This and That on Public Education

First up, the Seattle Times would like your opinion on the following:

The Seattle Times would like to hear your thoughts and questions about the changes in leadership and the district’s future.

Oh, is THAT all? They have a form at their website or you can email them,  edlab@seattletimes.com.

I note that this is through their "Education Lab" and not their regular ed reporter. 

 

Next, there is a movement of "walk-ins" that is supported by the teachers union and one is happening in Seattle. This via the West Seattle Blog:

We’ve heard so far from educators at two local schools organizing “Walk-Ins” before classes Wednesday morning (March 19) as part of a nationwide demonstration against education cuts. Organizers are inviting community members to join staff and students. Here’s the invitation for West Seattle High School‘s Walk-In.

Staff, students, and community members of West Seattle High School (including community businesses and supportive neighbors) will be participating in a WALK-IN to celebrate our school, and to stand against cuts to ANY of the programs that serve our precious students.

School WALK-INs are happening across the country this Wednesday, March 19, for the same reasons; to stand as communities, for our children. The format is simple. 30 minutes to an hour prior to the start of the school day, staff members, students, parents, and supportive community members (including people from local businesses that serve our schools) gather in front of the schools to show support. Signs, musical instruments, carafes of coffee or tea and snacks to share are welcome. Then, about 20 to 30 minutes prior to the school day, we march as a body into the school.

Of course, we cannot have people who are not staff or students enter parts of the building that are not right up front, directly by the exits, because we need to maintain security, and begin our school day, but we can share context, contacts, ideas, and fellowship prior to our work days beginning. If anyone from West Seattle — parents, alumni, and Beloved Community members see this, and want to join us Wednesday morning, we will be gathering at 7:45 AM in front of the school, on California Avenue.

The other West Seattle school is Denny. The cuts they reference appear to be over possible cuts in the Department of Education. 

I note that they are careful to say only staff and students can actually walk into the buildings because, of course, you don't want a group of unvetted people walking through schools.

 

The West Seattle Blog also had a story on the departure of Superintendent Brent Jones and I saw this comment:

Any word on why his last day is the first day of next school year? I know many SPS pensions (or is it WA?) are paid as a percent of your income for the last four years of service…..does one day in next school year either increase or make him pension-eligible? Seems like a gross loophole if that’s the reasoning

Is that true? I have no idea.  I was going with him trying to be helpful and help the Board avoid finding an interim superintendent. 

I see that the Board has a two-hour Ad Hoc Committee meeting tomorrow. They are working on "policy manual review" under the guidance (and cost) of a Council of Great City Schools' consultant. The chair of the committee, Director Liza Rankin, has gone through what other Washington State boards do as well as elsewhere in the nation. She notes that Issaquah has a "board handbook." Can you imagine that? 

Interestingly, here's what Kansas City, Missouri's board says their board's duties are:

- Governance

- Monitoring the use of financial and human resources

- Education planning and evaluation

- Appointing the superintendent

- Facilities management

Well, the SPS board has chopped that list in half. 

Rankin then says:

What is apparent is that there is no one way to present information or utilize a policy
governance model such as SOFG, Policy Governance, Coherent Governance, etc. The
important elements are clarity in role and responsibility between governance and
management, and a delineation between what is required by law for districts in their state
and what is the responsibility of the Board as representatives of their community. As the
committee moves forward on the SPS policy manual, I invite input to the committee,
reflections/findings from the above links or other sources, etc for the development of our
policy manual to support the work of the board in governance and oversight.

First, if you just scroll through this documentation, you may say to yourself, "Really?" All this time and attention to minutiae while the district is arguably in crisis. 

Second, if it were me, I'd revise this meeting to talk about what next steps are to find a NEW SUPERINTENDENT. The three committee members, which also include Directors Erin Briggs and Sarah Clarke, will honestly spend two hours talking about this? Because while they may have ceded much of their power to the superintendent, they still need to at least talk about what they want from the next superintendent who WILL carry out all this stuff.

I shake my head. All that is happening is a lot of talk and money out the door to the Council of Great City Schools. 

As I have reported previously, the US Supreme Court is going to hear a big case about public charter schools. At issue is whether a public charter school can be started and run by a religious organization. From the New Jersey Globe via the Network for Public Education:

The Supreme Court will also consider Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, which have been consolidated for oral arguments. The cases involve efforts by a Catholic online school to establish the country’s first religious charter school.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that that the state’s charter school board violated Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act, and the Oklahoma Constitution when it allowed St. Isidore, a Catholic online school, to become a charter school.

The Supreme Court has agreed to address two questions. The first is whether the academic and pedagogical choices of a privately owned and run school constitute state action simply because it contracts with the state to offer a free educational option for interested students.

The second is whether a state violates the First Amendment’s free exercise clause by excluding privately run religious schools from the state’s charter-school program solely because the schools are religious, or instead a state can justify such an exclusion by invoking anti-establishment interests that go further than the First Amendment’s establishment clause requires.

Twelve states, including Florida and Texas, filed an amicus brief in support of religious charter schools. 

From The Guardian:

“This could be an earthquake for American public education,” said Samuel Abrams, who directs the International Partnership for the Study of Educational Privatization at University of Colorado, Boulder. As the country experiences a rise in Christian nationalism, a favorable ruling could invite the encroachment of religion not only into education but other areas of civic life that have traditionally been non-sectarian. “If the supreme court rules in favor of overturning that decision, the church-state cleavage will disappear. That’s a dramatic development for the first amendment.” 

In a sign of the case’s gravity, the Trump administration filed a brief in support of St Isidore last week, arguing: “A state may not put schools, parents or students to the choice of forgoing religious exercise or forgoing government funds.”

What? No one expects to have their religion fully supported in public schools. That's just ridiculous. If you want your child's religion education to be part of their school education, there's a private school for that. 

In something of an irony, the Catholic Church has been bleeding students which made many of those schools close OR strip their faith out of the school in order to become a charter school. We are becoming a less religious nation so I'm not sure why the Catholic Church is surprised at fewer students. Nor that they now have competition in the form of charter schools, well, that's the American way. 

If other recent school choice cases are any indication, there’s still a good chance the court will overturn the Oklahoma supreme court’s opinion. Such a precedent-setting development would have a seismic impact on the nation’s educational landscape, said Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B Fordham Institute.

The court could say that “a charter school authorizer can’t turn down an otherwise qualified applicant just because it is religious, or proposes a religious school”, he said.

Such a ruling, he said, could affect all 46 states with charter school laws. But ripple effects could stretch beyond the classroom.

“The implications for education and society could be profound,” said Preston Green, a University of Connecticut education professor. “It would mean that the government cannot exclude religious groups from any public benefits program.”

Justice Amy Comey Barrett has recused herself because of her longtime friendship with the lead attorney, Nicole Garnett, arguing the case for religious charters. Which means the 8 remaining members could deadlock. If that happens, then the lower court's decision stands.

I note that the majority of SCOTUS attended Catholic schools, either K-12 or higher ed or both.