In Case You Missed It – December 9, 2024

Here are links to articles from the last three weeks^† receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

There are quite a few articles in this issue...presented to you with a minimum of quoting and no comments.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"...I want us to move beyond the last two decades of teach-to-the-test, which almost all of my students saw as a sign of disrespect, treating them like a test score. We all need to participate in cross-generational conversations on how we can do both – defeat the attempts by Ryan Walters to impose rightwing ideologies on our students, and build on their strengths and moral compass in order to prepare our kids for the 21stcentury." -- John Thompson in Will We Ever Get Free of NCLB’s Mandates and Let Teachers Teach?

POLITICS

Heather Cox Richardson: Eliminating the Department of Education?

From Diane Ravitch

Trump has promised to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. He needs Congressional approval to do it.

Tell Your Senators to Vote "No" for Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education

From Diane Ravitch

The Network for Public Education Action strongly opposes the nomination of Linda McMahon as U.S. Secretary of Education. Ms. McMahon is unqualified and inexperienced in school governance. She has demonstrated little interest in children or schools outside of a short, politically appointed stint on the Connecticut Board of Education.

What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for Public Education

From the Texas Observer

Houston native and education expert Diane Ravitch urges a fight for "the future of Texas, and for the future of the children" under Trump's proposed reforms.

Trump’s Threatened Immigration Deportations Would Traumatize Students and Disrupt Public Schools

From Jan Resseger

...Chalkbeat‘s Kalyn Belsha explores some recent history to remind readers about what happens when massive raids disrupt public schools and terrify children and adolescents: “When immigration agents raided chicken processing plants in central Mississippi in 2019, they arrested nearly 700 undocumented workers—many of them parents of children enrolled in local schools. Teens got frantic texts to leave class and find their younger siblings. Unfamiliar faces whose names weren’t on the pick-up list showed up to take children home. School staff scrambled to make sure no child went home to an empty house, while the owner of a local gym threw together a temporary shelter for kids with nowhere else to go. In the Scott County School District, a quarter of the district’s Latino students, around 150 children, were absent from school the next day. When dozens of kids continued to miss school, staff packed onto school buses and went door to door with food, trying to reassure families that it was safe for their children to return. Academics were on hold for weeks, said Tony McGee, the district’s superintendent at the time. “We went into kind of a Mom and Dad mode and just cared for kids,” McGee said. While some children bounced back quickly, others were shaken for months. “You could tell there was still some worry on kids’ hearts.”

Public Education: The Bully and the Dream

From Teacher in a Strange Land

...If all we’re doing right now (guiltily raising hand) is re-posting that video clip of Linda McMahon getting body-slammed, we’re not helping preserve, let alone improve, public education. When our focus is on fighting bad policy, especially policy that hasn’t yet been enacted, we need to have better ideas—dreams, if you will—about what public education should look like in our back pocket.

INDIANA NEWS

Braun education panel lacks educators

From School Matters

Something is missing from the education transition council that Indiana Gov.-elect Mike Braun appointed recently. Several things, actually.

It includes no teachers.

Indiana charter group to push for property tax revenue sharing

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

A recently formed group representing Indiana’s growing public charter school sector says it’ll push lawmakers to make traditional public schools share local property tax revenue.

Indiana Charter Innovation Center President and CEO Scott Bess said his group’s request starts with the core principle underlying Indiana’s approach to funding education: money follows the student.

OHIO NEWS

Ohio’s Legislators Focus on Culture Wars & Private School Vouchers. In Next Session, Will Legislators Fully Fund Public Schools?

From Jan Resseger

As the 135th Ohio General Assembly winds down its lame-duck session at the end of 2024, there is not a lot off cheerful and exciting news for the state’s public schools.

Ohio lawmakers move to override local control and mandate mix of religion with public school time

From Ohio Capital Journal

Funny how Republicans running red states have done a 180 on indoctrination of students in public schools — as long as it’s Bible-based indoctrination. Ohio appears on the verge of following Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and others in turning public schools into officially sanctioned Sunday schools with religious messages and mandates. The intensifying GOP push to incorporate more religion in public education is clearly an effort to indoctrinate students with preeminently Christian beliefs.

POST SECONDARY EDUCATION

Hechinger Report: Rural Students Lose Options, as Universities Cut Majors

From Diane Ravitch

A team of reporters at The Hechinger Report describe the damages of budget cuts at rural universities. The universities respond to declining enrollments and declining revenues by eliminating majors; students who want those majors are left in the lurch. Chemistry, science, math, foreign languages, philosophy, physics—Almost everything is on the chopping block somewhere.

LET TEACHERS TEACH

John Thompson: Will We Ever Get Free of NCLB’s Mandates and Let Teachers Teach?

From Diane Ravitch

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, wonders if the days of authentic teaching and learning will ever return. After a quarter-century of NCLB mandates, are there still teachers who remember what it was like in the pre-NCLB days. John does.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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In Case You Missed It – Aug 26, 2019

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

DAVID KOCH DIES

David Koch Dies, Funder of Attacks on Public Schools

From Diane Ravitch

David Koch died of cancer a few days ago. He and his brother funded the free-market libertarianism that fueled the rise of the Tea Party and Trumpism. They zealously fought to destroy any government program that helped people, from Medicare to Social Security.

They were major funders of ALEC. They opposed any government regulations.

The story in the New York Times falls to mention that they funded attacks on public education and teacher certification, and they zealously supported charter schools and vouchers.

VIRTUAL CHARTERS GET $47 MILLION, BUT WANT MORE

Teachers who continued to work at failing Indiana virtual schools won’t get a final paycheck

These two virtual charter schools over-collected $47 million yet they can’t find the money to pay their teachers for their last month’s work? They suggest the teachers try to get their money from Daleville.

From Chalkbeat*

When Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy agreed to close amid enrollment scrutiny earlier this summer, special education teacher Andi Helms started looking for another job.

But even after she found a position at another school, Helms kept working for the troubled online schools at night, reviewing special education plans and helping students finish classes and transfer to new schools. Even as the schools began to collapse — their state funding cut off entirely — Helms felt strongly that she couldn’t leave students in the lurch.

“We were pretty sure we weren’t going to get paid,” she said. “They knew there were no funds a month ago. They simply wanted us to finish the job, because they knew we wouldn’t leave our kids high and dry.”

This week, Mary Jane Lapointe, an attorney for the two virtual schools, delivered the anticipated bad news: Teachers wouldn’t be paid for the work they did between July 15 and Aug. 15.

As they ask for more money, two Indiana virtual schools say they are all but closed

From Chalkbeat

...despite painting a picture of schools that are all but shut down, she asked the oversight agency, Daleville Community Schools, for money to finish closing the schools — or even to keep them open, saying the schools’ problems could “go away eventually.” Lapointe also disputed the state auditors’ recent findings that the schools had over-reported enrollment and taken in $47 million more in state funding than they should have.

IMMIGRATION POLICIES HURT CHILDREN

Six ways Trump’s new ‘public benefits’ immigration policies could hurt children and schools

From the Answer Sheet

This post looks at how children and public schools could be harmed by this legislation. It comes from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which seeks to publish high-quality research on issues affecting education. It is directed by Kevin Welner, who is a professor at the school specializing in educational policy and law.

TIME TO REQUIRE KINDERGARTEN?

Kindergarten has become a critical year of learning, but Indiana still doesn’t require it

Let’s advocate for Kindergarten in our state, but let's make sure the early grades in our schools are developmentally appropriate. Help our legislators know that when we ask for Kindergarten, we are asking for play, music, art, snacks, and stories— and not for sitting at a desk and using a computer screen or a pencil for hours on end.

From Chalkbeat

“The reality is that we have kids who come into kindergarten or first grade classrooms that don’t even know how to hold a book,” McCormick said. “They haven’t been exposed to print. Sometimes they’re not potty trained.”

The sooner those kids can get into a high-quality educational setting, the better, she said.

McCormick said her team will continue to advocate for a variety of strategies to strengthen Indiana’s early childhood education landscape. Mandatory kindergarten is still on the wish list.

TEACHER INSERVICE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR

The Thirteen Presenters Who Will Ruin Your First Day Back

Beginning of the year teacher inservice should be short, informative, and inspirational. Too often, it is none of those things.

From Curmudgucation

It's been a great summer. You've had a chance to recharge and reflect. You've developed some new ideas, units, and materials, and most importantly, away from the dailiness of the job, you have gotten back in touch with all the reasons you love the work. You cannot wait to get back to it., take a couple of in service days to get fully up to speed, and then-- bring on the students!

Unfortunately, your administration thinks that your very first day(s) back should be spent sitting in some professional development sessions. In some lucky few school districts, these sessions will actually be useful and even inspiring. But if you are really unfortunate, you'll spend those sessions with one of these soul-crushing people...

EDUCATING HOLCOMB ON HOW TO RAISE TEACHER SALARIES

‘This is not rocket science’: Indiana educators bring ideas for raising teacher pay to Holcomb’s commission

From Chalkbeat

The suggestions put forth over more than two hours largely reiterated familiar calls: to reallocate funding from charter schools to public schools, strengthen teachers’ power to bargain their contracts, and bring back a pay scale that guarantees more pay for teachers each year they work.

Many teachers said they were thankful for the opportunity to be heard — but said they had shared these suggestions before.

A REMEMBRANCE

Remembering Phyllis

From Facebook and NEIFPE

Teacher, Ohio public education activist, and friend of NEIFPE, Dan Greenberg posted this remembrance of NEIFPE co-founder Phyllis Bush this morning on Facebook.

PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD INCLUDE CIVICS

A true public education: To fully prepare students for life outside school, a curriculum of citizenship is essential

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

For our democracy to thrive, we citizens must be engaged in the community, understand how local, state, and national policies and rhetoric affect our lives, and be informed voters. We must work toward the day when no elected official ever misrepresents American history (even if the teleprompter is covered with raindrops), where elected representatives speak truth to power, and where the average citizen can differentiate between legitimate information and propaganda, real news and fake news, truth and lies.

*Note: Chalkbeat sponsors include pro-charter foundations and individuals such as EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

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