Bunkum Award 2015. With the Oscar celebration next week, and the Emmys and Pulitzers on the way, the National Education Policy Center announces this year’s winner of its Bunkum Award.
We invite you to enjoy our 10th annual tongue-in-cheek salute to the most egregiously shoddy think tank reports. It’s not easy to laugh when data are manipulated and made to fit foregone conclusions or when the research literature is misrepresented or ignored and low-quality or dishonest “evidence” has real impact on policy and on children. Charter Schools Are a 'Gravy Train,' The policy framework for U.S. charter schools encourages “privatization and profiteering,” a research institute said in a report released Thursday.
Charter schools are able to siphon off large quantities of public money for private gain — and only substantial changes to state policies regarding charter schools can stop this, according to the authors of the report from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at University of Colorado Boulder. Many education reform advocates argue that the charter school model — under which publicly funded schools are administered by bodies other than the school board, such as private Education Management Organizations (EMOs) — promotes experimentation and newer, fresher teaching methods. But the same permissive charter regulations intended to boost innovation can also help EMOs pocket cash better spent elsewhere, the NEPC report said.
Who might profit from charter school expansion in Jeffco? Questions to consider in the Jeffco recall election. People are often suspicious of motives behind government policy decisions when financial interests are involved.
Sometimes financial interests drive policy decisions that do not benefit the public. In other situations, financial compensation is the cost of implementing policy decisions that are beneficial to the public. Misdirection. The Brazen Ways the Charter School Industry Rips You Off. Photo Credit: A stunning new report on the myriad ways public charter school operators have squandered or stolen millions of taxpayer dollars and how government education officials have failed to track or report this burgeoning privatization scandal has been released by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nationwide investigative reporting group.
Brought To You By Wal-Mart? How the Walton Family Foundation’s Ideological Pursuit is Damaging Charter Schooling - Cashing in on Kids. There was a sour breeze blowing through the nation’s charter schools in 2014.
Twenty-five years into our nation’s experiment with independently operated, publicly funded charter schools, the news didn’t look good: In May, a new report revealed more than $100 million in fraud, waste and abuse in just 15 of the 43 states that allow charters. (A year later, the report was updated, and the figure rose to $200 million.) Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System - Chris Hedges - Truthdig. Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System Posted on Apr 11, 2011 By Chris Hedges (Page 2) The demonizing of teachers is another public relations feint, a way for corporations to deflect attention from the theft of some $17 billion in wages, savings and earnings among American workers and a landscape where one in six workers is without employment.
The speculators on Wall Street looted the U.S. Your Voice: Top Four Reasons to Recall Jeffco School Board Majority. There are four major reasons to vote to recall Ken Witt, Julie Williams, and John Newkirk.
For the sake of our children and their educational futures we must restore local control, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and respect for parents, educators, and the community. #4 Restore Local Control Local control exists for a reason. Locally elected school board members are expected to know and understand their communities and to have the best interests of our children at heart. A school district with a great reputation for achievement, for respecting and collaborating with teachers, parents, and the community helps to ensure families want to live in Jefferson County and that great teachers want to teach here, which helps our local economy thrive.
M.truthdig. Your Voice: How to dismantle a school district in 10 steps. In 2009, a group of politicians, wealthy businessmen, and a subset of our current Board of Education members met and decided that Douglas County School District (DCSD) would ‘Reinvent Education’.
This was decided despite the fact that DCSD was a high-performing, destination district. This was decided without community, parent, or DCSD staff input. This was a business deal. Shortly thereafter, Board of Education members were elected using large campaign contributions from a few individuals who reside outside Douglas County. Koch brothers/charter school nightmare: “White kids get to go to a school with a Montessori approach while children of color get eye control”
“We know we need to do something about students who are not achieving in our schools.”
That anxious appeal – along with its many variations – has become the refrain now firmly embedded in speeches and opinion columns about American public education. Yes! Do something. About those kids. Only this time, the anxious appeal is coming from Jai Sanders, an African-American parent in Nashville, Tennessee, who has a stake in the matter: The something about to be done is aimed squarely at him and his children. Taxpayers paid for charter school property, but they don’t own it. Taxpayers paid for the furniture, computers and other equipment that students used at 10 Ohio charter schools.
But the public doesn’t own the things it paid for, according to the state Supreme Court. The court ruled in a split decision Tuesday that the assets are instead the property of White Hat Management, the for-profit company that once managed the 10 schools. Brought To You By Wal-Mart? How the Walton Family Foundation’s Ideological Pursuit is Damaging Charter Schooling - Cashing in on Kids. Part 2 Public Education Nation – (Astro Turf) Charter Schools and Authentic Reform. Parents Fight Conservative Zealots and Charter School Advocates For Control of Their Kids' Education. It's Tuesday evening, and people have come to church — but not for religion. What's bringing people to Green Mountain United Methodist Church in the heart of Lakewood, Colorado, is a meeting modestly titled "Church and society: Stand up for students. " In a cramped, wood-paneled room on the second floor, two dozen attendees rise, one after another, to introduce themselves and say why they are here.
"I'm concerned," say a few. "Scary," "outrageous," say others. COMPLETE COLORADO 2015©- COLORADO'S COMPLETE NEWS SOURCE. COMPLETE COLORADO 2015©- COLORADO'S COMPLETE NEWS SOURCE. Privatizing Public Education, Higher Ed Policy, and Teachers - ALEC Exposed.