Romano: Lawmakers need to tighten loopholes for charter schools - Tampa Bay Times

Romano: Lawmakers need to tighten loopholes for charter schools - Tampa Bay Times:

Romano: Lawmakers need to tighten loopholes for charter schools

No more excuses. No more self-serving propaganda.

If Florida Department of Education officials and lawmakers fail to slow expansion and tighten loopholes in charter school regulations, they should all be dismissed as hypocrites or fools.

That's not hyperbole, and it's not intended to shock. The simple truth is the current standards and policies have been exposed as a joke, and can no longer be ignored.

Case in point:

A charter high school in Orlando was recently closed due to poor performance. The principal, who was drawing a salary of $305,000, was handed a parting gift of more than $519,000 in taxpayer money, according to an Orlando Sentinel report.

The principal's overall pay in the last year was more than double the school's entire education budget.

Under charter school laws, this was perfectly legal.

Case in point:

A struggling charter in Manatee County recently ran a newspaper ad offering a free 

Hearing delayed in case dealing with voucher law's effect on Tangipahoa '65 desegregation case

Hearing delayed in case dealing with voucher law's effect on Tangipahoa '65 desegregation case:

Hearing delayed in case dealing with voucher law's effect on Tangipahoa '65 ...

NEW ORLEANS — A federal court hearing on the effects the state private school voucher program could have on a decades-old desegregation case has been delayed until November.

The Tangipahoa Parish school system argues that the voucher program, which pays private school tuition for some lower-income students from low-performing schools, diverts state money from the local school district.

And they say that affects the system's ability to comply with orders in the 1965 desegregation case. Those orders include construction of four elementary schools and continuation of magnet school programs.

State education officials had been summoned to a hearing set for Tuesday in federal court in New Orleans. After requests for delays by the state, U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle rescheduled the hearing for Nov. 26 at the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge.

The new statewide voucher program provides state-funded private school tuition for students from low- to moderate-income families who would otherwise attend a public school graded with a C, D or F by the state. More than 4,900 students are taking advantage of it 

UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-28-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Invest in Charter Schools, Get a Green Card

by dianerav

Wealthy investors from around te world are pouring millions of dollars into new charter school construction in the US. In return, they get a green card, thanks to a federal program known as EB-5.
Reuters investigative journalist Stephanie Simon has once again broken open a little known story. Here is a linkto some of her earlier stories.

An investor forum in China last spring, for instance, touted U.S. charter schools as a nearly fool-proof 

How to Join the EduBusiness

by dianerav

A reader writes from Wisconsin:
After our Act 10 passed in Wisconsin, a few of my colleagues and I looked into what it would take to take our game to the private sector and start a voucher school in our town. What we learned was that it would be perfectly legal for us to rent an abandoned storefront in our town and lure students in with the promise of free technology that they could keep, even after they left the school. We could collect our voucher money from the state after the third Friday in September, when the state establishes your enrollment. To keep costs low and profits high, we could use Khan Academy as our curriculum and hire uncertified aides to monitor the students (we had a few recent HS graduates in mind who we thought would make good bouncers). The hastily sketched out business 

What Matt Taibbi Said About Tom Friedman

by dianerav

Matt Taibbi really doesn’t like Tom Friedman. He has written several articles taking Friedman apart, both for his writing and his thinking.
What educators have learned about Friedman is that he has no first-hand knowledge about schools and teaching. Whatever he writes seems to be based on conversations with Bill Gates or Arne Duncan. It’s a shame that a journalist who is so out of touch does not take the time to meet with teachers and principals and students, or take a few days in public schools to learn about their challenges and their accomplishments. Until he does, 

Mitt Romney’s No-Excuses Schooling

by dianerav

Sometimes people complain that Mitt Romney can’t understand today’s schools because he went to an elite private school.
But don’t be too quick to judge.
EduShyster points out that his school had a lot in common with today’s “no-excuses” schools.
Just forget the part about small classes, ample athletic facilities, a gorgeous campus, lots of arts, no 

Diane in the Evening 10-27-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: From One Pro Basketball Player to Another: LINK FIXED! by dianerav Kevin Johnson, who was a basketball star but is now the Mayor of Sacramento (and the husband of Michelle Rhee), recently visited Bridgeport, Connecticut, to urge its citizens to support a mayoral takeover of the public schools. He asked them to end the practice of electing their local school board. This is a big goal of privatizers, as it will remove an obstacle to closing more public schools and turning them over to charter operators. John Bagley wrote an opinion piece answering Kevin Jo... more »

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 10-27-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Do We All Love Teachers? by dianerav This is an excellent article, written by NYC charter school teacher Allison LaFave. It was prompted by Bob Schieffer’s off-hand remark during the last Presidential debate that “We all love teachers.” Do we all love teachers? Why don’t we trust them to manage their classrooms? Why must they be evaluated by Charter Closes, Kids Abandoned by dianerav A charter school in Sacramento abruptly closed its doors, locked out the students, and called it quits. The charter operator sa... more »

 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG 

DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG

Schools Matter: Storm Brewing Over KIPP Re-Vote in Camden

Schools Matter: Storm Brewing Over KIPP Re-Vote in Camden:

Storm Brewing Over KIPP Re-Vote in Camden

by Jim Horn

We posted here in August on the corporate reform school plan for Camden, and we posted here on the School Board's courageous vote to say NO to the KIPP correctional facilities at the center of the Norcross Plan.

Now apparently Norcross and his army of lawyers can't take NO for an answer, and they are planning a meeting whose date and location they would like to keep as closely guarded as possible.

Now the KIPP plan is tentatively planned to be heard again tomorrow at the Camden School Board meeting.  

Please use this list below to call or email Camden school board members to thank them for supporting public education in NJ, rather than the total compliance corporate reform schools that Norcross and KIPP have planned for urban children.


Administration Building
201 North Front Street 8th floor
Camden, New Jersey 08102
(856) 966-2000

Ms. Kathryn Blackshear 
President

Mrs. Martha F. Wilson
Vice President

Mr. Sean M. Brown

Ms. Barbara A. Coscarello

Ms. Sara T. Davis

Mr. Raymond L. Lamboy

Mrs. Felisha Reyes-Morton

Kathryn Ribay

Mr. Brian E. Turner

Daily Kos: If you are an educator thinking of not voting for Obama, you need to read Diane Ravitch

Daily Kos: If you are an educator thinking of not voting for Obama, you need to read Diane Ravitch:

If you are an educator thinking of not voting for Obama, you need to read Diane Ravitch

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

My good friend, Diane Ravitch, has been one of the strongest critics of this administration on educational policy.  Early in its first year, she trained her sharp wit upon the Secretary of Education, describing Arne Duncan as Margaret Spellings (Bush Secretary of Education) in drag.
She has been a constant critic of Race to the Top and the Blue Print on education.
Those who attended my educational panel at Netroots Nation in Providence heard how pointed some of her criticisms can be, and she has served as a key person in organizing opposition to the educational policies of this

Washington Post has Kaine up 51-44

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

as you can read in this just posted story.
The Post notes that Kaine is maintaining his lead while the President's has shrunk, meaning he is now running ahead of the President.
A couple of snips:

The two men have raised nearly $30 million combined, and more than $40 million has been poured into the race by outside groups — the most of any non-presidential race in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — with the majority coming from Allen’s allies.

  And that tsunami of negative ads against Kaine has been wasted.  From April until Kaine went on the air in 

Minor changes in Nate Silvers's numbers

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

which were not posted until after 2 AM, in part because he was traveling
His Nov,. 6 numbers are
overall  73.6%
EV  295.9
Now- cast is
overall 76.8
EV  295.9
State percentages

Most pro charter amendment money coming from outside Georgia. Most against from state educators. Does either worry you? | Get Schooled

Most pro charter amendment money coming from outside Georgia. Most against from state educators. Does either worry you? | Get Schooled:

Most pro charter amendment money coming from outside Georgia. Most against from state educators. Does either worry you?

by Maureen Downey

 Students First of Sacramento, Calif., also gave $250,000.

The AJC has been following the money in the high-powered, high-profile campaign for the charter school amendment, which would give the state the power to overrule local school boards and approve and fund charter schools. Presumably, that would lead to more charter schools in Georgia. Voters will decide the question on Nov. 6.
The AJC reports:

Groups backing the charter schools constitutional amendment have again pulled in far more money than amendment opponents, the most recent campaign filing statements show.  Families for Better Public Schools, which supports the amendment, raised $1.28 million during the filing period that ends 15 days before the election. Families’ haul was 70 times more than the $18,164 the 

American reading habits survey: Was it misinterpreted?:

American reading habits survey: Was it misinterpreted?

Posted by Valerie Strauss on October 28, 2012 at 8:00 am

(Katherine Frey/THE WASHINGTON POST )

The Pew Research Center released a new study on American reading habits reading.  A number of news outlets reported  that it says most young Americans (ages 16-29) are reading a lot and using public libraries. But cognitive scientist Daniel Willinghamsays that these reports have been misleading. He explains why in this post, which appeared on his Science and Education blog. Willingham is a professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His newly published book is “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education.”

By Daniel Willingham

A new survey of American reading habits was published last week. Much of the news coverage led with the somewhat surprising finding that young people (age 16-29), 

A math class video trick for Halloween

by Valerie Strauss

 Here’s a video trick  that Assistant Professor Matthew Weathers  did for his Nature of Math class at Biola University in California. It’s an experiment in video editing and mixing video with live action.
Read full article >>

NEPC Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local ControlSave Our Schools

NEPC Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local ControlSave Our Schools:

NEPC Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control

by Server

Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control

Cautions…Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control

Reference Publication: 
How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education | National Education Policy Center
Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, Ken.Howe@Colorado.edu
Kenneth Howe, (303) 492-7229, Ken.Howe@Colorado.edu
URL for this press release: New Report Cautions Against Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control
BOULDER, CO October 16, 2012 – “Local control” has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its earliest days, but a new report concludes the concept “has all but disappeared” in discussions of education policy.
The report, Democracy Left Behind: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education, by Kenneth Howe and David Meens of the University of Colorado Boulder, examines the impact on democratic ideals of vanishing local control over education. The report examines the making of education policy as well as the decisions about what schools teach and how they teach it.
The report is published today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
In a healthy democracy, schools play a key role in preparing citizens. A healthy democracy also depends on citizens engaged in democratic governance. And since schools sit at the center of most communities, local democratic control over schooling has long been highly valued in the United States.
Howe and Meens describe local control as “the power of communities, made up of individuals bound together by common geography, resources, problems and interests, to collectively determine the policies that govern their 

NYC Educator: Mayor Bloomberg Is Putting Children First Again

NYC Educator: Mayor Bloomberg Is Putting Children First Again:

Mayor Bloomberg Is Putting Children First Again

by NYC Educator

That wacky DOE is at it again. I just got an email from Dennis Walcott saying that emergency workers should report at 8 AM tomorrow. What are emergency workers? Well, emergency workers are pretty much any city employee who volunteered to be one. I got 4 or 5 calls and several emails asking me to be one.

However, at the bottom of the message was this:

At this time, we expect City government and schools to open on Monday. 

So not only are those teachers who volunteered to help expected to do so--they're also expected to report to their regular jobs. That way, apparently, they can be at two places at once. Pretty impressive feat for people 

“TEACHED” Documentaries Offer Glossy Propaganda « InterACT

“TEACHED” Documentaries Offer Glossy Propaganda « InterACT:

“TEACHED” Documentaries Offer Glossy Propaganda

by David B. Cohen

My brochure from the screening of “TEACHED” – included here because it has some text not on their website.

I recently attended a screening of “TEACHED,” a trio of short films marketed as documentaries but in truth, rather superficial looks at three important topics in education.  The screening was organized by some graduate student groups at Stanford, open to the public but mostly attended by grad students in education, law, and business.  According to a brochure I picked up at the screening, TEACHED has as part of its mission to “Analyze the causes and the consequences of the ‘achievement gap’ between students of color and their peers,” but I’m sorry to say that these films offered very little analysis, certainly nothing that would advance a serious 

Video; Election 2012 Goes to School: Obama/Romney Policy DebateSave Our Schools

Video; Election 2012 Goes to School: Obama/Romney Policy DebateSave Our Schools:

Video; Election 2012 Goes to School: Obama/Romney Policy Debate

by Server

Video of Taking the Election to School: Making Education a Focus of the 2012 ElectionPopout

Taking the Election to School:

Exclusive Webcast on edweek.org
Taking the Election to School: Making Education a Focus of the 2012 Election
Education Advisers to Obama and Romney to Debate at Teachers College, Columbia University
The Debaters:
Jon Schnur, co-founder of America Achieves. Previously, Mr. Schnur co-founded and served as CEO of New Leaders for New Schools. He has also served as senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America Education Policy Committee. @BarackObama
Phil Handy, higher education co-chair of Romney’s Education Policy Advisory Group. Mr. Handy is CEO of Strategic Industries; former chairman of the Florida State Board of Education; twice appointed by President George W. Bush as vice chairman of the National Board for Education Sciences; and a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. @MittRomney
Moderator:
Susan H. Fuhrman, President, Teachers College @TeachersCollege

School Tech Connect: How I Vote Now 2012

School Tech Connect: How I Vote Now 2012:

How I Vote Now 2012

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Popout
Go full screen. It's more fun.

Lemme tellya..... early voting is no picnic.

It took two hours. Apparently there was a glitch with the modem, or whatever. They got it fixed, but man that was a lot of standing--- and I had just walked a precinct handing out flyers.

My feet feel someone used them to beat a rug.

This was the most unsatisfying election experience of my life. The President is up 17 points in Illinois, and yet I felt like I couldn't risk voting Green for president because the risk of handing the state to Romney made me 

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Gulen charter school timeline

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Gulen charter school timeline:

Gulen charter school timeline

(Updated 3/12/2012)
Additional schools are added as they appear @ http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/list-of-us-gulen-schools.html 

The largest charter school chain in the U.S. is run by the members of the Gulen movement, a controversial, secretive, religious, and highly nationalistic group out of Turkey that is operating in a manner with no exact precedent. The "movement" simultaneously promotes Islam, Turkey, and GM-affiliated Turkish businesses as it pursues a strategic, power-accumulating geopolitical agenda. To accomplish its goals, the movement conducts a range of activities associated with its schools, interfaith dialog and Turkish culture-promoting organizations, media outlets, and business organizations. Members of the Gulen movement make up only a small portion of the Turkish people, but the group is very powerful there, as well as abroad, because of its unified, tight-knit, and ambitious nature. 

The Gulen movement has been engaging in an aggressive school and organizational global expansion for two decades and opened their first charter school in Ohio in 1999. Today the Gulen charter school network in the U.S. consists of 135 schools in 26 states enrolling approximately 35,000 students. In comparison, the well-known non-profit Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) operates 109 schools in 20 states, and the large for-profit Imagine Schools company operates 75 schools in 12 states.

Gulen charter schools are founded and controlled (finances, hiring and firing, marketing and propaganda, student selection and deselection, business and real estate practices, etc.) by a very tight in-group of board members and administrators, many of whom also practice the Gulenist way by initiating and/or participating in other notoriously Gulenist activities, mainly local interfaith dialog and Turkish culture-promoting organizations. As is true for all of the Gulen movement’s schools around the world, Gulen charter schools are willing to hire 

Teachers union refuses to sign off on LAUSD Race to the Top grant - LA Daily News

Teachers union refuses to sign off on LAUSD Race to the Top grant - LA Daily News:

Teachers union refuses to sign off on LAUSD Race to the Top grant

by By Barbara Jones barbara.jones@dailynews.com, 818-713-3710 Twitter.com/LADNSchools Staff Writer

The Los Angeles teachers union has refused to sign off on Los Angeles Unified's bid for a prestigious Race to the Top grant, costing the district a shot at winning $40 million in federal money, sources said Saturday.

LAUSD had been negotiating for days with United Teachers Los Angeles, in the hope of gaining the endorsement it needed to submit the the Race to the Top application.

Superintendent John Deasy had said he needed the application approved by Friday so there would be make revisions and overnight a finalized copy to the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., by Tuesday's deadline. Sources said talks broke off late Friday, and the district and union had no further contact on Saturday.

Deasy and UTLA President Warren Fletcher could not immediately be reached for comment.

This was the first time the Education Department had opened Race to the Top grants to individual districts, with a total of $400 million to be awarded. Deasy had said he considered the district's application to be ver

Teachers For Social Justice: CTU Rally for Immediate Moratorium on School Closures and Charter Expansion

Teachers For Social Justice: CTU Rally for Immediate Moratorium on School Closures and Charter Expansion:

CTU Rally for Immediate Moratorium on School Closures and Charter Expansion

by sarah-ji

Save our Schools!

Immediate Moratorium on School Closures & Charter Expansion!

Friday, Nov 2nd

4pm Rally/4:30pm Press Conference

City Hall 

LaSalle between Washington & Randolph Streets

CPS plans to close up to 100 schools in our neighborhood while finding cash to open 60 more politically-conected charter schools. Our students deserve small class sizes, more arts, computer technology, and physical education. Join hundreds of parents, educators, and community activists as we tell the mayor to put our students before his political supporters!

For more information, please contact organizing@ctulocal1.com or call 312.329.6227.

Why are the Walton’s spending so much money on charter school Initiative 1240? | Seattle Education

Why are the Walton’s spending so much money on charter school Initiative 1240? | Seattle Education:

'

Why are the Walton’s spending so much money on charter school Initiative 1240?

by seattleducation2011

…and they don’t even live here.

Do they care about us that much? I don’t think so.

The following post on the Walmart 1% website clearly describes what they are doing in our state.

Endangering Public Schools

“Before considering the specific goals and activities of these foundations, it is worth reflecting on the wisdom of allowing education policy to be directed or, one might say, captured by private foundations. There is something fundamentally antidemocratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private 

Let’s Have a Real Discussion about Education Policy | Lefty Parent

Let’s Have a Real Discussion about Education Policy | Lefty Parent:

Let’s Have a Real Discussion about Education Policy

by Cooper Zale

Back in August President Obama gave a speech about education policy at Canyon Springs High School in Las Vegas. Here’s a snippet posted in a blog piece…

Education should not be a Democratic or a Republican issue. It’s an American issue. It’s about what’s best for our kids. And I haven’t just talked the talk, I’ve walked the walk on this. Over the past four years, we’ve broken through the traditional stalemate that used to exist between the left and the right, between conservatives and liberals. We launched a national competition to improve all our schools. We put more money into it, but we also demanded reform. We want teachers to be paid better and treated like the professionals that they are. But we’re also demanding more accountability, including the ability of school districts to replace teachers that aren’t cutting it.

If you unpack this paragraph from his speech there is so much context underneath that bears further discussion and much of which I find particularly frustrating.
First of all, why shouldn’t education be a political issue? Isn’t the whole point of having a democracy to use it to bring a range of thinking to the table and continually find an ever-evolving consensus (or at least a working