Once Again Public School Students Are Left Holding The Bag

Once Again Public School Students Are Left Holding The Bag

Once Again Public School Students Are Left Holding The Bag

“Our intention in establishing GANAS Academy was to provide families with an alternative option to public education for their child.”

- GANAS Academy

The LAUSD budgeted $15,920,300 to renovate facilities for charter schools in 2019

When the GANAS Academy Charter School applied to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), their governing board told the district that the school would have 120 students in the 2019–2020 school year. Even though part of the responsibility of running a school includes providing facilities, GANAS left that task to the LAUSD. Forced by Prop 39 to remove space being used by students of public schools, the district offered the school facilities at Catskill Elementary School and set aside $415,300 of public education funds to perform the facility renovations required by law.

GANAS’ marketing efforts included congratulating graduates of a school that had not even opened.

It appears that GANAS formerly accepted the LAUSD’s Prop-39 offer despite the fact that they were having trouble enrolling students in their publicly funded private school. According to documents obtained by michaelkohlhaas.org, GANAS hired a consultant on May 6, 2019, to assist with their efforts as they were still 75 students short. For his efforts, Ed Rodriguez was paid a bounty of $850 for every student who was enrolled. His methods included poaching students

from Catskill Elementary School and seeking students who were willing to be bussed in from outside of the community. In order CONTINUE READING: Once Again Public School Students Are Left Holding The Bag

UPDATE: Sacramento City Unified officials slammed by fiscal adviser | The Sacramento Bee #REDFORED #SCTA #SCUSD #CTA

Sacramento City Unified officials slammed by fiscal adviser | The Sacramento Bee

‘No confidence’: State adviser slammed Sac City Unified officials in fiscal crisis, emails show

An independent fiscal adviser blasted the Sacramento City Unified School District this spring while it was calculating huge cuts to jobs and programs, saying he had “no confidence” in its business staff or their data.

“It appears to me your staff has again demonstrated that they don’t have the capacity or willingness to produce accurate data,” Mike Fine of the state-created Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team said March 7 in a string of emails to Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and board President Jessie Ryan, expressing distress over the data the district was presenting in its second interim budget report.

“That may seem like a strong statement, but I need you to hear me clearly so I’m being direct,” Fine continued. “It appears they load data in a system and then press the print button and add it to the board agenda without reviewing it, analyzing it, etc. They must take responsibility for that and you must hold them accountable for that.”

Fine copied Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools Dave Gordon on the emails.

The records were received by the Sacramento City Teachers Association through a public records request and independently obtained from the district by The Sacramento Bee. The teachers union said it requested the emails “because of the lack of transparency at the district and because the district has been so badly mismanaged.”

CAPACITY, LEADERSHIP QUESTIONED

Fine said in the emails that he had long raised issues about cash flow and budget oversight, but felt the district was not taking his advice. He expressed concern about the capacity and leadership of the business office.

He also said the second interim budget data was “not adequately reviewed and vetted by the county before they were published, publicly or privately,” and that the district seemed to be disengaged with the county Office of Education.

Ryan in an email response to Fine rebutted the notion that the district was not communicating with the Sacramento County Office of Education, citing weekly meetings with Gordon.

“I also am not aware of any feeling by Superintendent Gordon that our district has disconnected from him, his team, or otherwise rejected SCOE’s assistance in this process,” Ryan said in an email response to Fine.

“When districts fall into severe fiscal difficulty such as SCUSD is facing, the County Superintendent is empowered by state statutes to take various steps to tighten oversight and provide assistance to the district to help get them out of fiscal distress,” Gordon said in a statement to The Bee.

Aguilar defended the business staff in his email response to Fine. Noting that the financial recovery plan required negotiations with the district’s unions, he said Sacramento City Unified had CONTINUE READING: Sacramento City Unified officials slammed by fiscal adviser | The Sacramento Bee

FROM 

FCMAT emails: No Confidence in the District Administration - https://myemail.constantcontact.com/FCMAT-emails---No-Confidence-in-the-District-Administration.html?soid=1119107618634&aid=t5T-2D4vG9w&fbclid=IwAR0mYvGb-SjOVQWUkSINgZJ15vWp-Yewpz4b_MQUBpFrzxjbgMiNIlvBez0

FCMAT Emails: No Confidence in District Administration, Challenges Board Secrecy

We strongly encourage you to read the article that was posted Friday (July 19) by the Sacramento Bee. The FCMAT emails referenced in the article express strong concerns regarding the District's fiscal mismanagement and the Board's secrecy and lack of transparency. You can read the story by clicking here. In addition, for those who are further interested, we are including the actual emails cited in the story, which include several items not included in the Sacramento Bee story. First, is the March 7, 2019 email from FCMAT to Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and School Board President Jessie Ryan which you can view by clicking here . Second, is the email chain from the same day with Mr. Aguilar's response, and FCMAT's follow-up response, which you can view by clicking here . Third is the email chain from the same day with Ms. Ryan's response and FCMAT's follow-up response, which you can view by clicking here. Later that same night--March 7--the Sacramento City School Board voted to significantly cut Child Development, and to layoff 170 certificated and 200 classified staff. Fourth is the March 19th letter from SCOE Superintendent Dave Gordon questioning the District's enrollment numbers, which you can view by clicking here. Fifth is the April 1 email from Jorge Aguilar confirming the District's mistake on undercounting 730 students, which you can view by clicking here. At least one board member has confirmed that she was not provided copies of the FCMAT emails, the letter from David Gordon, or Mr. Aguilar's April 1 confirmation email. The mistake was not made public until the mid-May 2019, where it was included, but not called out, in the middle of the District's Third Interim Budget. Since then, the District has either rescinded the layoff or made a job offer to all but two of K-12 classroom teachers who were laid off. The District has not yet addressed PE teachers, social workers, counselors or the psychologists who were laid off. The District has also not addressed Child Development.

Sacramento City Teachers Association |916.452.4591 | scta@saccityta.com|www.sacteachers.org

What school segregation looks like in the US today, in 4 charts – Raw Story

What school segregation looks like in the US today, in 4 charts – Raw Story

What school segregation looks like in the US today, in 4 charts

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a senator from California, has spoken about how she benefited from attending Berkeley’s desegregated schools.

“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me,” Harris said in the first Democratic debateto candidate Joe Biden. “So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly.”

School segregation is the separation of students into different schools by race. In 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregation was unconstitutional. Desegregation efforts since then have used a variety of tools to try to overcome patterns of segregation that persist.

Studies have shown that school desegregation has important benefits for students of all races. Recent research illustrates that its positive impact on the educational attainment, lifetime earnings and health of African American families persists for multiple generations.

Yet, despite years of government desegregation efforts and the proven benefits of integrated schools, our recently published researchshows that U.S. school segregation is higher than it has been in decades, even if there are no longer overt laws requiring racially segregated schools.

CONTINUE READING: What school segregation looks like in the US today, in 4 charts – Raw Story

Michael Kohlhaas: Charter School Pays Consultant $850 for Every Student He Signs Up | Diane Ravitch's blog

Michael Kohlhaas: Charter School Pays Consultant $850 for Every Student He Signs Up | Diane Ravitch's blog

Michael Kohlhaas: Charter School Pays Consultant $850 for Every Student He Signs Up

Blogger Michael Kohlhaas continues to pore through the treasure trove of leaked emails that he received concerning the charter industry in Los Angeles. There apparently are thousands of them, and he reports them as he finds interesting ones.

One thing shines through his reports: The charter industry is greedy, self-interesting, and not at all interested in education, only in growing their market share.

He recently discovered that a charter founder in Los Angeles had hired a consultant to find students for her charter school. She offered to pay him $850 for every student he enrolled. 

