Lots of good stuff in this update on Tony Bennett, the Chicago Teachers Union protest against ALEC on Aug. 8 (darn, we're not getting into town until the 9th), and Diane Ravitch's new book.
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Volume 1, Issue: #17 |
August 1, 2013 |
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It's summer, the perfect time to reflect on your school year experiences. Send your story to us at networkforpubliceducation
@gmail.com and you could appear in our next newsletter!
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Greetings!
Welcome to August, and welcome to
the seventeenth edition of our newsletter. This week we offer you
multiple opportunities to fight for our schools in your own hometown.
You can protest privatization of Chicago schools on August 8th
and fight for students' right to privacy around the country.
Additionally, we are excited to announce some of the upcoming dates and
locations of Diane's book tour! Read it all here! And like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and JOIN US at our website.
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Bennett Announces Resignation in Florida
Tony Bennett to Resign Amid Accusations of Grade-Changing
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Tony
Bennett, head of Florida's schools, joins a long line of "corporate
reformers" facing allegations of unethical and politically-motivated
conduct
regarding school leadership.
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This
morning, Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett announced his
resignation. The announcement comes just four days after the Associated
Press published e-mails found from Bennett's time as Indiana School
Superintendent which revealed that Bennett had secretly altered the way
in which schools were graded in order to reward his political
supporters. Bennett's changes specifically affected the ratings of
charter schools such as Christel House, which Bennett claimed was being
unfairly rated under the previous grading system. Despite Bennett's
denials of allegations against him, many of his own staff contradicted his denials.
Bennett's
resignation comes at a time when many supporters of data-driven
corporate reform are finding themselves involved in similar scandals. A piece written this week by Bruce Baker
of School Finance 101 claims that rather than referring to corporate
reform, we should look at corporate reform for what it truly is: "FAILED
corporate management strategy - often hastily adopted in a moment of
leadership desperation - and rarely if ever achieving the desire turn
around."
On
the flip side, this week we have also seen the punishments facing those
in the education community who refuse to perpetuate this "corporate
management strategy." In the case of John Barge, Georgia's Education
Commissioner, the U.S. Department of Education is withholding funds from
the state because Barge will not impose the sort of scandalous
strategies that many others are instituting. According to Leonie Haimson
of Class Size Matters, the DOE is harming Georgia's schools because
Barge refuses to create "a statistically invalid and wasteful teacher
evaluation system."
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ALEC Wants to Privatize Our Schools
Join the Chicago Teachers' Union in protesting ALEC August 8th
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Help expose ALEC through protest on August 8th.
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On August 8th,
the Chicago Teachers Union will be leading a protest against the
American Legislative Exchange Council. The CTU estimates that ALEC has
helped create hundreds of policies that aim to protect corporations and
ultimately harm middle class families. In 2013 alone, ALEC supported 139
bills for privatizing public education and 104 bills that diminish
public sector unions and collective bargaining.
Hundreds
of ALEC's proposed bills have been turned into legislation through the
wealth and influence of Charles and David Koch. Through ALEC, the Kochs
have been able to turn their free-market fundamentalism into legislation
in every state in the country.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 40th Anniversary Conference will be taking place in Chicago August 7-9.
The conference is being held at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, 17 East
Monroe, Chicago, IL 60603. The CTU will protest outside the conference
on August 8th at noon, and invites all friends of public education to join them. To sign up for the protest, please click here.
For more information on the corporations and legislation supported by ALEC, please visit ALECexposed.org. We also invite you to read Diane's blog posts about ALEC. |
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InBloom Threatens Students' Privacy Rights
Are corporately-backed organizations stealing kids' privacy?
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For more information concerning how your student's privacy might be in danger, please visit classsizematters.org. |
Over
the past few months, tensions have been building concerning InBloom, an
organization that collects information about students around the
country in order to create methods of personalized education. InBloom
claims on its website that
"[s]tudent
data privacy is a top priority" of theirs. However, parents strongly
disagree. After protests led by parents across the nation, four of the
nine original states sharing information with inBloom are no longer
doing so, while another two are reconsidering the choice.
One
state, New York, has played a large role in the fight over students'
privacy rights. New York is currently the only state that allows inBloom
complete access to student data in all public and charter school
systems statewide. Enraged New York parents have been protesting this
practice for months, particularly the fact that the schools do not
require any parental consent in order for student data to be offered to
invasive corporations such as inBloom.
For more on this issue, we encourage you to read:
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Join Us in Welcoming New Board Members
The Network for Public Education receives four new board members
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| New Board members (from upper-left, clockwise): Colleen Doherty Wood, Bertis Downs, Sonya Douglass Horsford, and Mark B. Miller. |
We
are pleased to welcome four new members to the NPE Board of Directors!
These new members have dedicated their lives to public education. They
share the values and vision of NPE, and will bring great experience to
our ever-growing Network.
Diane
announced the additions to the Board earlier this week, saying that the
new members "will be a great resource for the important work of the
Network for Public Education. Each of them has unique talents. We go
forward with them on our team, determined to strengthen public
education."
The
four new members are: Colleen Doherty Wood; Sonya Douglass Horsford;
Bertis Downs; and Mark B. Miller. We invite you to learn more about our
new members in this week's press release.
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News About Diane's Upcoming Book Tour
You can now look on our website to see if Diane will be visiting your town
Now,
you can visit our website to keep track of the cities that Diane will
visit along the way! Diane's first visit will be in Illinois on September 10th,
followed by stops in Colorado, Washington, and closing September with
visits to various parts of California. We invite you to take a look at
our website, where we will be posting new locations and information about the book tour as they develop.
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Watch for Diane's new book, coming out this autumn!
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Tell NPE
Your Story
NPE wants to hear from you! We would like to publish real
stories about the effects of misguided school reforms on our Friends
& Allies. Please share this and send responses to networkforpubliceducation@gmail.com. |
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Please forward this newsletter far and wide!
In solidarity,
The Network For Public Education
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