Lawmakers Desire to Destroy MPS | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog

Lawmakers Desire to Destroy MPS | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

Lawmakers Desire to Destroy MPS

Filed under: MPS Takeover,Wisc Budget Bill — millerlf @ 12:21 pm 

HALL MONITOR — Lawmakers deal MPS deathblow

By Jay Bullock June 1, 2015 Bayview Compass
See blog at: http://bayviewcompass.com/category/hall-monitor/

After Wisconsin’s Joint Finance Committee finished its late-night work on education funding last month, I posted this line from Shakespeare to Facebook, spoken by Romeo’s friend Mercutio, “Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world.”

Mercutio has just been stabbed and he staggers offstage to die a few lines later.

It was, I thought, the only fitting response to the committee’s votes—and here I do not exaggerate—to bankrupt the Milwaukee Public Schools if its plan works as designed.

The JFC’s education policy hacks and slashes at MPS and public schools around the state, via a massive expansion of statewide private school vouchers, tight limits on how MPS deals with empty (or partly empty) school buildings, and even meddling in how some school boards are constituted.

But the deathblow is a plan to take schools from MPS and give them—buildings, contents, and students (but not the teachers!)—to voucher school operators or charter school programs. The plan would take up to three schools a year in the first two years, and up to five schools a year after that.

It’s the loss of funds from those students that will do the real damage. All of us in MPS, from Superintendent Darienne Driver to folks like me in classrooms, know that it won’t take much of a fiscal hit to send us into a spiral of default and dissolution. Driver who told a local TV program that MPS wouldn’t survive thisLawmakers Desire to Destroy MPS | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

Who Is Representing the Citizens of Milwaukee in the Bucks Arena Negotiations?

Filed under: Bice,Milwaukee Arena — millerlf @ 12:10 pm 

Franklyn Gimbel calls Bucks arena negotiations ‘uncivilized’

MJ Sentinel Bice 6/11/15
The head of the Wisconsin Center District has attacked those working on a deal to build a new $500 million arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, saying the talks were too secretive and “uncivilized.”

Franklyn Gimbel, chairman of the district, said he was particularly upset that he has yet to be informed about the details of the plan even though it would require the district to borrow heavily, take on new responsibilities and restructure its board.

Gimbel would be ousted as board chairman under the proposal.

“I’m very unhappy with how this financing bill was handled because it wasn’t transparent,” Gimbel said Friday. “Stakeholders like the Wisconsin Center District weren’t at the table. Decisions were made about them that were uncivilized.”

Last week, Gov. Scott Walker and other top officials unveiled the details of their plan to provide $250 million in public financing for the new arena.

The plan calls for the Wisconsin Center District to sell $93 million in zero-coupon bonds that would be repaid with income from the hotel, car rental and food and beverage 

Who Is Representing the Citizens of Milwaukee in the Bucks Arena Negotiations?

Wisconsin Rapids Principal Schools Legislature on Qualified Teaching

Filed under: Educational Practices,Teaching,Wisc Budget Bill — millerlf @ 12:02 pm 

Education: An endeavor to help build better lives

By Matt Renwick June 6, 2015
There are lots of occupations out there that do not demand a bachelor’s degree, including governor of Wisconsin. But teaching shouldn’t be one of them.

I was a classroom teacher for eight years, and now a school principal for just as long. Teaching is an incredibly complex and challenging craft. In my estimation, it takes at least three years of classroom experience beyond completed college experience for a teacher to become very good at his or her work. The foundational learning that occurs in undergraduate courses and during student teaching is essential. It is also only the beginning. Teaching truly is a profession that one learns as one does it, and the learning never ends.

Recently, I observed a teacher facilitate a math lesson on arrays (rows and columns of tiles to convey an equation or to form a shape). An uneducated bystander without the requisite background knowledge to understand teaching and learning would observe this lesson and probably think it was fine.

But that bystander would have no idea why. With a highly trained eye, here is what I saw:
■The intent of the lesson was clearly stated in writing, verbally and visually.
■The teacher kept the students active, allowing them to get up every 10 minutes or so between activities. This is pedagogically sound (How many people without a degree in education 

Wisconsin Rapids Principal Schools Legislature on Qualified Teaching

Voucher Leader Jim Bender Once Again Exemplifies Double Standard

Filed under: Vouchers,Wisc Budget Bill — millerlf @ 11:52 am 

In today’s MJS article on pushback to attacks on public education, Jim Bender a leader of School Choice Wisconsin (# 1 voucher industry organization in Wisconsin), said that superintendents statewide are “lobbying using state and local resources.” (See article at http://tinyurl.com/q42sq44)

This is the same voucher industry that has filled the halls of the Wisconsin state capital with bus loads of students to lobby for public funds to go to private schools. This was done on school days during school hours.

If Jim Bender really cared about educating all children, he would cut his ties with tea party politicians, the American Federation for Children and the Koch brothers. He would fight for more resources for public schools and demand real accountability.

Voucher Leader Jim Bender Once Again Exemplifies Double Standard

This Week In Education: Thompson: The Perils -- And Potential -- Of "Right-Click" Credit Programs

This Week In Education: Thompson: The Perils -- And Potential -- Of "Right-Click" Credit Programs:

Thompson: The Perils -- And Potential -- Of "Right-Click" Credit Programs

Rate, which identifies three major ways that school systems try to improve their graduation rates.

NPR finds that some districts did it in the proper way, by "stepping in early to keep kids on track." 

Too many improved graduation rates by "lowering the bar by offering alternate and easier routes when students falter," or "gaming the system by moving likely dropouts off the books, transferring or misclassifying them."

NPR's excellent series should push us to ask some tougher questions, such as what is the harm of "juking the stats" in order to graduate more students? Credit recovery is the alternative route that might have the most potential for helping students graduate, but when abused, it has great potential for harm.

In the early years of NCLB, my students shunned credit recovery as "exercising your right-click finger." But, as credit recovery expanded, the practice literally became dangerous. In many inner city high schools, most of the chronic disorder and violence is prompted by students who attend irregularly and/ or who come to school but don't go to class.

Credit recovery can send the message to students that attending class is optional and that "hall walkers" will have an infinite number of chances to accumulate credits. Few students intend to cut class and covertly engage in inappropriate behavior in the unsupervised corners to the point where they can't graduate. But many get caught up in the drama. One day, truant students wake up and realize that they are too far behind to even be saved by their right-click finger.

The second problem is that, when misused, credit recovery can undermine high-quality instruction. It is no problem making up online worksheets in December in lieu of filling out paper worksheets in September. But, in classes that stress analysis and synthesis, the concepts that a student needs to master during the first part of the year lay the foundation for deeper learning.

When students are given a de facto "get out of jail free" card for cutting classes in the first and third quarters, too many find themselves lost in the second and fourth nine weeks. So, credit recovery becomes extra invaluable for systems as a tool for "passing on" those students, despite their lack of learning.

That being said, at some point, most students mature, and seek to learn and graduate. The same credit This Week In Education: Thompson: The Perils -- And Potential -- Of "Right-Click" Credit Programs:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Here's the problem with 'data-driven" school reform. You need good data.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Here's the problem with 'data-driven" school reform. You need good data.:

Here's the problem with 'data-driven" school reform. You need good data.

 

Rahm projected an 82% graduation rate when he ran for office.

“No one questions the facts: more CPS students are graduating than ever before, those students are more prepared for their futures and we’re making huge strides in helping struggling kids graduate." --Rahm Emanuel

With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, some folks are questioning the your facts.

Becky Vevea/WBEZ and Sarah Karp/BGA certainly are:

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been talking proudly about something that is really a bit of a miracle: Even during a time of tight budgets and leadership chaos, Chicago Public Schools graduation rates have climbed to a record 69.4 percent. But new data obtained by WBEZ and the Better Government Association shows that number is wrong.

CPS records recently obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act show at least 2,200 students from 25 Chicago high schools were counted as having transferred out of the district between 2011 and 2014. In reality, they were dropouts. The transfers aren’t factored into CPS graduation rates, while dropouts are. (Emanuel touts bogus graduation rate)

Cooked books. No problem. 

The worst part of this is that Rahm and CPS officials admit that the books are cooked but basically say, "Don't confuse us with facts. We know what we want you to know." They are also muzzling principals while the Ministry of Lies and Deception Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Here's the problem with 'data-driven" school reform. You need good data.:

The Arne Duncan Shuffle: Some For-Profit Colleges Have "the Ethics of Payday Lending" | David Halperin

Arne Duncan Transcript: Some For-Profit Colleges Have "the Ethics of Payday Lending" | David Halperin:

 For-Profit Colleges Have "the Ethics of Payday Lending"

Arne Duncan:        Well I think we've been very clear and have a, you know, five or six year track record of - and to be very clear, we're supportive of for profits that are helping real people gain real skills that lead to better jobs. We want them to grow and to assert more students.

But where Congress has fought us every step of the way when we're just trying to bring some basic accountability to the industry, it's been a huge problem. 
( Just Like CHARTER SCHOOL INDUSTRY ACCOUNTABILITY) 
And again what we're seeing in situations like Corinthian is just - it's indefensible. ( Just Like CHARTER SCHOOL INDUSTRY)

And this is a wakeup call not just to the industry, but this has to be a wakeup call to Congress. And I'd be hard pressed to believe that folks on either side of the aisle want to stand behind guys where there is so much deception of students and waste of taxpayer dollars.

And so going back again to gainful employment, going back to bringing more resources so that we can do more investigative work here, Congress has to stop defending the status quo that's indefensible, and has to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

And candidly, far too many members of both sides of the aisle up to this point have been part of the problem. 

The question is does this - is this a watershed moment? Is this a fork in the road where they begin to understand that, you know, bad actors simply can't be tolerated?

Michael Shure:      Yes, thanks for taking the question. You know many people who are observing this situation see Corinthian as the first domino to fall. Is this something that the Department looks at as precedent setting going forward if some of these other schools fail in the same way as Corinthian has?

Arne Duncan:        It's a great question. And sadly we think this will not be the last domino to fall, and that there may be more. And we're looking at this with an eye first to doing the right thing by the Corinthian students. But we're also - I try to be explicit in what I was saying.

We are also today trying to send a very clear message to this industry. And we're also trying to send a very clear message to Congress. And I wish we could say that, you know, Corinthian is the last of these situations. But that's not reality. That's not reality.

Students everywhere deserve and need the opportunity to make their lives better through education - to climb the economic ladder. That's exactly what these students tried to do. But a lot of them ended up with huge debts and a degree that meant little to employers, if they got a degree at all. The whole idea of a career college was a farce for them. (Unintelligible) about bad actors (unintelligible) college industry.

And that's why we're all so determined to crack down on colleges that leave students with huge debt, worthless degrees and few meaningful job prospects.

Some of these schools have brought the ethics of payday lending into higher education. They prey on the most vulnerable students, and leave them with debt that they too often can't repay. We must have accountability to protect both students and taxpayers.

And that's what we're working on through a series of actions that are simply unprecedented. No previous administrations, no state and no Congress has ever done this. Simply put, we cannot tolerate the situation where all the risk of higher education is born by students and taxpayers, while the for-profit industry uses its financial support to try and block change in Congress. That means we must do business differently.

A couple of quick messages - first, to students: We firmly believe that you deserve a college education free from rip off scams. And if you've been defrauded by a school, we'll make sure that you get every penny of the debt relief you are entitled to through a streamlined process as - as streamlined a process as possible. We're going to make that as simple as we legally can, while also safeguarding the interest of taxpayers.

To members of Congress on both sides of the aisle: I want to be very clear. Students and taxpayers need action to strengthen accountability. Beef up efforts to protect students and taxpayers from waste and fraud. Don't fight them off. And that's rules that hold colleges, not taxpayers, responsible for fraudulent acts, and provide additional resources to our department that we requested to fully enforce accountability.

To taxpayers: I want to say we are committed to being responsible stewards of your investment in educational opportunity. And to college executives and the management teams and their boards of directors, I want to say very clearly - keep your promises and make sure you're delivering real value for students. If you're doing that, you'll have our full support. But if you defraud students and if you're not honest, we'll work across the administration and make sure the full weight of the law is brought to bear.

And finally to the nation, I say it's time for action, so we can see fewer students in the situation that these Corinthian students are in today. And that's why I appreciate so much the work that Ted and his team have been doing. They're extraordinarily smart, but most importantly they have a real heart. They have a real care for students. I'm grateful to have Ted and team leading this effort.

Arne Duncan:        In terms of timing we did a pretty - our team did a pretty thorough investigation of Corinthian and found from things that were extraordinarily awry - wrong, and that led to them being shut down. And we're going to continue to look at other places. And sadly this may not be the only case where this has to happen.

And at the end of the day - I just want to come back. We have to challenge Congress to stop fighting us on this. If you look at the history of what we've tried to do over the last five or six years on this, there's a lengthy track record here going back to gainful employment, where not just the industry which we expect. But Congress is part of every step of the way.

And we're going to continue to try to do the right thing for students and taxpayers. But hopefully Congress will wake up here and get members on both sides of the aisle, and figure out that they need to strengthen our hand in dealing with these guys.

Ted Mitchell:        So the - let me see if I can help clarify it. So the students who we're considering as a group today are the Heald College students who were enrolled in programs where we have findings of misrepresentation. And so that's the first in category.

Next are...

Arne Duncan:        And that are - maybe 81% of programs.

Arne Duncan:        And to be clear, this is not like we relied on them too much. We did our own independent investigation. But (unintelligible) in places like this are, you know, passing accreditation with flying colors, we have prospects losing some credibility. And accreditors need to really, really take this seriously.

Undersecretary Ted Mitchell Doing for America

What He Did To California

Undersecretary Ted Mitchell is the former CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund and served as the president of the California State Board of Education. 

I hope all of you see that the steps we are announcing today are part of the Obama Administration's comprehensive approach to protecting students, eliminating bad actors and encouraging behavior that improves student outcomes, especially in making it easier to afford and complete a degree that will lead to good outcomes.

So, we want to create a process that is based on our established legal authority that will enable us to work through claims as quickly and as efficiently as possible, requiring the least amount of effort on the part of borrowers.

f we were to look at the total amount of outstanding loans for Corinthian students over the last five years, we would be looking at about $3.5 billion. But I think for today's news it's more appropriate for us to be looking at the Heald students.

And while we are still working that out, we believe that there are about 40,000 borrowers who are impacted by today's decision, and that those borrowers have outstanding loan balances in the neighborhood of between $500 and $600 million.

Kerry Field:          My question was how will the Department determine that a state law has been violated? Will there need to be a lawsuit with findings?

Ted Mitchell:        So this is exactly one of the jobs for the special master will be to help - to advise us on how best to go forward with that. But as is the case in our Healed findings today, in that case we - the Department through its own work - established that state law had been violated.

Kerry Field:          But will the Department rely on other people's findings as well?

Ted Mitchell:        So, I think it that it's important to distinguish between investigations and formal court decisions. And so we want to look at - and the special master will guide in this - we want to look at evidence when there is relevant evidence. And we will, you know, certainly take evidence - (unintelligible) kinds of evidence into account. And certainly judgments in state court would be pretty critical to us.

READ THE COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT HERE: Arne Duncan Transcript: Some For-Profit Colleges Have "the Ethics of Payday Lending" | David Halperin:

Students Will Have $3.5 Billion of Student Loan Debt Wiped Out & They Are Not Happy About It - Yahoo Finance http://yhoo.it/1HvUjRk

Loan Forgiveness For Bad-Faith, Not Bad-Bargain Schools | FiveThirtyEight http://53eig.ht/1HvVCzO

For Asian Americans, standardized testing is its own costly, hyper-competitive culture - Quartz

For Asian Americans, standardized testing is its own costly, hyper-competitive culture - Quartz:

For Asian Americans, standardized testing is its own costly, hyper-competitive culture

Over the weekend, 16-year-old Mira Hu went missing in San Marino, California. Hu—a student at San Marino High School—had been dropped off at nearby Arcadia High School on Saturday to take the SAT college entrance exam. However, when her parents arrived to pick her up, Hu was nowhere to be found: hours later, she sent a text message to her brother that said Hu was running away due to the pressure of her SAT exam performance and the college admissions process. (Thankfully,she turned up unharmed, police reported on Tuesday.)

Hu’s distraught father told KTLA-TV that his daughter is “a perfect kid.”Yet, perhaps it is precisely this pressure to be “a perfect kid” that could be causing anxiety for students like Mira Hu.

As the debate over college admissions reaches new heights in the Asian American community—Emil Guillermo of Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund rightfully labels it the new Asian American civil war—the question of whether colleges should use a more holistic review process or base admissions decisions primarily or exclusively on high-stakes college entrance exams.

The inadequacies of the SATs in predicting college success has been well-discussed. There has been less time spent, however, on the psychological impact of such high-stakes testing: the extreme pressure it places on high school and college students,.

It is well-known among mental health researchers that teenagers and young adults are are at a high risk for anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Roughly one in three college students experience depressionsymptoms so severe they impact daily functions. Meanwhile, anxiety levels among high-school students continue to worry mental health advocates.

A major contributor to this anxiety is the college admissions process, which for many students becomes a veritable horse race of intensive testing. While societal inequity allows some students to fallcompletely through the cracks, other students are inundated with the message that every aspect of their lives should be focused on getting into a prestigious college.

For some Asian American children, the pressure to attend a selective four-year university can hit extreme heights. In an op-ed published CNN last year, Jeff Yang writes:

It’s a common running joke among second-generation Asian Americans that our parents start us on college prep before we begin potty training. The joke didn’t seem so funny to me when I was a kid, however. I remember earning minutes of TV by defining vocabulary words correctly—while I was still in fourth grade. I remember being rewarded for finishing homework early by getting extra “mommy homework,” which always involved problem sets and practice exams from a dog-eared stack of Princeton Review test prep tomes.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that even within the already high rates of anxiety among the nation’s college students, Asian Americans, especially women, experience relatively high rates ofanxiety and suicidal ideation.

Students are told that every waking minute should be dedicated to building their college application package, with an extreme priority placed on studying for standardized exams like the SATs. An entire economy exists within (middle class and wealthy) Asian American communities providing for the intense grooming of prospective applicants. Some families reportedly pay thousands of dollars for college preparatory programs that micromanage every aspect of a child’s life.

Failure is not an option. In their new book, The Asian American Achievement Paradox, sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou have documented how our community’s emphasis on high achievement—our “success frame”—can place significant stress on Asian American children. In short, our children are told that their entire self-worth is dependent upon getting into a school like Harvard, and that if they perform below expectations on a single exam, they are total failures. How can we not be concerned about the psychological toll that kind of pressure will have?For Asian Americans, standardized testing is its own costly, hyper-competitive culture - Quartz:

Unrest at Ann Arbor school board meeting over teachers union, testing policies | MLive.com

Unrest at Ann Arbor school board meeting over teachers union, testing policies | MLive.com:

Unrest at Ann Arbor school board meeting over teachers union, testing policies

A dozen audience members at Wednesday's Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education meeting stood up and turned their back to the board members sitting on on the Skyline High School stage.

The action was representative of the growing unrest in the district over the teachers union contract and a policy that would require all students to take state exams.

The administration and Ann Arbor Education Association have disagreed over when the union's contract ends, resulting in both parties filing unfair labor practice charges against the other.

The Board of Education met June 10 to discuss the budget and the testing policy, among other items. More than 300 people attended, and 16 people spoke during public comment in support of teachers and asking the board to reconsider its actions.

"The administration has ceased collaborating respectfully with teachers," said John Turner, an Allen Elementary School parent.

Teachers tap into their limited energy and pocketbooks for the benefit of their students, he said, and he wishes the wasted energy could go toward respectful collaboration.

Elizabeth Stern, an Ann Arbor teacher and parent, said the contract dispute doesn't feel like the way Ann Arbor does things.

Addressing Superintendent Jeanice Swift, Stern said many parents and teachers have been a fan, but now are reflecting on what Stern calls anti-teacher actions.

"We know you have a plan, but we need to know is your plan in line with our community's values," she said to cheers and a standing ovation.

Pathways to Success teacher Mike Smith said he'd like to believe the district administration would approach negotiations with respect, integrity, trust and honor.

"Why would I sign off on a new contract when the contract I am currently working on has not been honored?" he said.

In 2010, the teachers union conceded 2.2 percent pay cut for the district to save $4.5 million, expecting the district to pay the money back. The district has not yet repaid the funds, and officials have declined to comment on the funds.

Elizabeth Shaieb, an Ann Arbor Open student, was one of about 100 students at her school who opted out of spring tests.

The board's first draft of policy 5060 included a provision that could remove students Unrest at Ann Arbor school board meeting over teachers union, testing policies | MLive.com:

ANN ARBOR SCHOOLS

• Unrest at Ann Arbor school board meeting over teachers union, testing policies
• Ann Arbor school board moves meeting to Skyline High School
• Ann Arbor school board to vote on 2016 budget
• Read a letter from an Ann Arbor middle school principal about the dress code
• Students protest Ann Arbor middle school dress code

With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’ - Working In These Times

With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’ - Working In These Times:

With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’

Teachers, Students and Community Members demonstrate in front of the Chicago Board of Trade   (Martin de Bourmont)

Cries of “this means war!” echoed throughout Chicago’s financial district this Tuesday as teachers demonstrated against the Board of Education ahead of union contract negotiations this summer.

They made for a formidable sight: led by a troupe of black-clad high school percussionists and holding their fists up high, members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and their supporters marched on Chicago’s LaSalle Street yesterday demanding adequate wages, benefits and resources for their students, insisting that the district’s financial woes are actually a case of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) being “broke on purpose.”

The rally, which began in front of Chicago’s James R. Thompson center, served as an unofficial kickoff for the CTU’s campaign to bargain a new contract with CPS’s Board of Education, which represents 400,000 students and the country’s third-largest school district. The current contract expires on June 30.

CPS currently faces a $1.1 billion budget gap for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, leaving doubt as to whether or not it will be able to pay the $634 million due to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund on June 30. Further hampering negotiations between the CTU and CPS is the district’s contention that Chicago teachers will need to accept a 7% pay cut along with increases in health insurance premiums.

Rather than enacting budget cuts, the CTU is demanding that the city’s wealthiest corporations pay more in taxes in order to fund smaller class sizes, less standardized testing, funding for school libraries and art classes, and increased staffing of all schools with counselors and clinicians. Teachers also demanded the protection of teachers’ pensions and salaries.

Many of the demonstrators carried signs that matched the evening’s rhetoric in militancy and succinct condemnation of the Chicago city government. “Payout? No thanks!” read a popular sign. “Take the money from the banks!” “The 1% owes us,” read another. Others reminded onlookers of the sacrifices inherent in every public school teacher’s life: “ ‘I do this for the money,’ said no teacher ever.”

