Brookings Sullies Its Reputation By Aligning with DeVos Agenda for Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog

Brookings Sullies Its Reputation By Aligning with DeVos Agenda for Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Brookings Sullies Its Reputation By Aligning with DeVos Agenda for Privatization

The Brookings Institution used to be referred to as a liberal think tank. In reality, it was a nonpartisan think tank that hired former high-level officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations and produced valuable studies and reports. As I was ending my time in the first Bush administration in late 1992, the president of Brookings came to my office at the US Department of Education and invited me to accept the Brown Chair in Education Policy. Since I did not want to live permanently in DC, I declined his offer but agreed to be a Senior Fellow. I was in residence at Brookings until 1995, wrote a book on national standards, then returned to Brooklyn. I continued to be a Non-Resident Senior Fellow until 2012, when I was summarily fired from my unpaid position by Grover Whitehurst, who joined Brookings as chair of the Brown Policy program after serving as director of education research in the George W. Bush administration. Perhaps it was happenstance, but the email from Whitehurst came a few hours after the online release of my blistering critique of Mitt Romney, whom Whitehurst was advising. Whitehurst fired me because, he said, I was “inactive.”

Whitehurst served for a few years as head of the Brown Center but was quietly removed as the Chair. Now, he uses Brookings and its prestige to promote the Republican agenda of privatization.

Here is the latest, in which Whitehurst plugs charters because “We do not know how to create or sustain uniformly great neighborhood schools.” He should have added that “We also don’t know how to create or sustain uniformly great charter schools.” There is no existence proof, even though charters choose their students and exclude students with serious disabilities and ELLs and push out behavior problems. Residents of Clark County, Nevada, may be surprised to see that he raised their grade, since most charters in Nevada are failing schools, concentrated in Clark County, and the funding for the voucher program (which he hails) has been halted by state courts. Columbus, Ohio, got good marks even though the scandal-ridden charters in Ohio have become a bad joke.

To make sure that everyone noticed that Brookings was linking its reputation to the most controversial, least qualified member of the Trump cabinet, DeVos was invited to speak at the press conference on the only subject she knows: the glories of school choice.

The press release reads:

School Choice Increasing Nationally; Secretary DeVos to Speak at Release of Brookings’ Annual School Choice Rankings
Proportion of large school districts allowing choice has nearly doubled since 2000; Denver wins top spot for large districts for second year in a row

Rankings from Brookings’ 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI)—an annual ranking of school choice in the nation’s 100 largest school districts—will be unveiled today at a Brookings event featuring keynote remarks by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. You can watch a livestream of the Secretary’s remarks at 9:30 AM EDT.

In a summary of the results (PDF), ECCI’s author and Brookings Senior Fellow Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst highlights the growth of choice across the nation’s school districts according to trends tracked by ECCI, many of which can be observed since 2000. Whitehurst notes that the proportion of large school districts allowing choice has nearly doubled over the past 16 years. That coincides with other measures of the growth of school choice, including that the number of large districts for which charter school enrollment is at least 30 percent of total public enrollment has increased from one to ten.

Whitehurst writes: “There is no question empirically that opportunities for parents to choose among traditional public schools for their children, to Brookings Sullies Its Reputation By Aligning with DeVos Agenda for Privatization | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Magnolia Avenue parents, teachers protest sharing campus with charter school

Magnolia Avenue parents, teachers protest sharing campus with charter school:

Magnolia Avenue parents, teachers protest sharing campus with charter school

Student Yesenia Serrano, 9, is a fourth grader at the school. Parents and students from Magnolia Ave. Elementary in Westlake, Korea town area protested at the LAUSD headquarters on Tuesday, March 28, 2017. They don't want the co-location of a charter school in their school, saying it will cut resources and classrooms for kids already at the school. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) 

About 50 parents, teachers and students from Magnolia Avenue Elementary School gathered Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles to protest the addition of a charter school on Magnolia’s campus.

“Our children will lose several programs,” said Guadalupe Garcia, a parent of two Magnolia Avenue Elementary students. “It’s unfair.”

Garcia said the school is located in a low income area and parents are concerned that the school’s resources will be stretched too thin if the charter move is approved. The school is located near the Pico-Union neighborhood, just south of MacArthur Park and covers pre-kindergarten to sixth grade.

On Feb. 1, the school district made a preliminary proposal of space - 11 classrooms and one administrative space - to Equitas Academy Charter School identifying Magnolia Avenue Elementary as a potential location, according to district spokeswoman Ellen T. Morgan. Letters about the proposal went out to parents and legal guardians.

On Tuesday, protesters gathered just outside the doors of the Los Angeles Unified School District building. Inside, the board was to hear about another proposal to move a charter to an existing school’s campus. This proposal would move Citizens of The World Charter School-Hollywood to the campus of Third Street Elementary in Hancock Park.

The Magnolia Avenue protesters carried signs with slogans including “Help us keep Magnolia’s Mariachi program” and “Save our computer labs. Change Prop 39!” in reference to a California law voters passed in 2000. Under Proposition 39, school districts must share public school properties fairly among all public school students, including those in charter schools.

David Hessell, one of the protesters and a Magnolia Avenue teacher for 20 years, said the issue is space.

“Our parents are really worried because under the law, under Proposition 39 ... the district counts as vacant space any room that doesn’t have a regular teacher and a classroom in it,” Hessell said. “So our Magnolia Avenue parents, teachers protest sharing campus with charter school:

 

Parents and students from Magnolia Avenue Elementary School protested at the LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2017. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) 

Betsy DeVouchers' School Voucher Plan Hurts Poor Children. PERIOD. | YourTango

Betsy DeVos' School Voucher Plan Hurts Poor Children. PERIOD. | YourTango:

Betsy DeVos' School Voucher Plan Hurts Poor Kids. PERIOD.

Even though Besty DeVos's confirmation as Education Secretary benefits my Christian middle-class family, it hurts children in poverty who attend public school. And that deeply disturbs me.

My issue isn't directly against Betsy DeVos, specifically.

I just have a problem with anyone who holds the power and desire to defund public education by close to $9 billion from the Department of Education with a private or homeschool education agenda that benefits organizations outside the public ed domain with educational tax dollars.

Huffington Post reported that "the proposed budget adds money to school choice options, including $250 million for a 'new private school choice program.' This would likely be a voucher program ― providing public money for kids to attend private schools ― although the exact plan is still nebulous. The budget also adds $168 million for charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated."

With the school voucher debate going around where educational dollars 'follow the child,' any person can choose their educational program of choice. It doesn't matter if you are homeschooling, paying for private Christian education, or staying in public education.

I've already had an experience of how this could work.

The other day, I was driving my homeschooled children from sports camp and passed a school with a banner that said, "FREE PRIVATE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL."

But let's be real here, I thought. There is no such thing as free school for anyone, anywhere. That money is coming from somewhere, and from someone.

I decided to make a call and find out more.

The admissions person informed me that this was an entirely new school, but the qualifications for teachers were different. The school was not required to have certified teachers, but that the teachers had three years of education experience.

What's worse is that these schools will also be able to tap into public education dollars by providing on-campus virtual education, which is the same public school option offered to homeschooling families.

This again, removes funding from public education and puts it into for profit and non-profit organizations that does not benefit the poor children 

 

Is Turkish religious scholar Fethullah Gulen funding his movement abroad through U.S. charter schools? - CBS News

Is Turkish religious scholar Fethullah Gulen funding his movement abroad through U.S. charter schools? - CBS News:

Are some U.S. charter schools helping fund controversial Turkish cleric's movement?

As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travels to Turkey on Thursday, he’ll want to talk about the fight against ISIS. But the Turks want to talk about a controversial Turkish religious scholar: Fethullah Gulen.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan accuses Gulen of being behind a bloody coup attempt in the country last July. Gulen, who lives in the United States, denies he was involved. Now the Turkish government is also lobbying the Trump administration to extradite Gulen back to Turkey.

Over the past two decades, Gulen’s Turkish followers have opened up taxpayer-funded charter schools in the U.S. Some parents have expressed concern about the connection to the Gulen movement, while others don’t seem to mind. But CBS News has learned the FBI is investigating whether Gulen’s followers have skimmed money from those schools in order to fund his movement in Turkey. A senior State Department official believes Gulen-linked charities and educational institutions in the U.S. look “a lot like the ways in which organized crime sets itself up... to hide money for money laundering.”

During the violent coup attempt that shook Turkey last July, hundreds were killed as rogue military tanks rolled into the streets of Istanbul. But Gulen, who the Turkish government blames for inciting it, has lived in a Pennsylvania compound for 16 years.

Gulen’s followers run publicly-funded science and math-focus charter schools in the United States. By our count, they’ve opened 136 charter schools in 28 states, operating on more than $2.1 billion taxpayer dollars since 2010.

But former teachers at those schools have told CBS News there is a scheme by Gulen’s followers in the U.S. to take advantage of the American charter school system and fund Gulen’s movement.

Ersin Konkur was once a follower of Gulen. He worked as a math teacher at schools founded by Gulen supporters in New York and Texas. But he said school officials made a special demand of the Turkish teachers who worked there: a kick-back from their taxpayer-funded salary.

“They’d force you to give some of that money back to them?” CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked.

“Yes,” Konkur responded.

“Were you writing checks?”

“They were asking cash. But in my last two years, I paid some of them in check,” Konkur said, adding that he’s paid “maybe a lot more than $20,000” in total to the Is Turkish religious scholar Fethullah Gulen funding his movement abroad through U.S. charter schools? - CBS News:

 

The Every Student Succeeds Act: A keynote address by Senator Lamar Alexander - AEI

The Every Student Succeeds Act: A keynote address by Senator Lamar Alexander - AEI

The Every Student Succeeds Act: A keynote address by Senator Lamar Alexander

Want to ask the second panel a question? Go to https://www.sli.do and enter code AEIEvent to submit a question for consideration by the moderator.

Heralded as a Christmas miracle, the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 marked a turning point in federal education policy. The latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESSA replaced the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and returned significant control over education back to the states.

Join AEI as Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Chairman Lamar Alexander, one of the law’s chief architects, discusses ESSA and American education. Following his remarks, an expert panel will deliberate on the new law and what it means for states, families, and students.

Join the conversation on social media with #AEIESSA.

If you are unable to attend, we welcome you to watch the event live on this page. Full video will be posted within 24 hours.

The Every Student Succeeds Act: A keynote address by Senator Lamar Alexander - AEI

Fewer districts than expected say they’re facing financial distress | EdSource

Fewer districts than expected say they’re facing financial distress | EdSource:

Fewer districts than expected say they're facing financial distress

Only 39 school districts have indicated they will have a hard time balancing their books within the next two years, according to the latest reports filed with their county offices of education.

That low number may mask the difficulties many districts will face amid flattening revenues, rising pension costs and, for many, declining enrollments. And some districts may be too optimistic about the extent to which Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget revision in May will solve their problems, said the head of the state agency in charge of keeping districts fiscally solvent.

“When given the choice, districts will generally choose the ‘rosy glow’ position regarding the state’s economy. Right now, there is a ton of mixed messaging out there about how revenues will look at the May Revision,” Joel Montero, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, wrote in an email.

Twice each year, following the passage of their budgets on July 1, the state’s 1,094 districts file updates, the first one in the fall and the second in March. The updates state whether they are on track to balance their budgets for the current year and the following two years. County offices of education must review and verify they are accurate.

Last Friday, the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team posted a graph showing that 38 districts had self-certified as “qualified,” meaning they foresee difficulty paying their bills in 2018-19. One, San Miguel Joint Union in San Luis Obispo County, self-certified as “negative,” meaning it is struggling to remain solvent this year or the upcoming year, and the rest signed off as “positive,” signifying they foresee no problem ending the third year with a required 3 percent budget reserve. The number of qualified reports may creep upward to around 45 districts after county offices have reviewed them, Montero said. They have until Fewer districts than expected say they’re facing financial distress | EdSource:

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Link Between Broken Windows Policing and Deportation:

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Link Between Broken Windows Policing and Deportation::

The Link Between Broken Windows Policing and Deportation:

Of all the new information presented during last nights forum on Defending Bronx Communities at Fordham University, what I found most disturbing was the revelation of how the DeBlasio Administration's imposition of "Broken Windows" policing- arrests for minor offenses such as jaywalking, drinking in public and jumping over turnstiles- has led to deportation of many undocumented immigrants.

Apparently, all arrests for misdemeanors are automatically recorded in all national law enforcement data bases including those of the FBI and Homeland Security and if the person arrested is undocumented, can trigger deportation proceedings

The head of the Sauti Yetu Center for African Women, Zeinab Eyega, gave a chilling example of how this could work. One of the families her organization worked with consisted of a woman from Chad and her teenage sons living in a shelter after they escaped a domestic violence situation. Although the shelter was in the Bronx, her two sons attended school in Queens One day, one of her sons lost his metro card and had no way to get home. So he decided to jump over the turnstile at the subway station nearest his school There he was arrested and taken to the local police station, where the mother was told she needed $150 dollars to get him released. The mother didn't have the money and the Sauti Yetu Center had to give it to her. But that wasn't the worst outcome. Six month later, Homeland Security began deportation With A Brooklyn Accent: The Link Between Broken Windows Policing and Deportation::

DeVos Last in Approval Rating Among a Selection of Trump Officials, Poll Says - Politics K-12 - Education Week

DeVos Last in Approval Rating Among a Selection of Trump Officials, Poll Says - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

DeVos Last in Approval Rating Among a Selection of Trump Officials, Poll Says

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos didn't enjoy the smoothest confirmation process, to put it mildly. How has that affected public perceptions of her? It doesn't seem to have helped.

At least that's the conclusion you could draw from a recent nationwide poll from Saint Leo University, in St. Leo, Florida.

Using an online survey, the university's Polling Institute asked 1,073 adults for their impressions of various high-profile members of Trump's administration. The response? More than half of those polled, or 52.3 percent, said they either somewhat or strongly disapproved of DeVos. Among those surveyed, 41 percent said they "strongly disapproved" of DeVos, while 11.3 percent said they "somewhat disapproved" of her. Her combined approval rating was 34.5 percent, also the lowest.

The second-most-unpopular top Trump official, among the six on the list, according to the poll, was Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president , whose combined disapproval rating was a shade under 50 percent. Secretary of Defense James Mattis enjoyed the lowest combined disapproval rating, clocking in at just under 30 percent. The survey also asked people about their general impressions of Trump's cabinet picks, and their combined approval rating was 40.5 percent, while their combined disapproval rating was 51.9 percent. Saint Leo also asked about Trump's handling of various topics, but did not ask about education specifically.

The Saint Leo University poll was conducted from March 3 to March 11, and had a margin of error of DeVos Last in Approval Rating Among a Selection of Trump Officials, Poll Says - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Betsy DeVos: A Dilettante with an Ideology but No Real Policy Plan | janresseger

Betsy DeVos: A Dilettante with an Ideology but No Real Policy Plan | janresseger:

Betsy DeVos: A Dilettante with an Ideology but No Real Policy Plan

I was struck by Dana Milbank’s column in yesterday’s Washington Post, Trump is Looking More and More like a Man Without a Plan. Milbank enumerates what has happened around a lot of the President’s proposals—redoing the Affordable Care Act, defeating the Islamic State, banning travelers from particular countries and cultures, cutting the federal budget. Ideas get articulated but the details are lacking or won’t stand up in court. Or there is a lot of flexibility on what’s really acceptable as long as something gets done. “Such policy anticlimaxes are becoming routine in Trump world. Tough rhetoric, big promises—and no substance. Trump looks more and more like a man without a plan… How presumptuous to expect Trump, after campaigning on historic tax reform, actually to have a proposal! The emerging evidence that Trump doesn’t have a plan for much of anything isn’t entirely bad. No plan is better than a bad plan… Having actual policies may just not be part of this president’s plan.”

Certainly the same pattern seems to be emerging in the U.S. Department of Education, where the Secretary is a wealthy philanthropist and dilettante who seems to have two priorities.  First, privatization of the public schools has been her lifelong lobbying mission.  Second, as a lifelong Republican married to a businessman, DeVos favors deregulation. Her commitment to these causes is ideological, however;  there is no evidence of a detailed policy agenda built on particular programs and a specific timeline for implementation.

Valerie Strauss captures the situation in her recent column.  Betsy DeVos, explains Strauss, has visited four schools officially since she was confirmed in February: one in Washington, D.C., one in Bethesda, and two in Florida: “The Education Department did not respond to a query about why these schools were selected. But consider this: In central Florida… the Michigan billionaire and her husband, Dick DeVos, own at least one home at Windsor, a private sporting club community on what the development’s website says is a ‘lush barrier island between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean.’ …  Betsy DeVos has further ties to central Florida: Her father-in-law bought the Orlando Magic basketball team in 1991, and the family still owns it.” DeVos’s school visits may be a key to grasping her approach to her job: what’s convenient for her personally and what’s ideologically tied to her life as a lobbyist for school privatization, but not a policy plan for overseeing the civil rights of the nation’s 50 million children and adolescents in the public schools.

Neither does Betsy DeVos demonstrate that she has really paid attention to how to manage a department that, since 2002, has been charged by Congress with overseeing a huge federal Betsy DeVos: A Dilettante with an Ideology but No Real Policy Plan | janresseger:

 

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Recess Is For Babies + NV: Their Money and Their Mouths

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Recess Is For Babies:

FL: Recess Is For Babies

The state of Florida (Motto: All You Kids Get Off My Lawns) continues in its quest to turn public schools into soul-crushing child-hostile teacher-stomping institutions. Florida has implemented more dumb ideas than MTV's program development department. Their testing history is filled with drama and disaster. They've decided that passing the standardized test is literally more important than getting good grades on report cards. They have provided yet more evidence that merit pay does not work (especially if you do it really really badly). They have embraced the third grade pass BS Test or fail the grade policy.  And never forget-- these are the folks who demanded that a dying child with profound deficits be required to take the Big Standardized Test. They allow a wide range of charter and reform scams (here's a fun one involving an elected official), but they also allow spectacular abuses of local control.

"I got your recess right here," says Florida legislator.

There are many good teachers in Florida, and many good schools as well, but it's no thanks to state leadership, which since the days of Governor Jeb "Is It My Turn Yet" Bush, the very model of the well-connected education amateur, has tried its best to make public education such a lousy option that the charter industry will start to look good.

So what now?

Recess.

You'd think this would be a no-brainer. Moms were agitating for free-play recess-- a full 100 minutes per week-- and legislators jumped on that puppy. That kind of recess time would be a step up for some schools, like the kindergarten class that took recess only one day a week. Or Pinellas County, where it's reportedly no surprise if students get only two days of recess a week. The research supports it, as does the heart of any feeling human being who spends any time at all around CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Recess Is For Babies:

 NV: Their Money and Their Mouths

So let's say you're home to the fifth largest school district in the country. Let's say your teacher shortages are legendary. Let's say they're so bad that you hire recruiters and mount a national ad campaign. Let's say your state has implemented the loosest voucheriest funding system in the country so that your funding is, you'll pardon the expression, a crapshoot. Let's say your legislators are in a legal battle with your school board because your legislators want to slap your schools with a "reorganization" plan that might me mighty pricey. Let's say that your school funding is kind of a nightmare that shells out less than $6K per student and depends on revenue that's tied to tourist business via a hotel room tax. Let's say that you have managed to out-Mississippi Mississippi so that you now command the bottom ranking spot for education in the USA.

Let's say all that. What do you do?

Did you say, "Why, build the world's most expensive sports stadium?"

If you did, you're a winner-- probably the only one in this sad tale.

Las Vegas made what is being called "the worst stadium deal" ever to lure the Oakland Raiders to Sin City. The stadium is reportedly projected to cost $1.9 billion. Billion. With a B.

While come of that money is coming from rich people who have presumably run out of ways to waste money and the Bank of America, who have-- well, I can't figure out what's in it for them. But the city itself is kicking in $750 million. $750 million. Some or most of that will come from an increased hotel tax applied to a new influx of almost half a million new tourists who will presumably be flocking to Las Vegas to see the Oakland Raiders, a team that people won't walk across Oakland to watch now. Fans of the deal insist that the combination of the Raiders and Las Vegas will be unstoppable ("Pittsburgh isn't Las Vegas," says one article, and thank God they're correct).
And if the imaginary tourists don't swell the tax coffers, who else is dipping out of that pool of money? Who else might get squeezed aside? Who, did you say? Yes-- the schools.

Opportunity cost is a way to look at an expenditure. You see a scarf and it looks so cool and it's only ten bucks, so it's a great deal. But the opportunity cost angle is to ask, "Well, what else could I do with the ten bucks if I didn't spend it on a scarf?" If the answers are things like "Food for my  NV: Their Money and Their Mouths

Creating an ESSA Accountability Plan Without Re-Creating Another NCLB | Ed In The Apple

Creating an ESSA Accountability Plan Without Re-Creating Another NCLB | Ed In The Apple:

Creating an ESSA Accountability Plan Without Re-Creating Another NCLB

New York State is making every attempt to include whomever wants to be involved in the creation of the Every State Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability plan. A series of facilitated engagement sessions across the state, an online survey and an all-day retreat of the entire board facilitated by Linda Darling-Hammond, Learning Policy Institute and Scott Marion, Center for Assessment.

Almost seven hours of discussion, a working lunch, with another session next Tuesday after the scheduled regents meeting.

Read a couple of hundred pages of supporting documents here.

Read my live-time tweets from the meeting at #edinthepple

Under the new law, ESSA, each state must construct an accountability plan, which means, within the confines of the law, select indicators, including but not limited to standardized test scores that will identify the lowest 5% of schools.

An overriding question: proficiency (only giving credit for a fixed point, a score) versus growth (progress for last year to this year) – how do combine the two concepts?

The entire board wants to include equity, how do you define and measure equity?

How many indicators do you want to identify? Remember, you must include standardized test scores.

Let’s get deeper into the weeds, should you weight the indicators?  Scott Marion, one of the facilitators gave examples of weighted indicators, the many paths all Creating an ESSA Accountability Plan Without Re-Creating Another NCLB | Ed In The Apple:

The Pahara Institute Proliferation of Corporate Ed Reformers | deutsch29

The Pahara Institute Proliferation of Corporate Ed Reformers | deutsch29:

The Pahara Institute Proliferation of Corporate Ed Reformers

Pahara Institute is a nonprofit, market-based-education-reform mill designed to proliferate corporate reformers. It was formed in 2012 and is located in Walnut, California.

The corporate reform message of Pahara Institute is the stale sale of *public schools failing and leaders with new, innovative solutions needed*– except the solutions are neither new nor innovative.

Still, Pahara Institute seeks to spread school choice and test-score based reforms.

Lest there be any doubt about Pahara Institute as a corporate reform proliferation nest, consider the bio of its founder and CEO, Kim Smith:

Kim Smith is the founder and chief executive officer of the Pahara Institute. … Immediately prior to the Pahara Institute, Kim was co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Earlier in her career she served as a founding team member at Teach For America, created and led an AmeriCorps program for community-based leaders in education, managed a business start-up and completed a brief stint in early online learning at Silicon Graphics. After completing her MBA at Stanford University, she co-founded and led NewSchools Venture Fund, a philanthropy focused on transforming public education through social entrepreneurship, where she helped to catalyze a new, bipartisan, cross-sector community of entrepreneurial change agents for public education. Kim has helped to incubate numerous education and social change organizations and has served on a range of boards, which currently include those of Bellwether, NewSchools, and Rocketship Education, and she has authored or co-authored a number of publications about innovation and social entrepreneurial change in education. [Emphasis added.]

Corporate ed reform entrenched.

Note the all-too-familiar corporate reformer lingo in the Pahara Institute Mission and The Pahara Institute Proliferation of Corporate Ed Reformers | deutsch29:

Jesse Hagopian “Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR

“Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

“Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike!

By Wednesday this week every school in Seattle will have held a union vote to decided if our Seattle Education Association (SEA) should go out on strike on May Day—International Worker’s Day—to demand full funding for education, to support our immigrant students, and to defend union rights.

I am voting yes!—and I hope that the rest of the educators join me in authorizing this walkout for the schools our students deserve.

Here in Washington State, our state Supreme Court ruled in the McCleary decision that our state legislature was in violation of the state Constitution’s “Paramount Duty” to amply provide for education.  The court has fined the legislature and found them in contempt of court for failing to support public education.  And yet we have seen our legislature continue to funnel money to the wealthiest corporations in our state, giving away billions in tax breaks to Boeing and maintaining tax loopholes for the rich.  Washington State is one of only a few states without an income tax and ranks dead last with most regressive tax structure in the nation.  The year 2017 was the final year that the state Supreme Court gave the legislature to fix the funding problem and it is clear that the legislature has no plans to start following the law anytime soon. 

We have tried emailing, calling and asking nicely for the legislature to follow the law and fund education. That hasn’t worked.

Now it’s time to show the collective power of labor.  We held a one-day walkout two years ago as part of a rolling strike wave across the state to pressure the state legislature. That was an important action that raised awareness, brought families into the streets with teachers in a common struggle, and gave teachers a “Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

The Corporate Coup Destroying Our Schools Has Finally Come For Our Government | gadflyonthewallblog

The Corporate Coup Destroying Our Schools Has Finally Come For Our Government | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Corporate Coup Destroying Our Schools Has Finally Come For Our Government

First they came for people of color and I said nothing.

Because I am not a person of color.

Then they came for the poor and I said nothing.

For I am not poor.

Then they came for our public schools and I said nothing.

Because I do not send my children to public schools.

Now they’ve come for our government and who is left to speak for me?

This is a paraphrase of Martin Niemöller’s famous lines about the cowardice of German intellectuals during Hitler’s rise to power.

The fascists purged group after group while those who could have stood against The Corporate Coup Destroying Our Schools Has Finally Come For Our Government | gadflyonthewallblog:

To Bubble, or Not to Bubble…. | The Merrow Report

To Bubble, or Not to Bubble…. | The Merrow Report:

To Bubble, or Not to Bubble….

That is the question this week and next, as schools administer rafts of mandated bubble tests and parents ponder whether to opt-out their children.  As we know, American students are the most tested in the world…because our system uses tests primarily to punish and reward teachers, not to assess and improve student learning.  My views, with apologies to Robert Frost, are below

MENDING SCHOOL

Something there is that doesn’t love more bubble tests

And students bubbling and learning how to bubble

When they might be making robots or reading Frost.

They take test upon test in dead classrooms,

Mixing memory and guesswork, stirring

Dull anger and gnawing fears of failure.

The work of test-makers is another thing:

Teachers come after them and make repair

Where they have ground down creativity.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,

And on a day we meet to walk and talk

Of learning, testing and hopes for children.

But we keep a wall between us as we go.

To him, this is just another kind of mental game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

Now is when we do not need more tests, I tell him.

He only says, ‘More testing makes good education.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good education? Isn’t it

Where they are timely and used to help?

But here the tests punish takers and givers alike.

Before I gave more bubble tests, I’d ask to know

What I was I testing for, and why,

And to whom I was like to do harm.

Something there is that doesn’t love bubble tests,

That wants them stopped.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself.  I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, ‘More testing makes good education.’

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