enrique baloyra VIDEO:Fla lawmakers gorging on public schools - YouTube

Fla lawmakers gorging on public schools - YouTube

Fla lawmakers gorging on public schools

enrique baloyra

The 2019 Florida legislative session came to an end yesterday, and only a day late. Which is remarkable, considering the level of dysfunction, where deeply compromised Tallahassee politicians tell blatant lies during debate. For example, Hialeah Gardens Senator Manny Diaz, Jr., who tried unsuccessfully tried for days to retroactively change referendum language overwhelmingly approved by his own district, claimed Miami-Dade County Public Schools had deceived the public into approving a referendum to raise public school teachers’ salaries. The truth is that MDCPS superintendent took a town hall tour of the whole the district, consistently making the school board’s case for why they wouldn’t be sharing any millage with charter school teachers. In fact, the senator’s multi- Pulitzer Prize-winning home town newspaper published several articles in the lead-up to the election with headlines like, “Charter schools aren’t included in school ballot measure…,” describing how Academica, the senator’s own employer, was circulating fliers urging parents to vote No.

But the dysfunction isn’t limited to the senate. The house’s own education chair was trying to make the case for why public dollars should be used to pay for private school vouchers. “If it’s a failing school, I trust parents not to send their children there,” even after admitting that private and religious schools are not graded by the state. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opini... “[Mount Dora Rep. Jennifer] Sullivan’s vacuous response to a valid question speaks volumes about the real intent of school choice, which is an ideology-driven legislative agenda to steadily erode the public school system by shifting money and students into private-sector education, often in religious schools.” https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opini... Here’s a few more headlines this week. “The death sentence for Florida’s public schools” https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/edit... “Florida legislators stick it to public education, as usual” https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opini... “Florida’s charter-school sector is a real mess” https://www.washingtonpost.com/educat... “Teachers with guns only makes sense to lawmakers who have lost their minds“ https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/o... To recap, this legislative session Tallahassee politicians passed a K-12 education budget that’s still below pre-recession levels.

They gave all the capital outlay funding to corporate charters to build and maintain privately held assets. Not one dime of local property taxes to build a new a neighborhood school, or to renovate an existing one. Or to buy a single computer. And to add insult injury, they opened the probability that the next kid shot in a school will be by a teacher. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week.

Fla lawmakers gorging on public schools - YouTube

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems | School Finance Indicators Database

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems | School Finance Indicators Database

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems

First Edition (April 2019)

Download the report

When it comes to American education, few policy areas are as misunderstood — or as crucial — as school finance.

Over the past several years, a political and empirical consensus has emerged about the importance of equitable and adequate school funding for high quality K-12 education. Certainly, there are plenty of contentious debates about how education funds should be spent. But regardless of one’s opinions on specific education policies, virtually all of the options for improving America’s schools require investment, particularly for disadvantaged students.

We introduce in this report an updated, public database of state school finance measures, and present results for three key measures in this system: effort, adequacy, and progressivity. Our results indicate, as would be expected, that states vary widely on all three measures. There are several states in which educational resources are comparatively adequate and distributed equitably.

In general, however, resources in most states tend to be allocated non-progressively or even regressively, That is, higher poverty districts do not receive more funds — and in some cases receive sustantially less — than do lower poverty districts, even controlling for factors that affect costs, such as regional wage variation, district size, and population density. Moreover, using models that estimate spending levels required to achieve common outcome goals, we find that the vast majority of states spend well under the levels that would be necessary for their higher-poverty districts to achieve national average test scores.

We do not provide state rankings or grades in this report, as the interplay between effort, adequacy and progressivity is complex. We do, however, include recommendations as to how researchers, policymakers, and the public can use our findings, as well as our database, to evaluate state systems and inform debates about improving school finance in the U.S.

Authors: Bruce D. Baker, Matthew Di Carlo, and Mark Weber

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Download the full report

Download the press release

Download the full dataset or use data visualizations

The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems | School Finance Indicators Database

Milwaukee: Former School Board President Convicted of Accepting Bribes from Charter Operator | Diane Ravitch's blog

Milwaukee: Former School Board President Convicted of Accepting Bribes from Charter Operator | Diane Ravitch's blog

Milwaukee: Former School Board President Convicted of Accepting Bribes from Charter Operator

Former Milwaukee School Board President Michael Bonds was convicted of accepting bribes to help a Philadelphia charter school operator. 

As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Bonds, 60, pleaded guilty to two counts in federal court in Philadelphia. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine at his sentencing, tentatively set for September, but which will depend on when he completes his pledged cooperation with an ongoing federal investigation…

Bonds served on the MPS board from 2007 until he abruptly resigned in July 2018, nine months before his term was to end. 

He was charged last month with conspiracy and violations of the Travel Act for taking kickbacks in return for votes beneficial to Universal Cos. between 2014 and 2016. Two unnamed Universal executives were implicated in the scheme but have not been charged.

Veteran Milwaukee journalist Alan Borsuk described the affair as “a scandal with few rivals in the recent history of Milwaukee education.”  He sums up the details.

Universal Academy. Universal came into Milwaukee riding some celebrity appeal — its founder, CONTINUE READING: Milwaukee: Former School Board President Convicted of Accepting Bribes from Charter Operator | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

CURMUDGUCATION: Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

Maine has broken with the status quo of test-centered accountability for teachers.

Beginning with No Child Left Behind, public schools have committed to test-centered accountability, using student results on a single standardized math and reading test to drive assessment of districts, schools and ultimately teachers. For years, the prevailing definition of a good teacher in this country has been one whose students score well on that standardized test.

The problems with this approach are legion. Schools have narrowed their focus and their curriculum to focus on tested subjects. States have developed bizarre assessment systems in which teachers of non-tested subjects might be evaluated based on the test scores of students they never taught. Nor has any convincing evidence ever emerged that raising a student's test scores improves her lot later in life. After a generation, the promised improvement in US education that test-centered accountability was supposed to drive simply hasn't arrived; NAEP scores ("the nation's report card") have not budged significantly in all this time, nor have colleges announced that their freshman classes are now the best they've ever seen. Using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers has not fixed anything, and it has made things worse in many cases by pushing schools to focus on test taking skills instead of a broad and deep education for all students.

Now Maine has taken a step away from this with LD 92 (to see the full affect, look also at the amendments). The bill removes any requirement to base teacher evaluation on test results. Maybe even more importantly, it requires districts to form a committee to regularly review and revise their evaluation process. This may seem like common sense, but teacher evaluation systems are historically taken out of the box and used without any subsequent discussion of how well they are CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Maine Dumps Test-Centered Teacher Evaluation

Betsy DeVos rewrites the definition of "public schools" to suit her own Christian Dominionist ideology | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos rewrites the definition of "public schools" to suit her own Christian Dominionist ideology | Eclectablog

Betsy DeVos rewrites the definition of “public schools” to suit her own Christian Dominionist ideology

In a presidential administration that seems to function as a turnstile with people coming and going from their positions on a nearly continuous basis, one person seems to be a constant: Betsy DeVos. It’s no surprise, of course. She and her husband and other families members give enormous amounts of money to Republicans. The Center for Responsive Politics found the DeVos family had given over $20 million to Republicans between 1989 and 2016. That’s a whopping figure that buys some serious political influence, something DeVos herself has acknowledged. “I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence,” she told Roll Call. “Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return… We expect a return on our investment.”

One of those “returns on [their] investment” was being anointed as the United States Secretary of Education. Once elevated to that lofty position, she has risen to the maximum level of influence possible in the realm of education. And she clearly plans to exert that influence.

This week, during an appearance at the Education Writers Association annual conference, DeVos literally redefined the meaning of the phrase “public education”:

“Let’s stop and rethink the definition of public education,” she said. “Today, it’s often defined as one type of school, funded by taxpayers, controlled by government. But if every student is part of ‘the public,’ then every way and every place a student learns is ultimately of benefit to ‘the public.’ That should be the new definition of public education.“

This is quite clearly a statement that DeVos wants to do nationally what she has failed to do twice CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos rewrites the definition of "public schools" to suit her own Christian Dominionist ideology | Eclectablog

Everything You Need to Know About the Proposed Oakland School Closures (Part 1 of 3) | East Bay Majority

Everything You Need to Know About the Proposed Oakland School Closures (Part 1 of 3) | East Bay Majority

Everything You Need to Know About the Proposed Oakland School Closures (Part 1 of 3)

They disproportionately affect black and brown students, they’re driven by privatization, and we have until August to get organized.

By Katie Ferrari

The 2019 Oakland teachers’ strike was a referendum on the future of public education in the city. The teachers and the community movement that united behind them fought for and won important concessions from the district, but everyone ended the strike knowing the battle against austerity in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) was far from over. This summer the school board will present more information about its plan to shutter 24 public schools, a blow that could lead to the entire district being privatized and charterized in the very near future. 

