Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

 Some of the post may seem familiar as I wrote most of it last year. I am just going to update it every time a new IDEA scandal hits the news.

IDEA Public Schools CEO JoAnn Gama and Chief Operating Officer Irma Munoz have been fired after a forensic review found “substantial evidence” that top leaders misused money and staff at the state’s largest charter school network for personal gain, the organization’s board president announced Tuesday.  

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/IDEA-Public-Schools-fires-CEO-chief-operating-16202852.php

Jacksonville needs another charter school like the average person needs another hole in their head and I think most people would agree. That however isn't going to stop DCPS from approving a massive expansion at their next board meeting. Here is the thing, the state despite the Florida constitution saying the school board is the final say doesn't give them a lot of leeway, but that being said wouldn't you like a little fight out of the board?

The IDEA charter school wants to open, and this is just a start, three new charter schools. You may have CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

Education Matters: DeSantis goes after tech and teachers

Education Matters: DeSantis goes after tech and teachers

DeSantis goes after tech and teachers

 Ron DeSantis went after big tech today, signing a bill that will fine them if they deplatform politicians who violate their standards and conditions, i.e., lie and insight violence. Juxtapose this next to what he said the other day when he said he would go after teachers who dared to tell the truth about the systemic racism that has pervaded our history. Welcome to Florida, where only what the ruling party says matters, whether it is true or not.   

At his press conference, he said...

Khomeini Died in 1989, long before Twitter and Facebook even existed, and the reason Trump was Deplatformed was because of his constant lies and him instigating violence. More specifically, he was kicked off Twitter and Facebook, private businesses, because he violates their terms and conditions. 

As bad as this is, it's made worse because DeSantis and his little boot have said they plan to stifle teachers' free speech. 

From Flagler Live:

A proposed rule that will be weighed by the State Board of Education aims to control the way history is taugh CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DeSantis goes after tech and teachers

Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers + The Florida GOP Taliban

Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

"You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

Teachers cannot be trusted, and don’t take my word for it, take Commissioner Corcoran's 

Little boot Corcoran said of the 185 thousand teachers in Florida’s public schools; none of them can be trusted (see the video above). They have to be continually policed to make sure they aren’t sneaking on crazy liberal stuff. The book publishers can’t be trusted either because, like teachers, they will try and sneak stuff in.

Sadly he is the warped one out to indoctrinate kids, but since up is down in Florida, he thinks he is the hero. 

The commissioner has proposed a rule that will prevent teachers from having opinions during school hours, and it will pass too because the state board of education, a board as unqualified as Corcoran, is just as radicalized.  

From First Coast News, 

 Separating fact from opinion in teaching is what Florida's education commissioner says he wants to do with CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

The Florida GOP Taliban

Florida has a recipe for disaster. Add one part gerrymandering, one part far-right dogma, and a heaping pile of intolerance and sexism to Florida, and we get a state where the zealots at the top impose their will on all those beneath them. The Taliban didn't become the Taliban overnight, they evolved into it, and if we open our eyes, we can see disturbing parallels in the GOP in Florida.

Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis pairing with the far-right Hillsdale College plans to rewrite our civics curriculum including a liberal amount of God and the Ten commandments while completely avoiding the issue of race. DeSantis says to anyone who will listen that kids are being taught to hate our country in our schools. Corcoran practically bragged how he rigged the book-buying process to eliminate crazy liberal stuff and how teachers have to be constantly replaced. Neither has considered that it is their ideas and actions which are driving people away from them.  

Speaking of actions, this past session saw an anti-trans bill that called for the inspecting of children's genitalia pass the house. Now the final bill wasn't quite as onerous, but at the end of the day, it was a solution without a problem designed to marginalize and attack an already marginalized group. Unfortunately, the GOP in Florida sent a loud and clear message to our LGBTQ community and that's they are second-class citizens who can be excluded from everyday life.  

Then look what has happened in St. Johns county as 80 girls at a high school had their yearbook photos altered because the powers that be determined they were too revealing. The thing is they weren't, but they, CONTINUE READING: The Florida GOP Taliban

Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

 Where not a lawyer, it seems to me Amy Donofrio is going to own the district as she sues it into oblivion. Corcoran tells the Times Union he had Greene remove her from the classroom. While the district sticks with her, she is under investigation (for what) story. 

I spoke with a school board member on Sunday, and they said it was absurd that Corcoran was telling people he had her removed though it sure seems like the right hand, the super is keeping the left hand, the board, in the dark.

  

So just like that, the commissioner says jump, and our super asks how high, though I guess we shouldn't be CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicity

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicty

At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicity

Orange County has made its position known and I would love to know DCPS's. Or do they think like senator Stargel, that being gay is a choice?

At some point, silence becomes complicity and DCPS is silent about a lot of things.

Education Matters: At some point DCPS's silence about the bullying of Trans children becomes complicty

Education Matters: Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Education Matters: Education Commisioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

More incredible work from Accountabalony:

but I didn’t think to say “okay and keep all of the crazy liberal stuff out” and so now we literally have them, and they hide it in “social emotional learning” so it doesn’t SAY “Critical Race Theory” but you could definitely have a teacher who teaches Critical Race Theory so now we have to go back and say, if it’s electronic, we want it out and, on top of that, we’re passing a rule this coming month that says, for the 185,000 teachers, you can’t indoctrinate students with stuff that’s not based on our standards, the new B.E.S.T. standards…

But you have to police it on a daily basis, it’s 185,000 teachers in a classroom with anywhere from 18-25 kids and it you’re not physically there in the classroom. I will tell you it’s working in the universities and it’s starting to work in… I’ve censored or fired or terminated numerous teachers for doing that. I’m getting sued right now in Duval County … because it was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter… we made sure she was terminated and now we’re being sued by every one of the liberal left groups for “freedom of speech” issues and I say to them …

https://accountabaloney.com/index.php/2021/05/16/the-war-will-be-won-in-education/?fbclid=IwAR29qet_44RnTlB54YL9dHRqvf-vkNC63DNcJhw9KfCm7Qac8KabweW95E4

We made sure she was fired. Where does Corcoran end and Greene begin?

If you read the piece you will realize he has no idea what Donofrio teaches or what grade for that matter, but he took great joy in saying he had her fired. 

Look you have to read the entire piece and then listen to the video.

More on this later.

Education Matters: Education Commisioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired

Education Matters: Greene ignores CDC guidelines, continues to put people in jeopardy + What base is Green playing to?

Education Matters: Greene ignores CDC guidelines, continues to put people in jeopardy

Greene ignores CDC guidelines, continues to put people in jeopardy

First, let me say I am over masks. I am over wearing them, I am over telling kids to wear them, and I want nothing more than for them to be in the rear window of history. That being said, I will continue to wear them; you see, I don't know most of the people out there and don't trust the ones I don't know to do the right thing, and Jacksonville's vaccination stats, that say only a little over a third of the city (41 percent over 18) is vaccinated, despite there being plenty of supply has borne that out. Even though the CDC says going maskless to large evens is ill advisable and that Jacksonville is still at substantial risk, Greene has said @&%$ it and made masks optional for graduation ceremonies.

 What the CDC says about large gatherings, including graduations.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/large-gatherings

Here are Florida and Jacksonville's vaccination numbers.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view

It's like we have run a race and decided to stop when  CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Greene ignores CDC guidelines, continues to put people in jeopardy

What base is Green playing to? It certainly isn't public education

If you are over sixteen and haven't got vaccinated yet, that's a choice you have made. Greene has now made masks optional for graduation ceremonies. Does this decision support people who believe in vaccinations and masks or those that don't?

The change the name ordeal has gone on for nearly a year, racists and deniers have come out of the woodwork over and over again. Robert. E. Lee is an option to change the name of Robert E. Lee too. Has this process benefitted the people who want the names of those schools to change or those who want to live in a time when children of color were second-class citizens?

Jeb Bush is the man responsible for most of the school reforms of the last two decades, A-F school grades, privatization, high stakes testing, and blame the teacher evaluations, or you know the things that pro-public education people are against. So when Green joins Bush's Cheifs-of Change, is she telling the people who CONTINUE READING: What base is Green playing to? It certainly isn't public education

Education Matters: The district's actions, speak louder than their words... and a pin.

Education Matters: The district's actions, speak louder than their words... and a pin.

The district's actions, speak louder than their words... and a pin

During teacher appreciation week, DCPS had their faculty meet and watch a video where Greene thanked them for their hard work. The schools, I imagine at the behest of the district, then gave newer teachers blankets and senior teachers pins with years of service broken into five-year increments.

Some of my colleagues, people I respect and appreciate, were quite taken with the gesture. I do not want to diminish how they felt, but I think teachers are worth more than this tiny gesture, and I think it is safe to say more than a few teachers were insulted.   

The district has had numerous chances to show they appreciate teachers all year long, and they passed at every opportunity.

If the district truly appreciated teachers, you would have thought they would have wanted to keep them safe, but all year long, teachers risked their health and worse, because of the woeful contact tracing and the lack of social distancing, which never occurred.

When the state passed its terrible teacher raise bill, which will actually see many veteran teachers lose CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: The district's actions, speak louder than their words... and a pin.

Education Matters: If Greene said being gay was a choice and they were going to burn in hell people would flip their lids. However when other education leaders say it, it gets barely a blip.

Education Matters: If Greene said being gay was a choice and they were going to burn in hell people would flip their lids. However when other education leaders say it, it gets barely a blip.

If Greene said being gay was a choice and they were going to burn in hell people would flip their lids. However when other education leaders say it, it gets barely a blip.

 Senator Kelli Stargel when pushing the transphobic sports bill across the finishing line said being gay was a choice and received zero backlash for her remarks. Erika Donalds among a heap of other bat sh*t crazy remarks said gay people don't have to burn in hell, it's a choice, and DCPS rewarded her with a second charter school. How is this acceptable?

She later apologized, sort of. 

I am not sure if she was admitting she was wrong or chastising people who kind of agreed with her witch, monster bigot comment. CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: If Greene said being gay was a choice and they were going to burn in hell people would flip their lids. However when other education leaders say it, it gets barely a blip.

Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

For teacher appreciation week and more on that later, the district handed out pins with years of service in 5-year increments on them. This is my 20th year as a teacher, and yet I received a 15 yer pin. You would think it wouldn't matter so much, but it was really a reminder of how little the district appreciates teachers, especially veteran ones.

In 2010, superintendent Pratt Dannals declared a financial emergency, and the district skipped giving step raises; the district did the same thing this past year for the entire district but then later and again for veteran teachers gave them out and called them raises. 

In 2010 it was later discovered the district had something like 186 million in reserves when the financial emergency was declared, and Pratt Dannals was eventually fired. You would have thought the step raises would have been reinstated, but you would think wrong.

Back then, the step raises weren't all that great, but if you were around year 15 or sixteen, you got the big CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Why a 20 year teacher got a 15 year pin

Education Matters: DCPS approves charter with racist and anti-LGBTQ ties

Education Matters: DCPS approves charter with racist and anti-LGBTQ ties

DCPS approves charter with racist and anti-LGBTQ ties

 I sent below to the school board after seeing their plans to approve a second classical charter school. I knew it was going to pass, to fight back against what is wrong takes courage, and as we have seen all year long, the board lacks it, but I had hoped for some toke resistance, but apparently thinking racism doesn't exist and gay people are going to burn in hell doesn't move the needle for our school board.

  I have grave concerns about the expansion of the Classical Charter school. 

They get their curriculum from the Hillsdale Barney Charter school initiative. 

https://www.jaxclassical.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=424057&type=d 

Hillsdale is a small far-right liberal arts college out of Michigan, and recently they have sent out a series of mailers to locals.   

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Imprimis_Mar_3-21_6pgNM.pdf 

 

They espouse some pretty radical theories where they basically say racism is a made-up tool to divide society so the radical left can seize power. 

 

For as long as I can remember, the right has accused public schools of trying to indoctrinate kids; well, friends, this seems like some straight-up far-right indoctrination on their part. 

 

Furthermore, last year, Hillsdale sent out a Facebook poll asking how afraid of socialism people were; I kid a little, but the answers were basically really scared, and really #$@%ing scared, 

 

https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2020/02/troubling-details-about-jaxs-new.html 

 

How can we be sure that far-right indoctrination isn’t going on? Then, however, it gets worse. 

 

If you wanted to contact the classical charter school, the link takes you to the Optima Foundation.  CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DCPS approves charter with racist and anti-LGBTQ ties

Education Matters: DCPS's testing shenanigans

Education Matters: DCPS's testing shenanigans

DCPS's testing shenanigans

A lot of schools are doing a new testing regimen. In years past, an entire class would test all at once, but now higher achievers are testing first and lower performers sometime after. My initial thought was the district is trying to pull a fast one. The district knows kids talk, so the thought is maybe some could pass on some info to their peers, that and teachers just want to be helpful too. Now I don't see any teacher saying the answer to 26 is C, but if they see a subject on the test that could be covered a little more before the lower performing group took the test, that would be okay too. That's what I initially thought anyways.

Then somebody pointed out that it was being done so the lower performing kids could get more instruction. I can rationalize that, okay, sure why not. The district isn't some evil despot with plots within plots but maybe not so fast.

However, now I am learning that many of the "lower kids" aren't getting extra instruction because their teachers are proctoring the tests. A friend at the district pointed some more things out to me the district probably hasn't considered because "it seems like they look at every kid like they are dollar signs and test scores" instead of, well, instead of them being kids.  

Isn't it going to be a kick in the pants when some kids realize they are the lower performers as they take the tests after their peers? Many of these kids experience test weariness; that is, there are diminishing returns CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DCPS's testing shenanigans

Education Matters: DCPS approves charter schools hand over fist, other districts fight back.

Education Matters: DCPS approves charter schools hand over fist, other districts fight back.

DCPS approves charter schools hand over fist, other districts fight back

This should be all you need to know. DCPS approved a charter school right across the street from an A-rated school. They approve charter schools all the time in areas of town that don't need them; District 7 Lori Hershey's district, Mandarin has more charter schools than any other part of the city. Schools doing great; no problem, let's put a charter in their neighborhood. Schools are underutilized; that's cool; let's put charter schools there too. Out superintendent and board approve them, like that, and not supporting the district's public schools is their job. 

Charter schools were supposed to be teacher-parent laboratories of change that, if successful, were to be replicated in public schools. They were supposed to be innovative and work with public school systems. But, unfortunately, that's not what we have in Florida and Jacksonville in particular.  Here it's all about the money, and since the referendum turned Jacksonville into a cookie jar for charters, the money is flowing like water into the pockets of charters, and we can expect a lot more to open up in the next few years. 

It doesn't have to be this way; districts could fight back.

From Tallahaseee.com,

 After a lengthy debate, the Leon County School Board denied a new charter school's application during CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: DCPS approves charter schools hand over fist, other districts fight back.

Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

The city has been tearing itself apart for a year now as DCPS fails the city once again by not quickly changing the names of schools named after confederate generals. Instead of doing both the easy and right thing, DCPS has engaged in a year-long odyssey. Another school district faced with the exact same issue did things much quicker and better.    

From the USA Today, 

The eleventh-largest school district in the U.S. has renamed a high school formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School after civil rights icon John Lewis.

The school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, voted Thursday to rename the school after the congressman, who died this month. The new name, John R. Lewis High School, takes effect this school year.

Representative Tamara Derenak Kaufax, a Fairfax County school board member, proposed a resolution to remove the Confederate general's name from the school in Springfield, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., in February.

Several board members cheered when the unanimous vote was announced.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/23/john-lewis-new-name-fairfax-virginia-robert-e-lee-high-school/5498267002/

Here is a little more from the Patch,

In February, the school board voted to start the renaming process and seek public feedback. However, that CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

DCPS has set up a system where people can vote to change the name of Lee High School, but Robert E. Lee can still get the most votes. This is failure a failure in leadership and it would not surprise me if it was by design.   

I wish I could vote to change the names of all the schools, as a citizen of Jacksonville it is an embarrassment that in 2021, we have any schools named after slavers and traitors let alone six. Furthermore, four of the six schools are minority-majority too which means most of the children that attend them attend schools named after somebody who thought they were subhuman. 

The process that DCPS has set up has been a slog. I guess they have never heard of just ripping the band-aid off and instead went with the slow painful way, a way that has seen racists emboldened, teachers doxed and a community unnecessarily divided.     

All of this could have been avoided had the district had any sense of urgency but of course, they had none. 

When the district decided to go on this arduous journey, who exactly was it for? It was not for the CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

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

Education Matters: Republicans create solutions where there weren't any problems: go after trans children and teacher's unions.

Education Matters: Republicans create solutions where there weren't any problems: go after trans children and teacher's unions.

Republicans create solutions where there weren't any problems: go after trans children and teacher's unions.

 In this session, the Republicans in the Florida Legislature have found one solution after another for problems that don't exist. Still, in doing so, they have caused problems, hardships, and grief. Last week they went after Trans children, and this week they are going after teacher's unions.

Last week the Florida House passed HB 1475, dubbed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, and it passed 77-40, with all but one Democrat voting against it. This is a solution without a problem, as the Orlando Sentinel reported only a handful of trans children have played high school sports in Florida. Furthermore, when asked the bill's sponsor, Kaylee Tuck couldn't point to where this was a problem in Florida.

So what's the Florida Legislatures' solution? It is to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports and to inspect children's genitalia should there be any doubt. Let me say that again. The Florida legislature has passed a bill that calls for the inspection of children's genitalia. Whether they play sports or not, our most vulnerable children have heard loud and clear that they are not worthy.

Then this week, a little closer to home Cord Byrd's anti-teacher union bill comes up for a vote. The bill would CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Republicans create solutions where there weren't any problems: go after trans children and teacher's unions.

Education Matters: DCPS's @#&$ teachers attitude continues daily - https://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2021/04/dcpss-teachers-attitude-continues-daily.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/iYxgC+(Education+Matters)

Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a premier social justice organization that has fought against white supremacists, anti-semites, Islamaphobes, and all manner of malcontents on the wrong side of decency. Well, friends, you can now add Duval County Public Schools to that list. 

They have even represented Florida's public schools in their fight for fair funding, a lawsuit I testified in. It is manifestly disappointing that DCPS is on the opposite side of them. Disappointing but sadly not unexpected.  

From the Southern Poverty Law Center:

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the private employment law firm Scott • Wagner and Associates filed suit in federal court today on behalf of a Florida high school teacher who was removed from her classroom and reassigned to administrative duties in retaliation for displaying a Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag over the objection of school administrators.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, claims that officials at Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) violated her First Amendment rights and other constitutional and statutory protections because of her advocacy on behalf of Black students.

Amy Donofrio is a white teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, a school where about 70% of CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children

The Florida House came up with a solution without a problem, which includes girls' genitals being inspected by a stranger. The GOP just said to children, want to play a sport? Then be ready to show your privates.

The Florida GOP, a gerrymandered bunch, isn't about solving problems or making things better; it's about exercising its power to gin up its base. The state is so gerrymandered to assure them victory that they don't need to, which just makes their latest effort to punch trans children, for checks notes, being trans children is based on sure meanness.  

From First Coast News,

 Florida lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would ban transgender girls from participating in women's sports.

HB 1475 passed the House by a 77-40 vote.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, is dubbed the “Fairness In Women’s Sports Act.” It would make participation in athletics contingent on determining a student’s “biological sex.” If a student- CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Florida GOP bullies its most vulnerable children