Friday, April 16, 2021

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Friday, April 16, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #openonlywhensafe #edchat #K12 #learning #edleadership #edtech #engchat #literacy #edreform

THE TOP BANANA
TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES

House approves proposal to shift funds from traditional public to charter schools | Politics | stltoday.com - https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/house-approves-proposal-to-shift-funds-from-traditional-public-to-charter-schools/article_6acdb33f-881f-5b9f-8618-94631e74b60d.html#new_tab on @stltoday

Gadfly on the Wall: Standardized Testing During a Pandemic is Stupid. And Cruel. | National Education Policy Center - https://nepc.colorado.edu/node/10865 on @NEPCtweet

Education Research Report: Later school start times let students get adequate sleep - http://educationresearchreport.blogspot.com/

Advocates call for Pennsylvania to send $100 million to 100 underfunded school districts https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/15/22386754/advocates-call-for-pennsylvania-to-send-100-million-to-100-underfunded-school-districts via @ChalkbeatPHL

ProPublica Reporting Projects Recognized by Education Writers Association http://feeds.propublica.org/link/9499/14415310/propublica-reporting-projects-recognized-by-education-writers-association

Parents of Black Gay Alabama Teen Who Died by Suicide Sue City and School District Alleging School Staff Failed to Help https://www.theroot.com/parents-of-black-gay-alabama-teen-who-died-by-suicide-s-1846692032

New charter schools want to open in D.C. Does the city need them? https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-charter-schools-want-to-open-in-dc-does-the-city-need-them/2021/04/15/1ac0df32-9c52-11eb-b7a8-014b14aeb9e4_story.html

Ed Notes Online: UFT Leadership Shaken, Not Stirred: Electronic anonymous voting threat, Endorsement Chaos, Unity defections, is mayoral endorsement in trouble? - https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2021/04/uft-leadership-shaken-not-stirred.html

Online school. Poor technology. Declining enrollments. - POLITICO - https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/15/online-school-technology-enrollment-479340

Policy Hackathon: How to get schoolkids back on track https://politi.co/2Q3GKFW via @politico

Left of Black S11 · E23 | The Devaluation of Black Homeownership with Andre M. Perry | NewBlackMan (in Exile) - https://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2021/04/left-of-black-s11-e23-devaluation-of.html

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: A Reader on Race and Superhero Comics – radical eyes for equity - https://wp.me/p2GmBR-9Vo via @plthomasEdD

Florida passes bill requiring some girls to undergo genital inspections for school sports https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/04/florida-passes-bill-requiring-girls-undergo-genital-inspections-school-sports/#.YHnNqq5eYL8.twitter

Victory! Racial Justice Organizers Win Sweeping Changes to Worcester School Committee Elections | Schott Foundation for Public Education - http://schottfoundation.org/node/4320

Pandemic creates new hurdles for educators and families of Philadelphia’s youngest English language learners https://philadelphia.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/16/22385499/pandemic-creates-new-hurdles-for-educators-and-families-of-youngest-english-language-learners

Public schools are critical infrastructure that must be rebuilt https://educationvotes.nea.org/?p=49118#.YHnS7r3_HIo.twitter via @EdVotes

Delayed school start times allow students to sleep longer, study finds - CNN - https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/health/school-start-time-sleep-study-wellness/index.html#new_tab

Union and district reach tentative agreement to reopen Chicago high schools after weeks of tense negotiations https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/15/22386039/chicago-teachers-union-school-district-reach-tentative-agreement-to-reopen-high-schools-covid-19 via @ChalkbeatCHI

Seattle teachers union approves deal for middle- and high-school return | The Seattle Times - https://www.seattletimes.com/?p=13771079 by @elisetakahama on @seattletimes

Illinois House passes bill mandating Asian American history in schools - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/illinois-house-passes-bill-mandating-asian-american-history-schools-rcna690#new_tab by NBCNews on @NBCNews

Milwaukee teachers' union receives 300 complaints in first week back - https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-teachers-education-association-receives-300-complaints-in-first-week-back/36138558#new_tab on @WISN12News

Judge will not make Oceanside, San Marcos school districts offer full-time in-person instruction - The San Diego Union-Tribune - https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-04-15/judge-will-not-make-oceanside-san-marcos-school-districts-offer-full-time-in-person-instruction#new_tab by @Kristen_Taketa on @sdut

Private school tuition measure passes Senate - https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/apr/16/private-school-tuition-measure-passes-senate/#new_tab on @arkansasonline

School next to Portland ICE facility sounds alarm over children’s exposure to chemical munitions - oregonlive.com - https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/04/school-next-to-portland-ice-facility-sounds-alarm-over-childrens-exposure-to-chemical-munitions.html#new_tab on @oregonlive

Indiana voucher program could expand to more middle-class families - Chalkbeat Indiana - https://in.chalkbeat.org/2021/4/15/22386543/indiana-voucher-increase-private-school-tuition-middle-class#new_tab on chalkbeat

Ban transgender athletes from public school sports sent to Gov. Ivey - https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/04/15/transgender-sports-ban-alabama-senate/7235572002/#new_tab via @mgmadvertiser

Indiana General Assembly: Teachers apply pressure for pay hike - https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2021/04/15/indiana-general-assembly-teachers-apply-pressure-pay-hike/7228515002/#new_tab via @indystar

CPS to promote all elementary students this year, nix standardized tests for competitive high school admissions - Chicago Sun-Times - https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2021/4/15/22386206/cps-high-school-admissions-selective-enrollment-promotion-grades-nwea-map#new_tab

Conservatives propose revised sex ed rules in LGBTQ pushback - https://apnews.com/article/parental-rights-gay-rights-arizona-gender-identity-sex-education-1f19f7a1aad2d2be7de934aa9807e9c6#new_tab on @ap

Judge rules in favor of new Boston exam schools admissions policy, saying it is 'race-neutral' - https://wp.me/panY8T-9ILV

Florida schools in need of funding | firstcoastnews.com - https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/education/despite-missing-students-florida-education-advocates-say-the-need-for-school-funding-is-greater-than-ever/77-d82b321d-86ad-457a-a210-0023e47bf11b#new_tab on FCN2go

Students take up the cause to push for more financial education https://cnb.cx/32hpcZo

The Pandemic Didn't Create Inequality. It Revealed How Broken Public Education Is | Opinion - https://www.newsweek.com/pandemic-didnt-create-inequality-it-revealed-how-broken-public-education-opinion-1584003#new_tab on @newsweek

McMaster: $10.5M to help fund S.C. charter schools, workforce development | News | thetandd.com - https://thetandd.com/news/government-and-politics/mcmaster-10-5m-to-help-fund-s-c-charter-schools-workforce-development/article_25f126f0-1195-5c0a-b9f2-5f0a3ac49854.html#new_tab on @thetandd

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/curmudgucation-what-happens-to-students.html

Big Education Ape: What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/what-i-said-about-nclb-and-standardized.html

Big Education Ape: EdCo to Host “Antiracist Classroom” Event – Tennessee Education Report - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/edco-to-host-antiracist-classroom-event.html

Big Education Ape: My Next Book | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/my-next-book-larry-cuban-on-school.html

Big Education Ape: Teacher Says Charter Schools Should Get Zero Federal Dollars - LA Progressive - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/04/teacher-says-charter-schools-should-get.html

Former lobbyist details how privatizers are trying to end public education - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape / 1h

Former lobbyist details how privatizers are trying to end public education A few years ago I ran a piece by Joanne Barkan about the long history of the movement to privatize public education. It began: When champions of market-based reform in the United States look at public education, they see two separate activities — government funding education and government running schools. The first is ok

Hershey Profits Fund $17 Billion Endowment for Nonprofit School, but Board Member Says It Won’t Let Him See Financial Records — ProPublica

Big Education Ape / 1h

Hershey Profits Fund $17 Billion Endowment for Nonprofit School, but Board Member Says It Won’t Let Him See Financial Records A director and alumnus of America’s wealthiest boarding school claims he had to sue the institution to see how it spends the funding it receives from sales of Hershey bars and Reese’s Pieces. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to

Teacher Tom: "I Want To Be the Littlest Baby"

Big Education Ape / 1h

"I Want To Be the Littlest Baby" A child psychologist friend once told me that he kept a doll house in his office, explaining that he could often learn more about a child while playing "family" than in any number of hours of traditional talk therapy. I'm no therapist, but I can certainly see the potential there. "I'm this baby." "I'm the mommy bunny." "I'm a baby too." "But I'm the littler baby.

Speduktr: We All Pay for Public Services and Public Goods, for Our Common Benefit | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape / 1h

Speduktr: We All Pay for Public Services and Public Goods, for Our Common Benefit The privatization movement is built on the ideology of “a backpack full of cash.” Give the money to the family and let them spend it where and how they want. The money is not actually in the child’s backpack, but handed out to families to spend as they wish. If they want their child to attend a religious school or

Will Ohio Senate Undermine Fair School Funding Plan By Burying Changes in Fine Print of the State Budget? | janresseger

Big Education Ape / 1h

Will Ohio Senate Undermine Fair School Funding Plan By Burying Changes in Fine Print of the State Budget? The Ohio House of Representatives is, thankfully, being persistent in trying to pass a new, adequate, and equitable public school funding formula. Ohio educators and parents will remember that on December 2 of last year, the Ohio House passed the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan by an

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

Big Education Ape / 1h

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy By Thomas Ultican 4/16/2021 A new political PAC, “ Campaign for Better San Francisco Public Schools ,” demands that schools be opened for in person classes immediately. They also make two dubious claims, “The election process for choosing the Board of Education is not meeting the needs of San Francisco” and “Many large citie

CURMUDGUCATION: Success Academy Lost $2.4 Million Judgment

Big Education Ape / 1h

Success Academy Lost $2.4 Million Judgment You might have caught this story, but I don't want you to miss it. Success Academy has long been one of the stars of the charter school world. But in 2015, Kate Taylor at the New York Times reported on a secret "got to go" list that targeted students that SA administrators wanted to push out, part of a general pattern of deliberately making life difficu

The Country Moves Forward, Education Falls Back - Counter Punch org

Big Education Ape / 1h

The Country Moves Forward, Education Falls Back - CounterPunch.org The Country Moves Forward, Education Falls Back There’s hope in the air, a scent of spring, anticipation of change, democracy may pull through. Why, then, with K-12 public schools, the broken promise, the dismay? Biden raised hopes when he promised, Dec 16, 2019, that he’d “commit to ending the use of standardized testing in publi

NYC Educator: A Portrait of My Student

Big Education Ape / 1h

A Portrait of My Student This is one of my students. She's lovely, isn't she? Or he? Or them? I don't have the proper pronouns. All I have is this avatar. What do I know about this student? Well, I know he, she or they likes cute kittens. Or perhaps Pokemon monsters, or whatever this thing is. I know that this student is likely a fan of bubble tea, which is what appears to be in the cup. That's

YESTERDAY

THE TOP BANANA: TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Thursday, April 15, 2021 #REDFORED #tbats #openonlywhensafe #edchat #K12 #learning #edleadership #edtech #engchat #literacy #edreform

Big Education Ape / 21h

Big Education Ape THE TOP BANANA TODAY'S EDUCATION HEADLINES Analysis | Backlash growing to Biden’s insistence that schools give standardized tests during the pandemic https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/04/14/bac

Big Education Ape

CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

In Chester Upland School District, the process of selling off the district schools to charter operators has continued (for a deeper dive into CUSD's troubled history, read here). Three charter operators have made their bids, and we'll take a closer look at that another day. It's all pretty sad and ugly.

But there's another troubling aspect to the dismantling of Chester Upland schools. The three charter companies have placed their bids to take over CUSD elementary schools. As has been hinted at all along, nobody wants to take over either of the two high schools.

The debates about charters and choice have often centered on the question of the students left behind in a school. when other students leave for a charter. How do the financial resources balance out? How does a district financially support ten schools when it was having trouble supporting two?

But this is a whole other scenario. The charter operators are taking over elementary operations, but leaving the high school untouched, meaning that the high school can find itself drained of resources with absolutely no reduction in cost at all. Theoretically it would not be a problem because the charters would be inheriting the same student body and therefor the same funding. Except that in Pennsylvania's screwy funding system, a special; education student is funded at a far higher level for charters than in a public school. In public schools, special ed students are arranged in tiers are according to how expensive it is to meet their needs; in charter CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: What Happens To Students That Charters Don't Want? (The Chester Upland Saga Continues)

What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog

What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago

In 2011, I was interviewed by Terri Gross on “Fresh Air,” her NPR program. When my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. When it was published, there was quite a lot of speculation about why I changed my views. Apparently, no one ever has a change of mind or heart. I have been consistent over the years in admitting that I was wrong when I supported charter schools, testing, and accountability. It was really hard for some people to accept the plain statement, “I was wrong.”

On the 10th anniversary of this interview, I post it now (I didn’t have a blog in 2011).

The book became a national bestseller, a first for me. (My next book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement, was also a national bestseller).

I had a wonderful appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart about Death and Life. When I heard I was invited on his show, I had never heard of it. I watched the day before I appeared. Stewart interviewed Caroline CONTINUE READING: What I Said About NCLB and Standardized Testing a Decade Ago | Diane Ravitch's blog

EdCo to Host “Antiracist Classroom” Event – Tennessee Education Report

EDCO TO HOST “ANTIRACIST CLASSROOM” EVENT

April 24 at 11:30 AM (CT) The Educators’ Cooperative (EdCo) will host a virtual conversation titled “Antiracist Teaching, Learning, and Leading from the Classroom: Addressing the legacies of segregation and white supremacy in our schools, and adjusting our lenses with Critical Race Theory in education.” The teachers of EdCo are dedicated to facilitating this essential antiracist work cross-sector, for the benefit of all students. Registration for the event, which is offered to educators at no cost, is now open at educatorscooperative.org. Non-educators may purchase a ticket for $75.

The event will feature three expert panelists:

Dr. Gloria Ladson Billings is a Teacher, Author, Professor, and Researcher whose work is fundamental in the application of Critical Race Theory in education; she coined the terminology “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.” Her books include The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children and Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms.

Dr. Roni Ellington, Assistant Professor in Mathematics Education at Morgan State University, founded the Transforming STEM Network to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM education. She is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant focused on incorporating culturally responsive teaching into university mathematics classrooms.

Ashford Hughes is the Executive Officer for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Metro Nashville Public Schools, where he designs and implements initiatives that address academic and social-emotional learning needs of the district’s diverse populations. He is Co-chairman of the Nashville My Brother’s Keeper Network – a coalition that works to improve life outcomes for boys and young men of color through internal agency policy review, education, and employment opportunities.

EdCo Executive Director Greg O’Loughlin is “excited about this unique opportunity for teachers to learn together from a leading scholar in the field and the researchers and community leaders who do the work every day.” The no-cost tickets for educators are provided through the generosity of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

EdCo to Host “Antiracist Classroom” Event – Tennessee Education Report

My Next Book | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

My Next Book

I will have a new book published by the end of this year called Confessions of a School Reformer. How an idea becomes a book even after all I have written, remains mysterious to me. In reconstructing the process which often means demystifying what occurs and making it appear linear and logical, I remain uncertain of exactly how I got the idea and how that idea morphed into a book proposal and then a contract with a publisher and voila!, the book appearing on my doorstep.

Here is what I believe occurred.

I had finished Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Schools (2020) and was thinking of my next project (yes, I need to have projects to look forward to). The theme of Chasing Success was how ideas of success and failure in public schools have a long history in American life and showed up repeatedly during three major reform movements that blanketed the 20th and 21st centuries. I wrote the book but I could not get these surges of reform that roiled the nation and schools, and to my surprise, my entire life, out of my head.

A century ago, the Progressive movement swept across the nation’s schools and faded away by the 1950s only to be followed by the widespread quest for equality central to the civil rights movement that then gave way in the late-1970s to business-inspired reforms tying school improvement to the nation’s changing CONTINUE READING: My Next Book | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Says Charter Schools Should Get Zero Federal Dollars - LA Progressive

Teacher Says Charter Schools Should Get Zero Federal Dollars

The U.S. Department of Education’s Charter School Program (CSP) wasted more than a billion dollars on charter schools that never opened or opened for a very brief period before closing, according to two reports published by the Network for Public Education in 2019. CSP has provided close to $4 billion in seed funding to charter schools since 1995, but lax oversight of funds has resulted in a 37 percent national failure rate. The three states that wasted the most funds on charter schools are Louisiana (48 percent failure rate, $27 million lost), Florida (37 percent failure rate, $34 million lost), and, with the “most astounding loss,” California (37 percent failure rate, nearly $102 million lost).

As a former charter school teacher in Los Angeles, I saw federal dollars being wasted on dysfunctional schools that never should have been started in the first place. Westchester Secondary Charter School, the school where I taught in the 2016-2017 academic year, was launched with a $375,000 CSP grant. It opened in September 2013 and closed in June 2017. The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) cited several concerns in its detailed rejection of the school’s charter renewal petition including an “unsound educational program,” a failure to “meet its enrollment projections,” “the lack of appropriate school facilities,” “issues related to special education,” and a discipline program that may cause “physical, educational, or psychological harm to the affected pupils.”

While I was teaching at Westchester Secondary Charter School, City High School—a charter that received a $575,000 CSP grant and was also struggling with facility and enrollment issues—closed “a month into its second year,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Soon after, in September 2016, Westchester Secondary Charter School took in a few of its 116 students, and my colleagues and I embarked on the challenging task of catching them up when they’d already missed a month CONTINUE READING: Teacher Says Charter Schools Should Get Zero Federal Dollars - LA Progressive

Former lobbyist details how privatizers are trying to end public education - The Washington Post

Former lobbyist details how privatizers are trying to end public education

A few years ago I ran a piece by Joanne Barkan about the long history of the movement to privatize public education. It began:

When champions of market-based reform in the United States look at public education, they see two separate activities — government funding education and government running schools. The first is okay with them; the second is not. Reformers want to replace their bête noire — what they call the “monopoly of government-run schools” — with freedom of choice in a competitive market dominated by privately run schools that get government subsidies.

Today, that privatization movement is alive and pushing ahead, with Republican legislators in 16 states actively pushing bills to create or expand school vouchers and/or charter schools that are part of that movement.

What and who are fueling the movement to privatize public education — and why you should care

This post — a continuation of sorts of the Barkan article — is a discussion with a man named Charles Siler, who was once a lobbyist for school privatizers but who came to oppose the very thing he was working toward. Siler worked for two privatization organizations, including the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, where his job was to convince legislators to pass laws that privatize public services, especially K-12 schooling.

In March, Siler had a conversation with education historian and activist Diane Ravitch as well as with podcaster Jennifer Berkshire, in which he provided insight into the playbook used by “school choice” proponents, the belief system that drives them and their long-term objective. He makes it very clear: their ultimate goal is to dismantle K-12 public schools. CONTINUE READING: Former lobbyist details how privatizers are trying to end public education - The Washington Post

Hershey Profits Fund $17 Billion Endowment for Nonprofit School, but Board Member Says It Won’t Let Him See Financial Records — ProPublica

Hershey Profits Fund $17 Billion Endowment for Nonprofit School, but Board Member Says It Won’t Let Him See Financial Records

A director and alumnus of America’s wealthiest boarding school claims he had to sue the institution to see how it spends the funding it receives from sales of Hershey bars and Reese’s Pieces.

This article was produced in partnership with Spotlight PA and The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

For over a year, lawyer Bob Heist, then-chairman of the Milton Hershey School’s board, says he sought internal financial records detailing the spending history of the $17 billion charity, which has a mission to educate low-income students for free.

He now says he is being denied records he needs as a board member charged with overseeing the Pennsylvania boarding school’s operations, and earlier this month he sued the school to obtain the documents. It’s an extremely unusual step for a sitting board member, taken against an extremely unusual institution: The Milton Hershey School is the wealthiest pre-college educational institution in the United States. It controls 80% of the Hershey Co. candy giant’s voting shares, and reaps profits from the sale of Hershey chocolate bars, Reese’s peanut butter cups and SkinnyPop-brand snacks sold in thousand of U.S. retail stores.

The dispute is the latest in a series of legal entanglements involving the nonprofit Milton Hershey School and the members of its governing board. Two previous financial controversies raised questions about whether the school’s spending was serving the needs of its roughly 2,100 students, as required by law and enforced by the state attorney general’s office.

The suit also raises anew questions about board oversight of the vast Milton Hershey fortune, donated by the candy company’s founder to help poor and at-risk children. For months, The Inquirer, Spotlight PA and ProPublica have investigated this and other issues, including whether school leaders and board members have fulfilled that mission to a degree commensurate with the charity’s vast resources. The publications will share their findings in upcoming stories.

For years, critics have argued that the school, and the endowment that funds it, could be spending hundreds of millions more than it does. Because of Milton Hershey’s restrictive deed on the endowment, the charity cannot dip into any of its principal, now worth $16 billion. (That’s roughly the size of the endowment of the University of Pennsylvania, which is not subject to those constraints.) It can spend the income earned from those holdings, but it only spends part of that each year and has amassed about $1 billion in unspent income. The school recently received court approval to use some of those funds to build and run six preschool centers CONTINUE READING: Hershey Profits Fund $17 Billion Endowment for Nonprofit School, but Board Member Says It Won’t Let Him See Financial Records — ProPublica

Teacher Tom: "I Want To Be the Littlest Baby"

"I Want To Be the Littlest Baby"

A child psychologist friend once told me that he kept a doll house in his office, explaining that he could often learn more about a child while playing "family" than in any number of hours of traditional talk therapy. I'm no therapist, but I can certainly see the potential there.

"I'm this baby."

"I'm the mommy bunny."

"I'm a baby too."

"But I'm the littler baby."

"I want to be the littlest baby."

Just in how they choose their roles, there's a whole world of aspiration and query. Over the years I've noted that more children want to play the "baby" role, the younger and more helpless the better. For a long time, I assumed that "mommy" was the power role, the one that went to the child with the strongest urge to be in control, but I know now, as every child knows who has ever lost their place in the family to a CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: "I Want To Be the Littlest Baby"

Speduktr: We All Pay for Public Services and Public Goods, for Our Common Benefit | Diane Ravitch's blog

Speduktr: We All Pay for Public Services and Public Goods, for Our Common Benefit

The privatization movement is built on the ideology of “a backpack full of cash.” Give the money to the family and let them spend it where and how they want. The money is not actually in the child’s backpack, but handed out to families to spend as they wish. If they want their child to attend a religious school or a private school or a for-profit school or a virtual charter school or home school, here is a voucher worth $5,000.

This approach discounts the obligation of the community and society to provide certain basic goods and services that are available to everyone. We have public beaches, public parks, public transportation, police, firefighters, and other goods and services that are the responsibility of government. We pay taxes to maintain public schools, even if we don’t have children ourselves. We pay taxes to maintain public schools, even if our own children are grown and are no long in school. We pay taxes to maintain public schools, even if our own children attended private schools. That’s what a community does to make sure every child is educated. It is the job of the CONTINUE READING: Speduktr: We All Pay for Public Services and Public Goods, for Our Common Benefit | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Ohio Senate Undermine Fair School Funding Plan By Burying Changes in Fine Print of the State Budget? | janresseger

Will Ohio Senate Undermine Fair School Funding Plan By Burying Changes in Fine Print of the State Budget?

The Ohio House of Representatives is, thankfully, being persistent in trying to pass a new, adequate, and equitable public school funding formula. Ohio educators and parents will remember that on December 2 of last year, the Ohio House passed the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan by an overwhelming margin of 87-9, but the bill died at the end of the 133th legislative session, after the Ohio Senate Finance Committee refused to bring the plan to a vote.

On February 3, 2021, the Fair School Funding Plan was reintroduced in the 134th General Assembly as HB 1. On Tuesday, the plan was embedded in the House’s FY 2022-2023 proposed Ohio budget bill (House Bill 110).

The plan has been thoroughly vetted. It was developed over several years by a large group of experts and stakeholders and then further improved to emphasize equity by additional experts during a year of revisions before the House considered the plan during 2020.

Why is revision of our state’s school funding plan so urgently important? From the time of the founding of our nation, public education and the franchise have been understood as two central institutions at the heart of American democracy. Through Reconstruction and the fight for equality and civil rights in the mid-20th century, our society has made strides toward ensuring an educated citizenry and protecting the rights of all children, but we have never fully lived up to the promise of educational justice for all. For generations there has been CONTINUE READING: Will Ohio Senate Undermine Fair School Funding Plan By Burying Changes in Fine Print of the State Budget? | janresseger

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy

By Thomas Ultican 4/16/2021

A new political PAC, “Campaign for Better San Francisco Public Schools,” demands that schools be opened for in person classes immediately. They also make two dubious claims, “The election process for choosing the Board of Education is not meeting the needs of San Francisco” and “Many large cities successfully use an appointment process to choose a Board of Education.”

San Francisco Democrats Embrace the Open Schools Now Agenda

Neoliberal forces especially from the Republican Party have been campaigning for schools to be opened immediately for more than a year. Republicans see it as a wedge issue that could help them win back suburban women. Carl Hulse’s New York Times article noted that “congressional Republicans have begun to hammer relentlessly on President Biden, Democrats and teachers’ unions to open schools quickly.”

Surprisingly, San Francisco Democrats have joined with the former president’s open-schools-now campaign. Mayor London Breed has even sued the school board trying to force them to reopen schools. Breed explained,

“Families right now aren’t able to plan for their futures. They can’t decide whether to accept a job offer because they don’t know when they’re going to be able to once again have their kids returned to the classroom. This is paralyzing our city and our residents, and I know that this is a drastic step, but I feel we are out of options at this point.”

Seeyew Mo, a computer scientist who uses his skills to develop political CONTINUE READING: San Francisco “Progressives” Promote Gentrification Undermine Democracy | tultican

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Friday, April 16, 2021