Arizona is a swamp of charter corruption. Earlier this year, the Arizona Republic won the distinguished George Polk Award for its coverage of charter school corruption. Now star reporter Craig Harris has another blockbuster story. He reports that the founder of a charter chain paid companies he owns or co-owns nearly $47 million in the past year. American Leadership Academy, an East Valley charte
Reverend Dawn Douglas Flowers of Madison, Mississippi, speaks out on behalf of public schools and the newly formed Pastors for MS Children. Writing in the Mississippi Business Journal, Rev. Flowers makes the moral case for funding public schools and supporting their teachers. She writes that it is time to invest in our children, our families, and our teachers. She writes: I am the product of the
The teachers of Dedham, Massachusetts, voted overwhelmingly to go out on strike. DEDHAM — Hundreds of striking teachers took to the streets Friday in this suburban town, holding placards, marching with students and parents, and cheering fresh support from high-profile Democratic politicians. Meanwhile, signs emerged that stalled negotiations could resume this weekend. The first teachers strike in
Teresa Hanafin, who writes “Fast Forward” for the Boston Globe, offers some new information: > Tim Morrison, who works in the White House on the National Security staff as a top adviser on Russia, is scheduled to give a deposition to House impeachment investigators next week, and is expected to corroborate much of what Ukraine diplomat William Taylor told lawmakers earlier this week. Taylor testi
October 25, 2019 Dayen on TAP The Education Department’s Rip-Off Schemes Radicalize Its Own Staff Billionaire daughter-in-law to the Amway fortune Betsy DeVos probably contracts with the U.S. Mint to exclusively reissue $100,000 bank notes so she can light them on fire to light candles in her office. But she’ll have exactly one less, after a federal judge in San Francisco fined her exactly that a
Tom Ultican has been writing a series of brilliant studies of cities where the Destroy Public Education Movement is busily undermining and privatizing its public schools, usually because of an unwarranted admiration for the efficiency of market forces. In their unalloyed love of the market, the DPE forces ignore the fact that markets never create equality; instead, they have a few winners and a l
Steven Singer was excited to read Elizabeth Warren’s plan for K-12 education. There was just one thing he was troubled by. He begins: My daughter had bad news for me yesterday at dinner. She turned to me with all the seriousness her 10-year-old self could muster and said, “Daddy, I know you love Bernie but I’m voting for Elizabeth.” “Elizabeth Warren?” I said choking back a laugh. Her pronounceme
Jennifer Berkshire writes in the New Republic that Betsy DeVos is deeply unpopular in swing-state Michigan. Voters in Detroit can see a district disrupted by a generation of failed reforms. Suburban voters like their public schools and don’t want charters or vouchers. Berkshire notes that the Democrats are picking up unlikely victories in districts where education is a big issue. In 2016, Darrin
Jan Resseger reviews Jeff Bryant’s article about the failure of the unaccredited Broad Academy and the meteoric rise of its graduates, whose primary qualification is their network. Being connected is more valuable, it turns out, than achieving results. The most important thing to know about the Broad Academy is that its “graduates” are central to the Disruption Movement, that they specialize in c
A federal judge found Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in contempt of court and fined her Department $100,000, which is less than a slap in the wrist. It won’t begin to cover the losses suffered by students who were hounded by the Department to repay fraudulent student loans for a fraudulent education at for-profit colleges. DeVos believes it is her duty to protect the fraudsters, not the stude
AOC asks Mark Zuckerberg: Is it okay to post ads that you know are lies? https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-mark-zuckerberg-video-congress-facebook-questioning-2019-10
WHAT AN OUTRAGE! “Reform” strikes again. Literally. PRESS STATEMENT & PRESS AVAILABILITY October 24, 2019 Contact : OEA 2nd Vice President, Chaz Garcia, 510-414-3593 Statement from OEA 2nd Vice President Chaz Garcia on Behalf of the OEA Officers on OUSD’s Use of Violence at School Board Meeting “Last night, OUSD police pushed, choked and clubbed peaceful elementary school parents and educators wh
My favorite news commentator wrote this today in Fast Forward of the Boston Globe: Later this afternoon, he [Trump] will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Roger Penske, presumably for being a successful race car driver and businessman. I wonder if Trump knows that Penske’s company once donated half a million bucks to a Super PAC supporting that #HumanScum Mitt Romney. You know that episo
Masha Gessen, a Russian emigre and journalist, always has interesting commentaries on U.S. politics. In this New Yorker article , she writes about Mark Zuckerberg and his flawed interpretation of the First Amendment. In the course of the article, she reveals a startling fact. Zuckerberg is advising Mayor Pete. Gessen writes: What is the First Amendment for? I ask my students this every year. Ever
In case you didn’t open this link in the previous post, David Kristofferson recommends this article that explains why Dutch children are the “happiest in the world.” Here are three of the six reasons: 1. Babies get more sleep. 2. Kids spend more time with both parents. 3. Kids feel less pressure to excel in school. To read the author’s explanations and to learn about the other three reasons, open
Shortly after I read this very provocative post by David Kristofferson, I saw a story in Education Week that suicide rates among young Americans have recently soared. Quoting data from federal sources, it said: Suicide rates for teens between the ages of 15 and 19 increased by 76 percent between 2007 and 2017. And the suicide rate for 10- to 14-year-olds nearly tripled over that same time period,
It is illegal for public schools to refuse admission to students with disabilities. A charter school in Philadelphia admitted a six-year-old, then rejected her when the parent told the school the child had special needs. An education advocacy group sued a Philadelphia charter school on Thursday, alleging it barred a 6-year-old from enrolling after learning she required services for attention defi
Maurice Cunningham, a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, is renowned for his practice of “following the money” in Massachusetts. He naturally keeps encountering the Walton money that flows generously to torpedo public spending for public schools in Massachusetts. Maurice Cunningham is one of the heroes in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post , he ident
Evidently every part of the Trump administration believes it is above the law. The Washington Post reported today tha t the Education Department spent millions for student aid at for-profit colleges that were ineligible to receive federal funding. A trove of documents released Tuesday by the House Education and Labor Committee shows the Education Department provided $10.7 million in federal loans
Teresa Hanafin, writer of the Boston Globe’s daily Fast Forward, succinctly summarizes the state of the impeachment inquiry. If you think it is wrong to use foreign aid as a weapon to gather dirt on your election opponents and then lie about it, this will disturb you. If you think it’s okay, it won’t. So I’m not sure how many times we have to hear it, but just in case there’s anyone left out ther
Jan Resseger, one of our most insightful analysts of education policy, praises Elizabeth Warren’s K-12 education plan for its comprehensiveness and its decisive break with decades of misguided federal policy under Clinton, both Bush presidents, Obama, and Trump. She begins: Warren articulates a set of principles that turn away from three decades of neoliberal, corporate school reform—the idea, ac
I am happy to endorse Scott Baldermann for District 1 on the Denver school board. Scott is a native of Denver, a graduate of Aurora public schools, and a parent of children who attend Denver public schools. He is an architect and software developer. He sold his small business and is now devoted to his children and their school. He is president of the PTA. He has been endorsed by the Denver Classr
Do you remember the prolonged battle over charter schools in Washington State? There were four referenda in the state, starting in the late 1990s, and the pro-charter forces lost the first three. On the fourth try, in 2012, Bill Gates and his friends bundled millions of dollars to buy the election. They outspent civil rights groups, PTAs, and teacher associations by a margin of 16 to 1. Sixteen t
Cathy Frye worked for a Walton-funded front organization called the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, which really didn’t want to help public schools. She has been spilling the beans in a series of posts. This is her latest. Her post contains links to her previous posts. She begins: The Arkansas Public School Resource Center touts itself as a “collaborative local partner” when describing ho
Since 2007, when the flamboyant Disrupter Michelle Rhee took charge of the schools of D.C. with an unlimited grant of power—no checks, no balances, no constraints—the cheerleaders for Disruption (aka “Reform”) have made bold claims about the D.C. “miracle.” This despite a major cheating scandal that Rhee swept under the rug and despite a graduation rate scandal that followed a nonsensical, false
Politico Morning Education reports that charter advocates are furious in response to Warren’s K-12 education plan , especially her intention to cut off federal funding for charters. They are especially frustrated because she is not accepting corporate donations for her campaign, and they can’t buy her support. CHARTER ADVOCATES BLAST WARREN’S PLAN: While drawing praise from teachers unions, Warre
Elizabeth Warren released her K-12 education plan on Monday. I was thrilled that Warren calls for elimination of the federal Charter School Program, which has become Betsy DeVos’s personal slush fund. This year, she dumped $440 million into states that never asked for it and don’t need it, while fattening the coffers of well-funded corporate chains like KIPP, IDEA, and Success Academy. As the Net
New Hampshire’s Republican Governor, Chris Sununu (his father John Sununu was Chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush), appointed a man who homeschooled his children to be State Commissioner of Education. Commissioner Frank Edelblut has dedicated his time in office to undermining public schools. His big idea is called “Learn Everywhere,” which would allow the State Board of education to allo
A few years ago, Oregon businessman John Bryan gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to make sure that the state had a welcome mat for charter schools. He coincidentally opened 17 charter schools across the state, under the aegis of a management corporation called TeamCFA. He also pushed the legislature to create an “Opportunity School District,” modeled on Tennessee’s f
Rev. Sharon Felton, coordinator of Pastors for Kentucky Children, warns parents and other members of the public not to be fooled by the rhetoric. Charters, vouchers, and tax credits are not good for children, and they drain resources from the public schools that educate most children. She writes: Educating our children is the most important thing we do in the commonwealth. Educating all of our ch
Teresa Hanafin, who writes “Fast Forward” for the Boston Globe, wrote today about a true American hero: Mass. lawmakers on the joint veterans committee meet to consider a bill that would create a special memorial commission to study how best to honor Deborah Sampson, a native of Plympton who disguised herself as a man and fought in the Revolutionary War. It’s a truly remarkable story. Sampson cal
Chalkbeat reports that New York City will require the MAP test for 76 low-performing schools three times a year, in addition to the mandated state tests and interim assessments. This is the beginning of the city’s new plan to add a new barrage of tests. A spokesman for the department said the new test is not a test, it’s actually instruction. This reminds me of the historic Garfield High School b
Leonie Haimson and her colleagues Patrick Nevada and Emily Carrazana of Class Size Matters released a report on the cost that New York City pays for charter school facilities, even for richly endowed charters like Success Academy. The city is now spending more than $100 million a year to pay the rent for charters. This includes almost $15 million a year paying for rent where the charter or its ma
Rachel M. Cohen has the scoop on the Elizabeth Warren K-12 education plan, just released. Warren would quadruple federal funding for Title 1 schools. She would eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program, which has been a colossal failure and which Betsy DeVos has turned into a slush fund for corporate charter chains. Cohen writes: ELIZABETH WARREN RELEASED a wide-ranging education plan Monday,
Bill Phillis reposts here an article by Denis Smith, who offers sound advice about the questions you should ask if you visit a charter school. Denis Smith on Ron Rice of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools In a recent column in the Columbus Dispatch, Ron Rice of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools opened his piece with this statement. “The early stage of the 2020 preside
Back in the early days of school choice advocacy, it was often claimed that school choice would “force” the public schools to compete and they would get better because of the magic of the market. Now we know that was a selling point, and it was not true. Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the civil rights group Education Law Center-PA, writes about the negative effects of “school choice”
From the Chicago Teachers Union: For ten months we had absolutely no progress on key proposals. After only two strike days, we have seen considerable movement and crucial openings on issues such as homeless students, class sizes, staffing and other key issues that the mayor told us would not be open for bargaining. Today, we got a tentative agreement for specific staff positions to support Studen
Here is the obituary of former Michigan Governor William Milliken, a man who reminds us of what the Republican Party was like before it was captured by a ragtag coalition of religious extremists and bigots. It appeared in the New York Times. Donald Trump had worked to destroy this wing of his party and transform it into the party of selfishness, greed, and racism. William G. Milliken, a moderate
When a new Secretary of State (aDemocrat in a Koch-owned State) was elected in November 2018 in Arizona, she discovered that her predecessor had signed a long-term contract with a private company to store public records. The state’s storage facility sat empty while the private company collects millions. One former state official described the warehouses as something out of “Indiana Jones,” with s
Jeffrey Toobin wrote a scathing analysis of a recent speech by Attorney General Bill Barr in The New Yorker magazine. Like Betsy DeVos, his colleague in Trump’s Cabinet, Barr believes that religious schools should be supported with public funds and that the failure to do so is religious discrimination. He writes: William P. Barr just gave the worst speech by an Attorney General of the United Stat
Valerie Strauss writes here about an important new book about the Koch Empire and its desire to eliminate and privatize public schools. The book is “ Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America ,” by Christopher Leonard. Strauss writes: Early this year, the Koch network committed to starting an effort to transform public education. What would that look like? The
Karen Lewis is the inspiration for today’s teacher’s strikes. She is one of a kind. She is a hero, a woman of courage, character, integrity, intellect, and steel. The Chicago Teachers Union just released this video tribute to Karen. Karen is a product of the Chicago Public Schools. She went to elite Ivy League colleges, first to Mount Holyoke, then transferred to Dartmouth College, where she was
Bob Shepherd, our resident scholar, wrote this insightful comment: Anyone who has taught high-school kids knows that they are extremely emotionally unstable. It’s a difficult time. It’s the time in which we all struggle with establishing an identity that will be acceptable to/accepted by the others around us. One way in which kids do that is by rebelling against their parents and teachers and old
Max Brantley, the editor of the Arkansas Times, is a journalist who fearlessly stands up to the all-powerful Walton Family in the state they think they own. Brantley is a hero of the Resistance in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post, Brantley describes the Waltons’ efforts to destroy the Little Rock School District and to crush the Little Rock Education Association. He writes: They
Maurice Cunningham is the ghostbuster of Dark Money in education. He is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. He is a hero of the Resistance in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post , he details the efforts of the Walton Family of Arkansas to block the Massachusetts’ legislators who are trying to increase funding for the public schools of their state. He
Jeff Bryant writes here about the billionaires who corrupted the school leadership pipeline. Chief among them, of course, is billionaire Eli Broad, who created an unaccredited training program as a fast track for urban
