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.

###

In Case You Missed It – May 1, 2023

Here are links to last week's^† articles 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.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“[No Child Left Behind] will test the poor against the rich and then announce that the poor are failing. Federally required tests without federally required equity amounts to clubbing these children over the head after systematically cheating them.” -- the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone quoted in The Education Myth and by Jan Resseger.

END TESTING WASTE

It's Testing Damn Season Again

Yes. States are still wasting hours of instructional time and millions of dollars on useless standardized tests which continue to be used to punish poor children and their teachers. Peter Greene is tired of it.

From Curmudgucation

Do you want extra education time to make up for Learning Loss, or to simply expand educational offerings and opportunities for students? Get rid of the state test.

Do you want to claw back some financial savings and reclaim taxpayer dollars for more educational supports? Get rid of the state test.

Do you want to refocus schools on meeting students needs for education and support instead of focusing on getting the students to provide the test scores the school needs? Do you want to focus on the whole child instead of the test-taking child? Get rid of the state test.

This is such a waste. A waste of time, resources, attention, money and teachers' professional expertise. A bad idea poorly executed. End it.

REMEMBER FAILED REFORM

We Need to Be Sure People Don’t Forget the Recent History of Failed School Reform

The recent culture wars against public education shouldn't keep us from remembering the failure of the last several decades of school "reform."

From Jan Resseger

I was stunned when early in April, the PBS NewHour brought in Margaret Spellings and Arnie Duncan to explain the meaning of a “Learning Heroes” survey showing that while parents think their children are doing fine in school and recovering from the disruption of Covid, standardized test scores show that our kids aren’t doing so well at all.

Nancy Bailey exposes the likely bias of Learning Heroes, a “campaign” funded by the Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and other foundations supporting corporate-style, test-and-punish school reform. Couldn’t this be another attempt to expose so-called “failing schools”?

I suspect that several of us wrote to the PBS NewsHour to challenge the bias of the “experts” they brought in to comment on education policy. I was especially grateful when Diane Ravitch captured the problem in her letter to the NewsHour: “Spellings and Duncan spent years promoting failed policies and are now called upon by PBS to comment on the outcomes of their punitive and ineffective ideas. They are in no position to say where we went wrong, because they were the architects of the disaster. You really should invite dispassionate experts to review their record, rather than invite those who imposed bad ideas.”

INDIANA EMBRACES CENSORSHIP

Book challenge, 'harmful material' language passed in unrelated bill

There was no doubt that Indiana would join in the culture wars against public education sweeping US red states. We are already on board with denying parents the right to decide on their children's medical care.

Now the state has a book-banning bill on deck...because of the huge amount of imaginary pornography in our public schools.

What's the procedure for killing public education and driving educators out of Indiana? The answer is clear to the Republican super-majority in both of Indiana's legislative houses.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Proposed legislation targeting “harmful material” in school libraries appeared to stall several times this session, but Indiana lawmakers revived the language and passed it Thursday in an unrelated bill.

A conference committee added the language to House Bill 1447, which addresses other education issues, including surveys for students. It passed mostly along party lines in both Republican-held chambers.

The bill now would require schools to publish a catalog of books and create procedures for parents or community members to challenge library books that might be obscene or harmful to minors. It would also remove the legal defense that a person provided harmful material to a minor for educational purposes.

Democrats and other critics of the bill say it will have a chilling effect on teachers and librarians.

INDIANA LEGISLATORS GO AFTER TEACHERS UNIONS

“Union busting” bill opposed by Indiana teachers heads to governor’s desk

Somehow the Republican super-majority thinks that not requiring discussion between teachers and administrators will lead to an increased discussion between teachers and administrators.

This is a state that truly hates its public schools and public school educators

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

Despite weeks of rallying by Hoosier teachers, the Indiana Senate narrowly advanced a hotly-debated “union-busting bill” to the governor’s desk Tuesday.

Educators and union leaders maintain that Senate Bill 486 will “silence teachers” by stripping their rights to discuss concerns over student learning with school administrators.

Specifically, the bill no longer requires school administrators to discuss topics like class sizes, curriculum and student discipline with teachers and their union. State law in place now has required such discussions for the last 50 years.

The bill was approved in a 27-23 vote after more than an hour of debate on the chamber floor. It’s not clear where Gov. Eric Holcomb stands on the issue.

Republican lawmakers in favor of the proposal have said it’s a “deregulation bill” that will empower administrators and educators. They argued the changes will ensure discussions about working conditions are more open to non-union teachers and are not limited to the 16 topics in state law.

INCREASED FUNDING

Chaotic, twelfth-hour push nets $312M increase for traditional K-12

After expanding funding for religious and private schools, Indiana's Republican super-majority was shamed into increasing funding for public schools as well -- a portion of which will also go to religious and private schools.

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

Late Thursday, legislative leaders announced a last-minute change to the budget, however, in an effort to ease backlash. Multiple lawmakers were also reportedly unhappy to learn that their school districts received so little money after the voucher expansion.

Now, those per-student funding increases have improved somewhat to 5.3% in the first year, and then to 1.8% the next. With the change, schools will see $8.84 billion for tuition support in fiscal year 2024, and $9.03 billion in fiscal year 2025.

That’s $312.1 million more over the biennium — an additional $148 million in year one of the budget, and $164 million the second — compared to the earlier draft of the budget. Since vouchers get a portion of this funding, their spending also increased.

At his own local schools in Fort Wayne, House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta said school funding increased by 1.6% the first year and actually decreased by 0.6% in the second year.

“Last week, we find out we have $1.5 billion extra and my school district is losing money. Even with the additional funds (the second year is) negative 0.4%,” GiaQuinta said. “There’s no doubt that played a part into some of the last-minute scrambling over extra dollars.”

FED GRANT FOR FWCS

$10 million grant to benefit Fort Wayne Community Schools mental health services

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools is getting a nearly $10 million federal grant to boost mental health services.

“This is huge,” board member Steve Corona said Monday to Regan Fry, project director for the competitive grant. “Why didn’t you bring Champagne?”

The board unanimously approved acceptance of the five-year U.S. Department of Education grant, which will expand mental health capacity in 16 secondary schools that collectively serve about 15,000 students.

“That’s where we lack the most mental health support,” Fry said.

An increase of 60 FWCS mental health providers during the next five years would reduce the ratio of mental health providers for middle and high school students from 1 to 2,933 to 1 to 244, according to the grant award description released by the federal government.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and 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.

###

In Case You Missed It – April 10, 2023

Here are links to last week's^† articles 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.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Voucher programs change swiftly from a minor expense to a major budget expense, an unaccountable taxpayer-funded subsidy for private schools even as public schools are slowly defunded. Any promise that a voucher program will have a minor impact on state finances is an empty one." -- Peter Greene

CENSORSHIP IN INDIANA

Indiana: Bill Would Criminalize Librarians, Allow Parents to Censor Books

The Indiana General Assembly is not against censorship. While Republicans in the Indiana legislature might think Indiana teachers are competent enough to carry around loaded weapons, they certainly don't think teachers are capable of choosing appropriate reading material for their students.

On the other hand, parents, who legislators consider too incompetent to make their own decisions about medical care for their children, are more than capable of deciding what reading material should be available to their children, and every other child in their local schools.

From Diane Ravitch

The Indiana legislature is considering a bill that would empower parents to censor books they find objectionable and to criminalize librarians who allow such books in libraries. The story was originally reported on WYFI, the NPR station in Indiana.

Chalkbeat reported:

The House Education Committee heard hours of testimony Wednesday from school employees, librarians, and others across Indiana who expressed opposition to a proposed amendment to a bill that would strip these employees of a legal defense against charges they distributed material harmful to minors.

The hearing was the latest evolution in a months-long legislative process driven by concerns among some parents that pornography is rampant in schools. While lawmakers have drafted legislation to address these concerns, they’ve presented little evidence to suggest it’s a widespread problem. The latest iteration of the legislation also targets public libraries.

Indiana lawmakers debate bill allowing parents to challenge “obscene and harmful” library materials

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

Current Indiana law already outlines criteria that has to be met for a book to be considered criminal.

Outlawed materials must, as a whole:

• describe or represent, in any form, nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse
• appeal to the prurient interest in sex of minors
• be patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable matter for or performance before minors
• lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors

Lawmakers aren’t seeking to change Indiana’s decades-old statutory definitions. Republicans held, too, that they aren’t seeking to have classic novels or books “where someone has two moms or two dads.”

“I don’t think anybody thinks the word sex is obscene or sexually explicit,” Cash said, referring to individual references that might exist within a single book. “And if they do — well, that’s why there’s a process.”

But Democrats on the committee repeatedly pointed out that while some parents view certain materials as harmful or obscene, others might disagree.

MONEY FOR TESTING

Lobbyists Congratulate Themselves for 20 Years of NCLB Standardized Testing

There are piles of dollars to be made in public education, even if you don't have a clue about education!

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

It’s hard to learn your lesson – especially if doing so costs you money.

Case in point: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the largest lobbying organization in the country, issued a new report examining the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the George W. Bush era law making standardized testing the centerpiece of K-12 education.

So an organization representing oil companies, pharmaceutical giants and automakers just opined on public school policy as if it were made up of experts.

And guess what?

Business folks don’t know what the heck they’re talking about in education.

Because after sorting through 20 years of NCLB controversy, political shenanigans and factual mistakes, the supply side cabal thinks the law is just fine.

It’s kind of like a judge watching a driver plow his car into a brick wall repeatedly and then instead of taking away his license, awarding him a safe driver certificate.

It doesn’t take a political scientist to figure out why.

Think about it. These are supply side cultists. If our education policy is working just fine as is, then there’s no need to raise taxes on all the business interests the free market fan club represents to fix the problem.

And, moreover, we can keep funneling the education dollars we do spend to corporations (many of whom are represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation) who profit off the law by making tests, grading tests and selling test prep material.

The only thing shocking here (maybe) is the way the media publishes the Foundation’s results as if they were truths handed down from on high.

What’s the matter, journalists? You’ve never heard of a conflict of interest?

An organization like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation with proven ties to the Koch Brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is somehow the epitome of unbiased advocacy!?

The organization’s own report describes the Foundation as “tireless advocates for high-quality academic standards, assessments, and accountability as tools for educational equity.”

By its own admission, then, this is the testing industry evaluating itself. And – surprise – it gave itself a high score!

VOUCHERS: THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD...AGAIN

Voucher expansion shows lawmakers have lost sight of their mission

In 2011, Indiana's voucher program was started to "help poor kids in failing schools." Back then there was no talk about fixing the so-called "failing" schools...just get some kids out and let the public school system collapse.

Now we know the plan to help "poor kids" was just another ruse to transfer public dollars to private hands. It has taken a while, but the Republicans in the Indiana General Assembly have, once again, raised the state's investment in school vouchers. Now it's possible for wealthy folks -- who would have sent their children to private schools anyway -- to send their kids to private schools on the public's dime.

And the poor kids? They're going to be left in underfunded public schools.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

What many people who voted to support this program of parental choice don’t know is that it was never intended to get “poor kids out of failing schools.” What the state does not want the people to know is that every single promise they ever made about how the voucher program would be run, and who would benefit the most from it, has been compromised.

But allow me to stick to just one simple angle of the big lie and debunk it once and for all, then we can get back to our need for a modern-day Robin Hood.

Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle pointed out in an exceptional piece that ran in The Journal Gazette on Monday that while the state is preparing to commit to “a massive expansion of state-funded vouchers for private schools at much higher eligibility levels for middle- to upper-income Hoosiers,” it is at the same time committing to much lower gross income limits for programs and services that are actually essential to struggling Hoosier families.

While it is hard to accept the reasoning of the state, the program will provide full vouchers to families who earn up to 400% of the free and reduced lunch level so that these families can send their children to private schools.

That means that a family of four can earn up to $220,000 and still qualify for the full voucher.

Meanwhile, Kelly reported, the cutoff for the supplemental nutrition program is 127%, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is between 13% and 16% of the federal poverty level, On My Way Pre-K is capped at 127%, and free and reduced-price lunch ceilings out at 185% of the federal poverty level.

If that is not enough to cause you to go and look for a hero, allow me to give you the statistics that the state does not want you to know. A total of 99.976% of all of the voucher schools are affiliated with a religious organization or church. In 2011, Black students made up 24.11% of the population of voucher schools; last year they were 10.45%. In 2013, 9% came from F-rated schools, last year, fewer than 1% of the population came from F schools.

The Empty and Expensive Promise of School Voucher Programs

Sadly, it's not just Indiana.

From Peter Greene in The Progressive

When New Hampshire’s Republican lawmakers inserted a school voucher bill into the state budget, proponents claimed that the new program would be no big deal, that it would only cost the state about $130,000. That was in May 2021. Less than two years later, the program’s cost now stands at $14.7 million—and the legislature is poised to spend more on it.

That pattern—school voucher programs swiftly ballooning to take a huge chunk of public dollars to fund private schools—has been repeated across the country.

In a new report from Public Funds Public Schools (PFPS), researchers look at seven states that have been running a school voucher program long enough to develop a track record. The results of the study show that program costs mushroom quickly into major state expenditures, directing mountains of taxpayer money at private schools even as public schools find themselves working with less funding.

Florida Vouchers: A Multi-Billion-Dollar Hole in the Budget

From Diane Ravitch

Florida lawmakers are about to take the biggest educational gamble in American history — financed with your tax dollars.

They want to offer every child in Florida the chance to use publicly funded vouchers at private schools that have virtually no regulation and offer no guarantee that the students will get educated.

CHARTERS: ALSO THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD

Using charters to fix ailing IPS schools yields instability and inconsistent academic results

Indianapolis schools are still struggling while non-educators bungle "get rich quick" schemes to help poor kids pass tests. Charter schools can't replace adequate food...or secure shelter...or warm clothes.

Are they surprised to learn that charter schools would face the same problems that public schools face?

If the Indiana General Assembly stopped wasting its time on culture-war issues and began to address child poverty, test scores would go up.

From Chalkbeat*

Since 2015, IPS has brought on 10 charter operators to turn around nine of its chronically low-performing schools, categorizing them as restart schools within its Innovation Network of schools that are part of the district but have greater autonomy than traditional schools. But their test scores, even when COVID’s disruptions are accounted for, have for the most part improved only slightly or not at all. Two restart operators have been replaced. One restart school has closed. And no school has actually exited restart status.

As local charter schools increase in number and size, the district’s restart model is one way to examine whether the autonomy provided charter schools truly does turn around poorly performing schools. And the 2023 state assessments — which are ramping up in March and April — will provide another stress test for these restart schools.

Before the pandemic hit, passage rates on the state’s third grade IREAD test for the four restart schools that had operated for more than one year increased in some years and decreased in others. The share of students reaching proficiency in both English and math on state exams increased at most restart schools from 2021 to 2022, although the same is true in general for schools statewide as test scores rebounded from pandemic-driven declines.

READING

Katherine Marsh: Why Children Don’t Fall in Love with Reading

Wouldn't it be nice if citizens and educators could get back to discussing educational topics?

From Diane Ravitch

What I remember most about reading in childhood was falling in love with characters and stories; I adored Judy Blume’s Margaret and Beverly Cleary’s Ralph S. Mouse. In New York, where I was in public elementary school in the early ’80s, we did have state assessments that tested reading level and comprehension, but the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging emotionally with them as a way to develop the requisite skills. Now the focus on reading analytically seems to be squashing that organic enjoyment. Critical reading is an important skill, especially for a generation bombarded with information, much of it unreliable or deceptive. But this hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price: The love of books and storytelling is being lost.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and 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.

###

NEIFPE Beginnings, by Phyllis Bush

I have been asked numerous times why I went to the SOS March in Washington. I have given this much thought. I have been bothered by the direction of the “Education Reform” movement ever since No Child Left Behind became law. The latest “reform” movement, The Race to the Top, appears to be a punitive extension of the No Child Left Behind. Given the rapid nature that Indiana has passed so called education reforms, I am appalled that those who have never taught and those who have never worked in education seem to be deciding the direction of how reform should be addressed. I am also appalled that those who are on the front lines of working with young people seem to be the target of all of the reform.

I am bothered that no one who is making all of the charges about our "failing schools" seems to address the fact that learning is a collaborative effort which must include students, parents, teachers, and a community that values education. I am also bothered that no one making policy has addressed poverty as an issue. While no one would ever suggest that poor children cannot learn, how important is learning to a child who is hungry, to a child whose school has substandard facilities, to a child who is homeless?

Many imply that teachers only want the status quo, job protection, 3 months of summer vacation, no accountability -- the list of red herrings goes on and on. I do not know any teacher who wants to keep lousy teachers in the classroom because the handful of teachers who are not doing an adequate job give a black eye to all of the teachers who are doing a good job. However, most teachers would like to see their unit head (principal, superintendent) work with ineffective teachers either to help them improve or to help them out the door. Teachers are not looking for special privileges to keep them in lifetime employment. They are looking for due process, so that they cannot be fired unjustly.

Most public school teachers don't feel threatened by charter schools or vouchers. However, they feel threatened by the non-level playing field that school “choice” represents. If there is fair and equitable funding among schools, public schools can easily compete. However, when tax dollars go to private schools which do not have to accept all students, which do not have to provide services to special needs students, and which do not have to have the same accountability, something is wrong.

Accountability is another issue. I cannot imagine that most teachers resist accountability; however, the accountability police seem to think that testing and testing and more testing is the same as learning. To my mind, there are only two good reasons for testing. One is for diagnostic purposes; the other is for evaluation. Accountability should be judged on something over which teachers have some control. If a child has decided that he/she cares not about the test being given, then why should his/her teacher be held accountable for that?

One of the things which I find most bothersome about “education reform” is that I have heard very little from critics talking about the joy of learning, the intrinsic value of an “aha” moment, or the creative process.

After we returned from the SOS March, several of us here in Indiana gathered together to see if we could channel this energy. We decided that we needed to inform our community about what is happening in public schools. When we found out that Diane Ravitch, noted education historian and critic of the current reform movement, would be speaking here in March, we decided to work with the Cinema Center to bring some films about education so that we could begin a community conversation.

First, the Cinema Center will be screening, free of charge, the movie Waiting for Superman on Sunday Feb 26th at 4:15 pm and Monday Feb 27th. 4 pm. The Sunday showing will be followed by a discussion.

The next weekend, Cinema Center will show The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman at 4 pm, Sunday March 4th and Monday March 5th. Again a discussion will follow Sunday’s movie.

On Tuesday March 13th, the Omnibus Lecture Series at IPFW will be hosting Dr. Diane Ravitch, one of the nation’s most important voices in the education debate. Tickets are required for her lecture and are available free of charge from the box office at 481-6555 beginning Feb 21st.