The Fall of the IDEA Charter Execs: No Luxury Jet Can Save Us Now. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The Fall of the IDEA Charter Execs: No Luxury Jet Can Save Us Now. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The Fall of the IDEA Charter Execs: No Luxury Jet Can Save Us Now

The May 25, 2021 Houston Chronicle reports of the firing of IDEA Public Schools charter chain CEO JoAnn Gama and CFO Irma Muñoz “after a forensic review found ‘substantial evidence’ that top leaders at the state’s largest charter network misused money and staff for personal gain ‘in a manner to avoid detection by the standard external audit and internal control processes that the Board had in place at the time,'” according to IDEA board president Al Lopez.

The Chronicle continues:

The firings followed an anonymous tip received after the departures last year of two other high-ranking IDEA leaders, former CEO Tom Torkelson and former CFO Wyatt Truscheit. Lopez’s letter says the allegations of misconduct involve “a small number of IDEA senior leaders,” though it does not name any individuals alleged to have engaged in improper spending or use of staff.

IDEA’s finances came under fire in late 2019, following the board’s quickly-reversed decision to lease a private jet and the disclosure that the charter network spent money on luxury suites at San Antonio’s AT&T Center, among other decisions. Torkelson resigned in May 2020, agreeing to a $900,000 settlement payout with the charter’s board.

And just that fast, both Gama and Muñoz were scrubbed from the IDEA leadership page.

I wanted some background on Gama and Muñoz, which I found on this archived CONTINUE READING: The Fall of the IDEA Charter Execs: No Luxury Jet Can Save Us Now. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students

Former US ed sec Betsy DeVos did not want to give a formal, in-person account of her decision to side with defunct, for-profit, California-based Corinthian Colleges by not granting monetary relief to hundreds of thousand of students defrauded by this federal-aid-sucking monster.

However, on May 19, 2021, US District Judge William Alsup refreshingly denied DeVos’ “motion to quash a subpoena for her deposition.”

Alsup’s denial includes the backstory, excerpted here (parenthetical case references omitted for ease of reading; highlights mine):

Former Secretary of the United States Department of Education Elisabeth DeVos moves to quash a subpoena for her deposition, issued in co-pending litigation before the undersigned. Exceptional circumstances warranting the deposition, the motion is DENIED.

Our underlying suit, Sweet v. Cardona, concerns the lawfulness of the Department of Education’s eighteen-month halt in issuing decisions on student-loan borrower-defense applications under Secretary DeVos. Our story began in 1993 when Congress directed the Secretary of Education to specify the sort of school misconduct that borrowers may assert as a defense against repayment of their student loans. This “borrower-defense” apparatus lay dormant for its first several decades until May 2015 when the large for-profit college, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., collapsed. Students submitted a “flood” of borrower-defense applications, so Secretary John B. King appointed a special master in June 2015 to adjudicate claims and then updated the borrower-defense regulations in November 2016. But it remained a game of catch up. By the end of the Obama Administration, the Secretary had approved 31,773 applications and found 245 ineligible, for a 99.2% grant rate. Borrowers, however, had submitted 72,877 applications.

In 2017, newly-installed Secretary DeVos moved to rein in the previous CONTINUE READING: Judge: Betsy DeVos Cannot “Quash” Deposition About Her Actions Re: Defrauded Corinthian College Students | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Announces Virtual Public Hearings on Title IX (Sexual Discrim./Harassment) | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Announces Virtual Public Hearings on Title IX (Sexual Discrim./Harassment) | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Announces Virtual Public Hearings on Title IX (Sexual Discrim./Harassment)

The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) Office for Civil Rights announces a number of virtual public hearings related to Title IX (“Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance”) scheduled in June 2021.

Hearing dates are as follows:

• June 7, 2021, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST
• June 8, 2021, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST
• June 9, 2021, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST
• June 10, 2021, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST
• June 11, 2021, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST

Details below are from the May 20, 2021 Federal Register (reorganized to promote ease of reading):

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announces a virtual public hearing to gather information for the purpose of improving enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). OCR seeks comments from the public at the hearing on steps the Department can take to ensure that schools are providing students with educational environments free from discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence; to ensure that schools have grievance procedures that provide for the fair, prompt, and equitable resolution of reports of sexual harassment and other sex discrimination, cognizant of the sensitive issues that are often involved; and to address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in educational environments. This notice provides information to members of the public regarding the hearing and OCR’s request for live and written comments, and sets forth the dates and times, agenda, and instructions for attending this public hearing.

BACKGROUND

OCR is conducting this hearing pursuant to Executive Order 14021, Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, published in the Federal Register on March 11, 2021 (86 FR 13803), which directs the Secretary of Education to review the rule entitled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” published in the Federal Register on May 19, 2020 (85 FR 30026), and other agency actions that are or may be inconsistent with governing law, including Title IX, and the Executive order. This hearing is also a step toward fulfilling the directives of Executive Order 13988, Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2021 (86 FR 7023). …

AGENDA

This public hearing is part of OCR’s review of the Title IX regulations, CONTINUE READING: USDOE Announces Virtual Public Hearings on Title IX (Sexual Discrim./Harassment) | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence*

One of my concerns in teaching senior English is that students will cheat on major assignments.

The increasing usage of online technology in my classroom has done little to quell this concern. In my case, I had reason to suspect that an adult completed an online test for one of my students, who then possibly shared those results with friends who also scored suspicious-fabulously. As much as I was miffed, I did not have evidence solid enough to pursue any serious course of action against any individual student. Therefore, I threw out the test and required my students from then on to complete major online assignments during class time, and in class, whenever possible. (Those in quarantine had to log in during class time or during a preset window to complete the assignment, often using Google Meet so that I might monitor the situation.)

The prospect of students cheating on remote assignments bugs me. Even so, I remain skittish about purported online monitoring tools for detecting cheating. To try to track a student’s eye movements, or even to say that cheating happened if a student seemed to be logged into another device while completing as assignment on one device lacks the certainty needed to have a solid case for such accusation.

Along these lines, the May 09, 2021, New York Times reports on an interesting-sad situation has transpired at Datmouth’s medical school: It seems that CONTINUE READING: Dartmouth Blindsides Med Students with Shaky Cheating *Evidence* | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Kansas City Schools’ Accreditation Woes: Are the Philanthropic Vultures Circling? | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Kansas City Schools’ Accreditation Woes: Are the Philanthropic Vultures Circling? | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Kansas City Schools’ Accreditation Woes: Are the Philanthropic Vultures Circling?

On April 02, 2021, the Kansas City Star reported that an “outside group” spent $100K in the Kansas City (MO) School Board election in support of two contenders, locals Tanesha Ford and Kandace Buckener.

In the April 2021 KC board election, two other members were unopposed. Ford and Buckener were buoyed by $100K in mystery money funneled through Blaque independent expenditure committee. Since Blaque is not directly connected to the candidates it supports, the “non-committee” is not required to disclose to the public who, exactly, is funding its efforts.

Members of the KC public in support of traditional public schools are concerned that Blaque’s undisclosed money comes from school choice promoters, as the April 23, 2021, KCUR reports:

Advocates for the district are worried about money that poured into the school board election from school choice proponents — BLAQUE gets funding from SchoolSmart KC, which in turn gets money from the Kauffman and Hall foundations.

Based on the KCUR article, Ford and Buckener appear to be concerned about “student achievement,” which certainly involves the test scores upon which KC’s longstanding accreditation woes critically depend. Other components of Missouri CONTINUE READING: Kansas City Schools’ Accreditation Woes: Are the Philanthropic Vultures Circling? | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The Testing Game, Louisiana-style | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The Testing Game, Louisiana-style | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

The Testing Game, Louisiana-style

Let’s say that I am at the end of my freshman year of high school in Louisiana. I must take two Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) exams: English I and Algebra I. So long as I minimally pass these exams (“approaching basic”), I am good for graduation three years from now. Furthermore, my state exam score counts as my final exam in the class (between 15 and 30 percent of my fourth quarter grade, according to state specifications; see below).

high-school-leap-2025-grade-conversion-tableDownload

If I score the highest level on my LEAP exams (“advanced”), then I get an A as an exam grade. If I score the second highest level (“mastery”), I get a B. The third level, “basic,” gets me a C, and the fourth (and lowest passing) level, “approaching basic,” earns a D.

Given that the state exams last between 225 and 260 minutes each, I might zoom through my LEAP test, aiming, if you will, for  CONTINUE READING: The Testing Game, Louisiana-style | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since

In August 2017, Laurie Kash was hired by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as its director of special education.

Her immediate supervisor was Justin Porter, who was then the executive director of special populations. (One year later, in August 2018, Porter assumed Kash’s job, which sat vacant for nine months following Kash’s firing in November 2017).

On the day after Kash filed a complaint with the US Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) against TEA, Kash was fired (date of complaint: November 21, 2017; Kash’s firing: November 22, 2017).

Kash’s OIG complaint11-21-17Download

Kash’s complaint (see above) concerned a no-bid contract for special education services by a then-newly-created vendor, SPEDx, whose founder, Richard Nyankori, had a personal connection to Porter’s immediate supervisor, Penny Schwinn, TEA’s chief deputy commissioner of academics.

So, right off the bat, this situation became dicey for Kash, for she was concerned about impropriety related to her supervisor’s supervisor. Kash alerted Porter of her concerns, and she spoke about those concerns with a Texas parent group, Texans for Special Education reform (TxSER). Porter did not like this, and Schwinn found out and approached Porter about Kash’s verbalizing her concerns.

On November 03, 2017, Porter formally reprimanded Kash for not reporting her concerns “through appropriate channels,” and Schwinn verbally reprimanded CONTINUE READING: Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering

In March 2019 and October 2019, Democracy Prep charter chain founder and former employee Seth Andrew stole a total of $218K from three Democracy Prep escrow accounts. He was able to do so because two years after leaving Democracy Prep (in 2017), Andrew still had access to his school email account and could falsely portray himself as still associated with the charter chain. Andrew also still had access to the escrow accounts because he remained listed on documentation related to those accounts. Finally, given that Andrew was able to steal funds from the third escrow account five months after he depleted the first two accounts, it is obvious that Democracy Prep officials failed to adequately monitor all of the chain’s bank accounts.

In my May 01, 2021, post on the situation, I surmised that Andrew may have believed that Democracy Prep would not competently monitor its finances, thereby causing him to believe that he could get away with the theft. Indeed, the complaint against Andrew details the passage of 14 months from the first thefts (March 2019) to the maturing of a six-month certificate of deposit (CD) that Andrew purchased using the stolen funds (May 2020).

To lock that stolen money up for six months and patiently wait for it to mature demonstrates a level of certaintly that no one would be coming for that stolen cash.

Examination of Democracy Prep’s tax forms from 2007 to 2018 shows that the charter chain struggled to manage its money and to keep a positive balance CONTINUE READING: Democracy Prep’s Fiscal Tottering | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep Enabled Its Founder to Rip It Off. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep Enabled Its Founder to Rip It Off. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Democracy Prep Enabled Its Founder to Rip It Off

On April 27, 2021, founder and former superintendent of Democracy Prep charter schools, Seth Andrew, was arrested for stealing $218K from school bank accounts. From the US Attorney’s Office press release (Southern District of New York):

Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of a complaint charging SETH ANDREW with wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a financial institution, in connection with a scheme in which ANDREW stole $218,005 from a charter school network that he founded.  ANDREW was arrested this morning in New York, New York, and will be presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “As alleged, Seth Andrew abused his position as a founder of a charter school network to steal from the very same schools he helped create.  Andrew is not only alleged to have stolen the schools’ money but also to have used the stolen funds to obtain a savings on a mortgage for a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment.  CONTINUE READING: 

Democracy Prep Enabled Its Founder to Rip It Off. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Louisiana Standardized Testing 2020-21: Maybe We Grade Your School, Maybe Not. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Louisiana Standardized Testing 2020-21: Maybe We Grade Your School, Maybe Not. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Louisiana Standardized Testing 2020-21: Maybe We Grade Your School, Maybe Not.

Standardized testing is set to commence in schools and districts across the state of Louisiana.

What does this mean regarding the now-common misuse of scores for grading teachers and schools and for student placement decisions?

Some answers can be found in two pieces of legislation passed in the Louisiana legislature’s 2020 Special Extraordinary Session (September 28, 2020 to October 23, 2020): Act 53 and Act 47. However, some of those “some answers” are better defined than others.

Below is the heart of Act 53:

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for the2020-2021 school year, the board (Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE) shall examine the results from student assessments and school-level test data but shall not use such assessments and data for purposes of evaluating teacher performance or making placement decisions for fourth and eighth grade students.

And lest anyone should miss the “shall not use assessments and data for purposes of evaluating teacher performance,” language is included specific to VAM (so-called “value-added” modeling) (and subsequently repeated in the section pertaining to charter school employees):

Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, for the 2020-2021 school year, value-added data shall not be used to evaluate teacher performance or effectiveness.

As for the grading of schools and districts using test scores from 2020-21, the CONTINUE READING: Louisiana Standardized Testing 2020-21: Maybe We Grade Your School, Maybe Not. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Thank you, Darnella Frazier. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Thank you, Darnella Frazier. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Thank you, Darnella Frazier.

After arriving home from school today, I turned on the television to learn that the jury in the Derek Chauvin trial had reached a verdict:

Guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd.

I thought of Darnella Frazier, the then-17-year-old who filmed Floyd’s death at the hands of Chauvin.

Darnella Frazier, a 17-year-old with a Smart phone doing what usually aggravates me as a teacher of high school students.

Those kids. Always on their phones. Reliant upon those phones and social media for everything.

Thank God for Darnella Frazier, who filmed a terrible incident and posted it to social media– and whose actions provided the ugly truth of those 10 minutes, placing it front and center for a country that cannot deny the video’s ugliness.

Thank God for Darnella Frazier, who helped our country make a critical, relief-laden shift toward the American Pledge of Liberty and Justice for All.

Thank you, Darnella.

Darnella Frazier

Thank you, Darnella Frazier. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Wants “Educator Stability.” It Also Wants Test Scores. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Wants “Educator Stability.” It Also Wants Test Scores. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

USDOE Wants “Educator Stability.” It Also Wants Test Scores

On April 09, 2021, the US Department of Education (USDOE) released its COVID-19 Handbook, Volume 2.

In perusing its table of contents, I noticed one section in particular: ” Supporting Educator and Staff Stability and Well-being: Stabilizing a Diverse and Qualified Educator Workforce.”

Educator stability now appears to be a focus of USDOE attention.

It took a pandemic.

For the past two decades, USDOE leadership, in concert with the two Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reauthorizations produced by Congress, have done nothing to “stabilize” the educator workforce. On the contrary, the 2001 ESEA reauthorization, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), introduced the oppressive, test-and-punish course that threatened school stability by its abuse of student test scores being used to grade schools and teachers, all in the name of accountability to the never-realistic goal of 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

In 2007, when NCLB was up for reauthorization and its 100-percent-proficiency farce looming, Congress wouldn’t touch it. However, former US secretary of education Arne Duncan used his NCLB waivers to coerce states into adopting “college and career ready” standards (that would be the controversial Common Core State Standards) and related assessments, as in his federally-funded, consortium assessments. And so the testing oppression continued. No talk of educator stability. No, no. In fact, destabilization was the name of the game. Competition, Race for the (test-idolizing) Top— and a CCSS sales job reinforcing the NCLB-enabled, hand-over-fist revenue for testing companies capable of grabbing the gold.

Meanwhile, USDOE has for years doled out charter school funding without CONTINUE READING: USDOE Wants “Educator Stability.” It Also Wants Test Scores. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Getting Ahead on Easter | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Getting Ahead on Easter | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Getting Ahead on Easter

Evangelical Christianity in the political sphere is not pretty sight.

The world has watched the hardness, harshness, and hypocrisy of self-righteousness on display in the name of some desired political end (not the least of which has been gaining and remaining in power), all of which bespeaks a lack of understanding about Jesus Himself.

I won’t pretend to address the entire off-putting issue here, but I will offer just a smidge– and a critical one, at that– of how the Jesus handled ultimate power over others– including over one of His own who He knew would within hours betray Him.

The setting is the Passover feast, which happened to be the night before Jesus would die (by His own choice; see Matthew 26: 53-54).

Here’s how John records the situation in John:13:3-5:

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

Knowing He had untlimited power, Jesus chose to serve. To serve. Not to make sure others knew how powerful He was, or to use His power to serve Himself or to unleash wrath upon His enemies. No self-gratulation; no putting an agenda CONTINUE READING: Getting Ahead on Easter | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Parents Defending Education: Prefab “Grassroots” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Parents Defending Education: Prefab “Grassroots” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Parents Defending Education: Prefab “Grassroots”

On March 30, 2021, a new ed-reform kid on the top-down block, Parents Defending Education, introduced itself to the public on Twitter as follows:

“Launch today.” That sounds very new– and very odd because this org purports to do the nonsensical– “build a grassroots army of parents.”

Grassroots is not “built” from the top down. But a new ed-reform org surely could exploit the term “grassroots” by having members in different locales so that it might engage in litigation in the name of a local, “grassroots” interest.

That is just what this come-lately ed-reform group appears to have done.

Eight days prior to announcing its “launch” on Twitter– on March 22, 2021– Parents Defending Education had already stepped into a New York education lawsuit about high school integration, positioning itself as eligible to “intervene as a defendant”— and making it sound as though the org– here identified as a nonprofit– is an established grassroots org– and therefore having a right to CONTINUE READING: Parents Defending Education: Prefab “Grassroots” | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open

New Orleans-based James Singleton Charter School has been allowed to operate for almost two decades despite its established record as academically unacceptable and being riddled with scandal.

Here we go again, compliments of WWLTV on March 26, 2021:

NEW ORLEANS — The Dryades YMCA board of directors held a tense meeting Friday and had to scramble to deal with the retirement of its longtime president and chief executive officer as state and local police looked into allegations of employees’ falsified background checks.

It was the first time the board had met since a scathing letter earlier this month from New Orleans Public Schools alleged fake employee background checks at James Singleton Charter School, a public K-8 school run by and housed in the historic Y in Central City.

The board members gave the Y’s departing president and CEO, Doug Evans, a standing ovation after he made brief comments. He spent 45 years working for one of the few formerly segregated Black YMCA’s left in the country. Evans touted his team’s work supporting and educating the Central City community, providing youth programs and teaching water safety.

But there was no avoiding the fact that his resignation comes amid scandal.

The organization’s chief financial officer, Catrina Reed, resigned Friday.

It’s unclear what led to her departure, but federal court records show she CONTINUE REAING: NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

My Pandemic Classroom | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

My Pandemic Classroom | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

My Pandemic Classroom

Due to the complications associated with living life during this pandemic, my blogging frequency has taken quite the plunge this past year. Our school district has been in session full time, in person, since September. Faculty reported to school late August. In order to adjust for a delayed school year, our district cut many of our holidays even as the school day itself became longer to keep students from congregating. Desk cleaning happens with each change of class, and conveniences such as wooden hall passes cannot be used, so that means writing a pass on paper every time a student needs the restroom. For quarantined students, there’s Google Meet happening simultaneously as class meets in person. More than once I have had my class at a standstill because a quarantined student needed extra assistance via the bumbling that can easily happen when people are trying to work out an issue without the simplicity of being together in the same physical space.

In short, I am tired. Long-term tired. However, I have also accomplished a major goal: To date, and by God’s grace, I have not missed a single day of school. My only premature exit was two hours early one Monday to bring my mother to the dentist. As of this writing, my seniors have only three weeks to go (which is both a relief and pressure to get our work done and graded).

In my classroom, I have masked; I have distanced; I have cleaned; I have made careful decisions with my personal time so that I minimized the likelihood of CONTINUE READING: My Pandemic Classroom | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: If It’s Publicly Funded, We Want to Kill It. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: If It’s Publicly Funded, We Want to Kill It. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: If It’s Publicly Funded, We Want to Kill It.

I have been reading in Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire’s excellent book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, the chapters, “Teaching Gigs” and “Education à la Carte,” which only solidify in my mind the end game of organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the likes of ALEC associates, billionaire Koch brothers, former US ed sec Betsy DeVos, and former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal:

Privatize all public entities, including schools. To the greatest degree possible, abolish professions by replacing said professionals with minimally-trained, temp workers who move from gig to gig and have no leverage in their own right (no unions, no expectation of benefits like health insurance or retirement plans).

Send the money to the top, and provide CEOs with bloated salaries and abundant perks at the expense of workers.

Package it all as favoring consumer individualism and worker freedom–

–all while encouraging those scraping-by workers to file for public assistance and telling the “empowered” public in the fine print that beyond what turns out to be a token of public money, the brunt of funding their empowerment rests with them.

Of course, the irony of this privatization push is that in destroying professions and minimally paying workers in the name of cost cutting, ultra-billionaires like the CONTINUE READING: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: If It’s Publicly Funded, We Want to Kill It. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog