Hispanic, black parents see college degree as key for children’s success | Pew Research Center

Hispanic, black parents see college degree as key for children’s success | Pew Research Center:

Hispanic, black parents see college degree as key for children’s success

Hispanic and black parents are significantly more likely than white parents to say it’s essential that their children earn a college degree, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Today, 86% of Hispanic parents and 79% of black parents with children under 18 say it is either extremely or very important that their children earn a college degree. By comparison, about two-thirds (67%) of white parents say the same.

This gap may be linked to differing views on a college degree’s importance in moving up the economic ladder. Roughly half (49%) of Hispanics and 43% of blacks say that a college education is a requirement to be part of the middle class, compared with just 22% of whites. However, white adults are more likely than black or Hispanic adults to already bein the middle class or higher, which may account in part for the fact that fewer whites see college as essential.

Over the past two decades, educational attainment and college enrollment have increased substantially among Hispanics, the nation’s largest minority group, and blacks. For example, the high school dropout rates among Hispanics and blacks ages 18 to 24 reached record lows in 2014: just 12% for Hispanics and 7% for blacks, down from 33% and 16%, respectively, in 1993.

College enrollment has grown among all races and ethnicities since 1993, but gains have been biggest among Hispanics. In October 2014, 2.3 million Hispanics ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in either a two- or four-year college – up from 728,000 in 1993. Among blacks in the same age group, 1.5 million were enrolled in college in 2014 – up from 897,000 in 1993.

And while the share of Hispanics who have finished college hit a new high in 2014, they still lag other groups on this measure. Among adults ages 25 to 29, 63% of Asians, 41% of whites, 22% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics had earned at least a bachelor’s degree in 2014. This gap is partly due to the fact that Hispanics are less likely than other groups to enroll in four-year schools, attend academically selective colleges or study full-time.Hispanic, black parents see college degree as key for children’s success | Pew Research Center:

Common Core Lie of the Day: Standards Are Needed for STEM Training Because America Doesn’t Have Enough STEM Workers – Missouri Education Watchdog

Common Core Lie of the Day: Standards Are Needed for STEM Training Because America Doesn’t Have Enough STEM Workers – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Common Core Lie of the Day: Standards Are Needed for STEM Training Because America Doesn’t Have Enough STEM Workers

Those Disney characters might just sell you out to the lowest bidder. Fired STEM workers at Disney see those characters in their nightmares.

earch Common Core and STEM and IT and you will obtain results extolling the need for Common Core:

Contrary to the descriptions of why students need Common Core, the fact is that 2/3 of American workers with STEM degrees do not work in STEM fields.  From 2014:

It was announced last week that Microsoft, the tech giant, plans to eliminate 18,000 jobs. That has rankled many in the anti-common core movement because Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, has been out there promoting Common Core ostensibly because we need more STEM workers for companies like his. The claim he and other have made is that there is a shortage of such workers in the United States. What has upset the anti common core crowd is that Microsoft, along with other mega tech companies like Hewlett Packard and CISCO are simultaneously pressuring Congress to expand the H-1B Visa program to allow more highly skilled foreign workers in. While demanding more highly educated workers from the American education system, these large companies are demanding to import more labor from outside our shores. Something just doesn’t match up.

Computer World covered Senator Jeff Sessions response to the Microsoft firings (they are not lay offs). On 

Common Core Lie of the Day: Standards Are Needed for STEM Training Because America Doesn’t Have Enough STEM Workers – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Checker Finn Outraged by David Denby’s Admiration for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Checker Finn Outraged by David Denby’s Admiration for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Checker Finn Outraged by David Denby’s Admiration for Teachers

 This is a sad story. From 1981 to 2009, nearly 30 years, Checker Finn was one of my closest friends. He was like a brother. Our families were close, and we almost telecommunicated about issues. We wrote article and reports together. we wrote a book together. We cofounded the Educational Excellence Network, and I was a founding member of Checker’s Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, as well as a colleague on the Koret Task Force of the Hoover Foundation.

But when I turned against testing and choice, our friendship deteriorated. I asked him if he would write a blurb for my book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Undermines Education”, but he said it was impossible. That book announced my break with the corporate reform movement. Or as I now know it, the privatization movement. He never forgave me for breaking ranks.

Readers of this blog have never read criticism of Checker here. I could not bring myself to speak personally against those who were once close friends, even though our disagreements are philosophically and politically profound.

Checker, however, has finally expressed his anger towards me in print. He slammed David Denby, who has written for the New Yorker for many years, for having written a tribute to teachers. He thinks Denby has turned into a defender of the status quo, which is apparently the worst insult a “reformer” can imagine.

But the privatizers ARE the status quo. How else to describe a “movement” that includes the President of the US, the Department of Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, ALEC (which Fordham joined), all the red-state governors plus Governor Cuomo of New York, and Governor Malloy of Connecticut, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Bloomberg Foundation, about a score of other foundations, and dozens of hedge fund managers who can raise a million dollars in a few hours. If this is not the status quo, I don’t know what is. They are actually quite few in number, but their wealth and political power is immense.

Checker trashed David Denby’s paean to teachers because Checker holds teachers in low regard, especially if they belong to a union and work on a public school.

I suspect this is the paragraph that Denby wrote that most angered Checker:

““A necessary commonplace: Almost everyone we know has been Checker Finn Outraged by David Denby’s Admiration for Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Obama's Pick for Education Focuses on States' Role - ABC News

Obama's Pick for Education Focuses on States' Role - ABC News:
Obama's Pick for Education Focuses on States' Role

President Barack Obama's nominee for Education Secretary told senators Thursday that the focus of decision-making on elementary and secondary education is "rightly shifting" to the states and away from the federal government.

John B. King Jr. is poised to oversee the Education Department as it is losing some of its authority. A bipartisan education law passed by Congress and signed by Obama in December revamps the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act, and substantially limits some of the federal government's influence ushered in by that 2002 law.

The new law bars the Education Department from telling states and local districts how to assess the performance of schools and teachers. Instead, states and districts must come up with their own goals for schools, design their own measures of achievement and progress, and decide how to turn around struggling schools.

"As a former teacher, principal, and state commissioner, I know from personal experience that the best ideas come from classrooms, not conference rooms," King said at the hearing.

Under questioning from senators, King promised his department will adhere to the new law and its limits on federal intervention.

King, who began his career in education teaching high school social studies, joined the department in January 2015. He oversaw federal education programs for preschool through 12th grade before being tapped by Obama late last year to succeed longtime secretary Arne Duncan, who stepped down in December. King is currently serving as acting secretary.

In a sharply partisan Senate where Republicans have held up several of Obama's nominations — and are pledging no hearings for a potential Supreme Court nominee — King looks to be an exception.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who served as education secretary under former President George H.W. Bush, pressed the administration to nominate a new secretary after the bipartisan education overhaul was signed. He said he didn't think it was appropriate to go a whole year without a secretary firmly in place.

"We need an education secretary who is confirmed and accountable to Congress while we're implementing a law that may govern elementary and secondary education for some time," Alexander said.

After the hearing, Alexander said he thought King was "well received" by the panel and scheduled a committee vote on his nomination March 9.

"I think his prospects are excellent," he said.

In addition to the new law, senators also quizzed King on student loans and college campus sexual assault, among other issues.

On student loans, critics have complained the government didn't move swiftly enough to take action against for-profit schools like Corinthian Colleges, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year amid fraud allegations. The move closed schools, left thousands of students with hefty student debt and frustrated their efforts to earn degrees. The Education Department said earlier this month it will create a new student aid enforcement unit to respond more quickly to allegations of illegal actions.

"There's a lot of work to do to protect our students and borrowers, and we intend to do that," King said in response to questions on the issue from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The Obama administration has taken steps to push colleges to better tackle the problem of sexual assault, including releasing the names of colleges and universities in 2014 that were facing Title IX investigations for their handling of such cases. King said that continues to be a priority.

Before coming to Washington, King served as commissioner of education for the state of New York, where he pushed an ambitious improvement agenda for the state's public schools. During his 3 1/2 years as commissioner, King became a lightning rod for criticism over linking student test scores to teacher evaluations and a rushed implementation of the Common Core academic standards for grades K-12. The state's largest teachers' union said upon his departure that it had "disagreed sharply and publicly with the commissioner on many issues."

In his opening testimony, King said his New York City public school teachers "literally saved my life." He told the story of his mother's death when he was eight and his father's passing four years later. Both were educators.

He cited two of his New York teachers — "Mr. Osterweil" and "Miss D" — for his success. "If not for them, I could not have survived that turbulent period, and I certainly wouldn't be sitting before you today," King said.

———

Associated Press writer Jennifer C. Kerr contributed to this report.Obama's Pick for Education Focuses on States' Role - ABC News:

Russ on Reading: Who Holds Success Academy Accountable for Child Abuse?

Russ on Reading: Who Holds Success Academy Accountable for Child Abuse?:

Who Holds Success Academy Accountable for Child Abuse?

 Nadya Miranda. the mother of the first grade child berated by her teacher in theinfamous video published by the New York Times, has spoken out for the first time by giving an interview to the Times.In the interview she reports how she has withdrawn her child from the school and how she felt her child had been robbed of her confidence as a learner in her Success Academy classroom. She also expressed her frustration that she only received an apology from the school and the teacher after the video became public and that her child had never received an apology from the teacher, Ms. Dial. Ms. Miranda feels like Success Academy rallied to the defense of the teacher and ignored the impact of the verbal abuse on her child. Please read the article for a sense of the shattered hopes and dreams of Ms. Miranda and her daughter.


One thing that stood out for me in the article was this paragraph at the end of the piece.

Seeking to hold someone accountable for what happened to her daughter, Ms. Miranda went into a Department of Education building in Brooklyn to ask about filing a complaint, but was told that Success was independent from the school district. She said that Ms. Nicholls, the principal, had given her information about how to reach Success’s board of trustees, and Russ on Reading: Who Holds Success Academy Accountable for Child Abuse?:

Should Computer-Coding Skills Be Counted as a Foreign Language in Schools? - The Atlantic

Should Computer-Coding Skills Be Counted as a Foreign Language in Schools? - The Atlantic:

Does Coding Count as a Foreign Language?

A Florida bill proposes to let credits from computer-coding classes count like those for Spanish or French courses—but many are skeptical.

 Spanish. French. German. Computer coding. Are they the same?

This question is at the center of a debate in Florida, where legislators are currently considering a bill that would require high schools to offer computer coding as a foreign-language credit.

The bill is sponsored by the former Yahoo executive and democratic state senatorJeremy Ring, who sees coding as its own unique language. But some argue the skill doesn’t offer the value of spoken-language training and might be a better fit for the STEM disciplines.

Last December, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he “absolutely” disagrees with the idea that computer coding is an equal substitute for a foreign language. (So do the editorial staffs of the Tampa Bay Times, Tallahassee Democrat, Orlando Sentineland The Palm Beach Post.)

Research out of the University of Florida suggests most Floridians believe Spanish instruction should be required in the state’s schools. Miami-Dade County, where more than 66 percent of residents are Hispanic or Latino, is home to the largest school district in Florida and the sixth largest in the U.S. Recently, the district pledged to improve its Spanish-language instruction with better teacher training and a new curriculum.

“Based on both educational, intellectual development, and emotional development—as well as long-term economic development in an increasingly bilingual and biliterate community—computer coding is not a trade-off,” Carvalho told the Miami Herald.

Bills similar to Ring’s have passed or been introduced in other states, with proponents claiming the foreign-language-credit approach will benefit students who will need to compete in the modern-day workforce.

“By 2020, companies across the U.S. will have 1.4 million job openings requiring computer-science expertise and just 400,000 college graduates to fill them,” John Lauerman writes for Bloomberg Business.

But, as a source tells Lauerman, monolingual Americans will need to up their game, too. Mari Corugedo, who teaches elementary-aged English-language learners in the Miami-Dade district, knows this firsthand.

“In our case, in Miami-Dade, many of the jobs do require them to have the language of Spanish in order to communicate and do business here,” she said in a phone interview Monday. While teaching her students English, she also works with them to maintain proficiency in their first language so that by the time they graduate from high school, they are confident in both. Corugedo is also a district Should Computer-Coding Skills Be Counted as a Foreign Language in Schools? - The Atlantic:

Battle Over Teacher Tenure Laws Returns To LA Court « CBS Los Angeles

Battle Over Teacher Tenure Laws Returns To LA Court « CBS Los Angeles:

Battle Over California Teacher Tenure Laws Returns To LA Court

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — An appellate court panel in Los Angeles heard arguments but made no decision Thursday in a long-running legal battle over state employment laws governing tenure and the firing of teachers.

During an hour-long hearing in the 2nd District Court of Appeal, a three-judge panel heard arguments for and against California’s tenure system, which protects experienced teachers from layoffs and firings based on seniority.

Ted Boutrous, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that current teacher job protections result in a “dance of the lemons,” in which “grossly ineffective teachers” are simply transferred from school to school.

“It’s impossible to dismiss these teachers,” the attorney said, adding that poor teachers invariably end up in low-income and minority outposts.

Justice Brian M. Hoffstadt, though, questioned whether the plaintiffs could prove that school administrators don’t have enough power to keep that from happening.

Certain school districts have managed to apply the laws “in a way that doesn’t result in this unlawful concentration” of poor instructors, Hoffstadt pointed out.

In his turn at the podium, Deputy Attorney General Nimrod Elias argued that there is no evidence that students at some poor and minority schools are being harmed by the protections.

“These laws help reduce teacher attrition,” he said. “There are benefits.”

Elias also argued that school districts statewide attract educators who might otherwise be dissuaded by what they may consider low pay and difficult working conditions. In California, administrators must in effect decide whether to grant teachers tenure — permanent employment — after just 18 months.

Vergara v. California was first filed in May 2012 by an advocacy group called Students Matter, on behalf of nine young plaintiffs. It alleged that tenure laws for public school teachers violated students’ constitutional rights to an equal education and named the state and two teacher unions, the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Theodore Boutrous argued during the Superior Court trial that tenure and other laws made it too time-consuming and expensive to dismiss ineffective educators.

But lawyer James Finberg, representing the teacher unions, countered that the laws help prevent teachers from being hired and retained for reasons involving favoritism and politics.

In June 2014, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu sided with the Students Matter and struck down the teacher tenure laws, saying students and educators alike are “disadvantaged” by the statutes. Treu issued an injunction blocking tenure laws for public school teachers, but also placed a stay on the ruling pending an appeal.

“This court finds that both students and teachers are unfairly, unnecessarily, and for no legally cognizable reason — let alone a compelling one — disadvantaged by the current permanent employment statute,” the judge wrote in his 16-page ruling.

Treu noted that teachers have a right to due process when they are being targeted for dismissal.

“However, based on the evidence before this court, it finds the current system required by the dismissal statutes to be so complex, time consuming and expensive as to make an effective, efficient yet fair dismissal of a grossly ineffective teacher illusory,” he wrote.

The ruling was a major blow to teachers unions, which contend the ruling will actually harm students and educators. They argue that the laws governing tenure ensure that quality teachers are in classrooms.

The court has 90 days to issue an opinion.

(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)Battle Over Teacher Tenure Laws Returns To LA Court « CBS Los Angeles:

The Education ‘Reform’ Bargain Is Off. What’s Needed Instead.

2/25/2016 – The Education ‘Reform’ Bargain Is Off. What’s Needed Instead.:

The Education ‘Reform’ Bargain Is Off. What’s Needed Instead.

February 25, 2016, 2016 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Money Matters … Education As Equalizer? … Why Replicate Findland … Student Activism Works … Climate Change Taught Wrong

TOP STORY

The Education ‘Reform’ Bargain Is Off. Here’s What We Need Instead.

By Jeff Bryant

“Because the original bargain of education reform was broken at the outset, let’s free the conversation of the constraints of that deal and instead consider what we can do to support equity. That’s what a real conversation about education policy would be all about.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

How Do You Fix Schools? Maybe Just Give Them More Money.

Slate

“What if simply throwing more money at schools actually is a reasonable approach? A couple of interesting recent studies suggest it might be … This new wavelet of research should at the very least weaken the by-now-conventional wisdom that cash alone can’t ease the problems that ail our education system. Maybe money is a solution, after all.”
Read more …

Still Think America Is The ‘Land Of Opportunity’? Look At This Chart.

The Washington Post

“Policymakers on the left and right often tout education as the bridge to help poor kids make their way up the income ladder … But striking new research from the Brookings Institution shows that simply sending more kids to college won’t fix income inequality: As it turns out, a college degree is worth a lot less, earnings-wise, to poor kids than to rich ones.”
Read more …

How Finland Broke Every Rule – And Created A Top School System

The Hechinger Report

“Finland’s historic achievements in delivering educational excellence and equity to its children are the result of a national love of childhood, a profound respect for teachers as trusted professionals, and a deep understanding of how children learn best … What if many of Finland’s educational practices are not cultural quirks or non-replicable national idiosyncrasies – but are instead bare-minimum global best practices that all our children urgently need, especially those children in high-poverty schools?”
Read more …

High School Student Activism Makes An Impact

Education Week

“Student walk-outs and boycotts have been effective in generating attention for a number of issues around the country … What’s remarkable and inspiring is that at a young age our teens can also be thoughtful, informed, passionate, and right.”
Read more …

Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change

NPR

“Many middle and high school science teachers are getting climate change wrong … Roughly 30 percent tell students that humans are only partly to blame for climate change, along with natural causes.”
Read more …

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2/25/2016 – The Education ‘Reform’ Bargain Is Off. What’s Needed Instead.:

John Sheffield for New York Board of Regents | deutsch29

John Sheffield for New York Board of Regents | deutsch29:

John Sheffield for New York Board of Regents

Below is a guest post by Yvonne Gasperino, co-founder of Stop Common Core in New York State. Gasperino composed this post, an effort to feature John Sheffield, candidate for the New York Board of regents, at my request.

***

When it comes to the education of children in the state of New York, the Board of Regents holds a lot of influence, power and control. They supervise all educational activities within the state and preside over the State University New York (SUNY) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED).  Board members and chairs are appointed by the Regents chancellor, also, Regents includes 17 members elected by the state legislature for five-year terms: one from each of the State’s 13 judicial districts and four members that serve at large.

New York State (NYS) legislators (most of whom are not educators) dictate the election process. However, a very few were former educators, for instance, Assemblyman Al Graf.

So… let’s envision this:

If NYS superintendents had a voice in the vetting and election process of Regents, what questions should they ask candidates vying for an open Board of Regents seat? Which superintendents do we think must have a voice in this process? For this reason, John Sheffield and I offer this mock interview focused on hypothetical interview questions for the Regents seat that Sheffield hopes to occupy. The questions are posed by well-known and highly-regarded NYS school superintendents, Drs. Joe Rella, Michael Hynes, and William Cala.

About the Interviewers

Dr. Joe Rella, superintendent for Comsewogue School District, is known as “America’s Superintendent” due to his infamous robocall in the infancy of the Refusal/Stop Common Core movement. All who come in contact with Dr. Rella revere and admire him – not only in New York but nationwide.

Dr. Michael Hynes, superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District, is known for his commitment to our children, schools. But he is also known for his call to abolish the US Dept. of Ed.  Dr. Hynes has emerged as another prominent advocate for parents, children and teachers when he spoke in a Garden City, NY, forum hosted by Stop Common Core on Long Island, where he discussed the adverse effects of Common Core and why it was imperative to refuse the tests.

Dr. William Cala is a seasoned professional who has held several Superintendent positions throughout Western New York and Long Island (Pembroke, Shoreham-Wading River, and Fairport). Dr. Cala is well-known in Western New York, having served as interim superintendent for the City of Rochester, and rose as a voice for the public by, criticizing Governor Cuomo as a corporate hound with little knowledge of how schools work. (Read his letter here.)

John Sheffield for Regents

A bit about John Sheffield from the man himself:

  

John Sheffield

My name is John Sheffield, and I hope to be appointed to the NYS Board of Regents. My Board of Regents agenda is encompassed by one simple question: “Is this what is best for the kids?” I am beholden to no group but the students of New York.

I am a father of two children who were well–served by the public school system (as was I, many years ago). I am an educator, I have been called an education activist, and I am an active member of my community. I also am one very concerned citizen of this great state-– concerned about the direction education is being driven, not just on the state level, but by the way Fed Ed is pushing, and at times threatening, our state. I am also deeply-– DEEPLY troubled by the daily erosion of local control of public education, which I feel is being outright taken from our communities across the state.

I was officially interviewed for the position of Regent by Assembly members in Albany, NY on Wednesday February 3rd, 2016. That interview in its entirety can be found here.

I was also interviewed live by Susan Arbettor on Friday February 5^th, 2016, for her show, The Capitol Pressroom; that interview can be found here from the 36:12 mark to the 48:24 mark.

Finally, I have been interviewed by local papers and been endorsed by such groups as Stop Common Core in New York State, NYSAPE, and NY BATS, and by numerous other groups and individuals across the state.

The Rella-Hynes-Cala Interview 

Sheffield asked Rella, Hynes, and Cala what questions they would like answered if they were allowed to be part of the Regents process. Sheffield found that the superintendents’ individual questions could be grouped into four major areas of concern. Thus, the four items below represent Sheffield’s consolidation of the superintendents’ questions for a Regents candidate.

Item One: Trust Issues

Q: How would you begin to heal the damage done over the past five years?  How would you demonstrate that children are the center of the educational enterprise? Where do you stand on the right of parents to OPT-OUT?

Sheffield’s response:

All three of these issues are tied together by one simple theme: trust.  In order to undo the damage of the past five years, trust must be rebuilt between the Regents and the people of New York State. The legislature and the governor must also win back the trust of parents and communities across the state.

We must start by using child–centered practices that are proven and remove the emphasis on testing. Look at the programs that are being used in the consortium schools that are experiencing great success without a focus on testing and, for the most part, without Common Core.  We should expand on those models; let decisions be made at the local level as to which part or parts of the consortium models best fit their given community.

We need to address the different learning styles of our children, in part, by providing multiple pathways to graduation through the use of different diploma tracks. While recognizing that a Regent’s diploma appropriately suits the capabilities of some students, we must bring back the “local” diploma, have a vocational diploma track, and recognize that our hard– working special education students deserve a diploma as well for their various equivalent skill sets.

In addition to these things, I support parents’ opt out rights.  The children are their children. It is up to the Regents and education policy makers to earn back the trust of parents, schools, communities, and educators – until such time when parents do not feel they have to opt their children out.  Furthermore, I will fight against any and all government agencies or persons that threaten, attempt to intimidate, and/or try to penalize districts with high opt out rates.

Item Two: Testing and Evaluation

Q: What do you see as the role of testing? Should testing be coupled with teacher/school/administrative/district evaluation?

Sheffield’s response:

First and foremost, the role of testing should be for the classroom teacher and used in both formative and summative capacities for the classroom.  I further add that its weight as a summative tool should be limited to 25% or under during any given marking period.  To be clear though, this decision should be made at the local level.  While I understand we are in an age of “globalization”, our communities are as varied as the children in them.

Should tests be linked to evaluations of teachers, principals, schools, and districts? The answer is simple: absolutely not. There is no reliable or valid formula to do so; Value Added Measure (VAM) is a perfect example of this. The reason there is no reliable or valid measure to link test scores to these types of evaluations is because these tests are not made to measure teacher/principal/school effectiveness. It is an axiom in testing and statistics that one does not use an instrument to measure something it was not made for! Where a Regents diploma is concerned, then testing may play a larger role due to the nature of that diploma track; what that role is needs to be determined by all stakeholders and certainly must have educator input.

Item Three: Charter School Funding

Q: What are your stances on the funding of charter schools with public money with little accountability or oversight, the $300 million that charter schools received for MANDATE RELIEF this year, and unfunded and underfunded mandates in our public schools?

Sheffield’s response:

I think what bothers me the most about charter schools is how their original intent has been distorted from an alternative setting for students who have difficulty functioning in the “normal” school environment to a cash cow for privateers and education reformers whose main concern is the bottom line and profit margins…NOT the kids.  The fact that they receive public funds with little or no oversight is mind–boggling to me as a citizen and tax payer.

If you delve further into it, you will find that many of these privateers have dumped millions upon millions of dollars into the legislative process of New York, including massive donations to Governor Cuomo, in order to exercise control over New York’s education policies. Part of their payback is that they receive public funds yet they do not have to play by the same rules as true public schools across the state.

As for the “mandate” relief charter schools have received this year, it simply disgusts me.  While not having to follow many of the same rules and regulations as most public schools, here they are receiving even more public monies – and it comes at a time where the state is claiming not to have enough money to properly fund public schools.  This leads me to underfunded and unfunded mandates.

Policies have been forced upon our public schools although proper funding has not been provided.  As a matter of fact, the GEA (Gap Elimination Adjustment) is still here even though in two campaigns Governor Cuomo said eliminating it would be a priority. As a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, it was found New York State owes its schools billions of dollars that it has yet to pay, and it has been known for years that New York’s Foundation Aid Formula is in dire need of adjustments…yet none of it has been fixed. It seems to me that this, combined with some of the other factors I’ve mentioned, constitutes a clear attack on public education; an attack that is purposely setting our children, schools, and communities up for failure in order to facilitate a hostile takeover of public education.

Item Four: “Pressing Concerns”

Q: What are the top three most pressing concerns you believe the Board must confront and correct?

Sheffield’s response:

There is really only one grave issue in my mind and that is the total lack of trust in those making educational decisions about our children. Trust must be rebuilt. In order to re-establish that trust, there are several main issues that must be dealt with.

People, be they concerned parents, grandparents, educators, or community members in general, need to really be listened to.  By that I mean more than just reflective listening and lip service. Action must be taken– action that undoes the damage of the past five years; it must be swift and it must be clear.

Processes dealing with education (and many other decisions for that matter) must be much more transparent. The citizens of this state deserve honesty and integrity where our children are concerned. Our children are not baseball cards to be traded and bartered away to the highest bidder and they should not be treated as such.  The politics and big money must be driven from the equation in order for all children to be educated in the manner they all so richly deserve.  The Regents must take the lead in this and all things regarding education.

The Board of Regents must regain control of educational decisions in New York State. The legislature must work with the Regents to properly fund education; investing in our children is truly investing in the future.  The adage of pay now or pay later holds true.  The cost of not investing in the education of all of our children to the very best of our ability leads to much greater financial and societal costs down the road.  It is the Regents who must take the lead in all of this.  It is they that must gain the trust of the parents, for with the active, involved, and informed parents backing them up, the legislature, and even the governor, will have to follow suit.

The Regents also must lead in absolving New York from its misplaced commitment to Common Core.  After five years, the fact that there is so much public dissent about Common Core, its history, its developers, its inadequacies, its intrusiveness through data, its misplaced emphasis on testing, and the mere fact that it essentially is an experiment on our kids…all lead to the conclusion – it needs to be tossed.  It is my opinion that it would have been gone already if not for the hundreds of millions of dollars of private money propping it up.  Before Common Core, before RTTT, before NCLB, before federal government overreach began, New York had a first class public education system; we need to go back in time in order to move forward in education. New York also has its own “lost standards’ which had both time and money invested into them only to be “lost” in the wild goose chase of Race to the Top.

It is time for New York State to be a leader in education once more. The first step must be to leave Common Core and, if necessary, fight the Federal Department of Education.

And Sheffield’s apt closing:

New York as a state must fight for its children.  The leaders in that fight should be the New York State Board of Regents because they do not have to play politics; they only have to do what is right.  In doing so, then trust can be restored, and we can move forward together.

***John Sheffield for Regents***

John Sheffield for New York Board of Regents | deutsch29:

Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM of the UNITED OPT OUT Conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. | Reclaim Reform

Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM of the UNITED OPT OUT Conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. | Reclaim Reform:

Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM of the UNITED OPT OUT Conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday



 Why will I be attending the UNITED OPT OUT CONFERENCE: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform in Philadelphia this Friday, Saturday and Sunday?

These brilliant speakers and several more will explain the how-what-where-when-and-why of the nationwide Opt Out Movement. If you cannot attend in person, go to THIS LINK to stream it live.

Because the corporate education reform movement is all about the corporate profits from mandated high stakes testing, their weakness is obvious. Hedge fund and venture fund managers and their multinational investors, often disguised as philanthropists who wish to dismantle public education for the good of America, want money – lots of money from education tax funding on local, state and national levels. By refusing to allow children to take the tests, money is denied them. Without the vast ill-gotten money, the corporate reform movement will die. Opt Out one child at a time, one family at a time, one school at a time, one district at a time, etc. No private profits, no corporate education reform movement.

Yes, refusing to take tests mandated by corrupt legislators who will do anything to gain funds for their own re-election campaigns requires an act of civil disobedience.

Will people do this for their children? They are already doing it, and their numbers are growing daily.

Corporate education reformers and their paid legislators are doing it for the money.

Parents opt out for their children. Parents refuse to allow their children’s futures diminished, and they refuse to accept a promise of fewer punishing tests. They refuse to allow any lead in the water and any mandated high stakes tests to continue.

Learn more at the UOO Conference LIVE STREAM this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.Don’t miss the LIVE STREAM of the UNITED OPT OUT Conference this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. | Reclaim Reform:

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