KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Big Education Ape: My New Book Was Just Announced! | Diane Ravitch's blog -https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/05/my-new-book-was-just-announced-diane.html

Pennsylvania: Governor Wolf Proposes Charter Law Reform, Charter Lobby Cries Foul

by dianeravitch / 8min

Three years ago, the Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale declared that the state’s charter law was the worst in the nation. The scandals and frauds were frequent, and many public school districts teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. But Republican Governor Tom Corbett and the Republican Legislature had no interest in reforming the charter law. A major charter owner was the single bigge

Betsy DeVos Funds IDEA and Kipp to Saturate San Antonio with Charter Schools

43by dianeravitch / 1h

Texas Public Radio describes Betsy Devos’s audacious plan to overwhelm San Antonio with charters created by two corporate chains: IDEA and KIPP. Some of the new charters will open in middle-class areas with good public schools. Apparently, DeVos just wants to torpedo public schools in a major Texas city. Camille Phillips of TPR reports: San Antonio’s largest charter school network is gearing up f

YESTERDAY

Racism: The Horror That Trump Is Playing With

21by dianeravitch / 22h

Last night I watched Anthony Scaramucci on CNN, who said to Erin Burnett that Trump is “not a racist,” but is “transactional,” meaning that he will say or do anything to get elected, no matter how vile. I don’t agree. Only racists openly appeal to other racists for their support. Only racists stir up hatred toward others based on their race, ethnicity, or skin color. Anyone who appeals to racists

New Orleans: Test Scores Stall Below State Average, Teacher Retention At Crisis Level

20by dianeravitch / 23h

The New Orleans myth continues to crumble, despite efforts by privatizers to call it a miracle. The latest state scores (LEAP) were released, and the scores in New Orleans stalled or dipped . While the state average held steady from 2018 to 2019, the proportion of students who reached “mastery” on state tests dropped from 32% to 30%. New Orleans scores continue to rank significantly below state a

New Orleans: How a Student Graduated Although She Could Not Count or Read

69by dianeravitch / 1d

The parents of a student in New Orleans were dismayed when they realized that their daughter would graduate from high school even though she could neither count nor read. She was surely entitled under federal law to extra help but she never got it. Now she is a statistic: a graduate. A victory for the all-charter system that failed her. Dennis Lewis remembers the moment clearly. It was the beginn

Kentucky: The State’s Attacks on Its Teachers Are Outrageous!

62by dianeravitch / 1d

Clifford Wallace and Leigh Wallace, a father-daughter team of professional educators, lambaste state officials for their relentless attacks on the state’s public school teachers. They begin: Leadership matters. It has the potential to influence student outcomes. Clearly, there is a lack of leadership in Frankfort. Kentucky State Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis is taking pages from the flawed a

AUG 15

Arkansas: Walmart Loses First Round In Bid to Reduce Property Taxes

200+by dianeravitch / 1d

A judge in Arkansas rejected the effort by Walmart (owned by the richest family in the nation, the Waltons) reduce their property taxes. Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times writes: County Judge Barry Hyde, sitting as the county court in considering appeals of appraisals of property for tax purposes, held that Walmart had failed to meet the burden of proof to reduce the assessor’s valuation of the

Bob Shepherd Channels The Donald, #45

by dianeravitch / 1d

Bob Shepherd, all-around educator, assessment expert, curriculum expert, teacher, author, wrote a brilliant parody of a Trump rally. Read it here. Incoherent stream of consciousness. Fourth grade vocabulary. Boasting. Narcissism. Replaying moments of triumph over his enemies. Crowd size. The biggest. Bullying. Bob Shepherd also commented here about how Trump would act if he were a student in high

Three of 10 XQ Schools Have Failed, Despite a Promise of $10 Million Each to “Reinvent” High School

54by dianeravitch / 1d

A few years ago, billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs pledged $100 million to launch 10 super new innovative schools, which she dubbed XQ schools. Each would get $10 million to show their stuff. She surrounded herself with veterans of the failed Race to the Top, like Arne Duncan and Russlyn Ali. What could possibly go wrong? I reported last week that two of the 10 had failed. The XQ school in Somervil

The Walton Family Makes $4 Million Every Hour

100+by dianeravitch / 2d

Bloomberg BusinessWeek posts this story about the rapidly escalating wealth divide : The Walton Family is the richest in the world. Its wealth grows by $4 million every hour of every day. Twenty-five families in the world control $1.4 trillion. In the magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s richest families, the Waltons are #1. The numbers are mind-boggling: $70,000 per minute, $4 million per ho

Jan Resseger: Do Not Trust Superintendents from Jeb Bush’s “Chiefs for Change”

100+by dianeravitch / 2d

Jan Resseger writes here about the difference between Superintendents who understand the importance of collaborating with and respecting the community they serve, and the Superintendents connected to Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, who believe in state takeovers and imposing their views on their communities. She might have added the Brodie’s to the latter category, those who are “graduates” of the

AUG 14

Teresa Hanafin on Trump’s Stream-of-(un)Consciousness Blather in Pennsylvania

by dianeravitch / 2d

Teresa Hanafin writes a delightful daily feature for the Boston Globe called “Fast Forward,” where she summarizes the highlights of the day. There is no public schedule for the golfing Trump (although he will strictly adhere to his private insult-tweeting routine), so you can amuse yourself with this breathtaking yet accurate report from the pool reporter assigned to write an account of Trump’s s

Mercedes Schneider On NOLA Charter Chaos

21by dianeravitch / 2d

In this post, Mercedes Schneider tries to untangle the mess created by lack of oversight in all-charter New Orleans. She begins: In all-charter New Orleans, New Beginnings Schools Foundation (NBSF) operates three charter schools in New Orleans, one of which is John F. Kennedy High School. Kennedy is in the throes of an astounding fraud which resulted in almost 50 percent of its Class of 2019 bein

Georgia: K12 Inc. and Charter School Locked In Bitter Battle for Control

by dianeravitch / 2d

Alyson Klein of Education Week writes about a bitter split between the for-profit K12 Inc. and the Georgia Cyber Academy, which it has run for 12 years. Students locked out of their school’s computer systems. Educators unable to get access to some students’ records. Parents receiving emails asking that they return their children’s laptops. That’s the state of play as K12 Inc., a major for-profit

Ohio Gets Another Virtual Charter School!

1Kby dianeravitch / 2d

Earlier this year, Ohio’s infamous Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) went into bankruptcy rather than pay the state money owed for “ghost” students. ECOT has collected over $1 billion since its opening nearly 20 years ago. It had the lowest graduation rate of any high school in the nation. Its owner regularly gave campaign contributions to state officials, which shielded him from accountabi

Bill Phillis: Charter Enrollment in Ohio Drops Sharply

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

The charter bloom is fading. Legislators in Ohio are trying to prop up enrollments as public turns against charters. ‌ ‌ ‌ Good news: Charter enrollment and financial deductions from school districts are down—Bad news: HB 166 is very charter friendly The table shows that charter enrollment has dropped from 122,129.74 in FY 2014 to 106,216.73 in FY 2019 and is at 104,754.75 this fiscal year (curre

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle have written a wonderful new book about the importance of play for children. Play is important for the healthy development of all children, regardless of their socioeconomic status. It’s title is Let the Children Play. Since the passage of no Child Left Behind and the implementation of Race to the Top, the federal government and the states have done their best to s

AUG 13

Fencing Champion Explains Why He “Took a Knee”

69by dianeravitch / 3d

A thought provoking essay in the Washington Post by Race Imboden, a champion in fencing. Three days ago in Lima, Peru, I stood at the top of an awards podium with my teammates and received a gold medal for fencing in the 2019 Pan American Games. The room wasn’t crowded, there weren’t all that many cameras flashing, and there certainly weren’t millions of fans tuned in to watch us from back home —

Mental Illness Is Not the Cause of Most Mass Shootings

by dianeravitch / 3d

Ben Jackson, anti-NRA activist, writes that Trump and the NRA are lying when they say that mental illness is the primary cause of mass shootings. Easy access to deadly weapons is the main cause of mass shootings. He writes in the Boston Globe that Trump is just echoing the NRA line, at the same time that he is restricting access to treatment for mental illness! Depending on your definition of “ma

A Good Story about Students Caring for the Elderly in Their Community

35by dianeravitch / 3d

In a time of daily trauma, when the world is topsy-turvy, here is a sweet story. In Southold, New York, Superintendent David Gamberg started a garden at school. The students learn to garden. They grow vegetables and flowers. He instructed students about how to make bouquets and arrange flowers artfully. The flowers are in full bloom. The students are bringing beautiful bouquets to residents of a

Alabama Welcomes For-Profit K12 Online School to Suck $$ Out of Its Underfunded Public Schools

91by dianeravitch / 3d

Alabama needs to fund its public schools properly but instead it is opening dubious charters and now a for-profit K12 Inc. online virtual school. K12 makes a lot of profit but gets awful results. Low graduation rates, low participation, low teacher salaries. Just what a state would not want if it actually wanted to improve education. Online virtual for-profit charter schools are the bottom feeder

Stuart Egan: What Toni Morrison Taught Me

66by dianeravitch / 3d

Stuart Egan is an NBCT High School Teacher in North Carolina. In this post, he notes that school boards and vigilantes often challenge Toni Morrison’s novels. Her writings are frequently banned. But he contends that the critics should read them and perhaps they will learn from them as he did. Toni Morrison passed this past week. She was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for

There Is a Difference Between Reading on a Screen and Reading Print on Paper

100+by dianeravitch / 4d

I have been copy editing and proofreading my new book ( Slaying Goliath ), which will be published by Knopf on January 21, 2020. On July 12, I received the full manuscript from the Knopf’s copy editors. They had gone through it carefully and questioned words, sentences, facts, footnotes. I spent a week reviewing their comments online, using track changes and answering their queries. They did a gr

Peter Greene Explains Reed Hastings’ Philosophy of Education

by dianeravitch / 4d

Reed Hastings is the billionaire founder of Netflix. He is also one of the biggest funders of charters schools. Peter Greene found the phrase that explains Hastings’ philosophy of education: “Stars in every position.” Hastings has had his hand in many charter pies, from backing outfits like Rocketship and KIPP, as well as serving on the board of California Charter Academy, a chain that collapsed

AUG 12

San Diego: Judge Orders Two Charter Schools to Close

100+by dianeravitch / 4d

A judge in San Diego ordered two charter schools in the district to close i n response to the school district’s complaint that they were operating without local authorization and could not be supervised. About 40,000 students attend Learn4Life centers statewide. The Learn4Life charters are appealing the decision. Judge David Danielsen on Monday granted a motion by San Diego Unified School Distric

California: “Inspire” Charter Chain Grows While Floundering

42by dianeravitch / 4d

The San Diego Union-Tribune featured a front-page top-of-the-fold story by Kristin Taketa about the deepening troubles of the “Inspire” charter chain, which is growing across the state despite academic and financial woes. The headline: “Inspire Charter Schools Grow As Results Lag.” The Inspire network of 12 home charter schools is quickly spreading its reach across California as some are calling

Mercedes Schneider: Does This Member of the Louisiana State Board of Education Live in Louisiana?

by dianeravitch / 4d

Mercedes Schneider has followed the fortunes of Kira Orange-Jones, executive director of Teach for America in Louisiana, who was elected to the State Board with a large infusion of campaign funds from out-of-state Reformers In 2011 and 2015. Schneider continues her scrutiny here . Schneider notes that Orange-Jones has failed to file required financial disclosures and that her actual physical resi

Shawgi Tell: Charter Lobbyists Are on the Defensive

100+by dianeravitch / 4d

The house of cards and propaganda that sustained the charter industry is beginning to crumble. Despite the Obama-Duncan promotion of charters through the disastrous Race to the Top program, no Democrat in the crowded presidential race will openly endorse charter schools. Not even Cory Booker will support charters, despite two decades of fighting for them. Now, it is no longer cool for a Democrats

Peter Greene: Governor Wolf of Pennsylvania Says Charter Schools Are NOT Public Schools

31by dianeravitch / 5d

The times they are a’changing. PeterGreene reports what happened when Governor Tom Wolf really hurt the feelings of the charter lobby. He said that charter schools are NOT public schools. “When Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf trotted out his budget last month, he made it a point to note that he was raising money for public schools– and that he had some definite ideas about which schools are public

Laurene Powell Jobs: Another $10 Million XQ School Fails

76by dianeravitch / 5d

You may recall that Laurene Powell Jobs decided to reinvent the American high school by creating a design competition for new models. In 2026, she offered prizes of $10 million each to the ten best plans. Over 700 proposals came in. She called it the XQ competition. She hired leading lights from the Obama administration, including Arne Duncan and Russlyn Ali, to advise her. She bought airtime on

AUG 11

Bernie Sanders’ Thurgood Marshall Plan for K-12 Education

200+by dianeravitch / 5d

When I introduced Senator Sanders (virtually) at the UTLA Leadership Conference, I said that his K-12 education plan was the best one that any candidate had put forward. Here is his Thurgood Marshall Plan. Senator Sanders focuses on federal action to: 1. Reduce segregation. 2. Dramatically improve federal funding for the schools that enroll the neediest students. 3. Endorsed the NAACP call to ban

When I Introduced Senator Sanders At UTLA Leadership Conference

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the United Teachers of Los Angeles Leadership Conference recently. I was invited to introduce him by video. I recorded a two-minute introduction on my iPhone, while in my home office. I talked about his Thurgood Marshall plan for education. To date, it is the most far-reaching proposal that any candidate has offered. It should be a template for all Democratic cand

Tom Ultican: Beware of TNTP, a Core Element in the Destroy Public Education Movement

74by dianeravitch / 5d

Tom Ultican has written a series of posts about the Destroy Public Education Movement. His latest post analyzes the nefarious role of TNTP in that movement. This movement exists solely to disrupt public education and the teaching profession. TNTP is one of several organizations that only exist because billionaires have financed them. Wendy Kopp founded TNTP (originally called The New Teachers Pro

Jamie Gass: Is Moby Dick the Greatest American Novel?

by dianeravitch / 6d

Jamie Gass writes often about classic literature and what it says to us today. In this post, he writes about the relevance of Moby Dick , which he thinks may be the greatest American novel ever written. The nature of a classic is that it is always timely. It speaks to us at different times in our life, and we understand it in relation to who we are. As we change, our perceptions of the classic ch

Trump’s War Against Latinos

85by dianeravitch / 6d

Jack Hassard writes about the excitement of the first day of school. The children in their best clothes, looking forward to meeting their new teacher. But when school is over, their parents are nowhere to be found. They were arrested by ICE. The mass arrest of 680 workers in Mississippi occurred only days after the slaughter in El Paso, where the killer targeted what he thought were Mexicans. The

AUG 10

The Most Obscene Moment (Yet) in a Vile Presidency

by dianeravitch / 6d

Can Trump and Melanie sink any lower than this photograph? The discussion on Twitter is priceless. One person wrote that the PeePee tape in the Steele report is dignified compare to this. Another photoshopped the baby in a cage. Someone else posted a photo on Twitter of Trump at the Parkland hospital after the massacre of 17 students, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. These people are not normal.

Peter Irons: Racism Is an Impeachable Offense

20by dianeravitch / 6d

Peter Irons, professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego, demonstrates that racism and extreme intemperance are impeachable offenses. He attempted “to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach the Congress of the United States .” He delivered “with a loud voice, intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and has uttered loud thre

California: State AG Demands End to Sausalito Segregation

68by dianeravitch / 6d

The Sausalito-Marin City school district is an outrage. Sausalito is a charming groovy traditionally bohemian (now ultra-wealthy) bayfront town. Unincorporated Marin City, adjacent to Sausalito, is largely public housing, built for WWII shipyard workers — traditionally almost all-black but now including some Latino and Pacific Islanders.. Sausalito right now has a lovely privileged darling adorab

Jeremy Mohler: What Is Democracy? Bargaining for the Common Good

37by dianeravitch / 6d

Jeremy Mohler of the organization “In the Public Interest” wrote this reflection on the meaning of democracy: The word “democracy” either fires you up or makes your eyes roll. It’s so overused that even Donald Trump is wielding it to ramp up support for his administration’s meddling in Venezuela. There’s even a new documentary out called What is Democracy? by filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor,

Beware of Right-Wing Groups Promoting Union-Busting Shell Called “Free to Teach”

1Kby dianeravitch / 7d

Jonathan Burdick, a history teacher in Pennsylvania, wrote on Twitter about a new group called “Free to Teach,” which encourages teachers to abandon their union and form an “independent” union. He can be found @JonathanBurdick on Twitter. In case you are not on Twitter and can’t find the thread, Jonathan writes that the group’s ads are sponsored by an Oklahoma-based organization called “Americans

Who Funded Cory Booker’s Campaigns? Who Funds Him Now?

25by dianeravitch / 7d

Read about his funders here. In the current campaign, he has the support of 18 billionaires, including Bill Gates.

Why I Do Not Support Cory Booker

500+by dianeravitch / 7d

Cory Booker has a long and well-documented record of disparaging public schools and enthusiastically supporting charters, even vouch ers. Now, he says he will dedicate himself to public schools and stop privatization, as if he had not 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

District cuts mic on SCTA again in violation of the contract; what Jessie Ryan didn’t want to hear.

 Sacramento City Teachers Association 

District cuts mic on SCTA again in violation of the contract; what Jessie Ryan didn’t want to hear.

Good evening. I’m Nikki Milevsky, the vice-president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association.

Last week, we made a proposal to the District to work around the clock to work on resolving a number of issues that would clear the path toward a more productive relationship with the District.

We want to reiterate our proposal.

In a recent communication from the superintendent, he offered several dates that decision-makers from the District--which we hope includes Superintendent Aguilar and Board President Ryan—are available for negotiations. We would propose meeting on August 22 for the purposes of addressing our most immediate issues:

Finalizing the retroactive payment of the salary schedule arbitration;

Agreeing to an expedited arbitration process to resolve our disagreement regarding the health plan implementation. To date, the District has not agreed to our proposal to have the entire matter heard in a single, expedited arbitration, including the issues raised in the recent complaints issued by PERB.

Filling all the job vacancies in time for the commencement of the school year.

Rescinding the Child Development cuts

Rescinding the cuts to Classified staff

Addressing the more than 30 unfair labor practices that led to the strike on April 11th
And then when those issues have been resolved, the path should be cleared to immediately move into negotiations for a successor contract.

Our discussion may be a little less contentious considering that the District’s budget now not only includes the 730 students who were lost in the spring, but an additional $6.4 million in Special Education funding.

Additionally, we noted that the budget includes an additional $4.1 million for additional staff based on revised enrollment projections. We can’t emphasize how important it is for the District to use accurate enrollment numbers so that our schools are staffed appropriately. We reiterate our offer to work with the District to make sure that it is staffing based on accurate and up-to-date student enrollment data and like many have been frustrated by the wildly inaccurate projections that have been produced.

In addition, we appreciate the school board voting to support the much-needed School and Community First ballot initiative. I’m sure that you have seen that we in CTA, along with the other major supporters of this historic initiative, have decided to revise the initiative and will be re-circulating petitions to secure its place on the ballot. That is an area that we hope District leaders will work us to accomplish that goal.

Finally, in the aftermath of the ICE raids in Mississippi and the continued increased anti-immigrant sentiment flowing out of Washington, we are pleased to announce that we are working with Luis Cespedes and the Cruz Reynoso Bar Association to develop professional learning modules for SCTA educators in how educators can best provide support services to students and their families in this environment.

In addition, we will be working together with them to develop and facilitate the implementation of a restorative practices culture here in our district, something that we first proposed to the District in 2016. As you know, we jointly developed a restorative practices proposal with the Black Parallel School Board, which begins with implicit bias training, that the District rejected in contract negotiations. Even after the contract settled, we continued to advocate for the implementation of a bottom-up restorative practices’ initiative.

Almost one year ago to the day, SCTA president David Fisher and Carl Pinkston from the Black Parallel school board wrote a joint letter to Superintendent Aguilar requesting the opportunity to meet to discuss moving forward with our proposal beginning with implicit bias training for all staff, consistent with school board policy. For reasons unclear, the District never responded. We hope that times have changed.

As part of our new initiative we hope that our joint work with Bar Association will extend to constructive work with the District, beginning with implicit bias training with for all certificated teachers and other staff.

 Sacramento City Teachers Association 

CURMUDGUCATION: Feed A Teacher For A Year

CURMUDGUCATION: Feed A Teacher For A Year

Feed A Teacher For A Year

I get plenty of pitches--news releases from folks who want to help me come up with some content (and who frequently have never actually read what I write) and mostly I ignore them, but this one caught my attention because it involves free food for a teacher for a year.

The company involved is Sun Basket, which touts itself as "the leading healthy eating service"-- another one of those outfits where you sign up and a box full of ingredients shows up on your doorstep, just waiting for you to chef it into some delicious shape. Sun Basket seems to put a lot of emphasis on healthy lifestyle, organic, best choicey ingredients, and features a variety of 11 different subscriptions, from the dubious (Paleo) to the responsible (Pescatarian, Carb-Conscious). The company was founded in 2014 by Adam Zbar, one of those entrepreneurial types who started at McKinsey, and Justine Kelly whose name I gather might mean something to you if you are a foodie (or foodie-adjacent). Did I mention the company is based in San Francisco?

The contest is called Treat Your Teacher, and it's simple. You nominate a teacher living in the US (except for AK, HI, and parts of MT, NM, and ND-- don't complain to me-- I didn't make the rules), explain why they're awesome. Ten of the nominees will win a Sun Basket account that will cover CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Feed A Teacher For A Year

Kentucky: The State’s Attacks on Its Teachers Are Outrageous! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kentucky: The State’s Attacks on Its Teachers Are Outrageous! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Kentucky: The State’s Attacks on Its Teachers Are Outrageous!

Clifford Wallace and Leigh Wallace, a father-daughter team of professional educators, lambaste state officials for their relentless attacks on the state’s public school teachers. 

They begin:

Leadership matters. It has the potential to influence student outcomes. Clearly, there is a lack of leadership in Frankfort. Kentucky State Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis is taking pages from the flawed and unsuccessful playbooks of his neoliberal, pro-privatization counterparts in Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. From no longer requiring master’s degrees for teachers to maintain certification to promoting privatized for profit “charter schools” as the panacea to save the “failing public schools” – our “commissioner” is helping dismantle our public schools – and the teaching profession – in Kentucky.

Lewis continues to disparage professionally prepared – and experienced – educators through diminishing the significance of the complex work they do on a daily basis, insulting their commitment and expertise, threatening their pensions, and cutting programs and budgets. Recently, in addition to painting a negative narrative around our public schools and the professionals that work in them, he proposed a “pay for performance” incentive for Kentucky Public School teachers as a means to motivate them to “work harder” and ensure every student CONTINUE READING: Kentucky: The State’s Attacks on Its Teachers Are Outrageous! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Secretary DeVos is failing her duty to enforce civil rights for all students - Education Votes

Secretary DeVos is failing her duty to enforce civil rights for all students - Education Votes

Secretary DeVos is failing her duty to enforce civil rights for all students

By Amanda Menas

Nearly half of all LGBTQ+ students live in states where they are not protected from discrimination or bullying. They could turn to federal legislation, but with a secretary of education who has time and time again turned her back on them, stripped their Title IX protections, and refused to discuss the high rates of suicide among transgender students, where can they go?

Regardless of how the Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos are failing to enforce protections, LGBTQ+ students to have legal rights under Title IX and deserve a safe learning environment.

The Center for American Progress researched the changes that have resulted from DeVos’ policies.

Complaints or discrimination and harassment against LGBTQ+ students today are nine times less likely to result in any corrective action by the schools. While under the Obama Administration investigations into complaints where still low, changes to Title IX legislation have decreased the likelihood that victims will come forward or that schools will be held accountable.  NEA President Lily Eskelsen García says Secretary DeVos’ changes “deny schools the flexibility and incentives to prevent and address harassment early in age-appropriate ways.”

Today, complaints are more likely to be dismissed. Under the Trump Administration, 91.5 percent of complaints were closed or dismissed as compared to 65.4 percent prior to 2016. With transgender and gender non-conforming students already avoiding sex-segregated areas of campuses, the changes Secretary DeVos has made are simply failing to protect our students. Educators are in a unique position to interrupt abusive behaviors or discrimination against students based on their sex or gender identity but are hindered from acting when cases are closed too soon.

DeVos’s changes to Title IX protections have a chilling effect on students’ interests in filing complaints, which are already underreported, and harms the capacity of those students to have a healthy learning environment. Only 1.8 percent of students who file complaints today CONTINUE READING: Secretary DeVos is failing her duty to enforce civil rights for all students - Education Votes

The growing crisis of homeless kids | Students on the Move | APM Reports

The growing crisis of homeless kids | Students on the Move | APM Reports

The growing crisis of homeless kids
They sleep in cars, motels and relatives' houses, and they're more likely to drop out of school and spend their lives in poverty. Due to the lack of affordable housing, the U.S. has more of these children than ever before.

Savannah is squinting as she thinks. The question she's trying to answer would be easy for most ninth graders: How many schools have you gone to? Savannah has to do some quick mental math.

"About 14 in the last six years," she says.

That's more than two schools a year.

Savannah lives in Spokane Valley, Washington, a sprawling suburb east of Spokane. Her parents split up about six years ago. Then her mom fell behind on the bills, and they lost their place. For several years after that, they were constantly on the move. They slept in cars, hotel rooms or on someone's couch. Most of the time, she was with her mom, but sometimes she stayed with other people: friends, acquaintances, her teenage sister.

"I was kind of everywhere," she says. "Sleeping kind of wherever I could."

Savannah was one of 1.3 million school kids that the U.S. Department of Education tallied as homeless in its most recent count, the largest number ever recorded. The majority of homeless people are adults on their own, but the number of homeless families and kids has grown dramatically as the amount of affordable housing has shrunk in many cities. The number of homeless kids in public schools has increased by about 70 percent over the past decade, according to the Education Department.

Spokane has seen its share of that increase, and that's why the city's Open Doors family shelter is so busy.

The shelter is in the basement of a church in a residential neighborhood close to downtown Spokane. At dawn on a weekday morning this past winter, families were waking up. They had spent the night on the floor on mats spaced a few feet apart. Sixty-five people slept here overnight.

"About half of those are kids," says Joe Ader, the shelter's executive director. "Most of those are under the age of 12." CONTINUE READING: The growing crisis of homeless kids | Students on the Move | APM Reports

Why Educators Need to Vote in 2020 - NEA Today

Why Educators Need to Vote in 2020 - NEA Today

Why Educators Need to Vote in 2020

“Teachers need the vote in order to have more schools and better schools…”

“Teachers need the vote in order to protect the children of their district from the vicious interests that constantly exploit them.”

Any of this sound familiar? Nearly 100 years after these words were printed, teachers are still fighting to have their voices heard.

Back then, educators’ voices were instrumental in the push for women’s suffrage*, called to action by arguments like the one in this 1915 flyer:

Source: VCU Libraries

So many of the issues educators faced then are still challenging the education profession today, but educators, then and now, deeply care about the political issues that affect their students. They know that if they don’t have their rights protected, neither will their students.

The 99-year anniversary of the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote (thought the right didn’t extend to women of color until decades later) reminds us that there is a lot at stake for the education world during the 2020 election, and we’ve come up with our own list of reasons why educators need to use the vote they worked so hard to gain.

1. Betsy DeVos – Do we even need to continue this list after mentioning her? Her lack of experience in public education, strong support for vouchers and online schooling, and attacks on our students’ rights and education funding make DeVos public enemy number one for educators. Our students deserve a Secretary of Education who wants to invest in their future not line her pockets.
2. Public Service Loan Forgiveness – If educators and other public servants make 10 years’ worth of qualified monthly payments on their federal student loans, they can receive up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness. But that’s not what is happening, because the program is broken. Fewer than 1 percent of eligible public servants who apply actually receive the loan forgiveness they were promised. Educators deserve a government that fulfills their promises to public servants everywhere.
3. Gun Violence Prevention – NEA members believe schools should be safe CONTINUE READING: 

Shawgi Tell: Persistent Fraudulent Enrollment in Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Persistent Fraudulent Enrollment in Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Persistent Fraudulent Enrollment in Charter Schools

While privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools have long engaged in a broad range of fraudulent student enrollment practices, yet another avalanche of news reports on such dishonest practices has recently appeared.

There seems to be no end to astonishing news in the unregulated and segregated charter school sector. Controversy, scandal, and charter schools have been fellow-travelers for more than 25 years.

Virtual charter schools, perhaps the most unsuccessful and unethical of all types of charter schools, have a long-standing tradition of enrolling “ghost students” (students that do not exist) in order to embezzle millions of public dollars. This, of course, is always accompanied by Enron-style accounting in an attempt to conceal such damaging financial malfeasance.

The latest debacle in the troubled charter school sector is the massive virtual Epic Charter School Network which operates mainly in Oklahoma. It has made headlines everywhere for enrolling “ghost students” and for engaging in other crimes and unethical behavior for a long time.

In related news, two scandal-ridden online charter schools in Indiana were also recently exposed and criticized for engaging in some of the same crimes as Epic and other cyber charter schools. Together, these virtual schools inflated their enrollments by thousands of students to pilfer enormous sums of public funds.

Sadly, many other examples of inflated enrollments and other scandalous CONTINUE READING: Persistent Fraudulent Enrollment in Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Students Speak on August 15 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

Students Speak on August 15 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

STUDENTS SPEAK ON AUGUST 15 EDUCATION TOWN HALL

Before DC students head back to school later this month, Education Town Hall is privileged to have in studio four DC public school students, who are serving in a variety of roles both at their schools as well as with the DC State Board of Education (SBOE). Listen to a wide-ranging discussion, as students share their priorities for our schools–and what they would do or change if they were in control of our DC schools.

Show begins at 6:20 mark on this recording —

L-R: Valerie, Shayla, Alex, Maya Thomas

Shayla Dell is a rising sophomore at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, studying vocal music, and has participated in classical singing competitions. As a student advocate, Ms. Dell has served on the student government association at Duke as well as the DCPS chancellor’s student cabinet and is a continuing member of the student advisory committee of the DC SBOE. (The student advisory committee is consulted by the state board on issues of policy before the board.)

Maya Gray is a rising senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic high school and a returning member of the SBOE’s student advisory committee. Having attended both DC public and charter schools, Ms. Gray has worked as a teen aide with DC Public Library and completed internships with DC government agencies. She is also involved in a variety of sports and looks forward to a CONTINUE READING: Students Speak on August 15 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

How the student loan industry lobbied DeVos to fight state regulations - POLITICO

How the student loan industry lobbied DeVos to fight state regulations - POLITICO

How the student loan industry lobbied DeVos to fight state regulations

The Trump administration’s attempts to shield some student loan companies from new state regulations began after the industry waged a furious lobbying campaign, which included the head of student loan giant Navient, emails obtained by POLITICO show.

Jack Remondi, chief executive officer of Navient, personally emailed a top aide to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urging the administration to “quickly” declare that states lacked the authority to police the companies that, like his, collect federal student loans

Remondi and other industry heavyweights were trying to enlist the Education Department’s help to fend off the growing trend of states considering or passing laws to crack down on student loan servicing companies. The states were responding to allegations of misrepresentations and other abuses in the industry, which manages the student loan payments of the nation’s more than 45 million student loan debtors.

Remondi, who called the timing “critical,” told the top DeVos adviser that he was especially concerned about the licensing fees that companies would potentially have to pay to state regulators.

“Today’s federal student loan program is already overly complex, adding state based rules would not be helpful to borrowers or the cost of the program,” Remondi wrote in the September 2017 email to Jim Manning, who was acting undersecretary of the department.

Several months later, the Trump administration agreed to Remondi’s request — which had been echoed in other emails sent to the Education Department by industry groups like the Student Loan Servicing Alliance and the National Council for Higher Education Resources.

DeVos in March 2018 issued a notice declaring that federal law preempts state regulation of companies collecting federal student loans. The move drew criticism from state attorneys general, state banking regulators and the National Governors Association. Consumer advocates argued that states have the right to oversee companies operating within their borders that collect loan payments from their residents. CONTINUE READING: How the student loan industry lobbied DeVos to fight state regulations - POLITICO

NYC Educator: AFT in Texas

NYC Educator: AFT in Texas

AFT in Texas

Last Tuesday I went with a UFT contingent to McAllen Texas. AFT had requested entry to the detention facility there. The US government, in their infinite wisdom,  not only denied us, but also waited until the day we arrived to do so. AFT kept reaching out and trying to change that, but our time was very limited.

The following morning, we assembled in front of the facility and held a vigil. We were filmed by several people, including someone from Telemundo. I'm not sure whether or not anyone aired it, but if I get a link I'll post it. There's nothing quite like a Wednesday morning rally on a 103 degree day. Members spoke of the unconscionable treatment of children in that facility. Several offered prayers. AFT Executive VP Evelyn De Jesus, among her hundred other titles, is an ordained minister and was in her element.

After a while, a uniformed agent with a gun came out and asked us to move to the sidewalk. After all, who the hell did we think we were, American citizens standing on the grounds of a facility that our tax dollars support? We didn't move. A while later he came out with three colleagues, and explained that we'd be arrested if we didn't move. They had called the police.  I thought we were going to be arrested, and wondered how the hell I would call the DOE. (I haven't been arrested since I was 19. I was hitchhiking in Syracuse. The cop fined me five dollars and told me if I didn't show up for trial my five bucks would be subject to forfeit. I had a feeling a Texas jail would be a little tougher than that.)

At that point though, we moved, along with the cameras. We were still standing with the backdrop of the government building, and it really made little difference. There were questions. How could we treat children like this? What were they doing back there? Were they being fed? Were they being taught? Were they getting adequate care? There were more prayers. We were winding up when our buddies from customs appeared again and told us we would now have to walk all the way across the street. It was kind of odd because I thought sidewalks, kind of like government buildings, were public property.To underline their determination, the agents had not only summoned the police, but had brought their 
own tow trucks. Who'd have thought that the Border Patrol actually needed their own tow trucks and kept them handy at their facility? We had three vans that they threatened CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: AFT in Texas

This Summer Betsy DeVos Quietly Repealed the “Gainful Employment Rule” on For-Profit Colleges and Trade Schools | janresseger

This Summer Betsy DeVos Quietly Repealed the “Gainful Employment Rule” on For-Profit Colleges and Trade Schools | janresseger

This Summer Betsy DeVos Quietly Repealed the “Gainful Employment Rule” on For-Profit Colleges and Trade Schools

This summer, while we’ve been reading about candidates running for President in 2020, the tragedy of mass shootings, and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, deregulation has been perking along at the U.S. Department of Education, even though Betsy DeVos has managed to stay out of the spotlight.  Right at the end of June, DeVos and her staff moved along their agenda to deregulate for-profit colleges and trade schools by eliminating an important Obama-era rule. On Friday, June 28, they repealed what has been known as the “gainful employment rule.”

The Associated Press’s Collin Binkley reports: “The agency’s announcement said the rule focused too narrowly on graduate earnings and unfairly targeted for-profit colleges.”

What was the “gainful employment rule”?  Concerned that the federal government was bankrolling—with student grants and loans—shoddy career training programs that left graduates deeply in debt and unqualified to get a job, the Obama Department of Education created a rule to deny federal financial aid to these institutions unless they proved their programs were well enough designed to provide their students the skills that would make them employable upon graduation.

The NY Times’ Erica Green explains: “The so-called gainful employment rule was issued by the Obama administration in 2014 right before huge for-profit chains collapsed, leaving students stranded with debt and worthless degrees. Under the new standards, career and certificate programs, many of which operate in the for-profit sector, would have to prove their graduates could find gainful employment to maintain access to federal financial aid.  It also would have required schools to disclose in advertisements a comparison of the student debt load of their graduates and their career earnings.”

The Washington Post‘s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports that the rule has motivated the for-profit higher education sector to clean up its act: “Shortly after the rule took effect, many CONTINUE READING: This Summer Betsy DeVos Quietly Repealed the “Gainful Employment Rule” on For-Profit Colleges and Trade Schools | janresseger

Three Wishes for the New School Year | The Merrow Report

Three Wishes for the New School Year | The Merrow Report

Three Wishes for the New School Year

As public schools open across the country, I have three wishes:  One, that most parents and most teachers will be open to working together.  Two, that most teachers will accept that parents are their children’s primary educators.  And, three, that most parents will accept and embrace that responsibility.  

This is, unfortunately, a tall order. Some parents have gotten accustomed to playing second fiddle, meaning they are reluctant to get involved. As the same time, some educators truly believe that they are children’s principal educators and thus treat parents with disdain.   While in public forums many professional educators may describe parents as “our greatest asset” and “invaluable partners,” how most schools actually treat parents belies their words.  In my experience as an education reporter, many administrators and teachers hold parents in low regard, and their behavior and policies reflect that. Perhaps that’s an inevitable consequence of attempting to elevate education to a high-status profession.  “After all, you wouldn’t expect a heart surgeon to consult with a child’s parents before replacing a ruptured valve and saving the child’s life,” the thinking goes, as if the work of educating a child were the equivalent of complex surgery. It’s not brain surgery; what it is, instead, is a team effort.

Many schools make parents ‘outsiders’ in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.  There’s the once-a-year “Back to School Night” and perhaps a “Parent Involvement Committee’ or a “Parent Advisory Board” that meets occasionally with the Principal.  Many schools expect parents to hold bake sales, auctions and fundraising drives, but that’s not treating parents as partners in their children’s education. Unfortunately, it’s the CONTINUE READING: Three Wishes for the New School Year | The Merrow Report

Big Education Ape: BACK TO SCHOOL: A parent’s guide to K-12 school success -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/08/back-to-school-parents-guide-to-k-12.html

Why is union membership bleeding where the Red State Teacher Revolts took place? – Fred Klonsky

Why is union membership bleeding where the Red State Teacher Revolts took place? – Fred Klonsky

WHY IS UNION MEMBERSHIP BLEEDING WHERE THE RED STATE TEACHER REVOLTS TOOK PLACE?

Michael Antonucci is no friend of teacher unions.

He’s a libertarian who has covered the teacher union beat for years. He has his own blog and pens the Union Report for The 74.

When I was a regular delegate to the NEA Representative Assemblies, I would sometimes drop by the reporter coral (they weren’t allowed on the convention floor) and exchange views.

We differed on politics but his facts were dead on. Even a high-level NEA staffer confided in me that they often turned to Antonucci’s reports to find out what was really going on inside the NEA.

His latest data shows that in blue states Janus has had very little impact on union membership.

In red right-to-work states, membership is bleeding.

The biggest losers were Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Each was a right-to-work state or became one during this period.

If some of those states seem familiar to union teachers it is because they notice that some of these states saw major state-wide teacher strikes in recent years.

If that seems contradictory it shouldn’t.

Most of those strikes were organized by militant teachers independently of the NEA CONTINUE READING: Why is union membership bleeding where the Red State Teacher Revolts took place? – Fred Klonsky