I want to report a case of child abuse. No, thousands of cases. |

I want to report a case of child abuse. No, thousands of cases. |:

I want to report a case of child abuse. No, thousands of cases.

I want to report a case of child abuse.

Well, no.  Not just one case.

Thousands of cases. Maybe tens of thousands. One for every child in New Jersey who attended class Monday and Tuesday in near 100 degree heat without air conditioning. Who will still be in school next week when the heat returns–and in September.

And child abuse is a crime.

All these children were entrusted to the care of public managers and officials–from school principals to the New Jersey state education commissioner–who probably didn’t think much about the problem.

Didn’t think of it because they were working in air conditioned offices. They were aided and abetted by legislators who, while ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars–maybe $750 million– to renovate the Statehouse (which already has air conditioned chambers, committee rooms, and offices), won’t provide the schools with the money they need to air conditioned their classrooms.

The worst aider and abettor, of course, is Chris Christie, the governor who wasted $24 million in 2013 for a special US Senate election designed, in part, to I want to report a case of child abuse. No, thousands of cases. |:

A Favorite Subject Returns to Schools: Recess - WSJ

A Favorite Subject Returns to Schools: Recess - WSJ:

A Favorite Subject Returns to Schools: Recess

After playtime was dropped amid focus on academic performance, educators now take playground breaks seriously

Three kindergarten girls looked close to taking a spill as they sat on the high back of a playground bench at Oak Point Elementary. Feet away, several administrators didn’t make a move to stop them because at this school outside Dallas, playtime is revered.

“As long as they’re safe, we allow kids to be kids,” said Daniel Gallagher, assistant superintendent for educational services in the Little Elm Independent School District.

That’s the mantra in this small school district, where schoolchildren are transitioning from one daily 30-minute recess to one hour a day, taken in 15-minute increments. School officials say children are better focused with more unstructured breaks and do better in school.

School districts throughout the country are reassessing recess—with some bringing back the pastime or expanding it, citing academic and health benefits.

The Minneapolis school board on Tuesday approved a proposal to require 30 minutes of daily recess in elementary schools, moving away from just recommending 20 minutes daily. And in Florida, parents are hoping the governor will soon sign an education bill that includes a required 20 minutes of daily recess for elementary-school students in traditional public schools. 

In the past year, the state of Rhode Island and school districts in Dallas, Portland, Ore., the Jefferson Parish Public School System in Louisiana, and the Orange County and A Favorite Subject Returns to Schools: Recess - WSJ:

PBS Explains Why It Ran a Pro-Privatization Series | Diane Ravitch's blog

PBS Explains Why It Ran a Pro-Privatization Series | Diane Ravitch's blog:

PBS Explains Why It Ran a Pro-Privatization Series

Valerie Strauss contacted PBS to ask why the public TV Network ran a one-sided three-hour documentary that lambastes public schools and celebrates vouchers, charters, and for-profit schools.

PBS gave its response.

It likes to air diverse views (clearly without fact-checking).

It pays no attention to where the money comes from, even it is dark money funneled through Donors Trust, which bundles contributions from the Koch brothers and DeVos foundations.

Since PBS welcomes diverse views, be sure to contact your local public television station and urge them to run my rebuttal, which aired on WNET, the NYC PBS station.

Since PBS likes diverse views, urge them to air “Backpack Full of Cash,” produced by award-winning Stone Lantern Films, who’s four-part series, “School,” was aired on PBS in 2000. “Backpack” demonstrates the vicious corporate assault on public schools and the harm done to children by the privatization movement.

Don’t agonize, organize.PBS Explains Why It Ran a Pro-Privatization Series | Diane Ravitch's blog:

L.A. Unified moves closer to a unified enrollment system - LA Times

L.A. Unified moves closer to a unified enrollment system - LA Times:

L.A. Unified moves closer to a unified enrollment system

Pressed by L.A. schools Supt. Michelle King, the Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to create an enrollment system that will allow students and families to apply to just about any schools they choose at the same time, through one online application.

The $24-million project is central to King’s strategy for increasing district enrollment. Reversing years of declining enrollment is key to her plan to keep Los Angeles Unified financially solvent while improving district academics.

“It’s a one-stop shop,” said King, who said parents have told the district that the current variety of enrollment processes is “too confusing.”

“The idea was that we have to bring everything together in one space at one time so that all parents can have access and knowledge about what’s happening in our district,” King said.

Tuesday’s vote was crucial if the district was going to have any elements of the new system up and ready in time for fall. A tool for searching the location of schools and descriptions of their programs already had been pushed back to 2018.

King had wanted the board to approve the project last month, but she wasn’t sure then that she had enough votes for approval.

What is expected to be ready by next October will be modest.

During a six-week window, parents should be able to fill out a single online application to apply to three options for the 2018-19 school year: magnet programs, dual-language programs and a small permit program that allows minority students to attend a school in another part of the district if their enrollment would promote the goal of racial integration. Other district options are supposed to be added over the following two years.

Some of L.A. Unified’s most popular programs are magnets, which were originally L.A. Unified moves closer to a unified enrollment system - LA Times:

Nothing planned. | Fred Klonsky

Nothing planned. | Fred Klonsky:

Nothing planned.

Graphic: Leigh Klonsky

Today

I turn 69.

I have nothing planned to mark the day.

When I retired five years ago

people asked me, “How will you fill your days

when you have nothing else planned?”

A problem solved.

Trump.

Fighting pension theft.

I walk the dog.

All that keeps me busy enough.

“But Trump’s a Nothing planned. | Fred Klonsky:

DeVos says some charter school ‘reformers’ have become ‘just another breed of bureaucrats’ | EdSource

DeVos says some charter school ‘reformers’ have become ‘just another breed of bureaucrats’ | EdSource:

DeVos says some charter school 'reformers' have become 'just another breed of bureaucrats'

In a speech to over 4,000 charter school educators and advocates, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos praised their work, but in the same breath leveled sharp criticisms at the charter school movement.

Speaking Monday to the annual convention of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington D.C., she said a quarter century ago, when charter schools were getting off the ground, charter school leaders embraced “creativity, innovation and flexibility.”

But along the way, she said, the movement has departed from some of its founding principles.

“Somewhere along the way, in the intervening 26 years and through the process of expansion, we’ve taken the colorful collage of charters and drawn our own set of lines around it to box others out, to mitigate risk, to play it safe,” she said. “This is not what we set out to do, and, more importantly, it doesn’t help kids.”

“Charters’ success should be celebrated, but it’s equally important not to ‘become the man,'” she said. “I thought it was a tough but fair criticism when a friend recently wrote in an article that many who call themselves ‘reformers’ have instead become just another breed of bureaucrats – a new education establishment.”

The label of the “education establishment” has typically been used  by “school choice” advocates like DeVos to describe teachers unions and other public school leaders who have not fully embraced charter schools, or in DeVos’ case, private DeVos says some charter school ‘reformers’ have become ‘just another breed of bureaucrats’ | EdSource:

Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé

Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:

Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS)

Guest Post by Neil Murphy

Recently, I reviewed the STRS Connections On-Line Newsletter and discerned some troubling trends.

Trend Number One (Contributions vs. Benefits Paid):

Contributions from STRS members (teachers), the State and school districts equaled $8,288.519 for 2016.  Benefits paid to retirees equaled $13,148.558 for 2016.  Contributions are not keeping up with benefits paid to retirees.

Trend Number Two (investment assumption):

STRS used to project a 7.5% rate of return on its investments; in the recent past it downgraded its rate of return to 7.25%; now it is 7.00%.  Because of the recent downgrade, the State just increased its contribution rate by 0.5%; this will not make taxpayers happy.  Also, new teachers, hired after January 1st, 2013, will see a 1% increase in their contribution rate probably beginning in the year 2018.

Trend Number Three (Global Equity):

The investment portfolio of STRS is diverse.  STRS invests in real estate, private equity, global equity, etc.  However, 54.8% of its investment portfolio is tied up in global equity.  This probably explains why STRS just downgraded its rate of investment to 7.0%.  Here are some issues that I have with Global Equity Stocks:

BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) were hailed as the new super economic engines.  Newspaper article after article promoted the idea that these four countries would change the global economy so that it would move in an upward trend.  This was true for a while.  Unfortunately, Brazil’s economy has become anemic due to its vast political troubles (government scandal after scandal).  China’s growth has slowed dramatically.  Russia’s economy has been underperforming somewhat in part due to the economic sanctions placed on it; plus, its economy is too reliant on oil.

The European Union is still struggling.  Spain, Italy, Greece and other European countries are seeing debt choking the breath right out of their economies.  Germany is still performing extremely well, but France’s economy is sputtering.

Japan’s economy has not been strong since the early 1990s.  Moreover, Japan is going to have some serious economic issues in the near future.  Japan’s population is aging and Japan has negative population growth.  There won’t be enough workers to pay for the retirees.  Plus, the Japanese have the longest life span of any other group of people.  Overall, Japan’s economy is headed for disaster.

Based on the economies of other countries, it is my prediction that STRS won’t even reach its 7.0% forecast.  I wouldn’t be surprised if STRS reduces its rate of return from 7.0% to 6.75% within the next ten years.

Trend Number Four (U.S. Economy):

The $20 trillion debt and growing cannot be ignored. The U.S. cannot keep increasing the debt ceiling every year.  Once the U.S. stops increasing the debt ceiling, then the pain of the $20 trillion debt will settle in.  Taxes Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:

The Edu-Tech Billionaires Promote “Personalized” Learning That Lacks the Personal Touch | janresseger

The Edu-Tech Billionaires Promote “Personalized” Learning That Lacks the Personal Touch | janresseger:

The Edu-Tech Billionaires Promote “Personalized” Learning That Lacks the Personal Touch

I was relieved when I read the Los Angeles Times‘ editorial a couple of weeks ago about the newfound humility of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as regards its education philanthropy. Recounting the history of billions spent on failed projects like the small-schools initiative, the initiative to evaluate teachers and reward the best with merit pay, and the investment to develop, publicize and spread the Common Core standards, the LA Times editorial board writes: “Tucked away in a letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last week, along with proud notes about the foundation’s efforts to fight smoking and tropical diseases and its other accomplishments, was a section on education. Its tone was unmistakably chastened. ‘We’re facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make systemwide change,’ wrote the foundation’s CEO, Sue Desmond-Hellman… ‘It is really tough to create more great public schools.'”

The only problem is that it isn’t quite true that Gates has disappeared from the world of education “reform.” Gone are the days, of course, when Arne Duncan hired Jim Shelton, right out of the Gates Foundation to lead the Office of Innovation at the U.S. Department of Education. But the Billionaire Boys continue to work behind the scenes.

Today the focus is “personalized learning,” the Orwellian name its proponents are calling computer-driven learning.  And, no surprise, Jim Shelton has come back to lead the philanthropically-driven effort, but this time he’s working with the Gates Foundation from a perch as head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, what Benjamin Herold at Education Weekcalls “the philanthropic and investment arm of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan.” “The head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s education The Edu-Tech Billionaires Promote “Personalized” Learning That Lacks the Personal Touch | janresseger:

Russ on Reading: School Choice: An Ugly Idea

Russ on Reading: School Choice: An Ugly Idea:

School Choice: An Ugly Idea
An ugly idea left unchallenged begins to turn the color of normal. - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Some Choices Are Just Ugly

The quote above comes from an essay in The New York Times titled Now is the Time to Talk about What We Are Actually Talking About. The quote resonates with me right now because my country seems to be awash in ugly ideas emanating from the centers of power in Washington and apparently resonating with many of my fellow Americans across the country. Here are just a few of these ugly ideas that I fear are beginning to turn a distinct shade of normal.

• America should isolate itself from the rest of the world.
• We must live in fear of people who do not look like us.
• We must build literal and figurative walls to keep people out of the country.
• We should return to harsher penalties for minor offenses and renew the war on drugs.
• Climate change is a hoax and efforts to control it are bad for American business.
• Health care is for those who can afford it.

I will let political pundits and journalists and policy analysts and others with more expertise than I weigh in on these issues. But there is one ugly idea that I do know something about and that I must challenge now because it becomes increasingly the color of normal. That idea is championed by the current resident of the White House, although he has likely given it very little thought, very dangerously championed by the current Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and most dangerously championed by the billionaires that more and more control all that happens in this country.

I am talking about the ugly idea that school choice and competition will lead Russ on Reading: School Choice: An Ugly Idea:

14 June 2017 Reader | radical eyes for equity

14 June 2017 Reader | radical eyes for equity:

14 June 2017 Reader

How to Call B.S. on Big Data: A Practical Guide, Michelle Nijhuis

Mind the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, articulated by the Italian software developer Alberto Brandolini in 2013: the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Or, as Jonathan Swift put it in 1710, “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.”Plus ça change.

