Wanted: A mayor willing to stand up and make the tough decisions. Not Rahm the whiner ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Wanted: A mayor willing to stand up and make the tough decisions. Not Rahm the whiner.:

Wanted: A mayor willing to stand up and make the tough decisions. Not Rahm the whiner.

It seems the Little Emperor has turned into the big whiner.

No soon had Republican Sen. Kirk warned us, in racist code language, that if strongman Rahm wasn't re-elected, the city would turn into Destroit, than the mayor became wussified.

First he cries to S-T's Fran Spielman that Chicago's fiscal fiasco "isn't my fault". Whaaah!

He blames the city's crashing bond rating and all the other city's financial problems on the Daley's. That's gratitude for you. This, after his predecessor was nice enough to hold his nose and endorse Rahm. Let that be a warning to all other potential endorsers. You know who you are. 

Chuy and Richie definitely ought to grab a cup of coffee. 

Parents ready to fight PARCC

Next the kinder, gentler Rahm claimed he had "no choice" but to cave in to Gov. Rauner'sthreats over the PARCC tests. This even after his own schools CEO warned that giving PARCC was, "absolutely not in the best interests of our students."

 “Once the federal government and the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Wanted: A mayor willing to stand up and make the tough decisions. Not Rahm the whiner.:

SUNY New Paltz to host panel discussion: “Challenging the Attacks on Public Education” | New Paltz Times

SUNY New Paltz to host panel discussion: “Challenging the Attacks on Public Education” | New Paltz Times:

SUNY New Paltz to host panel discussion: “Challenging the Attacks on Public Education”

by ADMIN on Mar 2, 2015 • 6:30 amNo Comments

Beth Dimino, Dr. Nicholas Tampio and Dr. Yohuru Williams.

SUNY New Paltz will host “Challenging the Attacks on Public Education: Carrying on the Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement” on March 3 at 7 p.m. in the Coykendall science auditorium on the New Paltz campus. The program is free and open to the public. While corporate education policymakers claim to be advocates of civil rights, their policies have instead undermined the civil and human rights of students, parents, educators and local communities. The legacy of the civil rights movement to challenge injustice calls on people today to oppose high-stakes testing, inequitable school funding and the privatization of public education. Speakers will discuss this legacy and the test refusal movement today.

Panelists include: Dr. Yohuru Williams, professor of history, Fairfield University and education activist; Beth Dimino, Comsewogue, Long Island teacher, conscientious test objector; and Dr. Nicholas Tampio, associate professor of political science, Fordham University and parent.

For further information, contact Nancy Schniedewind at 257-2827,schniedn@newpaltz.edu or go to http://rethinkingtestingmidhudson.blogspot.com.

SUNY New Paltz to host panel discussion: “Challenging the Attacks on Public Education” | New Paltz Times:

Rahm Emanuel Runoff: Chicago Mayor Tied to Lobbyist for City's Red Light Camera Firm ‪#‎Chuy2015‬

Rahm Emanuel Runoff: Chicago Mayor Tied to Lobbyist for City's Red Light Camera Firm, Review Shows:

Rahm Emanuel Runoff: Chicago Mayor Tied to Lobbyist for City's Red Light Camera Firm, Review Shows

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a stiff challenge in his bid for re-election, and the April 7 runoff could hinge on his support for controversial red-light cameras. The devices -- which automatically ticket cars that appear to have violated Chicago traffic laws -- have generated $500 million in revenue since they were introduced in 2002. But with the cameras often ticketing cars that only ran through yellow lights or went just a few miles per hour over the speed limit, and with a study showing the cameras deliver few safety benefits, polls show two-thirds of Chicagoans consider the camera program “a bad idea.”

Emanuel’s opponent, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, has pledged to suspend the red-light camera program if he is elected. And though one of Emanuel’s most prominent allies has called on the mayor to “rethink” the program, Emanuel steadfastly supports the cameras, saying they are “supposed to work as a deterrent" to unsafe driving.

An International Business Times review of city records shows the mayor’s support for the program may be about something more than traffic safety or generating revenue. Those records reveal just days before Emanuel awarded a lucrative red-light camera contract to Xerox State and Municipal Solutions, his former top congressional aide,  John Borovicka, became a lobbyist for a government relations firm representing Xerox.

The ties run deep between Borovicka and Emanuel, who both declined IBTimes request for comment. Borovicka first began working for Emanuel in 2001, eventually serving as his campaign manager in his successful 2002 race for Congress. Borovicka served as Emanuel’s political and district director for the six years Emanuel served in Congress. Federal records also show Borovicka met with Emanuel in the White House when Emanuel was serving as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

According to city records, Borovicka was hired in October 2013 by John C. Corrigan & Associates as a subcontractor to lobby on the firm’s behalf. Those records show Corrigan had been hired by Xerox in February of the same year. Just 18 days after Borovicka was hired by Corrigan, the Emanuel administration gave the $44 million red-light contract to Xerox.

City documents filed by Xerox show the company paid Borovicka to lobby for the contract in October 2013. Yet in city lobbying disclosures filed by Borovicka, his arrangement with Corrigan & Associates allowed him to obscure any connection between his lobbying work and Xerox’s business with the city. Borovicka was technically a Corrigan subcontractor. As a result, his city lobbying records did not disclose any connection among himself, his employer and Xerox. He listed only the lobbying firm itself as a client -- not the firm’s underlying corporate clients. Those records do show Borovicka lobbying the mayor’s office and the city's Department of Procurement Services just before Xerox’s red-light camera contract was sealed.

“Chicago unfortunately has a pay-to-play system, which stems from a failure of political leadership to enact campaign finance reform,” said David Melton, the executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a nonpartisan good-government group. “The best practices for lobbying is complete disclosure of the entity which is hiring lobbyists. Unfortunately, every time a lobbying reform passes, lobbyists find a way to skirt the requirements.”

Questions have swirled around Emanuel’s support for the red-light cameras because the system is so unpopular. In 2012, the Chicago Tribune published an investigation showing Emanuel had substantial ties to the original company, Redflex, which had been hired in 2003 to run the cameras. Soon after becoming mayor, Emanuel pushed hard to expand the program, and he has endorsed their use as amatter of law and order -- even as his own motorcade was caught running red lights. A close Emanuel ally was found to have received money from Redflex to promote the cameras and to hire the city Rahm Emanuel Runoff: Chicago Mayor Tied to Lobbyist for City's Red Light Camera Firm, Review Shows:

Rahm Emanuel’s political nightmare: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia tells Salon why he’ll oust the Mayor ‪#‎Chuy2015‬

Rahm Emanuel’s political nightmare: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia tells Salon why he’ll oust the Mayor - Salon.com:

Rahm Emanuel’s political nightmare: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia tells Salon why he’ll oust the Mayor

EXCLUSIVE: Rahm's liberal challenger explains what the "out of touch and callous" Mayor's trouble means for America

EDWARD MCCLELLAND

 Until he was drafted to run against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia was little known outside his Southwest Side district and the city’s progressive community, which still pines for the days when Mayor Harold Washington united African-Americans, Latinos and white liberals to defeat the well-funded forces of Machine bossism. Garcia was the progressives’ third-string candidate: Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle declined to run, and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis learned she had brain cancer. Garcia raised $1.3 million — a twelfth of Emanuel’s $15 million — but on Feb. 24, he and three other candidates held the mayor to 45 percent, less than the majority he needed to avoid an April 7 runoff between the top two vote-getters. Garcia finished second, with 34 percent.

Born in Durango, Mexico, Garcia moved to Chicago at the age of 10, after his father, a migrant farm worker who picked crops through the bracero program, found a steady job in a meat packing plant. He was elected to the city council in 1986, as an ally of Mayor Harold Washington, then spent six years in the state Senate, serving alongside Barack Obama. After his defeat by an ally of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Garcia spent 12 years as executive director of a community development program in Little Village, the Mexican-American neighborhood he now represents on the county board.

A competitive mayoral race is a once-a-generation experience for Chicagoans: Since the city adopted non-partisan elections in 1995, this is the first runoff. Facing an electorate disgruntled over the city’s most-in-the-nation murders, the closing of 50 schools, most of them in African-American neighborhoods, a 2012 teacher’s strike, and the installation of speed cameras that spit out $100 tickets, Emanuel lost 10 points off his 2011 percentage. This despite an in-person endorsement by President Obama, who came to Chicago on the Thursday before the election to declare the city’s Pullman Historic District a national monument. The latest poll shows the mayor slipping even further. He leads Garcia 42.9 percent to 38.5 percent, a margin the Chicago Sun-Times calls a “dead heat.” The fundraising, however, is unlikely to be close. Last week, the super PAC Chicago Forward announced it would be spending $110,000 to support Emanuel’s campaign, triggering a state law that lifts the cap on campaign contributions.

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Garcia, 58, spoke to Salon on Tuesday. Following is a transcript of our conversation.

You weren’t well known outside your district, you were outspent 12-1, and Rahm Emanuel had the endorsement of President Obama. What are the conditions in Chicago and what is the message of your campaign that enabled you to force Mayor Emanuel into a runoff?

I think that the past four years in Chicago under Rahm Emanuel have really enabled people to see that this administration is disconnected from ordinary people, that the city has worked for the benefit of a select few, and that the neighborhoods have been left behind. I think some of the starkest examples of that were the mayor’s effort to break the teachers union by making it more difficult for them to have an authorization strike. He provoked the first teachers strike in 25 years. The massive school closures were another sign of how out of touch and callous he can be, and not listen to people when they plead with him not to engage in an action that makes Chicago a leader in one of the worst ways. The media coverage of how his contributors give to his campaign and then wind up benefiting through a variety of means, such as contracts, appointments to boards and commissions, TIF subsidies, etc., prove to people that this guy is a 1 percenter and that he doesn’t care about ordinary people. Ordinary people don’t matter in Chicago. My message in the first round has been that we need to make the neighborhoods in Chicago a priority, that having good schools in neighborhoods all over Chicago needs to be a prerequisite to making the city a better place, a fairer place. I’ve talked about the epidemic of violence that we’ve experienced — 10,000 shootings.

You were talking about being a leader in the worst way. Chicago has become known as the nation’s murder capital. Why does Chicago have more murders than any city in the U.S., and what is your plan to reduce the violence?

It comes on the heels of his promise, four years ago, to hire 1,000 additional police officers, a promise he broke. I’ve proposed I’m going to hire 1,000 additional police Rahm Emanuel’s political nightmare: Jesus “Chuy” Garcia tells Salon why he’ll oust the Mayor - Salon.com:

Management by Pinheads Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds:

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Management by Pinheads:

Management by Pinheads

Management by pinheads is management by numbers. Nothing so exposes so clearly the naïveté and lack of understanding managers and boards as when they start believing that complex human organizations can be managed by numbers: quantitative goals and numerical quotas; and in the case of educating children, drop-out rates, attendance statistics, promotion percentages and test scores.Beverly Hall died yesterday (March 2, 2015) after having been diagnosed recently with stage 4 breast cancer. Beverly Hall had a distinguished career as an education administrator that led her to one of the most prestigious positions in the nation: Superintendent of the Atlanta, Georgia public schools. Her service there was recognized with several honors: National Superintendent of the Year in 2009 and, later, the Distinguished Contributions to Service award of the American Educational Research Association. Hall was celebrated far and wide as a new breed of administrator. In her own words, she was a “data driven” manager. Decisions often rested heavily on the test scores of the classes and schools of the people who worked under her. Atlanta schools were the jewel in the crown of Management by Numbers … until it all came crashing down.



Hall was ultimately indicted for overseeing the scheme that inflated test scores of thousands of students in an attempt to create the fiction that she had “turned around” a failing school system. The criminal case against Hall will obviously be dropped. To be sure, Hall was at least guilty of some pretty shady activities, and she put her subordinates in circumstances where equally shady dealings were required to maintain one’s employment (a la Michelle Rhee and the Washington D.C. school system). But equally guilty is an ethos permeating organizations of many different kinds that holds that the management of complex dealings with human beings can be reduced to simple arithmetic.



Take my local school district, for example: Scottsdale (AZ) Unified School District. Recent actions (February 10, 2015) by the school governing board have resulted in a system of quantitative goals and bonuses for the district superintendent. Among these goals are 1) maintaining a 90% graduation rate, 2) remaining in the top 10% of the state’s districts on whatever the state standardized test will be, 3) reducing the teacher turn-over rate by half a percentage point, and 4) ensuring that 85% of the district students meet the state benchmarks in reading and math. Exactly what the superintendent’s bonus will be if these goals are met has not been disclosed to the media.



Anyone who knows the first thing about how schools run will recognize Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: Management by Pinheads:

Is Absent Teacher Reserve Contagious? Yes, Yes It Is - by Dr. Michael Flanagan - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:



Is Absent Teacher Reserve Contagious? Yes, Yes It Is - by Dr. Michael Flanagan

 It was a tough place to find on a cold winter afternoon. Climbing over mountains of ice searching for a run down basement in an old church. The metal folding chairs, collapsible tables and fluorescent lights reflected the mood of those who showed for the first ever Bronx Teacher Empowerment Workshop on February 27th 2015. Even though we walked passed the boiler to get into the room people were still wearing their coats. Why were we meeting in this old church basement in the Bronx? Because New York City’s Absent Teacher Reserve initiative has turned veteran teachers into pariahs in an effort to supersede contracted rights. Referred to as ATR’s these educators have been scapegoated by the Department of Education and many have felt sacrificed by their own union. They are now castaways chalked up as the collateral damage of education reform.

Over the last ten years in New York City, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s business model of education management, teacher seniority was one of the prime targets. His administration’s agenda worked like this, large traditional community schools were labeled as failing, phased out and smaller schools were opened in their place. “Closer” principals were brought in to shut down the large schools and excess at least fifty percent of the faculty. These smaller “charter-lite” schools tended to hire newer, younger teachers over those with more seniority. In other words those with the highest salaries were finding themselves un-hirable. The DOE, because of collective bargaining protections could not terminate these teachers, but without official positions they were thrown into the Absent Teacher Reserve pool.

The recent teachers contract ratified after a contentious vote among union rank and file created a subordinate set of rights applied to ATR teachers. It was that part of the contract, which caused many of our members to vote against the promised raises and retroactive pay. A union should be there to champion the rights of the most oppressed in our ranks. One would think that the United Federation of Teachers would aggressively fight for its members who were unceremoniously cut from their positions and left to drift while having their professionalism questioned and their characters defamed. However, the plight of theBadass Teachers Association:

New York Parents and Teachers Challenge Cuomo's Mis-Education Plan | Alan Singer

New York Parents and Teachers Challenge Cuomo's Mis-Education Plan | Alan Singer:

New York Parents and Teachers Challenge Cuomo's Mis-Education Plan

 New York Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) and New York City Public School Parents are organizing statewide to protest against attacks by Governor Andrew Cuomo on teachers and public schools. Cuomo is threatening to block a badly needed increase in state aid to public schools unless the State Legislature approves his demands for tuition tax credits to private schools, the creation of additional charter schools, closing public schools he has decided are beyond help, and implementing a teacher evaluation system that would blame teachers for the State's failure to fund education for all its children. The State Legislature is mandated to vote on the budget by March 31.

On March 12, New York City parents, teachers, and students plan to create a "ring around" the school building at every New York City public school before the start of the school day to press demands that Cuomo's plans be stopped. NYSAPE is planning a similar statewide protest for March 26.

People can also email and call State Legislators to protest the Cuomo proposals. Most legislators are in their district offices on Friday mornings. Contact information for Assembly members is at http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/. Contact information for State Senate members is at http://www.nysenate.gov/senators.

Below are excerpts from a poignant open letter posted online by teachers at PS 321 in Brooklyn. "Liz" Phillips is the school's principal.

Dear PS 321 Families,

It is with heavy hearts that we, the teachers at 321, reach out to you to ask for your help.
Governor Cuomo has proposed major changes to teacher evaluations in New York State. We want to let you know, from a teacher's perspective, the changes this law could bring to PS 321 - and to our profession - if it passes.

50% of a teacher's rating would be based on state test scores. (Currently it is 20%).
35% of a teacher's rating would be based on the findings of an outside "independent observer" who will conduct a one time visit to the classroom. (This has never been done before. Currently our principal and assistant principals' observations count for 60%).
15% of a teacher's rating would be based on observations by the principal or assistant principals. The very people who know our work best would have the least input into our evaluation.

50% + 35% = 85% of our evaluations would be removed from the hands of our community and placed in the hands of the state.

And then, using these numbers, any teacher who is rated ineffective two years in a row can be fired. Liz might have no say in this.

So what might that do to PS 321? Realistically, many of us could be fired. Every year. And many more of us would be pushed away from the profession we love.

Here's something parents need to understand. Even though, when our students take the standardized tests, most of them do just fine... many PS 321 teachers do not. Teachers' ratings are not based on their students' raw scores for the year, but whether their students improved from one year to the next. If a student with a '3' gets one fewer question correct in 4th grade than she did in 3rd, that student 

New York Parents and Teachers Challenge Cuomo's Mis-Education Plan | Alan Singer:

L.A. school board races head to runoffs as charter backers' clout shows - LA Times

L.A. school board races head to runoffs as charter backers' clout shows - LA Times:



L.A. school board races head to runoffs as charter backers' clout shows

A push by backers of charter schools to have a bigger voice on the Los Angeles Board of Education appears to have paid off, according to early election returns in three contested races.

The campaign was marked by the emergence of a charter group as the major funder. In one pivotal race — which it was winning — the group went head to head with the teachers' union, a traditional powerhouse in board elections. If charter supporters capture that seat, they would have significantly more influence in board policy.

In the most expensive race, the charter-backed candidate, Ref Rodriguez, was narrowly leading incumbent Bennett Kayser, setting the stage for a May 19 runoff.

"Clearly, the people in the district are looking for change and are ready for a new voice on the school board," said Michael Soneff, Rodriguez's campaign manager.

The two other incumbents, Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic, led in their races. Both also were supported by the charter advocates.

Although final votes were still being tallied Tuesday evening, the impact of the campaign will be felt in the coming months. The seven-member board will select a new superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, deal with a highly troubled technology effort that is under investigation by the FBI and potentially resolve contentious contract negotiations with the teachers' union.

Also at stake is the direction of reforms, including whether charter schools will play an ever-increasing role, and the effect that would have on the rest of the school system.

"One side is trying to bring charters in and the other is trying to keep charters out — so it's important for them," said Gil Hurtado, a councilman in South Gate, which is part of L.A. Unified. "But what's important for me is the best education for the children of this community."

The race with the heaviest campaign spending — and the harshest attacks — unfolded in the contest between one-term incumbent Kayser and Rodriguez. Parent-group leader Andrew Thomas was in third place, according to the returns.

Kayser was supported by the teachers' union; Rodriguez by the California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates. Kayser is the board's most relentless opponent of charter schools; Rodriguez co-founded one of the region's largest charter organizations.L.A. school board races head to runoffs as charter backers' clout shows - LA Times:

An Open Letter to My Students: I Am Sorry For What I Am About To Do To You - Crawling Out of the Classroom

Crawling Out of the Classroom | As I begin a year of transformation as a teacher, I am attempting to break down the four walls of my classroom to reach out to others and connect about the incredible world of education.:

An Open Letter to My Students: I Am Sorry For What I Am About To Do To You

47

To all of my precious students,

I am sorry for what I am about to do to you.

This week, I am going to have to give you a new test. It’s called PARCC. There will be five separate tests, on four separate days, and my guess is that most of you will hate them.  My guess is that one or two of you will be brought to tears because they will make you feel like you are not smart enough.  My guess is that several of you will give up part way through the test and just start clicking around on the screen. My guess is that some of you will look around at the students sitting next to you to try and figure out if they are also as confused as you are in the hopes of knowing that you are not the only way feeling this way.  My guess is that more than a handful of you will, at some time during the test, ask me to come over and help you with something and I will not be able to. My guess is that almost all of you will wonder what these tests have to do with the learning and growing that we are doing every day in our classroom because you know that our learning has meaning and purpose in this world and you cannot figure out how these tests could possibly do that.  My guess is that all of you will wonder why I am making you take these tests.

And the answer is simple.  I have to.  Our state and federal government say that I have to give these tests to you. That you must take them. And I need you to know how very sorry I am about that.

I have no control over this. I have no control over whether or not I give you this test. But, like I always tell you, I do have complete control over my own thoughts and my own words. So here is what I need to say to you.

I do not agree that these tests will tell me what I really need to know about you as a learner or as a human being.  I do not agree that these tests will make me a better teacher.  I do not agree that these tests will improve our schools. I do not agree that you need to sit in front of a computer for over five hours in order for the government to find out what you know and what you can do. I do not agree that you should not have a choice in how you are able to show all of the things that you are capable of doing. I do not agree that in order for the state to know that I am doing my job that you have to suffer through tests that could quite possibly ruin much of the hard work that we have done together in building your confidence this year and in helping you to see yourselves as readers and writers.  I do not agree with these tests.

And even more than I want you to know all of that, I want you to know that these tests will never tell you who you are.  They will never be able to show all of your various, beautiful and wondrous strengths.  They will never be able to show all of the things that you have learned this year.  They will never be able to show some of the most important things about who you all are.  Because these tests will not show your humanity.

They will not show how you have learned to see this world through empathetic eyes.  They will not show how you have learned to choose ways to present your knowledge so that you can use your individual strengths. They will not show how you have learned to collaborate with your classmates and with students around the world. They will not show how you have learned to listen first and then speak.  They will not show how you have learned to do good things for this world. They will not show how you have grown as people. These tests will never be able to show those things and please believe me when I tell you that those are the things that truly matter in this world.

So if, and when, you struggle with these tests. If, and when, you start to think that these tests are telling you that you are not smart. If, and when, you start to believe that maybe you aren’t really good enough. If, and Crawling Out of the Classroom | As I begin a year of transformation as a teacher, I am attempting to break down the four walls of my classroom to reach out to others and connect about the incredible world of education.:

The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé

The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:

The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education

24JAN

This list reveals the most dangerous enemies of public education and how they earned their spot in infamy. To discover why they landed on this list, click the links included with each name below the brick wall. This list is subject to change at any time.

#1
#BillGatesSpending billions to destroy Public Schools
with testing agenda to rank & fire teachersLiving in Dialogue

#2
The #Waltons
Why are #Walmart Billionaires Bankrolling Phony School Reform
Bill Moyers.com

#3
Who is #EliBroad and why is he trying to destroy public education?
Defend Public Education.net

#4
#KochBrotherscherry-picks Constitution
Rewriting History
To brainwash children with libertarian ideas
Diane Ravtich.net

#5
#ArneDuncan
False apologies of Arne Duncan
Who contributed to significant crises in urban school districts
Yohuru Williams at The Huffington Post.com

#6
Who is #DavidColeman
Architect of Common Core and War on Pub-Ed
who ignores professionalism of teachers
Diane Ravtich.com

#7
#JebBush
Horrible record on Education
His friends and allies are getting rich from his reform agenda
The New Yorker Reviews Jeb’s Record on Education

#8
#AndrewCuomo is backstabbing governor,
who wants to kill traditional public education in New York State
Punishing Teachers: Cuomo in 2015 Was Jindal in 2012

#9
#EveMoskowitzAlleged Liar & Deceiver
who pays herself 500K+ annually from tax payers
#SuccessAcademyNYC Expert Debunks Eva Moskowitz’s Extravagant and Misleading Claims

#10
Did #MichelleRhee achieve most of her broken promises in D.C.
NO!
She failed with 98.5% of boasted goals
Did ANY of Michelle Rhee’s promises actually work in DC?

EXTENDID LIST

If you want to suggest someone who deserved to be added to the extended list—beyond the Top Ten—please leave a comment with a name and provide a link to evidence that shows why they deserve a spot on the extended list of public education’s worst enemies.The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:

A Whopping 81% Of Teachers Say Kids Come To School Hungry. Here's What's Being Done:

A Whopping 81% Of Teachers Say Kids Come To School Hungry. Here's What's Being Done

After years of teaching elementary school, there’s one struggling student in particular that Robbie Butler cannot shake from her mind.

“Ms. Butler, I’m hungry,” the boy would tell her every day. “I don’t have any food at home.”

Butler is hardly alone in feeling concern for students who don’t have enough to eat and see their grades and prospects decline as a result.

A recent survey released by No Kid Hungry found that 81 percent of public school teachers reported students coming to school hungry at least once a week. While the study concluded that hunger is on the rise among children in the U.S. and that its consequences are immeasurable, the staff members polled agreed that a solution is already in sight.

The advocacy group surveyed more than 1,000 school employees nationwide to uncover the scope of the issue from those who are at the front lines.

For the first time ever, more than half of public school kids are from low-income families. Without proper nutrition, the students' attendance, participation and social interactions precipitously suffer, the study concluded.

“Hunger is causing the demise of an entire generation that has so much potential,” Wintor McNeel, a guidance counselor, told No Kid Hungry. “These children are fighting for their lives daily.”

While these kids may not have stocked fridges at home, most public schools actually provide free breakfast. But because the programs often fail to cater to students’ logistical and emotional needs, many students don’t take advantage of the critical nourishment they need to thrive.

Nearly 10 million kids who qualify for free lunch, don't eat free breakfast at school, according to a report released last month by the Food Research and Action Center. Many miss out either because the meal is served before school starts and kids can't get there in time or because students are too ashamed to admit in front of their peers that their families can’t afford the basics.

But schools that have explored making minor tweaks -- such as simply serving breakfast in the classroom so it feels less shameful -- have reported increased participation in the program, which has led to rave results in their students' studies.

When kids eat breakfast, 73 percent of teachers said students pay better attention in A Whopping 81% Of Teachers Say Kids Come To School Hungry. Here's What's Being Done: