Arne "Katrina Schadenfreude" Duncan returns to the scene of a crime his policies made possible today. The government representative of the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate will be touting his discredited and disruptive turnaround policies here in Los Angeles.
March 22, 2010 4:00 PM
Fremont High School
7676 South San Pedro Street
Los Angeles, CA 90003-2399
Two quotes from two different public education activists sum up why protesting Duncan at Fremont High School is so critical:
Last minute but very important. LAUSD is accelerating its use of Duncan-style "turnarounds" of struggling urban schools -- which amounts to firing the whole staff and forcing all to reapply, union contracts be damned. These "turnarounds" or "reconstitutions" are a proven disaster -- the worst weapons in a nasty arsenal of corporate school "reforms". Even a small but organized protest could be effective. I'm gonna try to go. Contact me if you can attend.
I'm reaching out to anybody who might be able to go. Arne Duncan's been a big proponent of school "turnarounds" and I just can't imagine he's coming to Fremont to announce that he's been wrong about shutting down community schools, and re-opening them or turning them over to charters.
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Here is a quote from research on reconstitutions that could be used on picket signs or flyers at this afternoon's protest of Arne Duncan at Fremont. This is from an article in the ISR: http://www.isreview.org/issues/71/feat-neoliberaleducation.shtml
Also including some research below about the failure of Arne Duncan's "Renaissance 2010" initiative that included closing 60 schools.
In the UCLA Law Review, Andrew Spitser argued that reconstitution is arbitrary, violates collective bargaining agreements, and has a negative effect on the quality of teachers and instruction.
The loss of legitimacy and morale that would attend the labeling of a large number of schools as failing, and the upheaval caused by reconstitution in so many schools counsel further against reconstitution... school officials need to take care that the methods used to hold schools accountable do not end up punishing the children that the Act is intended to help... reconstitution threatens to do just that.21
and on Renaissance 2010:
Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city's school system, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data.
"...The moribund test scores follow other less than enthusiastic findings about Renaissance 2010--that displaced students ended up mostly in other low performing schools and that mass closings led to youth violence as rival gang members ended up in the same classrooms. Together, they suggest the initiative hasn't lived up to its promise by this, its target year."[i]
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