Doubling Down on Privatization

RISE ABOVE THE MARK

Last Friday night I traveled to Butler University in Indianapolis and attended a presentation of Rise Above the Mark, a documentary developed by the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation, which shines a light on the damage that privatization is doing to public education in Indiana and the nation. [Sponsors of the film's presentation were Butler University, Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education and Kroger.]

After the movie we listened to a panel discussion about the privatization movement. Upon her introduction Diane Ravitch, who was one of the interviewees in the film, received a standing ovation from the obviously partisan crowd. In it's report of event, the Indianapolis Star wrote,

It was a two-sided debate in front of an audience hooting for one side.

That's true. The crowd was strongly biased against the privatizers and during the evening comments from Ravitch and Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Wendy Robinson were received with cheers and whistles.

Here's the first of three videos containing the entire discussion. View them all at Rise Above the Mark -- February 28, 2014, Butler University

One of the last comments of the evening came from "reformer" David Harris, founder and CEO of The Mind Trust. He said,

One of the reasons that [reform] initiatives have gained so much currency, particularly charter schools, is that they are bipartisan issues. No one did more to launch charter schools in this country than Bill Clinton and no one has been a bigger advocate for charter schools than Barack Obama. This is an issue that is...the education reform community is actually an area where Republicans and Democrats are coming together. The Washington Post did an editorial shortly after [New York City] Mayor [Bill] de Blasio's election that said nothing is less progressive than the efforts against education reform. [emphasis added]

That's absolutely, and unfortunately true.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SUPPORT FOR PRIVATIZATION

When he was running for his first term (2007), candidate Obama spoke about NCLB and told the NEA,

Don't label a school as failing one day and then throw your hands up and walk away from it the next. Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of a year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles in a standardized test...You didn't devote your lives to testing. You devoted it to teaching, and teaching is what you should be allowed to do.

Four years later he spoke at a town hall and said,

Too often what we have been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools...

One thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching the test because then you're not learning about the world, you're not learning about different cultures, you're not learning about science, you're not learning about math. All you're learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test and that's not going to make education interesting.

When he was running for president he consistently criticized "teaching to the test" and supported a well rounded curriculum.

Yet throughout his first term and continuing into the second, he has, under the leadership of his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, pushed the national education debate in favor of the corporate education reform industry.

In the Duncan Department of Education, standardized testing has been given even more weight than under the McGraw-Hill friendly Bush administration. Not only are students ranked and schools rewarded and punished based on test scores, but the Obama/Duncan administration has pushed the concept of evaluating teachers based on student test scores.

If anything was designed specifically to encourage teaching to the test, then Race to the Top is it...despite President Obama's words.

President Obama, as a candidate, gave us the impression that he didn't favor the excessive testing which has done so much damage to America's public schools over the last 30 years. His actions, however, haven't matched his words and, as President, he has done as much damage to public education as any Republican would have.

A FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE

So it's disappointing, but not surprising that he has doubled down on his damaging policy and announced the appointment of a leading privatizer to be second in command at the U.S. Department of Education.

In her article, Obama Picks Leader of Privatization Movement to be #2 in U.S. Department of Education, Diane Ravitch says of the nominee, Ted Mitchell...

He is a key figure in the corporate reform movement to transform public education and transfer public funds to private management, as well as to spur entrepreneurial activity and the involvement of the for-profit sector in public education.

President Obama has nominated him to be Undersecretary of Education, the second most powerful job in the department.

The article quoted by Ravitch, The Education of Ted Mitchell, says...

In many ways, the Mitchell nomination reflects the ongoing battle being fought in Washington and in school districts across the country. It’s a battle that pits the views of teachers, their unions and community groups against a movement that is backed by wealthy philanthropists and corporations...

...critics like Ravitch say that Mitchell and NewSchools Venture Fund are in the forefront of a movement to privatize public education, a radical transformation that would benefit technology, testing and textbook companies such as Pearson, the London-headquartered multinational publishing and education giant.

Furthermore, the website of Students Matter names NewSchools Venture Fund as a supporter of Vergara v. California. This lawsuit, currently being tried in Los Angeles Superior Court, is aimed at scrapping teacher seniority protections in California. Vergara’s sponsor, Students Matter, is a nonprofit created by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch – whom Business Week identified as a NewSchools investment partner...

Jeffrey Henig, a political science and education professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and an expert on the dynamics of education policy, says that the Mitchell nomination appears to send a strong message about the direction of education policy.

“This does look like a signal that President Obama is continuing to place more bets with the reform crowd,” he says.

See also HERE for Ted Mitchell's (and NewSchools Venture Fund) ties to Pearson, Khan Academy, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and other for-profit, and online education companies.

Late last year, I wrote,

...[the] two major party politicians are like members of the canine family. Republicans, he said, are wolves: it's clear where they stand on the issues. Their disdain for public education is open and vicious. On the other hand, the Democrats are like foxes: they smile at you to make you think they're your friends – and then, when you least expect it, they devour you.

I'm not suggesting to those who are fighting the privatization of public education that they ignore what their local politicians have done when election time rolls around next November. However, we must remember that no matter what the partisan label a politician has next to his or her name the campaign contributions from the Broads, Gates, Waltons and other school "reformers" will go a long way towards corporatizing politicians of both parties.

The corporate takeover of public education is bipartisan. Work for the defeat of the "wolves," but beware of the "foxes."

It's time to get the foxes out of the hen house...

"There is a place in America to take a stand: it is public education. It is the underpinning of our cultural and political system. It is the great common ground. Public education after all is the engine that moves us as a society toward a common destiny... It is in public education that the American dream begins to take shape." -- Tom Brokaw

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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2014 Medley #6

Money, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Tenure, Teacher Expertise, Public Education Funding

IN IT FOR THE MONEY

"Anyone who denies that the "reform" movement isn't abetting a wholesale transfer of public monies and property to private concerns is either corrupt or willingly obtuse."

The above quote is from Education "Reform": The Endgame by Jersey Jazzman, a.k.a. Duke. It pinpoints the main goal of the privatization movement -- money. They're not in it for students. They're not interested in improving the nation's education process. They want money.

Big money...

The fine, reformy folks who love to claim that they don't have any skin in the game -- the ones who either implicitly or explicitly call out unions and teachers for acting out of self-interest -- seem to do awfully well for themselves. Why, there's Eva Moskowitz, brave crusader against the terrible teachers unions (according to the bible of the ruling class, the Wall Street Journal), pulling down nearly half-a-mil a year even as she decries the "bullying" UFT. There's Chris Cerf, off to greener pastures at Rupert Murdoch's Amplify after sending NJ's schools down the reformy path. And there's Joe Bruno, pulling down more than $400K for arranging financing for charter school construction. 

It gets worse...more money, union busting. Read the rest...includes a great clip of George Carlin telling the truth.

PRIVATIZATION

Dan Casey: Privatize teachers? It could happen

Are we going to be privatizing and/or outsourcing, teachers? Will we be hiring temporaries to fill slots...contracting with some teacher-supply corporation to teach the hard to teach students, to save money on salaries and benefits...

Think it can't happen?

So I asked him: When he started on the school board in 1995, did he ever imagine he’d be faced with the question of outsourcing nurses, cafeteria workers and bus drivers?

His answer was no. Yet here we are.

TEACHER EVALUATIONS

Florida Outrage! Junk Science Ratings Will be Released to Media

Once you allow legislators to dictate that teacher evaluations should be based on student test scores all manner of nutty things can happen...

Do we increase standardized testing to include every subject, every year -- art, music, health, for example? Or do we rate teachers based on test scores from students they never taught?

The following notice was sent to all teachers in Florida from the State Commissioner of Education, letting teachers know that their names and evaluations will be released to the media. Most teachers do not teach tested subjects and grades, so their ratings are based on the test scores of children they never taught. [emphasis added]

TENURE MEANS DUE PROCESS

The Vergara Case and Other People’s Children: A Teacher’s View

It's all about so-called "tenure." "Tenure," for most K-12 educators, is simply another word for due-process. Due process is a fundamental principle in American justice. When an individual is faced with a loss of life, liberty or property, due process assures that he or she is "entitled to adequate notice, a hearing, and a neutral judge."

Due process, when it relates to public school educators means that, before a teacher is fired, proof of their incompetence, immorality, or other offense must be presented. This means that the burden of proof of a teacher being unfit for work is upon the administration. There are some things which can be done to insure that poor teachers are removed from the classroom -- something which everyone, even teachers unions, want -- for example...

1. Improve the quality of administrators. Incompetent administrators who don't know how to evaluate teachers, or who don't keep adequate records are the main reason that "bad" teachers remain in classrooms. If you can't show that a teacher is not doing his or her job, then why should we take away they're livelihood?

2. Improve evaluation procedures. Most testing experts agree that test scores aren't a valid measure of a teacher's quality. There are evaluation procedures which can be used...and have been used with great success...until "reformers" have decided that real evaluation doesn't fit their agenda. See

Creating a Comprehensive System for Evaluating and Supporting Effective Teaching by Linda Darling-Hammond

Helping Teachers Help Themselves and Peer Assistance and Review

Teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District is an exercise in futility these days. Watching this court case unfold with its Trojan Horse arguments about the best education for students is like hearing the 1% argue that what the financial system needs is less regulation so that the poor people of the country can be free to achieve their American Dream.

Their words are all about “liberty” and “justice” and “equality”, but it is obvious who reaps the benefits of those terms.

THE WORK TEACHERS DO

You think you know what teachers do. Right? Wrong.

Valerie Strauss published a guest post from teacher-turned-attorney Sarah Blaine explaining why teaching is so difficult...

I spent a little over a year earning a master of arts in teaching degree. Then I spent two years teaching English Language Arts in a rural public high school. And I learned that my 13 years as a public school student, my 4 years as a college student at a highly selective college, and even a great deal of my year as a masters degree student in the education school of a flagship public university hadn’t taught me how to manage a classroom, how to reach students, how to inspire a love of learning, how to teach. Eighteen years as a student (and a year of preschool before that), and I didn’t know shit about teaching. Only years of practicing my skills and honing my skills would have rendered me a true professional. An expert. Someone who knows about the business of inspiring children. Of reaching students. Of making a difference. Of teaching.

The article is making the rounds on social media and education blogs...and teachers can relate. We understand that the billionaires and policy makers who are orchestrating the direction of public education in America (towards privatization) have no clue what it's like to be in a classroom. The nation's "highest ranking educator," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, has never attended or taught in a public school. He's not an educator. People like Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, and the Walton Family are lobbying and buying the privatization of public education without knowing anything about it. Teachers understand this. Sarah Blaine gets it. People don't know education simply because they were students once...

Nationally, people like Duncan, Gates and the Waltons (and in Indiana, people like Behning, Pence, Long and Kruse), minimize and demonize teachers. They do so because they don't have the ability to teach. They do so because they don't have any education experience and don't have the credentials or the understanding to make educational policy. They do so because by minimizing the education and expertise of teachers they try to make their own ignorance and inexperience less obvious and justify what they do to public education.

...you [non-educators making education policy] did not design curricula, plan lessons, attend faculty meetings, assess papers, design rubrics, create exams, prepare report cards, and monitor attendance. You did not tutor students, review rough drafts, and create study questions. You did not assign homework. You did not write daily lesson objectives on the white board. You did not write poems of the week on the white board. You did not write homework on the white board. You did not learn to write legibly on the white board while simultaneously making sure that none of your students threw a chair out a window.

I agree completely...

• While simultaneously decrying the overwhelming number of "bad" teachers some "reformers" tout the benefits of firing experienced teachers in order to replace them with 5 week trainees.

• Other "reformers" blame the teachers unions, though high union membership is not correlated in any way with low student performance, whereas, poverty is. Those same "reformers" call poverty an "excuse."

• President Obama, through Secretary Duncan, has encouraged privatization of schools, calling for closing "failing" schools -- otherwise known as schools attended by students with high levels of poverty. The current administration in Washington blames schools for not overcoming the effects of poverty...something it hasn't done either.

...all without the benefit of public education experience.

...all without understanding what it's like to teach in a public school.

FOCUS INDIANA: FINANCIAL UNCERTAINTY

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #174 – February 26, 2014

Governor Pence has clearly favored private schools over public schools in the competitive marketplace of schools which we now have in Indiana. When public schools are kept in a perpetual state of financial uncertainty and budget cutting, they have a hard time competing with private schools for parent selections, especially when parents are often looking for small class sizes when they choose a school...

The Governor’s plan to eliminate $1 billion in business property taxes to help businesses has threatened schools, cities, towns, libraries and county governments with the latest self-inflicted crisis of financial instability. For public schools, that translates into more difficulty in competing in the school choice marketplace...This is no time to give public schools another financial headache through a new round of funding cuts resulting from changes in the business property tax.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Musical Interlude: G.F. Handel - Feb 23, 1685

Today, Feb 23, is G. F. Handel's 381st birthday. He was born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg.

Most people know of George Frideric Handel because of his oratorio, The Messiah...and the Hallelujah Chorus. Handel was, however, a prolific composer in the early 18th century

The video below is a bit of his Royal Fireworks Music. This particular video features actual baroque instruments like natural trumpets, corni da caccia, and baroque oboes. Using period instruments means that you'll hear notes played a bit out of tune, especially by the brass since baroque brass instruments had no valves and could only play the notes in a harmonic series.

The Royal Fireworks was a commission by King George II. The online Britannica explains...

When England’s King George II commissioned Handel to write music celebrating the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), he specified that the piece should be played by a military band without stringed instruments. Handel complied with the king’s request, scoring the music for 9 trumpets, 9 horns, 24 oboes, 12 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 1 serpent, 6 kettledrums, and 2 side drums, but he later added strings for the first indoor performance.

Acknowledging the occasion for which the piece was composed, Handel attached descriptive titles to the two central movements: the third movement is called “La Paix” (“The Peace”) in honour of the treaty itself, and the fourth is called “La Réjouissance” (“The Rejoicing”) to commemorate the mood of elation that followed.

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

2014 Medley #5

Public Schools, Politicians, Tax Money for Religion, NEA, Poverty, Privatization

CREATE A CRISIS, THEN CASH IN

The Myth Behind Public School Failure

Read The Shock Doctrine.

Look closely—you’ll recognize the formula: Underfund schools. Overcrowd classrooms. Mandate standardized tests sold by private-sector firms that “prove” these schools are failures. Blame teachers and their unions for awful test scores. In the bargain, weaken those unions, the largest labor organizations remaining in the United States. Push nonunion, profit-oriented charter schools as a solution.

If a Hurricane Katrina or a Great Recession comes along, all the better. Opportunities for plunder increase as schools go deeper into crisis, whether genuine or ginned up.

EIGHT-YEAR-OLDS: THE BEHAVIORAL LEVEL OF POLITICIANS

I taught third grade (eight and nine year olds) for much of my career. The behavior of some of the politicians in Indiana is reminding me of my experiences on the playground with discipline...

Indiana Senate Republicans sanction Sen. Mike Delph over remarks

A state senator engages in childish behavior...arguing his position through sarcasm and shaming...

Delph took to Twitter to voice his frustrations. In a prolific, three-day war of words, Delph criticized his fellow Republicans, saying they had turned their back on the conservative base of the Indiana Republican Party.

Delph also lashed out at the media and the "self-absorbed Godless culture that is fast-tracking our nation to ruin."

Senate leader punishes Mike Delph over tweet

Then the same senator "broke the rules" about a discussion (about the same issue) in the party caucus and is being punished.

• Delph will lose his leadership position as the Senate’s assistant majority floor leader of communications.

• Delph will not retain his title as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• He will lose his press secretary.

What happens to children when they misbehave? They're put in time-out.

• Delph will be given a new seat in the Senate chamber, along side Democrats — in the minority in the House — and across the aisle from Republican leadership. 

TAX MONEY FOR RELIGION

Indiana Vouchers Will Help Fix Church Steeples

Public money for private, religious schools -- the entanglement between church and state is becoming more common in Indiana.

• Why in the world are we as taxpayers helping to fund and maintain private and parochial schools while public school districts are having difficulty maintaining their buildings, paying their staffs, running their buses?
• Why do public schools have to float bond issues in order to have the funds to maintain the buildings owned by THE PUBLIC?
• Why in the world are my tax dollars going to repair St. Jude's steeple when the vestry of my own church has turned to its own parishioners for a fund drive to repair its crumbling infrastructure?
• Why in the world is Indiana funding religious education with no strings attached?

More evidence Indiana vouchers are about teaching religion

Parents are using Indiana school vouchers and tax-credit scholarships to provide their children with religious education at taxpayer expense. That’s the finding that jumps out from a recent survey of private school parents by three pro-voucher Indiana organizations.

The survey found that more than half of parents who used vouchers to transfer their kids to private schools did so in part because they didn’t like the fact that public schools don’t teach religion. And more than two-thirds chose their current school for its religious instruction or environment.

Tax money for religion...is that what the founders meant in the First Amendment? James Madison wrote,

The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity.

Bills would expand state program that funds some students' private education with public money

In Arizona...

To spur the public to support the transfer of public funds to private schools pretend that you're doing it to help the poor, or to support our fighting men and women. Then...in subsequent years, increase the number of students who qualify, expanding the program to include not just the poor or children of military, but everyone...

Sound familiar, Indiana?

The House Committee on Education voted in favor of a bill sponsored by Rep. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu, that would allow children of active military personnel and of those killed in action to bypass a waiting period to join the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account program.

A much larger expansion was approved in a different committee last week. That bill would expand eligibility to students who meet free or reduced lunch requirements and to those whose family income exceeds the free and reduced lunch requirements by 15 percent. That income threshold would then increase by 15 percent every year.

Texas Ed Board Candidates Want Religious Beliefs Promoted in Public Schools

In Texas...

Is this what we want for education in America?

We told you Monday that a religious-right group’s voter guide reveals that several Republican candidates in Texas State Board of Education elections this year think government shouldn’t be responsible for making sure all children get an education. The same candidates also support shifting tax dollars from public to private schools. So it might not be surprising to hear that their hostility to public education is matched by their disdain for science and separation of church and state.

According to answers in the voter guide, District 7 incumbent David Bradley, R-Beaumont Buna, and Fort Worth challengers Eric Mahroum and Lady Theresa Thombs in the District 11 Republican primary all support teaching “intelligent design”/creationism in public schools. They also want biology textbooks to teach creationist arguments about so-called “weaknesses” of evolution. District 11 incumbent Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, indicated that she opposes teaching both “intelligent design” and those discredited “weaknesses” arguments.

All of those candidates, including Hardy, say the Ten Commandments should be displayed in public school buildings, that marriage is a union of one man and one woman and that “no government has the authority to alter this definition.”) They also “strongly agree” that “the more people live by Judeo-Christian values, the less government is needed.”

NEA PRESIDENT VAN ROEKEL: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

NEA President: We Need a Course Correction on Common Core

The NEA was among the first to endorse President Obama for reelection, despite a dismal record on public education. Why? Did any one even think to withhold an endorsement and try to wrangle some benefits for public education out of the current administration? Instead, NEA bent over, licked the Democrat's boots, and let them continue to bludgeon America's public school students...not even a whisper of dissent from our union leadership.

Then, under the guise of "getting a seat at the table" NEA jumped onto the CCSS bandwagon....taking money from the Gates Foundation for example.

Now, when public opinion is finally (rightly) turning away from the Common Core NEA President Van Roekel "sees the light."

I am sure it won’t come as a surprise to hear that in far too many states, implementation has been completely botched. Seven of ten teachers believe that implementation of the standards is going poorly in their schools. Worse yet, teachers report that there has been little to no attempt to allow educators to share what’s needed to get CCSS implementation right. In fact, two thirds of all teachers report that they have not even been asked how to implement these new standards in their classrooms.

Imagine that: The very people expected to deliver universal access to high quality standards with high quality instruction have not had the opportunity to share their expertise and advice about how to make CCSS implementation work for all students, educators, and parents.

Consequently, NEA members have a right to feel frustrated, upset, and angry about the poor commitment to implementing the standards correctly.

So, where do we go from here?

Peter Greene at Curmudgucation thinks I'm being too hard. Maybe...

DVR Corrects Course

I am already reading the cries that it is too weak and too late, and there's absolutely no question that it's both. But at this point, there are only two options-- being too late, or staying too wrong. You can't fix Too Late. Absent a time machine, DVR can't undo his ongoing period of wrong-headed quackery. At this point the best we could get would be Too Late But Absolutely Right. Too Late But Slightly Less Wrong isn't perfect, but it's still better than Still Dead Wrong And Unwilling To Talk About It. Sometimes better is all you get.

With all due respect, Mr. Greene...there's a third option. NEA can replace DVR immediately, and start working towards supporting public education in America.

Van Roekel's not-pology for getting sucked in to the CCSS debacle isn't enough to earn my forgiveness. The CCSS are not "high quality standards." I'm not upset by the inability to correctly "implement" the standards. It's the standards themselves that are faulty. The standards were purchased by the Gates Foundation and sold to Pearson. They have never been field-tested. There is no way to adjust them. They are a failed attempt to wrest yet more money from public education using our students as raw materials.

It's time for some real leadership. Tell your NEA-RA representatives to speak out loudly at the NEA-RA in Denver this July. We need to stand up to the corporate education reform industry and the federal government attack on public education.


BLAMING THE VICTIM

Our focus should be on protecting children from the impact of poverty

Stephen Krashen continues to be a persistent voice for sanity in public education.

Published in the Wall Street Journal, February 21.

Response to: "A progressive education" (Editorial, Feb. 14)

Your editorial sends the message that our public schools are failing. They aren't. When researchers control for the effects of poverty, American schools rank near the top of the world. Our overall scores are unspectacular because the child poverty rate in the U.S. is very high, 23%, second-highest among all economically advanced countries. Children of poverty suffer from hunger, malnutrition, inferior health care and lack of access to books. All of these have a powerful impact on school performance. The best teaching in the world won't help when children are hungry, ill and have little or nothing to read.
Our focus should be on protecting children from the impact of poverty.

Prof. Em. Stephen Krashen

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR THE WEALTHY

Bill giving preference to grandkids of charter school founders heads to Senate

Nepotism in business is a time honored tradition so it comes as no surprise that when public education turns into a business, that nepotism becomes enshrined as part of the plan...

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to allow the grandchildren of charter school founders to bypass enrollment lotteries sailed quickly through a Senate committee Thursday on its way to final passage.

HB36, sponsored by Rep. David Lifferth, R-Eagle Mountain, passed the House last week in a 71-2 vote and was given a favorable recommendation by the Senate Education Committee Thursday. It will now go before the full Senate for consideration.

Lifferth said current law allows the children of charter school founders and board members to enroll in a charter school without participating in enrollment lotteries. He said his bill would extend that provision to the grandchildren of founders in response to the increasingly active role that grandparents take in the raising and education of their families.

U.S.: Second Highest Level of Child Poverty among "Rich" Nations

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Sign An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

All who envision a more just, progressive and fair society cannot ignore the battle for our nation’s educational future. Principals fighting for better schools, teachers fighting for better classrooms, students fighting for greater opportunities, parents fighting for a future worthy of their child’s promise: their fight is our fight. We must all join in.

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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