Still Poisoning Our Children,
Public Education, Teachers Get Angry, Vouchers,
School Improvement,
Arne Duncan Wasn't a Good EdSec (but you knew that).
Public Education, Teachers Get Angry, Vouchers,
School Improvement,
Arne Duncan Wasn't a Good EdSec (but you knew that).
WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR POISONING OUR CHILDREN?
Still a problem and still outrageous: Too many kids can’t drink the water in their schools
History will likely reflect negatively on how we Americans have treated our children. Take their health, for example.
We know that lead causes damage, especially to young children. It causes things like developmental delay, learning difficulties, hearing loss, and seizures (It's also not that great for adults causing high blood pressure, mood disorders and reproductive problems). There is no safe level of lead in the bloodstream.
Are we doing enough to eliminate lead from the environment? Not according to this article. We spend billions on military defense, but can't afford to keep our children safe from poisoning at home. The problem is that most of those who are affected by environmental toxins like lead are poor children of color. Chances are if we had lead poisoning in areas where wealthy white people lived, it would be taken care of immediately.
...it's not just in Michigan: A new U.S. government report says millions of children were potentially exposed to unsafe drinking water at their schools, but nobody really knows how many. Why? Because many states don't bother running the tests.
A July 2018 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which surveyed school districts across the country on testing for lead in drinking water in 2017, found:
● 41 percent of districts, serving 12 million students, had not tested for lead in the 12 months before completing the survey.
● 43 percent of districts, serving 35 million students, tested for lead. Of those, 37 percent found elevated levels and reduced or eliminated exposure.
And then there was this: 16 percent of the districts replied to the nationally representative survey by saying that they did not know whether they had tested.
PUBLIC EDUCATION: A RIGHT, A PUBLIC GOOD, OR A CONSUMER PRODUCT?
Why School Reform Flounders
Is education a Right, a Public Good, an American tradition, a vehicle for fixing social inequities, an imposition on non-White/non-middle class children, or a public utility? Is it a private matter, a religious affair, a consumer product, or a national security imperative?
It would seem that the Indiana Constitution, quoted above, considers it a right.
Here is an interesting read about public education and its place in our society...
As historians like Prof. Cuban have long pointed out, the question of whether or not education is a basic right needs to take its place in line with all the other fundamental questions about education. Is it a right? Is it a public utility? Is it a tool of class domination?
TEACHERS GET ANGRY
The Teachers Movevement: Arizona Lawmakers Cut Education Budgets. Then Teachers Got Angry
It's been a long time coming, but teachers are finally standing up for themselves and their students. Read this excellent piece on the Arizona teacher uprising.
The attacks seemed only to galvanize teachers. “They called us socialists, Marxists, communists! I’m a Republican!”
ANTI-PUBLIC EDUCATION: FUNDING
Arizona Supreme Court Blocks Ballot Initiative to Fund Public Education
Years of budget slashing, tax cutting, and lack of support for the public good, has left Arizona schools underfunded and struggling.
Paying taxes for the common good? That time has, apparently, passed us by.
From Jan Resseger
Paying taxes for the common good. What a novel idea these days—and something blocked last week by the Arizona Supreme Court. Failing to connect the taxes we pay with what the money buys, many of us find it easy to object to more taxes, but the case of Arizona makes the arithmetic clear. After slashing taxes for years, Arizona doesn’t have enough money to pay for public schools and universities. Not enough for the barest essentials.
TEACHERS MUST STAY ANGRY
Standing Up
The test-and-punish, micromanagement, and belittling of teachers/public schools, has been a constant for decades. It doesn't work to help children learn, but it's apparent now that children's learning has never really been the reason for so-called "education reform." It's all been done for privatization.
Privatization is not just for better schools any more (since it's been shown that it doesn't help). Now it's for "choice." The privatizers believe that parents should get to choose where their education tax-dollars are spent, and to hell with the common good.
I wonder how many of those pro-choice parents and politicians are pro-choice when it comes to women's reproductive choice, or a parent's choice to opt out of "the test."
Public school teachers -- and those who are hoping to become public school teachers -- have to accept the fact that it is up to them (along with parents and pro-public education citizens) to fight for the survival of public schools.
Teachers, you can't just close your doors and teach anymore.
After twenty years of ed reform, teachers have arrived at a point where they cannot shut the door and teach. Every teacher has to be an advocate for her profession, her school, and the institution of public education. Every policy and directive that descends from above has to be examined for its various effects, both on education and the profession, because teachers can no longer trust the People In Charge. The people who should be helping to smooth the road are building speed bumps and brick walls instead. To shut your door and teach is to the door to your room in a burning building; you may not feel the heat yet, but if you do nothing, you will surely feel it soon.
When we talk about reasons that so many fewer people pursue or stay with a teaching career, I'm not sure we discuss this point enough. You may want to Just Teach, but that will not be an option. You will have to fight constantly just to get to do your job. It's a huge disincentive-- "I would really like to do that job, but it looks like I won't really get to do the job I want to do."
PRIVATIZATION: VOUCHERS
Ready, Fire, Aim: Vouchers Hurt Math Scores for Low Income Students
After seven years of running the nation's most expansive voucher program...
After a half billion dollars of public money diverted to private, religious, schools...
We now hear policy makers suggesting that we "study and evaluate" the concept of vouchers.
Now?
Low income students were the ostensible reason for Indiana’s aggressive voucher policy. I’ve argued for a long time that this was a pretext — the real reason was 1) subsidizing religious education; 2) hurting teachers unions; and 3) diverting money to friends and well-wishers of policymakers — but, if you take lawmakers at their word that this was being done to help low income students, then it looks like we’ve wasted a lot of money and done some harm in the process.
Says State Board of Education member, Gordon Hendry, “The conclusions are somewhat concerning. It demonstrates the need for further study and evaluation so we can have more data about the results of this program.” With all due respect (and at least Hendry responded to the South Bend Tribune), the time for study was before we jumped into the voucher pond with both feet...
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
Indiana officials didn’t have to go far to find a new model for improving schools
I'm all for school improvement and it's possible that this program will provide needed help, although I'm not sure that Chicago should be our role model for improving schools. You can learn about 5Essentials here and here.
My big fear with this program, and others like it, is that politicians and policy makers will impose a program on the public schools and then blame students, teachers, and schools if and when it doesn't work. They don't accept their share of the responsibility. Accountability is never taken by the policy makers, it's only imposed, along with the mandates, on those in the schools.
Politicians and Policy makers, try this program, to be sure, but accept responsibility for our state and nation's shamefully high rate of child poverty and it's impact on school achievement!
The 5 Essentials model focuses on five qualities that strong schools share — effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environment, and ambitious instruction. The Indiana Department of Education has built its own evaluation around these attributes. The state will start using its model based on the 5 Essentials at low-performing schools in their annual school quality reviews, which begin in October and are done by a team of experts, local educators, and school administrators or board members.
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| Arne Duncan with his boss...lest we forget that the Democrats are/were complicit in school "reform." |
THE EDUCATION LIES
Duncan and DeVos Are Both Wrong, We Need Old School Reform
The education lies discussed in this article are
- money does not matter
- ineffective teachers are ruining public schools
- charter schools will outperform public schools
- federal leadership on rigorous standards will save us all
The “education reforms” that Duncan says worked—desegregation and more equalized school funding—preceded his tenure as Secretary. He did nothing to further those reforms. Instead, he routinely pushed through reforms that didn’t work. An honest appraisal of the past decade reveals that Duncan caused more harm than good.
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