Sunday, August 12, 2018

DeVos Retracts Gainful Employment Rule for For Profit Colleges | Law & Crime

DeVos Retracts Gainful Employment Rule for For Profit Colleges | Law & Crime

DeVos Just Pulled a Full Marie Antoinette And Retracted Fraud Rules Against For-Profit Colleges
 


Welp, now we’ve at least closed the circle on Betsy DeVos and for-profit colleges. She’s gone from evading questions about whether she would regulate these fraud machines to disbanding the team charged with investigating them. Now, she flat out withdrew the gainful employment rule, signaling to all that under her watchful eye, the DeVrys, the Trump Universities, and the Corinthian Colleges are free to flourish – while unwitting students and their families can simply eat cake.
The “gainful employment rule,” you may remember, is the one adopted in 2016 under the Obama administration, after several cash-cow diploma mills found themselves defending fraud lawsuits brought by swindled students. The rule prohibited these businesses from using deceptive practices to entice customers to plunk down thousands in student loan money when the corresponding “degree” wasn’t worth the expensive paper on which it was printed. Or in other words, exactly what Trump University was accused of doing. It was also the rule Senator Elizabeth Warren skewered DeVos on at DeVos’ confirmation hearing.

In the DOE’s press release issued yesterday, Secretary DeVos unctuously couched her decision to eliminate oversight as a protection for higher ed students. “Students deserve useful and relevant data when making important decisions about their education post-high school,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “That’s why instead of targeting schools simply by their tax status, this administration is working to ensure students have transparent, meaningful information about all colleges and all programs. Our new approach will aid students across all sectors of higher education and improve accountability.”
Let me get this straight. Harvard might also be swindling students, the difference between for-profit and non-profit is meaningless, and American consumers will be better protected if there are no rules. Gotcha. It’s Betsy’s world, and we’re just living in it. That logic sounds like it may have been part of the DeVry curriculum, brought to Ms. DeVos’ attention by her right-hand man, and diploma-mill professor emeritus Julian Schmoke.
Viewed in context with the rule’s past success, DeVos’ decision is Continue reading: DeVos Retracts Gainful Employment Rule for For Profit Colleges | Law & Crime

Steven Singer: This Wall Street PAC Bankrolling Democrats Thinks Being Progressive Means Mirroring Betsy DeVos

This Wall Street PAC Bankrolling Democrats Thinks Being Progressive Means Mirroring Betsy DeVos

This Wall Street PAC Bankrolling Democrats Thinks Being Progressive Means Mirroring Betsy DeVos
If Democratic candidates want to keep the support of grassroots voters, they need to reject money from Democrats for Education Reform


Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) put out a new video about what they think it means to be an education progressive.
And by the political action committee’s definition, Betsy DeVos may be the most “progressive” education secretary ever.
She champions “public charter schools.” Just like them!
She is in favor of evaluating teachers on student test scores. Just like them!
She is a booster for “holding schools accountable” through the use of standardized tests. Just like them!
And she loves putting public tax dollars into private hands to run schools “more efficiently” by disbanding school boards, closing public debate, and choosing exactly which students get to attend privatized schools. Just like... you get the idea.
But perhaps the most striking similarity between DeVos and DFER is their methodologies.

She gives politicians bribes to do her bidding! The only difference is she pays her money mostly to Republicans while DFER pays off Democrats. But if both DeVos and DFER are paying to get would-be lawmakers to enact the same policies, what is the difference!?
Seriously, what is the difference between Betsy DeVos and Democrats for Education Reform?
Progressives in Colorado and California say it is only the word “Democrat.”
Democratic party conferences in both states passed resolutions asking DFER to stop using the name “Democrat” because the privatization lobbying firm does not represent party ideals or goals.

Why do some progressives vote third party? Because of groups like DFER.
Voters think something like—if this charter school advocacy group represents what Democrats are all about, I can’t vote Democrat. I need a new party. Hence the surge of Green and other third party votes that is blamed for hurting Democratic candidates.
The Democrats have always been a big tent party, but the canvas can’t shelter the most regressive far-right bigotry without destroying the organization’s identity as an opposition party.
The reason for the confusion is that DFER is not a grassroots organization. It is funded by Wall Street hedge fund managers.



Journey for Justice Alliance Releases Myth-Shattering Report “Failing Brown v. Board” that Exposes Deep Inequities in Public Education Across Race and Class

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Journey for Justice Alliance Releases Myth-Shattering Report “Failing Brown v. Board” that Exposes Deep Inequities in Public Education Across Race and Class

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 Journey for Justice Alliance Releases Myth-Shattering Report “Failing Brown v. Board” that Exposes Deep Inequities in Public Education Across Race and Class
Report examines course offerings in 12 cities revealing inequities that have remained since the civil rights movement, inspiring call from national organizations for a “new Brown v. Board”
The Journey for Justice Alliance, a national network of community-based organizations in 31 cities, released its report “Failing Brown v. Board” which illuminates just how inequitable public education remains today, largely across racial lines.  Through examining course offerings at high schools in 12 cities (and one elementary in Chicago), this report, which is backed by substantial research shows how black and brown students are denied “access to inspiration” in comparison with their white, more affluent peers.  “Failing Brown v. Board” was released on the first day of the “Poor People’s Campaign.”
“In America, inequity is ignored as children in the same city have two completely different educational experiences and the dividing line in many cases is race. Every American child and their family have the right to a high-quality neighborhood public school from grades pre-k through 12. We aren’t asking for a handout in this report, we are demanding a fair return on our tax investment,” said Jitu Brown, National Director of the Journey for Justice Alliance.  “Without access to great equitable public schools, we are failing an entire generation of students and their families solely based on the color of their skin and their socioeconomic status.”
This shattering myth report, its findings, and multiple statewide educator walkouts have pushed national and local organizers to call for a “new Brown v. Board” initiative for educational equity. On Monday morning at the steps of the Supreme Courts, the Journey for Justice Alliance, in partnership with the #WeChooseCampaign and the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS), will release the report and outline planks of the nationwide campaign.
“As parents this report is true to our lived experience.  We must have zero tolerance for inequity and demand justice for every child now,” Zakiyah Ansari, a New York public school parent and advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “We choose equity, not the illusion of school choice”
In cities across the U.S., low-income and working families are organizing to win important victories and we know that none of us can win equity in public education alone. The Journey for Justice Alliance reached out to many of the strongest organizing, civil rights, advocacy & labor groups across the country to form the #WeChoose Coalition; the NAACP, Alliance for Education Justice, American Federation of Teachers, Advancement Project, Badass Teacher’s Association, National Education Association, Institute for Democratic Education in America, Dignity in Schools Coalition, Save Our Schools, Network for Public Education and Alliance to Reclaim our Schools and the #WeChoose Campaign was born.
The #WeChoose campaign is a declaration from hundreds of thousands of parents and students in cities across the United States with a clear, yet profound message – we refute and resist corporate education policies that are inflicted upon our children without our voice.
The failure of previous administrations to respect the voices of all Americans has set the tone for this perilous moment that we are in now. We reject appointed school boards. We reject zero tolerance policies that criminalize our children. We reject mediocre corporate education interventions that are only accepted because of the race of the children served. We choose equity. We organize to build local coalitions and alliances to have the power to realize this vision. The conference will celebrate this work and build on it: We Choose Equity, Not the Illusion of School Choice!
Read more: Home - Journey For Justice




#WeChoose Campaign - Journey For Justice - https://wp.me/s9YPAH-wechoose

Study: Students’ math scores drop after using private school voucher

2017 Indiana Study — National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE)

Study: Students’ math scores drop after using private school voucher

A SUMMARY OF

IMPACT OF THE INDIANA CHOICE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM: ACHIEVEMENT EFFECTS FOR STUDENTS IN UPPER ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL (JUNE 2017)

Publication cover image

PROGRAM OVERVIEW:

  • The study analyzed outcomes for students in grades 3-8 who used a voucher to transfer from a public to a private school during the first four years of the program (2011-12 through 2014-15 school years).

MAIN FINDINGS:

The voucher program had a negative impact on students’ academic achievement. 
  • Overall, students who used a voucher experienced an average annual loss of 0.10 standard deviations in mathematics after attending a private school compared with matched public school students.
  • Overall, students who used a voucher had no statistically meaningful overall effects in Language Arts (ELA). However, special education voucher students experience an average annual loss of 0.13 standard deviations in ELA.
Voucher students' scores in math improve after four years, but do not lead to higher scores. 
  • The negative affect on students’ math scores is worse in the first two years. By year four, students generally recoup those losses and end up with math scores on par with their peers.
  • It is difficult to accurately measure whether the students truly catch back up due to the small number of students left in the program after four years. This is because many students give up their voucher and return to public school.


Impact of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program: Achievement Effects for Students in Upper Elementary and Middle School* - Waddington - - Journal of Policy Analysis and Management - Wiley Online Library - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pam.22086



Study: Students’ math scores drop after using private school voucher - The CT MirrorThe CT Mirror - https://ctmirror.org/?p=849861 on @ctmirror