CURMUDGUCATION: ID: Lt. Governor Forms Indoctrination Task Force

CURMUDGUCATION: ID: Lt. Governor Forms Indoctrination Task Force

ID: Lt. Governor Forms Indoctrination Task Force

I am not making this up.

Idaho Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin has announced the formation of a Task Force to Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education. 

You can go to an honest to God state website page where you can turn in an educator who is doing Naughty Indoctrination Things. 

“One of our primary goals with this task force is to give concerned citizens a voice regarding education in Idaho,” said Lt. Gov. McGeachin. “If you, your child, or someone close to you has information regarding problematic teachings on social justice, critical race theory, socialism, communism, or Marxism, please provide us with as much information as you are comfortable sharing.”

So if a teacher you know, or know of, or have heard about through the grapevine, or on a Facebook group, has been involved in "problematic teachings on social justice, critical race theory, socialism, communism, or Marxism," you can turn that teacher in to the state. And while the form calls for your name, McGeachin is quick to reassure the public that they can turn teachers in anonymously.

Again, I feel it necessary to point out once again that I am not making this up or exaggerating for effect (as I occasionally am wont to do). This is the official headline of the official press release from the official Lt. Governor's official office.

Idaho Lt. Governor Assembling Task Force to Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education Based on Critical Race Theory, Socialism, Communism, and Marxism

Press Release: Idaho Lt. Governor Assembling Task Force to Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education Based on Critical Race Theory, Socialism, Communism, and Marxism | Office of the Idaho Lt. Governor

In that release, the Lt. Governor notes “As I have traveled CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: ID: Lt. Governor Forms Indoctrination Task Force

CURMUDGUCATION: School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

CURMUDGUCATION: School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

When school choice advocates tout their vision for the future, it has tended to be a picture of parents soberly examining hard data about possible schools in order to select the "best" or "most fitting." But if folks are going to great education like a commodity, then it's going to be sold like toasters or breakfast cereal or panty hose. And that means--

Marketing!

There is no sector of the free market where folks just make their product and let it speak for itself. The free market does not foster superior quality; the free market fosters superior marketing. But while schools are staffed with lots of people who know education, school marketing is mostly not their thing. And so school choice ignites a burgeoning industry--the school marketing companies.

I've been getting peppered on Facebook by ads from Schola Inbound Marketing. The company is run by Ralph Cochran, a "leading national Christian school growth marketing authority." He went to college at Grove City College, a private Christian-ish school just CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: School Marketing Is A Thing-- But Not A Good One

Jeff Bryant on The Rick Smith Show: “The idea that public schools have failed us is a propaganda campaign.” | Ed Politics

Jeff Bryant on The Rick Smith Show: “The idea that public schools have failed us is a propaganda campaign.” | Ed Politics

JEFF BRYANT ON THE RICK SMITH SHOW: “THE IDEA THAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE FAILED US IS A PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN.”

“The idea that public schools have failed us is a propaganda campaign. Right now we see a lot of parents being upset at school districts and teachers, wondering why they can’t send their children back to school. The bigger problem is there’s a lack of government leadership dealing with fundamental problems of a pandemic, causing community spread that’s out of control. Until we get rid of the spike in infections, we can’t leave it up to the schools to control it.” Listen: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-xf933-f20d76

Stephen Dyer Evaluates Flawed Fordham Charter Report | Diane Ravitch's blog

Stephen Dyer Evaluates Flawed Fordham Charter Report | Diane Ravitch's blog

Stephen Dyer Evaluates Flawed Fordham Charter Report

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a report on Ohio charters, claiming that they were very successful. (TBF is a rightwing organization that supports charters and vouchers.) The Columbus Dispatch wrote that the report demonstrated that charter schools in Ohio are more successful than the state’s public schools. But Stephen Dyer reviewed the report and concluded that its findings are based on cherrypicking schools and manipulating data. In fact, he writes, Ohio’s charter sector continues to be low-performing compared to the state’s public schools, whose students lose funding to charters. The state has recently taken almost $900 million annually from its public schools to pay for a mediocre charter sector.

Dyer is a former state legislator who has written often about the charter industry. He is now Director of Government Relations, Communications and Marketing at the Ohio Education Association. (I served on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation/Institute from 1998-2009).

He writes:

Fordham Strikes Again

Cherry picking schools; manipulating data; grasping at straws

Look, the Fordham Institute has been improving lately, calling for more charter school oversight and talking a good game. But I guess sometimes old habits die hard, and in Ohio – the cradle of the for-profit charter school CONTINUE READING: Stephen Dyer Evaluates Flawed Fordham Charter Report | Diane Ravitch's blog

Choosing Democracy: The Sacramento Bee Misinforms About School Budgets

Choosing Democracy: The Sacramento Bee Misinforms About School Budgets

The Sacramento Bee Misinforms About School Budgets

Marcos Bretón today in the BEE,  describes what he thinks are the facts of   the SCUSD budget. Most of the data  are cut and paste from prior articles he wrote. , The title is deceptive.  It is not factual.

SCUSD is not going broke,  SCUSD  has  a $93 million surplus at the end of this year,

And, they claim they will spend $100 million on books and supplies.

They  usually spend  $ 10 million.  

I don't know if he wrote the headline.

This is irresponsible reporting.   The Bee supports the School Board incumbents. But, at least they  should accurately report on  the budget. 

California itself has a major  problem of underfunding of schools. They have been doing so since 1988.  This is on the ballot as Prop. 15.  See the Prop 15 video below. http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2020/10/what-is-prop-15-explained.html

The Sacramento  funding crisis is not in teachers’ salaries, or health benefits.

California under funds its schools  and that produces large classes- the largest in the nation. We have few counselors and  almost no school nurses. Lets talk about the real issue of California school funding,  

Choosing Democracy: The Sacramento Bee Misinforms About School Budgets

CURMUDGUCATION: Information Sources: Don't Quit Your Day Job

CURMUDGUCATION: Information Sources: Don't Quit Your Day Job

Information Sources: Don't Quit Your Day Job

The New York Times just announced another "project" to be embedded within the paper and funded by philanthropic types. It's not a new model; the Gates Foundation has been funding journalism "projects" for a while. This piece by Tim Schwab at the Columbia Journalism Review lays out in depressing detail just how large the Bill Gates Underwritten Journalism Industry actually is (freakin' huge). This kind of funding model reflects how hard times for "journalism" has affected the tilt of what you and I get to read.

Blame the internet, at least in part, because of its prodigious grasping hunger for content. If you want to keep your site in the game, you've got to be rolling out new content several times daily. And that content has to come from somewhere, and there has to be a lot of it, and it has to be cheap.

The old Huffington Post model was a prime example of what can happen next. You may recall that I used to write for HuffPost. So did a lot of other people. It paid exactly $0.00; more accurately, it paid in eyeballs. Sometimes it paid handsomely; this piece may be the most-viewed thing I've ever written.

What we've got is an information ecosystem in which people can't afford to be writers. Nobody who does journalism for a living is making a particularly great living

And what that means, in turn, is that we have an information ecosystem in which many of the CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Information Sources: Don't Quit Your Day Job

DeVos out of sight even as her signature school issue gets top billing at RNC - POLITICO

DeVos out of sight even as her signature school issue gets top billing at RNC - POLITICO

DeVos out of sight even as her signature school issue gets top billing at RNC
The Education secretary didn’t even get a role in a convention video montage about the role of female leaders in the Trump administration.

School choice is finally getting prime-time attention as President Donald Trump makes the issue a focal point of his reelection bid, appealing to parents clamoring for an alternative to neighborhood public schools during the pandemic.

But the policy issue’s biggest cheerleader, his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has been kept out of that spotlight.

DeVos isn’t so much as getting a cameo during the Republican National Convention this week, even as the president builds his second-term ambitions around the cause DeVos has championed for the past 30 years. The billionaire's public image is synonymous with “education freedom” or “school choice,” political shorthand for using government money or tax credits to help pay for kids to attend private schools, home instruction or other programs instead of their regular public school. It also encompasses charter schools, public schools that are independently run.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions about why DeVos was excluded from the lineup. From the secretary's own team, Education Department spokesperson Angela Morabito said DeVos "has never sought the spotlight" and is instead "focused on doing what’s best for students, and making sure they have a voice in the debate."

Among the core fan club for school choice, DeVos is still a star. In the eyes of Democratic political strategists, she has long been seen as the perfect villain to help drum up dissent against the president. So the polarizing secretary is not CONTINUE READING: DeVos out of sight even as her signature school issue gets top billing at RNC - POLITICO

Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings

 Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings

Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings

DETROIT — As public schools grapple with the challenge of reopening during a pandemic, public education advocates are criticizing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for working remotely from Michigan, where she owns a sprawling waterfront estate with a round-the-clock security detail paid for by taxpayers.

And while keeping herself largely physically distanced as the coronavirus continues to spread, DeVos has been a forceful advocate for President Donald Trump's demand that schools reopen in full and in person — potentially placing millions of teachers and students at risk of infection.

It's a striking bit of mixed messaging for DeVos, a billionaire heiress, major GOP donor and charter school advocate who had no experience with public education before she became education secretary. DeVos is the nation's top education official as school administrators deal with one the biggest health crises facing the nation: how to safely bring 51 million American children back into classrooms or administer virtual education during a pandemic

Questions persist as to why DeVos requires full-time protection from the U.S. Marshals Service, which NBC News reported she began receiving shortly after she was confirmed — the only Cabinet official with such an arrangement. In all, her security detail has cost taxpayers at least $25 million, NBC News has learned.

The Marshals Service wouldn't comment on the arrangement or any specific security threat DeVos faces.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Rather than actively offer guidelines to public schools as they struggle with the immense financial and logistical challenges of reopening, DeVos told the Washington Examiner in June that she was working mostly remotely from Michigan, her home state — CONTINUE READING:  Betsy DeVos publicly absent as critical decisions are made on public school reopenings

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Screaming into a pillow, Florida, Covid-19 edition

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Screaming into a pillow, Florida, Covid-19 edition

Screaming into a pillow, Florida, Covid-19 edition

the revelation that Governor DeSantis said on one hand schools could close at the direction of their health departments and on the other told those health departments not to help, I spent more than a few minutes screaming into a pillow. His politicization of health is unacceptable and should be an impeachable offense, but it also should be a jailable one as well.

From the Palm Beach Post,

“It’s not up to the health department to say a yes or a no,” the governor said.

As Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed this summer for schools to reopen, state leaders told school boards they would need Health Department approval if they wanted to keep classrooms closed.

Then they instructed health directors not to give it.

Following a directive from DeSantis’ administration, county health directors across Florida refused to give school boards advice about one of the most wrenching public health decisions in modern history: whether to CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: Screaming into a pillow, Florida, Covid-19 edition

How Los Angeles and San Diego Unified Started Driving State Education Policy — Voice of San Diego

How Los Angeles and San Diego Unified Started Driving State Education Policy — Voice of San Diego
How Los Angeles and San Diego Unified Started Driving State Education Policy
The moment was ripe for a novel statewide organizing approach. Coronavirus had upended schooling and many important questions, beyond even money, would have to be answered over the course of the pandemic.

Back in May, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a new draft of his budget, based on the bleak financial outlook caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. California’s rosy fiscal position had evaporated in a matter of weeks and it was time for the bad news: Schools would take the biggest hit.

Newsom said he was left with no choice but to cut $7 billion from education. It was one of the biggest single year drops in funding ever proposed. Education leaders immediately compared it to the devastating austerity of the Great Recession.

At the time, the state’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego Unified, had been cultivating a partnership for weeks. And even though they had different purposes in mind for the new alliance, the moment of Newsom’s cuts was going to be a big moment for them.

“In the last recession, the entire education establishment rolled over,” said Richard Barrera, vice president of the San Diego Unified school board. “These big cuts were coming and everyone in Sacramento capitulated. Most districts were just waiting to be told, ‘Here are your guidelines. Here’s what you have to spend.’”

Barrera, a union organizer by trade, believed school districts should at the very least fight back against Newsom’s budget. Within days, Los Angeles and San Diego Unified wrote a letter saying they wouldn’t be able to physically reopen campuses if Newsom’s cuts went through. Other big districts signed onto the letter. School leaders pushed their local legislative delegations to CONTINUE READING: How Los Angeles and San Diego Unified Started Driving State Education Policy — Voice of San Diego

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican

Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God

By Thomas Ultican 7/8/2020

The US is not ready to open schools. We blew it. Let’s face reality squarely and quit making outcomes in our country even worse.

New York’s Michael Flanagan Ed. D. wrote,

“The pressure to reopen schools, and return to work, will continue to intensify, no matter how many new cases of Covid-19 there are each day, and the numbers are growing. Businesses, politicians and even health professionals are in the process of trying to convince us that sending our kids back to school will be safe.”

As if to prove Flanagan’s claim, Harvard’s “Education Next” published a Frederick Hess interview with Jeb Bush where he repeatedly emphasized,

“First and foremost, schools have to open with the health and safety of our students and teachers being paramount. But they have to open, or we will have huge economic, health, and social challenges.”

Not to be outdone by “low energy Jeb”, the President of the United States employed his normal elegance when tweeting,

“Schools in our country should be opened ASAP. Much very good information now available.”

Republican Congressmen, Jim Banks of Indiana and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, CONTINUE READING: Don’t Sacrifice Teachers and Students to a Neoliberal God | tultican

NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

Chalkbeat wrote a long piece about the education budget. I was planning to read the whole thing, but had to stop. actually sent a message to a Chalkbeat reporter over this passage:

There is a freeze on new hires within the education department, but schools will be able to hire from the Absent Teacher Reserve, a controversial pool of educators who remain on the city payroll but do not have permanent positions because they face disciplinary action, or because their schools closed or lost enrollment. 

Here's the message I sent the reporter:

Shouldn't "face" be in past tense? Anyone facing disciplinary action is usually reassigned, but never to the ATR.

I got no response. Evidently Chalkbeat has no issue trashing working teachers who don't belong to E4E or work in Moskowitz Academies. They are "a controversial pool of educators." What the hell does that mean? It doesn't sound particularly good to me. Would you want to invite a controversial pool of educators over to your house for spaghetti? I wouldn't.

There are several ways to get into the ATR. One is to have your school closed. The staff is scattered to the four winds until and unless they find jobs. It's hard for them to do that, because publications like Chalkbeat stereotype them, and have been doing so for years. I recall an article there where some teacher or other said she and her principal were horrified at their quality. And that, my friends, is a stereotype. It may or may not have been true what the young teacher and her principal saw, but it in no way represents the CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

Mike Klonsky's Blog: KIPP's rebranding

Mike Klonsky's Blog: KIPP's rebranding

KIPP's rebranding

A little more than a decade ago, teacher union organizers in the midst of an organizing drive at a KIPP charter school in Brooklyn, used KIPP's slogan, "Work hard. Be Nice" against the school's anti-union leaders. They launched a national campaign urging KIPP teachers everywhere to get organized under the slogan of "Be Nice."

Now, feeling the impact of the continuing Black Lives Matter protests, as well as criticisms of sexual abuse and racism coming from within their own ranks, KIPP, one of the first "no excuses" charters, has announced they are dumping the slogan altogether. The move is in many ways, comparable to the name changes being considered under pressure, by Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians and the NFL's Washington Red***ns. It could easily fall under the heading: Giving up a little to hold on to a lot.

But whether the superficial rebranding will mean an end to KIPP's abusive discipline practices remains to be seen. For example, they have so far failed to adequately address the allegations of sexual harassment and assault of girls of color by one of their founders, Mike Feinberg which CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: KIPP's rebranding

CURMUDGUCATION: Baradaran: The Neoliberal Looting of America

CURMUDGUCATION: Baradaran: The Neoliberal Looting of America

Baradaran: The Neoliberal Looting of America

Mehrsa Baradaran, who wrote The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap (a properly self-explanatory title), had a great piece this week in the New York Times-- not directly about education, but involving many points that folks in the education world will recognize. "The Neoliberal Looting of America" is behind the usual paywall, and if you have means to get past it, I recommend that you do. If not, here are a few key points.

Baradaran traces the history and growth of neoliberalism's "ideological coup" that transformed our society, rising out of post-war concerns about them damn commies, rising through the sixties, until

By the 1980s, neoliberalism was triumphant in policy, leading to tax cuts, deregulation and privatization of public functions including schools, pensions and infrastructure.

Ronald Reagan aimed to unleash "the magic of the marketplace," and "neoliberalism led to deregulation in every sector, a winner-take-all, debt-fueled market and a growing cultural acceptance of purely profit-driven corporate managers." The rise of private equity firms have squeezed every last drop out of some businesses (see Toys R Us, J Crew, Hertz, etc). And while Baradaran notes that 2019 was the best year yet for the Captains of finance, she also notes that CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Baradaran: The Neoliberal Looting of America

Burger Chef and Dan Died on the Same Day | Dissident Voice

Burger Chef and Dan Died on the Same Day | Dissident Voice

Burger Chef and Dan Died on the Same Day

If you’re like most 16 year old males, there’s a better than average chance that the suit inventory in your wardrobe consists of a total of one. And by suit I mean the matching sport coat and pants that was purchased on clearance from a discount warehouse that has as much chance of staying in business as a groundhog attempting to take up tenure on the 18th hole of Torrey Pines. It’s the periodic skeleton in the closet that rears its head primarily during weddings you don’t care about, shows its face annually to celebrate the birth of Jesus at the church you otherwise never attend and the threads that make an intermittent appearance at whateverthefuck anniversary or birthday you’re required to participate in. Not to mention the occasional unanticipated funeral.

We’ll get back to the suit momentarily.

While growing up in the Midwest, a significant part of my weekly caloric intake came from Burger Chef. For those unfamiliar with it, Burger Chef was a fast food restaurant chain that originated in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1954. It rapidly expanded throughout the United States and at its peak in 1973 approached 1,200 locations, challenging McDonald’s for artery-clogging supremacy. It was a mostly now-forgotten pioneer on many levels, patenting the first flame broiler that is now standard throughout the industry. But perhaps the most lasting and ingenious element that Burger Chef introduced to the fast food marketplace was an understanding that its success was primarily predicated on its ability to market specifically to children. They initially introduced a couple of mascots: Burger Chef (who looked sort of like everyone’s creepy uncle) and his sidekick Jeff (who looked like the kid everyone beat up on in high school). They were also the first fast food concept to introduce a meal specifically targeted at kids – the Burger Chef Funmeal (five years before McDonald’s would copy the idea with their own Happy Meal). The Funmeal included a small hamburger, fries, dessert and a drink that came in a colorful box containing puzzles, riddles, stories and toys. No one had ever seen the likes of this sort of culinary miracle before, and not a week went by that Burger Chef didn’t coerce a portion of my father’s paycheck from him just to get me off his back.

Back to the suit.

Mine was a shade of brown that when worn made me look like a turd that had escaped the toilet pre-flush and had – through some genetic malfeasance – CONTINUE READING: Burger Chef and Dan Died on the Same Day | Dissident Voice

How Racism Gets Taught and Misrepresented in Our Schools | Dissident Voice

How Racism Gets Taught and Misrepresented in Our Schools | Dissident Voice

How Racism Gets Taught and Misrepresented in Our Schools
Teaching It Forward

The not-so-subtle purpose of compulsory schooling is to ensure a populace subservient to the status quo which primarily serves the ruling class. What we call education is derived from a Prussian model designed to reward individuals based on how well they stay in line and do as they’re told through the process of grading. It’s no mystery that those who conform the most by repeating verbatim the state-controlled curriculum they’re force fed receive the highest marks and are thus given the greatest opportunities for societal advancement. By discouraging individual thought and creativity while instead placing a premium on conformity, the powers that be ensures obedience instead of dissent from the people most likely to rise up against it. By controlling what is taught and holding educators responsible for their student’s test results, the ultimate goal of mass indoctrination is all but assured.

It’s this sort of forced institutionalization that has not only enabled but encouraged the racism that has plagued this country since the inception of government-mandated schooling. And there is no greater evidence of this than a brief perusal of a couple of the mostly southern school textbooks that were used to teach bigotry to young minds in the 1950s and 1960s.

An entire generation of Baby Boomers learned Alabama history from a textbook called Know Alabama. In a chapter called Plantation Life, fourth graders learned how living on a plantation was “one of the happiest ways of life.” The 1957 edition encouraged students to imagine themselves on their CONTINUE READING: How Racism Gets Taught and Misrepresented in Our Schools | Dissident Voice

Paul Horton: Why Study History? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Paul Horton: Why Study History? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Paul Horton: Why Study History?

I invited Paul Horton, a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, to write on the topic, “Why study history?” He wrote this essay.

Betsy Devos’ War on History is Just Another Trip to Fantasyland

Without history we are lost. Without history we are disconnected, thrown into limitless space and time that has no ground or purpose. Learning history is central to learning individual identity and how that individual identity fits into a larger picture or purpose.

Up until the “age of mechanical reproduction,” to use Walter Benjamin’s phrase, history was passed from generation to generation in the form of face to face storytelling. The griot, the elder, or grandma and grandpa, wove meaning into the telling of family and human history. The storyteller wove the individual, family, and human stories together into a fabric or pattern of meaning, into a place and a purpose. The teleology of the individual became a part of a fabric of a larger human story that had beginning and ending points with a purpose.

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as storytelling has been largely lost in an endless sea of competing CONTINUE READING: Paul Horton: Why Study History? | Diane Ravitch's blog