Why Flint’s Water Crisis May Be a Boon for #EdReform | educarenow

Why Flint’s Water Crisis May Be a Boon for #EdReform | educarenow:

Why Flint’s Water Crisis May Be a Boon for #EdReform

Let me start with some background information.

My home state of Michigan has a law that allows an Emergency Manager to be put in place. This  Emergency Manager has dictatorial control. Decisions that were previously made by a democratically elected city council or school board are given over to an appointee of the governor.

If you are a citizen of a country that purports itself to be a democracy, you may have some obvious concerns here.

If you are a fan of human rights, there are even more.

One of the decisions that the Emergency Manager of Flint has made is to end its contract with Detroit Water and Sewage Department and instead pump water from the local and polluted Flint River for its residents. The good news is that it saves some money. The bad news is that this move is poisoning the residents of Flint.

According to the Detroit Free Press, “Mona Hanna-Attisha, a researcher at Flint’s Hurley Medical Center, analyzed blood-lead level information collected as part of a routine screening process, and found that the percentage of Flint children with elevated blood-lead levels has increased significantly since the city started pumping water from the Flint River in April 2014. In some ZIP codes — those considered most at-risk — the percentage of kids affected by lead has doubled.”

And how much lead is safe in children?

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that there is no safe blood-lead level for children. Lead poisoning causes a host of developmental and behavioral problems in exposed children. It is irreversible.” (Emphasis added)

Which, to me, calls forward a seemingly obvious question: What is more important, economic efficiency or human lives?

I guess we know where the Flint Emergency Manager and Michigan governor stand, because they don’t quite seem to be accepting the data.

“Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Angela Minicuci told the Free Press on Thursday that the increase was ‘seasonal and not related to the water supply.'”

However,

“Despite the state’s efforts to discredit the Hurley data, the state’s own data show that there are a higher percentage of kids in Flint with elevated lead levels in their blood after the switch.” (Emphasis added)

So, any level of lead in the blood of a human is unsafe, and yet, the state is arguing that the increase in lead in the bodies of children in Flint is seasonal, as if:

1. Such an increase can be rationalized.

2. The state and its governor can wash its hands of this particular situation.

And what does all of this have to do with education reform?

Remember, the way that our current crop of top down, data driven education reformers imagine education is via the vehicle of wishful thinking that assumes that teachers and students are alienated individuals who work in isolation from social systems. This logic thus suggests these teachers and students are responsible for their own success and failure. The way to reform is then to reward the successes of these individuals, and to punish their failures. Failure leads to school closures, which leads to privatization (and its corollary of profit-making for some) often in the form of quasi-public, directly for-profit charters. Distractions offered by the social context that they work within, such as poverty or the poisoning of their water sources, are irrelevant because responsibility for success and failure lies completely within the control of the students and teachers involved.

So, forgive my simplification, but Why Flint’s Water Crisis May Be a Boon for #EdReform | educarenow:

Heal Our Schools, a documentary

HearOurTeachersHome:

Heal Our Schools, a documentary

Heal Our Schools, a documentary researched, written and directed by Laurie Gabriel, is being produced with the mission of uncovering and solving the real problems of public education in America. This venture is different from other education documentaries in that it fully explores the experience and expertise of our most overlooked resource: teachers. Through this platform, educators from all over the country can share their compelling (and strikingly similar) stories and solutions. Hear Our Teachers is an enlightening look into what's really going on behind school doors, as well as a collection of virtually cost-free answers to the education crisis--answers that are based on teachers' caring compassion for the children they serve.

Recent reforms, penned by politicians and policymakers who often have little-to-no classroom experience, have been addressing the same surface issues (testing, teacher evaluation, vouchers, etc.) instead of the real problems: herding of children by subject and by age; daunting bureaucratic paperwork; our society's lack of adult role models who exemplify compassion, honesty, patience, and commitment; parents who do not support the schools; and the reduction of meaningful teacher/student relationships to overcrowded buildings and faceless statistics. Until these truths are acknowledged and addressed, no other reform plan will work.

The teaching profession is currently being maligned by a number of politicians and other persons in the media spotlight, leading to a dangerous plan to replace teachers without finding out what's really keeping them from effectively helping their students. Instead of seeing a turnaround in student achievement, we'll only see a repeat of the same setbacks with the next batch of teachers (if we're able to attract new teachers at all). It's time to set the record straight.

Heal Our Schools 4 minute trailer 2015 from Ethan Gabriel on Vimeo.

See “Heal Our Schools”! Sponsor a Showing in Your Town

Laurie Gabriel is a teacher who decided to take action to save her profession and students. She directed and produced an excellent documentary called “Heal Our Schools.” Below is her schedule of showings.

My favorite scenes: when she interviews three critics of teachers, then invites them to teach a lesson. It is hilarious!

Contact Laurie to show it in your community.

She writes:

Heal Our Schools Fall Screening Schedule – add your city to the list!

Heal Our Schools is a teacher-produced film about giving classroom control back to teachers.

NEED VENUES IN LA ON OCTOBER 18 AND ALBUQUERQUE NOVEMBER 20!

OCTOBER 2 – DENVER
10:00 am, Elvis Cinema, 7400 E. Hampden Ave.

OCTOBER 3 – DENVER
2:30 pm, First Unitarian Church, 4101 E. Hampden Ave.

OCTOBER 18 – LOS ANGELES
evening – looking for venue/charity to share in proceeds!

OCTOBER 19 – SAN FRANCISCO
7:00 pm, – First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin St.

OCTOBER 20 – SEATTLE
7:00 pm, Freedom Socialist Hall, 5018 Ranier Ave. S.

OCTOBER 24 – BOULDER / LAFAYETTE CO
2:00 pm, Running River School 1370 Forest Park Circle, Lafayette

NOVEMBER 5-7 MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Details pending

NOVEMBER 12 – 14 YAKIMA /TRI-CITIES WA
Details TBA

NOVEMBER 19 – SANTA FE NM
7:00 pm, Center for Progress and Justice, 1420 Cerrillos Rd.

NOVEMBER 20 – ALBUQUERQUE
evening – looking for venue/charity to share in proceeds!

Call 719-213-6850 or email laurie@healourschools.org for more information.

See “Heal Our Schools”! Sponsor a Showing in Your Town http://bit.ly/1FGoPJf

LCAP Parent Advisory Committee - Sacramento City Unified School District

LCAP Parent Advisory Committee - Sacramento City Unified School District:
LCAP Parent Advisory Committee

Application for the 2015-16 school year

In 2013-14, the state of California changed the way it funds school districts.The new model, called the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), allows districts more freedom in how funds are spent but also requires the development of a Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) that aligns spending to specific district goals for student achievement.

One key aspect of the LCAP process is the engagement of parents/guardians and students — including homeless, foster youth and those from low-income and English learner communities — in providing input and feedback.

Annually, SCUSD will form an LCAP Parent Advisory Committee to review and provide input on sections of the LCAP.  SCUSD has a strong record of parent/guardian engagement in district-level planning and is excited to partner with this group in shaping the district’s vision and actions for the coming years.

Committee Demographics

To be sure that this committee is reflective of the diverse community we serve, as well as subgroups explicitly called out in LCFF, the group must include a minimum number of representatives in key demographic areas.

The LCAP Parent Advisory Committee must include:

• At least ten (10) parents/guardians/caregivers
• At least eleven (11) representatives that represent a Title 1 school (current parent, former parent, student, staff member, parent advocate, community partner or other qualified representative)
• At least three (3) representatives that represent English-learners (current parent, former parent, student or staff member)
• At least two (2) representatives that represent special needs students (current parent, former parent, student or staff member)
• At least one (1) representative from the Homeless or Foster Youth community
• No more than three (3) staff members

Note that these representations are intentionally consistent with the district’s demographic breakdown. In 2014-15, approximately 68% of SCUSD students qualify for Free or Reduced Price Lunch; approximately 22% of SCUSD students are English-learners; approximately 13% of SCUSD students receive special education services. There are approximately 755 homeless students and 176 foster youth in SCUSD.

Deadline to apply: September 30, 2015 at 5pm.

Please note while we will maintain the privacy of personal identification information, answers to questions may be shared publicly.

Application

The application may be completed using this online form, or printed from the attachment linked here.

• Download the Application here
• 
  

LCAP Parent Advisory Committee - Sacramento City Unified School District:

PDK/Gallup Poll - October highlights

PDK/Gallup Poll - October highlights:

Make teaching more professional

Are Americans signaling that they want changes that would boost the professionalism of teaching?

Americans want higher professional requirements for teachers and believe teacher pay is too low, but they don’t like tenure, according to the newest PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.

Public school parents trust and have confidence in the nation’s teachers, and they said communicating with their child’s teacher is easy. In broad terms, the PDK/Gallup poll indicates that Americans believe schools are safe places where children are able to do their best work and that teachers recognize and praise good effort at school.

This year’s PDK/Gallup poll is a nationally representative web survey of 3,499 Americans ages 18 and older with Internet access and an additional telephone survey of 1,001 Americans ages 18 and older. Both surveys were conducted in May 2015. The addition of the web survey this year allows PDK and Gallup to gather larger sample sizes to report in greater detail about segments of the U.S. adult population for the first time. We point to responses from specific groups when we deem them to be significantly different from the total responses. All of the results in this report are taken from the web survey only.

This report follows our initial release of findings in the September issue of Kappan, where we shared poll results regarding testing, the Common Core, choice, and the role of the federal government in education. Still to come are responses to questions regarding college and the American Dream.

Last month, we reported that Americans said there is too much emphasis on standardized testing in public schools. They said student engagement at school and whether students feel hopeful about their future are far better factors to consider when evaluating schools than the results of standardized tests. They rank standardized testing lower than other ways of measuring student progress such as examples of student work, grades awarded by the teacher, or written observations by the teacher.

FindingsPDK/Gallup Poll - October highlights:

Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorses charter expansion effort - LA Times

Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorses charter expansion effort - LA Times:

Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorses charter expansion effort

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has endorsed a controversial effort to more than double the number of the city’s charter schools over the next eight years.

Villaraigosa declared his support for the plan in an interview after an education forum he hosted Monday evening at the University of Southern California.

“I would support any effort to expand high-quality education,” Villaraigosa said. “So I could certainly support that, particularly if it’s spearheaded by the highest-performing charters.”

The draft of the proposal, which was developed by the locally based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, sets a goal of raising $490 million to open 260 charters, enrolling about 130,000 students.

Charter schools are independently operated and are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. Most are non-union. The L.A. Unified School District already has more than 200 charters, the most of any school system in the country.

Supporters see a rapid expansion as a way to fundamentally and quickly improve the city’s education system, especially for black and Latino students from low-income families. Critics contend that an explosion of new charter schools would sap vital resources from L.A. Unified and leave behind students who are more difficult and more expensive to educate.

Villaraigosa said some of the critics have raised “legitimate questions.”

“Those who are proposing this are going to have to take into account some of those real issues,” he said.

“I don’t think just expanding charter is the path,” Villaraigosa said. “I said while I was mayor that I didn’t care if it was a charter school or a traditional public school or a hybrid … I want to see more success and higher standards and accountability.”

The primary backer of the expansion, Eli Broad, has been a key political ally of Villaraigosa and could be again if the former mayor, as expected, runs to succeed Jerry Brown as governor of California.

Villaraigosa still has a stake in the traditional school system as the political force behind the creation of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which began during his eight years as mayor, 2005-13. The partnership manages 16 traditional public schools under a contract with L.A. Unified.

The group’s latest campus, 107th Street Elementary, was added this fall at the request of the district, which was dissatisfied with academic progress at the school.

Villaraigosa deferred comment on the progress of efforts to select a new superintendent for L.A. Unified. When asked if he’d be interested in the job, he replied, with a grin: “I’ve already been asked.”

But he declined to clarify whether he meant that he’d been asked that question before or whether he’d been asked if he would consider taking the job.

The L.A. Board of Education recently launched a search for a new schools' chief; Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has said he would like to leave Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorses charter expansion effort - LA Times:

Eli Broad's LAUSD? | OpEdNews

Article: Eli Broad's LAUSD? | OpEdNews:

Eli Broad's LAUSD?

"While working for two years as an accountant, Eli Broad saw his homebuilding clients making much more that he was, and he and Edythe's cousin's husband decided they, too, could build houses."

-Broad Foundation

There are some who like to quietly give to charities, being careful not to draw too much attention to themselves. Eli Broad is not this type of person. In a dispute with MOCA, an organization where he had been named "Founding Chairman," he told the trustees that he wanted his "name on the building...in big letters, which were to go on the front of the building." He had to settle having the lobby named after him, at least until he built his very own museum. However, when he gives money, he does not just want public recognition; he wants control. Broad and his wife, Edythe, are self-described venture philanthropists who focus "their charitable giving in a new style of investing that was more akin to their business acumen."

The Broad's style of giving is on full display in the area of education when he donates desperately needed funds to the LAUSD with strings that give him the power of an unelected Board member. For example, "about 20 senior jobs in the Deasy administration [were] paid for by outside foundations such as those run by Eli Broad." While the Superintendent and his staff are supposed to report to the democratically elected Board of Education, these staff members were instead beholden to the monied interests paying their salaries. Projects these interests favored, like the $1.3 billion iPad initiative, MiSiS and Breakfast in the Classroom, were then pushed forward as the Board looked helplessly on. When the iPad and MiSiS failures became too much for Deasy to handle, he jumped ship and was hired as a consultant for "The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems as a superintendent-in-residence."



Broad's latest proposal is to spend $490 million "to reach 50 percent charter market share" in Los Angeles. If the plan is successful, an additional 130,000 students per year will be cherry-picked from the public school system every year and placed in schools run by private entities that lack democratic oversight. The charter industry calls this "choice," but this conveniently ignores the fate of the hardest to educate students who will be left unserved by these new private schools. It is hard to imagine a scenario where the District is not left in bankruptcy as it struggles to educate those with severe special needs, behavior issues and difficult family situations while losing funding as tax money is diverted to the private sector.

The LAUSD "already has the highest number of charters - more than 200 - of any school system in the county, enrolling about 16% of students." It would be hard to make a case against the proposed expansion if these schools were vastly better than their public counterparts, but even with their ability to pick the best students, charter schools only performed "roughly 2.5 percent" better on recently released California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance. To prove that "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics," the CCSA later reworked their numbers to show that the charters performed "nine percentage points higher in English language arts but only four percentage points higher in math." However, to accomplish this they had to remove the LAUSD's "53 affiliated charters from the comparison," even though they "are district schools that operate with most of the same rules as [sic] regulations that govern traditional schools."

While both public and charter schools within Los Angeles fell below the state average on these tests, one bright spot did emerge from the data. According to a district analysis, "In English-Language Arts (ELA), 65 percent of magnets scored higher than the state average, compared with 34 percent of independent charters. On the Math assessment, 56 percent of magnets scored higher than the state average, more than twice the rate of the charters' performance." If Broad and his fellow philanthropists want more bang for their $490 million, perhaps they should check their egos at the door and give unrestricted money to the District so that it can expand these types of schools. If it helps seal the deal, the District could name it the "Eli and Edythe Broad Magnet Program."

____________________________________________

I am a former candidate for the District 3 seat on the LAUSD School Board, founder of Change The LAUSD and member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. Opinions are my own.

http://www.changethelausd.com/

My activism goes back to 1988 when I had just moved to Los Angeles to attend Musician's Institute. I saw a flyer requesting help to defend against Operation Rescue's planned attempts to shut down family planning clinics and volunteered. Before (more...)

2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Announces 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools | U.S. Department of Education:

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan Announces 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today recognized 335 schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2015 based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. These schools demonstrate that all students can achieve to high levels.

"This honor recognizes your students' accomplishments and the hard work and dedication that went into their success," Duncan said in a video message to the awardees. "Your journey has taught you collaboration, intentional instruction, and strong relationships in school and with your community. You represent excellence—in vision, in implementation, and in results—and we want to learn as much as we can from you."

The Department will honor 285 public and 50 private schools at a recognition ceremony on Nov. 9-10 in Washington, D.C. In its 33-year history, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has bestowed this coveted award on more than 8,000 of America's schools.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private elementary, middle, and high schools where students either achieve very high learning standards or are making notable improvements in closing the achievement gap. The award plaque affirms the hard work of students, educators, families and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging content. The award flag gracing a school's building is a widely recognized symbol of exemplary teaching and learning.

All schools are recognized in one of two performance categories, based on all student scores, subgroup student scores and graduation rates:

• Exemplary High Performing Schools are among their state's highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests. Student subgroup performance and high school graduation rates are also at the highest levels.
• Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools are among their state's highest performing schools in closing achievement gaps between a school's subgroups and all students over the past five years. Student subgroup performance and high school graduation rates for each subgroup are at high levels.

The Department invites National Blue Ribbon School nominations from the top education official in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Department of Defense Education Activity and the Bureau of Indian Education. The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) nominates private schools. A total of 420 schools nationwide may be nominated, with allocations determined by the numbers of K-12 students and schools in each jurisdiction. The U.S. Secretary of Education invites nominated schools to submit an application for possible recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School.

Note To Editors: Photographs and brief descriptions of the 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools are available athttp://www.ed.gov/nationalblueribbonschools.

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates California

Winners of the 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award 

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today congratulated 29 California public and four private schools that are being recognized as 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

The California winners of the coveted award are among 285 public (traditional, charter, choice, and magnet) schools and 50 private schools announced this morning by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

"California's newly selected Blue Ribbon Schools are among the best in the nation and reflect our state's commitment to preparing students for college and career," Torlakson said. "We celebrate these models of excellence as they shine in the national spotlight. I congratulate all the hardworking students, teachers, parents, staff, and administrators who made this recognition possible."

The federal Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private schools from elementary through high school.

Public schools are nominated by each Chief State School Officer (CSSO), including the Department of Defense Education Activity, and the Bureau of Indian Education. The Council for American Private Education nominates private schools.

The California schools were recognized as Exemplary High Performing Schools and were required to be performing in the top 15 percent of schools statewide as measured by state assessments.

National Blue Ribbon Schools will be honored at a national awards ceremony on November 9-10, 2015 in Washington, D.C., where each winner will receive a plaque and flag. Blue Ribbon winners may fly this flag at their schools as a mark of excellence. In its 33-year history, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has presented this award to more than 8,000 of America's schools.

Details of the 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools can be found on the U.S. Department of Education Web site  .

California's National Blue Ribbon Public Schools for 2015

County	District	School
Alameda	Alameda Unified	Alameda Science and Technology Institute
Alameda	Dublin Unified	James Dougherty Elementary
Alameda	Oakland Unified	Montclair Elementary
Alameda	Pleasanton Unified	Vintage Hills Elementary
Contra Costa	Acalanes Union High	Campolindo High
Contra Costa	Lafayette Elementary	Happy Valley Elementary
Contra Costa	Orinda Union Elementary	Del Rey Elementary
Contra Costa	San Ramon Valley Unified	Neil A. Armstrong Elementary
El Dorado	Buckeye Union Elementary	Oak Meadow Elementary
Fresno	Fresno Unified	Manchester Gate
Los Angeles	Antelope Valley Union High	SOAR High (Students On Academic Rise)
Los Angeles	La Cañada Unified	La Cañada High
Los Angeles	Las Virgenes Unified	Yerba Buena Elementary
Los Angeles	Long Beach Unified	Naples Elementary
Los Angeles	Los Angeles Unified	KIPP Raices Academy
Los Angeles	Manhattan Beach Unified	Grand View Elementary
Los Angeles	Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified	Montemalaga Elementary
Los Angeles	Redondo Beach Unified	Alta Vista Elementary
Los Angeles	San Marino Unified	Valentine Elementary
Los Angeles	William S. Hart Union High	Academy of the Canyons
Marin	Reed Union Elementary	Bel Aire Elementary
Nevada	Nevada Joint Union High	William & Marian Ghidotti High
Orange	Santa Ana Unified	Middle College High
Riverside	Riverside Unified	Lake Mathews Elementary
San Bernardino	Chino Valley Unified	Country Springs Elementary
San Diego	Poway Unified	Deer Canyon Elementary
San Joaquin	Lodi Unified	Middle College High
Santa Clara	Evergreen Elementary	James Franklin Smith Elementary
Santa Clara	Mountain View Whisman	Frank L. Huff Elementary

California's National Blue Ribbon Private Schools for 2015

County	City	School
Los Angeles	Chino Hills	Heights Christian Schools Chino Hills campus
Los Angeles	Valencia	Legacy Christian Academy
Orange County	Irvine	New Horizon School
San Diego County	Solana Beach	Santa Fe Christian Middle School

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, September 29, 2015

http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr15/yr15rel74.asp

José Luis Vilson: Stealing Possible | The Progressive

Stealing Possible | The Progressive:

Stealing Possible

The New York charter school group Families of Excellent Schools announced recently that rallying under the banner “Don’t Steal Possible,”on September 30, 2015 “over 10,000 parents, students, and educators are expected to demand an end to education inequality in Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza, followed by hundreds marching across the Brooklyn Bridge and holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall in the afternoon.”

Sounds good, right? To the contrary, people of color in this country, specifically black people, have rarely had agency in the pedagogy and policy that affects their children. NYC charter schools playing the role of white saviors does little to change this.

The criticisms are simple here. As recently as 2013, 16 New York City  charter executives made more income than the sitting Dept. of Education Chancellor at the time, even while serving significantly fewer students.  And charter schools don’t perform better than public schools. In NYC this past year, charters may have outperformed in math but performed on par with public schools in other areas. A recent study showed that the Knowledge Is Power Program or KIPP — a NYC non-profit network of public schools serving low-income students — can produce  gains in elementary and middle school students, but that those advances don’t last through high school, an indication that perhaps the hype around KIPP is, at best, inflated.

Indeed, most of the arguments around “choice” evoke more boogiemen than Halloween, yet, when the facts are laid bare, we see little evidence for the hype.

POLITICO’s Eliza Shapiro reported that Success Academy Charter Schools employees have received a messaging memo preparing them to talk to parents and other attendees about the upcoming rally. Success staff (who were discouraged from sharing the memo with families), were told to “strongly encourage” parents to attend the rally and march even if it presents hardships for them in terms of arranging for child care or taking time off from their jobs. All of the 34 Success Academy charter schools in the city will be closed the morning of the rally, and parents not attending will have to find alternate care for their kids. (At a

- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/09/188336/stealing-possible#sthash.vrcK2sOt.dpuf

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Is Rahm looking for a war on special ed?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Is Rahm looking for a war on special ed?:

Is Rahm looking for a war on special ed?

As the grandparent of a CPS student with special needs, my message to the mayor is -- if it's a battle you want, it's a battle you'll get.

Our autocrat at City Hall appears bent on dismembering special education in Chicago by a thousand cuts. SpEd took its first major deep cut over the summer eliminating 500 positions at CPS. More cuts announced late Friday mean approximately 160 schools would lose special education teachers, while 184 would lose aides.

Rahm has put his bureaucrats and principals on radio silence regarding the latest cuts, says DNAInfo's Heather Cherone. 

CPS officials declined to answer repeated inquires from DNAinfo Chicago reporters Monday about the formula — apparently based on enrollment figures also released Friday evening — used to make those cuts, and ordered principals not to speak with reporters trying to figure out what the cuts would mean for special education students in neighborhoods throughout Chicago.

Originally, principals were given to the end of the day Monday to appeal the cuts, which sent parents scrambling on social media to figure out if their children's schools would have enough staff to meet the requirements of each student's specialized education plan.

The latest round of cuts, coming weeks after the start of the school year, further Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Is Rahm looking for a war on special ed?:

Another black face on a white education agenda isn't needed — justice is - The Hechinger Report

Another black face on a white education agenda isn't needed — justice is - The Hechinger Report:

Another black face on a white education agenda isn’t needed — justice is

Both the current education reform lobby and their progressive opponents feel a certain kinship with the Black Lives Matter movement.

They even send subtle and not so subtle overtures soliciting the group’s support.

“I would argue we are losing more black lives by ignoring an epic educational crisis,” writes education reformer and Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz in a letter comparing the educational setting in America to the killings of unarmed black men.

In “An Urgent Appeal to the Leaders of Black Lives Matter,” published by Diane Ravitch, teacher Joshua Liebner asks Black Lives Matter to take on the Super PAC’s of the one percent.

These overtures present a problem; Black Lives Matter should inform education establishments’ causes, not the other way around.

Related: Column Black math scores lag the most in segregated schools

When you’re black, white privilege looks the same from whatever clique you claim or work in. You see the one percent controlling educational movements from all angles. The public educational system wasn’t exactly serving black children before the modern day reform movement. After twenty years of reform, gaps have widened in many cases. And as it relates directly to a policy agenda put out by Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero, reformers and progressives alike are seemingly on a different page when it comes to ending the criminalization of black youth.

In Louisiana, a state bill that would have banned suspensions among young children (blacks are disproportionately affected) for low-level violations moved up to the full Senate for approval. But the bill met considerable resistance from the Louisiana Association of Principals, Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, all opposing it. The bill was ultimately watered down to ban suspensions for uniform violations. The school to prison pipeline flows through traditional and reform schools alike.

Black folk don’t need partners as much as they need justice.

I appreciate the Black Lives Matter Movement because few of us black folk actually work in organizations that can openly and brazenly place black people at the center of the work – not educational growth or gap closing. And save the reverse racism nonsense. Building self-reliant communities demand a ‘we can do this’ attitude that black folk seldom have the luxury of actualizing. Whites have a hard time wanting blacks to exercise the same luxury they readily impose. Blacks who have a “We can do this” attitude are deemed uppity, angry or non-team players.

Related: In Mississippi, best teachers don’t go where they are needed most

When you’re really working within a community, you don’t have to partner – community engagement isn’t necessary.

Black people know too well how partnering becomes co-opting. Education organizations are good for propping up black parents and children to parrot an agenda that the CEO or president should have given. Strutting a dark skinned boy on a stage to help make Another black face on a white education agenda isn't needed — justice is - The Hechinger Report:

Cuomo and Malloy – Deaf, Dumb and Blind about the Common Core Testing Opt-Out Movement - Wait What?

Cuomo and Malloy – Deaf, Dumb and Blind about the Common Core Testing Opt-Out Movement - Wait What?:

Cuomo and Malloy – Deaf, Dumb and Blind about the Common Core Testing Opt-Out Movement

When it comes to the Charter School and Corporate Education Reform Industry, Democrat Governors Andrew Cuomo and Dannel Malloy are twins separated at birth.  Proponents of charter schools, the Common Core, the Common Core Testing Scheme and its associated anti-teacher, anti-parent agenda, both Cuomo and Malloy have spent the last few years praying at the Alter of the Public School Privatization Movement.

And both Cuomo and Malloy have eagerly reaped the benefits of their actions by hauling in unprecedented amounts of campaign cash from the corporate executives, hedge fund owners and rich who fund the charter school and education reform advocacy groups that lobby elected officials.

Perhaps the most offense fact of all is that not only are Cuomo and Malloy diverting tens of millions of dollars in public funds to charter schools and turning public schools into little more than testing factories, but that they are using state government agencies and officials to inappropriately – and illegally – stomp on the fundamental rights of parents to protect their children from the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core testing scam.

When it comes to recognizing, let alone protecting the rights of public school parents and students, Malloy and Cuomo have been nothing short of Deaf, Dumb and Blind.

As reported yesterday in the Wait, What? article entitled  Look Out Parents – Malloy’s State Department of Education is ramping up Pro-Common Core Testing Campaign, Governor Malloy’s State Department of Education trooped off to little Sherman, Connecticut last week to berate the community for its high opt-out numbers, while the Deputy Commissioner of Education told school superintendents that “correction Cuomo and Malloy – Deaf, Dumb and Blind about the Common Core Testing Opt-Out Movement - Wait What?: