Big Education Ape: Apr 12, 2019

Friday, April 12, 2019

Sacramento teachers strike "for what's right" - CBS News #Unite4SACKids #WeAreSCTA #WeAreCTA #strikeready #REDFORED #SCTA #CTA

Sacramento teachers strike "for what's right" - CBS News

Sacramento teachers strike "for what's right"

Jackie Goldberg leads in LAUSD special election but turnout is crucial

Jackie Goldberg leads in LAUSD special election but turnout is crucial

Jackie Goldberg leads in LAUSD special election but turnout is crucial

Stop and think about this: on April 10, Jeffrey Rosen, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Deputy Attorney General, refused to answer this simple question in his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing: “Was Brown v. Board of Education correctly decided?”

The landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision ruled that “separate but equal” racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling is foundational to providing fairness and a level playing field for kids to potentially achieve success through the public education system. But while it’s shocking that the Trump nominee sloughs off its importance, schools kids are actually facing another kind of segregation based on money.

Jackie Goldberg is taking on that fight. The longtime out activist educator is running in a special May 14 runoff election for a seat on the Los Angeles Unified District School Board. She faces former public works commissioner Heather Repenning, who has the backing of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and SEIU Local 99, non-teaching LAUSD employees.

Goldberg is supported by almost everyone else in the northeast and southeast LA district—including Echo Park, Silver Lake and Los Feliz—who fears that charter schools are CONTINUE READING: Jackie Goldberg leads in LAUSD special election but turnout is crucial

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Pushes Questionable Charter Research

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Pushes Questionable Charter Research

DeVos Pushes Questionable Charter Research

The New York Post headline is pretty definitive: "Case Closed: Charter schools deliver more education 'bang' for the buck." Writers Patrick Wolf and Corey DeAngelis are plugging their new paper, and Betsy DeVos is on Facebook plugging it some more.

DeAngelis we've met before. He's a Fellow for the Cato Institute, policy adviser for the Heartland Institute, and a Distinguished Working-on-his-PhD Fellow at the University of Arkansas, all of this built on a foundation of a BBA (2012) and MA (2015) in economics from the University of Texas in San Antonio (because nobody understands education like economists). And while plugging away on that Masters, he worked first as the Risk Management Operations Coordinator and then the Fraud Coordinator for Kohl's. Patrick Wolf has several degrees in political science and has worked as an academic for most of his career.

And then they showed me directions to the unicorn farm.

Their research here comes from the University of Arkansas's Department of Education Reform, which is always a bit of a red flag. The department was set up about fifteen years ago, with about $20 million provided in part by the Walton family; some speculate the department was also a stipulation attached to a $300 million Walton gift to the University shortly before the launch. The University brought in Jay Greene (no relation), an ed reform advocate from the Manhattan Institute, to run the department, which in many ways resembles an advocacy think tank more than a real university department. Over the years it has been a reliable Walton-funded source of academic-flavored PR for ed reform and the charter industry.

This particular paper comes out of something called the School Choice Demonstration Project, CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Pushes Questionable Charter Research

Sacramento City Unified calls for ‘cease-fire’ after teacher strike | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified calls for ‘cease-fire’ after teacher strike | The Sacramento Bee

District calls for ‘cease-fire’ after Sacramento City Unified teachers stage one-day strike

More than 2,000 teachers across the Sacramento City Unified School District walked picket lines Thursday morning for the first time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging unfair labor practices by the district.

As the strike concluded, school board President Jessie Ryan called for a “cease-fire” – changing course from the district’s original plan to file its own unfair labor practices claim with the state, according to a district statement.

Image result for Sacramento City Unified teachers stage one-day strike

“Teachers are the heartbeat of our schools and we need them back in the classroom,” Ryan said in the statement. “We hear their message that without a solution more disagreement and unrest is likely. While we hear them, we also need them to hear us so that together we can solve this fiscal crisis and unite to save our schools with smart solutions.”

Sacramento City Teachers Association officials said they had not seen Ryan’s call for a cease-fire, sent in an email news release, but said they hope it means the district is prepared to honor the contract.

“That would be a tremendous expression of good faith and a significant step forward,” the teachers union said in a statement.

The strike adds to the extreme pressure faced by Sacramento City Unified, which is under the threat of state takeover as it attempts to close a $35 million budget gap.

The union said 98 percent of its members joined the strike at the district’s 75 school sites.

In a statement Thursday morning, the teachers union said it was forced to strike because the district was not honoring provisions in its contract that would reduce class sizes and improve student services.

“SCUSD officials simply need to honor the contract and obey the law,” SCTA President David Fisher said in a statement.

Rosa Parks Elementary School teacher John Brindley greeted his sixth-grade students with fist bumps as they walked onto campus Thursday morning, but remained out front with a protest sign rather than join them in the classroom.

“It’s important to stand up for what you believe in. That’s what we’ve been saying to our students,” said Brindley, who has been employed by the district since 2003. “If something is unequal or you think that the things you’ve been told have not been honored, you need to stand up for yourself and make sure that people honor their word.”

Government teacher Lori Jablonski accompanied more than 100 of her colleagues on the picket line at C.K. McClatchy High School, where students were sent to the gymnasium and auditorium to watch movies under the supervision of administration and security rather than attend class.

The district had said that Thursday would be a regular school day for its 42,000 students, with classes scheduled and staffed.

“We have extremely large class sizes,” Jablonski said. “It’s about a 35-to-1 ratio, and that’s standard here. We’ve always been on edge.”

Teachers later staged a large rally at the district’s office, the Serna Center, where they were supported by families, and members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles and Oakland Educators, who were on strike earlier this year to ask for raises and smaller class sizes.

L.A. and Oakland union members said, like Sacramento teachers, they are waiting for their contracts to be implemented.

Teachers from various Sacramento schools changed popular song lyrics to “you, teachers, are my sunshine, my only sunshine” and “lean on me” as teachers erupted in cheers.

“This is extraordinary we have to be here 16 months later just to get the district and superintendent to keep their promise,” SCTA President David Fisher said.

The district Thursday afternoon was still tallying how many students, teachers and substitutes showed up at campuses during the strike.

The strike stems from allegations by the teachers union that the district is not honoring its 2017 agreement, including directing health-plan savings strictly toward reducing class sizes and funding CONTINUE READING: Sacramento City Unified calls for ‘cease-fire’ after teacher strike | The Sacramento Bee

Bernie Sanders’ Staff Called Me to Talk About Education Policy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bernie Sanders’ Staff Called Me to Talk About Education Policy | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bernie Sanders’ Staff Called Me to Talk About Education Policy

I got an e-mail recently from Senator Bernie Sanders’s education advisor. She said she reads the blog and wondered if we could talk. I said sure but I was not ready to endorse anyone in the Democratic primaries.

I asked for and got her permission to share that this conversation occurred. As everyone knows who ever gave me confidential information, I never write or speak about what I was told in confidence.

We set a date to speak on the phone since I am in New York and she is in D.C.

She called and conferenced in the campaign’s chief of staff.

Here is what happened.

I told them that I was upset that Democrats talk about pre-K and college costs—important but safe topics—and skip K-12, as though it doesn’t exist. Every poll I get from Democrats asks me which issues matter most but doesn’t mention K-12.

I expressed my hope that Bernie would recognize that charter schools are privately managed (in 2016, he said in a town hall that he supports “public charter schools but not private charter schools). No matter what they call themselves, they are not “public” schools. They are all privately managed. I recounted for them the sources of financial support for charters: Wall Street, hedge fund managers, billionaires, the DeVos family, the Waltons, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, ALEC, and of course, the federal government, which gave $440 million to charters this year, one-third of which will never open or close soon after opening. (See “Asleep At the Wheel: How Athens Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride,” Network for Public Education).

I proposed a way to encourage states to increase funding for teachers’ salaries. I won’t reveal it now. I think it is an amazingly innovative concept that offers money to states without mandates but assures that the end result would be significant investment by states in teacher compensation, across the board, untethered to test scores.

I recommended a repeal of the annual testing in grades 3-8, a leftover of George W. Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind. I pointed out to them that all the Democrats on the Education Committee in the Senate had voted for the Murphy Amendment (sponsored by Senator Chris Murphy of Ct), which would have preserved all the original punishments of NCLB but which was fortunately voted down by Republicans. I suggested that grade span CONTINUE READING: Bernie Sanders’ Staff Called Me to Talk About Education Policy | Diane Ravitch's blog

A Day On The Picket Line | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

A Day On The Picket Line | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

A DAY ON THE PICKET LINE

CBS News Video Segment: “Sacramento teachers on strike” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=96830 on @Larryferlazzo

As you have read here (see A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT OUR SACRAMENTO DISTRICT’S FINANCIAL FIASCO) or heard elsewhere, our school district is not doing well, and is likely to be taken over by the state soon.

We had a one-day strike today (you can get lots of background by looking at that “Best” list), and here are some photos and article about it I shared on social media. By the way, that’s my friend, colleague, and co-author Katie Hull and I in the photo at the top of this blog post.