If We Treated Banksters Like Teachers

[snark]

I'm very pleased to announce that I have been invited to be on a panel for one of NBC's many Bankster Nation specials! As you know, NBC, like so many in the media, is committed to extensive coverage of the "failure" of our financial system, and is bringing in experts on banking - like me! - to discuss how we can learn from the "success" of America's schools to solve the "income achievement gap."

I'll be on a panel with 10 other teachers and one banker (actually, he doesn't bank anymore - he gave that up to become a banking consultant). We'll be talking about how the banksters need a real accountability system in place, how we need to get rid of their job protections, and how education has become the excuse banksters use to hold up real reform.

I'm sure at some point emotions will run hot and I'll start saying that all American banks are awful and far behind banks in the rest of the world. But I'm only doing that because I care more about banks than the people who actually run them.

Later this week, my wife will get her own hour to pretty much say anything she wants.

Make sure you tune in!

Sponsored by the University of Phoenix, for all your on-line banking needs!

[/snark]

sol-mi-do

More Like This!

Dr. Camika Royal lays it all out for Philadelphia, and the entire nation:

A teacher is a servant. And you are not here to save. You are here to serve.

While here, your job is to be swift to hear and slow to speak. Swift to hear and slow to speak.

That's good stuff.

Christie Lives To Screw NJ's Teachers

We all love doing what we do best. What does Chris Christie do best? Screw over New Jersey's teachers:

TRENTON – The governor cut numerous elements of the FY2013 budget today, including some of the extra items Democrats included:

[...]

*An appropriation of $631 million for the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund is reduced to $612 million

Already, he's cutting back on payments into the teacher's pension fund. I'm sure he justifies this by claiming it's more than he needs to put in right now, but he's the one who says over and over again the pensions are way underfunded; why would he cut back on payments when we are already so far behind?

What will he do in the next few years, when he has to find billions more to fund the pensions? Will he pay less than is needed to make up for tax breaks to the wealthy?

Look again at the top of this blog. This man cannot be trusted to keep his word to teachers, cops, and all other public employees. He said we had to lose our cost of living allowances and pay more into the pensions to "save" them. But does anyone really think he's going to do his part and fully fund the state's contributions?

If he wins a second term and comes up with full payments to the pensions over the next seven years, I'll vote for him for president in 2020. Which will never happen, because Christie is as fiscally responsible as his mentor:

Regis Replies

For those of you who have been following the story of the rise and fall of Regis Academy Charter School, here's the latest:

Earlier this week, Khan said he and the diocese had reached a “friendly agreement” and said he was vacating the property on July 18. He said his church had been leasing the building and could leave at any point, since he was only paying month-to-month.

Khan said he had no comment yet on where the church was relocating to or if he would be appealing or reapplying for the charter application in the future.

But, Khan did send a letter to Popoff in response to the DOE’s letter of denial dated July 6, expressing his concern over being denied the charter.

“Regis Academy did not make any material misrepresentations either in its charter application or during the charter preparedness process,” Khan wrote in his July 9 letter, obtained from the DOE. “There is simply no basis upon which the commissioner’s determinations, at least conveyed by your letter, meet even the barest requirements of due process.”

Well, I'm pretty sure the good folks of Cherry Hill, Voorhees, and all the other towns affected by Regis would say they didn't have any due process rights when it came to the approval of Regis's charter, but whatever.

I actually feel badly for Amir Khan. His application never should have gone this far; it wasn't right for the NJDOE to string him along like this. I have no doubt he and his board put in many hours trying to get this application approved when it was clear it never should have gone past the preliminary stages.

The takeaway here is that the NJDOE's charter application and oversight processes are hopelessly broken. There should be a moratorium on all new charters until ACTING Commissioner Cerf releases the charter report he promised 494 days ago:

Bloomberg: Live By the Test, Die By the Test

Generalissimo Mike Bloomberg, 8/8/11:

– Mayor Michael Bloomberg says students, teachers and administrators should be very proud of the gains in standardized test scores.

The mayor expressed joy over the latest test scores that show city school kids in grades 3 through 8, making gains in the state’s annual math and English exams.

[...]

Bloomberg said that the “most important” and “encouraging conclusion” from the results was that “city students continue to move in the right direction.”

He added the results were “more evidence that work we are doing here in New York City to invest in teachers, raise standards and hold everyone accountable is paying off.” [emphasis mine]

Generalissimo Mike Bloomberg, 7/12/12:

The study by the city’s Independent Budget Office looked at 46,400 students who were third graders in 2006 and tracked their performance on the state’s English Language Arts exams through sixth grade. Nearly 62 percent ended up at the same proficiency level three years later.

“The primary finding is one of consistency,” said Raymond Domanico, director of testing research for the budget office. “Generally, kids stayed at the same performance level relative to their grade over the three years of the study.”

[...]

The Education Department called the study “flawed.”

“Testing experts know that performance levels on New York State tests cannot be compared from grade to grade without additional analysis, which this study failed to complete or consider,” said a spokeswoman, Jessica Scaperotti.

So test results are great when they're great! But they suck when they're not! You can trust them to evaluate teachers so much we should publish the "bad" teachers' names in the newspaper! Except when they're used to evaluate the mayor; then they're "flawed"!

Or something; it's confusing...

I think we can come to one scientifically sound conclusion based on this data: when it comes to education, Mike Bloomberg has no idea what he is doing.

Think I'm bad? Wait until Eva Moskowitz takes over!

ADDING: Why "Generalissimo"? Well...

The Real Legacy of "Reform"

In the not too distant future, we will look back at this assault on teachers and say, "What in the world were we thinking?":

Not long ago I spoke at an “open house” for high school students who wanted to meet college professors and learn more about different career opportunities. 

When relatively few students or their parents showed interest in elementary education, a father remarked that he understood the rejection of teaching as a profession and that he, too, was trying to convince his exceptionally bright daughter to think instead of a business career. 

“Who in the world would want to be a teacher these days?” he asked. “All they get is poor treatment and constant blame when they can’t do magic and instantly bring kids up to grade level.” 

He might be onto something, and I worry that if we continue placing so much blame on teachers for what is often beyond their control, we run the risk of turning off many of our best young people from careers in education. 

And this we simply cannot afford to do. 

It seems many lawmakers with no classroom experience, in state after state, are ratcheting up the rhetoric against teachers. There are calls by some to cut teaching positions, freeze or slash teacher salaries and eliminate tenure. But is it just to place the bulk of responsibility for student performance squarely on teachers’ shoulders when policy makers, politicians, teacher educators, parents, administrators, the public and students themselves all play a role? [emphasis mine]

So here's what I'm pretty sure is going to happen:

Over the next few years, young people are going to decide that as much as they might have liked teaching, they just can't afford to do it. Sure, the pay was always low, but a few years ago at least there were decent benefits and a modest but stable pension.

And there was some small level of respect. You didn't get your name published in the paper if your kids' test scores weren't great. You didn't have governors swaggering around phony town halls calling you "greedy." People knew what you were doing was important. They had the manners to acknowledge that you may not have been making a lot of money, but you were making a difference.

Well, those days are over, and there's little incentive for anyone to enter the teacher profession - mostly because it's no longer a profession. In a profession, you have a say over your work, and get deference to your authority once you've earned it. That's not teaching in America any more.

So in 15, maybe 10, possibly 5 years, it's all going to go to hell. And then we're all going to turn to you:

Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, the entire Republican party, Chris Christie, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, Dannel Malloy, Rick Snyder, Bobby Jindal, Cory Booker, Mike Bloomberg, Rahmbo, Koch brothers, Waltons, Chris Cerf, Joel Klein, Rupert Murdoch, Mike Milken, Eli Broad, Whitney Tilson, David Tepper, Eric Hanushek, LA Times, and so many others that I could name...

... and ask you why the hell you destroyed the teaching profession.


You'd better damn well have a good answer.

Cory Booker Brings Reforminess To The Nation

If you had any doubts that the Democratic party is getting all reformy, this should put those to rest:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is among a raft of Democratic Party leaders chosen to draft the party platform for the next four years, according to a report in the the National Journal.

The four-year tradition involves party leaders drafting a series of priorities or "planks" such as job creation, developing more renewable energy or immigration reform.Those priorities are codified at the national convention, which will be held from Sept. 3-6 in Charlotte, N.C.

Yes, folks, Supermayor will be helping to write the planks on education.

The guy who wants to do away with seniority for teachers.

The guy who welcomed Eli Broad's money into Newark to remake the public schools with a minimum of local input.

The guy who wants more charters and more vouchers, even if they lead to segregation by income, disability, or even race.

The guy who turned Zuck's bucks into a gravy train for his friends.

The guy who said of gutting tenure: "There is no greater urgency in my city," apparently unaware of his city's soaring murder rate.

The guy who got a paid consultant in his first mayoral campaign hired as the superintendent of schools; the same superintendent who overrides the will of the citizens elected by the people to ensure a system of charters replaces public schools in Newark.

The guy who endorsed a report that threw the teachers who serve the most difficult students to educate under a bus.

Yes, folks, that Cory Booker will be helping to write the planks on education. How do you think it will turn out?

Teachers, parents, students, and the rest of you who care about education, get one thing straight: there is a fight going on right now in the Democratic Party for the future of public education. Right now, the hedge fund managers and edu-preneurs and think-tanky types and reformyists are winning. What are you going to do if they get their way and turn against us once and for all? Go to the Republicans? Vote for Nader? Good luck with that.

I know you hate politics; too damn bad. This is a fight for the future of our students, our families, and our profession. When Democrats pull this crap, they need to hear from all of us, loud and clear:

Enough.

Politically savvy teachers are my kryptonite! 

Steve Perry Is Awesomer Than You!

Just ask him:

At the tip of the educational iceberg, Perry believes that Gov. Scott Walker's move to break up unions - including the state teachers union - will improve educational outcomes for all children. I'm sure that statement just sent shivers up the spine of most educators in Wisconsin, especially when you consider that Walker also cut $800 million from public education budgets. But Perry's tell-it-like-it-is approach is refreshing.

"Before you say Walker cut $800 million, you first have to ask yourself if it was actually a cut or did he just not have it," Perry said.

"Your state is broke, and I don't know where he was going to get the money from. If we really want to get things done educationally, other governors should follow Walker's lead," Perry said. "There is nothing in any teachers union contract that goes toward improving education; at best, it sustains it."

First of all, Steve, Wisconsin could get the money - they just don't take it from the people who have it:

Imagine how much more the state would rake in if the top 5% paid the same rate as the bottom 50%. And the state is expanding tax cuts for the wealthy even as they already give a 30% exemption on capital gains. Contrary to what Paul Ryan tells his constituents, the wealthy are under-taxed in this country. How about bringing all this up once in a while, Steve?

Second: if you knew anything about school finance and student achievement, you'd know the two were locked together. You can't serve kids without spending money; anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a myth.

But then, that's what Perry does best:

Capital Preparatory Magnet School is considered one of the best high schools in the nation with a zero dropout rate. It has sent 100% of its seniors, who are mostly low- income, minority, first-generation high school graduates, to four-year colleges every year since 2004.

Hartford is similar to Milwaukee in that it has one of the lowest-performing districts in Connecticut, and the state has one of the largest achievement gaps between black and white students in the nation. Perry's school is no different from any of the other successful schools in the country in that it stresses high expectations for everyone and high accountability. [emphasis mine]

Capital Prep may be no different that other "successful" schools, but it's very different from the schools in Hartford when it comes to student population:

Look at that: Perry's school serves less than half as many kids living in poverty than the neighboring public schools. It's ridiculous to pretend that Perry has some secret formula for success without mentioning this salient fact. Capital Prep also serves far fewer kids who have disabilities or speak a language other than English at home.

And as for that dropout rate: if a kid transfers from Capital Prep back to a neighborhood school, is that counted against Perry as a dropout or a transfer? In Chicago, Nobel Charter claims a low dropout rate, but that's because the kids who are ushered out the door wind up in a public school, so it's considered a transfer. Is Perry playing the same game here?

In spite of all this, Perry loves to jet around the country and pop up on the TV, spewing invective against teachers unions and accusing anyone who calls him out of being a racist:

Saying that a child can't learn because he or she is black, Hispanic, poor or comes from a single-parent home is racist, Perry said. I'd have to agree with that.

And this: If schools demand the best out of their kids, chances are they will get the best.

If Perry is so damn sure of himself, why doesn't he take the same kids into Capital Prep as the schools down the street? Why waste time accusing everyone else of racism, or classism; why not just prove what you're saying, Steve?

I am getting so sick and tired of this nonsense. Charisma and egomania are in large supply in the reformy movement; we have many folks running around who claim to have all the answers. But when you look carefully, too often all you find is a lot of hot air. It's frustrating enough that these people spout the nonsense that they do; what's worse is that the media keeps giving them a platform to do so without the slightest bit of incredulity.

When will they learn to start challenging some of these people?

Reforminess: Impossible

One of my guilty pleasures is the Food Network's Restaurant: Impossible. Jacked-up chef Robert Irvine comes into a lousy restaurant, yells a lot at the owner and staff, redecorates, and comes up with a new menu. The show always ends with a grand re-opening featuring lots of tears, happy costumers, and redeemed owners thanking Irvine for saving them from themselves.

It's my personal experience that people and institutions, including restaurants, very rarely change overnight. So I read this article about what happens to these places after the cameras leave with interest - and I had a thought that was related to education reform:

On its surface, “Restaurant: Impossible” is about the quintessentially American love of second chances and magic-wand makeovers. But the more you talk to owners who have been revamped, Chef Irvine-style, the more a deeper theme emerges: the myth of the management consultant.

Like all consultants, Mr. Irvine  parachutes in and reconfigures a business, bringing to bear his skills and decades of experience. It would be hard to argue that the changes he imposes are, on paper, anything but a major improvement. On paper. In practice, there is the strange, hard-to-quantify variable known as people. And a lot of them have their own definition of “major improvement,” which, in some instances, would confound anyone who has ever attended culinary school or frequents upscale restaurants.

“The food was good; it just didn’t fly,” said Mr. Meglio, who is still not sure if his restaurant will survive, more than a year after the episode was broadcast. “It’s a Midwestern thing. You make too many changes too fast and all it’ll do is upset people. And the changes upset people to the tune of not coming back.” [emphasis mine]

Hmmm... you know, that reminds me of someone:

The Post reports that 75 teachers fired by former Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee may be reinstated, and given $7.5 million in back pay. 

The District's Public Employees Relations Board upheld a February decision by an arbitrator. Apparently, "the dismissals were improper because the teachers, who were in their two-year probationary period, were not told why they were let go. He called it the 'glaring and fatal flaw' in Rhee’s action." 

Rhee's acolytes, no doubt, will say that it is another case of a bureaucratic system more geared to protecting employees than to serving kids. But it's also another indication that speed—the watchword of the Rhee era, and a key part of her legacy—leads to carelessness, which in turn leads to massive setbacks like this one. [emphasis mine]

Back to Irvine:

“Let’s face it, most of us had a foot in the grave to begin with,” said Timothy Queisser, owner of the Snooty Fox in Indianapolis, which showed up in Season 2 and closed last October after nearly 30 years. To Mr. Queisser’s dismay, Mr. Irvine gave his restaurant a pub motif and some British entrees, a dramatic departure in cuisine, the Anglophilic name notwithstanding.

“How often do people say they want to eat British?” asked Mr. Queisser, who now works for a company that manages gasoline stations and convenience stores. The rebranding actually worked for more than a month, thanks to curiosity seekers who had heard about the renovation. During this initial onslaught, Mr. Queisser recruited his brother, a chef, who took a look around and issued a dire prediction.

“He said, ‘You won’t have time to build a new reputation, and in the meantime your old customers won’t like what’s happened and will leave,’ ” Mr. Queisser said. “And he was right. Ten or 12 weeks later, it was like the lights went out.”

Mr. Queisser wound up with a few thousand dollars’ worth of shrimp, fillets and cod for fish and chips in his freezer. “I’m not going to say they were the demise of us,” he said. “They did a good job redecorating. They gave us a badly needed shot of P.R. But they kind of left us in the lurch.” [emphasis mine]

Back to Rhee:

One of the more striking line items on the operating side is for private grant funds. They averaged about $21 million between 2010 and 2012, as the Broad, Arnold, Walton and Robertson foundations supported the labor contract negotiated by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, one that eliminated seniority preferences and established big performance bonuses under IMPACT.

But the Rhee Effect is there in bold relief on Page D-2. With Rhee gone and the three-year foundation commitment up, private largess is considerably more scarce. Grant funds are projected at just $3.8 million for FY 2013, an 82 percent drop. Officials have announced that the cost of the IMPACT bonuses has been passed on to the individual schools. [emphasis mine]

Seems like they both parachute in, lap up the applause, and then bolt, leaving those in their wake with the task of figuring out how to continue. And it seems like they have something else in common: resume padding. Here's Irvine:

As the leader and taskmaster of each mission, Mr. Irvine is three parts drill sergeant and one part epicure, with a physique and résumé to match. His culinary training began with the Royal Navy, and he later cooked in the White House and at several high-profile casinos. What he did not do is work for three presidents and the royal family, as he once claimed, a bit of résumé-enhancement that came to light in 2008 and briefly cost him his role on a previous Food Network show. 

And Rhee?

Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, known for her crusade to use standardized test scores to help evaluate teachers, is facing renewed scrutiny over her depiction of progress that her students made years ago when she was a schoolteacher.

A former D.C. math teacher, Guy Brandenburg, posted on his blog a study that includes test scores from the Baltimore school where Rhee taught from 1992 to 1995. The post, dated Jan. 31, generated intense discussion in education circles this week. In it, Brandenburg contended that the data show Rhee "lied repeatedly" in an effort to make gains in her class look more impressive than they were. [emphasis mine]

And so the worlds of food and reforminess collide: charismatic personalities come into a "failing" situation, empowered by their own egos and exaggerated accomplishments. They scream and yell, make a few changes, declare victory... and leave, never to return. All glory; no accountability.

America in the 21st Century, ladies and gentlemen.

Virtual Rip-Off

The questions about virtual charter schools continue to pile up. One proposed charter is especially troubling, because it looks to more than double its costs to the taxpayers for no apparent reason.

NJ Spotlight reports on the application:

A fourth school that K12 is involved with, the New Jersey Virtual Charter School, an online high school for at-risk students in Monmouth County, is asking the state for another year to recruit students before it opens in 2013. K12 would be providing its curriculum, but the school would be operated by the Monmouth-Ocean Special Services Commission. [emphasis mine]

Wait a minute: Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission wants approval for a virtual charter school? That makes no sense; they already run a virtual school:

The New Jersey Virtual School (NJVS), operated by the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission, is the oldest and largest statewide, online option for education in New Jersey. The NJVS has offered online courses successfully for middle school and high school students since 2002. 

[...] 

More than 250 New Jersey public, private and charter schools have used NJVS courses to provide quality online educational opportunities to their students. NJVS has partnerships with two programs: Florida Virtual School (FLVS) and Pearson Digital Learning. The curriculum of the New Jersey Virtual School offers more than 40 secondary courses in Art/Visual Art, English, World Languages, Health/Physical Education, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. Financial Literacy is the newest course added to the curriculum. The NJVS core courses are approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The New Jersey Virtual School also offers Advanced Placement courses that are approved by the College Board AP Audit. [emphasis mine]

So MOESC already offers on-line learning for at-risk youth. How much does it cost?

The cost for taking New Jersey Virtual School courses varies. Districts pay anywhere between $220 to $650 per student per course, depending on the number of students. Tuition for credit recovery courses is usually paid for by parents. The cost for a student taking a short-term home instruction course is about $75 per course per week.

The website for NJVS confirms the price: $650 for a 120 hour course (equivalent to a full-year high school course), and $800 for an AP course. OK...

Let's assume an ambitious student takes seven preps over a year: four regular courses, and three APs. That comes out to $5,000 per student per year. But if this school converts to a charter, how much will it charge?

One lingering question for both schools is how they will be funded, with charters now receiving from local districts the equivalent of 90 percent of per pupil costs for every resident student who enrolls.

As the host district for the Virtual Academy Charter School, Newark Public Schools has had to set aside $10.8 million in its fiscal 2013 budget for the new virtual academy, state officials said, although that number is sure to come down when actual Newark students are counted in the program.

But whichever district pays the cost, the estimated $13,000 per student is still high for a program that K12 Inc. said costs no more than $10,000 in other states. Stewart said the main difference will be the new learning centers spread throughout New Jersey, something K12 has not done in other states.

“New Jersey does provide more funds than most, but the application has a more blended component than most,” he said.

Please. It's outrageous that we would even consider paying $10,000 for a program that's already being offered for half that amount - no matter how "blended" it really is. Is K12 Inc. really prepared to say they can provide a level of value in their education so much greater than Pearson's? Especially given their miserable track record?

Even these cyber Harold Hills must know this stinks on ice:

[Peter, K12’s vice-president for school development] Stewart said they also submitted budgets that would amount to 90 percent of the per-pupil costs from each of the student’s home districts. That has been one of the more controversial aspects of online schools, with questions as to whether they would require the same levels of funding as traditional schools.

Stewart said that had yet to be resolved with the state. “That’s part of the discussion that is going back and forth,” he said. “We are very willing to work with the state so that families get what they need, and if there are savings, we are willing to work with that as well.”

Oh, I'll bet they're willing to "discuss" this. Just like they "discussed" it in Tennessee:

The Tennessee Virtual Academy is technically part of the local school district, which receives more per pupil from the state than most other districts in Tennessee. But of the school’s 1,800 pupils, few are actually from Union County.

Out of the state money, the Union County schools will get an administrative fee of about $400,000. K12 stands to collect almost $10 million to staff and manage the school. Dozens of other Tennessee counties, however, lost state financing when some of their students elected to go to the virtual school.

The online schools have enabled entrepreneurs like Michael R. Milken, whose company Knowledge Universe started K12 a decade ago and who remains an investor, to use education as a source of government-financed business, much as military contractors have capitalized on Pentagon spending. [emphasis mine]

So K12 used one school district in the state to collect money from the others, and kicked back a small percentage for their trouble. Could MOESC wind up doing the same thing for these virtual pirates?

As Blue Jersey and Deborah Cornavaca and SOSNJ and yours truly have been pointing out, this entire thing is insane. Is this state really prepared to hand over exorbitant amounts of money to a company being sued by its own investors for a questionable on-line education scheme? Especially when we apparently can provide the same services at a fraction of the cost?

The Legislature has got to put a stop to this immediately.

I'm sorry, Dave, but 4% is all you're going to get...

(h/t long-time commenter and friend jcg for the TN connection)