At the rally, teachers spoke of the increasingly harsh conditions they faced at work and their negative impact on Chicago students.

“We get [to school] at around 5 or 5:30 every single morning,” explained one teacher from Farragut Career Academy.  “On Mondays, I arrive a little bit late, around six and I usually leave around five. When I go home, I work, and I work during the weekends. And now they’re going to take away 7% of my income.”

Holly Charles, a teacher from West Englewood, explained that many schools do not even have enough funding to support a janitorial staff.  “I didn’t get into teaching for the money,” she said, noting that she had worked in the CPS system for 30 years. “I’m bringing toilet paper from home, having to mop my own floor,” she says. “There’s not enough money for janitors. But I bet if you head into any of the CPS headquarters, you’ll find toilet paper and clean floors there.”

Another teacher, from Chicago’s South Shore High School, said that his school’s needs went far beyond a janitorial staff. “We don’t even have libraries in the school,” he said. “We need to reduce our class sizes, [but] they’re increasing class sizes. If they increase class sizes teachers are going to be managing students not teaching students.”

Limiting class sizes was a priority for most of the teachers I spoke to. “You have one teacher for every thirty kids,” explained With Thousands Marching in the Streets, Chicago Teachers Union Declares ‘This Means War!’ - Working In These Times:

I Believe in Freedom of Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog

I Believe in Freedom of Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog:

I Believe in Freedom of Choice

Parents should be able to send their children to the school of their choice. And they do, but the public should not be expected to pay for their private choices.

The public has a civic obligation to support public education. Even if you don’t have children, you pay taxes to educate the children of the community. Even if your children are grown, you pay school taxes. Even if you send your children to private school, you pay school taxes. Public schools are a public responsibility.

If you don’t like the public schools, you are free to choose a private school, a charter school, a religious school, or home school. That’s your choice. But you must pay for it yourself.

We all pay for police and firefighters. If you want a private security guard, pay for it yourself. We all pay for public schools, even if we don’t patronize them. They belong to the community. We do so to invest in the future of our society. It is a civic obligation.

We all pay to support public libraries. If you never use the local library, you still have to pay the taxes to support it. If you prefer to buy books instead of using the free public library, don’t ask taxpayers to subsidize your private choice. Buy your own books. Pay for it yourself.

The taxes you pay support the common good, not your private preferences. They pay for highways you may never drive on, fire departments you may never call on, beaches open to all that you may never set foot on, public parks, and a range of services and facilities open to all without fee.

When it comes to education, there is a simple rule: public money for free, democratically controlled schools, private money for private, privately-controlled, and religious schools.I Believe in Freedom of Choice | Diane Ravitch's blog:

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk

BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk:

BustED Pencils Trending News: Apologize to the students; Brian did what??; Haunting

Posted June 11, 2015 by Tim Slekar

 These tasks are not really related to your usual job.  If you don’t care, is it working??  Apologies are in order. The First Hurdle http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/the-first-hurdle_b_7517602.html?utm_hp_ref=tw  Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, WHAT did you just do??!! Nevada Enacts Universal School Choice http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419438/nevada-enacts-universal-school-choice The COMMON theme. High School Students Create Haunting Artwork About Standardized Tests http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/standardized-test-art_n_7546756.html?1433968512    … Read more »

BustED Pencils’ Jed Hopkins: The danger of uncredentialed teachers

Posted June 9, 2015 by Tim Slekar

In case you’ve been living under a rock you might not know that my great state of Wisconsin—under the fascist like leadership of pseudo-conservatives—is subverting democracy and using the budget process to ram through oligarchic sponsored legislation.  However, the slash and burn approach to anything remotely connected to public education is particularly maddening. In the…Read more »

Is it time to start using the F Word in Wisconsin?

Posted June 4, 2015 by Tim Slekar

No not that one. This one—FASCISM. (sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism. At this point in time we don’t have a dictator. So scratch that. However, we are witnessing the “suppression of opposition… Read more »