We Will Wait

 

 

Betsy DeVos has revealed the way politicians work. In a recent interview with Education Week, the U.S. Secretary of Education said she is not giving up on her vouchers and school choice initiatives. Prior to becoming the Secretary of Education, she has worked tirelessly in Michigan to replace public school with private school vouchers and school choice. Ten years ago, Michigan schools were in the middle of the US for student achievement measures. Over the past ten years as DeVos has donated large sums of money that has resulted in large numbers of public school students using vouchers to attend the school of their choice, including charter schools, the data does not present a good picture for the achievement levels of students in these schools. Michigan students' now perform at the bottom of the rung in achievement measures of all the states. Mmmm....

 

 During the interview with Education Week, DeVos acknowledged that lawmakers in the Legislature and Senate declined to fund her school choice proposals, both Republicans and Democrats. As she continued her remarks, she said it was important for her school choice initiative to be presented "at the right time and under the right circumstances.  I've been at this work for a really long time. I'm impatient, but I also understand the necessity for patience and for the right dynamics to be developed. So what comes to my mind is a really good motto that a family advisor has shared with us at a regular interval, which is 'hasten slowly', and I think that's a really good phrase for me to keep in mind. The reality is that most of the momentum around this, and frankly most of the funding around it comes at the state level. More and more states are adopting programs that embrace a wide range of choices. And I expect that to continue apace."

 

 Choice is a pretty benign word and could have positive connotations. Let's recall the data around school choice. It got pretty ugly in those states where DeVos and her like-minded billionaires who fund school choice activities and donated money and influenced politicians. The public schools get decimated. Segregated schools become the norm. Overall student achievement declines.

 

 DeVos and others are coming for the community schools near you. Their rhetoric will be cloaked in positive words. The time will never be right in our Maine communities for the kind of destruction she promotes. There will never be the right circumstances for her and other billionaires to drive a wedge through Maine's public schools. We will listen carefully and stand by our publically elected local school boards, our local public schools. We will elect leaders who champion public schools.

 

We also need to support our public education advocates in other states. School choice advocates wait for the 'right time and the right circumstances' to act. We all now know. 



 

The Truth About Public Education

 

 

There are many untrue words spoken about public education in order to advance the privatization of our public schools and political agendas promoting so called 'public' charter schools and vouchers. Diane Ravitch is a relentless supporter of public schools and shares many REAL facts about education today. Here is a link which provides more truth about public education and begins the never ending need to expose the true money grabbing, segregation motives behind the charter school and voucher hacks. It is only the first of a series of eight videos, each one addressing reasons we should strongly support our public schools. As Diane Ravitch releases each one, I will post a link to them so the audience that hears the truth grows wider and wider. Once you listen to this first video, there are three other Related links to videos/interviews at the bottom of the page that are equally revealing about the history of the education privatization movement.

 

 

http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2017/09/8-powerful-voices-defense-education-diane-ravitch/

 

Where Does All the Money Go? Part 2

 

 

Many politicians argue too much money is spent on public education. Well, where does the money go? It goes to pay professional teachers and administrators a professional wage and benefits. By the way, teachers' salaries have lagged behind most other professional salaries in the last few years. Just saying....   Special education and other student support activities costs are a significant cost item for all public schools. Lights, heat and other costs to operate and maintain buildings and grounds in which to hold classes and other activities also cost money. Technology is becoming a huge cost factor in education just as it is in any other business. Transportation costs to safely carry students to and from school daily also consume a fair amount of money. Most towns and cities, in Maine at least, also carry debt payments on their buildings, which consume a large amount of money each year until that debt is paid.

 

Many have complained that school budgets contain money for things not needed. All of the above surely are needed to provide a comprehensive education to ALL children. In addition, state and federal mandates require school departments to allocate money to testing and other activities that create additional costs for school departments.

 

Did you realize that our government spends about $1 million a month to provide Betsy DeVos with police protection? That was the cost for ONE MONTH! Twelve million dollars a year would pay for many teachers, support staff and administrators in most schools in Maine. School departments that have been struggling to contain costs.

 

Why is it that this amount of money is allocated without blinking an eye, no questions asked? School boards go through hell each year at budget time justifying to the public every penny they asked for. In Maine, Governor LePage berates school boards and superintendents for spending too much money on things he disagrees with. Maybe Congress should grill the federal Education Department in the same way that local school boards get grilled for justification of that money.

 

"Non-Profit" Charter Schools

 

 

Does this sound right to you? Suppose a state allows charter schools but only those that are non-profit. This sounds OK. These schools attract students and the school receives tuition money for each student enrolled, just as public schools do. Teachers are usually paid less than public school teachers, many of them from Teach for America, so personnel costs are low. But suppose the state also reimburses, with public money, the charter school for annual lease reimbursements paid for their 'school' buildings in which they operate their school. Suppose further that the rental company to which a non-profit charter school pays these rental costs has no employees, perhaps run by a part-time consultant and volunteers. Suppose the rental company is owned by the same person who owns and operates the non-profit charter school. Can we imagine where this is headed? Yes, you are correct. The owner of the charter school, perhaps also owns other charter schools as well. This owner of several charter schools "pays" lease fees to the "rental company" for all of the charter schools s/he owns.

 

Wouldn't you say this owner is inappropriately benefitting from this type of arrangement? I would. This is exactly what happens in Pennsylvania (and other states) whose laws require charter schools to be non-profit. If you are interested, you can check out the details of School Facilities Development, Inc. which rents school buildings to Propel charter schools in Pennsylvania, both owned by the same person. Propel's 11 school building locations collect from the state about $3 million each year for lease payments then turns it over to the School Facilities Development, Inc. Public education money diverted to private individuals whose purpose is to make money.

 

So, maybe charter schools are really about real estate and money-making schemes and not about education? As Maine's experience with charter schools is just beginning, I hope our legislators take notice of what happens in other states. 

 

Where Other States Go, Let Maine Not Go

 

 

I follow education issues in most states across the nation. I do this because inevitably some politician or business person or lobbyist will offer that Maine needs some education idea that is or has been tried in other states. For example, earlier in my blog I have written that some policy and other initiatives that exist in New York has been or is being considered for Maine. The idea of regional administrative units that Governor LePage wanted and used as a bargaining chip in last year's budget is one of those examples. Wouldn't it be nice if we asked about the success (or failure) before we in Maine agreed to this.

 

 

The charter schools in New York have been in the news lately. It seems that the charter schools have had a high rate of teacher turnover and are having difficulty hiring enough certified teachers. The charter school solution to this has been to propose reducing the existing standards teachers have to meet in order to teach in a charter school. Even though New York charters have some very relaxed teacher standards currently. For example, their charter schools can hire uncertified teachers. One of their biggest source of uncertified teachers is to hire people from Teach For America. (New college graduates who are just beginning their working careers and want to 'make a difference'. Sorry, but the use of inexperienced college graduates is just a way to take advantage of them - they will work for peanuts; and it does a disservice to the students they teach who very often have high need for superior teaching and support services.)  Another source of uncertified personnel is tenured or tenure-track college faculty. (In New York one of the ways to begin a charter school is to gain approval through the State University of New York Charter Commission which oversees the charters they approve. Pretty nice deal.) And lastly, charter schools in New York can hire uncertified 'individuals who possess exceptional business, professional, artistic, athletic, or military experience."  It appears that even these exemptions aren't enough to keep 'teachers' who will accept low pay and questionable working conditions for any prolonged period of time. One of the tenets of good business practice is to invest in your employees - pay them good wages and benefits, treat them like professionals, and show them they are valuable to accomplishing the mission of the school. Well, the mission of many charter schools is primarily the bottom line - to produce a profit - not necessarily do what is necessary to promote the success of ALL students.

 

 

So, what was the response to the State University of New York Charter Commission's proposal to further lower standards for charter school teachers?  The Chair of New York Board of Regents, Betsy Rosa, opposed the proposal.  New York Education Commissioner, Maryellen Ella, opposed the proposal. Who else do we need to oppose the proposal before we understand that the way charter schools staff their schools is unacceptable? Using cheap, inexperienced labor to educate students does a disservice to the students and undervalues the professionalism needed in education today. I hope Maine citizens and politicians are watching.

 

Encouraging News - Unanimous Bipartisan Support for Public Education

 

 

Although many have been dismayed by the news coming from the DeVos Department of Education, today some encouraging news gives us reason for hope. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees health, education, and labor spending, rejected President Trump's (and DeVos') K-12 budget request. Budgets submitted by Trump had previously requested cuts in some areas of education spending and increases for new expanded private school choice initiatives. President Trump's overall education spending request included an overall $9.2 billion dollar reduction for the Education Department. And these funds would have been used in dramatically different ways seeking to drain money from maintaining a public education vision to diverting funds to private school choice programming.

 

Instead, the Senate appropriations subcommittee increased most areas and sought to bar the federal Education Department from moving forward with DeVos' priority school choice initiatives. The Senate subcommittee inserted language that specifically directs Betsy DeVos to obtain Congressional approval to use these funds to create a school choice initiative using the Title I funding they proposed. Also encouraging is that the House appropriations panel had similarly rejected a DeVos proposed school choice initiative in their budget bill they approved earlier this year. Let's hope that the House AND the Senate appropriations panels have sent a clear unambiguous message to the White House and the Education Department - that using federal funds to dismantle public education programs while boosting private school choice programming is unacceptable.

 

Programs aimed at teacher training and afterschool and summer programming that are vital to students from disadvantaged backgrounds have been supported by both Senate Democrats and Republicans who sit on the appropriations subcommittee.  That's good news - continued professional development for teachers is important to sustain high quality public education. And sustaining programs for students who need additional support to reach their potential is vital. Both President Trump and DeVos - please take notice.

 

 

 

 





 

Social Media and Schools

 

 

Last year I wrote about a controversy involving school board members strongly advocating for the school department to begin to use Facebook and Twitter for communication with parents and others. At that time I strongly opposed this use of social media. It wasn't long before those school board members had coerced school staff into launching the use of Facebook as an official school department communication tool. 'Follow us on Facebook' soon appeared on the school department website - just one click away. Advertisements around the borders of the school department Facebook soon followed. The ubiquitous "You May Also Like" sections appeared. Links to business websites soon appeared. 'Featured posts' also emerged. All this garbage simply detracts from the true educational mission of a public school department. Captive advertising. Nothing will convince me that the use of social media is compatible with educational institutions.

 

Here's another really good reason. The Washington Post has reported that Facebook officials have reported to Congressional investigators that it sold political ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign to a Russian troll farm who wanted to target American voters. Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos reported these paid advertisements and featured posts "were intended to sow discord among the American electorate by amplifying divisive social and political messages. These ranged from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights." All this was only discovered after the fact during a review conducted by Facebook of their ad buys, which Stamos reported violated their policies.

 

So, Facebook not only owns whatever is posted on Facebook and uses it however and whenever they desire, but they also have contributed to the alleged Russian influence of our democratic elections. So, what does Facebook do with all the information posted on a school's Facebook page?  Would you trust they use your information responsibly?