In this three-part series, we’ll examine the long history of school closures in Oakland leading to the current crisis, the district’s faulty justifications for closing schools, and the real reason school closures are being pushed: to dismantle and defund traditional public schools, making space for charter schools that funnel public money and resources away from unionized workers and working families and into the pockets of billionaires. Or, to put it concisely, to turn a profit on children. 

What Do Billionaires Have to Do with School Closures?

Billionaires control the Oakland school district in many ways, including directly funding local charter schools, as Bill Gates and the Walmart heirs have done; buying the school board through billionaire-funded pro-charter front groups like GO Public schools and its related PACs; and installing a revolving door of superintendents who hastened the district’s financial decline, many of whom were trained by billionaire Eli Broad’s pro-charter Broad Academy.

Why do the ultrarich care so much about closing Oakland public schools and replacing them with charters? The main reason is that teachers’ unions are one of the last strongholds of organized labor in America, and organized labor is one of the biggest threats to the power of the capitalist class. Charter schools are rarely unionized and are an effective tool to weaken unions. Charter schools, run by private corporations for private profit, also help weaken our collective sense that public necessities (like healthcare and education) should be provided outside of the market and that provision of these necessities should be democratically controlled.

A History of Displacing Black and Brown Students

Oakland has a long history of attempts to shutter public schools in accordance with the billionaires’ privatization agenda. In every instance, including this year’s proposal, the CONTINUE READING: Everything You Need to Know About the Proposed Oakland School Closures (Part 1 of 3) | East Bay Majority

UC, CSU tuition skyrocketed since 1970, making debt likely | The Sacramento Bee

UC, CSU tuition skyrocketed since 1970, making debt likely | The Sacramento Bee

It costs 1,360% more to go to a CSU than 40 years ago – and that’s adjusted for inflation

When it comes to preaching financial savvy to college students forking over considerable cash for school, the “back in my day” argument doesn’t apply.

Working hard and living at home can only go so far in staving off debt for today’s students because of steep fee increases that have unfolded over the past 40 years, according to the California Budget and Policy Center determined in a recent data analysis.

The center adjusted 1979 college tuition and fees for inflation and found the cost of attending a University of California school is six times greater than 40 years ago. A year at UC today costs $14,400, up from an inflation-adjusted $2,200 in 1979.

Meanwhile, the cost of attending a California State University campus is 1,360 percent greater than it was in 1979. Back then, students paid an inflation-adjusted $500 for a year at a CSU. Today they pay $7,300.

Living expenses are up, too. Students pay $4,000 more per year in food and housing costs, totaling nearly $14,000 per year.

“The ‘back in my day’ narrative is tempting on the surface,” wrote Amy Rose, policy analyst for the center and author of the study. “Many students in prior generations were able to work moderate hours and attend school full-time, graduating on time and with little to no debt. Today’s students face a much different scenario, with significantly higher total costs of attendance, largely due to rising housing costs.”

California students graduate with more than $20,000 in debt, a number below the national average. The state’s general fund financially supports the public university systems, but budge CONTINUE READING: UC, CSU tuition skyrocketed since 1970, making debt likely | The Sacramento Bee

The Tide Is Turning For Teachers Unions. Randi Weingarten Isn’t Surprised. | HuffPost

The Tide Is Turning For Teachers Unions. Randi Weingarten Isn’t Surprised. | HuffPost

The Tide Is Turning For Teachers Unions. Randi Weingarten Isn’t Surprised.
A “silent majority” is taking back education policy, according to the union chief.

Randi Weingarten, 61, has been an ever-present force in national Democratic politics since taking the helm of the American Federation of Teachers labor union in 2008.

With 1.7 million members at her command, Weingarten stands to play an important role in the fight to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020.

But first she needs to unite her diverse membership behind a Democratic candidate.

The union elicited criticism from some members for endorsing Hillary Clinton in July 2015 ― more than six months before any votes were cast in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Now Weingarten is promising a slower, more transparent endorsement process that gives union members plenty of time to hear from the party’s plethora of White House contenders and give feedback before the AFT’s executive council makes a decision.

HuffPost spoke to Weingarten about the union’s endorsement process; the role of perceived electability in the Democratic presidential primary; her views of longtime school choice proponent Sen. Cory Booker, who is among those seeking the party’s nod; her deleted tweet questioning whether Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was involved in Lucy Flores’ allegation of unwanted kissing against former Vice President Joe Biden.

In the interview, Weingarten also stressed that she believes the national debate over education policy has shifted decisively in teacher unions’ direction.

“The climate is changing and the narrative is changing and people are more willing to CONTINUE READING: The Tide Is Turning For Teachers Unions. Randi Weingarten Isn’t Surprised. | HuffPost

Betsy DeVos accuses media of using her as ‘clickbait’ - POLITICO

Betsy DeVos accuses media of using her as ‘clickbait’ - POLITICO

Betsy DeVos accuses media of using her as ‘clickbait’

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Monday accused many in the media of using her name as "clickbait,” telling an audience of journalists that “education is not about Betsy DeVos nor any other individual."

DeVos, speaking at the National Education Writers Association conference in Baltimore, acknowledged she’s not comfortable in the spotlight and never imagined she’d be the focus of media coverage.

“I don’t enjoy the publicity that comes with my position. I don’t love being up on stage or on any kind of platform. I’m an introvert,” DeVos said.

She added: "As much as many in the media use my name as clickbait or try to make it all about me, it’s not."

DeVos has often had a contentious relationship with the press and has provided less access to reporters than her predecessors.

DeVos encouraged the reporters in attendance to rethink the definition of public education and encouraged them to “get the terminology right about schools and school choice.” She said a phrase like “vouchers for charter schools” is nonsensical. CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos accuses media of using her as ‘clickbait’ - POLITICO

The "X"odus Files: Richard. | BustED Pencils

The "X"odus Files: Richard. | BustED Pencils

The “X”odus Files: Richard.

Frustration. Irritation. Anger. Despondency. This is the range of emotions I go through every time I read about some new “study” or “task force” purporting to take on the “teacher shortage.”

Study: Study what? Isn’t the data conclusive? New teachers are leaving classrooms within the first 3 years. More veteran teachers are leaving pre-retirement. And enrollment in teacher education programs is down 30%. Study done!

Task Force: Who makes up the “Task force?” Teachers? No. Parents? No. Then who? Academics, administrators, business people and politicians? Bingo! Why this composition? So the “panel” can travel around and “listen.” I’m sure we have all been “invited” to give testimony at some listening session or even better—asked to submit our thoughts. Do the organizers and people sitting on these panels know the disdain that teachers feel when a “task force” excludes the experts—teachers?

Or maybe the reality of the “study” and “task force” approach is just another slap in the face to the teachers leaving our classrooms. Think about it. Neither one of these approaches will actually do anything to dismantle the structure of imposed accountability. The real purpose of the “study” and task force” approach is a simple public relations gimmick that is directed at the general public to give the appearance that something is being done. That’s it. They make headlines as press release journalism. And these simple headlines lull the public back into a state of satisfactory disinterestedness.

Why not include teachers like Richard who went into teaching because…

After talking to an education professor about my desire to do more than write lesson plans, CONTINUE READING: The "X"odus Files: Richard. | BustED Pencils

Evidence Keeps On Growing: Charter Schools Cannot Be Successfully Regulated | janresseger

Evidence Keeps On Growing: Charter Schools Cannot Be Successfully Regulated | janresseger

Evidence Keeps On Growing: Charter Schools Cannot Be Successfully Regulated

Can charter schools be regulated to protect the public interest, or is it time for a moratorium on new charter schools and ultimately the phase out of the ones we have?  Here are two articles—one digging deeper into abuses in the federal Charter Schools Program and the other about the failure of one state government to oversee charter schools.  Both were published over the weekend by the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss.  Together they will convince you it is time to terminate an unregulated education sector gone mad.

In the first piece, Strauss publishes Carol Burris’s new analysis: Florida’s Charter-School Sector is a Real Mess. Burris is the executive director of the Network for Public Education (NPE). Her new exploration of scandalous misuse of Charter Schools Program money in Florida is an extension of the Network for Public Education’s new report, Asleep at the Wheel, which examines federal dollars wasted between 2006 and 2014 on charter schools that never opened or eventually shut down. Since NPE released the nationwide report, Burris has been drilling down into wasted CSP dollars in specific states.

Between 2006 and 2014, the Charter Schools Program awarded $92 million to to Florida’s education department to start up or expand 502 charter schools. Burris reports that $34,781,736 of that total was spent on 184 charter schools which have closed or were never opened at all.

Nearly half of Florida’s charter schools, explains Burris, are operated by huge for-profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOs): “The nonprofit charter school becomes a ‘pass thru’ for the for-profit corporation to staff the school, provide fiscal, procurement and legal operations, and even be the landlord… According to the U.S. Department of Education, Charter Schools Program guidance document, for-profit CMOs… may not directly receive a CSP grant. However, the charter schools that are governed by a for-profit CMO may, as long as CONTINUE READING: Evidence Keeps On Growing: Charter Schools Cannot Be Successfully Regulated | janresseger

Betsy DeVos: ‘There is no such thing as public money’ and 5 other revealing things she just said -- or wouldn’t say - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos: ‘There is no such thing as public money’ and 5 other revealing things she just said -- or wouldn’t say - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos: ‘There is no such thing as public money’ and 5 other revealing things she just said -- or wouldn’t say

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos schooled education reporters Monday during a rare appearance at their convention in Baltimore, telling them that too many articles do not accurately portray her newest school choice program proposal. She also said that “public education” needs to be redefined and that “there is no such thing as public money.”

DeVos answered questions — or attempted to dodge them — from members of the Education Writers Association about a range of topics, including immigration, school choice, civil rights for LGBTQ students, school discipline policies and more.

What she said, and what she wouldn’t directly address when asked, revealed her broad agenda to turn America’s traditional public education system into a free market and allow parents to use taxpayer money to do whatever they want to educate their children. She has made it no secret that her top goal is to expand alternatives to the traditional public school system, which she has called “a dead end.” She doubled down on her views Monday.

Referring to the Trump administration’s proposed $5 billion education tax credit program called Education Freedom Scholarships, she said reporters incorrectly use the term “public money.” That phrase has long been used to refer to taxpayer money that the government collects to provide goods and services to the people of the United States.

In fact, she denied the existence of public money by invoking the words of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s late prime minister and a former education minister. DeVos said:

In too many stories about our proposal, I see the term “public money.” And I’m reminded of something another education secretary often said.

Margaret Thatcher said that government “has no source of money other than the money people earn themselves.” There is no such thing as “public money.” The Iron Lady was right!

Our proposal allows people to direct money they themselves have earned. They will voluntarily contribute to nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships directly to students. It’s a much more effective and efficient way of getting resources to students who need them the most.

The proposed program would provide tax credits to individuals and groups that donate to help children attend CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos: ‘There is no such thing as public money’ and 5 other revealing things she just said -- or wouldn’t say - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos Frees Alexander Hamilton from Himself | deutsch29

Betsy DeVos Frees Alexander Hamilton from Himself | deutsch29

Betsy DeVos Frees Alexander Hamilton from Himself

On May 02, 2019, the Manhattan Institute (MI) honored two individuals at its 2019 Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner. One of those individuals was US Department of Education (USDOE) secretary, Betsy DeVos.

Betsy DeVos

According to MI, its Alexander Hamilton Award is named such “because, like the Manhattan Institute, he was a fervent proponent of commerce and civic life. ” However, Hamilton was clearly pro-centralized government, which makes the award an MI misnomer since MI uses it to honor the likes of DeVos, whose ideology is much more in line with the Antifederalists of Hamilton’s day.

The contradiction did not go unnoticed; on May 03, 2019, Think Progress published an article entitled, “Betsy DeVos Appears to Have No Idea Who Alexander Hamilton Was” From the article:

…The entire purpose of the agency Education Secretary DeVos leads is to use the resources of the federal government to foster better public education. Let’s also set aside the fact that the overwhelming majority of American primary and secondary school students — 90 percent — are educated by government-run schools. If DeVos plans to fight for “freedom from government,” she is in the worst possible job.

Yet DeVos doesn’t just appear to be rejecting the core mission of her agency and the foundational premise of the American education system. She also seems to have no idea who Alexander Hamilton is or what he sought to accomplish as the architect of much of America’s economic system. The early history of the United States was, to a large extent, a battle between a Jeffersonian model built on agriculture, small government, and slavery; and a Hamiltonian model built on capitalism, economic expansion, and a robust centralized government.

Hamilton’s core insight was that healthy markets and a robust manufacturing sector do not emerge from the ether so long as centralized authorities do not interfere. Rather, the vibrant economy that Hamilton helped build depends on a strong central government authority.

Below are excerpts from DeVos’ speech for the MI event, which she CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Frees Alexander Hamilton from Himself | deutsch29