Top 10 Reasons School Choice Is No Choice | HuffPost

Top 10 Reasons School Choice Is No Choice | HuffPost

Top 10 Reasons School Choice Is No Choice
In reality, it’s just a scam to make private schools cheaper for rich people.

On the surface of it, school choice sounds like a great idea.

Parents will get to shop for schools and pick the one that best suits their children.

Oh! Look, Honey! This one has an exceptional music program! That one excels in math and science! The drama program at this one is first in the state!

But that’s not at all what school choice actually is.

In reality, it’s just a scam to make private schools cheaper for rich people, further erode the public school system and allow for-profit corporations to gobble up education dollars meant to help children succeed.

Here’s why:

1) Voucher programs almost never provide students with full tuition.

Voucher programs are all the rage especially among conservatives. Legislation has been proposed throughout the country taking a portion of tax dollars that would normally go to a public school and allowing parents to put it toward tuition at a private or parochial school. However, the cost of going to these schools is much higher than going to public schools. So even with your tax dollars in hand, you don’t have the money to go to these schools. For the majority of impoverished students attending public schools, vouchers don’t help. Parents still have to find more money somewhere to make this happen. Poor folks just can’t afford it. But rich folks can so let’s reduce their bill!? They thank you for CONTINUE READING: Top 10 Reasons School Choice Is No Choice | HuffPost

Shawgi Tell: Charter School Promoters Celebrate Charter School Failure | Dissident Voice

Charter School Promoters Celebrate Charter School Failure | Dissident Voice

Charter School Promoters Celebrate Charter School Failure

Even worse than the persistently high failure rate of brick-and-mortar charter schools is the extraordinary failure rate of cyber charter schools year after year. Even the nature and scope of corruption in these deregulated online schools is more troubling than the corruption that has long plagued brick-and-mortar charter schools nationwide.

The abysmal performance of cyber charter schools is so visible and chronic that many charter school advocates do not even bother trying to sugar-coat their chronically substandard performance.

Thus it was laughable to hear that owners-operators of cyber charter schools in Nevada  celebrated “student achievement” and “public school options” during Public Schools Week in the U.S., which ran from February 24-28, 2020. Jay Schuler, Nevada director of Public School Options, went so far as to casually state that, “Student achievement through online schools is so much greater when you remove barriers for students who need a different learning environment.”¹ Schuler made other irrational statements as well: “Students attending online school often excel through personalized learning plans feeling more successful and engaged in their education. Creating opportunities for learning empowers students’ success for a bright future.” More than CONTINUE READING: Charter School Promoters Celebrate Charter School Failure | Dissident Voice

Will Los Angeles School Board Race Be Most Expensive in History? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Los Angeles School Board Race Be Most Expensive in History? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Los Angeles School Board Race Be Most Expensive in History? 

The usual charter-friendly billionaires are pouring money into the Los Angeles school board race in hopes of breaking its pro-public education majority and restoring control to the pro-charter faction.

The usual suspects are trying to buy the board.

With majority control of Los Angeles Unified’s school board hanging in the balance, it has surprised no one that a flood of outside privatization money has put March 3’s Super Tuesday election on target to smash LAUSD’s 2017 record as the nation’s priciest school board primary ever. At last count, laundromat tycoon Bill Bloomfield and the Reed Hastings- and Jim and Alice Walton-bankrolled Charter Public Schools PAC have poured in nearly $6.4 million to stop L.A. teachers from returning to office three pro-public school progressives — George McKenna (Board District 1), Scott Schmerelson (BD 3) and Jackie Goldberg (BD 5) — and electing an education justice veteran to fill the sole open seat in BD 7, LAUSD parent and Reclaim Our Schools L.A. co-founder Patricia Castellanos.

One measure of the California Charter Schools CONTINUE READING: Will Los Angeles School Board Race Be Most Expensive in History? | Diane Ravitch's blog

What schools and teachers should be doing now about coronavirus, according to the experts - The Washington Post

What schools and teachers should be doing now about coronavirus, according to the experts - The Washington Post

What schools and teachers should be doing now about coronavirus, according to the experts

What should schools, teachers and everyone else on a campus be doing as the new coronavirus continues spreading around the globe, including in the United States?

Most patients confirmed to have covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, have had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some patients have experienced pneumonia in both lungs, and the global death count as of Monday was more than 3,000, with six deaths in Washington state. A few schools there closed as a precaution, and experts say more school closings are possible if the disease continues to spread throughout the United States.

There is no antiviral treatment specifically for the disease, but experts say there are precautionary steps everyone can and should be taking to avoid coming down with covid-19.

Sign up for our coronavirus newsletter to stay updated on the outbreak.

Here’s what experts say schools and teachers should be doing to prepare for the spread of the coronavirus. The following advice comes directly from leading health and education agencies:
ADVICE FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Guidance for schools that do not have covid-19 identified in their community

To prepare for possible community transmission of covid-19, the most important thing for schools to do now is plan and prepare. As the global outbreak evolves, schools should prepare for the possibility of community-level outbreaks. Schools want to be ready if covid-19 does appear in their communities.

Child-care and K-12 school administrators nationwide can take steps to help stop or slow the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, including covid-19:

• Review, update, and implement emergency operations plans (EOPs). This should be done in collaboration with local health departments and other relevant partners. Focus on the CONTINUE READING: What schools and teachers should be doing now about coronavirus, according to the experts - The Washington Post

I Belong to the Toothbrush Party, an Offshoot of the Democratic Party | Diane Ravitch's blog

I Belong to the Toothbrush Party, an Offshoot of the Democratic Party | Diane Ravitch's blog

I Belong to the Toothbrush Party, an Offshoot of the Democratic Party

As most of the readers of this blog know, I don’t endorse candidates in Democratic primaries.

Here is where I stand.

I read a comment a few weeks on Twitter where someone wrote that he would vote for a toothbrush over Trump.

I agreed. I am a member of the Toothbrush Party.

I would vote for my beautiful, loving, compassionate mutt Mitzi over Trump.

I think he is a danger to our society and to the world.

I think he is determined to destroy the federal government, department by department, agency by agency, by putting fools, sycophants, and those who share his contempt for government in charge at every level.

He is packing the courts with religious zealots.

Hw will completely control the Supreme Court if he is re-elected.

He is destroying the government’s ability to administer justice fairly and impartially.

He has fired dedicated career officials because they were loyal to the Constitution, not to him personally.

He has embraced dictators and autocrats while alienating our allies.

He thinks he is above the law and can do anything he wants, without regard to the Constitution.

I will vote for anyone on the Democratic ticket opposing Trump.

Do not sit home if your candidate doesn’t win the nomination.

Do not vote third party.

Vote for anyone who will save us from this stupid, arrogant, petty, ignorant man who sits in the White House.

I Belong to the Toothbrush Party, an Offshoot of the Democratic Party | Diane Ravitch's blog

Time To Vote – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Time To Vote – Los Angeles Education Examiner
Time To Vote

SuperCaliforniaisticexpialiTuesday is here; it’s finally here.  Please don’t embarrass your country or family and fail to turn out. It seems hard to imagine turnout hasn’t been heavy already given the widespread availability of Vote Centers open now for weeks. It seems that everyone has received a postage-paid absentee ballot whether you asked for one or not. Click here to locate your new Vote Center regardless of past performance – don’t let it predict today’s. Come 8pm tonight and it’s all over.

Just how embarrassing has been our recent turnout for LAUSD board elections? Pretty appalling. Approximately one in ten registered voters has deigned to vote since 2013 when really big-time money first suffused the LAUSD board races. That is, almost all our fellow citizens have let a tiny proportion elect the few who control a budget the size of the City of LA’s, and the weekday environment of our next generation citizens.

This really is no way to run a democracy. An informed and engaged CONTINUE READING: Time To Vote – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Whatever Happened to Interactive Whiteboards? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to Interactive Whiteboards? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to Interactive Whiteboards?

You cannot eat one potato chip. You have to have more. Technological innovations hyped to transform teaching and learning are like potato chips. No district, no school just buys one. Laptops, tablets, and Interactive whiteboards (IWB) are typical examples. Consider the history of this high-tech classroom device.

Beginning in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, schools purchased interactive whiteboards by the truckload. British educators jumped on board this technological innovation with great enthusiasm especially after the government underwrote the buying of the technological innovation. In a glowing, enthusiastic article (2010), a writer described the results of the government largesse.

At St. Matthew Academy, a school for 3- to 16-year-olds serving a group of depressed London neighborhoods and similar to “turnaround schools” in American cities, IWBs have become fixtures in every classroom, with an eye to keeping students engaged. Assistant Principal David Cregan says that the CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened to Interactive Whiteboards? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

La. Superintendent Search: 21 Applicants | deutsch29

La. Superintendent Search: 21 Applicants | deutsch29

La. Superintendent Search: 21 Applicants

From the Associated Press, as published March 02, 2020, Lafourche Parish Daily Comet:

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)– More than 20 people from across the country have applied to be Louisiana’s next state education superintendent, according to the state’s top school board.

The 21 applicants include higher education professionals from schools in Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee, as well as public school teachers, a Louisiana teacher’s union representative and other consultants, administrators and educators holding posts nationwide. An Arkansas Department of Education official as well as a former Kentucky education chief have also applied for the position, news outlets reported.

The current superintendent, John White, announced in January that he would be resigning March 11 after eight years in the role.

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Kira Orange Jones is chairwoman of the working group that will help select White’s successor. She called the list of applicants ‘a very diverse and talented pool of educational leaders’ in an update released Saturday, one day after CONTINUE READING: La. Superintendent Search: 21 Applicants | deutsch29

Los Angeles: Teachers v. Billionaires | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Teachers v. Billionaires | Diane Ravitch's blog

Los Angeles: Teachers v. Billionaires

MEDIA ADVISORY
March 2, 2020
Contact: Anna Bakalis, 213-305-9654

Los Angeles — The stakes are high in the LAUSD School board race to elect Patricia Castellanos in District 7, Scott Schmerelson in District 3, Jackie Goldberg in District 5 and George McKenna in District 1. As of Monday morning, the California Charter Schools Association PAC and billionaires like Bill Bloomfield, who sits on the CCSA PAC board, have funneled more than $6.2 million into the race against these candidates, making it the most expensive primary school board race in US history. They are spending $1 million every other day since last week.

“What our kids don’t need are billionaires spending $20,000 an hour every day to buy our school board election. Imagine if the millions they are spending against public education were redirected into our schools?” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “Our school libraries could be open five days a week. We could hire more nurses, counselors, mental health professionals and social workers and invest in ethnic studies, arts and music programs.”

UTLA members, parents and supporters are in final sprint to get out the vote for the March 3 election. See ads in today’s LA Times and La Opinion, attached.

Monday Media Availability
Teachers in support of Patricia Castellanos in District 7
When: Today, Monday March 2
Time: 4:30 – 6 PM
Who: UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, teachers and supporters will be precinct walking, phone banking and texting for Castellanos. Interviews available in English and Spanish.
Location: 103 W Carson St. (Carson and Main Sts.) near Seafood City.
Onsite Contact: Mario Valenzuela, 213-447-3957

Flash mob with teachers in support of Scott Schmerelson in District 3
When: Today, Monday March 2
Time: 4-6 PM
Who: Teachers, parents and students lining the streets with signs, cars honking in support of Schmerleson. Interviews available in English and Spanish.
3 Intersection locations:
Tampa Ave. & Nordhoff St., Northridge (main site)
Ventura Blvd & Laurel Canyon Blvd., Sherman Oaks
Topanga Canyon & Victory Blvds., Canoga Park
What: Teachers holding signs, cars honking in support
Onsite Contact: Scott Mandel, 818-970-7445

Los Angeles: Teachers v. Billionaires | Diane Ravitch's blog

Misreading Academia, and Why Education? – radical eyes for equity

Misreading Academia, and Why Education? – radical eyes for equity

Misreading Academia, and Why Education?

While I was teaching high school English in rural South Carolina, I became close friends with a colleague; I was English Department chair and also taught Advanced Placement, and he was the chair of history and also taught A.P.

But the strongest bond we shared was our similar life experiences of having been born, raised, and educated in the Deep South. We came to be ideologically quite different (radical, progressive) than how we were raised (traditional, conservative) in redneck and racist homes. And we both quickly attributed this transformation to our educations, although in slightly different ways.

My colleague often noted that when he and his father fought as they grew older and farther apart intellectually (as I did with my father), his father would often end those fights by declaring that the biggest mistake he ever made was sending my colleague to college.

While I did in fact attribute my liberation from all sorts of negative -isms to wonderful and thoughtful professors and classes in my undergraduate education, my colleague actually graduated college mostly unfulfilled, but motivated to self-educate by reading widely and deeply. Yes, college helped his transition, but he did a great deal of his own intellectual soul-searching after he graduated.

Both of us also eventually sought doctoral degrees later in life and then moved on to higher education. As a result of our backgrounds and experiences in K-12 and higher education, I think, I have noticed two important conversations on CONTINUE READING: Misreading Academia, and Why Education? – radical eyes for equity

CURMUDGUCATION: Free Market Winners and Losers

CURMUDGUCATION: Free Market Winners and Losers

Free Market Winners and Losers

One of the foundational arguments of modern ed reform is that free market forces would make education work better, that having to compete would make public and private schools work harder, smarter, better and create a rising tide of educational awesomeness that would lift all boats.

This is unlikely for a variety of reasons, but the biggest problem with the free market when it comes to public education is that by its very competitive nature, it picks winners and losers. And that's actually a couple of problems.

First, it picks winners and losers among the providers. A study by the Network for Public Education has found a staggering amount of federal money spent on charters that fail, or even pre-fail by collapsing before they even open. For free market fans, that's a feature, not a bug. In their conception of the education market, schools come and go as those that sink to the bottom are pushed out of business, to be replaced by potentially superior new competitors.  Some are sincere in this deep belief in the markets, and some are simply opportunists; when a reformster complains about the "closed system" or "education monopoly," what they mean is not a system that denies students choice, but a system that denies entrepreneurs the a chance to get in there and hustle for a piece of that mountain of sweet, sweet tax dollars.

The problem with the model of churning and burning our way to excellence is not just that the constant churn, the repeated tossing of students out to the curb with a hearty "Good luck finding CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Free Market Winners and Losers

For Many Educators, Crowdfunding for Basic Resources is a "Way of Life"

For Many Educators, Crowdfunding for Basic Resources is a "Way of Life"

For Many Educators, Crowdfunding for Basic Resources is a “Way of Life”

We all know about the lengths educators go to make sure their classrooms are stocked with school supplies for their students. They will not hesitate to spend their own money – to the tune of at least $459 every year and not likely to be reimbursed  – to purchase everything from pencils, extra notebooks, rulers, even software programs.

But these efforts don’t stop there. Paying for school supplies or classroom projects can be too expensive to pay for out-of-pocket. Which is why more educators over the past decade turned to crowdfunding, namely DonorsChoose, which connects potential donors to classrooms in need. After teachers post funding requests on DonorsChoose, individual donors review the site’s thousands of proposals and select a project to fund.

From 2009 to 2019, teachers submitted 1.8 million requests to DonorsChose. What kind of projects are educators proposing? What kind of schools do they teach in? And what sort of projects are being approved? What, if anything, do these requests tell us about what resources our classrooms lack?

Grantmakers for Education (GFE), a large network of education grantmakers, recently analyzed the DonorsChoose database of requests to answer these and CONTINUE READING: For Many Educators, Crowdfunding for Basic Resources is a "Way of Life"