'We're Bringing Education Back': Takeaways From The Election : NPR

'We're Bringing Education Back': Takeaways From The Election : NPR

'We're Bringing Education Back': Takeaways From The Election

Hello! We know there's a lot of news out there, but we're bringing you an education-centric take on the midterms, with big results in some key states.

Arizona

Arizona is one of five states that saw teacher walkouts this past spring. After a grassroots group of public school supporters put it on the ballot, what would have been the nation's broadest school voucher expansion was overturned Tuesday 2-to-1 by popular referendum.

Arizona has been considered a model state by school choice advocates, so the rebuke is a notable shift.

NATIONAL

3 Ways Education Is Influencing Arizona's Midterms

Republican Doug Ducey, a school choice advocate, retained the governorship. He helped end the walkout with a pledge to boost educators' salaries by 20 percent by 2020. But Ducey has also promised a tax cut, so it's unclear where the money will come from.

Colorado

Another teacher walkout state; still, voters nixed a $1.6 billion tax hike for public education.

Jared Polis, the new Democratic governor, founded two charter schools. He's proposed the that Colorado needs to "end decades of shameful underinvestment in our public schools" and wants to stabilize and equalize school funding in the state.

Polis, who has two children with his partner, is also the country's first openly gay governor.

Connecticut

Jahana Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, became the first black woman to represent the Nutmeg State in Congress. "This history teacher is making history," she told reporters on Tuesday.

Illinois

Democrat J.B. Pritzker, a wealthy venture capitalist, won a resounding 15-point victory over incumbent Republican Bruce Rauner. Pritzker's resume includes philanthropic support of early education, like the First Five Years Fund.

Rauner was an original plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME, which dealt a heavy blow to public employee unions.

EDUCATION

Is This Supreme Court Decision The End Of Teachers Unions?

He also took heat from teacher unions for his support of school choice and for relaxing teacher certification rules to address a teacher shortage.

Education is a big ongoing political issue here; a new school funding formula is intended to direct more money to poor districts.

Kansas

The State Supreme Court says school funding in Kansas is unconstitutionally "inadequate." A school shut down is possible if the legislature can't agree on a fix.

THE TWO-WAY

Kansas Isn't Spending Enough On Its Schools, State's High Court Says

During the campaign, Democrat Laura Kelly dubbed herself the "education governor." Gov. Kelly now says she will work to ensure that schools are fully funded.

Maryland

Half a billion dollars' worth of gambling money is headed for Maryland public schools. The ballot measure passed by almost 90 percent.

Michigan

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, a teacher union member with children in public schools, is moving to the governor's residence here.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a a statement: "Gretchen Whitmer walks the walk for kids, for teachers and for working families because she's one of us." All of this in Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's home state, where the Republican DeVos family has spent millions of dollars in support of school choice.

On Whitmer's docket is expanding access to pre-K and rebuilding Detroit's public schools.

New Jersey

A half-billion chunk of change via bonds will go toward vocational, career and technical education, as well as school water infrastructure and school security.

New Mexico

Democratic Governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham campaigned on remaking the school accountability system and ditching the state PARCC test in favor of less testing time.

She backed more money for teachers, more preK and career education, more attention to Native education, and promised to improve the state's high school graduation rate, currently in 49th place. School funding bond issues passed here Tuesday as well.

Oklahoma

In another walkout state, Republican Kevin Stitt, who painted himself as a friend to schools and promised a bump in teacher pay in the next year's budget, won the governorship.

Wisconsin

The state's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Democrat Tony Evers, beat incumbent Scott Walker, attacking him for weakening public sector unions and cutting K12 and higher ed budgets. Evers' schools agenda is to restore investment across the board.

His running mate, former state Rep. Mandela Barnes, told the crowd on election night: "We are bringing education back to the state of Wisconsin."

'We're Bringing Education Back': Takeaways From The Election : NPR

With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States - The New York Times

With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States - The New York Times

With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States

Over the last decade, the charter school movement gained a significant foothold in New York, demonstrating along the way that it could build fruitful alliances with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other prominent Democrats. The movement hoped to set a national example — if charter schools could make it in a deep blue state like New York, they could make it anywhere.

But the election on Tuesday strongly suggested that the golden era of charter schools is over in New York. The insurgent Democrats who were at the forefront of the party’s successful effort to take over the State Senate have repeatedly expressed hostility to the movement.

John Liu, a newly elected Democratic state senator from Queens, has said New York City should “get rid of” large charter school networks. Robert Jackson, a Democrat who will represent a Manhattan district in the State Senate, promised during his campaign to support charter schools only if they have unionized teachers.

And another incoming Democratic state senator, Julia Salazar of Brooklyn, recently broadcast a simple message about charter schools: “I’m not interested in privatizing our public schools.”

No one is saying that existing charter schools will have to close. And in fact, New York City, which is the nation’s largest school system and home to the vast majority of the state’s charter schools, has many that are excelling.

Over 100,000 students in hundreds of the city’s charter schools are doing well on state tests, and tens of thousands of children are on waiting lists for spots. New York State has been mostly spared the scandals that have plagued states with weaker regulations.

But it seems highly likely that a New York Legislature entirely under Democratic control will restrict the number of new charter schools that can open, and tighten regulations on existing ones.

The defeat is magnified because Mr. Cuomo, a shrewd observer of national political trends with an eye toward a potential White House bid, recently softened his support for charter schools. Mayor Bill de Blasio is a longtime charter opponent with his own national aspirations.

And New York is not the only state where the charter school movement is facing fierce headwinds because of the election.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an enemy of public sector unions, was unseated by a Democrat, Tony Evers, a former teacher who ran on a promise to boost funding to traditional public schools.

In neighboring Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat who promised to curb charter school growth, beat the incumbent Republican, Gov. Bruce Rauner, a supporter of charter schools. And in Michigan, a Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, promised to “put an end to the DeVos agenda.”

Ms. Whitmer won her race for governor decisively against the state’s Republican attorney general, Bill Schuette, who is an ally of Betsy DeVos, Continue reading: With Democratic Wins, Charter Schools Face a Backlash in N.Y. and Other States - The New York Times

Is Screen Time at School Bad for Kids? - The Atlantic

Is Screen Time at School Bad for Kids? - The Atlantic
The Backlash Against Screen Time at School
Combining education and technology is great—until it's not.

Four years ago, Paul France left a teaching job in the Chicago suburbs to move to San Francisco and be part of the so-called personalized-learning revolution in education. He joined a high-profile start-up called AltSchool whose investors include Mark Zuckerberg and the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. France was passionate about both education and technology and welcomed the opportunity to combine the two. But they would not prove to be as complementary as he thought.

AltSchool’s founder, a former Google executive named Max Ventilla, envisioned it as a place where students, aided by technology and tech-savvy teachers, would learn at their own pace, based on their interests and aptitudes. Teachers, using proprietary software to track student performance and help guide their learning, would be freed from time-consuming tasks like scoring exams and could devote more attention to students. The company’s mission was to help move the American education system from an industrial age model “where schools were set up to resemble factories and students had a conveyor belt-like experience” to a more “learner-centric” approach that gives students a sense of agency and 21st-century problem-solving skills, Devin Vodicka, who is responsible for guiding the company’s personalized learning platform as it expands to more schools, told me.

The company opened small lab schools in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and New York. Students were provided with their own iPads or Chromebooks along with individualized “playlists” of learning activities to choose from. Cameras in classrooms videotaped students’ and teachers’ interactions, enabling teachers and engineers to analyze the footage and review what worked, a process AltSchool technologists hoped would eventually be aided by computers using machine-learning algorithms.

AltSchool was flooded with applicants willing and able to pay tuition of $30,000 or more for their children to attend, and became one of the hottest start-ups in educational technology; to date, it has raised more than $170 million in investment. It was part of a broad investor rush to ed tech. Last year, Continue reading: Is Screen Time at School Bad for Kids? - The Atlantic

School Choice Fails to Create Equity and Justice for Our Society’s Poorest Children | janresseger

School Choice Fails to Create Equity and Justice for Our Society’s Poorest Children | janresseger

School Choice Fails to Create Equity and Justice for Our Society’s Poorest Children

Early this week, in her Washington Post column, Valerie Strauss published an important reflection on Why It Matters Who Governs America’s Public Schools by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education. Burris and Ravitch are responding to a major report from the Learning Policy Institute’s Peter Cookson, Linda Darling-Hammond, Robert Rothman, and Patrick Shields, a report which endorses the idea of “portfolio school reform.”

The Learning Policy Institute’s report, The Tapestry of American Public Education, promotes a lovely metaphor, a tapestry of school options woven together—open enrollment, magnet schools, charter schools, and specialty schools based on distinct educational models. The Learning Policy Institute declares: “The goal and challenge of school choice is to create a system in which all children choose and are chosen by a good school that serves them well and is easily accessible. The central lesson from decades of experience and research is that choice alone does not accomplish this goal.  Simply creating new options does not lead automatically to greater access, quality or equity.”  Here is how the Learning Policy Institute proposes that such fair and equal choice might be accomplished: “Focus on educational opportunities for children, not governance structures. Too often, questions related to the number of charters a district should have address school governance preferences, rather than the needs of children… Work to ensure equity and access for all. Expanding choice can increase opportunities, or it can complicate or restrict access to convenient and appropriate opportunities, most often for the neediest students… Create transparency at every stage about outcomes, opportunities, and resources to inform decision making for families, communities, and policymakers… Build a system of schools that meets all students’ needs.”

The Learning Policy Institute’s recommendations sound familiar. They are the same arguments made by the Center on Reinventing Public Education as it describes its theory of “portfolio school reform.” Portfolio school reform imagines an amicable, collaborative mix of many different schools: “A great school for every child in every neighborhood. The portfolio Continue reading:School Choice Fails to Create Equity and Justice for Our Society’s Poorest Children | janresseger

Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris - The Washington Post

Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris - The Washington Post
Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris

I recently published a post by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris titled “Why It Matters Who Governs America’s Public Schools,” which took issue with some parts of a new report — “The Tapestry of American Public Education: How Can We Create a System of Schools Worth Choosing for All?” — released by a California think tank founded by education expert Linda Darling-Hammond. This post is a response from Darling-Hammond and colleagues to that piece.

[Why it matters who governs America’s public schools]

Ravitch, Darling-Hammond and Burris are three of the most prominent voices in the national education debate about how to create equitable schools in this country and more often than not agree with one another. This piece and the earlier one reveal a split in the way they view school choice.

Ravitch, a former U.S. assistant secretary of education, is an education historian and advocate who for years was seen as the titular leader of the grass-roots movement against corporate school reform. Burris is a former award-winning high school principal in New York. Both women are leaders of the nonprofit advocacy group the Network for Public Education.

Ravitch and Burris oppose the expansion of alternatives to publicly funded and publicly operated schools and districts, including charter schools, which are privately operated but funded with taxpayer dollars. Their piece criticized the new report for, among other things, failing to take a strong stand on the expansion of charter schools.

Darling-Hammond, an expert on teacher preparation and equity, founded the Center for Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford University, where she is professor emeritus, and is founder and president of the California-based Learning Policy Institute. The nonprofit think tank was created to conduct independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice, and it was the institute that released the report.

As the post below explains, the report looks at the issue of school choice in a different way than many of the debates on the subject, and in contrast to Ravitch and Burris. You can read their piece here.

School choice is a means, not an end — and a useful one only if it results in greater quality and access for all students

By Linda Darling-Hammond, Peter Cookson, Bob Rothman and Patrick Shields

Last week, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) released a report, “The Tapestry of American Public Education: How Can We Create a System of Schools Worth Choosing for All?” that takes up the issues of choice in public education from a different perspective from the one that has been driving debates since the election of President Trump.

Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have made “choice” their central education policy — defining it primarily as vouchers and tax credits for private schools and funding for charter schools, which include for-profit as well as nonprofit entities. DeVos has actually been a shareholder in K12 Inc., one of the largest for- Continue reading: Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris - The Washington Post

Voters deliver major wins for students, public education in 2018 midterm elections - Education Votes

Voters deliver major wins for students, public education in 2018 midterm elections - Education Votes

Voters deliver major wins for students, public education in 2018 midterm elections

Nicknamed by observers and political pundits as the “Year of the Educator,” the 2018 midterm election results mark a major victory for students and serve as a mandate for real change in our public education system. Harnessing the momentum of the historic #RedForEd movement, with a surge of educators on the ballot and historic educator activism, the National Education Association and its affiliates helped to elect leaders that are positioned to shift the balance of power in state capitals and the U.S. Congress, where victories will add a critical check on policies that have hurt students, their families and communities.

Kitchen table issues typically dominate the discussion during midterm elections, and education was a top issue in races this year. MarketWatch reported that education was the second most mentioned topic in advertisements for gubernatorial candidates of both parties. But education wasn’t just a topic on the campaign trail. The midterm elections saw a spike in educators on the ballot.

“Lawmakers learned an important lesson tonight: You can either work with educators to address the needs of students and public education, or they will work to elect someone who will,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “Candidates across the country witnessed unprecedented activism by educators in their races. Standing up for students and supporting public education were deciding factors for voters, and educators will hold lawmakers to their promises.”

Nearly 220,000 NEA members and education families were involved in getting out the vote up and down the ballot in the 2018 election. That figure represents a 165 percent increase in activism engagement this election cycle compared with 2016, a presidential year where activism is historically higher than midterms, as measured through time put in phone-banking and canvassing. Local and state races were the biggest beneficiaries of NEA member activism.

See Educators Run

An analysis by NEA revealed nearly 1,800 current or former teachers and other education professionals ran for state legislative seats, and an additional 100 educators ran for top state or federal seats in Election 2018. A bulk of educators come from states that experienced historic #RedForEd walkouts this spring: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina. In fact, Oklahoma led the charge with more than 62 educators who were on the general election ballot.

“After decades of starving education funding, educators stepped up and said, ‘I can do better.’ They found themselves asking, ‘Why not have an educator in that lawmaking decision seat?’ And that’s exactly why they ran for office and voters elected them to serve,” added Eskelsen García, a sixth-grade teacher who now heads the nation’s largest union.

See Education Win

The primary focus of NEA’s electoral efforts this election cycle was on state races because education policy is decided by state legislatures and public education funding is a primary responsibility of the state. NEA investments were aimed at elevating our issues and promoting pro-public education candidates through candidate and independent expenditure communications and extensive grassroots field efforts. Significant resources also were devoted to federal races where priority U.S. Senate targets like Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio and Wisconsin were elected and the U.S. House of Representatives flipped to Democratic control, providing a significant check on the power of Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos.

Top targeted statewide races in which NEA and its state-level affiliates conducted aggressive member-to-member field and communications program include:

• Wisconsin governor-elect Tony Evers, an educator at the top of a state ticket and defeated Gov. Scott Walker
• Republican Brad Little, who has been elected the next Idaho governor
• Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker, who defeated incumbent Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner
• Kansas governor-elect Laura Kelly
• Michigan governor-elect Gretchen Whitmer
• Minnesota governor-elect Tim Walz, a career-teacher and a member of Education Minnesota, NEA’s state-level affiliate
• Minnesota auditor-elect Julie Blaha, an educator and member of Education Minnesota, NEA’s state-level affiliate
• New Mexico governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham
• New Mexico land commissioner-elect Stephanie Garcia Richard, a member of NEA-New Mexico
• Tom Wolf (D-Penn.) was re-elected to a second term

NEA and its affiliates worked to flip the state legislative chambers into pro-public education majorities like:

• Colorado state senate
• Connecticut state senate
• Maine state senate
• Minnesota state house
• New Hampshire house and senate
• New York state senate

The following ballot initiatives were top priorities for NEA and its affiliates:

• Maryland Question 1, which creates a “lockbox” for gaming revenue dedicated solely for K-12 education funding and has the potential to generate approximately $500 million annually in new funding for Maryland’s public schools. NEA’s affiliate, the Maryland State Education Association, worked with a broad-based coalition to get lawmakers to refer the amendment to the ballot. The Republican governor, Larry Hogan, and all but two Republican legislators supported referring this amendment to the ballot.
• Missouri Amendment 1, which is positioned to clean up Missouri’s political system, long-plagued by ethics corruption, and create a fair representation system. The passed ballot measure imposes contribution limit, bans revolving-door lobbying and lobbyist gifts and imposes redistricting reform. The Missouri-NEA was an early leader and driving force of the state-level coalition that worked to get the initiative on the ballot.
• Montana LR-128, which is an education funding levy for Montana’s universities that is up for statewide renewal every 10 years. NEA’s affiliate, the Montana Public Employees Association, was a major driver of the $6 million-levy reaching the ballot.

“Educators have had enough of empty promises from politicians. We told them we’d remember in November, and educators keep their promises,” added Eskelsen García. “As a result of the historic #RedForEd movement and the 2018 midterm election, educators have found their voice, and they are going to continue to hold lawmakers accountable after this election.”

Voters deliver major wins for students, public education in 2018 midterm elections - Education Votes

The midterm elections show America’s major shift in attitude to charter school privatization | Salon.com

The midterm elections show America’s major shift in attitude to charter school privatization | Salon.com

The midterm elections show America’s major shift in attitude to charter school privatization
It’s not hard to find news stories about waste, fraud, abuse and downright theft in the school privatization sector

For years, the policy window for privatizing public schools has been wide open, and what was once considered an extreme or at least rare idea — such as outsourcing public schools to private contractors with few strings attached, or giving parents public tax money to subsidize their children’s private school tuitions — has become widespread as charter schools are now legal in all but a handful of states, and voucher programs have proliferated in many forms across the country.

Politicians of all stripes have been extremely reluctant, especially at the national level, to lean into a real discussion of the negative consequences of redirecting public education funds to private operators, with little to no regulation for how the money is being spent. Candidates have instead stuck to a “safe boilerplate” of education being “good” and essential to “the workforce” without much regard to who provides it.

But policy windows can be fleeting (remember “the deficit crisis”?), and multiple factors can rejigger the public’s views. Indeed, in campaigns that candidates are waging in the upcoming midterm elections, one can see the policy window on school privatization gradually shifting back to support for public schools and increasing skepticism about doling out cash to private education entrepreneurs.

"Vulture schools"

It is the wave of new progressive candidates who appear to be the ones who are shifting the policy window on school privatization.

Take the campaign of progressive superstar Randy Bryce, running for the congressional seat Paul Ryan held in Wisconsin. The Badger State recently expanded statewide a voucher program that was confined to Milwaukee and Racine, and charter schools have expanded significantly under the leadership of Republican Governor Scott Walker.

On his website, Bryce provides the usual bromides about “every child deserves a quality education” and “charter, private and traditional public schools can all thrive,” but he then adds the curious statement that “no student should see money taken from their classroom in order to serve another.” What does that mean? Continue reading: The midterm elections show America’s major shift in attitude to charter school privatization | Salon.com

Vouchers Defeated in Arizona Overwhelmingly, Democrats Take Control of the House | Diane Ravitch's blog

Vouchers Defeated in Arizona Overwhelmingly, Democrats Take Control of the House | Diane Ravitch's blog

Vouchers Defeated in Arizona Overwhelmingly, Democrats Take Control of the House

There were wins and losses yesterday, and they are not all decided at 2 am, when I wrote this post. Some states have not yet declared a winner (thinking of Wisconsin, where I hope that Scott Walker was beaten).

Some losses that I mourn: Beto O’Rourke; Stacey Abrams; Andrew Gillum. All defeated by reactionaries of the worst sort.

Some significant victories:

Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, which means they have the power of the purse, the power to hold hearings, and the power to block some of Trump’s worst plans. That is huge. Hurrah for checks and balances!

Vouchers were overwhelmingly beaten in Arizona by the teachers and moms of SOS Arizona, who scored a knock-out punch against the Koch brothers, giving vouchers their 21st consecutive loss at the ballot box. The margin was 2-1 against vouchers. Congratulations, SOS Arizona!

Real Democrats gained control of the New York State Senate, ousting the fake Independent Democratic Caucus, who voted with Republicans.

In a very close race, it appears that Democrat Tony Evers beat the vile Scott Walker for Governor of Wisconsin.

Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Michigan.

Janet Mills, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Maine, and the outgoing Continue reading: Vouchers Defeated in Arizona Overwhelmingly, Democrats Take Control of the House | Diane Ravitch's blog