War on Public: Education, Schools, Teachers, Unions, and Kids

Public Schools Give Way to Vouchers and Charter Schools

(If not a Socialist, then what???)

After a Nice Meal, a Nice Dessert

(Pick the Public Pocket for a Huge Profit)

Update (April 2, 2014) for the following with this key question: Are private schools (the Charter Schools run by business like a business) in for the money or for education excellence? 

I offer this as you answer that question: Public education (those Charter schools set up to take over from bad or failing schools) is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers, and private equity investors enter what they consider to be new and “emerging market.” Consider this, too from Rupert Murdoch, yeah that Rupert Murdoch, News Corp / and FOX news, etc., who was interviewed in November 2010 right after he hired education reformer and former New York City Chancellor of Education Joel Klein to head up News Corporation’s brand new deal.

Murdoch had just bought Wireless Generation, a privately-held education technology company for about $360 million. In the press release making that announcement, Murdoch said to reporters: “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching with thins like this deal will offer. Wireless Generation is at the forefront of individualized, technology-based learning that is poised to revolutionize public education for a new generation of students.”  

Murdoch and those like him have no problem about taking public money from public schools and giving it to parents for use in Charter Schools (run by their private Corporation buddies). But, is it an idea out of control. How and why would we know? 

Simply stated, Charter Schools take money away from the problem they say they want to solve while creating new problems and leaving public schools in the ashes as they work for profits while picking and choosing which students to enroll and teach ... public schools take all kids.

Most of these schools are as I said, for-profit business charters. They are in business for one reason and one goal and that is the so-called “bottom line” (yeah, that bottom line: huge profits for investors). They pick and choose the top kids that they want to enroll with the aim of making themselves look good while public schools still take all kids, and try to help them all, but then with reduced funding and enrollments.  One wonders how parents and taxpayers can tolerate that system especially with their record. So, let’s ask a few questions and see the real “bottom line:”

1.  Why are public schools accountable to the public and charter schools are not?

2.  Why do many charter schools specifically cater to "gifted and talented" children, focusing on fine arts and college preparation, while public schools take all children - regardless of their backgrounds?

3.  Why do many charter schools offer no programs for students requiring special education, yet public schools are mandated to offer spec educ?

4. Why are public schools ostensibly obligated to school boards, standardized testing, the government, and parents, whereas charter schools in many places have few, if any restrictions on staff and teachers and many charter school officials (CEO's) are especially vulnerable to political pressures whereas public schools are not.
5.  Why are Charter schools allowed to market the idea of smaller schools and smaller classes to ensure personalized learning, yet they end up being specifically tailored to the outliers in the public schools system, chiefly troubled and marginal students, and at the other end of the spectrum, artistically gifted or otherwise advanced students whose parents can afford the tuition. And public schools can’t do that?

Charter School Record (their report card): With fewer than half of the over all state charter school laws earning a satisfactory grade, policymakers now are faced with enormous challenges. The success of these new schools is unparalleled with more than 2 million students enrolled in excess of 6,000 charter schools. However, fewer than half of the states meet the demands of parents and educators who want the freedom to choose charter schools, state laws simply must improve to ensure growth and sustainability. That is their PR challenge – keep selling the product no matter what and hope for the best.

How about some proof from that pudding? What is the final grade for those Charter Schools? 

Well, among the nation’s 43 charter school laws by state we see that:

• Four got a grade of A.
• Nine got a B.
• Nineteen got a C.
• The remaining eleven earned either a D or F.

 So, in the world of wanting more control parents could logically conclude, if they dare speak out: “There ain’t no there there – at least not much.” That’s why I call this the R.O.A. report: Ripped Off Again...

Original Posting Starts From Here: March 30, 2014, updated for this site, in part:

Education historian Diane Ravitch says the privatization of public education has to stop. As assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, she was an advocate of school choice and charter schools; under George W. Bush, she supported the No Child Left Behind initiative. But after careful investigation, she changed her mind, and has become, according to Salon, “the nation’s highest profile opponent” of charter-based education.

Her interview was with Bill Moyers at the link, titled: “Diane Ravitch Tells Bill Moyers Why School Privatization Is Turning into a Disaster...”

One Word That GOPers Who Are Hooked on This Issue Can't Even Spell

In 2012, Gov. Piyush "Bobby" (his Reel name) Jindal (R-LA) introduced legislation allowing parents to use public tax dollars (for a voucher) to send their children to a private or religious school of any kind.

Vouchers are supposed to work something like a scholarship where poor students may be taken out of what the GOP calls “failing public schools.” The money then flows to the private or religious school. 

Jindal in fact only placed about 8,000 poor students in the entire state into those private or religious schools. The from the LEAP testing done each year showed that those students in those schools scored drastically lower (40% at or slightly above grade level than the state average of 69%). Another success story at the tax payer's expense that the GOP peddles as a "solution" while fooling anyone who will listen.

A lot more here.

Original post starts from here: Public money for voucher program – that is for private or religious-based schools is on the rise. Have you ever wondered why and what do they teach or what textbooks they use – like where are they produced – where do they come from and what do they contain? I have – take a look here at a few eye-brow raising facts:

The books and the “facts” that they supposedly contain come from at least one big time Christian publisher, named A Beka Book.  A Beka was founded in 1972 by Arlin and Rebekah Horton, thus the origin of their name: “A. Beka.”   

This company churns out a significant number of the textbooks used by voucher schools and a good many Christian-based schools, too. About 43% of the religious voucher schools that responded to a 2003 Palm Beach Post survey said their curricula for the classrooms were based on textbooks published by either A Beka or the Bob Jones University Publishing.

A Beka Book estimates that around 9,000 schools utilize their books. What follows here are some titled of the subjects taught ... a full explanation and more can be seen at the link.

I want to be perfectly clear – I have no problems with school choice, home-schooling, or religious or church-based schools – none whatsoever, but I do have a problem with tax dollars going to those schools. Since it does, the façade is “parents are taxpayers and they have a choice as to where their tax dollars are used” along those lines.

The link and list examples of what they teach from those textbooks can be seen here:

1. The Great Depression: Made Up to Spread Socialism
2. Nazis: Brought to you by Karl Marx and Charles Darwin
3. The Post-WWII Era: A Time of Crusades and Constant Praying
4. The '60s and '70s: Everything Goes to Shit, Mainly Because the State Stops Killing Born People and Starts Killing Pre-Born Babies and... Freud.
5.  Freedom of Speech: Gateway to Porn
6.  Justice Clarence Thomas: Greatest Example of Black American Achievement Yet
7.  The Clintons: Draft-Dodging, Economic-Crisis-Creating, Joint Presidents

8.  George W. Bush: Awesome President Invades Iraq and Saves Mid-Born Babies

9.  Barack Obama: Great for the Homosexuals

Sadly, many people ask and wonder if we have become so dumb that all public schools have failed and only A. Beka textbook supplied schools are the answer, or as George W. Bush once asked: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”  — Florence, SC, January 11, 2000

I rest my case, but the case isn't going anywhere soon. Stay tuned.