Monday, July 6, 2015
I have to ask: Are the Old Boys down at M.J.Sentinel shitting their pants right now?
Plenty of facebook commenters and at least two bloggers have proposed that the JFC’s attack on WI open records law is actually a set-up to eventually make Walker look the hero. As in, they think that the “dirty dozen” on the Joint Finance Committee conspired to nuke open records law with the budget add-on called more »
Ohio: Time to End Charter Corruption!
Bill Phillis is a watchdog for Ohio public schools. He is a man of great integrity who cares passionately about fair and equitable funding of the schools. He was Deputy State Superintendent many years ago and is now a fighting octogenarian, with no goal but the public interest. He created and leads the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy.
Here is his reaction to the collapse of charter school reform a few days ago:
“An initiative petition for a law or a constitutional amendment will be necessary to hold the charter industry accountable or phase it out
“High hopes were dashed by the refusal of House leadership to schedule HB 2 for a vote on June 30th. Democrats and Republicans, charter proponents and charter opponents were in support of HB 2 as amended by the Senate. Had the bill been scheduled it would most likely have passed; hence House leadership kept it off the House floor.
“This lack of House action on HB 2 demonstrates the absolute legislative control the for-profit sector of the charter school industry has on charter policy in Ohio. It matters not that the industry is laced with fraud, corruption and education malpractice. It matters not that Ohio is the butt of jokes regarding its deregulated, injudicious charter policy. Maybe Senate leadership permitted the Senate amendments with a nod from the House that the bill as amended would not pass in House. Who knows?
“When will Ohio taxpayers rise up to demand accountability of their legislators and the Governor? Until state officials are held accountable, charters will extract a billion dollars annually from school districts. Much of this money flows to for-profit management companies which is used for campaign contributions, cozy business arrangements, marketing and of course, PROFITS. When one thinks Statehouse turpitude can’t get worse, it does. Citizens must rectify this matter by by-passing the legislature and Governor with an initiative petition.”
William Phillis
Ohio E & A
ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net |
Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215
Ohio: The One Reform That Is Forbidden
This past year, there were numerous reports of scandals, arrests, and convictions of charter operators in Ohio. There seemed to be real hope to enact legislation that would hold charter schools accountable and make their finances transparent. But that died in the closing hours of the legislative session.
Why?
Charter operators wrote the charter law. They give millions of dollars in campaign contributions to key legislators. The Speaker of the House took a free trip to Turkey, thanks to the Turkish Gulen charter chain.
Charters don’t want to be regulated. They don’t want to be accountable or transparent. The leading charter operators receive hundreds of millions from taxpayers each year, even though most of their schools are rated as low-performing by the state.
In this post, Denis Smith explains the inner workings of the charter industry, which he calls “the dark side.” Smith worked in the State Department of Education, in the office intended to oversee charter schools.
He writes:
“At a national charter school conference in Indianapolis several years ago, two attendees saw my registration badge at a reception and approached me. “Ohio, huh? So you’re from the Wild, Wild West!”
“They, of course, were talking about a state that allows two charter school operators to direct several million dollars in GOP campaign donations during the last decade in return for favorable treatment (read: weak oversight) and the receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars from state funds. Finance types and Wharton School profs would marvel about such a robust return on investment.
“They were also talking about a state that does not require charter school board members to be American citizens and doesn’t have a problem with non-citizens serving on charter boards, and where one of the members of the House Education Committee advocates burdensome Voter ID requirements for citizens trying to vote.”
Ohio has an excellent website called “KnowYourCharter.” It was not created by the State Education Department, but by independent groups using official data. The charter sector has some of the state’s lowest performing schools and is far behind the state’s public schools. But don’t expect Givernor Kasich and the current legislature to hold them accountable.
Accountability is only for public schools.
Birthday Freebies! (July Birthdays)
Happy Birthday to those with a birthday in July!! Make sure to enjoy those birthday freebies! Check out my list of Birthday freebies!
Some Tips:
1. Check expiration dates on birthday deals-some you must use on your birthday and some you have the entire month to use!
2. Use a separate e-mail account for coupons, free sample requests and birthday deals
Why the “Reformers” Will Lose
In response to Gary Rubinstein’s post about “the three stooges of reform,” reader “Chris in Florida” sent this comment:
From the article:
“Then the panel gets underway and three times I hear a new catch-phrase three times[sic]. In terms of accountability, schools that are not measuring up and teachers who are not getting the test scores they should will “lose the privilege of educating kids.” Such a nice way to say ‘get shut down’ or ‘get fired.’”
So now they are going to make our profession a ‘privilege’ instead of a job that one studies for, earns a degree in, attempts and receives certification in, and then applies for teaching jobs and gets hired to teach. BS.
This harkens back to the days when schools were run by unmarried women in poverty, religious brothers and sisters with vows of poverty, and men with families who lived in poverty because of the low wages for teachers.
Deep at the heart of this reform movement is a deep hatred of women, teachers, unions, independent thinkers, the middle class, people of color, the poor, and anything that threatens the old status quo of powerful, rich, racist old white men controlling everything. It is part and parcel of the culture wars and will be fought under that context. They are losing their grip and are squeezing ever tighter.
The ship is about to sink but they cling and insist that all is fine. I am beginning to understand that there is no way they can achieve a lasting victory here with this pathetic war against teacher, students, schools, and hippies.
I may be very old or dead when their final defeat is achieved but it will come.
Corporate Reformers Descend on Detroit to Pick Over the Ruins
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for Detroit, here come the stars of the corporate reform movement with advice to do more of what Detroit has been doing without success.
More than half the students are in charter schools, but Detroit doesn’t have enough, it seems. The lowest-performing schools were dumped into the woebegone “Education Achievement Authority,” under an emergency manager with dictatorial powers, but that didn’t go anywhere.
If Detroit can’t get its school problems solved, it won’t be for lack of quality advice from national education experts.
As city and state leaders seek to figure out how best to salvage Detroit Public Schools and improve performance across a complex network of school choices, top school reformers from around the country want a piece of the action, too.
Last week, Michael Petrilli, CEO of the D.C.-based Fordham Institute, and Eric Chan, a partner at the Charter School Growth Fund, were a few of the latest to drop in on Detroit. Excellent Schools Detroit, which is helping lead the conversation locally about improving all city schools, invited them to town to discuss how best to create the right environment for quality charter school growth.
The more insights, the merrier. Other cities have undergone major school turnarounds, and there are consistent guidelines for success. When asked what Detroit needs to do to start showing results for kids, Petrilli and Chan echoed similar ideas.
“Deal with low-performing schools, and encourage high-performers,” says Petrilli, whose organization works to raise the quality of U.S. schools. “There are concrete things we can do.”
The examples of success offered by Petrilli and Chan: New Orleans, the District of Columbia, and Memphis. Privatization is the answer. Neither Petrilli nor Chan has an idea about how to improve public education. Just privatize it. Get rid of it. Bring in high-quality “seats.”
Readers of this blog have read again and again that most charter schools in New Orleans are rated D or F schools by the state of Louisiana; D.C. continues to be one of the lowest performing districts in the nation, as judged by the NAEP; and Memphis is home to the all-charter Achievement School District, whose founder Chris Barbic promised would produce a dramatic turnaround in only five years. That turnaround has not happened. Not in New Orleans, D.C., or Memphis.
Surely there must be better examples of success for corporate reform. Or are there?
Your attention please, Independence Day-celebrating Wisconsinites. Still LOTS of alarming BS in that last minute add-on to the WI budget.
Wisconsin’s Governor has released yet another Orwellian decree. It asserts that despite the fact that a radical stripping of open records law was tucked into Thursday’s “motion 999″ that the changes were “never intended to inhibit transparent gov’t in any way“. That’s special. Let’s assume I can pretend that Scott Walker and associated Republican legislators more »
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