The South rises again in charter schools

THEN, in Virginia

Two years before a federal court set a final desegregation deadline for fall 1959, local newspaper publisher J. Barrye Wall shared white county leaders’ strategy of resistance with Congressman Watkins Abbitt: “We are working [on] a scheme in which we will abandon public schools, sell the buildings to our corporation, reopen as privately operated schools with tuition grants from [Virginia] and P.E. county as the basic financial program,” he wrote. “Those wishing to go to integrated schools can take their tuition grants and operate their own schools. To hell with 'em.” 

from,
Why the Racist History of the Charter School Movement Is Never Discussed
Touted as the cure for what ails public education, charter schools have historical roots that are rarely discussed. by Christopher Bonastia

NOW, in New York

"Citizens of the World Charter Schools” has explicitly targeted a predominantly white and affluent public, in their effort to attract a majority white student body. By manipulating our demographic data to include Hasidic Jews (whose children do not attend public schools) and childless independent adults to create an inflated discrepancy between the total white population of 55% versus the 8% white students in our elementary schools, they attempt to justify their intended 55% white student body as a ‘mere reflection of the general population’.

from,
Calling All Williamsburg / Greenpoint Parents Andcommunity Members!!
Defend Our Public Schools From Profit-Driven Segregation

LAUSD Redistricting

It's one thing to reduce the number of LAUSD local districts from 8 to 4+1 (1 being the a-morphous virtual district reserved for charter schools).

It's another thing to carve up the board districts to shut out the one non-corporate voice on the board of education - Bennett Kayser.

See Wednesday's LA Times blog about the City Council's first look at the proposed redistricting:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/city-council-takes-first-look-at-proposed-school-board-districts.html

Maria Brenes, "local voter, homeowner and mother," strongly supports the new redistricting. But Brenes is married to Luis Sanchez - the mayor's pick or District 5, and chief of staff to board president Monica Garcia. Sanchez narrowly lost to Kayser in the last election.

Cheryl Ortega, of the Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, writes, "This is payback for Keyser's winning the board set over Luis Sanchez last year. Sanchez was the mayor's guy and he lost. They have mutilated Dist. 5 (Keyser) by taking out Marshall, new Taylor Yards schools and others in Hollywood, Los Feliz and Atwater in the hopes of preventing Bennett from ever winning again.  I know it's short notice to get people to go somewhere on Monday or Wednesday, but it would help our own communities to stay whole."

Problems with Non-Profits

#4 in Points of Unity -

We are against Non-Profit Organizations. They support the system we want to destroy and pay less than lip-service to the communities they claim to aid. Non-profits have created a style of political organizing that will never really threaten capitalism, patriarchy, or white supremacy.
Oakland Occupy Patriarchy

Huge corporations and billionaires fund non-profit corporations from the profit - the excess return - that they make off their workers. If the excess were distributed more equitably, then the WORKERS could GIVE and support their own communities in the way THEY believe they need to be supported. If the excess were distributed more equitably everyone in a household would not have to work for wages. One or more persons could engage in public service. Right now - with everyone working just to keep a household's head above water - public service becomes something only wealthy people can do.

Giving and public service should not be a privilege - it should be something that everyone can afford to do. 

As it is now, poor people think rich people have their best interests at heart because they give so much money - not realizing that it was THEY (the poor) who earned that money and the rich people who got to keep it - dribbling a little back to the poor in the form of charity. Rich people seem generous and trustworthy, the poor - not so much.

PEPAC Organizational Charts

Power Point decks from yesterday's Local District CEAC (Compensatory Education (Title 1) Advisory Committee) fell off a truck and I found them on the sidewalk. I'm so happy to finally see organization charts from the district regarding the committees, but they were badly drawn. I reordered them in a more logical way - which I'll comment on as we review the structure.

In both charts the bottom level references committees at school sites. The middle level references local district committees - previously 8, now 4+1 - the one representing charter school franchises. The top level represents central district committees. PEPAC  answers to Maria Casillas, who answers to Jaime Aquino, who answers to Superintendent Dr. John Deasy who answers to the Board of Education that Mayor Villaraigosa bought. By reducing the number of districts,  the mayor and superintendent are able to cut out the last independent voices. The superintendent then "answers to" the board members that the mayor handpicked.

These two organization charts are supposed to represent the PARENT voices at LAUSD.

This is the "LAUSD Advisory Committee Reorganization - Former Structure"

In the LAUSD's version the Parent Collaborative (PC) was far to the left - swapped with the District Advisory Committee (DAC) box, making the path from CEAC (bottom) to LDCEAC (middle) to DAC (top) look circuitous and inefficient. It was, however, a straight and direct relationship - like the one to the far right - ELAC to LDELAC to DELAC.

This is the "LAUSD Advisory Committee Reorganization - 2011-2012 Structure"

LAUSD's organization chart had the PEPAC box (center), over to the left - making it look like there are two equal committee paths - one or ELAC-LDELAC-DELAC, and one for CEAC-LDPEAC-PEPAC. But you can tell from the text in the PEPAC box that DELAC subordinates to PEPAC.

In the original format the 2011-2012 structure nearly mirrors the "former structure" making it look as if the system was not changed much. In truth, PEPAC has become - hierarchically - the top committee to which all other committees (except SSC) answer to.

I don't know how work from LDPEAC and LDELAC can be reviewed and acted on by PEPAC, when PEPAC only meets 4 times a year - that's the district's idea of "streamlining."

DELAC used to be equal to the DAC - now it answers to PEPAC.

PEPAC was originally parents, community members and community based organizations (corporations). That being said, I don't know why it's called PARENTS as Equal Partners - unless they want you to think that parents have the same power in this organization that they did in the District Advisory Committee. They don't.

The District Advisory Committee had its faults - but nothing that couldn't have been cleaned up with training and empowering parents from below. Instead, LAUSD disempowered parents from above. They don't "get" parents - they don't like parents - and they do NOT want to work with parents. They'll take the money, though, thank you very much.

Hope on a Rope

Matt Damon speaks before SOS March  

"As I look at my life today, the things that I value the most about myself: my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity, all of these things came from the way that I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I just mentioned, none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, none of these qualities that have brought me so much joy, that have made me so successful professionally, none of these qualities that make me who I am can be tested."

Notes on Neil Bush - All hat and some cows

A COW: curriculum on wheels

Neil Bush, brother of former Florida governor Jeb Bush [and former President George Bush], founded Ignite Incorporated, a software company that helps students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act.
From Pam Spaulding on January 8, 2005

The Ignite software is designed to prepare students to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

Progreso Weekly

To fund Ignite!, Neil Bush and others raised $23 million from U.S. investors, including his parents, Barbara Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As of October 2006, over 13 U.S. school districts (out of over 14,000 school districts nation-wide) have used federal funds made available through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in order to buy Ignite's products at $3,800 apiece.

In December 2003, a Washington Post Style article said that Ignite! was paying Neil Bush a salary of $180,000 per year.

In early 2006, Ignite Learning announced that Barbara Bush had donated funds to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (a charity established by former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton), with instructions that the money be used to purchase "COWs" ("Curriculum on Wheels") from Ignite! for several economically disadvantaged schools.
Wikipedia

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Request Department of Ed. Audit of NCLB Funds Spent on Ingite! Learning Products
CREW

Ignite! Learning, Inc

Poor beleaguered billionaires

"The $4 billion philanthropists spend annually on public education is less than 1 percent of the $500 billion America spends on public schools each year. The thousands of committed reformers sent into schools or onto school boards pale in number to the millions of long employed and sometimes entrenched systems in place.

"Moreover, lined up against the reformers are all sorts of much larger, better funded, better organized, and equally determined groups who will and do spend hundreds of millions of dollars to thwart the efforts of the reformers."
Co-authored by Melanie Lundquist, Philanthropist & Civic Activist, and Patrick Sinclair, Senior Director of Communications and External Affairs, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

Race baiting by our government and corporate masters

Last week I received a copy of an inter-office memo from LAUSD superintendent John Deasy about the bleak 2012-2013 school budget. Deasy is taking up to 30% off the top of each schools compensatory education funds due to "budgetary constraints" and a "financial shortfall." 

FIRST, let me tell you that government is ALL about making the truth hard to find - especially when it comes to education. Let me translate the paragraph above into English - the boss of Los Angeles schools is stealing 30% of your tax dollars to give to his friends.

Deasy lists three initiatives he wants to fund: the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) Voluntary Agreement, Teaching and Learning Initiative and implementation of the Common Core State Standards and Assessments. 

Today I want to look at the first initiative - the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) Voluntary Agreement.

There IS a horrible discrepancy between the educational performance of poor and rich students. Some of the worst performance affects English Learners (mostly immigrants) and African-American students. Studies have shown that the cause of lowered performance is poverty. And yes, poverty is intertwined with racism.

Let's take a moment to look at the players, before we look at what they've done.

This picture is included in the LAUSD press release regarding the Voluntary Agreement to improve education opportunities for English Learners and African American students. The three men are (left to right) Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. One person is missing and that Russlynn Ali,  Assistant Secretary, Office of Civil Rights, US Department of Education.

How do the lives of the lives of Deasy, Ali and Villaraigosa intersect?

John Deasy, the Superintendent of LAUSD is a graduate of the (Eli) Broad Superintendents Academy and once served as deputy director of education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Russlynn Ali used to work for LAUSD - she was Chief of staff to the president of the LASUD Board of Education and on the Curriculum and Instruction Committee. She also served as Assistant director of policy and research at the Broad Foundation.

Eli Broad supported Antonio Villaraigosa running for mayor and must have creamed his pants when Villaraigosa tried to take over the schools. The mayor failed, but his consolation prize was  "partnership" schools which he manages to an extent. Broad, disappointed in Villaraigosa, described him a few years back as "a mayor that talks a good game but isn't really interested in taking over the schools." Partners of Partnership for LA Schools include Eli and Edythe Broad and Bill and Melinda Gates among a slew of others.

In March of 2010 the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation "that focused on the educational opportunities of LAUSD's English Learners and comparability of resources for African-American students."'

How likely is it that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and John Deasy did not know this was in the works? Now that a year has passed and the investigation is resolved, I've had a chance to see the results of the "voluntary agreement."

Deasy is reducing Title III money for English Learners by 50 percent. He claims the money is needed to "to fund the Office of Civil Rights ('OCR') Voluntary Agreement."

This is how it works: to improve educational opportunities for LAUSD's English Learners LAUSD is cutting Title III funds to English Learners by 50%.

That makes me think the entire thing was a set up from the start. Launch a "civil rights" case involving some of the poorest people - even better yet - immigrants who don't speak English and can't understand what you're doing. Throw in African-Americans. That way any protest against the "civil rights" case will make you look racist. Then "resolve" the case by bleeding dry the very programs designed to help underperforming students and give the money to your friends who own and run testing corporations and specious educational schemes.

This redistribution of wealth (taxpayer money) from the public school system to the private sector will insure that public schools will continue to fail the district's most vulnerable students. These failing public schools will be infiltrated by privitized charter schools and eventually replaced. If things keep going as they are public schools will soon be a thing of the past. The same billionaires who drove our economy into the ground (Eli Broad is a main shareholder of AIG, the company bailed out by the US taxpayer) will be doing the same to our schools.

Looking at the big picture now I can't see how it could have been any other way. The "voluntary agreement" was a cynical justification to rob our children of an education and the taxpayers of their money and their rights.

Shame on Russlynn Ali, Mayor Villaraigosa and double shame on Superintendent and thief John Deasy.

___________________________________________________________________________

Cornell Study

Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles That of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows 

Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success 

 

Corporate Masters of PEPAC

Oh, my but it's difficult to find out information on this district level parent committee at LAUSD. Never mind that it's a parent AND corporate (really, there is virtually no difference between not-for-profit and profit corporations) though it passes as LAUSD's only district-level parent committee. There are four corporations on the board: the Los Angeles Urban Leage (laul.org), Alliance for a Better Community (afabc.org), another I cannot remember, and Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas en Norteamérica (Council of Mexican American Federations loosely) at (cofem.org).

The president of the COFEM board of directors is Mario Cardenas (Sinaloa). He seems like a good enough guy. He's into real estate development and is general director of Plaza Mexico - a Mexican-style mall in Lynwood.

The United Way released a report on Public School Choice on March 15, 2012. COFEM was a United Way partner working to "capture the collective voice of parents, students and community members who are committed to providing our children with the quality public school education they deserve." These days "community members" is code for corporations (not- and/or for- profit) though minions at LAUSD still insist it means people living within a school boundary who do not have children in an LAUSD school.

Other United Way partners include Alliance for a Better Community (PEPAC) and PIQE (Parent Institute for Quality Eduacation). PIQU pitched at our local school. If we'd approved their program we'd only have had to give them $15,000 for their services. The woman who pitched it happened to be on our school's advisory committee and was trying to get a job with them. She's gone now. We declined their offer.

Families in Schools is another United Way partner and a personal favorite of Mayor Villaraigosa. Maria Casillas was the founding president and CEO of Families in Schools and now works for LAUSD as the head of Chief of School, Family & Parent/Community Services. She's responsible for dissolving the previous District Advisory Committee (DAC) and replacing it with PEPAC (Parents as Equal Partners Advisory Committee).

Recently I finagled my way into a meeting between an LAUSD school and a team of UCLA grad students working for PEPAC monitor Stuart Biegel (UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies). One of the grad students asked if the administrator thought the school was living up to the values of Parents as Equal Partners. The administrator asked, "Equal to whom, and partners with whom?" The grad student looked down at his paperwork and said, "We get that question a lot. We've looked and looked and asked and asked and have never received a satisfactory answer." The question was dropped.

The California Foundation and the California Endowment are funding the monitoring. Beatriz Solis, from California Endowment was on the PEPAC Taskforce. Antonia Hernandez, President, CA Community Foundation was also on the Taskforce and served as the chairman. In a letter that serves as a foreward to the Taskforce's Final Report, Hernandez writes (with translation):

• LAUSD should seek clear explanations and waivers from the State and Federal Department of Education to leverage resources; (abscond with funds)
  
• LAUSD should work with their labor partners to ensure that meaningful parent engagement is involved in the evaluations of staff members and ultimate responsibility for parent engagement lies with the school site principal and should be part of their performance review; (pit parents against teachers and administration)
  
• LAUSD should restructure all advisory committees and establish clear criteria and term limits for parents to sit on any advisory committee; (don't let parents have power)
• Advisory committee meetings should be streamlined and focused on implementation and support of the Task Force recommendations; (don't let parents think for themselves or give parents enough time to do their job)
  
• LAUSD should reallocate and use all parent engagement funds at the school site level, more effective (sic) and efficiently in order to support the task force recommendations, improve student achievement, and consolidate all parent engagement activities under one unit. (don't let parents spend money allocated to them)
  

It's doubtful that two such invested individuals could ensure independent monitoring.

As always, more later...