Education Research Report
Sunday, March 31, 2019
New Jersey Expose, Part 3: How Charter Operators Collected Hundreds of Millions from a Federal Fund for Building Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
New Jersey Expose, Part 3: How Charter Operators Collected Hundreds of Millions from a Federal Fund for Building Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
New Jersey Expose, Part 3: How Charter Operators Collected Hundreds of Millions from a Federal Fund for Building Public Schools
New Jersey Expose, Part 3: How Charter Operators Collected Hundreds of Millions from a Federal Fund for Building Public Schools
Northjersey.com and USA Today New Jersey are publishing a five-part series of the abuse of taxpayer funds by charter operators. This is part 3 of an investigation called “Cashing In on Charter Schools,” written by Abbott Koloff and Jean Rimbach.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid was steered to New Jersey’s largest charter school management companies over the last decade, helping them to create a network of school buildings that are privately owned.
“In other parts of the country, the same aid programs provided interest-free loans to both traditional public schools and charters to construct and renovate buildings. But a much different model emerged in New Jersey as Gov. Chris Christie’s administration gave the state’s entire share of the federal aid — bonds worth more than a half-billion dollars — to charters and other non-traditional public schools.
“More than three-quarters of that money was awarded to the state’s two largest charter school operators, KIPP New Jersey and Uncommon Schools, which used it in ways that strayed far from the intent of the aid programs.
“The companies fashioned complex financial structures that allow them to exploit the bonds by tapping into the aid as a steady stream of income over decades, using methods that in some cases have drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators.
“The result is a string of school buildings that were built with taxpayer money but remain in private hands. The companies that own them were created to purchase real estate and renovate buildings for charter schools, but they are kept legally separate from the charter schools that send millions of dollars their way each year in rent.
“Charter schools rent these buildings indefinitely. Leases do not contemplate a time when rent payments would end or when the buildings would be turned over to the public charter schools, even after the debt is paid.
“The deals involve related companies that are created to lend money to one another — an arrangement that is not CONTINUE READING: New Jersey Expose, Part 3: How Charter Operators Collected Hundreds of Millions from a Federal Fund for Building Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
March 2019 Grassroots Education Network Newsletter - Network For Public Education
March 2019 Grassroots Education Network Newsletter - Network For Public Education
March 2019 Grassroots Education Network Newsletter
March 2019 Grassroots Education Network Newsletter
I am very proud to present our first newsletter! As we discussed in our February meeting I will be putting out the NPE Grassroots Education Network Newsletter at the end of each month. NPE is honored to do this work with you and inspired by all that you are doing for our children and public schools. First order of business – please fill out this poll to secure a date for our April meeting. The poll will close on 4/7 and I will send an email out as to the date most of us can attend. The NPE Grassroots Education Network is now over 100 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign up.
If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education Network please contact Marla Kilfoyle, NPE Grassroots Liaison at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org
NPE Remembers Phyllis Bush
This month the NPE community and the nation lost a warrior for public education. To read the NPE statement honoring founding Board member, Phyllis Bush please go here. Please consider donating what you can to The Phyllis Bush Memorial Award Fund. Services for Phyllis Bush will be Saturday, May 4 at 11 a.m. in Fort Wayne. Of course, she requested that guests wear red for public ed.
National Organizing
NPE Grassroots Education Network national organizations are on the move for public education. Defending the Early Years launched its 4th mini-documentary in the “Teachers Speak Out” series. In this mini-documentary, early childhood educator Kisha Reid expertly describes how play-based environments spark creativity and are crucial for the developing brain. In the Public Interest viral video on why charter schools are such a controversy is a must watch and share! The Journey for Justice Alliance has launched a new Podcast called “On The Ground.” It is featured on Mondays at 6 PM CST and hosted by Jitu Brown! You can subscribe on Soundplay here. Fairtest pumps out weekly information about the movements on testing resistance across the nation. Their weekly newslettercomes out each Monday and is a must for anyone fighting corporate education reform.
Student Privacy Matters continues to update the nation on data privacy issues across the country. Make sure you check out their website and their new State Privacy Student Report Card, which was co-sponsored by NPE. Parents for Public Schools National was present at the CNN’s Town Hall broadcast live from Jackson, MS. PPS Executive Director Joann Mickens, PPS PEP Graduate Stephanie Eubanks-Wright, and Schoolhouse to Statehouse Community Coordinator Becky Heavner were invited to attend and submit questions for Senator Elizabeth Warren. Check out this link for the video.
The Schott Foundation continues to host informative webinars such as What If We Used Wealth to Heal, Not Harm? To keep up with their webinar series, reports, and movements visit them here. The Badass Teachers Association track and elevate teacher voice all over the country. To find out what teachers are up to, how they are mobilizing, and how they are fighting for education justice check out the movements of BATs. Go here for more information. Finally, The Network for Public Education released a blistering reporton how the federal government wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on defunct charter schools. NPE is also asking organization to take action regarding this waste. Go here to take action.
NPE Grassroots Education Network – State Organizations On the Move for Public Education
Please use this clearinghouse of information to inform people in the various states about the NPE Grassroots Education Network organizations. Please encourage people to join them and support their work! Call on family, friends, and colleagues to join the fight to save public education!
Alabama
SOS (Save our Schools) is reporting that the Alabama legislature is repealing Common Core.
Arizona
Voices for Education will be hosting a screening of Backpack Full of Cash on April 2nd. For more information go here. Arizonans for Charter School Accountability expose BASIS Charter Schools and how they waste taxpayer dollars. To learn more go here. Save our Schools Arizona roadshow is now available statewide! Invite them to your Rotary Club meeting, book club, community center, even your kitchen table. Their presenters will provide your group with a concise, factual and nonpartisan overview of the history of education funding in Arizona as well as current issues and paths forward. Go here for more information.
California
California Educators Rising continue to follow the movement of teacher strikes in California. To keep up with the Oakland, UTLA, and Sacramento teacher strikes go here. CONTINUE READING: March 2019 Grassroots Education Network Newsletter - Network For Public Education
Teach For America may lose model in California! | Cloaking Inequity
Teach For America may lose model in California! | Cloaking Inequity
Teach For America may lose model in California!
This is only the first of many steps for this bill before it becomes law. Next up is appropriations. However, no legislature has ever succeeded in a similar first vote (to my knowledge) and taken the first steps towards requiring TFA to change their core approach— charging thousands of dollars in fees for teachers who are stopping over in the classroom for a short term stay. If AB 211 ultimately passess, California would be the first state to demand that Teach For America and all other intern program commit to placing teachers for the long term.
Teach For America may lose model in California!
This week the California Assembly Education Committee heard AB 221. Here is the original text of the bill.
AB 221
SECTION 1.
Article 14 (commencing with Section 32440) is added to Chapter 3 of Part 19 of Division 1 of Title 1 of the Education Code, to read:
Article 14. Teach for America
32440.
(a) Commencing with the 2020–21 school year, no Teach for America teacher shall be assigned, pursuant to the Teach for America program, to teach at any California public school, including a charter school, that has at least 40 percent of its pupils being from low-income families, as specified pursuant to Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.).
(b) This section shall not be construed to apply to a Teach for America teacher’s placement at a school described in subdivision (a) before the start of the 2020–21 school year.
SEC. 2.
If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
I was asked by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), author of AB 221, to discuss my research at the hearing. Here is my testimony as written.
I’m Julian Vasquez Heilig, a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at California State University Sacramento. I also serve as the California NAACP Education Chair and on the Board of Network For Public Education Action.As a scholar, I have studied Teach For America (TFA) since 2005. Our first peer-reviewed study of TFA, co-authored with Linda Darling-Hammond, State Board of Education Chair, and others was entitled “Does teacher preparation matter? evidence about teacher certification, Teach For America, and teacher effectiveness” This study is probably the most prominent peer reviewed study about TFA in the research literature— it’s been cited more than 1,200 times. We examined the achievement of students taught by TFA teachers compared to other teachers in a large, urban district. We found that TFA teachers did not perform better than certified and trained teachers. In my work as a faculty fellow for the National Education Policy Center I have probably read every single peer reviewed and non-per reviewed study during the last 15 years about TFA. While most studies show no positive effect of TFA on student achievement, some studies that do find an impact typically don’t find any benefits from TFA until their 4 and 5th years. However, we need a big asterisk… we should consider the validity of these findings because the impact is typically only in math and the vast majority of TFA are gone by year 4 and 5 anyways— usually more than 80%. To sum up the research, choosing bad over worse is the enemy of good teaching for students in California’s Title I schools.I also think it is important to say that TFA is not “the new civil rights movement” as they have claimed. My mother always told me, show me who your friends are, and I’ll show you who you are. I think its notably the California NAACP and LULAC, our nation’s largest African American and Latino civil rights organizations are supporting this bill. Furthermore, California’s urban teachers represented by CFT are also supporting this bill.In conclusion, the California NAACP and the Network for Public Education support parents and other stakeholders who desire a highly-qualified teacher for every student in their neighborhood public schools.
Here is my 2-minute testimony as delivered.
Some intense moments in ensued when Assemblymember Kiley, a Republican and former TFA (before he went to law school), began aggresively questioning Assemblymember Garcia and criticizing Patrick O’Donnell, Chair of the Assembly Education Committtee. Watch the events unfold towards the end of the hearing.
Then Kiley decided to ask me some questions. Here is how that went.
If you listened to the hearing, you probably heard Assemblymember Garcia accept amendments to the bill. The changes are located on p. 11 of the AB 221 bill analysis, it was agreed in the Assembly Education Committee that the bill would be ammended to focus on longer 5-year commitments and abolish fees paid by districts to private third-party organizations for intern teachers.
So what was the result of the vote? Only Assemblymember Kiley voted against the amended bill in committee.
This is only the first of many steps for this bill before it becomes law. Next up is appropriations. However, no legislature has ever succeeded in a similar first vote (to my knowledge) and taken the first steps towards requiring TFA to change their core approach— charging thousands of dollars in fees for teachers who are stopping over in the classroom for a short term stay. If AB 211 ultimately passess, California would be the first state to demand that Teach For America and all other intern program commit to placing teachers for the long term.
See all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts about Teach For America here.
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