Privatization
School & District Management
Opinion
How do You Defeat an Army of Determined Educators? You Don't!
These schools are struggling - they are hamstrung by the relentless pressure to raise test scores, and the budget cuts that close libraries and cut essential student services. But we need a campaign to highlight the efforts being made every day by our determined army of educators. We are on the real front lines, in schools like Highland Academy in Oakland and the democratically controlled schools in Chicago, and a thousand other schools in communities across the country. The "reformers" have decided that we are the obstacles to their grand vision - the transformation of our schools using the miracle of the marketplace and the heavy club of high stakes tests. And we are, because we have an entirely different vision. We envision schools that are well-supported and connected to their communities. We envision schools where student learning is displayed and celebrated in all sorts of ways, not just through high stakes tests.
Budget & Finance
Opinion
Bad Teaching Practice #1: "I am Only Going to Teach Those Who Are Ready To Learn"
Have you ever heard this one? A number of times in my career, I heard teachers, usually new ones, it must be said, announce in frustration that they were sick and tired of dealing with the kids who were disrupting class, and that from that point forward, they were going to forget about the "ones who aren't ready to learn," and put their energy into those who are. I even had a teacher tell me she set up her seating chart and put the "bad" kids in the back. There are a number of reasons this is a bad practice.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
What Next for K-12 Schools Post-Election?
When disaster strikes (like Sandy) we don't expect the police to volunteer their time, nor the firemen, nor doctors and nurses—although no doubt many do go above and beyond their obligations. But we do expect teachers to make up for the impact of poverty and austerity politics on schoolchildren.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Are Education "Reformers" Becoming Privatizers?
Will they continue to support special exemptions that allow Teach For America novices to be considered "highly qualified teachers"? Will they support the expansion of charter schools and the use of the deceptive "parent trigger" even as they increase segregation and leave the toughest to teach students behind? Will they support the expansion of sham virtual schools like K12 Inc even as they divert public funds to clearly inferior alternatives?
Budget & Finance
Opinion
Kids Mean Money
A for-profit company has succeeded in maneuvering the Cabarrus County, NC school board to create an online Charter School. This is also happening in Pennsylvania and other parts of the county where corporations are taking public dollars to make profits using unsuccessful methods.
Budget & Finance
Opinion
Mayors Support "Parent Tricker" Law
So, two years after passage of the parent trigger law in California, here are the results. Three other states have passed similar laws: Connecticut, Mississippi, and Texas. Not a single school in California or anywhere else has been turned into a charter.
School & District Management
Opinion
Privatizing Public Education in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia has had state control of its public schools for a full decade. Now the leaders of the city think that public education is the problem.
States
Opinion
What You Need To Know About ALEC
Dear Deborah,
Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of job protections and collective bargaining rights. Even some Democratic governors, seeing the strong rightward drift of our politics, have jumped on the right-wing bandwagon, seeking to remove any protection for academic freedom from public school teachers.
Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of job protections and collective bargaining rights. Even some Democratic governors, seeing the strong rightward drift of our politics, have jumped on the right-wing bandwagon, seeking to remove any protection for academic freedom from public school teachers.
School & District Management
Opinion
I Don't Understand Michelle Rhee
Does she really think that students will learn more if their teachers live in fear? How can she feel good about leading a campaign to turn public education into a for-profit enterprise and reduce teaching to a job, not a profession.
States
Opinion
Bobby Jindal vs. Public Education
Why are the elites of both parties so eager to hand children and public dollars over to private corporations? Why are both parties complicit in the dismantling of public education?
Budget & Finance
Opinion
Two Golden Opportunities Lost in the 1990s?
Like No Child Left Behind, the Soviet state set goals for everyone to meet—or else. Since they were unmeetable goals, it produced a culture of lies and cover-ups and a climate of fear. Does that sound familiar?
Policy & Politics
Opinion
The Phantom Menace
When it comes to the question of for-profits and American education, there's often more hysteria than analysis. Just this weekend, the New York Times published an extensive, shall we say, selectively sourced attack of for-profit venture K12 Inc. piling atop a similar piece a few weeks back by the Washington Post and other "the profiteers are coming!" exercises in The Nation and elsewhere. To engage in a bit of poetic license, when they look at for-profits, these journalists (and the experts that they quote) see Darth Vader.
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
Billionaires for Education Reform
Today, the question of democracy looms large as we see increasing efforts to privatize the control of public schools. There is an even more worrisome and allied trend, and that is the growing influence of money in education politics at the state and local levels.