Who Is Dangerous, and Who Dies?

ERROL MORRIS: I found an innocent man who came very close to being executed. [Adams’s execution was scheduled for May 8, 1979, but Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. ordered a stay only three days before he was to be strapped into the lethal-injection gurney. Ultimately, the court overturned his death sentence, but not his conviction.] I uncovered all of these appalling details 30 years ago and then opened up a newspaper recently and read about Buck. It’s as if nothing ever happened. That’s both depressing and infuriating. Mitt Romney, when he was governor of Massachusetts, was told that the death penalty is problematic because it’s fallible. You could execute an innocent person, and given our current state of knowledge, there is really no way to bring them back. Once executed, they stay executed.

CHRISTINA SWARNS: And so what was Romney’s reply?

ERROL MORRIS: He said: Oh, that’s simple. We’ll just make it infallible. We’ll make it foolproof. You said it’s fallible. We’ll just fix that.

Stop Pretending You’re Not Rich, Richard V. Reeves

So imagine my horror at discovering that the United States is more calcified by class than Britain, especially toward the top. The big difference is that most of the people on the highest rung in America are in denial about their privilege. The American myth of meritocracy allows them to attribute their position to their brilliance and diligence, rather than to luck or a rigged system. At least posh people in England have the decency to feel guilty.

In Britain, it is politically impossible to be prime minister and send your children to the equivalent of a private high school. Even Old Etonian David Cameron couldn’t do it. In the United States, the most liberal politician can pay for a lavish education in the private sector. Some of my most progressive friends send their children to $30,000-a-year high schools. The surprise is not that they do it. It is that they do it without so much as a murmur of moral disquiet.

Beneath a veneer of classlessness, the American class reproduction machine operates with ruthless efficiency. In particular, the upper middle class is solidifying. This favored fifth at the top of the income distribution, with an average annual household income of $200,000, has been separating from the 80 percent below. Collectively, this top fifth has seen a $4 trillion-plus increase in pretax income since 1979, compared to just over $3 trillion for everyone else. Some of those gains went to the top 1 percent. But most went to the 19 percent just beneath them.

50 years after the Loving verdict, a photo essay looks back on their love, Priscilla Frank

Monday, June 12, marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark 

14 June 2017 Reader | radical eyes for equity:

Choosing Democracy: Sac City Unified has a Budget Problem - And its not the Teachers

Choosing Democracy: Sac City Unified has a Budget Problem - And its not the Teachers:

Sac City Unified has a Budget Problem - And its not the Teachers

Sacramento City Unified’s plan for Local Control Funding is on their web site.

   LCAP Timeline and Process-  here.

See video in post below.

 SCUSD outlines its LCAP development process, Community Planning Process, timeline, and lists potential community partners to engage with in LCFF implementation. A new budget has been submitted  and should be on the web site this PM. 

Here is a counter  submission  by the Community Priorities Coalition in response for the 2017/ 2018 school year.

May 4, 2017

To: Jay Hansen, President

Jessie Ryan, 1st Vice President Darrell Woo. 2nd Vice President Christina Pritchett. Member Ellen Cochrane, Member

Mai Vang, Member Michael Minnick, Member Natalie Ross. Member

Jose Banda, Superintendent

Dear Board of Trustees and Superintendent:

The Sacramento City Community Priority Coalition (CPC) is pleased to submit to the Sacramento City Unified School District its 20 l 7-18 Budget as another budget scenario to consider.

The CPC coalition member organizations and groups consist of Black Parallel School Board, Building Healthy Communities. Hmong Innovating Politics, La Familia Counseling Center. Making Cents Work, PRO Youth and Families , Sacramento Area Congregations Together, Democracy and Education Institute, and Public Advocates Inc.

Based on the input of our respective communities. the CPC recommends three major priorities for both the LCAP and the LCFF that we conclude will better serve the students of our communities. Those priorities include:

•       Class size adjustments/reductions in select high need schools - beginning with grade 4-6 and gradually progressing to higher grades after three years of LCAP implementation.

•       Culturally competent professional development to enhance school climate and ensure the use of effective and restorative discipline policies in all schools for all students.

•       After school and/or other early intervention supports/programsdesigned to improve and further classroom performance.

The district needs to attract quality teachers that reflect the diversity of the students and continue class-size reduction, address inequities regarding our low-income and high needs students, increase graduation rates, improve professional development, and continue to improve community outreach and Choosing Democracy: Sac City Unified has a Budget Problem - And its not the Teachers:

In Her Element: US Ed Sec Betsy DeVos to be ALEC Guest Speaker | deutsch29

In Her Element: US Ed Sec Betsy DeVos to be ALEC Guest Speaker | deutsch29:

In Her Element: US Ed Sec Betsy DeVos to be ALEC Guest Speaker

On June 06, 2017, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced that US secretary of education Betsy DeVos will an ALEC featured speaker at its Denver conference in July 2017:

  Betsy DeVos

ALEC is pleased to announce that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will be joining us for our 44th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

“Secretary DeVos has been a stalwart champion of educational choice in the states, elevating the outcry over the status quo to the highest levels of government,” said Inez Stepman, Education and Workforce Development Task Force Director.

DeVos is serving as the 11th United States Secretary of Education. She was confirmed by the Senate on February 7, 2017. Secretary DeVos has been involved in education policy for nearly three decades as an advocate for children and a voice for parents.

DeVos served as an in-school mentor for at-risk children in the Grand Rapids, Michigan Public Schools for 15 years.

Don’t miss your chance to hear Secretary DeVos speak and all of our great speakers at our annual meeting July 19-21 in Denver, Colorado. Register here.

My first public radio interview related to education reform issues was in 2012, and it In Her Element: US Ed Sec Betsy DeVos to be ALEC Guest Speaker | deutsch29:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: McCleary Updates - Where Are We?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: McCleary Updates - Where Are We?:

McCleary Updates - Where Are We?

From Washington's Paramount Duty:

Washington's Paramount Duty would like to congratulate Carter McCleary on his recent graduation from high school. McCleary was in *second grade* when his family filed the lawsuit that now bears their names, and led to the Supreme Court ruling requiring the state to fully and amply fund public education. 

Think about that. 2nd grade to high school graduation. And remember that the next time you hear a legislator make excuses for failing to comply with a court order to fund our public schools. Because this isn't about a court - it's about kids like Carter McCleary.

An interesting article, Why a $67 million fine isn't motivating the Legislature to act,

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/politics-government/article155432304.html#storylink=cpy

from The News Tribune:

A 2014 contempt finding wasn’t enough to spur lawmakers into action. A year later, the court upped the ante with the daily fine. 

Now, the court is threatening more serious sanctions if lawmakers can’t agree on a McCleary solution by the time they adjourn this year. Those sanctions could include shutting down the state’s school system or striking down billions of dollars in tax breaks the Legislature has approved in the past.

Tom Ahearne, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the McCleary Seattle Schools Community Forum: McCleary Updates - Where Are We?:

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Donctrine Reaches Out To Charter Fans

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Donctrine Reaches Out To Charter Fans:

DeVos Donctrine Reaches Out To Charter Fans

The rise of Betsy DeVos opened up some schisms in the education reformster world, including, notably, voucher fans versus charter fans. Charter fans have been distrustful, even openly resistant to DeVos and whatever agenda she is drifting toward. Charter schools and voucher schools are natural competitors, with vouchers having a distinct edge with the private religious school market. But I think it may be more important that they compete in different ways. 

To grossly oversimplify, the charter model is to attach itself to the public school system, coopting the public system's financial systems but redirecting public monies to private schools. The voucher model is to keep the public funding from ever entering the public system at all. Charters want to slip the money out of the bank, but vouchers want to grab the armored cars delivering it. Charters flirt with the lottery winner so he'll buy them a nice dinner, and vouchers mug him before he ever gets to the restaurant. Charters fake their family ties so they can wrangle an invite to Thanksgiving

So it represents a significant shift that DeVos has delivered a speech loaded with a giant olive branch to charter supporters. 

DeVos was speaking to the National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools. We'll be looking at the official copy of her prepared remarks. She opens with a nice clear warm hug:

It's great to be here with so many pioneers and champions who are fighting toCURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Donctrine Reaches Out To Charter Fans: