Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

When a child cries out for help, whether it is a sick child, an abused child, a hungry child, a homeless child, or a victim of gun violence, adults should listen and most Americans do.

Unfortunately, our nation’s policymakers often treat children as merely an afterthought. They have powerful interest groups that are constantly demanding and receiving their full attention, and so children are often ignored. There is a reason that children represent nearly one-quarter of the population but less than 8 percent of the federal budget.

Consequently, in some instances, children have had to take matters into their own hands to get our political leaders to pay attention. For example, due to inaction by our nation’s policymakers to protect them from gun violence, America’s young people led marches across this country last weekend to demand that adults do something, as gun violence is now the third leading cause of death among children.

To a crowd of 800,000 people all along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., it was the kids — and just the kids — that spoke passionately and eloquently about the need for change to our gun laws, school safety, and mental health care treatment in this country.

Just a few weeks ago in a Michigan courtroom, over 150 young women came forward to tell their stories of CONTINUE READING: Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools

Big Education Ape: Gov. Tom Wolf calls charter schools ‘private,’ draws heated response from their largest advocacy group - pennlive.com - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/08/gov-tom-wolf-calls-charter-schools.html

By Lisa Lightner 

If you take a walk through any Costco on a weekend afternoon, you can see that Americans LOVE to get free stuff, no matter how small it is. Why else would we wait in line for a morsel of food that likely has lots of germs on it?

Because, it’s FREE.

So, what if I offered you the chance to send your child to private school, for free? You’d likely jump at the chance, right? After all, our perception is that private schools are exclusive. Private schools are much better than public schools, right?

You must pay for private schools, which puts them out of reach for many families. So, the chance to attend one for free? Sure!

But much like you might regret eating that bite of bacteria-laden food from the sample lady at Costco, you might want to really examine that “free” private school before you send your child.

Because that “private” school is not a private school at all. It’s a charter school. And charter schools are public schools. Besides, except for a few exceptions (that charter supporters never miss an opportunity to point out), they do not perform as well as traditional public schools. In fact, right here in Pennsylvania, we do not have one cyber charter school that is performing at an acceptable level per our own Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) reports.

First, let me be clear. I have never once heard a charter school say that they are a private school. However, they use smoke and mirrors to trick parents into thinking that they are a private school. And, they usually refer to themselves as “charter CONTINUE READING: GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

Somewhere on the other side of the Wall Street Journal paywall, David Osborne is bloviating about why charters are swell and Democratic candidates should stop telling "big lies" about them. The WSJ undoubtedly considers this a real stroke of some kind because Osborne is nominally a Democrat, the kind Arne Duncan hugging, Al Gore assisting Democrat who loves him some charters just as deeply as any conservative.

I didn't read then piece, because I'll be damned if I'll give that Fox-in-a-fancy-tux news outlet any of my money, but I've been watching the conversation about it all morning, and I'd like to chip in two cents more, because even if David Osborne were right, he'd be wrong, and even the fileted chunks of his piece that I've seen are not countering the Big Charter Lie-- they are perpetuating it.

Leonie Haimson fired off a letter to the WSJ that she also posted at NYC Public School Parents, and it cuts straight to the chase.

Osborne is particularly upset about the scurrilous claim that charter schools drain revenue, and he offers as counter-proof that a school that falls below 75% enrollment can start renting out space to charters. Haimson reminds us that in NYC, public schools are forced to hand over that space for free.

Osborne also argues that in some states, the public school is "cushioned" from having money drained by charters, and he gets his list of states really wrong there, but here's the thing-- he's just indulging CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

NYC Public School Parents: Letter to WSJ re big errors in David Osborne's pro-charter opd ed - https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2019/11/letter-to-wsj-re-big-errors-in-david.html

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer

In August, the nightmares start.

Every teacher experiences the excitement, worry and sometimes dread as the first day of school approaches. It's a combination of Christmas Eve and April 14.

Like most teachers, I spent the majority of my summer carefully crafting lesson plans. I spent weeks reading new books to add to my course and worked particularly hard on creating a week's worth of team building activities to start the year by building a positive classroom environment.

Then, at the second day of professional development (before the students even arrived), I was handed the eight-page district assessment calendar.

Within the first 13 days of school, I was expected to administer three different mandated assessments. So there went the classroom contract for behavior, there went the applications for class jobs, there went the classroom scavenger hunt. Instead of spending those first few weeks getting to know my students' names, interests and personalities, I was forced to hand them test after test, slowly chipping away at the positive atmosphere I wanted so badly to cultivate.

This year, I have to subject my eighth-grade students to 6,600 minutes of district-mandated testing. That’s 110 hours. That’s nearly 16 entire seven-hour school days.

Eighth-grade students in Hartford Public Schools are required to take 25 mandated district and state-wide assessments between late August and early June. Thirteen percent of the CONTINUE READING: When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers

Workers produce all the wealth of society. Unions have been around for generations and exist to protect the rights of workers.

Currently, 90%—93% of privately operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools across the country have no teacher unions, whereas about 90% of public school teachers are unionized.

One of the claims to fame of deregulated charter schools is that they are union-free, which means that all teachers and other employees are treated much like voiceless workers in the corporate world—as “at-will” employees, which means that they can be fired at any time for nearly any reason; there is no due process. Charter school advocates nonchalantly present this as a good thing.

But due to persistently inferior working conditions in charter schools compared to public schools, teachers in many charter schools across the country have strived to establish, and in many cases have succeeded in establishing, a union to protect their rights and the rights of their students. In more than 90% of these situations, charter school owners-operators have reacted very negatively. Using multiple tactics and strategies, charter school owners-operators have usually gone out of their way to undermine efforts by teachers to unionize. Intimidation, threats, and bullying have frequently been used by charter school owners-operators against employees striving to defend their collective interests. The title of a 2016 Slate article says it all: How charter schools bust unions: By intimidating teachers. By scaring parents. And sometimes by calling the cops.¹

Teachers organized into a union with a collective bargaining agreement that recognizes their needs as teachers is to charter schools what the crucifix is to Dracula. In some cases charter school owners-operators have closed a charter CONTINUE READING: Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group

A Wayne County judge has ordered a nonprofit touted as probing fraud and corruption through undercover reporting to stop releasing information related to the state arm of the American Federation of Teachers that the union claims was obtained illegally.

AFT Michigan in Detroit’s Third Circuit Court Thursday seeking action against , which is led by conservative activist James O’Keefe.

The union alleges a group operative, Marisa or Marissa Jorge, used fraud and deception to secure a summer internship at AFT Michigan this year, “ostensibly to obtain material Project Veritas could use in one of its infamously misleading hit videos,” officials said in a statement Friday.

According to the complaint, Jorge pretended to be a University of Michigan student interested in becoming a teacher, “regularly sought information …. beyond her assignment,” and “was granted access to a substantial amount of confidential and proprietary information including databases, confidential conferences and the status of grievance.”

The union also believes Jorge recorded staffers without their knowledge or consent, which is against state law. Its attorneys argue that AFT Michigan “will suffer irreparable harm if information is disclosed.”

On Friday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan sided with the union and signed an emergency restraining order barring Project Veritas and Jorge from publishing, releasing or disclosing information related to AFT Michigan, its officers, employees or affiliated groups.

Reached for comment Friday night, Stephen Gordon, Project Veritas’ communication director, said the group had not been served court papers on the case.

“We’re not going to comment on anything until such time we receive proper notice,” he said.

A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10 in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Union officials praised the judge’s decision.

“James O’Keefe and his operatives will stop at nothing to smear their ideological opponents — deception, distortion and dirty tactics — all to advance a political agenda that undermines public school students, teachers and families,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “We are grateful that the Michigan court has protected — at least for now —students, teachers and families in Michigan.” CONTINUE READING: AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Let’s talk about school segregation, let’s talk about real estate.

An update on the SFUSD Enrollment conversation

Last night I participated in a great discussion last night at the Ad Hoc Student Assignment Committee, Board of Education Commissioners continued to explore ways to revise our school enrollment system. Shoutout to district staff for putting together a thoughtful presentation and for Commissioner Norton for leading a great discussion.

I encourage folks to review the presentation and listen to the audio recording. (These are uploaded on the district website, but are not all easy to find. So I’m reposting on my blog.)

Download the presentation:
November-18-2019-Ad-Hoc-Committee-PresentationDownload

Listen to the audio of the meeting:

This is an important conversation…

I will continue to reiterate, I wish this discussion was focused on the root causes of segregation in our schools, rather than mechanics of school placement. Algorithms are not the answer. Nonetheless, this conversation is happening. And I think it can be an important one… if we talk about the larger systems at work.

You can’t talk about school segregation without talking about real estate. Just because we don’t actively practice redlining today, doesn’t mean it’s impacts aren’t being felt today.

Just a few days ago Newsday published an investigative article titled Long Island Divided, which makes clear the connection between housing discrimination and school segregation. In fact, the connections are so evident, the authors decided to write a whole piece about it titled, “Schools as a Selling Point where it states:

““Discussions about schools can raise questions about steering if there is a correlation between the quality of the schools and neighborhood racial composition.”

Characterizations about schools with low test scores, for example, or comments that reference a “‘community with declining schools’ become code words for racial or other differences in the community,” the post states. As a result, such comments become “fair-housing issues.””

— National Realtors Association Website, 2014

Ask yourself about our city’s zoning history. Where are multi-family homes built? Where is low-income housing built? Where are the single-family CONTINUE READING: Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

After making waves in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina and beyond, the Red for Ed movement has now spread to Indiana. Fed up with disinvestment in public schools and disrespect for their profession, teachers from across the Hoosier State are converging in Indianapolis today to hold lawmakers accountable and demand change.

More than 15,000 teachers and supporters are expected to rally at the Republican-controlled statehouse for today’s Red for Ed Day of Action, organized by the Indiana State Teachers Association and AFT Indiana. While the protest is not officially a strike, nearly half of the state’s school districts have been forced to cancel classes because so many educators have taken the day off to participate.

The rally coincides with the state legislature’s “Organization Day,” where lawmakers discuss their priorities for the next legislative session which begins in January.

Teachers are demanding raises to their salaries, which average around $50,000—well below the national average of $60,000—but can be as low as $30,000 for new hires. After years of state budget surpluses, Indiana now has $2.3 billion in reserves. At the same time, Indiana teachers have seen the smallest salary increases in the nation, receiving an overall increase of only $6,900 between 2002 and 2017.

Rather than simply tapping into the state’s massive reserves to pay for teacher raises, Republican lawmakers say that any salary increases would have to be paired with cuts CONTINUE READING: Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

School Secretary’s Sense of Pride Captures the Spirit of ESP Day

School Secretary’s Sense of Pride Captures the Spirit of ESP Day

School Secretary’s Sense of Pride Captures the Spirit of ESP Day

In September of 1977, Jimmy Carter was President of the United States and the cost of a gallon of regular gas was $0.62. The top song on the charts was “Best of My Love” by The Emotions and the first episode of the long-running hit TV show Love Boat aired on ABC. It was also the start of a new school year and a new job for Mrs. Nila Brown, who has been continually serving as a school secretary in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for the past 42 years.

“I was so excited to become part of the faculty of the very school I just graduated from,” Brown says. “I felt such a great sense of pride.”

A sense of pride is exactly what has fueled her decades-long career in education, she says: Pride in her students, pride in being an education support professional (ESP) and an integral part of the school staff, and pride in working with a talented group of educators, dedicated parents, and a close-knit community that cares about its children.

“But what I take the most pride in is my ability to help,” Brown says. “I feel important when I can help and it is important.”

Join NEA and schools across the country as we recognize the amazing ESPs who make a difference in the lives of students both in and out of the classroom. Use our Celebration Toolkit  to get event ideas, templates, sample text and graphics to show your appreciation for ESPs in person and online. Use #WeLoveOurESPs and #AEW2019 to tell us how you’re celebrating, and see how others are showing their appreciation at http://neatoday.org/esp-day/

American Education Week, November 18 to 22, is an opportunity to celebrate public education and honor individuals who work in our schools to ensure that every child receives a quality education. Wednesday, November 20, is Education Support Professionals Day and highlights the varied contributions ESPs make in supporting the whole child. This year, as we head into the 40^th year of ESP membership in NEA, we are spotlighting Nila Brown’s 40+ years of service as an ESP in the front office.

The role of the school secretary, says Brown, is to support the entire school family – from teachers and bus drivers to custodians and principals, to students, families and community members.

“The school secretary makes it all work,” she says. “We make everything run. We are at the core of it all.”

Brown started her career at Arundel High CONTINUE READING: School Secretary’s Sense of Pride Captures the Spirit of ESP Day

Charter Schools Undermine the Public Schools Which Serve the Very Children Cory Booker Worries About | janresseger

Charter Schools Undermine the Public Schools Which Serve the Very Children Cory Booker Worries About | janresseger

Charter Schools Undermine the Public Schools Which Serve the Very Children Cory Booker Worries About

On Monday, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker published a column in the NY Times to announce his support for charter schools. I’ll give Booker credit for being honest. Until now, as an active candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, Booker has tried to hedge this issue, even though support for charter schools—and at one time even vouchers—has been among his primary priorities in public life for two decades.

I’ll also give Booker credit for endorsing, in this week’s column, better support for traditional public schools: “As a party, we need to take a holistic approach to improving outcomes for children who are underserved and historically disadvantaged.  That must mean significantly increasing funding for public schools, raising teacher pay, fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, investing in universal preschool, eliminating child poverty—and yes, supporting high-performing public charter schools if and when they are the right fit for a community, are equitable and inclusive, and play by the same rules as other public schools.”

Booker bases his argument on his own life story. His parents struggled with racism and segregation and fought to move into a school district where they could be sure their children would be well educated. He believes charter schools provide an escape from struggling public schools for children whose parents cannot move out of communities where they believe the schools fail to serve their children. For Booker, charter schools are an escape route for families who feel trapped by racism, as his parents did.

It is on one level an appealing argument, which was bluntly articulated when the far-right Thomas Fordham Institute’s Michael Petrilli argued that charter schools are a solution for poor strivers. Betsy DeVos adopts the same argument for school choice when she says that, CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools Undermine the Public Schools Which Serve the Very Children Cory Booker Worries About | janresseger

The Right Moment … | GFBrandenburg's Blog

The Right Moment … | GFBrandenburg's Blog

The Right Moment …

(A guest blog by Peter MacPherson on the need to revert to democratic local control of schools in Washington, DC.)

By Peter MacPherson

The right moment.

A crucial sense of timing has long been viewed as the key to successful human endeavors. Advertising keeps reminding us that it’s crucial to have the erectile-dysfunction drug Cialis on hand when the right moment strikes, otherwise the opportunity for a joyful session of lovemaking will be lost. Sometimes the right moment, at least in retrospect and in real circumstances, can be of almost incalculable importance, where the very course of history is recognized to have been altered by timing. In early June of 1944 American General Dwight Eisenhower, with the help of his fellow centurions, was desperately trying to determine when they could unleash the largest invasion force in history on the shores of France to begin the final chapter of the Second World War in Europe. Before the invasion, Eisenhower and his colleagues had been bedeviled by bad weather, and 156,000 allied troops were onboard ships in ports along the British coast waiting to be dispatched to a battle that many participants on both sides viewed as an impending struggle of almost biblical proportions.

Group Captain James Stagg, a British RAF officer who led a team that monitored the weather for Eisenhower, determined that a brief window would open for a few hours on June 6, 1944 that would allow the allied invasion force to leave port and put ashore on the beaches of Normandy in France. Upon receiving this vital information Eisenhower recognized that the quintessential right moment had arrived.

The outcome of acting in that moment could not be clearer.

The voters of the District of Columbia are entering a period that CONTINUE READING: The Right Moment … | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Updates on Student Privacy, Class Size Data, and Upcoming CEC Presentations | Class Size Matters

Updates on Student Privacy, Class Size Data, and Upcoming CEC Presentations | Class Size Matters 

Updates on Student Privacy, Class Size Data, and Upcoming CEC Presentations

1.On Nov. 5, the Wall Street Journal published an excellent article about the College Board’s egregious practice of selling student data, showing that an important reason colleges purchase the data is to increase their rejection rates, which then boosts their reputation for selectivity. Though the article is now behind the paywall, here is a WSJ podcast on this subject and a summary of the article. Last week, WCBS news also ran a segment on how the College Board routinely violates student privacy through their “Student Search” program in this manner.

Most NY districts contract with the College Board to give the PSAT, SAT and AP exams. If you haven’t already, please sign our petition asking Attorney General Tish James to investigate this illegal practice, since NY state law prohibits the selling of student data by any school vendor.

2. This year’s class size data was released and shows that average class sizes actually increased in Kindergarten and 7th grade this year.

In other  grades, the class size held steady or declined by only insignificant amounts.

We are providing a detailed analysis of class size trends and what should be done to counteract  the sharp increases that have occurred since 2007 at three CEC meetings this week. We will also discuss school overcrowding and the findings of our charter facilities report, including how millions are missing from the matching funds the DOE was supposed to provide public schools co-located with charter schools for facility upgrades, and the $100 million a year the city spends on renting private space for charter schools, including in some cases, where the charter management organization owns the building.

• Wed. Nov. 20 at  6 PM at CEC 1 (Anna Silver School, PS 20, 166 Essex St.)
• Wed. Nov. 20 at 6:30 PM at CEC 5 (PS 36, 123 Morningside Drive @ 122nd St Unit 2 Room 228)
• Thurs. Nov. 21 at 6:30 PM at CEC 6 (at PS 178, The Professor Juan Bosch School at 12-18 Ellwood Street)

Please come – or invite us to your CEC or other community group. Our lawsuit against the city for refusing to lower class size as required by the Contracts for Excellence law will be heard by the Appellate Court in January.

3. I also have written blog posts on the following topics that you might like to check out:

• Is it accurate to say that charter schools are the “boogeymen” of progressive Democrats, as Cory Booker and some reporters claim?

• What’s really behind the city, state and national drop in NAEP (national) test scores?

thanks, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-529-3539

Updates on Student Privacy, Class Size Data, and Upcoming CEC Presentations | Class Size Matters