Experts Reject Christie’s School Funding Idea: Steal from Poorest Schools to Aid Rich Suburbs | janresseger

Experts Reject Christie’s School Funding Idea: Steal from Poorest Schools to Aid Rich Suburbs | janresseger:

Experts Reject Christie’s School Funding Idea: Steal from Poorest Schools to Aid Rich Suburbs

In late June, Governor Chris Christie proposed an amendment to New Jersey’s state constitution for the purpose of imposing a new flat school funding plan across his state. Christie’s new idea is to give every school district across New Jersey the same per pupil state aid of $6,599. It would be up to local school districts to make up for cuts in what they now receive from the state, even though most poor school districts do not have the fiscal capacity to raise the rest. Christie’s stated reason is to lower taxes in the wealthy suburbs that have already been able to raise most of their school funding locally by levying millage on their local property.

In late June, the NY Times editorial board summarized the plan: “(A) flat amount would make it impossible for poor communities to provide a sound education for disadvantaged children who need classrooms with more resources.  The state is required by law to send more money to those communities because they simply don’t have the tax base or property values to raise additional revenues on their own.  The New Jersey Supreme Court mandated this approach inAbbott v. Burke, a case named for Raymond Abbott, a student in Camden who received no services for a learning disability and was barely literate at the age of 15.  The court ruled in 1990, and in many rulings since, that New Jersey was bound by the State Constitution to fund districts at a level that allows all children to receive an education that enables them to participate in the economy and a democratic society… The 31 New Jersey school districts…known as ‘Abbott Districts’ educate nearly a quarter of the state’s students, more than 40 percent of its poor children and 56 percent of its English language learners.”

Christie’s plan would neither account for the disparities in school districts’ capacities to raise local revenue (disparities growing from the very different valuation of taxable property from school district to school district) nor recognize a central principle of educational equity, namely that some children need more services at school and those services cost money. The political philosopher Benjamin Barber defines this principle clearly in his 1992 book on public education, An Aristocracy of Everyone: “Equality is achieved not by handicapping the swiftest, Experts Reject Christie’s School Funding Idea: Steal from Poorest Schools to Aid Rich Suburbs | janresseger:

The Political Crisis Machine and Education Reform Ad Infinitum | the becoming radical

The Political Crisis Machine and Education Reform Ad Infinitum | the becoming radical:

The Political Crisis Machine and Education Reform Ad Infinitum

We must imagine that if we were able to peak inside the imagination of politicians in the U.S., we would see only one scene on a loop:

Especially when our political leaders are addressing education, they cannot resist the urge to wallow in crisis discourse and to promise Utopian outcomes.

As I have documented before, the rush to declare public schools an abject failure and then offer prescriptions for bureaucratic reforms began at least in the 1890s with the Committee of Ten. Periodically, the exact same scenario repeats itself—not unlike the inevitable rebooting of superheroes that plagues the comic book industry, which can retell only the same origin stories over and over again.

In recent history, education reform experienced a Hulk-like transformation with A Nation at Risk (“We are in CRISIS!!!”) under Ronald Reagan—although it was a lie—spurring the accountability era.

Education reform over the past thirty years has been an endless parade of NEW!!! standards and NEW!!! high-stakes tests as well as a silly string of inane names for political policies that appear to have been generated by an Orwellian computer program: Goals 2000: Educate America Act, No Child Left Behind, Every Student Succeeds Act.

At their core, however, has been the same-old-same-old: Education is in CRISIS!!! but here is the reform solution (just like the last reform solution).

If politics is anything in the U.S., it is finding yourself in a hole and continuing to dig.

And thus: No Time to Lose How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State:

This first report explains why there’s no time to lose in rebuilding state education systems. However NCSL’s study group still has questions—and surely the reader does too—about how to design and implement these systemic changes in the states. Where should legislators begin—teacher recruitment or preparation, standards, assessments, early learning? How should states realign their resources? Do some of these policies fit together better into an actionable package? There is still much to learn and discover.

This report combines the CRISIS!!! we have come to expect with the breezy tone of an NPR story on education.

The opening of the Executive Summary reads like a brilliant parody from The Onion— filled with false but enduring claims:

The bad news is most state education systems are falling dangerously behind the world in a number of international comparisons and on our own National Assessment of Educational Progress, leaving the United States overwhelmingly underprepared to succeed in the 21st century economy.

Fact Check: Decades of evidence have proven that there is NO CORRELATION between measurable The Political Crisis Machine and Education Reform Ad Infinitum | the becoming radical:

Education advocates and experts Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto Jr. discuss Historic CCJEF lawsuit - Wait What?

Education advocates and experts Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto Jr. discuss Historic CCJEF lawsuit - Wait What?:

Education advocates and experts Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto Jr. discuss Historic CCJEF lawsuit

With the final arguments now completed in the school funding case of CCJEF v. Rell, the judge has five months’ worth of testimony to use when making the critically important decision about whether Connecticut’s school funding formula is unconstitutional.

While the parties will undoubtedly appeal the decision to the Connecticut Supreme Court, this case is the pivotal step to force the state of Connecticut to adopt a state education cost sharing formula that ensures that all Connecticut children have access to a quality education.

Click on the video for a 15 minute wrap up of the key issues of the case by education advocates Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto Jr.

Additional media coverage can be found at:

Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CCJEF) vs Malloy (and Rell) (Wait, what?)

As Decade-Old Lawsuit Winds Down, Plaintiffs Say Education Is Path to Cure(WNPR)

Lawsuit alleges disparity in school funding (CT Post)

In Closing Arguments, State Acknowledges Challenges But Defends School Financing System (Courant)

CT school funding on trial: 5 key questions facing the judge (CT Mirror)



Education advocates and experts Wendy Lecker and Robert Cotto Jr. discuss Historic CCJEF lawsuit - Wait What?:

Charter Schools: 25th Anniversary and More to Come (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Charter Schools: 25th Anniversary and More to Come (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Charter Schools: 25th Anniversary and More to Come (Part 1)

Charter schools are here to stay. Since 1991 when Minnesota became the firststate to charter new schools free of most state education regulations, 43 states and the District of Columbia have now authorized 6400 charter schools run by non-profit and for-profit organizations. As of 2014 charters house nearly three million students or about six percent of the U.S. public school enrollment. These charters are public schools governed by separate boards of parents, teachers, entrepreneurs, etc. Charters receive state funds for each student enrolled equivalent to state funds for a regular public school next door. These new and largely autonomous organizations are accountable to their boards (not the  elected school board of the district in which they are located) to fulfill the aims stipulated in the charter they received.

From zero to six percent of total U.S. students in charter schools in 25 years doesn’t sound like a cat video going viral but in institutional terms it is a solid sign that charter schools have become part of daily scene in U.S. public schools and are here to stay. Released from most state regulations and  unionized teachers, charter schools have been expected to create innovative curriculum, instruction, and organization and compete with traditional public schools for students. From that innovation and competition, state legislators expected across-the-board improvement in all public schools.

Publicly-funded charter schools have found a special niche among urban districts. Two-thirds of charter school students are minority (across the country the percentage is half); 56 percent of all charters are located in cities; the rest are in rural and small town districts–many of which are poor with only a tiny percentage found in affluent suburbs (see here and here).

Currently, in New Orleans, Detroit, and the District of Columbia charter schools are a majority (or near majority) of their public schools from which parents choose (14 districts have at least 30 percent of their enrollment in charter schools).  As long as there are urban and suburban schools that fail their students (as measured by test scores, graduation rates, well-being of students, etc.), expanded parental choice that now includes magnet schools, alternative schools, districts with portfolios of options, and yes, charter schools will become as familiar as the morning Pledge of Allegiance in the nation’s classrooms.

Expanded parental choice through vouchers and charters (the former has existed since the 1970s but is largely absent from most school districts while the latter has slowly and steadily grown over the past quarter-century) has become one of the planks in a reform platform to bring innovation and improvement to what critics call a moribund and failed traditional system of schooling. Major foundations such as Walton, Gates, Broad, and the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund have contributed hundreds of millions to promote charter schools and Charter Schools: 25th Anniversary and More to Come (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Will @ShavarJeffries chicken out? – Cloaking Inequity

Will @ShavarJeffries chicken out? – Cloaking Inequity:

Will @ShavarJeffries chicken out?

There have been many many developments recently in the school choice (privatization of public schools) front. In the midst of it all, Shavar Jefferies, President of Democrats for Education Reform, said the following to me on Twitter:

8 Aug

JulianVasquezHeilig @ProfessorJVH

.@rmc031 @shavarjeffries @Blklivesmatter There is democratic control & there is private control/privatization. I choose democracy 4 schools.

 Follow

Shavar Jeffries @shavarjeffries

@ProfessorJVH @rmc031 @Blklivesmatter true democracy is parent choice. Black families know better than politicians what's best for kids

11:07 AM - 8 Aug 2016

 
•  Retweets
 
•  11 like

How do you think I replied?

Not only did I reply, but I challenged Shavar to debate here in California. He responded he’d like me to come to Newark.

I think we should do a home and home series.

Debates on Twitter usually get lost in the annals of Twitter history— so I turned to Storify to log the debate/conversation. What is Storify? It “helps making sense of what people post on social media.” Users curate voices and turn them into stories.

Click the link below in the Tweet to follow the Storified conversation my debate challenge to Shavar Jeffries and a roundup of recent development in school choice (and privatization and private control of public schools)

It’s worth the click. Enjoy.

Will @ShavarJeffries chicken out? – Cloaking Inequity:

Education Leaders of Color: Same Reforms, Newly Packaged and Gates Funded | deutsch29 #educolor

Education Leaders of Color: Same Reforms, Newly Packaged and Gates Funded | deutsch29:

Education Leaders of Color: Same Reforms, Newly Packaged and Gates Funded

The Gates Foundation is funding a brand-spanking new corporate reform nonprofit (that happens to be stuffed with veterans from two very familiar corporate reform nonprofits): Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC).

EdLoC (EIN 812253548) received its nonprofit status May 01, 2016.

Gates started supporting EdLoC in June:

Education Leaders of Color Inc.

Date: June 2016
Purpose: to support the staffing and general infrastructure necessary to develop a new organization of talented leaders of color who are uniquely positioned to transform the national and local education landscape to achieve improvement on a scale that we all seek in the education and lives of underserved children of color
Amount: $300,000
Term: 7
Topic: Not Available
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Whittier, California

Turns out that Mark Zucerkberg was also sending money to EdLoC even before EdLoC had its own website.

This *talented* group is set to put a new, not-so-white face on the worn-out wonders of test-centric, privatizing reforms propagated by the likes of Teach for America (TFA) Education Leaders of Color: Same Reforms, Newly Packaged and Gates Funded | deutsch29:

Five Ways To Show Students You Care | The Jose Vilson

Five Ways To Show Students You Care | The Jose Vilson:

Five Ways To Show Students You Care

 

“How do you show students you care and love them?”

Someone asked me that this afternoon. And every other week. Shout-out to the other eighth grade math teacher who asked it. I’m not about the touchy-feely stuff; I prefer to discuss techniques, strategies, and content where possible. I prefer to talk about race, class, gender, and take long walks in the city. I prefer to make sarcastic comments where possible, and tweet about the sociopolitical implications of the actions and inactions of our society.

I prefer to tell you that you shouldn’t show too much emotion on the first day. But I’m lying about that last part.

Because the five ways you show students you care is really about closing the gap between the person you are outside the classroom and the person you are in the classroom. That’s why these five rules are gonna take you real far:

1. Show them.
2. Show them.
3. Show them.
4. Show them.
5. Show them.

It’s really simple. As I’ve found over the years, I can’t keep the straight face too long, and it’s more stressful to do so. I used to be a proponent of “no smiling until November,” but I noticed that, as I became better as a teacher, I needed to let that act go. Students respond better to teachers that overtly Five Ways To Show Students You Care | The Jose Vilson:

CURMUDGUCATION: The Global Agenda for Monetizing Education

CURMUDGUCATION: The Global Agenda for Monetizing Education:

The Global Agenda for Monetizing Education

In today's USNews, education historian and activist Diane Ravitch talks about the worldwide movement to buy and sell education, to privatize it, to attack "the very concept of public education."



You don't have to look hard to find some of the folks who are heavily invested in driving what some call the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). Take for instance this white paper presented to the World Economic Forum-- "Unleashing Greatness: Nine Plays To Spark Innovation in Education"  (and briefly coveredin Ravitch's blog)

The paper is almost as interesting or who's behind it as for what's in it-- but I'm going to look at what's in it first. Then we'll take a look at the GERMy minds that created this monstrosity.

The Nine Big Plays

It makes sense that the Global Agenda for Monetizing Education (GAME) would talk about the kind of "plays" needed to win. These guys narrowed the list down to nine. 

The nine big plays come courtesy of Michael Barber, the chief of Pearson, and Joel Klein, previously the reformster-in-chief of education in New York City and, well, he's logged many fine achievements, such as awarding a multi-million dollar contract to News Corp for a big edu-data-crunching program called ARIS just before he left New York schools to go work for News Corp, shortly before NYC schools scrapped ARIS because it was junk. Klein also ran Amplify, Rupert Murdoch's big shot at making some big edu-bucks. Amplify lost about half a billion-with-a-B dollars before Murdoch just sold it off. Now on this paper, Klein lists his employment as Chief Policy and Strategy Officer, Oscar Insurance.

You will not find two more ardent supporters of privatization, not just of education itself, but of CURMUDGUCATION: The Global Agenda for Monetizing Education:

The Ever Under-Achieving Achievement District « Dad Gone Wild

The Ever Under-Achieving Achievement District « Dad Gone Wild:

The Ever Under-Achieving Achievement District 

Now that the Nashville School Board race is over, it’s time to get back to a couple subjects I’ve been meaning to explore. As I’ve mentioned, back in July I went to the National Charter School Conference here in Nashville and was taken aback by the opening welcome session. After the welcome session, it was time to attend some breakout sessions.  In perusing the schedule of breakout sessions, one in particular jumped out at me: From Recovery to Extraordinary: States and Charter Schools Working Together. The description read as follows:

The Louisiana Recovery School District and the Tennessee Achievement School District have brought new attention to the role that charter schools can play in replacing poor performing schools. They have also tested the theory that the freedoms associated with chartering can in fact benefit those who are the most at risk. This panel will explore the role that charters have played in serving the hardest to educate and what policymakers should consider to better serve these students.

Featured speakers were:

• Paul Pastorek, Pastorek Partners LLC
• Malika Anderson, Achievement School District, TN
• Chris Reynolds, LEAD Public Schools
• Christine Wolfe, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Yep, this had potential. You see, I know a little bit about the Achievement School District (ASD). In fact, I’d sparred with founder Chris Barbic on more than one occasion, and don’t tell anybody, but I danced a little jig on the day he announced his resignation. Ok, never mind, you can tell everybody. The truth is that from the beginning in Tennessee, the ASD has never been anything but one big hustle, and somewhere along the way they became nothing but just another charter authorizer. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The whole “achievement school district” trend began in New Orleans in 2003. It was meant as a means to take the lowest performing schools and devote more resources to them as a means to improvement. Pierre Capdau School in New Orleans became Louisiana’s first takeover school in August of 2004 and then became Louisiana’s first Recovery School District (RSD) charter school. Four more schools were added in the spring of 2005. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and changed everything. In the wake of Katrina’s devastation, the Louisiana State Legislature passed Act 35, which resulted in the RSD taking over 102 out of 128 schools from the Orleans Parish School Board. Those schools were then converted to charter schools, and only five remained with the Orleans Parish. Today’s RSD The Ever Under-Achieving Achievement District « Dad Gone Wild:

The bias inherent in some charter schools' admissions process - LA Times

The bias inherent in some charter schools' admissions process - LA Times:

The bias inherent in some charter schools' admissions process

And you thought applying to college could be tough.

Take a look at the online application form for 2016-17 at Roseland Accelerated Middle School, a charter school in Santa Rosa. It’s called a registration form, but the intimidating set of documents with a couple dozen pages must be completed before a student is accepted, not after, according to the website.

The “Getting to Know You” sections require would-be students to write five short essays covering two pages (“use complete sentences”) on a variety of topics (“Tell us about your family”). Then there’s a third page calling for short responses on an additional six issues (“The qualities and strengths that I will bring to school are… .”).

Wait, wait. We’re just getting started. The parents have to write seven little essays of their own and then fill out the child’s medical history, including medications (an intrusive request that some critics say violates federal privacy law) — and remember, this isn’t for an accepted student to attend, but for a student to apply in the first place. It’s capped by the would-be student’s minimum three-page autobiography, typed, double spaced and “well constructed with varied structure.”

This is for a taxpayer-funded public school that, by law, all students are supposed to be able to attend, regardless of background. If too many sign up, enrollment is supposed to be handled by a lottery. That’s supposed to keep charter schools from cherry-picking students so they can show the best testing results, as they’ve long been accused of doing.

Roseland, which didn’t respond to phone inquiries from The Times, isn’t the great exception. The ACLU’s Southern California chapter partnered with Public Advocates to examine the application policies of 1,000 of the state’s 1,200 charter schools. A fourth of them, Roseland included, had a policy that could be used to exclude some types of students in violation of state law, including those with lower incomes or poorer English skills, the report showed, whether it was requiring parents to volunteer, demanding students’ academic histories or failing to provide services for special-education students. On some applications, the obstacles were relatively minor and easily corrected, but others appeared aimed at keeping out low-performing students or those whose families weren’t in a position to handle the complicated forms.

“There’s no central authority for charter schools, so we wanted to shine a light on it,” ACLU attorney Victor Leung told a Times reporter.

No students should have to write lengthy autobiographies or divulge their medical histories to a school.

No kidding. California has liberal laws on charter schools that allow for large numbers of them to open. If a school district rejects a proposal for a new charter school for solid reasons, the operator can usually win approval by appealing to the county education department or the state. Don’t get us wrong; well-run charter schools have been a lifeline for many families. But not all have been well run or welcoming to everyone, and the state has done a terrible job of requiring stringent oversight of these schools, or looking into problems itself.

It’s interesting to note that in L.A. Unified, where conflicts over the growth of charters have led to increased district scrutiny, only 10% of charter schools were found in the report to have any irregularities with their admissions policies. Many of L.A.’s charters were founded to help the district’s most underserved students, with applications intended to draw their families in, not discourage them.

The apparent attempts to sift applicants shouldn’t strike the state as new. In 2013, Reuters reported on charter schools nationwide whose applications presented unreasonable obstacles to the poorest and least educated families. The story specifically mentioned The bias inherent in some charter schools' admissions process - LA Times:

Is back rent part of $14.8M EAA owed Detroit schools?

Is back rent part of $14.8M EAA owed Detroit schools?:

Is back rent part of $14.8M EAA owed Detroit schools?

The troubled state reform school district set up to turn around Michigan's worst schools owed Detroit Public Schools $14.8 million in outstanding rent and other services as of this spring — and there appears to be confusion among state and local leaders about whether the EAA still owes the back rent.

Officials from both districts said they are negotiating payment for the services that the Detroit district continues to provide to the Education Achievement Authority, such as security and technology.

EAA Chancellor Veronica Conforme, referring to the back rent, told the Free Press in a statement today that: "The governor has been clear with me that the debt was solved for all of us."

A different EAA official told the Free Press in June that recent legislation essentially wiped out the $6 million the EAA was supposed to be paying annually to DPS for using its school buildings.

► Related:EAA, for its final year, projects 7.5% decline in students

Conforme asked former DPS Emergency Manager Darnell Earley in February to sign a lease amendment that would have forgiven the EAA's rent debt, according to an e-mail then-Michigan Chief Deputy Treasurer Thomas Saxton sent on April 4 to key staffers in Snyder's office.

"I advised Darnell not to sign it," he wrote. "Darnell did not sign the amendment before he left and now Veronica has requested Judge Rhodes (the district's current transition manager) to sign it. While we understand forgiving this debt would clear up the EAA’s books, it would be detrimental to DPS."

Saxton said the EAA owed DPS $14.8 million for fiscal years 2015 and 2016, money that includes payment for rent, information technology and security services.

Late today, EAA officials told the Free Press that Conforme told state officials in the spring that the EAA was building its budget around the lease debt being eliminated. It's unclear whether Rhodes, who succeeded Earley, ever signed the amendment.

At an EAA board meeting in June, an EAA official said the annual fees the district is supposed to pay for using DPS buildings dropped from $6 million to $1 because of recent education reform legislation.

Controversy and questions surrounding the lease payments surfaced this week after Robert Davis, a labor activist from Highland Park who spent time behind bars for embezzling $200,000 from Highland Park schools, received copies of Saxton's April e-mails through a Freedom Information Act request.

Following published reports about the e-mails, Conforme expressed frustration with Treasury.

“This is not about neglecting to pay. This about equity for all students who have been Is back rent part of $14.8M EAA owed Detroit schools?: