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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Democracy For America - Corfield for Assembly

Democracy For America - Corfield for Assembly:


CORFIELD FOR ASSEMBLY

Finalheadshot
Corfield for Assembly
New Jersey LD-16 in NJ
http://www.corfieldforassembly.com
9 Paddock Lane
Flemington, NJ
08822
Public Phone Number: 908-391-2569 
Public Email: corfield4assembly@gmail.com
Primary Election Date: 2013-06-04
General Election Date: 2013-11-05

Who am I?

I’m a single mother, artist, art teacher, public education activist, liberal/progressive Democrat, and now I’m a candidate for State Assembly in NJ LD16. I was born and raised in urban Kearny, New Jersey about 10 miles outside of Manhattan, and now live in Flemington in rural, bucolic Hunterdon County along the Delaware River.
I graduated summa cum laude from Montclair State University with a BFA in commercial art/illustration, and I have a Masters in Teaching from Marygrove College in Detroit.
After graduation I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for about 15 years; was a New Jersey State Arts Council Fellowship recipient; took a couple of years off with the birth of each of my two children; and eventually realized that I needed and wanted to get back to my roots: fine art. I now teach elementary art and I love it.
In September 2010 I questioned Governor Chris Christie at a town hall meeting about his drastic cuts to public education, and his derisive rhetoric about teachers. He posted the exchange on his You Tube channel and it went viral. Shortly after that I was on the front page of the NY Times, and also appeared on The Ed Show, Politics Nation, Fox and Friends, CBS Evening News, and many other local and international media outlets.
In 2011 I ran for State Assembly in LD-16 against a very entrenched Republican incumbent. In one of the closest races in the state, I came within about 3% of beating him. He passed away 2 days after the election. Last year I ran in the special election to fill his unexpired term. I came within about 1 point of beating the appointed incumbent despite having been outspent almost 3:1. I was a DFA endorsed candidate and was also the number one race on the DLCC’s list of emerging races. I decided to run again this year to finish the work I started back in 2011. This is definitely a winnable district.

Why am I running?

1. As a teacher, the fight against corporate education 'reform' is near and dear to my heart. New Jersey has one of the best public education systems in the country, and I want to keep it free, open and accessible to every child; to help schools in high poverty areas succeed through adequate funding, resources and management; and work to make teachers part of the solution instead of part of the problem. 
2. I want to be a voice for people who have been disenfranchised by the governor’s fiscal policies, namely the middle class, seniors, children, minorities, the LGBT community, and the poor on issues of health care, affordable housing, minimum wages, jobs, and other quality of life/social justice issues. As a society, we are only as good as the least of our citizens. 
3. And of course, I want to help stabilize our economy through job creation, and policies that will help to ease the crushing burden of property taxes on our citizens.

My Goals

My top two goals are: 
1. I would help to pass a bill that would allow local citizens to have a say in whether or not a charter school opens in their community. Currently, the burden of funding our public schools falls mainly on the backs of homeowners in the form of property taxes, and they have no say in whether or not a charter school opens in their community. However a charter takes about 90% of the per pupil funding away from the public schools for every child that enrolls. This has a devastating affect on the fixed costs of running a public school. If taxpayers must pay for this new—and often unwanted—school, they should have a say in whether or not it opens in the first place. The bill passed in the Assembly, but is stuck in the Senate. 
2. Communicate. A big part of my job as a teacher is communicating with parents. As an elected official, I feel obligated to communicate with my constituents as much as possible. I look forward to keeping an open dialog through whatever means are available. I’ve built a respectable following on Facebook and Twitter, and I anticipate expanding that base to more concerned citizens living within New Jersey’s 16th legislative district.

My DFA Values

Here are my top 10 DFA values: 
• A strong middle class 
• A living minimum wage 
• Government programs that give people a hand up—not a hand out 
• Marriage equality 
• Fair taxation 
• Free, open and accessible high quality public education, and quality, affordable secondary education 
• In the richest nation on earth, no one should go hungry 
• Respect for the environment, including the development of alternative energy 
• Affordable, high quality medical care for everyone 
• Affordable housing

My Campaign is People Powered!

I’ve always said this campaign is not for me; it’s for everyone who supports me, including many hard working middle class people. It’s about giving them a seat at the table. 
1. During the 2011 assembly race I ran the ‘$20 from Teachers’ campaign as a way to raise money during the slow fundraising summer months. Many teachers don’t work during the summer, and money is tight. Many feel they can’t donate to a campaign because they don’t have hundreds of dollars of disposable income. By giving them a reasonable amount to donate, they were able to feel connected. At the NEA Convention in Washington, DC last summer, we passed iPads around the convention floor for people to donate online. We raised about $5000! 
2. Last year I earned the number 1 spot on the DLCC’s list of emerging races. We accomplished this through a grass-roots media blitz on Facebook, Twitter and temail blasts. We got support from all over the country! I had a lot of field support from NJ’s labor groups including CWA, AFL-CIO and NJEA. 
3. This campaign will be about engaging all those volunteers—and more—to help finish what we started two years ago. Life has gotten more difficult in New Jersey, not easier. Many more people are feeling disenfranchised by our governor’s policies. I plan to reach out to as many as possible in my district to get them involved.
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It's a Wrap! California Father | Occupy DOE 2.0: The Battle for Public Schools unitedoptout.com #uoodc13

California Father | Educating Sullivan:

California Father



Watch live streaming video from califather at livestream.com

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The Campaign for Artful Resistance :: Save Our Schools #uoodc13

The Campaign for Artful Resistance :: Save Our Schools:


The Campaign for Artful Resistance


SAVE OUR SCHOOLS ANNOUNCES

THE CAMPAIGN FOR ARTFUL RESISTANCE

What is it you love about school that you have lost because of high stakes testing, school closings, budget cuts, curriculum losses, teacher firings, and other educational catastrophes?
THE CAMPAIGN FOR ARTFUL RESISTANCE INVITES YOUR INVOLVEMENT

Save Our Schools offers an opportunity to reflect and express your self. Please share your thoughts and feelings about school, learning, what you love about each, would, could, or did when these were available to you in their fullest form. The Campaign for Artful Resistance was created for you. We wish to provide a safe and sane place, one in which you can think, say, do, feel, and be who you are.
This is not a test!!!!! May you enjoy the learning and the journey.
What is the The Campaign for Artful Resistance, How, when, Where, and When might you begin to participate? Please peruse the pages of the The Campaign for Artful Resistance Booklet for further information.
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Diane in the Evening 4-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:







Indiana Teacher to Legislature: Please Save Public Education

by dianerav
This came from a teacher in northern Indiana:
Dear Indiana Politician:
I am a public school teacher. I am a breast cancer survivor. I dreamed as a little girl of the day I would be a teacher. I never dreamed as a woman that I would one day be a cancer survivor. So now I am both and proud that I am.
I write to you today as both, for you see there are times these days that my role as an educator are more 


Jersey Jazzman Educates Margaret Spellings About Data

by dianerav
Jersey Jazzman never sleeps. I get that. He is so outraged by the constant torrent of nonsense in the media that he has to deconstruct it.
In this post, he throws up some clay pigeons and knocks them all down, one by one.
The big one is the stuff put out by Margaret Spellings to put down New Jersey.
Since New Jersey is one of the nation’s top performing states, JJ doesn’t take kindly to the former Secretary’s misreading of NAEP data, nor the praise for Newark’s charters.


History Is Written by the Winners

by dianerav
As the adage goes, history is written by the winners.
Today, in the United States, it is written by and for the 1%. Or is it the .0001 percent?
How important is it for all fifth-graders in the state of Tennessee to know these names?
A reader writes:
“Bill Gates & Sam Walton just wrote themselves write


Indiana: Stop Voucher Expansion

by dianerav
In Indiana, new legislation would offer vouchers to children who never attended a public school. This eliminates the fiction that vouchers are going to “save children from failing schools.”
This is a message from Julian Smith in Induana. He offers a sample letter. Or, write your own.
Subject: Fwd: Two Minute Task #8 HB 1003 Vouchers
As you are probably aware, HB1003 will be coming to the Senate floor for a vote next week.
This is a battle we can and must win. These guys may want a reason to vote no, and blitzing them with a compelling thought may make a difference if we do this together, share with others, and ask them to do the same. The contacts, meetings, and emails have already had positive effects. Let’s keep the pressure on right up 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Is inBloom Engaged in Identity Theft? by dianerav The Gates Foundation spent $100 million along with the Carnegie Corporation to create a massive database consisting of confidential information about students. The database will be created by Rupert Murdoch’s subsidiary Wireless Generation. It will go onto a “cloud” managed by amazon.com. Several states and districts have agreed to turn over their student data. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education quiet... more »
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Mom: Why I won’t let my son take high-stakes standardized test #uoodc13

Mom: Why I won’t let my son take high-stakes standardized test:


Mom: Why I won’t let my son take high-stakes standardized test

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 7, 2013 at 2:02 pm
test1Here’s a Q & A with a Pennsylvania mother about why she decided not to let her 9-year-old son take the state’sstandardized test. Kathy Newman is part of a growing movement of parents who are choosing to “opt out” of the state’s test-based accountability system — at least in states that give families that option. (In Florida, for example, it is very hard to opt out; you can see that by reading this post about a severely disabled, blind boy forced to take the state’s standardized accountability test.) Newman wrote a piece for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about her decision. Following is a Q & A I did with her by e-mail.
Q) Why did you decide to opt your child out of testing?
A) The decision was difficult and slow. I’m part of a grassroots education movement here in Pittsburgh that started as a response to a billion dollar cut to the PA education budget in 2011. Our most active leader, Jessie Ramey (author of the education blog, Yinzercation), was blogging about the opt out movement. I was skeptical at first, because I knew that my children’s school, Pittsburgh Linden, could be hurt by my decision to opt out. I had been to school meetings at which we had looked at testing data, and I knew how important that data was to teachers and administrators.
At the same time, reading homework had become a nightly battle. My son Jacob, who turned 9 in January, was bringing home these long non-fiction reading passages, often very boring. He had to read the passage, identify the main idea, and make inferences about the material in order to answer the questions. The questions were often opaque, oddly worded, and frequently depended on outside knowledge. Sometimes when I was helping him I would figure out the answer, and I’ve have a moment of excitement, and then I would think, “Oh, yeah, I’m 46 and I have a PhD from Yale and I’m excited because I just figured out the answer to my 9-year-old’s reading homework?”
As test prep ramped up in February and March I had another revelation: Jacob does not love to read. Based on what he was bringing home from school, how could he? I realized 
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Sunday read. | Fred Klonsky

Sunday read. | Fred Klonsky:


Sunday read.

by Fred Klonsky
560237_10151831807592067_1104605613_n
Photo: Fred Klonsky. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, Washington, DC. 
“A lot of so-called reformers try to dictate top-down, standardized test-driven strategies that are heavy on competition and short on evidence and resources,” AFT President Randi Weingarten told the 2,400 delegates in her opening address. “They don’t work.”
What happened that made Diane Ravitch feel she had to apologize to MichelleRhee?
Did you think the Ku Klux Klan was ancient history? They marched in Memphis last week.
Illinois General Assembly pension votes this coming week.
Newark students are walking out of school on Tuesday.
The Chicago Teachers Union took politicians and the 
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Did Lena Dunham Invite Beyonce to Play a Janitor On Girls? |

Did Lena Dunham Invite Beyonce to Play a Janitor On Girls? |:


Did Lena Dunham Invite Beyonce to Play a Janitor On Girls?

by Angus Johnston
BHQ_E0dCMAEhYBo.png-largeAbout an hour ago (not long after noon Eastern), word began to go around Twitter that Lena Dunham had tweeted to invite Beyonce to play a janitor on the new season of Girls, and then deleted the tweet. Soon the screenshot at right appeared to confirm it, along with links 
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Ed Notes Online: Vincent Wojsnis: Why Does the UFT Leadership Cling to Mayoral Control?

Ed Notes Online: Vincent Wojsnis: Why Does the UFT Leadership Cling to Mayoral Control?:


Vincent Wojsnis: Why Does the UFT Leadership Cling to Mayoral Control?

by ed notes online
Vincent Wojsnis, who was never involved with a UFT caucus in the past, has become a stalwart MORE advocate. He has thrown his hat into the ring with gusto. He is running for a MORE Executive Board At-Large position. Vincent posted a "Why I Am Running With MORE" piece on the MORE blog.

"I’ve been a chapter leader, a delegate, an arbitration advocate. In 2009 I joined other UFT members to help organize teachers for the AFT in Texas. My union activity was recognized by the union leadership later that year when I was received a Trachtenberg Award as well as a UFT Partnership Award that I shared with my former principal. I am proud of it all.... 

Until recently, however, to anyone who’d ask me to which caucus I belonged I would simply say, “UFT.” So-called “in fighting” within the union, it seemed to me, was factional and counter-productive. I no longer feel that way. The extreme agenda advanced by the so-called “education reform movement” and our union leadership’s weak (often questionable) response to it has made me a partisan. Earlier this year, 
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Lisa MacFarland with WA DFER wins the Walton Award for privitization. | Seattle Education

Lisa MacFarland with WA DFER wins the Walton Award for privitization. | Seattle Education:


Lisa MacFarland with WA DFER wins the Walton Award for privitization.

by seattleducation2011

Walmart 1%
According to the PR Newswire, Lisa MacFarland, formerly with the League of Education Voters (LEV) and now Director of Washington State Education Reform Now/Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), received a $10,000 grant from the Walton’s as an “Education Reformer to Watch” for her work on pushing charter school initiative 1240 in the state of Washington.
And what does Ms. MacFarland plan to do with the cash? Ensure that charter schools open in the state of Washington of course.
Democrats for Education Reform is a political action committee supported largely by hedge fund managers favoring charter schools, merit-pay tied to test scores, high-stakes testing, school choice (including vouchers and tuition tax credits in some cases), mayoral control, and alternative teacher preparation programs.
Alice Walton supported charter school initiative 1240 in 
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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week:


Seattle Schools This Week

by Melissa Westbrook


Monday, April 8th
Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee meeting from 4-5:30 p.m.  Agenda.  The agenda includes two items with "BAR" and a topic.  (Anyone know what that acronym means?)  A Math Adoption Progress report will be presented as well as discussion of Board Policy #2190 around Advanced Learning.

Community Meeting for the Strategic Plan at Ballard High School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
(Interpreters available in Spanish and Somali)

Tuesday, April 9th
Community Meeting for the Strategic Plan at Aki Kurose Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Amharic and Tigrigna

Special Education Advocacy & Advisory Council meeting from 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Regular Meeting Agenda includes:
6:30 - 7:30 - Open Forum & District Updates Regarding Special Education
7:30 - 9:00 SEAAC Working Group Session

Wednesday, April 10th
Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30-10:00 am.  Agenda.  One item of interest to be discussed is Superintendent Policy #4110 around Family & Community Participation on Committees.

Work Session on the Budget from 4:00-6:00 pm.  This is an important Work Session as real numbers will be discussed.

Work Session: Equitable Access Framework from 6:15-7:45 pm.  This is also an important Work Session as I believe the discussion will be around program placement.

Thursday, April 11th
Audit & Finance Committee Meeting from 4:00-6:00 pm. Agenda.  Items of interest here include Annual MLK King, Jr. Covenant Compliance Update, Potential RIFs, Open Enrollment Results, and also a discussion of Board Policy 6102 around fundraising. 

Operations Committee Meeting from 4-5:30 pm.  Agenda.  One item of interest is "review of board member responsibilities on contract approvals" by district counsel, Ron English.  I wonder what the Board is doing (or not doing) that would prompt this.   The agenda also includes transportation budget options update, the annual capital report and growth boundary information.

Friday, April 12th
BEX Oversight Committee Meeting from 8:30-10:30 am

Saturday, April 13th
Community Meeting with Director Carr from 8:30-10:00 am at Bethany Community Church


Silas Potter Arrested (Again)

by Melissa Westbrook
When we last left Mr. Potter, he had been extradited back to Seattle from Florida and charged, along with two others, with various counts relating to money missing from the program he ran for SPS. 

Last week, he failed to show up at a scheduled hearing and his lawyer didn't know where he was.  The judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

Yesterday he was arrested in Seattle and booked into King County jail.  The KC Prosecutor's office says he will stay there until his trial next month.  (I suspect he is considered a flight risk.)

I was wondering why he was even going to trial instead of taking a plea.  (One co-conspirator did take a plea, the other is on the lam.)  I had thought that perhaps he had some tantalizing information that he was going to reveal at the trial in order to try to save himself.

But once he ran, I have to believe he has nothing to offer and simply does not want to go to jail. 
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Jersey Jazzman: "X Months of Learning" Is a Phony Metric

Jersey Jazzman: "X Months of Learning" Is a Phony Metric:


"X Months of Learning" Is a Phony Metric

by Duke

Arne, how many months of student learning is that?

OK, a little hyperbolic on the headline, but now that I've got your attention...

I've been reading more and more studies these days that attempt to illustrate gains in "student achievement" in ways that lay people can understand. One of the most common methods I've seen is to translate test score gains into this phrase: "x months of learning." Matt DiCarlo points us to a classic example: Eric Hanushek's assertion that the difference between a "good" teacher and a "bad" teacher is a "year of learning":
So, here’s the deal (and this is strictly my opinion): There is a research consensus that estimated test-based teacher effects vary widely between the top and bottom of the distribution, but the “year and a half” assertion should probably be put out to pasture, at least when it’s used without elaboration or qualification.
It implies a precision that belies the diversity of findings within the research literature, 
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UPDATE Melissa Harris-Perry: Atlanta cheating scandal calls high stakes testing into question + Tying welfare benefits to school grades teaches the wrong lesson — MSNBC

Tying welfare benefits to school grades teaches the wrong lesson — MSNBC:




Atlanta cheating scandal calls high stakes testing into question




Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


>>> welcome back. i'm -- the atlanta school system was rocked to its core. a former school superintendent were indicted in the largest school cheating scandal. indictments that came in part because of the investigative series cheating our children by the atlanta journal constitution. good journalism. on tuesday, the teachers, principals and administrators implicated in the scandal began turning themselves in. former atlanta public school superintendent beverly hall also turned herself in. she was able to negotiate her $7.5 million bond down to $200,000. the bond for hall and others was initially so high because they are part of a 65-count indictment. that indictment include charges of racketeering, making false statements and writings, perjury and theft by taking and influences. so yes. as a teacher, my response first is, whoa, this is bad. but i would like to broaden the conversation a bit. what i know as a teacher is when you give tests, some kids cheat. that's because tests yield grades. it's how well a student does in life. it incentivizes school systems. that can lead to cheating leading from an individual in the system as to alleged in atlanta, the entire system cheating within the system. the intensity of the states -- teachers no longer responsible to students but educators beholden of teaching to the test where the grades that students get become more important than what the students learn. at the table, laura flanders, host and founder of her show. and also linda darling hammond and co-direction toer of the school redesign network and raymond williams, principal of north babylon high school in long island, new york. so the atlanta story is horrifying but i also think, you know, you're a teacher. if you give tests, some kids writing on their armor getting it texted or on the bottom of their shoe. this is the whole system going this way. but is it because we've created an incentivized system to cheat because of the tests themselves?

>> you know, in 2000-- 2002 we passed a law called no child left behind. that law tied high stakes that is sanctions for schools to test score gains. every school has a certain amount of gain it's supposed to make every year. if it doesn't make the gain, the school goes into sanctions, can lose money, can be closed down. teachers can be fired. principals can be fired. that's been exacerbated with more recent policies that wear on. you can see how there are huge incentives in the system for people -- if the scores don't go up. currently, almost 90% of the schools in the country have failed to make what the law calls adequate yearly progress and are in danger of one kind of sanction or another.

>> we disagree on the testing and the value of it. whatever else we do agree on, teachers should be accountable to their students, right? and schools should be. does this testing make them more or less accountable to the kids themselves.

>> it makes them more accountable to the parents because very often it's the case that a parent wants to know where their child is. where is my child with respect to other children. how far are they on the trajectory to being able to read by third grade. we've allowed people to make excuses for the behavior of some individual, not just teachers. this couldn't have occurred if teachers were leading the charge. this is 100% principals leading the charge and the administration as a whole having these parties or had these parties allegedly in which they went through and changed the answers of children. we have to think about the profound impact of telling the parent that a child can do something they can't do. it's no different than a physician telling you you're healthy

>> i want to ask. what does the test tell us our kids do?

>> good point. one thing it tells us, they can tell us if they can add and auburn tract. child with right a persuasive essay. if everyone is teaching to the test, how come so many are failing.

>> we're not using the test scores to evaluate progress and teaching. we are using them to determine entire futures of school systems, of schools, of kids.

>> isn't that why they're there?

>> this is the --

>> not in other countries.

>> i don't think there's a dispute to -- it's bad to have teachers correcting the answers of kids in windowless rooms. to have teachers terrified that the school is going to lose funding. kids saying their lives are determined by one test. there's no test fair on all populations. it's already leading to not just this atlanta scandal but cheating in i think 37 states around the country.

>> that's not the point.

>> i think it's important to note that this is really atlanta issue in my opinion an ethics u issue. it's about professionals, educators, making the wrong decisionsment.

>> sure. you can't treat that in isolation. you have, for instance, students now that are reporting to classes. i'm speaking from -- we're on the ground. they're reporting to classes. when they're reporting to classes, you have in my opinion, a narrowing of the curriculum that is slowly happening. in my opinion, again, a narrowing of the curriculum. when it narrows, what's happening? here's what the assessment is going to reflect. and this is what i am going to teach again to the test.

>> let me suggest this. when a school has a choice, right? one of my concerns when we think particularly about low performing schools or poor schools, we start thinking of things that poor kids need. it's dramatically different than what well-resourced kids need. private schools have lots of resources. given an option of high stakes testing or not, schools don't -- they opt out and so at the top, this would make life bad for my teachers and students, i wonder why do impose on poor kids and communities things that we would not -- we know that the kind of cheating ha happens at the top and you know this, steve, if you're in the private school system and you have a kid not testing well, you get them a diagnosis so that they get time and a half on their testing. then you end up with -- i'm not saying that no kid deserves that. i'm saying the tools we use are still cheating tools. they're very different than --

>> the conversation around the narrowing of the curriculum is one that, again, allows us to absolve teachers from the responsibility of effectively teaching. if it was so narrow, if it's so narrow, how come we're not doing better. it's not just poor black and latino kids. that's not what it is. in as a country, the reason we're in the bottom of the world, it's not because of a couple kids failing an examination. it's because we're doing a bad job of conveying skills to children. teaching to the test. the test itself measures basic skills and when kids can't do basic skills because we as educators are not doing a good job of teaching them.

>> there's a lot of misconceptions about what goes on approximate our tests in this country versus those in other countries in the world. we're in the top half of the world in reading and science. the bottom tier in math. the tests that we use are different than the tests in high achieving countries. they have open ended essay examinations and oral examinations. kids are doing scientific examinations and research papers. teachers score those. they're part of the examination. an accountability, system. you've got kids all across the country spending most of their time bubbling in. finding one answer out of five. rather than as we've learned in the research, they're not doing science anymore in a lot of schools, not doing social studies, not doing writing. they're not doing debates or disgregss or investigations. they're not going to be competitive with others in the world because we're driving all of our effort around these high stakes tests. which are poor measures of the range of things that kids are learning elsewhere.

>> i sew appreciate you setting it in a multinational context. in part, because we think of this as a national race in terms of education. even within the u.s. context, i'm thinking you're at stanford. previously princeton. kids that end up in our chas rooms weren't doing bubbling scan trons. they were in schools where they had science labs and recreation programs and music programs and the fact is, i just feel like there's this constant sense on the one hand of this i get you, we got to know that kids can just read. yes, of course we do.

>> we actually should be giving them tests that allow them to read rather than bubbling in.

>> let's take a break. there's a lot of heat. take a break. we're coming right back on exact hi this topic. t cough. they don't?


Tying welfare benefits to school grades teaches the wrong lesson


, @mharrisperry
1:59 PM on 04/06/2013



Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Lawmakers in Tennessee are pushing a bill that would take money away from the state’s poorest families if their children fail to make the grade in school.
The bill targets recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. If students performs poorly–and if their parents or caretakers fail to meet one of several requirements–then TANF payments for that family will be reduced by up to 30%. One of the lawmakers behind the bill told us his aim is to help children use education to break the cycle of poverty.
Sounds nice in theory. But that’s not what this law does in practice. In my letter this week, I’d like to let the sponsors of this bill know what it’s really about.
Dear Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield and state Rep. Vance Dennis,
It’s me, Melissa.
You’ve said your bill isn’t really placing a family burden on the shoulders of children, but instead is an incentive to hold parents accountable.
You’ve added amendments to the bill that would exempt parents who either attend parent teacher conferences, an 8-hour parenting class, arrange tutoring, or enroll their child in summer school. Certainly, every child deserves to have a parent who is an involved participant in his or her education.
But your bill is only concerned with struggling kids whose parents are poor. In fact, Sen. Campfield, you went so far as to tell us that parents who allow their kids to fail in school are guilty of child abuse. Strong words, senator.
And yet, I can’t help but wonder. If your passion for parental involvement is as profound as your choice of words, why wouldn’t you pursue legislation that would penalize all parents of children with a poor academic record?
Here I’ll help–how about a $1,500 tax penalty for middle and upper income people who shirk their parental responsibilities? The fact is this bill is just the latest in a well-worn policy practice of subjecting the choices of poor parents–and in particular, poor single mothers–to scrutiny and shame.
As you well know, TANF eligibility already requires children to attend school, and parental participation in school conferences. At the same time, those parents receiving cash assistance also must work or participate in work-related activities. All of this while stretching the $2,000 in maximum assets required to qualify for TANF.
So prodding poor parents to get even more involved is really just a callous disregard for the fact that parental involvement–while ideal–is a luxury that not all families can afford.
Poor parents are more likely than their wealthier counterparts to work multiple jobs, lack paid leave, and be unable to afford child care and transportation. And far from breaking the cycle of poverty, your legislation would only sink families even further below the line.
A single mother with two children receives $185 dollars a month in TANF cash payments. That’s roughly $46 dollars a week, less than $7 a day. Your 30% reduction would cut that payment to just under $130 a month.
Your legislation also ignores the very real educational impediments for students coming from impoverished households–like food and housing insecurity or financial and health care instability. And the truth is that poor people don’t hold the monopoly on bad parenting. Nor is a poor child who struggles in school an indicator that he or she has a parent who simply doesn’t care. For impoverished children, even the most exceptional of parents may not be enough to push them through the significant structural barriers imposed by a life in poverty. Bad parenting is not a barrier to success for the rich. Neither should it be an impediment for children of the poor.
And gentlemen–it’s your job as elected officials to encourage their achievement with policy that supports instead of shames.
Sincerely,
Melissa
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