Child and Youth Homelessness on the Rise in 35 States, New Data Shows; Advocates Sound the Alarm | Campaign For Children

Child and Youth Homelessness on the Rise in 35 States, New Data Shows; Advocates Sound the Alarm | Campaign For Children:

Child and Youth Homelessness on the Rise in 35 States, New Data Shows; Advocates Sound the Alarm

Washington – The number of homeless children and youth enrolled in public schools in the United States has increased, even since the end of the recession, according to U.S. Department of Education (ED) data released today.

Public schools reported 1,263,323 children and youth, preK-12, who were identified as experiencing homelessness, and enrolled in school at some point in the 2014—2015 school year. This is a 3.5% increase over three years, and a 12% increase over four years, and a 34% increase since the recession ended in the summer of 2009.

Twenty-one states experienced an increase in homeless student population of more than 10 percent, including: Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

The report, “Federal Data Summary School Years 2012-13 to 2014-15: Education for Homeless Children and Youth” further found that:

• Thirty-five states reported an increase in their homeless student populations between 2012 and 2014. Twenty-one states experienced growth of 10% or more, while only five states experienced a reduction of 10% or more.
• Homelessness among unaccompanied homeless youth (youth experiencing homelessness on their own, apart from their families) saw the most marked increase, increasing by 21% over three years, to reach 95,032 students.
• The grade with the largest number of students experiencing homelessness was kindergarten. Forty-seven percent of all students identified as homeless and enrolled in school were elementary-age or younger.
• Federal per-pupil spending on students experiencing homelessness declined by $17.78 since the end of the recession and by $6.07 between fiscal years 2012 and 2015. Overall federal funding to support students experiencing homelessness remained at roughly the same level between fiscal years 2012 and 2015.
• States provided an average per pupil rate of $50.08 in federal funding to school districts for the additional supports needed by homeless students.

The majority of students experiencing homelessness do not live in shelters. 76% were staying with other people temporarily, due to lack of alternatives, upon initial identification by schools. Another 7% were staying in motels when they were identified. These living situations are precarious, crowded, unstable, and often unsafe, leading to high rates of mobility. The use of hotels and motels grew, seeing an increase in use of nearly 19% over three years.  The ED data do not include homeless infants and toddlers, young children who are not enrolled in public preschool programs, and homeless children Child and Youth Homelessness on the Rise in 35 States, New Data Shows; Advocates Sound the Alarm | Campaign For Children:

Ohio charter-school advocacy group disbanding | The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio charter-school advocacy group disbanding | The Columbus Dispatch:

Ohio charter-school advocacy group disbanding

One of Ohio’s leading charter-school lobbying and advocacy organizations is disbanding after a decade of shaping the state’s charter-school policy. Some say its demise stems from Ohio’s poor charter-school record, which is causing national funders to pull their support.

The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools announced last week that it will close at the end of the year — even as it put on its two-day convention at the Hyatt Regency Hotel next to the Greater Columbus Convention Center. The event program included a welcome letter from RaShaun Holliman, president of the Alliance since mid-August.

“Please know you have a fighter in me, working hard to make sure that the playing field is made fairer for you and your students,” Holliman said in the written welcoming remarks.

But Holliman already has quit and taken a job with the Ohio Department of Education overseeing charter-school operations. At one time boasting a $1.6 million-a-year budget, the Alliance’s staff has shrunk from eight a year ago to just three.

Though Ohio spends around $1 billion a year on charters, the Alliance couldn’t stay afloat through membership dues because, “traditionally, we have also had the benefit of financial support from private funders,” Chad Readler, chairman for the Alliance’s board of directors, said in a letter to supporters last week announcing the organization’s disbanding. “Changes in funder focus, however, has created challenges for charter membership organizations around the country, including the Alliance.

“As much as we have tried to adapt, and as much as we believe our work has benefited the charter movement, the board of directors has decided that the Alliance is no longer well-positioned to help lead our movement.”

The Alliance once counted on the charter movement’s heavy-hitters, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gund Foundation, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. But its website listed none of those as current funders.

Many charter-school operators have pointed to dwindling national Ohio charter-school advocacy group disbanding | The Columbus Dispatch:

CURMUDGUCATION: Checker Finn Admits Defeat

CURMUDGUCATION: Checker Finn Admits Defeat:

Checker Finn Admits Defeat

Has a prominent reformster given up. Not quite-- but the PISA and TIMSS results have given Chester Finn pause as well as a moment of perhaps inadvertent admission that twenty-five years of reforminess have been a failure.

I can never quite get myself into the whole podcast thing, but a friend recommended I check out a recent episode of the Fordham Foundation's Gadfly podcast and it was... illuminating.

Not actually Robert Pondiscio

The show actually starts with a quick audioquote of "What Does Gadfly Say," an in-house wacky video that Fordham madea few years back, and, well, it's brave of them to keep bringing it up. But wackiness, or perhaps just mid-level jauntiness, is the tone we're after here. So no super-serious Masters of the Universe or Evil Geniuses, but just the gang hangin' out and talkin' ed policy. The program is hosted by Alyssa Schwenk and Robert Pondiscio, and they start with some introductory banter. Schwenk introduces Pondiscio as the "Adele of education reform" and I don't know what to do with that-- he's actually a talented young British woman? Pondiscio (the current Big Cheese of the Fordham) gets a bonus point for working in "Isn't it pretty to think so," from the end of Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. So, we're wacky, but also well-read.

Checker Finn is given a "who needs no introduction" introduction; if you think he does, know that he is one of the Old Guard of reformsterism, long-time cheese-in-chief of Fordham, current VP of the Maryland Board of Education, frequent scolder of Kids These Days, champion of charter marketing, and common core cheerleader. He's also game for the wackiness, noting that his father had a cousin CURMUDGUCATION: Checker Finn Admits Defeat:

In a Post-Trump World, Rhetoric vs. Reality in LA Schools

In a Post-Trump World, Rhetoric vs. Reality in LA Schools:

In a Post-Trump World, Rhetoric vs. Reality in LA Schools

EDUCATION POLITICS--At Tuesday’s LAUSD board meeting, the school board will take on public school destroyer Betsy DeVos (Photo above: Betsy DeVos with Donald Trump), Trump’s nominee for US Education Secretary.

Board President Steve Zimmer will introduce a resolution, which reads in part:

“…the Board of Education calls on the President-elect and his Nominee for Secretary of Education to re-affirm the role of public schools to serve every student that comes to the school house door, acknowledge that our public school[s] are an essential foundation [of] our democracy and indicate that they will support policies, initiatives and investments that serve all students and not some students and that they will support and invest in policies and initiatives that support equity, achievement and excellence while stabilizing instead of destabilizing our public school systems…”
It's sure to be popular in blue, blue California. And it will keep board members, including those running for re-election, in the news.

But at some point, the press conferences will be over and we will begin to navigate our new reality in real situations.

Turns out “at some point” is already upon us.

On the very same agenda, Board President Steve Zimmer is proposing a school that contradicts this lofty resolution. The $10 million (to start) Playa Vista Middle School, which didn’t even face a quorum to be vetted at the Bond Oversight Committee, is on the Board’s consent calendar. So, no discussion necessary. (Although, we’ve discussed it in the blogosphere.)  

The Playa Vista Middle School that caters to certain Westside families cannot be described as a policy, initiative and investment that serves *all students*. It specifically serves *some students*. It does not *support equity*, but gives greater resources to a more affluent and less diverse population than at any of the surrounding schools. It specifically *destabilizes our public school system* because the district is doing nothing to enhance the existing middle schools in the area as it creates the shiny new school for a select few.

So when the rhetorical flourishes fade away, are LAUSD’s board members committed to implementing policies that reject the new Trumpian reality they keep declaring is so objectionable? Or are they caving to the worst parts of ourselves that his campaign revealed to be more prevalent than any of us dreamed?

We’ll find out on Tuesday.

To be the public in public education

Last week, the LA School Board held a Committee of the Whole meeting In a Post-Trump World, Rhetoric vs. Reality in LA Schools:

Nearly half of education-vendor websites tested had security problems, audit reveals - The Hechinger Report

Nearly half of education-vendor websites tested had security problems, audit reveals - The Hechinger Report:

Nearly half of education-vendor websites tested had security problems, audit reveals

Schools need to test encryption on sites teachers and students use

Nearly half of the more than 1,200 education technology vendor websites used by teachers and students, and checked in an October audit, did not include a secure log-in, according to a new survey.

This makes these programs vulnerable to a security breach – a school leader’s nightmare.

 “We want people to fix this,” said Bill Fitzgerald, director of the Privacy Initiative at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that provides tools to help schools and parents assess the merits of technology and media use. “We don’t want to talk about encryption. We want to talk about pedagogy.”

Some might think that hackers only target high-profile groups such as politicians and banks – but that’s a mistake. Schools, both K-12 and higher education, have been victims, too. More than 780 breaches in schools, resulting in the disclosure of more than 14,790,000 records, have been reported since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a California-based nonprofit consumer advocate.

The survey by Fitzgerald’s team sought to find out how many programs support the use of encryption, which helps protect information online. The report found that only 51 percent of the educational program websites checked provided this protection. Both small and large companies that offer programs to schools provided websites without encryption. And in some cases the companies provided the security only for districts in states that mandate it. (To avoid compounding the problem, the report does not disclose the names of which programs have security problems.)

The consequences of a security breach can be devastating. Parents trust that school leaders are being careful, and even a small-scale problem can cause them to doubt if it’s worthwhile to use online programs in the classroom. And if teachers are using the same Nearly half of education-vendor websites tested had security problems, audit reveals - The Hechinger Report:

Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - http://www.studentprivacymatters.org/

Let's Talk About Vouchers, Part Four (The Story So Far) | Blue Cereal Education

Let's Talk About Vouchers, Part Four (The Story So Far) | Blue Cereal Education:

Let's Talk About Vouchers, Part Four (The Story So Far)

With President-Elect Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos as Executioner of Public Education, talk of vouchers and their variations are once again filling the crispy winter air. If you’re not already following and reading the #OklaEd Trinity, you should begin by seeing what OKEducation Truths, Fourth Generation Teacher, and A View From The Edge have been saying on the subject. 

Actually, Miller (A View From The Edge) has been on a bit of a roll on this topic lately. I may add unnecessary sentences just so I can embed additional links without them seeming forced. 

How did I do?

As to yours truly, I’m working my way through Supreme Court cases related to “separation of church and state” as it impacts public education. Most of these involved prayer or religious instruction, although I’d hoped to get into some of the more interesting stuff like the Amish pulling their kids out of school after 8th grade or “After School Satan Clubs.” 

Yes, really. It’s fascinating stuff. 

As part of that, I became absorbed by Zelmer v. Simmons-Harris (2002) - a case which seemed to come up repeatedly when researching vouchers. The Court declared an Ohio program which included vouchers did NOT violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, making lots of #edreform groups and big money types very happy. 

Here’s the basic reasoning that allows a voucher program potentially benefiting religious institutions to nonetheless remain constitutional:  

First, the goal is secular. Sectarian schools may benefit, or more kids go to religious schools as a result, but promoting quality education for all kids is a valid government function and religiously neutral in and of itself. 

Second, the vouchers can’t be designed to favor religious schools or reward parents for choosing them. Even with more “choice,” public options should remain less burdensome than private alternatives. 

Third, it’s the parents making the choice – not the government. This is critical. The vouchers (tangible or not) go from the state to the parent, who then makes the decision where or how to utilize them. 

In legal terms, this is comparable to a government employee receiving a paycheck and choosing to tithe or donate to a sectarian cause. That’s why voucher supporters are so devout in their rhetoric about money “belonging to parents.” That framing is critical to the constitutionality of the system. 

There are problems with this blurring of public and private funds, and it slights the foundational “social contract” which allows civilization to exist. But those aren’t Let's Talk About Vouchers, Part Four (The Story So Far) | Blue Cereal Education:

How the Billionaire Boys Club Paved the Way for Betsy DeVos | Diane Ravitch's blog

How the Billionaire Boys Club Paved the Way for Betsy DeVos | Diane Ravitch's blog:

How the Billionaire Boys Club Paved the Way for Betsy DeVos

I wrote an article for the online version of the Chronicle of Philanthropy about how the big foundations paved the way for Betsy DeVos’ nihilistic campaign to privatize public education. I wanted it to be in a journal that foundations across the nation read. It is available only to subscribers.

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Blame-Big-Foundations/238662

Opinion: Blame Big Foundations for Assault on Public Education
By Diane Ravitch
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reallocate $20 billion in federal funds to promote charter schools and private-school vouchers. He has selected Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos — who has long devoted her philanthropic efforts to advocating for charters and vouchers — as the next secretary of education. After the election, her American Federation for Children boasted of spending nearly $5 million on candidates that support school choice, not public schools.
Currently, 80 percent of charter schools in Michigan are run by for-profit corporations, due in no small part to Ms. DeVos and her husband, Amway heir Dick DeVos. These schools represent a $1 billion industry that produces results no better than do public schools, according to a yearlong Detroit Free Press investigation. The DeVoses recently made $1.45 million in campaign contributions to Michigan lawmakers who blocked measures to hold charters accountable for performance or financial stability.
With Ms. DeVos in charge of federal education policy, the very future of public education in the United States is at risk. How did we reach this sorry state? Why should a keystone democratic institution be in jeopardy?
I hold foundations responsible.
Extremist Attacks
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Edythe and Eli Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation have promoted charter schools and school choice for the past decade. They laid the groundwork for extremist attacks on public schools. They legitimized taxpayer subsidies for privately managed charters and for “school choice,” which paved the way for vouchers. (Indeed, as foundations spawned thousands of charter schools in the past decade, nearly half of the states endorsed voucher programs.)
At least a dozen more foundations have joined the Big Three, including the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund.
For years these groups have argued that, one, public schools are “failing”; two, we must save poor children from these failing schools; three, they are failing because of bad teachers; four, anyone with a few weeks of training can teach as well, or better. It’s a simple, easily digestible narrative, and it’s wrong.
To begin with, our public schools are not failing. Where test scores are low, there is high poverty and concentrated racial segregation. Test scores in affluent and middle-income communities are high. The U.S. rank on international standardized tests has been consistent (and consistently average) since those tests began being offered in the 1960s, but the countries with higher scores never surpassed us economically.
The big foundations refused to recognize the limitations of standardized testing and its correlation with family income. Look at SAT scores: Students whose families have high incomes do best; those from impoverished families have the lowest scores. The foundations choose to ignore the root causes of low test scores and instead blame the teachers at schools in high-poverty areas.
Follow the Money
Major foundations put their philanthropic millions into three strategies:
They funded independently run charter schools, which are a form of privatization.
Some, notably the Gates Foundation, invested in evaluating teachers based on their students’ test scores.
They gave many millions to Teach for America, which undermines the profession by leading young college graduates to think they can be good teachers with only five weeks of training.
Many of the philanthropists behind the foundations have also used their own money to underwrite political candidates and state referenda aimed at advancing charters and school choice. Bill Gates and his allies spent millions to pass a referendum in Washington State authorizing charter schools; it failed three times before winning in 2012 by 1 percent of the vote. After the state Supreme Court denied taxpayer funding to charters, on the grounds that they are not public schools because they are not overseen by elected school boards, three justices who joined the majority ruling faced electoral challengers bankrolled by Mr. Gates and his friends. (The incumbents easily won re-election.)
The Walton Family Foundation claims to have launched one-quarter of the charter schools in the District of Columbia. It has pledged to spend $200 million annually for at least the next five years on opening new charters. Individual family members have spent millions on pro-school choice candidates and ballot questions. This year they joined other out-of-state billionaires like Michael Bloomberg in contributing $26 million to support a Massachusetts referendum that would authorize a dozen new charters a year, indefinitely. It lost, 62 percent to 38 percent. Only 16 of the state’s 351 school districts voted “yes”; the “no vote” was strongest How the Billionaire Boys Club Paved the Way for Betsy DeVos | Diane Ravitch's blog:

The reason America’s schools are so segregated — and the only way to fix it - The Washington Post

The reason America’s schools are so segregated — and the only way to fix it - The Washington Post:

The reason America’s schools are so segregated — and the only way to fix it

Until the 1954 Supreme Court ruling called Brown v. Board of Education, black and white students were segregated in schools across the country. After the Supreme Court declared such segregation unconstitutional, a group of students called the Little Rock Nine became the first black students to attend Arkansas’ Little Rock Central High School. The students were escorted to class by Army soldiers, who tried to prevent violence by white protesters. (Panopticon Gallery)

In the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the U.S. Supreme Court  ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional because they were “inherently unequal.” At the time, states and school districts were permitted to operate some schools only for white students and others only for black students, but the court ruling set in motion a process in which that dual system was to be dismantled. Progress was made over time but the goal of the ruling — to end school segregation — was never close to being reached. In the last few decades, schools have been quietly resegregating, and federal data released this year showed that the number of high-poverty schools serving primarily black and brown students more than doubled between 2001 and 2014.

Now, a bill has been introduced in the New York City Council calling for a formal study of the causes — and remedies — of racial segregation in public schools. In this post, Richard Rothstein explains why such an effort, as spelled out in the bill, is misguided. Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit organization created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers.

He is also a a senior fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and author of the forthcoming “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.”  A former national education writer for the New York Times, Rothstein also wrote  books including  “Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right,”  and “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.”  In 2013, Rothstein wrote a report titled  “For Public Schools, Segregation Then, Segregation Since: Education and the Unfinished March.” which says in part:

Today, African American students are more isolated than they were 40 years ago, while most education policymakers and reformers have abandoned integration as a cause.

This post first appeared on the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund website, and Rothstein gave me permission to republish it.

[How, after 60 years, Brown v Board of Education succeeded — and didn’t]

By Richard Rothstein

A bill introduced in the New York City Council proposes to establish “an office of school diversity within the human rights commission dedicated to studying the prevalence and causes of racial segregation in public schools and developing recommendations for remedying such segregation.”

But it is not reasonable, indeed it is misleading, to study school segregation in New York City The reason America’s schools are so segregated — and the only way to fix it - The Washington Post:

New Study Finds That Money Has a Large Effect on Student Achievement, But It Is Not News--It Is a Sad Reminder of What We Must Do - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

New Study Finds That Money Has a Large Effect on Student Achievement, But It Is Not News--It Is a Sad Reminder of What We Must Do

The New York Times took note of a new school funding study Monday, titling the article It Turns Out Spending More Probably Does Improve Education.  The study by Julien Lafortune, Jesse Rothstein, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach found that school funding "reforms lead to sharp, immediate, and sustained increases in spending in low-income school districts. Using representative samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, we find that reforms cause increases in the achievement of students in these districts, phasing in gradually over the years following the reform. The implied effect of school resources on educational achievement is large."  To put it in perspective, they write "After desegregation, school finance reform is perhaps the most important education policy change in the United States in the last half century."

Our results thus show that money can and does matter in education . . .  School finance reforms are blunt tools, and some critics have argued that they will be offset by changes in district or voter choices over tax rates or that funds will be spent so inefficiently as to be wasted. Our results do not support these claims. Courts and legislatures can evidently force improvements in school quality for students in low-income districts. But there is an important caveat to this conclusion. As we discuss in Section VI, the average low-income student does not live in a particularly low-income district, so is not well targeted by a transfer of resources to the latter. Thus, we find that finance reforms reduced achievement gaps between high- and low-income school districts but did not have detectable effects on resource or achievement gaps between high- and low-income (or white and black) students. Attacking these gaps via school finance policies would require changing the allocation of resources within school districts, something that was not attempted by the reforms that we study. 

To be clear, I will be citing and relying on this study in my own work.  It is a good one, but those who have studied school funding for years will be a little miffed with the New York Times' framing of the study.  This new study, while high in quality and nuance, does not reveal something particular new.  It is incorrect to suggest the study's findings Education Law Prof Blog:

Charter Principal Gets Caught Engaging in Financial Shenanigans and is Punished with a $215K Payout

Charter Principal Gets Caught Engaging in Financial Shenanigans and is Punished with a $215K Payout:

Charter Principal Gets Caught Engaging in Financial Shenanigans and is Punished with a $215K Payout

Ex-charter school chief gets $215K after resigning in wake of spending controversy”

– Los Angeles Daily News, 11/30/16

The administration at El Camino Real Charter High School (ECRCHS) admits that David Fehte charged “more than $6,000” in personal charges on his school-issued credit card. An investigation by the Los Angeles Daily News found that “over the two years, Fehte charged more than $100,000 to the card”, including “$15,500 at Monty’s” Prime Steaks & Seafood and “first-class airfare and luxury hotel rooms”. The LAUSD Charter School Division found that the school had “no policy for Credit Card use” and issued a Notice to Cure on October 28, 2015. Almost a year later the “CSD still had ongoing concerns regarding the capacity and accountability of the Charter School, the charter organization, and its governing board, to operate ECRCHS effectively and in compliance with applicable laws and the terms of its charter”. The LAUSD Board scheduled a hearing to discuss Notice of Intent to Revoke ECRCHS’ charter.

Press reports at the time said that the process was halted when Fehte “heeded calls for his resignation and stepped down after an 11th-hour deal.” However, the Memorandum of Understanding between ECRCHS and the LAUSD did not specify the terms of Fehte’s departure. It only stated that “effective October 26, 2016, David Fehte will not longer be the Executive Director of ECRCHS and will no longer be employed at ECRCHS.” The LAUSD Board should have paid Charter Principal Gets Caught Engaging in Financial Shenanigans and is Punished with a $215K Payout:

Expanding Vouchers and Charter Schools Won’t Address Needs of Homeless Children | janresseger

Expanding Vouchers and Charter Schools Won’t Address Needs of Homeless Children | janresseger:

Expanding Vouchers and Charter Schools Won’t Address Needs of Homeless Children

The November election and the focus of news reporting on President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees have made invisible some of the important challenges for children and their public schools. Those of us concerned about the nation’s roughly 90,000 public schools must, of course, pay attention to Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and we must come to understand how her beliefs and experience are likely to affect the Department of Education and the schools across America’s neighborhoods.

But anybody who believes that the DeVos-Trump plan for a $20 billion block grant program to expand vouchers and charters will solve the primary challenges for public schools is dreaming. School teachers, social workers and counselors must help children cope with their life circumstances in order that students can learn. Public schools must be equipped to address the needs of the children who walk trough their doors.

The NY Times‘ Kate Taylor reminds us about one of these primary challenges: students “living in a shelter, doubled up with relatives, in a hotel or in other transient circumstances.”  In the New York City Schools, which serve over a million students, a serious problem is that severely disadvantaged students tend to be clustered in the city’s traditional public schools, not in its charters.  Taylor explains: “Last year, 99,196 students in the city’s traditional public schools, or nearly 10 percent of students, were classified as being in temporary housing…. At the same time, 6,249, or roughly 7 percent, in city charter schools were in temporary housing.”

Here is how Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond defines “severe deprivation,” the living conditions of many of these homeless children: “By ‘severe deprivation,’ we mean economic hardship that is (1) acute, (2) compounded, and (3) persistent. Let us unpack these three components. Acute hardship: Life far below the poverty line, characterized by a scarcity of Expanding Vouchers and Charter Schools Won’t Address Needs of Homeless Children | janresseger:

Who is Part of Ed. Sec. Nominee Betsy DeVos' Policy Circle? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Who is Part of Ed. Sec. Nominee Betsy DeVos' Policy Circle? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Who is Part of Ed. Sec. Nominee Betsy DeVos' Policy Circle?

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S Secretary of Education, may just be starting to think about who she might want on her staff at the U.S. Department of Education next year. After all, she and Trump have about 150 political appointee gigs to fill at the agency.

In filling posts, DeVos could decide to tap people she already knows and has worked well with. Education secretaries often bring close associates from their previous jobs into the department with them. (Think Peter Cunningham, who headed up communications at the department for former Obama administration Secretary Arne Duncan and had worked with Duncan previously in Chicago.)

DeVos could decide to draw from a deep pool of folks she has worked with in education advocacy and political offices, including at the American Federation for Children, a political and advocacy organization she chaired until recently. Many of them have ties to her home state of Michigan, including Josh Venable, a one-time aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is said to be helping Who is Part of Ed. Sec. Nominee Betsy DeVos' Policy Circle? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Don’t Be Fooled: Betsy DeVos Still Loves Common Core | gadflyonthewallblog

Don’t Be Fooled: Betsy DeVos Still Loves Common Core | gadflyonthewallblog:

Don’t Be Fooled: Betsy DeVos Still Loves Common Core

Poor Betsy DeVos.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Education Secretary has spent her entire adult life advocating for Common Core, but now she has to pretend like she doesn’t like it.

In fact, if you point out any of the multiple projects that she supports boosting Common Core, the multi-billionaire Republican mega-donor will probably say you’re promoting “fake news.”

But facts are facts.

She’s a board member of Jeb Bush’s pro-Common Core think tank, Foundation for Excellence in Education, where she hangs out with prominent Democratic education reformers like Bill Gates and Eli Broad. But she says that somehow doesn’t mean she likes it.

She founded, funds and serves on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), an organization dedicated to the implementation and maintenance of Common Core. But somehow that doesn’t mean she’s for the standards.

She’s even spent millions lobbying politicians in her home state of Michigan asking them NOT to repeal Common Core. But somehow that doesn’t mean she’s in favor of it.

It must be a hard position to be in.

Her entire nomination for Trump’s cabinet is contingent on convincing the public Don’t Be Fooled: Betsy DeVos Still Loves Common Core | gadflyonthewallblog:

Schools Matter: The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection

Schools Matter: The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection:

The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection

 “Monica Garcia believes in… choice… She expanded charter schools” — Michael R. Bloomberg and A. Jerrold Perenchio’s Coalition for School Reform



Extremist Betsy DeVos was a long time favorite of neoliberal corporate education reform oriented Liberals and reactionary organizations like Democrats for Education Reform, so it's surprising that there's a little bit of consternation coming from some Democrats over Trump's ED pick. On the other hand, right-wing extremists like Campbell Brown seemingly can't contain their joy over the arch-reactionary appointment. Ultimately DeVos's school privatization policies won't differ substantively from those of the doltish Arne Duncan or John King. She'll just get to our rulers' end goal of eliminating public education quicker than the Bush and Obama Administrations were able to.

Los Angeles has had its own Betsy DeVos for many years in the form of anti-public school politician Monica Garcia. Garcia is running for a third term, and her long record of expanding revenue streams and market share for the lucrative charter school industry is legendary. Here are some of DeVos and Garcia's connections and shared values:

• Betsy DeVos financially supports, and was on the board of publisher (The 74) of the dubious "LA School Report", a high-profile blog that has provided non-stop favorable publicity and propaganda for Moníca García since it's inception.
• DeVos has made sizable contributions to organizations that in turn made campaign contributions to SuperPAC Independent Expenditures supporting García's elections. Follow the money to organization like the now defunct Coalition for School Reform, and Great Public Schools Los Angeles, and also the current CCSA run Parent Teacher Alliance dark money SuperPAC.
• DeVos funds the organizations espousing racist "school choice" policies from which García derives many of her policy positions and talking points.
• DeVos and García openly support religious, and religious affiliated organizations running charter chains. DeVos with the various Christian Identity and white supremacist organizations she's associated with, and García, whose long time relationship with The Pacifica Institute and the shadowy Gülen network are well documented.Schools Matter: The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection: