Research proven: School Libraries & Free Voluntary Reading. Unproven and expensive: #CCSS & iPads. #LAUSD @skrashen pic.twitter.com/Cg2z5Z7uxM
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 26, 2013
The former means engaged critical thinking, but the latter leads to more corporate profits and increased market share for PSO, AAPL, MHGE, NWSA, and others.
A parent pulls the mask off of Alliance's designs #LAUSD http://t.co/oYSBJe0U2K pic.twitter.com/3GklobwkeZ
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 24, 2013
A 90026 parent sent the following photo and note today:
"A city lights view from the parcel that Alliance will acquire using public bond funds. According to the bond contract, Alliance will hold the title to this land. What assurances do we have that when they no longer are able to operate profitably as a school (since there is little demand, no proven academic advantage, and a shifting demographic away from families) that this parcel won't be converted to commercial space? Looks like prime office/condo land to me. Yes, that is Belmont across the street."
See College Ready? Alliance Charter Corporation's big scam and Alliance Charter Wants to be the 9th High School Serving Echo Park for more information.
First published on Echo Park Patch on September 20, 2013
"If the American public understood that reformers want to privatize their public schools and divert their taxes to pay profits to investors, it would be hard to sell the corporate idea of reform." — Professor Diane Ravitch
"However, within this market, competition exists in several forms" — (Alliance CRPS Corporation's Business Plan, 2010 p.9)
Over a decade ago Republican venture capitalist Richard "Dick" Riordan joined forces with other profit-hungry businessmen and foundations funding several quasi-education outfits. The melding of two nonprofit industrial complex groups allowed Riordan and his cabal to blend two of their favorite things — lucrative real estate deals and school privatization. Hiring a widely despised Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) administrator named Judy Burton, who was known for instituting the Open Court (McGraw Hill) police and strict use pacing plans, the charter corporation known Alliance for College-Ready Public [sic] Schools was born. Unlike many charter corporations Alliance doesn't try to hide their penchant for big ticket real estate deals, and publishes business plans with the words "business plan" in their actual title. Rather than deny the damning exposure of financial motives revealed in the recent Forbes article entitled Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express To Fat City, the Alliance folks embrace the fact that they're in it for the money.
Wanting to muscle in on Echo Parque
Already occupying part of the Belmont High School campus, Alliance now wants to to build their own campus on a lot that will cause major disruptions to parking and safety in the community. Taking advantage of the loopholes in SB740, Alliance Charter Corporation will stick the public with the bill for everything in the end. They will then extract a premium rent from the site to their LLC, while using little of the money allotted to them from the state to actually educate students. More importantly, they will be sapping resources from our already underfunded and resource starved public schools.
That last point is very important. Depending on how one counts there are already between 7 to 9 High Schools in our attendance area. Most of them are public schools, and there are a few privately managed charter schools as well. All of these schools are under-enrolled, a problem that will be further exacerbated if the Alliance Charter Corporation is allowed to add yet another campus to their burgeoning real estate portfolio. Diverting much needed resources from our public schools so that Alliance can further expand their coffers is something our community should be opposing strongly. Moreover, there's still some perplexing legal questions about who the property belongs to if and when the charter decides to stop operating. Purchasing prime 90026 real estate at the public's expense, but not offering the title to a public entity should be an issue of grave concern.
The truth about Alliance Charter Corporation
With access to a bevy of professional marketing and public relations experts, Alliance has been able to build an unearned reputation of being "high performing," and preparing all their students for college. Like all Miracle Schools, this reputation is pure fiction and propaganda. Using selective data criteria, Alliance and their allies in the corporate media make claims that their schools are in the top of the country. Scratch below the veneer, and a very different story is evident.
What's in a name? Alliance for College-Ready Public [sic] Schools name alone bears scrutiny. First off, like all charters the word public doesn't belong in their name. It's well established by the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals, The California Court of Appeals, The US Census Department, and The National Labor Relations Board that charter schools are private entities (eg. not public agencies). Now that that's out of the way, let's examine the College-Ready part. Despite claiming that their schools produce top college prospects, Alliance College "Ready" Schools boast 6 of the 80 lowest SAT performers in Los Angeles County, and 5 of the 75 lowest in LAUSD. (Source: "California Schools Guide." Lowest Average SAT Scores in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Times, 01 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.).
Alliance's dismal SAT scores are in line with their astronomical remediation rates of the students they place into colleges and universities. Remediation means that students have to take remedial classes in order to become proficient enough to take 101 level college coursework. In other words, they need to take their high school classes over again. Since Alliance's Belmont colocation is too new to have statistics, let's look at their nearby Gertz-Ressler campus' figures for the past five years. The California State University (CSU) makes remediation data available for all schools sending them students.
Their other campuses sport the same astonishingly high remediation rates. These figures put to lie their claim that they are "ensuring that less than 15% of students need remedial English or Math in college." To Alliance's credit their Gertz-Ressler is no longer in single digit proficiency, but even their best year still only sees half of their students ready to take college level courses.
Many education experts point out that when charter schools have "miracle" API numbers, but awful SAT scores and terrible college entrance exam scores like Alliance does, that it means they are most likely teaching to the test to boost their APIs. At the end of the day, Alliance's claims to college-readiness are smoke and mirrors. They do these students at diservice getting them matriculated in schools without being prepared. Many students are discouraged by having to take remedial courses, and frequently don't complete their degrees.
Not educating every child
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates wrote in their watershed Charter Schools and Students With Disabilities Final report: "It is not legally or morally acceptable that these so-called 'schools of choice' that are concentrated in urban communities and supported with public funds, should be permitted to operate as segregated learning environments where students are more isolated by race, socioeconomic class, disability, and language than the public school district from which they were drawn." (p. 41). LAUSD's Office of Independent Monitor has consistently shown that students with disabilities (SWD) are disproportionately under-enrolled at charter schools.
When the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council's (GEPENC) executive committee questioned Alliance Charter Corporation on their percentage of students with special needs enrolled, they made the outrageous claim that they serve 15%. The 2009 OIM data tables (page 2) not only discredits this, but demonstrate that the SWD they do enroll are high functioning, not needing highly specialized Individual Education Plans (IEP). We are waiting to obtain more current figures from LAUSD, but experience has shown that charter corporations have not improved their special needs enrollments. What this means in practice is that while the neighboring public schools are obligated to educate every child (as all schools should be), charters like Alliance aren't. This creates a disparity in funding since the public schools are using more of their funds to implement things like special day classes, while the charters get the same amount of money per student without the associated costs.
Under-enrolling SWD, English Language Learners (ELL), and children with disciplinary issues is the hallmark of privately managed charters. Allowing Alliance to open in Echo Parque will further drain the local public school resources and further disadvantage the students enrolled there that Alliance would never accept.
Time for GEPENC to represent Echo Parque
In a calculated public relations move, Alliance Charter Corporation is asking GEPENC to approve their project to create yet another school in an area over-saturated with under-enrolled high schools. While GEPENC's role in the overall process is merely advisory, telling Alliance our community doesn't approve of them and their project would go a long way toward protecting the interests of our community and our students. The shady nature of Alliance's real estate dealings, their dismal SAT scores and CSU remediation rates, and their refusal to educate every child are all compelling reasons for our Neighborhood Council to say no. For me that last point is the most important. Allowing these private entities to cherry pick students and avoid educating the most vulnerable and needy students is immoral. Taking a strong stand as a community against that kind of discrimination sends a strong message to these corporate schools that we demand equity for all our students.
First published on Schools Matter on September 22, 2013
Protesting education neoliberalism across borders. En solidaridad con Los maestros de Mexico! #lausd pic.twitter.com/t8sunJeLP6
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 21, 2013
On Friday, September 20, 2013 the Trinational Coalition To Defend Public Education organized a demonstration in front of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Mexico to protest the repression of the Mexican teachers and attempts to privatize public education in Mexico.
My tumblr photoset of the protest
Trinational posted some photos on their facebook page
Trinational Coalition To Defend Public Education-USA, Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) de Maya Angelou HS, serveral members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and other groups were on hand. Some young women drove all the way from Oxnard California to voice their support.
Commuters passing by honked in support as we repeated various chants like "la lucha obrera, no tienes frontera," and "¡Maestros unidos, jamás serán vencidos!"
Some good English language articles discussing the struggle are Mexican teachers expand strike and Teachers take a stand in Mexico.
Alliance College "Ready" Schools boast 6 of 80 LOWEST SAT performers in LA County, 5 of 75 in #LAUSD @alliancecrps http://t.co/HfWRtEdujY
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 19, 2013
First published on LA Schools Matter on September 14, 2013
"We had 23 different language groups at my son's school. How can one common core be relevant to all of these very different people?" — Teresa Sitz, LAUSD Parent-Activist
I founded Communities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocations along with several families fighting against the privatization project's latest ploy, the colocation. While the group was pretty 90026 specific (we have two colocations in our community), it grew quickly throughout Los Angeles.
As the group grew, its focus broadened to cover all school privatization and the neoliberal corporate reform project in general. Over the weekend one parent asked about Corporate/Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Paraphrasing, she said she understood the whole opposition based on the profit motive behind CCSS, but asked why national standards were bad in general. There were a lot of excellent responses, but one of the most interesting came from a prominent Silver Lake parent-activist named Teresa Sitz. It was so cogent, I felt it needed a larger audience than that of a facebook message board. Here it is in its entirety.
From what I understand, and I haven't looked at this deeply, school districts have to buy (rent) the common core at an exorbitant price that drains funds from the everyday running of schools. The money - billions - goes to for-profit corporations who have lobbied heavily to implement what for them is a cash cow. In essence it's a transfer of wealth (tax payer dollars) from the poor to the rich. ALEC is a principle lobbyist. This is no small thing.
I don't know that you can tease out possible benefits from the corporate interests, but here are another couple of things to consider. I believe this locks down curriculum, so a teacher teaching inner city students, who in their class might be behind in reading, couldn't add the book ALWAYS RUNNING, for instance, to their class. Teachers have to stick to corporate/state approved curriculum even if it has no relevance to the students and the students do not engage. The teacher's hands are tied.
This won't be implemented in private schools - it's only for public schools - a grand experiment on the poor. Our corporate and state leaders are not famed for their promotion of critical thinking. In addition, would we need real teachers to teach the core? If you just follow a standard dictated day by day, couldn't any Teach for America employee with 5 weeks of training step in and act as the teachista? Doesn't it take someone with a background in critical thinking, with a background in education, highly qualified, to teach critical thinking?
What about schools with highly successful programs like MAS (Mexican American Studies). Sorry. Success doesn't matter. Keeping the steady stream of money flowing to the corporations to fund a state sponsored curriculum that may be entirely irrelevant to students and families is a type of violence. Students and families want to see their own lives reflected in their studies instead of having their cultures ignored and whitewashed.
We had 23 different language groups at my son's school. How can one common core be relevant to all of these very different people? You need fully qualified and supported teachers to reach all of these students. Education in our very diverse culture cannot be one-size-fits-all.
Common standards have been tried in the past and failed. I believe the common core might be tied to federal funds so the poorest school districts would be blackmailed into funding it just as they are with No Child Left Behind and other unfortunate reforms. Not exactly consensus or adoption - more like another state-sponsored corporate giveaway.
Dr. Megan Koschnick discusses the inappropriateness of the Common Core Standards for K-3 at the Common Core Conference held at Notre Dame on September 9, 2013. H/T @slekar
As a @UCLA student & @supenational ally, I endorse this campaign to halt @TeachForAmerica #TFA http://t.co/2jWnpbhvm1 pic.twitter.com/uekP064VJr
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 15, 2013
As a UCLA student and a Students United for Public Education (SUPE) member, I endorse this campaign to halt Teach For America's colonialism and participation in the neoliberal school privatization project http://j.mp/1eyL5Xe
LETTERS TO THE GOVERNMENT CAN BE SENT TO:
LIC. ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx
LIC. OSORIO CHONG MIGUEL ANGEL
Secretario de Estado
secretario@segob.mx
LIC. CHUAYFFET CHEMOR EMILIO
Secretaria de Educación Pública
emilio.chuayffet@sep.gob.mx
SEND COPIES TO:
seccionmexicana.coali@gmail.com
Maestra Graciela Rangel de Michoacán sección XVIII: rasagas@live.com
Prof. Eligio Hernández de Oaxaca XXII: eligiogonzalez@hotmail.com
We stand in solidarity with the teachers of CNTE in Mexico who are calling upon the government for a genuine dialogue, that their demands be acknowledged and that violent repression not be used against the nationwide movement in defense of public education as it was today in Mexico City. The rights to assemble and express legitimate concerns are rights that are inalienable rights that are part of the civil and democratic freedoms for which humanity has fought and died for during the last two centuries.
WHEREVER POSSIBLE, ORGANIZE DEMONSTRATIONS IN FRONT OF MEXICAN CONSULATES AND TAKE PHOTOS TO BE SENT TO THE SAME ADDRESSES AS THE COPIES OF PROTEST LETTERS. Even a photo of 5 people in front of a consulate is a tremendous morale booster for our brothers and sisters fighting against the destruction of teacher unions & public education!
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/police-end-teachers-city-protest-29578115.html
Hi all,
Here is a copy of the letter that the US section of the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education to Defend Public Education send to the protesting teachers in Mexico. Use it as a template and send copies to:
seccionmexicana.coali@gmail.com
Maestra Graciela Rangel de Michoacán sección XVIII: rasagas@live.com
Prof. Eligio Hernández de Oaxaca XXII: eligiogonzalez@hotmail.com
MEXICO D.F., MEXICO
September 13, 2013
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education-USA extends our support for your valiant and militant struggle to defend not just your rights as teachers and trade unionists, but the Mexican people's right to a public education that is guaranteed in your federal constitution. We applaud your courageous resistance against implementation of the present changes in the constitution which would use standardized tests for teachers to be hired and to keep their jobs, standardized tests for students that will limit their future opportunities in life as well as reducing federal funding to state and local schools. These changes will have the worst impact on the poorest states and communities, especially those whose population mainly speak languages other than Spanish.
We face similar attacks in the United States of America under the guise of “reform”. Your struggle for educational and union justice is an inspiration to us about how teachers and communities can unite to defend public education. You have clarified for the world that the forces behind these so-called reforms are powerful corporate interest that intend to privatize public education.
YOUR STRUGGLE IS OUR STRUGGLE!
In solidarity,
Rosemary Lee,
for
Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education-section USA
First published on LA Schools Matter on September 14, 2013
"Once Broad alumni are working inside the education system, they naturally favor hiring other Broadies, which ups the leverage…" — Sharon Higgins
While Los Angeles' corporate media bemoans scoundrel Jaime Aquino's resignation, replete with descriptions of tears from fellow Broadyte John Deasy, there are other voices that see the fall of one of Eli Broad's key chess pieces as an opportunity to demand genuine community input into the hiring of high level administrators running 333 S. Beaudry Avenue (aka Broad's Eastern Palace). Joining Forces for Education, an organization formed in response to Ben Austin and Parent Revolution's vicious attack on the former Weigand principal, issued a powerful statement and call to action today in response to Aquino's resignation.
I'm including the unedited letter from Joining Forces for Education in its entirety here. This needs to be disseminated far and wide. Their call not only for community participation, but for an end to Deasy's abject reign dovetails neatly with the LAUSDHope Campaign to remove Deasy and give the public authentic input into his successor.
Time is of the Essence to raise public voices in the choice of new senior LAUSD administrators.
With the resignation on Friday, Sept. 13. of Asst. Supt of LAUSD, Jaime Aquino, we, the public, have an opportunity to influence the hiring of new administrators.
Since Supt. Deasy will be evaluated by the Board at their next meeting, and his contract is in real jeopardy due to the iPad fiasco for which we California taxpayers will be on the hook for decades, possibly a search will be made for both a Supt, and an Asst. Supt. There will be a closed meeting this Tuesday of the LAUSD School Board, at 200 S. Beaudry Street location. Some people have asked me to announce that a community group is forming and will be on the sidewalk with signs and handouts. Any readers here who are with media, please note this, and readers feel free to send this entire email to others.
1. FACTS....
When Supt. Deasy was hired, we know there was no search and no competition. Eli Broad mandated to the Board that they hire Deasy, and they did and Aquino was their choice for second in command. Now we have a new composition on the Board who could be better overseers of public schools and taxpayer money in the future.
With all the Deasy messes at LAUSD,
....and his questionable PhD credentials, and his work for the privatizers like Broad whose Academy trained and graduated him, and Gates who hired him for a short time....
....and his generous fee paid to his academic mentor (who awarded him the questionable doctorate in a few months and with only 9 units) by hiring him as a consultant, raising the issue of quid pro quo at a cost of taxpayer funds of approximately $375,000 (with this mentor now in prison for defrauding millions from the U. of Louisville),
....and for a plethora of poorly conceived decisions like 'teacher jail' and his hidden actions with Miramonte School,
....and the arbitrary firings.
For these, and those many things that have been done so 'rapidly' like the shutting down of successful bottom-up programs at Crenshaw HS (where, last week he fired all the teachers who complained including math teacher of 20 years Alex Caputo-Pearl who is/was running for President of UTLA), Verdugo HS, Hamilton HS, and others, where he derided programs designed from bottom-up with teacher/community success, and shut them down in favor of his own administrators and even embedded some charters.
For all this, perhaps the LAUSD School Board will decide he is a detriment to LA's schools, students, and taxpayers, and will fire him in their next evaluation this month. Also, since the preponderance of teachers voted 'no confidence' in him, the Board will do a fair and proper search for the two top positions in LAUSD.
2. SOLUTIONS....
Let's all join together NOW and make our voices heard by demanding of the Board that they stop being ruled by Eli Broad and his profiteer ilk, and that they institute a new regime of fairness by having a committee comprised of local citizens, local educators, local parents all involved in the wide search for a new Asst Supt, and may be for a Supt...but these all vetted carefully by real people in conjunction with the Board. We should not have input from politicians and privatizers, but only from sincere supporters of public schools. No Blue Ribbon Committee needed or wanted...none of those who impede a fair selection such as charter promoters Melendez, Sullivan, Riordan, Mrs. Eric Garcetti, Eli Broad, Villaraigosa, Nunez and his boss, Rhee. Just we plain folks who know the issues and we who pay for all this.
3. SPEAK OUT NOW by...
writing/calling the LA Times and the LA Weekly, the State Supt. of Education, the Governor, the LA Board of Supervisors, the LA City Council,
contacting other media sources and all the teachers' unions,
and contacting each LAUSD School Board member.
Urge them all to do the right thing for public education and never again be duped and ruled by Broad and his other free market investor-minded cohorts such as Gates, Bloomberg, Murdoch, and the Waltons. Students and education cannot be successful if run on a profit making business model, and students are not widgets that can all fit into the same sort of testing mode as Common Core which Deasy pushes.
4. Conclusions...
Billionaire investors who see public education as a great profit opportunity should not be influencing public school board elections such as our recent two, and others nationwide, with huge donations to candidates who are willing to sell themselves for profit. We beat them this year at this intrusive undemocratic venture by electing teachers Steve Zimmer and Monica Ratliff, who both campaigned on a pittance in comparison with their billionaire financed opponents.
They showed us that change can happen.
Even Governor Jerry Brown, with vast public and teacher pressure, has done an about face on the Obama/Duncan Common Core edicts, and Brown seems to agree with slowing down the process of CC testing. This past weekend was monumental with two of our legislators writing and carrying a bill to NOT test California students on Common Core in 2014 as mandated, but to wait until the students at least study this curriculum before testing. Brown will probably sign this immediately. The LA Times and other news sources had reported this testing would be done in January, 2014, and only grades 3 - 8 plus 11 would be electronically tested...but the big caveat was that NO ONE would see the results, not parents, nor teachers, nor the public. This certainly would have been to protect the CC 'pushers' from the scathing results that NYC recently proffered whereby around 90% of students were labeled as failures. It is all online for you to research. Of course, it would also have meant that 8 year olds would take the test with no keypads, and no ability to even use a keypad, this due to the failure of Deasy and Aquino whose outrageously expensive iPad decisions were so ill-conceived. This test is mandated for English Language Learners, and also Special Education and Learning Disabled students...and it is time-specific. Visualize all this...and ask yourself how the outcomes of this testing could ever be accurate.
5. DO IT NOW...
Please get involved Right Now...and join in on this and educate and encourage your own constituencies to immediately write/call all suggested contacts and insist on this public, not political, committee to vet all candidates. If the Board agrees right now, we can tap volunteers for the committee make up. This can all be done rapidly online with the active participation of all of us.
Joining Forces for Education
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Reading books, the antithesis of Corporate Core #CCSS #LAUSD @skrashen @susanoha @plthomasEdD http://t.co/m1lcBMJTNV pic.twitter.com/OGwQUgg6hN
— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) September 13, 2013
An anonymous group has announced a protest and press conference at LAUSD Headquarters on September 11, 2013. The rally is planned for Noon and the press conference is slated for 5:00 PM.
Among their list of complaints is the iPad boondoggle and the singular focus on standardized tests.
Los Angeles Unified School District
333 S. Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
