Jan Resseger explains the history and context of the truly historic teachers’ strike in Chicago t hat recently ended. She explains it with clarity, as only Jan can do. This was not a strike for higher salaries. The mayor offered a 16% increase before the strike began, and that is what the Chicago Teachers Union accepted. This was a strike for students. This was a strike to reverse a quarter-centu
Marla Kilfoyle, who previously served as national executive director of the BadAss Teachers Association, is now in charge of building the Grassroots Network of the Network for Public Education. She has done a spectacular job in bringing together parents, grandparents, educators, students, and other public-spirited citizens who support our public schools. Here is the latest report. Nearly 150 grou
Mike Deshotels is a retired educator in Louisiana who blogs as “Louisiana Educator.” In this post, he appraises State Superintendent John White’s record as state superintendent. He characterizes that record as “pitiful.” John White, you may recall, is a “reformer,” that is, a specialist in Disruption. He is formerly TFA, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy, and before coming to Louisiana
Morgan Ames is a techie. She majored in computer science at Berkeley and now works at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society. She wants to convince you that techies know computer science, but we should not look to them for advice about child-rearing, education, or other social issues. Their range of expertise is narrow. It may make them very rich. But it does not make them wise
Carol Burris, a veteran educator and now executive director of the Network for Public Education, has conducted extensive research into the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP), which resulted in a report called Asleep at the Wheel . That report documented the waste of about $1 billion in federal funds spent on charters that either never opened or that opened and then closed in short order. At th
For Immediate Release October 31, 2019 Contact: Ori Korin okorin@aft.org American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Congratulates Chicago Teachers Union WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the news that the Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, reached a return-to-work agreement with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and will return to
Troy Laraviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, writes in Crains Chicago Business that the Chicago Teachers Union is not demanding enough for the public schools. He maintains that the Chicago schools are woefully understaffed as compared to other districts in Illinois. He writes: Chicago Public Schools is the most understaffed school district in Illinois. It is
Nancy Bailey writes here about a zombie polic y launched by Jeb Bush called third grade retention. Students who can’t pass a third grade reading test are flunked and held back. Nineteen states have adopted this practice despite a large body of research showing that it hurts kids and leads to future failure, even dropping out. Children who are held back feel humiliated. There is one big benefit to
Remember Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, who denounced public schools as a “monopoly, and expressed his contempt for public school teachers as a “special interest group”? He will have a Democratic challenger in the next election. Emily Skopov is the daughter of a public school teacher and an activist. Read her biography and learn about her project called “No Crayon Left Behind.” Em
Tentative Agreement Tonight’s Vote to Conditionally Suspend the Strike CTU’s House of Delegates met tonight to consider a new tentative agreement. The terms of the tentative agreement can be downloaded from the MemberLink Portal . Delegates voted 364 to 242, with four abstentions, to accept the revised tentative agreement on the condition that Mayor Lightfoot agree to make up the days lost in the
In recent years, I have posted several times about the issues raised by the efforts of for-profit Bridge International Academies to supply low-cost schools in Africa. These schools are staffed by teachers equipped with iPads reading a script written in Boston or someplace similar. Most African families can’t afford the cost. BIA aims to disrupt and replace African nations’ underfunded, ill-equipp
Alexandria Millet writes in The Progressive about the consequences of the harsh discipline at “no excuses” charter schools. She begins by telling the recent story of two six-year-old girls who were arrested in school for having a temper tantrum. They were taken to the police station, where their mug shots were taken. Eventually, in response to public outrage, the charges were dropped, and the sch
The CTU reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools. The CTU House of Delegates voted 364-242 to suspend the strike pending resolution of final issues. The settlement, which meets most of the CTU demands, will be voted on by the full membership within 10 days. But the strike is not yet over. The sides are very close but the union wants an assurance that there will be no loss of inst
Peter Greene skewers Betsy DeVos’ unsubstantiated claims about the meaning of the disappointing NAEP scores. Don’t believe her when she says that 2/3 of students are “below grade level” in reading. NAEP proficiency is not “grade level.” NAEP even posts that statement on its graphs. This is what NAEP says as a note attached to its graphs: “The NAEP Proficient achievement level does not represent g
Rosa DeLauro is one of the most significant members of Congress. She oversees Congressional appropriations for education. She is a strong supporter of public education and a critic of privatization of public funding. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 30, 2019 CONTACT: Will Serio: 202-225-3661 DeLauro Statement on 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress Results WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congres
In a thoughtful article, Matt Barnum writes in Chalkbeat that Betsy DeVos used the disappointing results of the NAEP 2019 national tests to call for her “Education Freedom” plan, which would further disinvest in public schools and divert funding from the federal government, states, and local school districts to charters and vouchers. Barnum writes: But the call for more school choice — which, alo
This is a strong statement by Randi Weingarten. Please note that 10% of New York City’s public school students are homeless; students in many other districts suffer trauma, including homelessness, lack of access to medical care and basic nutrition, and inadequate housing. These figures should be appended to NAEP reports in the future. AFT President Randi Weingarten’s Statement on NAEP Report Card
Remember that Trump likes to boast of his love for “clean, beautiful” coal. Now Murray Energy is filing for bankruptcy and will shed $8 billion in pension and health-care liabilities owed to miners. NPR reports that Murray was one of Trump’s biggest funders : The Trump administration has spent three years trying to help the coal industry by rolling back environmental regulations and pushing for s
Teresa Hanafin writes Fast Forward for the Boston Globe: Today’s witnesses giving depositions to the three House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry are two State Department diplomats who are experts on Ukraine: Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson. They both worked as deputies to Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine. Both were considered stars in the department, deeply
Julian Vasquez Heilig, recently appointed Dean of the School of Education at the University of Kentucky, has been creating a series of podcasts about education “reform,” with particular attention to Teach for America. Please listen to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7UCgkWzYqI&t=1115s Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents
Steven Wilson, founder and CEO of the Brooklyn-based Ascend Charter Schools, was fired by the board of directors after a petition on Change.org, apparently started by students at one of the charter schools, complained that an essay he had written was racist and exemplifed “white supremacy.” Two charter-school advocates, one employed by the Walton Family Foundation, the other from the IDEA charter
After a generation of disruptive reforms—No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, VAM and Common Core—after a decade or more of disinvestment in education, after years of bashing and demoralizing teachers, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2019 shows the results: Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest
Carol Burris notes that charter-friendly Democrats have been put in a jam since Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have announced their intention to eliminate federal funding for charter schools, which is currently $440 million a year and used by Betsy DeVos primarily to expand big corporate chains. She writes: Since Elizabeth Warren joined Bernie Sanders in calling for an end to the U.S. Depart
The Chicago Teachers Union posted the following message from its legendary leader and president emerita, Karen Lewis: Diane- When Lori ran for mayor, she gave us hope that she would represent real change in City Hall. She ran on our education platform and made a commitment to reverse years of failed policy and horrible planning by her predecessors. She inherited a system built on revolving door l
Supporters of Students, Join our students as they stay home for a “sick-out” in solidarity with our educators tomorrow, Wednesday, October 30th . If you are a caregiver of a student, you can call their absence in, and no matter who you are, you can join them at 12:45pm outside the Governor’s Office in the State Capitol, wearing red, holding supportive signs, and supporting them in their demands t
Teresa Hanafin, who writes the daily Fast Forward for the Boston Globe, describes a new whistleblower and the GOP-FOX effort to smear him. There’s a major development in the House’s impeachment inquiry today: The first deposition from someone who listened in on that infamous July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — the one in which Trump pushed Zelensky to inv
Robin Lithgow, retired director of arts education in the Los Angeles, blogs about the history of arts education. In this post, she reflects on the questions she wished she had asked her parents when they were alive, and her reflections lead her to learning and telling the history of arts education in settlement houses, the social service centers in densely crowded urban neighborhoods. Wouldn’t it
In her education plan, Elizabeth Warren proposed eliminating the federal Charter Schools Program. This program was started in 1994 to help jumpstart new charter schools at a time when there were fewer than 100 charter schools in the nation. Now there are 7,000. Today, the CSP has a budget of $440 million a year (which BETSY DeVos proposes to increase to $500 million a year). DeVos uses CSP as her
No philanthropy has spent more money to undermine and privatize public schools than the Waltons. The Waltons are the richest family in the U.S., possibly in the world, with a net worth in excess of $200 billion. The Walton Family Foundation claims credit for launching at least one of every four charter schools in the nation. The foundation aims to eliminate public education, crush teachers’ union
State Senator Sam Bell has been concerned about the punitive discipline in the no-excuses Achievement First charter schools, which is primed for a major expansion in Providence. He toured an Achievement First charter school, and his worst fears were confirmed. Please read the entire post, which I condensed. Senator Bell writes: On Friday, October 18, I toured Achievement First . It was a chilling
Trump’s defenders say that he committed no actual crime. Professor Frank O. Bowman III it the University of Missouri Law School says that the Founding Fathers debated the issue of impeachment and purposely chose language that does not require an ordinary crime (like shooting someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, the sort of crime that Trump’s lawyers now say he can’t be prosecuted for). Bowm
Jitu Brown is a son of Chicago. He is National director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, which has affiliates in 30 cities, where they work for social justice. Jitu was the driving force behind the community effort to save Dyett High school in Chicago, the last open admission high school in Bronzeville. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had decided to close Dyett, and Jitu organized a campaign to save Dyett
Suppose you are trying to decide who to vote for in your local school board election. You get a flyer in the mail from a group called “Public School Allies.” It lists three candidates. You vote for them. Surprise! You were hoaxed! “Public School Allies” is a billionaire-funded front that intervenes in local elections to support charter schools! Matt Barnum reports in Chalkbeat: The political arm
Cathy Frye is a veteran journalist who joined the staff of the Arkansas Public Schools Resource Center as communications director for three years. She learned that APSRC was a shell organization funded by the billionaire Waltons to trick rural schools into joining the Walton crusade to eliminate public schools. In this post, Frye names names . She begins: Tonight, I am sharing a Who’s Who in the
NEWS ADVISORY: For Immediate Release| ctulocal1.org CONTACT: Chris Geovanis, 312-329-6250 , 312-446-4939 (m) , ChrisGeovanis@ctulocal1.org Half of 1% of CPS budget stands between CTU, CPS and tentative agreement CHICAGO, Oct. 27, 2019 —CTU President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement this evening, as CPS CEO Janice Jackson made her first appearance at the bargaining table. Right now at
Darrell M. West of the Brookings Institution explains the history of the electoral college and why this antique process for choosing the president should be abolished. He begins: The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. According to Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper Number 68, the body was a compromise at the Constitutional Convention in
I read the following commentary by Bill Phillis of Ohio Coalition for Adequacy and Equity, and it gave me an idea: The HB 70-triggered chaos continues in Lorain City School District While state officials fiddle with the potential of repeal of HB 70, Lorain City School District continues to burn. The HB 70 CEO claimed and then retracted that school employees would not be paid; the Board of Educati
Journalist Valerie Strauss interviewed historian Jack Schneider. Is Betsy DeVos right to say that American public schools have not changed for a century, she asks. He answers: Not true. Betsy DeVos doesn’t know what she is talking about. Schneider says: If we could transport ourselves to a typical school of the early 20th century, the basic structural elements — desks, chalkboards, textbooks, etc
The Providence Journal reports on the state’s slow motion takeover of the Providence schools. No superintendent has been appointed. Meanwhile the state has placed Frances Gallo in charge of Providence as Interim Superintendent. Previously Gallo was superintendent of the state’s lowest performing district, Central Falls. Some candidates have already turned down the job.
One of our readers asserted that it was unfair to raise taxes on billionaires and alluded to the famous saying by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller. Only he put it this way: First they came for the billionaires. Then they came for the millionaires. Then they came for those with $100,000 a year. Then they came for you. And private property was no longer permitted. That’s what socialists want. No pr
The teachers at Passages Charter School, who belong to the Chicago Teachers Union, won their demands. Victory at Passages Charter School Educators at Passages Charter School won a tentative agreement today that enshrines in the contract key provisions that are still not settled in bargaining for educators at district-run schools. Among those are big wins on paraprofessional pay and rights as well
Anthony Cody read the post about the collaboration between the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress, which are sponsoring a low-budget “moon shot for kids.” Not many (or any) of those who work at TBF or CAP have been career teachers. Anthony Cody offers his advice: I worked in the public schools of Oakland, CA, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school teacher of sci
Mercedes Schneider loves Elizabeth Warren’s plans for K-12 education. Note that in Warren’s plan, the term, “public school” means traditional public school– the neighborhood school, sufficiently supported and defended against much of the corporate ed reform attack against it. Warren’s education plan is refreshing to read, and extensive. I encourage readers to view Warren’s entire ed plan firsthan
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
