The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine Secretary Ravitch

The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine Secretary Ravitch:

The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine Secretary Ravitch

 “In my view, historians will look on this era as a period of failed mandates, of willful and ignorant attacks on public education and the education profession, and as a time in which entrepreneurs sought to turn education into a marketplace for profit.”  —  Diane Ravitch

What will be the legacy of Race to the Top and Barack Obama’s other education initiatives? Indeed, what’s been accomplished in education reform around the country since 2012? Does our current traditional model of education meet the needs of most students? Is our curriculum preparing them for the jobs we need to fill in an age of globalization and artificial intelligence? What are the most critical needs for education leading up to 2030? Should tuition at public colleges and universities be free?

As the United States prepares to elect a new President this November, putting every student on a path towards a successful future should be required discussion at every presidential debate. This season in The Global Search for Education, we bring back our popular 2012 Education Debate series and put these questions and others to thought leaders at the forefront of educational change. We asked Andy Hargreaves, Diane Ravitch, Howard Gardner, Randi Weingarten, Julia Freeland Fisher, and Charles Fadel to imagine they were Secretary of Education for the new administration. What are their answers to some of the big picture questions facing education and education reform?

Today we welcome Diane Ravitch. Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. She is the author of many books including: The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010).

“Schools in every neighborhood, regardless of zip code, should offer an excellent education, including the arts, foreign languages, play, technology, history, literature, the sciences, mathematics, and opportunities to create and make things.” —  Diane Ravitch

Diane, what will be the legacy of Race to the Top and Barack Obama’s other education initiatives?

In years to come, when historians look back on the early twenty-first century, they are likely to refer to the “Bush-Obama policies,” because No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top share a similar ideology. The shared assumptions are that standardized testing is both the best measure of educational progress and the goal of education. The ideology rests on a firm belief in extrinsic rewards and punishments. If children are tested, their test scores are used to identify their rating, as well as the ratings of their teachers, principals, and schools. Race to the Top required schools across the nation to adopt test-based evaluation and to fire educators and close schools based on test scores. And like NCLB, Race to the Top encouraged the mistaken belief that privately managed charter schools and state takeovers were a successful remedy to low-scoring schools.

Both NCLB and Race to the Top–and the assumptions behind them–were not only ineffectual but demoralizing The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine Secretary Ravitch:

Prop. 58 would undo limitations on bilingual education | 89.3 KPCC

Prop. 58 would undo limitations on bilingual education | 89.3 KPCC:

Prop. 58 would undo limitations on bilingual education

On a recent afternoon in San Gabriel's McKinley Elementary School, a class full of students who arrived in the United States less than a year ago practiced their English language skills.

They are third, fourth and fifth-graders, but the English lessons are at a kindergarten level. 

Most of these students are able to write full compositions in their native languages, said the school's principal, Jim Symonds. So the ideal approach would be to continueteaching them in their native language to keep their brains stimulated while folding in English language instruction.

"If we could spend more time teaching them in their native language and working on that proficiency and getting to those higher level thinking skills, I think they’d be that much further ahead academically and be able to pick up English faster," Symonds said. 

But current state law prevents the school from teaching them using those methods. 

Instead, the English in Public Schools Initiative, which California voters approved in 1998, requires that the students spend one year in a sheltered class like this one, taking all of their classes in English, before transitioning to mainstream classes at their grade level. 

Proposition 58, on California general election ballot, would remove those limits on native language instruction. The measure would directly affect instruction for the state's 1.3 million English learners and indirectly for those students whose parents want them to be bilingual. 

The initiative has drawn wide support from educators who point to research in the last decade that suggests young people who learn multiple languages improve their brain’s ability to focus and manage several tasks at the same time, which are the keys to learning.

It's also supported by dozens of Democratic elected officials, the California Association for Bilingual Education, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Advancement Project, and the think tank EdTrust West.

The proposition's strongest opponent is the man who created the bilingual education limits through Prop. 227, the original ballot measure passed 18 years ago. 

“Bilingual education is dead and it’s not coming back,” said Ron Unz, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who authored and funded Prop. 227.

At the time Prop. 227 made it on the ballot, more than 400,000 students were enrolled in bilingual education programs in California schools.

“The old system put hundreds of thousands – a good fraction of a million students – in a program where they were not taught English as soon as they started school,” Unz said.

Some of the bilingual education programs immersed students in their native language – largely Spanish – while dual immersion programs focused on Spanish instruction and built up English gradually from the early grades. At the time, many Californians were worried about increasing levels of immigration and were concerned about how newly-arrived students were acclimating to their schools. 

Unz and others seized on the failings of some bilingual programs to underline that Prop. 58 would undo limitations on bilingual education | 89.3 KPCC:

Arne Duncan: Just Stop It | the becoming radical

Arne Duncan: Just Stop It | the becoming radical:

Arne Duncan: Just Stop It

It’s a hollow fantasy, but one I was clinging to like a victim of relentless identity theft.

Arne Duncan leaves the U.S. Department of Education and his role as Secretary of Education, joining instead a celebrity basketball league that keeps him too busy to hold forth anymore on education.

An alternate fantasy envisions Duncan sitting daily in his home, calming staring at himself in the mirror while listening to one of his speeches on a loop.

Instead, there is reality: An open letter to America’s college presidents and education school deans: Arne Duncan.

So I am compelled to offer this plea in the psuedo-sport lingo that may appeal to this career-long political appointee: Arne Duncan, just stop it.

Political bromides and jumping on the embarrassingly inept NCTQ bandwagon in order to build a middle-school argument about the grades students receive as education majors—this is the sort of nonsense that has fueled my fantasies that Duncan would simply slip off into the celebrity basketball sunset.

Since that isn’t the case, and Duncan, like Jeb! Bush, has found the I-know-nothing-about-education-but-use-it-in-my-political-career train to remain lucrative, I am willing to make a deal here.

Arne, you have never taught, have never been a teacher educator, have no formal degree in education, and have never conducted or written education scholarship; therefore, since your entire education background Arne Duncan: Just Stop It | the becoming radical:

Public School Funding Matters, Even in this Political Season | janresseger

Public School Funding Matters, Even in this Political Season | janresseger:

Public School Funding Matters, Even in this Political Season

If you really think about it, you might find it surprising that in Tuesday night’s Vice Presidential debate neither candidate for Vice President of the United States spent any time really talking about many of the issues that affect us all from day to day. Although they strongly disagree, both Tim Kaine, Virginia’s U.S. senator and former governor, and Mike Pence, Indiana’s current governor, care deeply about education, which is surely among the everyday matters of concern for America’s citizens. Mike Pence has been a strong promoter in his state of the preferred educational policies of the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, and Tim Kaine’s wife was, until the current campaign got underway, the state superintendent of education in Virginia.

However bizarre the campaign for President is this year, you will likely find it reassuring to be reminded that in some places the voters are paying attention to the condition of their public schools.  On Tuesday evening, just before the Vice Presidential debate, for example, the PBS NewsHour aired a story about forty teachers in Oklahoma who have chosen to run this fall for positions in the Oklahoma state legislature.  Reporter Lisa Stark explains: “Oklahoma schools have already lost a lot. The state ranks 47 out of 50 in per-pupil spending. And since 2008, the legislature has cut spending per student by 24 percent, the largest drop in the nation, leading to teacher layoffs, overcrowded classrooms. More than 100 districts have approved four-day school weeks.”

Stark interviews Oklahoma’s teacher of the year who is running for state senate, along with other candidates—a recently retired 35-year  special education teacher, and a high school English teacher recently laid off in budget cuts. They are running for office based on their personal experience in the state’s under-funded schools.  Stark also speaks with David Boren, former U.S. senator and Oklahoma governor and now president of the University of Public School Funding Matters, Even in this Political Season | janresseger:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bismarck

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bismarck:

Bismarck

I'm driving down to Cannonball from Bismarck this morning, looking to evade the National Guard's roadblocks (it's really not that hard to do) and meet friends at the Standing Rock encampment by noon.

The thing about Bismarck, which sits on the banks of the Missouri River, is that it was the original planned site for the Dakota Access pipeline. But loud protests by the city's 92%-white citizens, rightfully worried about an inevitable leak polluting their water supply, forced the Dallas-based pipeline company and the Army Corps of Engineers to divert the pipeline south through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Talk about your white-skin privilege.

Bismarck is the second largest city (67,000) in ND after Fargo and the 10th fastest growing in the U.S. But more interesting to me is that the encampment at Standing Rock, built in a valley on federal land near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers. is now one of the biggest, newest communities in North Dakota, with a population at times swelling to 4,000. Only 25 of North Dakota's 357 towns have more than 2,000 people.

The LSNA student delegation, riding in two rented vans, will be leaving Chicago this afternoon. It's a long ride, about 13 hours, and I'm hoping their trip is without incident and they arrive in camp tomorrow at least somewhat rested and in time to set up their tents before nightfall. Should be quite an adventure. This will be the first time camping for many of them.

Strong winds are gusting across the Great Plains this time of year and temperatures at night are dipping into the low 30s. These winds make Chicago's hawk off of Lake Michigan, seem like a Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bismarck:

Feds Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning

10/06/2016 – Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning:

Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning

THIS WEEK: Chicago Teacher Strike … Counselors For Black Kids … Pre-K Progress In NYC … Union Combats Trump Effect … College Is For Wealthier

TOP STORY

Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning

By Jeff Bryant

“Our federal government’s new gift of nearly a quarter-billion dollars to charter schools… is going to eight states and 15 charter school networks from the Charter Schools Program, a federal government operation that doles out millions every year to start new charter schools. This money is the latest installment of an over $3 billion gravy train the federal government has funded to help launch over 2,500 charter schools across the nation … Regardless of how you feel about these schools, you should be concerned about how this new government outlay to charters will be used, based on the extensive track record of financial malfeasance in these schools.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Chicago Teachers Strike Again? A Beautiful Response to Ugly Injustice.

The Progressive

Chicago school teacher Xian Franzinger Barrett writes, “In Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public Schools … our school’s funding was cut despite increased enrollment. And across the district, many of these basic tenets of an equitable, world-class education have been taken away from students. So while a strike represents struggle, it represents beautiful struggle. Rather than accepting Chicago leadership’s conviction that our daughter and her peers are born inferior and less deserving of educational opportunities than the mayor’s children, we have the opportunity to stand together and rebel against that notion.”
Read more …

Report: There Are Too Few School Counselors for Traumatized Black Children – But Plenty of Punishment

Atlanta Black Star

“Black and brown children, who are most likely to live with trauma, run a much greater risk of facing harsh punishment and school discipline rather than receiving the crucial mental health counseling they need … A new research report … tells the story with the first-of-its-kind, state-level analysis on the shortage of counselors, psychologists, and social workers in America’s public schools. … 35 million children in the U.S. are suffering from trauma, yet only 8 million (22% ) have a school psychologist at their disposal. Only 63% of public schools have a counselor, and a mere 18 percent have a social worker.”
Read more …

Children In New York City Preschool Made Progress In Learning, Behavior Skills: Study

The Wall Street Journal

“Children in New York City’s public preschool program made gains in recognizing letters, spelling, and early math skills … Children on average gained seven months of learning and gained more ‘executive function’ skills, such as impulse control and avoiding distraction … A survey of families found 92% rated the quality of their child’s preschool program as ‘‘good’ or ‘excellent,’ and 83% reported that preschool improved their child’s learning and behavior ‘a lot’.”
Read more …

Nation’s Largest Labor Union Plans To Link Trump To Rise In School Bullying

The Washington Post

“Citing a growing number of reports by its membership of Trump-like bullying in classrooms across the country, the National Education Association is planning to make the issue a centerpiece of its argument against Trump in ads and mailings in battleground states … Members are reporting children threatening classmates that they might be deported by Trump or calling other classmates terrorists … The push coincides with National Bullying Prevention Month in October, an effort that is normally part of NEA’s annual activities.
Read more …

Colleges Lavishing More Financial Aid On Wealthy Students

Associated Press

“Financial aid, traditionally a lifeline for poorer students at public colleges, is increasingly being used to attract students from more affluent families … State schools are using the money to lure the most qualified students, raise average test scores, and entice students from high-income families who can pay the rest of the full sticker price. Critics say that by devoting aid to students who don’t need it, state schools are punishing the poor, making it harder for them to attend college when the gap between tuition costs and affordability is only growing.”
Read more …

 10/06/2016 – Federal Government Continues To Feed Charter School Beast Despite Auditor’s Warning:

MA Question 2 Funding Hits $21.7 Million | deutsch29

MA Question 2 Funding Hits $21.7 Million | deutsch29:

MA Question 2 Funding Hits $21.7 Million

On November 08, 2016, Massachusetts voters will be deciding whether or not to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state. The ballot measure, known as Question 2, would open the door for “up to 12 new charter schools or enrollment expansions in existing charter schools each year.”

According to October 05, 2016, filings, the following Question 2 ballot committees reported raising additional funds:

In favor of Question 2:

• Campaign for Fair Access to Quality Public Schools: $25,165
• Great Schools Massachusetts: $2,215,437 (Includes the entire $150,000reported on October 05, 2016, from the ballot committee, Expanding Educational Opportunities)
• Yes on 2 (apparently created only so that Arkansas billionaire, Alice Walton, could contribute $710,000 in July 2016) is now officially dissolved.

Opposed to Question 2:

• Save Our Public Schools: $7,459

What this means is that to date, the ballot committees in favor of Question 2 have raised just shy of $14.5 million in unique dollars** to expand charters in MA– with $8.6 million of that amount (60 percent) coming from New York-based Families for Excellent Schools– and being dumped into the coffers of Great Schools Massachusetts.

In contrast, the single ballot committee opposing Question 2, Save Our Public Schools, has raised $7.2 million– just under half of the amount raised by the pro-charter-expansion camp.

Thus, the total money spent on MA Question 2 is currently at $21.7 million. By comparison, as of October 05, 2016, the marijuana legalization ballot measure has a total of just over $4.3 million in funding ($3.7 million, in favor, and $634,000, opposing)– or only 20 percent of the amount of money behind Question 2 on charter expansion.

The millions continue to roll in (mostly from New York) to remove that MA charter cap. However, it appears that the MA public is not itself predominately *buying into* the pro-charter push. Between September 27 and October 03, the Western New England University Polling Institute conducted a phone survey of 403 “likely voters” and found that 47 percent opposed charter expansion while 34 percent supported it. (18 percent undecided; 1 percent declined to comment; margin of error + 5 percent).

The amount of out-of-state money behind MA charter expansion– and the fact that such money has been under scrutiny in the news– could turn out to be charter camp’s undoing.

**Note that some of these ballot committees are donating to one another. The total dollars reported on the ballot report summary page are not adjusted for such duplicate donations.MA Question 2 Funding Hits $21.7 Million | deutsch29:

California denied bid to pilot new science tests in place of current tests | EdSource

California denied bid to pilot new science tests in place of current tests | EdSource:

California denied bid to pilot new science tests in place of current tests

The U.S. Department of Education has rejected California’s bid to begin phasing in tests this spring based on new science standards, in lieu of current tests based on standards in place since 1998.

In a Sept. 30 letter to state education leaders, a senior official in the U.S. Department of Education said California has not demonstrated that piloting the new tests would advance student achievement or do a better job reporting on school performance.

Earlier this year, California submitted a request for a federal waiver from administering the current tests in science and instead wanted permission to administer a pilot version of a new test aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, with a longer field test the following year.

“The state has not demonstrated that the requested waiver would advance student achievement or maintain or improve transparency in reporting to parents and the public on student achievement and school performance, including the achievement of subgroups of students,” Ann Whalen, senior advisor to U.S. Education Secretary John B. King, Jr., wrote in the letter to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and Michael Kirst, the president of the State Board of Education.

The department has given the state 60 days to resubmit its waiver request if it meets certain conditions outlined in the letter.

“We will be reviewing the letter and we will respond to the Education Department with more information to support our request,” said Keric Ashley, a California Department of Education deputy superintendent.

The denial of the waiver request could mean that the state will end up giving students two tests in the spring — the older California Standard Test in science, and the new pilot aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.   The state would fully implement the new testsCalifornia denied bid to pilot new science tests in place of current tests | EdSource:

We are not a failing school: Understanding standardized testing & the language divide

We are not a failing school: Understanding standardized testing & the language divide at Burton:

We are not a failing school: Understanding standardized testing & the language divide at Burton

Saúl Ulloa, whose father comes from Mexico, grew up in the Burton Heights neighborhood. He is a product of Grand Rapids Public Schools and attended Burton Elementary, Blandford School, and City High. He is a 2015 graduate of Vassar College with a degree in International Studies & Arabic Language. Ulloa has recently returned to Grand Rapids after spending a year in Amman, Jordan, where he spent time improving his Arabic skills and working with an NGO that provides humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees.
 
I grew up in the Burton Heights area, just a few blocks from Burton Elementary and Middle Schools. I attended Burton Elementary from 1999 to 2004 and benefited from incredible teachers and supportive paraprofessionals along the way. I was dismayed to hear that the Michigan School Reform Office (SRO) hadidentified Burton Elementary and Middle Schools as two of the lowest-performing public schools in Michigan. This ranking was based upon the state’s student performance test, the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP. These rankings fail to show, however, that the vast majority of Burton students are designated as English Language Learners, meaning students for whom English is not their primary language. This places an extra hurdle in front of parents and teachers to provide a quality education for their children.
 

I am from a somewhat bilingual household but primarily grew up speaking English. This gave me and my family immense amounts of privilege. I did not have to learn English while learning math. I did not have to learn how to read a language I did not even speak. I did not have to translate for my mother in parent-teacher conferences. However, these are the experiences of many of the students at Burton. Throughout my time there, I remember most of my classmates were either bilingual or did not speak English very well. According to Burton Elementary’s 2016-17 School Improvement Plan, 96 percent of Burton Students are Latinx, coming from Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The vast majority of these students speak English as their second language.
 
The SRO’s designation of Burton as a failing school is troubling and complicated. If students are tested in a language they do not speak, then they probably will not score well. The state does not take into account students’ English language proficiency when tallying the scores, leaving schools like Burton, and many others in West Michigan, to appear as though they’re failing.
 
It seems unwise to threaten school closure based on a test the students were, essentially, destined to fail. (The SRO has said it will use the list of low-performing schools in Michigan to decide if it will close any of the institutions. This decision is expected to be made by the end of the school calendar year.) These children are not unintelligent nor lazy; they are simply being held accountable for information in a language many of them have only recently learned. Fortunately, most of the teachers at Burton are bilingual and can provide support in the student’s native language, while maintaining an emphasis on their mastery of English. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing reports that it can take five to seven years for students to become proficient enough in academic English to understand test questions.
 
Despite these challenges, the school is constantly looking at ways it can better support its children. Burton currently partners with 15 social service, medical and educational agencies to promote the well-being and success of its students. A Department of Human Services office was included in the school’s 2008 remodel, removing barriers to accessing social welfare programs such as food assistance and Medicaid. This allowed for parents to use the school as a one-stop-shop in addressing each student’s needs. The school aims to remove all conceivable social barriers in order to ensure the success of each child by remembering that they do not live in a bubble. The students are affected by the economic, political and social conditions under which they have grown up. According to Burton Elementary’s 2016-17 School Improvement Plan, 100 percent of the school’s students are eligible for free and reduced lunches and participate in a sack supper program from Kids’ Food Basket , a nonprofit organization that provides free dinners to underprivileged children. A hungry child does not become full simply by going to school.
 
Burton has also fostered relationships with several local and national charities to improve its capacity to teach students effectively. Burton has received an Apple ConnectED grant that gives an Apple laptop and iPad to every teacher and an iPad to every student, for educational purposes. Burton was also one of three GRPS recipients of a $40,000 Mejier Good School Grant to hold a series of workshops detailing the importance of parental involvement in oral language acquisition.
 
In an interview with a recent Burton parent, Juan Ramón Hernández, these language programs were viewed positively. “Burton has many programs where parents learn a lot, too. I was learning a little English there and I still use a lot of the information I learned in those classes," Hernández says.

Burton seems dedicated to functioning as both a school and a community center, addressing the most pressing needs in their student’s lives. “If I could go back in time, I would definitely put my child back at Burton," Hernández says. "I got along well with the teachers and always saw them at parent-teacher conferences.” The Burton staff are seen as genuinely caring about their students and the communities they come from. This holistic educational model ensures that trust forms between all interested parties to support the Burton children.
 
The school has implemented the LOOP after-school program, providing additional educational enrichment during the hours when parents are still working. This allows students to receive extra help with their homework and ensures they remain in a safe and stable environment as long as possible. I attended this program as a student and benefited greatly from the additional educational enrichment. I felt secure with the dedicated LOOP volunteers and gained a lot of valuable experiences in the program. I visited the local zoo for the first time in fourth grade, and we took summer field trips to Chicago. I was shown that there is a world beyond Burton Heights. I could see there was more than just Grand Rapids. My family’s economic circumstances did not have to keep me from accomplishing my dreams.


I hold very fond memories of my time at Burton Elementary. The teachers and staff there encouraged me to believe in myself and to believe in my future. As a result of their dedication to my education, I have been pretty lucky in my professional and educational endeavors. However, I entered the school with an incredible privilege: English. The students at Burton are just as intelligent as kids elsewhere. The teachers at Burton are equally as capable as staff in other schools. The resources available to students and their families demonstrate a unique dedication to the Burton Heights community. However, tying the future of the school to a test in a language many students are still learning undermines all the extraordinary efforts students, parents and staff put in every day. 

On The Ground GR

On The Ground GR is a new Rapid Growth series. This series will highlight and celebrate the communities found along South Division Avenue that touch the Garfield Park and Burton Heights neighborhoods. You can read all the On The Ground articles published to date here.

Over the next few months, On The Ground GR journalists will be knocking on doors and getting to know the neighbors and community members. We will dive deeper into topics concerning this neighborhood's residents and stakeholders while celebrating the diversity and strength found in this area. We are on the ground listening and want to celebrate the community's unifying spirit of positivity and vibrancy.

Follow On The Ground GR's work via Twitter (use the hashtag #OnTheGroundGR), Facebook and Instagram. To connect with On The Ground GR's editor, Michelle Jokisch Polo, you can email her at michellejokisch@gmail.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram. You can learn more about Michelle here.

On The Ground GR is made possible by the Frey Foundation, the Grand Rapids Community Foundation and Steelcase, organizations that believe democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.We are not a failing school: Understanding standardized testing & the language divide at Burton:

Rahm's slush fund has money for our schools | SocialistWorker.org

Rahm's slush fund has money for our schools | SocialistWorker.org:

Rahm's slush fund has money for our schools

Chicago can afford to pay its teachers--in fact, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a "slush fund" worth hundreds of millions of dollars that could do just that, explains Nicole Colson.

"WE DON'T have the money": That's been the sad refrain of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials like CPS CEO Forrest Claypool as the 28,000-strong Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) prepares for another citywide strike set for October 11 after working for 15 months without a contract.

Emanuel and his boys say there's nothing left in the city's piggy bank to avoid drastic pension and health care cuts for teachers--or to prevent the budget cuts that have caused schools across the city to lay off more than 1,000 teachers and staff over the past few months.

But it's a publicly verifiable fact that Emanuel controls hundreds of millions of dollars squirreled away in his own private slush fund--more than enough to meet the demands of teachers.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE OFFICIAL name for this pot of money is the tax-increment financing (TIF) program. In each of Chicago's 50 wards, a portion of the revenue from property taxes is diverted into what amounts to a series of local piggy banks for 148 TIF districts set up by the City Council, usually at the behest of the mayor.

At the start of 2015, these funds totaled an incredible $1.44 billion--this is in a city where the mayor cries poverty to justify cuts not only in education, but all kinds of services.

When the city creates a TIF district, the amount of property tax dollars spent on services in the area is typically "frozen" for 23 years--and any extra tax revenue generated above that amount lands in the TIF account. In theory, TIF money is set aside for construction and development projects meant to improve "blighted" areas by attracting investment and jobs in the long run.

But the way TIF money is parceled out (or not) lacks virtually any public oversight. It often seems to boil down to political leaders in the city--especially the mayor--showering tens of millions of tax dollars on their own pet projects, or those of their rich associates.

Recipients of TIF handouts over the past several years include Vienna Beef ($5 million in TIF funds), Coca Cola ($3.2 million in TIF funds), the Willis (Sears) Tower ($4 million in TIF funds) and United Airlines ($35 million in TIF money).

But wait, there's more. Under an unclear process, the city can transfer money from one local TIF district fund to another--meaning that residents of poorer South Side neighborhoods have had millions of dollars of their property tax revenue shifted out of their TIF districts, to be used to fund projects on the wealthier North Side.

And many of the projects that do get funded in needier neighborhoods end up serving the needs of gentrifiers, not the people who already live there. Case in point; a recent $15.9 million TIF subsidy to build luxury condos in the North Side's Uptown neighborhood.

"[O]ne of the TIF program's greatest flaws is that the lion's share of money supposedly intended for the poorest of the poor goes to the richest of the rich, making it a classic case of reverse Robin Hood on steroids," explained the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky in 2011.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AN ORDINANCE is currently languishing in the City Council that would mandate that a proportion of surplus TIF money goes to the Chicago Public Schools in years when CPS is declared to be in "distress."

It seems like a no-brainer--after all, funding schools is one of the primary things that most residents think their property taxes should go toward.

The Chicago Teachers Union says that if the city declared a $205 million TIF surplus by December 2016, CPS would receive an estimated $150 million--which would go a long Rahm's slush fund has money for our schools | SocialistWorker.org:

$4 billion on charters in the past 25 years, at the expense of struggling public school.| Alternet

With New Grants, Dept. of Ed Continues to Pour Millions Into Charter School Black Hole | Alternet:

With New Grants, Dept. of Ed Continues to Pour Millions Into Charter School Black Hole

$4 billion on charters in the past 25 years, at the expense of struggling public schools.

Today, the U.S Department of Education announced today that it had approved $245 million in grants to eight states under the federal Charter School Program. The states, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, will receive $177 million in grant money. In addition, 15 charter management organizations, including IDEA Public Schools in Texas and KIPP’s public charter school network in California, will receive $68 million in taxpayer dollars.

This means the federal government has spent nearly $4 billion on charters in the past nearly 25 years, according to Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis.

These awards continue to fund a program that has been plagued by significant fraud and waste; at least $200 million and counting as the Center for Popular Democracy has detailed in two reports.

As CMD documented in its report “Charter School Black Hole,” federal tax dollars have even gone to “ghost schools,” charters that never opened, in addition to charters that opened and failed—with almost no accounting for the money spent or assets, let alone accountability to the school children affected by charter fraud, waste, and incompetence. Indeed, as CMD documented late last year, in state after state charters overall performed no better than traditional public schools—and virtual charters like the K12 operation performed markedly worse—and charters were subject to little transparency or real accountability.

Meanwhile, at the American Legislative Exchange Council, corporate lobbyists, special interest groups, and legislators turned their attention to vouchers—another way to divert cash from public schools to the private or quasi-private sector but with even less accountability. This comes in the wake of the numerous failures caused by ALEC’s deeply flawed charter school bills, which were passed into law in numerous states.

Twenty states applied for the new round of grants, and here are the new charter school state grantees along with a snapshot of their complex history and/or documented problems:

California: More than $4.7 million in federal taxpayer money was handed out to create charter schools that subsequently closed within a few years. CMD’s investigation found that California’s record on charters is marked by continued failures, including squandering of taxpayer money, along with deference to unaccountable authorizers and resistance to federal efforts to mandate better state oversight.

Florida: Florida landed a grant worth up to $104 million in 2011, and has one of the worst records in the nation when it comes to fraud and lack of charter school oversight. More than 120 charter schools have closed in the little more than a decade that Florida began authorizing charters for reasons that include poor academic performance, unsafe conditions, lack of running water, financial mismanagement, and fraud.

Georgia: Here’s one of many examples of problems with charter schools in the state. Atlanta’s Latin Academy Charter School, Latin Grammar Charter School, and Latin College Prep Charter School discovered that the founder of the schools, Christopher Clemons, had allegedly misappropriated approximately $600,000 from school accounts through ATM withdrawals. The FBI arrested With New Grants, Dept. of Ed Continues to Pour Millions Into Charter School Black Hole | Alternet: