Safe spaces in Florida???

Teaching materials in Florida are soon going to look like a redacted statement from a government classified document.

The State Board of Education on Wednesday voted to ban Florida middle school and high school teachers from intentionally teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity, unless the lessons are part of a reproductive health course or are “expressly required” by the state’s academic standards (miamiherald.com).

While the law will have an impact on some LGBTQ policies in some districts, supporters of the restrictions say the law is aimed at classroom instruction, not conversations about those topics when they naturally come up.

Except…

Pasco County (FL) schools banned “safe space” stickers that show support for LGBTQ students. These stickers often serve as an indication for everyone who enters a space that all identities are welcome and supported. A parent raised the issue, saying, “What exactly is a safe space? Shouldn’t the entire school be a safe space?” (applenews.com). Parents believe with this new rule, such conversations will take place at home.

Joe Saunders, senior political director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida, said, “Let’s put it plainly: This is part of the governor’s assault on freedom,” adding the policy will “further stigmatize and isolate a population of young people who need our support now more than ever” (miamiherald.com). Teachers not in compliance with this new law will likely be terminated.

Yes, all schools should be safe spaces. But they’re not. And, all kids who may be struggling with their sexual orientation are not willing to talk with their parents for fear they will be thrown out of the house. That’s one of the reasons safe spaces were created. Without safe spaces for kids, they may have no one to talk to which leads to greater consequences.

Why do schools need safe spaces? Fifty percent of LGBTQ teens (ages 13–17) seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. And 18 percent actually made a suicide attempt. That’s more than twice the rate of suicide attempts among all US teens, which is 9 percent (newportacademy.com).

LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society (thetrevorproject).

• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 (Hedegaard, Curtin, & Warner, 2018) — and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are at significantly increased risk.
• LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020).
• The Trevor Project estimates that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth (13-24) seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S. — and at least one attempts suicide every 45 seconds. (thetrevorproject).

If a safe space could save ONE life, isn’t it worth it? Not in Florida, where another new law was passed in April eliminating the requirement that an individual obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Florida.

Florida values the right to life, but once you’re born, the state will control who you are or can be, what you can and cannot learn about history, what books you cannot read, and what teachers can and cannot say and teach.

After a nineteen-year old murdered 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, a new law raised the age to buy rifles, shot guns and other guns from licensed dealers to 21. But Florida legislators recently introduced HB 1543 which would lower the age back to 18.

Pay no attention to the actual statistics on suicide rates, but value the sanctity of life so much to make it harder for women to make decisions about their own bodies, but easier to buy guns.

In the Bible, The Pharisees paid a great deal of attention to outward ordinances and actions that would make them appear righteous, but they were not as concerned with actually being righteous in their hearts. For this Jesus referred to them as hypocrites.

These are my reflections for today.

April  21, 2023 

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Recent publication: William Frantz Public School:  A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans Connie Schaffer, Meg White, and Martha Graham Viator. Peter Lang Publishing. Available on amazon.com

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On the road with AP History

The site of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Weehauken NJ

Here’s a story we can all feel good about (Joe Dobis, this is for you).

Cathy Cluck is an AP American history teacher at Westlake High School in Austin, TX. Recognizing she was going to have to teach remotely this fall and frustrated by remote teaching in the spring, Cathy had idea. She going to take a road trip to teach her students from the historical sites. So she set out for two weeks to record her history lessons onsite. Here’s a link to one of her videos; others can be found on You Tube.

Cluck made 11 stops during her two-week trip (dubbed the #greatamericanhistoryroadtrip); the Gettysburg battlefield; the Weehawken, NJ dueling grounds of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr; the Lincoln Memorial in Washington; and Jamestown, VA., the first successful English settlement in North America. Each stop she would record her lessons, and connect the site to the history. She streamed from a park along the James River in Jamestown and the Lincoln Memorial, which Cluck said were highlights of her trip (Statesman.com). She intended to drive to Boston but due to a COVID travel ban on people from Texas, she was unable to.

She likened her daily Zoom classes to “Where’s Waldo” as she was the only one who know where she’d be on any given day. That kept her 140 students interested, engaged and logged in. “At the very least if it makes them want to log in; to me that is worth it,” Cluck said. “It’s hard to get excited about remote learning. We all want to be in the building, it’s just not possible and we want to be able to do it safely” (Statesman.com).

Clunk’s students have enjoyed her journey. “I just love it; I just love it!” Julia Franco, one of Clunk’s students, told Morning Edition. “I don’t know how to explain; it just makes me more excited to learn” (NPR).

“This is hard, being in a pandemic,” Cluck said. “I struggled last spring. There were plenty of days we’d log in and we wouldn’t be doing well and we would just talk. I want to get to that point with these kids this year. I need them to understand that even adults don’t know how to do this and there will be mistakes and it’s all OK. I want them to learn history but also how to cope with hard things in life. We are all in this together and were going to get through it.” (Statesman.com).

I give Cluck kudos for wanting to teach remotely in a way that would engage her students. She had the time and the means to do it, and clearly her students responded well to her efforts. Think differently. Be creative. Cluck had fun doing it (you can tell by the enthusiasm in her videos), and maybe she has incentivized other teachers to follow her lead.

These are my reflections for today.

9/18/20

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William Frantz Public School:  A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans Connie Schaffer, Meg White, and Martha Graham Viator (September 2020 release) Peter Lang Publishing. Available for pre-order on amazon.com

William Frantz Public School

On September 1, our book, William Frantz Public School; A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans will be released by Peter Lang Publishing. This book tells a complex story. We started out writing it because we wanted to tell readers what happened to William Frantz Public School in the decades following its desegregation in 1960. As we learned more about the school, we found common threads that drew disparate events together and created a multi-faceted story. The story could not be told without centering the narrative on race and the never-ending resistance to any effort that might end years of de jure and de facto segregation. The resiliency of those the system oppressed—the poor students, Black students, and at times demoralized educators of William Frantz Public School—is equally important as is the so-called recovery of public education in the post-Katrina era.

You may not know the name of the school, but you are likely to recognize photographs of the building that were taken in 1960. Those pictures show a Black 6-year-old girl and four U.S. Federal Marshals walking into the school. The first- grade student entering the school was Ruby Bridges, and while she is a prominent figure in this story, Bridges is not the central character. This book is about events spanning the history of William Frantz Public School. If the walls of this elementary school could talk, they would retell the well-known story of its desegregation in 1960. They would also recount lesser-known, yet important stories, that provide further examination of public education in New Orleans and its intersections with race, resistance, resiliency, and recovery.

This book is an in-depth examination of stories specific to William Frantz Public School, located in the Upper Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. These stories are interwoven into the broader saga of public education in New Orleans.  To some extent, the school and the Orleans Parish school district represent a microcosm of public education in the United States. However, the unique context of New Orleans cannot be discounted. It is located in the Deep South; it has a large Catholic population. In the late 20th century, many people considered its public schools to be the epitome of all that was broken in the U.S. education system. Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, and the aftermath created a public education model based almost exclusively on charter schools.

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing excepts from our book.  Kindly share with friends and colleagues you think might be interested in our book, now available for pre-order on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/William-Frantz-Public-School-Resistance/dp/1433183005/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=meg+white&qid=1597150567&s=books&sr=1-1

These are my reflections for today.

8/14/20

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William Frantz Public School:  A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans Connie Schaffer, Meg White, and Martha Graham Viator (September  2020 release) Peter Lang Publishing.

The cost of reopening schools

The American Federation of Teachers came out with some sobering statistics regarding K-12 schools reopening safely in the fall. “A recent AFT study  found that US schools will need  $116 billion to reopen K-12 schools for the nation’s 55 million children.  According to AFT’s analysis, the average school will need an additional $1.2 million, or $2,300 per student, to open its doors”.  The nation’s School Superintendents Association said in order to adhere to the CDC’s safety recommendations for reopening, school districts will be forced to spend nearly $2 million per district – a cost so prohibitive that some are now scrapping plans for in-person classes entirely this fall (USNews).

In addition to teachers unions, civil rights groups and organizations that represent state chiefs, superintendents and principals have requested an additional $175 billion in federal funding. Funding will not only cover additional costs that must help pay for cleaning supplies and protective gear, but also to prevent  200,000 to 300,000 teacher layoffs expected as a result of budget cuts (USNews).

Politico reports — The estimate takes into account investing in technology for remote learning and tools needed to implement health and safety protocols for in-person instruction. Additionally, the money would go toward “addressing students’ academic learning loss and helping students overcome increased trauma and economic and food insecurities” (Politico.com).

As schools consider opening plans, they must also consider the possibility of having to close again – and without much warning. Before the pandemic, an estimated 12 million schoolchildren had trouble completing schoolwork because they lacked Internet access at home (NYTimes.com).   Having access to technology and the Internet should be a priority in the event schools must close again without warning.

School districts and teachers across the country faced the reality that online education was more than streaming a lesson designed for the classroom. There was not a clear understanding of the difference between teaching remotely and online learning. Effective virtual instruction requires teaching methods, foreign to many teachers, as well as a modification of curriculum materials designed specifically for online use. Michigan researchers say, “Even in the best of circumstances, distance learning involved hastily planned instruction in unprepared districts from teachers who were expecting to use face-to-face instruction” (MSU.edu).

The New York Times Editorial Board recently wrote, “The learning setbacks that schoolchildren commonly experience over a summer vacation can easily wipe out one or two months of academic growth. The learning losses that are likely to result from more than 50 million children in the United States being shut out of school for weeks or months because of the coronavirus pandemic could well be catastrophic by comparison” (NYTimes.com)

Academic losses for students will have long-term impacts. Suggestions of increased diagnostic testing, an extended school year, along with aggressive outreach programs are in consideration. The existing achievement gap is alarming, and now our neediest children need more.

Schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being and provide children with academic instruction, social and emotional skills, nutrition, physical/speech therapy, and opportunities for physical activity. One consideration that must also be in every conversation is the physical and emotional welfare of the teachers/staff who must return to school. Many schools either shard counselors or don’t have one at all.

All this comes at a time when Florida’s education commissioner announces a mandate that schools must open their buildings and “provide the full array of services that are required by law so that families who wish to educate their children in a brick and mortar school full time have the opportunity to do so” (Washington Post).

Schools are in full discussion over how to best open and operate schools with the utmost in safety protocols for staff and students. Considerations of if/when/how this can be accomplished has schools and universities looking for safe and creative solutions. Every day is different. Decisions are fluid. The bottom line hasn’t changed – how do we safely provide instruction to our students? That’s the $116 billion dollar question.

These are my reflections for today.

7/10/20

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William Frantz Public School:  A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans Connie Schaffer, Meg White, and Martha Graham Viator (August 2020 release) Peter Lang Publishing.

Disaster capitalism in Puerto Rico

In my research, I often come across the term disaster capitalism. By definition it’s the practice by a government of taking advantage of a major disaster to adopt economic policies that the population would be less likely to accept under normal circumstances.

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September of 2017, caused thousands of deaths and  between $90 billion and $120 billion in damage.  Since then, the island has seen an exodus of its residents and a bankrupt government. Many news outlets report the number of Puerto Ricans who left at 200,000 (NBCNews).

A study from the University of Michigan in 2019 revealed the federal response was  faster and more generous after hurricanes struck Florida and Texas than Puerto Rico. Just this past March, Congress let expire emergency food stamp aid for Puerto Rico which resulted in reductions in critical federal help for more than 1 million island residents (news.UMICH).

This week, former Secretary of Education Julia Keleher along with other top officials were arrested and charged with steering federal money to unqualified, politically connected contractors. “The alleged fraud involves $15.5 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2019. Thirteen million was spent by the Department of Education during Keleher’s time as secretary” (Washington Post).

Officials said Keleher, who resigned in March, did not personally benefit from the scheme.

“It was alleged that the defendants engaged in a public corruption campaign and profited at the expense of the Puerto Rican citizens and students. This type of corruption is particularly egregious because it not only victimizes tax payers, it victimizes those citizens and students that are in need of educational assistance,” said Neil Sanchez, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General’s Southern Region (Washington Post).

According to the Justice Department, Keleher allegedly pressured her department to execute a contract to a company, Colon & Ponce, which she had a close relationship with. The firm was awarded a $43,500 contract that increased to $95,000, even though it was unqualified under the terms of the request for proposals (Bloomberg).

When Hurricane Maria  struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, Keleher and other educators were confronted with a humanitarian crisis that crippled the island for months and presented a slew of dire problems for its public school system, which educated roughly 350,000 students before the storm and had been struggling academically and financially for years.

Keleher’s tenure in PR was not without controversy. Her support for a new law allowing charter schools and vouchers, and closing 400 schools as a result declining enrollment. Governor Ricardo Rossello suggested turning all the closed school into charter schools. At a San Juan rally last summer in opposition to her record, protesters shouted, “Julia go home!” (EdWeek).

Keleher is credited for

• delivering 1.2 million textbooks and “digital resources” to classrooms covering core subjects;
• Increasing the number of nurses in schools from 32 to 430, with each nurse getting training in screening for trauma;
• Upgrading internet bandwidth at schools; and
• Distributing 150,000 laptops and tablets to schools.

Why did it take a hurricane to bring these much needed additions to the public schools in Puerto Rico?

Feel like you’ve hear this story before? Well, you have. On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, caused a devastating $800 million in damages to the public schools, and largely destroyed state and local tax bases. Enrollment dropped  as Katrina displaced over 60,000 school-aged children, many of whom permanently moved out of New Orleans. Two weeks after Katrina, district officials cited these low enrollments as the reason for placing approximately 4,500 teachers on unpaid leave.

While New Orleans may have been without habitable buildings, students, and teachers, it was flush with financial support for charter schools. What occurred in the months following Katrina amounted to what some considered an “educational land grab” (Au et al., 2006, p. 5) and disaster capitalism (Klein, 2007). Within a month of the storm, the federal government appropriated nearly $21 million to open charter schools in New Orleans and another $24 million would follow six months later.

Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan was sharply criticized for calling Hurricane Katrina, “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans” (Washington Post).

The charter schools in New Orleans still struggle, and do not meet the expectations outlined by advocates. In comparing New Orleans to Puerto Rico, Velez said,

“In Louisiana, which is one of the models the Island tries to follow, all public schools in the city of New Orleans were converted into charters after Hurricane Katrina, but did not reach the expected academic achievement” (DailyKos).

An investigation of New Orleans charter schools in 2015 by In These Times found even more systemic failures. Communities were disrupted by the voucher system, teachers unions were gutted in favor of younger, cheaper and less experienced staff, and many students were left out or left behind because they were considered too difficult to teach. A New Orleans Times-Picayune analysis found dozens of the city’s charter school executives ended up earning well over six-figure salaries, while teachers’ pay averaged closer to $50,000.

         Keleher, Governor Rossiello, and Mrs. DeVos in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico using New Orleans as an exemplar for converting public schools to charters shows how something failed, and tells everyone you’re going to fail again.

Big business controlled where the money was spent in both places and resulted in many indictments including misappropriation of funds. History has repeated itself – and for those of us paying attention, we saw it coming. In both places we have further segregated the schools, sold children and public education to the highest bidder and essentially created a felt need to ‘save the poor children’ all under this inauspicious term – disaster capitalism. How are we going to support children’s education with charter organizations who are looking to profit, who hand-pick their students, run without any accountability -though they’re given plenty of public funding? The worst of this for Puerto Rican children is that so many have fled with their families to Florida- not without its own high level of charter/voucher corruption.

It didn’t work in New Orleans and it didn’t work in Puerto Rico. Another day, more scandals, and more indictments. This is not just about bad business decisions or accountability, this is racism, segregation and disaster capitalism.

These are my reflections for today.

7/12/19

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Knots on a counting rope

***There have been a few changes to my original post. I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Ms. Leona Tate who provided a few additional details and changes to the events originally noted in the blog.

Years ago when I was teaching fourth grade, I read a story to my students called Knots on a Counting Rope. The story is about a Native American child who asks his grandfather to tell the story of the night he was born. Every time he tells the story he puts a knot in the rope. The grandfather explains that when he’s gone, the rope will be full of knots and the boy will be able to tell the story on his own.

I recently traveled to New Orleans to research for a book my colleagues and I are writing about civil rights and segregation. I was able to visit two schools known for their fight to desegregate the public schools in New Orleans. In November 1960 there were two schools that desegregated – William Frantz Public School where six-year old Ruby Bridges entered, and McDonogh 19 where six-year old Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne entered.  When I visited Frantz it was very well-kept, in part because Ms. Bridges fought to have the school become a National Historic site- which it became just 80 days before Hurricane Katrina hit.

I drove by the other school, McDonogh 19 and found it fenced in, and boarded up.

On November 14, 1960, surrounded by Federal Marshals ordered by President Eisenhower, the McDonogh Three as they became known, entered the doors of McDonogh 19 becoming the first Black children to attend this previously all White school. There were no other children in the building – no other Black children, and no White children. When it was revealed McDonogh 19 was one of the two chosen schools to desegregate, families chose to keep their children home, rather than attend school with Black children. The girls had previously attended an all Black school.

Though the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision had come in 1954, schools in the south were very slow to begin desegregation. It took the courage of several Judges including James Skelly Wright to uphold the Brown decision and hold New Orleans accountable for desegregation.

Not one child who had previously attended McDonogh 19 returned that year, nor did they return in the first six months of the following school year. Etienne, Tate, and Prevost were the only children attending for a year and a half. The girls had only one teacher during the year.

There was one exception to the enrollment.  As parents arrived to remove their children from McDonogh 19, only two brothers remained.  When angry White protestors heard the boys were still enrolled a week later, they found out the father worked at Walgreens and sent protestors to picket outside their local Walgreens. Picket signs included many (offensive) suggestions of Walgreens hiring practices, along with racial slurs I choose not to include here. The man was so concerned he would lose his job, he went back to McDonogh 19 the next day and pulled his children from the school.

McDonogh 19 is situated on a four lane divided road in the Lower Ninth Ward. The building closed in 2004 due to low academics. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the levee breaches flooded this historic neighborhood with up to 18 feet of water, destroying homes and buildings – including McDonogh 19. Tate, Etienne, and Prevost have worked hard to save the building. As a result of their efforts, McDonogh 19 will be come the Tate, Etienne, and Prevost Interpretative Center slated to open in late 2020. According to Ms. Tate this initiative has taken ten years to come to fruition.

There is a plaque on the island in front of the school. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of that fateful day in New Orleans, The Leona Tate Foundation for Change and the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation created this memorial site to remember the brave actions of the McDonogh Three. They wanted to honor the past and inspire future generations.

If you live in New Orleans, you know the story because many people still live there who remember that fateful day in 1960, and they remember what happened to the Lower Ninth Ward after that when White families fled the neighborhood rather than have their children attend school with Black children.

If you go to New Orleans and truly want to learn about the city, I suggest spending time away from the French Quarter. This is how you get to know the people and their struggles before and after Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaches. This is a story worth telling, and a story worth remembering.

Ms. Tate, I hope you, Ms. Etienne, and Ms. Prevost will write your memories of the days before and after November 14, 1960. It is a story worth telling and re-telling – like knots on a counting rope – until we know it by heart.

And thank you Ms. Tate for speaking with me today, and ensuring your story is accurate.

Watch this touching video on Leona’s vision for McDonogh 19.

These are my reflections for today.

6/14/19

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Pastors supporting public education

Last year I wrote about Charles Foster Johnson, a pastor from Texas and the executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, an independent ministry and outreach group of 2,000 pastors and church leaders across Texas. Their mission is: To provide “wrap-around care and ministry to local schools, principals, teachers, staff and schoolchildren, and to advocate for children by supporting our free, public education system, to promote social justice for children, and to advance legislation that enriches Texas children, families, and communities (Pastors for Texas Children).

This group was followed by similar groups formed in Tennessee and Oklahoma.

The movement has now spread to Florida where a group of 10 statewide denominational leaders and 45 church leaders have organized Pastors for Florida Children. Similar to the group in Texas, Pastors for Florida Children is focused on advocating for the needs of the nearly three-million public school children across the State of Florida.  Their mission is to “provide care and ministry to local schools, principals, teachers, staff and schoolchildren, and to advocate for children by supporting our free, public education system, to promote social justice for children, and to advance legislation that enriches Florida children, families, and communities” (Ravitch).

In a press release last week, the group said, “Pastors for Florida Children oppose the continued expansion of private and religious voucher programs. Money is being drained from our traditional public schools that serve 90% of Florida’s children” (Ravitch).

In the letter to the Florida legislature, pastors argue,

The faith leaders are standing up for their local public schools, demanding that Florida legislators reject to the forces of using public funding to support private and charter schools.

This movement may have started in part because the Florida Legislature is once again about to promote public school vouchers for private or charter schools. Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have proposed an expansion of voucher programs. The “Family Empowerment” voucher proposed in SB 7070 appears to be in direct violation of the Florida Supreme Court’s 2006 Bush v. Holmes decision in that public dollars from the general treasury are being diverted to separate, private systems that are parallel to, and in competition with, free public schools (Ravitch).

“What we are seeing today is the initiation of a response to a proposal to award  $150 million put out to about 15,000 students (to expand voucher programs) in the state of Florida and the faith based community has come to say that is so wrong on so many levels,” said Rev. James Golden, with Pastors for Florida Children (WTXL).

Rachel Shapard, an ordained minister and spokeswoman for the group said, “We are absolutely for neighborhood community public schools and making sure that they are fully funded so that every child has the opportunity to thrive. We see vouchers as something that directly affects public schools.” (FloridaPhoenix.com).

Not all religious leaders support this movement. Pastor Marilyn Rivera, president of the South Florida Hispanic Ministers Association supports the movement in Florida to pass school choice legislation.  “While we support our public school system, we also strongly believe that parents should have more options when it comes to the education of their children” (FloridaPhoenix.com).

Pastor Rivera, you can have more choices for education, but it should not come at the expense of the public schools. How are charter schools accountable in Florida for enrolling students with special needs? English Language Learners? Are you aware that students with special needs in many Florida charters are not provided with the services they need? What is the success rate of charters in Florida? (over 30% either never opened or failed) Did you know the Federal government gave almost $35 million to charter school expansion between 2006 and 2014 and almost 37% of them either shut down or never opened? Are you aware that the number of minority students in charters is not evenly reflected in the enrollment of public schools?

In an open letter to the Legislature, the organization said, “Our elected leaders have a duty to fund public schools for all of God’s children; not subsidize private and religious education for those who would gamble taxpayer money on a parallel educational system that will have virtually no oversight or accountability. Florida citizens should not be forced into a constitutional confrontation between those who choose private and religious schools and those who choose their neighborhood public schools” (Ravitch).

Awareness of the implications of charter schools is spreading through communities, schools, and now religious institutions. The more educated we become, the more we truly understand the issues facing the growth of charters – including but not limited to segregation, misappropriation of funds, lack of accountability, and a failure to provide services for students with special needs. Please keep reading, talking, and sharing. It’s working.

These are my reflections for today.

5/10/19

Post script: Mrs. DeVos had a very bad week. Read about it on my Facebook page.

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This week in charter scandals

Let’s start in Chicago where Michael Milkie, Noble Network founder and CEO was arrested for a pattern of inappropriate actions toward women affiliated with the school. “Milkie is charged with a pattern behavior across several incidents, including hand-holding and an instance of slow-dancing with an alumna” (Chicago Sun Times).

“We think this needs independent review,” said Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Nicholas Schuler, whose office recently took over investigations of reports of sexual abuse at CPS schools, said Wednesday (Chicago Sun Times).

Milkie was paid $262,138 in salary and benefits, while Noble reported $165 million in revenue.

According to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, if you’re a black student enrolled in one of Missouri’s charter schools, 81% of your peers are black, too. The same is true for white students enrolled in traditional public schools: If you’re white, 83% of your classmates are white. This has earned Missouri the fourth-lowest charter school integration policy score in the country (Missourian).

In Pennsylvania more than a dozen former employees of the Easton Arts Academy Charter Elementary School have complained the Chief Academic Officer Shawn Ferrara is “ruining the school” (Lehigh Valley Live).

Teachers described Ferrara as someone who “screamed at children, joked about zapping a child with a car battery and took pride in crossing out teachers’ photos on a “bingo board” as they were fired (Lehigh Valley Live).  During his tenure, the school faced a lawsuit alleging administrators changed grades and ignored some students’ special needs. Additonally, an allegation against Ferrara came from Susan Bostian, a principal who stated in a lawsuit that Ferrara “threw out her employee evaluations, rewrote them and forced her to sign off on them” (Lehigh Valley Live).

As of April 1, Ferrara is on leave, but teachers said it took a long time to have the Board listen to their complaints. And in the most egregious part of the story, though the school receives $5 million in public funding annually, the school board was selected by school founder Thomas Lubben and as members leave, the remaining members choose the replacements (Lehigh Valley Live).

The chickens are always going to lose when the fox is in the hen house.

In New Orleans, the state has recommended the closure of the Smothers Academy Preparatory School, an F-rated charter school in Jefferson Parish, amid allegations of financial mismanagement and a failure to properly serve roughly 40% of enrolled students with disabilities (The Advocate).

According to the report, “the charter organization’s CEO, Damon Smothers, received an unauthorized advance from the school of $20,000, and that officials used credit cards for personal expenses, among other issues. The credit card expenses “were not supported by receipts and appeared to include personal expenditures and alcohol purchases… The school also “failed to make health and supplemental insurance payments on time, causing a two-month lapse in coverage for employees. (The Advocate).

In Baton Rouge, Laurel Oaks Charter School, Principal Shafeeq Shamsid-Deen was accused of “locking a 5-year-old girl in a closet to discipline her” (The Advocate).

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the school has had additional issues stemming from allegations of financial mismanagement along with a failure to properly screen teachers and administrators hired to work at the school. While the Board and administration are fighting for the school to remain open, the charges are stacking up:

• At least seven teachers and administrators worked much of this school year without criminal background checks, including a second-grade teacher who shouldn’t have been teaching due a prior conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
• No proof that 16 more employees, listed as being employed at the school in the past year at various time, had undergone criminal background checks.
• Current CEO Stefanie Ashford was paid $3,000 three days after she took the job. Minutes of the board’s Oct. 22 meeting list Ashford as still serving as the board president as of that date. That would violate a state rule against charter schools employing board members.
• Joseph Wicker loaned the school $15,000 on Sept. 14 and six days later was named to the board of directors. He was later paid $4,000 in interest on the loan while serving as a board member.

In Houston, charges have been filed against Houston Gateway Academy Superintendent Richard Garza, including one count of conspiracy, two counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, three counts of wire fraud and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions involving criminally acquired property. Ahmad Bokaiyan, a technology support specialist at the school, was charged with conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud. “They are now considered fugitives“, according to a federal court records (Chron.com).

“According to the indictment, Garza awarded a $280,841.85 no-bid contract in 2014 to a group called Hot Rod Systems to build an IT infrastructure at the new school, even though construction on the school had not yet begun. Hot Rod Systems was owned by Bokaiyan. Prosecutors say the two Houston Gateway Academy employees agreed that Bokaiyan would wire some of that contract money into one of Garza’s personal bank accounts. Within days of receiving the contract money from Garza, Bokaiyan wired the superintendent $164,381 (Chron.com).

The indictment alleges Garza used more than $50,000 to buy a new sport utility vehicle, more than $86,500 to help purchase a condominium, and nearly $26,000 to help make payments on a house loan (Chron.com).

Six virtual charter schools in Indiana was receiving funding to educate the nearly 2,000 students enrolled. Recent data revealed students did not earn even one single credit. “That works out to almost $10 million in state funding paid to the online schools for students who didn’t complete any work or got failing grades in their classes” (IndyStar.com).

But wait, there’s more – “In Indiana, there is no penalty for schools if students don’t earn any credits, whether or not the state has paid their school” (IndyStar.com). Virtual schools in Indiana have consistently low academic results; with below-average graduation and test score passing rates.

The lack of accountability in charters makes all of this possible. Who can we blame for the lack of oversight and the continued push for charters? It started before DeVos bought her job at DOE, but she is feeding this beast faster than those before her – and with data showing every reason why she shouldn’t.

These are my reflections for today.

4/19/19

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Online Preschool – I kid you not

In another “I can’t make this shit up” blog, here’s one about the “ingenious” idea of online preschool. According to the Hechinger Report, online preschool programs offer “everything from educational games to a full preschool curriculum complete with boxes of activities that are shipped to a student’s home and a teacher’s guide for an adult.”

Programs are sold as ‘award winning curriculum’, some include science, art, and virtual field trips to animated farms. One program offers children “the promise of academic growth in as little as 15 minutes a day, five days a week” (Hechinger Report).

Online preschool is a growing industry, currently used in Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In some areas, parents use this as a supplement to in-person preschool, while others use it as the only preschool. Most programs are offered by for-profit companies. The fastest-growing is UPSTART, which was developed by the nonprofit Waterford Institute and is advertised as a kindergarten-readiness program.

Claudia Miner, chief UPSTART officer for the Waterford Institute said, “UPSTART encourages parents to be involved in their child’s learning. Parents receive frequent calls from a representative who provides developmental information about preschoolers, monitors their child’s usage to make sure they are not overusing the program and provides offline activities parents can do with their child” (Hechinger Report).

Last week in North Carolina, legislators introduced HB 485 that would create a 3-year pilot program to deliver Pre-school education at home to families living below the poverty line, as well as children of active duty military personnel. The program, UPSTART, would cost taxpayers $500,000 annually. It would be available to families living below the federal poverty line and children of active duty military personnel (Parmenter).

HB 485 would

(i) evaluate the effectiveness of giving preschool-age children access, at home, to interactive individualized instruction delivered by computers and the Internet to prepare them academically for success in school; and
(ii) test the feasibility of scaling a home-based curriculum in reading, math, and science delivered by computers and the Internet to all preschool-age children in the State.

Early childhood experts, psychologists, researchers, and education advocates have come out against such programs, noting most consistently that children who have access to high-quality preschool benefit greatly. “They are more likely to graduate from high school and are less likely to be held back. Children who lack access to quality preschool are often the target of these online programs” (Barnett & Husdedt, 2003).

Online preschool education is estimated to be a $70 billion a year market. Companies such K12 Inc. and CHALK are selling the idea that kindergarten readiness can be transmitted virtually. These companies and other like them are nothing more than a marketing scheme trying to profit from one of our most vulnerable populations.

Diane Levin, a professor of early childhood education at Boston University’s Wheelock College and co-founder of Defending the Early Years said, “Young children learn best when they have hands-on, concrete real experiences with the world. The more in-depth the learning from that is … the more solid the foundation is so that when they get older, they can move on to the next stages of cognitive development” (Hechinger Report).

Defending the Early Years and the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood came out with a strong statement against online preschool education.

“As educators and advocates we are deeply troubled by this growing trend to falsely market technology and machine learning as an acceptable way to teach young children.  All of our knowledge about human development demonstrates that children learn best through playful, hands-on experiences with materials, the natural world, and relationships with caring adults. By adopting online pre-k, states are harming kids and families for the benefit of private industry (DEY.org).

Over 100 leading early childhood experts and organizations have signed the position statement. Here are a few salient points: (DEYproject.org).

• Online pre-K may expose kids and families to new types of risks. Research shows that screen overuse puts young children at risk of behavior problems, sleep deprivation, delays in social emotional development, and obesity.
• Extended time on screens diminishes time spent on essential early learning experiences such as lap-reading, creative play, and other social forms of learning.
• Relational learning requires healthy interactions with adults, and online experiences falsely marketed as “preschool” sabotage the development of these essential relationships.
• Early learning is not a product. It is a process of social and relational interactions that are fundamental to children’s later development.

Targeting our most vulnerable populations for profit is bad practice. I looked closely at the list of signatures/organizations against this idea (DEYproject.org). This should scream loudly to the harmful impact these programs can have on young children. But why should we believe doctors, educational researchers, teachers, child development experts, psychologists, and parents?

 

These are my reflections for today.

4/12/19

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Cory Booker’s record doesn’t support public education.

On Friday, January 18, 2019, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) was the keynote speaker for the “Project LIVE & Achieve” Rally for Excellence.  In attendance were 5,000 students from over 20 local schools across the New Orleans. Booker appeared at the invitation of rally hosts InspireNOLA Charter Schools and U.S. Representative Cedric Richmond (D-New Orleans).

 

Where does Cory Booker stand when it comes to public education? The answer is rather long but consistent, and begins with his days as mayor of Newark, NJ. In a fascinating article by Dale Russakoff (2014), Schooled tells the story of the relationship between Booker, then-governor Chris Christie, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Russakoff explains how the three were going to “reform” public schools in Newark which had been under state control since 1998. The three met in 2010 and discussed their plan to close failing public schools, open charter schools in their place, and redistrict schools which often led families having their children in several different schools across Newark. Zuckerberg gave $100 million, which went to pay, among other things, exorbitant administrative salaries, and $20 million went to consultants who were paid a thousand dollars a day. After two years, there was very little improvement in the education of the children in Newark.

In 2012, Booker delivered the keynote address at the School Choice Policy Summit in Jersey City. He was invited to speak by the American Federation for Children, a group chaired by Betsy DeVos. DeVos, as we know is a proponent of school choice—especially of for-profit charter schools and voucher programs that would allow students to use public funds to attend private schools (Mother Jones).  DeVos said she was “proud and honored” to include Booker in the “committed group of education leaders who have courageously stood up to put the interests of children first by supporting expanded educational options for families” (Mother Jones).

Booker told the audience the traditional public school system “still chokes out the potential of millions of children…” He said the solution was aligned with what he and Christie were doing in Newark; replacing failing neighborhood schools with publicly funded, privately managed charters that students could opt into based on their desires and needs (Mother Jones). Except it didn’t work.

Some schools did outperform the public schools, but many in Newark believe that was because charter schools were getting a lot more money for classrooms and school buildings than the district schools. Some of that money also went to ensuring each school had social workers – who worked with students suffering trauma from growing up in a violent neighborhood. According to NPR, “The charter school had created a position called the dean of student and family engagement, whose job it was to work with children whose issues outside the classroom were making it virtually impossible for them to learn effectively. So this particular dean would find someone in each child’s family to be responsible for their learning. If it wasn’t a parent or a grandparent, it would be a neighbor” (NPR).  Providing classrooms with what teachers need to succeed, and services for what students need would be successful in all schools in Newark, not just the charters.

In 2013 Booker left Newark for Washington as New Jersey’s newly elected Senator. While in the Senate, Booker has continued his disparaging remarks on the failure of public schools in America.  In Congress, Booker fulfilled the mandate of his corporate backers by supporting initiatives like the extension of Washington D.C.’s school voucher system. He also joined the advisory board of Democrats for Educational Reform (DFER), which has successfully pushed school reform with the Democratic Party and, more recently, has taken the lead in trying to stop the teachers’ strike wave (Jacobinmag.com).

But here’s the thing – He supported LA teachers – while the same week he gave the keynote address at a charter school rally in New Orleans. One of the arguments LA teachers had was fighting to stop a billionaire-funded plan to privatize the public school system. Eric Blanc writes, “Booker explicitly defines “public school” as a body that is publicly financed, but not necessarily publicly run, such claims should be taken with a grain of salt (Jacobinmag.com).

Likely preparing for his announcement to run for the White House, Booker created some space not only between himself and the push for privatization, but also to his long-standing support for Betsy DeVos. He appears to want to stand for both sides, which may not be an effective strategy in the coming year. The strongly successful teachers strikes across the country as well as the almost daily reports of charter corruption and scandal are not going to sell well to an awakening American public more and more aware that charters are not the answer – and fully funding public schools is a more viable option.

As the campaign kicks off, many will want to hear Booker’s position on funding public and charter schools. Teachers’ union presidents Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers and Lily Eskelsen García of the National Education Association as well as millions of public school teachers and parents across the country anxiously await Booker to fall off the fence, one way or the other. My guess is he will not earn either union’s support.

As Blanc writes, “Though Cory Booker is a serious threat to public education’s survival, in some ways we should be thankful that he is running for president. By throwing his hat into the ring, Booker has ensured that school privatization will become a central point of debate this primary season. Regardless of his rhetorical evolution over the coming months, Booker’s candidacy will be nothing less than a popular referendum on corporate education reform”.

Cory Booker has shown his alliance with big pharma and Wall Street. He may or may not support the work of Betsy DeVos, and nobody is sure what side of the fence he’s on with regards to public vs. charter schools. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.

These are my reflections for today.

2/15/19

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