OKLAHOMA HD14 - Candidate Profile: Lee Ann Langston (D) | Blue Cereal Education

HD14 - Candidate Profile: Lee Ann Langston (D) | Blue Cereal Education:

HD14 - Candidate Profile: Lee Ann Langston (D) |

Lee Ann Langston - House Distrct 14 - http://www.leeannlangston.com/

There are many fresh faces running for state office this year – it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. That’s a good problem to have. 

While Lee Ann Langston is new to the race to represent House District 14, she’s very much NOT new to holding office, navigating bureaucracy, reconciling diverse needs and viewpoints, or finding creative ways to solve problems and meet needs. In fact, holding state office may be the one thing she HASN’T done in public service to date. 

That’s something we’re hoping to rectify this year. I love the energy and ideals of those new to the world of politics and its complexities – but let’s not ignore how useful it can be to have allies in the mix who have practical experience making things happen in similar circumstances. Lee Ann Langston is just such an ally. 

Langston is a long-time resident of and advocate for Muskogee, where she and her husband of 41 years raised their daughter and continue to fight for their community and the residents thereof.  She has a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Northeastern State University and worked for Muskogee Public Schools as both an elementary teacher and principal. She’s also taught math at Connors State College. 

While that’s an impressive enough resume for anyone, it’s her work beyond the classroom which makes her particularly valuable to #OklaEd. She’s created, led, or served too many programs and organizations to list - enabling low-income youth to find employment, helping dislocated workers secure new positions, giving unemployed or under-employed adults access to education and experience to enable them to better provide for their families, etc. 

She’s secured grants from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education and helped administer the National Emergency Grant (NEG) for those displaced after Hurricane Katrina and the Trade Adjustment Act (TAA) for workers whose employers move out of the country. (As someone who has trouble doing my own taxes, I find this particularly reassuring.)

Langston brought the idea of an “in school” alternative program to Muskogee’s elementary schools – where students who would otherwise have been expelled or suspended were taught in a separate classroom and given ready access to mental health services – before that was a thing schools generally did. It’s an approach that neither ignores discipline problems nor denies underlying issues, but focuses on workable solutions that lead to student accountability AND student success. 

We could attempt this sort of thing more often at a legislative level, if you ask me. 

One of my favorites is a public school/church partnership she developed for Muskogee Schools with First United Methodist, called “First Choice.” They created and maintain an after-school mentoring/tutoring program for students – a wonderful example of how institutions of faith and public schools can work together effectively without trampling on the First Amendment. 

And they didn’t even have to repeal Blaine!

There are other chairs and memberships and committees and such, but let’s just summarize by saying that Lee Ann Langston seems to have a gift for getting things done alone or in groups, in charge or taking orders, working privately or in office. I don’t want to overstate the case, but how many sitting legislators can accurately claim the same?

Still, don’t let her accomplishments or her diplomatic history leave you with the impression she’s some sweet little country school teacher who might be taken off-guard by the roughness of politics. 

I am 66 years young and will not be a career politician. 

When I was a principal, I was not popular with some teachers because I required accountability for the education and safety of students first. Our school was in a highly transient, low socioeconomic neighborhood. I encouraged creativity, active teaching, and wouldn’t accept excuses for why students weren’t achieving. 

I believed then, and still do, that discipline involves teaching, not punishment. Consequences for behaviors should equal the infraction and be based on the individual student and what works best for him/her.

Yes ma’am!

Ms. Langston was kind enough to respond to a few questions about the many issues facing #OklaEd these days.

What – if anything – are you willing to do to reverse the massive cuts to public education in Oklahoma in recent years?  

I am willing to do almost anything to reverse the cuts to public education in Oklahoma.  

We MUST abolish massive incentives to corporations that are wasted when they decide “the grass is greener” (i.e., the profits for THEM are greater) overseas or in another state.  

Private prisons are a scam and need to be eliminated entirely. The primary goal of prison should never be profit. These private prisons provide little, if any, rehabilitation and their profit is based only on the number of inmates they RETAIN. We’re spending more money per prisoner than we are on education per pupil. It’s time to acknowledge that money spent on education is not only better-spent, but lowers the number of prisoners. 

We must demand livable wages for our seasoned, excellent teachers—who often give up tremendous potential financial growth to teach our children.  We must, at the same time, develop stringent standards for teachers who educate our children and hold them accountable so the parents of our children value teachers at the level of professionals in other fields.

How can/should Oklahoma appropriately support public education in times of fiscal crisis? Most of us agree on the problems – what are your ideas regarding solutions?  

We must weigh the benefits of tax incentives for entities subject only to the will of their shareholders against the collective benefits of preparing our children for a regularly changing workforce. Teachers should not have to wake up and read on the front page of their newspapers that their jobs and hundreds (or thousands) of others are being eliminated because stockholders want more profits!

ESAs / Vouchers / “School Choice” have been hot topics recently. Do you support any version of anything falling under these umbrellas, and if so, would you be willing to give us an idea of what that might look like?  

“Magnet Schools” (run correctly) should not be included in this category.  In fact, I have no problem with that concept, again, if done correctly.  

ESAs/Vouchers/”School Choice” should be called what they truly are—public funds redirected into private schools for the wealthy and prejudiced. They are NOT equal, and they cater to upper class families who wish to have tax dollars allocated to private schools. 

The vast majority of taxpayers want, and expect, public education to provide their children with the best education possible. That’s not an unreasonable expectation.  

I’ve done extensive research on vouchers and very few low-income families would be able to afford to utilize them, especially once you factor in the costs of uniforms, books, transportation, extra-curricular activities, etc. 

Some families may believe their children are experiencing a better school when, in fact, their children are viewed as (and sometimes treated as) an obligatory minority, a lower-income child, etc.  Those children often excel in public schools when they have excellent teachers, which should be our goal.

Although somewhat overshadowed by the Voucher Wars, several other ideas have been bandied about as possible solutions to the current under-funding of #OklaEd – consolidation, 4-day school weeks, etc. Are there any ideas out there you believe deserve a closer look in some form or another?   

 Continue Reading About Lee Ann: HD14 - Candidate Profile: Lee Ann Langston (D) | Blue Cereal Education:

Schools Matter: Relay School of Teacher Ed Fakery Now in Nashville

Schools Matter: Relay School of Teacher Ed Fakery Now in Nashville:

Relay School of Teacher Ed Fakery Now in Nashville

Thanks to former Metro Schools chief, Jesse Register, and former mayor, Karl Dean,  a state-approved "partnership" now exists between Metro Schools and the private teacher education sweatshop, Relay Graduate School of Education. 

Relay was created a few years back to train an ongoing supply of indoctrination agents and penal pedagogues in the intellectual and cultural sterilization methods that have made "no excuses" charter schools the social control solution preferred most among white billionaires and their hedge fund managers.

Relay is a program designed to turn would-be teachers into instructional robots, where trainee teachers work with previously programmed mentors to learn how to crank out test scores and compliant behaviors from disadvantaged children.   For its theoretical, conceptual, and practical orientation, such as it is, Relay depends largely upon a single book written by a Harvard MBA, Doug Lemov, who is one of the charter kingpins who started Relay.

If the new trainees cannot extract the target test scores from students that Relay demands, they do not receive their "masters" degree at the end of their training.

Once deemed competent by Relay, however, the young neophyte teacher/programmers are eligible, themselves, to become trainer-professors of new Relay recruits.  And before you know it, the most rabid trainer becomes her own new dean in a new Relay storefront.

Relay's first Dean in Nashville is Linda Mendez Lentz, whose academic preparation is comprised entirely of a Bachelors Degree from the University of Kansas just 8 years ago.  After she and another corporate charter zealot founded a charter school in Schools Matter: Relay School of Teacher Ed Fakery Now in Nashville:

Spending ramps up in race for Washington schools chief | KUOW News and Information

Spending ramps up in race for Washington schools chief | KUOW News and Information:

Spending ramps up in race for Washington schools chief

One of the largest independent expenditures in Washington state elections this year has come in the race for schools chief. 

Listen

Listening...

1:47

The education reform organization Stand for Children's PAC has bought $164,887 worth of mailers for the Erin Jones campaign for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The PAC spent another $12,809 yesterday on last-minute robocalls for Jones's campaign.

On paper, Jones's left-leaning platform appears quite similar to that of her opponent, State Rep. Chris Reykdal, D-Tumwater. Both say they oppose excessive standardized testing, demand much-improved state funding of K-12 schools, and want creative solutions toward closing the opportunity gap for disadvantaged students.

But Stand for Children spokeswoman Deb Jaquith said Jones is uniquely qualified. "She has some well thought-out positions on the issues. She really has a clear grasp of some of the key problems that our education system has," Jaquith said.

Jones said the mailer buy came as a shock. “I found out about it, actually, on Twitter,” she said. “I had no idea anything was coming, and I could not have imagined Spending ramps up in race for Washington schools chief | KUOW News and Information:

Bipartisan group of senators asks Obama to rein in Education Department proposals - The Washington Post

Bipartisan group of senators asks Obama to rein in Education Department proposals - The Washington Post:

Bipartisan group of senators asks Obama to rein in Education Department proposals

A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators is asking President Obama to rein in the Education Department, arguing that the agency is trying to overreach into matters that Congress intended to be decided by states and school districts.

Their objections arise from two key regulations that the Education Department is seeking to finalize before Obama leaves office. One governs how districts allocate billions of dollars for the education of poor children, and the other outlines how states and districts should design systems to judge which schools are failing and how to intervene to help them improve.

The Education Department and its allies in the civil rights movement — as well as some Senate Democrats — have argued that their approach is not only legal, but is necessary to give the nation’s most disadvantaged children a fair shot at getting a quality education. The regulations have nevertheless drawn criticism from a broad, strange-bedfellows alliance of Republicans, teachers unions and groups representing state education chiefs and local school boards and superintendents, who argue that the department is not only overstepping its authority but also proposing policies that threaten to wreak havoc in schools and run counter to the best interests of needy children.

[Obama administration proposes rules for how school districts spend money meant for poor kids]

The 10 senators — including five Republicans, four Democrats and an independent — have now joined that chorus, writing in a one-page letter to Obama that the proposed regulations violate the intent of the new Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the much-reviled No Child Left Behind Act and shifted considerable authority over education from the federal government to the states.

“Most Americans are grateful for the law that Congress, working with you, enacted,” reads the letter, dated Sept. 30. “We urge you to make certain that the Department of Education regulations stay within the statutory text.”

The first signature belongs to Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and has been a frequent critic of the Obama administration’s approach on education. Other signers are Republicans Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.); Democrats Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Joe Manchin III (W.Va) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.); and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment and referred questions to the Education Department. A department spokeswoman did not immediately comment.

[Education Department proposes rules for judging schools]

The letter not only underscores a simmering policy fight whose outcome will affect schools Bipartisan group of senators asks Obama to rein in Education Department proposals - The Washington Post:

Charter School Parents Push For Local School Councils | WBEZ

Charter School Parents Push For Local School Councils | WBEZ:

Charter School Parents Push For Local School Councils

In a small community room at La Villita Community Church in Little Village, a group of seven mothers sat around a table with a pile of candy and a stack of papers, one titled “UNO Schools Ongoing Lack of Transparency.” 

Luz Solarte has children at Omar E. Torres Elementary School and was livid when she found out the UNO Charter School Network, or UCSN, had laid off several parent engagement specialists and graduate support counselors over the summer. 

“They were there to help our children get a better understanding of what to expect in college,” Solarte said. “This is someone that’s telling your child, ‘This is what you need to get up here just like everybody else so you can be up there with the important society.’ So now, they took away all that and what do we have left? The poor class.”

This frustration from parents has grown in recent years as UCSN cut ties with UNO, the longstanding neighborhood organization. “The Divorce,” as parents and teachers now call it, came after a Chicago Sun-Times investigation unearthed patronage spending and financial mismanagement. Many top officials resigned, including Juan Rangel, the man who led both organizations for years and had deep ties to City Hall, serving as co-chair of Rahm Emanuel’s 2011 campaign for mayor. 

The turmoil, coupled with Chicago Public Schools cutting the amount of money it gave to UCSN schools by $2.3 million, has led parents to demand something most public school in Chicago already have: elected local school councils. 

Local school councils are basically mini elected school boards at each school made up of six parents, two community members, two teachers, a non-teacher staff, the principal and a student. All of the traditional, district-run public schools in the city have them, but charter schools are exempt and are instead run by nonprofits with their own board of directors. 

Guillermina Valdez, who has children at Octavio Paz Elementary School, told the Charter School Parents Push For Local School Councils | WBEZ:

 

The Burden On Black Teachers: 'I Don't Belong At Your Table' : NPR Ed : NPR

Black Teachers Interviewed For Report On Teacher Struggles : NPR Ed : NPR:

The Burden On Black Teachers: 'I Don't Belong At Your Table'

Students need many things, from visionary principals to sharp pencils. Somewhere near the top of that list should be these two words:

Black teachers.

As of 2012, 16 percent of public school students were African-American, while just 7 percent of teachers were black. To make matters worse, according to the U.S. Department of Education, black teachers are leaving their classrooms at a higher ratethan any other group.

To better understand the needs of these educators, researchers at The Education Trust, a national nonprofit that advocates for vulnerable students, went on a listening tour, convening focus groups of black teachers across seven states.

"To provide voice to an often unheard group," says Ashley Griffin, interim director of K-12 research at The Education Trust. "We wanted to make sure, if we were trying to recruit teachers, that we understood why they were leaving the workforce."

Of the 150 teachers who participated, most were women (80 percent) and most (76 percent) were in the South. The vast majority — 90 percent — taught in city schools, Black Teachers Interviewed For Report On Teacher Struggles : NPR Ed : NPR:

Karen Lewis at the City Club talks smack about Social Impact Bonds. $34 million to Goldman Sachs. | Fred Klonsky

Karen Lewis at the City Club talks smack about Social Impact Bonds. $34 million to Goldman Sachs. | Fred Klonsky:

Karen Lewis at the City Club talks smack about Social Impact Bonds. $34 million to Goldman Sachs.

CTU President Karen Lewis at Wednesday’s City Club luncheon.

Cleveland and the Cubs were not the only ones hitting home runs on Wednesday.

On the heels of the 70% vote by CTU members approving the new contract with CPS, Karen Lewis spoke at the City Club of Chicago Wednesday afternoon.

“We can’t get a constitutional amendment on the ballot for a progressive income tax, but we can get one that puts funds for roads in a locked box,” she said.

Count on Lewis to say what others won’t say or can’t see.

Take  the issue of Social Impact Bonds.

I have written about this Wall Street scam over and over.

Social Impact Bonds are a program that has CPS pay Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs millions of dollars for every child that does not receive special education services.

Lewis forcefully addressed the problem with SIBS at her Wednesday talk at the City Club luncheon.

You can watch and listen to the entire talk in the Youtube video above.

For a $17 million investment Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Karen Lewis at the City Club talks smack about Social Impact Bonds. $34 million to Goldman Sachs. | Fred Klonsky:

Exclusive: Most important election for civil rights in many years – Cloaking Inequity

Exclusive: Most important election for civil rights in many years – Cloaking Inequity:

Exclusive: Most important election for civil rights in many years

This is the most important election for civil rights in many years. I was in Washington state recently meeting with educators who work on issues of college access and equity and on the way home I decided that I should put together some words about the very high stakes for civil rights in this election since I see that turnout of melllennials and African Americans is down in some close states and there are several percent of voters including some Bernie activists who are not motivated to vote. Since media coverage has been so dominated by scandals and attacks which will not really matter much in our history and there has been so very little serious information about vital issues, I don’t want the election to pass into history without explaining why it is so important and the choice is so dramatic for the future of justice in our society.

We are at a critical point of decision in our society and we have seen the most ugly racist campaign in our lifetimes yet there are people not deciding to vote or to cast a symbolic vote for a third party candidate not thinking that the choice is crucial. Black turnout so far is lagging, many millennial who were supporters of Bernie are thinking about third party votes, and others just don’t see the differences since research has shown there has been extremely little mass media coverage of actual isuses as opposed to polls and scandals.

Since I have spent my entire career studying and working on civil rights issues, I conclude that Hillary Clinton could be the most effective civil rights President in a half century and the election of Donald Trump would be the worst reversal since the election of Woodrow Wilson who resegregated the federal government. Hillary has strongly identified with the two most active civil rights movement now, the Black Lives Matter and the immigrant rights movement and is a committed supporter of the basic nondiscrimination laws and court decisions. Trump has proposed to control the direction of the Supreme Court with appointments on the model of Antonin Scalia, a strong civil rights opponent who sometimes ridiculed civil rights claims while Hillary Clinton has promised to nominate strong progressives. Trump began his career discriminating against minorities wanting to rent his family’s apartments; Hillary as a investigator against discrimination in the South.

In race relations, presidential leadership is very important in creating the climate and incentivizing the direction that attitudes will turn and practices will change. The South, after the Civil War had generation of racial demagogues who continuously reduced rights of minorities and won for governments serving the rich by playing on the racial fears of lower income whites. It produced a terrible politics in which progress became almost impossible and racial subordination permeated society.

When JFK and LBJ called on the country to enact sweeping civil rights laws for the first time since Reconstruction, the laws were enacted, racism Exclusive: Most important election for civil rights in many years – Cloaking Inequity:

Charter School Industry drops $63,000 plus into Connecticut legislative races - Wait What?

Charter School Industry drops $63,000 plus into Connecticut legislative races - Wait What?:

Charter School Industry drops $63,000 plus into Connecticut legislative races

With $30,000 in “Dark Money” from a New York based entity called Real Reform Now Network and thousands more from Connecticut’s deep-pocket charter school players, a political action committee in Connecticut is funneling tens of thousands of dollars into its effort to promote the election of a handful of candidates running for the Connecticut General Assembly.

Charters Care, a political action committee registered with the Connecticut State Elections Committee and tied to the Northeast Charter School Network, was formed in July 2013.  NECN’s Connecticut Director, Jeremiah Grace, serves the PAC’s Chair.

The dark money Real Reform Now Network is also affiliated with the Northeast Charter School Network.  The group’s contact of record is Jill Shahen, who also serves as the Managing Director of the New York based Northeast Charter School Network.

As for the rising role of Dark Money group, the Center for Responsive Politics explains;

Politically active nonprofits – principally 501(c) (4) s and 501(c) (6) s – have become a major force in federal elections over the last three cycles. The term “dark money” is often applied to this category of political spender because these groups do not have to disclose the sources of their funding – though a minority do disclose some or all of their donors, by choice or in response to specific circumstances.

These organizations can receive unlimited corporate, individual, or union contributions that they do not have to make public, and though their political activity is supposed to be limited, the IRS – which has jurisdiction over these groups – by and large has done little to Charter School Industry drops $63,000 plus into Connecticut legislative races - Wait What?:

Instead of Building More Charter Schools for the Few, Improve Public Education for All | janresseger

Instead of Building More Charter Schools for the Few, Improve Public Education for All | janresseger:

Instead of Building More Charter Schools for the Few, Improve Public Education for All

Roland S. Martin is a journalist and the host and managing editor of TV One’s News One Now. For years he has promoted market-based school choice. He recently moderated a town hall, “Is School Choice the Black Choice?” at Howard University. All the while Martin has been promoting school choice, Dr. John Jackson and the Schott Foundation for Public Education (of which John Jackson is the President and CEO) have instead made the case for closing opportunity gaps in the public schools as the responsibility of a just society.  Here in a short, two-minute video from the Howard University town hall, is John Jackson, challenging Martin’s “false narrative” that public schools have failed the African American community. I urge you to watch the short video.

The town hall at Howard University followed the adoption last month of a resolution by the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, demanding investment in improving the public schools that serve the majority of children in our nation’s poorest schools and a moratorium on the expansion of charters until:

• “Charter schools are subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools.
• “Public funds are not diverted to charter schools at the expense of the public school system.
• “Charter schools cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate.
• “(Charter schools) cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.”

Back in 2011, John Jackson was part of another panel moderated by Roland Martin. On that Instead of Building More Charter Schools for the Few, Improve Public Education for All | janresseger

 

Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!

Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!:

Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador

In a study a colleague of mine recently sent me, authors of a study recently released in The Quarterly Journal of Economics and titled “Teacher Quality and Learning Outcomes in Kindergarten,” (nearly randomly) assigned two cohorts of more than 24,000 kindergarten students to teachers to examine whether, indeed and once again, teacher behaviors are related to growth in students’ test scores over time (i.e., value-added).

To assess this, researchers administered 12 tests to the Kindergarteners (I know) at the beginning and end of the year in mathematics and language arts (although apparently the 12 posttests only took 30-40 minutes to complete, which is a content validity and coverage issue in and of itself, p. 1424). They also assessed something they called the executive function (EF), and that they defined as children’s inhibitory control, working memory, capacity to pay attention, and cognitive flexibility, all of which they argue to be related to “Volumetric measures of prefrontal cortex size [when] predict[ed]” (p. 1424). This, along with the fact that teachers’ IQs were also measured (using the Spanish-speaking version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) speaks directly to the researchers’ background theory and approach (e.g., recall our world’s history with craniometry, aptly captured in one of my favorite books — Stephen J. Gould’s best selling “The Mismeasure of Man”). Teachers were also observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), and parents were also solicited for their opinions about their children’s’ teachers (see other measures collected p. 1417-1418).

What should by now be some familiar names (e.g., Raj Chetty, Thomas Kane) served as collaborators on the study. Likewise, their works and the works of other likely familiar scholars and notorious value-added supporters (e.g., Eric Hanushek, Jonah Rockoff) are also cited throughout in support as evidence of “substantial research” (p. 1416) in support of value-added models (VAMs). Of course, this is unfortunate but important to point out in that this is an indicator of “researcher bias” in and of itself. For example, one of the authors’ findings really should come at no surprise: “Our results…complement estimates from [Thomas Kane’s Bill & Melinda Gates Measures of Effective Teaching] MET project” Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!:

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core: Victim of Inadequate PR?

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core: Victim of Inadequate PR?:

Common Core: Victim of Inadequate PR?

We've often heard that poor old Common Core was a swell thing that fell victim to bad implementation. But over at EdSource yesterday, Pat Reilly identified a different culprit.

Messages, backed up with data and brought to life through emotive language, are fundamental to changing minds in the 21st century. Yet too often, education advocacy is stopped in its tracks because critical concepts aren’t delivered with a strong message, leaving them misunderstood at best and politicized at worse.

See where we're headed? Common Core was the victim of poorly done PR.

A phrase meaningless on its own, Common Core became an easy target for misinformation because no one invested resources to determine the best terminology to bring the Common Core’s important purpose to life.

Well, hey. That's just.... not entirely wrong.

Contrast the Core with No Child Left Behind, a combination program title and marketing slogan that encompassed a whole mass of policies and rules under a single roof that was short, pithy, and pre-empted disagreement (Oh, you don't like this. So tell us-- which children exactly do you intend to leave behind?).

But what the heck was Common Core, ever? It was presented as standards, but described (every state will be on the same page) like curricular scope and sequence. It would come hand in hand with tests to show that everyone was on point, right up until the point that tests turned into a kryptonite tar baby and everyone scrambled to claim the tests and the Core were two different things. Maybe, CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core: Victim of Inadequate PR?:

Private school vouchers will hurt needy students | The Daily Texan

Private school vouchers will hurt needy students | The Daily Texan:

Private school vouchers will hurt needy students

It’s no secret that there is an imbalance among Texas public school students in which the quality of their education depends on their ZIP code. Instead of addressing this, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced last month that in the next legislative session he would prioritize pushing private school vouchers — an alternative to public schools where taxpayer’s money would be set aside for families to use at a private school of their choice.

According to the Texas Tribune, Patrick addressed the critics of school choice by stating, “People who oppose school choice, in my view, oppose the poorest in our state, the most underprivileged in our state, because we’re holding them back from education opportunities.”

Using Patrick’s neoliberal logic, school choice would create competition where eventually the poorly-performing schools would shut down due to low attendance, which would increase the amount of better performing schools until bad schools can no longer exist because they are not economically sustainable. Thus, the imbalance between minority and privileged students would vanish without the government playing a role in education.

Patrick and other advocates of school choice are framing their defense around a savior complex to help minority students when in reality the school choice debate is only another battleground in the power struggle between governmental and private institutions. Sprinkled all over the scholarship that advocates school choice, freedom is their keyword and the ultimate goal. It is the freedom to allow parents to choose which education is right for their children. It is the freedom to have an educational model that aligns with your religious affiliation. It is the freedom to treat education like a commodity in a free-market economy.

However, treating education under a free market model is a careless mistake which would have a laundry list of consequences. Most importantly, it risks widening the achievement gap among minority students when it comes to college enrollment.

Under a deregulated system, private schools are able to teach or withhold information as they see fit. For secondary schools, this could pose a substantial problem if students are preparing for college when they lack the proper foundation to succeed. Our current college admission system assumes that the students have either the same, or very similar, educational backgrounds. School choice programs could disrupt this balance and if minority students are the ones benefiting the most from private school vouchers, they could fall farther behind than they already are.

Additionally, education senior Margaret Hopper argues that school choice programs would shift the allocation of public funds away Private school vouchers will hurt needy students | The Daily Texan:

This Governor Wants to Take Over ‘Failing’ Public Schools and Turn Them Into Charters | The Nation

This Governor Wants to Take Over ‘Failing’ Public Schools and Turn Them Into Charters | The Nation:

This Governor Wants to Take Over ‘Failing’ Public Schools and Turn Them Into Charters

These activists are telling Georgia’s Nathan Deal: That’s not how it works.

Melissa Ladd never imagined she would sue the Governor of Georgia. The fifth-grade public-school teacher from Coweta County describes herself as a conservative Republican who agrees with Governor Nathan Deal on most issues. But now Deal is pushing a plan to wrest control of “failing” schools across the state from their local boards of education using a model based on Louisiana’s Recovery School District (RSD), which turned a majority of the public schools in New Orleans to charters.

“It’s going to hurt the kids that Nathan Deal promises it will help, kids without resources,” Ladd said of the plan, which appears on Georgia’s 2016 ballot as Amendment One. If passed, the measure would amend the state’s constitution to allow for the creation of a state-run “Opportunity School District” (OSD), helmed by a gubernatorial appointee. This person would have the unilateral power to take over 20 “failing” public schools per year and close, directly operate, co-operate with school boards, or turn them over to charter operators.

The state of Georgia has made it clear it intends to pursue the charter option. A recent Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) grant application seeking federal funding for charter schools bluntly stated that the OSD “aims to take 20 of the lowest performing traditional public schools and make them charter schools.” It added that the department has a plan to “attract education service providers,” referring to the franchise-like charter management companies that typically operate for profit.

Ladd saw firsthand what for-profit charter management looked like when the state authorized a charter school in the district where she teaches. From high teacher turnover stemming from miserable pay, to pedagogy that’s “scripted,” to white flight that has drained her school of resources, Ladd says the charter company that operates the school is little more than a “money-maker” that’s deepening educational disparity in the district. She also says the language of Amendment One—it cheerfully proposes to “fix failing schools through increasing community involvement”—deceives voters and obscures the real impact of the measure. It was on those grounds that she decided to sue the governor and other state officials.

Ladd is joined by two other plaintiffs—a parent and a minister—in her lawsuit, which will be heard in court after the election and could nullify the vote. But it might be opposition from outside of the courts that stops Amendment One. Keep Georgia Schools Local, a broad coalition of parents, teachers, and education activists—whose collaboration cuts across race, class, and party lines—has come together to fight the measure. They say the plan would import a model that has failed students and enriched private interests in New Orleans and elsewhere, all while using local resources without local input. And though they’re up against some of the biggest names in education reform, they might just win.

While there’s a decade-worth of documentation outlining the perilous impacts of Louisiana’s RSD—from gutting teacher’s rights to creating a feeding frenzy for consultants, education entrepreneurs, and other opportunists to capitalize on public education, with negligible academic results—there has been scant attention focused on how the takeover district model has spread in recent years. Several of the RSD’s architects have traveled the country, proselytizing the “New Orleans miracle” to state legislators. Tennessee and Michigan adopted the model in 2010 and 2011 respectively, and Nevada and North Carolina followed suit more recently.

Georgia has been on this path since 2008, when lawmakers created a State Charter School Commission that could overrule local school boards to This Governor Wants to Take Over ‘Failing’ Public Schools and Turn Them Into Charters | The Nation:

Nathan Deal and the longest corruption scandal in Georgia history - http://bettergeorgia.org/2014/10/22/nathan-deal-and-the-longest-corruption-scandal-in-georgia-history/