Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/18/16
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint
Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint:
Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ?
Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ?
The Assault Shows No Signs of Waning
It sounds like an impossibility: the prospect of a state’s government working doggedly to destroy one of the very institutions it is charged with protecting and advancing.
Careful and deliberate consideration of legislative and executive actions over the course of the last seventeen years, however, indicate that at least two of Florida’s governmental branches are doing just that. The legislative dismantling of public education in Florida accelerated about six years ago, when the Florida legislature started enacting statutes designed to hasten the demise of Florida’s public schools, as well as the teaching profession itself. By simply ignoring political opposition and public outcry, anti-public education lawmakers have accomplished what many would have considered impossible just a decade ago.
Jeb Bush: The Granddaddy of “Accountability”
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who most recently made headlines on March 20, 2016 when he dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential primary race after posting embarrassingly low numbers in the first three state primary contests, is the proud sire of “reform” and “accountability” in Florida. His so-called “A+ Plan for Education” set in motion a cavalcade of dubious education policy initiatives over the next 17 years that have driven public education in Florida into an abyss of neglect and deceptively brokered sabotage.
Education Corporatization and the Sacrificial Lamb
Public education has apparently become an issue where Democrats and Republicans seem to be more able than ever to agree. Many Democrats, such as presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, seemed to have tempered their opposition to corporately-driven “reform,” while artfully hedging quasi-promises to protect public education. Campaign contributions are powerful influencers. Corporate PR types have taken the science of disinformation to new heights, and have found that even a fatal disease might be peddled as a panacea.
“The Best Interests of the Children”
Grabbing the Moral High Ground as a Means to Discredit Opposition
It’s incredibly difficult to argue against a person extolling the supposed virtues of a proposal when they use catchphrases like, “It’s best for the kids,” or any number of similarly worded, deceitfully expressed rationales for policy. You hear politicians and corporate education “reformers” reciting the mantra often: “We’re only trying to do what’s right for the children,” or, “This is what’s in the best interests of students.” The use of such “reasoning” to justify any governmental action is manipulative in nature and should be immediately disregarded by voters. The well-worn tactic, known as seizing the moral high ground, and disallowed in formal debates, provides the person who uses it with what is almost universally acknowledged to be an unfair means to quiet the debate altogether. It places those with an opposing view in a logical predicament that is very difficult to climb out of. Florida politicians and corporate public treasury pillagers (they call themselves “reformers”) use such phrases all the time. Aside from the audacity displayed by their presumption that such claims are appropriate, the insult to the intellect of the average voter is overt. Voters should demand details from politicians and eschew slogans and catchphrases as the tripe they are.
The Blueprint for the Destruction of Public Education
There exists a politico-corporate blueprint for the disassembly of public education. It largely has its origins, as well as its single greatest market, in Florida. The Florida C-Suite has been at this game for almost two decades. Very few of them, if any, have kids in public schools. They do have very large bank accounts, and they want them to get larger. To their delight, they have discovered the malleable nature of the Florida Constitution, as well as the reality that most voters are easily hornswoggled. The result has been a disaster for public education in Florida.
Starve the Schools
Politicians and their corporate masters borrowed their foremost tactic from the War College. When you lay siege to your enemy, the first thing you do is deprive him of resources. A starving enemy cannot offer the kind of resistance that a vibrant, well-supplied one can. Tallahassee has starved Florida’s public schools of adequate funding for longer than anyone in the state has been alive. Politicians love to talk about “record-level” education funding. What they don’t talk about is how much of that funding goes straight into the pockets of education vendors peddling “reform” and “accountability” wares taxpayers without their knowledge. The actual schools have experienced a net loss in funding when the diversion of public money into private pockets is considered.
The state also puts crippling restrictions on the monies it sends to school districts. Categorical funds can only be used for certain purposes, and often leave districts flush with funds earmarked for purposes that they don’t need them for, while simultaneously broke of funds for the things they need.
Unions Are Evil and Unnecessary
Ever since Jeb Bush began his all-but-personal vendetta against teachers’ professional associations, an uninterrupted procession of politicians in Tallahassee has assaulted teachers’ unions as selfish accomplices to mediocrity. All unions have their problems. Teachers unions are no different. However, next to parents, no one cares more about students than their teachers. Certainly not politicians and corporate money junkies. Without a professional organization, teachers have zero defense against marauding charlatans who so often seek administrative positions and attempt to use their power to destroy the teachers they do not like. Without unions, teachers are effectively tossed out of the conversation about the enterprise that is necessarily centered around their profession. It makes zero sense to destroy teachers unions.
Tenure Makes for Mediocre Teachers
False. Since the legislature eliminated tenure for newly-hired teachers, the state of public education in Florida has only gotten worse. Teachers are fleeing the profession in droves, Why Is the State of Florida Trying to Destroy its Own Public Schools ? – Florida Viewpoint:
It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request… - Wait What?
It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request… - Wait What?:
It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request…
It’s a Sunday Evening Donation Request…
Wait, What? readers,
I’m writing to ask for your help and support.
As many of you know, I am running as the Green Party candidate for Congress in Connecticut’s 2nd Congressional District. My goal is to use this campaign to send a clear and powerful message to elected officials that politics as usual is not acceptable.
For example, our system of public education is under assault. The charter school industry and its corporate education reform allies are seeking to privatize public education and turn our schools into little more than Common Core testing factories and profit centers.
Our children, parents, teachers and public schools deserve far better from our elected officials. Rather than laws like the federal Every Student Succeeds Act and other terrible education reform initiatives, public education deserves adequate resources and more support at the federal and state level.
With Election Day just seven weeks away, we’re gearing up the voter outreach efforts. However, we still need additional funds to pay for some of the key mailings and other elements of the program.
Please consider making a donation to Pelto 2016.
It is simple and easy, just go to: Pelto for Congress 2016 or
https://pelto2016-ectgreens.nationbuilder.com/donate and donate what you can.
Your contributions would be extremely appreciated and very helpful.
Thank you so much,
Pelto 2016- Candidate for Congress, CT's 2nd District - http://www.pelto2016.com/
Sound Familar? Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English
Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English:
Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017
Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017
Overall investment in schools will fall below 5 percent of national income.
The administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto plans to deepen contested education reforms, by cutting spending for facilities improvements, equipment access, and teacher training, the Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported Sunday.
The Mexican government proposes federal-level cutbacks in 19 out of 23 programs for children and youths next year,
According to data from Mexico’s Center for Economic and Budget Research, also known as CIEP, spending earmarked for education in the 2017 budget is set to fall by 4.2 percent. Total educational spending represents 14 percent of the federal budget and 3.3 percent of GDP, which represents a reduction in educational investment historically. According to World Bank statistics, Mexico dedicated 5.1 percent of GDP to education in 2011, which was, at that time, more than the worldwide average of 4.53 percent of GDP.
According to numbers reported by La Jornada, some areas will be hit harder than others. Funding for the Education Reform Program is set to plunge by nearly 72 percent, while the Program for Professional Development for Teachers will take a hit of over 37 percent.
Other programs on the chopping block include initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide, improving early childhood education, and developing infrastructure in the education system, among others, La Jornada reported.
The projected cuts to education spending come amid an ongoing conflict between dissident teachers and the Mexican government over education reforms, rolled out by government beginning in 2013. Striking teachers slam the reforms as “neoliberal” and argue that they do not account for unique needs of students and teachersin rural and Indigenous areas.
In recent weeks, some sections of the National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE union, have opted to go back to classes after striking for about four months, while other sections have continued to protest the government’s refusal to overturn the disputed reforms.Mexico to Cut Educational Spending in 2017 | News | teleSUR English:
Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice
Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice:
Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies
Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies
Let us keep in the forefront of our hearts, minds, and souls that our children have started a new school year full of testing, computer programs, shell-shocked teachers, and ravenous entrepreneurs making billions from the hostile take over of public education. They need us now more than ever. In all that we do let us not do anything that brings harm to our children. ##DoNoHarm
Many thanks to the new blog Wrench in the Gears for alerting many of us to the dangers of the online usurpation of education.
Schools in every state are buzzing this year with talk of “personalized” learning and 21st century assessments for kids as young as kindergarten. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and its innovative pilot programs are already changing the ways schools instruct and assess, in ways that are clearly harmful to our kids. Ed-tech companies, chambers of commerce, ALEC, neoliberal foundations, telecommunications companies, and the government are working diligently to turn our public schools into lean, efficient laboratories of data-driven, digital learning.
In the near future, learning eco-systems of cyber education mixed with a smattering of community-based learning opportunities (ELOs) will Everything You Need to Know About Opting Out of Harmful Technologies | Poetic Justice:
“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education
“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education:
“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks
“Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks
All of the elements are in place:
- There’s piece work employment without financial security or due process.
- The opportunity for corporations to pay employees in script instead of actual cash.
- Smart Contracts and the possibility of a lifetime of servitude without compensation.
- Cradle to grave corporate surveillance of every citizen.
If George Orwell wrote a sequel to 1984, the idea of The Institute for the Future’s Edublocks and The Ledger would have a starring role.
The Institute for the Future (IFTF) prides itself on bringing “people together to make the future—today.”
IFTF is an outgrowth of The Rand Corporation and counts as partners corporate giants in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and advocacy.
Groups such as AARP, the American Medical Association, AT&T, GM, Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente and Shell – just to name a few of the heavy hitters who have hitched their wagons to IFTF.
In case you’re not familiar with The Rand Corporation, it’s one of the U.S. military’s oldest think tanks, getting it’s start in 1948 as an offshoot of the Douglas Aircraft Company.
One area of interest for The Institute of the Future is education. IFTF’s blog reports on the various attempts to hack the future of education. Anya Kamenetz is considered a “Learning is Earning” the Rand Corporation way with digital badges and Edublocks | Seattle Education:
Randi Weingarten: Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post
Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post:
Trump Fails A Crucial Test
Trump Fails A Crucial Test
Donald Trump doesn’t have any use for public schools — he never attended them, sent his kids to them or supported civic efforts to strengthen them.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Trump would propose a plan that would decimate public education. But 90 percent of America’s children attend public schools. Trump’s plan to expand failed voucher programs and destabilize public schools is a grave threat to them and to this essential public good.
Trump’s $20 billion proposal to “voucherize” public education would harm 10 children for every 1 child he purports to help. It appears that Trump would cut all Title I funding for low-income students and an additional $5 billion in federal education funding.
The Title I cuts alone could strip funding from up to 56,000 public schools serving more than 21 million children. His plan would rob 5 million public school students with disabilities of essential services.
An additional 5 million English language learners would be denied educational supports. Eight million students would lose the Pell grants that make it possible to attend college. Students across the country would lose tens of thousands of highly qualified teachers and classroom aides, resulting in unacceptably large class sizes and depriving students of one-on-one attention.
And for what? To expand access to charter schools, which generally perform no better than public schools, and voucher schools, which perform far worse. Not surprisingly, a version of Trump’s idea was flatly rejected by bipartisan majorities in Congress just last fall when they passed the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
When Trump unveiled his proposal last week in Cleveland, the venue he chose made the case against his own plan. The for-profit charter school where Trump made his announcement received a D and an F on the annual Ohio Department of Education report card, and Ohio’s voucher and charter school sectors have been Trump Fails A Crucial Test | Huffington Post:
Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz
Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz:
Teaching children grit could risk turning them into amoral jerks
Teaching children grit could risk turning them into amoral jerks
According to the grit narrative, children in the United States are lazy, entitled and unprepared to compete in the global economy. Schools have contributed to the problem by neglecting socio-emotional skills. The solution, then, is for schools to impart the dispositions that enable American children to succeed in college and careers. According to this story, politicians, policymakers, corporate executives and parents agree that kids need more grit.
The person who has arguably done more than anyone else to elevate the concept of grit in academic and popular conversations is Angela Duckworth, professor at the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In her new book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, she explains the concept of grit and how people can cultivate it in themselves and others.
According to Duckworth, grit is the ability to overcome any obstacle in pursuit of a long-term project: “To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times and rise eight.” Duckworth names musicians, athletes, coaches, academics and business people who succeed because of grit. Her book will be a boon for policymakers who want schools to inculcate and measure grit.
There is a time and place for grit. However, praising grit as such makes no sense because it can often lead to stupid or mean behavior. Duckworth’s book is filled with gritty people doing things that they, perhaps, shouldn’t.
Take Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology and Duckworth’s graduate school mentor. In a 1967 article, Seligman and his co-author describe a series of experiments on dogs. The first day, the dogs are placed in a harness and administered electrical shocks. One group can stop the shocks if they press their nose against a panel, and the other group cannot. The next day, all of the dogs are placed in a shuttle box and again administered shocks that the dogs can stop by Teaching children grit: There's a dark side to convincing people to never give up — Quartz:
What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post
What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post:
What Texas did to its special-education students
What Texas did to its special-education students
An investigation by the Houston Chronicle has revealed that unelected state officials in Texas “arbitrarily decided what percentage of students should get special education services” more than a decade ago and then began auditing school districts that did not comply.
Their efforts, which started in 2004 but have never been publicly announced or explained, have saved the Texas Education Agency billions of dollars but denied vital supports to children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries, even blindness and deafness, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.
The newspaper found that state officials set a cap of 8.5 percent of students who should receive special-education services, far lower than the national average. According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, the overall percentage of those being served in programs for students with disabilities was 12.9 percent in 2012-13, the most recent year for which statistics are available, down 13.8 percent in 2004-05. In 2015, the 8.5 percent was reached for the first time, dropping from 12 percent a dozen years ago, the newspaper reported. It said:
If Texas provided services at the same rate as the rest of the U.S., 250,000 more kids would be getting critical services such as therapy, counseling and one-on-one tutoring.
In its response to the Chronicle, the Texas Education Agency denied that it had set 8.5 percent as a mandated goal and instead described it as an “indicator.” It also said that it did not punish What Texas did to its special-education students - The Washington Post:
The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson
The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson:
The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building)
The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building)
Yesterday, I had the chance to go to EdCampBrooklyn, the first EdCamp in the borough of Robinson, Wallace, and Carter (among others). When the founder, Juli-Anne Benjamin, asked me to come through, I only asked when, not if. The trek from Harlem to Brooklyn was two trains, about an hour and a half on a Saturday morning. But the conversations and the energy were more than worth it. Educators across the country, especially those of us who attend these conferences on our “free” time understand that unconferencing isn’t an exercise in gaining more followers or creating a profile for ourselves, but to create synergy around pedagogy and practice. This specific EdCamp was important for me to attend because I knew that the educators who attended this conference were focused intently on working with the most marginalized students in our system, the ones that won’t show up on the brochures and city halls. Doing this on a Saturday gives us only Sunday to re-gather ourselves and implement the energy from this event back into our classroom.
You’re right: this work is difficult.
Even though my classroom aesthetics have gotten sharper, my language sharper, and my resolve more stringent, I see the 5:30am grind kicking my butt. I wake up and go to work with the sowers and the construction workers. They’ve got thumbtacks and hard hats. I got headphones, mostly to shut my brain up and get me focused on my work.
Any number of things plot against my success. Forgetting my lesson plans. Fire drills. Announcements on top of announcements. Coverages (which I’m more than happy to do, but still) when I would like to be grading. Lost packages. Bulletin boards and mandates from on high. Babysitting issues. Achy feet, knees, hips, and sinuses. The first seven days of teaching this year.
I get up to teach, though. Daily. Because I am the change.
Because teaching is my core, I’ve learned to accept the seemingly trivial gifts that students have to offer. I accept when students who otherwise hate math love my class. I recognize that my students’ correct answers grant me opportunities to do fist pumps mid-class. Some have taken to calling me Mr. Cool, even as I beg them to keep it inside. We don’t need heroes in class, much less someone as The Little Light Of Mine (On EdCampBrooklyn and Movement Building) | The Jose Vilson:
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