In Case You Missed It – May 6, 2024

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

"Former Education Secretary Betsy Devos has teamed up with billionaire trader and TikTok investor Jeff Yass to dismantle public education by spending tens of millions on state elections to pass charter and private school voucher bills." -- From Little Sis Public Accountability Initiative in Billionaires Yass, DeVos Team Up to Dismantle Public Schools Across the US.

DEVOS STILL TRYING TO DISMANTLE PUBLIC EDUCATION

Billionaires Yass, DeVos Team Up to Dismantle Public Schools Across the US

Betsy DeVos hasn't given up her dream of destroying public education in America. She's teamed up with TikTok investor Jeff Yass who is eager to help.

From Little Sis: Public Accountability Initiative

On a hot July day in Tampa at the 2022 Moms for Liberty Summit, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told the crowd that the US Department of Education should be abolished. This claim – that the very department she recently led should not exist – earned her a standing ovation from the Moms for Liberty members in the room.

The moment highlights how extreme the right wing in the United States has veered on education policy. Newer groups like Moms for Liberty that demonize LGBTQ+ students, critical race theory, and COVID-19 protections as “wokeness gone too far” are not only breathing new life into Betsy DeVos’s long-standing efforts to privatize public education, but are also making education a top issue for the U.S. right wing. Billionaires like DeVos and grassroots groups like Moms for Liberty have come together to form what they call the “education freedom” movement.

But while the DeVos family has been a long time funder of the cause, in recent years the legislative efforts to demonize and defund public schools have been strengthened by another billionaire: Jeff Yass, the co-founder and Managing Director of Susquehanna International Group.

VOUCHERS DRAIN MONEY FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Ohio’s *School Vouchers for All*: Expanded, Expensive, but Not Audited

Vouchers don't help students. They divert public money from public schools to private, mostly religious, schools.

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

EdChoice, Ohio’s school voucher program, is the subject of a lawsuit dating back to January 2022. Among other issues, the suit notes, “Due in large part to the hundreds of millions of dollars diverted to funding private school tuition through the EdChoice Program, the General Assembly has failed in its constitutional obligation to fully fund Ohio’s public school districts at the level which the General Assembly has, itself, determined to be required.”

Vouchers for All! Money for Public Schools? Well, um…
Since the time the suit was filed, the Ohio legislature has expanded the program such that families with annual incomes of 450% above the poverty line, or $135,000 for a family of four, are eligible for school voucher funds, but it doesn’t stop there: Even families exceeding the $135k/yr cap can receive a small percentage of school voucher funding– a move that arguably contributes to the shifting of school voucher money away from lower-income families and children of color to more affluent families and more white students. From the January 30, 2024, Ohio Capital Journal:

The lawsuit has been active for two years, after Vouchers Hurt Ohio, the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, and five school districts around Ohio joined together to argue that the private school voucher program has become an disproportionately overgrown and flies in the face of the public school education established in Ohio’s constitution.

CHAPLAIN BILLS POP UP AROUND THE COUNTRY

‘Chaplains’ for Christian Nationalism

Schools need counselors, not proselytizers. 

From A Public Witness

Lawmakers in 13 other states filed similar bills this year. Bills passed one chamber in both Indiana and Utah before dying for this year, while a bill in Oklahoma passed in the state House yesterday (April 24). Another such bill has passed the Senate in Louisiana and just had a committee hearing in the House yesterday.

This new legislative movement for “chaplains” in public schools started last year in Texas. After lawmakers passed a bill that required every school district to vote on whether or not to replace certified counselors with unlicensed “chaplains,” advocates like the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Interfaith Alliance, and Texas Impact mobilized chaplains and other religious leaders to campaign against local approvals. All 25 of the largest school districts voted against the “chaplaincy” program.

Despite the local organizing success to minimize the impact of the Texas bill, the proposal still inspired copycat bills this year (with even more states likely to consider it next year). As lawmakers debate such legislation, the concern about Satanists being allowed as chaplains popped up in multiple states, thus leading the activist and the governor to try and declare by fiat that such individuals wouldn’t qualify.

JENNIFER MCCORMICK FOR GOVERNOR

Indiana: Jennifer McCormick for Governor!!

Former Republican turned Democrat, Jennifer McCormick, is running for Governor of Indiana.

From Diane Ravitch

Indiana has plunged headlong into privatization of its-once-beloved public schools.

Fortunately, there is a knowledgeable candidate for Governor who has promised to stop the destruction of public education.

Jennifer McCormick is a career educator who began as a special education teacher, then became a language arts teacher, a principal and a district superintendent.

She was elected Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2016; she ran as a Republican. She served out her four-year term and switched parties in 2021.

McCormick wrote on Twitter:

Indiana GOP’s school privatization efforts have diverted 1.6B of tax dollars away from public schools, and the majority of communities do not have families and/or private schools participating. As governor, I will champion for Indiana to pause funding school privatization.

LOCAL NEWS

State has chance to reverse its greatest educational error

An explanation about how a good public idea became a bad education policy.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Indiana is in the process of revamping its high school curricula. This could be a superb opportunity to rethink some fundamentals about schooling, its role in society and the needs of the future economy.

It is also a good time to recenter the long-term well-being of students into the discussion.

However, the last time Indiana made significant changes to school curriculum, we failed badly. That cannot happen again.

In December 2013, then-Gov. Mike Pence announced an ambitious plan to offer more career-focused education to Hoosier high school kids who weren’t going to college. It was a smart, thoughtful and much-needed addition to our educational landscape. I was an enthusiastic supporter.

Almost from the beginning, the execution of that plan was botched. It is worth recounting how a very good idea became very bad public policy, and how the accumulated mistakes of a decade continue to haunt Indiana’s economic performance even now and into the distant future.

The Mitch Daniels-era education reforms were successful on almost every important measure. The push for higher standards revealed itself in test scores, graduation rates, and college attendance and success. They strengthened good local public schools and forced bad ones to change.

But not everyone wishes to go to college and, for three generations, we’d cut programs for those students.

Northwest Allen County Schools honors top staffers

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Northwest Allen County Schools began announcing its top teachers and employees of the year Wednesday.

Matt Deckard, an instructional assistant at Carroll High School, was honored as a 2024 Staff Member of the Year. He was recognized for creating a dynamic learning environment for students through engaging storytelling and passion for his subject, a district news release said.

Jeb Campbell, a Carroll computer science teacher, was named a 2024 Teacher of the Year. He was honored for his dedication to guiding and fostering student growth, the release said.

Deckard and Campbell were nominated by NACS community members, such as students, parents and district employees.

The district plans to recognize six total employees by the end of the week.

Northwest Allen County school eyes addition of therapy dog

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

A Northwest Allen County Schools principal is planning for a new co-worker – a therapy dog that will regularly visit the building to increase students’ empathy, self-esteem and sense of belonging, among other goals.

Courtney Bailey, who leads Cedar Canyon Elementary School, has been working to raise money to cover the training costs associated with the dog since the school board approved a new policy in January about animals on district property.

She told the school board last week that she has secured the $20,000 needed for training, and about $8,000 of that was ready for board approval April 22. Grants and business partnerships were among the funding sources for the training, she said.

**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 – June 22, 2020

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.

SHORT OF MONEY? ORDER MORE TESTS

The last thing schools need to spend money on is tests. States are going to be very short of cash due to the lack of leadership by the federal government. Education funding ought to go to the classroom, not the corporate board room of a multinational testing company.

Leonie Haimson: NYC DOE Finds $6 Million for Pearson

From Diane Ravitch

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, reports that the NYC Department of Education plans to award $6 million to testing giant Pearson, despite the pandemic and looming budget cuts.

PENCE TOUTS "SCHOOL CHOICE" AS THE ANSWER

Pence’s ‘school choice’ in Indiana

As governor of Indiana, Mike Pence was a fan of private education paid for with public funds. He never missed a chance for a private school photo-op...and generally ignored public education. Now, as VP he -- and his boss -- want to bring the money wasted on privatization to the federal level. With Betsy DeVos and a newly packed federal judiciary leading the charge, he just might be able to do that.

That would be a mistake.

From School Matters

Asked a simple question Tuesday about race in America, Vice President Mike Pence deflected to a soliloquy about all the Trump administration has done for African Americans, including the way it has “stood strong for school choice.”

Pence was following the script laid out by the president, who said that school choice is “the civil rights (issue) of all time in this country.”

How does that look from Indiana, where Pence was governor for four years before he hitched his wagon to Trump’s star? Frankly, not so good.

UNCERTAINTY FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS IN 2020

No one knows what will happen this fall when it's time for schools to open. Will COVID-19 still be a threat? Will students have to work from home? Attend school in shifts? Wear masks?

It’s mid-June and schools still aren’t sure how they will open for 2020-21. Here’s why — and what’s likely to happen.

From the Answer Sheet

It’s mid-June and most school district superintendents still haven’t announced exactly what schools will look like when they open for the 2020-21 school year. In many places, reopening will be in August, which doesn’t give them a lot of time to decide and put the plans in motion.

But we do know that just about every aspect of schooling will be different than it has been in the past. Protective measures will be in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, and a “hybrid” model of in-person and remote learning will become commonplace in many, if not most, districts.

Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do In The Fall?

From Peter Greene in Forbes

Teachers know, in their guts, where this is headed. They have seen versions of this movie before. For instance, in 1975 Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which promised every student with disabilities a free appropriate public education. Knowing that meant extra expenses for school districts, Congress promised funding to back IDEA. They have never, in 45 years, honored that promise, and schools have just had to find their own way to meet that unfunded mandate.

JIM BANKS (IN-03) SAYS SCHOOLS MUST START OR NO MONEY

GOP Legislators To Schools: Re-Open Or Else.

One size does not fit all.

Indiana's third district US Congressman, Jim Banks, and a Wisconsin colleague have decided that the health of those who attend school, work in schools, or are related to those who attend or work in schools doesn't matter.

In a blatant attempt at extortion, Rep. Banks and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) have introduced a bill that would require schools to open for in-person instruction by September 8, 2020, or face the loss of federal education dollars. It doesn't matter what the local pandemic conditions are. It doesn't matter what the local health risks are. "Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead."

From Peter Greene in Forbes

Representative Jim Banks of Indiana and freshly-elected Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin have decided to throw some weight behind the push to re-open schools in the fall by creating the granddaddy of all unfunded mandates.

The Reopen Our Schools Act sends a pretty simple message to schools—open up in the fall, or we will cut off your federal funding. I’ve seen the text of the bill—it’s 37 lines long, including the section of definitions. Its purpose is listed as “To prohibit the Secretary of Education from providing funding to certain educational institutions unless the institutions return to in-person instruction, and for other purposes.“

CHARTERS ARE PRIVATE BUSINESSES

Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap Coronavirus Relief

Are charter schools public schools or are they private businesses? It depends on which way the money flows. When states began funding charters with public dollars, then they decided that charters are public schools. When the US Congress offered small business relief during the coronavirus pandemic, those same charter schools turned towards the money and claimed to be private businesses. They can't -- or shouldn't -- have it both ways.

From the New York Times

Charter schools, including some with healthy cash balances and billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, have quietly accepted millions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief from a fund created to help struggling small businesses stay afloat.

Since their inception, charter schools have straddled the line between public schools and private entities. The coronavirus has forced them to choose.

And dozens of them — potentially more because the Treasury Department has not disclosed a list — have decided for the purpose of coronavirus relief that they are businesses, applying for aid even as they continue to enjoy funding from school budgets, tax-free status and, in some cases, healthy cash balances and the support of billionaire backers.

TFA OPTS FOR EVEN LESS TRAINING THAN BEFORE

Teach for America’s 2020 Trainees to Enter the Classroom with Only Tutoring Experience

Teach for America had never given their "teachers" much training. Five weeks in the summer was enough because since everyone has gone to school everyone can teach, right?

There's a reason it takes actual teachers four years to complete a teacher training program. Teaching children in public schools is more than just presenting information. If you don't know that -- and TFA trainers apparently don't -- then you shouldn't be in the classroom.

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

In this time of school closures and social distancing, teacher temp agency, Teach for America (TFA), has decided to “train” its 2020 corps members online.

As former TFAer-gone-career teacher, Gary Rubinstein, writes, pre-COVID, TFA trainees actually teach on average one hour per day over the course of four weeks during the summer, in classrooms which they share with four other TFA trainees.

As such, TFA trainees have no experience teaching even one entire school day in a classroom in which the trainee is responsible for all instruction.

And now, with the social restrictions and classroom complexities introduced by the coronavirus, TFA’s 2020 trainees will have no experience being in charge of a classroom– not even an entire classroom online.

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In Case You Missed It – Jan 21, 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.

LEO HIGH SCHOOL LAWSUIT SETTLED

EACS reaches settlement in Gay Straight Alliance lawsuit

From WANE.com

According to the ACLU, under the terms of the settlement, EACS has agreed to allow Leo Pride Alliance to change its name to Leo GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), and to provide the organization with all meeting, communication and fundraising opportunities provided to other groups.

ACLU suit alleging EACS bias is settled

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

EACS denied the allegations but agreed to allow the group to change its name to Leo GSA, according to a statement from the ACLU. A judge on Friday dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again.

“The student led Gay Straight Alliance group at Leo High School must be treated in the same manner that all other student groups are treated,” the ACLU said in a news release announcing the settlement. “We are pleased that East Allen County Schools agreed to the equal treatment of the group, relieving these students of any unwarranted burdens.”

DRUG TESTING STUDENT ATHLETES CALLED FOR

Indiana lawmaker calls for random drug tests for high school athletes

From WANE.com

A state lawmaker has introduced a measure calling on random drug tests for high school athletes.

Republican state Sen. Jean Leising wants to send a strong message to students across the state: "If you want to play on your school's athletic team, you have to be willing to take a drug test."

The Republican from Oldenburg said she has heard parents share instances of student-athletes doing drugs.

KRUSE PUSHES GOD, CREATIONISM

Indiana State Senator Wants To Require ‘In God We Trust’ Posters In Classrooms

From Huffington Post

...Republican state Sen. Dennis Kruse’s bill, introduced last Thursday, seeks to place a poster reading “In God We Trust” in every public and charter school classroom in Indiana...

...The bill would also allow public schools to teach creationism and offer a survey course on world religions. Curriculum for the survey course must be “neutral, objective and balanced” and not “promote acceptance of any particular religion,” according to the legislation, but it only lists the Bible as a specific text to be studied.

BANNING LGBTQ SCHOOL HIRES K. PENCE

Karen Pence, America’s second lady, is teaching at Virginia religious school that bars LGBTQ students and employees

A surprise to no one.

From The Answer Sheet

Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Pence and the nation’s second lady, is now teaching art at a local Christian elementary school that reserves the right to reject LGBTQ students and employees, according to documents on its website.

TEACHER PAY

The big talk in the legislature and from the governor this past week was over teacher pay. Four articles had a high rate of engagement.

Teacher pay proposal a surprise

From School Matters

Gov. Eric Holcomb dropped a surprise Tuesday in his State of the State address, and it was a good one. He called for tapping Indiana’s budget surplus to add $70 million to funding for K-12 schools each of the next two years.

That’s a little less than a 1 percent increase, but it’s something. And it’s on top of a 2-percent-per-year school funding hike in Holcomb’s budget proposal.

It was a surprise because the Republicans who control both the House and Senate had signaled that Indiana’s $1.8 billion surplus was off the table in this budget-writing session. If the GOP governor says it’s not off the table, then it’s not.

Holcomb talks teacher pay

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Gov. Eric Holcomb proposed freeing up $140 million in funding for teacher pay during his third State of the State Address on Tuesday.

It was the lone surprise in a speech to Indiana lawmakers that delivered a strong statement on hate crimes and focused on a strong economy.

“We simply cannot just maintain our course. Instead we must throttle up,” he said.

Indiana to tap reserves to free up $140M for teacher pay, Holcomb promises

From Chalkbeat

Indiana plans to free up $140 million over two years for schools with the goal of increasing teacher pay, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb pledged Tuesday night in his State of the State address.

The state will tap into its $2 billion in reserves to pay down a pension liability for schools, Holcomb said, reducing schools’ expenses so more money could go to educators.

“Just like paying off your mortgage frees up money in your personal budget, this state investment will save all local schools $140 million over the biennium with continued savings thereafter,” Holcomb said.

FWCS upset by funding proposal: Shaming schools 'ridiculous' idea

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Fort Wayne Community Schools leaders had a few choice words Monday – “ridiculous,” “asinine,” “cruel” – about proposed legislation that would publicly shame districts transferring more than 15 percent of state funding to operations rather than classroom expenditures.

“It's cruel, almost, because you're painting the picture that all of us have been irresponsible,” FWCS Superintendent Wendy Robinson said at Monday's board meeting. “... With what we have, we are constantly trying to find other resources.”

House Bill 1003 is an attempt by state Republicans to increase teacher pay without adding new state dollars. Instead, legislators want schools to use more existing dollars on salaries.

“We do need to pay teachers more,” board President Julie Hollingsworth said. “It's obvious in Indiana that teacher pay is falling behind, so the question is how to do it. We have other academic staff in our buildings that serve students. They deserve a raise, too.”

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In Case You Missed It – Nov 5, 2018

Here are links to the 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.

PUBLIC OVERSIGHT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Why it matters who governs America’s public schools

From The Answer Sheet by Carol Burris and Diane Ravitch

Public governance of our schools matters for the health of our democracy. The public school was designed to serve and promote the common good; it is paid for by the public, and it belongs to the public, not entrepreneurs...

...Billionaires live in an echo chamber of their own. As they jet across the globe to and from their many homes, the neighborhood school with its bake sales, homecoming dances and lively community elections are foreign and inconsequential...

#REDFORED

Arizona: #RedforEd Is So Popular that Even Its Opponents are Hitching Their Wagon to It

From Diane Ravitch

Six months after tens of thousands of red-clad teachers swarmed the Arizona Capitol in a weeklong walkout, demanding higher pay and more funding for schools, education is a dominant issue in the state’s elections next month.

The teachers’ protest movement, which calls itself #RedforEd, has transformed the political battleground. The movement remains so popular in Arizona that candidates and causes across the ideological spectrum are competing to identify with it — including conservatives who, in years past, might have been more likely to criticize teachers or unions than associate with activist educators.

AREA MARCHING BANDS

Marching band finals: Homestead 3rd, Carroll 8th in Class A

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Six Allen County bands competed in the State Marching Band Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium with Homestead High School placing highest among the group.

See how your favorite bands did...

"GIFTED" OR HIGH ACHIEVER?

The Truth About ‘Gifted’ Versus High-Achieving Students

From Loudoun Now

Gifted students, on the other hand, may or may not earn high marks in school depending on a host of factors including their interest in the subject being taught, their respect for the depth of knowledge the teacher possesses and even their level of physical comfort in the classroom. Gifted students often frustrate teachers because they don’t quite live up to their potential, especially in classes that are too easy for them. Gifted children often have poor executive function skills so they lose homework and don’t know how to study for exams. Many gifted children have few friends because of their esoteric interests. Sometimes these students feel so isolated that they become depressed … even suicidal. A surprisingly large number of gifted students drop out of high school and never make it to college, despite their high innate intelligence.

While all children have gifts, not all children are “gifted” as defined by researchers and educators around the globe. The most commonly used definition is as follows: “Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally.” (The Columbus Group, 1991)

What this means is that gifted children have ‘special needs’ that the typical classroom teacher does not have the bandwidth or training to address. This is why school districts go to great lengths to identify gifted students—these kids require special support in order for them to stay engaged in the learning process.

UNACCOUNTABLE VOUCHER MONEY

Arizona: Parents Use Voucher Money for Personal Purchases, Not Education

From Diane Ravitch

Arizona’s State Auditor identified more than $700,000 in voucher money that was mis-spent for cosmetics, music, movies, clothing, sports apparel, and other personal items. Some even tried to withdraw cash with their state-issued debit cards. The state has not recovered any of the money. The legislature passed a bill to expand the voucher program, which gives parents a debit card for their e Peres, to every student in the state. Auditing will be even more difficult. Millions will be wasted. And many of the state’s children will go without an education.

STILL SEPARATE AND NOT EQUAL

Failing Brown v. Board of Education

From Curmudgucation

It's like you have twenty kids in a cafeteria, and ten sit down with a steak dinner and the other ten get bowls of cold oatmeal, and when someone complains about it, a bunch of folks pop up to propose some complex system by which one of the oatmeal kids will be sent out to a restaurant across town. No! Just get back out in the kitchen and use the same tools and supplies that you demonstrably already have to make steak dinners for the rest of the kids.

The report quotes NEA president Lily Eskelsen-Garcia saying, in part, "Until you can say every school looks like your best public school, we have not arrived."

WHOSE CHOICE?

More students want to go to popular IPS magnet schools, but they still face barriers to getting in

From Chalkbeat

...the report also shows that some inequities in Indianapolis Public Schools still persist: There still aren’t enough seats at the city’s most sought-after magnet programs to meet the increasing demand. At three out of six of the popular Center for Inquiry and Butler University Laboratory schools, which are mostly clustered in more affluent neighborhoods, only those who live closest could get in last fall during the first round of admissions — and they claimed most of those schools’ open seats.

IT'S POVERTY

What’s Wrong with America’s Schools? David Berliner Blames America’s Failure to Eradicate Child Poverty

From Jan Resseger

Despite lots of evidence about why we shouldn’t use test scores as a measure of school quality, for nearly twenty years, government programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have taught people to judge public schools by their standardized test scores. Last week the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss published an in-depth reflection by David Berliner on what standardized test scores really measure. David Berliner is an expert, a Regents’ professor emeritus at Arizona State University, former president of the American Educational Research Association, and former dean of the College of Education at Arizona State.

Berliner is blunt in his analysis: “(T)he big problems of American education are not in America’s schools. So, reforming the schools, as Jean Anyon once said, is like trying to clean the air on one side of a screen door. It cannot be done! It’s neither this nation’s teachers nor its curriculum that impede the achievement of our children. The roots of America’s educational problems are in the numbers of Americans who live in poverty. America’s educational problems are predominantly in the numbers of kids and their families who are homeless; whose families have no access to Medicaid or other medical services. These are often families to whom low-birth-weight babies are frequently born, leading to many more children needing special education… Our educational problems have their roots in families where food insecurity or hunger is a regular occurrence, or where those with increased lead levels in their bloodstream get no treatments before arriving at a school’s doorsteps. Our problems also stem from the harsh incarceration laws that break up families instead of counseling them and trying to keep them together. And our problems relate to harsh immigration policies that keep millions of families frightened to seek out better lives for themselves and their children...

PENCE BRINGS FAKE, FAKE RABBI TO RALLY

Mike Pence’s Fake Rabbi Was a Defrocked Fake Rabbi: A Fake Fake Rabbi

From Diane Ravitch

Mike Pence held a rally in Michigan. He wanted to show his respect to the victims of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The “rabbi” invited to speak was not Jewish. He was a convert to Christianity and part of a group called “Jews for Jesus,” which seeks to convert Jews to Christianity.

But now it turns out that he was defrocked as a “rabbi.”

He was not only a fake rabbi, he was a fake fake rabbi.

DEVOS STILL BUYING CANDIDATES

Betsy DeVos’ Family Gives $2 Million to Far-Right Candidates

From Diane Ravitch

“Even by the loose standards of U.S. campaign finance laws—and President Donald Trump’s blatant corruption—the donations by the family members of a Cabinet official have been brazen. In February 2018, Richard DeVos, Secretary DeVos’ father-in-law, gave $1 million to the Freedom Partners Action Fund—a political action fund that has long been associated with far-right causes. Over the past year, the DeVos family has also given $350,000 to the Republican Congressional Leadership Fund and another $400,000 to the Republican National Committee.

“The DeVoses have also donated to specific candidates for federal and state office. Wisconsin’s far-right firebrand, Gov. Scott Walker (R), for example, has received more than $635,000 over the past decade from the DeVos family—including $30,000 in 2018. Bill Schuette, Michigan’s Republican attorney general who is running for governor, received almost $40,000 over the past year.

INDIANA'S SUPERMAJORITY STILL AGAINST PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Lawmakers must stand with our public schools

From John Stoffel in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

The most disheartening conversation I have had in over 25 years of elementary education was with a mother of a student. She introduced me to her son in this manner: “This is Joseph (not his real name). He's a bad kid. I don't like him and I don't know what to do with him. He's your problem now. I go to court next week, and I think I'll just ask the judge to take him.”

Two things were clear to me after listening to these comments. First, Joseph was not a “bad kid.” Second, most of Joseph's problems were caused by his mother's actions. One may even be inclined to feel anger toward his mother. I know I did. I suppressed my emotions because I knew her son needed my full attention and support.

The mother's casting blame on a “problem” of her own creation is analogous to Republican state Rep. Jim Lucas's response to the results of Indiana's standardized testing scores: “What the hell are we doing, putting government in charge of educating our children?”

One would hope that Lucas' response is that of an outlier. However, since the tenured supermajority tend to vote in lockstep with Lucas, his words unveil an entity that seems to have a complete disdain for public education. Public schools should be viewed as a common good, but similar to Joseph's mother, the Republican-controlled legislature seems to have a distorted perspective of their duty and of the results of their decisions.

On educational policies, the Republican super-majority has voted to add layers of stifling bureaucracy, create departments to circumvent the state superintendent, and divest hundreds of millions of dollars from public school districts to support “choice” – an unfounded ideology.

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If You Don't Read Facebook – Jul 30

Most of NEIFPE's social media presence is on Facebook where we post links to articles and blogs dealing with the state of public education in the U.S. For those of you who are not on Facebook (or have left), we've gathered links to a few articles of interest to help you keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

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


No, private schools aren’t better at educating kids than public schools. Why this new study matters.

From The Answer Sheet

Despite evidence showing otherwise, it remains conventional wisdom in many parts of the education world that private schools do a better job of educating students, with superior standardized test scores and outcomes. It is one of the claims that some supporters of school choice make in arguing that the public should pay for private school education.

The only problem? It isn’t true, a new study confirms.

An Explanation to My Readers

From Diane Ravitch

...The blog will continue to be an education blog. If we allow grifters and for-profit corporations to open their own schools, we forfeit the future. If we divert funding from public schools to subsidize privately-run unaccountable charters and unregulated religious schools, we harm our children while subtracting money from regulated, transparent, and accountable public schools.

As many of you know, I am writing a book about the Corporate Reform movement and the Resistance. I am excited about the book.

I am writing it as I continue to post comments and blogs. I am about half-way through the book.

Bear with me.

If you like Trump, you won’t like what I post. I consider him to be a menace, a clear and present danger to our nation and the world. Read or don’t read. It’s your choice.

Indiana schools brace for budget changes

From WANE.COM

Indiana's school districts are bracing for big changes approved by lawmakers that will alter how they handle their budgets and school funds.

Lawmakers passed the changes last year with the goal of giving school districts greater flexibility in spending and to clarify how much is spent on student instruction versus operations and administration costs. The changes will take effect Jan. 1, 2019.

"It's a huge change," said Dennis Costerison, the executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials, who worked with lawmakers drafting the bill."

Who Is the Real Mike Pence?

From Diane Ravitch

“Trade Trump for Pence and you go from kleptocracy to theocracy.

“That’s the takeaway from a forthcoming book by the journalists Michael D’Antonio, who previously wrote “The Truth About Trump,” and Peter Eisner. It’s titled “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence,” it will be published on Aug. 28 and it’s the most thorough examination of the vice president’s background to date…

“The book persuasively illustrates what an ineffectual congressman he was, apart from cozying up to the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos and other rich Republican donors; the clumsiness and vanity of his one term as governor of Indiana, for which he did something that predecessors hadn’t and “ordered up a collection of custom-embroidered clothes — dress shirts, polo shirts, and vests and jackets — decorated with his name and the words Governor of Indiana”; the strong possibility that he wouldn’t have won re-election; his luck in being spared that humiliation by the summons from Trump, who needed an outwardly bland, intensely religious character witness to muffle his madness and launder his sins; and the alacrity with which he says whatever Trump needs him to regardless of the truth.

Edged out of the middle class, teachers are walking out

From The Hechinger Report

Low pay has lead teachers across the country to organize and strike for better wages and greater investment in schools. In Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Colorado, the growing “Red for ed” movement is demanding legislatures in these red states invest more money in schools and school staff.

Tammy Kim is a freelance writer who wrote about teachers losing their grip on the middle class for The Hechinger Report.

“Teachers found that only by striking, only by showing their force in this way, would they be able to sort of move the needle for themselves,” she says.

Many of the teachers she spoke with at an April teachers’ protest in Phoenix, Arizona, told her they were struggling to make ends meet.

“I met a lot of teachers who had second and third jobs, teachers who had roommates,” she says.

“So, I guess by the definition of middle class that we are used to, [they] probably would not qualify.”

Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy High School Faculty: 70% Gone in a Single Year

The worst fears of privatization come true.

From Mercedes Schneider

“What really makes me sad is the number of first-year teachers who quit and decided never to teach again,” said Natasha Venner, an experienced history teacher who left for a district school...

Several teachers said they were upset that some bright, capable students were sent to a prior grade midyear...

One teacher who left, Lynn Strong, is an adjunct assistant professor of writing at Columbia University...She said the juniors’ new classroom “became my worst fears of a test-prep factory”...

Is Anti-Testing Movement Over or Just Resting?

From Diane Ravitch

...the anti-testing movement has slowed to a crawl. With testing requirements locked into federal law (the so-called “Every Student Succeeds Act”), activists are discouraged or waiting for another chance to attack the testing regime that has obsessed federal policymakers since the passage of No Child Left Behind, and even earlier, going back to Bill Clinton’s Goals 2000, which encouraged every state to develop their own standards and tests with an infusion of federal dollars. You can trace the testing movement even earlier, but it was not until Goals 2000 that there was real federal money offered to states to get the testing going.

Disrupting education, the NFL way

From The Hechinger Report

...if a vast proportion of the hiring managers are white, it’s likely that their social networks are predominantly white, too. Three-quarters of white Americans say they have social circles that are entirely white, as compared to 65 percent of African Americans and 46 percent of people who identified as Hispanic, according to a 2013 survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research. This has a profound professional impact when principals and school district leaders recruit from within their social circles, be it from a university or non-profit teacher prep program. This kind of hiring needs to be called out for what it really is — discrimination.

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Vic’s Election Notes on Education #39– October 3, 2016

Dear Friends,

[Note: There is no link between “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” and any organization.]

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Here is the question that deserves attention on the October 4th Vice Presidential debate:

Why is Mike Pence supporting Donald Trump’s plan for the biggest federal intrusion into state and local schools in American history?

Donald Trump, in a September 8th speech in Cleveland given little media attention, said he would use the power of the Presidency to have all 50 states use public tax money to pay for private and religious school tuition. He said it would cost $20 billion in federal dollars and $110 billion in state dollars, and he would lead the effort.

At this point, 20 states have completely resisted entwining church and state by using public dollars for private and religious schools, and for very good reasons. Other states have very limited school choice programs. Under Article 10 of the U.S. Constitution, education matters should be left to the states.

Now Donald Trump wants to ignore Article 10 and push a federal mandate for private school vouchers in the name of school choice.

Remember, just like the name implies, “school choice” in private schools means that the private school has the choice and they can refuse to enroll any student they do not want. They do not even need to give a reason. Public schools enroll any and all students who may apply.

Incredibly, Mike Pence who has made a career of resisting federal intrusion into school and local schools, has gone along with the Trump plan. Mike Pence voted against the 2001 No Child Left Behind, saying it was an intrusion of the federal government into policies that should be controlled by the state. He turned down a 2014 federal grant of $80 million for pre-kindergarten programs in Indiana saying it would lead to federal intrusion.

Now he says Donald Trump’s plan to have all 50 states to use public tax money to pay for private and religious school tuition is just fine. Why this obvious hypocrisy? Why ignore Article 10? That’s the question for his debate with Tim Kaine.

[Please note: Indiana Code 3-14-1-17 says that government employees including public school employees may not “use the property of the employee’s government employer to” support the “election or defeat of a candidate” and may not distribute this message “on the government employer’s real property during regular working hours.” Ironically, the law does not prevent private school employees from using computers purchased with public voucher money to distribute campaign materials. Private schools now financed in part by public voucher dollars have retained all rights under Indiana’s voucher laws to engage in partisan political campaigns.]

Donald Trump’s Plan to Privatize Public Education

Speaking in Cleveland on September 8th, Donald Trump demeaned public schools and missed the irony of incorrectly calling them “our government run monopoly schools” while speaking at a charter school. Charter schools years ago ended any credible talk of “monopoly” by offering publicly funded options to parents.

Donald Trump called for magnet school and charter school options, without pointing out that those options already exist. Then he called for using tax money to pay for private and religious school tuition. Two key points:

• He said he would divert $20 billion dollars in existing federal education funding for a block grant to states to pay for private school tuition. This concept was proposed and rejected by the Republican Congress when they passed the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015. Presumably the $20 billion would be taken away from the much needed Title 1 funding which now helps all disadvantaged students with reading and math skills. This would damage current student programs.

• He said it would take $110 billion in state dollars to fund school choice nationwide and he would personally campaign in each state to elect state politicians who don’t resist funding private school tuition at that amount. Quick calculations show that Indiana’s share of his $110 billion would be about $2 billion.

$2 billion for private school tuition!!

Contrast that with 2015-16 state reports showing Indiana spent $53 million for private school vouchers for one of the biggest voucher programs in the nation. Do Indiana taxpayers want to raise the ante for private school vouchers from $53 million to $2 billion?? Donald Trump’s plan has no basis in reality!

Does America Want Donald Trump to Dismantle Public Education in the United States?

From its roots in the 1830’s, public education has brought the United States to a position of world power with its system of non-sectarian, non-partisan, publicly funded schools supervised by school boards elected following the rules of democracy and pledged to transparent public access in their records.

Now Donald Trump wants to spend billions in federal dollars to pay for tuition at sectarian and potentially partisan schools that are not run by elected officials and do not have to offer public access to records.

I oppose Donald Trump’s plan.

I strongly oppose public money from any source paying for private and religious school vouchers.

The Clinton/Kaine team has no plans for a federal intrusion to privatize our public schools in all 50 states. Since supporting public education is my highest priority, I will be voting for Clinton/Kaine.

The Johnson/Weld Libertarian team does not support public education as a matter of principle to reduce government.

Therefore to support public education, I strongly stand in the “Never Trump/Pence” camp and the “Never Johnson/Weld” camp.

I hope Mike Pence will be asked in his Tuesday debate why he supports federal intervention to pay for vouchers at private and religious schools when he has opposed federal intrusion in state school policy until now.

Thanks for your strong advocacy for public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

There is no link between “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” and any organization. Please contact me at vic790@aol.com to add an email address or to remove an address from the distribution list.

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Vic’s Election Notes on Education #36– July 22, 2016

Dear Friends,

Note: There is no link between “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” and any organization.

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Now that Mike Pence is the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, there are two key things that voters across America should know:

• First, Mike Pence does not support public education. He instead supports taxpayer funded private school vouchers. He has significantly expanded taxpayer payments for religious and private education compared to the level of payments passed by his predecessor Governor Mitch Daniels. His priorities are wrong. In 2015-16 his policies resulted in Indiana spending $53 million for student tuition at religious and private schools while spending only $10 million for much needed preschool programs. The table below tells the tale.

• Second, Mike Pence diminished our democracy and the power of voters by undermining the results of the 2012 election. He refused to accept the will of the voters when they elected a Democrat as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Glenda Ritz. Her election was a direct rejection of the policy changes enacted under State Superintendent Tony Bennett. Governor Pence pushed legislation to remove the new State Superintendent as chair of the State Board of Education effective in the middle of the first term in which the voters elected her knowing that the State Superintendent in Indiana has chaired the State Board since 1913. His bill demoting State Superintendent Ritz passed, but at the last minute cooler heads in the legislature deferred the demotion until after the next election. His partisanship was blatant.

[Please note: Indiana Code 3-14-1-17 says that government employees including public school employees may not “use the property of the employee’s government employer to” support the “election or defeat of a candidate” and may not distribute this message “on the government employer’s real property during regular working hours.” Ironically, the law does not prevent private school employees from using computers purchased with public voucher money to distribute campaign materials. Private schools now financed in part by public voucher dollars have retained all rights under Indiana’s voucher laws to engage in partisan political campaigns.]

Mike Pence Pushes Private School Vouchers at Every Opportunity

It seems clear that providing a voucher for every private school student, expensive as that would be, is a goal for Mike Pence, allowing every parent rich and poor to have the taxpayers pay for religious and private education. His policies have gone far beyond the original policies of Governor Mitch Daniel, as seen in this chart:

Under policies of Governor Daniels, a savings of $4 million per year was realized because Governor Daniels’ said students should try public school first, and voucher eligibility began after students had tried public schools for two semesters. The state saves money when students transfer from public to private schools with a voucher.

Governor Pence threw out the Daniels’ policies and expanded several pathways to voucher eligibility, opening the door to giving thousands of vouchers (now 52% of all vouchers) to students who had always been in private schools. Paying for these students constituted a new fiscal cost to the taxpayers, ending the voucher program as a money saver and producing the net fiscal costs listed in the right hand column: $15 million in 2013-14; $40 million in 2014-15; and $53 million in the most recent year 2015-16.

Contrast these costs to other important education programs in the Indiana annual budget:

• $10 million for preschool

• $18 million for summer school

• $3 million for technology

• $7 million for English Language Learners

• $12 for Gifted and Talented programs

All of these vital programs added together did not get the budget support that Mike Pence gave to private and religious school tuition.

The real losers of the Mike Pence policies are the 92% of Hoosier students who have chosen public schools from which, as the chart shows, diversions to private schools totaled $131 million in 2015-16.

Mike Pence Never Respected the Will of the 2012 Voters

Even though voters elected Democrat Glenda Ritz to be State Superintendent in 2012 knowing that the State Superintendent chairs the State Board of Education, Governor Pence and his supermajority in the legislature ignored the will of voters and passed a bill in 2015 to undermine her authority. The blatantly partisan bill started out to immediately remove her as chair in the middle of her first term, changing the rules without regard to the wishes of the 1.3 million voters who elected her. In doing this, Governor Pence ignored the fact that more voters cast ballots for her in the 2012 election for State Superintendent than voted for Mike Pence in the election for Governor.

This plan was just plain wrong. Changes in duties should never be implemented until after a subsequent election. Finally members of Mike Pence’s party in the legislature recognized this and delayed the change until after the 2016 election.

The bill passed gave the power to choose the chair to appointees on the State Board. Eight of the ten members are appointed by the Governor. Thus, the Governor’s bill directly reduced the power of the ballot box and gave the power to him. With this move, he diminished our democracy and the power of voters.

The November Election

I support non-sectarian, non-partisan public schools as the cornerstone of our democracy. I oppose the privatization of our public schools pushed by Mike Pence which cost Indiana taxpayers $53 million last year.

I support public participation in choosing the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and leaving the power to choose the chair of the State Board of Education in the hands of the voters. I oppose dismantling voter control over the leadership of the State Board and giving the power to Governor Mike Pence.

Mike Pence has led the march toward privatization of Indiana’s public schools.

For the sake of supporting public education in Indiana’s bicentennial year, I strongly stand with the “Never Trump/Never Pence” camp in the fall election.

I urge all public school advocates to join me in protecting and prioritizing public education as it is attacked over and over again during this unprecedented political season.

Thanks for advocating in support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

There is no link between “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” and any organization. Please contact me at vic790@aol.com to add an email address or to remove an address from the distribution list.

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Pence: A Negative Impact

A guest post from an anonymous Indiana public school teacher.

I’m a Hoosier with conservative values. I’m pro-life and my faith in Jesus Christ guides my decisions. But I’m not a supporter of Pence.

I’m an educator, and most Indiana educators will tell you that they, too, do not support Mike Pence. It’s one of the reasons his re-election as governor was shaky before he became the choice for Trump’s VP.

Most Americans and non-teaching Hoosiers haven’t had an opinion about Pence until he signed a bill which got the attention of the LGBT community. Because it brought bad publicity during an election year, Pence rescinded on the bill.

What the general public doesn’t know about Pence is that he and Indiana Republicans have been bedfellows with the American Legislative Exchange Council and Pearson. Together, behind closed doors, these lawmakers and corporation giants have decided which education laws will be passed each term. They’ve found a way for school funds to benefit them through vouchers, testing, teacher qualifications, and the privatization of public schools.

Pence supports corporate greed over the good of children and local communities. I’m not sure how this will make American great again.

In Indiana, Pence’s education policies have negatively impacted every aspect of education. While Mitch Daniel’s administration made sweeping changes by introducing vouchers, state-mandated teacher evaluations, salary caps, and high stakes testing, Mike Pence continued the excessive executive power, disregard of law, and hostile aggression towards educators.

Mr. Pence devalued the teaching profession by lowering requirements for qualified teachers and establishing Pearson created competency testing. He legislated how teachers are evaluated and paid, resulting in high-stakes evaluations and minuscule performance pay.

Teachers in Indiana are leaving the classroom in masses. The stress is too high and they are underpaid. Because there’s now a teacher shortage, Pence and Republican lawmakers spent time and money to study the reasons why.

In the 2012 election, the residents of Indiana voted for Democrat Glenda Ritz to be Superintendent of Public Education. It was the outcry against the Daniels/Tony Bennett administration. In response, Pence used executive power to develop his own education committee that would be at odds with the Department of Education. He also removed the Superintendent of Public Education as the chairman of the State Board of Education.

During his four years, Pence planned to create a public news media that would report the news from his administration he wanted the public to hear. Bold power and control efforts from a man labeled by outsiders as meek and mild.

As an educator, I’ve been demoralized at the lack of respect he’s shown me, my colleagues, and the children we serve. Last year, I spoke to an appointee of Pence’s to advocate for discouraged teachers and kids who are negatively affected by standardized testing. In turn, I learned that money is what speaks, and if you speak against those in power, you get black-listed and libeled by the media.

People outside of education don’t think this isn’t a big deal. It is a big deal, because when leaders let money determine what’s best for kids, then integrity always has a price.

Education with political strings attached affects every community.

In Indiana, small, rural schools are shutting down because funding has been cut, families are moving out of district, and whole communities are losing jobs where school corporations are the largest employers.

Inner-city schools, like Indianapolis Public Schools, are urban nightmares as charter schools take away public school funding, yet only meet the needs of a fraction of the population.

Cities like Indy, Detroit, and Chicago are the poster-children for big government in education. The corporate rich and politicians get the money, and the urban poor, of which have a racial bias, receive a sub-standard education.

This is what Pence brings to the Republican Party ticket if he follows the path he’s paved in Indiana. If you don’t think education effects all parts of society, then education has benefitted you. If you know what the school-to prison pipeline is, then I don’t need to explain anymore.

The only presidential candidate that will make American great again is the one who invests in and supports public education for all children. He or she is the one that honors the teaching profession, who doesn’t deal with corporate interest in education, and returns the control of schools to local communities.

Pence hasn’t done this for Indiana. The candidate who values these things is one who cares about kids, community, and isn’t bought by corporate America.

An Anonymous Teacher, 2016

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