In Case You Missed It – December 23, 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

"It is well known that a school district’s aggregate standardized test scores correlate more closely with the economic level of the district’s population than with the quality of the schools’ programming and teachers. What Senator Brenner, whose district includes the wealthy, exurban Olentangy public schools, never acknowledges is that his new bill is an attack on school districts serving concentrations of poor children. And while Senator Brenner specializes in devising punitive systems for low scoring schools and school districts, Ohio’s legislature, in which Brenner chairs the Senate Education Committee, has not yet fully phased in and funded the Fair School Funding Plan, which is designed to provide equity and to invest in school districts serving children in poverty. Ohio’s legislature also recently established a universal voucher program currently diverting a billion dollars a year from the state budget to private schools." -- Jan Resseger in Ohio State Senator Pushes New Version of Punitive Plan to Restructure or Take Over Low-Scoring Schools

OHIO STATE SENATOR PUSHES TEST-AND-PUNISH

Ohio State Senator Pushes New Version of Punitive Plan to Restructure or Take Over Low-Scoring Schools

We know that punishing teachers, schools and/or students for scoring low on standardized tests does nothing to improve learning, yet this Ohio legislator is willing to try it again. The fact that it will hurt the most vulnerable of the state's students doesn't seem to bother him.

From Jan Resseger

Andy Brenner, the Chair of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, is once again pushing the Ohio Legislature to pass an old fashioned, test-and-punish school accountability bill, Senate Bill 295, in this last week of the legislature’s lame-duck session without sufficient public accountability or hearings. The bill would significantly restructure or close the schools in some of Ohio’s poorest communities. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for this afternoon.

Brenner, “an entrepreneur in the real estate and mortgage fields,” who earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Liberty University Online, is known for the now disproven theory that if teachers work harder and smarter, they can immediately ensure their students score higher on standardized tests. His new bill is modeled after No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which promised to make every American child proficient by 2014. Of course, we now know that NCLB’s threatening educators and school districts with scary sanctions failed to produce uniformly proficient students despite all the threats to close or charterize so-called “failing” schools, or fire and replace all the staff.

MORE LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE

Federal Anti-Commie Education Bill

Peter Greene is one of public education's most important voices. His work appears on his blog (see link below), in Forbes, on Substack, and elsewhere.

From Peter Greene at Curmudgucation

It could be worse. It's not a mandate to use Prager U materials, after all. And to be clear, I'm not personally a big fan of communism, though in my reading of history, nations that "turn communist" usually keep being awful in ways that they were awful before anyone pretended to be a communist.

In fact, now that I think of it, some study of what creeping totalitarianism wouldn't hurt Americans (in or out of high school) right about now.

But teachers recognize this same old dodge. "We want students to know and agree with This Particular Thing," say some bunch of leaders somewhere. "How can we do that? I know! We'll get teachers to teach it to them. Because there's lots of room in the day to slip in one more slab of curricular materials. Also, students always believe what teachers say. Also, legislating curriculum always works out well."

Congress may very well pass this. Teachers will either ignore it or not as they are so inclined, and politicians will be proud of themselves for battling the scourge of communism and for once against standing up for only the correct sort of indoctrination in our schools.

NO TEACHERS NEED APPLY

New Arizona charter school will use AI in place of human teachers

This is computer-led instruction. There will be human adults present...as baby-sitters.

From KJZZ Phoenix

At least one Arizona school will be handing off teaching duties to artificial intelligence in 2025.

The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ approved an application for an AI-based virtual academy on Monday.

Unbound Academy, which also operates in Texas and Florida under the name Alpha Schools, claims that kids can learn twice as much using a two-hour learning plan that gets customized by an AI program instead of a traditional human teacher in front of a classroom.

STUDENT LOANS

Biden Announces $4.28 Billion in Student Loan Forgiveness

Help for those with student loan debt.

From Diane Ravitch

The U.S. Department of Education released a statement:

The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of $4.28 billion in additional student loan relief for 54,900 borrowers across the country who work in public service. This relief—which is the result of significant fixes that the Administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program—brings the total loan forgiveness by the Administration to approximately $180 billion for nearly five million Americans, including $78 billion for 1,062,870 borrowers through PSLF.

PAYING FOR EDUCATION IN INDIANA

Public schools remain on hook for book, curricula fees

Indiana struggles to pay for the constitutionally mandated promise of a free public education system.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Indiana Constitution of 1851 says the General Assembly will provide a system of schools “wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.” During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers delivered on that 172-year-old promise.

Legislators dedicated $160 million in the state budget to eliminate textbook and curricula fees, starting this academic year, but Hoosier schools still must pay for those materials. Last month, Indiana’s largest teachers’ union called for a more than $500 million increase to basic tuition support for public schools in the 2025 fiscal year.

That’s 7.98% more compared to what schools are expected to receive. Under current law, K-12 public schools are projected to see average student funding increases of 1.7% in the 2025-26 school year.

CREEPING CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

The Religious Right Is Plotting How To Get Christianity Into Schools

Not all our students are Christians. Not all our Christian students are Evangelical Christians. Not all parents of our Evangelical Christian students want public school teachers teaching religion.

Both parts of the First Amendment are important -- the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."

From Nathalie Baptiste in Huffpost

From displaying the Ten Commandments to demanding that teachers use the Bible in their classrooms, conservatives seem determined to blur the lines between church and state by infusing Christianity into public schools. And with Donald Trump headed back to the White House and a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, reshaping the country’s education system is looking increasingly feasible.

GET A SECOND OPINION

Trump Questions Need for School Vaccines

Experts, not politicians, should determine medical policy.

From Diane Ravitch

We know that Trump chose RFK Jr. to run the federal public health system as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. we know that Kennedy opposes vaccines. He has said that he would not ban vaccines outright but suggested that he might leave the decision about vaxxing to parents. We also know that senior Republican Mitch McConnell had polio as a child and does not like the idea of making the polio vaccine a matter of personal choice.

But we didn’t know much about what Trump believes or wants when it comes to vaccines.

Politico reports that he wants to keep vaccines, at least for adults. But he is doubtful about vaccine mandates for attending school. Public schools in every state require students to be vaccinated. If these mandates are reversed, we can expect to see a spread of the highly infectious diseases that were nearly eradicated.

Your child or grandchild might get measles or mumps or rubella or tetanus. These are deadly diseases.

**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 – June 15, 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.

EDUCATION IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

The Student-Teacher Relationship is One of the Most Misunderstood and Underrated Aspects of Education

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

Test-obsessed policy makers will tell educators to manage everything with a clipboard and a spreadsheet – for example, to increase the percentage of positive interactions vs negative ones in a given class period. But such a data-centric mindset dehumanizes both student and teacher.

The goal cannot be to maximize numbers whether they be test scores or some other metric. It has to be about the relationship, itself.

Teachers have to care about their students. All teachers. All students.

Or at least we have to try.

EDUCATION IS ABOUT FUNDING

School Funding in the COVID-19 Era

How will we fund public schools when the states are out of money?

From Diane Ravitch

The coronavirus has caused incalculable harm to millions of people. Two million people have been infected. More than 100,000 have died. The death toll increases daily. The scientific response to the pandemic—close down the economy—caused additional harm, with most economic activity halted, millions of people out of work, businesses Closed, livelihoods lost. The economic shutdown caused a dramatic decline in state revenues, which means less funding for schools. As schools plan to reopen, classes must be smaller, more nurses and healthcare workers are needed, and costs will rise, to keep students and staff safe.

How can schools cut costs while costs are rising? They can’t.

WILL SCHOOLS BE ABLE TO OPEN IN THE FALL?

With little to no help or guidance from state and federal government, Hoosier schools and parents are left to figure school opening out.

Indiana schools reopening: Why screening for coronavirus could be difficult

From Chalkbeat*

Before she sends her two children back to school next year, Sherry Holmes said she’d like to see every student and staff member in the state tested for COVID-19.

That seems unlikely as tests remain limited and targeted at those who are high risk or symptomatic. So Holmes said she will likely keep her kindergartner and third grader home for a few weeks, at least until she can see what precautions their school is taking.

“For me as a parent, it’s scary just to think about,” she said.

Reopening school buildings is one of the last and trickiest steps in Gov. Eric Holcomb’s plan to lift statewide restrictions brought on by the coronavirus. The Indiana State Department of Health reports hundreds of new COVID-19 cases daily, and the return of thousands of children and educators to classrooms could further spread the virus.

Indiana schools to have flexibility when reopening

From WANE.com

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick addressed teachers and administrators during a webinar Tuesday following the state Department of Education’s release of school reentry guidelines last week. She emphasized the “freedom” local leaders have to determine how their schools will reopen and operate during the coronavirus pandemic. McCormick says that with many schools starting the academic year by early August, some expect to hold all or most classes online. Others, especially in rural areas, plan to return to the “brick and mortar” setting as soon as possible.

To watch the webinar on YouTube, follow this link.

Holcomb: Indiana schools ‘can and should open for instruction’

Apparently, Holcomb has decided COVID-19 is not a threat to our children, our educators and their families, and he has no problem asking schools to do even more impossible things with less funding.

From Chalkbeat*

“We believe, where we are right now, schools can and should open for instruction, and we wouldn’t have made that decision or endorsed the proposal to go forward if we thought otherwise,” Holcomb said during his regular public update.

As one of the final pieces in Holcomb’s plan to reopen Indiana by July 4, the state released guidelines Friday for students and teachers to return to classrooms for the first time since mid-March. Those guidelines included recommendations for screening students and staff for the coronavirus, maintaining social distancing in classrooms and buses, and creating health plans for vulnerable individuals.

DO AMERICANS HAVE A RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION?

The appeals court overturned a ruling that Americans have a right to an education. However, Rep. Jim Banks (IN-03) apparently disagrees with the court when he claims that education is "guaranteed" to all. Which is it?

Federal Appeals Court Rules: No Right to Education

From Diane Ravitch

A federal appeals court overturned a landmark ruling that affirmed the right to an education. Education is necessary for full citizenship, so voters can be fully informed. However the appeals court did not agree.

Indiana lawmaker proposes bill to strip funding from schools if they don't reopen in-person this fall

Emerson's quote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds..." seems to fit the law proposed by Jim Banks (IN-03). His proposal insists that schools open in the fall or lose federal funding. Meanwhile, the directions from the State of Indiana seems to give local school districts some discretion in how and when to reopen.

From WTHR.com

Rep. Jim Banks (IN-03) is proposing a bill that would cutoff a school’s federal funding if they refuse to reopen for in-person learning in the fall.

The legislation is called: Reopen Our Schools Act.

“We need to change the subject from ‘our schools might not reopen in the fall’ to ‘our schools will reopen in the fall and here’s what we need to do it,’” Rep. Banks said. “America is the land of opportunity where education is guaranteed to all children. We’re not living up that guarantee at the moment.”

The concern is that remote learning is not effective and lack of internet keeps low-income or rural families from being able to do classwork.

DEVOS CONTINUES TO DAMAGE EDUCATION

It seems that Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education under her control is doing everything it can to hurt students.

Trump and DeVos Push School Choice, No $ for Undocumented

From Diane Ravitch

— DeVos said in a statement that the rule was aimed at eliminating any “uncertainty” for colleges about how they must distribute the funds, while carrying out the department’s “responsibility to taxpayers to administer the CARES Act faithfully.”

— Democratic lawmakers have pushed back, saying the rule violates the intent of the CARES Act. “As students across the country are struggling to make ends meet in the face of unprecedented financial challenges, Secretary DeVos’ efforts to deny some much-needed aid is cruel,” said Senate HELP ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “These extreme eligibility requirements will not only harm students, but they are also contrary to Congressional intent.” Read more from Michael Stratford.

DeVos Insists on Denying Federal CARES Aid to Undocumented Students

From Diane Ravitch

In another act of gratuitous cruelty, Betsy DeVos insists that undocumented students should get no emergency aid, although Congress did not pass such a restriction.

Politico reports:

DEVOS SEEKS TO ENFORCE RESTRICTIONS ON PANDEMIC RELIEF GRANTS THROUGH REGULATION: The Trump administration will roll out a new regulation this week that restricts which college students may receive emergency grants to cover expenses like food and housing.

DeVos Illegally Seizes $2.2 Billion from Indebted College Students

From Diane Ravitch

...in the middle of a global pandemic and an economic meltdown, with millions of people out of work, the DeVos Department of Education illegally seized $2.2 billion from students who were in debt.

Adam S. Minsky wrote in Forbes:

In response to a class action lawsuit filed by student loan borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education disclosed that it had intercepted and seized over $2.2 billion in tax refunds owed to a million student loan borrowers, in violation of the CARES Act.

CHARTERS HAVE SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS

A Classic: John Oliver on Charter Schools

From Diane Ravitch

In 2016, John Oliver presented a shocking episode about charter schools.

It has been viewed by 12 million people.

Oliver was the first and possibly the only major media figure to discover that charter schools had some serious problems.

Some close in the middle of the year.

Watch his clip with John Kasich comparing education to getting more pepperoni on a slice of pizza.

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

###

In Case You Missed It – June 8, 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.

INDIANA'S 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR PLAN

Indiana Department of Education Announces 2020-2021 School Year COVID-19 Reentry Considerations

From the Indiana Department of Education

“The health and safety of Hoosier students, school staff, and communities is priority one. Providing students with a quality education is critical and therefore it is crucial we offer considerations focused on getting students back in the classroom in a safe manner,” said State Superintendent Dr. Jennifer McCormick. “Considering the many unknowns associated with COVID-19, we also recognize the importance of alternative learning opportunities. We appreciate the thoughtful and collaborative spirit in which IN-CLASS was developed.”

REPAIR FORT WAYNE GETS VOTER APPROVAL

School support: FWCS' stewardship made voters' choice easy

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

In terms of importance, an election night without final results falls low on the list of COVID-19's ill effects. It was reassuring, nonetheless, to know one outcome seemed clear Tuesday night: Voters residing in the Fort Wayne Community Schools district overwhelmingly supported its $130 million building referendum.

At polls, 74% favor FWCS measure: Absentee votes yet to count

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Voters haven't wavered in their support of Fort Wayne Community Schools' quest to renovate and upgrade buildings – at least according to incomplete ballot totals Tuesday night.

About 74% of voters who came to the polls supported the third phase of Repair FWCS, a $130 million bond program that will lead to major renovations...

SURVEY SHOWS DISTANCE LEARNING LACKING

With schools shuttered, learning lags and students left behind, Reuters survey shows

From Reuters

A Reuters survey of nearly 60 school districts across the country provides hard evidence confirming parents’ fears: Distance learning is no substitute for in-class teaching, with students missing classes, meals and hands-on instruction.

STUDENTS NEED TO HEAL FROM TRAUMA

Helping Students Heal

From Live Long and Prosper

Public schools have always been a stable force in students' lives and when the next school year begins -- whenever that is -- they will have to take on the additional role of helping students heal from multiple traumas.

How can teachers and schools help their students and likely their families, too, heal after the pandemic and the societal upheaval?

1. CANCEL THE TESTS...

INDY SCHOOL LEADERS REACT TO CURRENT EVENTS

‘Unconscionable and unacceptable’: Indianapolis school leaders promise to fight racism

From Chalkbeat*

At the end of her weekly video update Friday, Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Aleesia Johnson acknowledged the “incredibly tough week in our country.”

She laid out the litany of traumatic current events disproportionately affecting black students: high-profile national incidents of police brutality, gun violence in local neighborhoods, and the coronavirus pandemic’s outsized effect on African Americans.

“There is just so much loss,” Johnson said. “And so in the midst of that, I want to remind all of our students — but especially our black and brown students — that you are so valued. You are loved. You are brilliant. You are powerful. You are magic. And we are so proud of you.”

AMID SOCIETAL CHAOS, TRUMP VETOES STUDENT PROTECTION

While the Press Covers the Police Killing of a Black Man, Riots, and the Pandemic, Trump Quietly Vetoes Rule to Protect Defrauded Student Borrowers

From Jan Resseger

... On Friday, President Trump vetoed a joint congressional resolution, passed by bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress, to overturn Betsy DeVos’s re-write of the “borrower defense to repayment” rule. Trump’s veto will make it much harder for students defrauded by unscrupulous for-profit colleges to force the federal government to forgive their federal college debts. It seems unlikely that Congress will have enough votes to override Trump’s veto.

The Obama era “borrower defense to repayment” rule made it easier for student borrowers with federal student loans to have their loans forgiven if they had been defrauded. However, an enormous backlog of claims has been building since DeVos took over the department and her staff slowed processing of students’ claims. Finally, last September, DeVos’s department rewrote a new version of the rule more friendly to the for-profit colleges and less protective of defrauded student borrowers burdened with enormous debt.

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

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now 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/

###

In Case You Missed It – Jan 7, 2019

We haven't posted In Case You Missed It since December 17 so there are quite a few articles listed below. Articles appear as they appeared in social media; The newest are at the top. Thank you for your interest and support of public education.

Here are links to the articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media over the last few weeks. 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.

SOUTH ADAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL HELPS SOLVE SLIPPERY PROBLEM

South Adams Middle School wins state STEM award with winter roads proposal

From WPTA-TV

An Adams County school is getting recognition for proposing a way to solve an issue many people face.

Winter roads can get slick with freezing rain, ice and snow. That is why South Adams Middle School is proposing a GPS tracking device to find safe routes to travel by connecting to GPS trackers on vehicles like snowplows.

That was the school’s proposal in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow Contest. This contest encourages teachers and students to solve issues in their community with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills.

GIAQUINTA CALLS ON HOUSE TO ACT

IHDC Leader GiaQuinta outlines agenda that includes teacher pay hikes, hate crimes law, and voting reform

From the Indiana House Democratic Caucus

In his first major speech as Leader of an Indiana House Democratic Caucus that he called the most diverse in state history, State Rep. Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) called today for lawmakers to take immediate action on a variety of issues to improve the quality of life for Hoosiers.

That action should include passage of legislation to improve teacher pay, expand pre-K throughout the state, enact a hate crimes law, protect the health care of people with pre-existing medical conditions, make it easier for Hoosiers to vote, and provide a nonpartisan drawing of legislative and congressional districts.

TIME TO FOCUS ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A test of leadership: Lawmakers have all the evidence they need to do right by public-school educators

From FWCS Board President Julie Hollingsworth in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Indiana finds itself burdened by two issues, a teacher shortage and low teacher pay.

Each feeds the other. How did we get here, and what can be done?

In 2011, the Republican-majority General Assembly with Mitch Daniels as governor passed a sweeping set of laws affecting K-12 education. New laws created the private school voucher program and expanded charter school opportunities. The rhetoric and talking points used to sell these programs echoed that being used across the country; much of it was focused on bad schools and bad teachers.

CHARTER OVERSIGHT NEEDED

Quality crackdown: Virtual charters' dismal record scrutinized anew

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

If the state's newly released high school graduation rate report serves just one purpose, it should be as impetus for a crackdown on virtual charter schools, including one which more than doubled in size after graduating only 22 of its 1,009 seniors last spring.

Senate Bill 183 would serve as a check on Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, which posted a graduation rate of 2.18 percent, compared with a state average of 88.1 percent...

DEVOS RESCINDS DISCIPLINE GUIDANCE

DeVos Department of Ed Cancels Obama-Era Guidance Aimed at Reducing Racial Disparities in School Discipline

From Jan Resseger

On Friday, December 21, as everybody took off for the holidays, the Education and Justice Departments rescinded Obama-era school discipline guidance designed to address vast racial disparities in school discipline practices. Particularly important was the purpose of the guidance: reducing overuse of suspension and expulsion, encouraging schools to handle discipline policies in ways that keep students in school, and developing restorative discipline programs to create a safe school climate. Officials in the Trump administration, including Betsy DeVos and her Federal Commission on School Safety, continue to endorse punitive discipline.

LEGISLATOR WANTS SCHOOLS TO START LATER

Indiana lawmaker seeks school start change, opioid labeling

From WANE-TV

Republican state Sen. Jean Leising filed a bill that would bar public K-12 schools from starting the school year before the last Monday in August, starting with the 2020 school year.

LAUSD HIRES SCABS

Los Angeles Hires Hundreds of Scabs to Replace Thousands of Teachers Who Are Likely to Strike

From Diane Ravitch

Los Angeles is about to try to prove that class size doesn’t matter. The district, on orders from investment banker Austin Beutner, has hired about 400 substitutes to fill in for thousands of teachers who are preparing to strike on January 10. Let’s see: 400 teachers for 600,000 students. Those are very large classes!

INTERFERING WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

How Are the Walton Billionaires Like Putin and the Russians?

From Diane Ravitch

...the Waltons are not merely funding advocates and research and media. They are actively intervening and interfering into the democratic process (as Putin did in 2016 in our presidential election), sinking the hopes of home-grown candidates who can’t match their funding. Putin did it by stealth and social media, the Waltons do their dirty work in the open, using the sheer force of money.

PROPOSED TEACHER GAG LAW IN ARIZONA

AZ: Proposed Teacher Gag Law Part of National Push

We need to stay informed about where legislation comes from and how the same legislation spreads across the nation. Spoiler alert: It's ALEC.

From Curmudgucation

When Arizona teachers walked out on strike, it led to a legislative move to increase education funding by $400 million. But it also led to an expectation that some legislators would seek some vengeance on the uppity educators.

Enter Rep. Mark Finchem (R) with House Bill 2002, a proposal to stifle teachers when it comes to discussing any kind of politics in the classroom called the "Teacher Code of Ethics."

BEATING REFORM ADDICTION

How to beat reform ‘addiction’

From School Matters

John Merrow spent 41 years reporting on education for NPR and PBS “Newshour,” long enough to develop a clear-eyed view of what’s right and wrong with America’s schools. He argues that our obsession with “reform” is an addiction that’s harming students and teachers.

ARIZONA TO TEACHER OF THE YEAR: SHUT UP AND TEACH

Arizona’s 2019 Teacher of the Year was suspended for a day and fined $225. You won’t believe why.

From The Answer Sheet

The Phoenix Union High School District disciplined Neal because he had posted in his classroom a sign supporting #InvestInEd, which was an initiative for an education tax to raise new money for public schools that was initially placed on November’s ballot but removed by the state Supreme Court before the election. Teachers are not supposed to advocate for any political cause, though Neal said that wasn’t his intent, the Arizona Republic reported.

...It’s worth remembering that #InvestInEd was an initiative to raise more money for public schools...

TEACHER SHARES HOBBY

Kekionga radio club finding success

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

When Fort Wayne Community Schools educator and amateur radio operator Jon Luckey first set out to share his longtime hobby with students, he failed miserably, perhaps because he was a first-year teacher.

Now in his 21st year, he has found success with the Kekionga Middle School Amateur Radio Club, an extracurricular activity with a core group of six students, mostly sixth-graders.

STUDENT DEBT, EVEN IN K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL

When students can't afford to eat

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Even with the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, which provide free and reduced-price meals to eligible students, children can still accrue debt over unpaid food. Those ineligible for free meals sometimes don't have money in their account or on hand.

THE LAST PUBLIC SCHOOL

New Orleans: The Last Public School Closes, Despite Objections of Parents and Students and Alumni

From Diane Ravitch

The Orleans Parish School Board closed the last public school in New Orleans, in a meeting room filled with protesting parents, students and alumni of McDonough 35. New Orleans is now the first city in the United States without a public school. The board disregarded the protesters.

CHARTER CORRUPTION, AGAIN

Los Angeles: Charter School Founder Pleads Guilty to Felony Embezzlement Charge

From Diane Ravitch

The founder of a Los Angeles charter chain pleaded guilty to a felony count of misappropriating funds intended for the students at the schools.

PAUSE ON FEREBEE

D.C.: Ferebee Nomination as Chancellor Questioned Because of Inaction in Sexual Abuse Case in Indianapolis

From Diane Ravitch

...Ferebee is under renewed scrutiny because of his inaction in a sexual abuse case of major proportions in February 2016. Some of Ferebee’s underlings were fired for the mishandling of the case, but Ferebee won a bonus from the school board, which was thrilled by his willingness to privatize large parts of the school district.

NEW TEACHERS, STUDY THE OPTIONS CAREFULLY

New Optional Retirement Plan Could Reduce Benefits

From ISTA

The new retirement option from the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund (TRF) received approval from the Internal Revenue Service. The plan allows new hires to select a DC-only plan with a shorter vesting period of five years.

The plan, while optional and voluntary for each new hire, reduces benefits for retirees.

RAISES FOR INDY TEACHERS

Indianapolis Public Schools teachers win big raises — and more pay bumps could be on the way

From Chalkbeat

The new contract includes raises ranging from 3 to 9 percent, with most eligible teachers’ salaries going up by at least $2,586 per year. The contract covers 2018-19, and teachers will get retroactive pay increases going back to July.

TESTING HAS CONSEQUENCES

High-stakes testing has emotional consequences, too

From lohud (USA Network)

The result? A generation of young children who are stressed beyond capacity. Ask a school nurse about students reporting anxiety, depression, cutting themselves, eating disorders, thoughts of suicide, attempts of suicide. Ask about the numbers of hospitalizations for mental health issues. The answer will stun you. The American Academy of Pediatrics shared the shocking news that children’s admissions to hospitals for suicidal thoughts or for “serious self harm” more than doubled from 2008 to 2015 — with more than 10 percent of patients between 5 and 11 years old.

SCHOOL STAFFING

Data raise questions about school staffing – but don’t answer them

From School Matters

Indiana ranks near the bottom of the states for the percentage of school employees who are teachers and near the top for the percentage who provide “support services,” according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

MORE MONEY FOR FEREBEE

IPS poised to approve over $30,000 in additional pay for Washington-bound superintendent Lewis Ferebee

A bonus for this man is a grievous waste of Indy’s tax dollars. Tying it to an increase in teacher pay is beyond the pale.

From Chalkbeat

Weeks before he leaves for Washington, D.C., Superintendent Lewis Ferebee is expected to get a retroactive raise and $26,999 in performance pay from Indianapolis Public Schools.

That will bring his total annual compensation to nearly $300,000...

TEACHER PAY

Holcomb now says he’s ‘optimistic’ that Indiana can send more money to teachers in 2019

Is this optimism or just a meaningless promise in response to bad publicity?

From Chalkbeat

Gov. Eric Holcomb is speeding up what he introduced as a slow and “methodical” approach to raising Indiana’s teacher salaries over the next several years, saying action could take place in 2019.

TTHE "CHOICE" IS FOR THE SCHOOL, NOT THE PARENT

Weak laws allow discrimination in voucher, charter schools

From School Matters

School voucher programs and charter schools practice discrimination in enrollment and hiring because they can, according to a recent policy brief from the National Education Policy Center. Federal and state laws permit discrimination in private schools that receive public funding. And charter schools are held to looser standards than traditional public schools when it comes to selecting students.

LOCAL CHARTER SCHOOL FAILS

Local charter school must close at year's end

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

The Thurgood Marshall Leadership Academy lost its charter, and must close at the end of the school year.

###

In Case You Missed It – August 7, 2018

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.

Overdue accountability

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

When Indiana lifted its moratorium on online charter schools, Rep. Greg Porter, chairman of the House Education Committee, complained the decision was “a hostile injection into the education system instead of a cooperative process.”

“We needed to do it the right way, to have a real debate with clear regulations and accountability,” said the Indianapolis Democrat in 2009.

Nearly a decade later, virtual charter schools represent the very worst of Indiana's public education system, with the state's three online schools finishing in the bottom 3 percent statewide for test improvement. Each received F's under the most recent round of grades assigned by the state. Graduation rates are abysmal: Indiana Virtual School had the worst rate in the state, graduating just 63 of 985 students.

Paying for college through future pay

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

A growing trend in paying for college has yet to catch on in northeast Indiana: students promising their schools a percentage of their future salary in exchange for tuition.

This type of contract, known as an income share agreement, is different from traditional loans, in which graduates pay principal and interest until the balance is zero. Income shares allow graduates to pay their alma mater a percentage of their salary for a set period of time; terms can vary.

American High School Students Win World’s Hardest Math Competition–Again!

From Diane Ravitch

America’s high school math team just won the International Mathematical Olympiad!

Our kids are the best in the world!

And most of the kids on the winning team are children of immigrants (attention, D.J. Trump and Stephen Miller, the Trump administration’s point person on keeping immigrants out).

Props to LeBron James and his new Akron public school — but what about the other kids?

From The Answer Sheet

...The praise for James has come from far and wide, including from charter school supporters who no doubt would have preferred that James opened a charter, which is publicly funded but privately operated. (Ohio’s charter school sector has long been riddled with scandal, with the latest fiasco being the collapse of the for-profit cyber-charter Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT), which has been ordered to repay the state some $80 million.)

And James’s focus on building a school within a traditional public district suggests he understands the importance of the traditional public education system in the United States, which some argue is the country’s most important civic institution and which is under assault from school “reformers” who want to privatize it.

Still, the fact that this school opened only because of the good graces of a very wealthy, civic-minded athlete underscores the continuing problem with education funding in this country. And it highlights the push for school “choice” that has Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s education secretary, as its chief advocate.

2018 Medley #19: LeBron James and the Promise of Public Schools

From Live Long and Prosper

"Although this is a really beautiful story of philanthropy, it does raise the question of why communities need celebrities to provide services that should be provided by the government" -- Trevor Noah

A powerfully humane element of teaching

From The Answer Sheet

These teachers seem to operate with an expansive sense of human ability and are particularly alert to signs of that ability, signs that might be faint or blurred by societal biases or by a student’s reticence or distracting behavior — or that the student him or herself might barely comprehend.

Through the way they teach, through mentoring, or through some other intervention, these teachers help develop the abilities they perceive. We don’t hear a lot about this powerfully humane element of teaching, for so much current discussion of teacher education and development is focused elsewhere: from creating measures of effectiveness to mastering district or state curriculum frameworks. These are important issues to be sure, but they have crowded out so much else that makes teaching a richly humanistic intellectual pursuit.

AFT Sums Up Ten Years of Public School Underfunding and Neglect with Details from Each State

From Jan Resseger

The new report from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), A Decade of Neglect, is one of the most lucid explanations I’ve read about the deplorable fiscal conditions for public schools across the states. It explains the precipitous drop in school funding caused by the Great Recession, temporarily ameliorated in 2009 by an infusion of funds from the federal stimulus (a financial boost that disappeared after a couple of years), compounded by tax cutting and austerity budgeting across many states, and further compounded by schemes to drain education dollars to privatized charter and voucher programs all out of the same budget.

###