U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Announced | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Announced | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Announced

Award Honors Schools, Districts, and Postsecondary Institutions for Reducing Environmental Impact and Costs, Improving Health and Wellness, Offering Effective Sustainability Education

The U.S. Department of Education today released the names of the 2021 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees.

Across the country, 27 schools, three early learning centers, five districts, and five postsecondary institutions are being honored for their innovative efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective sustainability education. 

Three state education officials, Joseph DaSilva, Manuel Cordero, and Mario Carreno, at the Rhode Island Department of Education School Building Authority are also being recognized for their efforts to advance school sustainability.

"The pandemic has driven home the vital importance of school buildings and grounds; health and wellness; and hands-on authentic learning," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.  "I congratulate the selected schools, districts, and postsecondary institutions, which are, through their sustainability practices, offering healthy, safe, efficient school environments and protecting our planet.  Not surprisingly, many of our honorees support students in underserved communities, proving once again that green schools' practices, encompassing best practices school operations, health, and environmental learning, are critical tools to advance equity."

The honorees were named from a pool of candidates nominated by 20 states. The selectees include 24 public schools – among them, five charter schools and one magnet school – as well as three nonpublic schools. Over half of the 2021 honorees are in communities where over 40 percent of the student body are eligible for free and reduced lunch.  

The list of all selected schools, districts, colleges, and universities, as well as their nomination packages, can be found here. A report with highlights on the 40 honorees can be found here. More information on the federal recognition award can be found here. Resources for all schools to move toward the three Pillars can be found here. 

Following is the list of 2021 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees:

• AL – Tuscaloosa – Tuscaloosa City Schools, Category: District.
• CA – Hillsborough – The Nueva School, Category: School.
• CA – Indio – Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, Category: School.
• CA – Los Altos – Los Altos High School, Category: School.
• CA – Perris – May Ranch Elementary School, Category: School.
• CA – Westminster – Fryberger Elementary School, Category: School.
• DC – Washington – C. Bilingual Public Charter School, Category: School.
• DC – Washington – Francis Scott Key Elementary School, Category: School.
• FL – Jacksonville – Christ the King Catholic School, Category: School.
• IL – Winfield – Wheaton Christian Grammar School, Category: School.
• IN – Indianapolis – Paramount Brookside, Category: School.
• IN – Porter – Discovery Charter School, Category: School.
• KY – Lexington – The Academies of Bryan Station High School, Category: School.
• KY – Paducah – West Kentucky Community and Technical College, Category: Postsecondary Institution.
• LA – Hammond – Southeastern Louisiana University, Category: Postsecondary Institution.
• MO – Louis – Flance Early Learning Center, Category: Early Learning Center.
• NC – Cary – Wake County Public School System, Category: District.
• NC – Wilmington – C. Virgo Preparatory Academy, Category: School.
• NC – Wilmington – University of North Carolina Wilmington, Category: Postsecondary Institution.
• NC – Wrightsville Beach – Wrightsville Beach Elementary School, Category: School.
• NE – Blair – Gerald Otte-Blair Middle School, Category: School.
• NE – Newman Grove – Newman Grove Public Schools, Category: District.
• NJ – Atco – Winslow Township Middle School, Category: School.
• NJ – Jackson – Switlik Elementary School, Category: School.
• NY – Brooklyn – PS90 The Magnet School for Environmental Studies and Community Wellness, Category: School.
• NY – Ithaca – New Roots Charter School, Category: School.
• NY – Scarsdale – Scarsdale Middle School, Category: School.
• OH – Cincinnati – James N. Gamble Montessori High School, Category: School.
• PA – Bethlehem – Lehigh University, Category: Postsecondary Institution.
• PA – Gibsonia – Hance Elementary School, Category: School.
• PA – Harrisburg – Commonwealth Charter Academy, Category: School.
• RI – Barrington – Barrington Middle School, Category: School.
• RI – Portsmouth – Portsmouth School Department, Category: District.
• UT – Ogden – Shadow Valley Elementary School, Category: School.
• VA – Manassas – Prince William County Public Schools, Category: District.
• WA – Anderson Island – Anderson Island Elementary, Category: School.
• WI – Madison – University of Wisconsin-Madison, Category: Postsecondary Institution.
• WI – Milwaukee – Clement Avenue School, Category: School.
• WI – Milwaukee – Starms Early Childhood, Category: Early Learning Center.
• WI – Stevens Point – Helen R. Godfrey University Child Learning and Care Center, Category: Early Learning Center.

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Announced | U.S. Department of Education

A Decade of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School

On April 22, the U.S. Department of Education named the 2021 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS), District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees. Across the country, 27 schools, three early learning centers, five districts, and five postsecondary institutions are recognized for their innovative efforts to reduce environmental impacts and utility costs, improve health and wellness, and ensure effective education.

The honorees were named from a pool of candidates nominated by 20 states. The 2021 cohort include 24 public schools – among them, five charter schools and one magnet school – as well as three nonpublic schools. More than half of the honorees are in communities where more than

Curious as to what it takes to be named a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School? Here are a few of the initiatives that the 2021 honorees are taking. CONTINUE READING: A Decade of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools!

MEGAN PRATHER: Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms - NONDOC

Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

The governing board of Epic One-on-One Charter School agreed to the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board’s proposed settlement terms Wednesday night, one day after the SVCSB rejected Epic’s initial proposal.

The new settlement agreement (embedded below) still needs to be approved by the SVCSB, but Epic released a statement Wednesday night saying its new “settlement agreement reflects the exact terms proposed by the SVCSB at its April 20, 2021, meeting.” If approved, the Epic settlement would conclude the SVCSB’s charter termination proceedings, which began months ago in the wake of a state audit of Epic’s governance, finances and controversial “learning fund.”

“While we have objected to the politicization of the (state) audit and some of its findings, we have implemented many changes it recommended to strengthen our school and make our operations more transparent,” said Community Strategies Board President Doug Scott in a statement. “We’re in a different, stronger and better place than we were six months ago, and I’m proud of the hard work of this Board and our school leaders. I want to thank the SVCSB and executive director Dr. Rebecca Wilkinson for her leadership during this period of time. Everyone involved has a servant’s heart and wants to serve children and families to the best of our ability.”

Wilkinson did not return a phone call seeking comment about the Epic settlement CONTINUE READING: Epic board agrees to SVCSB settlement terms

CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Governor Still Holding On To Education Relief Funds

CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Governor Still Holding On To Education Relief Funds

TX: Governor Still Holding On To Education Relief Funds

Texas Democrats have been reduced to tattling to the US Department of Education, as Governor Abbott continues to sit on $17.9 billion-with-a-b in aid that is supposed to be going to public schools.

That huge pile of money that has been allocated by Congress through various packages. Texas school districts are trying to get budgets written for next year. But the money is just sitting there.

Why? Abbott really hasn't explained himself much, but local coverage suggests a couple of issues.

One is a requirement that the state invest a billion dollars in higher education. That would also be the equivalent of the one billion from the first relief package that Texas spent on fixing budget "shortfalls" instead of using it to add to public education funding. Not clear whether state officials object to spending money on higher education, or if they just don't want to spend one billion to get $17.9 billion, which doesn't seem like a really tough math problem.

Abbott's only real comment on this is that the state needs "more guidance" on how the money is CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: TX: Governor Still Holding On To Education Relief Funds

Putting On the Ritz – Grumpy Old Teacher

Putting On the Ritz – Grumpy Old Teacher

Putting On the Ritz

Forget Fred Astaire, imagine if you will, (oh, my, Grumpy Old Teacher–GOT–is mixing metaphors or at least pop culture references–apologies to Rod Serling) the face of Miguel Cardona, our newest, brightest, and shiniest U.S. Secretary of Education, or something like that on the face of the premier danseuse (that means the guy in front.) Testing must go on. So in school after school after school across the land, it’s time to put on the Ritz.

GOT googled the meaning of that phrase. It means to dress fashionably. Yes, that covers it. Time for testing and we are going to dress up poorly written, badly constructed, devoid of sound pedagogy tests in fancy clothes. We’re “putting on the Ritz!”

Time to threaten 8-year-old children that we will hold them back a year if they don’t score high enough on their reading test. We’re putting on the Ritz.

Time to threaten teachers with VAM scores that are more meaningless than CONTINUE READING: Putting On the Ritz – Grumpy Old Teacher

Bigger than Bridges: The Infrastructure Bill is About Kids | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Bigger than Bridges: The Infrastructure Bill is About Kids | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Bigger than Bridges: The Infrastructure Bill is About Kids

For all the pressing education matters facing students, parents, and educators, the proposed American Jobs Plan (often referred to as “the infrastructure bill”) can at first glance appear to be unimportant: what does highway and bridge construction have to do with the classroom? But if the contents of the proposed bill are carried out, it would be one of the most transformative education bills in a generation. Let’s walk through some of the details to learn how. 

Constructing a Loving Schoolhouse 

The clearest way that the American Jobs Plan (AJP) would improve the lives of children is in the school itself. While they sat empty for much of the past year, the conditions of public schools remain reflections of society around them: students in wealthier areas will be greeted by top-of-the-line buildings, extensive science labs and the latest technology, while BIPOC and low-income students are much more likely to return to schools with inadequate heating and cooling, lead pipes, and air quality issues. 

It’s for good reason that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our school infrastructure a “D+.” Decades of disinvestment and budget crises created by property tax dependency have added up to billions of dollars in needed school repairs, improvements, and expansions. The White House released infrastructure fact sheets on all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico, detailing the gap in funding for necessary school infrastructure work: for example, the gap in Massachusetts is $1.39 billion, New York’s is $2.91 billion, and California’s is $3.22 billion. 

This is a gap that we can and must close. The AJP would allocate $100 billion to modernize existing public schools and construct new ones, covering everything from air quality to better school meals, classrooms to technology labs. Low-income and majority-BIPOC communities would significantly benefit from that investment. And 100% of lead drinking water pipes in the country, be they in schools or neighborhoods, would be replaced thanks to a $45 billion investment in plumbing replacement. 

Constructing a Loving City 

For all the benefits that school improvement will bring, the factors that impact a child’s future extend far beyond the schoolhouse. As Schott has detailed since 2018 with our Loving Cities Index, we found twenty-five key indicators in four domains that determine whether children and their families have the supports they need to thrive and succeed. In the twenty cities we studied, not one offered more than 55% of those necessary supports. The AJP would directly improve at least seven CONTINUE READING: Bigger than Bridges: The Infrastructure Bill is About Kids | Schott Foundation for Public Education

The Chauvin Verdict is a Step Forward in a Long March Toward Justice

The guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial is a step forward in police accountability and a hopeful sign of progress toward dignity and humanity for all Americans. We give our thanks to the millions of young people, parents and activists who took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd – building a movement and making this verdict possible. 

As we move beyond this moment, we must support these grassroots organizations and changemakers who have spearheaded our country’s reckoning with racism, violence and oppression. We must alter our communities’ and nation’s course to create loving systems and cities in which people of color can live in safety and thrive. This means a commitment to resources and transformative change so that our communities are the vibrant and loving places they should be – for all of their residents.

We must bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice.

The Chauvin Verdict is a Step Forward in a Long March Toward Justice

The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

THE BLACK SCREAM AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Black people have been screaming forever yet in higher pitches since 2020. Given technological advances, we get to show you our lived experience of pain on camera. You get to see on live footage the murder of our people by some bad apples in blue uniforms. We get to share our own personalized trauma on social media platforms and maybe for once receive empathy. Our scream has been amplified and we recognize digital platforms as our co-authoring friend.

One thing for sure, you’d have to live under a rock to honestly say, “I haven’t heard a Black person scream.” Let me be more explicit, all races demonstrate pain which includes violence, abuse, and depression that can result in detrimental impacts on health. Hell, we even cry out for help in our spiritual places of worship. The unfortunate silent elephant in the room is that our Black scream has become normalized.

But it is not O.K. It took a global pandemic for our communities to freely speak about the urgent need to heal from our pain. Many individuals across our melanin diaspora are advocating to find ways to heal and tend to self- CONTINUE READING: The Black Scream and the American Dream - Philly's 7th Ward

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning

Pandemic-related learning loss means some parents are weighing whether their children should repeat a grade. In 18 states, they won’t have a choice.

David Scruggs Jr. has spent most of the pandemic at his second-grade son’s side, helping him with virtual learning as their Nashville, Tenn., home became a schoolhouse as well as his office. In the next room, Scruggs’ wife, Dorothy, sat beside their first-grade daughter, a mirror image on the other side of the wall, doing the same while holding down her own job.

For a year, the Scruggs worked to keep their kids from falling behind as the pandemic forced children to stay home and America’s education system struggled to adjust. The family installed a whiteboard and baby pink desk next to their TV. The coffee table became a receptacle for homework, folders and laminated multiplication tables.

Now, the Scruggs and thousands of families like them in Tennessee and more than a dozen other states face a reckoning with how well they succeeded in their new role as substitute teachers. In the coming months, under a new, stricter state policy, if their son doesn’t do well enough on a standardized reading test next year, he could be forced to repeat a grade.

“I don’t know how much was lost or gained in this process. That’s the scary part,” Scruggs said of learning during Covid-19. “I would hope he’s not held back. CONTINUE READING: 'Parents are powerless': Students face being held back after a year of remote learning - POLITICO

CURMUDGUCATION: A Powerful Call To Teach

CURMUDGUCATION: A Powerful Call To Teach

A Powerful Call To Teach

Sharif El-Mekki is the founder of the Center for Black Educator Development, a group that's doing important work. He blogs at Philly's 7th Ward, and recent post is worth attention. 

I suspect that El-Mekki and I disagree on some education issues, but his view of the teaching profession is inspiring and powerful. Here's a bit from the post "Why We Need Black Men (And Women) To Answer The Call And Teach." El-Mekki is addressing the need for Black men in the classroom, which sits on my list of public education issues in urgent need of being addressed. But in the process, he also tells us about the power of the profession itself.

If more men realized the power of leading a classroom—how it is the most important lever in this fight for social justice and equity, and both challenges and offers uniquely amazing rewards—more highly qualified and gifted Black male educators would sign up to do this nation building. Many who could be Freedom Fighters are searching for how to make an impact, and most are encouraged not to lead in classrooms and schools. This must change.

It is up to all of us to pose the questions: If you want to have the largest, most sustained impact on society, why not teach? Do you believe in lifting as you climb? You view yourself as a follower of the Black radical tradition? Pro-Black? Revolutionary? Anti-Racist? Pro-community? Do you love Black children, community, and a content area?

What a  CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: A Powerful Call To Teach

Schools Matter: Dear Sen. Bennet: The best way to help "high poverty schools" is to eliminate "high poverty schools."

Schools Matter: Dear Sen. Bennet: The best way to help "high poverty schools" is to eliminate "high poverty schools."

Dear Sen. Bennet: The best way to help "high poverty schools" is to eliminate "high poverty schools."

Call me excited about the many billions of dollars that Team Biden is planning to invest in new and renewed education initiatives, from pre-K through college.  Even more exciting is the total absence (so far) of systemic efforts to bribe and/or extort states to adopt corporate policies favored by the profiteers of the education industrial complex.  It's too early to know for sure, but it looks as if these unprecedented education investments now on the horizon actually acknowledge the massive education debt owed to public institutions that have been deprived for decades of needed funds for staffing, physical plants, transportation, and instructional resources.

As these new funding streams come closer to reality, the Biden Team has also targeted child poverty, with tax credits in the Covid relief legislation that will cut child poverty almost in half. If these cuts can be made permanent, the reductions in child poverty would constitute, in themselves, the most important education reform of the past 50 years.  For as child poverty rates decrease, we may certainly expect increases in student achievement.

But old habits of thought die slowly, it seems.  For as we stand on the cusp of dramatically cutting poverty rates and addressing other structural issues that have helped preserve segregation based on race and class, some politicians remain focused on treating the symptom, rather than the disease.  

Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) offers a good example of politicians who believe that the performance, CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: Dear Sen. Bennet: The best way to help "high poverty schools" is to eliminate "high poverty schools."

NANCY BAILEY: Will America Invest in Public School Buildings, Finally?

Will America Invest in Public School Buildings, Finally?

Will America Invest in Public School Buildings, Finally?

How will the Biden administration manage a public school facelift? Is $100 billion enough? Will communities see a windfall of funding dedicated to this purpose? Will corporate partnerships help? Will Americans see it as an equity issue?

Covid-19 showed Americans the importance of public schools, but they still might not understand the crumbling conditions found in many of those buildings. How many teachers and students face substandard classrooms?

Epidemiologists and pediatricians continue to speak about classroom mitigation strategies like they’re easy, while teachers frantically describe sealed windows or classrooms with no windows. Overcrowded classrooms make safe instruction unthinkable. Lousy HVAC systems in schools became a national disgrace.

America’s schools have been allowed to deteriorate for years. Even newer school buildings have depreciated due to deferred maintenance. Powerful people want students to prove they can do well on tests, but they don’t consider how the conditions CONTINUE READING: Will America Invest in Public School Buildings, Finally?

Samuel Abrams: Why Does the New York Times Repeatedly Exaggerate the Selectivity of NYC’s Top High schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Samuel Abrams: Why Does the New York Times Repeatedly Exaggerate the Selectivity of NYC’s Top High schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Samuel Abrams: Why Does the New York Times Repeatedly Exaggerate the Selectivity of NYC’s Top High schools?

Samuel Abrams was a teacher at Beacon High Schools and is now a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

He wrote a few days ago in the Columbia Journalism Review about the insistence by the New York Times that admissions to schools like Beacon are even harder than they are.

Anxiety among eighth-graders and their parents persists about the selectivity of the city’s screened high schools, in no small part because of repeated misreporting by the Times and others. The paper’s coverage—exemplified by a 2017 piece headlined “Couldn’t Get into Yale? 10 New York City High Schools Are More Selective”—has even been blamed for fueling the segregation by discouraging students from underrepresented neighborhoods from applying to many screened high schools on the grounds that admission seems nearly impossible.

He describes his years-long effort to persuade the Times CONTINUE READING: Samuel Abrams: Why Does the New York Times Repeatedly Exaggerate the Selectivity of NYC’s Top High schools? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Dismantling the “Science of Reading” and the Harmful Reading Policies in its Wake – radical eyes for equity

Dismantling the “Science of Reading” and the Harmful Reading Policies in its Wake – radical eyes for equity

Dismantling the “Science of Reading” and the Harmful Reading Policies in its Wake

After emailing me about new reading legislation being proposed in North Carolina—next door to my home state of South Carolina that also has jumped on the “science of reading” bandwagon—Ann Doss Helms of WFAE (NPR, Charlotte, NC) interviewed me by phone.

I have given dozens of interviews about education over the last 15 to 20 years, and they all have a similar pattern; the journalist tosses out predictable questions and then becomes somewhat disoriented by my answers. Typically, the journalist at some point notes they didn’t know or had never heard the information I offered, the context and complications I raised about the topic.

My conversation with Helms was no different as we gradually peeled back the layers of the onion that is the “science of reading” as well as the very harmful reading policies that are being proposed and adopted in its wake.

Over the past couple years, I have blogged almost nonstop and written a book on the “science of reading” media narrative and how it is oversimplified and misleading but very compelling and harmful since state after state is adopting CONTINUE READING: Dismantling the “Science of Reading” and the Harmful Reading Policies in its Wake – radical eyes for equity

Teacher Tom: Eight in Ten Youths Believe the Adults in Their Lives Value Achievement Over Caring for Others

Teacher Tom: Eight in Ten Youths Believe the Adults in Their Lives Value Achievement Over Caring for Others

Eight in Ten Youths Believe the Adults in Their Lives Value Achievement Over Caring for Others

Here's the good news: in a national survey conducted by Harvard University, roughly two-thirds of youth listed kindness as one of their top three values and 64 percent included fairness in their top three.

Here's the bad news: Approximately 80 percent of these same kids report that their parents and teachers are more concerned with achievement more than caring for others. The vast majority of America's youth agree with this statement: "My parents are prouder if I get good grades in my class than if I'm a caring community member in class and school."

When parents and teachers are asked, most say that raising caring children is a top priority, ranking it as more important than achievement.

In other words, we adults, despite our best intentions, are falling down on the job. There is a significant disconnect between our intentions and the results we are achieving. We might hold things like empathy and compassion dear, but our kids aren't buying it. Indeed, it seems we are teaching them exactly the opposite.

And no wonder. Most children spend their first couple decades CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Eight in Ten Youths Believe the Adults in Their Lives Value Achievement Over Caring for Others

State of Siege: What the Free State Project Means for New Hampshire’s Public Schools – Have You Heard

State of Siege: What the Free State Project Means for New Hampshire’s Public Schools – Have You Heard

State of Siege: What the Free State Project Means for New Hampshire’s Public Schools

Two decades ago, the Free State Project announced an audacious plan to make New Hampshire a utopia for libertarians. Now one of their central goals – privatizing education – appears within reach. Have You Heard heads to the Granite State to explore New Hampshire’s shifting political terrain and why what began as a fringe political movement is no laughing matter. Guests: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, author, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear. 

Episode transcript is here. The financial support of listeners like you keeps this podcast going. Subscribe on Patreon or donate on PayPal.

Have You Heard · #111 State of Siege: What the Free State Project Means for New Hampshire’s Public Schools

State of Siege: What the Free State Project Means for New Hampshire’s Public Schools – Have You Heard

Emails Show Bush-Led Organization’s ALEC-Like Role in State Policymaking - In the Public Interest

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests - In the Public Interest

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests

Emails Show Bush-Led Organization’s ALEC-Like Role in State Policymaking

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and state education officials show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers.

“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business,” said In the Public Interest Executive Director Donald Cohen. “For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and other business lobby organizations they fund to write laws and promote policies that enrich the companies.”

The emails conclusively reveal that FEE staff acted to promote their corporate funders’ priorities, and demonstrate the dangerous role that corporate money plays in shaping our education policy. Correspondence in Florida, New Mexico, Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana paint a graphic picture of corporate money distorting democracy.

Correspondence files and summaries for individual state findings are available at the links below:

Florida

Louisiana

Maine

New Mexico

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

Foundation for Excellence in Education and Chiefs for Change Records Requests - In the Public Interest

Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

In case you were wondering why Greene had been such a disappointment, it turns out it is by design as she has joined Jeb Bush's Chiefs for Change, a group that pushes corporate reforms, i.e., high stakes testing, punish the teacher evaluations, and scabs as teachers, and privatization, the expansion of charter schools and vouchers. Friends, we have met the enemy, and it is Greene.

The Jacksonville Public Education Fund, i.e., a way station for Teach for America alumni, congratulated her on joining the Chiefs for Change, just proving a tiger can't change its stripes, once for privatization, always for privatization. 

From in the Public Interest,

Emails between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), founded and chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and state education officials, show that the foundation is writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit its corporate funders. The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations, and executive orders, often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s financial backers.

“Testing companies and for-profit online schools see education as big business,” said In the Public Interest Executive Director Donald Cohen. “For-profit companies are hiding behind FEE and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene is a fox in the hen house, joins Jeb Bush's anti-public education club

NYC Public School Parents: The City Council has proposed $250 million for smaller classes next year!

NYC Public School Parents: The City Council has proposed $250 million for smaller classes next year!

The City Council has proposed $250 million for smaller classes next year!

The NYC Council has now proposed in its preliminary budget response that DOE allocate $250M next year for class size reduction. This amount would be used to hire 2500 new teachers, which could then reduce class size in as many as 10,000 smaller classes citywide, since each new teacher and class creates smaller classes for every other class in the same grade and/or subject in each school.

See the press release here and below, and an updated fact sheet here.

Now we have to ensure that the Council negotiates hard and the Mayor and the Chancellor  agree that this funding is included in the final budget.  How can you help?

First, sign our (slightly revised) petition, if you haven't already.  

Second, if you're a member of a CEC, PTA or other community organization, please consider passing this resolution, urging that at least $250 million be spent on class size reduction next year; please also invite us to your next meeting to do a presentation on how and why smaller classes are so critical.  

If you're not a CEC member, please consider sharing the resolution with your district CEC, Community board or other organization and urge them to approve it as well.  

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NYC Council proposes $250 million for class size reduction next year

In their Preliminary Budget Response, the NYC Council proposes that next year $250 million should be allocated to lowering class size, especially targeted towards struggling schools with vulnerable student populations. This would allow the Department of Education to hire an additional 2,500 teachers, which could lower class size in as many as CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: The City Council has proposed $250 million for smaller classes next year!