DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all

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

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all

Kevin Welner on Trump’s Failure to Make It Safe to Open Schools

21by dianeravitch / 52min

Kevin Welner is the director of the National Education Policy Center and a Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He writes: The definition of chutzpah, according to the old joke, is the kid who kills his parents and then asks the judge for mercy because he’s an orphan. President Trump has added a twist on the joke: the kid who kills his parents and then complains that they don’t dri

Arizona: School Leaders Worry About Reopening as Virus Spreads

23by dianeravitch / 1h

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey—a zealot for charters and vouchers whose election was funded by Charles Koch and Betsy DeVos—has ordered the state’s public schools to reopen on August 17 as the disease rages out of control in his state. School leaders are not so sure this is a good idea . Common sense suggests it is a very bad idea. The Arizona Republic reports: The school year hasn’t begun, but an A

BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court Rules That Trump Must Release Tax Returns to NY Prosecutors!

by dianeravitch / 2h

No one is above the law! We are still a nation of laws. Separation of powers exists still. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump must release his tax returns to prosecutors in New York who are investigating him. David Savage of the Los Angeles Times writes: The Supreme Court dealt President Trump a major defeat Thursday by rejecting his claims of presidential immunity and upholding subpoenas fr

Tom Ultican: Don’t Reopen the Schools. It’s Not Safe.

by dianeravitch / 2h

Tom Ultican says that we have to face facts. It is not safe to reopen schools. Ultican recites the politicians and pundits demanding that the schools open on-time, in-person, no excuses, no new funding. He writes: These neoliberal forces are promoting the idea that teachers and children must be thrust into an unsafe environment so the world’s economic engines can continue providing decent return

Say NO to Trump-DeVos Pressure to Reopen without Resources for Health and Safety

100+by dianeravitch / 3h

Trump and DeVos demand that schools reopen in full, in-person, on time in a few weeks, even as they block the resources needed by schools to protect students and staff from the pandemic that is raging across the nation. Districts in which there are no COVID infections, or none for at least 14 days, may choose to reopen if they have the resources to do it safely. But in states and districts where

Tulsa: Health Officials Say Trump Rally “Likely” Source of Surge in Coronavirus Infections

62by dianeravitch / 18h

Tulsa experienced a surge in new infections, and Tulsa health officials say that the Trump rally on June 20 was a likely cause. Keep watch on the numbers in Arizona and South Dakota, where Trump held rallies, also Trump’s next stop, New Hampshire. He is a Super Spreader. He is a one-man catastrophe. In six weeks, the Republican National Convention will be held in Jacksonville, Florida. No social

Breaking News: The Mayor of Houston Cancels GOP State Convention

by dianeravitch / 19h

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has canceled the State GOP Convention, which was scheduled for next week. In light of the dangerous health situation in Houston, the mayor said it was unsafe. Good to know that local elected officials take the pandemic seriously, even though the president does not.

The Swedish Experiment Failed

100+by dianeravitch / 22h

Most nations in Europe imposed strict quarantines, masking, and social distancing. They eventually got the virus under control. Not Sweden. It took a different route, relying on the good sense of individuals and the hope of “herd immunity.” It didn’t work, according to this story in the New York Times. LONDON — Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attent

Supreme Court: Teachers in Religious Schools Not Protected by Laws Against Discrimination

78by dianeravitch / 23h

The US Supreme Court ruled today that teachers in religious schools are not protected by federal anti-discrimination law. Please note that Justice Alita says that the central mission of religious schools is to teach the faith, which is why so many object to public funding of religious schools. If religious schools take public money, are they still exempt from public laws that cover public schools

Trump Will Seek Federal Aid for Private and Religious Schools in Any New Coronavirus Relief Bill

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Trump has made clear that he wants federal funds to flow to private and religious schools if any new aid is approved to help public schools reopen. DeVos and Trump will use any opportunity to push federal money to religious schools. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Espinoza case, which ruled that any state that aided private schools had to provide aid to religious schools, has encouraged Trump

Jeff Bryant: Charter Operators Take Advantage of Pandemic to Expand into Suburbs

48by dianeravitch / 1d

Jeff Bryant noticed and documented a worrisome new trend: Charter operators are taking advantage of the pandemic to open new charter schools in suburban districts with good public schools. Public school parents have spoken out, as he shows, because they understand that new charters will drain money from their good public schools and weaken them. Because reopening public schools in the coming scho

The Federal Paycheck Protection Program Was a Bonanza for the Charter Industry

300+by dianeravitch / 1d

I have posted reports of individual charter schools that received hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. These charters claimed to be small businesses, not public schools, which were not eligible to get PPP money. Until two days ago, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to release the names of those who asked for PPP money. N

Trump Friends and Family Received Federal Bailout Money, Along with Financiers and Big Law Firms

42by dianeravitch / 1d

Remember how Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin fought to keep private the names of those who received federal coronavirus funds intended for small businesses? The trillion or so was meant to keep people employed by small businesses at risk of bankruptcy. Now we know why Mnuchin wanted to seal the books. The recipients included the politically powerful and members of the Kushner and Trump families

Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources

500+by dianeravitch / 1d

Trump demanded that schools reopen for in-person instruction in a few weeks , as the pandemic surges in more than half the states. He and his party have refused to pass the HEROES act to provide additional resources for schools. 

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

YOU ARE INVITED: Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report – Raw Story

Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report – Raw Story

Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report

President Donald Trump plans to blow off the recommendations issued by his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by releasing his own set of guidelines for reopening American schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NBC News’ Geoff Bennett reports that the Trump White House is issuing separate guidelines because it believes the CDC’s are “too restrictive,” which is what Trump himself claimed in a Wednesday morning tweet in which he attacked the CDC for purportedly hindering the reopening of schools.

“The WH guidelines will include some of those issued by the CDC and recommendations from the American Academy of Pesiatrics,” Bennett reports. “The White House is discussing ways to tie federal funding for schools to the pace of their reopening plans as part of a Phase 4 stimulus bill.”

But despite the president’s desire to project a return to normalcy, the novel coronavirus so far has not been cooperative. States such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona have had close down bars after they became hot spots for infections, which are now averaging well over 50,000 per day.

Trump to blow off CDC recommendations and issue his own guidelines for reopening schools: report – Raw Story

Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools - POLITICO

Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools - POLITICO

Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools
The president also threatened to slash federal funding to schools that do not physically reopen.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday publicly disavowed his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, arguing the federal recommendations were too burdensome as he ramped up his bid to have students return to classrooms in the fall.

“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!” CONTINUE READING: Trump disavows his own administration’s guidance for reopening schools - POLITICO

Trump threatens to cut federal funds from schools that don't reopen

Education secretary slams "adults who are fear mongering and making excuses" for not reopening.

President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are threatening to cut federal funding if schools don't fully physically reopen, increasing pressure on education leaders as the Trump administration intensifies its drive to get kids back in classrooms.

Trump on Wednesday morning tweeted, "In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!"CONTINUE READING: Trump threatens to cut federal funds from schools that don't reopen - POLITICO - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/trump-schools-reopening-federal-funding-352311

DeVos blasts school districts that hesitate at reopening

The Trump administration says local decisions closed schools, not federal health experts.

President Donald Trump in a ramped-up push to reopen schools vowed Tuesday to “put pressure” on reluctant governors, while Education Secretary Betsy DeVos blasted education leaders who won’t accept risk and “gave up and didn’t try” to launch summer instruction.

But the result was intensifying tensions with teachers unions and leading school groups, including the PTA, which charged that the Trump administration in a "vacuum of leadership" has "zero credibility in the minds of educators and parents when it comes to this major decision." The dispute leaves the White House deeply at odds with many involved in making major decisions in the next few weeks about reopening schools. CONTINUE READING: DeVos blasts school districts that hesitate at reopening - POLITICO - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/07/white-house-cdc-pediatricians-reopening-schools-350655

Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe. | Teacher in a strange land

Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe. | Teacher in a strange land

Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe.

People are uber-touchy, even panicky, about the questions around returning to school—it’s a life and death issue, all right, including potentially gambling with our most precious asset: our children.

Like any venture that is launched before all the facts and outcomes are available—marriage and childbirth spring to mind here—both in-person schooling in some fashion and staying home for distance learning have their vocal supporters and detractors.

There’s free-floating hostility, too—accusations of parents ‘dripping privilege’ who are urging public schools to reopen, knowing they have the resources to keep their children safe. There are politicians who just want ‘normal’ again, blaming the media, the left, and public institutions for pumping up panic.

And there are teachers—without whom, students will not go back to school—self-righteously proclaiming that they’re not babysitters.

This is not a new statement. A few years back, there was a meme that made the rounds—the teacher rounds, anyway—comparing the work of teaching to babysitting for 30 children for seven hours a day. Guess what? The babysitter made more money. Way more money. So there!

I was never sure what the moral of the story was. Proof that teachers are grossly underpaid for the important work they do by saying that even babysitters make more CONTINUE READING: Are Teachers Babysitters? Maybe. | Teacher in a strange land

Teachers Say Rush to Reopen Schools Without Covid-19 Safety Plan Shows Trump and DeVos 'Do Not Care About Students' | Common Dreams News

Teachers Say Rush to Reopen Schools Without Covid-19 Safety Plan Shows Trump and DeVos 'Do Not Care About Students' | Common Dreams News

Teachers Say Rush to Reopen Schools Without Covid-19 Safety Plan Shows Trump and DeVos 'Do Not Care About Students'
"America must listen to the health experts on when to reopen schools and to educators on how to return to in-person instruction."

A coalition representing millions of American teachers and parents slammed President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday over their push to reopen schools by the fall without first presenting a concrete plan to protect students and educators from Covid-19.

"The White House and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] have offered at best conflicting guidance for school reopening, and today offered little additional insight," the National Education Association (NEA), the National Parent Teacher Association, and four other groups said in a joint statement late Tuesday.

"No one should listen to Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos when it comes to what is best for students."
—Lily Eskelsen García, National Education Association

The groups warned that "without a comprehensive plan that includes federal resources to provide for the safety of our students and educators with funding for personal protective equipment, socially distanced instruction, and addressing racial inequity, we could be putting students, their families, and educators in danger."

The statement came hours after Trump said during a roundtable discussion at the White House that his administration is going to "put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open."

"We're going to be putting a lot of pressure on: Open your schools in the fall," Trump said after accusing local officials of keeping schools closed "for political reasons."

DeVos, a billionaire advocate of school privatization, echoed Trump. "Under the CONTINUE READING: Teachers Say Rush to Reopen Schools Without Covid-19 Safety Plan Shows Trump and DeVos 'Do Not Care About Students' | Common Dreams News

L.A. reopening of K-12 schools at risk from COVID-19 spike - Los Angeles Times

L.A. reopening of K-12 schools at risk from COVID-19 spike - Los Angeles Times

Coronavirus surge puts reopening of K-12 campuses at risk, says county’s top health official

The pending reopening of K-12 campuses is suddenly at risk because of the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases, and all public and private schools must prepare for students to continue learning entirely from home, Los Angeles County’s top public health official has told local education leaders.

This sobering message was delivered Tuesday by county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, in what she termed an “off the record” phone call with district superintendents and others that was not intended for the media or the public. The Times obtained a recording of the call.

“Every single school district at this point needs to have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time,” Ferrer said told officials from both public and private schools. “We would be irresponsible if we didn’t say to you that you have to have the back-up plan ready.”

Ferrer also said she remained hopeful that campuses could reopen as anticipated and said administrators should continue to develop those plans as well. There are 80 school districts in L.A. County serving about 1.5 million children. And even if campuses cannot reopen to start the school year, the delay might be for weeks rather than a longer period.

“I think it’s completely appropriate to move forward with our plans as we had anticipated before — hoping that there would be opportunity to allow for children and teachers and staff to get back into their buildings, to really have the enriched educational experience that everyone is so desperate for,” she said. “That also has huge implications for working parents.”

All the same, “it would be foolish, given where our numbers are, for school districts not to have that [distance learning] plan in their back pocket,” she said.

The county is planning to release more detailed guidelines for reopening campuses this week. They will include requiring all teachers and students older than 2 to wear face coverings at virtually all times. There will be rare exceptions for students at risk of a serious medical consequence. In those cases, however, others in contact with that student would be required to wear a medical-grade protective face covering.

Students also must be six feet apart in classes. In spaces where this is impossible, an alternate plan would be to set up partitions between desks.

The debate over how and when to reopen schools was amplified this week by President Trump, who said all campuses should reopen for students five days a week. Nothing like that is being seriously considered for most students in California, where CONTINUE READING: L.A. reopening of K-12 schools at risk from COVID-19 spike - Los Angeles Times

Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources

Trump demanded that schools reopen for in-person instruction in a few weeks, as the pandemic surges in more than half the states. He and his party have refused to pass the HEROES act to provide additional resources for schools.

DeVos blasted school districts that hesitate to open, fearing risk to students and staff. She said, patronizingly, that life has many risks: get over it.

THE ANSWER IS NO! TRUMP AND DEVOS ARE WILLING TO SACRIFICE LIVES TO RESTART THE ECONOMY! NO!

Trump doesn’t care about the lives of students and staff. He cares only about his poll numbers. DeVos is arrogant and doesn’t care what might happen to students and teachers and other staff in public schools. She never has.

Opening schools without elaborate and carefully planned protocols for testing, daily screenings, masks, small classes, and social distancing is insane.

Opening schools in the middle of a raging and CONTINUE READING: Trump and DeVos: Schools Must Reopen, Without Needed Resources | Diane Ravitch's blog

Every Year We Hold Schools Accountable for Test Scores in Reading, but Recessionary Cuts Threaten Jobs of the Nation’s School Librarians | janresseger

Every Year We Hold Schools Accountable for Test Scores in Reading, but Recessionary Cuts Threaten Jobs of the Nation’s School Librarians | janresseger

Every Year We Hold Schools Accountable for Test Scores in Reading, but Recessionary Cuts Threaten Jobs of the Nation’s School Librarians

We think we’ve learned the important lessons, but how quickly we forget.

Americans spent 2018 and 2019 learning from teachers as, ten years after the Great Recession, they launched strikes from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Arizona to Kentucky to North Carolina to Virginia to California to Illinois. States had slashed funding for public schools as tax revenues collapsed during the 2008 recession, and after a decade, the majority of states were still spending less on public education than they did before the collapse. Teachers struck to protest the deplorable conditions in which their students were being expected to learn: outrageous class sizes of 35 and 40 student along with shortages of counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, certified librarians, and school nurses. In Los Angeles, Oakland, and Chicago, striking teachers exposed our society’s absence of political will to fund the urban school districts that serve our poorest children.

Here we are now, because of COVID-19, in the midst of another recession. And again today, states are cutting per-pupil basic aid for public schools as tax revenues collapse. But somehow all the medical challenges of the pandemic and the attendant broader economic problems have blinded too many of our leaders to the coming crisis for our schools as budget cuts will again mean the losses of teachers, counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, certified librarians, and school nurses. The meaning of these losses will, of course, become clearer once schools reopen without these essential professionals.

An Education Week article about the pending loss of school personnel caught my eye last week. The headline screams bad news, As COVID-19 Budget Cuts Loom, Relevance of School Librarians Put to the Test.  I suppose I noticed this article because it seems to contradict reality.  How could school librarians ever be considered irrelevant?

My own children are now adults, but when they were young, children’s librarians mattered very much to our family.  These were the librarians at our elementary and middle school and CONTINUE READING: Every Year We Hold Schools Accountable for Test Scores in Reading, but Recessionary Cuts Threaten Jobs of the Nation’s School Librarians | janresseger

NYC Educator: The Best Equity Money Can Buy

NYC Educator: The Best Equity Money Can Buy

The Best Equity Money Can Buy

I taught Zoom lessons for three months. I have ideas on how they can be better, but no one asks me what they are. They will never substitute for the face to face teaching I signed up for. That’s the very toughest work I do, but like the overwhelming majority of my colleagues, I love doing it. It doesn’t look like that’s what I’ll be doing in September, though.

This school year, the mayor says he's going to open the buildings. Depending upon whom you ask, that's his prerogative. Let's ignore the sandbox fight between Bill de Blasio and Governor Cuomo for now, and focus on what they're saying. They both say they have authority over city schools, and both are willing to argue it in public. It's undeniable, though, that this announcement is premature. If there’s one thing we know about Covid, it’s that we have no idea what its impact will be in September.

We do know some things, though. We know that the mayor’s preferred model of instruction is a hybrid. I'll have nine masked students sitting socially distanced from one another in my classroom. Where the other 25 will be, or what they'll be doing while I stand masked in front of the other nine and approach none of them, I have no idea. That's for principals and UFT chapters to negotiate, should they happen to be on speaking terms, over the summer. (To me, this sounds like something out of Black Mirror.)

However, not everyone has to utilize hybrid learning. The mayor has specifically stated that anyone who didn't wish their children to travel to school buildings would receive remote instruction at home. After all, which parents want their children to travel on public transportation, thus risking a potentially deadly infection? Which parents want to depend on children to respect masking and social distancing? Which parents want to depend on NYC school cleanliness? (And why didn’t the mayor ask those questions on his parent survey, which I’ll get to in a moment.)

The question, then, becomes this—Who will even be able to take the mayor up on his generous offer? Let's first look at who will not. Clearly, households that don't have access to daycare are out. While it's true that some CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: The Best Equity Money Can Buy

NYC School Schedule Models – What was Wrong with the DoE’s First Try | JD2718

NYC School Schedule Models – What was Wrong with the DoE’s First Try | JD2718

NYC School Schedule Models – What was Wrong with the DoE’s First Try

New York City’s first attempt to make plans for September did not stand up to scrutiny. Is there a chance that today’s “Schedule Models” will contain better news? Should we be glad they were delayed a day – or should that worry us?

On June 9 the Department of Education released a planning document, “SCHOOL BUILDING RE-OPENING PRELIMINARY PLANNING OVERVIEW.” It was laughably bad, except laughing was the wrong reaction, since they were going to use it for September, with us, the teachers, and our students trying to survive it. Here’s the powerpoint. Here’s my take.

The key part to any plan is the school schedule. The powerpoint included a list of options: daily A/B, weekly A/B, or 2/3 A/B (with some remote). These options were followed by “Increase space among students during in-person instruction by moving some classes outside, re-arranging desks, diving classes into smaller groups, requiring students to remain seated during class; institute classroom stays where students stay in one classroom all day and teachers rotate; and/or close common areas and high-mix classes/activities.”

I would characterize these as hopeful suggestions rather than anything resembling as planning guide. And while hopeful, they were not good. Planning is hard work. It involves putting some flesh on ideas, and getting a feeling for whether the ideas would lead to something useful. Tossing out a handful of ideas, without doing any planning work, it’s not planning. It’s what friends do at a bar late at night. An CONTINUE READING: NYC School Schedule Models – What was Wrong with the DoE’s First Try | JD2718

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God

By Thomas Ultican 7/8/2020

The US is not ready to open schools. We blew it. Let’s face reality squarely and quit making outcomes in our country even worse.

New York’s Michael Flanagan Ed. D. wrote,

“The pressure to reopen schools, and return to work, will continue to intensify, no matter how many new cases of Covid-19 there are each day, and the numbers are growing. Businesses, politicians and even health professionals are in the process of trying to convince us that sending our kids back to school will be safe.”

As if to prove Flanagan’s claim, Harvard’s “Education Next” published a Frederick Hess interview with Jeb Bush where he repeatedly emphasized,

“First and foremost, schools have to open with the health and safety of our students and teachers being paramount. But they have to open, or we will have huge economic, health, and social challenges.”

Not to be outdone by “low energy Jeb”, the President of the United States employed his normal elegance when tweeting,

“Schools in our country should be opened ASAP. Much very good information now available.”

Republican Congressmen, Jim Banks of Indiana and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, CONTINUE READING: Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican