America’s Youth Under Fire - Center for American Progress

America’s Youth Under Fire - Center for American Progress:

America’s Youth Under Fire
The Devastating Impact of Gun Violence on Young People

Introduction and summary

On February 14, 2018, 14 students and three staff members were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by a single shooter armed with an assault rifle. This horrific massacre galvanized the nation’s attention to the issue of gun violence, particularly as it affects young people in this country. However, the scope of gun violence as it affects America’s youth is much vaster than this most recent mass shooting. Gunfire has officially overtaken car accidents as one of the leading killers of young people in the United States.1 As of publication time, since the beginning of 2018, 820 teens ages 12 to 17 have been killed or injured with a gun.2 As mass shootings become more common and more deadly, a staggering 57 percent of teenagers now fear a school shooting.3

 The epidemic of gun violence against America’s youth is more than just a disturbing data point. For each bullet fired, there are multiple stories of lives changed forever. When he was just 6 years old, Missouri State Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. saw his brother shot in front of their neighbor’s home.4Nevada activist Mariam El-Haj witnessed the shooting of her mother by her estranged father, who then turned the gun on Mariam.5 Oregon youth mentor Jes Phillip’s siblings have all had close calls—she has three younger sisters who were present at the Reynolds High School shooting in Troutdale, Oregon, and two bullets landed next to her brother’s bed when they came through her family’s apartment wall during a neighborhood shooting.6 Nineteen- year-old student Eli Saldana, a member of the Native American community living in Chicago, was shot on his walk home from work.

These stories of gun violence are all too common among young Americans. The United States’ gun violence epidemic disproportionately ravages young people, particularly young people of color. In short, gun violence is shattering a generation.

Young people are not simply victims of gun violence in this country, they are among the leading voices calling for change to the nation’s weak gun laws and deadly gun culture. Organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement; survivors of the Parkland shooting; youth organizers working in cities hardest hit by gun violence, such as Chicago, Baltimore, and St. Louis, have all lent their voices to an increasingly loud call to action.

These young people do not just want to reform gun laws—they are also demanding that the issue of gun violence be examined as part of a complex and intersectional web of issues that also include community disinvestment, criminal justice reform, and policing. They are advocating not only for solutions to make schools safer from mass shootings but also for holistic and intersectional solutions that will help make all communities safer.

This report breaks down how gun violence is affecting young people, and how young activists are rising to build an intersectional movement working for solutions. It examines the specific impact of gun violence on young people and considers both how young people as a collective are disproportionately affected and how different communities of young people share different aspects of the burden of this violence. This report also highlights examples of young people leading the advocacy efforts around this issue and discusses a number of policy solutions that are crucial to reducing gun violence, reforming the criminal justice system, improving police-community relations, and encouraging reinvestment in impacted communities.

Impact of gun violence on young people: A national overview

Young people make up a very small percentage of all deaths in the United States each year. Consider 2016: That year, more than 2.7 million people in the United States died, with the top-three leading causes of death being heart disease, cancer, and unintentional injuries.7 Of these 2.7 million deaths, only 2.2 percent were individuals between the ages of 15 and 29.8However, looking only at deaths caused by gunfire, the picture changes dramatically. Young people in this age range Continue reading: America’s Youth Under Fire - Center for American Progress:

Game Changer? Just Maybe. Why Gates' Move Into Anti-Poverty Work Is a Big Deal — Inside Philanthropy

Game Changer? Just Maybe. Why Gates' Move Into Anti-Poverty Work Is a Big Deal — Inside Philanthropy:

Game Changer? Just Maybe. Why Gates' Move Into Anti-Poverty Work Is a Big Deal

The Gates Foundation is getting into anti-poverty work in the United States in a big way with a four-year, $158 million initiative. The move is a significant departure from the foundation’s past domestic endeavors, which focused almost exclusively on education. 

Though the initiative represents a pivot, Gates’ commitment to education played a major role in pushing the foundation in this direction, CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann told Inside Philanthropy. 

“We got into this space because of all the years we worked in education,” Desmond-Hellmann said. “Education leaders told us that to give students the best chance at success, we would have to engage with the problems that face students outside the classroom.”

Jane Waldfogel, a Columbia University professor who wrote Too Many Children Left Behind, is among those experts who've long been arguing for a broader approach to improving student outcomes. Her research supports a link between what happens outside school and kids’ success in the classroom.

“The U.S. has very large achievement gaps between children from low- and high-income families—large relative to what they were historically and also large relative to the gaps in other countries,” Waldfogel said. “We also know that a substantial portion of these achievement gaps is due to factors outside of school.” 

Gaps that exist before kids start school tend to widen once they arrive, she said. “Although, of course, schools have a critical role to play in reducing achievement gaps, there is also a critical role for policies to help level the playing field outside of school.” 

For years, poverty has been one of the most polarizing issues in education. Reformers pushing for more choice and accountability have insisted that poor kids could make big gains if they just had better schools and teachers, and said that defenders of the status quo too often used poverty to excuse failing education systems. Progressives, in turn, charged that the school reform movement had unrealistic expectations for low-income students and was failing to reckon with deep structural inequities in U.S. society. 

Traditionally, the Gates Foundation has been a leader of reform funders focused strictly on schools. But as Bill Gates himself has acknowledged, after years of often disappointing results from its K-12 work, the foundation is finally broadening its approach to look at factors outside the classroom. 

The new initiative has some education experts on the left enjoying a moment of vindication. “I have said repeatedly that the foundation should focus on the root cause of low test scores, which is poverty,” said NYU professor Diane Ravitch, an education historian and one of Gates' harshest critics. “So I am very pleased that the foundation is taking an important step in this direction.” 

This move, moreover, comes after a recent pivot by the Gates Foundation on its K-12 work to back locally Game Changer? Just Maybe. Why Gates' Move Into Anti-Poverty Work Is a Big Deal — Inside Philanthropy:

Gates Foundation Pledges $158 Million to Fight Poverty in U.S. – Next City - https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/gates-foundation-pledges-158-million-to-fight-poverty-in-u.s via @NextCityOrg

Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group

Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group:

Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group

For years, the possibility of organizing the employees of the largest charter school group in Los Angeles was an elusive goal for the teachers union. Efforts launched in 2015 sputtered out during an extended and expensive legal back-and-forth.

But on Wednesday, the movement appeared to get its momentum back.

Teachers at three charter schools operated by the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools network submitted paperwork to form a union and begin bargaining collectively. Though they make up a fraction of Alliance's total employees — the network runs 25 schools across L.A. — their actions represented a partial victory in the union's campaign to organize charter schools.

"These three schools, with more than 100 educators, are the first to file. Others in the 25-school charter chain are expected to follow," a spokesman for the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, wrote in a statement.

In a statement, Catherine Suitor, Alliance's chief advancement officer, said the group had "been made aware that some staff" at three schools had submitted cards to form a bargaining unit. She pointed out that Alliance has "more than 700 dedicated educators" at its schools.

"As always, we remain committed to making sure that all of [our] educator voices are heard and counted as this process moves forward," she said.

Attempts to unionize the Alliance schools began in earnest in 2015, when nearly 70 employees sent the group's administrators a letter asking to be allowed to organize without fear of retaliation. Alliance's leaders suggested they would not interfere.

But that early civility gave way to a series of disputes over whether UTLA organizers were being overly aggressive — as Alliance claimed — and whether Alliance's leaders were intimidating employees interested in joining — as the union maintained.

At one point, UTLA officials accused the charter group of using public funds to pay for lawyers and public relations consultants to fight off the unionizing effort. But a state audit later cleared Alliance of wrongdoing. It found that while Alliance had spent nearly $1 million to fend off the organizing push, it had raised the money from private donors and benefited from another $2 million in pro bono legal work.

UTLA officials said a "clear majority" of teachers and counselors at three Alliance schools submitted cards to the California Public Employment Relations Board on Wednesday morning, authorizing UTLA as their union. The schools are: Alliance College-Ready Middle Academy 5 in Lincoln Heights, Alliance Gertz-Ressler/Richard Merkin 6-12 Complex in downtown L.A., and Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology High School in South L.A.

"One of the reasons we made the decision to pursue this strategy was to kind of model for  Continue reading: Teachers union gains a foothold in L.A.'s largest charter school group:

Oklahoma teacher of the year shocked Betsy DeVos 'redefines' private schools as part of public education system | Education | tulsaworld.com

Oklahoma teacher of the year shocked Betsy DeVos 'redefines' private schools as part of public education system | Education | tulsaworld.com:

Oklahoma teacher of the year shocked Betsy DeVos 'redefines' private schools as part of public education system

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos met privately with the nation’s top teachers Monday and asked them to talk about the obstacles they face in doing their jobs. At least one of those teachers told DeVos that some of her policies are hurting public education.

“We have a problem where public money is siphoned off from the public schools and given to children who are going to charter and private schools,” Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Jon Hazell said.

DeVos’s response shocked him, he said.

“She immediately answered that it was her goal to redefine what education is and that she wants to call all of it public education,” said Hazell, a Durant High School science teacher.

Hazell was among 50 teachers who were in Washington representing their states as teachers of the year. The visit from DeVos was a surprise.

Read the full story at WashingtonPost.com.

Oklahoma teacher of the year shocked Betsy DeVos 'redefines' private schools as part of public education system | Education | tulsaworld.com:

New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to learn and to take action

New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to learn and to take action:

New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to learn and to take action

New L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved on Wednesday that he's a quick learner despite lacking a background in education. Like a stream of public officials before him, he appeared at an important event — his first speech and news conference — in front of a group of students, who served as a photogenic backdrop.

His message — that he would put students first — was nothing original but he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the district's academic performance and stabilize its finances.

Details to come.

Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered no specifics on how he would deal with the district's gravest academic and fiscal challenges or its stalled negotiations with the teachers union.

Union representatives on Wednesday came out battling, saying his selection was a sign that L.A. Unified's leadership is steering the nation's second-largest school system in the wrong direction.

The Board of Education selected Beutner by a 5-2 vote on Tuesday, passing over interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who has spent her career in the L.A. Unified School District, rising from teacher to senior management.

"To state the obvious, I'm an unconventional choice, unconventional by lots of measures," Beutner, a former deputy mayor and L.A. Times publisher, said in prepared remarks at Belmont High School. "But the district is at a crossroads. We face some tough issues. But I believe we can move forward together and address these issues to unlock the enormous  Continue reading: New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to learn and to take action:

Cathie Black debacle just the latest in a long line of miscues by education reformers - NY Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/greenman-cathie-black-reformers-failed-test-article-1.114418 via nydailynews

Big Education Ape: Billionaire Blunders: Appointing Education Chiefs Who Know Little about Public Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/02/billionaire-blunders-appointing.html

Cathie Black and the privatisation of education | Daniel Denvir | Education | The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/07/schools-school-funding on @guardian

Cathie Black, the new chancellor of New York City schools calls herself a born saleswoman - NY Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/cathie-black-new-chancellor-new-york-city-schools-calls-born-saleswoman-article-1.451260 via nydailynews

BROOKINGS: Charter school growth puts fiscal pressure on traditional public schools

Charter school growth puts fiscal pressure on traditional public schools:

Charter school growth puts fiscal pressure on traditional public schools

Policy debates about the net effects of charter schools on students and on the delivery of K-12 education are ongoing and remain highly contentious. 

In a recent paper, we contribute to the policy discussion by drawing attention to the fiscal externalities of charter schools, a finance topic that deserves more attention in the overall discussion. Fiscal externalities are the additional burden that charter schools place on the budgets of traditional school districts, and we find evidence that they are consequential in North Carolina.

Although such burdens may manifest themselves in higher local tax burdens, the more likely outcome is reduced spending per pupil on educational services–and hence lower educational quality–for students who remain in the district’s traditional public schools. The presence of charter schools typically means that some of the funding that would otherwise have been available to the local school district is diverted to the charter schools. For example, assume that the funding arrangements are such that if 10 percent of a district’s students shift to a charter school, the district loses 10 percent of its revenue. The main problem is that the district cannot simply reduce its costs by 10 percent because some of its costs are fixed, especially in the short run. As a result, unless the district is able to offset the lost revenue with higher local tax revenue, it must cut its spending on variable inputs, such as teachers, by more than 10 percent.

EVIDENCE FROM NEW YORK AND NORTH CAROLINA

In drawing attention to these fiscal externalities, we follow the lead of scholars Robert Bifulco and Randall Reback, who measured the adverse fiscal impacts of charter schools in two New York districts, Albany and Buffalo. They correctly point out that estimated magnitudes depend on state and local funding arrangements, and require explicit assumptions about how readily local districts can modify their spending patterns in response to revenue losses, as well about the proportion of charter students who otherwise would have attended private schools.

Our study goes beyond theirs in several ways, including applying the analysis to one medium-sized urban district and five non-urban districts in North Carolina. Attending to effects in these smaller districts is useful given the spread of charter schools beyond the large urban districts where charters have been most common.

In North Carolina, the state is the sole authorizer of charter schools and its authorizing legislation specifies that charter schools are to be funded at the same per-pupil rate as the public schools in the district where the students live. Funding for these purposes includes state funding which accounts for about 65 percent of statewide funding, and local supplemental funding which differs by district based largely on the wealth of the local county.

We collected financial data on school spending from six districts around the state to conduct the analysis. We selected Durham, N.C., (a county district with a traditional public school enrollment of 33,000 students) as our urban district because of: its relatively large share of charter school students (15 percent); its high local funding; and the explicit concerns of district policymakers that charters are adversely affecting the district’s ability to serve its students, many of whom are economically disadvantaged. We selected five illustrative non-urban districts based on their growing shares of charter school enrollments, and our success in obtaining the detailed local expenditure data needed for the analysis.

MEASURING FISCAL EXTERNALITIES

Estimating fiscal burdens in an art, not a science. Central to the analysis is categorizing local district expenditures into one of two categories. Variable costs–such as spending on teachers–represent those that can be cut back relatively easily with a change in the number of students. Conversely, fixed costs – such as those on administration and facilities–represent long-term funding commitments and are much harder to adjust in the short run.

For the simplest models, we assume that the district can reduce its variable spending on line with the loss of students and that fixed costs cannot be adjusted at all. In fact, however, the district will not be able to adjust its variable spending in this way if the students who shift to charter schools are spread across schools and grades. Hence, we also calculate short-run fiscal burdens that assume some stickiness in variable spending. For some of our estimates, we also vary the treatment of fixed costs by assuming that even in the relatively short run, the introduction of charter schools may allow a Continue Reading: Charter school growth puts fiscal pressure on traditional public schools:

New LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner isn't an educator. Here's what we know about how he thinks about schools. | 89.3 KPCC

New LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner isn't an educator. Here's what we know about how he thinks about schools. | 89.3 KPCC:

New LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner isn't an educator. Here's what we know about how he thinks about schools.

Austin Beutner is a former investment banker with no history working as an educator. But the newly appointed superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District he does have a history with the school system – one that gives clues about how he might direct the education of the more than half a million students the district serves.

THE BACKSTORY

LAUSD board members voted Tuesday to offer a three-year contract to Beutner.

It's the biggest civic project yet for Beutner, who has spent much of the last decade deeply involved in the civic life of Los Angeles. He served as the city's deputy mayor from 2010 to 2011 and then spent just over a year as publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times. In 2012, he founded a non-profit organization that provides children with free eye exams and glasses that has worked closely with LAUSD.

Beutner has been scrutinizing the district's finances and operations since 2017. That's when he began co-chairing a task force of civic leaders advising the school board on accelerating the pace of change. 

In late 2016, Beutner had breakfast with board member Richard Vladovic. At the time, former superintendent Michelle King was struggling to gain the board's support for her Strategic Plan. The plan called for raising the district's graduation rate to 100 percent, increasing school choice for parents and reducing absenteeism. But board members were frustrated and were pushing King to get more specific. 

Beutner saw a disconnect.

“Every kid graduating and perfect attendance … that’s interesting and those are laudatory goals," he later recalled telling Vladovic in an interview with KPCC. "But this is something different, in my view, than a plan.”

That breakfast led to a meeting with Superintendent King herself. And Beutner pitched an idea: how about a task force of civic leaders from outside LAUSD?  The Strategic Plan had already outlined some goals; a task force could recommend some strategies to meet those goals. King agreed.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

Beutner recruited 12 other leaders from local foundations, philanthropies, non-profits, advocacy organizations and academia for the task force. They began meeting in May 2017.

By December, they had concluded that more than 80,000 students were chronically absent the previous school year, costing the district about $20 million in revenues. The group also released its first set of recommendations, outlining several pilot Continue reading: New LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner isn't an educator. Here's what we know about how he thinks about schools. | 89.3 KPCC:

Nation’s Top Teachers Confront Betsy DeVos In Private Meeting | HuffPost

Nation’s Top Teachers Confront Betsy DeVos In Private Meeting | HuffPost:

Nation’s Top Teachers Confront Betsy DeVos In Private Meeting
Teachers say they left the meeting disappointed and frustrated.

At a roundtable with the nation’s top educators on Monday afternoon, at least one teacher told Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that her favored policies are having a negative effect on public schools, HuffPost has learned.

DeVos met privately with over 50 teachers who had been named 2018 teachers of the year in their states. As part of the discussion, teachers were asked to describe some of the obstacles they face at their jobs and were given the opportunity to ask the education secretary questions.

Jon Hazell, Oklahoma’s teacher of the year, told DeVos that school choice policies are draining traditional public schools of resources in his state. He specifically referenced charter schools and private schools in voucher programs, Hazell told HuffPost. His comment received support from other teachers in the room. 

But Hazell, a Republican who voted for President Donald Trump, said he found DeVos’ responses to his concerns unsatisfactory.

DeVos told Hazell that students might be choosing these schools to get out of low-performing public schools, he said.

“I said, ‘You’re the one creating the ‘bad’ schools by taking all the kids that can afford to get out and leaving the kids who can’t behind,’” Hazell said he told DeVos in response. (Hazell said he was not referring to DeVos specifically as creating the “bad” schools but to school choice policies generally.)

The centerpiece of DeVos’ education agenda involves expanding school choice policies. Before entering the White House, she spent years advocating for these programs and pouring money into the cause.  

Brian McDaniel, California’s teacher of the year, confirmed Hazell’s version of events. He described the two as nearly engaging in a “verbal sparring session” and said DeVos’ Continue reading: Nation’s Top Teachers Confront Betsy DeVos In Private Meeting | HuffPost:

Billionaires Buyout LAUSD school board Poised to name Beutner as superintendent

L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent:

L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent

The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nation's second-largest school system.

Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the board's seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak.

The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise.

L.A. Unified has serious financial problems. The district faces rising pension costs, vastly underfunded retiree health benefits and union pressure to raise salaries — all as declining enrollment is draining financial resources.

Fixing that imbalance would be a central duty suited to Beutner's skill set, but L.A. Unified also has struggled academically. His efforts also would have to be in the service of better preparing students for higher education and careers, which is the school system's primary task.

"He's not an educator," said Ama Nyamekye, head of the local branch of Educators 4 Excellence, a nonprofit funded by foundations that recruits teachers to take part in policy debates. "You'd hope the board would have some plan for establishing a vision and philosophy for education and a team in the district that would complement his experience in finance and management."

The district has been without a permanent superintendent since September, when Michelle King went on medical leave. King announced in January that she had cancer and would not return to the job. While some district insiders criticized the search that began soon after as too rushed, others pointed out that the district had already been without a long-term leader for most of the school year.

Beutner's recent record in the public and private sector is marked by brief stays in important jobs and a couple of roles that involved analysis more than action.

In 2010, Beutner became first deputy mayor of L.A. under Antonio Villaraigosa, overseeing business and job development. He was part of the Villaraigosa administration for about a year, also filling in as interim director of the Department of Water and Power.

He ran for mayor in 2012 when Villaraigosa termed out, but his campaign never caught on and he dropped out early.

In 2014, Beutner co-chaired the 2020 Commission, which made recommendations for the future of Los Angeles. He then became publisher and chief executive of The Times, but was fired after a year over disagreements about the newspaper's direction.

He became notably close to L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy during his tenure from 2011 through 2014. Deasy became a polarizing presence, with adamant admirers and vociferous critics. At Deasy's behest, Beutner served on a board that raised money to benefit local Continue reading: L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent:

Big Education Ape: Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/04/beutner-emerges-as-top-pick-for-la.html

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Big Education Ape: Parents want ‘voices counted’ in search for LAUSD superintendent – Daily News - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/04/parents-want-voices-counted-in-search.html

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