Milwaukee Community Protests State Takeover Tucked into State Budget without Debate | janresseger

Milwaukee Community Protests State Takeover Tucked into State Budget without Debate | janresseger:

Milwaukee Community Protests State Takeover Tucked into State Budget without Debate

Milwaukee’s public schools typify the kind of school district now undergoing state takeover in a wave of such imposition of “recovery” or “achievement” districts being rushed through state legislatures. The bills are often fast-tracked without legislative debate and without input from the communities where the takeovers are being imposed.   The Milwaukee Journal Sentineldescribes the provision—log-rolled into Wisconsin’s state’s budget when it passed on July 12, that grants Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, “broad authority to oversee a special district in Milwaukee for the city’s most troubled public schools…. The Program, devised by Republican state lawmakers from the suburbs, is designed to take some of the district’s lowest performing schools from the control of the Milwaukee School Board and put them under the control of Abele and a commissioner he selects, or directly under MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver, if she chooses to use that authority.”

But the Milwaukee community is pushing back.  On September 18, the Journal Sentineldescribes protesters “walking in” (instead of walking out) at 100 public schools across the city. At one of the rallies, Lukas Wierer, a public school civics teacher, declared: “We live in a representative democracy.  We get to elect our leaders who make decisions for us.  What these actions (legislative takeover) are saying is, ‘You the people of Milwaukee are not capable of choosing your own leaders, that representative democracy is not for you.'”

Kim Schroeder, president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, dissected the history of the state’s intervention in the  Milwaukee School District for Jeff Bryant, who describes the conversation in the newsletter of the Education Opportunity Network: “He (Schroeder) argues that funding what are essentially three separate school systems—the private voucher schools, the privately operated charters, and Milwaukee Public Schools—is driving the district toward financial insolvency. ‘We’re reaching a tipping point.  If more of our schools are chosen for privatization, MPS won’t exist in three to fine years.’  His concerns echo the MPS board president’s warning earlier this year that, according to an independent news outlet, the Walker-devised plan ‘would bankrupt the district by hijacking money and facilities from the district and into private but taxpayer-supported schools.'”

The Milwaukee “walk in” on September 18 was organized by a coalition of school and community organizations: Centro Hispano, Parents for Public Schools, Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin Jobs Now, NAACP Milwaukee Branch, Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), and Schools & Communities United.  In their statement, published in the Journal Sentinal, leaders of these organizations declare: “The plan threatens the entire Milwaukee school district—not just the schools identified for takeover.  More than 40% of children in Milwaukee already attend privately run charter or voucher schools.  When taxpayer money is taken away from public schools to fund privately run charter and voucher schools, public school students lose funding and opportunities… The takeover plan offers no new ideas or resources to help children succeed.  Milwaukee already has 25 years of experience with a failed voucher school program…. The takeover schools will leave students without critical services… School takeovers will eliminate good jobs in our city—particularly for African-Americans and Latinos…. Most significantly, Milwaukee Community Protests State Takeover Tucked into State Budget without Debate | janresseger:

What Is Democratic Education -- and Education for Democracy? - Bridging Differences - Education Week

What Is Democratic Education -- and Education for Democracy? - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

What Is Democratic Education -- and Education for Democracy?

Dear Harry and friends, 

So what do I know from experience, observation and research about the essentials of schooling for democracy?    I know that education which prepares the young to join and even surpass the adult world, where learning sticks with them, happens best (maybe only)  when the novice is in the company of experts who accept the child as is and takes it for granted that she will become an expert over time.  It requires that the adults demonstrate their expertise in action, and the novice can observe, ask questions, and try out new knowledge in a setting where he/she can fail without shame.  That's the setting children find themselves in at birth, with a ratio generally of several experts per novice.

 What are the special features of such learning?  The novice is accepted lovingly, is assumed to be able to become an expert (an adult), has many chances to observe and to experiment, and has good reason to trust the setting and the people there. Adults delight in children's early mistakes because we can see the beginning of understanding and competence.  We even cherish their mistakes.

 Most rarely reach such a space again in life which rich and poor share. 

 In schools everything described above is absent.  There are 20-30 novices and only one expert. The expert is not in a position to "show" but only to "tell."  There is no reason for the child to trust others in the setting--peers or experts. In fact there are lots of reasons for the child to distrust them.  More so for some children than others.

 I start with this question:  How can I create school settings that optimize the child's chance for success? Multi-age classrooms help, additional adults and smaller class sizes help, different activities that appeal to and engage a child's interests help, timely feedback without judgment and few interruptions help.  And more. We need a school--not just a classroom--that is trustworthy, where adults of many sorts, as well as fellow students younger and older, are inclined to be supportive.   We need teachers who respect their own judgment and their own ability to experiment, change their minds, act like adults.  There need to be reasons for the child to believe he or she is in a place that respects their family and community, where the child can freely share experiences in both domains--school and home--with teachers and parents. Young people have an uncanny awareness of when they or their family is disrespected.

 If we have in mind that children should spend a minimum of 13 or 14 years in such institutions in order to come out respecting democracy--even to recognize it --all these and more should be in place. 

 Am I being utopian?

 Deb

Deb and colleagues,

 Your description of democratic education is full of insight. I would say your elements of education encourage the development of agency in children, especially individual agency. You remind me of Nelson Mandela's "I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul," from the poem "Invictus."

 I've been learning about what's called "Executive Function" from child development scientists like Phil Zelazo and Stephano Carlson at the University of Minnesota. Executive function involves children's skills of mobilizing emotional and cognitive resources for intentional, self-directed action. They've found that executive function depends on a sense of agency. A sense of agency grows from experiences where children have opportunity to self-direct their efforts, with support, coaching, and encouragement. Just what you're describing.

 Let me emphasize another element. If education is not only democratic but also for democracyWhat Is Democratic Education -- and Education for Democracy? - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Hedge Funds Attack American Neighborhoods Again | PopularResistance.Org

Hedge Funds Attack American Neighborhoods Again | PopularResistance.Org:

Hedge Funds Attack American Neighborhoods Again

A new report by our colleagues at the Center for Popular Democracy and the ACCE Institute uncovers how hedge funds and private equity firms have quietly amassed mortgage notes to 200,000 homes in communities around the USA — and they’re getting special treatment from the government to aid their conquests.  

Hedge funds and private equity firms are getting big discounts when they buy the rights to collect homeowners mortgage payments – discounts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – the two government agencies that have refused to give similar discounts to homeowners that aren’t billionaires.

» read more

The billionaire private equity and hedge fund managers snapping up America’s homes from government lenders want to maximize their profits – and they’re set to make big bucks off the backs of regular middle-class homeowners, including many who were victims of predatory loans prior to the 2008 financial crisis. 

One large mortgage investor, The Loan Star Fund is offering only 5-year “interest only” modifications to borrowers, a mortgage type that was often cited as contributing to the subprime mortgage crisis. 

The CPD/ACCE Institute report details how fund managers are revictimizing borrowers in other ways, by failing to maintain rented properties or aggressively pursuing evictions and foreclosures.

In some cases, the institutions seeking to profit from homeowners are the very same ones who helped cause the financial crisis. 

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has purchased 5,000 non-performing home loans was found in May of this year to have mislead Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by selling them mortgage bonds backed by improperly-underwritten loans. As an investor in these non-performing loans, RBS stands to profit doubly from the housing crisis.

There is a better way. 

As the authors of the report note, HUD and FHFA can sell these mortgages to Consumer Financial Development Institutions, community non-profits who can help homeowners stay in their homes and repay their mortgages. 

As the titans of finance strengthen their stranglehold on the American economy, the report’s clarion call is a message that needs to be shared. 

HEDGE CLIPPERS IS HAPPY TO PRESENT THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF “PARTNER PAPERS” FROM COLLEAGUES IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE HEDGE FUND INEQUALITY EXPLOSION.  

Download the paper here:  Do Hedge Funds Make Good Neighbors REPORT June 2015

Take action here:  http://bit.ly/StopWallSt

Hedge Funds Attack American Neighborhoods Again | PopularResistance.Org:

Why Kindergarten in Finland Is All About Playtime (and Why That Could Be More Stimulating Than the Common Core) - The Atlantic

Why Kindergarten in Finland Is All About Playtime (and Why That Could Be More Stimulating Than the Common Core) - The Atlantic:

The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland

Forget the Common Core, Finland’s youngsters are in charge of determining what happens in the classroom.

“The changes to kindergarten make me sick,” a veteran teacher in Arkansas recently admitted to me. “Think about what you did in first grade—that’s what my 5-year-old babies are expected to do.”

The difference between first grade and kindergarten may not seem like much, but what I remember about my first-grade experience in the mid-90s doesn’t match the kindergarten she described in her email: three and a half hours of daily literacy instruction, an hour and a half of daily math instruction, 20 minutes of daily “physical activity time” (officially banned from being called “recess”) and two 56-question standardized tests in literacy and math—on the fourth week of school.

That American friend—who teaches 20 students without an aide—has fought to integrate 30 minutes of “station time” into the literacy block, which includes  “blocks, science, magnetic letters, play dough with letter stamps to practice words, books, and storytelling.” But the most controversial area of her classroom isn’t the blocks nor the stamps: Rather, it’s the “house station with dolls and toy food”—items her district tried to remove last year. The implication was clear: There’s no time for play in kindergarten anymore.

A working paper, “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?,” confirms what many experts have suspected for years: The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic—and at the expense of play. The late psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim, even raised the concern in an article for The Atlantic in 1987.

The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic—and at the expense of play.

Researchers at the University of Virginia, led by the education-policy researcher Daphna Bassok, analyzed survey responses from American kindergarten teachers between 1998 and 2010. “Almost every dimension that we examined,” noted Bassok, “had major shifts over this period towards a heightened focus on academics, and particularly a heightened focus on literacy, and within literacy, a focus on more advanced skills than what had been taught before.”

In the study, the percentage of kindergarten teachers who reported that they agreed (or strongly agreed) that children should learn to read in kindergarten greatly increased from 30 percent in 1998 to 80 percent in 2010.

Bassok and her colleagues found that while time spent on literacy in American kindergarten classrooms went up, time spent on arts, music, and child-selected activities (like station time) significantly dropped. Teacher-directed instruction also increased, revealing what Bassok described as “striking increases in the use of textbooks and worksheets… and very large increases in the use of assessments.”

But Finland—a Nordic nation of 5.5 million people, where I’ve lived and taught fifth and sixth graders over the last two years—appears to be on the other end of the kindergarten spectrum. Before moving to Helsinki, I had heard that most Finnish children start compulsory, government-paid kindergarten—or what Finns call “preschool”—at age 6. And not only that, but I learned through my Finnish Why Kindergarten in Finland Is All About Playtime (and Why That Could Be More Stimulating Than the Common Core) - The Atlantic:

2015’s Best and Worst States for Teachers | WalletHub®

2015’s Best and Worst States for Teachers | WalletHub®:

2015’s Best and Worst States for Teachers

Most educators don’t pursue their profession for the money. But that doesn’t justify paying teachers any less than they deserve, considering the profound difference they make in people’s lives. In reality, however, teachers across the U.S. are shortchanged every year — their salaries consistently fail to keep up with inflation — while the law demands they produce better students.

It’s no surprise that the high turnover rate within the field has been likened to a revolving door. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about a fifth of all newly minted public-school teachers leave their positions before the end of their first year. And nearly half of them never last more than five.

Besides inadequate compensation, other problems persist in the academic environment. Many teachers, especially novices, transfer to other schools or abandon the profession altogether “as the result of feeling overwhelmed, ineffective, and unsupported,” according to ASCD. Without good teachers who are not only paid reasonably but also treated fairly, the quality of American education is bound to suffer.

In order to help ease the process of finding the best teaching opportunities in the U.S. — and draw attention to the states needing improvement — WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 13 key metrics. Our data set ranges from the median starting salary to the projected number of teachers per student by year 2022. The results of our study, as well as additional insight from experts and a detailed methodology, can be found below.

1Main Findings2Ask the Experts

3Methodology

Source: WalletHub

Ask the Experts

Like any professional seeking an ideally balanced work situation and personal life, educators are no exception. Teachers must be able to make a reasonable living in order to meet the challenges of their profession. To propel the discussion, we asked a panel of experts to weigh in on teacher-2015’s Best and Worst States for Teachers | WalletHub®:

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg:

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements

The National Education Association (the union to which I used to belong) isconsidering an early endorsement of Hillary Clinton. This decision, like the American Federation of Teachers' endorsement of Clinton on July 11, would be a huge mistake.

One reason is that it would violate members' trust. As Peter Greene, Steven Singer, and Anthony Cody have noted, teacher voice is too often ignored in education reform conversations. If the NEA follows the AFT and makes a presidential primary endorsement without ample membership involvement, its teachers will feel silenced by their own union. Not only would that likely depress voter mobilization efforts andspark a backlash within the union, it also runs counter to the very principles of what a union is supposed to be.

An early Clinton endorsement would also be a mistake because she's a suboptimal candidate. While Clinton is far more union-friendly than anyone running for the Republican nomination, her labor credentials are significantly worse than her main challenger in the Democratic primary, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders has been a steadfast union supporter since the 1970s. His advocacy on behalf of workers as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the 1980s helped foster the growth of the city's socially-responsible business culture.

"Thanks to the enduring influence of the progressive climate that Sanders and his allies helped to create in Burlington," The Nation reported in June, "the city's largest housing development is now resident-owned, its largest supermarket is a consumer-owned cooperative, one of its largest private employers is worker-owned, and most of its people-oriented waterfront is publicly owned. Its publicly owned utility, the Burlington Electric Department, recently announced that Burlington is the first American city of any decent size to run entirely on renewable electricity."

Sanders has continued to advocate for the same causes in Congress over the past 25 years. In 1994, for example, he introduced the Workplace Democracy Act, legislation designed to strengthen collective bargaining rights. He currently supports theEmployee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workplaces to hold union elections, and plans to introduce a new Workplace Democracy Act this fall. He has "convened annual meetings of labor activists to help them develop more successful organizing and bargaining strategies" and still walks picket lines with workers.

To be fair, Clinton also supports the Employee Free Choice Act. Her campaign rhetoric is pretty pro-union, and the promises she makes in her video to NEA members don't sound all that different than those made by Bernie.

But Clinton's record is significantly worse than Sanders's. She served on the board of directors of Walmart -- which to this day remains one of the nation's most notoriously anti-union businesses -- from 1986 to 1992, for instance.

According to reports that surfaced in 2008, Clinton sat through dozens of board Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg:

Texas resistance to No Child Left Behind may not matter after rewrite | Viewpoints

Texas resistance to No Child Left Behind may not matter after rewrite | Viewpoints:

Texas resistance to No Child Left Behind may not matter after rewrite

Texas Commissioner of Education Michael Williams, pictured here addressing Eastside Memorial High School in southeast Austin, has said that Texas will continue to fight for local control in education accountability requirements under No Child Left Behind. RALPH BARRERA/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN

With the exception of the Common Core, there is perhaps no more hated federal education program than No Child Left Behind.

Forty-two of the fifty states have received NCLB waivers this year, including the Lone Star State on Tuesday, showing once again the difficulty of creating a one-size-fits-all solution for accountability in the nation’s public schools.

Comments by Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams make plain that Texas will continue to go to mat on certain elements of No Child Left Behind, even if it means jeopardizing millions in federal funding that is contingent on the state’s compliance with parts of the law.

The Department of Education granted Texas’ waiver on a conditional basis, meaning that in future years the state will need to use of specific teacher and principal evaluation systems statewide, something Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams rejected in a response Tuesday.

“Our state believes strongly in local control of our schools,” Williams said Tuesday. “As a result, we will continue discussing this specific point with the U.S. Department of Education, but they should not expect any shift in Texas’ position.”

Congress is currently in the process of revamping the 2001 law, which was modeled after the Texas accountability system created under Gov. George W. Bush.

While it is clear that the initiative has fallen out of favor with both liberals and conservatives, one thing should not be missed: There were significant gains in student performance that are directly attributable to No Child Left Behind. And there is evidence that the much bemoaned achievement gap narrowed as well.

Was the goal that all children would be proficient by 2014 under No Child Left Behind ever achievable? Not really.

But as Congress and others go to work dismantling the behemoth education reform built by conservative lawmakers, they should be sure that the newer, better and more reasonable version does not allow school districts and states to ignore the very real discrepancies in achievement for the nation’s most at-risk students.

If not testing, with all of its warts, then what?

The future of the law is unclear, especially with the sudden departure of House Speaker John Boehner., who was considered one of the principal architects of the rewrite. The U.S. House and Senate are negotiating how to blend their two bills in conference committee, but the choice of the next speaker may greatly affect whether the two chambers can produce something that President Obama is willing to sign.Texas resistance to No Child Left Behind may not matter after rewrite | Viewpoints:

US Educators Racist? School-To-Prison Pipeline Targeted By Arne Duncan Often A Diversity, Training Problem

US Educators Racist? School-To-Prison Pipeline Targeted By Arne Duncan Often A Diversity, Training Problem:

US Educators Racist? School-To-Prison Pipeline Targeted By Arne Duncan Often A Diversity, Training Problem

Ahmed Mohamed may be the most well-known student to be arrested at school, but he certainly wasn't the first. In Milledgeville, Georgia, there was  Salecia Johnson, a 6-year-old handcuffed after having a temper tantrum. In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, there was the unidentified 15-year-old booked after throwing Skittles on the bus. In San Jose, California, there was Adrian Crosby, an autistic 13-year-old charged after writing his name on the school sidewalk.

"It was horrendous," said Aida Crosby, Adrian's mother. "It is a very huge, bizarre thing culminating into [the fact that] now, my child has a criminal record."

As school shootings have increased in frequency, so has the police presence on grade and high school campuses. But in some places, due to everything from budget cuts to department loyalty, officers have begun to arrest students for lesser crimes, taking over administrators' role as the primary disciplinarians. Studies have found minority students are disproportionately affected by these systems, and they're often the most vulnerable to what's been termed the "school-to-prison pipeline," in which kids get arrested at a young age for something minor and end up spending their lives in jail for serious offenses later on.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants that trend to stop. In a speech Wednesday, he proposed that states and school districts curb student arrests and use the $15 billion saved to fund teacher raises at high-poverty schools. “Every day, as a society, we allow far too many young people to head down a road that ends in wasted potential. And sometimes, we are complicit in that journey to nowhere,” he said. “We need to do more to change that.”

Advocates say the school-to-prison pipeline may be real, but fixing it will require more than an Education Department initiative. Schools need to improve their environments, shift their policies and train their teachers to handle students without police intervention. They argue it could be symptomatic of a larger issue of institutionalized racism and misguided law enforcement.

"Too often, police are called in for things that are school crimes against school code -- not penal code," said Bryan Joffe, project director of education and youth development for the American Association of School Administrators, a professional organization in Alexandria, Virginia. "There's a role for police and security on our grounds, but it's not about policing the students in the building."

The number of school resource officers climbed nearly 40 percent between 1997 and 2007, with certain groups of students arrested more than others. Black students comprise less than one-fifth of the student population but represent one-third of students arrested for school-related incidents. Disabled students make up 12 percent of enrollment but 25 percent of school arrests, according to data from the Office of Civil Rights.

The issue of school security entered the spotlight after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, that killed 12 students and one teacher. It re-emerged as a national problem after a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, resulted in the deaths of 20 first-grade students and six adults. In the year and a half after the Sandy Hook massacre, there were more than 70 school shootings, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Aida Crosby said she was shocked when she got the phone call from police that her son had been accused of vandalism at school. Adrian's citation -- which NBC reported appears on his record as an arrest -- US Educators Racist? School-To-Prison Pipeline Targeted By Arne Duncan Often A Diversity, Training Problem:

“I don’t think Chris Christie learned anything”: Phony education “reform,” Facebook cash, and the real casualty — public school students - Salon.com

“I don’t think Chris Christie learned anything”: Phony education “reform,” Facebook cash, and the real casualty — public school students - Salon.com:

“I don’t think Chris Christie learned anything”: Phony education “reform,” Facebook cash, and the real casualty — public school students

Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Christie and Cory Booker were going to remake Newark's schools. Something got in the way

Q: As someone who spends a fair amount of time poking around in the smoldering wreckage of urban public education, I often get the sense that education reform advocates don’t have a plan for what’s going to happen to the kids reform leaves behind—the ones who remain in what’s left of the public schools after the traditional system has been disrupted. But in Newark, as you document in your new book “The Prize: Who’s In Charge of America’s Schools,”this was literally the case. There was no plan.

A: No, there really wasn’t a plan. What I heard the reformers saying was: ‘Well, it will shake out.’ The teachers in the schools that were closing would be laid off but the really good ones would be hired by charters so they’d still be in the community, and the kids would find their way back to good teachers. And I just thought, well, there’s so much in between closing the the schools and kids finding their way to good teachers. How is that going to happen? If you view the world as a business model, an idea like that looks like it makes sense but if you’re on the street living the lives of these children and these families it doesn’t happen so smoothly. I do think, by the way, that there’s some soul searching going on in lots of places about the top-down nature of reform—having outsiders with outside money come in and do reform tocommunities instead of with communities. The question of what happens to the other kids is one that’s been missing from the agenda and may now be finding its way onto it.

Your book starts with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to give $100 million to transform the Newark schools. One of the surprising parts of the story is just how involved Facebook was, including Sheryl Sandberg, who seems to have spent a lot of time encouraging reform leaders like Cory Booker to “lean in” and listen to the community.

Sandberg kept writing emails saying: ‘This piece is so important—it has to be a priority. What are you doing to have the community informed and involved?’ She was very aware of the fact that this was going to be announced on national television and that the community wasn’t going to know anything about it.

Of course, as you chronicle, the top-down vision of “disruptive transformation” won the day. But reading the book, it’s hard to imagine that this kind of reform could be done any way besides from above. Do you think this is the choice that people in Newark would have made if they’d been given the choice?

Do you mean would they choose to have the charter system expand and the district collapse? Someone said to me that they didn’t understand why there was so much opposition if there’s also so much of a constituency that wants to put their kids in charters in Newark. But the proponents and opponents are often the same people. They want to put their children in a charter school but they haven’t really reckoned with the cost of that. Somebody, probably somebody in their own family, or their neighbor, is going to get laid off. Or they might have another child who is in a district school and that school might suffer as a result of cutbacks or teacher upheaval, or the services the child has might disappear. Everybody in Newark is experiencing both trends at the same time.

They want to put their children in a charter school but they haven’t really reckoned with the cost of that. Somebody, probably somebody in their own family, or their neighbor, is going to get laid off. Or they might have another child who is in a district school and that school might suffer as a result of cutbacks or teacher upheaval, or the services the child has might disappear.

For all of her flaws, Superintendent Cami Anderson seems to have understood this. You quote her as telling a group of funders that *we’re raising the poverty level in Newark in the name of school reform.* She seemed very aware of the fact that blowing up the district was going to mean putting a lot of people out of work, especially low-skilled workers who’d earned decent wages and “I don’t think Chris Christie learned anything”: Phony education “reform,” Facebook cash, and the real casualty — public school students - Salon.com:

Despite Raging Scandals Builder's group urges Kevin Johnson to run for third term - Sacramento Business Journal

Builder's group urges Kevin Johnson to run for third term - Sacramento Business Journal:

Builder's group urges Kevin Johnson to run for third term

The political advocacy organization Region Builders Inc. has announced a "preemptive" endorsement of Mayor Kevin Johnson in hopes of seeing him run for a third term as mayor in 2016.

The action was announced Wednesday by Josh Wood, CEO of Region Builders. It follows an announcement by Johnson this week that he has hired a Democratic Party campaign director as a senior advisor.

“It's clear we need the mayor to run for a third term," said Wood. “We’re endorsing him and showing him that if he decides to run, the most powerful business group in Sacramento as far as supporting candidates and elections will be behind him.”

Officials with the mayor's office did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

Wood has worked closely with Johnson for the last few years. He was a chief architect of Johnson’s failed Measure L campaign, which would have reorganized the city under a "strong mayor" system. In 2013, Wood regularly flanked the mayor in events to rally support around the downtown arena.

And more recently, Wood recently served on the mayor’s task force on income inequality, which proposed a new minimum wage for the city earlier this month.

Sacramento political observer Barbara O'Connor said she did not know whether Johnson would run for a third term, but presumed that officials from Region Builders "have talked to him and want to cancel any competition for mayor."

"It's one of two things. They anticipate his running and want an early endorsement, or they are pushing him to run," said O'Connor, who is emeritus professor of communications for California State University Sacramento.

Speculation has grown in recent months whether former Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg would run for mayor. Steinberg has publicly said he would not upstage Johnson if Johnson sought a third term, but sources have said that Steinberg continues to privately discuss the possibility of a run.

The Region Builders announcement arrives two days after Johnson announced that he hired Crystal Strait as senior director of intergovernmental affairs. Strait, who most recently served as chief of staff to state Sen. Richard Pan, has worked as political director for both the California Democratic Party and for the re-election of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s in 2010.

“Crystal’s extensive experience is huge in our efforts to continue moving Sacramento forward,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday.

Allen Young covers state and city government, economic development, education and transportation.Builder's group urges Kevin Johnson to run for third term - Sacramento Business Journal:

Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars | Alan Singer

Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars | Alan Singer:

Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars

While the New York Times seems determined to promote charter schools, other news agencies and educational groups are expressing increased reservations about their lack of performance, excessive expense, and political and financial backing. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reports that 2,500 charter schools have failed since 2000. The list includes "ghost" schools that collected public funds but never served any students. These include 25 charter schools in Michigan that were awarded federal grants of between three and four million dollars in 2010-2011 but never opened. CMD estimates that during the last twenty years the charter school industry has received over three billion dollars in federal tax dollars that should have gone to public schools.

These are just some of the recent charter school debacles.

Florida's fifteen-year charter expansion program largely operated by private, for-profit, companies, cost billions of dollars in public funds. Although it is one of Florida's fastest growing "industries," there is virtually no public oversight of spending and performance. In the last five years, over fifty 56 charter schools in South Florida alone have been forced to close, mostly because of because of mismanagement. The companies that ran the closed schools owe large sums to local school districts for services not provided. A major supporter of Florida charter schools was former Governor and current Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.

In the state of Washington courts recently ruled against providing public money to charter schools, arguing that they lacked public accountability. The court case was brought by a coalition of civic groups including Washington Education Association, the League of Women Voters of Washington, El Centro de la Raza and the Washington Association of School Administrators. Washington Education Association is a union representing Washington state teachers.

In the financially strapped Chester Upland school district in Pennsylvania publicly funded, privately operated, charter schools, drained the resources from public schools that are on virtual life support. Pennsylvania requires the district to pay charter school operators $40,000 for every special education student enrolled in a charter, but the state only reimburses the district about $16,000. A majority of the districts 7,500 children now go to the charters. The district is now broke and public school teachersare working without pay. Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum sent his own children to the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School when he was a Senator. While in the Senate, Santorum voted in favor of a motion supporting charter schools and school vouchers.

In Nashville, Tennessee there is a backlash against charter schools led by school board member Will Pinkston. The Nashville school system ranks 54th out of 67 urban school systems in America in per-pupil funding. Meanwhile charters are currently costing the district about $75 million a year with projected increases to between $150 and $160 million. The charter expansion campaign in Nashville is led by the KIPP network that "partners" with the Walton (Walmart) Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates (Microsoft) Foundation, and the Dell (Computers) Foundation.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich, another Republican Party Presidential contender, has close ties with the state's charter schools. This summer, David Hansen, the school-choice chief in the Ohio Department of Education was forced to resign after Despite Big Problems Charters Attract Hedge Fund Support and Presidential Candidates Hungry for Dollars | Alan Singer: