Tweet Trump and DeVos about their bad budget - Network For Public Education

Tweet Trump and DeVos about their bad budget - Network For Public Education:

Tweet Trump and DeVos about their bad budget

Tweet Trump and DeVos about their bad budget - Network For Public Education:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers #16. Globalization. | Fred Klonsky

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers #16. Globalization. | Fred Klonsky:

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers #16. Globalization.

Here is this week’s podcast of our radio, Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers.

Anne and I were at the welcome back parade for returning Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar Lopez Rivera yesterday, down Paseo Boricua in Chicago’s historically Puerto Rican Humboldt Park neighborhood.

After Mikes intro, I shared a short sound montage of what really was more of a party than a march.

Mike Klonsky, Jerry Harris and me.

The rest of the show – aside from a little fingering wagging at Illinois Democrats who voted for pension theft last week – was all about globalization with the head of the Global Studies Association, Jerry Harris.

The trick here is to make this conversation not too academic.

It’s kind of likeHitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers #16. Globalization. | Fred Klonsky: 

HB-536: Who really puts children first? – Educate Louisiana

HB-536: Who really puts children first? – Educate Louisiana:

HB-536: Who really puts children first?

On May 18, 2017, several bills I have been involved with were heard in the House Education Committee. One particular bill, HB-536, has been my personal labor of love for more than seven months. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Vincent Pierre, was intended to protect students from discrimination and punishment when their parent makes a decision to exclude them from state assessments. I began drafting the bill in late August 2016 after realizing that I had amassed a significant number of complaints from parents across the state detailing their experiences with their school districts when they attempted to opt-out their children from statewide assessments. Many, if not most, districts handle this situation with the utmost respect to parents and students; however, some of the complaints I received were horrifying.

(L/R: Rep. Mark Abraham, Conner Long, Rep. Stephen Dwight and Sen. Ronnie Johns.)
Members of the SWLA delegation were on hand to support Conner and gave him a tour of the House and Senate.

At some point, HB-536 became an integral part of a situation that occurred in my own parish. The family opted to appear before the House Education Committee to tell their story and ask the committee to support the bill. Admittedly, their situation is mild compared to some of the complaints I received. It should be noted that regardless of the severity, these things should not happen. It is unfortunate that overemphasis on testing, and Louisiana’s interpretation of federal law, places parents in an unnecessary position of conflict with schools.

I want to use this opportunity to explain the events leading up to the committee meeting. In its original form, the bill sought to address the huge conflict between schools and parents by excluding students from the school’s SPS score when a parent submits a signed request to exclude their child. This was met with huge push back from various organizations. The most frequent response was, “We have to hold schools accountable. Parents depend on assessments to exercise ‘Choice’ in making decisions about their children’s education.” My standard response to that is “Accountable to who? Parents, right?” Here are two totally disregarded facts that are two sides of the same coin.

1. If a parent “chooses” to exclude their child from state assessments, they have already made their educational choice and used some method of assessing the school other than the state assessment.
2. If a parent absolutely relies on the assessment to make educational choices, they will certainly see to it that their child takes the test.

Those are rather simple, undeniable facts. Nonetheless, when we sought to meet with the Louisiana Department of Education, they insisted on the removal of all things related to accountability. As I explained to Rep. Vincent Pierre, the bill’s sponsor, the central most important part of the bill is to protect the students. If we had to remove the effort to insulate the school, then so be it. So, we did.

By the time the bill reached the committee, it had been reduced to two simple provisions. 1.) Don’t hurt the kids. 2.) Don’t force them to stay in the testing room. Unbelievably, nine organizations, that claim to put children first, objected to the bill.

1. Stand for Children (SFC)
2. Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA)
3. Council for a Better Louisiana (CaBL)
4. Louisiana Family Forum
5. Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI)
6. Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC)
7. Education’s Next Horizon
8. Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)
9. Responsive Education Solutions

I want to point out that Louisiana Family Forum reached out to us stating they while they were in attendance, they did not oppose HB-536: Who really puts children first? – Educate Louisiana:

Defend Your Public School from the Trump/DeVos Budget Debacle - Network For Public Education

Defend Your Public School from the Trump/DeVos Budget Debacle - Network For Public Education:

Defend Your Public School from the Trump/DeVos Budget Debacle

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her favored school choice policies have faced fierce criticism, but this hasn't stopped the march to choice and the defunding of public schools.

A copy of the White House's preliminary budget proposal has been released, and it contains a $9.2 billion cut to the Department of Education. $400 million will be spent to expand charter schools and private and religious school vouchers. Their budget sets $1 billion aside to steer public schools toward choice-friendly policies. Funding for college work-study programs would be cut along with public-service loan forgiveness. Hundreds of millions of dollars that our schools now use to reduce class size, and provide mental health services for students would also be cut.

Make sure your members of Congress know that you want them to defend public education from Trump and DeVos's hostile budget.Defend Your Public School from the Trump/DeVos Budget Debacle - Network For Public Education:

Contact Federal Elected Officials

• President Donald Trump - Contact the President of the United States by filling out the online contact form or by calling the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414 or the comments line at 202-456-1111 during business hours.
• Members of the U.S. Congress
  • U.S. Senators - Get contact information for your Senators in the U.S. Senate.
  • U.S. Representatives - Find the website and contact information for your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Cyber School Crowded Clown Car

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Cyber School Crowded Clown Car:
PA: Cyber School Crowded Clown Car

Pennsylvania has been a big, fat profitable garden of cyber schools, taking an early lead over even California in letting virtual education take root. And there are so many aspects of cyber-schooling in Pennsylvania that we could discuss. As always, I'll preface this by saying that there are students fro whom cyber-schooling is a useful option. But the modern cyber charter industry is not aimed at them. It is aimed at money-- as much money as they could cram into a crowded clown car. When we talk about cybers in PA, there is so uch to discuss.

We could talk about how some are linked through not-entirely-admirable means to Pearson, the great money-grabbing educorporation.

We could talk about the astonishing amount of profit generated by cybers like K12, the school founded by an ex-Goldman Sachs exec. Or that chain's rather loose association with ethical behavior and telling the truth. 

We could talk about how cyber charters have performance so lousy that even other supporters of the charter industry talk smack on them and call for them to be more heavily regulated. We could talk about how the widespread failure of cyber schools is obvious enough to make it into even mainstream media. 

We could talk about massive cyber-school fraud, like the case of Nicholas Trombetta of Pennsylvania Cyber School, who was convicted of siphoning off $8 million of the tax dollars funneled to him from CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Cyber School Crowded Clown Car:

Sacramento school district uses telemedicine to treat students | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento school district uses telemedicine to treat students | The Sacramento Bee:

The doctor is only a click away at these Sacramento schools. Not everyone is happy.

Fifth-grader Fred Amey was upbeat when he arrived at an Ethel I. Baker Elementary School office for his appointment with the doctor.

Social worker Erin Ryan ushered him into a nearby room and took his vitals – blood pressure, blood oxygen level, temperature and weight – and recorded the stats on an iPad aimed at an empty chair.

What happened next could soon spread district-wide: As Fred, 11, sat in the chair, the face of a Hippo MD doctor appeared on the iPad.

Hippo MD, named after the Hippocratic Oath for doctors, began testing telemedicine in early 2016 at John H. Still Elementary in the Meadowview area of south Sacramento. The company now serves about 3,000 students at five elementary schools, and both the district and the San Francisco-based company are working on a plan to expand the service across the Sacramento City Unified School District starting this fall.

It marks the first use of telemedicine among large school districts in Sacramento County. The idea, according to proponents, is to reduce chronic absenteeism among students in low-income neighborhoods who lack ready access to medical care.

Amaya Weiss, an executive community director for Sacramento City Unified, said the service means a student “can be linked to a doctor immediately, doesn’t have to work out transportation, doesn’t have to wait for an appointment, but rather is able to be seen and then is able to be sent back to class.”

The approach, however, has drawn the ire of school nurses. In March, all but one of the district’s 27 nurses signed a three-page protest itemizing their objections to the expansion and the use of non-medical personnel to assist with doctor visits.

The nurses complained the district had violated its labor contract by using district resources to advance the interests of a for-profit company. They also objected to using teachers as “sales people,” referring to $500 bonuses that John Still teachers received toward classroom supplies if they got consent for nearly all students to use Hippo MD. It is headed to arbitration.

Backers, however, say the service at John Still already has significantly reduced chronic Sacramento school district uses telemedicine to treat students | The Sacramento Bee:

Oh Say Can You See Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Oh Say Can You See Diane Ravitch's blog 

A site to discuss better education for all

Politico Education: More States Picking Up College Costs

by dianeravitch / 32min

Politico Morning Education reports that the movement to make community college tuition-freeis spreading. http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2017/05/19/states-picking-up-fight-for-free-college-220405 “STATES 

Bill Phillis: Betsy DeVos is Clueless about the Common Good

3by dianeravitch / 15min

Bill Phillis read Betsy DeVos’s prepared remarks at the Brookings Institution and it occurred to him that she literally doesn’t know what she is talking about. Bill is a retired deputy superintendent of schools for the state of Ohio and he works 

John Thompson: Demoralization in the Schools of Oklahoma and the Nation

by dianeravitch / 6min

John Thompson, historian and teacher, submitted this article: The Oklahoma City Public Schools is being clobbered by state budget cuts that could approach $50 million over two years. Anyone who doubts that money matters should take 

Anthony Cody: Activists Fight Corporate Media with Short Videos and Powerful Message

by dianeravitch / 4min

Anthony Cody, co-founder of the Network for Public Education and retired teacher, describes the day nearly three weeks ago when education activists from across the nation met in a grimy warehouse in Brooklyn to tape videos about the fight for better schools and against privatization. I posted a request on the blog inviting people to join the audience. Several readers asked if the day would be liv

Republican Health Insurance Bill Threatens Billions in Special Education Funding

5by dianeravitch / 1h

The legislation passed by the House of Representatives aims to cut Medicaid by $880 billion over ten years, and a relatively small but significant chunk of that money pays for special education services in schools. The new law would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over 10 years and impose a “per-capita cap” on funding for certain groups of people, such as children and the elderly — a

South Carolina: A Principal Resigns Rather than Lie to His Staff and Families

14by dianeravitch / 2h

This story appeared on the blog of Patrick Hayes’ EdFirstSC. In Charleston, South Carolina, Principal Jake Rambo was ordered to evaluate his teachers based solely on the test scores of their students. Not multiple measures. Standardized tests. He refused. He was told that he was being transferred to another school because of his school’s test scores. He said he didn’t want to leave his school. He

Cloaking Inequity: What NAEP Reveals About Charter Schools Vs. Public schools

9by dianeravitch / 3h

Julian Vasquez Heilig, a scholar at California State University in Sacramento, reports on a research project comparing the performance of charter schools to public schools, using state scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP is administered by the U.S. Department of Education and governed by a nonpartisan board appointed by the Secretary of Education. Since members

Bianca Tanis: New York’s New Standards Are Bad News for Young Children

6by dianeravitch / 3h

Bianca Tanis is a teacher of special education in a K-2 classroom in the Hudson Valley of New York. She is also a member of the board of NYSAPE (New York State Allies for Parents and Educators), the statewide group that has led the Opt Out movement. In this post , she excoriates New York’s new standards and says the New York State Education Department ignored the voices of early childhood educato

YESTERDAY

Great New Documentary–“Backpack Full of Cash”–is Finished and Ready for Screenings in Your Community

21by dianeravitch / 22h

Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow announce that their long-awaited film “Backpack Full of Cash” has been completed, and they are now taking it to film festivals and community screenings. This is the film that tells the story of the dangers of public school privatization and the undermining of public education in many districts. Dear BACKPACK Friends and Supporters, We want to share some good news. BA

Good News from Texas!

6by dianeravitch / 23h

The State Senate in Texas is still pushing vouchers, even though the last voucher bill was overwhelmingly defeated in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The senate, under the thumb of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (former rightwing talk show host), inserted a voucher program into a budget bill and sent it to the House. The Speaker of the House, Joe Straus, issued the following stateme

Peter Dreier: How Big Money Hijacked Democracy in Los Angeles

12by dianeravitch / 1d

Peter Dreier, a professor of political science at Occidental College, gives his political analysis of the Los Angeles school board election. He writes: [Nick] Melvoin and his billionaire backers dramatically outspent school board president Steve Zimmer’s campaign, making the District 4 race the most expensive in LAUSD history. Political pundits will spend the next few days and weeks analyzing the

Jennifer Berkshire: The Prophets of Privatization

15by dianeravitch / 1d

Jennifer Berkshire (the writer formerly known as EduShyster) is one of the best education writers on the national scene. In this article, she describes the evangelical roots of the present school-choice movement, as personified by Betsy DeVos. You will meet some very peculiar people who loathe “government schooling” and prefer to home school their children. Some will be familiar to you, like the

Peter Greene: The Tawdry Story Behind the Latest Florida Charter Scam

12by dianeravitch / 1d

I recently posted a story about Eagle Arts Academy Charter School in Palm Beach, Florida, which seemed to be in chaos. There was financial mismanagement, constant turnover, and multiple snafus. Peter Greene dug deeper and exposed the back story. He calls it “ Florida Charter Scam: Part 23,174.” He writes: “Gregory James Blount was a 40-ish-year-old former model and events producer who was working

Trump’s First Education Budget: Deep Cuts for Public Schools, Good News for Charters, School Choice

44by dianeravitch / 1d

Trump unveiled his first education budget , and it contains many cuts to popular programs in public schools. But it has a bonanza for private alternatives to public schools. The Washington Post obtained a draft copy of the new budget, which has not yet been submitted to Congress. Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds o

John Merrow: “The Canary in the Mine” and Test-Based Accountability

10by dianeravitch / 1d

John Merrow has been covering education for decades, most recently as education correspondent for the PBS Newshour, and he has learned quite a lot, most of which he puts into his forthcoming book, Addicted to Reform (out on 

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