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Julie Underwood, Dean of the School of Education at the U. of Wisconsin and
Past President of the Horace Mann League
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Through ALEC, corporations, ideologues, and their politician allies voted to spend public tax dollars to subsidize private K-12 education and attack professional teachers and teachers' unions by:
Promoting voucher programs that drain public schools of resources by using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private school profits, and specifying that those schools must remain unregulated. Voucher programs have been pushed in the following ways:
1. Offering private school vouchers with "universal eligibility" (using taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools for the rich and others); "means-tested eligibility,"(using poverty as the first domino in an effort to privatize public schools); and"universal eligibility with means-tested scholarship." (Here, "scholarship" means using taxpayer dollars to pay private school tuition and/or profits.)
United States of ALEC by Bill Moyer on the Moyer and Company site
Moyers & Company presents "United States of ALEC," a report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of - ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership". But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.
Just when you thought that the mainstream media had forgotten how to do investigative journalism, along comes a surprise.
In Atlanta, local NBC channel 11 station did an expos? of the secretive far-right group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC. Under the aegis of ALEC, Georgia legislators met in a posh resort with corporate lawyers to decide their priorities for the next session.
The Great Schools Tax Credit Program authorizes a tax credit for individual and corporate contributions to organizations that provide educational scholarships to eligible students so they can attend qualifying public or private schools of their parents' choice.
There's a New Bully at Your Kid's School But it's Probably not Who you Think by Marissa Poulson on the Alliance for Freedom site
If you've been paying attention to what's going on in schools across the United States, you know that the public school equation is no longer limited to teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Organizations that oppose the family have taken a keen interest in your children and grandchildren and are more involved than ever in what they are learning in school.
Why is this a problem?
Instead of focusing on good ol' reading, writing, and arithmetic, these organizations are attempting to dictate culture, social behavior, and your child's morality. The more public schools partner with organizations that oppose the family, the more your child may be bullied into conforming to their view on issues like the sanctity of life, marriage, and sexuality.
Standardized Testing Has Created an Unfair Burden on Public Schools by Bill Ivey on the ED Week Teacher site
Government schools are warring on Christianity and real education, warns an education expert and one of America's most influential Christian authors.
Pastor Carl Gallups and educator and author Alex Newman charge there is a deliberate and unified agenda to dumb down U.S. school children and remove Christianity from schools and public life. And both of them place most of the blame at the feet of John Dewey, the godfather of America's progressive education system. . .
"It is absolutely clear at this point that the militant secular agenda and the Big Government agenda are actually one and the same," [Newman stated]. "Real Christians have no need for big government. They generally have strong family, work ethic, community, and so on, in addition to high moral standards that should preclude bad behavior."
Inside the Growing Homeschooling Movement by Jordan E. Rosenfeld on the AlterNet site
As dissatisfaction with education reform rises, more and more secular parents are exploring the homeschool option. Until recently, if you homeschooled your children, you were either part of a pioneering movement in alternative education or doing so for religious reasons. Now, more than 2.2 million children ages 5-17 are homeschooled in the United States, a figure on par with the number of children enrolled in Catholic schools and public charter schools, according to Brian Ray, founder of the National Homeschool Education Research Institute and the journal, Homeschool Researcher. Ray points out that the number of secular homeschoolers is increasing exponentially, though just how fast is hard to measure.
The Alleged Public School Monopoly and the Fraudulent Civil Rights Movement of our Time by Peter Greene on the Crazy-Normal site
It is highly arguable with evidence and data that the corporate education reform movement mostly funded by a handful of billionaire oligarchs is driven by endless oxymorons. For instance, the oxymoron of a movement that claims it's the Civil Right Movement of our time while Corporate Charters practice segregation on a grand scale (click the link to learn more), and the other major oxymoron alleges the public schools are a monopoly that must be destroyed. For instance, in New York State, Governor Cuomo (The Crook) characterized public education as a 'monopoly' that he vowed to break.
Charter School "Flexibility" Linked to Major Failures; More Than $3.3 Billion in Taxes Spent by Jonas Persson on the TruthOut site
Arne Duncan is calling for a 48% increase in the US Department of Education's (ED) quarter-billion-dollar-a-year ($253.2 million) program designed to create, expand, and replicate charter schools - an initiative repeatedly criticized by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for suspected waste and inadequate financial controls.
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has issued a series of Freedom of Information Act requests for information about charter spending from ED as well as from states, and the findings shed new light on the deep flaws in the design, implementation and oversight of the federal program.
Schools Fail To Help Students Deal With Severe Trauma, Lawsuit Says by Rebecca Klein
on the Huffington Post site
Peter P., 17, spent two months sleeping on his school's roof after becoming homeless in April. When administrators at Dominguez High School learned of his situation, they didn't help with essential services or support. They suspended him and turned him over to the police for trespassing, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Peter is one of four students and three teachers who sued California's Compton Unified School District, contending the district violates federal laws by failing to help students and teachers deal with so-called complex trauma, which involves severe, pervasive and repeated events like long-term abuse or neglect. The lawsuit, which seeks certification as a class action, accuses the district of violating the federal Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
How the Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into Social Studies Classes by Bill Bigelow on the AlterNet site
Teaching materials at the "Documents of Freedom" section of the website underscore this business-good/government-bad message: "When government officials can make any laws they please-and hold themselves above the law-there is less economic growth, less creativity, and less happiness. Entrepreneurs won't be willing to risk time and money starting businesses. Writers and speakers will restrain their words. Everyone will worry that his freedoms can be destroyed at the whim of a powerful government agent."
However, BRI materials avoid discussing how the free exercise of property rights has played out in the real world-especially with respect to historically oppressed groups. For example, the BRI introduces a Constitution Day lesson plan with a quote from Patrick Henry-you know, the fellow who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."
Teacher assails practice of giving passing grades to failing students
by Jay Mathews on the Washington Post site
America's most challenged families are segregated into high-poverty schools. Despite a 20-year experiment in nationwide school reform, few students make it over the slippery bridge to the middle class. In this book you meet the students, families, teachers, and administrators who struggle inside this failed system, and consider proposals to give them a fighting chance.
The reviewers stress that no data analysis is provided in the report to support claims about the relative effectiveness of education compared to other ways to address economic problems. Claiming that the primary solution to a wide array of economic problems is to improve "human capital," the report perpetuates a problematic myth that undervalues alternative ways to address poverty and economic insecurity. Indeed the assumption of the knowledge society narrative, that everything depends upon more education, may itself be flawed.
Though the report's policy conclusions about education are important, economic and political actions are critical as well in closing income and social gaps. As the reviewers write, "[u]sing schooling as a quick fix for economic problems is not going to do it."
WE DIDN'T NEED A SURVEY TO TELL US THIS!! OH YES WE DID!! on the Badass Teachers Association site
So many have responded to the surveys findings that they are not surprised! Well of course not we are teachers!! We are living this everyday! It is obvious to anyone who has lobbied politicians that many are out of touch with the reality of what is happening in public education today. When is the last time a school board member was able or perhaps even willing to spend a day shadowing a teacher in their school district? Have you ever had a politician shadow a teacher for a day? I am not speaking of a dog and pony show I mean get in the trenches with us!
Education Is Harmful When You Measure the Wrong Things by Steve Nelson on the Huffington Post site
Measure the wrong things and you'll get the wrong behaviors.
This simple statement succinctly characterizes why the American education system continues beating its head against the wall.
Education reformers and so-called policy "experts" are constantly collecting and analyzing data. Many of these experts are, not surprisingly, economists. It's not for nothing that economics is sometimes called "the dismal science." The hostile takeover of education by non-educators is filled with intelligent sounding phrases: "evidence-based," "data driven," "metrics and accountability."
Rethinking ESEA at 50: An interview with Jack Jennings by Nancy Walser
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 had its origins in a popular demand that public schools improve. After World War II, a "baby boom" resulted in crowded and strained schools, and so parents and others demanded action from the politicians. Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and the Congress responded by finding ways for the federal government to help with that task.
This was a breakthrough in national policy because there had been many impediments to adding federal support to state and local efforts to improve education. In passing ESEA, President Johnson and the Congress had to overcome a strong, two-century-old tradition of local control of education. But it became clear that 14,000 local school districts couldn't improve education on their own since they varied so much in resources, and state governments had limited their role to overseeing state formulas for distributing state funds.
Will Kiryas Joel Finally Get its Way? Who really benefits from NY's "Invest in Ed" Tax Credit? by Bruce Baker on the School Finance 101 site
Tuition tax credit programs establish privately governed entities that provide scholarships, typically to "lower income" families, for their children to attend private schools. The idea is to provide tax credits to corporations and individuals who give money to these tuition scholarship entities.
The compelling governmental interest for these policies, as we often hear is that low income kids are trapped in failing urban public schools and that these tuition scholarships will help them attend either outstanding, elite private independent schools, or established catholic schools. Certainly, as I illustrated in a recent blog post, a large share of private schooled children in New York State do attend Catholic schools. And more perhaps might, if provided with tuition scholarships.
BIBLICAL LESSONS FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS: THE SERVANT LEADERSHIP OF KING DAVID, APOSTLE PAUL by Joe Hairston and Tim Markley
This qualitative research study used the methodology of historical
documentation. Primary and secondary sources were gathered alongside of the
original sources for Servant Leadership as espoused by Robert Greenleaf in The
Servant as Leader. The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible will be
referenced as a primary source and a host of primary and secondary sources
regarding Superintendents Hairston and Markley will be supplied. Throughout
this study, Greenleaf's definition and eighteen characteristics of a servant leader
will be the framework for interpreting the biblical passages as they relate to the
leadership of King David and Apostle Paul, as well as the scenarios that occurred
during the tenure of Superintendents Hairston and Markley.
There are many bewildering stories like this in Rossiter's new book, "
In 1840 Mann wrote