Who Wins - No One





     In March I wrote about a controversy brewing in Brunswick. Brunswick had acquired a parcel of land on the ocean for nonpayment of taxes. Along with several town councilors, a vocal group of citizens monopolized the public comment period during many town council meetings insisting that the land should be retained and owned by the town and made into a public waterfront park. The town council spent many hours hearing from town residents; received many written comments/emails from town residents. A group of citizens gathered signatures on a (on-line) petition 'requesting' the council to put the decision out to citizen referendum. 'Request' is an understatement. Their voices grew louder and more insistent. The newspaper articles grew nastier. In the end, the council voted to put the property up for sale. The citizen group sued the town saying the town council did not follow municipal law and should have heeded their petition request for a referendum.

This group was very sure that a court would agree with their position, ie. that the town council vote to sell the land not only did not follow municipal law, but their action had a 'chilling effect on the citizen right to petition their government.'

This week the court ruled in favor of the town. Sometimes elected officials have hard decisions to make that don't necessarily please the constituents who elect them. Sometimes constituents make hard decisions harder. No one really won in this case. There was a lot of animosity surrounding this issue and has further divided this town. The same animosity has existed with the school board. Hard decisions have had to be made. The townspeople are further divided. 

Charter Schools, Vouchers, Scholarships



"Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have."  HG Wells

"Education is for improving the lives of others and leaving your community and the world better than you found it."  Marion Wright Edelman

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."  Nelson Mandela

"Whenever people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." Thomas Jefferson

     These are quotes from people from different times and circumstances. Their messages echo through time and place and inform the present. Our public education system is being systematically dismantled, here is Maine and across the United States. Let us all know that there are businessmen and women systematically chipping away at the public institution created to benefit EVERYONE; created to help EVERYONE reach their highest potential; created to promote our democratic way of life for EVERYONE.

Politicians are helping drain what precious few dollars are left from supporting public education, sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly (I will give some the benefit of the doubt). Here is an example:

-The Maine Legislature approves the operation of charter schools in Maine. The Maine Charter School Commission is created and political appointments are made to this body to approve and monitor charter schools in Maine. Two of those charter schools are Maine Virtual Academy and Maine Connections Academy, another virtual school.

The most recent evaluation/review of the Maine Virtual Academy is summarized on the Maine Charter School Commission website as:

1. Meets Contract agreement for: recurrent enrollment from year to year; financial performance & sustainability (although I noted they are in process for arranging for an audit so this lacks independent verification); governance board performance; adequacy of facilities maintenance (which is an office suite used by faculty for online learning delivery); and transportation (it is hard to determine what exactly the determinants of success are - MeVA reports having no costs for student transportation, ..... but there were field trips..... mmmm);
2. Partially meets Contract agreement for: Student Academic Proficiency; Student Academic Growth; Addressing Achievement Gaps between major student subgroups; post-secondary readiness; school social and academic climate; parent & community engagement (as an online school, it would be interesting to know what 'community' this school is going to engage?).  Arguably, these are the most important success indicators of a school and peppered throughout the report is that MEVA 'did not collect this data'. Why? All other public schools are required to. One of the last recommendations in this report is "increase attention to special eduction enrollment and the provision of FAPE for students with disabilities."
3. Does not meet Contract agreement: Student attendance. Maine's public school average daily attendance is 94%. MeVA average daily attendance rate is 85.6%. This likely affects the student academic proficiency and growth indicators. The last recommendation in the report is "address systemic truancy issues with particular attention to students with disabilities."

While the oversight of the Maine Charter School Commission is positive, the performance of this online charter school mirrors that of others in other states. Part of the application and review process to operate in Maine includes providing evidence of readiness and willingness to operate according to Maine law. It appears to me that the Maine Charter School Commission granted permission to an entity that either was not prepared to comply with Maine law the first day of operation or it was unwilling to comply with the law as it opened its doors to students and families. Why else would this school not collect the very data that is required to determine their level of compliance/success?

The most recent review of the Maine Connections Academy is also summarized on the Maine Charter School Commission website:

This charter school meets all of its contract agreements with the exceptions of:
1. Student Academic Proficiency is noted 'unknown due to unavailable state test scores'. This is no fault of Maine Connections Academy.
(My editorial: All public schools had to wait until spring to receive this state achievement test score data, making the use of the data useless for that school year. Why did most public school children spend upwards of 6-7 hours completing a test whose results would not be available for most of the following school year? My view: millions of taxpayer dollars wasted when these same dollars could have been spent on activities at the local level that could have directly positively improved children's educational experience during that year school spent waiting for the data from the state.)
2. Student Academic Growth in both reading and math is noted as decreased (as measured by the LEAP, a federal achievement test) from the previous year.
3. Student Attendance contract agreement is partially met.  Daily average attendance did not meet the state average daily attendance rate.There are three other interesting target goals, which were met, in addition to meeting the average daily attendance rate.  They include a 'retention rate of 70% of students during the school year (they don't want students dropping out during the school year),  a 50% re-enrollment of eligible students from one year to the next, and a continuous enrollment of students for multiple years. These are not only for the benefit of students, but it is for the bottom line profit margin, too. One might ask: is a 30% drop-out rate during the school year acceptable? Is a 50% drop-out (or 'not invited back') rate acceptable? This is the real eye opener - even though this virtual academy met most of their performance targets. Nationwide, this is the pattern with virtual schools resulting in less and less student diversity enrolled.

Recently, the entire Little Rock, Arkansas school district was taken over by the state. The elected board was removed. In swooped the Walton family (yes, the Walton family who owns Walmart) to buy Little Rock Garland School. The school will likely be converted to a charter school. Walmart donates millions to Teach for America. Charter schools then cozy up with Teach for America and use new inexperienced graduates who will work for much lower wages to staff  charter schools. Considering that most regular public school teachers are on probation and mentored for 2-3 years to prove, and continuously improve, their skills, these Teach for America pre-professional staff only stay for a few years in the charter schools and then move on. There is no union to support them. There is a never ending supply of cheap (inexperienced!) labor for charter schools. Where does the money saved go - a lot of it goes into 'owners' wallets as 'profit'. Taxpayer, public monies siphoned away from the public school to 'follow the child' to the school of their choice. Then the 'profits' of the charter school go into the pockets of private businessmen, who donate millions to political efforts to continue the drain on the real public schools and resulting strain on taxpayers.

Chicago public schools are in similar disarray, being closed and converted to charter schools with the same financial consequences. Arkansas and Chicago schools are but a tiny fraction of public schools across our country experiencing this hostile takeover. Mississippi has more students attending charter schools than regular public schools. Maine can learn many preventative lessons from the stories from other states. 

Let us all be well informed about charter schools, in Maine and across the US. Let us all know the truth about charter schools. Let us all learn about the charter school movements in other states. Let us "all spread the information as far and wide as our circumstances allow." We will then know what to look for and guard against in Maine charter schools, current and those to come in the future.


Next up: The hot topic: school vouchers; 'scholarships' created using public/taxpayer dollars and other political moves to drain away money from public schools.

I Hate to be a "I Told You So", But.....

     Here we are in the beginning of a new fiscal year and the end of another contentious state budget process. What was accomplished during this budget development process? The Governor and both Republicans and Democrats claimed they were held hostage (via a state shutdown that no one wanted) by the 'other side'. Winners and losers. That's the way our society views success now. Pitiful.

     In an Oct. 29, 2016 post, I expressed my doubt about the success of the then pending vote on Referendum Question #2 which would levy a surtax on the wealthiest Mainers and dedicate the use of that money to public education, specifically money to be allocated to direct classroom instruction. To be clear, I supported, and still do, the notion that public education should be adequately funded.  The PICUS report, which I detailed in that October post, concluded that Maine underfunds public education by millions of dollars. Further, Maine citizens passed a previous referendum calling for the state to fund 55% of public education. I questioned whether passing another referendum would make any difference since future legislatures and governors can choose to ignore voters' wishes when developing the budget.

     So here we are in July of 2017, eight months after Maine voters supported Referendum Question 2. And after the current legislature voted to again ignore the will of the voters regarding funding of public education. Governor LePage offered a draconian education budget in which he simply would not fund ANY system administration costs statewide. Luckily, there were a majority of both Republicans and Democrats who recognized that fatally flawed plan and worked to restore some of the funding public schools need to operate. However, many school districts' budgets were reduced. And the 55% state funding of education costs? Not yet. The surtax on wealthy Mainers which would have been dedicated to classroom needs? Ignored. Many school departments statewide have had to year after year make difficult choices about what to fund and not fund in their schools. Many towns/cities held their breath while developing a budget with no idea of the amount of state funding coming their way, causing great conflict between local property taxpayers; pitting those who could afford to pay more property tax against those who truly couldn't afford rising taxes. Turmoil at the state level. Turmoil at the local city/town level. Turmoil within the schools when parents and kids realize a program, a service, an extracurricular option has been defunded or eliminated.

     Please tell me who was really held hostage during this legislative session?  Governing by referendum is not ideal. Governing with the ideology that taxes should be done away with is not conducive to promoting the 'common good', which public education is an example of. Everyone benefits from public education. And everyone loses when public education is further eroded.

    

 

 

Stability

  

 

Recent news accounts reporting the deportation of a respected coffee farmer illustrates the hardship some children face in public schools. This adult farmer had been brought to the US by his parents from Mexico when he was a child. In the interim, he married and had two children. He built a respected coffee farming business in Hawaii. He has been cooperating with immigration officials and  waiting for 10 years for his citizenship paperwork to make its way through our court system. There is no reported evidence that he has committed any crimes while in the US. But his time in the US has come to an end, he involuntarily left for Mexico and his family has been torn apart. Why? How will his children fare during this time of separation? When will they be able to see their father in person again? He is not allowed back in the country for 10 years. This just seems cruel.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's travel ban can be applied very narrowly, but also the justices ruled that people with close ties will be allowed in this country. Doesn't this send a message about immigrants already in this country? How can having 2 children with American citizenship not qualify for 'close family ties'?

Children learn best when their lives are stable. Many factors can negatively affect children's lives and learning- poverty, illness, learning challenges, moving from place to place, family instability to name a few. Let's think about this farmer's deportation order. Our government has initiated an action which could very well challenge these children's education. How will the family make their living? Can they continue to operate their coffee farm as efficiently without their father? Will this cause a slide into poverty? Will the family need to move and thus necessitate the children to leave their current schooling situation and begin anew somewhere else? Schooling transitions usually produce academic challenges. Most importantly, we all hope the family can weather this stormy time of instability and continue to maintain the ties that bind them together.

     Where will Trump's policies, and those politicians who help pave the way, lead us?  

  

???

 

     By now we have all seen the photographs of the world leaders at the recent G20 summit meeting. One was very revealing. It showed all the leaders lined up. Our President Trump was on one end, with an awkward distance between him and all the others. His facial expression and body language was totally different from all the other leaders. It appeared that there was just no emotional connection that he was 'left out' of this important group of men and women. It seemed like he was out of his element. The 'art of the deal' mentality was not going to be an effective tool for him during this meeting. His superficial charm hasn't seemed to win over any of these leaders. Has he, or will he, just shrug off the real reason he was disconnected - he has said and done things that have made interacting with these leaders difficult. He really is personally responsible for the things he has said and done that have been upsetting to world leaders, but it doesn't seem like he is disappointed. He will just continue on his path. He will not admit any guilt, never has. In fact, it is likely he will concoct some fake news story (lying seems to come easy to him) that will lay the blame on someone else and probably display a bit of an angry tantrum while tweeting out the lie. But he will continue on his narcissistic way as if he is the center of the world that will again reveal his true nature.  The US had made a commitment with the Paris Climate Agreement, but Trump seems unmoved by commitments.

 

     Here's to hoping the good citizens of America can salvage our world reputation.

 

     

 

Problems Maine Does Not Need

 

 

     In a previous blog, I have written about New York's education system. In that post I discussed their regional school units which are led by superintendents who work part time for the local areas and part time for the state commissioner. Last year Maine's Blue Ribbon Commission studied ways to improve our schools and reviewed New York's regional system of education. During one of the Commission's meetings, a representative from New York responded to a question asked about the availability of effectiveness data. He said that the effectiveness of the NY regional system of governance had not been reviewed/tested. It appears all is not well with New York's statewide system of education. A group of parents has filed a complaint with the State Commissioner of Education against New York City alleging the city is not following the mandated class size law. In 2007 the DOE developed a class size reduction law pledging that class size for kindergarten through third grade shall not exceed 20 students; fourth through eighth grade classes shall not exceed 23 students; and high school core classes shall not exceed 25 students.  Rather than reducing class size, the DOE has allowed class size to increase since the 2007 law was enacted. The New York DOE data shows kindergarten through third grade class size has increased 18%; fourth through eighth grade class size has increase 6%; and high school class size increased 1.5%.  Many parents have shared their personal stories of their elementary school aged children in classes far above these maximum limits claiming their children's education has been negatively impacted.  Here is a link for more details: http://dianeravitch.net/.

     Where was the "local superintendent" during annual budget development? Surely class size, among other things, was discussed when determining the number of teachers needed each year to teach the total student population?.  Oh yeah, recall.....their superintendents work part time advocating for local needs and part time working for the state commissioner.  Mmmm.......

 

     So, as Maine has just completed a contentious state budget development process, let's remember that one sticking point that dragged the process out and caused a short state government shut down was the amount of funding for public education statewide. Not only did this cause the state government shutdown, but EVERY town/city in Maine faced the daunting task of building not only balanced school budgets, but also town/city budgets with little information regarding available state revenue for the coming year. Governor LePage and some Republicans had strongly advocated a pilot statewide teacher contract as an integral part of the budget. In New York one of the components of the regional system is a variation of a statewide teacher contract.  For Maine to open the door even a crack to a statewide teacher contract, would be opening the door to a regionalized system of governance and the kinds of problems that New York is facing. A regionalized system of governance for public education compared to Maine's historical local control/school board system concentrates the decision making and power further and further away from the classroom and closer and closer to political ideology.  Our toxic political climate destabilizes public education, the social institution that professes to build knowledge, skills, attitudes that are foundation for opportunity for a successful future and our democratic society. 

 

 

Reflections: How Children Learn

 

 

     I have been thinking about all the negative tweets coming from the President lately. Perhaps it isn't worth thinking about, but I wonder where it will all end. If ever. I wonder if he intentionally engages in his negative tweets to deflect attention away from the other investigations about him. I wonder if he purposely and calculatingly is trying to destroy the press as we know it. I wonder if he is just plain addicted to tweeting, can't stop himself and his tweets are a reflection of his personality and everyday way of life. There is plenty to examine. Exactly what an effective teacher would wish for when teaching children effective critical thinking skills. An experienced teacher could help children examine the President's tweets from many different angles and consider the tweets 'a teachable moment'.

 

     One perspective that might have children engaging in question after question when reading these tweets might be from the rules most schools are required to have regarding harassment. Many schools have policies regarding the kind of behavior expected in schools. The rules regarding harassment apply to everyone in the schools: students, school staff, and even extends to contractual workers when performing any kind of work for the schools while on school property.  I would offer that these rules would apply to the President if he were to visit any of these schools. There is even strong debate about schools' responsibility of enforcing behavior expectations during non-school hours, off the physical location of school property when students use school issued laptop computers.

 

     Let's consider a hierarchical definition of harassment. It is the rubric that the Brunswick School Department uses to help students and others understand behaviors that are unwanted and might be considered harassment. The rubric consists of 3 levels: Level A offers examples of behaviors that might be considered harassment: dirty looks, 'annoying behavior toward others'. These  behaviors call for common courtesy to just stop if you are engaging in purposely unprovoked annoying behavior that others dislike and they can't just leave the area to avoid the person annoying them. Key words: common courtesy.  Level B offers examples of behaviors that most people would consider general harassment: "teasing, name calling, spreading rumors, posturing, socially excluding others, threatening". These behaviors demand intervention and consequences in order to maintain an environment where students can learn, teachers can teach. Level C offers examples of behaviors that would very likely be legally harassment: "stealing, offensive physical contact, negative comments toward another person because of their race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation".  I would add 'gender' to the rubric's Level C behavior - it is a legally protected status in our state and nation. These behaviors are examples of behavior that violate the law and invite law enforcement involvement in addition to the school administrative consequences.

 

     How would you evaluate the President's tweets? Are they aimed at specific people? Do they fall into any of the above categories that our nation's schools are required to prevent students and staff from engaging in?

 

     I am glad to see some of our lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, publically offering their views of the President's tweets. Children are learning from this....but just what are they learning?