Betsy DeVos called me. I sent her this letter - Lily's Blackboard

Betsy DeVos called me. I sent her this letter - Lily's Blackboard:

Betsy DeVos called me. I sent her this letter

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called me the other day saying we should talk. But this seems premature. I’m still struck by the lack of clear answers she gave the public at her Senate hearing.

There is no doubt where we stand on issues critical to supporting students and public education, but Americans have a right to know where she stands.

So I sent her a letter, asking for the answers that we didn’t get from her confirmation hearing. I have yet to receive a response, but I wanted to share the letter with you.

Read the letter, and add your name.

Let’s make sure Betsy DeVos knows that while she may have been confirmed by the slimmest of margins, parents, students and educators are not backing down.

Tell Betsy DeVos: Parents, Students and Educators Demand Answers

I'm signing on:Betsy DeVos called me. I sent her this letter - Lily's Blackboard:

LGBT employees ask Education Secretary to keep protections | PBS NewsHour

LGBT employees ask Education Secretary to keep protections | PBS NewsHour:

LGBT employees ask Education Secretary to keep protections

WASHINGTON — LGBT employees have asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to commit to safeguarding anti-discrimination regulations amid fears that the Trump administration may weaken those protections.

In the email, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, staffers at the Education Department urged the new secretary to issue a statement confirming her commitment to Title IX rules, which prohibit discrimination based on sex in educational programs.

READ MORE: LGBT health advocates fear backlash under Trump

“At a time when students and individuals across the nation are being targeted with overtly discriminatory treatment, our nation needs you to remind and empower students about their right to equal access to education,” the staffers wrote.

The email was sent Wednesday by a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Education Department employees and their supporters.

“We look forward to partnering with you in this very important work and hope that as a ‘door open type of person,’ you will open your office to hear from both your LGBTQ staff and the LGBTQ families our Department serves,” the employees wrote.

The Education Department did not provide immediate comment.

The move follows a decision by President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to withdraw a motion in the ongoing lawsuit over bathroom rights for transgender students in public schools. LGBT advocates said they see the move as a signal the administration will not protect transgender rights.

READ MORE: Parents of transgender students appeal to Trump on bathrooms

The letter comes as DeVos establishes herself at the agency after a bruising confirmation battle. DeVos, a wealthy Republican operative and champion of charter and private LGBT employees ask Education Secretary to keep protections | PBS NewsHour:

Betsy DeVos is now being guarded by U.S. Marshals - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos is now being guarded by U.S. Marshals - The Washington Post:

Betsy DeVos is now being guarded by U.S. Marshals

By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Emma Brown February 17 at 5:07 PM 

The U.S. Marshals Service says they are now providing security for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, after a handful of protesters blocked her from entering a D.C. middle school.

[Protesters briefly block Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s visit to a D.C. school]

The move is unusual for the Education Department, which typically has a team of civil servants guarding the Secretary, and for the marshals, law enforcement officers who are generally responsible for protecting federal judges, transporting prisoners, investigating fugitives and protecting witnesses.

The last cabinet member protected by marshals was a director of the Office of National Drug Policy, according to Lynzey Donahue, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service. That office ceased to be a cabinet-level position in 2009.

Donahue said that for security reasons, she could not provide any information about the number of marshals assigned to DeVos, nor whether they are providing round-the-clock protection. It is unclear how long the arrangement will last.

Education Department officials did not respond to repeated requests for information about why they have called on the marshals or what the security team normally assigned to cover the secretary is doing now.

Federal policy allows the Education Department to pay other agencies for services, but it is unclear whether the department is reimbursing the marshals for the cost of deploying a security team.

Marshals began providing security for DeVos on Monday, Feb. 13, the first weekday after DeVos encountered protesters outside the District’s Jefferson Middle School Academy, Donahue said.

The demonstration was mostly peaceful, but several protesters attempted to block a government car from entering the street in front of the school, and a few others tried to bar DeVos from entering the building. Video circulated by WJLA, the local ABC television affiliate, showed a member of the department’s security team steering DeVos away from the protesters, guiding her by the arm as she returned to her government vehicle.

One of the protesters who blocked the secretary appeared to have touched her, according to a video circulated by Fox5DC. D.C. police arrested one person for assaulting a police officer.

[The popular uprising that threatens the Betsy DeVos nomination]

The incident was a sign that DeVos entered office as a deeply polarizing figure after winning confirmation only by the slimmest of margins. A Michigan billionaire, she spent three decades lobbying for private school vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to traditional public schools. While her supporters say she is a bold reformer, her detractors worry DeVos aims to undermine public schools by redirecting taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools.

Friday’s protest was not the first for the team responsible for protecting the education Betsy DeVos is now being guarded by U.S. Marshals - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: How Much Does Your District Pay in Charter Costs

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: How Much Does Your District Pay in Charter Costs:

PA: How Much Does Your District Pay in Charter Costs

An extremely handy spread sheet has been circulating lately, and if nothing else, I want to put a link here so that I can more easily find it. If you're in Pennsylvania, you'll want to look at this, too.

Yes, 502 districts is a lot.

The document covers every school year from 2009-2010 through 2014-2015 for every single one of our 502 pubic school districts (yes, that is a high number, but that's another conversation).  It shows how much money left the district to go to charters, broken down by nonspecial education students and special education students (the pay rate is different). I recommend that you browse on your own, but let me hit just a couple of points.

First of all, a bunch of my civilian friends looked at this and said, "How can our district be paying that much in charter costs when we don't have any charter schools here?" The answer is that all Pennsylvania students have access to cyber-charters. Not everybody gets that a cyber school is just another kind of charter-- a highly profitable one in Pennsylvania, where the pay rate for the charter has noting to do with the actual charter costs. Put another way, your district pays the same to send a child to a bricks-and-mortar charter with a real building and heat and light and live teachers in classrooms as it spends to send a child to a cyber school with a computer, an internet hookup, and remote teachers who handle hundreds of students at once.

You can use the data to see how PA charter costs have mushroomed. In 2009-2010, the total charter tuition bill was $805,621,738.88 (I'm dying to know what the 88 cents bought). But five years later, CURMUDGUCATION: PA: How Much Does Your District Pay in Charter Costs:

How to Protest Against Betsy DeVos

How to Protest Against Betsy DeVos:

How to Protest Against Betsy DeVos

Our schools are being starved into failure in order to justify mass privatization.

—Timothy Meegan, Chicago Sun Times

A while back, I attended a meeting at the University of Memphis where many of us were against the Relay Graduate School of Education—a reform group that recruits students out of their chosen careers and supplies unqualified alternative teachers to charter schools. Those conducting the meeting, including the university president, were surprised to see such a large audience.

We had planned it that way. Parents, professors, students, and teachers organized and met several Sundays in a row to discuss strategies to keep this group from moving into the university to work side-by-side with the College of Education.

To keep us from speaking at this meeting, the administrators in favor of the program talked and talked and talked.

We finally had to interrupt in order to say why we were there. I am usually polite, and arguably this was not a polite thing to do. Yet, had we not interrupted we would not have been heard.

It is not always easy to protest politely. One wouldn’t be protesting if those in charge were doing what you believe to be right, or if they were listening.

That said, I disliked the barring of Betsy DeVos and the particular part of the protest How to Protest Against Betsy DeVos:

 

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: No Real Role for Feds

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: No Real Role for Feds:

DeVos: No Real Role for Feds

At Axios (the new "media company" from two former Politico honchos), Johnathan Swan (formerly of The Hill) has a quick moment with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. She uses the opportunity for a bit of a do-over on her confirmation hearing, but it's her thoughts on the federal role in education that are most striking.

Among the things that "Betsy DeVos wishes she had said at her confirmation hearing"

* She would have come up with a better illustration than a grizzly bear. "It was a valid illustration<' she says. But it probably "wasn't the best illustration I could have given."

* Everybody should have to follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Totally. She has "so much compassion for families that have to avail themselves of that law."

* She's apparently okay with her none-answers on equal accountability for all schools that receive federal funding, because that's a concept "with which she'll never agree."

Some other nuggets from the interview include her surprise at getting the call (actually an e-mail from someone with whom she's "worked for a number of years."-- my money is still on Mike Pence). Trump got her excited about the job. She'll consider the department successful if they can get ESSA successfully implemented. She looks to "slim down the department."

What changes does she expect in her tenure? No surprise here-- more charter schools, more private schools, more virtual schools, more schools of "any kind that haven't been invented yet." Left unsaid but clearly implied-- fewer public schools.

The big question comes in big bold letters:

In her ideal world, the federal government has any a role in education?

The answer gets even bigger bolder print, because somebody understands that it's key:CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: No Real Role for Feds:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates' Annual Letter To Buffet Doesn't Mention Education Efforts

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates' Annual Letter To Buffet Doesn't Mention Education Efforts:

Gates' Annual Letter To Buffet Doesn't Mention Education Efforts

For the second year in a row, Bill and Melinda Gates' letter to Warren Buffett on his donation to their foundation doesn't mention what any of their policy and advocacy work in public education.   From fellow public education activist, Leonie Haimson:

..whether related to funding and promoting the Common Core, test-based teacher evaluation, charter schools,  online learning, or data-mining students' personal information. 

Perhaps that's because these policies have failed to improve student outcomes and instead have provoked real anger and resistance among parents and teachers nationwide.

Not one single word.

Buffett, in his letter to them on December 12, 2016 even says:

I also believe it's important that people better understand why success in philanthropy is measured differently from success in business or government.  Your letter might explain how the two of you measure yourselves and how you would like the final scorecard to read.

I have to believe that Buffett is aware that the Gates are not revealing the full story.  You have to wonder why.

To explain (via NPR in 2006): 

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and founder of Berkshire Hathaway, has announced he is donating much of his fortune to charity. Over time, most of Buffett's $44 billion in stock holdings will be given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the form of Berkshire Hathaway shares, Buffett signed papers that give $31 billion of his fortune to fund the Gates Foundation's work in fighting infectious diseases and reforming education.

As for the Gates' letter, they do say one revealing thing right from the start Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates' Annual Letter To Buffet Doesn't Mention Education Efforts:

PTA asks 'Parent Teacher Alliance,' a charter school political group, to change its name | 89.3 KPCC

PTA asks 'Parent Teacher Alliance,' a charter school political group, to change its name | 89.3 KPCC:

PTA asks 'Parent Teacher Alliance,' a charter school political group, to change its name

In the midst of a contentious race for Los Angeles Unified School Board, some voters have gotten knocks at their door from pro-charter school canvassers introducing themselves as "volunteers with the Parent Teacher Alliance."


 They're not volunteers for the well-known parent-run school fundraising organization, but for a group funded by the political affiliate of the California Charter Schools Association. The Parent Teacher Alliance has already spent $550,000 on advertising, phone banking and door-knocking in hopes of influencing the L.A. Unified race.

Leaders of the California Parent Teacher Association – the aforementioned parent-run school fundraising organization – want them to find another name.

This week, leaders of the National Parent Teacher Association sent a cease-and-desist letter to the charter association's political arm, CCSA Advocates, saying the use of "Parent Teacher Alliance" in political advertising is muddying the PTA's non-partisan brand.

The letter accuses CCSA Advocates of "false advertising and deceptive practices," according to a written statement from National PTA president Laura Bay.

It's the second time the Parent Teacher Association has made such a request.

In the 2016 statewide primary elections, the Parent Teacher Alliance PAC and other pro-charter groups were huge sources of outside spending in legislative races. After the June vote, leaders of the National Parent Teacher Association sent their first cease-and-desist letter to CCSA, noting the national group holds trademarks on both their name and the "PTA" acronym.

The pro-charter group stopped using the acronym officially, but has continued to use the "Parent Teacher Alliance" name in political communications.

CCSA Advocates leaders have not yet decided how to respond to the letter, according to spokesman Richard Garcia.

"We understand the PTA’s concerns and CCSA Advocates’ leadership is interested in meeting with representatives from the PTA so that we may discuss these concerns in person," Garcia said in a written statement.

Garcia's statement continued: "As two organizations committed to assisting parents and families in expressing their voices concerning public education for their children, our sincere hope is that we can find a mutually agreeable solution."

Neither the National PTA nor its state affiliates endorse candidates or weigh in on ballot issues.

But California PTA executive director Sherry Skelly Griffin said the name has caused confusion even among her group's membership. In an effort to tamp down that confusion, the state PTA has sent emails to its members drawing distinctions between it and the Parent Teacher Alliance and accusing the group of operating PTA asks 'Parent Teacher Alliance,' a charter school political group, to change its name | 89.3 KPCC:

Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Trump backs merit pay for teachers — but one Florida school system now says it doesn’t work - The Washington Post

Trump backs merit pay for teachers — but one Florida school system now says it doesn’t work - The Washington Post:

Trump backs merit pay for teachers — but one Florida school system now says it doesn’t work

During the campaign, President Trump said “it is time” for merit pay for teachers. In Florida, the Orange County Public School district thinks otherwise, declaring a years-long experiment with performance pay a failure.

[Trump’s perplexing comments about education]

According to the Orlando Sentinel, a report by the district, given to the Central Florida Public School Boards Coalition, says plainly: “Performance pay systems are not an effective way to increase student achievement,” the report concluded. The paper wrote:

If they were, there would be consistent improvements since the law went into effect.

Instead, Orange’s fourth-graders have shown declining performance in language arts while its sixth graders have gotten better in that subject. And its third graders have posted flat scores in math, year after year.

On national tests, Florida’s eighth-graders have done worse, in both math and reading, since the law’s passage.

Experiments with merit pay for teachers have been tried for decades, but there is no evidence that they work in improving student performance. Florida, starting under the 1999-2007 administration of former governor Jeb Bush, has been at the forefront of the movement, requiring that districts implement a performance pay plan by 2003 — but there wasn’t a great deal of district buy-in because there was no state funding for the program.  In 2011, Republican Gov. Rick Scott passed a new law changing the way teaches were evaluated — with 50 percent linked to student standardized test scores — and creating a performance-based pay system as well as ending job protections.

[Ravitch: The long, failed history of merit pay]

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The Sentinel reported that Orange County officials want the law changed and plan to share the report with Florida legislators.

Diane Ravitch, an education historian before she became a prominent anti-corporate school reform advocate, has written extensively about merit pay, noting in this 2010 piece:

One of the signature issues of business people and conservative Republicans for the past 30 years has been merit pay. They believe in competition, and they believe that financial rewards can be used to incentivize better performance, so it seems natural for them to conclude that merit pay or performance pay would incentivize teachers to produce better results.

Note that they assume that most people — in this case, teachers — are lazy and 

Trump backs merit pay for teachers — but one Florida school system now says it doesn’t work - The Washington Post:

The Fight to Privatize LA Schools: Getting What You Pay For - LA Progressive

The Fight to Privatize LA Schools: Getting What You Pay For - LA Progressive:

The Fight to Privatize LA Schools: Getting What You Pay For

Is it true there are LAUSD board candidates “supported by” Betsy DeVos?

Recently this very central, very arresting question was posted to a neighborhood social media website, highlighting the core themes of today’s political perplexity: culpability, association and formal logic.

The thread claimed that those who opposed DeVos should be aware that two carbon copy candidates running in tandem for the LAUSD fourth board district are “supported by” DeVos; today’s mail insisted the same.

“Not True” howled the pair’s supporters and indeed I have found no trace that DeVos has funded either candidate directly.

And yet these underlying claims of equivalency are, I believe, spot on.

Why?

Well first, the term “DeVos” has become iconic, representing an attitude, a political ideology and stance.  As well, she has become symbolic of Trump’s predilection for appointing cabinet members who are patently antagonistic to that department which they are tapped to lead.

As unpleasant as the second characteristic is, DeVos’ symbolism is only a secondary characteristic of LAUSD’s board race for the fourth district (BD4). There is little question that incumbent Steve Zimmer is eminently – and the most – qualified candidate for this position.  He has done the job for two terms already and arguably has been extremely effective at it, having climbed a very steep learning curve of mind-boggling complexity.

Governing Los Angeles Unified is a gigantic job, so (i) working within a splinter school district just a very small fraction of its size, or (ii) tilting ineffectively against its entrenched bureaucracy (the twinned challenger’s qualifications respectively), does not constitute robust qualification for the post. This district is vast and its issues tremendously difficult to master; job familiarity is a strong asset.

Additionally his opponents champion the charter school ethos underwritten by Eli Broad in “a bold plan to expand the charter sector to serve 50% of Los Angeles public school students.” If such a plan cannabilizes the very system that spawned it, then these candidates could be said to be akin to the DeVos paradigm of anti-leadership because their ascension will destroy that which they are charged with directing.

However these would still be characteristics supported “by“DeVos in only a derivative sense.

DeVos represents a numerically small but supremely vast elite that strong-arm elected officials and governance through the bully pulpit of campaign donations.

Steve Zimmers’ opponents are more directly supported by DeVos in the first, iconic, sense wherein she represents an enormously wealthied class, functioning as a special interest group in and of herself and her corporatized family. Their enormous wealth is employed toward parochial interests. She represents a numerically small but supremely vast elite that strong-arm elected officials and governance through the bully pulpit of campaign donations.

And make no doubt about it, the forces allied with charterizing America are an array of privateers that play for keeps just as DeVos’ compatriots; our very president explained this system plainly.

One of the biggest of these Education brokers operates right here in Los Angeles. Peering into the not-Zimmer intiative exposes big money focused on deposing the education of our little ones, on a scale that can only be described as fearsome. It is the same eclipsing support that swept Betsy De Vos into office despite patent nonqualification and ideological impropriety. And it harnesses the same cast of characters.

The national triumvirate of Education ®eform is framed by the Foundations of Bill and Melinda Gates, the Walton family, and Los Angeles’ Eli and Edythe Broad.

Both Broads have given both anti-Zimmer candidates separately the maximum in personal contributions, $2,200. Since 1998 they have contributed $29,700 to the personal campaigns of 12 LAUSD boardmembers, all enthusiastic supporters of the Broad agenda (Garcia, Rodriguez, Galatzan, Gonez, Melvoin, Polhill, Johnson, Lee, Hudley-Hayes, Anderson, Sanchez, Vladovic; in descending order of largesse). For reference the couple or their businesses have contributed a The Fight to Privatize LA Schools: Getting What You Pay For - LA Progressive:

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education:

What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education

This medicine can reduce fever, but it can cause a bleeding stomach. When you buy a medical product, you are given information about both its effects and side effects. But such practice does not exist in education.

“This program helps improve your students’ reading scores, but it may make them hate reading forever.” No such information is given to teachers or school principals.

“This practice can help your children become a better student, but it may make her less creative.” No parent has been given information about effects and side effects of practices in schools.

“School choice may improve test scores of some students, but it can lead to the collapse of American public education,” the public has not received information about the side effects of sweeping education policies.

Educational research has typically focused exclusively on the benefits, intended effects of products, programs, policies, and practices, as if there were no adverse side effects. But side effects exist the same way in education as in medicine. For many reasons, studying and reporting side effects simultaneously as has been mandated for medical products is not common in education.

In this article just published in the Journal of Educational Change, I discuss why education must learn the important lesson of studying and reporting side effects from medical research. Side effects in education occur for a number of reasons.

First, time is a constant. When you spend time on one task, you cannot spend the same amount on another. When a child is given extra instruction in reading, he/she cannot spend the same time on arts or music. When a school focuses only on two or three subjects, its students would not have the time to learn something else. When a school system only focuses on a few subjects such as reading and math, students won’t have time to do other and perhaps more important things.

Second, recourses are limited. When it is put into one activity, it cannot be spent on other. When school Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » What Works Can Hurt: Side Effects in Education:

Teaching in the Trump Years (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teaching in the Trump Years (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Teaching in the Trump Years (Part 4)

The following lesson was posted on a blog written by Ed Realist, “a teacher at a Title I high school who usually teaches math, but every so often jumps at the opportunity to teach US history. Ed has credentials in math, social science, and English.”

I have kicked off my planned US History curriculum and on one day’s experience, it’s going gangbusters. I decided the students would best grasp the significance of the electoral college if we began with the recent election–give them a frame of reference as we then look back.

First, I gave them a copy of Article II, section 1 and the Twelfth Amendment, explaining that the elections we’d be reviewing would use both the original and amended text. But the big takeaway I wanted them to get for the first go-round was:  Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

This was new information–well, more accurately, it was relevant information, something they’d clearly been wondering about. When we got to the text about the electors meeting to elect the president, I played that Martin Sheen et al video.

“These actors were trying to change the electors’ minds. As we just read, if no candidate receives more than half the electoral vote, the House of Representatives elects the president. So you can see they didn’t have to change everyone’s minds, just enough to push the vote below the halfway mark.”

“And they’re Democrats?”

“No. The House is controlled by Republicans. I have to say I never quite Teaching in the Trump Years (Part 4) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Black History Month Series: #1 Alice Walker: Beauty in TruthSF Public School Mom

Black History Month Series: #1 Alice Walker: Beauty in TruthSF Public School Mom:

BHM Series #8: Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth

In honor of Black History Month, I’m reposting this previous series. A few years ago, (2015 to be exact!) I challenged myself to write 28 posts highlighting African-American History. This year I finally reached my goal!!! Check out my original post below which appeared on February 2, 2015. To see more posts in this series, click here.

---

Alice Walker: Author and Activist

You may know about Alice Walker, as the acclaimed author of The Color Purple, which became an Academy Award nominated film by Steven Spielberg. But are you aware of her other work as a poet and essayist? Are you aware of her work as an activist?

As a woman of color attending elite private universities (U Penn and NYU) during the late 80’s and early 90’s, I felt very isolated. Tired of being called “ethnic” by many of my sheltered peers and uninspired by much of the curriculum, it was a struggle to complete my Bachelor’s Degree.

When I found Alice Walker’s collection of essays, In Search of our Mother’s Gardens, it changed everything. Her essays and poems connected me to a community of folks I had not known existed before: a world of successful, intellectual African-American authors, artists and thinkers. For the first time, I no longer felt alone.

This quote, from an essay in this book, titled “The Unglamorous but Worthwhile Duties of the Black Revolutionary Artist, or of the Black Writer Who Simply Works and Writes” explains my experience and the experience of many Black Americans, specifically where school is concerned:

“So for the past four years I’ve been in still another college. This time simply a college of books–musty old books that went out of print years ago–and of old people, the old black men and women I could find, and a college of the young; students and dropouts who articulate in various bold and shy ways that they believe themselves to be without a valuable history, without a respectable music, without writing or poetry that speaks to them.”

Alice Walker’s writing inspired in me a thirst for knowledge. And, like Alice Walker, the more I learned, the more I wanted to share my discoveries with a next generation.

It is because of her, and other amazing writers like bell hooks and Paolo Freire that I am an educator today.

Learn More…Black History Month Series: #1 Alice Walker: Beauty in TruthSF Public School Mom: