Louisiana Educator: LABI and out-of-state donors still dominate BESE

Louisiana Educator: LABI and out-of-state donors still dominate BESE

LABI and out-of-state donors still dominate BESE

It is so painful to me personally to review or recount the results of the BESE election this past weekend that I am grateful to Mercedes Schneider for having done an excellent job of telling the continuing sad story of the LABI victory over education. I urge all of my readers to take the time to read Schnieder's post.

I want to express my sincere appreciation to the excellent and independent candidates who did their very best to present themselves to the public as good alternatives to the insanity that has controlled and will continue to control education in Louisiana. Unfortunately they could not compete with the effect of big money on an election that most voters know little about. Most of the voters in our state continue to assume credibility for those candidates who spend enough to get their signs and ads out in the media. Most people do not take the time to read facebook posts from candidates who do not enjoy funding by the real decision makers in this state.

For my part, I will continue to monitor and report the actions of BESE as well as the legislature for as long is I am able to do so. I am very hopeful that at some time in the not-too-distant future we can restore the creativity of teachers and make effective attempts to better prepare our students for life using our K-12 public education system.

Louisiana Educator: LABI and out-of-state donors still dominate BESE

enrique baloyra: Fla. teachers to Governor DeSantis: We have questions - YouTube

Fla. teachers to Governor DeSantis: We have questions - YouTube
Fla. teachers to Governor DeSantis: We have questions

enrique baloyra

Everybody was buzzing this week after the governor announced his plan to raise beginner teacher salaries. Everybody, that is, except for existing teachers.
You’d think we’d would be cheering. After all, the state hasn’t offered to fund our raises in seven years, since Rick Scott promised $2500, which, after all the fine print, ended up being much less. Throw in the three percent pension tax, and that actually left us in the red.
So, forgive us if we have questions.
Like, if it’s so “easily doable,” as the governor bragged during a press conference, then why didn’t he propose it 10 months ago during last legislative session, when the state was swimming in new revenue?
Maybe it has something to do with all the headlines this week regarding his relationship with those shady Ukrainian businessmen arrested trying to flee the country.
We have questions about how it would affect experienced teachers, Those with 15, and 20, and 30 years in the classroom. Or counselors and media specialists, who are required to hold valid Florida teaching certificates.
And does the governor even have the authority? We thought teacher salaries were negotiated during collective bargaining.
“Please ask Ed policy makers, like [Senate Education Chair] @SenMannyDiazJr and [House Education Chair] @voteforjennifer [Sullivan], who, when (for years) teachers asked for raises not bonuses, repeatedly said that the legislature cannot set salary: how can Tallahassee mandate salary now?” https://twitter.com/FLBaloney/status/...
House Speaker Jose Oliva expressed his surprise when tweeted that the governor already has $2 billion in new proposals and that the legislature has to set priorities.
You see, projected revenue in the coming year are actually down, despite all those promises that years of $billion tax cuts for corporations would grow the state economy.
And honestly, we just don’t trust that the same career politicians who’ve been playing musical chairs in Tallahassee for over a decade — like Education Commissioner Dick Corcoran — are finally going to see the light and actually support the work we do in the classroom. These politicians have been using the K-12 budget as a personal slush fund for their charter school businesses at home. And are unlikely to change anytime in the near future.
So, you’ll understand us if we say we’ll believe it when we see it in our checks.

Fla. teachers to Governor DeSantis: We have questions - YouTube

ICYMI: Quiet Sunday Edition

CURMUDGUCATION

ICYMI: Quiet Sunday Edition

It's a quiet day in these parts, but there is still some reading to do from the previous week. Here are some pieces you might want to catch up on. Don't forget to share--

The Walton Takeover of Public Education Continues

The Arkansas blog looks at what our favorite retail oligarchs are up to in their home state.

Five Signs Your Reform Has Become Another Education Fad 

Rick Hess at EdWeek makes a useful point.

When Parents Shop For Schools, Students Can Suffer

Yeah, it turns out that the brave new world of education choice doesn't work as smoothly as Reformsters hoped. The Boston Globe takes a look.

Vanquishing the Windigo: Standing Up to Marc Tucker and Digital Capitalism 

From Wrench in the Gears, some more connecting of various reform digital dots.

Racists in one of America's richest counties are freaking out over forced bussing  

Oh, this is just ugly and depressing. What century is it again? Mother Jones has the story from Maryland.

The biggest lie tech people tell themselves — and the rest of us  

Spoiler alert: it's that all of these bright new ideas and inventions are inevitable evolution. But evolution is a terrible metaphor for technology, and we don't have to do some of this stupid stuff, argues Rose Evelth at Vox. This might be the must-read of the week.

Texas and the portfolio model 

One more state wants to try this dumb idea. The Texas Tribune takes a look at how it's worked out in other places, and who's pushing it in the Lone Star State.

The DC Voucher Story Finds Its Way To The Silver Stream-- Sort Of 

Another inspiration ed reform movie will be coming out. The indispensable Mercedes Schneider has done the research and let's us know about the parts the filmmakers will leave out.

Nashville Elementary School Refuses To Provide ICE With Records  

ICE wanted to run a check on students at this predominantly brown elementary school. The school told them to go away. An encouraging story from WCPO.

Politics, Pregnancy, and Public Education

A thoughtful reflection by Nancy Flanagan, sparked by the Elizabeth Warren pregnancy flap, but reaching far beyond it.    

CURMUDGUCATION

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION AND CHECK OUT PETER GREENE ON FORBES

CURMUDGUCATION

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND CHECK OUT PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

KY: Pushing Old Charter Myths In A New Market

21by Peter Greene / 20h

Kentucky has spent a bunch of time in charter limbo --there is a charter law on the books, but the legislature wouldn't fund it and l ocal districts are (shocker) unwilling to share their aready-meager funding. So Kentucky remains a fresh market, and charter advocates are still trying to gin up some public support, which lends itself to a sort of Greatest Hits tour of failed charter school argumen

OCT 11

California Is Burning: One More Argument Against Privatizing Education

400+by Peter Greene / 1d

California is burning, even as California is dark, its people trying to survive a manmade nightmare. PG&E, never America's most favorite utility behemoth, has made a hash of things . To save a buck here and there, the power company cut back on some necessary maintenance, but that-- plus a dry season-- has led to almost a dozen catastrophic fires, which have been followed by some hefty lawsuits, wh

FL: Surveillance State Update

by Peter Greene / 2d

It's been over a year since Florida passed and signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act . That act included a massive data grab that was intended to serve as a feeder for some secret algorithmic future crime unit, through, of course, the Florida School Safety Portal -- because the state wants to capture and record your every move only in your best interests. Researchers fr

The Secular Schools

39by Peter Greene / 2d

This is going to be kind of rambly and personal and religious; you've been warned. I've been trying to sort through my thoughts about the use of tax dollars to support private religious schools. I started here , then picked the thread up her e. I have problems with the idea of vouchers as a tool for religious freedom, and it has taken me some discussion and thought to zero in on part of my issue.

OCT 10

Freedom: You Keep Using That Word...

52by Peter Greene / 2d

Freedom is a great thing. I'm a huge fan. But because it has so many positive associations, some folks just can't resist the urge to twist it. Take the frequent efforts to "free" teachers from their unions. Oppressive unions rob teachers of the freedom to work extra long hours, the freedom to be paid whatever their bosses feel like paying them, the freedom to be fired for any reason at any time. F

takeovers

by Peter Greene / 2d

https://www.crpe.org/thelens/state--remain-powerful-tool-improving-schools-states-should-not-walk-away-them?fbclid=IwAR1gGgYtktudkYtXdJULRO0CZYzm9q4prGsKvRWvk_NqdZIcAu7KQ2y4KUU

OCT 09

AI Pokes Another Hole In Standardized Testing

100+by Peter Greene / 4d

The stories were supposed to capture a new step forward in artificial intelligence. A “ Breakthrough for A.I. Technology: Passing an 8th-Grade Science Test ,” said the New York Times . “ AI Aristo takes science test, emerges multiple-choice superstar ,” said TechXPlore . Both stories were talking about Aristo (indicating a child version of Aristotle), a project of Paul Allen’s Allen Institute for

OCT 08

Why You Can Ignore That Hot New DFER Poll

42by Peter Greene / 4d

Yesterday the Democrats for Education Reform dropped a hot new pile of steaming poll results, and some media outlets, like US News, jumped right on it. The take was that Democrat voters are hollering for charters and choice, and the candidates are acting foolishly by running in the other direction. Here's why you (and the candidates) don't need to be excitedly about any of this. First, it's DFER.

OCT 07

What The Heck Is A Chief Innovation Officer? (And Does Your District Need A Proactive Change Agent Visionary Leader To Transform Your Human Capital With Capacity-Building Systems?)

100+by Peter Greene / 5d

My college job was in the private sector, working in the education and communication department of an industrial manufacturing company. In ways that my college education could never hope to, my time there drove home how there are plenty of folks making a good living using language to obscure rather than reveal, the there's a whole art of using language to try to convey importance and weight while

OCT 06

ICYMI: Applefest Weekend Edition (10/6)

20by Peter Greene / 6d

Applefest is a thing in my small town, like the most giant tchotchke/food/car/etc festival a small town could hope to put on. So for three days we have walked till we dropped, only instead of dropping I'm going to sit here and pass along some worthwhile reading from the last week. The Unmet Promises of a New Orleans Charter School From The Nation, one more example of how charters in NOLA never qui

OCT 05

The Next Big Problem With School Shooter Preparedness

200+by Peter Greene / 7d

We think we're seeing the worst side effects of our national preoccupation with school shooters. We aren't. The problems with active shooter drills have already been widely documented. In the best of circumstances, active shooter 

CURMUDGUCATION

With A Brooklyn Accent: Letter to the President of Georgia Southern on the Book Burning at His School

With A Brooklyn Accent: Letter to the President of Georgia Southern on the Book Burning at His School

Letter to the President of Georgia Southern on the Book Burning at His School

President@georgiasouthern.edu
Kyle Marrero
President, Georgia Southern University

Dear President Marrero

As a historian of race in the United States, who has written 7 books on the subject, and a professor for 49 years at one of the nation's major universities, I am writing to express my extreme dismay at the burning of the books of a prominent LatinX author who spoke at your campus. In all my years of college teaching, this may be the single most disturbing act of racial harassment I have heard, both because of the specter of Nazism it invokes, and the chilling message it sends to students of color in an already highly charged political climate.

If students of color at your university are to feel protected from racial violence- and book burning is a violent act- and if your university's reputation is not to be permanently tarnished, you must take much more dramatic action than you have so far done.

First of all, the book burning must be described as an act of racial violence and harassment, not as a manifestation of free speech. You must say, in the loudest possible voice, that this action has covered Georgia Southern with shame, and that it must NEVER happen again on your campus or at any campus in the nation

Secondly. you must take some disciplinary action against the students involved, ranging from academic probation to suspension. Your students of color will never feel safe unless CONTINUE READING: With A Brooklyn Accent: Letter to the President of Georgia Southern on the Book Burning at His School