Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink | janresseger

Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink | janresseger:

Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink

Here is what Wikipedia says about Grover Norquist:  “Grover Glenn Norquist…  is an American political advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases…. A Republican, he is the primary promoter of the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” a pledge signed by lawmakers who agree to oppose increases in marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses, as well as net reductions or eliminations of deductions and credits without a matching reduced tax rate. Prior to the November 2012 election, the pledge was signed by 95% of all Republican members of Congress and all but one of the candidates running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination… Norquist’s national strategy has included recruiting state and local politicians to support ATR’s stance on taxes.”

How has Norquist described the goal of his campaign against taxes? “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

You might imagine that Norquist is a kind of nut case, but lots of people have signed his pledge. In Ohio, my super-majority Republican state, for years and years our legislative leaders have been signing Norquist’s pledge and cutting taxes. Last week, the Plain Dealerdescribed the plight of municipalities in Ohio caused by a rash of state tax cuts that have diminished funds the state has in the past allocated for essential services.  Although the economy has begun to spring back from the 2008 recession, Cleveland’s Mayor Frank Jackson is reported to have explained that Cleveland, “just cannot compete with a series of policies at the state level that, he says, rob local governments….  The Local Government Fund was created in 1935, as a promise to Ohioans that their support of the state’s first sales tax would mean that 40 percent of collections would come back to local governments and schools… In 2011, however, Gov. John Kasich, faced with an $8 billion shortfall, proposed a state budget that cut 25 percent of local government funding the following year and 50 percent in 2013…. By 2015, Cleveland’s annual share  of the Local Government Fund had been whittled to $26.5 million—a net loss of $29.5 million (annually) from pre-recession levels.” In 2005, former Governor Bob Taft and the legislature eliminated a tangible personal property tax on income and equipment that had helped fund municipal governments and school districts. They replaced it with a Commercial Activities Tax, which was then slashed by Governor Kasich and the legislature in 2011.  “Also built into Kasich’s 2011 budget bill was the controversial abolition of the estate tax.”  And finally at the end of 2014, Governor Kasich and the legislature passed a law to standardize and streamline Ohio’s income tax, a plan that will take effect in 2016 and further reduce state funding for municipalities and school districts (separate taxing jurisdictions in the state of Ohio).

It is axiomatic in public finance: if the federal government cuts taxes and the state Economy Grows But State Funding for Public Schools Continues to Shrink | janresseger:

How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards - Fortune

How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards - Fortune:

How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards

When Exxon Mobil, GE, Intel, and others pushed for the education standards, they incurred the wrath of Tea Party conservatives and got a painful lesson in modern politics.

In February 2014, two of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates and Charles Koch, dined together at a West Coast restaurant.

They made quite the odd couple: the Seattle Microsoft  MSFT -3.06%  co-founder, now devoting his time and fortune to changing the world, and the Kansas industrialist, still running his private conglomerate while working to shrink government to the size of a pea.

The two discussed many subjects and even touched, diplomatically, on topics they disagree about, such as climate change. There was a second sensitive subject that Gates broached, and it didn’t come up by chance. His team at the Gates Foundation had engaged in a process it calls a “faction analysis” and identified Koch as a key opponent on a crucial issue. Gates had a mission that night: He wanted to persuade Koch to change his mind about Common Core.

The two men were bankrolling opposite sides in a raging war over the future of American education. Through his charitable foundation, Gates has spent more than $220 million on the Common Core education standards, aimed at boosting the dismal performance of American children. Starting in 2010, 45 states adopted the benchmarks—which spell out what kids from kindergarten through high school should learn in reading and math—with little controversy. But a backlash ensued, and by early 2014 the standards were under fierce political attack, facing repeal in many states. Koch and his brother David were sponsoring several Tea Party–aligned groups that were fueling the rebellion.

The ABCs of Common Core

• Replacing a hodgepodge of separate guidelines in 50 states, Common Core aims to provide a rigorous, more focused nationwide blueprint for what students should know at each grade in math and English language arts.
• It seeks to improve the U.S.’s poor educational performance relative to other countries’, making graduates “college- and career-ready” and assuring the nation’s economic competitiveness.
• It’s paired with new standardized tests to measure progress in meeting the new standards and to allow comparisons among states.
• Though developed without government funds, Common Core received a boost from Race To The Top, a competition for federal education grants, prompting unexpectedly rapid adoption.

Now Gates tried to convince his dinner companion that opposing Common Core was bad both for Koch Industries, which employs 60,000 Americans, and the rest of U.S. business. “Bill talked to Koch to understand what his concerns were and to explain what he thought was the potential and the promise for the Common Core,” says Allan Golston, president of the U.S. program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “When someone doesn’t believe in what you’re doing, it’s important to engage with them.”

But Koch wasn’t willing to engage with Gates on the issue. Instead, like a senator politely brushing off a constituent, he gave Gates the name of one of his staffers who focuses on the subject and suggested Gates call the staffer. The Microsoft billionaire left empty-handed. (Both men declined to discuss their dinner.)

This extraordinary tête-à-tête is just one example of how the war over Common Core has personally engaged—and bedeviled—some of America’s most powerful business leaders. Hugely controversial, it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.

In truth, Common Core might not exist without the corporate community. The nation’s business establishment has been clamoring for more rigorous education standards—ones that would apply across the entire nation—for years. It views them as desperately needed to prepare America’s future workforce and to bolster its global competitiveness. One measure of the deep involvement of corporate leaders: The Common Core standards were drafted by determining the skills that businesses (and colleges) need and then working backward to decide what students should learn.

Organizations such as the Business Roundtable have devoted considerable effort to the initiative. The education chair for that association of CEOs, Exxon Mobil  XOM -1.59%  chief Rex Tillerson, has played a particularly prominent role. A stern, commanding figure with an Old Testament glare and a chewy Texas drawl, Tillerson is an unlikely person to lead a campaign of persuasion. (Never a fan of the press, he declined to speak to Fortune for this article.)

Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, has led the Business Roundtable’s advocacy for common core. The staunch Republican has found himself accused of promoting big government.Photo: Susana Vera— Reuters

But Tillerson has taken on the challenge with trademark intensity. He has pressed other CEOs to join the cause, spread the word by appearing at education summits, underwritten TV advertisements, and personally called legislators in multiple states to press for their support. His company went so far as to cut off campaign contributions to some politicians—even those who support the oil and gas industry—who spurned Tillerson’s entreaties on Common Core.

Other companies have been much more timid or have retreated in the face of the controversy. For example, General Electric  GE -2.22% —once among Common Core’s biggest supporters—has fled the fight after becoming a Tea Party target. “There’s a somewhat unwritten rule that if you’re a CEO, you only get your business involved in an issue that rewards your company in some fashion,” says former Intel chief Craig Barrett. Education reform is “such a hot topic,” especially as Common Core made it “more of a tar baby,” that “it’s sometimes difficult to get people enthusiastic,” he adds. “A lot of people just sit on the sidelines.” Adds Barrett, with exasperation: “It’s turned into a political food fight instead of an education discussion … The hope is that rational minds will prevail.”

This is a story about the role Big Business has played in the war over Common Core: how a handful of executives helped turn a decades-old ambition for education reform into reality, their fumbling bewilderment at finding themselves assailed by opposition they didn’t expect or understand, and how they’ve regrouped and rallied to defend what they wrought. It’s a high-stakes conflict that has generated breathtaking political flip-flops (see “The Flip-floppers and the Wafflers”) and upended traditional alliances, turning natural bedfellows into bitter enemies. It has seen some of the nation’s foremost capitalists accused of promoting an “immoral,” “freedom-robbing,” “socialist agenda,” aimed at turning America’s children into “mindless drones for the corporate salt mines.”

Along the way it has reinforced the depth of a growing divide that once would have seemed inconceivable: the gap between America’s most ardent conservatives and Big Business, which the former increasingly view as part of an undifferentiated “establishment” and hence nearly as odious as government. For now, Common Core has established itself in the vast majority of states and seems to be taking root. But the conflict over this issue shares many traits with the crusades over Obamacare, and one of them is this: Its most fervent opponents show not the slightest sign of relenting.

Protesters outside a State Board of Education meeting in Irvine, Calif. in 2014.Photo: Anna Reed—The Orange County Register/Zumapress.com

For decades, CEOs have bemoaned the state of U.S. education—with justification. American 15-year-olds ranked 27th out of 34 industrialized countries in math, and 17th in reading in the most recent international tests. Colleges complain that significant percentages of their entering freshmen require a remedial course. Businesses say they How Business Got Schooled in the War Over Common Core Standards - Fortune:

We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician : NPR Ed : NPR

We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician : NPR Ed : NPR:

We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician

Diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are up around 30 percent compared with 20 years ago. These days, if a 2-year-old won't sit still for circle time in preschool, she's liable to be referred for evaluation, which can put her on track for early intervention and potentially a lifetime of medication.

In an editorial just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, Dimitri Christakis argues that we've got this all wrong. He's a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Children's Hospital in Seattle.

Parents, schools and doctors, he says, should completely rethink this highly medicalized framework for attention difficulties.

"ADHD does a disservice to children as a diagnosis," Christakis tells NPR Ed.

Here's why. Researchers are currently debating the nature of ADHD. They have found some genetic markers for it, but the recent rise in diagnoses is too swift to be explained by changes in our genes. Neuroscientists, too, are finding brain wiring patterns characteristic of the disorder.

But the current process of diagnosis amounts to giving a questionnaire to parents and doctors. If they identify six out of nine specific behaviors, then the child officially has ADHD.

"If you fall on this side of the line, we label and medicate you," says Christakis. "But on the other side of the line, we do nothing."

This process is, necessarily, subjective. But there's an awful lot of infrastructure and, frankly, money behind it, especially in our education system. A clinical diagnosis of "chronic or acute" attentional difficulties gives public school students a legal right to special accommodations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. But a child who falls just short of that diagnosis is left without any right to extra support.

Christakis says that, instead, we should be thinking more about a spectrum of "attentional capacity" that varies from individual to individual and situation to situation.

Think of it as a bell curve: On the far left would be someone like Thomas Edison, Mr. "Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration," laboring for weeks or months on a single problem. On the far right is someone with severe ADHD.

Attentional capacity, Christakis says, is chief among a cluster of non-academic skills that education researchers have recently become very excited about: executive We're Thinking About ADHD All Wrong, Says A Top Pediatrician : NPR Ed : NPR:

Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools

Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools:

Debt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools

Lansing — The debt payments of Detroit Public Schools — already the highest of any school district in Michigan — are set to balloon in February to an amount nearly equal to the school district’s payroll and benefits as the city school system teeters on the edge of insolvency.

Detroit Public Schools has to begin making monthly $26 million payments starting in less than a month to chip away at the $121 million borrowed this school year for cash flow purposes and $139.8 million for operating debts incurred in prior years. The city school system’s total debt payments are 74 percent higher from last school year.

The debt costs continue to mount while Gov. Rick Snyder and the Legislature remain at odds over how to rescue Michigan’s largest school district. A bankruptcy of the district could leave state taxpayers on the hook for at least $1.5 billion in DPS debt.

The school district’s payroll and health care benefits are projected to cost $26.8 million in February — meaning the debt payments will be 97 percent of payroll. General fund operating debt payments that exceed 10 percent of payroll are “a major warning flag,” municipal bond analyst Matt Fabian said.

“That’s extremely high,” said Fabian, managing director of Municipal Market Advisors in Concord, Massachusetts, who also followed the city of Detroit’s bankruptcy case. “That’s no longer, really, a normal school district. The school district has turned into a debt-servicing entity. It’s making its own mission impossible.”

As a result, the Detroit district won’t have enough cash to pay any bills in four months.

“We’re running out of money in April,” said Marios Demetriou, deputy superintendent of finance and operations at DPS. “We need help to fix the school district once and for all. Our kids deserve a good education and when you don’t have cash there are things that are lacking.”

Financial analysts say the skyrocketing debt payments owed to the state expose an unprecedented amount of money being diverted from classroom instruction to pay off past debts, even as the city school system eliminates 100 central office jobs this month.

The Detroit district’s payments on old debts — some dating back a decade or longer— amount to $3,019 of the $7,296 per student grant the district will receive from the state this school year, a Detroit News analysis of public records shows.

“That’s $3,000 that isn’t available for each kid this year, and it pays for the education of kids 10 to 15 years ago,” said Craig Thiel, senior research associate at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. “They’re as close as they’ve ever been toDebt payments set to balloon for Detroit Public Schools: 

The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths - Quartz

The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths - Quartz:

The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths

Are you a visual learner who writes notes in a rainbow of different colors, or do you have to read something aloud before it will sink it? Chances are, you’ve been asked a similar question at some point in your life, and believe the concept of different “learning styles” is perfectly valid. But, as Quartz reported in December, we all learn in fundamentally similar ways. And, as New York magazine reports, the idea that students learn differently depending on their personal preference for visual, auditory or kinesthetic queues is just a myth.

In fact, it’s considered a “neuromyth,” which, as Paul Howard-Jones, professor of neuroscience and education at Bristol University, writes in a 2014 paper on the subject, is characterized by a misunderstanding, misreading, or misquoting of scientifically established facts.

Other examples of neuromyths include that we only use 10% of our brain, and that drinking less than six to eight glasses of water a day will cause the brain to shrink.

“Perhaps the most popular and influential myth is that a student learns most effectively when they are taught in their preferred learning style,” writes Howard-Jones.

Indeed, studies have shown strong cross-cultural belief in this concept. In 2012, researchers asked 242 teachers from the UK and the Netherlands whether various neuromyths were scientifically correct. The concept of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles was the most trusted myth: Some 93% of UK teachers and 96% of Netherland teachers believed it was true. (The second most commonly believed myth was that left- or right-brain dominance affected learning.)

In December, Philip Newton, professor at Swansea University’s College of Medicine, searched for “learning styles” articles freely available on research databases, to get a sense of the impression a teacher might get if they did a cursory search on the subject. He found that, though The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths - Quartz:

How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief - LA Times

How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief - LA Times:

How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief

 On his first day back as the head of the nation's second-largest school system,Ramon C. Cortines paid an unlikely visit to the headquarters of United Teachers Los Angeles. The union had a tense relationship with former Supt. John Deasy, and was pushing toward a possible strike over stalled contract talks.

Cortines met union officials on their turf: He wanted to show that there would be no barriers between him and teachers.

With that step, Cortines set himself apart from his predecessor. It was one of many moves that Cortines made during his 14 months at the helm of the L.A. Unified School District that set the standard for the next superintendent.

The Board of Education is now seeking a leader who will follow his model.

Cortines, 83, came out of retirement in October 2014 to steady the school system after Deasy's tumultuous tenure. He undid some of Deasy's most controversial policies, including canceling a $1.3-billion technology plan that originally had sought to provide every student with an iPad. He also spent millions to repair a malfunctioning online records system that created errors in transcripts and left many high school students stuck in auditoriums without classes or placed them in the wrong ones. And he won labor peace with a double-digit pay raise and by giving the union some say in teacher discipline practices.

Though some civic leaders still favor someone with Deasy's aggressive agenda for change, district officials described Cortines' leadership as both calming and productive, particularly on matters that affected students.

"This has nothing to do with being aggressive, but with whether the next superintendent pursues an agenda unilaterally," said school board President Steve Zimmer. "The next superintendent will need to collaborate with our community, our parents, our Board of Education and our labor partners."

None of the candidates is strongly associated with a particular ideological agenda for reshaping education. Some board members don't want that sort of leader; others simply realize that they won't get the full board to agree on a reform agenda to follow.

No finalists' names have been released, but some candidates who have been under serious consideration include San Francisco Supt. Richard Carranza and Miami Supt. Alberto Carvalho. Both have worked well with their local school boards. St. Louis Supt. Kelvin Adams has worked collaboratively with unions and also a local charter school group.

In L.A. Unified, Chief Deputy Supt. Michelle King worked directly for Cortines and has decades of experience within the district, replicating Cortines' familiarity with the system. And Fremont Unified Supt. Jim Morris preceded King in a similar post under Cortines and other L.A. district leaders before he left.

King is serving as acting superintendent until a choice is made. The board will meet behind closed doors Tuesday to continue its deliberations.

Board members, some of whom had been marginalized under Deasy, are seeking a more inclusive leader. Cortines proved that path was effective, they said.

In addition, Cortines' strategy was to focus on making progress school by school and on selecting and nurturing leaders who would act independently.

It was a style that differed sharply from that of Deasy, who sought sweeping changes to district policies and even education law, including an effort to limit teacher job protections through litigation. Deasy successfully cultivated a leading national position among like-minded reformers.

"Reform is not rhetoric," Cortines said in a recent interview. "And it is not passion. It is getting dirt under your fingernails. Let me tell you, this district has to be managed. It is a $12-billion business."

Among Cortines' first acts was restoring a relationship with the teachers union. He succeeded in negotiating a new contract that called for a 10% raise over two years. The How Ramon Cortines set the standard for the next L.A. schools chief - LA Times:

 

Big Education Ape: Ramon Cortines resigns from Scholastic board | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times http://bit.ly/1MPhjsk

Big Education Ape: Settlement over alleged Cortines harassment could unravel - latimes.com http://bit.ly/1MPhkwo

ASD views show politics key to successful school reform

ASD views show politics key to successful school reform:

ASD views show politics key to successful school reform

Tennessee’s Legislative Black Caucus Calls On State-Run School District To “Stand Down" | Nashville Public Radio http://bit.ly/1RlTaQk

The Achievement School District was in the news again last month when the Tennessee Black Caucus joined the Democratic Caucus in calling for a moratorium on the conversion of new schools into the ASD.

Two weeks ago, the Shelby County School Board made a similar appeal.

In both cases, lawmakers and elected officials noted a recent study that found modest gains in math and no significant improvements in reading for ASD schools.

The Black Caucus’ reluctance to endorse the conversion of more schools to the ASD is not surprising.  But the reasons go beyond test scores.

In an effort to unpack the political controversy surrounding the ASD, my colleagues and I have conducted dozens of interviews with Memphis community leaders, legislators, ASD staff, charter operators, and district officials.

THE TENNESSEAN

Tennessee Black Caucus calls for ASD moratorium

What we have learned is that the starkly differing opinions about the ASD are rooted in the experiences of Memphis’ African American community with a century of discrimination, segregation and desegregation, and more recently the departure of six suburban communities from the Shelby County School District.

These experiences shape the way that many Memphians view the ASD.

For example, many of our respondents described the diversion of dollars from the district to the ASD as yet another example of the state denying Memphis its fair share of resources.  Likewise, the perception that the ASD replaces local teachers with a seemingly disproportionate number of white teachers has stoked fears about job security in the African American community.

Other Memphians are simply offended at the notion that outside organizations think they can somehow “fix” Memphis.

Of course, ASD supporters see the ASD in an entirely different light.  To them, the ASD is a bold attempt to shake up a system that has under-performed for too long; to introduce much needed competition; to push resources down to the level of the school; and to prioritize the needs of students over adult interests.

THE TENNESSEAN

Vanderbilt report casts doubt on ASD efforts

The language they use to describe the ASD varies — partner, competitor, change agent, policeman — but they share an understanding that the ASD seeks to improve learning outcomes and life opportunities among Memphis’ most disadvantaged. They believe it is too early to judge the ASD’s effectiveness.

Joshua Glazer (Photo: Submitted)

Regardless of one’s perspective, there is little doubt that the ASD’s inability to meet its very ambitious student outcome goals has left it vulnerable to criticism.

No less important, however, is that the divisive politics around the ASD detracts from the region’s capacity to sustain commitment over time, learn from experience, and make incremental improvements to strategy.

School reform initiatives everywhere can fail for a variety of reasons, but nothing is more damaging than our national penchant to try something new and then hit the reset button after dramatic results fail to quickly materialize.

How can Memphis avoid this fate that has undermined reform in so many other ASD views show politics key to successful school reform:

Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools - Editorials - Ohio

Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools - Editorials - Ohio:

Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools

This is the year that improved oversight, transparency and accountability come to charter schools in Ohio. State lawmakers finally have taken action to repair a governing system that has become the object of national ridicule, charter schools, many operated by for-profit management firms, tapping into public revenues without delivering adequately in the classroom. Now there is the opportunity for something much better.

This past week, Doug Livingston, the Beacon Journal education writer, reinforced why action was necessary. He reported the story of how state officials miscast what has been happening in Ohio. The information they provided federal investigators was incomplete. Those investigators are looking into whether the state Department of Education has been managing charter schools effectively.

Take the Next Frontier Academy in Akron. As Livingston noted, the charter school closed last year. What he discovered is that state auditors found the records so poorly kept that they couldn’t determine precisely how much public money was squandered. What is known is that the state routed $531,000 to the academy the past three years.

Because of the shabby record-keeping, auditors could not reach firm conclusions about school enrollment and finances. Thus, conveniently enough, the Next Frontier story could not be included in the information sent to federal investigators.

Next Frontier wasn’t alone, the records of other charter schools in similar disarray. That left the state in position to offer a rosier tally of the repayment required of poor performing charter schools.

Livingston also reported that the state proved loose in sharing just how much money was misspent by charter schools. This newspaper already has noted that charter schools are more likely to misspend public money than other government offices, accounting for 70 percent of the misspending during the past two years. Livingston added that the state told federal investigators about $6 million in unpaid audit findings the past seven years, when the actual amount, as reported by the state auditor, is $18.8 million.

Ohio recently won a $71 million grant as part of a federal effort to encourage the development of high-quality charter schools. Federal officials now are reassessing just how deserving the state is, especially in view of a state official, since resigned, who doctored the grades for some charter schools.

In December, the state unveiled a new and improved system for evaluating Ohio and its legacy of careless charter schools - Editorials - Ohio:

 

Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program

Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program:

Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program

U.S. investigated treatment of students with disabilities

Once again, WI public schools outperform taxpayer-funded voucher schools « Education Votes http://bit.ly/1RlPSwl

The U.S. Department of Justice has closed a long-running investigation into whether the Milwaukee private school voucher program discriminates against students with disabilities, with no apparent findings of major wrongdoing.

In a quiet conclusion to a probe that's drawn national attention, the Justice Department sent a letter to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on Dec. 23, saying that no further action is warranted beyond the materials it reviewed, meetings it conducted and changes it requested the DPI make to its administration of the Milwaukee voucher program two years ago — directives the DPI largely could not act upon under state law.

The Justice Department left the door open to investigating future complaints, according to the letter.

Disability Rights Wisconsin, one of the agencies that brought the 2011 complaint that spurred the investigation, may still pursue individual action on behalf of aggrieved families, managing attorney Monica Murphy said.

"I think there are families that feel their children's needs haven't adequately been served," Murphy said. "We went the DOJ route because it was a way of having a more systematic impact and having things apply across the board."

But voucher school advocates, who have criticized the probe as politically motivated and aimed at undermining the private, mostly religious schools that receive state money, saw the latest development as a win.

"Finally, after four years of a systematic, legally dubious investigation, there will be closure without any finding of discrimination in the school choice program," said Jim Bender, president of the advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin.

Complaint spurred probe

The American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Wisconsin complained to the Justice Department's Office for Civil Rights in June 2011 that the Milwaukee voucher program systematically excluded children with disabilities and segregated them in public schools.

Private schools that participate in the Milwaukee voucher program cannot deny students admission on the basis of a disability. But because voucher schools are private institutions, they are not legally bound to offer the same range of special education services or physical accommodations that public schools must provide under federal law. Voucher schools also get less money than public schools for special education services.

The Milwaukee voucher program allows qualifying children to attend a participating private school with a taxpayer-funded tuition voucher worth between about $7,000 and $8,000 annually.

Since the investigation was launched, Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation that extended vouchers to other private schools across the state. The 2015-'17 state budget also created a special needs voucher program,which will allow some students with disabilities to leave public schools and use a voucher worth about $12,000 annually to attend a private school starting in 2016-'17.

The letter from the Justice Department, obtained by a Journal Sentinel reporter from the Department of Public Instruction offices in Madison, says the DPI would forward any complaints received in the future about that new program to federal officials.

Practical impact

Over the past 41/2 years, parties on both sides of the complaint often struggled to get information about the status of the slow-moving federal investigation.

Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who supports voucher programs, became vocal in 2015, calling for the Feds quietly close long-running probe of Milwaukee voucher program:

Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities

Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities:

Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities

Charles Butt, the Texas billionaire magnate behind the H-E-B supermarket chain which forbid the open carry of firearms law that went into effect January 1, 2016, opposes school choice, funds anti-school choice lobbyists, and is even credited for his role in killing a 2011 state bill banning “sanctuary cities.”

Butt is the 2015 fourth richest Texan and Forbes’ 44th wealthiest person in America with a net worth of $10.7 billion known for funneling hard earned assets into educational lobby groups that fight school choice, although the 77-year-old grocer received a private Ivy League college education that included an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School and a master’s in business administration from Harvard. Texas Watchdog stated Butt believes that private competition “undermines government schools.”

His vested interest in Texas public education includes H-E-B handing out $800,000 a year to public education pursuits through the Excellence in Education Awards. In 2006, he founded Raise Your Hand Texas, which lists Butt as an advisor. The Texas Tribunedescribes Raise Your Hand Texas as a “seasoned lobbying force on education issues at the Capitol.”

However, Raise Your Hand Texas is a corporate sponsor of the Texas Tribune and Buttcontributed $500,000 to the Tribune in 2014, with his all-time contribution to them at $1,150,000. Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, primary funder of the Common Core State Standards, donated $249,763 to the Tribune.

Texas Watchdog charged Raise Your Hand Texas “pushes for increased public school funding while opposing every substantive education reform at the state legislature,” including supporting and funding candidates who oppose reform efforts to the state’s education system, and measures that expand parental rights.” The dubbed Butt a key player blocking school choice instead “propping up a faltering public monopoly.”

David Anthony, who heads up Raise Your Hand Texas, was one of 35 Texas public school superintendents instrumental in formulating a new vision for “future ready” classroomsunder the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), another powerful education lobby.

In 2015, Breitbart Texas reported on the jarring conflict-of-interest that arose at the onset of the state’s last legislative session because House Education Committee Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock’s daughter, Michelle Smith, works for Austin-based lobbyist powerhouse HillCo Partners, which Texas Monthly placed “at the top of the lobby pyramid” since 1998. Smith’s two key clients were Raise Your Hand Texas and Fast Growth School Coalition (FGSC), which promotes rapid growth and spending on building new public schools statewide. Public outcry over the father-daughter connection put Aycock’s chairmanship at risk. Breitbart Texas reported that Smith withdrew her lobbyist registration status at the onset of the 84th Legislature to thwart that outcome.

Butt also funds the Texas Parent PAC, the largest recipient of his 2014 contributions at $1,498,000 and recognized as a top “power PAC” in the state. Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), who appoints the House Education Committee, received $168,000 from Butt that year. Butt contributed $161,458 directly to the committee members, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Texas Watchdog highlightedthat the largest contribution chunk, $76,920 went to Straus’ committee chair pick Aycock (R-Killeen), also the lead author on the state’s 2013 college and career ready standards, House Bill 5.

Texas Parent PAC contributed another $81,931 to House Education Committee members, according to Texas Watchdog. The Parent PAC has proudly endorsed Aycock since his 2006 election, although he announced last summer he would not run again. In 2013, he voted against vouchers. Last year, Senate Bill 4, an education tax credit scholarship bill designed to help low-income and at risk K-12 students, was sidelined in the House Ways and Means Committee after passing in the Senate. The House never gave it a hearing.

Yet, in the 11th hour of the legislative session, the House flung House Bill 1891 out for a vote. This big government community schools initiative backed by the Texas American Federation of Teachers was the union’s solution to combat public charters, Breitbart Texas reported. Its inspiration was the American Federation of Teachers Promise Schools, a co-initiative with the Albert Shanker Institute, a proponent of Common Core state standards.

Like Raise Your Hand Texas, Texas Parent PAC opposes school choice, which Texas Grocery Magnate Forbids 'Open Carry,' Opposes School Choice, Supports Sanctuary Cities: