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Good News from Oklahoma: Voucher Bill Is Dead This Year
by dianeravitch / 21h
The Governor and the leader of the Oklahoma State Senate are enthusiastic about a voucher bill but the Speaker of the House said the bill won’t get a hearing . It seems that rural districts don’t want vouchers. This has been the case in Texas, where rural Republicans have repeatedly joined with urban Democrats to kill vouchers. Pastors for Texas Children organized against vouchers in their state,
Seriously, Arne Duncan Wants to be Mayor of Chicago
by dianeravitch / 22h
Let me start by saying Arne Duncan was a disaster as Secretary of Education. He went around the country bashing public schools and teachers, while lavishing praise on charter schools and Teach for America. His “Race to the Top” was a disaster. Congress gave him $5 billion to “reform” American schools, and he wasted it on unproven fixes, like evaluating teachers by the test scores of their student
Dana Milbank: History Stripped of Controversy and Truth
by dianeravitch / 23h
Dana Milbank, columnist at the Washington Post, has read several of the laws intended to remove “critical race theory” and “divisive concepts” from the teaching of American history in schools. Governors like Glenn Youngkin in Virginia and Ron DeSantis in Florida want to roll back the clock to a time when white children never heard anything that unsettled them about slavery, segregation, racism, a
FEB 10
Tennessee: Book Bans Are the Least of Our Problems
by dianeravitch / 1d
Margaret Renkl, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times , wrote recently about the cultural controversies that are roiling the state of Tennessee. Everyone by now knows about the removal of MAUS from the eighth-grade curriculum in McMinn County. But book-banning and censorship are not limited to Tennessee, or even to the South, nor are they new. What is far more dangerous in Tennesse
Tennessee: Governor Promotes Privatization of Public Schools
by dianeravitch / 1d
Governor Bill Lee has made his education views clear: He is a supporter of vouchers and charter schools. His voucher legislation has been held up in the courts on appeal, and voucher opponents are fearful that the highest court will support vouchers, which has become dear to the heart of Republicans everywhere. In Governor Lee’s budget message, he proclaimed his intention to expand charter school
FEB 09
What Happened at Oakland School Board Meeting
by dianeravitch / 2d
Many of us joined the zoom meeting of the Oakland school board. some stayed to the end, others (such as those of us on the East Coast) left the meeting before it was over. we heard students o and parents pleading with the board not to close their schools. Here is a good summary of the ultimate decision. Two Oakland Unified schools will close this year and five next year under a modified plan appr
Free Shani Robinson!
by dianeravitch / 2d
Tomorrow at 9 a.m., the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the Abolitionist Teaching Netwotk will host a press conference at the Fulton County Courthouse. They will be asking the judge and district attorney not to send nonviolent educators to prison during the middle of a pandemic. Shani Robinson contacted me this morning to ask if I would be willing to send a
Oakland School Board Votes to Close Schools, Despite Overwhelming Public Opposition
by dianeravitch / 2d
A reader watched the Oakland school board meeting to the bitter end. Despite overwhelming opposition by students, parents, and educators, the board voted to close the schools. Maybe the decision was foreordained. Reader comment: The Board voted to close the schools 4-3-2 at 1am with 1000 people still on Zoom, many still wanting to speak. Unconscionable . 2 Abstentio ns. Oaktown needs another stri
Valerie Strauss: Remember the Atlanta Cheating Scandal?
by dianeravitch / 2d
A few years ago, I reviewed Shani Robinson’s book “None of the Above,” about the Atlanta cheating scandal. Teachers were charged as racketeers for allegedly changing answers from wrong to right. When questioned by investigators, they were offered immunity if they confessed or accused someone else. Shani pleaded innocent and accused no one. She was sentenced to prison, although there was no eviden
MAGA Activist Plans to Open Chain of “Patriotic” Schools
by dianeravitch / 2d
Charlie Kirk is a pro-Trump activist with a huge following and an organization called “Turning Points USA.” He plans to open a chain of private schools to teach America-First ideology. This is a frightening turn of events. Partisan schools that indoctrinate students. His plans were temporarily stymied when one of his key contractors backed out after learning that he was the client. But he is forg
FEB 08
The Oakland School Board Meeting: Heartbreaking
by dianeravitch / 3d
I spent the past two hours listening to the Oakland, California, school board meeting, where the board is going to decide whether to close a large number of public schools. The first group of speakers who addressed the board on their Zoom was students. Some were as young as first grade; others were in middle school or high school. Every single one of them pleaded with the board not to close their
Join Oakland on Zoom to Fight School Closures! Tonight!
by dianeravitch / 3d
Mike Hutchinson is a member of the elected Oakland school board. He shared the following post. Oakland has been a Petri dish for the Broad Foundation and other “reform” billionaires for nearly 20 years. Broadies increased the number of charter schools while closing more and more public schools. When he ran for school board, opposing this trend, Mike was endorsed by the Network for Public Educatio
Oakland Parent: Stop the Privatization! We Don’t Want It!
by dianeravitch / 3d
Oakland parent Jane Nylund tells the story of creeping privatization in her city. The Oakland School Board will vote tonight on whether to close another 10 schools. To understand the background, read this article . She writes: Lest we all forget, from six years ago, here was the plan: 50% of our kids into charter schools. https://capitalandmain.com/oaklands-charter-school-tipping-point-0531 And n
Tom Ultican: Oakland Parents and Educators Outraged by Threat of More School Closings
by dianeravitch / 3d
Tom Ultican, retired teacher of physics and mathematics, has been keeping a close watch on the machinations of the privatization movement. He writes here about Oakland, which has suffered two decades of indignities at the hands of corporate reformers. The district was taken over by the state because it had a deficit in 2003. The state gave Eli Broad a free hand in picking its superintendents, who
FEB 07
Illinois: Stop Testing K-2 Kids!
by dianeravitch / 4d
IMPORTANT!!! K-2 Testing Bill (PROHIBITING K-2 Testing) will be heard TOMORROW!! Subject: Alert: Sign witness slip in support of this bill–Senate Bill 3986 SB3986 will be heard in the Senate Ed Committee tomorrow. Slip is here bit.ly/SB3986feb8 and post to share with others https://www.ilfps.org/senate_hearing_sb_3986 If you believe that required testing of children in pre-kindergarten through gr
Iowa: Federal Appeals Court Upholds School Mask Mandate
by dianeravitch / 4d
Based on an appeal by parents of students with disabilities, a Federal Appeals Court supported mask mandates in school. Federal Appeals Court Decision Ensures Iowa Schools Can Require Masking to Protect Students with Disabilities FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Eva Lopez, ACLU, elopez@aclu.org Veronica Fowler, ACLU of Iowa, veronica.fowler@aclu-ia.org , cell: 515-451-1777 DES MOINES, Iowa — The U.S. Court
“Left Behind: The Unintended Consequences of School Choice”: Kids with toughest hurdles stuck in gutted schools
by dianeravitch / 4d
Jennifer Hawes Berry of the Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, wrote this account of a Charleston high school struggling to improve and raise its graduation rate, even as its enrollment dwindles in the era of school choice. The main effect of school choice seems to be the damage inflicted on the local public high school. The original story was published in 2015 and updated in 2020. S
Nancy MacLean: The Segregationist History of School Choice
by dianeravitch / 4d
School choice is rooted in a history of segregation and racism. Katherine Stewart wrote about this sordid history in her book The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. I wrote about that history in The New York Review of Books in an essay called “ The Dark History of School Choice, ” where I reviewed Stewart’s book, Derek Black’s Schoolhouse Burning: Public Educat
FEB 06
Jan Resseger: Laura Meckler of the Washington Post Is Wrong to Blame Public Schools for Their Problems
by dianeravitch / 5d
Jan Resseger was taken aback to read a major article by Laura Meckler of The Washington Post blaming the public schools for all their problems, in a classic case of blaming the victim. Schools did not cause COVID, and they are doing their best to overcome its consequences. Meckler even blames schools for gun violence, but schools are not handing out weapons or writing lax gun laws. Resseger write
Betsy DeVos Promotes Vouchers in Michigan
by dianeravitch / 5d
Betsy DeVos is not going away. She is leading a campaign for vouchers in Michigan that is certain to defund public schools. DeVos and her husband Richard DeVos sponsored a voucher referendum in 2000, which voters overwhelmingly rejected by 69-31. Twenty-two years later, she is promoting a plan that would bypass the Governor and the public. Under Michigan law, the Governor can’t veto it, and the p
Nancy Flanagan: A Legislator’s Guide to Education Policymaking
by dianeravitch / 5d
Veteran teacher Nancy Flanagan was asked by a candidate for advice about education policy. Nancy wrote a list of ten ideas that she thought would be useful guideposts. She now u pdates her guide for legislators. She writes (and I summarize): #1. You don’t know education just because you went to school… #2. Plan to pay many non-photo op visits to lots of schools… #3. Take the tests that kids have
FEB 05
Come to NYC and See “The Music Man”
by dianeravitch / 6d
On Saturday, I went to a matinee of “The Music Man” on Broadway. Before entering, every person had to prove that they were fully vaccinated. Everyone in the audience wore masks. We are used to that now. What we are not used to yet is seeing a full Broadway musical, in all its glory, with a huge and very talented cast, wonderful sets and staging, and a large orchestra. Sutton Foster as Marian the
Oklahoma: “Backpack“ Aims to Defund Public Schools
by dianeravitch / 6d
Inspired perhaps by the anti-public school rhetoric of Betsy DeVos or funded perhaps by billionaire Charles Koch or encouraged by Trump’s white evangelical base, Oklahoma Republicans are proposing a bill that would crush public schools. Not content to open more privately managed charters or to offer more vouchers to disgruntled parents, Republicans want to use public money to pay for whatever par
Peter Greene: Alabama Republican Hopes to Eliminate Public Schools
by dianeravitch / 6d
Peter Greene reports that a Republican legislative proposal would eliminate public schools, thus wiping out one of our nation’s most democratic institutions. He begins: State Senator Del Marsh proposed this week the “ultimate” school choice bill, the “Parents’ Choice Bill,” (SB140) a super-education savings account. But that’s not what it really is. This is an ESA in its fully realized form — eve
David Corn: The Inside Story of the Tennessee School Board that Banned MAUS
by dianeravitch / 6d
David Corn, the D.C. Bureau Chief for Mother Jones, read the minutes of the McMinn County, Tennessee, school board that banned Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel, MAUS, and he found the comments even dumber than he expected. The school board members were worried that students in middle schools might hear words like “bitch” and “god damn,” they were upset by nude mice, and some
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