Apparently there is no “waiting list” for the new Ganas Academy. There are not thousands of children lined up to enroll. Kind of knocks a hole in the charter marketing plan. The charter was not able to find enough students and it will not be opening.

The school wanted to open in a community that opposed it.

The community fought back.

The community celebrated its victory over a charter that had to pay a recruiter $850 a  head to find students.

Kohlhaas writes:

Somehow, even though it makes no freaking sense CONTINUE READING: Michael Kohlhaas: Charter School Pays Consultant $850 for Every Student He Signs Up | Diane Ravitch's blog

Student Test Scores May Play a Smaller Role in Future PA Teacher Evaluations | gadflyonthewallblog

Student Test Scores May Play a Smaller Role in Future PA Teacher Evaluations | gadflyonthewallblog

Student Test Scores May Play a Smaller Role in Future PA Teacher Evaluations

Pennsylvania lawmakers may have finally realized that treating teachers like crap isn’t a good way to improve public schools.

Across the country it’s getting harder to fill teaching positions with qualified educators. And that’s because of the way we treat the people who volunteer to educate the next generation.

You can’t raise expectations while taking away resources, union protections, and fair ways to evaluate their work.

And to his credit, state Sen. Ryan Aument seems to have finally seen the light.

In 2012, the Republican from Lancaster County was one of the leading proponents of the Commonwealth’s new teacher evaluation system which drastically increased the amount student test scores are used to assess educators.

But now Aument and other Republicans are proposing new legislation to cut back on these same measures.

Under the current system, only 50 percent of state teachers annual evaluations come CONTINUE READING: Student Test Scores May Play a Smaller Role in Future PA Teacher Evaluations | gadflyonthewallblog

Teachers Pay Teachers Is Not the Problem - Teacher Habits

Teachers Pay Teachers Is Not the Problem - Teacher Habits

Teachers Pay Teachers Is Not the Problem

(A few disclosures: I have a Teachers Pay Teachers account. I think I have two products for sale. Last month, I made 24 cents. So this isn’t something vital to my financial survival. Second, I don’t often buy things from Teachers Pay Teachers. I’ve probably downloaded five or six freebies and purchased two or three products in all my years of teaching. I disclose these things so you know I don’t really have a vested interest in TeachersPayTeachers. But I do have opinions.)

————————

Teachers Pay Teachers is a divisive topic in education. On the one hand, millions of actual teachers use it, not only to find materials to use with students but to make money selling their own content. On the other hand, TpT receives a fair amount of criticism from a second group of teachers and those connected to education who aren’t teaching classrooms full of kids. The following popped up in my Twitter feed a couple of days ago and it represents the general sentiment of many critics:

TpT has been on the receiving end of growing criticism like this for the last few years. There are concerns about copyright infringement.Critics contend that the available materials are worksheet heavy (‘worksheets are bad’ being a relatively recent piece of conventional wisdom promulgated by a subset of vocal teachers). Some sellers have been accused of ripping off fellow teachers by copying their freely  CONTINUE READING: Teachers Pay Teachers Is Not the Problem - Teacher Habits

Ohio Budget Sets Moratorium on New State Takeovers of School Districts, Fails to Resolve Lorain Crisis | janresseger

Ohio Budget Sets Moratorium on New State Takeovers of School Districts, Fails to Resolve Lorain Crisis | janresseger

Ohio Budget Sets Moratorium on New State Takeovers of School Districts, Fails to Resolve Lorain Crisis

State budgets outline what sort of public investment is possible within the revenue constraints of any state government. They also outline the spending priorities of the majority.  Sometimes, despite laws that prohibit logrolling, they also contain a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with fiscal matters.

Ohio’s new biennial budget reflects a priority for tax cutting.  Ohio’s legislators—despite the 17 day extension required because even the huge Republican majorities in both chambers couldn’t agree on a lot of things—reached consensus that taxes should be further reducedinstead of investing in services needed by the must vulnerable Ohioans.  For example, the Legislature did not raise basic formula funding for 3 school districts already designated in Academic Distress or for the ten additional public school districts teetering on the edge of that categorization.

The Ohio budget conference committee, mercifully, did not insert into the state budget the Senate Education Committee’s long and detailed amendment prescribing a new state takeover plan for the 10 districts threatened with state takeover in the next two years. The Columbus Dispatch‘s Catherine Candisky reports that Senate President Larry Obhof, “said the conference committee… agreed to a one-year moratorium on a controversial law allowing state takeover of academically failing school districts while lawmakers continue work on a solution in separate legislation.”

The Ohio House had repealed the state takeovers of school districts in its version of the budget. The Senate Education Committee had inserted into the Senate’s budget a cumbersome plan that featured a new state School Transformation Board, private takeover consultants approved by the state to conduct “root-cause” analyses, state-approved school district CONTINUE READING: Ohio Budget Sets Moratorium on New State Takeovers of School Districts, Fails to Resolve Lorain Crisis | janresseger

Here’s what’s missing in music education: Cultural and social relevance - The Washington Post

Here’s what’s missing in music education: Cultural and social relevance - The Washington Post

Here’s what’s missing in music education: Cultural and social relevance

Lee Whitmore is executive director of the Grammy Music Education Coalition, a nonprofit collective dedicated to expanding music education in elementary and secondary schools.

A former music teacher who says he was trained in “the traditional American way,” Whitmore explains in this post what he thinks is missing from too many music education programs in U.S. schools: social and cultural relevance.

According to the Grammy Music Education Coalition, 3.8 million preK-12 students in the United States have no access to music education and its benefits. Yet 89 percent of teachers and 82 percent of parents rate music education highly as a source for greater student creativity.

This post first appeared on the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. I was given permission to republish it.

By Lee Whitmore

I was trained and licensed to be a music teacher in the traditional American way.

My classes included all varieties of instruments. I sang and learned to conduct bands, orchestras and choirs. I played in ensembles. I took multiple semesters of musical technique, history and theory as well as music education methods.

Almost all of what I just described was traditional. Incredibly traditional. This training has served me well in many aspects of my professional and personal lives but, frankly, these techniques weren’t enough when I got to my semester of student teaching.

I first was assigned to an elementary school in a middle-class suburb of Philadelphia. I worked with young children, sang, moved and danced, and had a blast. Then I got to a middle school in the same district in a CONTINUE READING: Here’s what’s missing in music education: Cultural and social relevance - The Washington Post

USDOE Alert: Security Breach at 62 Colleges Using the Ellucian Banner Tech/Data System | deutsch29

USDOE Alert: Security Breach at 62 Colleges Using the Ellucian Banner Tech/Data System | deutsch29

USDOE Alert: Security Breach at 62 Colleges Using the Ellucian Banner Tech/Data System

On July 17, 2019, the US Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Federal Student Aid posted the following security breach announcement “regarding the active and ongoing exploitation of a previously identified vulnerability in the Ellucian Banner (Banner) system.

First, to the heart of the matter:

The Department has identified 62 colleges or universities that have been affected by exploitation of this vulnerability. We have also recently received information that indicates criminal elements have been actively scanning the internet looking for institutions to victimize through this vulnerability and developing lists of institutions for targeting with this exploitation.

Victimized institutions have indicated that the attackers exploit the vulnerability and then leverage scripts in the admissions or enrollment section of the affected Banner system to create multiple student accounts. It has been reported that at least 600 fake or fraudulent student accounts were created within a 24-hour period, with the activity continuing over multiple days resulting in the creation of thousands of fake student accounts. Some of these accounts appear to be leveraged almost immediately for criminal activity.

And now, the entire USDOE announcement:

Posted Date: July 17, 2019

Author: Federal Student Aid

Subject: TECHNOLOGY SECURITY ALERT – Exploitation of Ellucian Banner System Vulnerability

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) has obtained information regarding the active and ongoing exploitation of a CONTINUE READING: USDOE Alert: Security Breach at 62 Colleges Using the Ellucian Banner Tech/Data System | deutsch29

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight by Thomas Ultican

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight by Thomas Ultican

Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight 

by Thomas Ultican

Originally posted at: https://tultican.com/2019/07/07/charter-scandal-a-product-of-shabby-law-and-ignored-oversight/?fbclid=IwAR23CqY7_uOiqKG_6WiJ0zsck4iY_kUeX2ZzSrZEkBqeFn-TyKa2Uws8v6k

Notoriously clever operators of an online charter empire were indicted for allegedly stealing $50 million dollars. The Grand Jury of San Diego County heard the testimony of 72 witnesses and voted out a 67-count indictment against Sean McManus, Jason Schrock, Justin Schmitt, Eli Johnson, Steven Zant and six others. The charges were centered on the byzantine operations of the A3 Education organization which took full advantage of weak charter school laws in California.

From the indictment,

“Conspirators knowingly obtained state funding for children who were not assigned certificated teachers as required by law, were not in contact with the charter school, and who were not provided any educational services during the dates claimed.”

“Conspirators themselves, and through subordinates courted small school districts across California who were suffering budget woes and suggested they authorize charter schools as a means to generate additional state funding for the district in the form of oversight fees.”

The Small District Authorizer Model

Carol Burris was one of the first people to identify McManus as a predator. In her 2017 investigative report “Charters and Consequences”, she wrote about the Wise school which calls itself a Waldorf inspired charter school. She noted,

“No one really seems to be wise to Wise—except perhaps California STEAM Sonoma, which claims Wise Academy as its project.”

“The former Academy of Arts and Sciences CEO, Sean McManus, described Wise as “a boutique program that people usually have to pay for, so to be part of a free charter school appeals to a lot of people in the area.” Wise and the state funding it brings left the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and so did Sean McManus, who is now listed as the CEO of CONTINUE READING: Badass Teachers Association Blog: Charter Scandal a Product of Shabby Law and Ignored Oversight by Thomas Ultican

NYS Education Commissioner Resigns (to move to another “Educational Opportunity”): Should the Next Commissioner Be an Innovator, a Reformer, an Administrator? | Ed In The Apple

NYS Education Commissioner Resigns (to move to another “Educational Opportunity”): Should the Next Commissioner Be an Innovator, a Reformer, an Administrator? | Ed In The Apple

NYS Education Commissioner Resigns (to move to another “Educational Opportunity”): Should the Next Commissioner Be an Innovator, a Reformer, an Administrator?

The July meeting of the Board of Regents is usually a discussion of key policy issues to address in the upcoming school year. The issue for the 19-20 school year has been bubbling for a few years: high school graduation requirements; with the underlying question: Do the current requirements adequately prepare students for higher education and/or the world of work? (Read Chalkbeat report here); a yet to be appointed blue ribbon commission will explore over the next school year.

After a few hours of discussion Maryellen Elia, the commissioner, read a statement, after four years in the position she is resigning to accept “another education opportunity.”  The members of the Board were shocked. (Read Chalkbeat report here)

The position of New York State commissioner of education is a complex and, at times, frustrating position.

New York State has a unique method of selecting the commissioner: the seventeen member Board of Regents who are “elected” at a combined meeting of both houses of the legislature, effectively the Democratic majority, hires the commissioner.

In most states the commissioner is selected by the governor, or, a board of education selected by the governor. The higher education governing structures, the CUNY and SUNY boards are appointed by the governor and select the chancellors of the systems.

The commissioner is only responsible to the Board of Regents, although CONTINUE READING: NYS Education Commissioner Resigns (to move to another “Educational Opportunity”): Should the Next Commissioner Be an Innovator, a Reformer, an Administrator? | Ed In The Apple