Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

UPDATE: Diane in the Evening 11-6-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:






Meet Glenda Ritz

Glenda Ritz upset Tony Bennett.
She stands for genuine education reform. She believes in teachers. She was a teacher for 33 years.
She opposes vouchers, merit pay, letter grades for schools, and evaluating teachers by test scores.
She is a breath of fresh air.


Georgia Charter Amendment Likely to Pass

With half the vote counted, Georgia voters are likely to pass an amendment to the state constitution re charters. The governor will be able to create a commission to approve charters, giving charters a way to bypass local school boards.
Since the governor is a strong advocate of charters, his commission will likely be a rubber stamp for charter proposals.
This idea to gut local control is an ALEC priority.
Since all money for charters is deducted from public schools, the latter can anticipate layoffs and budget cuts.


Tony Bennett Loses in Indiana!

Tony Bennett has conceded.
Bennett is the quintessential reformer: pro-charter, pro-voucher, pro-privatization. Anti-union, anti-teacher, surrounded in state education department by 11 TFA staff.
Head of Jeb Bush’s rightwing Chiefs for Change.
Rumor in Florida is that the state board of education wants Tony Bennet as state commissioner to implement the rightwing agenda in that state.
Congratulations to the educators in Indiana! Time to reform and rehabilitate your state’s education system.
Congratulations to Glenda Ritz, a genuine educator!


Possible Upset in Indiana?

Watch this one.
Glenda Ritz is running ahead of Tony Bennett for state superintendent. Bennett is for charters, vouchers, teacher-bashing, anti-union, privatization, for-profit charters and cyber charters. He is head of Jeb Bush’s rightwing Chiefs for Change. He outspent Ritz 5-1.
The latest:
3,686 of 5,319 precincts – 69 percent
Glenda Ritz, Dem 970,768 – 51 percent
Tony Bennett, GOP (i) 918,172 – 49 percent
As of Oct. 30 finance reporting deadline, Bennett had raised more than $1.5 million; Ritz was slightly over $325,000.



More on Defeat of Corporate Reform in Bridgeport

In Bridgeport, voters said no to mayoral control. Jon Pelto has the details on his blog, linked here.
Rhee dropped $100,000 into the Bridgeport contest and lost.
Would be interesting to know whose money she is funneling and where she is placing her bets. There must be laws requiring disclosure, don’t you think?


Great News from Bridgeport

Despite heavy spending to persuade voters in Bridgeport to give up their right to elect their school board, the big money lost!!
The people of Bridgeport rejected appeals by Michelle Rhee’s husband and the mayor, voters said no.
No dice to mayoral control.
Yes to democracy!



Is This Legal Graft?

Motoko Rich of the New York Times has written a good article about the Georgia charter referendum.
We already knew that big donors from out of state funded the pro-charter vote. What I learned from this article was that charter corporations also funded the Yes vote.
She writes:
“The roster of contributors in Georgia includes several companies that manage charter schools, including K12 Inc., Charter Schools USA and National Heritage Academies. In all, committees supporting the ballot measure have collected 15 times as much as groups opposing the measure, according to public filings.”
The charter corporations listed here operate for profit.
Somehow this seems unethical. Isn’t it like a payoff or a sort of legal graft to buy support for a measure that benefits the corporation?
Yes, I understand that it happens all the time. I understand that tobacco companies and oil companies spend