Betsy DeVos Tells Kentucky That Now is the Time for Charters and Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Tells Kentucky That Now is the Time for Charters and Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Tells Kentucky That Now is the Time for Charters and Vouchers

Betsy DeVos traveled to Kentucky to sell her used goods (schmattes is the Yiddish term): charter schools and vouchers.

For DeVos, a pandemic is the perfect time to push school privatization. Day in, day out, for 30 years or so, DeVos has been promoting charters and vouchers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – School choice supporters should “insist” that state and federal policymakers back measures like public charter schools and scholarship tax credits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday…

“I know in all of the years that I have advocated for state-level policy empower parents, never before have we had an environment like we have today, and so I believe that now is the time to raise voices more loudly than ever before and to insist on policy changes that need to take place….”

David Patterson, communications director for the CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Tells Kentucky That Now is the Time for Charters and Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools

By Thomas Ultican 10/27/2020

A North Carolina cabal of school superintendents, republican politicians, consultants and technology companies has gone wild over the past seven years. In Chapel Hill, Education Elements obtained an illegitimate $767,000 contract. Chapel Hill-Carborro City Hills Schools (CHCCS) Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance, Jennifer Bennett, supposedly ignored school board policy and agreed to the contract in secret. It seems that when the state and local schools are spending on education technology, policies and law are being ignored.

After the Education Elements negotiations, Bennett sent a message to their Managing Partner, Jason Bedford, saying, “Need to get you guys to modify the [contract] if you can since if we include the whole potential payment value, then we have to take this to the Board since over our $90K threshold ….” This seems very damning, however, local citizens think they are being gas lighted. In the comments section on the school boards web site, several parents expressed the same opinion as parent Jeff Safir who wrote,

“I find it hard to believe that Jennifer Bennett acted alone and was the only person aware of the money being spent on the Education Elements engagement and I don’t understand why she is able to serve out the rest of her contract in an alternate capacity when the position is at-will ….”

Education Elements was created with funding from NewSchools Venture fund and a few other venture capital groups that invest in education startups. As noted in a previous article, “There are few districts in America that do not have CONTINUE READING: Ed Tech Spending Rampaging through North Carolina Public Schools | tultican

CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

School has opened across the country, but in many districts that means class via internet—if those students are among those fortunate enough to have access to fast, large-capacity internet connections.

How many aren’t connected? The answer is that nobody’s exactly sure. One study says that 33 million citizens live without the net. The FCC says that 19 million Americans lack access to broadband at threshold speeds; they also say that 99.99% of the US population has access to some kind of internet. None of the surveys really capture the picture on the ground. Here’s a house that has a good internet connect—except when it rains. Here’s a home where the connection is good—unless five people have to connect their devices at the same time.


So as schools shift to online education, we have more tales of students sitting in parking lots to grab the wi-fi. Schools (and other sponsors) invest in hot spots, even deploying hot spot school buses. But a hot spot device only works in places where there’s a signal available. In my mostly-rural county, there are many places where neither the internet nor wireless phone signals reliably reach.

We are well past the point of pretending that some sort of market solution will bring the US close to 100% real connectivity. There are some corners of the country where it simply does not pay to build and maintain the infrastructure or provide the internet service itself. Getting service to all Americans is a huge challenge, but we’ve met similar challenges before when it came to telephone and electric service. If we can agree that an internet connection is as much a necessity of modern CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Is It Time For The Internet To Be A School-Managed Public Utility?

NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board October 26, 2020---DOE Unilaterally Issues Grading Policy

NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board October 26, 2020---DOE Unilaterally Issues Grading Policy

UFT Executive Board October 26, 2020---DOE Unilaterally Issues Grading Policy

Roll Call--5:50

Minutes--approved

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--City put out a grading policy. Not discussed with us. Should've come up with something more flexible. We will look at it and decide what to do. DOE hasn't done much work because it's very similar to last year's.

There are supposed to be four opt in periods for parents. We wanted parents to see how things were going. While in schools we have procedures, but they unilaterally announced people had to make decisions right now. Doesn't follow what's in state plan, and may lead to a fight. Newark just went into complete lockdown. Country had largest 7 day average ever. Not smart to force a choice now. Will be conversations. 

Operational side--complaints are moving and being resolved. Still have issues with superintendents unfamiliar with concept of work. Grievance dept. getting involved. DRs are pushing. Some districts have no issues, but others have many. 

Election will take up a lot of energy, hopefully for no longer than two weeks. Our retirees and volunteers are working very hard. We understand what everyone's facing so we're CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board October 26, 2020---DOE Unilaterally Issues Grading Policy

CURMUDGUCATION: Segregation, Privatization, and Taxation

CURMUDGUCATION: Segregation, Privatization, and Taxation

Segregation, Privatization, and Taxation

he New York Times ran a piece yesterday about a school board voting mess in Sumter County, Georgia (that's the county of Plains, home of Jimmy Carter's peanut farm). The story itself is an instructional look at how yet another white minority is trying to keep their hands on the levers of power, resulting in a district that is 70% Black run by a board that is 70% white. But Nicholas Casey has down a great job with that story, and you should go read it. 

At one point in the story, Casey talks about the creation of Southland Academy in 1966, yet another segregation academy opened in response to integration requirements:

Among Southland’s biggest boosters were the county school board and city officials, who transferred a public school building to the private upstart, then sold buses and furniture to it at a discount, according to Bobby L. Fuse, a local community leader. Officials lowered rates on taxes — which were used to fund the public schools — so white residents could more easily pay for private tuition, he said.

We often forget that segregation academies and their ilk were not just about separating white children from Black children; they were also about separating white money from Black schools. Set up a separate private school system, leave Those People's Children in the public school, and then chop the taxes that are going to the public system. 

As Steve Suitts points out in his book Overturning Brown, while the modern school choice movement may not be driven by racists, they still use some of the old racist tricks. 

Let's consider, in particular, Betsy DeVos's beloved tax credit scholarships-- the Education Freedom plan. It's not just that this is a voucher plan that avoids using the unpopular never-been-chosen-by-voters V word. It has other features.

Because every contribution to a private school "scholarship" counts against tax liability-- put $50K CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Segregation, Privatization, and Taxation

DOING THE RIGHT THING THE WRONG WAY – Dad Gone Wild

DOING THE RIGHT THING THE WRONG WAY – Dad Gone Wild

DOING THE RIGHT THING THE WRONG WAY

“The American political system has lost the ability for large-scale compromise, and it has lost the ability to accept some pain now for much gain later on.”

― Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World

Last Friday, the Metro Nashville Public School Board held an emergency work session in order to revisit the district’s re-entry plan. Notice I refer to it as a re-entry plan and not a resumption of school plan? That’s intentional, and we’ll talk more about that in a bit.

After Fall Break, MNPS began phasing students back into schools starting with the youngest. Parents were given the option to send their kids virtual or in-person. The numbers were pretty evenly split with a slight nod to in-person.

Fifth and sixth graders were slated to return this week. But, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb and questions mount over the ability to keep teachers and students safe, it was time to re-visit the plan going forth.

Unfortunately, instead of taking charge and providing needed leadership, the board and Director Adrienne Battle once again demonstrated their ability to get it wrong even when they were getting it right. The ultimate decision to pause the re-entry plan is ultimately the right one, but the process to arrive at that conclusion could have been conducted better.

Over the last several years, from the school level to the district level, there has been an increased focus on starting every meeting with a listing of norms and expectations. This board meeting could CONTINUE READING: DOING THE RIGHT THING THE WRONG WAY – Dad Gone Wild

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/saturday-october-17-2020-this-week-in.html

October’s (2020) Useful Parent Engagement Resources – Part Two | Engaging Parents In School… - https://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/?p=6384

Everything You Wanted To Know About Reading Instruction But Were Afraid To Ask

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Victoria_Borodinova / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Rea

New TED-Ed Video & Lesson: “Can you outsmart the fallacy that started a witch hunt?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

geralt / Pixabay Can you outsmart the fallacy that started a witch hunt? is the latest TED-Ed lesson and video. I’m adding it to The Best Multimedia Resources For Learning About Fallacies — Help Me Find More .

“Nine Mistakes Educators Make When Teaching ELLs”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

Nine Mistakes Educators Make When Teaching ELLs is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Confusing lack of English proficiency with lack of intelligence and believing students understand academic English because they’ve mastered social English are among those mistakes five educators cite. Here are some excerpts:

Tuesday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings

20by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

kaboompics / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Why education technology can’t save remote learning is from Axios. The dangerous instability of school re-openings is also from Axios. “Some of My Kids Are Slipping Through the Cracks”: Four teachers on the challenges and failures of the school year so far is from Slate. For students

The Best Resources On Instruction In 2020 – Part Two

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

I’m continuing with my end-of-the-year “Best” list posts… I’m adding this one to ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR 2020 IN ONE PLACE! Seven years ago I began publishing a regular Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week post. You can see all my “Best” lists on instructional strategies here. Here are my choices from the past few months: IB has created something called a Webliography, which are b

My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On Culturally Responsive Teaching In Math Class

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

Culturally Responsive Teaching: More Important Now Than Ever is the title of my latest BAM! Radio Show, which talks in general about culturally responsive teaching, but also gives math class specifics. I’m joined in the discussion by Chiquita Jenkins, Autumn Kelley, and James Ewing, who ha

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007