Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education

High-end for-profit private schools are a growing segment of the education ‘marketplace.’ In this episode, we’re joined by Mike Levy, former curriculum director at Avenues World School in New York City who gives us an inside look at what $60,000 + in tuition buys. Hint: a top-flight private school education along AND a healthy dose of free-market ideology.

Full transcript of the episode is here. And if you’re a fan of Have You Heard, show your love by supporting the show on Patreon.

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program

Last week, the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, a body now dominated by Democrats, sent forward to the floor of the House an education appropriations proposal to cut—by 10 percent—Congressional funding for the federal Charter Schools Program. This year the program is funded at $440 million. The Democratic appropriations committee has proposed the allocation of $400 million for next year.

By contrast, the President’s budget—proposed in mid-March—reflects the priorities of Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of Education, who seeks an additional $60 million next year for a total Charter Schools Program allocation of $500 million in FY 2020.

Education Week‘s Andrew Ujifusa describes the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed 2020 education budget: “A bill to increase the U.S. Department of Education’s budget by more than $4 billion is headed to the floor of the House of Representatives…  (T)he House appropriations committee approved legislation that would provide significant increases for grants aimed at disadvantaged students, after-school programming, and social-emotional learning…. While Democrats want more money for several programs, they want $40 million less for federal charter school grants, a cut of nearly 10 percent to $400 million.  The move symbolizes how opposition to charter schools has gained more traction in the Democratic Party recently….”

Ujifusa adds: ” It’s the first time since 2010 that Democrats have controlled the appropriations process in the chamber, but their bill is very, very far from becoming the law of the land… The legislation hasn’t been approved by the full House yet.  More importantly, the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, will likely introduce a bill that’s different in several key respects.”

But the move by the Appropriations Committee to cut charter school funding indicates an important political shift.  The proposed reduction is evidence that Democrats, who have been part of a bipartisan wave of support for neoliberal public-private partnership via charter CONTINUE READING: Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger

Cynthia Liu: After Jackie Goldberg’s Win, How to Keep Momentum Going | Diane Ravitch's blog

Cynthia Liu: After Jackie Goldberg’s Win, How to Keep Momentum Going | Diane Ravitch's blog

Cynthia Liu: After Jackie Goldberg’s Win, How to Keep Momentum Going

Cynthia Liu, a journalist in California, writes:

With public education champion Jackie Goldberg’s win on the LAUSD school board seat, it’s time for public school advocates to keep the momentum surging! Update on charter accountability bills: 1507 was voted on Monday and passed out of assembly and goes to the California State Senate. YAY & THANK YOU to all who called and voted YES.

But two additional bills need to get to the Assembly for a floor vote.

Call today (Wednesday) or Thursday (morning) and say,

Script: “Hi I am asking the assembly member ________ to vote AB1505 & AB1506 out of the appropriations committee so that they can go to the floor for a full vote. I do not want them to die in committee on Thursday.”

These folks are high priority, but everyone should call. Look up your California legislator here: http://www.legislature.ca.gov/legislators_and_districts/legislators/your_legislator.html

FYI AB1505: Local school board only to approve charters, and only if they don’t harm existing public schools, don’t repeat public school programs, and state facilities needs. 1506: revisits a cap on charters.

Charter accountability IS the path to racial and socioeconomic equity! 

— Aguiar Curry AD4 Lake, Napa, Yolo (not W Sacto), parts of Sonoma, Solano

916-319-2004, 530-757-1034

Fax 916-319-2104

— Carrillo AD51 East LA, Eagle Rock (**appropriations committee member)

916-319-2051, 213-483-5151

Fax 926-319-2151

— Cervantes AD60 Corona, El Cerrito

916-319-2060, 951-371-6860

Fax 916-319-2160

— Cooper AD9 Elk Grove, Lodi

916-319-2009, 916-670-7888

Fax 916-319-2109

— Daly AD69 Anaheim, Santa Ana

916-319-2069, 714-939-8569

Fax 916-319-2169

— Gloria AD78 San Diego

916-319-2078, 619-645-3090

Fax 916-319-2178

— Gray AD21 Modesto, Merced

916-319-2021, 209-726-5465

Fax 916-319-2121

— Grayson AD14 Vallejo, Pleasant Hill

916-319-2014, 925-521-1511

Fax 916-319-2114

— Kamlager Dove AD54 Crenshaw, Culver City, Westwood, Inglewood

916-319-2054, 310-641-5410

Fax 916-319-2154, 310-641-5415

— Limon AD37 Santa Barbara, Ventura

916-319-2037, 805-564-1649

Fax 916-319-2137, 805-564-1651

— Low AD28 Silicon Valley Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos

916-319-2028, 408-446-2810

Fax 916-319-2128, 408-446-2815

— Rubio AD48 Azusa, El Monte, Covina/W Covina

916-319-2048, 626-960-4457

Fax 916-319-2048, 626-960-1310

Cynthia Liu: After Jackie Goldberg’s Win, How to Keep Momentum Going | Diane Ravitch's blog

Testing with a Side of *Not Much Else* | deutsch29

Testing with a Side of *Not Much Else* | deutsch29

Testing with a Side of *Not Much Else*

Standardized testing is claiming squatter’s rights on increasingly more of the school year, with the greatest intrusion occurring in the spring.

Our school has been in the height of spring testing asphyxia for a month now. This means that teaching and learning take the far-back seat to survivial as class schedules are severely disrupted by multiple hours of per-subject testing, multiple tests per student, multiple faculty, staff, and admin hours required, before, during, and after the school day to coddle the testing machine as those not testing at a given moment form a makeshift puzzle of who’s-in-whose-room-because-we-have-to-send-you-somewhere.

In short, it’s a prolonged mess. And I haven’t even touched on rescheduling absent students or finding proctors for absent teachers and staff.

Of course, all of this assumes that the computers are in working order, hardware and software both; that no computers have decided to perform untimely updates; that there are no unanticipated interferences to the school schedule, and that the state has its act together so that the testing portal is functioning during the entire state testing window.

That sure is a lot of assuming.

As it happens, today, the Louisiana Department of Education delivered a dose of at-the-helm CONTINUE READING: Testing with a Side of *Not Much Else* | deutsch29

________________________________________________________________________

Interested in scheduling Mercedes Schneider for a speaking engagement? Click here.

.

Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?

School Choice: The End of Public Education? 

  (Click image to enlarge)

Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

Don’t care to buy from Amazon? Purchase my books from Powell’s City of Books instead.

Testing with a Side of *Not Much Else* | deutsch29

NYC Public School Parents: How our loss in court today ironically provided evidence of how shallow de Blasio's education policies have been

NYC Public School Parents: How our loss in court today ironically provided evidence of how shallow de Blasio's education policies have been

How our loss in court today ironically provided evidence of how shallow de Blasio's education policies have been

Today at the NY Supreme Court, a hearing was held on our lawsuit vs the redactions of 2015 City Hall decision memo which discussed and memorialized the decision of the Mayor and his top aides to reject several recommendations of the Blue Book working group on how to revamp the school capacity formula.  In particular, the Mayor rejected the group's proposal to align the formula with smaller classes -- which would be important if he or any subsequent mayor decided to significantly reduce class size as de Blasio had in fact promised to do when he first ran for Mayor.

On April 10, 2016, I submitted a Freedom of Information request for the decision memo from the Mayor's office about their decision to accept or reject the thirteen recommendations of the Blue Book Working group . This working group, appointed by the Chancellor and co-chaired by Lorraine Grillo, the head of the School Construction Authority and then-CEC 2 President Shino Tanikawa, made several recommendions in December 2014, including that the DOE should align the school capacity formula to the smaller class sizes in their original Contract for Excellence class size reduction plan

The City sat on these recommendations for more than six months, and finally in July 2015, in the middle of summer, announced that they would accept seven of the 13 but reject six others, including what several members said was the most important one: the one related to the goal of reducing class size.  There were several articles about this rejection, including in Chalkbeat and WNYC Schoolbook , DNAinfo, and on my blog here  and here.

It took more than two years after I had FOILed it, but in August 2017 I finally received the decision memo - 8 pages long and almost completely redacted.  See below. Interestingly, it was signed by all the Mayor's top staff except for the DOE Chancellor Farina or the President of the School Construction Authority Lorraine Grillo.

Because it was the middle of summer I missed the statute of limitations for an appeal, but at my request, fellow Kids PAC member Brooke Parker FOILed the memo as well.  CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: How our loss in court today ironically provided evidence of how shallow de Blasio's education policies have been

Toto, I Have A Feeling We’re Not In The State That Paid TFA A Finder’s Fee Of $90K Per Recruit Anymore | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Toto, I Have A Feeling We’re Not In The State That Paid TFA A Finder’s Fee Of $90K Per Recruit Anymore | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Toto, I Have A Feeling We’re Not In The State That Paid TFA A Finder’s Fee Of $90K Per Recruit Anymore

A few days ago I wrote about how Texas pays TFA $5.5 million for 400 recruits, or about $15,000 per recruit.  Yesterday I wrote about how Ohio paid $2 million to TFA for 100 recruits, or about $20,000 per recruit.  As TFA is in about 40 states, I wondered what state is paying the highest amount per recruit.  I got a tip today for one that I think cannot be beat.

The state of Kansas paid TFA $270,000 for a total of 3 recruits.  First they had a $520,000 contract for 12 recruits which would be about $40,000 per recruit.  But when TFA only delivered 3 recruits, they had to give back $250,000.  As a result, they ended up paying TFA a staggering $90,000 per recruit.

TFA says that this was an investment for them to start placing corps members into a new region and they needed the money for training and to pay a staff member to go around and observe the new recruits.  With the $300 million TFA has, though, they should bear the risk and burden of the overhead in entering a new region.  And they should pay their own staff member.

And how is it possible that they were not able to deliver the 12 recruits that were originally promised?  When people sign up for TFA, they do select preferences, but they are also told that they must be flexible and go where they are most needed.  How TFA could not have CONTINUE READING: Toto, I Have A Feeling We’re Not In The State That Paid TFA A Finder’s Fee Of $90K Per Recruit Anymore | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Public Education Statewide Day of Action / SCTA Strike! Choosing Democracy

Choosing Democracy

Public Education Statewide Day of Action / SCTA Strike!

Sacramento DSA will welcome DSA members from all over California on May 22 for a statewide day of action to demand the public education California students deserve!

Together, we will join educators, parents, students, and community members to demand the full funding of our public schools, common-sense charter school accountability, and social & racial justice.

Shoulder to shoulder with thousands of educators, students, and community members, we'll take over the rotunda of the state capitol. That building belongs to all of us — it's about time that the lawmakers who make decisions that impact our daily lives remembered that.

And wait, there's more! Teachers in Sacramento City Teachers Association will be on strike — AGAIN — against unfair labor practices, so we'll have the opportunity to walk the line with them as they stay #unionstrong in the face of attacks on their hard-fought wins for themselves and their students.

We'll meet at 4:30 PM for a group photo with DSA members all over the state!

Date: Wednesday, May 22nd, 9:00am-5:30pm
Location: California State Capitol (Exact meeting location TBA)

Choosing Democracy

Banned in the U.S.A.: The Right’s Assault on Other Women | radical eyes for equity

Banned in the U.S.A.: The Right’s Assault on Other Women | radical eyes for equity

Banned in the U.S.A.: The Right’s Assault on Other Women

“Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to,” retells Offred in Part II, Chapter 6, of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary” (p. 33).

Readers have just been introduced to public executions in Gilead: “Now we turn our backs on the church and there is the thing we’ve in truth come to see: the Wall” (p. 31). On this day,

The men [hangin from…hooks] wear white coats …. Each has a placard hung around his neck to show why he has been executed: a drawing of a human fetus. They were doctors, then, in the time before, when such things were legal. … They’ve been turned up now by the searches through hospital records, or — more likely, since most hospitals destroyed such records once it became clear what was going to happen — by informants: ex-nurses perhaps, or a pair of them, since evidence from a single woman is no longer admissible. (pp. 32-33)

From the graphic novel adaptation.

Atwood’s speculative theocracy is heavily grounded in a perverse worshipping of some women as possible vessels of childbirth since the birthrates of whites were in steep decline due to environmental toxins.

With a conservative shift in the Supreme Court in the United States under CONTINUE READING:  Banned in the U.S.A.: The Right’s Assault on Other Women | radical eyes for equity