Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Fair warning: this isn’t a traditional Christmas-week column.

If we think of clarity as a kind of gift, though, we can be grateful that the effort to pass a much-needed COVID-19 relief bill in the waning days of this Congress makes one thing crystal clear: hurting families and small businesses will be abandoned if Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate by winning Georgia’s January 5 runoff elections.

There is some good news. The $900 billion package includes emergency relief for renters, families, small businesses, and more. That relief, that, includes direct help to individuals, is urgently needed. It will extend some protections against evictions for another month. It will give small business owners a little more breathing space to try to survive the pandemic.

About 12 million unemployed people who were going to be cut off at the end of the year will receive $300 weekly in federal support and an extension of the unemployment assistance program until mid-March.

All this is necessary. But it is a temporary fix that falls far short of addressing the pain people are experiencing and truly setting us on the road to recovery.

Almost 12 million renters will be behind on their rent by an average of almost $6,000 at the end of this month, according to one study. The Census Bureau says that about 29 percent of Black families are behind on rent. Much of the back rent has piled up since unemployment benefits under the CARES Act—the first relief bill—expired during the summer. According to some estimates, as many as 20 million tenants—about the population of Florida—are at risk of eviction.

With a problem that huge, David Dworkin, CEO of the National Housing Conference, told MarketWatch that the bill’s $25 billion in rental assistance is just a band-aid, “a practical start for staving off the immediate threat of mass evictions across the country.”

Because the bill falls short of what is needed, some people are blaming “Congress” generally.

Let’s get real. If congressional Republicans had CONTINUE READING: Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

AND NOW FOR THE SECOND MOST READ PIECE OF THE YEAR… – Dad Gone Wild

AND NOW FOR THE SECOND MOST READ PIECE OF THE YEAR… – Dad Gone Wild

AND NOW FOR THE SECOND MOST READ PIECE OF THE YEAR…

The second most-read article of 2020 comes from September and focuses on the Schwinigans at the Tennessee Department of Education. The Department has been a constant source of bad practices and ineptitude since Ms. Schwinn arrived from Texas, where he ran herd over a number of controversies, just like in Delaware, and California. Remember those words of Maya Angelou, “When somebody shows you who they are, believe them, the first time. 

There is no reason to believe that anything will change in the coming year, as Governor Lee adds former legislators to the payroll in an effort to circumvent current legislators. Knowing the events of the previous year can only serve to prepare you for the coming year. Unfortunately, when it comes to Ms. Schwinn, I fear that ultimately be the biggest winner. She’ll be the Commissioner of Education till she’s not, that a Lee decision. But when dismissed she’ll just return to California and resume her duties as Executive Director for a charter school that serves a little over 400 kids from mostly economically disadvantaged backgrounds and is financed by the state of California’s taxpayers. A position that only pays a paltry $140K a year. 

Enjoy the piece, hopefully, it informs. I look forward to reading any comments you may choose to share. 

The education world ain’t nothing if it ain’t a big old hamster wheel. People exit stage right only to re-enter stage left in a new costume. In the early part of this decade, the disruption movement was on the rise in Tennessee. But after a few initial success stories, the losses were beginning to CONTINUE READING: AND NOW FOR THE SECOND MOST READ PIECE OF THE YEAR… – Dad Gone Wild

Whatever Happened To the Edison Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened To the Edison Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whatever Happened To the Edison Schools?

Beginning in the 1980s, researchers, policymakers, and business leaders identified what they called “good” or “effective” schools where mostly minority and poor children attended.. These “good” schools scored high on standardized tests, graduated high percentages of their students, with most getting admitted to college. These policymakers and school leaders wanted to replicate the “good” schools they identified so that more low-income minority children could attend across the country. The charter school movement that began in the mid-1990s continued to focus on poor and minority children and youth.Many ardent entrepreneurial reformers founded clusters of schools such as KIPP, Aspire, and dozens of other non-profit organizations.

One such leader was businessman Chris Whittle who started a bevy of for-profit schools across the country a quarter-century ago called the Edison schools (named after the inventor, Thomas Alva Edison).

UNITED STATES – CIRCA 2000: Christopher Whittle, president of Edison Schools, the company that wants to take over the running of five struggling city schools, talks about his organization’s program. (Photo by Robert Rosamilio/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

When and How Did Edison Schools Begin and Grow?

Serial entrepreneur Chris Whittle, founder of Channel 1–a for-profit venture in CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened To the Edison Schools? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

For a while, I was wondering why we would even bother negotiating an observation system with the city. I mean, here we are, all of us, doing a job none of us had trained for or even conceived. How can our supervisors come in and determine exactly how much we suck at these jobs? For one thing, they've never attempted them themselves. I mean, sure, they have a lot of experience telling teachers they suck and exactly why, but supposedly they themselves were teachers at some point. 

In my school, supervisors don't teach at all anymore. That's too bad, You'd hope they'd be out there setting an example of best practices for us, rather than simply talking about it. 

However, even if they were doing that, I don't know a single supervisor with experience teaching online. I don't know a supervisor with experience teaching masked students who are socially distanced either. Maybe in other schools supervisors teach, and maybe some of them have as much experience as we do, i.e, very little.

Who on earth is qualified to design a system to rate those of us doing these new things? I'd argue not even we are, let alone our non-teaching supervisors. If you've been doing this work for less than a year, unless your soul is frozen colder than Mitch McConnell's heart, you're still on a steep learning curve.

Of course, that was no impediment to Charlotte Danielson, who's actually conjured up a Framework for Remote CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid

For American families and their children, school is more than just a building. It's a social life and a community, an athletic center and a place to get meals that aren't available at home. The pandemic has disrupted — and continues to disrupt — the lives of U.S. students in profound ways.

Many kids haven't set foot in their schools since March, when most in-person schooling shut down across the country. Teachers are working tirelessly to educate their students online, but they are growing increasingly anxious about the kids who aren't showing up at all.

An estimated 3 million students may have dropped out of school learning since March, according to Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit that focuses on underserved youth. The group's study cited a lack of Internet access, housing insecurity, disabilities and language barriers as major obstacles to attending virtual classes during the pandemic.

"It is really, really unsettling," says Alex, a teacher in western Virginia, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of repercussions for speaking out. "I think people don't realize how much we need to see these kids. A lot of times in schools, we are the first line for seeing signs of child abuse, for seeing signs of food insecurity. And you don't have that with virtual students. Especially when they ghost."

That "ghosting" is a constant problem for school employees who track attendance in CONTINUE READING: Audio: A Quiet And 'Unsettling' Pandemic Toll: Students Who've Fallen Off The Grid | 89.3 KPCC

What Joe Biden Said About Charter Schools During the Campaign | Diane Ravitch's blog

What Joe Biden Said About Charter Schools During the Campaign | Diane Ravitch's blog

What Joe Biden Said About Charter Schools During the Campaign

Joe Biden was very clear about his position on privately managed charter schools during the campaign.

In this video, he was asked by Lily Eskelsen Garcia what he would do about charter schools, and his position was clear: Charter schools should not be funded at the expense of public schools. No federal funds for privately funded charter schools. Charter schools should be subject to the oversight and governance of school boards. Charter schools should be held to the same standards of transparency and accountability as public schools.

Will he keep his promises?

What Joe Biden Said About Charter Schools During the Campaign | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Tom: I Know the Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True

Teacher Tom: I Know the Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True

I Know the Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True

I know the secret to making your dreams come true.

In an essay written for New Philosopher magazine (content not available online), Oliver Burkman discusses what's called Littlewood's Law, named for a British mathematician by the name of John Edensor Littlewood:

Let's suppose . . . that you're awake and active in the world -- as opposed to sleeping or resting -- for a mere eight hours a day. Suppose furthermore that a tiny 'event' of some sort occurs at the rate of once per second during those hours: you see someone in the street, you read or hear a sentence, or have a thought, and so on . . . Crunch the numbers on that basis, and it turns out you can expect to experience a one-in-a-million occurrence -- the kind of odds most of us would call miraculous -- roughly every 35 days.

So, simply from a mathematical perspective, each of us experiences a very lucky moment on roughly a monthly basis; unbelievably lucky, astronomically lucky, a miracle. The thing is, we don't get to choose what that specific lucky moment is going to be and because most of us are intent upon chasing a specific kind of luck, which we often label our "goal" or our "dream," we don't recognize those one-in-a- CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: I Know the Secret to Making Your Dreams Come True

Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers

Someone wrote an executive order, dated December 28, and signed Donald Trump’s name to it, declaring that the emergency conditions created by the COVID make it vital to use federal funds for vouchers. Don’t waste a minute! Scoop up federal funds and put your child in a substandard voucher school!

We know that Trump didn’t write the executive order because he’s at Mar-a-Lago nursing his grievances.

It appears to have been written by Jim Blew, who works for her and used to work for the Walton Foundation. Even if Trump refuses to concede, DeVos knows it’s over and she will use her last days in office to throw money out the door to find vouchers for private and religious schools.

Andrew Ujifusa of Education Week tweeted that the program Trump wants to use for vouchers is part of HHS, the Community Services Block Grants, and it does NOT make individual grants. Shows how desperate Betsy is to funnel money to vouchers as the sun sets on her days in CONTINUE READING: Trump Issues Order for Back-Door Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

Dear Friends —

2020 was a difficult year for Class Size Matters as it was for many non-profits. If you support our mission of smaller classes, so that all students no matter what their background can receive the help and feedback from teachers they need for an equitable opportunity to learn, please make a tax-deductible donation now. We were unable to hold our usual annual fundraiser in the spring because of the pandemic, so we really would value your contributions at this time.

Some highlights of our efforts this year: In February, standing-room only hearings were held at City Hall on the necessity to lower class size in the public schools. We used that opportunity to urge the City Council to allocate specific funding for that end. Parents, educators, students and top officials, including Kathleen Cashin, Board of Regents member, testified that this would provide the transformational change that NYC students need and deserve, especially as class sizes are out of control in many neighborhood schools and remain 15-30% larger on average than in the rest of the state.

And then the pandemic hit in March, causing a plunge in city tax revenues and proposals by the city to slash the education budget.

Our efforts quickly pivoted to trying to prevent damaging cuts to critical programs and drawing attention to wasteful DOE spending. We were the first advocates to blow the whistle on the DOE’s plan to fully fund school bus companies to the tune of $1.1 billion per year – even as buses had been sitting idle for months in parking lots and garages across the city.  Because of the consequent uproar, the city renegotiated these contracts, leading to savings of at least $200 million.

We also brought attention to the huge class sizes that students were subjected to while engaged in online learning, as well as the risk to their privacy.   DOE has encouraged schools to use hundreds of commercially-prepared ed tech programs, with no evidence they complied with the provisions of the NY state student privacy law that we had pushed for and that had come into full force in January 2020.

If you would like us to continue to advocate for students to receive the full academic and emotional support next year that they will need more than ever before, rather than double down on online learning, as the Chancellor has proposed, and that DOE should cease spending millions on wasteful contracts and unnecessary programs, please show your support by donating here, or by sending a check to Class Size Matters, 124 Waverly Pl., New York NY 10011.

Hoping you and your families have a safe and happy New Year,

Leonie

P.S. You can check out last week’s “Talk out of School” podcast interview with parent activist Shino Tanikawa about the changed middle and high school admissions policies for next year and what they will and won’t accomplish. Please listen if you can, and let me know what you think. You can also subscribe to the podcast at that link or at Apple iTunes, Google, or Spotify.

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

Today the White House (if Donald Trump wrote this thing, then I'm the Queen of Rumania) issued an executive order "expanding educational opportunity school choice" to create "Emergency Learning Scholarships for Students."

It instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (that would be Alex Azar) to use funds from the Community Services Block Grant program top provide "emergency learning scholarships" (the EO doesn't use the V word). These vouchers may be used for 

1) tuition and fees for private or parochial school (if you can find one that the voucher will actually cover tuition for, and the school is doing face-to-face, and they're willing to accept your child halfway through the year)

2) homeschool, microschool, or learning pod costs (curious to know how many disadvantaged students have managed to get into learning pods, like, say, this one at a country club)

3) special education and related services, including therapies

4) tutoring or remedial education

Note that the EO doesn't offer any instructions about oversight. So if you want to hire your out-of-work high school dropout brother-in-law as your child's tutor, that'll be fine.

The argument in favor of this is that January 20th is coming and the administration wants their CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Trump Issues School Vouchers Via Executive Order

DGW’s THIRD MOST READ ARTICLE OF THE YEAR – Dad Gone Wild

DGW’s THIRD MOST READ ARTICLE OF THE YEAR – Dad Gone Wild

DGW’s THIRD MOST READ ARTICLE OF THE YEAR

As we close out a year that has rocked so many lives, in so many ways, I’d like to spend the last days of the year reprinting the three most widely read pieces from the last year. One a day. Sometimes looking back provides context and opens our our eyes to perceiving the events of today through a fresh lens. 

The number 3 most read column comes from May and looks at a number of issues on both the state and local level. Ironically it’s one in which I talk about the work CM Bob Mendes did this past year on the city’s budget. We take a look at the culture Commissioner Schwinn has created at the TDOE, one that hasn’t improved. It is my pleasure to share it with you once again. 

Things in Nashville should get interesting this week as budget talks start in earnest. Mayor Cooper has turned in a budget book nearly 700 pages long and council members are scrambling to unpack it and decide if they plan to propose any changes or produce their own budget for consideration.

Nobody is looking at the numbers closer than the council’s budget chair, Bob Mendes. Mendes has championed tax increases both of the last two years and now finds himself in the unique position of determining whether or not he’ll support the one proposed by Cooper as part of this year’s budget book.

This past weekend, Mendes produced a thoughtful piece that gives some insight as Nashville leaders compose a budget unlike any previously seen by the city. One based on sale tax projection figures that are more than likely inaccurate. As has become his trademark, Mendes’s budget thoughts are nuanced, well-thought-out, and compassionate. There is a reason why he has become a leading voice on the council floor, and Mendes continues to use that clout wisely.

In the days since Mayor Cooper offered his “continuity of essential services” budget on April 28, I’ve heard from a lot of people. About the substance of the proposed $1.00 property tax rate increase, I’ve heard it CONTINUE READING: DGW’s THIRD MOST READ ARTICLE OF THE YEAR – Dad Gone Wild

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

"The coronavirus pandemic has put significant pressure on America’s teachers. Some have been asked to weigh risks to their personal health and teach in person. Some have been asked to teach from behind computer screens and perfect distance learning. Many have been asked to do both. These pressures are taking a toll on teachers across the country. 

"According to a new report, 77% of educators are working more today than a year ago; 60% enjoy their job less, and 59% do not feel secure in their school district’s health and safety precautions. Roughly 27% say they are considering leaving their job, retiring early or taking a leave of absence because of the pandemic.

"Horace Mann Educators Corporation surveyed 1,240 U.S. educators from K-12 public schools for the report. 'Before the pandemic, large numbers of U.S. educators were already leaving the profession due to the financial pressure the job puts on their lives. Then COVID-19 came along.'

"Richard Milner, professor of education at Vanderbilt University says these figures do not surprise him.  'In fact, I suspect those numbers will probably increase over time,' he says. 'Many teachers are barely keeping their heads above water and we don’t know how much longer we’re going to be in this space.'

"Teachers have long raised concerns about the difficult financial circumstances that educators often face. Over the past several years, tens of thousands of teachers have gone on strike for improved pay and school funding.

"These financial concerns are also highlighted in the Horace Mann report: CONTINUE READING: glen brown: Of course, teachers are considering quitting because of the pandemic

NYC Public School Parents: Please give so we can continue our work for education equity, smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

NYC Public School Parents: Please give so we can continue our work for education equity, smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

Please give so we can continue our work for education equity, smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

And a recap of a difficult, extraordinary year...

Dear friend --- 

2020 was a difficult year for Class Size Matters as it was for many non-profits. If you support our mission of smaller classes, so that all students no matter what their background can receive the help and feedback from teachers they need for an equitable opportunity to learn, please make a tax-deductible donation now. We were unable to hold our usual annual fundraiser in the spring because of the pandemic, so we really would value your contributions at this time.

Some highlights of our efforts this year: In February, standing-room only hearings were held at City Hall on the necessity to lower class size in the public schools. We used that opportunity to urge the City Council to allocate specific funding for that end. Parents, educators, students and top officials, including Kathleen Cashin, Board of Regents member, testified that this would provide the transformational change that NYC students need and deserve, especially as class sizes are out of control in many neighborhood schools and remain 15-30% larger on average than in the rest of the state.

And then the pandemic hit in March, causing a plunge in city tax revenues and proposals by the city to slash the education budget.

Our efforts quickly pivoted to trying to prevent damaging cuts to critical programs and drawing attention to wasteful DOE spending. We were the first advocates to blow the whistle on the DOE’s plan to fully fund school bus companies to the tune of $1.1 billion per year – even as buses had been sitting idle for months in parking lots and garages across the city.  Because of the consequent uproar, the city renegotiated these contracts, leading to savings of at least $200 million.

We also brought attention to the huge class sizes that students were subjected to while engaged in online learning, as well as the risk to their privacy.   DOE has encouraged schools to use hundreds of commercially-prepared ed tech programs, with no evidence they complied with the provisions of the NY state student privacy law that we had pushed for and that had come into full force in January 2020.

If you would like us to continue to advocate for students to receive the full academic and emotional support next year that they will need more than ever before, rather than double down on online learning, as the Chancellor has proposed, and that DOE should cease spending millions on wasteful contracts and unnecessary programs, please show your support by donating here, or by sending a check to Class Size Matters, 124 Waverly Pl., New York NY 10011.

Hoping you and your families have a safe and happy New Year, Leonie

P.S. You can check out last week's “Talk out of School” podcast interview with parent activist Shino Tanikawa about the changed middle and high school admissions policies for next year and what they will and won’t accomplish. Please listen if you can, and let me know what you think. You can also subscribe to the podcast at that link or at Apple iTunes, Google, or Spotify.

NYC Public School Parents: Please give so we can continue our work for education equity, smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

A counting problem, and a real problem with counting | JD2718

A counting problem, and a real problem with counting | JD2718

A counting problem, and a real problem with counting

How many ways can we give eleven identical candies to four children? it is obviously possible (necessary) for some to get more than others, and there is not even a guarantee that each child gets something.

That’s equivalent to asking how many solutions there are to:

 (including 0 in the natural numbers).

Now, you could give all eleven to the oldest, all eleven to the second oldest,… Or ten to the oldest and one to the second oldest, and ten to the oldest and one to the second youngest… This is going to be a long-ish list. In fact, I chose numbers just big enough that listing them would be an awkward exercise.

Solving the same problem, with smaller numbers, might help. Let’s give three candies to three kids: 

Now we can make a list. I’m just writing numbers. 201 means two for the oldest, none of the middle, one for the youngest.

300, 210, 201, 120, 111, 102, 030, 021, 012, 003.

That’s ten ways.

But how do we scale this up?

One way, a common way, is to turn the numbers into a graphic. Lay the three candies out, and like the CONTINUE READING: A counting problem, and a real problem with counting | JD2718