Houston: HFT Files Lawsuit to Block State Takeover | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: HFT Files Lawsuit to Block State Takeover | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: HFT Files Lawsuit to Block State Takeover

This is one reason why unions are valuable for teachers and public schools. Unions have the resources to go to the courts to fight capricious actions, like the pending takeover of the Houston Independent School District based on the low test scores of one school.

HFT Files Federal Lawsuit over Proposed State Takeover of School District


HOUSTON—The Houston Federation of Teachers filed a federal lawsuit in Austin today, stating the proposed state takeover of the Houston Independent School District is unconstitutional under U.S. and Texas law because it disenfranchises and discriminates against people based on race and national origin.   

Gov. Greg Abbott and Education Commissioner Mike Morath claim the state takeover of the entire Houston school district, which earned an 88 (out of 100) academic accountability rating, was triggered due to one chronically failing school, Wheatley High School, which is attended by predominantly black and brown students. The takeover decision was made just days after voters elected new school board members in Houston, who would not be able to take their seats under the takeover, effectively silencing the democratic electoral process.

“The state’s action to take over the HISD is flagrantly unconstitutional and has nothing to do with giving kids a strong public education,” said Zeph Capo, president of HFT and Texas AFT.

“Gov. Abbott and Education Commissioner Mike Morath will do just about anything to give private charter operators a chance to get their hands on our schools—even violate the state and U.S. constitutions. We can’t allow our government officials to unconstitutionally marginalize black and brown children, deny them their right to a quality public education, or defy the voice of voters who have just elected new school board members,” he said.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin.

The suit, which seeks injunctive relief, alleges that the proposed takeover violates the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution because it disenfranchises minority voters and discriminates against the plaintiffs (three educators, one of whom is a parent of children in the district) on the basis of race and national origin and deprives people, no matter their race, color or ethnicity, of participating in the political process or electing representatives of their own choice. Further, the suit states the proposed takeover violates Texas’ Equal Rights Amendment, which states: “Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin.”

The educator plaintiffs explained why they are participating in the lawsuit:

Jackie Anderson, a special education teacher at Ortiz Middle School, said the takeover would erase citizens’ legitimate votes. “Growing up, my parents instilled the value of civic responsibility. I voted for the first time with my mother. I was taught the value of my vote. Voting is something that you have an obligation to do. Everyone’s vote should count. My choice should be respected. To say that it doesn’t matter is a violation of my right as a citizen,” Anderson said.

Maxie Hollingsworth, a math teacher at Red Elementary and parent of HISD students, said her experience growing up in Little Rock, Ark., cemented her strong feelings about the sanctity of voting rights. “I was raised with the idea of the importance of equitable education and every person’s right to vote. It offends me to my core that people of privilege and power truly don’t care about communities of color and poor people. This takeover is a very targeted and intentional process and amounts to illegal disenfranchisement. It would take away my vote and everyone else’s who voted in the school board election. I can’t look at myself in the mirror and say this is OK. It’s not OK,” Hollingsworth said.

She added that she believes a takeover would result in fewer resources available to students and a greater turnover of educators. “All the progress HISD has made will all be for naught,” Hollingsworth said.

Daniel Santos, a social studies teacher at Navarro Middle School, said he became a naturalized citizen in 2008, when he voted for the first time in his life. “Through voting, I am holding policymakers accountable and making sure that minorities are not disenfranchised. I view the takeover of our recently elected school board as unconstitutional. It’s a serious violation of my civil rights that prevents me as a citizen from holding our policymakers accountable,” Santos said.

Following a state takeover, Santos predicted, “We will see market-based reforms that have failed to improve student achievement in other cities. We cannot let that happen.”

The HFT believes the state’s clear goal is to convert Houston’s public schools to privately operated charter schools, which the previously elected Houston school board had refused to do. However, Capo noted, several Houston charter schools are doing worse than Wheatley but are still being allowed to continue operating and are not being singled out in the takeover. Morath is justifying the takeover using a rule he enacted in 2018 that allows the Texas Education Agency to downgrade a school’s rating if it did not pass three of four measures, even if it would have passed otherwise. Wheatley had a passing 63 grade, or a D, but was curved down to a 59, or an F.

“The real shame is that the focus is on a scheme to charterize the district, not to get Wheatley the resources it needs to improve student achievement. Experience shows that charters do not produce the improvements their supporters claim,” Capo said.

Houston: HFT Files Lawsuit to Block State Takeover | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Matters: Florida's teachers must strike if there is any hope in saving public ed or the profession

Education Matters: Florida's teachers must strike if there is any hope in saving public ed or the profession

Florida's teachers must strike if there is any hope in saving public ed or the profession

Governor Ron DeSantis reveled his education budget and legislative priorities and after looking at them I have come to the conclusion that if we want to save the teaching profession and public education, teachers MUST strike.

DeSantis received a lot of fanfare for his proposal to raise teacher starting salary to 47,500 but the idea has gotten little support in the legislature and he admits it leaves out 75 thousand veteran teachers who have seen their salaries actually go backwards over the last decade.

A teacher on the same step I am now (17) before the great recession had 7k more earning power than I do now when you factor in inflation. Some back of the napkin calculations reveals that veteran teachers, those with ten or more years’ experience, the backbone of the profession, have lost 1.5 billion since the recession ended in 2012. That’s 1.5 billion in houses, cars and investments in their communities that we have lost because Tallahassee has refused to do the right thing. We would have to increase the base student allocation by about a thousand dollars to get to 2007 levels, and this year, DeSantis proposed 50.  

It’s worse because the Governor doesn’t even have the power to set salaries, something only districts can do and he has to know that which means his proposal was little more than smoke and mirrors meant to distract people.

The Governor also proposed a bonus plan that leaves out tens of thousands of teachers and most of the ones at our highest performing schools. It will also be the states sixth bonus plan in the last decade. It is beyond me why he thinks doing the same thing over and over will lead to different results, but it is also beyond me why he can’t do what teachers have been begging for and just say, every teacher gets “X” raise.   

However, it’s not just because of teacher salaries that teachers should strike, not by a longshot, other reasons include the state’s punitive testing and accountability system, the fact many of the support staff in our schools don’t make a living wage, and the CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Florida's teachers must strike if there is any hope in saving public ed or the profession

Worst NAEP Reading 2019 Hot Take of the Week | radical eyes for equity

Worst NAEP Reading 2019 Hot Take of the Week | radical eyes for equity

Worst NAEP Reading 2019 Hot Take of the Week

This is really a hard feat, but Put “Whole Language” on Trial by the King of Know-Nothing edureform Michael J. Petrilli is easily the worst NAEP Reading 2019 Hot Take of the week.

Dumb doesn’t get any dumber than this:

An equal-opportunity challenge related to shoddy teacher preparation would likely face the same roadblock. Further, there is little, if any, legal precedent for suing schools of education; even medical schools enjoy significant protections from charges of malpractice related to the physicians they train.

All of which is why it would be important to go after states, and in particular states that have already lost finance-adequacy cases. It would also help if the chosen target states do not require elementary-school teachers to pass an in-depth test of the science of reading before entering the classroom, and if the states host several big education schools that earn failing grades when it comes to preparing candidates to teach reading effectively. States that appear to meet those criteria include Kentucky, South Carolina, and Washington.

Petrilli has entered the “science of reading debate” a little late but just as fact-challenged as the other advocates have been.

So here are a few questions:

• Where is scientific research that how teacher education programs prepare teachers to teach reading is actually how they teach reading once in the field? (Not any.)
• Where is scientific research that there is a causal relationship between how reading is taught (and if those approaches are uniform across an CONTINUE READING: Worst NAEP Reading 2019 Hot Take of the Week | radical eyes for equity

CARL J. PETERSEN: Excluding Special Education

Excluding Special Education

Excluding Special Education

Charter School shall not request or require submission of a student’s IEP, Section 504 Plan, or any other record or related information prior to admission, participation in any admissions or attendance lottery, or pre-enrollment event or process, or as a condition of admission or enrollment.”– GHCS Charter

504 and IEP documents are not required to enroll. However, providing these documents will assist GHCHS in providing a continuity of services.”– GHCS Enrollment Form

The headline event at the second meeting of Scott Schmerelson’s LAUSD Special Education Committee was a presentation on CTA’s State of Denial Report. This study provides empirical evidence of what has long been alleged by opponents of the privatization of public education – charter schools serve a lesser percentage of students with special education needs. This is especially true of children who have needs that require greater support and more expensive accommodations. An analysis of data for three of California’s largest school districts shows that “students with the highest needs were concentrated in district schools.”

The representatives of the California Charter School Association and several charter schools spoke before the committee to defend these publicly funded private schools. However, they did not refute the data uncovered by the research. Instead, like the bigot who defends against allegations of his racism by claiming to have a black friend, they cited individual cases where they had served a student with a disability. In one case they bragged about a wheelchair-bound student who walked across the stage “using two of our teachers as crutches” to receive her diploma as if not using her wheelchair was the largest accomplishment of the moment. Additionally, these representatives focused on college acceptance rates and academic achievements, while ignoring the needs of those with intellectual disabilities.

In my opportunity to provide public comment, I addressed the arguments made by the charter school industry along with how the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has been complicit in the segregation of children with disabilities:

To follow up on some of the previous speakers, when you put “college-ready” in the name of your school, aren’t you automatically saying that there is a certain population who does not belong here?

This problem with the under-enrollment of children with special education needs in CONTINUE READING: Excluding Special Education

Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

When a child cries out for help, whether it is a sick child, an abused child, a hungry child, a homeless child, or a victim of gun violence, adults should listen and most Americans do.

Unfortunately, our nation’s policymakers often treat children as merely an afterthought. They have powerful interest groups that are constantly demanding and receiving their full attention, and so children are often ignored. There is a reason that children represent nearly one-quarter of the population but less than 8 percent of the federal budget.

Consequently, in some instances, children have had to take matters into their own hands to get our political leaders to pay attention. For example, due to inaction by our nation’s policymakers to protect them from gun violence, America’s young people led marches across this country last weekend to demand that adults do something, as gun violence is now the third leading cause of death among children.

To a crowd of 800,000 people all along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., it was the kids — and just the kids — that spoke passionately and eloquently about the need for change to our gun laws, school safety, and mental health care treatment in this country.

Just a few weeks ago in a Michigan courtroom, over 150 young women came forward to tell their stories of CONTINUE READING: Protecting Our Kids: Why We Need a Commissioner for America’s Children

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools

Big Education Ape: Gov. Tom Wolf calls charter schools ‘private,’ draws heated response from their largest advocacy group - pennlive.com - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/08/gov-tom-wolf-calls-charter-schools.html

By Lisa Lightner 

If you take a walk through any Costco on a weekend afternoon, you can see that Americans LOVE to get free stuff, no matter how small it is. Why else would we wait in line for a morsel of food that likely has lots of germs on it?

Because, it’s FREE.

So, what if I offered you the chance to send your child to private school, for free? You’d likely jump at the chance, right? After all, our perception is that private schools are exclusive. Private schools are much better than public schools, right?

You must pay for private schools, which puts them out of reach for many families. So, the chance to attend one for free? Sure!

But much like you might regret eating that bite of bacteria-laden food from the sample lady at Costco, you might want to really examine that “free” private school before you send your child.

Because that “private” school is not a private school at all. It’s a charter school. And charter schools are public schools. Besides, except for a few exceptions (that charter supporters never miss an opportunity to point out), they do not perform as well as traditional public schools. In fact, right here in Pennsylvania, we do not have one cyber charter school that is performing at an acceptable level per our own Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) reports.

First, let me be clear. I have never once heard a charter school say that they are a private school. However, they use smoke and mirrors to trick parents into thinking that they are a private school. And, they usually refer to themselves as “charter CONTINUE READING: GUEST POST: How Charter Schools Trick Parents into Thinking They are Private Schools | gadflyonthewallblog

CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

Somewhere on the other side of the Wall Street Journal paywall, David Osborne is bloviating about why charters are swell and Democratic candidates should stop telling "big lies" about them. The WSJ undoubtedly considers this a real stroke of some kind because Osborne is nominally a Democrat, the kind Arne Duncan hugging, Al Gore assisting Democrat who loves him some charters just as deeply as any conservative.

I didn't read then piece, because I'll be damned if I'll give that Fox-in-a-fancy-tux news outlet any of my money, but I've been watching the conversation about it all morning, and I'd like to chip in two cents more, because even if David Osborne were right, he'd be wrong, and even the fileted chunks of his piece that I've seen are not countering the Big Charter Lie-- they are perpetuating it.

Leonie Haimson fired off a letter to the WSJ that she also posted at NYC Public School Parents, and it cuts straight to the chase.

Osborne is particularly upset about the scurrilous claim that charter schools drain revenue, and he offers as counter-proof that a school that falls below 75% enrollment can start renting out space to charters. Haimson reminds us that in NYC, public schools are forced to hand over that space for free.

Osborne also argues that in some states, the public school is "cushioned" from having money drained by charters, and he gets his list of states really wrong there, but here's the thing-- he's just indulging CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: David Osborne Tells The Big Charter Lie

NYC Public School Parents: Letter to WSJ re big errors in David Osborne's pro-charter opd ed - https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2019/11/letter-to-wsj-re-big-errors-in-david.html

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer

In August, the nightmares start.

Every teacher experiences the excitement, worry and sometimes dread as the first day of school approaches. It's a combination of Christmas Eve and April 14.

Like most teachers, I spent the majority of my summer carefully crafting lesson plans. I spent weeks reading new books to add to my course and worked particularly hard on creating a week's worth of team building activities to start the year by building a positive classroom environment.

Then, at the second day of professional development (before the students even arrived), I was handed the eight-page district assessment calendar.

Within the first 13 days of school, I was expected to administer three different mandated assessments. So there went the classroom contract for behavior, there went the applications for class jobs, there went the classroom scavenger hunt. Instead of spending those first few weeks getting to know my students' names, interests and personalities, I was forced to hand them test after test, slowly chipping away at the positive atmosphere I wanted so badly to cultivate.

This year, I have to subject my eighth-grade students to 6,600 minutes of district-mandated testing. That’s 110 hours. That’s nearly 16 entire seven-hour school days.

Eighth-grade students in Hartford Public Schools are required to take 25 mandated district and state-wide assessments between late August and early June. Thirteen percent of the CONTINUE READING: When testing trumps teaching, the students suffer - Hartford Courant

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers

Workers produce all the wealth of society. Unions have been around for generations and exist to protect the rights of workers.

Currently, 90%—93% of privately operated non-profit and for-profit charter schools across the country have no teacher unions, whereas about 90% of public school teachers are unionized.

One of the claims to fame of deregulated charter schools is that they are union-free, which means that all teachers and other employees are treated much like voiceless workers in the corporate world—as “at-will” employees, which means that they can be fired at any time for nearly any reason; there is no due process. Charter school advocates nonchalantly present this as a good thing.

But due to persistently inferior working conditions in charter schools compared to public schools, teachers in many charter schools across the country have strived to establish, and in many cases have succeeded in establishing, a union to protect their rights and the rights of their students. In more than 90% of these situations, charter school owners-operators have reacted very negatively. Using multiple tactics and strategies, charter school owners-operators have usually gone out of their way to undermine efforts by teachers to unionize. Intimidation, threats, and bullying have frequently been used by charter school owners-operators against employees striving to defend their collective interests. The title of a 2016 Slate article says it all: How charter schools bust unions: By intimidating teachers. By scaring parents. And sometimes by calling the cops.¹

Teachers organized into a union with a collective bargaining agreement that recognizes their needs as teachers is to charter schools what the crucifix is to Dracula. In some cases charter school owners-operators have closed a charter CONTINUE READING: Charter School Advocates Repulsed by Empowered Teachers | Dissident Voice

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group

A Wayne County judge has ordered a nonprofit touted as probing fraud and corruption through undercover reporting to stop releasing information related to the state arm of the American Federation of Teachers that the union claims was obtained illegally.

AFT Michigan in Detroit’s Third Circuit Court Thursday seeking action against , which is led by conservative activist James O’Keefe.

The union alleges a group operative, Marisa or Marissa Jorge, used fraud and deception to secure a summer internship at AFT Michigan this year, “ostensibly to obtain material Project Veritas could use in one of its infamously misleading hit videos,” officials said in a statement Friday.

According to the complaint, Jorge pretended to be a University of Michigan student interested in becoming a teacher, “regularly sought information …. beyond her assignment,” and “was granted access to a substantial amount of confidential and proprietary information including databases, confidential conferences and the status of grievance.”

The union also believes Jorge recorded staffers without their knowledge or consent, which is against state law. Its attorneys argue that AFT Michigan “will suffer irreparable harm if information is disclosed.”

On Friday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan sided with the union and signed an emergency restraining order barring Project Veritas and Jorge from publishing, releasing or disclosing information related to AFT Michigan, its officers, employees or affiliated groups.

Reached for comment Friday night, Stephen Gordon, Project Veritas’ communication director, said the group had not been served court papers on the case.

“We’re not going to comment on anything until such time we receive proper notice,” he said.

A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10 in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Union officials praised the judge’s decision.

“James O’Keefe and his operatives will stop at nothing to smear their ideological opponents — deception, distortion and dirty tactics — all to advance a political agenda that undermines public school students, teachers and families,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “We are grateful that the Michigan court has protected — at least for now —students, teachers and families in Michigan.” CONTINUE READING: AFT Michigan wins order against conservative’s group – Valliant News

Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Let’s talk about school segregation, let’s talk about real estate.

An update on the SFUSD Enrollment conversation

Last night I participated in a great discussion last night at the Ad Hoc Student Assignment Committee, Board of Education Commissioners continued to explore ways to revise our school enrollment system. Shoutout to district staff for putting together a thoughtful presentation and for Commissioner Norton for leading a great discussion.

I encourage folks to review the presentation and listen to the audio recording. (These are uploaded on the district website, but are not all easy to find. So I’m reposting on my blog.)

Download the presentation:
November-18-2019-Ad-Hoc-Committee-PresentationDownload

Listen to the audio of the meeting:

This is an important conversation…

I will continue to reiterate, I wish this discussion was focused on the root causes of segregation in our schools, rather than mechanics of school placement. Algorithms are not the answer. Nonetheless, this conversation is happening. And I think it can be an important one… if we talk about the larger systems at work.

You can’t talk about school segregation without talking about real estate. Just because we don’t actively practice redlining today, doesn’t mean it’s impacts aren’t being felt today.

Just a few days ago Newsday published an investigative article titled Long Island Divided, which makes clear the connection between housing discrimination and school segregation. In fact, the connections are so evident, the authors decided to write a whole piece about it titled, “Schools as a Selling Point where it states:

““Discussions about schools can raise questions about steering if there is a correlation between the quality of the schools and neighborhood racial composition.”

Characterizations about schools with low test scores, for example, or comments that reference a “‘community with declining schools’ become code words for racial or other differences in the community,” the post states. As a result, such comments become “fair-housing issues.””

— National Realtors Association Website, 2014

Ask yourself about our city’s zoning history. Where are multi-family homes built? Where is low-income housing built? Where are the single-family CONTINUE READING: Let's talk about school segregation, let's talk about real estate. - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job

After making waves in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina and beyond, the Red for Ed movement has now spread to Indiana. Fed up with disinvestment in public schools and disrespect for their profession, teachers from across the Hoosier State are converging in Indianapolis today to hold lawmakers accountable and demand change.

More than 15,000 teachers and supporters are expected to rally at the Republican-controlled statehouse for today’s Red for Ed Day of Action, organized by the Indiana State Teachers Association and AFT Indiana. While the protest is not officially a strike, nearly half of the state’s school districts have been forced to cancel classes because so many educators have taken the day off to participate.

The rally coincides with the state legislature’s “Organization Day,” where lawmakers discuss their priorities for the next legislative session which begins in January.

Teachers are demanding raises to their salaries, which average around $50,000—well below the national average of $60,000—but can be as low as $30,000 for new hires. After years of state budget surpluses, Indiana now has $2.3 billion in reserves. At the same time, Indiana teachers have seen the smallest salary increases in the nation, receiving an overall increase of only $6,900 between 2002 and 2017.

Rather than simply tapping into the state’s massive reserves to pay for teacher raises, Republican lawmakers say that any salary increases would have to be paired with cuts CONTINUE READING: Why 15,000 Indiana Teachers Just Walked Off the Job