Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired

When Gina Raimondo was Governor of Rhode Island (she is now Biden’s Secretary of the Treasury), she determined that the only way to fix the Providence schools was a state takeover. Raimondo, a former hedge fund manager, hired Angelica Infante-Green as state commissioner, although Green’s experience was limited to two years of Teach for America and a few years as a state bureaucrat (she was never a principal). Green promptly joined Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, whose members favor privatization and oppose unions.

Green hired Harrison Peters as superintendent of schools for the troubled Providence district. Peters hired ex-Tampa administrator Olayinka Alege to be the Providence network superintendent of secondary schools.

Then parents and students began to complain that Alege liked to massage their feet and pop their toes. More boys came forward to report toe-popping incidents. Alege said CONTINUE READING: Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

JOSEPH H. CROWLEY: McKee is right, but he has it backward - Network For Public Education

McKee is right, but he has it backward - Network For Public Education

McKee is right, but he has it backward

Recently, Gov. McGee was quoted in the Providence Journal. Gov. McGee is absolutely right in his quote, “Now is the time to focus on creating more high quality educational opportunities for all students, not fewer.” Unfortunately, his suggested remedy is backwards. He was quoted in reference to opposing the three-year moratorium on charter schools.

For starters, Rhode Island has been extremely lucky. It has been reported only one charter has failed in this state. The Network for Public Education released a report in 2020 showing charter schools across the United States failed half the time during a 28-year stretch and more than one quarter of them folded within the first five years. Charter schools do not provide the stability America needs in its educational system.

You can read the rest of Mr. Crowley’s op-ed in The Cranston Herald here.

McKee is right, but he has it backward - Network For Public Education

Rhode Island: Teachers Demand End to State Takeover of Providence Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Teachers Demand End to State Takeover of Providence Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Teachers Demand End to State Takeover of Providence Schools

Rhode Island is a mess. Two years ago, the state took control of the Providence public schools. The Governor, Gina Raymond, is a former hedge funder and not a friend of public schools. She loves charter schools and welcomed them to her state. She is now Biden’s Commerce Secretary and has been succeeded by her Lieutenant Governor Dan McKee, who is also a privatizer. The relatively new State Commissioner is Angelica Infante Green, who comes from Teach for America and had a desk job in the New York State Education Department. She is a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change. The Providence Teachers Union originally supported the state takeover, hoping that it would bring new resources to the schools. Instead, the takeover has meant disruption, turmoil, threats to teachers, and bitterness between the hard-charging, inexperienced State Commissioner and the teachers.

Mary Beth Calabro, the president of the Providence Teachers Union, has been a teacher for 24 years and president of the union for five years.

Less than two years later, and with the COVID-19 pandemic overshadowing nearly all of the takeover, CONTINUE READING: Rhode Island: Teachers Demand End to State Takeover of Providence Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: RI: Another Dumb Bill For Protecting White Folks

CURMUDGUCATION: RI: Another Dumb Bill For Protecting White Folks

RI: Another Dumb Bill For Protecting White Folks

Three Rhode Island representatives have proposed a bill to protect students in the state from what the legislators imagine, I suppose, what critical race theory or any of those other nasty anti-racist programs might be.

The three legislators are:

Rep. Patricia Morgan, who has also proposed that mail-in balloting be "tightened up," that the house condemn major tech companies "for their attack on the free speech rights of the American public," and that the house commemorate the life and career of Rush Limbaugh.

Rep. George Nardone, who has also proposed that charter schools be allowed to "engage in non-traditional approaches to learning," that ESAs be established in Rhode Island, and, well, he's on that Rush Limbaugh bus, too.

Rep. Sherry Roberts, who has also proposed the mail-in ballot thing, the Rush Limbaugh thing, and an act providing for the authorized taking of mushrooms from public lands.

Their bill is HB 6070, prohibiting the teaching of "divisive concepts." 

The divisive concepts in question do not, it turns out, include issues such as whether or not the earth is flat, whether Han shot first, or whether Mary Ann is hotter than Ginger. Instead, the legislators are concerned that some naughty teacher might choose to teach-- CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: RI: Another Dumb Bill For Protecting White Folks

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money

Maurice Cunningham is a professor political science at the University of Massachusetts who has developed a unique talent for exposing the workings of Dark Money in education. The usual source of Dark Money is the multi-billionaire Walton Family, but they are not alone. In this post, he reviews the remarkable story told by the media in Rhode Island. A group of ordinary moms got together to demand charter schools. They set up a website and commissioned a poll done by President Biden’s pollster. Where did the money come from? The media forgot to ask that question. The media’s lack of curiosity about the funding behind this group of moms is curious.

On February 25, five “frustrated mothers” organized to raise money for their passion: charter schools.

What we see here is quite common, a front purporting to be parents but actually funded and acting for wealthy CONTINUE READING: Maurice Cunningham: How Did Ordinary Moms in Rhode Island Get the Money to Pay for a Poll? Hint: Dark Money | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parent Group” for More Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parent Group” for More Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parent Group” for More Charter Schools

Maurice Cunningham specializes in digging up the facts about Dark Money (political contributions where the donors’ names are hidden). His expose of Dark Money from the Waltons and other billionaires turned the public against a 2016 state referendum in Massachusetts to expand the number of charter schools, and it was defeated. I wrote about this campaign in Slaying Goliath.

In this post, published here for the first time, he exposes a “parent group” demanding more charter schools in Rhode Island.

Cunningham writes:

Parents who care about public education need to be wary of dark money fronts masquerading as concerned reformers. These are lavishly funded efforts with the goal of privatizing public schools. Rhode Islanders should take a long hard look at Stop the Wait RI.

This operation registered with the Rhode Island Secretary of State as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue on February 25, 2021. That status allows Stop the Wait to engage in a wide range of political activities including spending on political campaigns. The big advantage for a 501(c)(4) is CONTINUE READING: Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parent Group” for More Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island Senate Democrats Pass Three-Year Moratorium on New Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island Senate Democrats Pass Three-Year Moratorium on New Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island Senate Democrats Pass Three-Year Moratorium on New Charters

The Rhode Island State Senate overwhelmingly passed a three-year moratorium on the opening of new charter schools. The vote was 30-6, with only one Democrat in opposition. Under the leadership of Governor Gina Raimondo, who is about to become President Biden’s Commerce Secretary, the state has welcomed charter operators (Raimondo was a hedge fund executive before she became Governor).

This delay offers state officials time to stabilize public schools in Providence and elsewhere, where charters have flocked and removed students and funding.

Linda Borg of the Providence Journal reports:

Sen. Ryan Pearson has seen Cumberland, one of his districts, lose a significant number of traditional public school students to charter schools. 

He argued that the latest charter expansion would have a CONTINUE READING: Rhode Island Senate Democrats Pass Three-Year Moratorium on New Charters | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans

Under the leadership of Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island is a very charter-friendly state. Raimondo was a venture capitalist before she entered politics. Her husband was TFA.

The welcome mat is out for charter schools in the state. The latest proposal for a new charter comes from Excel Academy in Boston.

Linda Borg of the Providence Journal writes:

PROVIDENCE — Critics of a new charter school application say the Boston-based school will draw millions of dollars away from the traditional public schools and, combined with a proposed expansion of Achievement First, create two parallel school systems.  

Excel Academy hopes to enroll 2,100 students in kindergarten through grade 12 by the time it reaches full capacity in 10 years — at a cost of $7.4 million in lost local revenues to the Providence school district.  

“Frankly, it could be the best school in the universe,”  said CONTINUE READING: Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog