Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/18/17

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/18/17

Featured Post

Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids

Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post

by mike simpson / 7min

Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post : Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team The conferences most parents had with their children’s teachers this school year probably went something like this: They occurred twice, in the fall and spring. Many parents failed to show up. Those who did asked wh

Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations | radical eyes for equity

by mike simpson / 2h

Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations | radical eyes for equity : Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations my father moved through griefs of joy;… his shoulders marched against the dark “my father moved through dooms of love,” e.e. cummings This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful. “Good Bo

‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip - The Washington Post

by mike simpson / 2h

‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip - The Washington Post : ‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip Around here, the offer of watching a two-hour documentary about how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chased the Watergate story is about as appealing as taking the car into the shop

The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision | Seattle Education

by mike simpson / 5h

The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision | Seattle Education : The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision If you don’t have to see or live with the consequences of your decisions, it becomes very easy to do ba

Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams

by mike simpson / 5h

Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams : Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools Indiana has been taken over by the forces of corporate school reform, under a succession of Republican governors devoted to school choice: Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence, now Eric Holcomb. The public schools got a brief respi

Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY | Renton Reporter

by mike simpson / 5h

Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY | Renton Reporter : Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY Teachers are gravely concerned that what is getting hammered out behind closed doors in the legislature will seek to amply fund the public school system, as demanded by the state Supreme Court, and bring new rules on their ability to collectively bargain on wages and worki

Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids

by mike simpson / 5h

Florida leads the states who re testing worksite charter schools for company kids : Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A rarely applied experiment in education enabling companies to host taxpayer-funded charter schools for their employees’ children may be about to spread. Florida is the only state bringing business-backed charte

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice)

by mike simpson / 6h

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice) : Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice) Betsy DeVos, the white woman who was given everything in life including her appointment as Education Secretary, thanks in part to large donations of her husband’s money, is curtailing investigations into civil rights violations because the Trump admin

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI:Father's Day Edition + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

by mike simpson / 6h

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI:Father's Day Edition (6/18) : ICYMI:Father's Day Edition (6/18) It's a day for Dads, a holiday that somehow doesn't clog restaurants and bolster the greeting card industry. But in the meantime, here are some readings from the week. Remember to share! Help Kids Mind Their Own Business Eleven handy sayings (and one kind of dumb one) to make the anti-tattling case to your stude

Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union | Diane Ravitch's blog

by mike simpson / 7h

Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union | Diane Ravitch's blog : Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union In Chicago, 1,000 teachers from 32 charter schools voted to join the nation’s most militant teachers union, the CTU. There are 125 charter schools in Chicago, according to CPS data. “Unionized teachers at Chicago’s

Like Father, Like Son - Fathers Day & School to Prison Pipeline

by mike simpson / 7h

Like Father, Like Son - Fathers Day & School to Prison Pipeline : Like Father, Like Son - Fathers Day & School to Prison Pipeline Pleas e join Internet radio host Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. for a special Father's Day show - Like Father, like Son and the School to Prison Pipeline. Dr. Miller will be explaining the latest truths about this awful thing called the School to Prison Pipeline and how

Silicon Valley Philanthropy Opens Classrooms to De-Personalized Learning - Living in Dialogue

by mike simpson / 7h

Silicon Valley Philanthropy Opens Classrooms to De-Personalized Learning - Living in Dialogue : Silicon Valley Philanthropy Opens Classrooms to De-Personalized Learning By John Thompson. David Callahan’s The Givers begins with the first politicized think tanks of the 1960s and 1970s, such as the American Enterprise Institute. At least these rightwing organizations were open about their desire to

Turning Pain Into Power: 2017 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award winners | I AM AN EDUCATOR

by mike simpson / 7h

Turning Pain Into Power: 2017 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award winners | I AM AN EDUCATOR : Turning Pain Into Power: 2017 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award winners Black Education Matters Student Activist Award winners, with Michael and Martellus Bennett, Jesse Hagopian, and NAACP education chair Rita Green. (Photo by Sara Bernard) It was one of the most triumphant days

Jane Mayer: What Happened When PBS Aired a Documentary about the Koch Brothers | Diane Ravitch's blog

by mike simpson / 7h

Jane Mayer: What Happened When PBS Aired a Documentary about the Koch Brothers | Diane Ravitch's blog : Jane Mayer: What Happened When PBS Aired a Documentary about the Koch Brothers Jane Mayer, author of “Dark Money” and other exposes of the power of big money, wrote an article In 2013 for the New Yorker about the difficulty that NYC’s PBS station encountered when it agreed to run a documentary

Calling Nurturing Men to the Teaching Profession

by mike simpson / 8h

Calling Nurturing Men to the Teaching Profession : Calling Nurturing Men to the Teaching Profession Happy Father’s Day! I am proud to know many nurturing fathers who are also teachers and who fight for public education. I have also known men who are not fathers, but who are marvelous teachers, who view their students like their own children. Men are needed to teach in this country. There’s suppos

Randi Weingarten rebukes politicians, says get involved

by mike simpson / 8h

Federal teacher union leader rebukes politicians, says get involved : Federal teacher union leader rebukes politicians, says get involved The president of the American Federation of Teachers in El Paso Saturday rebuked state and national politicians whose policies she says are hurting students, encouraging educators to make an impact in the current political climate. Randi Weingarten’s riling key

Poverty, Dropouts, Pregnancy, Suicide: What The Numbers Say About Fatherless Kids : NPR Ed : NPR

by mike simpson / 8h

Poverty, Dropouts, Pregnancy, Suicide: What The Numbers Say About Fatherless Kids : NPR Ed : NPR : Poverty, Dropouts, Pregnancy, Suicide: What The Numbers Say About Fatherless Kids Eva Bee/Getty Images/Ikon Images The growing number of fatherless children in this country poses one of the the most serious problems in education today, according to best-selling author Alan Blankstein. He has spent m

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Cesar Chavez Charter School in D.C. finally has a union

by mike simpson / 8h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Cesar Chavez Charter School in D.C. finally has a union : Cesar Chavez Charter School in D.C. finally has a union A SmallTalk Salute goes out to the teachers and staff at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School at Chavez Prep Middle School in D.C. who voted 31-2 Thursday to unionize, the first time a charter in the District has taken such a step. The educators organized

Russ on Reading: Military Vouchers: Choice Comes to Our Defense

by mike simpson / 8h

Russ on Reading: Military Vouchers: Choice Comes to Our Defense : Military Vouchers: Choice Comes to Our Defense Inspired by Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and her school choice agenda, Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis has declared that we are doing away with our traditional army, navy and air force in favor of giving each and every American family a 10,000 dollar military vouche

Here’s an Idea: Guarantee Every Child an Excellent Education | gadflyonthewallblog

by mike simpson / 9h

Here’s an Idea: Guarantee Every Child an Excellent Education | gadflyonthewallblog : Here’s an Idea: Guarantee Every Child an Excellent Education Let’s get one thing straight: there are plenty of things wrong with America’s school system. But they almost all stem from one major error. We don’t guarantee every child an excellent education. Instead, we strive to guarantee every child THE CHANCE at

My Dad. | Fred Klonsky

by mike simpson / 9h

My Dad. | Fred Klonsky : My Dad Photograph: Robert Klonsky; Photograph by Peter Stackpole for Life Magazine. My Dad. | Fred Klonsky :

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Testing Non-Reform

by mike simpson / 9h

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Testing Non-Reform : PA: Testing Non-Reform In Pennsylvania, our Big Standardized Test for high school students is the Keystone Exam. Its history is a sad study in BS Testing. Its future is cloudy. Unfortunately, while the Keystones may be on the way out, there's no reason to believe they won't be replaced with something worse. Back in the (pre-Common Core) day, PA used the PS

Mayoral Control and Charter Schools: Pawns on the Chessboard of Politics | Ed In The Apple

by mike simpson / 10h

Mayoral Control and Charter Schools: Pawns on the Chessboard of Politics | Ed In The Apple : Mayoral Control and Charter Schools: Pawns on the Chessboard of Politics Back in the eighties a major issue in Albany was the death penalty; Republicans and DINOs (Democrats in Name Only) supported a death penalty law opposed by progressive Democrats. After a few years a death penalty law passed in both h

Badass Teachers Association: From the Trenches of Public Education by Christine Gill

by mike simpson / 10h

Badass Teachers Association: From the Trenches of Public Education by Christine Gill : From the Trenches of Public Education by Christine Gill This is in response to someone trying to lecture us on how we in public ed sound greedy and like we do not care about our students, just ourselves. Feel free to grab a cup of covfefe before you read my rant: You have bought the propaganda people like the c

YESTERDAY

#30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings 2017 ~ Happy Father's day 2017 - # Wishes Quotes Messages #

by mike simpson / 22h

#30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings 2017 ~ Happy Father's day 2017 - # Wishes Quotes Messages # : #30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings 2017 Happy Father's day 2017 Hey there a re you looking for some of the best father's day quotes for your father on this father 's day ? t hen you are at the right place , we Happy Father's Day 2017

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/17/17

by mike simpson / 1d

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/17/17 Featured Post CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Death To Public Education Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Support Room 134! by mike simpson / 1h Ms. Katie's Ramblings: Support Room 

Top Posts This Week

• 

  Think Tanks, Fake News, Astroturfing, and Lies in the Era of Trump and DeVos - The Crucial Voice of the People
• 

  Jessica Tang quietly makes history with Boston Teachers Union election - The Boston Globe
• 

  #30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings 2017 ~ Happy Father's day 2017 - # Wishes Quotes Messages #
• 

  Gov. Scott to sign controversial education bill today in Orlando - Orlando Sentinel
• 

  Blaine Amendment Challenge in Limbo at the US Supreme Court | deutsch29
• 

  Gov. Brown, Democrats to require school districts to give greater access to unions | EdSource
• 

  How diplomas based on skill acquisition, not credits earned, could change education - The Hechinger Report
• 

  Impact Investing and Venture Philanthropy's Role in Sowing the Seeds of Financial Opportunity
• 

  Read James Comey's prepared testimony for Senate Intel
• 

  Troubling Trends for California’s State Teachers Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé

Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post

Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post:

Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team

The conferences most parents had with their children’s teachers this school year probably went something like this: They occurred twice, in the fall and spring. Many parents failed to show up. Those who did asked whether their children were behaving and passing. After 15 minutes, the meeting was over.

But there’s a growing movement in the nation’s schools to overhaul parent-teacher conferences.

In hundreds of schools in the District and elsewhere, these conferences look drastically different as educators seek to build stronger relationships with parents and equip families with tools to reinforce classroom concepts at home. Teachers and parents meet in a large group setting at least three times a year, sometimes with students present. They discuss how students are performing on key measures such as reading comprehension and mathematical concepts. Parents leave the meetings with games and other activities they can use at home to reinforce classroom learning.

“The traditional parent-teacher conference is isolationist,” said Maria Paredes, a former teacher who created a model in 2012 known as Academic Parent-Teacher Teams, or APTT. “It is me and the teacher, maybe my child, and I don’t hear about anyone else in the class.”

 Harriet Tubman Elementary School, in Northwest Washington, uses APTT for all classes. Parents and teachers met in October, February and June as a group for an hour. Those conferences have replaced the traditional one-on-one meetings familiar to the vast majority of families elsewhere.

Math teacher Lulla Abraham leads an exercise with Jason Ayala, 7, and Glenda Vasquez, 8, while parents watch during a conference at school. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

[Can they unplug? A principal will pay students to forgo screen time this summer]

Paredes, who works for the WestEd nonprofit education group, estimates that 600 schools, like Tubman, have adopted this model in 22 states, including Georgia, Arizona and Texas. In the Houston schools, a WestEd study found that students whose families attended the meetings had stronger gains in English language arts compared with those whose parents did not.

“It’s a whole shift with how we think parents can collaborate with teachers. Parents can also Rethinking the parent-teacher conference: Meeting more often, working as a team - The Washington Post:

Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations | radical eyes for equity

Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations | radical eyes for equity:

Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations

my father moved through griefs of joy;…
his shoulders marched against the dark

“my father moved through dooms of love,” e.e. cummings

This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.

“Good Bones,” Maggie Smith

While sitting in the ER with my father a few nights ago before he was admitted into the hospitals’ heart center—a few days after my mother’s stroke sending her to another, larger hospital 40-minutes away—I was reminded of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, a novel, among other things, about the abusive power imbalance between men and women.

Late in the novel, Celie explains to her sister Nettie: “Take off they pants, I say, and men look like frogs to me. No matter how you kiss ’em, as far as I’m concern, frogs is what they stay.”

The most powerful and imposing man in my life, my father, sat in the ER—stooped, shrunken, pot-bellied, tongue hanging out of his mouth and bowed head like an aged human-sized toad somehow in a wheelchair. My physical and athletic superior who despite my being in my mid-50s and quite successful in my career and my athletic hobby, my father has always cast a shadow, darkening my lingering insecurities and anxieties.

This morning, Father’s Day 2017, I visited my father still in the heart center after spending almost all my time at my mother’s side as the number of Our Gladiator Culture: On “Grit,” Competition, and Saving Future Generations | radical eyes for equity:

‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip - The Washington Post

‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip - The Washington Post:

‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip

Around here, the offer of watching a two-hour documentary about how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chased the Watergate story is about as appealing as taking the car into the shop to get the tires rotated. I’m looking at the calendar and not seeing what we like to call the peg. (The 40th anniversary of the middle of the Watergate saga? The 37th anniversary of the movie premiere of “All the President’s Men?” The 563rd anniversary of the printing press?)

Yet here I sit, thoroughly absorbed by executive producer/narrator Robert Redford’s “All the President’s Men Revisited,” a fresh and even stirring reminiscence airing this Sunday on Discovery.

Redford and his crew, including director Peter Schnall, stylishly manage what countless think tank and j-school panel discussions struggle to do — cut through the recollections of the major players (Woodward, Bernstein, their boss Ben Bradlee, Nixon White House counsel John Dean, etc.) and utilize their well-trod anecdotes and war stories in a way that seems new. 

Because let’s face it: Watergate is fading before our eyes. For measuring distance, we in 2013 are now farther away from the events portrayed in “All the President’s Men” than the film “Bonnie and Clyde” was from the real Bonnie and Clyde. Richard Nixon himself is nearly 20 years gone. Mark Felt, the former FBI official who outed himself as Deep Throat in 2005, died four-plus years ago. And while The Post legends and ex-White House staffers (the film also talks to Hugh W. Sloan, Bud Krogh and Alexander Butterfield) come across as a relatively hale bunch in this film, it is in fact the younger interview subjects who do the most to revivify the entire saga as both a political and cultural watershed.

Thus Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” shares a bit of the ubiquitous and jowly impression of Richard Nixon he used to do as a boy. (Any American who was a child during the Watergate years remembers how you could get the adults in the room to laugh and pay attention to you with a well-timed slouch and “I am not a crook.” You didn’t even really have to know what it meant.) “Ten years old [and] I had my Nixon down,” Stewart says in the film. “Now I have a much more complex view of the man and his presidency. The sad truth is, I think Nixon would by today’s standards be considered maybe a conservative Democrat, [and] maybe at some levels a radical leftist.”

And MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who was an infant during the Watergate hearings, is always good at giving history’s constitutional crises a relevant place in today’s conversation: “Richard Nixon is now the guy who, when you see photos of him even at his prime, you cannot believe he was ever president of the United States.”

 It’s smart of Redford and company to acknowledge all this. But their “All the President’s Men Revisited” is no Watergate for Dummies, either; it is as concerned with the historical ‘All the President’s Men Revisited’: Watergate again, but not just a nostalgia trip - The Washington Post:

The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision | Seattle Education

The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision | Seattle Education:

The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision

If you don’t have to see or live with the consequences of your decisions, it becomes very easy to do bad things.

In Olympia, this is especially true as the lure of money, power, and personal political ambition continually cloud the judgement of the peoples’ representatives.

Add to this dysfunctional system an insulating layer of well funded non-profits, think tanks and NGOs; all vying to create our state’s education policies and claiming to know what’s best for our students.

These groups woo hand-picked politicians and hight level bureaucrats to become their “thought leaders”.

Perks include personal invitations to corporate underwritten conferences and retreats — with the built-in opportunity to meet all the right sort of people.

What’s the catch?

Once they’re back in Olympia, these members of the political class must be willing to prioritize the political agendas of these non-profits, think tanks, and NGOs, while throwing their constituents under the bus.

The Unravelling.

The comforting facade of democracy in Olympia is already slipping as the clock winds down on the McCleary crisis AND YET the legislature continues to stubbornly refuse to do their Constitutionally mandated job to amply fund public education.

Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine, explains how neoliberalism has made an art of using a political crisis to push through destructive policies while the general population The Shock Doctrine, McCleary, De-linking Graduation from State Mandated Tests, and State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s Education Vision | Seattle Education:

Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams

Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams:

Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools

Indiana has been taken over by the forces of corporate school reform, under a succession of Republican governors devoted to school choice: Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence, now Eric Holcomb. The public schools got a brief respite when educator Glenda Ritz was elected State Commissioner in 2012, but Pence spent four years attacking her Office and taking away its powers. Indiana has the gamut of privatization reforms: charter schools, vouchers, cybercharters.

The epicenter of the privatization movement is Indianapolis, where an organization called The Mind Trust has led the effort to destroy public education.

A teacher in Indiana recently left a comment about what she encountered when she returned to teaching in the public schools: lessons learned from charters.

She writes:

“I believe this “hypernormalization” can be traced back to the use of TFA teachers in our public school system. I had to come out of retirement to go back to the classroom for economic reasons and found an Art teacher position in the Indianapolis Public Schools. I joined a staff of over 50 teachers in a K-6 school with mostly young teachers (less than 10 years experience), TFA teachers, administrators with NO teaching experience and no teacher’s license, and a building with a high needs student population that was in complete chaos. The principal and assistant principal were only concerned only with “creating classroom culture,” or making sure that all the students walked in straight lines with a bubble in their mouth, hands clasped behind their backs. Data collection and testing was the driving force behind everything and it was of utmost importance to point out to any Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams:

Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.

Follow Hoosier School Heist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoosierSchoolHeist

Tweet with Doug Martin at: https://twitter.com/DougMartinED

 Indianapolis: What the Public Schools Learned from the Charter Schools | By Diane Ravitch | Common Dreams:

Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY | Renton Reporter

Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY | Renton Reporter:

Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY

Teachers are gravely concerned that what is getting hammered out behind closed doors in the legislature will seek to amply fund the public school system, as demanded by the state Supreme Court, and bring new rules on their ability to collectively bargain on wages and working conditions.

Since teachers from the state’s school districts are not in those talks, they’ve carried out an intensifying campaign of public actions the past two months to try to influence the conversations from the outside.

Everett teachers are among the best paid in the stat, which shines a brighter light on the concerns. A teacher in Everett School District with 15 years experience and a masters degree can earn, in round figures, an annual salary of around $100,000 under the current contract. The state covers around $70,000 and the school district takes care of the rest with money collected from local property tax levies.

For the Everett Education Association, it’s a product of collective bargaining and community support. Everett School Board members agree to those salaries and the electorate in Everett backs them up by approving levies necessary to handle the costs.

Meanwhile, in Olympia, a group of eight Democratic and Republican lawmakers are closing in on an agreement to comply with the court’s edict in the McCleary case. It will be a blueprint for how billions of additional dollars will be funneled into and spent by the education system with the biggest chunk going to cover the portion of teacher, staff and administrator salaries now paid by local taxpayers.

State law is likely to be tweaked to make clear how state and local dollars can be used going forward. That’s triggering talk, and tension, on potential revisions in the collective bargaining process.

Teachers see no need for change. But those traditionally on the other side of the table — superintendents and school board directors — are urging, to the point of begging, lawmakers to do something.

On March 23, superintendents of 32 school districts in Snohomish, Island, Skagit, Whatcom and San Juan counties asked lawmakers in a Teachers union concerned about McCleary | COMMENTARY | Renton Reporter:

Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids

Florida leads the states who re testing worksite charter schools for company kids:

Florida leads the states who are testing worksite charter schools for company kids

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A rarely applied experiment in education enabling companies to host taxpayer-funded charter schools for their employees’ children may be about to spread.

Florida is the only state bringing business-backed charter schools to work sites so far. The first launched in 1999, across the street from the Ryder truck rental company’s headquarters near Miami.

Louisiana and Connecticut laws also encourage these charters. Louisiana’s first school, partly financed by a hospital, is slated to open next year. And now North Carolina lawmakers are weighing a law copied from Louisiana’s.

Charter schools are free public schools, funded with tax dollars corresponding to student enrollment, but they operate independently and are exempt from most state regulations. Supporters say they encourage classroom innovation by creating competition with traditional public schools; critics say charters drain away resources.

Workplace charter schools have been slow to catch on because they don’t offer clear returns for company investment or benefits to employees who would enroll their children, said Samuel Abrams, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University.

On-site preschools are embraced by workers because they can drop in during breaks and check on their young children, alleviating worries about the quality of care, Abrams said. Florida leads the states who re testing worksite charter schools for company kids:

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice)

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice):

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice)

Betsy DeVos, the white woman who was given everything in life including her appointment as Education Secretary, thanks in part to large donations of her husband’s money, is curtailing investigations into civil rights violations because the Trump administration doesn’t care about non-white people issues (Kanye before Kim voice.)

Adding yet another feather in the president’s plan to undo all of former president Barack Obama’s legislation, the new plan will scale back efforts to look at systemic issues and whole classes of victims. “Also, regional offices will no longer be required to alert department officials in Washington of all highly sensitive complaints on issues such as the disproportionate disciplining of minority students and the mishandling of sexual assaults on college campuses,” the New York Times reports.

This is Betsy DeVos, aka the Sarah Palin of education, in her attempt at reshaping the department. So far under her guidance, DeVos has suspended legislation that would allow student loans amassed at predatory lending colleges to be forgiven and now she doesn’t want systemic civil rights issues to be reported. Nice.

The administration claims that because the current legislation caused soaring complaints, the civil rights office found itself understaffed and stifled in paperwork. So instead of increasing staff or trimming her security detail which has cost taxpayers some $8 million, DeVos decided that the department needn’t be bothered with that civil rights stuff. Too messy.

Raise your hand if you are shocked at the measures this administration continues to take moving towards big business and away from the people. Is anyone surprised that DeVos doesn’t care much for civil rights complaints? Seriously, anyone?

Read more at the New York Times.

Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Care About Systemic Discrimination (Old Kanye Voice):

 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI:Father's Day Edition + Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI:Father's Day Edition (6/18):

ICYMI:Father's Day Edition (6/18)

It's a day for Dads, a holiday that somehow doesn't clog restaurants and bolster the greeting card industry. But in the meantime, here are some readings from the week. Remember to share!

Help Kids Mind Their Own Business

Eleven handy sayings (and one kind of dumb one) to make the anti-tattling case to your students. No policy implications.

No Clean Hands

A guest poster at Have You Heard makes some powerful points in the whole "Whose fault is Betsy DeVos" debate.

Students Sat in Cubicles; It Wasn't Popular 

Carpe Diem is yet another charter that turns up on reformster lists of charter awesomeness. Turns out it hasn't been so awesome.

Suppressing Free Speech in Schools Does Not Make America Greater 

An editorial looking at two student free speech cases. Close to home for us in the yearbook and school newspaper biz

The Church of Choice

Daniel Katz takes a look at Betsy DeVos's belief in the magical powers of choice

Pearson Botches Mississippi Testing [Again]; Mississippi Immediately Severs Contract 

While we're arguing about bigger policy issues, implementation is still its own problem. Pearson just blew it in Mississippi

Here's an Idea: Let's Guarantee Each Child an Excellent Education

Steven Singer argues for public, not privatized, education.

Betsy DeVos Doesn't Get It

Jan Ressenger looks at how DeVos's Libertarian beliefs do not serve the public good.

The War on Teachers and the End of Public Education

Nancy Flanagan reads the writing on the wall and issues a call to arms.

Building the Life We Want

Annie Tan doesn't post often, but when she does, she makes it count. Read this to draw power for what's ahead.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI:Father's Day Edition (6/18):

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

 

Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/06/catch-up-with-curmudgucation_17.html

Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union | Diane Ravitch's blog

Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union

In Chicago, 1,000 teachers from 32 charter schools voted to join the nation’s most militant teachers union, the CTU. There are 125 charter schools in Chicago, according to CPS data.

“Unionized teachers at Chicago’s charter schools are one step closer to unifying with their counterparts in the city’s public school district, a historic move that would strengthen opposition to austerity and neoliberal education reform.

“Last week, members of the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ChiACTS)—the American Federation of Teachers local representing about 1,000 educators at 32 charter schools—voted to merge their local with the nearly 30,000-member Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

“The unification vote passed with the approval of 84 percent of voting members, ChiACTS said. Before the merger can move forward, CTU members will also have to vote on the measure this fall.

“Our overwhelming vote for unity affirms that charter educators are educators first, and servants of the public with a shared commitment to the futures of our students across the city,” ChiACTS president Chris Baehrend told In These Times.”

Charter lobbyists attempted to dissuade ChiACTS members from approving the merger by describing the CTU as “anti-charter school.” But union leaders dispute this characterization.

“CTU has been very clear that they do not have a problem with our Chicago: Teachers at 32 Charter Schools Vote to Join the Chicago Teachers Union | Diane Ravitch's blog: