CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Vindictive GOP Cuts Education Just Because

CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Vindictive GOP Cuts Education Just Because:

NC: Vindictive GOP Cuts Education Just Because

This is now two-week old news, but I swear-- in the current climate, somebody can murder a nun with his bare hands in front of a bus full of young orphans, and the outrage will die down in less than twelve hours (or be replaced by the outrage over a new awfulness). I almost passed on this story, thinking it was past time to comment on it.

It's only two weeks old, and that makes it moldy and stale-- except that the outrage over this should be endless. I mean, God bless the people who keep a steady count of the number of days the people of Flint have gone without clean water, because leaders in Michigan poisoned an entire city and the country was in an uproar, and then-- squirrel!!

I imagine these days a politician who intends to do something terrible, even if he understands that a lot of people will call it terrible, figures that after twenty-four hours of anguished tweeting and blogging and the sharing thereof, everyone will just move on, and all the politicians have to do is run out the clock.

Maybe democracy got lost in those hills somewhere

So if you ask me how the GOP of North Carolina keeps doing terrible things, I'm betting that's part of the explanation. "Don't worry boys," someone days in a back room. "In about two days the fuss will blow over and our newest plan will still be in place."

So two weeks back, Senate Republicans got testy about the length of budget debate, so they called a recess after midnight, and came back at 3 AM with, among other things, an amendment to combat the opioids crisis.

What they didn't mention was that the million dollar program would be funded by cutting the CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Vindictive GOP Cuts Education Just Because:

CURMUDGUCATION: What Do Charter Schools Solve

CURMUDGUCATION: What Do Charter Schools Solve:

What Do Charter Schools Solve

The challenge-- the problem to be solved-- for public education is fairly simple: How do we provide a solid education for every child in the United States for a politically sustainable cost? (I wish the last part of the challenge wasn't there, but let's face it-- it's not like education is, say, a war in Afghanistan for which politicians are willing to write a blank check).

The challenge is not easily met, and in many places, in many ways, public schools have not fully succeeded. From entrenched racism, to the effects of poverty, to denial of necessary resources, to "failures" that are manufactured or imposed on schools, to widespread and hard-to-budge inequity, public schools are sometimes hampered by larger issues, and sometimes are part of the problem.

Public schools are not perfect. In many cases, their problems have been exaggerated or created out of whole cloth (Oh nos! Low PARRC scores!!!). But public schools are definitely not perfect.

I don't know any public school advocates who won't acknowledge that, despite being labeled as intractable flat-earth defenders of the status quo. But charter advocates often fall back on a style of argument roughly outlined as "There are HUGE problems here, therefor we must use our CURMUDGUCATION: What Do Charter Schools Solve:

From Boom Boxes to Writing Panther History: Our Collective Soundtrack -- The Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

From Boom Boxes to Writing Panther History: Our Collective Soundtrack -- The Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project | NewBlackMan (in Exile):

From Boom Boxes to Writing Panther History: Our Collective Soundtrack -- The Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project

From Boom Boxes to Writing Panther History: Our Collective Soundtrack

by the Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project | @mfphillips ‏| NewBlackMan (in Exile)

In July 2016, Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Mary Phillips, Tracye Matthews and Robyn C. Spencer, four historians working on the Black Panthers, created the Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project.  As we collaborated on how to center women, gender and sexuality in Panther history, it became clear how much of our own scholarship reflected not just shared understandings of politics, activism and the academia, but an overlapping aural soundscape. Our generation of Black Power scholars often came of age in cities where the Black Panther Party’s (BPP) roots ran deep despite the devastation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counterintelligence Program. As children of the hip hop, R&B and reggae explosion of the 70s and beyond, music was a lens, a crucible, a muse, and a catalyst. From Detroit, to Brooklyn, to New Orleans, our girlhood flowered and floundered in soil nourished by similar beats, riddims and rhymes. This is our sonic autobiography.

Our political consciousness pulsed to a deeply gendered beat. Early rappers like Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Ms. Melody, Monie Love, J. J. Fad and M.C. Lyte represented the strong, powerful voices of young women taking control of their own lives. At a time when Black women struggled to emerge from the shadow of the dominant “black men as endangered species” discourse and when the music industry was male-dominated, these artists fought back against their invisibility by putting in the work and creating their own following. That following included us. As young women, we plumbed this music for ourselves, our voices, experiences and stories. 

These musicians showed us that young Black women could have a strong message of independence and have a major impact From Boom Boxes to Writing Panther History: Our Collective Soundtrack -- The Intersectional Black Panther Party History Project | NewBlackMan (in Exile):

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION

Slate Series Unmasks Cyber School

33by Peter Greene / 1d

Slate, for whatever reason, teamed up this week with Columbia Journalism School's Teacher Project, to take a look at on line education. Much of their work is focused on on line courses as a means of credit recovery-- the quick-and-easy method of letting students replace credits for courses they failed. But the series tells us a great deal about what on line "education" is really like-- and it is n

PA: Report Shows Charter Financial Impact

23by Peter Greene / 1d

Pennsylvania's Legislative Budget and Finance Committee has released a report looking at " Public [sic] Charter Schools Fiscal Impact on School Districts. " The findings of the joint committee underscore what many have already been saying-- charter schools, particularly in a badly regulated state like Pennsylvania, are hurting public schools. The report is 105 pages long, so I'm going to be focusi

MAY 24

DeVos Still Anti-Accountability

33by Peter Greene / 2d

As she's spent time in the public eye this week, Betsy DeVos may have enraged, but she hasn't surprised. She continues to be what we always thought she was-- and that includes her attitude about accountability. She's against it. Here's a critical CNN clip from today's hearings: . @RepKClark to Sec. DeVos: “I am shocked that you cannot come up with one example of discrimination that you would stand

Charters and Open Books

23by Peter Greene / 2d

My school district's board of directors held their regular meeting two days ago and passed a tentative budget for the coming year. I could link you to the newspaper report of the meeting, but it's behind a paywall. So let me just copy out the two important paragraphs: Now that the tentative budget has been approved, members of the general public have an opportunity to review and/or comment on the

MAY 23

Dear Jeb Bush:

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

Today you put in an appearance at Betsy DeVos's American Federation for Children, a group very much in tune with your goals in education. I can see why you and DeVos have always gotten along-- wealthy children of privilege who feel a righteous need to remake your home state according to your own beliefs in competition and battle and a system that sorts people into their proper places. Reporter Mat

Religious Voucher Schools

44by Peter Greene / 3d

Like everyone else in the education universe, I was talking vouchers on line, and in the midst of a conversation, this tweet popped up: @palan57 @PCunningham57 @educationgadfly @shavarjeffries @matt_barnum @Chalkbeat @jasonscrye Peter, what do you have against letting poor families choose religious schools? — Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) May 23, 2017 Remember that question, because it's go

MAY 22

Education's Existential Crisis

38by Peter Greene / 4d

No, it's not the possibility that Betsy DeVos's DeVoucher program may gut public education with the goal of replacing it with privatized school by and for the People Who Matter. Nor is it the policy goal held by some that the whole concept of "school" can be replaced with an array of modules geared to different competencies that can be accessed and completed on line at the time and place of the st

MAY 21

NYT: Value Not Added

21by Peter Greene / 6d

Our old friend Kevin Carey popped up in the New York Times this week , using the death of William Sanders as a case to soft-pedal VAM. The article has some interesting points to make about VAM, and it also unintentionally reveals some of the reasons that Value-Added Measuring of teacher performance is a fool's game. Carey is the education policy program director for the New America Foundation . NA

ICYMI: I'm More Grown Up Edition (5/21)

7by Peter Greene / 6d

Yesterday was my birthday, but I wouldn't forget to give you your Sunday reading list. Remember-- if you like it, pass it on. A Tour of Stock Photo Academy The British blog Othmar's Trombone takes us on a tour of Stock Photo Academy, and it's just so special. This is your fun and games reading assignment for the week. My Response to the NYT Google Article A reply from Morna McDermott to the Times'

MAY 20

My 16 Rules

62by Peter Greene / 7d

Today I turn sixty, so it's time form one of those posts. These are the rules. Mind you, they are not a sign of any particular wisdom or smartitude on my part-- I have learned about these rules in the same way a somewhat dim cow learns 

 CURMUDGUCATION:

Jersey Jazzman: The Facts About Charter School Finances in Camden, NJ

Jersey Jazzman: The Facts About Charter School Finances in Camden, NJ:

The Facts About Charter School Finances in Camden, NJ

Here's Part I of my U-Ark series.

Here's Part II.


This post really should be called "U-Ark Screws Up A Charter School Revenue Study, AGAIN: Part III," as it is a follow-up to my last two posts about how the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform messed up its latest study of charter school revenues. I'm retitling it, however, because I think the facts I present below have significance beyond critiquing U-Ark's report.

As I showed, U-Ark's claim that Camden's charter sector is receiving far less funding than the city's public schools is completely bogus (and this almost certainly applies to the other cities in their study). They double count revenues going to charter schools without attributing them to those schools' students. They don't understand that since the district has the responsibility for transporting charter students, revenues allotted for that purpose shouldn't be attributed to the district.

I'd go on about the many other methodological failures in the study, but Bruce Baker covered them when he reviewed U-Ark's report from 2014. Amazingly, U-Ark cites Baker in their latest report -- but then goes back and makes the same mistakes. Which wouldn't be so bad if the study was being ignored and wasn't influencing policy makers; unfortunately, it appears stakeholders are heeding the study's conclusions.

This, by the way, is a huge problem in education policy journalism right now: reporters will often trumpet a "new study" that knowledgable critics haven't had time to properly vet. Even if it's a piece of junk, it still gets attention; at best, the critics are given a "he said-she said" positioning that leads stakeholders to believe that even if the study has problems, it's probably still making at least a somewhat valid point.

Let's use Camden's charters and the U-Ark study as an example of why this is such a Jersey Jazzman: The Facts About Charter School Finances in Camden, NJ:

Dear Phineas | Bill Ayers

Dear Phineas | Bill Ayers:

Dear Phineas

Dear Phineas:

Your letter finally reached me here in Chicago.

Thank you for writing.

Sounds like your eighth-grade research project is generating a lot of important thinking and insights.

People often confuse pacifism with non-violent direct action or civil disobedience.

Pacifism is a philosophy and a guide to living, and there’s much to admire about it. It asks us to look deeply and reverently at all of life, to respect the humanity of each person we encounter, to love everyone including proximate strangers and folks we’ll never know, and to seek balance and peace in relation to one another and all living things and the earth itself. That’s a pretty good start, don’t you think? We look to pacifists like Mahatma Gandhi  with a bit of awe.

But it’s only a start for finding your way through a vast and complicated history, and as a total world view, pacifism has its limits, as does every other belief system (religious or secular) when carried to its orthodox extreme. Gandhi, for example, urged Britain in 1940 to lay down its arms, to stop fighting Hitler, arguing that British resistance would be morally superior if the British people allowed themselves to be overrun by Hitler and yet  maintained their refusal of allegiance to evil. And in 1946—after the Holocaust and the millions of innocent lives thrown into the furnaces of war—he answered a question few pacifists ever want to face: What about the Jews of Europe? Gandhi answered forthrightly: the Jews of Europe Dear Phineas | Bill Ayers:

East Hartford School Community Refutes DeVos - Courant Community

East Hartford School Community Refutes DeVos - Courant Community:

East Hartford School Community Refutes DeVos

The U.S. education secretary's recent recounting of the dismal education experience of a former East Hartford student aroused angry responses from the school community Friday and prompted the governor to schedule a press conference.

"Betsy DeVos is using the East Hartford public school system as a political playground for her own agenda!" parent Tia Woods wrote in an email to The Courant.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is to hold a press conference on Tuesday at East Hartford High School, in part to respond to comments DeVos delivered Wednesday to a House subcommittee, the governor's office said.

Speaking in support of President Donald Trump's proposed budget, DeVos told of a recent meeting with a young man who labeled East Hartford High School "nothing more than adult day care ... a dangerous day care." Michael — no last name — described a school where misbehaving students made teaching impossible. DeVos said the man's story illustrates the need for expanded access to quality education, particularly for poor and minority students.

Parents of current and former students and East Hartford High graduates, however, responded that Michael's story was not theirs. After receiving her high school diploma in 2003, Juliana Schatz Preston said she graduated from Northeastern University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The 2003 class president said she is now an Emmy- and Peabody-award winning documentary filmmaker.

"I love my hometown," Preston said, "and this portrayal of our schools feels libelous."

School Superintendent Nathan Quesnel said he has fielded dozens of calls and emails from people outraged about the education secretary's unfair portrayal. Quesnel forwarded a message from a local graduate, Christina Quentel, who wrote that she had just graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, part of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Praising her East Hartford teachers, Quentel wrote, "there is no me without you."

DeVos said Michael told of being constantly bullied, afraid to even go to the lavatory, "and the constant fear made him hate school." He limped along, she said, failing his classes but graduating anyway. Quesnel, who was not working in East Hartford schools in 2000, acknowledged continuing challenges in improving students' behavior.

"We're working hard to break the cycle of failure and poverty that oftentimes plagues East Hartford School Community Refutes DeVos - Courant Community: