Seattle Schools Community Forum

I previously posted the long memo called Real Choice vs. False Choice: The Repercussions of Privatization Programs for Students, Parents, and Public Schools that Senator Patty Murray sent to her colleagues in late March about the privatization of public schools. She does credit in laying out real world examples of how privatization has not worked in the U.S. Her most basic point? Privatization efforts provide a false sense  of choice for many students and families.  From the Network for Public Education comes the NPE Toolkit: School Privatization Explained on Privatization .  There are a variety of topics covered about charter schools as well as tax credit and voucher programs.  They give Washington State a "C" for school privatization.  Here's some of what Senator Murray's memo says:

Watching the charter school movement in the U.S. has certainly been both intriguing and discouraging. I don't think anyone could have been against charters as they were originated - one or two classrooms in an existing school that were little hotbeds of innovation.  Successes would be sent out to other classrooms and schools and failures duly noted with lessons learned. But that is not how it has played out.  What is the honest truth about charter schools looks like this:

Ms. DeVos' prepared remarks .  They include: “Parents no longer believe that a one-size-fits-all model of learning meets the needs of every child, and they know other options exist, whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, religious, or any combination thereof.” Of course not but I'm not sure most parents want to pay for someone's child to get religious training. Our nation's schools are filled with talented, devoted professionals, who successfully meet the needs of many, many children. Remember that one when Trump, et al go after teachers unions.  Teachers are the union. For me, it's simple; I trust parents, and I believe in our children. I'm not sure if that's simple or simplistic.

Update from Politico: Billionaire Betsy DeVos has been unabashed about using her wealth to advance her own agenda. “ We expect a return on our investment,” she once wrote about her family’s massive political contributions. After giving millions of dollars to politicians over the past two decades, she now heads into her Senate confirmation hearing for education secretary with a clear advantage: DeVos and her husband, Dick, have donated to the campaigns of 17 senators who will consider her nomination — four of whom sit on the Senate education committee that oversees the process. end of update Billionaire Betsy DeVos has been unabashed about using her wealth to advance her own agenda. “We expect a return on our investment,” she once wrote about her family’s massive political contributions. After giving millions of dollars to politicians over the past two decades, she now heads into her Senate confirmation hearing for ...

With the Growth Boundaries, 20-Minutes added to the school day, changes to the Student Assignment Plan, Cedar Park, etc, I have found nary the time to write about charter schools in Washington State.  But finally, here it is.

Trump has selected Betsy DeVos of Michigan as his pick for the next Secretary of Education.  Who is she?  Well, for one, not an educator. 

Update : State Superintendent candidate Chris Reykdal has very slightly widened his lead from 51% to 51.11% over Erin Jones who had 49% and now has 48.89% End of update Well, that was unpleasant. Good article from the NY Times : “Tonight data died,’’ he added.

As we are coming to a close of our long national nightmare that is the 2016 Presidential election, here's some thoughts from Peter Greene at the Curmudgucation blog tries to explain what Bellwether Education Partners, a reliably reformy right-tilted thinky tank, believes the next president should do in public education policy.

I'm at the Charter Commission meeting today (although still hasn't started due to rain and traffic, whew!) I see this included  the packet of materials on the charter school lawsuit from Executive Director, Joshua Halsey: " The parties to the charter school lawsuit have agreed to a summary judgment briefing schedule with a hearing on Jan. 27, 2017 at 10 am.  In a summary judgment motion, the moving party argues that the issues presented to the judge are purely legal (rather than factual) and can be resolved based solely on briefs and arguments at the hearing."  

Guest Post Summit Atlas Public Forum By Greg Harrington On Thursday,  September 29th, I attended a public forum event for the potential Summit Atlas School tentatively scheduled to open in the fall of 2017. The purpose of the sparsely attended event was to provide information to prospective parents and interested community members. As a West Seattle resident, tax payer, veteran educator, and admitted critic of charter schools I am particularly interested in how this particular school will impact my local area.

I've been saving up articles on ESSA (Every Child Succeeds Act, the next No Child Left Behind).   Congress may have given more power back to the states but there appear to be some truly troubling issues around increased data collection, opting out, and what "indicators" they will be collecting on each and every child.

Besides the hilarious (and true) account of charter school mishaps across the country from John Oliver, there's this news:

The video of the day getting a great amount of attention (and it's great that it is) is John Oliver on Last Week Tonight.   He takes on charter schools in his imitable fashion. The main thing he does is take on both sides. Kinda.  He says he doesn't want to examine the "principle" of having charters but their "outcomes."  What he does say is that charters are in 42 states and D.C. so obviously they are here.  This is at three minutes into the program and the segment is 18 minutes long but luckily, there are many abysmal charter stories from all around the nation. Amazing how the NAACP and Black Lives Matters have both recently come out against corporate charter schools (which are most of them) and now this from John Oliver.  The stars seem to be aligning but to see the scrambling of charter supporters to try to figure out how to say the NAACP is wrong without saying, well, they're wrong, is fun to watch. But it's fun for about those 18 minutes...

There are many who are unhappy about the new lawsuit against the new charter school law.  This includes several editorial boards across the state with some exceptions.  What's quite telling about their arguments are three things. Their arguments seem to be on the notion that this is a frivolous lawsuit and we should just leave the charter schools to do their thing. 

It's not entirely surprising to see this slippage happening in the ed reform world; indeed, with the deep and moneyed pockets they have, it's almost a surprise. But my theory is that they tend to believe that they 1) know all the answers and so 2) they exist in an echo chamber.  As I read my Twitter feed daily, I'm astonished at the same 10 subjects, rehashed and repackaged over and over. All of what I want to discuss in this thread will be leading to another thread on what the new "story" is for ed reform and it comes around "equity." Here's the latest news on this front.

The news is not good.  In fact, there's quite a lot of rumbling across charterland.   Get a cup of coffee because there are many stories to read.  These stories create quite the crazy quilt of the landscape of charter schools. Let's start with the NAACP and the resolution brought forth at their national convention recently.  When you see the NAACP saying things like:

The Associated Press is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed in King County Superior court over the new charter school law passed by the Legislature in the spring. Teachers unions, parents and other groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Washington’s new charter school law, a measure that was enacted last spring after the state Supreme Court struck down the old law.  The group includes the Washington Education Association, League of Women Voters, El Centro de la Raza and several labor unions.

 This column appeared in the Puget Sound Business Journal (that fount of public education knowledge) and was written by Bob Wallace, a columnist at the PSBJ.  It is called, "Education Union Holds State Hostage."   Mr. Wallace dissects the issues around McCleary and it would probably have served him better to bone on issues before commenting on them.

 Update: this post from retired teacher/blogger Fred Klonsky puts it all in perspective. end of update And I'm talking about public education. There was much discussion about the platform's stand on public ed issues early on.  With Hillary Clinton waffling about charter schools (only "high-quality" ones), it was hard to say what would happen. But now wording has been tightened and it looks like the Democratic party has somewhat split the baby (but landed to the side of ed reform not controlled by corporate/philanthropic groups.) From the Washington Post's The Answer Sheet (blue is platform language):

Update: as was noted by one commenter, the Times has an article in its Gates-funded Education Lab called, "You asked, we answered: What can charters do that other public schools can't." The article says charters have more flexibility and names these three items; 1. They have more control over whom they hire - and fire. 2. They answer to an appointed rather than an elected school board. 3. They are accountable to a charter authorizer rather than a school district, which allows them to define their own goals and metrics. On that last goal, they left out "define their own goals and metrics within the charter school law."  They don't get to just set whatever goals and metrics they want without guidance from the law and their authorizer.