Schools Matter: Human Disaster Capitalism and Teach for America

Schools Matter: Human Disaster Capitalism and Teach for America:

Human Disaster Capitalism and Teach for America

During the eugenics glory days of the 1920s, American elites who deemed themselves the only citizens fit for democracy argued that, for the Republic to work, a new class of leadership was required to efficiently steer society in directions that the great unwashed herd was incapable of doing through real democratic governance.   Walter Lippman was a chief spokesman for this new American variety of practical fascism under the guise of democracy, and he carried on an active debate in the press with John Dewey.  

As conditions coalesced for the horrific rise of the Third Reich, Dewey persistently argued that the goal of democratic governance is not to prepare a super-corps of efficient administrators to run society but, rather, to educate the citizenry so that they can adequately judge the worth and implications of policies, knowledge claims, and actions.

Lippman was the first to argue for what he termed the "manufacture of consent," by which he meant the manipulation of public opinion along the lines of the technocratic elites' chosen policies.  Now almost 100 years later, and with the help of social media manipulation, "knowledge" production by think tanks, and corporate philanthropists' paternalistic creations like TFA and KIPP, Lippman's democratic dystopia is coming to its propagandistic fruition.

The difference between then and now is that there is no widely-circulated public debate being waged about the desirability of societal leadership by a privileged corps of elite Adderall-addled converts whose humanity and empathy have been displaced by a bare-knuckled arrogant zealotry aimed at socioeconomic solutions that strengthen the inequality and steroidal hierarchies undergirding capitalism.  

The debate so far about Teach for America, for instance, has been focused narrowly on how TFA harms public schools, children, and the teaching profession.  Important for sure, but the focus has had little to do with TFA's primary thrust toward brainwashing a new generation of "leaders" who have drunk the TFA kool-Schools Matter: Human Disaster Capitalism and Teach for America:

Garcetti: Next LA schools superintendent should be in 'Romer mold' | 89.3 KPCC

Garcetti: Next LA schools superintendent should be in 'Romer mold' | 89.3 KPCC:

Garcetti: Next LA schools superintendent should be in 'Romer mold'

Mayor Eric Garcetti suggested the Los Angeles Unified School District look to the past as it searches for a superintendent for the future.

Asked Thursday what he would like to see in the next leader of the country's second largest school district, Garcetti said: “Somebody in the Roy Romer mold, I think, who has the gravitas.”

Romer was a three-term governor of Colorado and the general chairman of the Democratic National Committee before he arrived in Los Angeles to serve as superintendent from 2000 to 2006. During his tenure, he shepherded a massive school construction project and helped expand charter schools.

With several camps currently battling over the direction of LAUSD, Garcetti said the district’s next superintendent should have Romer’s political skills.

“I do think you need somebody with enough gravitas to bring these warring parties together, hit their heads together and say, ‘Look, the kids have to come first,” he said, speaking after a press conference on the Department of Water and Power.

Since taking office as mayor, Garcetti has rarely commented publicly on the direction of the public schools. In sharp contrast to previous mayors, Garcetti has generally refrained from voicing opinions on how the 600,000-student LAUSD should operate or how it can be improved.

His immediate predecessor, Antonio Villaraigosa, made public education a top priority of his campaign and administration. He actively sought control of the LAUSD school board through state legislation that was later ruled unconstitutional.

The teachers' union opposed his move to assert his authority over the board as did then-Superintendent Romer.

Romer’s leadership was marked by urgency and statesmanship, said LAUSD school board president Steve Zimmer.

“More important than the profile of the name is this ability to truly galvanize our disparate communities, our disparate perspectives, and bring people together in a way that has not been done recently,” Zimmer said.

But not everyone shares Zimmer's and Garcetti's positive assessment of the former superintendent. 

United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl remembers Romer as a Garcetti: Next LA schools superintendent should be in 'Romer mold' | 89.3 KPCC:

Arthur Camins: Collective Action, Not Competition, Is Necessary for Strong Public Schools | janresseger

Arthur Camins: Collective Action, Not Competition, Is Necessary for Strong Public Schools | janresseger:

Arthur Camins: Collective Action, Not Competition, Is Necessary for Strong Public Schools

Arthur Camins, a strong advocate for equitable public education, has published a new commentary, this time mourning the erosion of America’s long valued ideal of educating all children, not merely the children who seem the most promising or whose parents know how to play the choice game.  He notes that none of  the candidates for President has distinguished himself or herself, “by challenging the winners and losers ethos that has come to pervade even the education of our children.” Camins traces a, “three-decades-long hardening of America’s heart,” “a turn away from caring about the poor, about integration, and indeed about the very idea of social responsibility. Now, callousness passes for entertainment. Before NBC fired him, Donald Trump enhanced his fame by proclaiming “You’re fired!”

Camins rejects school choice, a social policy encouraging self interest and abandoning commitment to the public good: “Policy makers plug charter schools and vouchers as a means to make the contest to climb the economic ladder fairer. Parents, frustrated by the quality of their local public schools, anxiously apply to charter schools, hoping their child will be selected over the competition—other people’s childhood losers.  Is this the ethos that we want for education in the United States?”

And the ethos of competition is not limited to parents vying to promote the prospects of own children. “To advocates for market competition as the improvement mechanism for education, the opening and closing of schools and the resultant dislocation of students are necessary sacrifices on the alter of disruptive innovation.  Similarly, education policy makers promote competition among teachers to get the biggest improvement in student test scores in order to win bonuses or ensure they aren’t the ones fired… The formerly discredited notion of social Darwinism has reemerged as a triumphant management ideology.” “(O)ver the last Arthur Camins: Collective Action, Not Competition, Is Necessary for Strong Public Schools | janresseger:

CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Gets Spanked

CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Gets Spanked:

Eva Gets Spanked

As recently noted by several fine bloggy outlets, Eva Moskowitz set a new standard in arrogant reckless disregard when defending herself against a John Merrow piece on PBS that outlines some of the less-than-awesome practices of Success Academy.

Specifically, she defended herself by breaching the confidentiality of a young student's records at the school. I'm not a lawyer (nor do I play one on TV), but it sure looks like a FERPA violation to me when you release everything down to excerpts from the teacher narrative about disciplinary incidents for a student who is readily and easily identified.

Well, apparently the child's mother thinks so, too. Yesterday, Moskowitz was slapped with a cease and desist letter. The letter is reproduced here at NYC Public School Parents. 

I demand that you immediately remove the letter you wrote to PBS and sent to the press on October 19, that contained details of my son’s disciplinary record and is posted at [link removed] , as well as the second follow up letter you posted and sent on October 21 at [link removed.]

The mother notes that actual text of Moskowitz's letter includes the information that the parent did not consent to having her child's private records released. But Moskowitz was willing to smear a ten-year-old child with his six-year-old behavior to defend her pretty PR picture.

As I noted in an earlier post, the picture that emerges of Success Academy in Moskowitz's letter is of a place that deals with a problematic child by emotionally beating him into submission (or out the door, or both). In the past, we've seen her deal with elected offcials who won't give her her way by having her buddies at Families for Excellent Schools mount ugly PR campaigns and by having her friends in Albany beat the Mayor of New York into submission. Now we get to see if either of those techniques are effective against an angry parent with a lawyer.

Stay tuned.CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Gets Spanked:





Hillary's Teacher PAC Goes to DC

Well, not actually to DC. More like LA. But our old friends at America's Teachers are having a good time right now making connections with real DC players.

You may recall that we first talked about America's Teachers back in June, when the teacherPAC first showed up on the radar. At the time it looked like they could turn out to be a shadowy dark money funnel aimed at the Clinton campaign. But upon closer examination, and an entirely pleasant phone conversation, America's Teachers turned out to be a couple of young guys with a dream.

Naveed Amalfard and Luke Villalobos are a pair of very recently graduated just-getting-started TFA guys. You will have to take my word for it that Amalfard sounds kind of charmingly pleasant on the phone, because when you read any of his "Hey, I've taught for a year and I'm here to tell you all Great Truths About Teaching" he sounds like a self-important jerk. These two had adapted the Clintonian/Democrat approach of simply ignoring the major issues facing K-12 education and focusing on warm fuzzy things like pre-K and free college, they could unite an otherwise world of splintered-over-education folks. In late August, they didn't seem to have gained a lot of traction.

But this week, they surfaced again. Joy Resmovits covered the boys for the LA Times, where they scored some meetings with some heavier hitters.

So how are they doing? Well, apparently they have so far raised a whopping $1,500 so as SuperPAC's go, they are more Clark Kent than Kal-el.

On the other hand, if they were hoping to keep bridging the gap between classroom teachers, the unions, and education reformsters-- well, that bridge seems to have collapsed. When Amalfard Hillary's Teacher PAC Goes to DC

Malloy Campaign’s effort to obstruct justice faces court appearance on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - Wait What?

Malloy Campaign’s effort to obstruct justice faces court appearance on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - Wait What?:

Malloy Campaign’s effort to obstruct justice faces court appearance on Tuesday, October 27, 2015

In his effort to win re-election to a second term as Connecticut’s governor, Dannel Malloy certified that he would abide by Connecticut’s public financing program.  In return for raising $250,000 in contributions no greater than $100 per person, the State Elections Enforcement Commission provided Malloy’s campaign with $6.5 million in public funds.  As a requirement for taking those funds, Malloy swore, under oath, that he would not accept any other campaign donations.

However, in the course of the 2014 the campaign, and in conjunction with the Democratic State Central Committee, Malloy and his political operatives funneled more than $5.2 million dollars into a Democratic Party account.  That money was used, in part, to pay for a series of glossy mailings urging people to vote for Malloy.

Not only was the use of the campaign funds illegal, but the funds that were used were tainted by the fact that it included donations from state contractors and others who are prohibited, by law, from participating in a Connecticut gubernatorial campaign.

As Connecticut law requires, the State Elections Enforcement began an investigation into the allegation that Malloy violated the law through the illegal use of campaign funds.

But rather than come clean about their activities, or even fight the accusations on the merits, Malloy and the Democrats did what would have once been unthinkable in state that proudly had one of the nation’s premier public finance systems… they spent the past year stonewalling the investigation and obstructing justice.

Team Malloy even refused to abide by an official subpoena issued by the Connecticut Elections Enforcement Commission.

See: Malloy and the Democratic State Central Committee – In plain English it’s called obstructing Justice (Wait, What? 8/3/2015)

In a couple of months, Dannel Malloy will take over as the chairman of the national Malloy Campaign’s effort to obstruct justice faces court appearance on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - Wait What?:

The Dilemmas Teachers Face in an Era of Campus Shootings and School Violence - The Atlantic

The Dilemmas Teachers Face in an Era of Campus Shootings and School Violence - The Atlantic:

When Teachers Fear the Students They Must Protect

The dilemma educators are facing now that school shootings appear to be happening more frequently in the U.S.

I had turned 18 years old two weeks prior to April 20, 1999. I was looking ahead to starting college, to setting out on my own, and to buying a prom dress—to living. While I vaguely understood that mass shootings took place, I was detached from them as a real possibility. Then the Columbine shooting occurred at a high school in Littleton, Colorado, taking away the lives of 13 innocent people. That day, the realization sunk in that death could come not despite being in school, but because of it.

Eight years and numerous mass shootings later, the Virginia Tech massacre again shook me out of complacency. On that April morning in 2007, 32 people were killed on campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, in what remains the deadliest shooting rampage by a single gunman in U.S. history. As the coverage unfolded and the cellphones of the dead infamously continued to buzz, I—a graduate student instructor in Philadelphia still new to the job—prepared to teach my own class of freshmen and sophomores, 18- and 19-year-olds who were confronting the same reality that I had faced at their age: that schools and universities, places of growth and possibility, had become fair game.

As I readied my lesson on masculine and feminine pronouns for that mid-level Spanish class, I wondered if I should start by teaching them muerte (death), as I imagined what they were thinking anyway—that death could, in theory, find us here, now. I thought about the fact that even if the students and I were killed in some freak disaster or horrific massacre, there would still be fewer bodies than had been recovered at Virginia Tech the day before. I worried that no matter what I would do to try to protect them, it most likely wouldn’t be enough, and that only a “lucky” few of them might live to remember watching their classmates and teacher die.

Only a “lucky” few of them might live to remember watching their classmates and teacher die.

Despite being just 5 or 6 years older than my students, I felt responsible for them, protective, aware of the incredible weight carried by teachers. I also recognized the probability that, should an intruder walk into the classroom, these students would quickly and inevitably look over to me for what to do. And chances are, I wouldn’t have any answers.

That morning, I scanned the room as the students found their seats, looking for signs of distress, of rage, or even of some perverse satisfaction. As the typical profile of a mass shooter leans so strikingly toward young males, I paid particular attention to the men in my class and wondered whether a potential shooter could be among them. I felt an immense sadness at feeling this inclination.

Finally, after 20 minutes of stilted class time, I talked about the elephant in the room and opened the floor to discussion on what many, if not all, of my students were really thinking about: Could it happen here? While we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that chances remain statistically low, such incidents showed that a campus shooting is nevertheless a possibility. Behind the scenes, many among the faculty felt uneasy, suddenly conscripted into the gun debate and stationed at the front lines.

From that moment forward, and even more so as incidents make national news, many educators and administrators wonder if the hypothetical situations they prepare for could become real. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Education Week, and the NEA website, among other prominent outlets targeted at the education world, all regularly feature leading stories on school shootings. An educator must navigate this gray space of uncertainty, finding away forward amid what more and more teachers admit is increasing fear. A teacher in the United States is now likely to enter a room and do quick mental calculations on exit points, barricades, and locking mechanisms while handing The Dilemmas Teachers Face in an Era of Campus Shootings and School Violence - The Atlantic:

Advice from a Billionaire: Forget Charity, Do Good While Making a Profit | Diane Ravitch's blog

Advice from a Billionaire: Forget Charity, Do Good While Making a Profit | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Advice from a Billionaire: Forget Charity, Do Good While Making a Profit

This is a very interesting interview with Bobby Turner, who is the partner of Andre Agassi in opening new charter schools for profit across the country. He seems to think that destroying public education is a way to perform good works.

Charity is laudable, Bobby Turner says, but if you really want to raise enough money to improve a thorny social problem you have to introduce the profit motive.

An associate of 1980s junk bond king Michael Milken who made a fortune in real estate, Turner is now turning that personal philosophy into action.

He set up a company last year called Turner Impact Capital that seeks investors to pay for blue-collar housing, promising returns more typical of ­conventional moneymaking businesses.

And already some big names are risking capital to invest with Turner, a deeply connected Los Angeles financier who already has a similar fund with former tennis star Andre Agassi to build inner-city charter schools.

The Turner Multifamily Impact Fund launched in June so far has drawn investments from high-profile hedge fund manager Bill Ackman; Citi Community Capital, a division of Citibank that invests in affordable housing; the University of Michigan endowment; and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic organization operated by the Rockefeller family.

This is the reasoning of the hedge fund managers and equity investors who are privatizing public schools. If they can generate a profit, taking public money that should be paying for the arts, for raising teachers’ salaries, and for reducing class sizes, they think they are doing good works. Please, someone, tell them they should stick to selling stuff and leave the taxpayer money for the kids, not for investors and profits. They are getting rich, and they are not doing good. They are hurting children.Advice from a Billionaire: Forget Charity, Do Good While Making a Profit | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Florida Education Hell? : The existential crisis we all should be having - The Washington Post

Teacher: The existential crisis we all should be having - The Washington Post:

Teacher: The existential crisis we all should be having

Melissa Halpern is a longtime Palm Beach County teacher and founder of the Florida Professional Teaching Force, an organization that advocates for restored dignity and efficacy in the teaching profession. She recently graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  She recently wrote about a $44 million program passed by the Florida legislature that will award big bonuses to teachers who got high SAT and ACT scores before entering college — even if they took the test decades ago and can somehow locate their scores.  Here’s a new piece by Halpern on teaching and testing.

[Teacher: The layers of absurdity in Florida’s education agenda]

By Melissa Halpern

Last week was the beginning of standardized testing “pre-season” at my school. It’s nothing compared to what happens in the spring, but as usual, schedules were mangled (as deftly as our overworked administrators could manage), eliminating some periods and extending others to as long as four hours. Teachers with small classes were recruited to administer tests, so instead of teaching their students on those days, they had to “farm them out” to larger classes.

For many of my at-risk high school seniors, last week was the beginning of the end. If they came from out of state or if they didn’t pass the exams last year, they had to take up to three high-stakes exams in one week, which meant missing six hours or more of class. The stress of having to catch up with class work only compounded the anxiety brought on by hours of graduation-determining testing; by the end of it all, my already-struggling students were exhausted and apathetic.

Even students who didn’t have to test used the general disruption as an excuse to skip class; on some days I had several classes with less than half attendance. Instead of wrapping up the first quarter with culminating projects and meaningful reflection on their learning, students are physically and Teacher: The existential crisis we all should be having - The Washington Post:

Harsh Lesson of Diverse Schools: Minority Kids Learn They’re Being Shortchanged - Yahoo News

Harsh Lesson of Diverse Schools: Minority Kids Learn They’re Being Shortchanged - Yahoo News:

Harsh Lesson of Diverse Schools: Minority Kids Learn They’re Being Shortchanged

Most families in struggling black or Latino neighborhoods accept the conventional wisdom: A quality education can unlock the door to success for their children. Yet their local public schools are more likely to be separate and unequal, with far fewer resources and a strong police presence that helps put kids in the school-to-prison pipeline. 

Now, a Columbia University sociologist has found that integrating urban public schools can not only help minority kids succeed in the classroom but can also be a powerful factor in raising those students’ awareness of racial and economic inequality.

RELATED:  Why School Desegregation Needs to Be Back on the Education Reform Agenda

Studies have shown that low-income students who are educated in better-funded schools or more financially integrated communities tend to perform better than their peers stuck in high-poverty, under-resourced schools, said Carla Shedd, author of the new book Unequal City: Race, Schools and Perceptions of Injustice. According to her research, a change of environment for poor kids, or more economic and racial diversity within their peer groups, can have a profound effect on their sense of self-worth and help them better see institutionalized racism in their home communities. 

“The [poor minority] kids who move across these [racial and economic] boundaries have a greater insight” into how segregation in a poor minority neighborhood is harmful. Those students, she said, “are more prepared to deal with society.” 

For her book, Shedd interviewed middle school­–age public school students from some of Chicago’s poorest communities. Some attended neighborhood schools that were heavily black or Latino, while others went to more integrated magnet or charter schools—or were enrolled in economically diverse schools outside their communities. 

“We took an on-the-ground look at how young people perceive these different school environments,” said Shedd, who teaches African American studies at Columbia University. The goal of interviewing the students, she said, was to determine “what they think [racial stratification] means in terms of their future.”  

Shedd found that because poor schools, like the surrounding neighborhoods, tend to be highly policed—metal detectors at the door, uniformed officers in the building, routine searches—kids who attend them have a more negative view of the world and are likely to assume life is like that everywhere. 

Kids from poor neighborhoods who attend integrated schools, however, encounter far lighter security, as well as students and staff members with a friendlier, more positive attitude toward police. They also see the stark difference between the lifestyles of whites and minorities. Those children, said Shedd, are more likely to recognize that they are discriminated against in their Harsh Lesson of Diverse Schools: Minority Kids Learn They’re Being Shortchanged - Yahoo News:

Arizona Charter Schools Criticized in New Report / Public News Service

Arizona Charter Schools Criticized in New Report / Public News Service:

Arizona Charter Schools Criticized in New Report

PHOENIX - Arizona charter schools are skating by with too little supervision, according to a report released this week by the Center for Media and Democracy, which advocates for transparency in public life.

According to the report, Arizona has 180,000 children in 600 charter schools, which have received $69 million in federal grants since 2009. The researchers found that the state is failing to adequately monitor the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, which disburses the money. Of particular concern to some critics are the six Sonoran Science Academy schools in Arizona, which opponents say are part of a nationwide group of schools that emphasize the Turkish culture and language, inspired by the writings of Turkish author Fethullah Gulen.

Sandy Theis, a member of the Charter School Accountablity project in Ohio, said the FBI raided some of the Gulen schools in her state.

"The Gulen movement is really adept at PR by courting politicians," she said. "They pay for trips to Turkey, and they build up a lot of good will that way. I find it odd that the FBI, Homeland Security, INS have all raised serious questions about them and they continue to grow and prosper."

Superintendent Ozkur Yildiz of the Sonoran Science Academy denied that the schools are affiliated with the Gulen movement and touted their record on state exams.

Jim Hall, founder of the group Arizonans for Charter School Accountability, said Sonoran Science Academy's public financial statements are in line with other schools, so all charters can't be painted with a broad brush. However, he added, the data on all charter schools is slim - and the board that oversees them is underfunded and does very little oversight.

"Arizona has almost no regulations," he said. "If your brother-in-law builds your $8 million school without bids, in Arizona that's perfectly OK. So a lot of the national concerns with Gulenists involve procurement. and that may be one of the reasons we're not having the huge scandals about them here in Arizona that you might in other places."

Hall is pushing for a law to force the state to start collecting more data about charter schools. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a bill in July that would increase transparency and accountability in charter schools across the nation.

The report is online at prwatch.org.

Suzanne Potter, Public News Service - AZ

- See more at: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2015-10-23/education/arizona-charter-schools-criticized-in-new-report/a48632-1#sthash.PuKCvFTU.dpuf

CHARTER SCHOOLS, SEGREGATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS - Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | African-American News

CHARTER SCHOOLS, SEGREGATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS - Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | African-American News:

CHARTER SCHOOLS, SEGREGATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS

The current buzz in local educational circles around billionaire Eli Broad and cohorts’ controversial half-billion dollar proposal for 360 new LAUSD charter schools is getting louder. Expanding the debate, a previous column on charter schools is revisited. Coincidentally, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines recently cited a report that found while charter schools generally score higher on state tests than traditional schools, “the stellar performance of LAUSD magnet schools outperforms charter schools at all grade levels.”

The UCLA Civil Rights Project’s annual report, Choice Without Equity: Charter SchoolSegregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards (2014) calls the charter school movement a political success but a civil rights failure. The report was especially timely, given the election to replace Marguerite LaMotte in Board District 1 where charter schools are a prominent issue-it has LAUSD’s largest concentration of Black students, those most harmed by segregation.

“Our analysis of the forty states, the District of Columbia, and several other metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students, reveals charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area.

While charter schools are increasing in number and size, charter school enrollment presently accounts for only 2.5% of all public school students. Despite federal pressure to increase charter schools—based on the notion that charter schools are superior to traditional public schools, in spite of inconclusive evidence in support of that claim- their enrollment remains concentrated in just five states. We show charter schools, in many ways, have more extensive segregation than other public schools. They attract a higher percentage of Black students than traditional schools, in part because they tend to be located in urban areas. As a result, their enrollment patterns display high levels of minority segregation, trends that are particularly severe for Black students.

At the national level, 70% of Black charter school students attend intensely segregated minority charter schools, or twice as many as the share of intensely segregated Black students in traditional public schools, by far the highest percentage of any other racial group.

Major gaps in multiple federal data sources make it difficult to answer basic, fundamental questions about the extent to which charter schools enroll and concentrate low-income students and English Language Learners (ELLs).

Charter schools are public and, therefore, should be equally available to all students regardless of background. However, approximately one in four charter schools does not report data on low-income students. Since eligibility for receiving free lunch is proof that families cannot to provide it, the lack of a free lunch program at school would impose a severe economic barrier to attending a charter school. In general, state charter school legislation is less likely to contain requirements for enrolling ELL students than for racial balance or diversity standards. The lack of data on these traditionally underserved groups makes it difficult to assess charter schools as an education reform or monitor their compliance with basic civil rights regulations and state charter school legislation.

Decades of social science studies find important benefits associated with attending diverse schools and conversely, related educational harms in schools where poor and minority students are concentrated. In the State of the Union address, the President recognized the persistent link between segregated neighborhoods and schools, saying, “In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than on their potential.” Ironically, charter schools held an early promise of becoming more integrated than regular public schools because they are not constrained by racially isolating school district boundary lines. This report shows instead, that charter schools make up a separate, segregated sector of our deeply related stratified public school system.

The Obama Administration should take immediate action to reduce segregation in charter schools and work instead to achieve their integrative promise. The Education Department should update its guidance on civil rights regulations for charter schools and strengthen it by including provisions known to be successful in other programs like magnet schools CHARTER SCHOOLS, SEGREGATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS - Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | African-American News:

Who might head L.A. Unified, and what are officials looking for in a leader? - LA Times

Who might head L.A. Unified, and what are officials looking for in a leader? - LA Times:

Who might head L.A. Unified, and what are officials looking for in a leader?

 its search for a new superintendent, the Los Angeles Board of Education is out to find that rare leader who can tame political turmoil, manage a multibillion-dollar organization and somehow drive academic achievement upward.

But what type of person would that be? And who would want a job that presents almost insurmountable challenges?

If the board is seeking an educator with big-city experience, they are likely to look at the school chiefs in Miami, Alberto Carvalho, and in San Francisco, Richard Carranza. Both have generally strong track records and also are regarded as leaders among other superintendents.

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If they are looking for an insider, Michelle King, the No. 2 person in L.A. Unified, would seem a viable option.

Within Southern California, the sizable Long Beach school district has racked up accolades compared with its larger neighbor to the north — so that could be a place to look even though its leader, Christopher Steinhauser, has shunned entreaties in the past.

Then there are the those who promote aggressive change — inside or outside traditional public schools. John King, who was selected recently to become the acting U.S. secretary of education, had been seen as a possible L.A. Unified leader for the way he pushed controversial reforms through the state of New York.

The board has hired a search firm to find candidates to replace current Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83, who came out of retirement a year ago when former Supt. John Deasy resigned under pressure. Cortines has said he would like to leave by the end of the year.

Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest school system, is widely viewed as a management minefield. The district leader reports to seven elected board members, with differing politics and priorities. The superintendent runs a $12.6-billion entity, develops and carries out policies, and negotiates contracts with employee unions — all the while confronting lagging academic achievement and declining enrollment.

"I'm worried that no one smart enough to do the job would be crazy enough to take it," said attorney Virgil Roberts, a veteran of the battles over education in Los Angeles. "A true visionary could find an easier path to getting things done and making a difference elsewhere. And few educators, even if they are willing, have the necessary political skills."

L.A. Unified has hired unconventional superintendents in the recent past. Former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer had little education experience but won high marks for his political skills and marshaling the district's massive school building program. Navy admiral David Brewer had a mixed record, with some saying he couldn't manage the politics inside or outside the school system.

It isn't clear which of the people whose names are being circulated would want the job. Recruiting is going on behind closed doors in an attempt to yield the best pool of candidates. At last week's school board meeting, board member Monica Ratliff proposed making the finalists public, but her effort failed.

Several qualities could give a candidate an advantage. It may help to belong to an ethnic minority — reflecting the district's majority Latino student enrollment, for example. The district is 74% Latino, 10% white, 8% black and 4% Asian.

A woman also could have an advantage, given that a woman has not led L.A.'s schools since 1929.

Experience in an urban district would help, especially if students in that system have performed well or at least made strong gains.

Political skills are a must, given that competing factions are clashing over the direction of the district. Deasy maintained support from local philanthropists and civic leaders, but lost the trust of the school board and the goodwill of many teachers and other employees. Simmering antipathy toward Deasy still was evident among district staff who took part this week in public forums that were held to collect input about the qualities desired in the next leader.

The search comes at a pivotal moment for the district. A plan spearheaded by philanthropist Eli Broad would move half of district students into independently run charter schools over the next eight years. The teachers union and other critics are opposed, saying it would devastate the district's other schools.

"I really hope … that we find a common-ground candidate," said Elise Buik, chief executive of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, who has been at odds with the teachers union over some issues.

Buik remains a fan of Deasy, who pressed for an agenda that included using student test scores as a factor in evaluating teachers and limiting traditional teacher job protections.

In Long Beach, Steinhauser has avoided alienating either teachers or civic leaders. Who might head L.A. Unified, and what are officials looking for in a leader? - LA Times:

Read All About It, hurricane Eli takes NOLA | San Diego Reader

As U-T faces sale, hurricane Eli takes NOLA | San Diego Reader:

As U-T faces sale, hurricane Eli takes NOLA

L.A.'s Dem billionaire supreme antes up for Louisiana public school fight

"The odds are better than even that there will be a new bid by (Los Angeles billionaire Eli) Broad and associates for Tribune Publishing by year's end," newspaper industry expert Ken Doctor predicted to the Chicago Tribune in a Thursday morning story about the ultimate fate of the troubled Union-Tribune owner.

Doctor, who broke news of the firing of Broad associate Austin Beutner from his dual publishing posts at the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune in September, as well as first revealing the U-T takeover in March, is widely seen as having an inside line to onetime Wall Street hedge-fund figure Beutner, who in turn is privy to Broad's intentions.

The takeover could be assisted by onetime Broad associate and fellow Angeleno Bruce Karsh, who runs Oaktree Capital Management which the Chicago Tribune story notes owns about 18 percent of Tribune Publishing's stock, making it the company's largest single holder.

"Oaktree will ultimately sell Tribune Publishing, perhaps sooner than the ostensible two-year window to keep the August 2014 spinoff from Tribune Media tax free," according to the story.

"SEC filings make it clear that the company is permitted to sell before then with Tribune Media's consent or if it obtains a supplemental IRS ruling."

If Broad and associates do manage to close a deal for theTimes and U-T, or the entire Tribune chain, which includes papers in Chicago and Baltimore, his most talked-about partner is fellow Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs of La Jolla, who shares Broad's penchant for big-money Democratic and school-board politics.

Their alliance dates back to October 2002, when Broad's foundation made six-figure contributions to two small East Coast charities that subsequently financed a series of take-no-prisoners hit pieces and television spots in a San Diego Unified board race in which Jacobs also had an interest.

Jacobs — who, like Broad, has given big to president Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton — is a heavy political and nonprofit media giver in San Diego.

As reported here last month, the coordinator of an effort backing Beutner and urging Tribune Publishing to sell the L.A. Times to a local owner is Dan Schnur, an ex–Pete Wilson aide whose campaign for California secretary of state last year was bankrolled largely by contributors who support Broad's views on public education.

For his part, Beutner has been writing op-ed pieces and making speeches, including oneset for October 22 at Columbia University’s journalism school, defending his brief but controversial tenure at the helm of the Southern California newspapers.

Not all have been convinced. According to the Chicago Tribune story, “A high-level Oaktree source said Beutner, while innovative, ‘wasn't very focused on the economic realities of the newspapers.’”

But if Broad takes over the papers and opens his checkbook to subsidize their operation, the theory goes, a rehired Beutner would no longer have to worry about the bottom line, and plenty of time to play politics with the papers.

“If California’s newspapers are to survive, they’ll have to do much more than publish the news,” opinion writer Joe Mathews recently suggested.

“They’ll have to be direct actors in political and civic debates, combining journalism and activism in ways that make their importance indisputable.”

In addition to his Tribune acquisition efforts, Broad has been stirring the pot of Louisiana politics with a $250,000 contribution to a political action committee run by Lane Grigsby.

The Baton Rouge businessman is campaigning to preserve the current majority on the state's board of education that is favorable to Broad’s education-reform strategies.

Broad has been joined by fellow billionaires Alice and Jim Walton of Arkansas, from the family of Walmart founders Sam and Bill Walton, according to the blog of Diane Ravitch.

Like Broad, the Waltons have also been players in San Diego school politics, with the late John Walton and his wife backing Broad and Jacobs’s November 2000 hit pieces with $100,000.

Meanwhile, on October 21, Broad's nonprofit foundation announced it had picked ex-Louisiana superintendent of public education Paul Pastorek, now an executive of the foundation, to run its effort to expand Los Angeles charter schools.

"Few issues have roiled the LA Unified community more than the foundation’s plan to expand the number of charter schools in the district," reports LA School Report.

"The LA teachers union...has also attacked the plan as part of the Broads’ latest effort to 'privatize' public education at the cost of union teaching jobs."

In an open letter to supporters, Broad and his wife Edythe countered, "For the past several years, we have heard from parents, teachers and community members that there are not enough high-quality public school options, especially in low-income communities of color.”

Should Broad manage to obtain control of the U-T and L.A. Times, the octogenarian could have the opportunity to dramatically reshape San Diego Unified and its union-dominated board, already under fire by some of his local allies.  As U-T faces sale, hurricane Eli takes NOLA | San Diego Reader: