ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes:

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures

Posted March 23, 2014

 14 comments

TAGS: ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, for-profit charter schools, school closures

by Félix Pérez

Memphis, Tenn., is no stranger to school closures. The Shelby County School District closed four schools in 2012 and 2013 each. And the district, despite a wave of parent- and clergy-led protests and a petition that generated 6,000 signatures, voted last month to close nine schoolsand combine two others.

TAKE ACTION ›

Sign the petition to tell ALEC to stop cashing in on kids. CLICK HERE ›

At a recent school board meeting, the Rev. Dwight Ray Montgomery said, “If Dr. King were here today, he’d be standing where I’m standing today, unafraid.”

In Newark, N.J., parents and educators are organized and speaking out against a proposal by the state-appointed superintendent to close or consolidate more than a dozen schools.

Last week, special education teacher Marie Blistan, testifying before the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Schools, called the plan “misguided, top-down and illegal.”

The proposal “poses a threat to the very notion of universal public education designed to serve every school-age child in New Jersey,” said Blistan, vice president of the New Jersey Education Association.

Whether in Memphis, Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, or Chicago, communities hit by school closures bemoan the loss of a longstanding neighborhood asset. Residents say school board members and local elected officials give short shrift to displaced students, many of whom have to walk long distances through dangerous neighborhoods to reach their new schools, some of which have poor records on academics, discipline and safety.

In Chicago, where some 100 schools have been closed since 2001 and 88 percent of the affected students were black, students commute to their new schools through gang areas using “safe passage” routes designated by the police department.

Aside from the less-than-anticipated savings realized by school districts and the likelihood that many students are moved to academically underperforming schools, critics of school closures take issue with the influx of out-of-state for-profit charter school companies that benefit financially from distressed communities and siphon money from underfunded public schools. In many instances, these for-profit schools are not accountable to parents or school boards, have mixed records of academic success, and are exempted from many of the standards and requirements with which public schools must comply.

ALEC clears path for for-profit charter companies to cash in after school closures « Education Votes:

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience:

This Will Revolutionize Education

December 3, 2014 | by Justine Alford

 This new technology will revolutionize education” is a phrase that we have heard many times over the last century. The motion picture, radio, educational television, computers and tablet computers have all been heralded as the “next big thing” that could change education forever. While there have been many revolutions in the last 100 years, education has largely remained unchanged; we’re still taught in essentially the same way. And it doesn’t look like that is set to change any time soon. So why has technology not revolutionized education? According to Derek Muller from Veritasium, there’s two reasons: technology is not inherently superior to traditional teaching methods, and learning is a social activity.

Check out this video for more of his thoughts on the subject:

This Will Revolutionize Education | IFLScience:

David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America

David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America:



David Coleman’s plan to ruin education

The architect of Common Core must be stopped

December 5, 2014 2:00AM ET

by Nicholas Tampio   @NTampio

In the summer of 2008, David Coleman changed the course of American education. For decades, reformers had argued that the country needed a national standards-based model of education to ensure economic prosperity. He helped make that a reality by convincing Bill Gates to support the Common Core State Standards initiative, to the tune of over $200 million.

In part because of his experience supervising the writing of the standards, Coleman became the head of the College Board, where his philosophy of education will further shape how U.S. high schools prepare students for college.

He has expressed this vision in an essay published by the College Board, “Cultivating Wonder.” With this document and the early results of the Common Core, it’s easy to see where his grand plans fall short. 

Cultivating wonder

In “Cultivating Wonder,” Coleman unpacks several Common Core standards, shows how students may decipher classic works of literature and reflects on appropriate questions to ask students, revealing the philosophy of the Common Core and the College Board.  

As a professor of political philosophy, I agree that education ought to cultivate wonder. The first book of political philosophy, Plato’s “Republic,” begins with Socrates experiencing wonder at a remark made by one of his interlocutors. Wonder is what compels us to keep investigating a question using every resource at our disposal.

Yet Coleman’s pedagogical vision stifles this kind of wonder by imposing tight restrictions on what may be thought — or at least what may be expressed to earn teacher approval, high grades and good test scores. He expects students to answer questions by merely stringing together key words in the text before them. This does not teach philosophy or thinking; it teaches the practice of rote procedures, conformity and obedience.

The first standard is the foundation of his vision. “Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it,” it reads, and “cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.” According to Coleman, the first standard teaches a rigorous, deductive approach to reading that compels students to extract as much information from the text as possible.

Throughout the document, he reiterates that students need to identify key words in a text. He analyzes passages from “Hamlet,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the Gettysburg Address and an essay by Martha Graham. There is minimal discussion of historical context or outside sources that may make the material come alive. For instance, he suggests that teachers ask students, “What word does Lincoln use most often in the address?” rather than, say, discuss the Civil War. In fact, he disparages this approach. “Great questions make the text the star of the classroom; the most powerful evidence and insight for answering lies within the text or texts being read. Most good questions are text dependent and text specific.” 

A recurrent defense of the Common Core is that the standards are good but the implementation has been bad.

As a professor, of course I demand that my students provide evidence to support their arguments. Coleman’s pedagogical vision, however, does not prepare students for college. He discourages students from making David Coleman’s plan to ruin education | Al Jazeera America:

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week:

'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students

By Arianna Prothero

Fielding phone calls from parents asking about enrollment is part of everyday business for schools, but for some charter schools, the person on the other end of the line may only be posing as a parent.

Modeled after “mystery” or “secret shopper” services used in retail, authorizers in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts are using a similar tactic to make sure the charter schools they oversee are not turning away students with more specialized needs, such as children with disabilities or who are still learning English.

This issue has long dogged the charter sector which nationally, some studies show, enrolls a lower percentage of students with disabilities compared to regular public schools. The discrepancy, some charter critics say, comes from the publicly funded but independently run schools turning away such students in order to improve test scores.

“We started this because there was huge a perception among the public that charters counseled out students with disabilities,” said Naomi R. DeVeaux, the deputy director for the District of Columbia’s public charter school board. “We wanted to know if this was true.”

How it Works

The board started its mystery caller program as a pilot in 2012 and then made it official board policy a year later. Staff members call every charter school in the city pretending to be a parent of a student with disabilities.

—iStockphoto

If the school answers all the questions about the enrollment process correctly, it passes. If the school answers any question inappropriately—for example, if it tells the “parent” that the school across the street is better suited for students with disabilities—the charter board calls back again at a later date. If the school gives a wrong answer twice, it gets a warning. And if it fails to address the problem, its charter could be revoked.

Before calling schools, the charter board’s staff members are handed a scenario and loose script to follow, but are told to come up with a name, age, and current school for their fictional child to customize the script in order to sound more natural. They also use cellphones or a Google Voice account so that the charter board doesn’t pop up on the caller ID of the target school.

“It’s something any authorizer can do and it’s kind of fun,” Ms. DeVeaux said.

And that’s one of the appeals of the mystery-caller program: it’s not a huge resource drain. Calls to the 100 schools that the charter board oversees are split among five staff members. Aside from a cellphone, a script, and the callers themselves, the only other necessary tool is a spreadsheet.

Although the calls are made by a mystery “parent,” the program itself is no secret. The city’s charter schools know the board will be making the calls during the enrollment period in early January. Charter board officials say they’re not trying for “gotcha” moments, but rather teaching moments.

The first year the charter board initiated the program, 10 schools failed. The following year, the number fell to eight, and last year, it dropped further still to two. Those cases, board officials said, had more to do with the schools not understanding the new citywide enrollment system than with anything discriminatory.

For the 2013-14 school year, special education enrollment in the District of Columbia’s charter schools was 12 percent, compared to 14 percent in the city’s traditional public schools.

Growing the Program

The District of Columbia board has been contacted by authorizers from other states asking about the program, including Massachusetts, which started its own pilot version 'Mystery Parents' Test Charters' Enrollment of Spec. Ed., ELL Students - Education Week:

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson:

Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice?

In 2000, Pat McGuigan, the conservative editor of the Daily Oklahoman, visited our high school Government class. This was an exciting time when a bipartisan school improvement coalition, MAPS for KIDS, was sponsoring an ongoing conversation between the full range of community stakeholders and our diverse student bodies.

The class challenged McGuigan regarding that day's editorial in the newspaper on community policing and crime sweeps in their neighborhood, the North Highlands. Pat described crime sweeps as irregular patrols of high-crime neighborhoods. From all over the room, the students retorted, "Yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday in the Highlands."

Pat then explained that sweeps had to be unpredictable or they would not be effective.

"Yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday!"

Pat added, "sweeps could not stop drivers just because of their race because that would be racial profiling..."

"Yeah, they also stop us for just walking!"

Pat shifted gears and listened to the true experts on community policing, crime sweeps, and racial profiling.

In the wake of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, that class discussion speaks to many aspects our society's racial polarization. Pat had always been open to interactions with all types of people, but the cross-generational, cross-cultural conversations of MAPS contributed to the journalist's decision to become a teacher at an alternative school for at-risk students.

Of course, my current students and I have been discussing the Brown and Garner cases in class. By the way, we have done so within the context of mastering our Social Studies Standards of Instruction.

If more adults could confront the anguish of poor children of color who are often seen as alien threats when just living in their home neighborhoods, we might overcome our reluctance to touch the issues of race, class, and segregation. If more adults could experience the joy of sharing a classroom with students who are empowered to question authority, study their history, contribute their insights, and debate the best ways to create equity and justice, I doubt we would have a teacher shortage in the inner city.

As usual, the poet/teacher Jose Luis Vilson, is more eloquent than I in expressing a similar insight. Vilson writes:

If you ever get the opportunity to talk to students who are most disenfranchised by  Can Schools Foster the Conversations Necessary to Create Justice? | John Thompson:

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?:

Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies…

 At the same November meeting that the New York Board of Regents approved Capital Prep Steve Perry’s application to open a charter school in Harlem, they voted to grant a charter to Ted Morris Jr. and the Greater Works Charter School to open a charter school in Rochester, New York.

Days later, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper of Rochester reported that the Greater Works Charter School “will no longer open in Rochester in 2015, part of the continuing fallout over lies in the resume of its 22-year-old founder.”

The newspaper, along with fellow education bloggers led by Mercedes Schneider, have been reporting on the school and its founder, Ted Morris Jr. who  “represented himself to the New York State Education Department as a precocious businessman and educational adviser with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.”

However, it turns out that Ted Morris Jr. has no college degrees at all.

According to the Greater Works Charter School application,

 “Ted [Morris Jr.] is the Lead Applicant for and Founder of GWCS. He is a life-long resident of Rochester, NY. Currently, Ted is an education consultant with the Morris Firm and has previously held positions such as the Director of Operations, Finance, Development, and Assistant CEO with various non-profit youth, education, and human service-related agencies. He has 7+ years of experience in these fields. Ted has a B.S. in Human Services, an M.S.W. in Non-Profit Leadership and is finishing up his Ed.D. in Administration.

But Morris doesn’t have a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree nor is he finishing up his Education Doctorate.

In fact, at age 22, Morris doesn’t even have “7+ years of experience” in the education management field.

But the fact that his resume was obviously falsified and the charter school application was a fraud, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Education and Board of Regents Another Charter School bites the dust….after founder lies… - Wait What?:

Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs

Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs:

COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS

Its been awhile since I’ve written anything. Partially because work has been overwhelming and partially because the education policy landscape in Tennessee and specifically Nashville has been overwhelming. These are some surreal times we are living in. You have the superintendent of Nashville schools retiring in June but acting like he’s going to be here for 10 more years. There’s a plan to turnaround the priority schools by employing a mythical band of turnaround specialists. The superintendent is planning to turn over a priority school to KIPP despite the overwhelming protests of local parents and community members. Last, but certainly not least, you’ve got the traveling comedy troop known as the ASD circling two Nashville schools that have better scores then theirs. Hey, thats one way to raise scores. Let’s see if I can break these down.

Dr Register is coming to the end of his tenure as superintendent of MNPS. I believe his contract expires in June. Now normally that would mean some house cleaning and getting things ready for the next guy or girl. However, even though they’ve ignored these schools for years we have a moral imperative to enact a plan now. I’ve actually heard him use those words. The best though is when he stated “I’m implementing this plan now so that when the next superintendent starts he can hit the ground running. He won’t have to waste time getting up to speed.” That sound you hear is a collective sigh of relief from all the potential candidates for the job.

I imagine that a few were wavering on the job because they might have to come up with a plan of their own, but now that Dr. Register has created one, I’m sure they’re just relishing to enter a job where their hands are tied for the first several years. It’s going to be hard enough as it is this year to find a rock star superintendent. Nashville joins Los Angeles, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Fort Worth, andAlbuquerque in looking for a new director. I may be wrong but I suspect that the highest qualified candidates are not looking at districts where they are going to start off with their hands tied. Nashville is currently known as one of the “it” cities in the country. That should be a huge recruiting benefit but not if whomever accepts has to disengage themselves from a number of short term plans. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to focus on just gathering data, housecleaning and focusing on truly attracting the best candidate here.

Instead we get short sighted plans like the current recruiting pitch to hire 100 teachers in 100 days to focus on the priority schools. They’ve given the teachers a fancy moniker like the “turnaround squad” or something. (http://mnpschildrenfirst.com/2014/10/27/metro-schools-launches-campaign-to-recruit-100-turnaround-teachers/) Now the one thing that this plan gets right is the importance of teachers. Numerous studies show that the most important factor in the quality of a childs education is the quality of the teacher. What they leave out is the sentence “of in school factors”. That changes things a bit.

The whole turnaround concept baffles me. It gives the impression that these schools just happened to take a wrong turn somewhere and now we are going to get them on the right path with out acknowledging any of the challenges that got them there. Which begs the question, when is a school turned around? Is it after 2 years or 5 years or is it when the state takes it off the list and the administrator writes turn around specialist on their resume. I have a novel idea. Why don’t we just make all Dad Gone Wild | Coco for Cocoa Puffs:

If Teachers Were Football Players

The Educational Delusional Scheme | educationalchemy

The Educational Delusional Scheme | educationalchemy:

The Educational Delusional Scheme

A guest post by Dr. Denise Gordon                                  November 22, 2014

I write this short essay to disclose what is happening within my own science classroom, I write to expose the demeaning work environment that I and my fellow colleagues must endure, and I write to give purpose to my years of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge in teaching science for the secondary student. I am not a failure; however, by the Texas STAAR standard assessment test, I am since this past year I had a 32% failure rate from my 8^th grade students in April, 2014. The year before, my students had an 82% passing rate.

What happened in one school year? It does not matter that 2/3 of the student population speaks Spanish in their home. It does not matter their reading capability could be on a 4^th grade level. It does not matter homework never gets turned in and parent phone calls bring little results. What does matter was that my students were required to develop a yearlong research project by stating a problem, thinking of a solution, designing the experimental set up, collecting the required data, and formulating a conclusion. Some of the projects were good enough to enter into the regional science fair. From a selection of thirty-five projects, twenty-four were sent to the regional science fair. Some of these projects won ribbons and a chance to go to the state science fair competition. Five of my students were invited to participate in the elite Broadcom Master Science Competition. No other 8^th grader in my school district achieved this accomplishment. Other yearlong projects involved entering the Future City Competition sponsored by the IEEE. My eighth graders had seven teams to compete and three came back with special awards. Another science competition for secondary students is eCybermission sponsored by the NSTA and the U.S. Army. My only team of girls who competed in this program won first place for the entire southern region of the eCybermission Competition.  Did any of my students get a thank you or congratulations from our school principal or the district about their science achievements? Sadly, the answer is a no. All I got was a call into the principal’s office at the end of the school year for the purpose of being pulled from teaching the 8^th grade for the next school year due to my high failure rate on the state test.  My students and I did receive two thank you letters from two community partnerships. The Potters Water Action Group, represented by Richard Wukich and Steve Carpenter were thankful for our educational brochure that my students helped design for their water filtration project. Krista Dunham, Project Director of Special Olympics in Fort Worth, sent a thank you to my students for donating the soap box derby race money that my students organized and who built three scrap box cars for this worthy affair.

I am now being monitored on a weekly basis within my 6^th grade classes and their posted grades. I am required to have a 15% failure rate. All assignments must be pulled from the district’s online teaching schedule; therefore, no soap box races or water brochures this year. I am not allowed to take any of my students off campus for data collecting. Student project development does not flow well in the district school calendar, so I am being questioned by the principal about my scientific teaching philosophy. Action science with real world data is not on the district’s curriculum website. It does not matter that I have a Ph.D. in curriculum development. I must teach to the test since every three weeks all students will be taking a mandated district test. This means all teachers must review for the test, students take the test, and then we go over the test. That is three days out of fifteen teaching days dedicated to a test every three weeks.

Testing and retesting with documented lesson plans from the scheduled curriculum is what the district wants, but is it what the students need really to enjoy science? Our test scores are posted online and evaluated by the administration. Our performance on these tests weighs heavily into our yearly professional evaluation. I have been placed on a “growth plan” due to the fact that I teach what my students should know rather than what the district has posted. I am somewhat a rebel or just set in my ways; however, this growth plan gives the new principal her leverage to remove me from this school. If I do not meet her standards on the growth plan at the end of the year, then I must be relocated to another school. I teach my students math skills, writing skills, and research skills. I document this growth instead of monitoring their district test scores. I have been ordered to submit weekly announcements to the parent newsletter, but my submissions are deleted by the principal. I have been ordered to attend professional development at the level three tier within our district, but there is no level three offered because level three does not exist. I have been documented that 100% of my students do not understand my lessons when I teach because I use “big” words. The 100% came The Educational Delusional Scheme | educationalchemy:

The Number of Charter Schools Suspending Kids Is Totally out of Control | TakePart

The Number of Charter Schools Suspending Kids Is Totally out of Control | TakePart:

The Number of Charter Schools Suspending Kids Is Totally out of Control

In city after city, charters lead traditional public schools in implementing harsh discipline policies.

November 28, 2014 By Joseph Williams

A veteran journalist and former White House correspondent for Politico, Joseph Williams is a freelance writer, blogger, and essayist in Washington, D.C.

full bio

Created as a creative and more rigorous alternative, charter schools tend to outpace traditional public schools in most areas, including on standardized assessment tests. Yet charter schools also lead their traditional counterparts in a more disturbing trend: the number of students who are suspended or expelled each year.

In Boston, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice released a report this week showing that the city’s charter schools are far more likely to suspend students for infractions such as dress code violations and insubordination toward teachers. The report found that of the 10 Massachusetts school systems with the highest out-of-school suspension rates, nine were charter schools, and most were in the city.

Ditto Chicago, where an analysis of suspension rates issued in February found charter students were more likely to be dismissed than students in district-run schools. One network alone, the Noble Network of Charter Schools, had a suspension rate more than twice that of the city’s traditional public schools.  

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a report issued in September about a similar examination of school discipline found that from 2011 to 2013, charters expelled an average of 225 students per year, compared with just eight students in the traditional school system.  

The disparity has caught the attention of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who warned charters last year that their higher-than-average expulsion rate was “not acceptable.” In a 2013 speech to the National Charters Conference, Duncan challenged charter schools to find “alternative discipline methods” to out-of-school suspensions that keep students engaged while maintaining accountability and order in the classroom.

But public education advocate Jeff Bryant says the disproportionate suspension rates are a symptom of a much deeper problem. Charter schools, he says, are using harsh, zero-tolerance discipline to weed out problem students and boost standardized test scores.

“I think there’s strong evidence from [studies] and anecdotally” that support that theory, said Bryant, director of Education Opportunity Network, a public-school policy center. “Charter schools discriminate and select their students in many different ways,” he added, including out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, to winnow out underachievers.

That’s because of the bargain that charter schools have made with the taxpayers that fund them. In exchange for taxpayer money and the freedom to innovate, charter schools are held to a higher academic standard, particularly on student achievement and assessment tests. But because they’re still public schools, Bryant said, they have to accept any kid who wants to attend.

“Here’s the problem: We’ve set up this system where we determine whether a school is a failure or not by the students’ test scores,” Bryant explained. “When you isolate one variable like that and make everything else contingent on it, you encourage schools to game the system.”

While bringing order and discipline to classrooms, education experts say get-tough school discipline can do more harm than good, leading at-risk students to disengage from their own education, thus feeding the school-to-prison pipeline. Moreover, Education Department statistics indicate minority students—specifically African American boys and girls—are several times more likely to face harsh punishments, such as out-of-school suspensions.  

Though the statistics are troubling, charter school advocates say their expulsion policies have nothing to do with inflating their academic record. Every case is different, they argue, and suspensions of a relative handful of students wouldn’t move the achievement needle very much.

“There [are] some [schools] above and some below the district average,” Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, told the Chicago Tribune in February. “You can’t make the argument that expulsions themselves are causing the overall school The Number of Charter Schools Suspending Kids Is Totally out of Control | TakePart:

10 Of The Most Heavily Armed School Districts In The US HEMLOCK ON THE ROCKS

HEMLOCK ON THE ROCKS:

10 Of The Most Heavily Armed School Districts In The US

PoliticsAndrew Lisa October 22, 2014

On August 12, 2014, video footage emerged out of Ferguson, Missouri: American citizens were facing off against a small-town police department that looked more like an army unit launching a combat mission overseas. Following several days of unrest in the wake of a controversial police shooting, largely peaceful protesters were attacked by officers in military formation, dressed like commandos and armed with fully automatic machine guns. Rotating turrets, mounted on top of enormous armored combat vehicles, fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades at unarmed citizens.

In the ensuing days and weeks, the public would learn about the now-controversial government program that civil libertarians had been clamoring about for years—the US Department of Defense's "Excess Property Program," colloquially referred to as "1033," after the section of the congressional National Defense Authorization Act that made it a reality.

In response to a glut of military surplus—combined with concern surrounding several high-profile school shootings and an increasingly militarized approach to the war on drugs—the Department of Defense gave or sold weapons of war to small, local police departments across the country. Suddenly, tiny police departments with just a few officers were training with fully automatic machine guns, gas masks, night vision equipment, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, and anti-mine vehicles.

But it didn't stop there. School districts, large and small, decided to get in on the action, militarizing their school security teams against the possibility of an "active shooter" situation. Here are 10 of the most war-ready school districts in the nation.

10San Diego, California

Photo credit: KPBS

San Diego is known for pristine beaches, laid-back living, beautiful weather—and a six-wheeled, 18-ton Caiman model Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehiclethat patrols their schools. Valued at nearly $750,000, the San Diego Unified School District snagged the MRAP for a cool $5,000—just the cost of transporting it to its new home.

The acquisition created a stir in the beach community. Residents worried that the monstrous combat machine could give the impression that San Diego was at war with its students. Officials responded by removing the gun turret, painting the vehicle white, embossing it with a red medical cross, and filling it with medical supplies and (obviously) teddy bears. The parent of one student lamented that the beastly machine "makes Humvees shrivel up with feelings of inadequacy." Another parent said they would have rather seen the money spent on more "shade trees" on the playground or maybe "another teacher."

9Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Unified School District acquired an MRAP of its own from the 1033 program. It is steel plated, 6 meters (20 ft) long, and weighs more than 14 tons. It was designed to battle insurgents on the streets of Iraq—specifically in situations where the lead vehicle in a convoy was blown up, leaving troops in the middle of the convoy trapped and under attack by gunfire from an elevated position. The district said the vehicle "was obtained as a way to rescue students in the event of a large-scale attack that prevented the Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff's Department from responding." But for now, the MRAP just sits idle.

Not to be outdone by its southern neighbor in San Diego, however, Los Angeles took campus safety to an explosive new level. The city school district beefed up its "readiness" with the acquisition of 61 assault rifles and—just in case—three 40mm M79 grenade launchers that were originally designed for fighting in the jungles of Vietnam.

8Pinellas County, Florida

Pinellas County scored 28 M16 assault rifles from the 1033 program to use in their schools. Use for what, you ask? The police chief stated that if "something's happening on a campus, you don't want to have to get up close to shoot." Can't argue with that. M16s are military distance rifles touted by the Marines as "pinpoint accurate" even at 550 meters (1,800 ft). M16s can be adapted for semi-automatic firing, fully automatic firing, or firing in three-round bursts.

The .40-caliber semi-automatic pistols the school police formerly had would have required officers to get far too close, which is why the chief had M16s on his wish list before he even found out about the Pentagon's surplus program. At around $1,000 a pop, they were "cost prohibitive." But thanks to 1033, the school police can now shoot from afar for just $50 per gun.

7Granite, Utah

School police in Granite, Utah had been carrying M16s that they got from the 1033 program since 2005—"the same kind that were used in the Vietnam War," according to a Granite School District spokesman. But there weren't enough to go around, and Granite didn't want to have anyone feeling left out. The school district recently acquired 13 additional AR15s through 1033, so that every school officer could have an assault rifle in his or her patrol car.

But if we're going to be fair and equitable enough to arm every officer, we can't very well leave the teachers out, can we? A law in Utah—which allows teachers to carry concealed weapons in public schools without telling anyone—drew controversy recently, when an elementary school teacher accidentally shot herself in the leg while using the bathroom.

6Fulton County, Georgia

Fulton County School District picked up two Humvees from 1033. The gold standard for military transport vehicles, Humvees, or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV), have replaced most functions originally performed by the Jeep. In fact, when the military first began using them in the early 1980s, soldiers initially referred to Humvees as "Jeeps on steroids."

But the district wasn't satisfied with just the Humvees. They also picked up dozens of ponchos, duffel bags, and sleeping bags. Officials didn't comment, so it's uncertain whether they're preparing for a dangerous situation or taking kids on the coolest camping trip ever. This is especially true when you factor in the yard sale–esque 1033 acquisitions from the school district in neighboring Dooly County. The Pentagon gave officials in Dooly wet-weather gear and a whole bunch of cleaning equipment. Not too bad—until you look at the five M14 rifles picked up by the school district in Bibb County, Georgia.

5Florida Universities And Colleges

The 1033 program extends to higher education as well—and in Florida, it extends far and wide.

Florida International University picked up an MRAP and 49 M16 rifles. The University of North Florida got 11 M16s. The University of Central Florida (UCF) received 11 M16s and a grenade launcher, but they converted their grenade launcher to fire tear gas. The UCF actually used its new arsenal in a recent incident in which school officers "had to confront a heavily armed student," according to school officials. The University of South Florida in Tampa got 20 M16 rifles, and the University of Florida got an armored truck.

Florida leads the pack in the number of colleges and universities whose security personnel received 1033 military gear, but the Sunshine State is by no means alone. At least 117 colleges and other institutions of secondary education across the country have gotten in on the action, receiving everything from trousers (Yale) to MRAPs (Ohio State).

4Aledo, Texas

The seven full-time and 11 reserve officers who protect the Aledo School District arebegrudgingly giving back the military rifles they received on loan from the 1033 program. The police chief and security officials there are none too happy about having to return their four AK-type 5.54mm rifles and their single 7.62mm M14. The school district chose not to renew the loan after Ferguson dominated the news.

Aledo officers—like many school officers in Texas—engage in the controversial practice of "student ticketing," issuing Class C misdemeanor citations to students for offenses such as using coarse language or disrupting class. Last year alone, they wrote 20 tickets for using cellphones in a school zone. In one case, a fourth-grader had to stand on a stool to see the judge, while his mother pleaded guilty on his behalf for a school infraction, the fines for which can be as much as $500.

3Edinburg, Texas

Texas is the leader when it comes to school districts participating in the 1033 military surplus bonanza. The Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District equipped an entire "special response team." Officers in the school district's 12-man SWAT unit now carryM4 and AR15 assault rifles, compliments of 1033.

The school district created and armed the specialized attack and infiltration unit in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, which is when many schools began turning to 1033 for heavier weapons. In the wake of Sandy Hook, formerly open campuses are now much less accessible, and at least 33 states have introduced legislation enabling teachers and other school officials to carry weapons. Some schools have invested in "safe rooms" with bulletproof walls, and some have even purchased bulletproof backpacks.

At least 10 school districts in Texas have received armored plating, tactical vests, military vehicles, M14 rifles, automatic pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition from 1033.

2Auburn-Washburn, Kansas

Auburn-Washburn School District in suburban Topeka, Kansas, received some really cool surplus military gear from the 1033 military surplus program. They know what it is, but they're not telling.

Although the district considers it secret "security-related information," officials have agreed to say what their 1033 acquisition isn't, which is a start. Is it a grenade launcher? Getting colder—it isn't a grenade launcher. Is it an MRAP armored vehicle? Getting colder—it isn't an MRAP. Auburn-Washburn agreed only to reveal that their new 1033 gear is "a piece of safety equipment that is part of an emergency operations plan."

Auburn-Washburn School District learned of the 1033 program through a staff member who had a spouse at the Kansas Department of Investigations. From there, new—and apparently top secret—leftover military ordinance was just a phone call or an email away.

1Stockton, California

Back in California, the Stockton Unified School District geared up with a whole bag of goodies from 1033, and officers there are prepared for anything—except, apparently, armed conflict. Among the hardware they received in their $23,588.80 acquisition from the Pentagon are five TV monitors worth just under $10,000, a cardiopulmonary mask package, 10 field packs, an exercise bike, three drug cases, a podium, two communications receivers, and an overhead projector.

Although it is difficult to verify exactly who has received what from the program, the Pentagon insists that a great deal of the surplus hardware they've given away is not related to weaponry at all and is, in fact, much more likely to be mundane. But it is uncertain if that pertains to the vast program in general, which scattered surplus gear across law enforcement agencies and police departments nationwide, or specifically to the 30 or so school districts that have gotten in on the action.

Andrew Lisa is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. Check out more of his work atandrewlisa.wordpress.com.

10 Of The Most Heavily Armed School Districts In The US - Listverse

http://listverse.com/2014/10/22/10-of-the-most-heavily-armed-school-districts-in-the-us/