“Public Schools Shakedown” Website Exposes Privatizers
The forces undermining public education don’t really take the trouble to publicize what they are doing. It is all very quiet and very well funded. And if, in polite conversation, you mention the likes of ALEC—or Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education—or the role of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, people may look at you as though you are spouting conspiracy theories.
But we must summon the courage to mention what is going on, and we need to get ourselves informed enough to be confident about the facts. The Progressive, a Madison, Wisconsin magazine, helps us with a new project this autumn, Public Schools Shakedown. Take a look at the in-depth background resources on this website.
Written by Brendan Fischer, the general counsel for the Center for Media and Democracy,ALEC’s Schoolhouse Rock is one of the best pieces I know about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). This is the secretive organization that pairs corporate lobbyists and state legislators to develop “model” laws that can be introduced in any state legislature. Fischer reports: “at least 139 bills or budget provisions reflecting ALEC education bills have been introduced in forty-three states and the District of Columbia in just the first six months of 2013.” According to Fischer, “ALEC might best be described as a ‘corporate bill mill’ that helps conservative state legislators become a vessel for advancing special interest legislation.” Fischer covers the agenda promoted by ALEC’s bills: vouchers, tuition tax credits for private education, the authorization of charter schools by appointed—not democratically elected—state agencies, parent trigger laws that permit parents through a petition process to take over
The Progressive Magazine is revving up the movement to save our public schools. On this site, we are pulling together education experts, activists, bloggers, and concerned citizens around the country. Read more »
November 13, 2013 - 7:18 am CST
In April 2013, I wrote a post about the inBloom database and Louisiana Superintendent John White’s secret arrangement with inBloom. White’s inBloom arrangement is not the only student data sharing agreement into which White has entered. It is one of many arrangements White has made and about which the public has been kept in the dark.
So much for transparency.
November 13, 2013 - 7:13 am CST
Dear Common Core:
I know I’ve been ignoring you. The truth of the matter is that I’ve never been all that interested in you. In fact, there’s something about you that leaves me feeling, well, just a little bit sleepy. In other words CC—can I call you CC?—the problem isn’t you, it’s me, or at least that’s what your devoted fans are so quick to imply should my opinion shade the slightest bit critical. But I’m starting to wonder if I may have misjudged you, CC. I think we need to talk….
November 13, 2013 - 6:59 am CST
The forces undermining public education don’t really take the trouble to publicize what they are doing. It is all very quiet and very well funded. And if, in polite conversation, you mention the likes of ALEC—or Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education—or the role of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, people may look at you as though you are spouting conspiracy theories.
November 11, 2013 - 9:51 am CST
Poverty is a trap children are born into:
No child has ever chosen to be poor. Children have never caused the poverty that defines their lives, and their education.
Yet, the adults with political, corporate, and educational wealth and power—who demand “no excuses” from schools and teachers serving the new majority of impoverished children in public schools and “grit” from children living in poverty and attending increasingly segregated schools that offer primarily test-prep—embrace a very odd stance themselves: Their “no excuses” and “grit” mottos stand on an excuse that there is nothing they can do about out-of-school factors such as poverty.
November 11, 2013 - 9:44 am CST
Why one young educator rejects Educators 4 Excellence’s corporate agenda and you should too.
November 11, 2013 - 9:27 am CST
The NAEP is a test given across the states every two years. It is used neither to diagnose students’ specific learning needs nor to evaluate any specific child’s performance nor to evaluate teachers or specific schools. Not all schools are tested and not all children who take the test are given the entire test. It is administered across the country as an overall assessment of how America’s public schools are doing.
November 8, 2013 - 8:59 am CST
Diane Ravitch postpones speeches in Chicago and Madison due to illness, will resume schedule soon. Here is her blog about the news:
November 8, 2013 - 8:46 am CST
NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf will address the membership at the NJEA's teachers convention. He is supposed to be taking questions. Perhaps someone will ask him why we NJ teachers are wasting our time with these ridiculous Student Growth Objectives or SGOs (also known as Student Learning Objectives or SLOs). Because there is no evidence that they work:
