KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

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

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Slaying Goliath

 The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and 

the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

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A TEACHER Writes a Great Review of SLAYING GOLIATH in the Washington Post!

by dianeravitch / 53min

Melanie McCabe, an English teacher at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, and an author, wrote this terrific and accurate review of SLAYING GOLIATH. Unlike the reviewer for the New York Times, who is not a teacher and gives no hint of ever having set foot in a classroom since she finished school and college, Melanie McCabe knows full well about the billionaire-funded attacks on public sc

YESTERDAY

Stephen Dyer: Ohio’s Voucher Crisis in 4 Charte

by dianeravitch / 19h

Ohio’s legislature is determined to wreak havoc on the public schools that most students attend. Vote these vandals out of office! Steve Dyer: Ohio’s school voucher crisis in four charts School choicers won’t be satisfied until each school age kid automatically receives a voucher to be cashed in at any place of “learning” even if it is at Uncle Joe’s Bar and Backroom School. William L. Phillis |

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn: Who Killed the Knapp Family?

21by dianeravitch / 21h

This powerful article appeared recently on the front cover of the New York Times Week in Review section. Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn returned to his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon. They discovered that an extraordinary percentage of the hardworking, ordinary working class people Nick grew up with had died an early death. They asked “Who Killed the Knapp Family?” I regret that they in

Bill Phillis: Ohio Charter Owners Lose Appeal for Bonuses

by dianeravitch / 22h

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Adequacy and Equity writes: Accel owner Ron Packard is in a tizzy because some of his charters did not qualify for Ohio’s charter bonus fund Patrick O’Donnell’s January 11 Cleveland Plain Dealer article— State avoids “loophole” for charter school money, rejects applications for millions —sheds light on yet another charter loopholes embedded in Ohio law. This

Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools

300+by dianeravitch / 23h

Carol Burris wrote about Michael Bloomberg’s education ideas several years ago when she was a high school principal on Long Island in New York. You have to love New York City’s mayor. Michael Bloomberg speaks his mind, never holding back. While most self-proclaimed school reformers do the Dance of the Seven Veils, slowly revealing their agenda, the mayor jumps up on stage and gives you the ‘full

Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results

70by dianeravitch / 1d

Christina Samuels of Education Week reports that philanthropists continue to pour a large percentage of their donations into education, but are losing interest in K-12 due to the poor record of their efforts to “reform” the schools. ironically, this is good news because the philanthropic money was used to impose “reforms” that disrupted schools, ranked students based on their test scores, and dem

JAN 30

Dana Milbank: “We Are Lost”

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Dana Milbank has been covering the impeachment “process” for the Washington Post. He describes the most brazen assault on our democracy in modern times. The damage this man has done to our society will embolden future presidents to believe that they can do “whatever they want.” The Senate is prepared to abandon its role as an independent branch of government. The Republicans are acting like sycop

Teresa Hanafin on Trump’s “Anything Goes” Defense

35by dianeravitch / 1d

Teresa Hanafin writes the “Fast Forward” feature for the Boston Globe: It’s been a little difficult to keep up with the Republicans’ changing defenses of Trump: He did not pressure Ukraine to find dirt on the Bidens. Okay, so he did, but there was no quid pro quo. Okay, so there was a quid pro quo, but that’s not why he held up the military aid. Okay, so that was the reason he held up the aid, bu

Donald Trump is Above the Law

49by dianeravitch / 1d

Susan B. Glasser writes in the New Yorker about Alan Dershowitz’s bizarre defense of Trump in the impeachment “process” (not a trial, which has witnesses and evidence). Dershowitz is criminal defense attorney, not a Constitutional lawyer. He also had the dishonor of being in pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s black book of clients, which he denies. His defense is that Trump is above the law. He is like

Robin Lithgow: Shakespeare Had an Education Filled with Joy and Hilarity

by dianeravitch / 1d

Robin Lithgow continues her exploration of the history of the arts in education with this post about Shakespeare’s education. Robin was director of arts education for the Los Angeles Unified School District. This post includes a video of Robin describing her passion for her subject. And it begins: I know, I know—the “whining school-boy…creeping like snail unwillingly to school” and all that—but I

Bill Raden of Capital and Main Interviews Me on the Failure of “Reform”

by dianeravitch / 1d

Bill Raden of Capital & Main, a California-based political journal, interviewed me about the baleful effects of disruption (aka “reform”) on children, communities, schools and education. He asks about the source of the money behind disruption and about what California needs to do to rein in its reckless and feckless charter industry. Naturally I thought about the billionaires and hedge fund manag

John Thompson: An Open Letter About a New School in Oklahoma City

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

John Thompson, retired teacher and historian in Oklahoma, writes an open letter: Open Letter to Enes Kanter Mr. Kanter, Thank you for your continued support of children, especially low-income and immigrant students in Oklahoma City. And thank you for your opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I live halfway between Dove Academy, a part of the charter Gülen chain, and the Raindrop

Bob Shepherd Reviews Annie Murphy Paul’s Review of SLAYING GOLIATH in the “New York Times“

by dianeravitch / 2d

Bob Shepherd has worked as an editor, author, assessment developer, curriculum writer, and most recently a classroom teacher in Florida. In this post, he reviews the review of my book SLAYING GOLIATH, which was written by journalist Annie Murphy Paul and published in the New York Times Book Review. To summarize, he thought the review was uninformed and mean-spirited. He writes: On January 21, 202

JAN 29

Newark: Mayor Baraka Defends Superintendent After Attacks by Anonymous Posters

by dianeravitch / 2d

Superintendent Roger Leon of Newark proposed closing four Newark charter schools. He needs state approval. Suddenly anonymous posters appeared around the city criticizing his decision. Mayor Ras Baraka defended Leon. Mayor Ras Baraka is defending the Newark schools chief after anonymous flyers and posters appeared across the city attacking the superintendent’s call to close four charter schools.

Jan Resseger: Trump’s Economic Policies Are Hurting Our Children

by dianeravitch / 2d

We have all heard Trump’s boasts about our booming economy, but Jan Resseger points out those who are left bond as tax cuts fatten the 1%. She begins: Donald Trump has been at Davos this week exalting the United States’ soaring economy. While Trump brags about more people working, however, he neglects to mention the ongoing collapse of manufacturing and its replacement—gig and temporary employmen

Kentucky: Rightwing Extremists Want to Defund Our Public Schools

by dianeravitch / 2d

Linda Blackford, columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, describes the long-standing extremist goal of privatizing public school s and shows how Republican legislators are determined to introduce vouchers, which would harm the community public schools that enroll 90% of the state’s students. Fortunately, voters in Kentucky threw out DeVos disciple Matt Bevin and replaced him with Andy Beshear,

California: School Districts Sue JUUL for Vaping Crisis

by dianeravitch / 2d

This is good news from California. A large group of school districts are suing JUUL Labs from the damage that their vaping products are causing to students. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Anaheim Union High School District Files Suit Against JUUL Labs, Inc. for Creating the E-Cigarette Epidemic that Disrupts District-Wide Education Anaheim, California – January 28, 2020 – Today, the Anaheim Union School D

Nancy Flanagan: Who Is Goliath in the Education Debates?

44by dianeravitch / 3d

Nancy Flanagan, retired teacher of music for 31 years in the public schools of Michigan, is also a respected blogger. Her blog, Teacher in a Strange Land, has long been a source of wisdom and reality. She writes with the authority acquired from her years in the classroom. In this post , she writes a wonderful review of my new book SLAYING GOLIATH. Better yet, she sets it in the perspective of a d

JAN 28

Ohio GOP Grovels at Feet of Fordham and ALEC

70by dianeravitch / 3d

Bill Phillis writes about the GOP’s pusillanimous capitulation to its masters and is prepared to sacrifice its public schools to satisfy DC-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute and ALEC, funded by CharlesKoch, the Waltons, and DeVos. He writes: School choice zealots seem to be driving the state education policy train In spite of the harm being heaped on school districts due to corruption in the char

Trump Picks DeVos as Surrogate for His Campaign

200+by dianeravitch / 3d

Politico Morning Education writes that Trump has chosen billionaire Betsy DeVos as a campaign surrogate, despite the fact that she is the most disliked member of his Cabinet. No doubt he hopes for DeVos campaign money but also wants to stick his thumb in the eye of teachers and supporters of public schools. DeVos campions charter schools and vouchers. She despises public schools. DEVOS HITS THE C

NYC: Good News about the “Community Schools” Project

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

I heard from Sarah Jonas, executive director of New York City’s Office of Community Schools, about the good work of community schools. Note that the results refer to engagement in school, not test scores. That’s good news! I asked Jonas for a brief description of the community schools model. She wrote: “ The principal and his/her leadership team (i.e. SLT) formally partner with a community-based

Arthur Camins: Don’t Believe the Destroyers of Hope

by dianeravitch / 3d

Arthur Camins warns us against the prophets of doom and gloom, the pundits who say that we can’t hope for anything better, who try to persuade us not to fight for a better future. He begins: Beware the apostles of dystopia. They come to destroy your hope. There are two sects. One preaches survival-of-the-fittest disdain for any social responsibility. The other preaches defeatism and accommodation

Carol Burris: The Five Biggest Charter Scandals of 2019

68by dianeravitch / 3d

Carol Burris reviews here the five biggest charter scandals of 2019. There were many to choose from. Numero uno, of course, was the giant charter scam in California: 1. A3 Education: Eleven are indicted over their involvement in a charter scheme that defrauded California taxpayers of more than $50 million. In May, the California Superior Court for the County of San Diego indicted 11 people on cha

The Ex-Labor Leader Who Now Fights Teachers’ Unions

by dianeravitch / 3d

Andy Stern was once a powerful labor leader as head of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Since stepping down, however, he has turned against the movement he once led and is an outspoken foe of teachers’ unions. He even joined the board of the Broad Foundation, which is anti-union and anti-public school. I don’t know Stern, but I have seen one article that describes his change of v

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Have No Valid Claim to Public Property

40by dianeravitch / 4d

Shawgi Tell is a professor of education at Nazareth University in New York. He has taken note of states where charter schools are given ownership of public property, where they buy property and supplies with public money but keep title to their purchases if their charter should close. He has seen states that require districts to hand over empty buildings to charter owners for $1, which then becom

Book Tour Diary: Early Days

by dianeravitch / 4d

My new book SLAYING GOLIATH was launched in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on January 21. It was a delightful event, with Carol Burris and I discussing the book, talking about the national picture, and explaining the role of the Network for Public Education in pushing back against the Billionaire Combine. It was a lively and engaged crowd, including Lisa Rudley of New York State Allies for Public Educatio

JAN 27

Pennsylvania: Superintendents Form Coalition to Fight Privatization

58by dianeravitch / 4d

The Resistance grows! Press Advisory: Thirty Regional School Superintendents To Come Together to Defend Public Education, Joining Public District Leaders from Across the State to Urge Reform of Pennsylvania’s Charter School Law When: Monday, January 27, 2020 10 a.m. Where: Whitehall Elementary, 399 North Whitehall Road Norristown, PA 19403 Leaders Form Coalition and Support a Moratorium on New Ch

Craig Harris: Online Charters Have a Record of Poor Outcomes, Fraud, and Profit

81by dianeravitch / 4d

Craig Harris, investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, wrote about the abysmal record of online charter schools. Despite their poor outcomes, they continue to be very profitable. The biggest of the online charter companies is K12 Inc., whose schools regularly get bad results but whose revenue this year topped $1 billion for the first time. State regulators mouth complaints about the low q

Little Rock: Wear Black on 1/28 for the Death of Democratic Control

27by dianeravitch / 4d

Grassroots Arkansas is calling on friends of public education to wear black on January 28 to mark the death of democratic control—of, by, and for all the children of Little Rock, which has been under state control for five years. *** Call to Action*** • Wear black wherever you are and whatever you’re doing on January 28 – and tell people you meet why you’re wearing black today: “It’s the 5th anni

Bill Phillis: Remember ECOT and $1 Billion of Lost School Revenue?

21by dianeravitch / 4d

Bill Phillis is a public education activist in Ohio. He retired as Deputy State Superintendent of Education in Ohio several years ago. He writes: December 1, Columbus Dispatch Capitol Insider: Remember ECOT? As the article indicates, most people have forgotten the ECOT debacle. The ECOT Man, William Lager, siphoned one billion dollars from school district budgets for a business plan that was desi

Mercedes Schneider: SLAYING GOLIATH is “A Book About Us”

31by dianeravitch / 5d

Mercedes Schneider is a high school teacher in Louisiana. She has been blogging since 2013 about the state and federal government’s determined efforts to force bad ideas on teachers like her. Too often, she writes, she has had to share bad news. But when she read SLAYING GOLIATH, she understood that she was part of a national movement to resist bad policies. She writes: It has been an uphill batt

JAN 26

Craig Harris: How Foreign Investors Get Green Cards by Investing Millions in the Charter School Industry

100+by dianeravitch / 5d

Thanks to a provision in the tax law, called the EB-5 program, wealthy foreign investors can buy green cards by investing in charter schools. Craig Harris, award-winning investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, took a close look at this provision in the law that allows foreign citizens to buy visas in exchange for funding charter schools. He visited schools in Arizona and other states. Th

Justin Parmenter: The Rightwing Assault on Public Schools in North Carolina

200+by dianeravitch / 5d

Justin Parmenter is a National Board Certified Teacher in North Carolina. In this essay, he documents the decade-long effort by Republicans to destroy public education in North Carolina and demoralize teachers. He writes: Out of all the states that have struggled to provide a quality public education over the past decade, perhaps none have seen as precipitous a decline as North Carolina. Once see

Tom Ultican Explains Corporate Education Reform and the Assault on Dallas Public Schools

39by dianeravitch / 5d

This is a very engaging video interview of Tom Ultican, an expert on corporate education reform, explaining the federal takeover of public schools via No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Ultican goes into detail about the corporate assault on public schools in the Dallas Independent School District. He names names, starting with the misguided superintendency of Mike Miles, a Broadie who man

Florida: State Funds Religious Schools Where Bigotry is Just Swell

100+by dianeravitch / 6d

Leslie Postal and Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel identified nearly 160 religious schools that receive state funding but exclude gay students. Some refuse to enroll students whose parents are gay or hire gay staff. Discrimination is A-OK at these schools. This would not be a problem for Betsy DeVos, whose family has contributed to anti-gay organizations for years. It would not be a problem f

JAN 25

Maryland: Court Allows Lawsuit to Proceed for Baltimore City Funding

by dianeravitch / 6d

The Education Law Center announces good news for equity for children in Baltimore City: About Us News ‌ ‌ January 24, 2020 MARYLAND COURT ALLOWS BALTIMORE CITY PARENTS TO RE-OPEN BRADFORD SCHOOL FUNDING CASE By Wendy Lecker On January 21, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Audrey Carrion paved the way for Maryland’s long-running school funding litigation, Bradford v. Maryland, to proceed. Judge C

Valerie Strauss Posts a Portrait of Nashville Leader Amy Frogge, from SLAYING GOLIATH

20by dianeravitch / 6d

Valerie Strauss posted an excerpt from SLAYING GOLIATH about one of its heroes . SLAYING GOLIATH contains many true stories of individuals and groups who took a stand to defend their schools against the assault of well-funded privatizers. Amy Frogge is a lawyer and a public school parent. She decided to run for the Metro Nashville school board. She had no agenda other than to do her part as a cit

AFT Sues Betsy DeVos for Failing to Protect Defrauded Students

200+by dianeravitch / 6d

Forbes’ education writer Wesley Whistle writes about the lawsuit filed by AFT against Betsy DeVos for her failure to protect the students who were defrauded by colleges and universities, mostly for-profit. DeVos rolled back an Obama-era regulation intended to prevent colleges from loading students with high debts and worthless degrees. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has one more lawsuit to de

John Thompson: How Robert Pondiscio’s Book About the Success Academy Charter Chain Reflects Our Edu-Political Culture

100+by dianeravitch / 6d

John Thompson used to be a friend of Robert Pondiscio, who is now a vice-president at the rightwing Thomas B. Fordham Institute. A decade ago, Robert was a good friend of mine; he was one of the early readers of Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education . At the time (2010), Robert and I agreed on the importance of public schools and the

Jan Resseger: Ohio Voucher Plunges Public Districts into Fiscal Crisis

26by dianeravitch / 7d

Jan Resegger summarizes the disastrous Ohio plan to expand vouchers and how grossly unfair it is to public schools, which enroll nearly 90% of the children in the state. As she points out, most of the children drawing money away from 

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

CATCH UP WITH PETER GREENE ON FORBES

Peter Greene

CATCH UP WITH PETER GREENE ON FORBES 

What We Can Learn From Florida’s Voucher School Discrimination Flap - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/31/what-we-can-learn-from-floridas-voucher-school-discrimination-flap/#671e4d2b78c7 by @petergreene on @forbes


Common Core Is Dead. Long Live Common Core. - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/30/common-core-is-dead-long-live-common-core/#3dee591c5e65 by @petergreene on @forbes


Why Do We Only Have One Flavor Of Charter School? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/29/why-do-we-only-have-one-flavor-of-charter-school/#365e68c346a5 by @petergreene on @forbes


How To Improve The Quality Of Teaching With Tools Districts Already Have At Hand (And How To Mess It Up) - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/25/how-to-improve-the-quality-of-teaching-with-tools-districts-already-have-at-hand-and-how-to-mess-it-up/#3d9e70eafc95 by @petergreene on @forbes


Suitts: Overturning Brown And The Segregationist Legacy Of The Modern School Choice Movement - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/20/suitts-overturning-brown-and-the-segregationist-legacy-of-the-modern-school-choice-movement/#f6e9f2122fa8 by @petergreene on @forbes


Diane Ravitch: Why Education Disruption Is Losing - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/17/diane-ravitch-why-education-disruption-is-losing/#24ceb6882be5 by @petergreene on @forbes


Did The Florida DOE Threaten To Fire Teachers For Taking A Personal Day? - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/01/11/did-the-florida-doe-threaten-to-fire-teachers-for-taking-a-personal-day/#7f2ec64f6ef9 by @petergreene on @forbes


CONTINUE READING More Articles

Oakland school district sued over violent meeting

Oakland school district sued over violent meeting

Parents, teachers sue Oakland school district over violent board meeting
They seek damages in complaint from Oct. 23 meeting; drive to oust school board president progresses.

OAKLAND — With Oakland Technical High School as the backdrop, a group of parents and teachers announced Thursday they are suing the Oakland Unified School District for injuries they say they suffered by police officers at an Oct. 23 school board meeting.

The complaint is “for violation of our clients’ Constitutional rights, specifically their Constitutional right to engage in free speech and to engage in public activity without being beat up or injured,” said the group’s attorney, Dan Siegel, at the press conference which began with a loud chant of “No more closures. Oakland is not for sale.”

Big Education Ape: OUSD meeting Violence - Oakland Not For Sale – No More School Closures! #Oaklandnotforsale - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/ousd-meeting-violence-oakland-not-for.html

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and names as defendants the Oakland Unified School District, district police Chief Jeff Godown and Sgt. Donald Perrier, among others. It was filed after the school district rejected the group’s excessive force claim, which was filed  in November.

The legal action by the eight plaintiffs stems from an Oct. 23 meeting in which parents and teachers protested against the large number of charter schools and the district’s plan to close schools, including an earlier decision to shut Kaiser Elementary in the Oakland hills.

The complaint seeks unspecified monetary and punitive damages and asks for a jury trial.

At the meeting, protesters clashed with police inside the meeting room, which was separated by a barricade from the school board.

“We were there protesting peacefully with guitars,” said Amy Haruyama, a first-grade teacher with the OUSD. “We had no idea what was about to happen …. I didn’t even see them coming. I fell. I thought I was trapped or something.”

According to the complaint, Haruyama was standing on the auditorium side of the barrier when Sgt. Perrier used his baton to shove her, knocking her to the ground. Haruyama was “bruised and suffered from whiplash from falling,” the complaint stated.

The most visibly injured individual at the Thursday press conference was parent Saru Jayaraman, who was on crutches. According to the complaint, three or four officers “jumped CONTINUE READING: Oakland school district sued over violent meeting

Grassroots Education Network- New Year (2020) Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- New Year (2020) Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Grassroots Education Network- New Year (2020) Newsletter

The NPE Grassroots Education Network is a network of over 135 grassroots organizations nationwide who have joined together to preserve, promote, improve, and strengthen our public schools. If you know of a group that would like to join this powerful network, please go here to sign on. 

If you have any questions about the NPE Grassroots Education Network please contact Marla Kilfoyle, NPE Grassroots Education Network Liaison at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org

Notes from Marla

The most exciting thing about the beginning of 2020 is that Slaying Goliath, the new book by NPE President Diane Ravitch, was released. The reviews speak to the eloquent way that Diane tells the story of everyday people who, without money or power, have successfully brought down the rich and entitled. Please support this amazing book that celebrates all the work we do everyday. Here is a link to order the book, or encourage everyone to visit their closest book store to buy a copy. Diane is also on tour!  She is a fantastic speaker. Here is a link to her tour dates and locations.

I hope to see you all at the NPE Action National Conference in Philadelphia where grassroots groups will be honored. 

At our March 28-29 conference, we will be celebrating the work of Grassroots Groups across the nation. Leaders of Grassroots Groups will be called to the stage to be honored and given an autographed copy of Diane’s new book.

Let’s start 2020 off by connecting and recharging.  Registration is still open but please remember that seats are limited this year to 500, so DO NOT delay your registration. Go here to register and book your hotel. There are few discounted hotel rooms left on Friday and Saturday nights. 

Finally, this newsletter will be the New Year Edition and will highlight a sample of what the network has going on in 2020. 

Public Schools Week will be held from February 24th-28th. Start planning NOW by doing the following:

• Begin to ask your Governor, state and federal lawmakers, Mayor, City Council, or Board of Education to adopt a resolution in support of Public Education. Begin to do this now. You can adopt, edit, or modify this resolution from The School Superintendents Association. If you get a resolution please send it to Marla Kilfoyle at marlakilfoyle@networkforpubliceducation.org and we will forward it along.
  
• National organizations please cut a three-minute video that encourages your members to participate in Public Schools Week. Here are the instructions for the video. To see sample videos please go here.  
  
• Please share and ask your members to take the pledge in support of Public Schools week. You can do that here.
  
• Please consider hosting an event. Starting planning NOW and register your event here  
• To learn more about Public Schools Week, messaging for 2020 and the #PublicSchoolProud campaign please go here and the toolkit has all kinds of amazing things you can do to support the week on social media.

On the National Front here is what the following groups will be doing in 2020:Grassroots Education Network- New Year (2020) Newsletter - Network For Public Education

Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools

Carol Burris wrote about Michael Bloomberg’s education ideas several years ago when she was a high school principal on Long Island in New York.

You have to love New York City’s mayor. Michael Bloomberg speaks his mind, never holding back. While most self-proclaimed school reformers do the Dance of the Seven Veils, slowly revealing their agenda, the mayor jumps up on stage and gives you the ‘full monty.’ He’s sure he has the solution for all that ails New York’s schools, and he is not shy about sharing.

Last Thursday, he told an MIT conference audience how to quickly improve public schools. “I would, if I had the ability – which nobody does really – to just design a system and say, ‘ex cathedra, this is what we’re going to do,’ you would cut the number of teachers in half, but you would double the compensation of them and you would weed out all the bad ones and just have good teachers. And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students.”

Now that’s an interesting proposal to promote college readiness: lecture halls for third graders.

The mayor never cites any research to support his claims about what’s a good deal for students. Nor does he explain a sensible way to determine the bottom half of teachers — the ones who would be sent packing. But he CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: What Michael Bloomberg Really Wants to Do in Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Weingarten: Right wants states to use public dollars for religious schools – People's World

Weingarten: Right wants states to use public dollars for religious schools – People's World

Weingarten: Right wants states to use public dollars for religious schools

WASHINGTON – The religious right wants the U.S. Supreme Court to force states to use public dollars for religious schools, Teachers President Randi Weingarten warns.

In a message to her union’s 1.6 million members late last month, the AFT leader, a civics and government teacher from New York City, adds the religious rightists are counting on the High Court’s five-man GOP-named majority to uphold their demand.

Weingarten commented just days before the court heard oral arguments on the case, Espinoza vs Montana Department of Revenue, on Jan. 22.

In the case, three families who had received taxpayer-paid $150 yearly vouchers to send their kids to any private school will lose them at the end of this school year, because using the vouchers to send kids to religious school violates the federal constitution’s ban and a state constitutional ban on government “establishment” – promotion of — religion.

Other states have similar bans in their constitutions. If the court sides with the right, all those prohibitions, called “Blaine Amendments,” would get tossed.

The GOP Trump administration, for whom the religious right is a major political constituency, joined in the CONTINUE READING: Weingarten: Right wants states to use public dollars for religious schools – People's World

Shawgi Tell: Charter Schools Are Part of Private Law, Not Public Law | Dissident Voice

Charter Schools Are Part of Private Law, Not Public Law | Dissident Voice

Charter Schools Are Part of Private Law, Not Public Law

Public law and private law are separate spheres of law that operate according to different standards and relationships.¹

Private law governs relations between private citizens, whereas public law governs relations between individuals and the state. This distinction is critical. Private law does not concern society as a whole; public law does.

Private law includes tort law, contract law, commercial law, and property law. Public law encompasses constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law, tax law, and municipal law.

Public schools fall under public law and are considered to be government enterprises, i.e., agencies of the state, also known as political subdivisions of the state. Public schools serve a public purpose, have elected school boards, accept all students, do not charge tuition, and have taxing powers. Charter schools, on the other hand, are contract schools that fall under private law. They are not public schools in the proper sense of the word; they are private non-profit or for-profit organizations that do not accept all students and cannot levy taxes. Charter schools are not governmental entities or political subdivisions of the state. To call them public schools is incorrect.

A contract is a legally binding voluntary agreement — not just a promise — between two or more parties to do or not do something during a specified period of time, with associated rewards and punishments. Contracts are CONTINUE READING: Charter Schools Are Part of Private Law, Not Public Law | Dissident Voice

"What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource! – Black Lives Matter At School #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool #TBATS #BLM

"What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource! – Black Lives Matter At School

"What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource!

Calling all educators:

Thanks to stunning art and design by New York City educator Caryn Davidson, we now have an indispensable #BlackLivesMatterAtSchool Activity book, “What We Believe.” This resource is free and downloadable from the “lesson plan” tab under the “2020 Curriculum Resource Guide” link on the BlackLivesMatterAtSchool.com website.

This beautiful workbook guides students through the Black Lives Matter Global Network’s 13 principles with powerful quotes and images from Black thought leaders, artists, activist, and organizers. What an incredible resource to engage students in deep conversations about the rich diversity of the Black experience for the national Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, February 3-7, 2020!

Here, then, is the introductory page from the book to explain what it’s all about and how to use it: CONTINUE READING: "What We Believe": A Black Lives Matter at School Activity book. A free and downloadable classroom resource! – Black Lives Matter At School

Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results | Diane Ravitch's blog

Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results

Christina Samuels of Education Week reports that philanthropists continue to pour a large percentage of their donations into education, but are losing interest in K-12 due to the poor record of their efforts to “reform” the schools. 

ironically, this is good news because the philanthropic money was used to impose “reforms” that disrupted schools, ranked students based on their test scores, and demoralized teachers.

Schools that serve the neediest children definitely need more money but not the kind that is tied to test scores, stigmatizing students and teachers, or the kind that funds charter schools to drain resources from public schools, leaving them with less money to educate the neediest children.

Samuels reports that a growing number of grant makers to early childhood education are looking to help children before they start school, and giving money to issues such as “education and mental health, education and criminal justice, education and the arts.”

In 2010, I visited Denver and met with about 60 of the city’s civic leaders. I was supposed to debate State CONTINUE READING: Education Week: Philanthropists Are Losing Interest in K-12 “Reform” Due to Lack of Results | Diane Ravitch's blog

In States with Oldest School Vouchers, School Choice Week Is Filled with Contention | janresseger

In States with Oldest School Vouchers, School Choice Week Is Filled with Contention | janresseger

In States with Oldest School Vouchers, School Choice Week Is Filled with Contention

Wisconsin and Ohio have the oldest school choice programs in the United States.  Milwaukee’s voucher program is 30 years old and the Cleveland Voucher Program is 24 years old.  Both states have expanded vouchers statewide beyond the two cities where they began. It ought to be a red flag that in these two states with the oldest programs, National School Choice Week may have been more contentious than anywhere else in the country.

National School Choice Week in Wisconsin

Last week Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos went to Madison, Wisconsin’s capital city, to honor National School Choice Week, a celebration of vouchers and charter schools that was established and is promoted every year by groups like the American Federation for Children—the group DeVos herself helped found and to which she has regularly donated generously—and Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd.

Pence and DeVos were not welcomed by Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who skipped the event altogether. Before he was elected governor, Evers was the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, and before that he was a public school educator. Evers has devoted his career to leading and promoting the state’s public schools.

Neither Pence nor DeVos was welcomed by the Capital Times in Madison, which editorialized: “Pence parrots the talking points of the wealthy campaign donors he has always served…. That’s what Pence did Tuesday in Madison… Pence was promoting ongoing efforts to undermine public education with the usual cabal of billionaire-funded advocates for the agenda of the Trump-Pence administration’s ‘school choice’ agenda… Out-of-state billionaires like DeVos and politicians like Pence have for years targeted Wisconsin in their efforts to CONTINUE READING: In States with Oldest School Vouchers, School Choice Week Is Filled with Contention | janresseger

NYC Educator: Targeted--NY ESL Teachers (and Students)

NYC Educator: Targeted--NY ESL Teachers (and Students)

Targeted--NY ESL Teachers (and Students)

I should've known the first time I heard Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa speak at George Washington Campus. There is a plan. Rosa said they'd changed Part 154 so that students could have more content instruction. At the time I didn't really grasp the implications.

It's now clear to me that neither Rosa nor and of the other geniuses in Albany see English as content. It's just something you magically acquire by virtue of being here. To an extent, that's true, but to a much larger extent, it is ridiculous and hurtful.

Imagine yourself shipped to China tomorrow and placed in a Chinese history class taught entirely in Chinese. If you didn't know the language, you'd be lost. Now imagine how my kids feel when they're dumped into an American history class. Will it matter if there's an ESL teacher sitting in the room two days a week? It's entirely likely that teacher has no time to make contact with the content teacher. How that person is supposed to catch you up on language, culture and background knowledge concurrently with instruction I have no idea.

What if you have a social studies teacher who has taken the magical 12 credits and is provisionally certified in ESL? Will that person be able to teach not only the content, but also all the vocabulary and background in the same 40 minutes her colleagues teach the content only? Perhaps she's a miracle worker, but four classes do not a miracle worker make. It's highly unlikely the students will develop a love for social studies or civics under these conditions.

The fact is that the geniuses in Albany have based all of their brilliant programs on studies of younger children. While it is indeed counter-productive and myopic to have reduced support for younger ELLs, they may do better with Albany's new CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Targeted--NY ESL Teachers (and Students)