ICYMI: Readings from the week (9/25)
Posted by Peter Greene: 25 Sep 2016 02:32 AM PDT
As always, remember to share and spread the word. Everyone can be an amplifier.
Source: CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Readings from the week (9/25)
Leonie Haimson: How DFER Hijacked Public Education
Leonie Haimson: How DFER Hijacked Public Education
by dianeravitch
This post was written in 2014, but it remains relevant today. DFER (Democrats for Education Reform) raises large sums of money from hedge fund managers to promote charter schools. The free market has been very good to hedge fund managers, and they think that public schools should compete in a free market too. They are not in the game to make money, but to promote their ideology of free-market competition. DFER and its related organizations, like Education Reform Now, and Families for Excellent Schools, are spending millions of dollars in places as far-flung as Denver and Massachusetts. It may be confusing to the public to see “Democrats” promoting school choice and accountability, since these have always been Republican ideas for school reform. But, it made no sense to create a group called Republicans for Education Reform because Republicans don’t need to be convinced to private public schools.Leonie Haimson, parent advocate (and a member of the board of the Network for Public Education), asks:
How did this happen? How did our electeds of both parties enable corporate interests to hijack our public schools?
Her answer:
A small band of Wall St. billionaires decided to convert the Democratic party to the Republican party, at least on education — and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams – or our worst nightmares. And now we have electeds of both parties who are intent on helping them engineer a hostile takeover of our public schools, which has nothing to do with parent choice but the choice of these plutocrats.
What can you do about it?
Contact the Network for Public Education and find out how you can become active in your local or state organization that supports public schools and opposes privatization.
If you live in Massachusetts, join parents and educators who are fighting Question 2, which would allow unlimited expansion of charters to replace public schools.
Get involved.
dianeravitch | September 25, 2016 at 12:00 pm | Categories: Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Privatization | URL: http://wp.me/p2odLa-f2H
This post was written in 2014, but it remains relevant today. DFER (Democrats for Education Reform) raises large sums of money from hedge fund managers to promote charter schools. The free market has been very good to hedge fund managers, and they think that public schools should compete in a free market too. They are not in the game to make money, but to promote their ideology of free-market competition. DFER and its related organizations, like Education Reform Now, and Families for Excellent Schools, are spending millions of dollars in places as far-flung as Denver and Massachusetts. It may be confusing to the public to see “Democrats” promoting school choice and accountability, since these have always been Republican ideas for school reform. But, it made no sense to create a group called Republicans for Education Reform because Republicans don’t need to be convinced to private public schools.
Leonie Haimson, parent…
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Mercedes Schneider: More New York Millions Arrive in Massachusetts to Sway Voters on Charters
Mercedes Schneider: More New York Millions Arrive in Massachusetts to Sway Voters on Charters
by dianeravitch
Mercedes Schneider has been watching the money flowing in to Massachusetts from out of state to influence voters to lift the cap on charters.While more than 100 school district boards have voted against Question 2, while the teachers’ union opposes it, it has the passionate support of hedge fund managers in New York City.
Thus far, about $12 million has been allocated to fight for charters; most of that money comes from out of state.
About half that much has been spent to defeat Question 2, mostly from the teachers’ unions, which understand that the charters will kill the union and remove teachers’ rights.
Will Massachusetts allow millionaires and billionaires in New York to create a dual school system in their state and privatize public money meant for public schools?
dianeravitch | September 25, 2016 at 1:00 pm | Categories: Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Massachusetts, Privatization | URL: http://wp.me/p2odLa-fiy
Mercedes Schneider has been watching the money flowing in to Massachusetts from out of state to influence voters to lift the cap on charters.
While more than 100 school district boards have voted against Question 2, while the teachers’ union opposes it, it has the passionate support of hedge fund managers in New York City.
Thus far, about $12 million has been allocated to fight for charters; most of that money comes from out of state.
About half that much has been spent to defeat Question 2, mostly from the teachers’ unions, which understand that the charters will kill the union and remove teachers’ rights.
Will Massachusetts allow millionaires and billionaires in New York to create a dual school system in their state and privatize public money meant for public schools?
Maybe Wilderness Should Manage Wilderness Zones
Maybe Wilderness Should Manage Wilderness Zones
by mikethegunguy
Beginning this week I am going to publish some columns on wilderness. Hope you will find them interesting.At the same time the U.S. Census declared in 1890 that the continental United States no longer contained any wilderness, the first attempts were being taken to preserve it. Beginning in the 1870’s there had been discussions about protecting forests which culminated in the passage of the Forest Reserve Act in 1891. This law embodied the notion of protecting forest ‘reserves’ and entrusted a federal agency, the U.S. Forest Service, with the task of monitoring the welfare of forest zones.
The whole point of the 1891 law was … https://mikethegunguy.com/2016/09/25/maybe-wilderness-should-manage-wilderness-zones/
Beginning this week I am going to publish some columns on wilderness. Hope you will find them interesting.
At the same time the U.S. Census declared in 1890 that the continental United States no longer contained any wilderness, the first attempts were being taken to preserve it. Beginning in the 1870’s there had been discussions about protecting forests which culminated in the passage of the Forest Reserve Act in 1891. This law embodied the notion of protecting forest ‘reserves’ and entrusted a federal agency, the U.S. Forest Service, with the task of monitoring the welfare of forest zones.
The whole point of the 1891 law was not so much to preserve woodland spaces, but to regulate their use and balance out the need for lumber and other woodland products with the necessity to allow woodlands to reproduce and, at the same time, sustain the animal and plant…
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We are in “Deep” Doo Doo: Latest Buzz Word of Caution | BustED Pencils
(By Morna McDermott) Here it is: DEEP LEARNING It’s something we can all start following/investigating. It’s a word… like GRIT, PERSONALIZED LEARNING, CHOICE, and 21st c LEARNING…words that are code for corporate colonization… meet “deep learning.” About Deeper Learning In a purely technical (near indecipherable) way, it can be defined: As a set of Machine… Read more »
Source: We are in “Deep” Doo Doo: Latest Buzz Word of Caution | BustED Pencils
ALEC is Excited About the New Testing Provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), so is iNACOL
ALEC is Excited About the New Testing Provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), so is iNACOL
by seattleducation2010
Personally, whenever a bill in Washington D.C. is praised for its bipartisan nature – I get worried. The common ground discovered by Democrats and Republicans, usually comes at our expense. The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) is being sold to educators, parents, and the public as being somehow better than No Child […]Read more of this post
seattleducation2010 | September 25, 2016 at 10:16 AM | Tags: ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, iNACOL, International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), NCLB, No Child Left Behind Act, Senator Patty Murray | Categories: ALEC, Charter schools, ESSA, No Child Left Behind, Online learning | URL: http://wp.me/pNbRQ-5RW
Personally, whenever a bill in Washington D.C. is praised for its bipartisan nature – I get worried. The common ground discovered by Democrats and Republicans, usually comes at our expense.
The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) is being sold to educators, parents, and the public as being somehow better than No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
You may remember NCLB as the law which declared every student in the United States would be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014 – because ridiculous mandates make things happen.
To the surprise of no one, 2014 came and went and proficiency wasn’t achieved.
In short, the ESSA is better than the last federal education law that was an absolute failure. But why let some inconvenient facts get in the way of a perfectly good marketing strategy?
This may explain why the rollout of the ESSA was so short on specifics…
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Writer’s Weekend Resources – Reading and Writing Links
Hello, and happy third day of fall!
I’m keeping today’s post pretty short since it’s my birthday today, and I’m trying to spend as little time as possible behind the keyboard. I told all my clients in advance that I was going to be unavailable this weekend. (I’ve had a summer’s worth of working Saturdays and Sundays, and even freelancers deserve a break once in a while.)
Instead of working, I will be part of the volunteer team that is putting together our town’s annual “Ipswich Illumination” night. I think this is the third year we’ve held this autumn festival, and it’s become one of my favorite local events. Usually, we have bonfires floating on the river; but, because of the drought, our fire chief very sensibly decided to ix-nay the floating fires. As a replacement, we’ll be using paper lanterns lit with a non-flammable light source. So, on Saturday morning our volunteer brigade will be spending several hours hauling eighty specially assembled inner tube rigs out into the low tide muck where we will anchor them with bricks. Hopefully – if all goes well – when the sun goes down, we’ll have eighty paper lanterns glowing softly as they bob on the surface of the river on their rubber rafts. Should be quite a sight.
I look forward to being back into my usual groove next weekend. Until then, I hope you enjoy the links below. Have fun exploring & I’ll “see” you next weekend! https://nhwn.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/writers-weekend-resources-reading-and-writing-links/
Autumn Vignette: And in the faerie bower they slept amidst petals of every hue and dewdrops that shone like jewels.
Hello, and happy third day of fall!
I’m keeping today’s post pretty short since it’s my birthday today, and I’m trying to spend as little time as possible behind the keyboard. I told all my clients in advance that I was going to be unavailable this weekend. (I’ve had a summer’s worth of working Saturdays and Sundays, and even freelancers deserve a break once in a while.)
Instead of working, I will be part of the volunteer team that is putting together our town’s annual “Ipswich Illumination” night. I think this is the third year we’ve held this autumn festival, and it’s become one of my favorite local events. Usually, we have bonfires floating on the river; but, because of the drought, our fire chief very sensibly decided to ix-nay…
View original post 933 more words
The passive voice.
The passive voice.
by Fred Klonsky
THE PASSIVE VOICE.png
Fred Klonsky | September 25, 2016 at 1:30 pm | Categories: My drawings., Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p4C3g-h9n
Who Will Be The Master DeBater
Who Will Be The Master DeBater
by kavips
Everything slows down to a halt for the next few hours until we get an answer to that question…..kavips | September 26, 2016 at 1:44 am | Categories: Donald Trump, Trump, Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p2kde-deF
Everything slows down to a halt for the next few hours until we get an answer to that question…..
Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam
Social Impact Bonds (Pay for Success): Yet Another Privatization Scam
by janresseger
For those of us who know more about public education than Wall Street investment schemes, Valerie Strauss and Kenneth Saltman (education writer and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) did us a favor last week. In her Washington Post column, Strauss published a column by Saltman explaining simply and clearly what Social Impact Bonds are, how they are now privately funding education projects at public expense, and problems with these investment instruments…janresseger | September 23, 2016 at 7:45 am | Tags: danger of privatization, Kenneth Saltman, Pay for Success, Social Impact Bonds | Categories: Danger of Privatization, Equity & Opportunity to Learn, Keeping Public Education Public | URL: http://wp.me/p3JgEc-2VR
For those of us who know more about public education than Wall Street investment schemes, Valerie Strauss and Kenneth Saltman (education writer and professor at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth) did us a favor last week. In her Washington Post column, Strauss published a column by Saltman explaining simply and clearly what Social Impact Bonds are, how they are now privately funding education projects at public expense, and problems with these investment instruments.
In her introduction to Saltman’s column, Valerie Strauss’s describes the use of Social Impact Bonds for funding education projects: “Within the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, the K-12 education law that replaced No Child Left Behind, is a provision that provides for the use of federal funds by states and school districts for something known as ‘Pay for Success.’ The Obama administration has actually been funding Pay for Success programs in education and other areas for years…
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Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" 