What Did the Senate Just Give Us? Looking at Every Child Achieves (Part I) | Truth in American Education

What Did the Senate Just Give Us? Looking at Every Child Achieves (Part I) | Truth in American Education:

What Did the Senate Just Give Us? Looking at Every Child Achieves (Part I)

Sadly, despite clear and detailed warnings from parents, teachers, activists, and policy experts, the US Senate passed its rewrite of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)/Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) called The Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA – S1170) on July 16th by avote of 81-17.   Three Democrats voted against the bill because of not enough government control, but nonetheless did the right thing.  It is extremely clear that big government and big business interests,who are supporting pro-Common Core candidates like Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Hillary Clinton, are colluding to cement federal control over American education.

We would like to thank the following senators for their opposition votes to the overall bill:

NAYs —17
Blunt (R-MO) Booker (D-NJ) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Daines (R-MT) Flake (R-AZ)	Lee (R-UT) Moran (R-KS) Murphy (D-CT) Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Rubio (R-FL)	Sasse (R-NE) Scott (R-SC) Shelby (R-AL) Vitter (R-LA) Warren (D-MA)

Three of the five presidential candidates in the Senate – Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Paul (R-KY), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) – voted no. Bernie Sanders (I-VT, a member of the Socialist Party running for president as a Democrat) voted for the bill. The fifth, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), did not vote. Senator Sanders offered one amendment on youth unemployment that was rejected (see below). Senators Rubio and Graham did not offer any amendments to the bill, nor did they make any statements about it afterwards.  Here are the statements of Cruz, Paul, and Sanders:

Cruz:

 “While this bill makes some improvements to the status quo, it ultimately falls short of empowering parents and local school districts. To that end, it is a missed opportunity for meaningful change.

“Decisions regarding our children’s future should be placed in the hands of those closest to students, and that is teachers and parents. This is why I introduced an amendment to give states the flexibility to develop their own accountability standards, rather than meeting criteria outlined by federal bureaucrats in the Washington cartel. This type of federal control has led to the failed, top-down policies that produced Common Core. We also had the opportunity today to significantly advance school choice for low-income students, giving them a chance to succeed at a public or private school of their choosing. Unfortunately, my colleagues in the Senate rejected these amendments, perpetuating the same tired approach that continues to fail our children.

“When the federal government is in charge, the most common outcome is accepting the lowest common denominator. When it comes to the future of our country and our children’s future, the lowest common denominator is simply unacceptable. We can do better and our children deserve better.”

Paul:

“I believe education is the great equalizer, but Washington’s intrusion in the classroom leaves most kids behind. This bill is not the solution, as it retains some of No Child Left Behind’s biggest flaws – a lack of adequate parental choice, a federal testing mandate, and continued support for Common Core,” Sen. Paul said. 

Sanders:

“On Thursday, the Senate passed the Every Child Achieves Act, which would fundamentally reform No Child Left Behind. The law would replace the current high-stakes standardized testing model with an approach that would give Vermont significant flexibility to determine how to What Did the Senate Just Give Us? Looking at Every Child Achieves (Part I) | Truth in American Education:

In One-Party North Carolina, Elected Supreme Court Upholds School Vouchers | janresseger

In One-Party North Carolina, Elected Supreme Court Upholds School Vouchers | janresseger:

In One-Party North Carolina, Elected Supreme Court Upholds School Vouchers

In North Carolina last week, the Charlotte Observer editorialized, “The legislature voted 4-3 along party lines… to approve taxpayer–funded vouchers for private schools.  Oh wait, that wasn’t the legislature.  That was the N.C. Supreme Court.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the two.”  The newspaper’s editorial board is commenting on the lack of checks and balances in a one-party state: Republican governor, Republican legislature, Republican elected supreme court.

The Raleigh News & Observer also editorialized on the explicitly partisan dynamics in the way the North Carolina voucher case was handled:  “And yet, in a ruling with a clear partisan flavor, the North Carolina Supreme Court, having snatched the confrontation over a school voucher program out of the hands of the N.C. Court of Appeals where it should properly have gone, has upheld the Republican legislature’s voucher program… The high court’s taking of the case was a sign Republican justices were going to support the agenda of Republican lawmakers.  And that’s what happened.”

North Carolina’s supreme court on July 23 upheld the constitutionality of a school voucher program the state’s legislature established in 2013.  Education Week reports that the program awards $4,200 to low-income students to enable them to attend private or parochial schools.  “Last year, around 1,200 students used vouchers to attend private schools.  At least three-quarters of them were affiliated with a religion….”  What are the issues at stake? The Raleigh News & Observer’s editorial explains: “It is distressing on its face, this idea that public money can go toward the expenses of private schooling.  It crosses the divide between public and private, between church and state, between common sense and partisan ideology.”

The North Carolina Justice Center explains the argument made by those who brought the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new voucher program:  “The North Carolina Supreme Court disregarded the plain language of our state Constitution, which provides that public funds for education must be used ‘exclusively’ to support the public schools… Risky voucher schemes like the current law will not require schools to have qualified teachers or a standard curriculum, and (will) allow publicly funded private schools to discriminate against students on the basis of income, disability or religion.  Schools that receive vouchers have no accountability for student learning and achievement.”

Writing for North Carolina Policy Watch, Sharon McCloskey describes the legal challenge to the state’s voucher program. Private schools accepting the vouchers “can range from religious schools with several students to a home school of one.” Such schools “are not subject to state standards relating to curriculum, testing and teacher certification and are free to accept or reject students of their own choosing, including for religious or other discriminatory reasons.  In reaching its conclusion—and despite the constitution’s language that state funds should be ‘appropriated and used exclusively for establishing and maintaining a uniform system of free public schools’—the majority held that public funds may be spent on educational initiatives outside of the uniform system of free public schools… (T)he majority said that the In One-Party North Carolina, Elected Supreme Court Upholds School Vouchers | janresseger:

LAUSD- A RESPONSE FROM THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF RAFE ESQUITH - Perdaily.com

LAUSD- A RESPONSE FROM THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF RAFE ESQUITH - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD- A RESPONSE FROM THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF RAFE ESQUITH

In the following video, A Response From the Hobart Shakespeareans, Sir Ian McKellen, a self-professed "admirer" of the Los Angeles Unified School District's latest falsely targeted teacher Rafe Esquith and many of Mr. Esquith's students and others talk about what has become at LAUSD the all too rare experience of receiving an excellent substantive and generally supportive education from Mr. Esquith. Regrettably, at LAUSD this seems only to have made Mr. Esquith and the program he built a target of LAUSD administration.

Clearly, at LAUSD only the rhetoric is supposed to be excellent, but the actual educating of predominantly poor and minority students to finally allow them to reach their potentials will not be tolerated, because it challenges an entrenched and self-severing administrative culture whose previleges will end if the focus is allowed to return to the classroom as it is in every successful public education system.

Clearly the message from LAUSD administration is that if you actually educate all students in what amounts to a rather straight forward and timely process as Mr. Esquith and other have done, look out! This offensive, paternatistic, and expensive top-down LAUSD administrative culture, that presently sucks a disproportionate amount of the money out of the educational process for its vendors and patrons, will not tolerate the excellent education system they say they want, but in reality will do everything to stop.

For LAUSD, Rafe Esquith and teachers like him are dangerous, because if they are allowed to continue unfettered, generations of LAUSD proactively maintained mediocrity will fall by the wayside, when the public finally asks, "Well, if Esquith can get such phenomenal results out of these predominantly minority students, why can't other LAUSD schools? And why is it that Mr. Esquith is being targeted in the first place with defamatory charges that LAUSD administration keeps belately hauling out the more they feel threatened by Esquith...and his attorneys at Geragos & Geragos, "How dare he lawyer up to defend himself."

If you allow Mr. Esquith to continue, we might just arrive at a point where a highly educated actual majority gets control of public education. And that majority in California, like at LAUSD, is Latino.

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch:

Lenny@perdaily.com

Blogs We Love

Do you find the media and their "teachers-suck," "power to principals," "privatization is the best thing that's happened to public schools" disgusting and distasteful? The powers that be may "control" the main media but it's people like us who control the SOCIAL MEDIA. Hungry for more information about crusading educators going against the grain to do LAUSD- A RESPONSE FROM THE HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF RAFE ESQUITH - Perdaily.com:

Senate’s ESEA rewrite would do away with supplanting rule :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Senate’s ESEA rewrite would do away with supplanting rule :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Senate’s ESEA rewrite would do away with supplanting rule

(District of Columbia) A compromise revision of the nation’s primary education law would essentially eliminate long-standing federal prohibitions on using Title I dollars to replace or supplant state and local funds, a top education policy expert said Tuesday.

The “supplement not supplant” rule, which became a focal point of national education policy almost 50 years ago, requires that education funding from the federal government be used only to add or provide expanded services to the target population, not to replace funding that would otherwise be provided by state or local sources.

The rule has created headaches for administrators trying to cobble together money for school-wide improvement programs and led to a long list of compliance sanctions and audit challenges from the U.S. Department of Education.

But if the reauthorization bill that passed out of the U.S. Senate earlier this month becomes law, the supplanting provision will be largely eliminated.

“Federal officials have always been very protective that their funds only be used to support at-risk children,” explained David Deschryver, co-director at Whiteboard Advisors, a nationally recognized education consulting group based in Washington D.C.

“The new language says that districts can demonstrate compliance with ‘supplement-not-supplant’ through a test of methodology of how state and local funds are distributed,” he said. “If schools are getting what they were supposed to get under the state formula, that’s it – there’s no examination of programs or what was bought; they’re not going to get into that level of detail.”

The question then becomes how the law defines proper distribution of state and local money – something Deschryver says isn’t spelled out.

Indeed, the operative section of the law leaves the question unanswered:

COMPLIANCE.—To demonstrate compliance with paragraph (1), a local educational agency shall demonstrate that the methodology used to allocate State and local funds to each school receiving assistance under this part ensures that such school receives all of the State and local funds it would otherwise receive if it were not receiving assistance under this part. (Every Child Achieves, Section 1007, [2]).

Although an arcane provision of federal law, the supplanting rule – like maintenance of effort and time-and-effort accounting – has come to help define the character and mission of the Title I program.

Deschryver said the proposed change in supplanting contemplated by the Senate revision represents a sea-change in perspective for how Congress views use of federal education money.

“If this is adopted, you’ve got to ask – is (ESEA) still a program about poverty or not?” he said. “And the answer is probably, no. It becomes something that is more about enhancing the academic Senate’s ESEA rewrite would do away with supplanting rule :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

The Sham and Scam called the Common Core - Wait What?

The Sham and Scam called the Common Core - Wait What?:

The Sham and Scam called the Common Core

The Common Core test is designed to fail the vast majority of public schools students, including up to 9 in 10 students who aren’t proficient in the English Language or require special education help.

School districts have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on textbooks that don’t even align to the Common Core standards (See:  Vallas’ $10m textbook farce means Bridgeport students don’t have Common Core aligned math textbooks and Fairfield + Farmington – Giving CT kids math textbooks that are not aligned to Common Core)

Countless hours have been lost as teachers are pulled away from their instructional duties to “learn” about this expensive, warped, system that isn’t even developmentally appropriate for some younger students.

Fellow education blogger Mercedes Schneider is one of the nation’s leading voices in the effort to reveal the truth about the Common Core, the Common Core testing scheme and the other aspects of the corporate education reform industry.

Mercedes Schneider also has a new MUST READ book out about the Common Core called Common Core Dilemma – Who Owns Our Schools?

In the following article from her blog, she takes on the new corporate funded “spokesperson” for the Common Core scam.

Campbell Brown Plans to Explain Common Core (By Mercedes Schneider) 

Campbell Brown is going to help America understand what Common Core really is.

So she says as part of her July 28, 2015, interview with Jon Ward of Yahoo! Politics:

What we want to do with Common Core is explain it. Just put honesty and 

The Sham and Scam called the Common Core - Wait What?:

TFA endorses Murphy’s Law | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA endorses Murphy’s Law | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

TFA endorses Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law can be summarized as “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”  Murphy’s Amendment was a proposed amendment to the recently reauthorized version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  The last reauthorization of ESEA in 2002 was known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and is generally considered a fiasco by both Democrats and Republicans.

The Murphy Amendment is sometimes called the ‘Murphy-Booker ESEA Accountability Amendment’ after Chris Murphy and Cory Booker, two of the six Democratic co-sponsors of the amendment.

I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness the Republicans won the majority in the Senate in the last election.  The Murphy Amendment which failed by a vote of 43 to 54.  And the 43 ‘yea’ votes were 41 Democrats, 1 Republican, and 1 Independent.  The 54 ‘nay’ votes were 51 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and 1 Independent.

The reason I’m thankful that the Murphy Amendment did not pass is that Murphy’s Amendment was highly susceptible to Murphy’s Law.  A ‘close reading’ (thank you common core standards for language arts!) of the amendment reveals that people concerned about what it could lead to were very justified in those concerns.  In a reauthorization that was intended, as a starting point, to recognize why NCLB was such a disaster, the Murphy Amendment would have maintained some of the worst parts about NCLB.

I have the text from the amendment at the end of the post, but I’ll summarize what I understand of it here from reading it myself.  It says that the states must identify the schools most in need of intervention, which must be at least the bottom 5%.  It seems that the Democrats did not learn the lessons from NCLB about the danger of putting specific numerical targets into federal law and how those numerical targets can be abused.  The fact that there is always a bottom 5% no matter how good the schools are in a state.  Also, schools where the graduation rate is less than 67%, a magic number for ‘failing school’ that is not grounded in any real research (not to mention one that is easy to game with TFA endorses Murphy’s Law | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Schools Matter: The Real Story Behind Mike Pence’s Charter School Speech

Schools Matter: The Real Story Behind Mike Pence’s Charter School Speech:

The Real Story Behind Mike Pence’s Charter School Speech

In an address to a large crowd yesterday at the Westin Hotel, Mike Pence announced that 22 new charter schools will open in Indiana in the next three years.  Pence spoke at a conference sponsored by Charter Schools USA, a Florida-based company ran by longtime Bush family friend Jon Hage.

Charter Schools USA (which also gives money to Jeb Bush’s “school choice” Foundation for Excellence in Education) operates several Indiana takeover schools and will be opening up a “feeder” school in Indianapolis this August.  It will also be opening a new school in Clarksville.

In my book Hoosier School Heist, I dedicate an entire chapter to the Bush family’s influence on school privatization in Indiana, which includes Charter Schools USA.  Charter Schools USA has given at least $23,000 to politicians and others promoting school privatization in Indiana.  

Charter Schools USA funded former Indiana supt. of public ed. Tony Bennett’s campaign and Tony's wife, Tina, once workedfor the for-profit school company.  Charter Schools USA also gave money to the campaigns of Todd Huston, the Walmart/Amway sponsored Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC, and Mike Pence.

Mike Pence, in fact, has received $6,000 from Charter Schools USA since 2012.  

Charter Schools USA’s development branch, Red Apple Development, also hands money to Indiana politicians, to the tune ofSchools Matter: The Real Story Behind Mike Pence’s Charter School Speech:

The Complicated Problem Of Race And Special Education

The Complicated Problem Of Race And Special Education:

The Complicated Problem Of Race And Special Education

A study released last month by the American Educational Research Association found that minority students are underrepresented in special education services. This same study raised suspicion around the racial imbalance among special education students andcontradicted previous findings that suggested minorities, particularly African Americans, are roped into disabled categories more easily. A group of experts who spoke with HuffPost Live last week said that while minorities may be underrepresented in some categories of special education, they're overrepresented in the most "stigmatizing" groups.

"The data shows that black students are often times two or three times more likely than white students to be identified, especially in the most stigmatizing categories such as emotional disturbance, mental retardation or intellectual disabilities and some other categories," saidDaniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies. "They are underrepresented in categories like autism, and perhaps other categories like speech and language."

Losen admits that federal policy is well-intended in its advocacy for children with special needs, but he said it misses the mark. The power to categorize children is still in the hands of individual districts, which Losen said are often rooted in "bias and structural racism." He explained that racism can lead to incorrect or hasty determinations of special needs, which can have massive repercussions for the student. 

"At the end of the day, special education can only be as successful as the people implementing it," said Denise Marshall of the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates. 

Regardless of whether or not minorities are being under- or overrepresented in special education programs, the racial biases underlying individual districts is where change needs to begin and federal policy needs to be adjusted. Losen says more than one out of every three black male disabled students were suspended once in 2011-2012, which is more than twice the rate of white males with disabilities. 

"Black lives matter, but even kids who are legitimately identifying as having special needs are being kicked out of school right and left, and often from very minor offenses, because they're The Complicated Problem Of Race And Special Education:

7 things I wish people understood about being a teacher - Vox

7 things I wish people understood about being a teacher - Vox:

7 things I wish people understood about being a teacher

Everything you need to know about the Common Core

Before I decided to teach high school, I made a list of the things I enjoy doing: discussing books and movies, playing music, being around kids, basketball, cooking. I ruled out a few career paths immediately. I knew from working restaurant jobs as a teenager that the lifestyle of a chef wouldn't suit me. No professional basketball league was pathetic enough to let me in. I'd toured with some bands, but they were winding down, not up.

Soon, though, one profession emerged as an obvious choice: teaching. I envisioned sparking debates about important books and nurturing young writers. Maybe I'd even coach basketball or mentor teenage musicians. I entered UCLA's master's in education program and student-taught in Compton. Since then, I've worked at charter and public high schools in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area, teaching ninth, 10th, and 12th grade English, as well as journalism and, for one year, something heinous called "Grammar Lab." I have primarily worked with low-income students, although recently my classroom has diversified to include more affluent kids as well.

As a teacher, I've learned a lot about education, but it's also been a lens through which I've learned about everything else. Here are some important lessons I have taken away.

1) Teaching has made me smarter

Every year, I face 150 individuals with unique talents and backgrounds. Many will be first-generation college-goers. At home, some contend with abuse, addiction, gangs, and fractured families. I want them to leave my classroom smarter, kinder, and more self-possessed. I want their successes to contribute to a more equitable society. This effort inspires and challenges me. I know many of my teacher peers feel the same way.

More on teaching

10 things not enough kids know before going to college

I'm a professor. My colleagues who let their students dictate what they teach are cowards.

Many years I teach the same books, but my approach depends on what's happening outside the classroom. This past year, I taught Toni Morrison's Beloved for the first time, using slave narratives, an excerpt from The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and articles examining the legacy of slavery in America. We read about a new slave museum and George Washington's documented obsession with pursuing runaway slaves.

Few of my Latino and white students had thought seriously about black identity and experience in America. This investigation was the goal of the unit, not simply getting through an important novel. In 2016, the unit will accommodate the aftermath of the Charleston shootings, including President Obama's eulogy, but who knows what else will beg for inclusion before March? I add a bookmark to the Beloved folder a few times a week.

To teach this way, I read and watch obsessively. I stir at 3 am with my mind racing and tap notes into my phone. Everything I learn is filtered through the possibility that it might be taught.

2) I became a much better teacher when I put my students in charge

When I started out, I saw teaching as a performance, a 10-month riff on a fluid script. I was good because I knew my stuff and could hold students' attention. That's not unusual: Many teachers have egocentric tendencies.

But if you rattle off 60-minute monologues peppered with witty asides, you might end up being not just a memorably strange teacher, but an ineffective one too.

While theatrics have a place, I learned that students learn best when class is interactive, a dialogue — not a one-sided transmission. At the end of my first year, I asked students for advice, and a precocious stoner wrote, "Make us talk more" in fat block letters on his suggestion card.

I read and watch obsessively. Everything I learn is filtered through the possibility that it might be taught.

I'd learned this in grad school, of course, but I'd also placed a lot of stock in my ability to make a story like The Odyssey resonate with ninth-graders. I'd congratulated myself on cleverly painting Telemachus as a rebellious teen struggling with his absentee father's heavy shadow. I'd joked about rock star Odysseus's meandering 10-year tour home, complete with drugs and groupies. I'd noticed students laughing. I'd also seen them falling asleep.

Now I let students perform skits, create posters, and participate in panel discussions. I have them teach mini-lessons to the class. I wrap up the conversation with a flourish if necessary, but I let them drive most of the way home. This approach makes my students feel valuable (which too many teenagers don't) and helps build a community.

3) Standards like the Common Core do real harm in the wrong hands

I don't hate the new Common Core State Standards. The high school English standards make some sense when reasonably applied: English teachers should teach a lot of nonfiction; teaching students how to think critically, argue, and support opinions is important; science and history classes should build reading and writing skills, too.

Still, the standards can be damaging when implemented irrationally.

Standards are too often treated as a replacement for what teachers once considered good teaching. The standards come with software, materials, curricula, and standardized tests. Consultants may come to school to explain what everyone should be doing 7 things I wish people understood about being a teacher - Vox:

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment - The Washington Post

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment - The Washington Post:

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment

What message is a governor sending to the public with an appointment like this?

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has tapped someone to your state’s Board of Education who never attended public schools, publicly declared that his children never will either, and actively supported a successful effort to defeat a vote on a school tax in a divisive campaign in his home county?

Bentley, a Republican, named Matthew Brown, a 28-year-old design engineer at the Baldwin County Highway Department, to the Alabama State Board of Education. Brown graduated in 2007 from Pensacola Christian College and attended Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, graduating in 2011.

Bentley hasn’t been what you’d call a friend to public schools, given his support for tax credits, vouchers and charter schools. This year he signed into law legislation that amended the 2013 Alabama Accountability Act and that diverts up to $30 million a year from the Education Trust Fund for “opportunity scholarships”  (vouchers). He also recently signed a law allowing charter schools to open in Alabama and giving a new state commission the right to overturn a local school district’s rejection of specific charter applications. (So much for the traditional Republican love of all things local).

Now, Bentley has appointed Brown, a man with absolutely no history of participation of even interest in helping public schools to represent his district on the state Board of Education.  In his announcement statement, Bentley said that he was “honored” to appoint Brown, who would bring “a unique perspective to the position.” Unique indeed.

As public education activist Larry Lee noted in a post on his education blog, Bentley “has appointed someone to state board of education with no known involvement ever with public schools (did not attend them and says his kids will not) and who led the battle in <arch to defeat a school tax vote in his home county and wants us to believe this is the best candidate in seven counties to make decisions about a statewide system with a $4.1 billion budget and 90,000 employees.”

Lee, the former executive director of the Covington County Economic Development Commission and the West Central Partnership of Alabama, said the appointment of Brown “stunned educators.” Lee, who was the lead author of a report about outstanding rural schools in Alabama a few years ago, noted that Bentley was aware of opposition to Brown’s selection but ignored it.

Meanwhile, the Tuscaloosa News reported that none other than Bentley has been named vice chair of the National Governors Association’s education and workforce committee. A Bentley statement said:

“Alabama has made significant strides in preparing students for success in college and their careers. As governors, we are uniquely positioned to influence federal legislation and regulations that affect education and workforce policies. I look forward to sharing Alabama’s success in the area of workforce development with other governors.”

Who appointed him? According to the News, he was just appointed during the association’s summer conference by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, chair of the National Governors Association, and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the group’s vice chair. Herbert is a Republican; McAuliffe a Democrat.

Here is a letter that Lee has sent to Bentley about the Brown appointment and other education issues:

Governor Bentley:

As you are aware, your recent announcement that you were appointing Matt Brown of Fairhope to replace Al Thompson on the State Board of Education has created a great deal of controversy, especially in the public education community and in Baldwin County.

There was a vote to increase local support for schools in Baldwin County in March. This was an extremely contentious and divisive issue.  This is one of the fastest growing school systems in Alabama. Their student population has grown 24.5% in the last 10 years and today they are the fourth largest system in Alabama.

Given this, many public officials and education personnel, worked feverishly to gather support for the vote. The face of the opposition was Matt Brown, who created and headed the anti-tax 

Alabama’s governor makes surprising — and scary — education appointment - The Washington Post:

Cook: Think tank's effort to discredit teachers union fails

Cook: Think tank's effort to discredit teachers union fails:

Cook: Think tank’s effort to discredit union fails

Public school employees work in a field that is both challenging and rewarding. Their dedication to their students and their profession should be recognized and lauded. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Public school employees have not been treated well by politicians and special interest groups in recent years.

One group in particular, the Mackinac Center, has spent considerable time and resources attacking public education and school employees. The center, which touts itself as a “think tank,” is corporately funded. These corporations seek to carve out their profit from taxpayers who fund the $15 billion public school budget. They use their investment in the Mackinac Center to fund one sided “studies” attacking public schools, which are then repeated as fact by the media. Those same corporations (and their campaign contributions) hold considerable influence over the Republican Legislature.

The studies are peddled to legislators, imploring them to privatize public education, which in turn enriches the corporations who fund the Mackinac Center. The return on those corporate investments is evident, as shown by the dramatic growth of privatization in public schools. The wave of private sector profit making began with support services, such as custodial/maintenance and food services and continues with the increase in on-line cyber schools at the expense of funding traditional neighborhood schools. The Mackinac Center’s push for privatization of public education led lawmakers to remove the cap on for-profit charter schools—making Michigan home to the largest number of for-profit charters in the nation.

The Michigan Education Association has stood as the one road block to this scheme, fighting for and defending public education and those who work in our public schools. As such, the Mackinac Center has conducted expensive campaigns attempting to persuade MEA members to quit the union. The center purchased full page newspaper ads, conducted robo calls to MEA members, created Facebook pages, sent emails to taxpayer funded school email addresses, sent Twitter feeds, and mailed letters and postcards urging MEA members to leave their union.

The campaign, now in its third year has been a bust, as MEA has retained over 90 percent of its membership since the “right to work” law was passed. The solicitation to MEA members has failed for one simple reason: The Mackinac Center lacks credibility with school employees. School employees are well aware of the center’s agenda, which goes far beyond the privatization of public schools. The Center has supported every attack on school employee wages, benefits and collective bargaining rights put forth by the legislature. The Mackinac Center even calls for privatization of the school employee pension system.

Some find it curious that an “independent think tank” which claims to study public Cook: Think tank's effort to discredit teachers union fails:

Campbell Brown Plans to Explain Common Core | deutsch29

Campbell Brown Plans to Explain Common Core | deutsch29:

Campbell Brown Plans to Explain Common Core

Campbell Brown is going to help America understand what Common Core really is.



 So she says as part of her July 28, 2015, interview with Jon Ward of Yahoo! Politics:

What we want to do with Common Core is explain it. Just put honesty and truth back into the debate….

I just published a book on the history, development, and promotion of Common Core, Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools? (TC Press, June 2015), and I have news for Campbell Brown:

Common Core did not begin in “honesty and truth,” and you cannot “put back” what was not present to begin with.

If Common Core was officially completed in June 2010, why would there be confusion in 2015 over what Common Core actually is?

Simple: Common Core is yet another top-down reform; it started years before it made its 2010 public appearance, and much of the planning and promoting that led to the June 2010 release of Common Core was chiefly orchestrated by relatively few politically-positioned individuals.

That is why there is confusion in 2015 over a Common Core that publicly emerged in 2010.

What is amusing is that Campbell Brown thinks that she and her staff of 12 will produce some pieces focused on Common Core and clear up the issue once and for all. The problem is that Common Core was politically birthed, and much of that “public confusion” is the delayed consequence of governors and state superintendents deciding that they would adopt Common Core in their states before there was even a Common Core product to examine.

In her Yahoo! interview, Brown states that she wants to “restore some of the nuance and thoughtfulness to the debate around Common Core.”

Well, here’s a nuance for Brown: At the June 2009 National Governors Association (NGA) summit, 46 states and 3 territories already signed on for a Common Core yet to be written but already declared to be connected to federally-funded consortia-produced tests.

Common Core was never intended to be separated from high-stakes testing. So, for Campbell Brown Plans to Explain Common Core | deutsch29: