TGIF Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

TGIF Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Brits Wonder Whether Trump is Insane

2by dianeravitch / 34min

Listening to CNN. Sean Spicer said that British intelligence wiretapped Trump Tower on behalf of the Obama administration. British intelligence said the claim was nonsense, and the British Prime Minister demanded an apology. When 

Trump’s Budget Plan Lifted from Inside-the-Beltway Heritage Foundation

4by dianeravitch / 17min

Hat tip to Bill Moyers’ website for this article in The Intercept: Zaid Jilani reports in The Intercepr that Trump’s budget is copied from the Swamp-dwelling, Establishment, Beltway right wing Heritage Foundation. https://theintercept.com/2017/03/16/trump-the-outsider-outsources-his-budget-to-insider-think-tank/ Nothing in the budget protects the blue-collar and rural people who voted for him. In

Mercedes Schneider on Trump’s Budget: Our First Anti-Education President

3by dianeravitch / 1h

Count on Mercedes Schneider to review Trump’s budget proposal. It is as bad as you heard. She says, “At least he doesn’t call himself an ‘education president.'” True, he is the anti-education president. He is the first who wants to tear down 

Massive Resistance Works: Join the NPE Protest Against Budget Cuts and Privatization

by dianeravitch / 49min

The Network for Public Education is launching a campaign to fight back against the Trump-DeVos budget cuts to public schools and budget gains for privatization. Open this link , join our action, and send it to your friends!

Peter Greene: Michigan’s Blueprint for the Next 30 Years (Note: When You are in a Hole, Stop Digging)

by dianeravitch / 55min

Peter Greene has a remarkable facility to read dreary documents and sum them up, so that we don’t have to read them. This is a public service that he does on behalf of all of us. He reviews Michigan’s blueprint for the next 30 years, created at the behest of Governor Rick Snyder. The essential problem Michigan has is that it spent the last 10 years or so following the DeVos blueprint for change a

Thomas Ultican: America Has an Amazing Public School System, Don’t Listen to the Naysayers

7by dianeravitch / 1h

Tom Ultican teaches physics in San Diego after a career in the private sector. He likes evidence. He reviews the failure of various privatization schemes. Vouchers have failed to “save” children, and voucher schools are often far worse than public schools. Charters are scandal-ridden, supported too often by profit-seekers. He writes: American Schools Rock! Don’t be fooled. “By the middle of the 2

Missouri: Bill to Expand Charter Schools Passes House, Goes to State Senate

10by dianeravitch / 2h

The privatization steam roller continues to move through the Republican controlled states. The Missouri House of Representatives narrowly approved a bill to expand the number of charter schools in the state. The bill now moves to the Senate. After more than five hours of debate Wednesday and more than an hour of debate Thursday, the measure advanced to the Senate on an 83-76 vote. Charter schools

If Federal Funding for Corporation for Public Broadcasting is Enacted, the Public Media System Will Collapse

11by dianeravitch / 8h

Media experts warned that the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will bring an end to public media in small and rural communities. The giants in large markets like New York City will survive, but not the smaller markets. “Public radio and television broadcasters are girding for battle after the Trump administration proposed a drastic cutback that they have long dreaded: the de

YESTERDAY

Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Stun Researchers

21by dianeravitch / 9h

The federal government has long been a major funder of basic and advanced research, but if Trump’s budget cuts are sustained, science and basic research will be gutted. Research on climate change will be eliminated. Let’s face it. The people in charge of the federal budget are ignoramuses, anti-intellectual, and hostile to science, creativity, and culture. To call them Neanderthals would be an in

New York Times: Flynn Was Paid $65,000 by Russian Firms in 2015

6by dianeravitch / 18h

The links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government continue to emerge. Here is a story in the New York Times reporting that Michael Flynn received $65,000 from Russian firms for speaking fees. One was a payment of $45,000 to deliver a speech at the Russia Today dinner, where he was seated next to Putin. If you look at the photo accompanying the story, you will see Green Party preside

Nicholas Kristof: What Jesus Said to Paul of Ryan

6by dianeravitch / 19h

This is a great column by Nicholas Kristof, recounting an imagined conversation between Jesus and Paul Ryan. Jesus tells Ryan (here called “Pious Paul”) why he has an obligation to help the needy, and Ryan tells Jesus that he doesn’t want people to become dependent on handouts. A must-read.

Samantha Bee Offers Advice to Former NC Governor Pat McCrory about Finding a Job

4by dianeravitch / 19h

Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is having trouble landing a job because he is so closely identified with HB2, the bill that said that transgender persons had to use the bathroom aligned with their birth certificate rather than their choice. Samantha Bee said that McCrory needed to broaden his resume . “Sorry you’re having trouble finding a new job,” the “Full Frontal” Twitter account w

Annenberg Institute for School Reform Speaks Out Against Trump Executive Orders

12by dianeravitch / 20h

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University issued the following statement: We at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University denounce the continuous assault by the Trump administration on the communities that we are committed and dedicated to serve. We reject the harmful actions of President Trump’s divisive policies and hateful rhetoric, which are in direct c

AASA Denounces Trump-DeVos Budget Cuts and Privatization Priorities

17by dianeravitch / 21h

AASA Executive Director Responds to President Trump’s FY18 Budget Proposal Alexandria, Va. – March 16, 2017 – Earlier today, President Trump released details for his FY18 budget proposal. It is a “skinny budget,” in that it only covers discretionary funding, and within that, doesn’t fully list the impact on all discretionary programs. The proposal cuts funding to the U.S. Education Department by

Trump’s Draconian Budget Cuts: A Win for the Military, a Loss for Civil Society

31by dianeravitch / 22h

Thanks for Jim Harvey of the National Superintendents Roundtable for this breakout of Trump’s budget cuts: On Thursday, March 16, the Trump administration released a preliminary budget plan for Fiscal 2018 that proposed huge increases in defense-related spending and corresponding cuts in domestic programs, including education. According to stories in The Washington Post, the budgetary impact acro

A Miracle Drug for Our Era

9by dianeravitch / 23h

Are you feeling depressed? Anxious? Worried about the future? This is a drug that promises immediate relief.

The DeVos-Trump Budget to Privatize Public Schools: A Disaster for Public Education

43by dianeravitch / 1d

The Washington Post has some of the details of the DeVos-Trump budget for the U.S. Department of Education. It is a bloodbath for public schools and teacher education, and a bonanza for school choice and privatization. “The Trump administration is seeking to cut $9.2 billion — or 13.5 percent — from the Education Department’s budget, a dramatic downsizing that would reduce or eliminate grants for

Betsy DeVos Delivers the Morning Announcements at an Anonymous Public Schools

10by dianeravitch / 1d

Imagine Betsy DeVos giving the morning announcements. It might sound like this: It starts like this: Good morning, students of the Goldman Sachs Holy Trinity Lehman LearningFirst Inc. Elementary School! I am thrilled to be delivering your morning announcements today, which I am currently delivering outside using a megaphone because protesters have blocked me from entering your building. Before we

Gary Rubinstein on the Miraculous Data from Charter Schools that Is Miraculously Distorted

14by dianeravitch / 1d

Gary Rubinstein has a peculiar habit of insisting on integrity of reporting. He gets hot and bothered when people claim “miracle achievements” but hide the facts or distort them. He noticed an article in USA Today that both appeared to criticize charter schools and at the same time to claim that some of them had achieved astonishing college graduation results. The bottom line, said USA Today, was

Trump Budget Proposals: Draconian Cuts to EPA and State Department, Big Gains for Military and Border Patrol

5by dianeravitch / 1d

The Trump administration offered a budget that would deeply cut the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department, eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the Legal Services Corporation. There will be cuts to the Department of Education but it is not clear which programs will be hit. The cuts fall heavily eve

As Feared, Trump Proposes to Eliminate Federal Support for the Arts and Humanities, Public Radio and Television

52by dianeravitch / 1d

Trump has proven himself to be a true barbarian by proposing to eliminate the modest federal funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Why should there be a 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bridgeport

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bridgeport:

Bridgeport

The neighborhoods of the south side in 1919. The borders were sharply drawn as black and white workers competed for jobs in the packing houses and factories. 

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but rather the lighting of a fire." -- W.B. Yeats

That's my favorite quote from my favorite Irish poet. This morning, we're trying to keep the fire burning while as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We're doing our Klonsky Brothers radio show as always, live from  the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. It's a great day to talk about politics in our city of immigrants, labor battles, and the birthplace of neighborhood community organizing.

Going back to the 1830s, Bridgeport has been an enclave of the city's huge Irish working-class immigrant population and the power base for five Chicago mayors. The Daley family whose political machine, built on racism and patronage, ran the city out of the 11th Ward, for more than half a century.

It was here that as a young man, former Mayor Richard J. Daley ran with the notorious, racist Hamburg Gang that terrorized the black community and other newly-arrived immigrants, and was active in the deadly 1919 race riots. 

William Butler Yeats

Over the years, the more affluent "lace curtain" Irish began to move south to Morgan Park while Bridgeport has in recent years, become much more diverse with many Mexican immigrant families settling here along with younger white middle-class techies, artists and professionals. 

While former Mayor Richard M. Daley left and headed to Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bridgeport:

CURMUDGUCATION: Food Is Overrated

CURMUDGUCATION: Food Is Overrated:
Food Is Overrated

Well, we've all seen it by now:

There is no evidence that food helps raise test scores.

One more snowflake wants to eat.

Mind you, this is from the administration that wants us to believe that three million votes were cast illegally, that Obama wiretappppped Trump Towers, that microwaves can be used to spy on us-- all this and more, without a shred of evidence. But children doing better in school because they have gotten food to eat-- that is some wildass crazypants conspiracy nutbaggery. You think being able to eat food helps children do better in school?? Woah-- just let me check you for your tin foil hat. 

Reformsters, this is at least partly on you. This is the logical extension of the idea that only hard "evidence" matters, and only if it is evidence that test scores go up. We've dumped play, understanding of child development, and a whole bunch of not-reading-and-math classes CURMUDGUCATION: Food Is Overrated:

Kentucky Legislation Would Resegregate Schools against the Will of Local Families - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

Kentucky Legislation Would Resegregate Schools against the Will of Local Families

The Kentucky legislature is taking aim at school integration.  If its new legislation succeeds, it will degrade the educational opportunities available to thousands of kids and, ironically, move in the opposite direction of the stated positions of the new Secretary of Education.  

After the Supreme Court held in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle that Jefferson County's voluntary integration plan was unconstitutional, the school board reworked its student assignment plan.  The problem with the old plan, according to the Court, was that the district had not shown that the consideration of race was necessary to achieve integration.  At least in Jefferson County, maybe the Court was right.  The district came up with a new plan that relies on race-nuetral factors and appears to work relatively well.  And like the old plan, it remains popular among families there.  As Barrett Holmes Pitner reports, "[a]s of 2011, 89 percent of Jefferson County residents supported the school system’s desegregation policies (PDF)."

A constitutional plan, a popular plan, local prerogative, and the benefits of integration apparently are not enough to dissuade those in the state legislature from monkeying with education policy.  Kentucky House Bill 151 would "provide that those residing within the shortest travel distance to a school be given first priority in cases where the capacity of the school may be exceeded; permit a child to attend a school other than the one closest with permission of the district."  The logical inconsistency of this legislation with other education policies and research findings is astounding.  

Both of Kentucky's U.S. Senators just voted in favor of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.  DeVos stands on two major policy positions: more local control and more student choice.  Just this week, DeVos told the Council of the Education Law Prof Blog:

Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget for K-12 Education: What It Means | janresseger

Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget for K-12 Education: What It Means | janresseger:

Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget for K-12 Education: What It Means

Yesterday the Trump administration released what’s being called its “skinny” budget.  A president’s budget proposal does NOT work like an executive order, however.  It is merely a declaration of the president’s priorities, and it must be discussed and enacted by Congress, which then appropriates the money.

And this is a budget that outlines only what is called “discretionary” spending. That is the part that actually gets appropriated every year, and it is a very small part of the federal budget, which mostly goes to “mandatory” programs, another term for entitlements.

A large part of discretionary spending is for the military. And the military is definitely a priority of Donald Trump’s.  Yesterday’s budget proposal adds $52 billion to the military and a 7 percent increase for the Department of Homeland Security and a 6 percent increase for Veterans Affairs.

VOX explains the nature of “non-defense” federal discretionary spending: “This is the main budget area that invests in the nation’s future productivity, supporting education, basic research, job training and infrastructure.  It also supports priorities such as providing housing and child care assistance to low-and moderate-income families, protecting against infectious diseases, enforcing laws that protect workers and consumers, and caring for national parks and other public lands.” Yesterday’s budget cuts non-defense discretionary spending in order for the federal government to ask for large increases in the military and homeland security.

Here are just some of the percentage losses reported by the NY Times for departments whose programs are likely directly to affect children and families: Education, -14 percent; Health and Human Services, -16 percent; and Housing and Urban Development, -12 percent.  The cuts are likely to affect public housing and subsidies for housing vouchers, may affect support for homeless shelters, and will eliminate after-school programs.  Being erased altogether are the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps very poor people pay gas bills in the winter and the Legal Services Corporation. School lunch, school breakfast and summer feeding programs have been made into mandatory spending and are not covered by this budget. We’ll have to watch for a later, more detailed budget to observe these programs, and we can hope they will be spared. The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is slightly reduced from $6.4 billion to $6.2 billion in Trump’s proposed Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget for K-12 Education: What It Means | janresseger:

Trump's budget slashes funding for disadvantaged students while giving 1.4 billion for privatization - Network For Public Education

Trump's budget slashes funding for disadvantaged students while giving 1.4 billion for privatization - Network For Public Education:

Trump’s budget slashes funding for disadvantaged students while giving 1.4 billion for privatization

Donald Trump’s education budget is a declaration of war on public education and our nation’s neediest children. It was surely designed by Betsy DeVos.

Trump’s budget would axe after-school programs known as the 21st Century Community Learning Centers which help school districts, churches and nonprofit groups serve more than 1.6 million American children, most of whom are poor. In defending the cuts to such programs, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said after-school programs don’t “show results.” He went on to say that feeding children after-school has never been proven to get them better jobs, so we cannot afford to do it anymore. A full stomach for a hungry child is not good enough–but there is 1.4 billion to send them to voucher schools and for for-profit online learning.

The budget also slashes programs that prepare disadvantaged middle and high school students for college. College assistance for first-generation students is also reduced. And if disadvantaged students are still able to get to college, it will be harder for them to stay–Trump’s budget cuts funding for federal work study programs.

And yet there is ample funding for the school privatization agenda–$1.4 billion in all.

Trump’s budget contains:

· a 50% increase for charter school funding.

· a $250 million private school “choice” program.

· $1 billion for a fund portability program–which is nothing more than a disguised voucher system. Portability could bankrupt some public schools and slash funding for the rest.

The Network for Public Education will not stand by and allow Trump to break our public school system and crush the dreams of millions of children. We believe in the promise and hope of an equitable education for every children. A shot-gun system of segregated private schools, charters, virtual and home-schools is a recipe for disaster.

But we cannot fight without your help.

Send your email to your senators and representative today.

Let’s barrage Congress with our emails and let our representatives know where we stand.

Click here.

This is our first step. In the coming weeks we will provide you with one page informational sheets to help you teach others about the threats that charters, vouchers, and tax credits for private schools pose. We will begin call campaigns, flooding the White House and Congress. We will give you tools for social media.

Commit to the fight today.

Send your email, then post it on Facebook, tweet it and send it to friends.

Join the Network for Public Education in stopping the privatization agenda of Trump, Pence and DeVos. If our public education system is dismantled, we will never get it back. And that is a tragedy that our nation truly cannot afford.

Thank you for all you do,

Carol Burris, Executive Director

Trump's budget slashes funding for disadvantaged students while giving 1.4 billion for privatization - Network For Public Education:

The consequences of forcing young kids to sit too long in class - The Washington Post

The consequences of forcing young kids to sit too long in class - The Washington Post:

The consequences of forcing young kids to sit too long in class

On July 8, 2014, I published a post titled “Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today” by Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist. Ever since then, the idea has struck a chord with readers around the world, still drawing a big audience along with some of the follow-up pieces Hanscom wrote.

[Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today]

[The right — and surprisingly wrong — ways to get kids to sit still in class]

[The decline of play in preschoolers — and the rise in sensory issues]

Why did that story have such resonance? Because standardized-test-based school reform has overemphasized math and reading instruction and test prep to the exclusion of other things, forcing young children to sit in their chairs for hours at a time, often without a real break, even though many kids aren’t ready to do that (if, indeed, young people of any age should have to). The result, as Hanscom has written, is that too many kids fidget, lose focus and act out, with some diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder even when they do not have it.

To be sure, some schools have realized the damage this is doing to children. One is Eagle Mountain Elementary School in Fort Worth, which has started sending kids out for unstructured play four times a day as part of a program it adopted called the LiiNK Project. The project connects play and character development and is designed to bridge academics with the social, emotional and physical well-being of children. 

[Why some schools are sending kids out for recess four times a day]

Other schools, too, have started adding recess back into the school day, but still too many limit it, and kids wind up suffering. In this post, Hanscom takes a new look at the issue. She is the author of “Balanced and Barefoot,” and the founder of TimberNook, a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in the United States and in New Zealand.

By Angela Hanscom

This post just won’t sit still.The consequences of forcing young kids to sit too long in class - The Washington Post:

Donald Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget: At Least He Doesn’t Call Himself an “Education President.” | deutsch29

Donald Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget: At Least He Doesn’t Call Himself an “Education President.” | deutsch29:

Donald Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget: At Least He Doesn’t Call Himself an “Education President.”

Here it is: Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget— all 62 pages of it.

From Trump’s introductory remarks:

The core of my first Budget Blueprint is the rebuilding of our Nation’s military without adding to our Federal deficit. There is a $54 billion increase in defense spending in 2018 that is offset by targeted reductions elsewhere. This defense funding is vital to rebuilding and preparing our Armed Forces for the future. …

The defense and public safety spending increases in this Budget Blueprint are offset and paid for by finding greater savings and efficiencies across the Federal Government. Our Budget Blueprint insists on $54 billion in reductions to non-Defense programs. We are going to do more with less, and make the Government lean and accountable to the people.

This includes deep cuts to foreign aid. It is time to prioritize the security and well-being of Americans, and to ask the rest of the world to step up and pay its fair share.

Many other Government agencies and departments will also experience cuts. These cuts are sensible and rational. Every agency and department will be driven to achieve greater efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their honorable service to the American people.

From the “Major Agency Highlights” section:

The 2018 Budget is being unveiled sequentially in that this Blueprint provides details only on our discretionary funding proposals. The full Budget that will be released later this spring will include our specific mandatory and tax proposals, as well as a full fiscal path. …

The Budget also proposes to eliminate funding for other independent agencies, including: the African Development Foundation; the Appalachian Regional Commission; the Chemical Safety Board; the Corporation for National and Community Service; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the Delta Regional Authority; the Denali Commission; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the Inter-American Foundation; the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; the Legal Services Corporation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation; the Northern Border Regional Commission; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; the United States Institute of Peace; the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness; and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The section on the Department of Education is on pages 23 and 24 (numbered pages 17 and 18):

The Department of Education promotes improving student achievement and access to opportunity in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary 

Donald Trump’s Proposed 2018 Budget: At Least He Doesn’t Call Himself an “Education President.” | deutsch29:

Bernie Sanders Defends Real America And Obliterates Trump's Budget In Just 94 Words

Bernie Sanders Defends Real America And Obliterates Trump's Budget In Just 94 Words:
Bernie Sanders Defends Real America And Obliterates Trump’s Budget In Just 94 Words
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) didn't need many words to express his feeling of disgust and contempt for President Trump's first budget.

 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) didn’t need many words to express his feeling of disgust and contempt for President Trump’s first budget.

In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Sen. Sanders said, “President Trump’s budget is morally obscene and bad economic policy. It will cause devastating pain to the very people Trump promised to help during the campaign. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 43 million Americans are living in poverty, and half of older Americans have no retirement savings, we should not slash programs that senior citizens, children, and working people rely on in order to provide a massive increase in spending to the military industrial complex. Trump’s priorities are exactly opposite of where we should be heading as a nation.”

Sanders was correct on all counts. The Trump budget is bad economic policy. Trump wants to take government aid away from people that need it the most, and give tax dollars to people who need them the least. Because of the multiplier effect, every dollar spent on assistance for a poor or retired individual benefits the economy. Studies have demonstrated that taking resources from the people at the bottom and giving them to the people at the top does not grow the economy.

On a human level, what Trump is proposing is appalling. The President wants to harm tens of millions of Americans because he doesn’t view their well-being as a priority.

Much ink has already been spilled discussing Trump’s budget, but Bernie Sanders has it right. The Trump budget doesn’t need thousands of words of explanation. A few words can adequately explain how morally wrong and unjustifiable, Trump’s vision for America is.Bernie Sanders Defends Real America And Obliterates Trump's Budget In Just 94 Words: