Overworked, understaffed and still broke. « Fred Klonsky

Overworked, understaffed and still broke. « Fred Klonsky

Overworked, understaffed and still broke.

by Fred Klonsky

Which state has the lowest number of government workers per capita in the nation?
Scott Walker’s Wisconsin? Chris Christie’s New Jersey. Florida? Ohio? Michigan?
Certainly not patronage rich Illinois. A state with a Democratic governor and Democratic Party controlled House and Senate.
Oh, yes it is.
So, if Ty Fahner is right and Illinois is broke,

Missing, Still | The G Bitch Spot

Missing, Still | The G Bitch Spot:

Missing, Still

by G Bitch

Sam sent me the link to Is there room for black leadership in New Orleans’ charter school movement?: Jarvis DeBerry and my response to her became what you see below, edited for clarity and cheap shots:
In 2005, many of the black faces in education were fired, labelled categorically as deficient or fraudulent or incompetent, one and all. They were largely replaced by white 20-somethings who were non-unionized, perhaps opposed to such or believing that education cannot improve if teachers have collective bargaining rights, rapidly-trained and often committed no matter what happened or didn’t happen. They are replaced often by another set of white 20-somethings. It is still, in 2011, hard for a certified teacher to get a job in the NOLA area. Teach for America maintains a steady supply of semi-temporary labor, and they are predominantly, no matter how many Kira Orange Joneses are presented, white and privileged in one or more ways.
It is not surprising that black faces are missing.
Areas that had predominantly black populations, and especially where the black middle class lived, Gentilly, 

WATCH: Brian Piccolo School Parents Protesting School Closing - Hispanically Speaking News

WATCH: Brian Piccolo School Parents Protesting School Closing - Hispanically Speaking News:

WATCH: Brian Piccolo School Parents Protesting School Closing

WATCH: Brian Piccolo school parents in Humboldt Park, protesting the school closing.  The group noted when posting the YouTube video:

Piccolo was slated for turnaround because of past years’ performance. This summer CPS removed the Principal, hiring the current principal less than a month before the new school year started. The new leadership has been in place for less than five months. the new leadership has made dramatic changes in the school including reduced suspensions, 83% parent turnout for report pickup,90% of students consistently meeting behavior expectations, improve school maintenance,open door 

Florida’s Shady Charter Schools Through the Eyes of a Police Officer | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida’s Shady Charter Schools Through the Eyes of a Police Officer | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida’s Shady Charter Schools Through the Eyes of a Police Officer

by Bob Sikes

The identity of the messenger will elicit shrill howls. They usually are from the charter school crowd. But this is big. Robert Asencio is president of the Florida Public Employees Association. As a police officer, he investigated Florida charter schools. He writes:

In everyone of our investigative cases, the schools were set up as nonprofit organizations. Most hired management companies to oversee the day to day operation of the schools. They all had a Board of Directors, had applied for and granted a Charter to be a school from local school districts as governed by Florida State Statute 1002.33 http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/. Their main source of revenue was per pupil funding – called Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Some received more funding based on student disabilities.  In every case the drive to recruit more students was the primary focus of the schools and management companies. Most schools had received additional 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: David Brewster's Defense of the Establishment

Seattle Schools Community Forum: David Brewster's Defense of the Establishment:

David Brewster's Defense of the Establishment

by Charlie Mas

In a Crosscut article published yesterday, Two big shockers for Seattle schools and cops, David Brewster, Editor-in-Chief at Crosscut and chair of the board of Crosscut Public Media, revealed his true anti-democratic sentiments.


He claimed - in the absence of evidence and, in fact, contrary to Dr. Enfield's specific statements - that Dr. Enfield's decision to withdraw herself from consideration as the long-term superintendent for Seattle Public Schools "almost certainly stemmed from the surprising fall election".


He referred to the two new Board members as "insurgents".


He suggested that the new board, which he characterized as having a 4-3 anti-reform majority, might mean "a 

Obama Will Win the Youth Vote in 2012, But He’s Lost Their Trust « Student Activism

Obama Will Win the Youth Vote in 2012, But He’s Lost Their Trust « Student Activism:

Young Voters Still Support Obama, But Grudgingly

by Angus Johnston

Looking for evidence of young voters’ dissatisfaction with Obama? Look no further than MTV.
For decades the network’s election coverage has been titled “Choose or Lose.” Launched at the time of Bill Clinton’s 1992 run, the slogan reflected youth excitement around that candidacy, and encouraged the sense that young people had a personal stake in the outcome of the race.
MTV stuck with the slogan for five election cycles — through Gore and Kerry and their lackluster campaigns. It resonated particularly strongly in 2008, when a young, charismatic Barack Obama succeeded in building youth loyalty like no candidate since Bobby Kennedy in 1968.
But now it’s done. MTV is finished with “Choose or Lose.”
Here’s why, according to the New York Times: “While young people turned out in unusually high numbers to 

Charter School Proponents Focus On Accountability In Word If Not In Deed:

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Charter School Proponents Focus On Accountability In Word If Not In Deed

First Posted: 12/20/11 09:02 AM ET Updated: 12/20/11 09:11 AM ET

The most recent call to close underperforming charter schools came not from a teachers' union or a school district, but from a charter-school trade association.

On Thursday, the California Charter Schools Association trumpeted its call for districts to discontinue 10 charter schools the group identified as culprits of "consistent academic underperformance."

"If you look at this in the longer term, you see this as increasing of the kind of accountability that will result in closures and charter schools understanding ... there's a level of accountability within the movement," Jed Wallace, president and CEO of the CCSA, told The Huffington Post.

And it's not just happening in California, the first state with a charter-school association to 

Challenging the Ethics of Florida Legislators on Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Challenging the Ethics of Florida Legislators on Charter Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:

Challenging the Ethics of Florida Legislators on Charter Schools

by Bob Sikes

St. Petersburg Times columnist Daniel Ruth doesn’t hold much back in his scathing review of Florida legislators who operate charter schools. First, for New Port Richey republican state representative John Legg:

The latest example of the Florida Legislature treating its responsibilities as if they were little more than a yummy feeding trough full of Beluga caviar, begins, but hardly ends, with Port Richey Republican state Rep. John Legg, who used his juice in Tallahassee to benefit a charter school run by a nonprofit he helped found.
As the St. Petersburg Times‘ Jeffrey Solochek reported, when the Pasco County School Board 

Schools Matter: Holding Journalists, the Media Accountable

Schools Matter: Holding Journalists, the Media Accountable:

Holding Journalists, the Media Accountable

by P. L. Thomas

While the current corporate-education reform narrative includes idealistic and oppressive chants of "no excuses" and "poverty is not destiny" (always coming from those not living in poverty) as well as focused attacks on teachers and teacher quality, these messages are recycled and accepted blindly almost daily by journalists and all types of media.

I recently posted about a Charleston Post and Courier article praising the planning hiring of Teach for America candidates to staff classrooms of students in poverty, students with special needs, and English language learners. This sort of thoughtless support fails to ask why leaders are so quick to experiment and allow uncertified and inexperienced college graduates teach other people's children.

After contacting the journalist (Diette Courrégé), I am moderately optimistic because she has followed up, talked 

Teacher tenure at issue in improving education | Deseret News

Teacher tenure at issue in improving education | Deseret News:

Teacher tenure at issue in improving education

Published: Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 11:42 p.m. MST

By Mercedes White, Deseret News

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In 2007 the educator Michelle Rhee was charged with a mammoth task: turn around public education in the District of Columbia, which included some of the most troubled school districts in the country. Though D.C. ranked third nationally in education spending, their students were some of the lowest performing, with less than 10 percent of D.C. eighth-graders reading at grade level.
As chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school district, Rhee was given carte blanche to implement any reforms she wanted. She started by firing teachers, who had long enjoyed considerable job security. When all was said and done, Rhee had let go 241 of the worst performing teachers in the city.

Click to enlarge

Ravell Call, Deseret News

Teacher Heidi Hummel is evaluated by the school principal while teaching kindergarten at Harry S. Truman Elementary in West Valley City.

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From the archive

• Holding teachers accountable: Does it make schools better? – Nov. 17, 2011
• In our opinion: Support good teachers – Sept. 15, 2011
• NJ gov sends education proposals to Legislature – April 13, 2011
• Teacher unions under attack nationally and in Utah – March 6, 2011
• Ex-D.C. school chief takes reform message nationwide – Jan. 9, 2011

Now, more than four years later, the idea that firing bad teachers will make schools better is catching on. States like Idaho, Tennessee and Florida are all in the process of implementing reforms that would make public school employment contingent on some measure of teacher effectiveness.
These reforms are based on a simple philosophy: If we want students to perform in a global economy, we need effective teachers. This philosophy is supported by a 2007 McKinsey report on education, which found that the best schools in the world are those that do not allow ineffective teachers to 

Is Education the Next Industry That Will Be Killed by the Internet? - Forbes

Is Education the Next Industry That Will Be Killed by the Internet? - Forbes:

Is Education the Next Industry That Will Be Killed by the Internet?

+ Comment now

I’d say that it probably will be, yes, and I’ve been saying so for some time. Think about it for a moment, we still use the educational techniques of the Early Middle Ages.

I first saw this point at Brad DeLong’s place. When books are hand written, extremely expensive (as in, more than a year’s wages possibly) then it makes sense for students to gather in one place and listen to the book being read to them.

Thus what we call a lecture. However, once printing has made the book cheap there’s really not all that much point to such a gathering. Classes, OK, that’s different, they’re more interactive. And yes, of course, there’s more to college