|
||||||||||||||||
ISSUESRELATED STORIESAlan J. Borsuk Scrutiny heightens in voucher programState kicks out school, probes 3 others in new show of enforcement State Department of Public Instruction officials are questioning whether academic programs at three schools in Milwaukee's groundbreaking voucher program meet minimum standards set by state law to be considered schools.
The Daily Howler On PBS, Hedrick Smith gets an F...we’re working on last week’s two-hour PBS special, Making Schools Work, about public schools which have success while serving low-income minority kids. According to moderator Hedrick Smith, one such school is Charlotte’s Spaugh Middle School. But uh-oh! This past spring, only 57.7 percent of Spaugh’s black eighth graders passed North Carolina’s end-of-grade reading test; statewide, 80.5 percent of black eighth graders passed! Nor were things better on the seventh grade level. At Spaugh, 58.2 percent of black seventh graders passed, compared to 76.2 percent of black kids statewide. Statewide, 92.3 of white seventh graders passed (94.3 percent of white eighth graders). Needless to say, these facts weren’t mentioned in Making Schools Work. To check data using the official North Carolina state report, you know what to do—just click here.
Beth Silver Charter school owners found guilty of fraudMinneapolis couple diverted money from Right Step Academy A federal grand jury Monday convicted the onetime owners of a former St. Paul charter school on charges they defrauded the school to pay for vacations, luxury cars and private homes.
Reed Hundt A true story about Bill BennettWhen I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Also see:
Rick Klein Rebuilding plan paving way for conservative goalsRepublican lawmakers in Congress have tried repeatedly in recent years to allow children to use federally funded vouchers to attend private schools. They have been defeated seven times since 1998.
Mike Mosedale Q: What Happens When You Run a [Charter] School Like a Business? A: You Go Broke.The students learned how to sit in cubicles and write memos. The staff learned how to ask for a bailout. At a time when public schools all over the state have been under siege, the Minnesota Business Academy (MBA) has enjoyed a valuable perk: vocal support from some of the state's most prominent corporations, business people, and politicians. Also see:
Alan J. Borsuk Religious schools are a top choiceExpansion of vouchers has resulted in unprecedented level of public funding of religious education Three sentences bring home one of the most significant impacts of Milwaukee's groundbreaking private school voucher program: One: On doors throughout St. Margaret Mary School, at N. 92nd St. and Capitol Drive, there are small printed signs that say: "Be it known to all who enter here that Christ is the reason for this school." Two: More than 10,000 students - over two-thirds of the total using publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools in Milwaukee this year - were attending religious schools. Three: Wisconsin is putting money into religious schools in Milwaukee in ways and amounts that are without match in at least the last century of American history.
Jennifer Coleman Audit Finds Charter School Misspent MillionsC. Steven Cox ran what was the state’s largest charter school network, enrolling thousands of students at dozens of campuses, but investigators say he routinely looted millions from the public schools to enrich his friends and family, leading to the schools' collapse last summer, according to a state audit.
New York Times Second Report Shows Charter School Students Not Performing as Well as Other StudentsA federal Education Department analysis of test scores from 2003 shows that children in charter schools generally did not perform as well on exams as those in regular public schools. The analysis, released Wednesday, largely confirms an earlier report on the same statistics by the American Federation of Teachers.
Village Voice Educate YourselfA grim conspiracy theory, starting with the destruction of public education. Before the Bush regime destroys public education, you'd better hit the books.
American Prospect Schoolhouse SchlockConservatives hold research on charter schools to a new, low standard
New York Times Collapse of 60 Charter Schools Leaves Californians ScramblingAfter last month's disintegration of the California Charter Academy, parents are still looking for alternate schools and many teachers are looking for jobs.
New York Times Nation's Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores RevealThe first national comparison of test scores among children in charter schools and regular public schools shows charter school students often doing worse than comparable students in regular public schools. Also see:NY Times Editorial: Bad News On The Charter Front
New York Times Court Says States Need Not Finance Divinity Studies"... decisive rejection of the proposition that a government that subsidizes a secular activity must necessarily ... subsidize the comparable religious activity as well." [MT EDITOR'S NOTE: This ruling declares that states cannot be forced to fund religious education - which I guess is some sort of achievement today] The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states that subsidize secular study at the college level may withhold the scholarships from students preparing for the ministry.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Public School Voucher funds used to buy 2 MercedesThe principal of the troubled Mandella School of Science and Math used proceeds from state voucher payments last October to buy two Mercedes-Benz cars for about $65,000.
Washington Post Va. Seeks To Leave Bush Law BehindRepublicans Fight School Mandates The Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates sharply criticized President Bush's signature education program Friday, calling the No Child Left Behind Act an unfunded mandate that threatens to undermine the state's own efforts to improve students' performance.
Jewish ADL Your attempt to expropriate civil rights slogans in support of vouchers for private and religious schools is offensive and wrong...Far from "a lifeline" for D.C. students, this first federal voucher program in the nation will instead promote discrimination, since private schools are allowed to discriminate in the selection of their students and employees on a variety of grounds, including religion.
Black Commentator Bush's Phony "Grassroots" Voucher "Movement"School Funds Diverted to Subvert Public Education
People for the American Way Funding a MovementAnalysis of U.S. Department of Education Grantmaking Reveals Steady Stream of Public Funds to Support School Privatization
Jerry Parks / Commentary No Illusion Left BehindI'm a recently retired Iowa elementary school principal, and I can't figure out why educators all over the United States aren't screaming and yelling about the federal No Child Left Behind law. ...Is it possible this bill is an elaborate setup, designed by those hoping to usher in an era of vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to public education?
New York Times The 'Zero Dropout' Miracle: Alas! Alack! A Texas Tall TaleROBERT KIMBALL, an assistant principal at Sharpstown High School, sat smack in the middle of the "Texas miracle." His poor, mostly minority high school of 1,650 students had a freshman class of 1,000 that dwindled to fewer than 300 students by senior year. And yet — and this is the miracle — not one dropout to report! Also see:The Myth of the Texas Miracle in Education
Washington Post A Growing Marketing Strategy: Get 'Em While They're YoungFirms Sponsor School Activities and Books ...The two classes from Arnold Elementary School in Arnold, Md., were on a field trip, 10 minutes from school, visiting a local Petco that was already as familiar to the students as McDonald's..."
Education Section A Pupil Held Back, a Heavier BurdenFor the first time, Florida third graders must pass a reading test or be held back, and earlier this month Gov. Jeb Bush announced that 23 percent -- 43,000 -- had flunked...hundreds of studies in the last two decades have concluded that holding children back has no long-term academic benefit..."It would be difficult to find another educational practice on which the research findings are so unequivocally negative."
Rob Levine, guest columnist Goal of school choice movement is to break up unionsIn "With school choice, every child can win" (March 1), the Heritage Foundation's Jennifer Garrett fails to mention that the real goals of the school choice movement are the breakup of one of the last two unionized sectors of U.S. society: public primary and secondary education, and the conversion to private profit of some of the $300 billion spent in the U.S. each year on public primary and secondary education...
Alex Molnar The Case Against School Vouchers"...You'd think that the entire Catholic school system had been beatified when you listen to the voucher debate..."
For some sanity on school research:Center for the Study of Commercialism in Education Arizona State University The Hidden Costs of Channel One. Although it is described as a "free service," scholars' analysis shows that for practical purposes Channel One is heavily subsidized by taxpayers
US Supreme Court Lemon v. Kurtzman, U.S. Supreme Court in 1971Sets up three part standard: "First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances or inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster and excessive government Entanglem
|
ISSUE: Public School Privatization and CommercializationPublic School Privatization and CommercializationThe conservative movement, being thoroughly anti-union, has at its heart a desire to rid the United States of the two remaining unionized sectors of the national economy: Public Education (teachers unions), and Public Employees. In service of these goals, the movement has moved aggressively against both public schools and public school teachers. Real-world politics nor facts have any sway in the conservative's attacks on public schools. Recent reports by the federal government (2006) that charter and private school students do academically worse than students at regular public schools, plus rejection of voucher schemes by voters in Michigan and California have left privatization proponents unfazed, while voucher programs continue to grow in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida. Of course, the movement is also interested in converting to private profit the estimated $500+ billion annually spent on public primary and secondary education.
Rob Levine 'Case' for vouchers ignores many factsJohn Brandl (Opinion Exchange, Oct. 17) is wrong when he states that there are few "principled objections" remaining to giving poor kids the choice to attend private schools. Here are a few "principled" objections: Michael Winerip One Secret to Better Test Scores: Make State Reading Tests EasierPARENTS are delighted when state test scores go up...Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has repeatedly cited the rise in the city's 2005 fourth-grade test results as proof that his school programs are a success... Alan J. Borsuk and Sarah Carr 15 Years in, Milwaukee's Voucher experiment lacks accountability, excels in religious educationThe amount of taxpayer money going to pay for religious education in Milwaukee has no parallel in the last century of American life. About 70% of the students in the program attend religious schools. ... If any single factor distinguishes the families and parents at the choice schools from those in [public schools], it is religion. Students in the choice program pray together in class. They read the Bible, the Qur'an or the Torah. They attend Mass. Based on firsthand observations...at least 10 of the 106 schools... appeared to lack the ability, resources, knowledge or will to offer children even a mediocre education...Nine other schools would not allow reporters to observe their work... [Editor's note: that means that almost 17 percent of voucher schools- NOT including those that have already gone out of business - are complete failures in Milwaukee!!] New York Times Charter Schools Fall Short in Public Schools MatchupA new study commissioned by the Department of Education, which compares the achievement of students in charter schools with those attending traditional public schools in five states, has concluded that the charter schools were less likely to meet state performance standards. Michael T. Martin Public Schools Trounce Vouchers in ClevelandA major study of the Cleveland Voucher program shows that public school students outperformed voucher students attending private schools in Math, Reading and Language from kindergarten through third grade even though the public school students were substantially less affluent, substantially more minority, and private schools lost their lowest performing students over time. The "Evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program 1998-2001" by the Indiana Center for Evaluation, released in March, 2003, followed students over the four years from Kindergarten through Third Grade. Students were tested by the researchers at the beginning of first grade and then at the end of first, second and third grade... ...The study shows (see data sheet) that students attending private schools on vouchers had consistently worse educational achievement gains in Mathematics, Reading and Language than students who attended public schools. In all but one case, the voucher students showed lower gains in achievement in all three subjects than students who stayed in public schools. The one case where this was not true was when students attended kindergarten on vouchers but returned to public schools for first through third grade. Black Commentator Vouchers: The Right's Final Answer to BrownToday's Voucher advocates openly advocate for defunding of urban public schoolsBritt Robson Built to FailThe federal No Child Left Behind law is threatening to wreck public education in Minnesota and elsewhereThat's what it was designed to do. ..."We have 7,200 kids in our district. The reality is, if just a few kids in a certain subgroup don't show up for the test, the whole district can be classified as failing and put under restriction," he [Edina, Minnesota School Superintendent Dr. Ken Dragseth] says. "That's just asinine. I tell this to parents and they say it can't be so, but it is. I'm an old math teacher and statistician, and I know when I've been had." Mark Kleiman The Washington Post defends No Child Left BehindJay Matthews in the Washington Post tries to defend the No Child Left Behind Act from what Matthews calls "a host of myths and misinterpretations" by examining "10 statements about the law that experts say are heard often but are not firmly anchored in reality." ABC News's The Note finds Matthew's piece "highly informative." I have no idea why. It seems to me a masterpiece of illogic. ...Now I wish I could feel absolutely certain that the publication of this story, written largely (though not entirely) in defense of a bill that is showering dollars on the testing and test-preparation industry had nothing to do with the fact that the Washington Post's parent company now also owns Kaplan Educational Systems, which advertises "effective, research-based programs to help schools raise K-12 state assessment scores, improve graduation rates and demonstrate the adequate yearly progress required by No Child Left Behind." (Note: Kaplan now has larger revenues than any other division of the company: higher, for example, than the Post itself.) In the spirit of standardized testing, let's try a little fill-in-the blanks: For the Post to publish a story blatantly illogical story with a slant that favors a sister company is a _______ of ________. Associated Press Charter schools fail to match public schools on testsLANSING, Mich. (AP) — Six companies responsible for teaching 17,000 Michigan's charter school students fail to produce test scores that match even low-scoring traditional public schools, records show. The companies manage about $123.7 million in tax money each year. The low- performing companies include three of the biggest for- profit charter school managers in the state, The Detroit News said Sunday. They are Mosaica Foundation, The Leona Group and Charter School Administration Services. Together, they manage schools with more than a quarter of the 63,000 students in charter schools in the state. The other three are Alpha-Omega Education Management, Black Star Education Management and CAN Associates, which have one school each. The students at these schools often fall far below minimum standards in reading, writing and math, state education records show. The companies' schools also spend a smaller share of their budgets in the classroom than others. St. Petersburg Times State fund buys school operatorIf the deal stands, the fund that provides for pensions of Florida public school teachers will own a company [Edison] that privatizes school managementFlorida's state pension fund is investing $174-million in a controversial for-profit school management company. Through one of its money managers, Liberty Partners, the pension fund has agreed to buy out the shareholders of Edison Schools Inc., taking the New York company private. In effect, the fund that provides for the retirement pensions of Florida teachers and other public employees will own a company that has played a leading role in privatizing school management. Josh Marshall comments: So, you start a company to privatize education and take on the teachers unions. Your company fails miserably both in terms of the market and academic success. Then after you've hollowed the company out to cover your other bad debts friendly pols come along to bail you out with a couple hundred million from the teachers' (and other public employees') pension fund. I love symmetry. Editorial In D.C., Taxation Without RepresentationThe 500,000 people who live in Washington, D.C., are accustomed to being humiliated by Congress, which dictates everything from how the city spends its tax dollars to how it collects the garbage — while denying Washingtonians a vote in the body that runs their affairs. This arrangement becomes painfully obvious at election time, when Republicans typically grandstand for the far right by ramming outrageous proposals down the throats of the city's overwhelmingly Democratic voters. ...Congress is trying to force the city to send about 1,300 public school children to private, mainly parochial, schools at public expense over the objections of the school board and a majority of the city's elected officials, including Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's nonvoting representative in the House. ...This proposal is antidemocratic, but its faults run deeper. It further erodes the wall between church and state by pushing children toward parochial schools, which make up a vast majority of Washington schools. Private school tuition would be covered by the proposed stipend of up to $7,500. This new federal money is likely to drive out the private money that Washingtonians have been raising for children trying to move into private schools. Black Commentator Thieves in the nightOUTRAGOUS: Did FOX News conspire with House Republicans to draw voucher opponents away from Washington, DC to sneak through a House vote on vouchers for Washington D.C., which passed by one vote?On the evening of September 9, House GOP leadership staged a surprise vote on H.R. 2765. Forty miles away, the Congressional Black Caucus was co- sponsoring with Fox TV a Democratic presidential candidates debate. Despite furious efforts by DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and House Democratic leadership, the voucher bill passed by one vote. In addition to candidates Dennis Kucinich and Dick Gephardt, eight other Democrats failed to make it back to the House floor to cast their votes against vouchers, including Congressional Black Caucus members Elijah Cummings (MD), Harold Ford (TN), Charles Rangel (NY) and Edolphus Towns (NY). Republicans rebuffed requests from Democratic leadership and the Black Caucus to reschedule the vote (Rep. Cummings is Caucus Chairman), and the bill goes to the Senate for the final battle, later this month. There, key Democrat Diane Feinstein (D-CA), a 30-year opponent of vouchers for her state or the public schools in general, has decided to make an exception in the case of mostly Black Washington, DC. “If we look at what works for children,” Feinstein told the September 4 Washington Post, “we would probably agree that different models have to be provided, because what works for one child may not necessarily work for another." Translation: Vouchers are bad policy for white kids, but hell, let’s experiment on the Black children. ...The $10 million DC voucher program will only “benefit” 1,300 students, but that is not the point. Polls show that the people of DC overwhelmingly oppose vouchers (85 percent, among Black residents), as does a majority of the school board and city council but, that is not the point, either. With tens of millions in public and private dollars at their disposal and the endorsement of the “liberal” Washington Post (liberal in the same sense as Feinstein), the Right is determined to create its private school showcase in the nation’s capital in order to soften opposition in the rest of the country. David Rosnick Child’s Play? The Bush Administration’s Misuse of DataIn effort to denigrate US public education, Bush administration propaganda overstates the federal role in education funding, and understates real educational attainment by US studentsThe Department of Education’s homepage prominently features a graph that appears to show a vast increase in federal spending on education over the last thirty five years, but no improvement whatsoever in student test scores. (http://www.ed.gov/) (Figure 1). The message seems clear. (Figure 1: http://www.ed.gov/images/title-one.jpg) However, Figure 1 does not give an entirely accurate representation of the situation for several reasons. A better representation of the data might look like Figure 2 below. There are several important differences between the two graphs. * The generally accepted way to judge growth in expenditures is measured on an inflation-adjusted, per-capita basis. Whereas Figure 1 shows nominal growth in total federal expenditures, Figure 2 shows total K-12 expenditures adjusted both for inflation and for the number of students enrolled in K-12 schools... * Figure 1 leads the viewer to believe that federal education appropriations are especially important for children’s achievement. However, these federal appropriations to elementary and secondary schools accounted for only 3.5% of all K-12 expenditures in 1999. Figure 2 shows all K-12 spending. * Figure 1 provides little information as to what the test scores are measuring and whether this is the only measure of student achievement. The choice of scale is also misleading: 500 is the highest possible score, but it is placed near the bottom of the graph, making it seem low. In 1999, 90% of nine-year-olds scored between 173.4 and 285.4 on the reading test, but this is not evident from Figure 1. Figure 2 scales the test from scores of 208 (“Basic” 4th grade understanding) through 238 (“Proficient”) to 268 (“Advanced”). ...From the standpoint of showing returns for increases spending, it is worth noting that private schools have not performed better. As seen in Figure 3 below, from 1970 to 2001, nonpublic school expenditures per K-12 student have grown at a 3.8% annual rate, compared to only 3.1% for public schools. However, the NAEP data from 1980 to 1999 indicates that average reading scores in nonpublic schools have not changed significantly, dropping one point over that time. Figure 2 actually understates the improvement in scores made by minorities. In 1999, 68 percent of nine-year old Hispanics scored at least 200 on the mathematics NAEP exam, compared to only 54 percent in 1978. For African-American students, the difference is even greater: the percent of students scoring at least 200 rose from 42 percent in 1978 up to 63 in 1999. Fortunately, all the necessary information is available to the public. From enrollment and expenditure data in the Statistical Abstract of the United States 2002 and test score data available at the National Center for Education Statistics an informative graphic may be produced. USA Today Teachers union plans lawsuit over federal fundsThe nation's largest teachers union plans to sue the federal government on behalf of states, school districts and teachers to amend or throw out President Bush's far-reaching education lawIn its strongest stance yet against the No Child Left Behind law, the National Education Association said Wednesday that schools can't be forced to pay for the law's extensive testing, tutoring and transfer requirements. "We're prepared to take the criticism," said Robert Chanin, NEA general counsel. "We're going after this law." Education Section What Some Much-Noted Data Really Showed About Vouchers...In the midst of the Bush-Gore presidential race...Paul E. Peterson released a study saying that school vouchers significantly improved test scores of black children... The Harvard professor appeared on CNN and "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." Conservative editorial writers and columnists, including William Safire of The Times, cited the Peterson study as proof that vouchers were the answer for poor blacks, that Al Gore (a voucher opponent) was out of touch with his black Democratic constituency and that George W. Bush had it right. "The facts are clear and persuasive: school vouchers work," The Boston Herald editorialized on Aug. 30, 2000. "If candidates looked at facts, this one would be a no-brainer for Gore." [But]...a Princeton economist...recently concluded [using Peterson's data] that Peterson had it all wrong — that not even the black students using vouchers had made any test gains...It is scary how many prominent thinkers in this nation of 290 million were ready to make new policy from a single study that appears to have gone from meaningful to meaningless... Trojan Horse Watch Bush Administration Funds Black Voucher Front GroupYour Tax Dollars pay for Propaganda BlitzThe Bush Administration is directly funding a media campaign by the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) [which is part of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University], the school vouchers propaganda outfit created by the far-right Bradley Foundation. The blatant political nature of the gift could not be plainer. "We want to change the conversation about parental choice by positively influencing individuals who are resisting parental choice options and get them to reconsider their outlook," said Undersecretary of Education Gene Hickok, announcing a $600,000 grant to the BAEO.. Also see:
Bill Berkowitz Learning The Hard Way There Is No Profit In Public EducationFor 10 years, Christopher Whittle's Edison Schools Inc. has been hyped by right-wing think tanks and privatization advocates as the poster child for the transformation of America's public schools. These days, the controversial for-profit company is dealing with a plummeting stock price, a crumbling bottom line and charges it is cooking the books on its financials and test scores.. Nat Hentoff Your Taxes for Church Schools?Will God Set the Curriculum?...In a crucially important First Amendment case, The Supreme Court will soon decide whether the constitutional separation of church and state will be largely dismantled. The case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, concerns an Ohio program in which $2250 in public tax money is given in the form of vouchers, called "scholarships," to mainly low-income Cleveland families—many of them black—to remove their children from failing public schools and put them in private schools, including religious schools. In the case before the Supreme Court, 99.4 percent of the children using these vouchers are going to religious schools...At issue is the First Amendment's command in the Establishment Clause that "there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion." ...the Supreme Court will decide whether the Cleveland voucher plan—and others in place or planned around the country—advance religion and also entangle government with religion. The Court will also rule on whether there is no violation of the Establishment Clause if the voucher money does not go directly to the religious schools but is paid to the parents, who then make a free and independent choice to use that money for a private religious school. On February 20, oral arguments were held before the Supreme Court. The Bush-Ashcroft administration, which firmly supports the Cleveland voucher program, sent its top gun, Solicitor General [Ted] Olson, to defend it. He has often, and effectively, argued before the Court. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked Olson whether the voucher program makes "any effort to make sure that the money that ends up in the parochial schools is not used for religious training." "No," Olson said. But he quickly added that the government is not "putting its thumb on the scales in favor of religion" because the parents make a "genuinely independent private choice." Had I been arguing for the other side that day, I would have shown the Court this stern advice to parents who want to use vouchers from a Lutheran school in Cleveland: "It is highly inconsistent for any parents to send a child to this school if they . . . are not living a Christian life or willing to learn how to lead such a life [and] are not supporting part of a Congregation through worship and sharing of time and talents." Jews, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics need not apply to this school, however "genuinely independent" their choice to send their kids, with public money, to a religious school... ...The vote in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris will, in all likelihood, be 5-4, with Sandra Day O'Connor deciding whether to tear down much of what remains of that wall separating church and state. To be continued. Gerald Bracey Why Do We Scapegoat The Schools?There's no pleasing some people, even when they get what they want. So why do we keep listening to them?For almost 20 years now...prominent business leaders and politicians have sounded the same alarm about the nation's public schools. It began with the 1983 golden treasury of selected, spun and distorted education statistics, "A Nation At Risk," whose authors wrote, "If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system..." The document tightly yoked our economic position in the world to how well or poorly students bubbled in answer sheets on standardized tests... ...So you might think that these Chicken Littles would be firing up their fax machines and e-mailing everywhere to report the following hot news from the World Economic Forum's "Global Competitiveness Report, 2001-2002": The United States ranks second in the organization's Current Competitiveness Index, trailing only Finland... ...But the naysayers haven't trumpeted the CCI ranking...Schools often take the hit for bad turns of events, but somehow never get the credit for upturns...In 1969, America put a man on the moon, a destination that the Russians -- with their allegedly superior scientists -- never reached. Did a magazine declare an end to the "crisis" in education? Do pigs fly? ...I've been following the angst over our competitive capabilities since the 1983 report, and I've noticed the same pattern. In the early 1990s, as the economy tanked and a recession set in, many variations of "lousy - schools -are - producing - a - lousy - workforce -and - it's - killing - us - in - the - global - marketplace" could be heard. But these slackers somehow managed to turn things around: By early 1994, many publications featured banner headlines about the recovery that later became the longest sustained period of growth in the nation's history... Well, if the schools took the rap when the economy went south, surely they would be praised when the economy boomed, right? Hardly. A mere three months after the Times story appeared, IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner Jr., wrote an op-ed for for the Times headlined "Our Schools Are Failing." They are failing, said Gerstner, because they are not producing students who can compete with their international peers. The bashers have kept up their drumbeat. Intel CEO Craig R. Barrett, Texas Instruments CEO Thomas Engibous, State Farm Insurance CEO Edward Rust and then-Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson all took to the nation's op-ed pages in 2000 and 2001 to lament the threat that our education system poses to our competitiveness... ...None of these fine gentlemen provided any data on the relationship between the economy's health and the performance of schools. Our long economic boom suggests there isn't one -- or that our schools are better than the critics claim. .. Education Policy Research Unit The Market in Theory Meets the Market in Practice: The Case of Edison SchoolsA new comprehensive look at Edison Schools, Inc., by Gerald Bracey at Arizona State University paints a disturbing picture of the for-profit manager of public schools. In short, "No other project...illustrates so clearly the difference between the theory of market operations and the cold water of reality in schools [nor] contrasts so sharply the gap between the demands of the bottom line inherent in for-profit Education Management Organizations and their avowed desire to help American public education." Bracey persuasively argues that Edison is a master of obfuscation, mystifying straightforward things like how many schools it operates, or how the students at those schools are doing, which turns out to be not so well. Further - there is little if any innovation going on at Edison Schools, where standard curricula are being used, and in some cases teachers are actually handed scripts to teach from! These policies have caused mass resignations among teachers at public schools where Edison has taken over. Also see:NY Times: Cleveland Case Poses New Test for Vouchers Dennis Redovich Nobel Prizes Show U.S. Science Education Is World’s BestDisputes conservatives' contention about the quality of US Public Education by Dennis RedovichAccording to an analysis of Nobel prizes awarded in science over the past century, the United States leads the world in technology and in the quality of its scientists. According to an analysis of Nobel prizes awarded in science over the past century, the United States leads the world in technology and in the quality of its scientists. Paradoxically, the general news media, and the experts it chooses to quote, frequently state the following two seemingly mutually exclusive ideas about the US educational system: 1. American elementary and secondary education is not competitive with and on average is below the level of education in other countries, particularly in science and mathematics. 2. The quality of American colleges and universities is generally considered to be exalted in the world of postsecondary education. How could both of these statements be correct? The answer is: they aren't. The first statement is absolute nonsense and the second is absolutely true. New York Times In New York City barbarians Edison turned back at the gateAs Bid to Privatize Schools Ends, Supporters Second-Guess Effort...local Democratic politicians rained scorn on a Board of Education proposal to allow a private company, Edison Schools, to manage five troubled public schools... The speakers evoked the wounds of past discrimination, of the board's neglect of their schools, of the divisive decentralization battles of the 1960's, and of programs imposed by a Republican mayor and central school board that are deeply mistrusted in many of the affected communities... Edison representatives and board officials listened in shock... The opposition to Edison... was vigorous and highly organized. Opponents believed they faced a corporate beachhead into the domain they had shaped over decades. Publicly, they said schoolchildren were being reduced to dollar signs, while privately they feared an erosion of their power throughout the school system. Mother Jones Privatization of Education Will Benefit Big Bush Donors...Just as brokers stand to benefit from privatizing Social Security, some of Bush's largest donors would profit from turning education over to the marketplace.Two of the largest backers of Edison Schools, the nation's largest private manager of public schools, contributed heavily to the Republicans. John Childs (No. 17), a Boston financier, gave $670,000, and Donald Fisher (No. 184), chairman of the Gap, gave $260,800, all but $62,800 to the GOP. Investors in Advantage Schools, one of Edison's chief competitors, also backed the GOP. John Hennessy (No. 362), whose Credit Suisse First Boston has pumped $19 million into Advantage, took a lead fundraising role for Bush and contributed $164,000 of his own money to the Republicans. John Doerr (No. 55, $477,500) and Kevin Compton of the Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which has invested in Advantage, also ventured into politics. Compton gave $143,000 to Republicans, while Doerr supported Gore, who promoted a charter school plan of his own... Washington Post Vouchers Suffer Electoral BlowIn a public rebuke of the unprecedented funding that both conseravative philanthropies and fabulously wealthy individuals have made to push the policy of public school privatization upon the nation, voters in California and Michigan delivered a stern, anti-voucher message on Tuesday. The issue itself might now be dead, except for the conservative money and apparat fighting against public school teacher unions Washington Post School Choice FallaciesRecently a full-page ad appeared in the New York Times sponsored by something called the Campaign for America's Children, which made it appear that public education in this country is a wreck. The solution, according to the group, is greater parental choice. "Every year we pump more money into our public education system, and every year the system gets worse," the ad says. Several things are wrong with this story.... It's simply not true that funding for public schools has been steadily rising while schools get steadily worse. It's a slander to say that 90 percent of our kids (those who don't attend private schools) are "trapped in a failing system." MediaTransparency.org Is it research or propaganda?Conservative Professor Paul Peterson's work on school voucher programs raises serious ethical issuesSpending public money for private primary and secondary schools is a hot issue today. Conservatives argue vouchers will provide a better education for minority and inner city children, in particular. But what does the science actually say? In a close examination of the research used by conservatives to bolster these claims, Media Transparency has found gross violations of scientific principles including lack of peer review, statistical chicanery, and pure advocacy.
|
RELATED STORIESJonathan Weisman and Amit R. Paley Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush's Prized 'No Child' ActMore than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates.
Nick Coleman (columnist) Center of American Experiment and Mpls Councilman stealthily trying to kill public educationSamuels fans flames of public school bonfire Don Samuels has apologized for his words, but not his views. And he isn't likely to. For the Fifth Ward City Council member from Minneapolis who suggested burning down North High School is not just one man with an opinion.
DonByrd The School Voucher Drum Beats OnSchool voucher programs usher in a mind-boggling practical achievement. They take the answer that is public education and scramble it into 3 new problems: forcing the state to improperly promote religion by funding religious schools with taxpayer money, draining the public school system of much-needed resources, and bridling the religious freedom of church institutions with the inevitable strings of government funding. They're bad for the state, bad for children's education, and bad for the church. And yet...
Nick Coleman Mpls City Councilman said 72 percent of Blacks in city don't graduate High School; In fact, 72 percent DO graduate[Councilman] Samuels says 72 percent of African-American boys in the Minneapolis schools are failing...Nope. Not true. Not even close
Nick Coleman Minneapolis Councilman whose wife works for BAEO calls for public High School to be burned downBurn it.
Leo Casey New York Charter School Association, Completely Bought and Paid ForThe story here, like that in all too much of American public life, is one of the corrupting power of money and the undue influence of those with large amounts of it. Three significant, rather flush entities of the anti-union, far right wing — the Walton Family Foundation of Wal-Mart fame, a network of foundations and corporations connected to the corporate raider and junk bond dealer Carl Icahn, and a network of foundations and corporations connected to ultra-conservative Richard Gilder — give massive amounts of money to NYCSA, to allied organizations and to their political campaigns. [Closely connected to Gilder in his charter school advocacy and political work is the Hickory Foundation of Virginia Manheimer, Gilder’s former wife.]
Peter Yost Court Rejects Maine School Vouchers CaseThe Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up the issue of school choice in Maine, where a state law bars the use of public funds to send students to private religious schools...
Theola Labbe Board Seeks to Give Away Its Oversight of ChartersThe D.C. Board of Education voted yesterday to voluntarily give up its power to establish charter schools in the District. The decision does not immediately relieve the board of its charter responsibilities, but it sends a clear message to the D.C. Council and Congress -- two entities likely to get involved in the debate -- that the 11-member board wants to focus exclusively on the 58,000 students in the traditional school system.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush's family valuesDespite a record of past scams and other controversial business deals, Neil Bush is now benefiting directly from President's Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and his father's international network Two years ago, when Neil Bush and his mother, the former first lady Barbara Bush, were featured guests at a $1,000-a-table fundraiser for the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City, proceeds from the event were specifically earmarked for the purchase of products from Neil's company, Ignite! Learning. Late last year, when Neil's mom agreed to make a contribution to a Hurricane Katrina relief foundation for those victims that had relocated to Texas, she stipulated that her donation had to be used by local schools to acquire Ignite products.
Thomas J. Mertz FallacyMany of you probably read John Stossel’s polemic in the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal (9/3/06). I’d reprint here, but I don’t want to give it a wider readership than it already has. Instead I want to say few words about a central fallacy in the thinking of Stossel (and many others who wish to destroy public education). Contrary to their rhetoric, PUBLIC EDUCATION IS NOT A MONOPOLY.
Doug Belden Charter school director charged with theft, fraudLeader of now-shuttered Chiron accused of using money for gifts The director of a Minneapolis charter school that closed last year was charged Friday with defrauding the state of nearly $300,000 and using school money to buy personal items such as Christmas presents for her daughter.
Diana Jean Schemo Study of Test Scores Finds Charter Schools LaggingFourth graders in traditional public schools did significantly better in reading and math than comparable children attending charter schools, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Federal Education Department.
Theola Labbé Charter School Closures Strand D.C. StudentsLess than two weeks before the first day of school, dozens of District parents are scrambling to find a school for their children after two popular charter schools closed this summer.
Kevin Franck Cutting Through Right-Wing Spin on Public EducationWhen the Going Gets Tough, Privatization Proponents Get Paul Peterson ...A senior research fellow at the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, an organization that advocates publicly funded vouchers, implied that anyone who believes public schools perform better than private schools might be on drugs. Right-wing education scholar Chester Finn claimed that coverage of the study said more about the media than the state of public education...
Sam Dillon Most States Fail Demands in Education LawMost states failed to meet federal requirements that all teachers be “highly qualified” in core teaching fields and that state programs for testing students be up to standards by the end of the past school year, according to the federal government.
Diana Jean Schemo Republicans Propose National School Voucher ProgramWith Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joining them in a show of support, Congressional Republicans proposed Tuesday to spend $100 million on vouchers for low-income students in chronically failing public schools around the country to attend private and religious schools.
Diana Jean Schemo Public Schools Beat Private Ones in StudyThe Education Department reported on Friday that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private school counterparts fared better.
Bill Berkowitz "God's Sugar Daddy"School voucher proponent James Leininger has spent millions trying to buy political power in Texas While the philanthropic community has been abuzz about recent reports that billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the world's second wealthiest man, will be giving a large part of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a less well-known Texas billionaire, James Leininger, has allocated his millions for different purposes: He's dedicated a large chunk of money to insuring that the religious right maintains its dominance over the Texas political landscape.
James Walsh Business Charter School created by US Sen. Norm Coleman, funded by Wal-Mart, closesThe Minnesota Business Academy, a fledgling charter school in St Paul is closing its doors. The school was created by Norm Coleman, Bill Cooper, and other Minnesota business leaders. It was partially funded with grants from the Walton Family (Wal-Mart) Foundation. Also see:Previously in City Pages: Q: What Happens When You Run a School Like a Business? A: You Go Broke.
Bruce Wilson Public Schools Outperform Private Ones, Conservative Christian Schools Rank Last Among PrivatesIn "The Manufactured Crisis: "Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools" Dr. David Berliner and Bruce Biddle argued that ongoing criticism of America's public schools is baseless and partisan. [ read review of book in Christian Ethics Today ]. A new study released January 2006, funded by the US Department of Education, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana rebuts claims on the alleged low performance of public schools [ click here for PDF of full report ]
Nathan Newman The Rightwing's War on the Public SchoolsIt's no secret that one of the top priorities for the rightwing movement has been privatization of public education through vouchers and tax credits. But the raw fact is that the public has consistently rejected their initiatives when they've come to a vote-- every time the voters have faced ballot initiatives on the issue, they have overwhelmingly rejected them by a cumulative 68% to 32% margin in the 12 ballot initiatives from 1970 to 2000.
Doug Belden Stormy end for charter schoolNew Voyage Academy had financial, staffing problems A St. Paul charter school plagued by management and financial problems was dissolved Friday, leaving about 50 children without a school.
Nora Carr '65-percent solution' to school funding seeks to advance a partisan political agendaThere's a well-financed effort underway in states around the country to pass legislation that would overhaul school funding. The so-called "65-percent solution" aims to have 65 cents of every school dollar spent directly in the classroom. But as many online news sites and education blogs have exposed, this "solution" is no more than a slick campaign to advance a partisan political agenda during an election year...
Dan Wascoe Test-scoring company reports another set of mishandled resultsThe firm had trouble with Minnesota tests in 2000, causing false reports of student math-score failures A testing company whose scoring errors caused problems for thousands of Minnesota students in 2000 is facing new questions from a different kind of scoring problem.
Jason Szep Harvard study blasts Bush education policyPresident George W. Bush's signature education policy has in some cases benefited white middle-class children over blacks and other minorities in poorer regions, a Harvard University study showed on Tuesday.
DIANA JEAN SCHEMO Public-School Students Score Well in Math in Large-Scale Government StudyA large-scale government-financed study has concluded that when it comes to math, students in regular public schools do as well as or significantly better than comparable students in private schools.
Miriam Raftery and Larisa Alexandrovna Norquist protege's push for charter school privatization plan in Southern California worries educatorsRon Nehring, protege of conservative strategist Grover Norquist, Vice-Chairman of the California Republican Party and former colleague of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has introduced a proposal to convert all east San Diego County schools in the Grossmont Union High School District into charter schools, RAW STORY has learned.
Carolyn Light Bell Minneapolis schools are worn to a threadTry teaching in the secondary schools for a day and facing the problems and lack of resources ...Too many kids flood the classroom. Too few adults can address their social and emotional needs. Academic needs are lost. Those who are ready and willing are outnumbered and outshouted. Every day there are new students, looking fresh, hopeful and scared. After one day, their eyes glaze over and their faces turn sad...Our system of public education, once a source of great pride, is naked in the cold.
the cucking stool School vouchers redux . . .Vouchers violate Minnesota constitution two ways ...What was especially interesting...is that the Florida Supreme Court said the voucher plan was such a stinker under the uniform public schools requirement of the Florida Constitution that it didn’t even need to address the religious establishment issue.
Associated Press Florida Court Says School Voucher System UnconstitutionalThe Florida Supreme Court struck down the voucher system that allowed some children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense, saying Thursday that it violates the state constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public schools.
Nathan Newman Union Busting at NYC Charter SchoolsOne reason unions are more successful in pubic sector organizing is that governments generally refrain from the union busting tactics of the private sectors. Teachers and other public employees have the chance to vote on whether to unionize without the illegal threats and management intimidation that is the staple of private sector organizing campaigns. Also see:
|
||||||||||||||
