Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm finds his strongest support coming from the right

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm finds his strongest support coming from the right:

Rahm finds his strongest support coming from the right

by Mike Klonsky

The Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools group marches to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office at City Hall on Monday to present a letter from Chicago Public Schools students asking him not to close their schools. | Al Podgorski~Sun-Times

Once again, the mayor is finding his strongest support coming from right-wing, anti-tax, anti-union conservatives. The far-right National Review dotes on Rahm and his school closings and blasts CTU prez Karen Lewis for her "overheated rhetoric." Oh the horror -- she called him the "murder mayor" since the city's murder rate jumped 40% in his first year and his policies include the mass murder of city health and mental clinics as well as schools.

But while the squeamish gentlemen at NR may take offense at Lewis' hard-hitting metaphors, her rhetoric seems mild compared to what I am hearing from her base in the schools and in the neighborhoods. If anyone (NR 

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-26-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Republican Legislator in Louisiana Wants Elected State Superintendent

by dianerav

This is funny. Bobby Jindal and John White have ruled the state education system with an iron hand since Jindal won control of the state board of education. They have pushed vouchers and charters on the theory that parents need “choice” and the public schools should have no priority.
Now a Republican legislator has proposed that the voters should choose their state superintendent.
Let’s see how Jindal and White feel about that choice.

Less than Half Our Schools Have a Full-Time Nurse

by dianerav

Matt Di Carlo examines the latest data about the availability of school nurses, and it is disturbing.
For many children, the school nurse is the only medical care they will get.
Only 41% of schools have a RN on staff.
The data are none too new. They are from 2006, before the economic collapse. Very likely, the number with full-time nurses is even less now.
Now here is a job for the Gates Foundation. Place a Gates nurse in every school in every low-income district. That will raise test scores even more than MET or VAM.

Indiana Court Endorses Vouchers

by dianerav

The first organization out of the box to salute today’s Indiana court decision endorsing vouchers is the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, which exists to support vouchers.
As you learned in an earlier post today, vouchers in Sweden have been concurrent with growing social stratification (in the U.S., we would call it growing segregation by race and class), lower test scores on international assessments since 1995, and growing profits for vendors of educational services.
So if vouchers spread, we can expect resegregation of U.S. schools, even worse than what already exists; we can expect public funds to flow to church schools that teach creationism; we can expect growing inequality; and

Parent: The Inside Story of Venice High School

by dianerav

I have tried to stay informed about what was happening to Venice High School in Los Angeles.
It was confusing.
The community, with no notice, was offered a choice: take Steve Barr’s pilot school or you will get a charter school. Remember Barr, the founder of the Green Do charters, an entrepreneur, not an educator.
Who was making the 

What Happened at Venice High School

by dianerav

LA Times reporter Teresa Watanabe gives a good accounting of what happened at Venice High School in Los Angeles.
The LAUSD board approved an “incubator school” to teach middle school students how to start their own business. How cool is that!?
However, the Venice community–parents and students–reacted negatively and the business school for pre-teens may have to go elsewhere.
Ah, innovation. What will they think of next? Day trading in kindergarten?

Just Look at Malloy Nominee for State Board of Education

by dianerav

Jonathan Pelto reminds us of the national publicity about a homeless woman who was arrested and fined for the crime of enrolling her child in the Norwalk public schools when she was not a resident of that city in Connecticut.
Now Governor Dannell Malloy has nominated a woman to the state board of education even though she was in the same dispute with the Windsor schools a decade ago. But it is okay for her because she is not an indigent woman. In fact, she is the Chief Operations Officer for FUSE/Jumoke, the charter school management company that operates Jumoke Academy.
That makes a big difference.

Who Owns Your Child’s Data?

by dianerav

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in New York City has prepared the following report about threats to the privacy of children, families, and teachers.
She reports as follows:
“The Gates Foundation and Wireless Generation (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) have formed something called “Shared Learning Collaborative,” which has now been turned into a new corporation called 

Mother Crusader: How Cerf Picked Charter Operator for Cmden

by dianerav

Darcie Cimarusti–aka Mother Crusader–has become a scourge to the New Jersey State Education Department. She has taught herself to be a sleuth. And she has mastered the Open Public Records Act to dig for information and connect the dots.
This post is a good example of a parent doing the job of an investigative journalist.
She tracks down the emails between State Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf and an old friend from Edison days who now runs charter schools.
She learns how the state decided to award the friend a grant of $150,000 to plan a charter or cluster of charters

Vouchers in Sweden: Scores Fall, Inequality Grows

by dianerav

Professor Henry M. Levin is a distinguished economist and director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
He recently participated in a conference in Sweden convened by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to review the evidence about the effects of vouchers, which were initiated in 1992. He learned that Swedish performance on international tests has declined since 1995, private school enrollments have grown, social stratification has increased, and the for-profit sector is thriving.
He wrote this post specifically for the blog. It provides important information about the effects of vouchers. We 

Mass Protest Rally in Chicago

by dianerav

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a mass protest rally on Wednesday. The schools closings in Chicago are the largest in American history. Never has any district closed so many schools at the same time. Only since the passage of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top has the public been told that school closings are “reform.” They are not. They are an abandonment of responsibility by those at the top.

Network for Public Education Deplores Mass Closings in Chicago

by dianerav

The Network for Public Education has released a statement condemning the Rahm Emanuel administration for the outrageous school closings in Chicago.
Parents, teachers, administrators, and concerned citizens must speak up and act out against this horrendous and arrogant action by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

My Debate with Chas Roemer in Baton Rouge

by dianerav

I was invited to debate a state leader in Baton Rouge on March 14. The leader who accepted was Chas Roemer, president of theBoard of Elementary and Secondary Education. Chas is a strong supporter of Governor Bobby Jindal’s “reforms” of massive privatization through vouchers nd charters and outsourcing students and taxpayer to for-profit corporations.
Chas was educated at Harvard. His father was governor. His sister runs the state charter school association.
Each of us was allotted 15 minutes, followed by Q&A.
Here are the videos.
I thought it was fun.

EduShyster: The Minnsanity of School Reform

by dianerav

You must read EduShyster’s description of “reform” in Minneapolis, which she calls “Minnsanity.” Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.
Is there a method in their madness? Do they have any evidence for what they are doing? If it fails and fails, and they do the same thing over and over, what do you call it?
Stories like these convince me that the unrealistic claims of reformers can’t go on forever. At some point, the

Diane in the Evening 3-25-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: An Astonishing Revelation by dianerav I earlier posted about the decision by Governor Christie to take control of the public schools of Camden, New Jersey. The state has controlled three other districts without “fixing” them. What will be different now? Or in those three other districts still under state control. This teacher in Florida knows what should be done: “I did my student teaching at woodrow wilson high school in camden, nj. those kids don’t need “a government” to The Chalkface Interviews Karen Lewis ... more »

UPDATE:Further adventures in Bizarro World + A tale of two unions + The in box. | Fred Klonsky

The in box. Only five Democrats in the Illinois House believe in the Constitution. | Fred Klonsky:

Further adventures in Bizarro World.

by Fred Klonsky

I will now present further evidence that we in Illinois live in Bizarro World.
Bizarro World – where everything is the opposite of what it should be.
Take Greg Hinz Crain’s column as exhibit A.

Look at what’s been happening in Springfield on the crucial issue of pension reform. This is a Republican issue if I’ve ever seen one. If you can’t count on the GOP to be the party of fiscal propriety, what can you count on? Yet the temptation to bash Democrats—and curry favor with teachers unions—has been too great to unify the party.

Thus, even though House GOP Leader Tom Cross and Senate Leader Chris Radogno have been pushing for serious cutbacks in pension benefits, no fewer 

A tale of two unions.

by Fred Klonsky

Al Ramirez and Tammy Vinson submit CORE nominating petitions.
Yesterday representatives of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators submitted 5,000 signatures that placed the names of current CTU President Karen Lewis and her CORE colleagues on the ballot for re-election in about a month.
Her opposition, currently invisible in the fight against school closings, represents the group that was ousted by CORE in the last election.
The nominating petitions had five times the number of signatures required. They are nearly 20% of the CTU membership.
Tomorrow we will see why the current Chicago teacher union leadership has support that is deep and wide.
Thousands of teachers, students, parents and people from every neighborhood will fill the Daley Center across from City Hall and march to 125 Clark Street, the headquarters of the CPS board of education.
Our message: Every Chicago public school is our school. Support public schools. Don’t close them.
Barricades have already been erected.
As they demonstrated last Spring during the teachers’ strike, these are 

The in box. Only five Democrats in the Illinois House believe in the Constitution.

by Fred Klonsky

From Glen Brown’s blog:
Illinois Legislators to thank for upholding the State and U.S. Constitutions.

These 16 Senators did NOT vote yes on SB 1 and SB 35:

Jason Barickman (R) (217-782-6597, Bloomington: 309-661-2788)

Tim Bivins (R) (217-782-0180, Dixon: 815-284-0045)

James Clayborne (D) (217-782-5399, East St. Louis: 618-875-1212)

William Delgado (D) (217-782-5652, Chicago: 773-292-0202)

Gary Forby (D) (217-782-5509, Benton: 618-439-2504)

Michael Frerichs (D) (217-782-2507, Champaign: 217-355-5252)

Linda Holmes (D) (217-782-0422, Aurora: 630-801-8985)

Kimberly Lightford (D) (217-782-8505)

David Luechtefeld (R) (217-782-8137, Okawville: 618-243-9014)

Andy Manar (D) (217-782-0228, Staunton: 618-635-2583)

Wm. Sam McCann (R) (217-782-8206, Jacksonville: 217-245-0050)

Kyle McCarter (R) (217-782-5755, Vandalia: 618-283-3000)

Dale Righter (R) (217-782-6674, Mattoon: 217-235-6033)

Chapin Rose (R) (217-558-1006, Champaign: 217-607-1853)
Martin Sandoval (D) (217-782-5304, Cicero: 708-656-2002)

John Sullivan (D) (217-782-2479, Quincy: 217-222-2295)

These 15 Representatives did NOT vote yes on 1154 (to cap current teachers’ pensionable salary), 1165 (to freeze and reduce the COLA for current teachers and retirees), and 1166 (to raise the current teachers’ retirement age). Apparently, there are only five democrats who are not controlled by Michael Madigan:

Mike Bost (R) (217-782-0387, Carbondale: 618-457-5787)

Dan Brady (R) (217-782-1118, Normal: 309-662-1100)

Rich Brauer (R) (217-782-0053, Springfield)

Adam Brown (R) (217-782-8398, Champaign: 217-607-5104)

Jerry Costello (D) (217-782-1018, Red Bud: 618-282-7284)

Norine Hammond (R) (217-782-0416, Macomb: 309-836-2707)

Chad Hays (R) (217-782-4811, Danville: 217-477-0104)

Naomi Jakobsson (D) (217-558-1009, Champaign: 217-373-5000)

Bill Mitchell (R) (217-782-8163, Decatur: 217-876-1968)
Donald Moffitt (R) (217-782-8032, Galesburg: 309-343-8000)

Brandon Phelps (D) (217-782-5131, Harrisburg: 618-253-4189)

Raymond Poe (R) (217-782-0044, Springfield)
Wayne Rosenthal (R) (217-782-8071, Litchfield: 217-324-5200)
These 16 Senators did NOT vote yes on SB 1 and SB 35:

Jason Barickman (R) (217-782-6597, Bloomington: 309-661-2788)

Tim Bivins (R) (217-782-0180, Dixon: 815-284-0045)

James Clayborne (D) (217-782-5399, East St. Louis: 618-875-1212)

William Delgado (D) (217-782-5652, Chicago: 773-292-0202)

Gary Forby (D) (217-782-5509, Benton: 618-439-2504)

Michael Frerichs (D) (217-782-2507, Champaign: 217-355-5252)

Linda Holmes (D) (217-782-0422, Aurora: 630-801-8985)

Kimberly Lightford (D) (217-782-8505)

David Luechtefeld (R) (217-782-8137, Okawville: 618-243-9014)

Andy Manar (D) (217-782-0228, Staunton: 618-635-2583)

Wm. Sam McCann (R) (217-782-8206, Jacksonville: 217-245-0050)

Kyle McCarter (R) (217-782-5755, Vandalia: 618-283-3000)

Dale Righter (R) (217-782-6674, Mattoon: 217-235-6033)

Chapin Rose (R) (217-558-1006, Champaign: 217-607-1853)
Martin Sandoval (D) (217-782-5304, Cicero: 708-656-2002)

John Sullivan (D) (217-782-2479, Quincy: 217-222-2295)

These 15 Representatives did NOT vote yes on 1154 (to cap current teachers’ pensionable salary), 1165 (to freeze and reduce the COLA for current teachers and retirees), and 1166 (to raise the current teachers’ retirement age). Apparently, there are only five democrats who are not controlled by Michael Madigan:

Mike Bost (R) (217-782-0387, Carbondale: 618-457-5787)

Dan Brady (R) (217-782-1118, Normal: 309-662-1100)

Rich Brauer (R) (217-782-0053, Springfield)

Adam Brown (R) (217-782-8398, Champaign: 217-607-5104)

Jerry Costello (D) (217-782-1018, Red Bud: 618-282-7284)

Norine Hammond (R) (217-782-0416, Macomb: 309-836-2707)

Chad Hays (R) (217-782-4811, Danville: 217-477-0104)

Naomi Jakobsson (D) (217-558-1009, Champaign: 217-373-5000)

Bill Mitchell (R) (217-782-8163, Decatur: 217-876-1968)
Donald Moffitt (R) (217-782-8032, Galesburg: 309-343-8000)

Brandon Phelps (D) (217-782-5131, Harrisburg: 618-253-4189)

Raymond Poe (R) (217-782-0044, Springfield)
Wayne Rosenthal (R) (217-782-8071, Litchfield: 217-324-5200)
Sue Scherer (D) (217-524-0353, Decatur: 217-877-9636)
Mike Smiddy (D) 217-782-3992, Port Byron: 309-848-9098)

How Illinois Senators Voted on SB 1 (Passed the Senate 3/20: only affects current TRS participants and no other systems or TRS retirees; includes choice system between health care and Cost of Living Adjustments).

How Illinois Senators Voted on SB 35 (Failed in Senate 3/20: changes retirement age and only applies COLA to first $25k of pensionable salary (Nekritz/Biss bill). 

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1154 (Passed the House 3/14: caps pensionable salary at Social Security Index ($113,700 in 2013).

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1166 (Passed the House 3/14: raises retirement age for pension system participants under the age of 45). 

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1165 (Passed the House 3/21: freezes COLA until five years after retirement or age 67. After reaching a pensionable salary, a flat annual increase of $750 would be granted to annuitants; affects both current teachers and retirees).

Sue Scherer (D) (217-524-0353, Decatur: 217-877-9636)
Mike Smiddy (D) 217-782-3992, Port Byron: 309-848-9098)

How Illinois Senators Voted on SB 1 (Passed the Senate 3/20: only affects current TRS participants and no other systems or TRS retirees; includes choice system between health care and Cost of Living Adjustments).

How Illinois Senators Voted on SB 35 (Failed in Senate 3/20: changes retirement age and only applies COLA to first $25k of pensionable salary (Nekritz/Biss bill). 

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1154 (Passed the House 3/14: caps pensionable salary at Social Security Index ($113,700 in 2013).

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1166 (Passed the House 3/14: raises retirement age for pension system participants under the age of 45). 

How Illinois Representatives Voted on HB 1165 (Passed the House 3/21: freezes COLA until five years after retirement or age 67. After reaching a pensionable salary, a flat annual increase of $750 would be granted to annuitants; affects both current teachers and retirees).

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System… by Chris Hedges | Teacher Reality

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System… by Chris Hedges | Teacher Reality:

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System… by Chris Hedges

by TeacherReality

This is an amazing piece by Chris Hedges that puts all of this destructive education reform into perspective…
Original post on Truthdig.com…http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410/
Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System
By Chris Hedges
A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.
Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King.

Great insight, by writer Chris Hedges, on current #edreform…

by TeacherReality

“Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers—those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential—and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point. The No Child Left Behind program, modeled on the “Texas Miracle,” is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. But when you shut out debate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.”

Daily Kos: Cuccinelli compared slavery to abortion in 2008

Daily Kos: Cuccinelli compared slavery to abortion in 2008:

Cuccinelli compared slavery to abortion in 2008

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

The Washington Examiner is a conservative DC area paper, owned by right-wing billionaire Philip Anschutz,  that this coming June will stop its daily print run and be replaced by a weekly magazine.  That makes this story all the more delicious.   The context of the story is that Democrats in Virginia have been pushing out a video taken by a tracker at a small small gathering of religious conservatives in Williamsburg, VA, in which the Virginia Attorney General and putative Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia equated abortion and slavery, as you can read in this AP story at Salon

The Examiner story's 2nd paragraph reads

The outspoken conservative and candidate for governor made an almost identical statement in a 2008 "Cuccinelli Compass," a regular letter he writes to supports to supporters, The Washington Examiner has learned. In it, Cuccinelli reviews a biography on British abolitionist William Wilberforce and draws a connection between Wilberforce's fight against slavery to his own efforts in the Virginia Senate to curb abortions in the state.

The story also offers Cuccinelli's defense of those remarks:

For his part, Cuccinelli defended the remark last weekend during a campaign stop in Yorktown."If you go back to my remarks, I talked about a series of things in history -- I was talking to a Christian group -- and the common theme there was it was Christians who fought these tragedies 

Can't We Pay Our Best Teachers More? - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Can't We Pay Our Best Teachers More? - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Can't We Pay Our Best Teachers More?

by Deborah Meier

Eric Hanushek files his final blog post with Deborah Meier today.
Dear Deborah,
Since we have already entered into a number of sensitive areas, we might as well go all the way and discuss salaries. I am always struck by two competing arguments—frequently made by the same people—that teachers are not motivated by money and that a major problem with American schools is that the salaries are too low to attract top people in teaching. On the surface, these arguments seem to be inconsistent, and perhaps we can try to sort through them.
To frame the discussion, let me state clearly at the outset that I personally believe that our best teachers are woefully underpaid—that we are taking advantage of the personal motivations by this group of highly effective teachers to do a crucially important job. The simple economic story is that our best teachers generate economic 

Louisiana Educator: OWN Reality Show Reveals Charter Secrets

Louisiana Educator: OWN Reality Show Reveals Charter Secrets:

OWN Reality Show Reveals Charter Secrets

by Michael Deshotels

The Oprah Winfrey Network reality show, Blackboard Wars, filmed at John McDonogh Hi School in New Orleans this school year reveals some rather shocking details about how charter schools operate in Louisiana. State Board president, Chas Roemer has often bragged that charter operators have the freedom to operate their schools without the usual bothersome red tape required of traditional schools. But we were always told that charters must comply with basic accountability and school reporting rules. Apparently they are exempt from much more than we were led to believe.

John White and his Recovery School District administrators are always quite anxious to attract “quality” charter school operators to take over any low performing school that has been designated as 'failing" by the state accountability system. This low achieving category includes all of the direct run RSD (Recovery School District) schools. So John White and Patrick Dobard (Superintendent of RSD) were just thrilled when Steve Barr who runs the highly touted Green Dot charter system in Los Angeles agreed to take over John McDonogh High 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core Costs $22 Million in One Alabama District

Missouri Education Watchdog: Common Core Costs $22 Million in One Alabama District:

Common Core Costs $22 Million in One Alabama District

by stlgretchen

Pearson is really cleaning up in the Huntsville, Alabama school district.  From The Report Card andPearson $22 Million Contract With Huntsville AL Schools Exposed:

Editor: The Report Card has published a series of articles pro and con about on the Common Core K-12 Standard now required in 46 states. Diane Ravtich, and Sandra Stotsky well known educational reformers have come out against the Common Core saying. Dr. Stotsky has asserted that the CCS will drive up costs and lower literary and educational standards. Paul Horton, history teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory School has documented that Pearson, a $9 Billion publishing giant and CCS supplier has engaged in influence peddling. Diane Ravitch said: Pearson is overstepping the bounds of the role of a profit-making business. The corporation is acting as a quasi-government agency in several 

Budget cuts create unprecedented stress on community colleges | EdSource Today

Budget cuts create unprecedented stress on community colleges | EdSource Today:

Budget cuts create unprecedented stress on community colleges - by John Fensterwald

by John Fensterwald

A decline of 24 percent in per-student funding over five years has led to a record decline in access to community colleges and has jeopardized the services to those students who are enrolled, an extensive study by the Public Policy Institute of California concluded.

Between 2006-07 and 2011-12, total revenue per student (in FTES or full-time equivalent, since most students attend part-time) fell from $6,700 to $5,100. Source: Impact of Budget Cuts on the California Community Colleges. (Click to enlarge)

Even though there are more potential students who should be served by community colleges, “funding shortfalls throughout the community college system have led to significant reductions in staff, considerably fewer course offerings, and severely restricted enrollment,” write the researchers of “Impact of Budget Cuts on the California Community Colleges,” which was released on Monday.

Although, the state’s 112 community colleges were protected more than four-year universities from cuts as a percentage of their budgets, they are more dependent on state revenue because fees