Jablow is a whistle-blower about charter school abuse in the District of Columbia. In this post, she describes the sweet deal that KIPP has worked out to its benefit. It is a “game of insiders,” she writes. Ferebee-Hope is a perfect example of how the mayor on down is enabled by law and practice to ignore every member of the public regarding the future of DCPS school facil

George Conway: Trump Is Unfit to be President

by dianeravitch / 1d

George T. Conway III is a lawyer. He happensto be married to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s Close aide. He writes in The Atlantic that Trump is unfit to serve. It is no secret. He writes: No president in recent memory—and likely no president ever—has prompted more discussion about his mental stability and connection with reality. Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly is said to have described him a

Peter Greene: A Good Teacher Is Not Like a Candle

by dianeravitch / 2d

Peter Greene does not like stupid analogies. He rejects the dumb idea that “a good teacher is like a candle that burns out.” Hell, no!

Alabama: Montgomery’s First Charter School Descends into Chaos After Six Weeks

21by dianeravitch / 2d

Josh Moon of the Alabama Political Reporter reports that Montgomery’s first charter school has devolved into a chaotic messonly six weeks after opening. LEAD Academy, Montgomery’s first charter school, has been a chaotic mess since it opened less than six weeks ago, with staffing shortages leaving more than 70 students crammed into one class, angry teachers left without necessary supplies, studen

OCT 02

Politico: Cost of Protecting Betsy DeVos Will Rise to Almost $8 Million

500+by dianeravitch / 2d

No previous U.S. Secretary of Education required the protection of U.S. Marshalls. Betsy DeVos is the first to feel so endangered that she requires a special unit for herself. Could it be the Grizzly bears? Her brother Erik Prince owns a mercenary army. Both of them are billionaires. Why doesn’t she ask Erik to pitch in? Politico Morning Education reports: DEVOS SECURITY DETAIL COST MORE THAN $6M

Sara Stevenson, Librarian, Defends the Constitution In WSJ

25by dianeravitch / 2d

Sara Stevenson was until recently the librarian at O. Henry Middle School In Austin. She reads the Wall Street Journal daily and writes letters to the editor often to correct their uniformed rants about public schools and school choice. She is singled out for her persistence in my new book SLAYING GOLIATH. This past week, she explained the Constitution to writers and readers of the Wall Street Jo

David Currie: Religion Is Not a Rationale for Hatred

by dianeravitch / 2d

David Currie is a rancher, a pastor, and a member of the board of Pastors for Texas Children. He writes in this post about those who claim that the Bible gives them the right to discriminate against and hate others. He is chair of the Democratic Party in Tom Green County. http://bit.ly/2ke3t2d He begins: “Most of you have probably never heard of Rachel Held Evans, but I want you to know about her

William J. Gumbert: Red Flags and Charter Schools in Texas

by dianeravitch / 2d

William J. Gumbert has been writing a series of articles about charter schools in Texas, which are undermining the state’s underfunded public schools and do not perform any better than public schools . Texas Charter Schools – Perception May Not Be Reality IDEA Public Schools: Remove the “Rose-Colored Glasses” and Many RED FLAGS Appear By: William J. Gumbert IDEA Public Schools (“IDEA”) is the fas

Michigan: For-Profit Charter Operator Pulls a Fast One on Parents

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

Michigan blogger “Up North Progressive” describes a clever, underhanded bait-and-switch pulled by a for-profit charter founder. He needed money for a new school and he showed plans of an expansive campus. Once he got the money, the reality emerged that the new school would be in an industrial office building surrounded by a parking lot, not playing fields. For-profit Charyl Stockwell Academy like

Max Brantley: The Little Rock School Crisis, and Parents Fight to Stop Walton-Funded Takeover

71by dianeravitch / 3d

Max Brantley is editor of the Arkansas Times , where he courageously confronts the depredations of the powerful Walton family against the public sector. In this post, he summarizes the Waltons’ current efforts to take over the Little Rock school district, so they can eliminate public schools and replace them with charters. Any Democrat who thinks that charter schools are “progressive” should visi

OCT 01

Federal Judge Rules That Harvard Does Not Discriminate Against Asian-American Students

by dianeravitch / 3d

In a closely-watched case, a federal judge ruled that Harvard University does not discriminate against Asian-Americans in its admissions decisions. The case was filed by a far-right group hoping to outlaw affirmative action, which Harvard used to promote diversity in its student body. The challenge came from a group hoping to overturn a longstanding Supreme Court precedent that allows race to be

Trump’s Roy Cohn Defense: Deny, Attack, Attack Again

by dianeravitch / 3d

James Hohmann of the Washington Post yesterday described Trump’s defense when his hand was caught in cookie jar in broad daylight: The president is running the smashmouth playbook he learned from Roy Cohn, his mentor and Joe McCarthy’s hatchet man. It’s worked repeatedly for Trump, from fighting the Justice Department’s investigation of racial discrimination at his family’s rental properties in t

Do You Live Near Boston? Come to Hear Eve Ewing Speak at Wellesley College on October 17!

30by dianeravitch / 3d

If you live anywhere near Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, I hope you will join me to hear Eve Ewing speak on October 17 at Jewett Arts Center at 7:30 pm. She is speaking in an annual lecture series that I established a few years ago to bring some of the most important voices in education today to the campus. Eve Ewing is one of them. Ewing is an amazing woman who wrote a fabulous b

Rob Schofield: The War on Public Education in North Carolina

24by dianeravitch / 3d

There was a time when Norh Carolina was widely seen as the most progressive stTe in the South. That time ended abruptly when the Tea Party took control of the state in 2010 and began to decimate public services, especially public education. The Tea Party introduced charters and vouchers, killed the state’s successful NC Teaching Fellows Program for career teachers (giving its funding to Teach for

Michael Kohlhaas: The California Charter School Association’s Secret, Reprehensible Goals

34by dianeravitch / 3d

Last June, blogger Michael Kohlhaas received a huge trove of documents from the Green Dot Charter Chain in response to his request filed under the state’s Public Record Act. He has been reviewing these documents and releasing them. In this post, he summarizes a Powerpoint presentation (and provides a link to the actual document) in which the California Charter Schools Association lays out its goa

Jan Resseger: Ohio Reduces Oversight of Failing Charter Operators and Gives More Money to Attend Low-Performing Voucher Schools

32by dianeravitch / 4d

Jan Resseger reports here on Stephen Dyer’s astute analysis of Ohio’s state budget. Dyer is a former legislator who is now an Education Policy Fellow at Innovation Ohio. This is Dyer’s report. Read it and weep. Ohio’s rightwing Republicans care more about campaign contributors than they care about the state’s students or the quality of education. In looking at the plums for charters and vouchers,

Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: The Road to Unfreedom

90by dianeravitch / 4d

During the protests in Hong Kong, demonstrators carried placards of Timothy Snyder’s lessons about losing democracy. On Tyranny: the Road to Unfreedom Timothy Snyder – Yale University – Nov 15, 2016. Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so. Here a

NPE National Conference: Last Day to Get Early Bird Rate!

by dianeravitch / 4d

Register today for the Network for Public Education’s National Conference in March 2020 in Philadelphia. Today is the last day to get early bird discounted rate. Great speakers, great panels, and a chance to meet the leaders of the Resistance! Including you!

SEP 30

A New Year’s Greeting from Around the World

by dianeravitch / 4d

This is a lovely way to usher in the New Year 5780! Thanks to my dear friend David Berliner for sharing! And a happy New Year, L’Shana Tova, to all!

ProPublica: Trump Has Been Working the Ukraine Story in Plain Sight

by dianeravitch / 4d

ProPublica documents that Trump has been proclaiming his interest in the Ukraine investigation on Twitter for months. Why are we surprised when he has told the story out loud for months ? Conspiracy theorists convinced him long ago that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the 2016 election, to aid the hated Hillary. He also telegraphed his belief that Ukraine leaked damaging information about Paul M

Andrea Gabor: The Demand for A New Kind of Civics

by dianeravitch / 4d

Andrea Gabor wrote this article for Bloomberg News. Andrea Gabor, a former editor at Business Week and U.S. News & World Report, is the Bloomberg chair of business journalism at Baruch College of the City University of New York and the author of “After the Education Wars: How Smart Schools Upend the Business of Reform.” The College Board, which administers college entrance exams to high school st

Red Queen in L.A.: No, We Do Not Need a Yelp for Schools

37by dianeravitch / 4d

The charter Industry faction on the Los Angeles School Board wants to introduce a Jeb Bush-style evaluation system to rank and rate schools. It hasn’t worked anywhere else in the nation, so why not introduce it in Los Angeles. Every other state has demonstrated that the school grading system ranks schools by the income of parents. Schools that enroll the poorest children get the lowest grades. Sc

John Thompson: Can Online Learning Survive the Profiteers and Frauds?

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

John Thompson is a historians and recently retired teacher in Oklahoma. For more than two decades I’ve mourned the loss of opportunities for online instruction to augment and enhance student learning, as opposed enabling a Social Darwinian competition where charters attack traditional public schools. Educators seeking meaningful choices, such as real personalized learning, have been shackled by t

Peter Greene: Watch RAND Play “Corporate Reformy Buzzword Bingo”

by dianeravitch / 5d

Peter Greene recognizes the RAND Institution’s adroit use of the Reformy vocabulary in its latest report. Almost all your favorite jargon and buzzwords are found there, he says. Check it out and see if they overlooked any of your favorite buzzwords. RAND Corporation, with its vision to be “the world’s most trusted source for policy ideas and analysis.” regularly contributes to the total thinky ta

SEP 29

Lady Hale: A Profile of Britain’s Top Judge

by dianeravitch / 5d

Lady Hale is the Chief Judge of Britain’s highest court, the court that unanimously rebuked Prime Minister Boris Johnson for trying to suspend Parliament for five weeks so it could not discuss or delay his intention to leave the EU on October 31 (Brexit). This is a delightful profile of a very accomplished woman, the daughter of two schoolteachers. When the full weight of Britain’s Supreme Court

Bob Shepherd: The Decline of Education Publishing

300+by dianeravitch / 5d

Bob Shepherd, polymath, wrote this: When I started to work in educational publishing, many years ago, there were some two hundred or so companies dividing up the textbook market in the United States and about twenty with significant market share. Now there are four. Four. Over the decades, there has been considerable consolidation of the industry. There were many, many mergers and acquisitions. A

What Larry Cuban Learned About School Reform Over Many Decades

26by dianeravitch / 6d

In this post, Larry Cuban reflects on what he has learned about schools and social reform over many decades as a teacher, superintendent, and historian. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/how-my-thinking-about-school-reform-has-changed-over-decades-part-1/ He began convinced that schools could change society. Today, he believes that teachers can change the lives of individual students bu

“Bring Your Bible to School Day” is October 3

28by dianeravitch / 6d

October 3 should be interesting. Apparently it is “Bring Your Bible to School Day.” Presumably, Muslim students will bring their Koran. Jewish students will bring a facsimile of a Torah. Mormon students will bring the Book of Mormon. And other religious groups will bring their sacred texts. Will it remind everyone that religious activity belongs in houses of religious worship, not in the public s

SEP 28

Trump Reopens Unhinged Investigation of Hillary Emails

by dianeravitch / 6d

Just when you think Trump could not get crazier, this happens. The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said. As many as 130 officials

D.C.: The Charter School That Descended into Chaos

by dianeravitch / 6d

Perry Stein and Valerie Strauss wrote about a D.C. charter school that descended into chaos, with no meaningful oversight to protect its students. Top D.C. education officials knew for months about safety issues plaguing a charter school that serves some of the city’s most vulnerable children but did not force changes, public records and interviews with school employees show. Students at Monument

Little Rock: Activists Demand a Meeting with Governor Hutchinson

by dianeravitch / 6d

Parents and supporters of public schools in Little Rock are outraged that Governor Asa Hutchinson refuses to meet with them. The state took control of the Little Rock district, and parents want democratic decision making restored. Remember when Republicans used to support local control? Not anymore. Rev/Dr. Anika Whitfield write to the Governor on behalf of a large coalition of parents. Gov. Hutc

Mercedes Schneider: “Stand for Children” Spends Out-of-State Money to Buy Louisiana Elections

100+by dianeravitch / 7d

Mercedes Schneider discovered that Oregon-based Stand for Children is pouring money into school board races in Louisiana. Why should an Oregon organization try to choose school board elections in another state? That’s the way the Disruption Movement works. The funding comes from the usual sources, none of which is based in Louisiana. She writes: Since 2012, hundreds of thousands of dollars has fl

Carol Burris: Federal Analysis Finds No Difference in Performance Between Charter Schools and Public Schools

74by dianeravitch / 7d

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, reports on a new federal analysis comparing charter schools and public schools. She writes: A recent report on school choice commissioned by the US Department 

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