Jersey Jazzman: Only You Can Prevent Charter Cheerleading

Jersey Jazzman: Only You Can Prevent Charter Cheerleading:

Only You Can Prevent Charter Cheerleading

When I want some shallow charter school cheerleading, I go straight to Campbell Brown's The 74 Million. With the possible exception of Education Post, you'll not find a more reliable source of credulous, unconditional charter love; take, for example, this piece by the reliably reformy Richard Whitmire:

But a steady drip of recent data points to a very different story line: Not only did the reforms of traditional Newark Public Schools produce some real benefits, but the relatively small portion of the gift invested in Newark charter schools paid off big. Real big. 

Whitmire gives three citations to back up his claim that Newark's schools produced "real gains." Of course, all are from -- surprise! -- The 74: one from a spokesman for KIPP, the largest chain chain in Newark; one from current State Superintendent Chris Cerf, who, when he was the state education commissioner, was former State Superintendent Cami Anderson's biggest supporter; and one from Anderson herself.

All trot out data points to make their case; unfortunately, none account for what quantitative researchers often call secular effects: changes that affect the entire system being studied. In other words, if Newark's test scores rose as part of a statewide rise in scores, that really doesn't make the case that Newark's reforms had any direct, causal effect. - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/01/only-you-can-prevent-charter.html#sthash.bZ2WyMmo.dpuf

CURMUDGUCATION: Relay Graduate School of (Charter) Education

CURMUDGUCATION: Relay Graduate School of (Charter) Education:

Relay Graduate School of (Charter) Education

Kate Peterson has put together a look at the folks behind the Relay Graduate School of Education. If you're anywhere that these folks are sinking their claws into education, you'll want to read her full policy brief at the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools website. 

Relay GSE started out as Teacher U, a program begun by David Levin (co-founder of KIPP) and Norman Atkins (co-founder Uncommon Schools) in order to supply their charters with "high-quality" teachers. Or high quality "teachers." They brought in Dacia Toll (founder, Achievement First) to help create the program. Hedge fundie Larry Robbins kicked in $10 million, and the Robin Hood Foundation threw in another $20 mill. The very pro-charter Robin Hood Foundation is run by hedge fundie and venture philanthropist Paul Tudor Jones (you can read about him in this Forbes profile that asks if he can save American education). 

Teacher U changed its name in 2011 and was chartered by the New York Regents and partnered with the NYC school system (fun nostalgia fact-- 2011 was the year that spectacularly under-qualifiedCathie Black was in charge of NYC schools for three months). Relay soon spread to other cities, including New Orleans, Newark, Chicago, Houston, and Memphis. In other words, they have faithfully followed the Charter Industrial Complex players around the country.

Peterson breaks down the career arcs of the three current Relay honchos-- Atkins, Levin, and Toll-- and it is unsurprising.

Atkins holds degrees in history and educational administration. He worked as an independent CURMUDGUCATION: Relay Graduate School of (Charter) Education:

5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools

5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools:

How These 5 Famous Billionaires Are Dismantling Black Public Schools

 “These heavy-handed tactics require a suspension of democracy that would not be tolerated in a white suburb.”

The biggest racists in the US aren’t running around with white hoods and burning crosses. They’re running Fortune 500 companies and burning public school systems across the country in favor of privately-run, publicly-funded charter schools.

While none of the famous billionaires on this list are dues-paying members of racist groups, they’re engaging in actions that prey on the linchpins of the black community — public K-12 schools. Education reform by itself isn’t overtly racist, but when looking at the actions of these billionaires with a wider lens, it becomes apparent that the effort to privatize public education is primarily taking place in minority communities.

The charter school movement is particularly insidious, as it’s essentially a form of institutionalized racism veiled in altruism. In reference to the charter takeover of the New Orleans, Louisiana school district, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch put it this way:

“These heavy-handed tactics require a suspension of democracy that would not be tolerated in a white suburb, but can be done to powerless urban districts where the children are black and Hispanic,” Ravitch told In These Times. “That model requires firing all the teachers, no matter their performance, allowing them to reapply for a job, and replacing many of them with inexperienced TFA recruits. That model requires wiping out public schools and replacing them with privately managed schools that set their own standards for admission, discipline, expulsion, and are financially opaque.”

While charter schools have lately been able to brag on themselves as reports tout their higher test scores in math and reading compared to public schools, these studies leave out the fact that many charters refuse to help struggling children and instead dump them into public schools, in order to boost their own statistics. According to NY Chalkbeat, charter schools in New York City suspended 11 percent of students during the 2011-2012 school year, while public schools suspended just 4.2 percent. In fact, 11 NYC charter schools suspended as many as 30 percent of students that year. The charter suspension rate is likely higher, as charters don’t have to report in-school suspension rates.

The push for more charter schools isn’t based on a desire to better educate kids, but for the more mundane purpose of higher corporate profit. As the Washington Post pointed out, charter schools, on average, don’t do any better or worse when compared side-by-side with their public counterparts. In fact, if one were to replace the erroneous invisible “composite” public school student that Stanford University used in their report comparing charter and public school test scores with actual public school students, the results would likely be in favor of public schools.

So why the push for privately-run, publicly-funded charter schools?

The model of education reform is threefold — first, corporate education “reformers” push for “Common Core” standards by which to evaluate all students nationwide, while ignoring factors like geographic location, ethnic background, and economic well-being of different student bodies.

Next, harsh standardized testing that evaluates student performance based on these flawed standards and practically guarantees high failure rates is pushed onto schools — many of which depend on funding from property taxes, meaning that schools in affluent white suburbs are in a better position to succeed based on these standards than inner-city schools in neighborhoods with low property value.

Finally, schools are labeled as “failing” due to the lopsided evaluation process, and privately-run charters are forced onto inner-city populations, paving the way for the privatization of public education in predominantly black and latino communities.

Here are 5 white billionaires who are speeding along that process.

1. Mark Zuckerberg

Not many people are aware of the Facebook billionaire’s foray into education reform. Nonetheless, Zuckerberg did, in fact,spend $100 million in an attempt to establish charter schools in Newark, New Jersey in a joint effort with Governor Chris Christie and Newark mayor Cory Booker. After Zuckerberg’s donation, Booker used the $100 million to start a foundation, 5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools:

Marie Corfield: Will #ZucksBucks Save PARCC/Crush @NJOptOut?

Marie Corfield: Will #ZucksBucks Save PARCC/Crush @NJOptOut?:

Will #ZucksBucks Save PARCC/Crush @NJOptOut?
Part 1 of an as-yet-to-be-determined-part series on the Final Report of The Study Commission On The Use Of Student Assessments In New Jersey

Get ready!!

Stanley Tucci in The Devil Wears Prada

Is the NJDOE taking lessons from the ShamWow guy?

Sham? Wow!

The Study Commission on the Use of Student Assessments in New Jersey has released its final report and its a doozy. So, grab yourself a cup of coffee (or a bottle of Xanax), sit back and prepare to be infomercialed! In addition to the same 'ole testing, data collection, and 'college and career' weirdness, the Commission recommends a heavy dose of professional development for educators, and PR funded by 'reformy' money and aimed at crushing the Opt-Out movement, but wrapped in the guise of 'informing the public' about 

the wonderfulness of the PARCC. Like many 'As Seen On TV' products that don't actually deliver what they promise, the DOE has to sell the PARCC the only way it can: convincing parents that we really are those dimwits former US Ed Secretary Arne Duncan called us, and that the PARCC really is magic. And wow, what a sham that is! 

I will attempt to unpack this report in two or three posts, but there's so much CCRAP to wade through that, "I think I'm gonna need a bigger boat." Unless otherwise noted, all bold, underlined and italicized text is mine.

The overarching themes, as I alluded to above, are that 1) the PARCC test is wonderously-fabulous; 2) the State DOE simply did a lousy job marketing it; 3) teachers will buy into it as long as we give them boatloads ofindoctrination professional development; 4) parents will buy into it because we will flood their media outlets with propaganda.

Before I begin

I have posted this video clip several times before. You will need to refer back to it as you read through the rest of this series. Anything that refers to it will be marked with an (*). 

This is a panel discussion about PARCC which includes, among others, former Assistant Marie Corfield: Will #ZucksBucks Save PARCC/Crush @NJOptOut?:

The Truth About Flint, Water, and Oppression – from LaMar Lemmons | Poetic Justice

The Truth About Flint, Water, and Oppression – from LaMar Lemmons | Poetic Justice:

The Truth About Flint, Water, and Oppression – from LaMar Lemmons

Poetic Justice stands with the people of Flint, Michigan as they fight for the most basic of human rights – the right to water.

Poetic Justice also stands with the teachers, parents, and students of Detroit, Michigan as they fight for the right to an equitable and humane education.

Please read this letter from LeMar Lemmons.

“End State Oppression:

Rachel Maddow showed the world the sad truth many of us have known for a long time: Snyder is oblivious to the life of ordinary Michigan citizens. He is a cardboard cut out politician. For him, doing a good job is reading what his speech writer wrote correctly.

This tragedy is real. And it is happening to people I care about. Snyder’s agenda is clearly prepared by the donors to the NERD fund. Each day he asks himself, ” I am meeting my donor’s objectives?” The idea that human beings needed water, never occurred to him. The idea of safety never occured to Earley when he told Sue McCormick, “thanks but no thanks”. They had a plan and they were sticking to it.

As far as Governor Snyder is concerned, if the water is poisoned, just get water from somewhere else. Where is up to you. In his free market mindset, the choice of where you shop for water, is yours. It’s all supply side economics. So, shop wherever you like.
If you like Perrier, buy Perrier. He has read his speech to us, now it is time for he and his appointees to get back to the agenda of creating a better climate for his donors. He just wants this stuff off his desk! He just wants us off his desk. They don’t care about Flint. They don’t care about kids. Do you think he has met with me – a Detroiter, former State Representative and now a DPS Board member with 197 family members in the Detroit schools, even once? FYI: No, he has not!

A Little Background on Flint: Flint resident, Lee Ann Walters’ children tested high for lead poisoning. She called the EPA and Miguel Del Toral – one of the top water scientists in the world, tested her home and was shocked! Concerned for her well being, as a courtesy, he gave her a copy of his draft The Truth About Flint, Water, and Oppression – from LaMar Lemmons | Poetic Justice:

Against School the persistent—and possible deliberate—failures in our school system | New Republic

Against School | New Republic:

Against School

In this previously unpublished essay, Aaron Swartz sought an explanation for the persistent—and possible deliberate—failures in our school system.

Critics of high-stakes testing say that it isn’t working as planned: teachers are teaching to the test instead of making sure kids actually learn. But maybe that is actually the plan.
AARON SWARTZ

Despite all the talk about educators and education priorities, the most important people in any school have always been businessmen. They constantly complain that our schools our failing, that they need to cut out modern fads and go “back to basics,” that unless schools get tougher on students American business will be unable to compete.
As Richard Rothstein has shown, such claims are hardly new. Because schools have never been about actual education, businessmen have been easily collecting studies about their failure at this task since the very beginning. In 1845, only 45 percent of Boston’s brightest students knew that water expands when it freezes. In one school, 75 percent knew the US had imposed an embargo on British and French goods during the War of 1812, but only 5 percent knew what embargo meant. Students, the Secretary of Education wrote, were simply memorizing the “words of the textbook...without having...to think about the meaning of what they have learned.”

In 1898, a writing exam at Berkeley found that 30 to 40 percent of entering freshman were not proficient in English. A Harvard report found only 4 percent of applicants “could write an essay, spell, or properly punctuate a sentence.” But that didn’t stop editorialists from complaining about how things were better in the old days. Back when they went to school, complained the editors of the New York Sun in 1902, children “had to do a little work. ... Spelling, writing and arithmetic were not electives, and you had to learn.” Now schooling was just “a vaudeville show. The child must be kept amused and learns what he pleases.” In 1909, the Atlantic Monthly complained that basic skills had been replaced by “every fad and fancy.”
That same year, the dean of Stanford’s school of education warned that in a global economy, “whether we like it or not, we are beginning to see that we are pitted against the world in a gigantic battle of brains and skill.” Because of their failing schools, of course, Americans were coming up short.

In 1913, Woodrow Wilson appointed a presidential commission to study how to improve our international educational competitiveness. They found that more than half of new recruits to the Army during World War I “were not able to write a simple letter or read a newspaper with ease.” In 1927, the National Association of Manufacturers complained that 40 percent of high school graduates could not perform simple arithmetic or accurately express themselves in English.

A 1938 study complained that newfangled teaching methods were forcing out basic instruction in phonics: “teachers...conspire against pupils in their efforts to learn; these teachers appear to be determinedly on guard never to mention a letter by name...or to show how to use either letter forms or sounds in reading.” A 1940 survey of business executives “found that by large margins they believed recent graduates were inferior to the previous generation in arithmetic, written English, spelling, geography, and world affairs.”

A 1943 test by the New York Times found that only 29 percent of college freshmen knew that St. Louis was on the Mississippi, only 6 percent knew the original thirteen states of the Union, and some students even thought Lincoln was the first president. It was, the Times declared, a “striking ignorance of even the most elementary aspects of United States history.”

In 1947, the Times’s education editor published a book titled Our Children Are Cheated. In it, businessmen lamented the poor state of American schools. One complained he had to “organize special classes to instruct [his new hires] in...making change. ... Only a small proportion [can] place Boston, New York...Chicago...Denver...in their proper sequence from east to west, or name the states in which they [are located].”

A 1951 test in LA found that more than half of eighth graders couldn’t calculate 8 percent sales tax on an $8 purchase. The newspapers complained that students couldn’t even tell time. In 1952, the journal Progressive Education complained about the “attacks on textbooks that encourage inquisitive thinking and individual reasoning, ... mounting pressure to eliminate the ‘frills and fads’—by which are meant such vital services as nurseries, classes for the handicapped, testing and guidance, programs to help youngsters understand and appreciate their neighbors of different backgrounds”—what today would be called multiculturalism.

In 1958, U.S. News and World Report lamented that “fifty years ago a high-school diploma meant something…. We have simply misled our students and misled the Against School | New Republic:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Boycott of mayor's MLK Breakfast was effective

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Boycott of mayor's MLK Breakfast was effective:

Boycott of mayor's MLK Breakfast was effective

Timuel and Zenobia Black with keynoter, Rev Sekou at Chicago Teachers Union King Day Breakfast.

The Mayor's MLK Day Breakfast was a complete bust. The boycott called by a coalition of black ministers was effective. Protests outside and inside, disrupted the mayor's pathetic attempt to clean up his image. The turnout was so sparse, Rahm had to bus in the hungry from the senior citizens homes to fill the empty seats.

Keynoter Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns backed out. They had to pay Dorothy Tillman a hefty fee to replace her. Sad.

But a mile west...
The Tribune reports:

A mile west, at the teachers' MLK breakfast in the South Loop, CTU president Karen Lewis said she had little interest in whether Emanuel resigns, though her own union's governing body has called for him to quit. The mayor has said he'll serve out the remaining three years on his term. 

"I don't care what he does," Lewis said. "Somebody else, maybe worse, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Boycott of mayor's MLK Breakfast was effective:

CURMUDGUCATION: Meritocracy, Democracy, and Darnell Earley

CURMUDGUCATION: Meritocracy, Democracy, and Darnell Earley:

Meritocracy, Democracy, and Darnell Earley

This is the kind of thing I think of every time someone starts making noise about how teacher careers should live and die by merit, how pay should be tied to performance, and managers should be able to fire "bad" teachers instantly, at will.

You know. Just like in the "real world."

And then I think of guys like Darnell Earley.

At this point, you can find Earley's story everywhere (this coverage at eclectablog is a good one).. He's the man who poisoned the Flint, Michigan water supply so that he could save some bucks. And he did it almost single-handedly, because Flint is just one more city where, gosh, the only solution was to suspend democracy and appoint a local Czar to run the place.

Earley failed. By every conceivable measure, he failed. Even if you use the heartless metric of Saving Money, he has failed because the costs of cleaning up after the poisoning of an entire city will be huge. And that's before we even talk about the lifelong cost to the children whose health, talent and abilities have been stolen by lead poisoning. So let's be clear. Darnell Earley failed.

And his punishment was...?

Well, of course, we already know. His punishment was to be hired as the Czar for Detroit schools-- yet another place where the People in Charge decided that democracy had to be terminated.

For poisoning one feifdom, Earley got a new one, with a new hefty salary. And he is failing there as well. Detroit schools are such an appalling, unsafe miserable mess that teachers have been walking out, performing sickouts. How bad is it? The sickouts aren't even organized by the union-- they are just the actions of ordinary classroom teachers who have had enough.

In a meritocracy, Darnell Earley would be out of a job already. Not only would he be out of a job, 

Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students | EdSource

Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students | EdSource:

Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students

A week after a video showed a 9-year-old boy in special education being held aloft as a teacher’s aide slapped his face and onlookers laughed, three advocacy groups issued a demand letter to the California Department of Education on Friday calling on the state to take “quick and decisive” action to eliminate the improper use of force on students with disabilities in classrooms across the state.

The behavior shown in the video is “only the latest example of physical abuse” of students who receive special education services in segregated classrooms and schools, including at Tobinworld II school in Antioch where the incident last week occurred, says the letter from the advocacy groups Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The letter calls for sweeping changes in the state’s oversight of behavioral practices in special education classrooms, including a resumption of statewide data collection to track the use of force on special education students, known as restraint, and the practice of isolating students in rooms they can’t leave, known as seclusion. The letter also calls for monitoring the training of special education staff to ensure they have the skills to manage behavior in a positive way.

“We want this letter to be a wake-up call to the state,” said Maggie Roberts, an attorney at Disability Rights California, the state’s watchdog group. If the state cannot act, an independent monitor should be appointed, the advocacy groups said.

“Despite formal complaints, media coverage and multiple lawsuits — costing our public schools millions of dollars —  the California Department of Education has no proper system to monitor the treatment of students with disabilities, investigate and resolve complaints, or provide meaningful technical assistance — all steps that are mandated by federal and state law,” the letter states.

California school districts in recent years have paid amounts from $800,000 to $1.25 million per child to settle cases, but the lawsuits have not prompted  Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students | EdSource:

New LAUSD superintendent Michelle King's top priority: 'Making sure every student graduates' | 89.3 KPCC

New LAUSD superintendent Michelle King's top priority: 'Making sure every student graduates' | 89.3 KPCC:

New LAUSD superintendent Michelle King's top priority: 'Making sure every student graduates'

The new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Michelle King, spent 31 years working her way up through the district but has stayed largely out of the spotlight. Now she’s stepping up as the public face to steer the district through its big challenges, including declining enrollment and big budget problems.

King spoke to KPCC about her first few days on the job, her priorities going forward, and her strategies for attracting and keeping families to the district's schools. 

Here we are the end of your first week as L.A. Unified superintendent, walk we through the highlights? What did you do?

Each and every day, I started my day in schools visiting teachers, students, classified staff, seeing what they were doing, introducing myself and [giving them] the opportunity to see me, and for me to see incredible things happening on our campuses.

You have so much experience in this district and one advantage many have said that gives you is that you can really hit the ground running. What are the specific things that you want to accomplish in your first year as superintendent?

One is graduation, and making sure every student graduates, and that is one of my overarching, top priorities. Even today, I was with a group of administrators at Dorsey High School, sitting around a table talking to them about how we’re going to ensure each and every student is going to walk across that stage graduating A through G, college-prepared and career ready.

[Secondly,] balancing our budget is a huge priority for me. I was just in a budget meeting today working with teams and working with staff, around ensuring that we’re able to reach a three year balanced budget and that’s a heavy lift for us.

And then thirdly – really important — is the engagement piece, engaging families and school communities. One of the things that’s troubled me over the years is that there’s been a waning of the public trust in L.A. Unified. I will hit the ground with a campaign that’ll be called "Listen, Learn, and Activate," where I’m able to go out into the community, to community meetings, schools, etc. hear what’s going on, hear what the people, the stakeholders feel is important to them, learn – really learn deeply — and make something happen.

How much more can you raise the graduation rate? How much can you close the deficit that’s expected? How many more parents can you get engaged?

For my engagement effort, we’re looking at – between now and April – really trying to target approximately 10,000 folks in terms of that type of engagement. And that doesn’t include going to the schools that I’ve shared with you, visiting with those communities as well. We’ll set metrics to be able to meet that.

I have a plan of working with the board, we’ll go through a strategic planning process, we will lay out what the goals will be, set metrics and targets to be able to do that.

My team, local district superintendents and principals are on board to close this New LAUSD superintendent Michelle King's top priority: 'Making sure every student graduates' | 89.3 KPCC:

The Current State of Educational Blogging – The Edublogger

The Current State of Educational Blogging – The Edublogger:

THE CURRENT STATE OF EDUCATIONAL BLOGGING

Each year we conduct a survey on how educators are using blogs.  Our goal is to document the trends in educational blogging.

We started the annual survey because we’re frequently asked for detailed information to help educators:

1. Convince school administrators to allow blogging.
2. Understand the benefits of blogging and how blogs are used with students.
3. Know more about which blogging platforms are commonly used by educators (and why).

Here’s what you told us in 2015!  You’ll find our survey questions for this year’s report here!

Click on a link below to go to the section you want to read:

1. Key Findings
2. About the survey
3. Who are the respondents
4. How blogs are used
5. Benefits of blogging
   • Class blog
   • Student blogging
   • Personal Educator blog
   • Blogging tips
6. Blog platforms used
   • Reasons for using Edublogs
   • Reasons for using Blogger
   • Reasons for using WordPress.com
   • Reasons for using KidBlog
   • Reasons for using CampusPress
   • Reasons for using Weebly
   • Reasons for using Blogmeister
   • Reasons for using Self hosted WordPress
   • Reasons for using Tumblr

Back to Top

Key Findings

This is our fourth annual report of the state of educational blogging.

Device Usage

There has only been a slight increase in one to one devices in the 4 years we’ve surveyed educators (52% selected Yes in 2015 compared to 44% in 2014, 45% in 2013 and 41% in 2012).

35.9% of respondents with one to one device programs are BYOD and 25.7% of respondents with one to one device programs are provided by the school or school district.

PC laptops were the most commonly used devices (37.4%) in one to one device programs followed by iPads (35.4%), Mac Laptops (27.5%) and Chromebooks (26.3%).

The current trend in one to one programs appears to be an increased use of laptops (PC, Macs or Chromebooks) with a decreased usage of tablets.

Blog Usage

The majority of respondents told us they mainly used their blogs for class blogs (40.7%), class blogs with individual student blogs (20.2%) and for student blogs (14.9%) and many also had their own personal/personal blog (14.6%).

Based on student blog usage from Edublogs.org, 52.5% of student blogs are public and can be viewed by anyone and 47.5% of student blogs are private restricted to specific readers.

The ways respondents said they used the student blogs include for assignments/assessments (36.6%), reflective blogging (33.7%), collaboration / discussion (23.5% ), practice reading and writing skills (21.8%), encourage peer learning and support (19.3%) and digital citizenship skills (17.7%).

While most class blogs were used for: assignments and class news (48.4%); share information with families (40.3%);  and share links and resources (34.2%).

Blog Platform Used

Most respondents used Edublogs (60%), followed by Blogger (11%) and then WordPress.com (10%). Given that the survey was shared to all Edublogs users, we know this most likely doesn’t accurately reflect true usage statistics, but the survey was open to users of all platforms.

It’s quite common for educators to host their blogs on several different blog platforms.  Edublogs (21%) was the most common second main blog platform used, followed by Blogger (14%) and WordPress.com (12%).

Back to Top

About the Survey

This is our fourth annual report of the state of educational blogging.

This year’s survey was conducted from November 2 – December 31, 2015 and a total of 777 respondents took part in the survey.

The survey was promoted via Twitter, Facebook and through blog posts.  We encouraged replies from educators regardless of what blogging platform they used.

You can check out the questions we asked here.

Year	No. of Respondents	Read Report
2015	777	State of Educational blogging 2015
2014	587	State of Educational blogging 2014
2013	378	State of Educational blogging 2013
2012	259	State of Educational blogging 2012

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Who are the respondents?

We started with basic inquiries about our respondents’ background to learn more about their role and their educational institution.  Respondents were able to select more than The Current State of Educational Blogging – The Edublogger:

Emergency for Democracy: Unelected Manager Who Caused Flint Water Crisis Now Runs Detroit Schools | Democracy Now!

Emergency for Democracy: Unelected Manager Who Caused Flint Water Crisis Now Runs Detroit Schools | Democracy Now!:

Emergency for Democracy: Unelected Manager Who Caused Flint Water Crisis Now Runs Detroit Schools

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Flint’s water contamination crisis began in April 2014 after Darnell Earley, an unelected emergency manager appointed by Snyder, switched Flint’s water source to the long-polluted and corrosive Flint River in a bid to save money. Earley is now the emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools. This week, Detroit’s teachers have staged a series of "sickouts" to protest the vast underfunding of the public schools, which have black mold, rat infestations, crumbling buildings and inadequate staffing. We are joined by Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan whose work focuses on emergency management and open government. Michigan has the most sweeping emergency management laws in the country, which allow the governor to appoint a single person to run financially troubled cities.

---

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we’re also joined by Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan. His work focuses on emergency management and open government. Michigan has the most sweeping emergency management laws in the country, which allow the governor to appoint a single person to run financially troubled cities. Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, who presided over the Flint water switch, is now the emergency manager of the Detroit public school system. This week, Detroit’s teachers have staged a series of "sickouts" to protest the vast underfunding of the public schools, which have black mold, rat infestation, crumbling buildings and inadequate staffing. Detroit teachers say they have up to 45 or 50 students in some classrooms.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Curt Guyette, can you talk about how this man, who is the one who ultimately pushed the switch, relying on the—turning from the Detroit water system to Flint’s river, that has poisoned so many people, is now in charge of the Detroit Public Schools? And we’re hearing health problems, not to mention education problems.

CURT GUYETTE: Well, one of the things about the emergency manager law is that these managers were given extreme unchecked authority. And the thinking was, the reason for doing that is they were given the ability to come in, clean up the problems and get out. And so there was an 18-month time limit put on their terms. Except that this governor is exploiting what amounts to a loophole in that law. So what happens is that these emergency managers serve for 17 months and 29 days, and the day before their term expires, they resign. A new emergency manager is put in place, and the clock starts ticking all over again. And they just shuffle them from one place to another. So Earley goes from Flint to run DPS. And it just perpetuates this control. It can go on, really, forever, if they want it to, denying people of their democratically elected representation, because the school board, which has been fighting emergency management every step of the way, gets completely marginalized. They have zero authority whatsoever. And that goes to the heart of the problem of this law. It eliminates the democratic checks and balances that make a democracy functional.

And the other thing is, what we’re seeing here is really the imposition of austerity. This is what austerity looks like. So you have all the problems in these schools that you just reported on, because they’re treating it like a managerial problem rather than a structural problem. I’ve used before the analogy: It’s like being the captain of the Titanic, and you hit an iceberg. It doesn’t matter who’s at the helm; the ship is Emergency for Democracy: Unelected Manager Who Caused Flint Water Crisis Now Runs Detroit Schools | Democracy Now!: