Since St. Louis gets many of its ideas, both good and bad, from Chicago, we can expect that a similar strategy is being deployed here. It does appear that here in St. Louis, public schools continue to be discussed as targets for potential closing in some neighborhoods, while charter school advocates continue to push opening of new schools, many of which will be even smaller than the schools to be closed.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Chicago: Planning to close schools, while opening charters
From the Chicago Tribune: Read first, CPS insists there is no school-closings list, but then check out "Document shows Emanuel administration had detailed school closing plans and meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools pushes ahead with plans for more charter schools.
Since St. Louis gets many of its ideas, both good and bad, from Chicago, we can expect that a similar strategy is being deployed here. It does appear that here in St. Louis, public schools continue to be discussed as targets for potential closing in some neighborhoods, while charter school advocates continue to push opening of new schools, many of which will be even smaller than the schools to be closed.
And to understand more, we could read the entire document, but the Chicago Tribune, which has long backed the top-down reform model, has not released it in its entirety.
Since St. Louis gets many of its ideas, both good and bad, from Chicago, we can expect that a similar strategy is being deployed here. It does appear that here in St. Louis, public schools continue to be discussed as targets for potential closing in some neighborhoods, while charter school advocates continue to push opening of new schools, many of which will be even smaller than the schools to be closed.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sandy Hook Tragedy: Read to Break Your Heart (Again), Diane Ravitch
On the dust-up between Diane Ravitch and a number of 'reformists' over her comments on Sandy Hook's heroic teachers:
As Jerzey Jazzman reports, TFA Vice President for Insights and Digital Media David Rosenberg attacked Diane Ravitch for her post on the Hero Teachers of Newtown, calling it "reprehensible." This personal attack may shed some light on the increasingly defensive posture of TFA and similar organizations (more than on Ravitch's post, which simply pointed out that these were union teachers doing what union teachers do), since Jerzey Jazzman concludes that Ravitch (again) gets this one right. Here's to the teachers, children, and families, of Newtown.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/17/the-hero-teachers-of-newtown/
As Jerzey Jazzman reports, TFA Vice President for Insights and Digital Media David Rosenberg attacked Diane Ravitch for her post on the Hero Teachers of Newtown, calling it "reprehensible." This personal attack may shed some light on the increasingly defensive posture of TFA and similar organizations (more than on Ravitch's post, which simply pointed out that these were union teachers doing what union teachers do), since Jerzey Jazzman concludes that Ravitch (again) gets this one right. Here's to the teachers, children, and families, of Newtown.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/12/17/the-hero-teachers-of-newtown/
Thursday, December 13, 2012
More on TFA: Wendy Kopp Inflating Statistics, What's the Big Deal?
On Huffington Post, TFA founder and "CEO" Wendy Kopp stated that TFA corps members usually spend an average of 8 years teaching (which even if true would not mean that TFA is anything like a solution to our nation's education issues). This sparked an empirically minded inquiry from EdWeek blogger Anthony Cody and a detailed analysis (and critique) of TFA's agenda by plthomasEdD at the Daily Kos. Definitely worth reading.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Report on Charters and Special Needs Kids
Charter Schools Do Indeed Systematically Under-Enroll Students with Special Needs, According to New Review of CRPE Report
From the NEPC: http://nepc.colorado.edu/
Reference Publication:
Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Bruce Baker, (732) 932-7496, ext. 8232, bruce.baker@gse.rutgers.edu
Bruce Baker, (732) 932-7496, ext. 8232, bruce.baker@gse.rutgers.edu
URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/b7hqavn
BOULDER, CO (December 6, 2012) – Several recent reports, including one from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have found that charter schools generally under-enroll special education students when compared to conventional public schools. A new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, however, asserts that charter schools’ special education rates are much closer to those of district public schools than is described by these other recent reports.
A review of that new report concludes that, even though it was touted as reaching different conclusions – more favorable to charter schools – than past research, in fact the results are very much consistent. It confirms that charter schools are systematically under-enrolling students with special needs. READ MORE
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Rethinking TIFs: Corporate Handouts or Development Tool?
As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price
By LOUISE STORY
New York Times
"....Yet across the country, companies have been doing just that. And the giveaways are adding up to a gigantic bill for taxpayers.
A Times investigation has examined and tallied thousands of local incentives granted nationwide and has found that states, counties and cities are giving up more than $80 billion each year to companies. The beneficiaries come from virtually every corner of the corporate world, encompassing oil and coal conglomerates, technology and entertainment companies, banks and big-box retail chains.....
The cost of the awards is certainly far higher. A full accounting, The Times discovered, is not possible because the incentives are granted by thousands of government agencies and officials, and many do not know the value of all their awards. Nor do they know if the money was worth it because they rarely track how many jobs are created"
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Learning from the Global South: Support for Public Education in El Salvador
Allen Hines, at Upside Down World
US-El Salvador: Threats to Privatize Education Meet International Resistance
An excerpt:
READ MORE
US-El Salvador: Threats to Privatize Education Meet International Resistance
An excerpt:
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Karen Rice: Lays out the Truth to the Chicago City Club (Business Leaders)
Speaking to the moneyed people who think they have all the answers about education reform. Can the truth penetrate hubris?
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
More on Rex Sinquefield, in the WSJ, lunch with Karl Rove
Meet One of the Super-PAC Men
His name isn't Adelson or Koch, but he's spending millions on politics, hoping to roll back taxes and reform education.
By NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY (WALL STREET JOURNAL, OCTOBER 26, 2012)
Liberals who suspect that wealthy businessmen and political masterminds are colluding to hijack democracy might have fainted had they walked into the St. Regis hotel's lobby restaurant in New York the other day. There was Rex Sinquefield, a deep-pocketed St. Louis, Mo., native and big-time political donor, sitting across from the Republican Rasputin himself, Karl Rove. The not-so-vast right-wing conspiracy in plain public view.
Mr. Sinquefield, an index-fund pioneer, has not drawn the fear and loathing that liberals devote to the billionaire Koch brothers and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Oh, Bloomberg News referred to him as "a new American oligarch," and the New York Times recently painted an ominous portrait of him as "perhaps the most influential private citizen in the state." But no one has picketed his home, Mr. Sinquefield says, or harassed his guests. At least not yet.
He is nonetheless one of the nation's biggest conservative donors in a political year when they are much in the spotlight. So it seems like a good moment to meet one of these princes of alleged darkness in person and see the conspiracy from the inside. It turns out the inside looks a lot like it does from the outside. At age 67, Rex Sinquefield is a successful businessman and conservative who is passionate about his country and wants to turn its policies in a more prosperous direction. He'll even spend lots of his own money to do it. READ MORE
Monday, November 5, 2012
SEEKING SWF: Teaching jobs in reformist apparatus trending white (edushyster.com)
From Edushyster.com:
Single White Female
October 30, 2012 9:07 pm
"Chicago is not the only place where Education Reform, Inc. is quickly reshaping the teaching force into one that is fresher and more innovative younger and whiter. In urban areas across the country, middle-aged, middle class African American teachers are being pushed out to make room for the flavor of the day: vanilla."
READ MORE...
From: edushyster2012
http://edushyster.com/
Friday, November 2, 2012
On the History of Education Apartheid and Black Struggle in Chicago
http://www.workingclassheroes.me/?p=1931
Educational apartheid in Chicago and the black teachers revolt of the 1960′s
Bob Simpson is a Social Media/Writer at Webtrax Studio, Studied Urban Education at Catholic University of America, and is a regular blogger at “The Bobbosphere.
”Black teachers did fight hard in Chicago, a city with a violent racial history that included a dangerously repressive political machine and screaming white supremacist mobs. Confronting Chicago’s educational apartheid policies also meant risking one’s career, no small thing, especially for those to whom that teaching position represented the first time a family member had graduated from college and emerged from Jim Crow enforced poverty. READ MORE
Monday, October 29, 2012
Thinking about Applying for TFA? Read This "Teach for America’s Deep Bench"
Teach for America’s Deep Bench
James Cersonsky, American Prospect
An excerpt below, about the underlying paradox of TFA - pushing directly and indirectly toward privatization of schools, and its alumni now involved in political campaigns pushing those agendas locally and nationally, while it also happens to be in part publicly-funded. (It is of course also super-funded by corporate donors and foundations). Should publicly-funded entities be pushing policies that seek to erode public education? Any political accountability or oversight from the public?
James Cersonsky, American Prospect
An excerpt below, about the underlying paradox of TFA - pushing directly and indirectly toward privatization of schools, and its alumni now involved in political campaigns pushing those agendas locally and nationally, while it also happens to be in part publicly-funded. (It is of course also super-funded by corporate donors and foundations). Should publicly-funded entities be pushing policies that seek to erode public education? Any political accountability or oversight from the public?
.....Because it counts on federal grants and local contracts—in sum, $43 million in 2011—TFA has to be involved in some amount of political advocacy. LEE voiced indirect opposition to TFA skeptic and Wendy Kopp persona non grata Linda Darling-Hammond when she was being considered as Obama’s Secretary of Education. In the case of Kira Orange-Jones, TFA’s executive director in Louisiana who was recently elected to the board that oversees New Orleans’ Recovery School District and approves TFA’s contract, TFA is in a position to influence its own contract from both sides.
LEE adds a new dimension to TFA’s growing empire. A selective crowd of high-achieving college graduates is primed to take over the leadership of America’s schools. This summer’s elections for Nashville’s school board, which featured a race between TFA alums, could be a preview of intra-family rivalries to come. (The winner, Elissa Kim, is TFA’s chief admissions officer and garnered near-record donations for her campaign.) And while LEE may be policy-neutral, it isn’t hard to imagine the massive proliferation of Michelle Rhees and, in turn, the entrenchment of education reform geared toward money-soaked charter expansion, “new unionism,” and test-based student achievement. In other words, what began—and is still viewed by many—as an apolitical service corps could be the Trojan horse of the privatization of public education.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Chicago: Knowles of U of C UEI talks of reform, labor, and the strike
Is there a way to support corporate school 'reform,' public schools, and the rights of teachers as professionals?
Read the transcript here.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Louisiana: Big Money At Work in State School Board Elections
What is it about public schools that is now attracting so much money from conservative donors? There are similar patterns in Missouri, at least at the local level, and at least before elections were done away with.
Why Do Some of America's Wealthiest Individuals Have Fingers in Louisiana's Education System? Matthew Cunningham-Cook October 17, 2012
"Last fall, a coterie of extremely wealthy billionaires, among them New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned the races for unpaid positions on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) into some of the most expensive in the state’s history. Seven pro-education “reform” candidates for the BESE outraised eight candidates endorsed by the teacher’s unions by $2,386,768 to $199,878, a ratio of nearly twelve to one. In just one of these races, the executive director of Teach for America Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta, Kira Orange Jones, outspent attorney Louella Givens, who was endorsed by the state’s main teacher’s unions, by more than thirty-four to one: $472,382 to $13,815." READ MORE....
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