Betsy DeVos is Publicly Polite, but a Political Fighter - The New York Times

Betsy DeVos is Publicly Polite, but a Political Fighter - The New York Times:

Betsy DeVos is Publicly Polite, but a Political Fighter

Hours before President Trump rescinded a federal policy allowing transgender students to use the school bathrooms that match their gender identities, his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, met with a representative of gay and transgender employees at the Education Department to warn of what was coming.

In her presence, an aide assured the employee that, as was widely reported, Ms. DeVos had resisted the move, according to people briefed on the Wednesday meeting. Yet she gave no public sign that there had been a rift within the Trump administration, or that she had come up short. She joined in the announcement of the new policy, and on Thursday, she told the annual Conservative Political Action Conference that the earlier federal guidelines were “a very huge example of the Obama administration’s overreach.”

But people who have known and watched Ms. DeVos through the years — as a leading advocate of charter schools and school vouchers, a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman and a major Republican donor — warn against thinking that she will be a meek team player. She may be publicly gracious, even in the face of setbacks, they say. But in her home state, she earned a reputation as a driven, relentless and effective political fighter, using her family’s vast fortune to reward allies and punish foes, and working behind the scenes to pass legislation and unseat lawmakers who opposed her.

“In Michigan politics, she instilled fear in a lot of people, and it’s not just because she’s a billionaire,” said Mike Cox, a Republican and former state attorney general. “I found Betsy to be very determined, steely, when she sets her mind on a goal.”

Ms. DeVos, who declined to be interviewed for this article, arrived in Washington with no experience inside government and very little history with the president, and she took over a department whose upper ranks are mostly vacant. In the argument over transgender bathroom access, that put her at a disadvantage against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former senator with decades of Washington experience and connections who has long had Mr. Trump’s ear.

But critics and admirers alike say they expect her to learn the ropes, build Betsy DeVos is Publicly Polite, but a Political Fighter - The New York Times:

Washington Charter Schools Back on Trial - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

Washington Charter Schools Back on Trial

Two years ago, in League of Women Voters v. State, the Washington Supreme Court declared the state's charter school law unconstitutional.  The court reasoned that the state constitution requires the state to create and fund “a general and uniform system of public schools," and “the entire revenue derived from the common school fund and the state tax for common schools shall be exclusively applied to the support of the common schools.”  Because charters schools are not "common schools" and yet receive common school funds, the court found the statute unconstitutional.

The Washington legislature has since passed new charter school legislation and plaintiffs sued again.  Last week, a Washington trial court rejected their claims.

Plaintiffs raise very similar claims as in the first litigation: a) that the statute violates the constitutions general and uniform requirement (along with its funding scheme); b) that the charter law improperly delegates the authority to charter schools and deprives the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s of power.

The King County Superior Court concluded that charter schools can fall within the "the general and uniform system of public schools" and, thus, the act was permissible.  The court's support for this conclusion was largely premised on the notion that charters are public schools and credits from them are transferable to traditional public schools.  

This, however, should be largely beside the point.  It may answer the question of whether charters are public schools, but it does not answer whether they common schools or part of a general and uniform system.  To be fair, Education Law Prof Blog:

Gov. Brownback Vetoes Legislature’s Tax Increase Fix for Kansas Budget and School Funding Crisis | janresseger

Gov. Brownback Vetoes Legislature’s Tax Increase Fix for Kansas Budget and School Funding Crisis | janresseger:

Gov. Brownback Vetoes Legislature’s Tax Increase Fix for Kansas Budget and School Funding Crisis

Yikes!  Sam Brownback, the governor of Kansas, just vetoed a budget into which the Kansas legislature had inserted a two-year, billion dollar income tax increase, which legislators had proposed as the way to avert fiscal catastrophe. The school funding system had been found unconstitutional by the state’s supreme court and was saved last June only by a stop-gap remedy. And the state has been experiencing a fiscal emergency for years.

Governor Sam Brownback slashed the state income tax in 2012 and 2013 and made other changes to the tax code that have reduced the state’s revenue.  He predicted the state’s economy would grow (and produce more revenue) as a result of his tax reform, but growth has not happened as he predicted.  Every quarter, tax receipts have been coming in far under what was projected. The state has been enduring a budget crisis for several years.

Taxation at the state level is definitely a public education issue that has consequences for things like class size and student-to-counselor ratios. After all, public schools are always among the biggest lines in every state’s budget. Massive tax cutting always hurts public schools, and Kansas is a primary example. Last May the state’s supreme court threatened to block the opening of school in September of 2016 if the state didn’t do something about the funding. In June, the legislature convened a special session to come up with a stop-gap remedy and keep schools open. After the short-term remedy passed, John Hanna of the Associated Press explained: “Kansas is bracing for more contentious legal and political fights over education funding even after legislators approved a narrow, short-term fix to satisfy a court mandate and avoid a threatened shutdown of the state’s public schools. Having directed lawmakers to make education funding fairer to poor areas, the Kansas Supreme Court will next consider the larger issue of whether the state spends enough overall on its schools.”

In the November election, the voters of Kansas reelected four members of the state’s supreme court who had been targeted because these justices had found the school funding system unconstitutional. The public has also begun to respond by replacing the tax slashers in the legislature, but not fast enough. In November two dozen far-right, tax slashing legislators were thrown out by voters. This created a more moderate legislature. While the legislature Gov. Brownback Vetoes Legislature’s Tax Increase Fix for Kansas Budget and School Funding Crisis | janresseger:

Turtle Learning: FEBRUARY IS AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH: CHARLOTTA BASS AND THELMA DALE PERKINS

Turtle Learning: FEBRUARY IS AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH: CHARLOTTA BASS AND THELMA DALE PERKINS:

FEBRUARY IS AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH: CHARLOTTA BASS AND THELMA DALE PERKINS

CHARLOTTA BASS AND THELMA DALE PERKINS

Thelma Dale Perkins

   Continuing my favorite month (my birthday month) I want to share a bit about the lives of two unknowns, Charlotta Bass and Thelma Dale Perkins.  In particular, the latter was a quiet presence in the history of the struggle for civil rights and women's rights and more.  I want to state at the beginning that I know about both of them because my father worked with them, and I believe they shared mutual respect.  I know he held them both in high regard.

   Charlotta Bass  - perhaps the best photo of her is this one:

   She was the first African American woman to own a newspaper in Los Angeles. She ran for Vice President on the Progressive Party ticket.  She was courageous, outspoken, and so much more.  My father wrote speeches for her and accompanied her around the United States as she stumped for office.   Charlotta Bass 1874 - 1969 published The California Eagle from 1912 to 1951.  "She and her husband Joseph Bass, who had served as editor of the Topeka Plain Dealer and the Montana Plain Dealer used The Eagle to push for reforms. They combatted such issues as the derogatory images rampant in D.W. Griffith's film, Birth of A Nation; Los Angeles' discriminatory hiring practices; the Klu Klux Klan; police brutality; and restrictive housing covenants.  

"Bass' uncompromising stance against racial injustice resulted in her life being threatened on numerous occasions. She was branded a communist, and the FBI placed her under surveillance on the charge that her paper was seditious. However, this never deterred her or her paper from seeking civil and political rights for African Americans and the disadvantaged. 

"Bass retired from the newspaper business in 1951. Her later years were devoted to politics. In 1952 she became the first African-American woman to run for national Turtle Learning: FEBRUARY IS AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH: CHARLOTTA BASS AND THELMA DALE PERKINS:

Trump And DeVos Have A Deceptive Scheme To Push School Vouchers

Trump And DeVos Have A Deceptive Scheme To Push School Vouchers:

Trump And DeVos Have A Deceptive Scheme To Push School Vouchers

Since President Trump picked Betsy DeVos to be his new U.S. Secretary of Education, there’s been lots of speculation in the media that his administration, with his secretary out front, would push for a school voucher program that would allow families to withdraw their children from public schools and receive a sum of money they could use to pay for tuition to send their kids to private schools, even ones that are religion based.

Others scoffed at that notion, arguing that getting a voucher program passed through Congress would be too difficult.

But if new reports out this week are credible, and they appear to be, a school voucher program is indeed on the president’s agenda – only it’s not being called that. There are reasons for the deception, and it’s important for progressives to understand how to frame Trump’s scheme before the public debate starts.

As Poltico reports, “The Trump administration is considering a first-of-its-kind federal tax credit scholarship program that would channel billions of dollars to families from working-class households to enable their children to attend private schools, including religious schools.”

What is a tax credit program for education, and why is it just another name for vouchers?

As Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa explains, “Tax-credit scholarships allow individuals and corporations to claim a tax credit of some kind, in exchange for a donation to an organization that provides scholarships to children. So, unlike vouchers, they don’t involve the government directly Trump And DeVos Have A Deceptive Scheme To Push School Vouchers:

Full Transcript of Betsy DeVos’ CPAC Interview with Kayleigh McEnany | deutsch29

Full Transcript of Betsy DeVos’ CPAC Interview with Kayleigh McEnany | deutsch29:

Full Transcript of Betsy DeVos’ CPAC Interview with Kayleigh McEnany

On February 22, 2017, US ed sec Betsy DeVos participated in an interview with journalist and Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany, for the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC).

Below is the full video followed by the full transcript of that interview (approx 9 minutes):

KM: Hi, Madam Secretary. It’s so great to be here with you.

BD: It’s great to be here with you, Kayleigh.

KM: now, let’s hear you guys if you could not be more excited about President Trump’s pick for secretary of education.

[applause]

KM: You are a phenomenal pick, and you have spent 30 years working on these issues that are so important to children, protecting our future, protecting children of all races, of all identities, is crucial, and you are doing that, and you have a history of doing that, and I couldn’t be more excited for what you have planned for the Department.

BD: Thank you. It’s an honor.

KM: It is. And on that note, a lot of news has been made in the last 24 hours. President Trump rescinded the Obama guidelines on transgender, and [applause] and let’s be very clear why he did that. President Obama acted lawlessly. He promised us that he would use his pen and his phone to circumvent Congress. He did so repeatedly, including with these guidelines that reinterpreted federal statute. So, you put out a letter afterwards basically saying that you want to protect all children, all students, and I wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify what you meant and state what you meant in the ethos of that letter.

BD: Sure. Thank you, Kayleigh. Well, I think the statement spoke to it, for itself to a large extent. But let me just say that this issue was a very huge example of the Obama administration’s overreach to suggest a one-size-fits-all, federal government approach, top-down approach to issues that are best dealt with and solved at a personal level and a local level. And I have made clear from the moment I’ve been in this job that it’s our, it’s our job to protect students, and to do that to the fullest extent that we can, and also to provide students, parents’ and teachers with more flexibility around how education is delivered and how education is experienced, and to protect and preserve personal freedoms.

KM: Absolutely. And on that note, talking about the states and empowering the parents, we as conservatives in this room fully believe that the states are the appropriate, robust actors in the field of education. We want parents to be empowered, and part of that is empowering the states. So, with that said, 

Full Transcript of Betsy DeVos’ CPAC Interview with Kayleigh McEnany | deutsch29:

NPE board member Julian Vasquez Heilig to participate in IQ2US debate - Network For Public Education

NPE board member Julian Vasquez Heilig to participate in IQ2US debate - Network For Public Education:

NPE board member Julian Vasquez Heilig to participate in IQ2US debate

Charter Schools Are Overrated

In the 25 years since Minnesota passed the first charter school law, these publicly funded but privately operated schools have become a highly sought-after alternative to traditional public education, particularly for underserved students in urban areas. Between 2004 and 2014 alone, charter school enrollment increased from less than 1 million to 2.5 million students. Many charter schools boast of high test scores, strict academic expectations, and high graduation rates, and for some, their growth is evidence of their success. But have these schools lived up to their promise? Opponents argue that charters, which are subject to fewer regulations and less oversight, lack accountability, take much-needed resources from public schools, and pick and choose their student body.  Are charter schools overrated?

The Debaters

For the motion

Gary Miron

Professor, College of Education, Western Michigan University

Gary Miron is Professor in Evaluation, Measurement, and Research at Western Michigan University.  He has extensive experience evaluating school… Read More

Julian Vasquez Heilig

Professor, Sacramento State & Founding Board Member, Network for Public Education

Julian Vasquez Heilig is an award-winning teacher, researcher, and blogger. He is currently a professor of educational leadership and policy studies… Read More

Against the motion

Jeanne Allen

Founder & CEO, The Center for Education Reform

Jeanne Allen has been on the front lines of education policy development and innovation for more than 30 years. She served for five years at the Department… Read More

Gerard Robinson

Resident Fellow, AEI & Former Florida Commissioner of Education

Gerard Robinson is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on education policy issues including choice in public and… Read More

 NPE board member Julian Vasquez Heilig to participate in IQ2US debate - Network For Public Education:

PAA’s letter to the Maryland legislature on screen time safety | Parents Across America

PAA’s letter to the Maryland legislature on screen time safety | Parents Across America:

Parents Across America supports

Maryland HB866  and SB1089

National parent group has prepared extensive materials about the harmful effects

on children’s academic, intellectual, emotional, physical and social development

when digital devices are misused and overused

February 21, 2017

The national parent group, Parents Across America (PAA), strongly endorses legislative proposals being considered by the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee that would provide some guidelines for the safe use of digital devices in the classroom.

In August, 2016, PAA released a position paper and a series of reports, including a 35-page background paper, detailing some of the many threats to children’s health and well-being, parental control, family privacy, and the quality of teaching and learning by this latest effort of corporate reformers to profit from our children’s education and undermine democratic public schooling. This high-pressure “EdTech” movement has brought a mishmash of digital devices and online and other pre-packaged programs into our schools, where they are promoted as “personalized,” “competency-based,” “student-centered,” or “self-directed” learning.

What PAA found out about the EdTech push alarmed the group, and should alarm any parent. First of all, there is actually very little research addressing the many news ways that EdTech is being used in our schools — our children are truly being used as guinea pigs. What we do know about children and screen time is based in part on new studies and in part on previous research into children’s use of television, video games and computers, which can help us anticipate some of EdTech’s health effects. And EdTech’s teaching and learning track record is not positive. Yet corporate reformers and the new federal education law, the Every Child Succeeds Act, or ESSA, are investing heavily in EdTech and increasingly pressuring its widespread use.

PAA is not against the appropriate use of technology in schools. Just as the group opposes standardized test misuse and not the tests themselves, they challenge technology use that reduces schooling to a data-mining computer game, and not technology itself. We know that our children need to master technology, and we acknowledge that parents must work harder to monitor their children’s use of technology at home. But we also strongly feel that schools, school districts and states must become far more cautious, diligent, transparent and accountable about their technology decisions.

We have prepared a set of informational materials for parents covering PAA’s specific concerns about EdTech’s:

• harmful effects on children’s mental and emotional development,
• negative impact on student intellectual and academic growth,
• damaging physical effects,
• depersonalization and other ways of undermining the educational process,
• questionable value and effectiveness,
• continuous testing of students, often without obtaining consent from or even informing students or parents,
• threats to student data privacy, and
• hugely lucrative benefits for private companies.

Parents must be alerted to these potential risks, and be prepared to challenge and, if necessary, opt out of school-based technology that may be harmful to our children.

Based on these and other concerns, we call on legislators and education policy makers to consider our list of recommendations found at http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/EdTechRecs8-20-16.pdf.

We applaud the Maryland lawmakers who have responded quickly and appropriately to this critical situation, and will share their work across our networks, hoping that other states will follow Maryland’s lead in protecting children from the many very real threats of EdTech.

Please see our documentation paper (http://tinyurl.com/edtechdocu) and reports (http://tinyurl.com/PAAEdTechreports) for more detailed information, references and background.

PAA’s letter to the Maryland legislature on screen time safety | Parents Across America:

The Real Carpetbaggers in LAUSD’s District 2

The Real Carpetbaggers in LAUSD’s District 2:

The Real Carpetbaggers in LAUSD’s District 2

Carpetbagger: A person from the northern states who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction.”

If the picture on the front of the latest Monica Garcia flyer to hit your mailbox looks familiar, it is because it was the same one that the California Charter School Association (CCSA) used in its unethical campaign against Bennett Kayser. However, this time instead of falsely accusing Kayser of trying to stop Latino children from attending schools in white neighborhoods, they are claiming that “every child deserves the same level of educational funding no matter who they are or where they live.” (emphasis mine) This is just the latest example of how the CCSA and their pawn Garcia really do not care about reducing the achievement gap for the students of District 2.

As much as the CCSA likes to blame poor results on tenured teachers, they ignore the “evident correlation” that exists “between high free and reduced lunch populations and lower scores on standardized tests”. Contrary to the CCSA’s assertion, students from these areas do not need “the same level of educational funding”; they need more! Instead of wasting scarce educational dollars on charters that enrich their administrators, students in District 2 need programs that specifically target the effects of poverty so that they have the same chance of upward mobility. Diverting money to failing charters further reduces opportunities for our students, but the CCSA still fights to keep them open.  Do they care at all about the students in District 2?

In District 4, CCSA affiliated groups are using $1 million of Dick Riordan’s money to convince voters that Steve Zimmer is unfit for re-election, claiming that he orchestrated the $1.3 billion iPad scandal and protected child molesters. As a member of the Board when these events occurred, it is fair for them to question Zimmer’s involvement. However, to do so fairly, ALL Board members, including Monica Garcia, must The Real Carpetbaggers in LAUSD’s District 2:

Let's Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE! | BustED Pencils

Let's Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE! | BustED Pencils:

Let’s Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE!

Two weeks ago The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in partnership with a host of other groups (Leadership Group on School Staffing Challenges) released proposed changes to teacher licensing in the state of Wisconsin.  The leadership group cited the teacher shortage, enrollment declines in teacher education, and school administrators’ need for flexibility when placing teachers in different grade levels and subject specific content areas.

However, other than creating some flexibility for administrators, the proposed changes do little to address the teacher shortage and will likely increase inequities across the state by promoting “fast track” teacher education and an emergency licensing system lacking any incentives that promote full licensure.

More specifically the proposed changes ignore the EXODUS of teachers across the state and the nation and the plummeting enrollment in teacher education programs.

Early this week I had a meeting with a school principal. I asked what he thought about the proposed changes.  He said he liked the idea of more flexibility in placing teachers across different grade levels but went on to comment that the changes won’t help issues of teacher morale that are pushing teachers to leave the profession.

And that’s the key issue.  While general flexibility and a common sense approach to licensing makes sense, the idea that these changes are related to the teacher “shortage” is problematic.  The proposed changes ignore the root of why teachers are leaving and why Let's Change Teacher Licensure to Address the Teacher Shortage: FAILURE! | BustED Pencils: