UPDATE: THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDOUTBREAK #CHANGEGONNACOME #BIDEN

 Big Education Ape

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES 

Are Covid cases spreading in DC schools? - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-released-data-showing-outbreaks-in-schools-it-did-not-show-that-cases-spread-in-classrooms/2020/12/08/763bc456-398a-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_local-education

Maryland schools chief urges systems to bring back small groups of students, despite virus surge - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-schools-classroom-coronavirus/2020/12/08/9a7c0f4c-3980-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_local-education

NYC schools face chilly ventilation challenges - New York Daily News - https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-covid-nyc-schools-ventilation-windows-temperature-drop-20201209-2mnibdcroffzrf62a46llueb4e-story.html via @nydailynews

What Does Virtual Learning Mean For Snow Days? : NPR - https://www.npr.org/2020/12/09/944528424/what-does-virtual-learning-mean-for-snow-days on @NPR

No, covid-19 vaccines aren’t made from aborted fetuses — and more lessons about fake news - The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/12/08/no-coronavirus-vaccines-arent-made-aborted-fetuses-or-created-control-population-more-lessons-about-fake-news/

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Researcher Says Law Hiding Fiscal Effects of ‘Tax-Credit Vouchers’ from Public View Undermines Valid Analysis | National Education Policy Center - https://nepc.colorado.edu/node/10663 on @NEPCtweet

Unemployed graduates struggle to find jobs in the Covid-19 market - Vox - https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22158622/youth-unemployment-rate on voxdotcom

NOLA Public Schools declines to renew Crocker College Prep; 17 charters win new contracts | The Lens - https://thelensnola.org/?p=558801 by @https://twitter.com/martajewson on @TheLensNOLA

Texas State Board of Education members test positive for coronavirus | The Texas Tribune - https://www.texastribune.org/2020/12/08/coronavirus-texas-state-board-education-meeting/ by @AliyyaSwaby on @TexasTribune

Why Joe Biden should forgive billions in student debt | Salon.com - https://www.salon.com/2020/12/08/why-joe-biden-should-forgive-billions-in-student-debt_partner/

How remote learning is making educational inequities worse | Salon.com - https://www.salon.com/2020/12/08/how-remote-learning-is-making-educational-inequities-worse_partner/

CTU Joins Other Unions in Outlining What They Want in New Education Secretary https://news.wttw.com/2020/12/08/ctu-joins-other-unions-outlining-what-they-want-new-education-secretary#.X9EG7QIkV0Y.twitter

Biden vows to reopen most schools after 1st 100 days on job - StarTribune.com - https://www.startribune.com/biden-vows-to-reopen-most-schools-after-1st-100-days-on-job/573335611/?refresh=true on @StarTribune

Biden says reopening schools should be ‘national priority,’ sets goal of doing so during his first 100 days - oregonlive.com - https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/12/biden-says-reopening-schools-should-be-national-priority-sets-goal-of-doing-so-during-his-first-100-days.html on @oregonlive

School districts slow to follow New York City’s lead on reopening schools - POLITICO - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/09/schools-follow-ny-city-reopening-443834

SVCSB makes Phyllis Shepherd, Mathew Hamrick recuse on Epic matters https://nondoc.com/2020/12/08/svcsb-makes-phyllis-shepherd-mathew-hamrick-recuse-on-epic/ via @nondocmedia

Needle To The Groove: Chuck D From Public Enemy Talks About His Five Favorite Vinyl Records | NewBlackMan (in Exile) - https://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2020/12/needle-to-groove-chuck-d-from-public.html

How Will You Choose To Resist Digital Slavery? An Inquiry Into Spirit and Patriotism – Wrench in the Gears - https://wp.me/p7SU8W-1Tj

The Chicago Teachers Union Plays Hardball - The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/us/chicago-teachers-union-school-reopening.html

NYC Education Dept. to begin hiring teachers as ‘Virtual Content Specialists’ focused on remote teaching https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-doe-virtual-content-specialist-hiring-20201209-awtof2lbzzcjnm6tsta2nm4i5u-story.html#ed=rss_www.nydailynews.com/arcio/rss/category/new-york/education/

‘COVID Slide’ Prompts Grade Scale Change Among Douglas County Students, To The Dismay Of Some Teachers – CBS Denver - https://cbsloc.al/3mV6HT7 on /CBSdenver

Most U.S. social studies teachers feel unprepared to teach civic learning | EurekAlert! Science News - https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/rc-mus120420.php#new_tab by RANDCorporation on @EurekAlert

12,000 More White Children Return to N.Y.C. Schools Than Black Children - The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/nyregion/ny-schools-reopening-inequality.html#new_tab

Kanawha bows to court ruling, making Williams South Charleston High’s principal; former principal passed over for GW job https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/education/kanawha-bows-to-court-ruling-making-williams-south-charleston-high-s-principal-former-principal-passed/article_dc3fc46b-9d37-5152-b517-8fb137700c37.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share via @wvgazettemail

Rural schools in Alabama hit hardest by enrollment losses during pandemic - al.com - https://www.al.com/news/2020/12/rural-schools-in-alabama-hit-hardest-by-enrollment-losses-during-pandemic.html#new_tab on @aldotcom

St. Paul district offers second chance after HS students fail 34% of classes – Twin Cities - https://wp.me/p79gJ9-fPy2 on @pioneerpress

CTU Joins Other Unions in Outlining What They Want in New Education Secretary | Chicago News | WTTW - https://news.wttw.com/node/33746

KUOW - Denise Juneau, Seattle superintendent, to leave district - https://www.kuow.org/stories/denise-juneau-seattle-superintendent-to-leave-district#new_tab

Biden vows to reopen most schools after 1st 100 days on job - https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-health-coronavirus-pandemic-80275870d7fca89bd38992a611b26616#new_tab on @ap

Michigan enrollment fell by 53,200 students this fall as the pandemic raged. Where did they go? https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2020/12/8/22163735/enrollment-down-in-mi-pandemic via @ChalkbeatDET

Shut Them Down: Why Schools Might Not Be Safe During COVID-19 | Healthiest Communities Health News | US News - https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-12-02/shut-them-down-why-schools-might-not-be-safe-during-covid-19#new_tab on @USNews

CURMUDGUCATION: More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick

Big Education Ape / 8min

More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick There are plenty of reasons to focus attention and concern on President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education. After all, VP Biden was part of the administration that gave us Arne Duncan as secretary, a choice universally panned by teachers

A teacher’s list of the worst and best education news of 2020 - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape / 8min

The positively worst and best education news of 2020 — as viewed by a teacher It has been an annual tradition on The Answer Sheet for veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo to assess what he sees as the best and worst education news of the year and then make predictions about the coming year. Here is his installment on the news of 2020 (and his predictions for 2021 will be coming soon). Ferlazzo teaches

Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape / 8min

Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos? Jeff Bryant writes that while we were all celebrating the pending departure of Betsy DeVos, the usual suspects were buying control of local school board elections . We are all aware of her efforts to direct federal funding to private schools and charter schools. But, he warns, we should pay attention to the “threat to democratically governed schools that pr

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Big Education Ape / 8min

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement New York, NY – The Schott Foundation for Public Education is pleased to announce that Lauren Hadi has joined our team as Senior Vice President of Advancement. In this role, Lauren will guide the Foundation’s work with our philanthropic partners to channel more resources to the education justice movement and our grass

TODAY'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

Big Education Ape / 8min

Education Research Report What are schools doing to feed students during COVID-19-related closures? by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 17h As schools across the United States are grappling with remote and hybrid learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior , published by Elsevier, investigates the initial responses of child nutrition administrative

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape / 8min

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/12/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos.html Video & A Whole Lot More: Google Releases “The Year In Search” by Larry Ferl

Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything | Diane Ravitch's blog

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything Ken Rice was an elected member of the Oakland Unified School District from 1997-2000. That was before the billionaire disrupters decided to take control of Oakland and turn it into their own petri dish for “reform” (i.e., privatization). Rice wrote the following description of the recent school board election, in which grassroots organiza

NYC Educator: Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again If you're a teacher, you constantly hear talks of standards. The standardized test is the Bible, the Holy Grail, and the Ten Commandments all rolled into one. If your student gets 64 on the NY State English Regents, she is unfit to graduate. However, her classmate who gets a 65 is college and career ready. That's because this instrument is so precise

Listen to this – 2020 #5 | Live Long and Prosper

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Listen to this – 2020 #5 SCHOOLS AS A COMMON GOOD The End of Public Schools Would Mean the End of the Common Good What is the purpose of public education? Is it a “factory for human capital” or a place to raise citizens in a democracy? The “business model” of education supported by many “reformers,” focuses on churning out workers from the public schools. The idea that public education is a Comm

Teacher Tom: Getting on the Same Bandwagon

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Getting on the Same Bandwagon There are few more gratifying things than when the experts tell you something you already know. For instance, throughout my teaching career, I've always said that the first step with every child is getting on the same bandwagon, by which I mean, essentially, to befriend them. Once we're on the same bandwagon, once they know I like them and I know that they like me,

Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die? | janresseger

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die? In Ohio, the state senate is refusing even to consider a new school funding plan, developed over a period of several years to replace the old school funding system that has become progressively unworkable over the past decade . Last Thursday, the Ohio House of Representatives passed the

DUANE CAMPBELL Choosing Democracy: Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

by Mike Simpson / 1h

Choosing Democracy: Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success At the center of the recent teacher insurgency is one particular form of direct action—the strike. The strike occupies a distinctive place in the popular consciousness of teachers and working people more generally, primarily because of its extraordinary

Education Matters: As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars

by Mike Simpson / 1h

As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars Veteran teachers are about to take a pay cut, our contact tracing is a joke, and thousands of sub-jobs have gone unfilled, all while the district sits on way more money than it is statutorily required to do so. I have been told they are saving the money for a rainy day. Well, friends, if they look outside, they would be able to that it is pouring

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #COVIDOUTBREAK #CHANGEGONNACOME #BIDEN

by Mike Simpson / 21h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Epic Charter Schools board approves more corrective actions - https://nondoc.com/?p=20443 by @https://twitter.com/MeganPrather405 

 Big Education Ape

CURMUDGUCATION: More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick

CURMUDGUCATION: More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick

More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick

There are plenty of reasons to focus attention and concern on President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for Secretary of Education. After all, VP Biden was part of the administration that gave us Arne Duncan as secretary, a choice universally panned by teachers. Public education advocates are hoping that Biden will give us a career educator with the leadership chops to manage a federal department that has been up against the ropes for a few years.

But the department needs more than just a solid secretary at the helm. It needs a mechanism in place that will help it hear teachers.

Education policy discussions in this country suffer from too many loud voices of education amateurs. Yes, the department needs the benefit of people who understand the system in DC, as well as the massive financial business of student loans and grants. The world of higher ed needs to be represented. But the education department also needs to benefit from the insights of actual education experts, the practitioners in the field. Public school teachers. And not just one at the top—lots of them.

The future secretary, whoever she might be, should have ready access to a panel of actual public CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: More Important Than Biden's Ed Secretary Pick

A teacher’s list of the worst and best education news of 2020 - The Washington Post

A teacher’s list of the worst and best education news of 2020 - The Washington Post

The positively worst and best education news of 2020 — as viewed by a teacher

It has been an annual tradition on The Answer Sheet for veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo to assess what he sees as the best and worst education news of the year and then make predictions about the coming year. Here is his installment on the news of 2020 (and his predictions for 2021 will be coming soon).

Ferlazzo teaches English and social studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento. He has written or edited 12 books on education, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week and has a popular resource-sharing blog. He has written pieces for The Answer Sheet over the years, including one on how teachers can help students motivate themselves and this one, one of my favorites, titled: “NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’ ”

NOTE: As in the past, Ferlazzo says he does not presume to suggest that the following compilation is all-encompassing, and he hopes that you will take time to share your own choices in the comments. He starts this piece with what he thinks is the best education news of 2020 and then the worst — although the items in each category are not in any order of importance (except for the No. 1 event listed in both).

Ordinarily, Ferlazzo starts out with the best news, but this has been such a bad year, it seems more appropriate to recognize the worst first:

The worst education news of 2020

• I doubt that there will be any dispute on this one: The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted education for tens of millions of students (along with the lives of their entire families). The deaths of educators, the 1.2 million child coronavirus cases, and the countless numbers of family members and friends affected by the disease covid-19 have contributed to a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. Although it’s still not clear how this year’s changes will affect most students academically, it is a safe bet that our most vulnerable populations, including students with learning challenges, English-language learners, and those who were experiencing academic challenges before the pandemic, are taking a significant “hit” to their learning and to their mental health. In addition, many of their families have suffered huge blows to their financial well-being, and research has documented how economic insecurity can affect CONTINUE READING: A teacher’s list of the worst and best education news of 2020 - The Washington Post

Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos?

Jeff Bryant writes that while we were all celebrating the pending departure of Betsy DeVos, the usual suspects were buying control of local school board elections. We are all aware of her efforts to direct federal funding to private schools and charter schools. But, he warns, we should pay attention to the “threat to democratically governed schools that preceded DeVos and will continue when she is long gone.”

In midsized metropolitan areas like Indianapolis and Stockton, California, parents, teachers, and public school advocates warn of huge sums of money coming from outside their communities to influence local politics and bankroll school board candidates who support school privatization. In phone conversations, emails, and texts, they point to a national agenda, backed by deep-pocketed organizations and individuals who intend to disrupt local school governance in order to impose forms of schools that operate like private contractors rather than public agencies—an agenda not dissimilar from that of DeVos.

In the 2020 school board election in Indianapolis, local CONTINUE READING: Jeff Bryant: What Is Worse Than DeVos? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement

New York, NY – The Schott Foundation for Public Education is pleased to announce that Lauren Hadi has joined our team as Senior Vice President of Advancement. In this role, Lauren will guide the Foundation’s work with our philanthropic partners to channel more resources to the education justice movement and our grassroots grantee partners.

Lauren brings more than 20 years of experience in the education nonprofit sector, a career dedicated to improving educational opportunities for underserved students.  Prior to joining Schott, she spent more than 10 years at Room to Read where she served as the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships. During that time, Room to Read expanded its work from nine countries in Asia and Africa to 18, including expansion to the Middle East, Caribbean, and Latin America. Lauren joined Room to Read in Hong Kong in 2010 and as the Development Director for Asia Pacific leading business development in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan for four years before returning to New York.  

Before moving to Asia, Lauren worked at the College Board in New York overseeing the grants and advocacy team dedicated to initiatives focused on equity and access. She worked on the College Board’s public school projects to promote college readiness for all students. Early in her career, Lauren was the Director of Education Programs at the Committee of 200, a Chicago-based membership organization of top women entrepreneurs and corporate executives in the U.S.

Lauren has a bachelor of arts from the University of Rochester and a master of public administration with a concentration in education policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

“We are excited to welcome Lauren to our team,” said Schott President and CEO John H. Jackson. “Along with her passion for equity and public education, Lauren brings valuable experience and expertise to integrate into our core work of bridging philanthropic and advocacy partners to increase the education justice movement’s resources, capacity and reach, thereby augmenting both partners’ impact on providing all children an opportunity to learn and thrive.”

Lauren Hadi Joins the Schott Foundation as Senior Vice President of Advancement | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything | Diane Ravitch's blog

Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything

Ken Rice was an elected member of the Oakland Unified School District from 1997-2000. That was before the billionaire disrupters decided to take control of Oakland and turn it into their own petri dish for “reform” (i.e., privatization). Rice wrote the following description of the recent school board election, in which grassroots organizations stood together and beat the candidates of the out-of-district/out-of-state billionaires. He is a member of Educators for Democratic Schools (EDS), an Oakland-based organization composed primarily of retired public school teachers, administrators and school board members. When Ken Rice ran for school board, his race cost $12,000. Due to the intrusion of big money, grassroots groups are always outspent and usually overwhelmed. But Rice explains here how Oakland parents and educators fought back and won.

He writes:

Apparently Money Isn’t Always Everything–$300,000 Beats $900,000 In The Oakland School Board Elections!

“In nearly 20 years of privatization push into Oakland, this CONTINUE READING: Oakland School Board Election: Money Can’t Buy Everything | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC Educator: Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again

NYC Educator: Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again

Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again

If you're a teacher, you constantly hear talks of standards. The standardized test is the Bible, the Holy Grail, and the Ten Commandments all rolled into one. If your student gets 64 on the NY State English Regents, she is unfit to graduate. However, her classmate who gets a 65 is college and career ready. That's because this instrument is so precise and absolutely reliable it cannot be mistaken, even if some who've studied it contend it's an unreliable piece of crap. 

On the other hand, who needs standards for a deadly disease? Mayor Bill de Blasio has been running a clown show ever since his pathetic bid for the presidency. He failed to close the schools when the pandemic had us in dead in its sights, and had the chancellor demand 108,000 signatures from epidemiologists before bending to what was obvious to the whole world, save City Hall and the White House. 

Then came September. We're opening. We aren't opening. We'll open next week. No, the week after that. No we don't have to test anyone for COVID. Well, if the UFT is going to strike, maybe we will do a little testing. We'll make it mandatory, but if students don't consent, we'll ignore it and hope for the best. And if Cuomo says we'll close at 5%, we'll do better. We'll close at 3%, because we have higher standards than the state.

But once the mayor followed through with that promise, it turned out that there was public sentiment against him. Evidently, some of the 35% of families who chose in person learning a day or two a week were upset. How dare this mayor deprive their children of the opportunity to sit socially distanced and masked far away from one another? How could they lose that opportunity?

And what a system it was. We had a hybrid. It was sometimes in person and sometimes on line. The way it worked was this--if one third of the students were in school, two-thirds were online. And because there weren't actually enough teachers to do this, he'd hire some more. You can teach 12 kids in the school, and I can teach 56 others online. But that wouldn't be so bad because there would be a virtual content specialist planning the CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Mayor Bozo Ready to Lower Standards Yet Again

Listen to this – 2020 #5 | Live Long and Prosper

Listen to this – 2020 #5 | Live Long and Prosper

Listen to this – 2020 #5

SCHOOLS AS A COMMON GOOD

The End of Public Schools Would Mean the End of the Common Good

What is the purpose of public education? Is it a “factory for human capital” or a place to raise citizens in a democracy?

The “business model” of education supported by many “reformers,” focuses on churning out workers from the public schools. The idea that public education is a Common Good like libraries, roads, and municipal water systems, seems to be ignored by those who have tried to make a profit on public education.

From Jon Shelton in Jacobin Magazine

If education is nothing but the “capital” that helps one get a job, then the argument to make it a private commodity is far too convincing. If we want to save our schools, then we have to stop looking at them as factories for human capital and instead as serving to educate our kids to be citizens in a democracy with expectations for better lives. When we talk about the purpose of education, we have to see it as only one part of a broader series of social-democratic rights that includes the right to a secure job, good housing, and quality health care — no matter what kind of education credential you have.

END PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

The Foundational Fallacy Of Charter Schools

Do we save the public money with charter schools or do we duplicate services CONTINUE READING: Listen to this – 2020 #5 | Live Long and Prosper

Teacher Tom: Getting on the Same Bandwagon

Teacher Tom: Getting on the Same Bandwagon

Getting on the Same Bandwagon

There are few more gratifying things than when the experts tell you something you already know. For instance, throughout my teaching career, I've always said that the first step with every child is getting on the same bandwagon, by which I mean, essentially, to befriend them. Once we're on the same bandwagon, once they know I like them and I know that they like me, behavior issues don't exactly go away, but they become manageable because you're working from a foundation of mutual respect and love. So when Dan Siegel and Tina Payne's book The Whole Brain Child came out in 2011 with it's concept of "connect to redirect," it didn't hit me as an epiphany, but rather as a confirmation.

"Connect to redirect" is a bedrock principle in preschool. If I want to help someone alter a behavior or make a transition or engage some other sort of change, my first step is to re-invest in making sure that we're still sharing a the same bandwagon. When I'm working with children with whom I have a long track record, like our five-year-olds, it might only take a couple seconds, some genuine eye-contact and an inside joke, for instance, and we're good to go. Children I'm still getting to know might take a bit more effort, but the goal is to make sure the trust is there first. But again, I don't CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Getting on the Same Bandwagon

Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die? | janresseger

Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die? | janresseger

Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die?

In Ohio, the state senate is refusing even to consider a new school funding plan, developed over a period of several years to replace the old school funding system that has become progressively unworkable over the past decade.  Last Thursday, the Ohio House of Representatives passed the proposed new plan by a huge margin: 84-8.  But the Ohio Senate Finance Committee has not even chosen to hold open hearings on its own companion bill, which was introduced early last month as Senate Bill 376.  The current biennial legislative session will end on December 31, and without consideration by the Ohio Senate and passage by that date, the Fair School Funding Plan will die.

If the Ohio Senate refuses to pass this bill, it will be merely one more piece of proof that the incoming senate president, Matt Huffman, and Matt Dolan, who chairs the senate’s finance committee, are committed to supporting children in private and religious schools with publicly funded vouchers at the expense of the 1.6 million children and adolescents who are enrolled in our state’s public schools.

The testimony I submitted last month to the Ohio House Finance Committee on behalf of the Heights Coalition for Public Education details why passage of the new plan is so important to CONTINUE READING: Why the New “Fair School Funding Plan” Matters for One Ohio School District: Will the Ohio Senate Let It Die? | janresseger

DUANE CAMPBELL Choosing Democracy: Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

Choosing Democracy: Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

 

At the center of the recent teacher insurgency is one particular form of direct action—the strike. The strike occupies a distinctive place in the popular consciousness of teachers and working people more generally, primarily because of its extraordinary visibility, leverage, and power as a tactic but also because of the mythology and romance that is often associated with it. Despite their success in establishing public-sector unionism and collective bargaining (including teacher unionism) in the 1960s, teacher strikes became increasingly ineffective by the mid-1970s and 1980s and had dwindled to a mere handful by the start of the twenty-first century. The success of the teacher insurgency in reestablishing the strike as a powerful tactic is a welcome development, but to maintain and build on that success, we need to be acutely aware of the approaches that best situate teacher strikes to win.

 

…

Far too much of what passes for thinking about strikes in the United States— including teacher strikes—rests on a “field of dreams” theory: Call it, and they will come. We must go beyond such romantic notions, which are recipes for disaster, and consider the different conditions and approaches that have led teacher strikes to victory and defeat, to find a way forward that will continue the success of the strikes of the teacher insurgency.

Complete chapter at 

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-teacher-strike-conditions-for-success

 

---

Leo Casey is Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute, a think talk affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. Over the course of a forty-year career, he has been a rank and file public school teacher, the leader of the union at his school and a Vice President of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers.

This text was adapted from Leo Casey’s book The Teacher Insurgency: A Strategic and Organizing Perspective, out now from Harvard Education Press. 

Choosing Democracy: Teachers’ Strikes -Conditions for Success

Education Matters: As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars

Education Matters: As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars

As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars

Veteran teachers are about to take a pay cut, our contact tracing is a joke, and thousands of sub-jobs have gone unfilled, all while the district sits on way more money than it is statutorily required to do so.  I have been told they are saving the money for a rainy day. Well, friends, if they look outside, they would be able to that it is pouring.

The district is statutorily required to save 3 percent of its budget. Though I know in the past, they have saved five percent and more, and in 2012, then superintendent Pratt-Dannals, with 120 million in reserves, declared a financial emergency and robbed teachers of their step. Ultimately this cost him his job though teachers never made up the money they lost.

Three percent of DCPS's budget is about 51 million dollars, give or take. That means there are over ten million available to take care of needs.

I was told that the district is afraid that Corcoran will withhold funds for DHR kids next semester. I don't know CONTINUE  READING: Education Matters: As problems mount DCPS sits on 70 million dollars