Educators of Color and Education Scholars of Color Speak Out Against Failed Billionaire-Backed “Reforms” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Educators of Color and Education Scholars of Color Speak Out Against Failed Billionaire-Backed “Reforms” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Educators of Color and Education Scholars of Color Speak Out Against Failed Billionaire-Backed “Reforms”

Over 600 educators of color and education scholars of color have signed a statement opposing failed billionaire-backed “reforms” intended to privatize public schools and deprofessionalize teaching.

The statement was drafted by Kevin Kumashiro and can be found on his website, along with the list of those who signed it. People continue to sign on to demonstrate to the public that their rightwing campaign is not fooling educators and scholars of color.

All Educators of Color and Educational Scholars of Color in the U.S. are invited to sign on (please scroll down to sign)

THIS MUST END NOW:

Educators & Scholars of Color Against Failed Educational “Reforms”

The public is being misled. Billionaire philanthropists are increasingly foisting so-called “reform” initiatives upon the schools that serve predominantly students of color and low-income students, and are using black and brown voices to echo claims of improving schools or advancing civil rights in order to rally community support. However, the evidence to the contrary is clear: these initiatives CONTINUE READING: Educators of Color and Education Scholars of Color Speak Out Against Failed Billionaire-Backed “Reforms” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools
Funding Private Enterprises With Public Funds Must Be Outlawed. Defund Charter Schools.

Now is not the time to divert even more public funds to private businesses like charter schools. Disaster capitalism has harmed the public interest and public schools in many ways. The nation’s public schools have been suffering budget cuts for years and now with the “COVID Pandemic” they will experience deeper funding cuts. Yet the federal government and state governments continue to funnel huge sums of public funds to segregated non-profit and for-profit charter schools that operate without transparency and close regularly.¹

Society does not need more privatization and more pay-the-rich “school choice” schemes. Society needs a public authority that provides the human right to education with a guarantee in practice, which means fully-funding all public schools and making sure high-quality public schools are available to all for free in every neighborhood.

There is no shortage of money to make this happen. In the last few weeks alone the private Federal Reserve has printed several trillion dollars to save the ultra-rich again. And the real value produced by real workers in the real economy is more than enough to ensure a free world-class public education system controlled by a public authority worthy of the name.

Funding “free market” arrangements in education while letting the nation’s public schools go under-funded is especially absurd given the repeated failure of the “free market” to produce stability and success for all. The “free market” ensures only chaos, anarchy, and violence. With each and every economic recession, slump, crisis, and depression, “free market” ideology loses what little credibility, if any, it has left. For all intensive purposes, “free market” ideology is dead in the water; it stands completely discredited.

Treating education as a commodity or consumer good, or pretending that CONTINUE READING: Current Environment Provides Opportunity to Intensify Resistance to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Going Back to a Better School: NEA Issues Guidance on Reopening

Going Back to a Better School: NEA Issues Guidance on Reopening

Going Back to a Better School: NEA Issues Guidance on Reopening

Many schools across the country will in all likelihood reopen in the fall for the 2020-21 school year. States are currently reviewing potential models that maximize both learning – whether in-person or continued remote instruction – and health and safety. Still, because of continued uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, “back to school” for many districts and college campuses remains more of an ‘if’ than a ‘when.’

As some states are currently discovering, reopening plans that ignore or downplay the advice of scientists and public health experts can backfire. For K-12 and higher ed buildings, a poorly designed and executed strategy can cost lives, particularly among our most vulnerable students and in communities of color, or the very least further jeopardize their educational progress.

The National Education Association (NEA) believes that any reopening model has to not only ensure the health and safety of students and staff, but also prioritize long term strategies on student learning and educational equity.

To assist states and school districts in this effort, NEA this week released “All Hands on Deck: Initial Guidance Regarding Reopening School Buildings.” Built around four basic principles –  health expertise, educator voice, access to protection, and leading with equity – the document lays out what schools need to do to prepare for reopening, and how they can make their reopening succeed far beyond the first few weeks of the new school year.

“We have a unique opportunity” the guidance says, “to create schools and campuses that are unequivocally resolute in their commitment to student learning, beacons of service and partnership to communities, and respected and sought-after institutions of employment. The aim CONTINUE READING: Going Back to a Better School: NEA Issues Guidance on Reopening

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 – BillMoyers.com

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 – BillMoyers.com

The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

When Donald Trump planned a campaign rally for June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was a double insult to African Americans. There are many events in American history that most white adults would not be able to identify, much less appreciate their significance. The Red Summer of 1919, the Rosewood Massacre, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

In 1923, in Rosewood, Florida a predominantly African American town was utterly destroyed by white mobs. Destroyed so thoroughly that none of the former residents returned.

RELATED: MOYERS ON DEMOCRACY

Watch Bill Moyers Speak at Juneteenth Celebration

BY BILL MOYERS | JUNE 17, 2020

In 1927,  The Great Mississippi Flood decimated an area ranging from Missouri to the harder hit Mississippi and Arkansas Delta. The loss of life and property was immense — both death tolls and property destruction rates were much higher for African Americans than whites. Displaced Black people were relegated to dismal segregated camps.

One of the deadliest attacks of the Red Summer occurred in Elaine, Arkansas. The death toll is estimated at 800. In 2019, a group of Black residents, many descended from the original victims, planted a healing willow tree at a new memorial on the site of graves of the victims of the outrage. In August 2019, vandals cut down the tree.

President Trump may have had little idea that Tulsa was a site of supreme importance to Black Americans — though he was soon made aware of the insult.

BOB HERBERT:  But blacks who improved their lot were always at risk. A small enclave of prosperous Black entrepreneurs in Tulsa, Oklahoma, became known as the “Negro Wall Street.” They had their own shops, banks, newspapers, restaurants and theatres, the makings of a self-sustaining middle-class.

But in May 1921, riots broke out when blacks tried to stop an angry white mob from lynching CONTINUE READING: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 – BillMoyers.com

A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the ‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For - In These Times

A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the ‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For - In These Times

A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the ‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For
Critics say online learning is failing low-income students. But some for-profit companies are pushing to make it the new normal.

When schools nationwide began closing their doors this spring as the result of Covid-19, many students, parents and teachers felt stress and uncertainty. Online education companies saw an opportunity.

On its most recent quarterly earnings call, Timothy Medina, chief financial executive for virtual charter school operator K12 Inc., said, “We believe the effects of Covid-19 will be a lasting tailwind to online education.”

The company was founded in 2000 by former Wall Street investment banker and McKinsey & Co. consultant Ron Packard, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was among the early investors. Since then, K12 has grown into one of the largest for-profit education companies in the world, with revenue topping $1 billion last year.

Now, amid uncertainty about the future of in-person education, the company sees an opportunity to extend its reach even further. K12 has been involved in targeted lobbying campaigns through the American Legislative Exchange Council for nearly two decades, and company executives suggested during the earnings call that they have been working with state legislators and school districts to expand the market for online learning this fall. They’ve also worked with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to draft policy recommendations on Covid-19 recovery efforts.

K12 operates more than 70 online schools, the majority of them tuition-free and CONTINUE READING: A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the ‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For - In These Times

Barbara Madeloni: Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening - LA Progressive

Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening - LA Progressive

Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening

Teachers Must Set the Terms for How and When Schools Reopen

dc]I[/dc]n a matter of days in mid-March, educators were expected to move classes online, work from home, and manage their own fear and uncertainty—all while worried for students whom they suddenly couldn’t see, talk to, or reassure.

Even veteran organizers were at a loss for what steps to take, except to focus on the immediate problems. How do we move classes online? Will students who depend on school for meals have enough to eat? What about the students with no internet?

Educators were managing awful conditions and not yet ready to shape those conditions, overwhelmed by the crisis at hand.

What needs to happen in order for schools to reopen? Do we have the power to make sure we reopen under those conditions?

As life under the pandemic settled into something like a routine, educators could see the coming storm. Dangers to health when schools re-open. Austerity budgets and job cuts. And then, one more video of police murdering a Black person—and the uprising that followed.

I asked educators: What needs to happen in order for schools to reopen? Do we have the power to make sure we reopen under those conditions? What are you or your union doing to build that power? Here’s what they told me.

Health and Safety First

While the CDC has released guidelines for the safe return to school, and the Teachers union (AFT) has done the same, it’s hard to see how these guidelines can be met without a huge influx of money.

While both sets of guidelines suggest flexibility based on the degree of the virus’s community spread, they require physical distancing, limits on size of gatherings, and testing and contact tracing when there is any community spread.

Health and safety was an issue before the pandemic. Too many schools are already over-crowded and in poor repair. “We have schools that don’t have hot water, no air conditioning, and ventilation systems that aren’t working properly,” said Deborah McCarthy, former president of the Hull (Massachusetts) Education Association and a fifth-grade teacher.

Teacher after teacher told me the safety guidelines would require smaller classes, more classroom space, and more educators. “We are going to need more buildings-and-grounds staff and more CONTINUE READING: Educators, Remote Learning, and Reopening - LA Progressive

Schott Commemorates Juneteenth | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Schott Commemorates Juneteenth | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Schott Commemorates Juneteenth

On June 19, 1865, a group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were read General Order No. 3, announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves. Starting in 1866, Juneteenth has been celebrated annually not just for emancipation in Texas, but as a symbol of freedom from slavery across the country.

While General Order No. 3 was announced by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, it was not a gift bestowed by him or any other official: it was a recognition of the hard-won reality across the South that the institution of slavery was truly destroyed, largely by the hands of enslaved people themselves. Historian W.E.B. Du Bois describes in Black Reconstruction:

“As soon, however, as it became clear that the Union armies would not or could not return fugitive slaves, and that the masters with all their fume and fury were uncertain of victory, the slave entered upon a general strike against slavery by the same methods that he had used during the period of the fugitive slave. He ran away to the first place of safety and offered his services to the Federal Army. So that in this way it was really true that he served his former master and served the emancipating army; and it was also true that this withdrawal and bestowal of his labor decided the war.”

Immediately after the conclusion of the war and the beginnings of Reconstruction, newly-freed Black communities began constructing the essentials of civic society, first among them public schools to teach Black and white children alike.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said when he addressed the Massachusetts State Assembly 100 years later in 1965, "I am convinced that if the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition that we now face will surely fail."

Schott Foundation offices are closed for Juneteenth, and once we're back we'll continue the vital work of supporting grassroots movements for racial justice and public education.

Like what you've read?:  GO TO: Schott Commemorates Juneteenth | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation | gadflyonthewallblog

Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation | gadflyonthewallblog

Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation

Let’s say your community has two schools.

One serves mostly white students and the other serves mostly black students.

How do you eliminate such open segregation?

After all, in 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education as essentially separate and unequal.

It’s been nearly 70 years. We must have a recourse to such things these days. Mustn’t we?

Well, the highest court in the land laid down a series of decisions, starting with Milliken vs. Bradley in 1974, that effectively made school integration voluntary especially within district lines. So much so, in fact, that according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, from 2000 to 2014, school segregation CONTINUE READING: Standardized Tests Increase School Segregation | gadflyonthewallblog

glen brown: History of Juneteenth

glen brown: History of Juneteenth

History of Juneteenth

“Later attempts to explain this two-and-a-half-year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or none of these versions could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question.  Whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

“General Order Number 3: One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with: ‘The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.’

“The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new employer to employee relationship, many left before these offers were completely off the lips of their former 'masters' - attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom. Even with nowhere to go, many felt that leaving the plantation would be their first grasp of freedom. North was a logical destination and for many it represented true freedom, while the desire to reach family members in neighboring states drove some into Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“Settling into these new areas as free men and women brought on new realities and the challenges of establishing a heretofore non-existent status for black people CONTINUE READING: glen brown: History of Juneteenth

Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts | janresseger

Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts | janresseger

Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts

In early May, after it became clear that COVID-19-driven business closures and growing layoffs had already resulted in a precipitous drop in tax receipts, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine cut the current Ohio budget by $775 million, including $300 million from the state’s 610 school districts. The Governor slashed money school districts had already budgeted. The cuts are not for next year; instead the Governor eliminated dollars that had been promised for the current fiscal year ending on June 30, in less than two weeks.

But last week, just prior the Ohio Legislature’s summer recess, Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, whose family owns Cleveland’s Major League baseball team and who represents some of Ohio’s wealthiest exurban school districts, sneaked an amendment into Ohio House Bill 164, an education bill the Ohio Legislature passed and sent to Governor Mike DeWine for his signature. Dolan’s amendment would restore funding to many of the state’s wealthiest school districts, those with the greatest capacity to replace state dollars by passing additional local property tax millage.

The Dayton Daily News‘s Jeremy P. Kelley reports: “A late amendment to the bill will restore $23 million in funding to school districts mainly in wealthy communities. House Bill 164 ensures that between state cuts, CARES money and “offset payments” in this bill, no school district ends up getting less than 94% of its original state funding amount for 2019-20.”

On Tuesday, cleveland.com’s Rich Exner reported: “Legislation approved last week and awaiting the governor’s signature would restore part of the funding previously cut to 70 Ohio school districts, including 36 suburban districts in the Greater Cleveland, Akron area.”  Dolan’s amendment, “limits cuts to any one district to no more than 6% from original allocations for CONTINUE READING: Once Again, Ohio Legislature Protects Rich School Districts and Preserves Funding Cuts for Poor Districts | janresseger

Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff? | Ed In The Apple

Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff? | Ed In The Apple

Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff?

A world turned right side up … the grandchildren of the civil rights demonstrators of the sixties seized the day, injustices centuries old bubbled and erupted, maybe our quiescent world is changing.

In New York State a number of police accountability and transparency concepts rapidly passed the legislature, signed by the governor and became law.

Cries of “defund the police” were heard across the nation, n some school districts zero tolerance and armed police are commonplace in schools.

The sharp criticism of the police is not new; the Black Lives Matter in Schools movement has been calling for “counselors not cops,’ as part of their platform.

School policing is looked upon as repression,

School policing is inextricably linked to this country’s long history of oppressing and criminalizing Black and Brown people and represents a belief that people of color need to be controlled and intimidated. Historically, school police have acted as agents of the state to suppress student organizing and movement building, and to maintain the status quo. Local, state and federal government agencies, designed to protect dominant White power institutions, made the intentional decision to police schools in order to exercise control of growing power in Black and Brown social movements

 In New York City the de Blasio administration removed police from schools and ended the position of Youth Officer in precincts. If there is a situation requiring CONTINUE READING: Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff? | Ed In The Apple

DACA: The Supreme Court is on the right side of history - Lily's Blackboard

DACA: The Supreme Court is on the right side of history - Lily's Blackboard

DACA: The Supreme Court is on the right side of history

Today the Supreme Court, this Supreme Court, handed a huge blow to the Trump administration by supporting our Dreamers! The Court’s decision is a stinging rebuke of the Trump administration’s ill-conceived attempt to end DACA, deeming it “arbitrary and capricious.”

The DACA ruling comes the same week the Court decided a landmark case upholding the civil rights of the LGBTQ community. These rulings are on the right side of history, and honor the courage and commitment of those who are working for equity and justice.

Lily Eskelsen García

✔@Lily_NEA

I never thought I'd be thanking this Supreme Court, but here we are! They knocked down Donald Trump's viciously cruel attack on our Dreamers. And in part it's because so many of you love these young people who deserve to stay safely where they belong, here with us! #HomeIsHere

146

2:01 PM - Jun 18, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

43 people are talking about this

Our Dreamers are safe and on the way to a permanent solution (Congress you are next!). And part of it is because of the actions of so many of you — the educators who love these kids, the parents who love these kids, and the activists who love these young people who deserve to stay safely where they belong. And they’re ours and we love them and we are so happy for them.

¡Estoy llena de alegría en este momento!

So, wow! We had some real surprises out of this Supreme Court. They knocked down Donald Trump’s cruel — viciously cruel — attack on our Dreamers and said ‘No, you don’t get to do that. You have to follow the law, too.’.

Thank you. Thank you all. This is a great day.

Want to find our more about the DACA case and what it means for our educators and students? Join our webinar! 

DACA: The Supreme Court is on the right side of history - Lily's Blackboard

Banks should “social distance” from education | Live Long and Prosper

Banks should “social distance” from education | Live Long and Prosper

Banks should “social distance” from education

An artist’s conception of Rep. Jim Banks, R-IN, and
Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-WI pontificating about education.

NO (in-person) SCHOOL, NO MONEY!

U.S. Congressman, Jim Banks (IN-03), along with a colleague from Wisconsin, have decided that the health of those who attend school, work in schools, or are related to those who attend or work in schools doesn’t matter.

In a blatant attempt at extortion, Banks and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) have introduced a bill that would require schools to open for in-person instruction by September 8, 2020, or face the loss of federal education dollars.

It apparently doesn’t matter to Banks that there are places in the country where the coronavirus is resurging (including here in his home state of Indiana). It apparently doesn’t matter to Banks that his bill would possibly expose children, their teachers, and their families, to a disease deadly to those in high-risk groups.

Perhaps Rep. Banks doesn’t realize that the virus may not choose to cooperate with his timeline. Or, perhaps the real reason Banks wants to open schools — no matter what — is so they can babysit the nation’s children.

Many parents rely on their kids going to school so they can go to work. To get our society up and running again, we need our children back in school.

I get it…people need to get back to work, but do we need to risk the lives of our children and their teachers to do it?

BUT MOM! ALL THE KIDS ARE DOING IT

The good [sic] congressman suggests that other countries are opening their CONTINUE READING: Banks should “social distance” from education | Live Long and Prosper

SPECIAL EDITION PROTEST AND EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

SPECIAL EDITION PROTEST AND EDUCATION

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

MANY New Resources For Learning About Juneteenth

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

Here are many new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Juneteenth : Why Juneteenth Matters is from The NY Times. Five myths about Juneteenth is from The Washington Post. Usher: Why it’s so important that Juneteenth become a national holiday is from The Washington Post. Original ‘Juneteenth’ order found in the National Archives is from The Washington Post. Juneteenth celebrates ‘a mo

Stop The Presses! NY Times Columnist David Brooks Finally Gets Something Right About Education!

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h

Even though I believe that New York Times columnist David Brooks actually does write a good column now-and-then, his track record on when he writes about education issues is absolutely abysmal . Today, though, he finally got one right when he wrote about the fallacy that better education leads to economic and social equality. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Why Improving Education Is Not T

“Q&A Collections: Race & Racism in Schools”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts talking about Race & Racism in education (from the past nine years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

10 Tips to Steal From Millionaires

by The Penny Hoarder

sponsored

Want to be a millionaire? Follow the advice of these people.

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART ONE and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART TWO. A

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Eight years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this

RIP Anders Ericsson – Researcher Of “Deliberate Practice” & “10,000 Hour Rule”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

johnhain / Pixabay Anders Ericsson, well-known researcher of “deliberate practice” and the “10,000 hour rule,” died yesterday, sadly. I interviewed him a while back for Education week ( ‘Peak’: An Interview With Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool ) and you can see quite a bit of info on his work at The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice . You could start with

Supreme Court Upholds DACA! Here’s What It Means

69by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay You’ve probably already heard the good news, but I thought I’d pull together some tweets and videos that provide a little more substance to it (including how it affects education): The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration's plan to end DACA. Here’s what to know about the policy, where it stands, and how it reached the Supreme Court. https://

Simplistic, But Useful, New USA Today Video: “How to achieve a successful protest”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay This new USA Today video is simplistic, but it’s useful because it’s short and highlights info and research I have in text on two “Best” lists. I’m adding it to those lists: The Best Sites For Learning About Protests In History The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change

Saturday Is The Summer Solstice – Here Are Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

G4889166 / Pixabay Saturday will be the longest day of the year. You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About The Summer Solstice .

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007