Stop Saving History | Blue Cereal Education

Stop Saving History | Blue Cereal Education

Stop Saving History

Welcome to my podcast. My professional development session. My keynote address. My #edreform movement. My next book.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, everything sucked before I got here – especially how we teach history. All social studies-related education since time immemorial has been taught badly, usually by caricaturized coaches (whose good names we’ll implicitly besmirch throughout today’s presentation). They recited nothing but long lists of disconnected facts, usually in hours of monotone delivery, and demanded you memorize several hundred miscellaneous dates and the names of all dead white men – mostly warriors, kings, and presidents. When visuals were utilized, they were on transparencies, using the same overhead projectors they presumably received on their fifth birthdays when first chosen to haunt the living in this particular fashion.

They only assigned two things – infinite vocabulary lists or questions at the end of the chapter. On good weeks, though, you’d get a documentary on Friday. It usually involved an actual film projector so it could make that cool ‘rakkikikikikikikikik’ sound the entire time.

But no longer – I am here to save history and history education. I will speak of women, and individuals of color, heretofore unknown in all of publishing or pedagogy. I will tell of the ‘common man’ and hypnotize CONTINUE READING: Stop Saving History | Blue Cereal Education

Bad News from L.A.: Landlords Win, Students Lose | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bad News from L.A.: Landlords Win, Students Lose | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bad News from L.A.: Landlords Win, Students Lose

Voters in Los Angeles yesterday turned down Measure EE, which would have raised $500 million yearly for schools. The measure required a 2/3 yes vote, but didn’t win a majority. It would have been funded mostly by taxes on commercial properties, and the LA Chamber of Commerce mounted a campaign to defeat it.

It would have funded smaller classes, nurses, social workers, librarians, arts and music.

What a crying shame.

If you care about the kids, you have to do right by them.

Bad News from L.A.: Landlords Win, Students Lose | Diane Ravitch's blog

Charter Schools at a Turning Point: How to Rein In an Out of Control Education Sector | janresseger

Charter Schools at a Turning Point: How to Rein In an Out of Control Education Sector | janresseger

Charter Schools at a Turning Point: How to Rein In an Out of Control Education Sector

If you read one article about education this week, you should read Jack Schneider’s columnfrom last week’s Washington Post.  If you have already read it, I encourage you to read it again.  Schneider is an education historian at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.  In last week’s column, Schneider shows how charter schools have failed to fulfill the promises of their promoters.

Schneider’s analysis is fair and balanced as he notes that charters have a mixed record.  While some are excellent schools that serve children well, “On the whole… charters have failed to live up to their promises.”

Schneider adds that the public is growing more aware of the problems charter school growth has caused for the public school districts where the charters have been located: “The charter school movement is in trouble.  In late December, the editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times observed that the charter movement in the Windy City was ‘in hot water and likely to get hotter.’  Among more than a dozen aspirants for mayor, ‘only a handful’ expressed any support for charter schools, and the last two standing for the… runoff election both said they wanted to halt charter school expansion.  In February, New York City’s elected parent representatives—the Community and Citywide Education Councils—issued a unanimous statement in which they criticized charters for operating ‘free from public oversight’ and for draining ‘substantial’ resources from district schools. A month later, Mayor Bill de Blasio told a parent forum that in the ‘not-too-distant future’ his administration would seek to curtail the marketing efforts of the city’s charters, which currently rely on New York City Department of Education mailing lists. After a six-day strike in January, Los Angeles teachers forced the city’s Board of Education to seek a state moratorium on new L.A. charters, an outcome that reverberated across California and then repeated itself in Oakland.”

“But,” writes Schneider, “much of the movement’s potency was a product of promises, rather CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools at a Turning Point: How to Rein In an Out of Control Education Sector | janresseger

Teachers quit in Florida, citing 'toxic’ conditions and a 'testing nightmare’ - The Washington Post

Teachers quit in Florida, citing 'toxic’ conditions and a 'testing nightmare’ - The Washington Post

Teachers quit in Florida, citing 'toxic’ conditions and a 'testing nightmare’

Florida has a serious teacher shortage. During this school year, there were more than 2,200 vacancies at one point or another. Why?

In a recent post, Fed Ingram, Miami-Dade County teacher of the year in 2006 and now president of the Florida Education Association cited several reasons, including low pay and little respect from policymakers.

There are, however, other reasons. The words of two teachers who have resigned help explain what is driving some of their compatriots to leave.

On April 30, a teacher in Florida published a post on Facebook explaining why he was giving up teaching after 20 years in private and public schools. Jonathan Carroll, who taught at South Lake High School in Lake County, wrote in part (referring to his wife, Dana):

I am leaving the field of education. I have had so many wonderful memories. But it has become a toxic profession. I think of what I thought I would be doing as teacher. Opening minds, debating history inspiring the next generation to reach higher and learn from the past. But education has become something else. I think of all the things I did not sign up for ... like micromanaging administrators, mental health counseling, blueprints with no freedom or flexibility (even though you can not enforce planning), not being considered an expert in my chosen field even though I have a graduate degree. Students overdosing on drugs and collapsing in my classroom when they get back from the bathroom. Active shooter drills. Teachers being armed. Knowing where it is safe to hide in my classroom. Feeding and clothing my students. Buying my own supplies. Being told I should be thankful I have a job and to get over myself. I am tired of the constant testing. We have testing coordinators at each school. Being told that if a student fails it is my fault not their fault. I am tired. Tired of everyone else knowing better and being chastised if I dare ask questions or challenge leadership. So this May, I am walking away. I am going to stay home for awhile (thank you Dana) and start a new chapter. Honestly, I’ll break even if I become a bankteller with no experience. But the truth is I will not miss what education has become. A soulless industrial education complex where admin cares more about the test scores than their faculty or students. I have loved teaching many of you. But it is time to ride into the sunset. Start enjoying life. And find happiness again.

And there is Shanna Fox, a 20-year veteran public school teacher in Polk County, with 15 of those years in a middle-school English Language Arts classroom. She is a National Board Certified Teacher whose 4-year-old daughter is preparing to enter kindergarten this year at the local public school.

Here is her open letter of resignation:

Stand Up and Fight – An Open Letter of Resignation

There is no business model that can fix education. Students are not products and services that can be quantified. They are living, breathing human beings and their complexity cannot be reduced to cells on a spreadsheet.

Each child comes with their own set of needs, strengths, and abilities. Teachers must be provided the freedom to CONTINUE READING: Teachers quit in Florida, citing 'toxic’ conditions and a 'testing nightmare’ - The Washington Post

Whatever Happened to the Core Knowledge Program? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to the Core Knowledge Program? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened to the Core Knowledge Program?

No, I do not refer to the Common Core standards.

I mean the Core Knowledge program that unfolded in U.S. schools in the decade following the 1987 publication of University of Virginia Professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr.’s Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.

The book, the creation of the Core Knowledge Foundation and subsequent publication of curricular sequences across academic subjects taught in elementary schools produced a reform that again brought to the surface the historical struggle over what kind of knowledge and skills are worth teaching and learning in tax-supported public schools.

Hot embers of previous traditional vs. progressive wars in the early 20th century and then in the 1950s over the importance of phonics vs. whole language in reading, exposure to disciplinary knowledge rather than students creating their own meaning  re-ignited in the last decade of the century after Hirsch’s book and the spread of Core Knowledge programs in schools.

What Problems Did the Core Knowledge Program Intend To Solve?

According to Hirsch and advocates for Core Knowledge, the current concentration on building skills–“student will be able to do…”–has handicapped children and youth by ignoring the importance of teaching systematically CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened to the Core Knowledge Program? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

What happened to Core Knowledge? It was bought by Amplify. https://t.co/huybTtvppC Strange @larrycuban doesn't mention this. https://t.co/J9V5RsGBJh

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) June 5, 2019

Anthony Cody: My Suggestion for Fordham's Moonshot for Kids - Living in Dialogue

My Suggestion for Fordham's Moonshot for Kids - Living in Dialogue

My Suggestion for Fordham’s Moonshot for Kids

By Anthony Cody.

As reported on Diane Ravitch’s blog, the Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress are offering a prize for proposals for a “Moonshot for Kids.”  Here is what they want:

By August 1, 2019, submit a brief application through our online portal. We are seeking ideas that would help the U.S. achieve one of the following big goals (your choice):

• Cut in half the number of fourth graders reading “below basic”
• Double the number of eighth graders who can write an effective persuasive essay
• Shrink by 30 percent the average time a student spends in English-language-learner status
• Double the amount of high-quality feedback the average middle schooler receives on their academic work
• Ensure that every student receives high-quality college and career advising by ninth grade
• Double the number of students from low-income families and students of color who graduate from high school with remediation-free scores on the SAT, ACT, or similar exams
• Double the number of young women who major in STEM fields

Readers should be aware that the Fordham Institute has been working for years to undermine and privatize public schools, and the Center for American Progress has been working, with a slightly more liberal bent, towards the same goal. Nonetheless, I appreciate a challenge to reimagine what might be done, so here is the proposal I submitted to their portal. Please share your ideas as well in the comments below.

I worked in the public schools of Oakland, CA, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school teacher of science and Math. I have witnessed firsthand the destructive effect of previous philanthropic efforts in education. There must be a radical change in approach.

The key to successful investment in this arena is leveraging a relatively small amount of money to create a ripple effect that delivers further deeper investment — and not just of funds, but of public trust and engagement.

A coalition of philanthropists would heed the convincing evidence from CONTINUE READING: 

My Suggestion for Fordham's Moonshot for Kids - Living in Dialogue

Huge Victory for Washington State’s Students: Exit Exam Requirement Struck Down! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Huge Victory for Washington State’s Students: Exit Exam Requirement Struck Down! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Huge Victory for Washington State’s Students: Exit Exam Requirement Struck Down!

Cue Pomp and Circumstance because many more Washington State high school seniors will be walking across the stage and handed a diploma!

Beginning with the class of 2020, high school students are no longer required to pass the “Smarter Balance Assessment” high-stakes standardized test to graduate. They will still have to take at least one federally mandated test during high school, but the new state law finally removes this treacherous obstacle for Washington’s students.

Let’s be clear about something: This victory against the cruelty of the “testocracy” would not have been possible without a rebellion from parents, students, educators, and community members who have demanded an end to over-testing and using a single score to judge and punish students. I edited a book, More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing, that details the national grassroots movement of student walkouts of high-stakes tests, teacher boycotts, parent opt-outs, that have changed the narrative about the abuses of standardized testing and the authentic assessment alternative.  Requiring exit exams to graduate has nothing to with what expert educators know about best practices for assessing students. In fact, Boston University economics professor Kevin Lang’s 2013 study, “The School to Prison Pipeline Exposed,” links increases in the use of high-stakes standardized high school exit exams to increased incarceration rates. Study after study has reveled that these tests are a better measure of family income than aptitude. These test measure resources and proximity to the dominant culture, negatively impacting English Language Learners, special education students, students of color, and low income students. University of CONTINUE READING: Huge Victory for Washington State’s Students: Exit Exam Requirement Struck Down! – I AM AN EDUCATOR

Sherman Dorn: Democratic Politics and Charter Schools, Brief Gloss | National Education Policy Center

Sherman Dorn: Democratic Politics and Charter Schools, Brief Gloss | National Education Policy Center

Sherman Dorn: Democratic Politics and Charter Schools, Brief Gloss

Tl;dr version: don’t waste your energy on trying to suss out The Position on National Charter School Politics. But why it doesn’t make much difference is different from the details of charter-school debates. 

Bernie Sanders’s education plan has gotten quite a bit of press since its mid-month release. The bulk of attention was taken up by the single section on school choice, which focused on charter schools.¹ Thus far, I think the most interesting response has been on Vox’s The Weeds podcast episode at the end of the week. Are charter school policies designed to advance civil rights or destroy public education? And what do we make of the fact that there are many pro-charter Black community activists at the same time that the NAACP has a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter-school expansion? 

Very briefly, at the level of politics: if you say that all Black parents have the same view of charter schools, I’m going to laugh at you, because you deserve it. The best evidence currently available is that Black Democratic voters are more likely than white Democratic voters to approve of charter schools (in general, as in polling questions), but that means that only a significant minority disapprove of charter schools in surveys (as opposed to a majority), and disapproval or skepticism or what have you has not grown among Black Democratic voters in the same way as it has among white Democratic voters.

The Weeds episode linked above has a reasonably-accurate summary of the research on charter schools:

• While there are a few notable exceptions, charter schools as a whole have not created incredibly innovative schools. (Unlike Matt Yglesias, I don’t think we should judge charter school policies just by how well they fulfilled the original utopian justification — because most education policies that are CONTINUE READING: Sherman Dorn: Democratic Politics and Charter Schools, Brief Gloss | National Education Policy Center

Julian Vasquez Heilig named dean at University of Kentucky College of Education | Cloaking Inequity

Julian Vasquez Heilig named dean at University of Kentucky College of Education | Cloaking Inequity

JULIAN VASQUEZ HEILIG NAMED DEAN AT UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2019) — Julian Vasquez Heilig has been named dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education. Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning leader, teacher and researcher, comes to UK from California State University, Sacramento, where he was a professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program.

He will join UK in August pending approval by the UK Board of Trustees and will take over for interim Dean Rosetta Sandidge.

“We are excited to welcome Julian Vasquez Heilig to the UK family,” said UK Provost David W. Blackwell. “As a thought leader in the field of education, he brings with him an exemplary scholarly record and a deep commitment to student and faculty success.”

Vasquez Heilig received his Ph.D. in educational administration and policy analysis and a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University. He also earned a master’s in higher education and a bachelor’s degree in history and psychology from the University of Michigan.

A prolific scholar, in the last decade alone, Vasquez Heilig has been an author or co-author on nearly 50 peer-reviewed journal and/or refereed articles or law reviews as well as chapters. Topics have been diverse in range and scope, covering issues such as racial equity and teacher preparation among many others.

He has been honored with more than 30 teaching, research and service recognitions, including a Ford Foundation fellowship, the American Educational Research Journal Outstanding Reviewer award, and named as a Diversity in Education Magazine Multicultural Champion. He also served as the education chair for the California Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP.

Vasquez Heilig’s work in higher education also includes serving on the faculty and as an academic leader at the University of Texas at Austin from 2006 to 2014.

“I look forward to leading the college dialogically and innovatively to impact the educational success of students in Kentucky and beyond,” Vasquez Heilig said.

You can read more about his background here: http://www.uky.edu/PR/News/Julian_Vasquez_Heilig_CV.pdf

Julian Vasquez Heilig named dean at University of Kentucky College of Education | Cloaking Inequity

Joe Biden Supports Privately-Operated Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Joe Biden Supports Privately-Operated Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Joe Biden Supports Privately-Operated Charter Schools

Joe Biden is one of about two dozen 2020 democratic candidates running for President of the United States. This is not his first presidential campaign.

Biden served under President Barack Obama as Vice President for eight years. Obama became well-known for many antisocial policies in many spheres, especially education, including the aggressive promotion of privately-operated charter schools that siphon enormous sums of money from over-tested, under-funded, and constantly-demonized public schools. Obama also supported the widely-rejected Race to the Top law, the much-hated Common Core, and the heavily-loathed No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In 2015, Obama replaced NCLB with a worse law: the Every Student Succeeds Act. The education record of Obama and Biden is terrible.

During a recent two-day swing through Texas, Biden said the following at an event with teachers: “I do not support any federal money … for for-profit charter schools — period. The bottom line is it siphons off money from public schools, which are already in enough trouble.”¹

But with the exception of millionaires, billionaires, and their retinue, who isn’t opposed to for-profit K-12 schools? Such “schools” have always been poor quality, corrupt, and immoral; they were established mainly to further enrich the wealthy few at the expense of young people.

It should be noted that for-profit charter schools actually make up a larger portion of the unstable and unaccountable charter school sector than many are reporting.

It is also important to appreciate that Biden, like Presidential democratic candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, is not addressing the fact that nonprofit charter schools are just as destructive, if not more harmful, than for-profit charter schools. The “for-profit/nonprofit” dichotomy is CONTINUE READING: Joe Biden Supports Privately-Operated Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

NYC Public School Parents: US Department of Education finds Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated a child’s privacy according to FERPA

NYC Public School Parents: US Department of Education finds Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated a child’s privacy according to FERPA

US Department of Education finds Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated a child’s privacy according to FERPA

For immediate release: June 4, 2019

For more information contact 

Leonie Haimson, leoniehaimson@gmail.com; 917-435-9329.

US Department of Education finds Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated a child’s privacy according to FERPA

On Monday, June 2, 2019, Fatima Geidi finally received a response to a FERPA complaint she filed more than three and half years ago with the US Department of Education. The Privacy Office of the Department of Education found that her FERPA complaint against Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy charter schools was justified and that they had indeed repeatedly violated her son’s privacy rights.  The official findings letter to Ms. Moskowitz, dated May 31, 2019, is here.

On October 31, 2015, Ms. Geidi filed a complaint detailing how Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy charter schools, had revealed details of her son’s disciplinary records to the media and on her website.  Ms. Moskowitz made these disclosures in order to retaliate against Ms. Geidi and her son after they had appeared on the PBS News Hour to report how he had been repeatedly suspended at one of her schools.  Her original FERPA complaint is posted here.

Yet the US Department of Education waited more than two years to even launch an investigation into her complaint.  In the meantime, Ms. Moskowitz included many of the same exaggerated charges against Ms. Geidi’s son on several pages of her memoir, The Education of Eva Moskowitz, that was published in September 2017.   When Ms. Geidi noticed these passages in a bookstore, she filed a second FERPA complaint on December 20, 2017.

Last week, the US Department of Education refused to accept the weak rationalizations offered by the Success Academy legal staff about these disclosures and found that in both cases, they were flagrant violations of FERPA.

Yet in order to address these violations, Frank Miller, Deputy Director of the Student Privacy Policy Office, wrote that Success Academy must merely ensure that  “school officials have or will receive training on the requirements of FERPA as they relate to the issues in this complaint.”  He refrained from imposing any penalties or demanding that the offending passages be deleted from Eva Moskowitz’ book – a book  that is still for sale on Amazon and in bookstores all across the United States.

As Fatima Geidi said, “While I am glad that the US Department of Education agreed that Ms. Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated my child’s privacy by disclosing trumped-up details of his education records to the media, on the Success website and in her book, I am furious that they failed to fine her, or at the very least, demand that she take the offending passages out of her book. Because the Department of Education waited over two years to respond to my initial FERPA complaint,  Eva Moskowitz illegally put the same information (false by the way) about my child in a book where it may remain forever.  This is unacceptable, and I demand that the illegal passages from the book be deleted.”

Leonie Haimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, said, “Ms. Moskowitz and Success Academy have repeatedly violated FERPA in order to retaliate against parents who dare reveal how she abuses children and pushes them out of her charter schools.  These illegal disclosures happened again just last month, in the case of Lisa Vasquez and her daughter, as reported in a Chalkbeat article.  On May 9, 2019, Ms. Vasquez filed a FERPA complaint with the US Department of Education and the NY State Education Chief Privacy Officer.   Her FERPA complaint is posted on our blog, where we point to other privacy violations by Success charter schools. Simply asking for Success staff to receive privacy training  will likely prove no real deterrence to Eva Moskowitz.  Instead she and her staff will likely continue to flagrantly violate their students’ privacy with impunity in the future.” 

The  US Department of Education has provided more than $37 million in discretionary grants to Success Academy since 2010, including nearly $10 million awarded in April 2019.  Its officials should be required to explain why they chose not to withhold any federal funds from her schools, and worse, will allow the offending passages in Ms. Moskowitz’ book to remain in perpetuity. The unacceptable delay of more than three and a half years in responding to Ms. Geidi’s initial complaint and the lack of an meaningful response by the Department provides further evidence as to why parents should be able to sue for damages under FERPA when their children’s right to privacy has been violated.

NYC Public School Parents: US Department of Education finds Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy repeatedly violated a child’s privacy according to FERPA

The Learning Disability Teaching Credentials that Time Forgot

The Learning Disability Teaching Credentials that Time Forgot

The Learning Disability Teaching Credentials that Time Forgot

Whether it’s dyslexia (a specific learning disability) or writing, attention, organization, or other learning and behavioral difficulties, children who struggle in school need teachers who can help them learn.

Sometimes that help can occur in a general class setting. Other times a child might benefit from small group or individualized assistance. That’s what special education has always been about.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and Understood.org. published a paper called “Forward Together: Helping Educators Unlock the power of Students Who Learn Differently”. I have skimmed it and will read it more completely. It’s sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The report is like similar recent reports implying that general education teachers are not prepared to teach students with learning disabilities. This raises concerns about teacher training and credentials.

Why do general education teachers feel unprepared to work with students with learning disabilities? Perhaps it’s because they were never originally expected to work CONTINUE READING: The Learning Disability Teaching Credentials that Time Forgot

Charter School Lobbyist Introduces Elizabeth Warren at Rally | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter School Lobbyist Introduces Elizabeth Warren at Rally | gadflyonthewallblog

Charter School Lobbyist Introduces Elizabeth Warren at Rally

CORRECTION:

In the first draft of this article, I called Sonya Mehta a “Charter School Lobbyist” in the title. On further examination of the facts, I realize this is unfair. She was a charter school TEACHER. I apologize to Ms. Mehta and truly regret any harm I have done her. I have changed the title to better reflect the facts. However, be advised that the text of the article, itself, has remained almost completely unchanged. Everything in the article is true to the best of my knowledge and backed up with sources that the reader can see by following the links in the text. My concern remains centered on Warren and what exactly her intentions are via education policy.

The biggest news from Elizabeth Warren’s rally in Oakland, California, on Friday wasn’t what she said.

It was who introduced her and what that says about Warren and her 2020 Presidential campaign.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Warren was introduced by Sonya Mehta, a former Oakland schoolteacher.”

However, this characterization is inaccurate.

Mehta was not an authentic public school teacher. She taught in a non-union charter school called “Learning Without Limits.” She also was a policy fellow at GO Public Schools Oakland, which is a toxic charter promoter focused around that city.

In her introduction, Mehta didn’t explicitly advocate for school privatization. She promoted Warren’s early education and free college policies (Her speech can be seen here beginning at 57:30). But why would Warren, one of the smartest and most knowledgeable candidates in the race for the White House, let herself be associated with such a divisive and toxic legacy?

Only 6% of all U.S. students attend charter schools, yet with little accountability, CONTINUE READING: Charter School Lobbyist Introduces Elizabeth Warren at Rally | gadflyonthewallblog

Louisiana Teachers Are Getting a Raise! | deutsch29

Louisiana Teachers Are Getting a Raise! | deutsch29

Louisiana Teachers Are Getting a Raise!

In the final vote on the matter, on June 03, 2019, the Louisiana House voted 104:0 to approve the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) proposed 2019-20 Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funding, which includes an across-the-board, $1000 pay raise for teachers and other certificated personnel, plus 26% for employer contribution to the appropriate retirement system.

Non-certificated personnel will receive a $500 raise plus 29.4% for employer contribution to the appropriate retirement system.

The base per-pupil amount has also been increased from $3,961 to $4,015, or 1.375%.

Details of the approved 2019-20 MFP are in this 31-page copy of the legislation (SCR 3).

In September 2018, Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, said he would advocate for the teacher pay raise in Louisiana’s 2019 legislative session.

Though Melinda Deslatte of nola.com describes “weeks of bickering behind the scenes,” the MFP was passed. In Louisiana, BESE’s MFP proposal is a “take it or leave it” piece of legislation for lawmakers; they cannot amend it, and BESE was not willing to amend it.

In the end, SCR 3 had 129 sponsors. While on June 03, 2019, the Louisiana House voted unanimously to pass SCR 3 (140:0), on May 15, 2019, the Senate approved it 37:1. Senator Conrad Appel cast the lone “no” vote.

Apparently no one else wanted to be on the wrong side of this teacher pay raise approval in an election year.

Louisiana Teachers Are Getting a Raise! | deutsch29

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Interested in scheduling Mercedes Schneider for a speaking engagement? Click here.

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Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Louisiana Teachers Are Getting a Raise! | deutsch29