KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

CLICK HERE TO Pre-order NOW

Arizona Charter Founder Paid His Companies $46.8 Million in Taxpayer Money in One Year

by dianeravitch / 6min

Arizona is a swamp of charter corruption. Earlier this year, the Arizona Republic won the distinguished George Polk Award for its coverage of charter school corruption. Now star reporter Craig Harris has another blockbuster story. He reports that the founder of a charter chain paid companies he owns or co-owns nearly $47 million in the past year. American Leadership Academy, an East Valley charte

Mississippi: Pastor Speaks Out for Public Schools!

by dianeravitch / 1h

Reverend Dawn Douglas Flowers of Madison, Mississippi, speaks out on behalf of public schools and the newly formed Pastors for MS Children. Writing in the Mississippi Business Journal, Rev. Flowers makes the moral case for funding public schools and supporting their teachers. She writes that it is time to invest in our children, our families, and our teachers. She writes: I am the product of the

Dedham, Mass.: Teachers Strike!

by dianeravitch / 2h

The teachers of Dedham, Massachusetts, voted overwhelmingly to go out on strike. DEDHAM — Hundreds of striking teachers took to the streets Friday in this suburban town, holding placards, marching with students and parents, and cheering fresh support from high-profile Democratic politicians. Meanwhile, signs emerged that stalled negotiations could resume this weekend. The first teachers strike in

YESTERDAY

Teresa Hanafin Updates the Ukrainian Investigation

by dianeravitch / 20h

Teresa Hanafin, who writes “Fast Forward” for the Boston Globe, offers some new information: > Tim Morrison, who works in the White House on the National Security staff as a top adviser on Russia, is scheduled to give a deposition to House impeachment investigators next week, and is expected to corroborate much of what Ukraine diplomat William Taylor told lawmakers earlier this week. Taylor testi

David Dayen: How Betsy DeVos Radicalized Her Own Staff

by dianeravitch / 21h

October 25, 2019 Dayen on TAP The Education Department’s Rip-Off Schemes Radicalize Its Own Staff Billionaire daughter-in-law to the Amway fortune Betsy DeVos probably contracts with the U.S. Mint to exclusively reissue $100,000 bank notes so she can light them on fire to light candles in her office. But she’ll have exactly one less, after a federal judge in San Francisco fined her exactly that a

Dallas: Chamber of Commerce Leads Campaign to Destroy Public Schools

100+by dianeravitch / 22h

Tom Ultican has been writing a series of brilliant studies of cities where the Destroy Public Education Movement is busily undermining and privatizing its public schools, usually because of an unwarranted admiration for the efficiency of market forces. In their unalloyed love of the market, the DPE forces ignore the fact that markets never create equality; instead, they have a few winners and a l

Steven Singer: Eight Things I Like About Elizabeth Warren’s Plan, and One I Don’t Like

28by dianeravitch / 23h

Steven Singer was excited to read Elizabeth Warren’s plan for K-12 education. There was just one thing he was troubled by. He begins: My daughter had bad news for me yesterday at dinner. She turned to me with all the seriousness her 10-year-old self could muster and said, “Daddy, I know you love Bernie but I’m voting for Elizabeth.” “Elizabeth Warren?” I said choking back a laugh. Her pronounceme

Jennifer Berkshire: Could Betsy DeVos Cost Trump the Election?

by dianeravitch / 1d

Jennifer Berkshire writes in the New Republic that Betsy DeVos is deeply unpopular in swing-state Michigan. Voters in Detroit can see a district disrupted by a generation of failed reforms. Suburban voters like their public schools and don’t want charters or vouchers. Berkshire notes that the Democrats are picking up unlikely victories in districts where education is a big issue. In 2016, Darrin

Jan Resseger: On the Failure of Eli Broad and His “Academy”

23by dianeravitch / 1d

Jan Resseger reviews Jeff Bryant’s article about the failure of the unaccredited Broad Academy and the meteoric rise of its graduates, whose primary qualification is their network. Being connected is more valuable, it turns out, than achieving results. The most important thing to know about the Broad Academy is that its “graduates” are central to the Disruption Movement, that they specialize in c

OCT 24

Federal Judge Holds DeVos in Contempt of Court, Fines Ed Department $100,000

400+by dianeravitch / 1d

A federal judge found Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in contempt of court and fined her Department $100,000, which is less than a slap in the wrist. It won’t begin to cover the losses suffered by students who were hounded by the Department to repay fraudulent student loans for a fraudulent education at for-profit colleges. DeVos believes it is her duty to protect the fraudsters, not the stude

AOC Grills Mark Zuckerberg

by dianeravitch / 1d

AOC asks Mark Zuckerberg: Is it okay to post ads that you know are lies? https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-mark-zuckerberg-video-congress-facebook-questioning-2019-10

Oakland Education Association Condemns Violence Against Peaceful Protestors

by dianeravitch / 1d

WHAT AN OUTRAGE! “Reform” strikes again. Literally. PRESS STATEMENT & PRESS AVAILABILITY October 24, 2019 Contact : OEA 2nd Vice President, Chaz Garcia, 510-414-3593 Statement from OEA 2nd Vice President Chaz Garcia on Behalf of the OEA Officers on OUSD’s Use of Violence at School Board Meeting “Last night, OUSD police pushed, choked and clubbed peaceful elementary school parents and educators wh

Teresa Hanafin on Today’s News

by dianeravitch / 1d

My favorite news commentator wrote this today in Fast Forward of the Boston Globe: Later this afternoon, he [Trump] will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Roger Penske, presumably for being a successful race car driver and businessman. I wonder if Trump knows that Penske’s company once donated half a million bucks to a Super PAC supporting that #HumanScum Mitt Romney. You know that episo

Mark Zuckerberg Is Advising a Democratic Candidate

by dianeravitch / 1d

Masha Gessen, a Russian emigre and journalist, always has interesting commentaries on U.S. politics. In this New Yorker article , she writes about Mark Zuckerberg and his flawed interpretation of the First Amendment. In the course of the article, she reveals a startling fact. Zuckerberg is advising Mayor Pete. Gessen writes: What is the First Amendment for? I ask my students this every year. Ever

David Kristofferson: Six Secrets of Dutch Parents for Raising “the Happiest Children in the World”

25by dianeravitch / 1d

In case you didn’t open this link in the previous post, David Kristofferson recommends this article that explains why Dutch children are the “happiest in the world.” Here are three of the six reasons: 1. Babies get more sleep. 2. Kids spend more time with both parents. 3. Kids feel less pressure to excel in school. To read the author’s explanations and to learn about the other three reasons, open

David Kristofferson: Something is Very Wrong with the Way We Are Raising Our Children

by dianeravitch / 1d

Shortly after I read this very provocative post by David Kristofferson, I saw a story in Education Week that suicide rates among young Americans have recently soared. Quoting data from federal sources, it said: Suicide rates for teens between the ages of 15 and 19 increased by 76 percent between 2007 and 2017. And the suicide rate for 10- to 14-year-olds nearly tripled over that same time period,

Philadelphia: Charter School Excludes Student Because She Is ADHD

by dianeravitch / 2d

It is illegal for public schools to refuse admission to students with disabilities. A charter school in Philadelphia admitted a six-year-old, then rejected her when the parent told the school the child had special needs. An education advocacy group sued a Philadelphia charter school on Thursday, alleging it barred a 6-year-old from enrolling after learning she required services for attention defi

Massachusetts: Waltons Spend Millions to Block New Funding for Public Schools

77by dianeravitch / 2d

Maurice Cunningham, a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, is renowned for his practice of “following the money” in Massachusetts. He naturally keeps encountering the Walton money that flows generously to torpedo public spending for public schools in Massachusetts. Maurice Cunningham is one of the heroes in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post , he ident

OCT 23

DeVos Sent Millions to Unaccredited Colleges

1Kby dianeravitch / 2d

Evidently every part of the Trump administration believes it is above the law. The Washington Post reported today tha t the Education Department spent millions for student aid at for-profit colleges that were ineligible to receive federal funding. A trove of documents released Tuesday by the House Education and Labor Committee shows the Education Department provided $10.7 million in federal loans

Teresa Hanafin Explains the State of the Impeachment Investigation

by dianeravitch / 2d

Teresa Hanafin, writer of the Boston Globe’s daily Fast Forward, succinctly summarizes the state of the impeachment inquiry. If you think it is wrong to use foreign aid as a weapon to gather dirt on your election opponents and then lie about it, this will disturb you. If you think it’s okay, it won’t. So I’m not sure how many times we have to hear it, but just in case there’s anyone left out ther

Jan Resseger Praises Warren’s K-12 Education Plan

28by dianeravitch / 2d

Jan Resseger, one of our most insightful analysts of education policy, praises Elizabeth Warren’s K-12 education plan for its comprehensiveness and its decisive break with decades of misguided federal policy under Clinton, both Bush presidents, Obama, and Trump. She begins: Warren articulates a set of principles that turn away from three decades of neoliberal, corporate school reform—the idea, ac

Denver: Scott Baldermann for School Board

by dianeravitch / 2d

I am happy to endorse Scott Baldermann for District 1 on the Denver school board. Scott is a native of Denver, a graduate of Aurora public schools, and a parent of children who attend Denver public schools. He is an architect and software developer. He sold his small business and is now devoted to his children and their school. He is president of the PTA. He has been endorsed by the Denver Classr

Washington State: Another Charter School Closes Due to Dwindling Enrollment

by dianeravitch / 2d

Do you remember the prolonged battle over charter schools in Washington State? There were four referenda in the state, starting in the late 1990s, and the pro-charter forces lost the first three. On the fourth try, in 2012, Bill Gates and his friends bundled millions of dollars to buy the election. They outspent civil rights groups, PTAs, and teacher associations by a margin of 16 to 1. Sixteen t

Cathy Frye Tells All About the Shadowy World of School Choice in Arkansas, Part 7

by dianeravitch / 3d

Cathy Frye worked for a Walton-funded front organization called the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, which really didn’t want to help public schools. She has been spilling the beans in a series of posts. This is her latest. Her post contains links to her previous posts. She begins: The Arkansas Public School Resource Center touts itself as a “collaborative local partner” when describing ho

Valerie Jablow: Teacher Attrition in D.C. Reaches Crisis Level

by dianeravitch / 3d

Since 2007, when the flamboyant Disrupter Michelle Rhee took charge of the schools of D.C. with an unlimited grant of power—no checks, no balances, no constraints—the cheerleaders for Disruption (aka “Reform”) have made bold claims about the D.C. “miracle.” This despite a major cheating scandal that Rhee swept under the rug and despite a graduation rate scandal that followed a nonsensical, false

OCT 22

Charter Advocates Outraged by Warren K-12 Plan

300+by dianeravitch / 3d

Politico Morning Education reports that charter advocates are furious in response to Warren’s K-12 education plan , especially her intention to cut off federal funding for charters. They are especially frustrated because she is not accepting corporate donations for her campaign, and they can’t buy her support. CHARTER ADVOCATES BLAST WARREN’S PLAN: While drawing praise from teachers unions, Warre

Elizabeth Warren Explains Her K-12 Education Plan

73by dianeravitch / 3d

Elizabeth Warren released her K-12 education plan on Monday. I was thrilled that Warren calls for elimination of the federal Charter School Program, which has become Betsy DeVos’s personal slush fund. This year, she dumped $440 million into states that never asked for it and don’t need it, while fattening the coffers of well-funded corporate chains like KIPP, IDEA, and Success Academy. As the Net

New Hampshire: Democrats Block GOP Effort to Gut Local Control

by dianeravitch / 3d

New Hampshire’s Republican Governor, Chris Sununu (his father John Sununu was Chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush), appointed a man who homeschooled his children to be State Commissioner of Education. Commissioner Frank Edelblut has dedicated his time in office to undermining public schools. His big idea is called “Learn Everywhere,” which would allow the State Board of education to allo

North Carolina: Leaders of Charter Chain Disappear into Thin Air

by dianeravitch / 4d

A few years ago, Oregon businessman John Bryan gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to make sure that the state had a welcome mat for charter schools. He coincidentally opened 17 charter schools across the state, under the aegis of a management corporation called TeamCFA. He also pushed the legislature to create an “Opportunity School District,” modeled on Tennessee’s f

Kentucky: Don’t Be Fooled! Charters and Vouchers Harm Children.

34by dianeravitch / 4d

Rev. Sharon Felton, coordinator of Pastors for Kentucky Children, warns parents and other members of the public not to be fooled by the rhetoric. Charters, vouchers, and tax credits are not good for children, and they drain resources from the public schools that educate most children. She writes: Educating our children is the most important thing we do in the commonwealth. Educating all of our ch

OCT 21

Teresa Hanafin on Our First Female Military Veteran

by dianeravitch / 4d

Teresa Hanafin, who writes “Fast Forward” for the Boston Globe, wrote today about a true American hero: Mass. lawmakers on the joint veterans committee meet to consider a bill that would create a special memorial commission to study how best to honor Deborah Sampson, a native of Plympton who disguised herself as a man and fought in the Revolutionary War. It’s a truly remarkable story. Sampson cal

New York City Will Require MAP Tests for 76 Struggling Schools

47by dianeravitch / 4d

Chalkbeat reports that New York City will require the MAP test for 76 low-performing schools three times a year, in addition to the mandated state tests and interim assessments. This is the beginning of the city’s new plan to add a new barrage of tests. A spokesman for the department said the new test is not a test, it’s actually instruction. This reminds me of the historic Garfield High School b

Class Size Matters: The Cost to New York City of Paying Rent for Charter School Facilities

100+by dianeravitch / 4d

Leonie Haimson and her colleagues Patrick Nevada and Emily Carrazana of Class Size Matters released a report on the cost that New York City pays for charter school facilities, even for richly endowed charters like Success Academy. The city is now spending more than $100 million a year to pay the rent for charters. This includes almost $15 million a year paying for rent where the charter or its ma

Warren Releases K-12 Education Plan, Wallops Charters

3Kby dianeravitch / 4d

Rachel M. Cohen has the scoop on the Elizabeth Warren K-12 education plan, just released. Warren would quadruple federal funding for Title 1 schools. She would eliminate the federal Charter Schools Program, which has been a colossal failure and which Betsy DeVos has turned into a slush fund for corporate charter chains. Cohen writes: ELIZABETH WARREN RELEASED a wide-ranging education plan Monday,

Denis Smith: The Questions You Should Ask When You Visit a Charter School

39by dianeravitch / 5d

Bill Phillis reposts here an article by Denis Smith, who offers sound advice about the questions you should ask if you visit a charter school. Denis Smith on Ron Rice of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools In a recent column in the Columbus Dispatch, Ron Rice of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools opened his piece with this statement. “The early stage of the 2020 preside

Philadelphia: School Choice Has Harmed, Not Helped, the City’s Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 5d

Back in the early days of school choice advocacy, it was often claimed that school choice would “force” the public schools to compete and they would get better because of the magic of the market. Now we know that was a selling point, and it was not true. Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the civil rights group Education Law Center-PA, writes about the negative effects of “school choice”

OCT 20

Chicago: Update on Progress of Strike

99by dianeravitch / 5d

From the Chicago Teachers Union: For ten months we had absolutely no progress on key proposals. After only two strike days, we have seen considerable movement and crucial openings on issues such as homeless students, class sizes, staffing and other key issues that the mayor told us would not be open for bargaining. Today, we got a tentative agreement for specific staff positions to support Studen

William Milliken: Once Upon a Time, There Were Moderate Republicans

27by dianeravitch / 5d

Here is the obituary of former Michigan Governor William Milliken, a man who reminds us of what the Republican Party was like before it was captured by a ragtag coalition of religious extremists and bigots. It appeared in the New York Times. Donald Trump had worked to destroy this wing of his party and transform it into the party of selfishness, greed, and racism. William G. Milliken, a moderate

Randy Rainbow: Suckers for the Orange One

by dianeravitch / 5d

Randy Rainbow explains why people vote for a crazy racist who takes away t heir healthcare and destroys the environment,

Arizona: Privatization of Records Storage Will Cost Millions

25by dianeravitch / 5d

When a new Secretary of State (aDemocrat in a Koch-owned State) was elected in November 2018 in Arizona, she discovered that her predecessor had signed a long-term contract with a private company to store public records. The state’s storage facility sat empty while the private company collects millions. One former state official described the warehouses as something out of “Indiana Jones,” with s

Attorney General Barr Wants to Erase Separation of Church and State

500+by dianeravitch / 5d

Jeffrey Toobin wrote a scathing analysis of a recent speech by Attorney General Bill Barr in The New Yorker magazine. Like Betsy DeVos, his colleague in Trump’s Cabinet, Barr believes that religious schools should be supported with public funds and that the failure to do so is religious discrimination. He writes: William P. Barr just gave the worst speech by an Attorney General of the United Stat

Valerie Strauss: The Koch Strategy to Eliminate Public Schools

500+by dianeravitch / 6d

Valerie Strauss writes here about an important new book about the Koch Empire and its desire to eliminate and privatize public schools. The book is “ Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America ,” by Christopher Leonard. Strauss writes: Early this year, the Koch network committed to starting an effort to transform public education. What would that look like? The

Teacher Activism: The One, the Only, the Great Karen Lewis

91by dianeravitch / 6d

Karen Lewis is the inspiration for today’s teacher’s strikes. She is one of a kind. She is a hero, a woman of courage, character, integrity, intellect, and steel. The Chicago Teachers Union just released this video tribute to Karen. Karen is a product of the Chicago Public Schools. She went to elite Ivy League colleges, first to Mount Holyoke, then transferred to Dartmouth College, where she was

OCT 19

Bob Shepherd: Why High-Stakes Testing is an Act of Violence Against Students

100+by dianeravitch / 6d

Bob Shepherd, our resident scholar, wrote this insightful comment: Anyone who has taught high-school kids knows that they are extremely emotionally unstable. It’s a difficult time. It’s the time in which we all struggle with establishing an identity that will be acceptable to/accepted by the others around us. One way in which kids do that is by rebelling against their parents and teachers and old

Max Brantley: The Waltons Vicious Assault on Arkansas’ Public Schools and Its Teachers’ Union

by dianeravitch / 6d

Max Brantley, the editor of the Arkansas Times, is a journalist who fearlessly stands up to the all-powerful Walton Family in the state they think they own. Brantley is a hero of the Resistance in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post, Brantley describes the Waltons’ efforts to destroy the Little Rock School District and to crush the Little Rock Education Association. He writes: They

Maurice Cunningham: Waltons Are Trying to Block Funding Increase for Massachusetts Schools

38by dianeravitch / 7d

Maurice Cunningham is the ghostbuster of Dark Money in education. He is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. He is a hero of the Resistance in my forthcoming book SLAYING GOLIATH. In this post , he details the efforts of the Walton Family of Arkansas to block the Massachusetts’ legislators who are trying to increase funding for the public schools of their state. He

Jeff Bryant: How Billionaires Corrupted the School Leadership Pipeline

100+by dianeravitch / 7d

Jeff Bryant writes here about the billionaires who corrupted the school leadership pipeline. Chief among them, of course, is billionaire Eli Broad, who created an unaccredited training program as a fast track for urban 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

TEACHER SURVEY: 'Things have just gotten so bad': Why teachers in America are leaving the classroom for good

'Things have just gotten so bad': Why teachers in America are leaving the classroom for good

'Things have just gotten so bad': Why teachers in America are leaving the classroom for good

The word teacher, for many, has long been synonymous with hero.

On social media, political stages and news sites, teachers are hailed as indefatigable public servants, selflessly working to shape the next generation of Americans. It’s a reputation they’ve undoubtedly earned, aided in part by how many roles (therapist, parent, first responder) they’re often forced to take on.

Of course, there are bad teachers, but the good ones are ubiquitous. Educators who give everything they have and then give more: donating kidneys, fostering their own students and literally taking bullets to tackle school shooters. Still, accurate as this heroic depiction may be, many feel it’s been misused in recent years to excuse undervaluing and mistreating educators across the country.

Because teachers, perhaps more than ever, know what they’re worth. And they’re fed up with others not acknowledging it too. “A lot of my colleagues are feeling overwhelmed by the burden that teaching has become,” Rachel Bardes, a former Spanish teacher in Florida, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Things have just gotten so bad.”

Teachers — as Bardes and more than 50 others shared in an exclusive Yahoo Lifestyle survey — are sick of budget cuts, classroom violence and salaries so low they need two extra jobs. They’re tired of standardized tests that stifle their creativity and a job that demands their every waking moment — even when they’re ill. As Sariah McCall, a teacher whose resignation letter went viral in April, wrote, “It is unrealistic to expect this much of people. We’re teachers, but we’re still people.”

Of the dozens of teachers who spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle, many said that the conditions they’ve endured are fuel to fight for better ones — a trend reflected in the historic statewide walkouts beginning in West Virginia in February 2018 (and rippling to five other states since). But for an increasing number of educators — whether due to family, personal well-being or other factors — it’s all simply too much to bear.

According to a Labor Department report (obtained by the Wall Street Journal), teachers quit the profession in 2018 at the highest rate of any year on record. Roughly 1 million public education workers walked away that year, and experts predict those numbers will only get worse. The result is shortages of teachers in multiple states and a dropping number of education majors nationwide.

To explore this national crisis, Yahoo Lifestyle conducted a survey aimed at teachers who made the decision — most in 2019 — to leave the classroom for good. More than 50 former K-12 public school teachers from over 20 states participated, sharing intimate details of ending a career that many imagined would last a lifetime.

“I’m very surprised that I am out of teaching,” says Charlie Cuddy, a former math teacher in Omaha, Neb., who now works as a software developer. “My mom always jokes with me that once I realized [being] in the NFL wasn’t a realistic CONTINUE READING: 'Things have just gotten so bad': Why teachers in America are leaving the classroom for good

OUSD meeting Violence - Oakland Not For Sale – No More School Closures! #Oaklandnotforsale

Oakland Not For Sale – No More School Closures!

OUSD meeting Violence - Oakland Not For Sale – No More School Closures!

www.oaklandnotforsale.com . Call for the School board to resign - they called the police on parents and teachers. Children watched their parents get thrown to the ground. Oakland is Not For Sale - I don't want our public schools to be sold off to privatizers.
#Oaklandnotforsale

Big Education Ape: CHARTER SCHOOL TAKEOVER WAR HEATS UP IN BROAD OCCUPIED OAKLAND USD - Chaos, arrests at Oakland school board meeting – East Bay Times - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/chaos-arrests-at-oakland-school-board.html

OAKLAND IS NOT FOR SALE!   STOP THE SCHOOL CLOSURES!

Scrap OUSD’s “Blueprint for Quality Schools” and declare a moratorium on all future and currently planned school closures until the summer of 2022. This will allow us to wait for the probable passage of the Schools and Communities First Act in the fall of 2020, and assess the impact of the massive increase in funding that should result. Channel all OUSD funding earmarked for supporting mergers to the highest need schools that were to be affected.

Dismantle the schools to prison pipeline. Don’t fund the Alameda County probation camp while starving traditional Public Schools.

Fight back against the Charter School takeover of Oakland Public Schools. Reverse the Community of Schools board policy (BP6006) that calls for closing schools and turning them over to the highest bidder.

Activate the Oakland community in reforming OUSD financial management.

We reject the narrative that school closures and consolidations help children. Students and families at Roots and Kaiser School have been traumatized by school closure announcements. Students and families at Sankofa, SOL, and Frick have been thrown into uncertainty about the future. School closures and consolidations cause chaos in our community, and have been and continue to be targeted at schools where the vast majority of students are students of color.

We reject the narrative that OUSD has too many schools. OUSD does not have too many schools. OUSD has too many charter schools. To save our traditional neighborhood public schools, our district must end its cozy relationship with charter schools.

We reject the narrative that our school district is impoverished, considering that OUSD ended the previous school year with a $21 million surplus, and considering that OUSD receives significantly more money per student than the average California school district. In addition, in November 2020, the Schools and Communities First Act has a good chance of passing the ballot, which would result in a huge increase in school funding.

We reject the narrative that fewer schools will allow the district to provide more quality. Research shows that students receive the best individualized attention at smaller schools. OUSD has a proven track record of fiscal mismanagement when money is kept away from school sites and pooled at Central Administration. To put it simply, the more money going out to school sites and the less money going to OUSD Central Office, the better.

We reject the district narrative that closing and consolidating schools will stabilize the district. A brief look at the data tells us the story of school closures. After previous rounds of OUSD school closures, district enrollment declined. During spells of time when schools were not closed (2012-2018 for example), enrollment increased. School closures drain students away from traditional public schools and into private schools, charter schools, and surrounding districts. Closing and consolidating schools simply exacerbates a situation that already exists: an Oakland of two school systems, one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

Oakland Not For Sale – No More School Closures!

Betsy DeVos insists public schools haven’t changed in more than 100 years. Why she’s oh so wrong. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos insists public schools haven’t changed in more than 100 years. Why she’s oh so wrong. - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos insists public schools haven’t changed in more than 100 years. Why she’s oh so wrong.
And why she keeps saying it.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is fond of saying that public schools in America haven’t changed in more than a century and, as a result, are failing kids.

Our children, she has said repeatedly, deserve better than the “19th-century assembly-line approach,” and would do much better with her vision of education, one in which taxpayers shoulder the cost for any school that parents want to send their children, and the ability to choose is the most important measure of success.

DeVos is a billionaire who once said public schools are “a dead end” and who has spent decades, with her husband, Amway heir Richard DeVos Jr., trying to expand alternatives to publicly funded school districts, such as charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately operated — and programs that use public money for private and religious school education.

In her worldview, “public education” refers to any school that gets public funding, so that a religious school that accepts publicly funded school vouchers, for example, would be public. She said that here, and more explicitly on May 6, 2019, when she was addressing education journalists:

Today, it’s often defined as one type of school, funded by taxpayers, controlled by government. But if every student is part of “the public,” then every way and every place a student learns is ultimately of benefit to “the public.” That should be the new definition of public education.

Betsy DeVos and her allies are trying to redefine ‘public education.' Critics call it ‘absurd.'

But is it true that public education in America has not changed in more than a century in the way DeVos says? Historians and education scholars say it is not.

Adam Laats, for example, is a professor of education at Binghamton University (SUNY), who recently wrote a piece in The Washington Post that said it is DeVos who wants to retreat into the past, commenting on her new definition of “public education”:

While this sounds reasonable, even enlightened, on its face, those familiar with the history of American education know all CONTINUE READING: 

Betsy DeVos insists public schools haven’t changed in more than 100 years. Why she’s oh so wrong. - The Washington Post

How Chicago's Teachers Explained the Strike to Students - The Atlantic

How Chicago's Teachers Explained the Strike to Students - The Atlantic

As the Strike Approached in Chicago, Teachers Taught Labor
“I asked the kids, ‘Do you want to know what we’re fighting about?’” said one teacher. They did.

As the strike vote got closer, Anna Lane realized that she was going to have to throw out her lesson plan. Lane, a history and civics teacher at Kelly High School, in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, was in the middle of teaching a unit about how the city funds public-education initiatives. But as labor negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) started to make the local news last month, Lane’s students began asking questions that her original syllabus didn’t cover.

CPS and Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, had publicly questioned why the union was fighting so hard for a raise, and at Kelly, Lane heard comments from students that the potential strike was just about money. “As a teacher, you know, that’s going to make you want to address the issue,” said Lane, who is a member of the CTU’s Latino caucus. “So I asked the kids, ‘Do you want to know what we’re fighting about?’” They were interested, so in a day and a half, Lane put together a lesson plan that covered the history of the modern labor movement, including 40-hour workweeks and child-labor laws. Shortly afterward, the CTU voted to authorize a strike the following month, the second time it has done so in the past decade (the first was a far-reaching week-long action in 2012).

Read: America’s teachers are furious

The current strike is now in its eighth day of negotiations, and encompasses both the CTU and the Service Employees International Union 73, which represents the classroom aides, custodians, and other workers who keep the city’s school system—serving some 361,000 students—running. Those two unions together represent about 35,000 workers, tens of thousands of whom have been picketing this week outside their schools and flooding Chicago’s downtown center. The CTU is arguing for higher pay to keep up with Chicago’s mounting cost of living, alongside a long list of other requests, including smaller class sizes, more school nurses and librarians, funding for bilingual education, and access to affordable housing for teachers and their students, an estimated 16,450 of whom are homeless.

The city contends that the teachers are asking for more than the city can afford, and Lane says she printed out and used some of CPS management’s emails as CONTINUE READING: How Chicago's Teachers Explained the Strike to Students - The Atlantic

Where Have All the Children Gone: Public Education by the Numbers - LA Progressive

Where Have All the Children Gone: Public Education by the Numbers - LA Progressive

Where Have All the Children Gone: Public Education by the Numbers

dropped ever so slightly over the past five years. The US Census estimates that California’s population last year was 39,557,045, up from just over 37 million in 2010. And yet according to the California Department of Education the number of students enrolled around the state in K-12 schools went from 6,226,737 to 6,186,278 in the past four years. If California has nearly two million more people, why are there over 40,000 fewer children attending public schools?

To better understand how our education system is changing right before our eyes, it might be helpful to look at what has been happening in the Pasadena Unified School District. As reported by the Pasadena Independent, the district population has decreased by nearly 2,100 students since the 2012-2013 academic year, forcing the closure of schools across the community. What has happened there is in many ways a snapshot of the rest of the state. So what are some of the more significant causes of a shrinking public education system? Here are a few of the most notable contributing factors.

Housing Costs: Even as the state legislature attempts to cap rising rents in response to Governor Newsom’s proposal for a rent ceiling, costs are continuing to increase. The most visible outcome is the overcrowding of apartments and homes. It is not uncommon to find three generations under the same roof, or two families sharing living quarters, or five roommates dividing up a two bedroom apartment. In addition, the reverse diaspora of families leave town to less expensive communities of the Inland Empire, Lancaster/Palmdale and even cities in nearby states like Nevada, Texas and Arizona. When housing costs surpass 50% of incomes, people are forced to search for reasonable alternatives.

Housing Composition/Construction: While there have been thousands of housing units built in Pasadena in the last 20 years, the majority have targeted the ‘luxury’ end of the spectrum. CONTINUE READING: Where Have All the Children Gone: Public Education by the Numbers - LA Progressive

Should Teenage Trick or Treaters Go to Jail? | Teacher in a strange land

Should Teenage Trick or Treaters Go to Jail? | Teacher in a strange land

Should Teenage Trick or Treaters Go to Jail?

For 20 years, I lived in a subdivision in the heart of the school district where I was teaching. Halloween was a big deal—we’d get a couple hundred trick-or-treaters if the weather was nice. Many of them were my middle school students, or former students, now in high school. I bought a lot of candy. The good stuff.

I’d put speakers in an open window, and a spooky music playlist on my iPod (remember iPods?)—pieces that were part of my annual spooky-music lesson plan. The kid who asked ‘Is that Night on Bald Mountain?’ would get an extra piece of candy. And the boys who came for candy, left and switched costumes on the street, then came back—twice—got another piece both times and props for ingenuity.

I would dress up. This was easy—same costume every year—because my 8th grade students performed a Halloween-themed concert, and I was always the Wicked Witch of the Band Room.  It’s a perfect time of year for students with two years’ worth of playing experience to prepare a fun program, stretching their musical skills and knowledge.

The students dressed in costumes. This was a hard sell for some of them, but they were assured that ‘costume’ could mean something very simple—perennially, there were boys in shoulder pads and football jersey, toting their euphoniums into the gym to play Danse Macabre.

My principals, over the decade we did this concert, were supportive—all school leaders love events that bring hundreds of happy parents into the building, especially when small children are welcome.

One principal was open to all students dressing in non-violent costumes when October CONTINUE READING: Should Teenage Trick or Treaters Go to Jail? | Teacher in a strange land

Wealth and Power Undermine Equity and Democracy Across Ohio’s Public School Districts | janresseger

Wealth and Power Undermine Equity and Democracy Across Ohio’s Public School Districts | janresseger

Wealth and Power Undermine Equity and Democracy Across Ohio’s Public School Districts

The operation of wealth and power has never been more evident in Ohio school politics than it is this month.

HUNTING VALLEY   In an op-ed this week, the retired editorial page director of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Brent Larkin describes  an attempted state budget amendment that would have let residents of wealthy Hunting Valley in greater Cleveland off the hook from paying school taxes: “There are few wealthier towns in the country than Hunting Valley, a lovely little place with meandering streams, dense forests, winding roads and gorgeous homes, snuggling along and across Cuyahoga County’s eastern border. With a mean household income of $507,214 and average home value of about $1.3 million, the Higley 1000, using 2010 Census data, ranked Hunting Valley Ohio’s most affluent place and the nation’s 17th richest community… What a small minority of the 700 or so who live in Hunting Valley want is special treatment so recklessly selfish it would devastate the Orange public school system. Worse yet, it might just ignite a backlash in the 615 school districts throughout Ohio, perhaps harming 1.7 million public school children in the process.”

Last spring, Hunting Valley hired former speaker of the Ohio House and now lobbyist, Bill Batchelder to insert a tiny amendment into the huge Ohio budget to permit Hunting Valley to limit payment of school taxes to the Orange school district of which it is a part only to the amount required to cover the tiny number of the village’s children who enroll in Orange schools. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, alerted to Hunting Valley’s search for a way to help its residents avoid paying taxes, vetoed the amendment, but Larkin reports that some of Hunting Valley’s residents haven’t given up.

What alarms Larkin is the absence of civic responsibility among some of Hunting Valley’s privileged residents: “Millions of Ohioans with no children in the school system in which they live pay these property taxes—not necessarily because they like it, but because they understand it is the right thing to do, because they embrace the notion that educating our children is an essential element of sustaining our democracy.”

HILLS AND DALES   Then there is the amendment that did make it into the Ohio budget CONTINUE READING: Wealth and Power Undermine Equity and Democracy Across Ohio’s Public School Districts | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Enlists Help Of Kellyanne Conway And American Enterprise Institute To Sell $5 Billion School Choice Program

CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Enlists Help Of Kellyanne Conway And American Enterprise Institute To Sell $5 Billion School Choice Program

Betsy DeVos Enlists Help Of Kellyanne Conway And American Enterprise Institute To Sell $5 Billion School Choice Program

At the beginning of this month, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway sat down with Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute to make one more pitch for DeVos’s Education Freedom Scholarships. The program seems unlikely to succeed on the federal level.

What Is She Selling?

The EFS are what’s known as a tax credit scholarship. Several states have them, and they work like this: a donor gives money to a scholarship organization, then that program issues a scholarship for a student to attend a school, while the government credits some portion of the donation against the donor’s tax bill. In the case of DeVos’s program, the amount would be 100%. If I donate $100,000 to a scholarship organization, I pay $100,000 less in federal taxes.

What Are The Problems With Her Program?

DeVos has been plugging the program with variations of the following quote from the AEI discussion:

“Our Education Freedom Scholarships proposal…doesn’t grow the government bureaucracy one tiny bit…It doesn’t impose any new requirements on states or on families. It doesn’t take a single dollar from public school students, and it doesn’t spend a single dollar of government money. And it doesn’t entangle schools with federal strings or stifling red tape. In fact, it can’t. And that’s by design.”

None of these statements are accurate. The program would certainly not grow the government in a let’s-add-a-whole-new-bureau way, but it would be a government program requiring, at a bare minimum, someone to handle the paperwork. Families would have to apply for CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Enlists Help Of Kellyanne Conway And American Enterprise Institute To Sell $5 Billion School Choice Program