Everyone’s worried about the budgetary fallout that will affect public schools after the corona virus pandemic is over. The situation appears grim. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her friends are still seeking to privatize public education. The CARES Act has given her free rein.
Governor Andrew Cuomo warns that without federal assistance, school funding across New York could be cut in half. In Virginia, a much-needed teacher and state-worker raise is likely gone, and a free student community college program could lose $71 million. Most school districts are like Alameda, California, which seem secure for now, but have questions about the future. In some states school staff are already being furloughed.
DeVos approved $13.2 billion to states with few strings attached. She says,
Now is the time to truly rethink education and to get creative about how we meet each student’s unique needs.
The rest of us can and should rethink education too. Here are suggestions as to how to cut expenses, tax dollars, and focus on what’s best for students. They are not in any specific order. I welcome additional thoughts and ideas. They are our schools too, Betsy.
1. End Charter Schools
Why do we have two separate school systems that work against each other? This is the time to rethink charter schools. In “Federal Charter Schools Program a Fountain of Corruption and Disruption,” Thomas Ultican provides compelling reasons why charters have seen their day.
When Bill Clinton first pushed charter school legislation, it was promoted as an experiment. The experiment is now 25-years old. This new class of privatized schools has come with many unintended consequences. They have driven up education costs through the inefficiencies associated with running dual systems; they have undermined teacher professionalism; they have weakened one of the great pillars of democracy in America and they have diminished the role of schools as a unifying historical entity in neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they have not unleashed dramatic innovation and improvement; just disruption.
He reviews two Network for Public Education signature studies that detail the troubled charter industry.
One is “Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride,” by NPE Executive Director, Carol Burris, and journalist Jeff Bryant. The authors describe charter abuse and fraud.
Hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars have been awarded to charter schools that never opened or opened and then shut down. In some cases, schools have received federal funding even before securing their charter.
The report irritated Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who continues to ignore the fraud surrounding these schools. She wrongly defends them. Charters have never surpassed real public schools well enough to justify their continued existence.
According to educational historian Diane Ravitch,
Some charters get high test scores (and are accused of skimming to get the “best” students), some get the worst scores in their states, and most get scores about the same as public schools with similar demographics. In the one all-charter district in the nation, New Orleans, about half the schools are rated D or F by the state. Although the charter industry sings their praises, it’s clear that charters have no secret sauce to lift up every child.
Despite this, after the Covid-19 hit, DeVos quickly siphoned $200 million to charter schools.
Here are the schools that will benefit.
This country should no longer fund fly-by-night charters run by educational management operations. Any inclusive, successful charter schools, run by credentialed teachers and parents, should be placed under the umbrella of the local school district as alternative schools. There they can be monitored and held accountable.
2. End Educational Scholarship Programs
It’s common knowledge that students who attend voucher schools don’t do as well as students in public school. Like charters, voucher schools are largely unaccountable to the public.
These programs offer little choice, since it’s ultimately the schools that decide whether to accept students.
The country must focus on quality public schools for all children. Elected school boards that listen to their constituents and invite parents and teachers to the table are what’s needed. Community schools belong to the citizens.
3. End High-Stakes Testing
Academic
Assessment is a tool for teachers to understand student progress. High-stakes testing is overkill and based on gotcha politics to end public education and cast teachers as failures. School districts never required such draconian testing.
It’s estimated that $1.7 billion is spent in this country annually on high-stakes testing. That figure comes from a 2012 study by Matthew M. Chingos.
Teachers can evaluate students if class sizes are reasonable and should be trusted to use the evaluative measures, they find comfortable and expedient to identify the skills students need to learn.
Social-Emotional Learning
Other assessment that’s a concern for parents is tied to social-emotional learning. Teachers must be prepared to identify emotional-behavioral difficulties in their students, and to recognize trauma. But it is not necessary to do widespread online emotional and behavioral testing and data collection on children. Many of these tests compromise a child’s privacy.
Emotional-behavioral observational assessment has always been available. These tests are personal and should be between counselors, school psychologists, teachers, and parents at the school.
4. End Common Core State Standards
Initial spending on Common Core for each state amounted to $8.3 billion.
Common Core is embedded into the curriculum, but teachers should have the freedom to break away from this boondoggle. Common Core hasn’t been shown to improve achievement. Not another cent should be spent on aligning curriculum activities to these standards.
Teachers understand child development and can teach using materials and programs they trust. Funding should go towards their requests.
5. End Student Surveillance
An Education Week report by Thomas Kane of Harvard, an economist who worked on the approximately $1 billion failed Measures of Effective Teaching project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “Schools Are Staring Down a Fiscal Tsunami. Here’s What States Need to Do Now” suggests spending $13.5 billion of federal K-12 funding to “mobilize” schools. It sounds like surveillance.
Kane wants to require districts to build systems to track online student engagement and social problems. I can’t think of anything parents want less!
If we want children to succeed after this mess is over, this country is going to have to get behind the credentialed classroom teachers who do the work of instructing children.
6. End Certain Online Programs
Quit giving tax dollars to online schools like K12 Inc. and Connections Academy. A 2018 report by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), “Full-Time Virtual and Blended Schools; Enrollment, Student Characteristics, and Performance, Recommends” state:
Policymakers should slow or stop the growth in the number of virtual schools and in the size of their enrollments until the factors responsible for their relatively poor performance have been addressed. Online schools have done little to adequately prepare students.
No time is better than now for this to occur. The research documenting the poor results of these programs is long. Here’s another by the AFT, “A VIRTUAL FAILURE K12 Inc. Puts Cash over Kids.”
In 2019, K12, Inc. topped $1 billion in annual revenues. Connections Academy made $6.7 million. Both are known for strong lobbying efforts.
Here’s more from Oregon over their use of Connections Academy.
Only 21.9 percent of tested students at the school met or exceeded math standards in 2018-2019, down from an already abysmal 22.7% in 2017-18.
English language arts (ELA) achievement has been poor, too. Only 41.8% of tested students met or exceeded ELA standards in 2018-2019 and an average of just 42.8% met or exceeded the standards over the past three school years.
School attendance is dreadful as well. Regular attendance during the 2018-19 school year was only 63.4%, and an average of 59.7% over the past three school years. That indicates chronic absenteeism. In 2018 – 2019, just 71% of the school’s students attended more than 90% of their enrolled school days.
The NEPC study recommended carefully monitoring “blended schools.” This seems prudent. We know that technology can be useful when teachers are a part of instruction. Much of the online learning now seems to be most effective when teachers work remotely with students who they know.
A national committee made up of teachers, parents, and university researchers needs to evaluate the glut of online programs on the market to determine which ones have merit.
7. End Advanced Placement
Once a program to give high achieving students a class or two to see how college classes feel, now AP classes have become a status symbol of those who do well in school. The more AP, the higher a student is ranked. The College Board has privatized public education. David Coleman, who helped bring us Common Core, is president. Last we heard, he gets a total compensation of $750,000 a year.
Complaints surround AP. Why do high schools need to pay an outside company to tell teachers what and how to teach? Parents often push their students to do AP because they see it as a way for their student to get through college faster, deferring college costs. But many schools don’t recognize AP and students miss out on introductory college courses.
AP classes are often geared to teaching to the test. AP has been criticized for leaving out critical science labs.
Let teachers determine how to instruct students who require advanced instruction and provide them the resources and equipment they need to teach.
8. End For-Profit Colleges
Why did Congress fail to put heavier restrictions on Betsy DeVos when it came to funding for-profit colleges? Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote DeVos a letter saying that the Cares Act should not include for-profit college funding. If DeVos were to include these schools, she was to demand accountability measures be put in place.
DeVos announced that for-profit schools would be eligible, and she addressed some of Congress’s requests.
Why fund for-profit colleges? It seems preposterous that the government is giving billions to these schools to bail them out, while they also must now pay a settlement to forgive the loans students took out as they were swindled by these schools.
EDMC [ Education Management Corporation, owner of a law school and four major postsecondary school chains] was “operating essentially as a recruitment mill,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, in announcing a $95.5 Million settlement that also included forgiveness of $100 million in student loans.
The Obama administration tried to curtail for-profit schools. This country should no longer pour money into nonprofit or for-profit schools that fail to demonstrate success.
_____________
The questions surrounding how public schools will return should be about getting back to some normalcy, not wasting money on ideologues’ school dismantling efforts. DeVos’s ideas are not about reinstating democratic public schools that run more creatively or efficiently. They’re about ending democratic public education, free schooling for all. It’s time we say no to her schemes.
Jo says
Yes to all 8 with a bit of hesitation about #7.
Thank you.
Nancy Bailey says
Thanks, Jo.
Jo says
Get David Coleman out of AP and College Board and revisit what students really need to be successful in college and how they can preview authentic college level work at the high school level. Collaborate with real hugh school and college educators to fix this mess.
Nancy Bailey says
Haven’t educators always understood what constitutes college prep at the high school level? Of course times change and there will always be new information.
I like what you say. It makes sense.
It seems like AP is heavily geared towards test taking and test prep…lots of expense in those test prep manuals.
Perhaps if college was more affordable, parents wouldn’t feel pressured to push for AP in high school. .
Cathryn Ory says
The only way your excellent suggestions have even a remote chance of coming true is if Biden is elected.
Nancy Bailey says
Agreed! I hope Dr. Jill Biden will become involved in education and they will put aside President Obama’s Race to the Top.
Thanks, Cathryn! Great point.
Sheila Resseger says
I wholeheartedly agree with your prescriptions for saving money. Imagine what could have been accomplished with all of the Race to the Top money if the misguided Common Core State [sic] Standards and accompanying standardized testing had not been required. All of the money wasted on hardware, software, poor quality digital modules, and incessant “testing” could have been spent on smaller class sizes, and full-time support personnel–nurses, counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and librarians. What was perpetrated on our schools from the Bush years, through Obama/Duncan, and now Trump is nothing less than a crime against humanity, foisted on us by people with money and influence who understand nothing about child development, literacy/numeracy development, students with special needs, or English language learners. This was Grand Theft, with tragic consequences for our children, teachers, families, and communities.
Nancy Bailey says
Well said! Thank you, Sheila. I have nothing much to add. Now I’m afraid they
(DeVos and Co.) are moving full speed ahead to achieve their ideological changes. Who’s putting their foot on the brakes?
Roy Turrentine says
In the process of re-thinking education, we need positives and negatives. The end to those programs you describe above is a good start. Still, as we face an almost sure recession from the present crisis, we should outline where investment should go. Investing in public infrastructure while there is economic shrinkage makes good policy. Sadly, due to the unwilling congress that refused to pass any positive legislation lest the democrat, Obama, might appear successful, we neglected infrastructure projects during the last recession. What is on your list?
On my list is the public investment of dollars to provide new schools where students now attend in crumbling buildings. In addition, now that the internet is so vital to life, building a more universal access to internet is a must, especially as it has now become so vital in this time of crisis.
I bet your readers will have an opinion.
Nancy Bailey says
Hi Roy, Good points. I believe Obama promised to address school buildings but it failed to gain support. I’ve believed for a long time that buildings are being replaced with smaller charter facilities that will eventually be all online. I know that sounds grim and I hope I’m wrong.
Thanks for commenting!
Nancy Bailey says
My thanks to Diane Ravitch.
https://dianeravitch.net/2020/04/29/nancy-bailey-8-ways-to-save-public-schools-from-draconian-budget-cuts/
John Webster says
What provisions do your suggestions make for allowing motivated, academically talented students to move ahead at a faster pace? You want to end AP – do you want to end all other dual high school/college credit programs as well? My son would not have done well emotionally the last two years at the local large traditional public high school, but he excelled at a community college that he attended full-time and earned two years of college credits, which led to him graduating from a flagship public university a year early with a degree in computer science. He liked the greater intellectual challenge he had compared to what was available at the high school, and he also liked being away from the mass of students who couldn’t care less about academics and who disrupted non-AP classes.
Nancy Bailey says
High schools could provide advanced classes including computer science classes. They should have top notch career-technical classes. They could also arrange agreements with community colleges.
There’s a push lately to move high school students out of high school early. The question is, how many eventually find employment?
I’m glad your son found his way.
You make non-AP sound like a dumping ground, which is exactly my concern about AP becoming elitist.
Thank you for your comment.
John Webster says
My comment about non-AP courses is based on what my daughter and many other high school students have told me about those courses. At their high school the kids who actually care about academics take at least a few AP classes along with other dual credit options at community and four year colleges. There are some good kids in non-AP courses, but there are also many behavior problems, which hardly exist in AP classes.
Of course AP is elitist, if elitist means that not everyone will succeed in courses which are more intellectually challenging and which require students to do more meaningful work. I agree that every student should have a fair chance to take dual credit courses – no tracking, no stereotyping of any kind (racial, gender, family income, etc.). But education is like every other endeavor in life: some people will try harder and/or have more ability than others. If the goal of public education becomes equal and therefore mediocre outcomes, public support will plummet even further. There are many millions of good liberal parents who won’t tolerate chaotic classroom environments with low expectations for their all kids. That’s why people like, say, Diane Ravitch sent her own kids to private schools.
Nancy Bailey says
I am familiar with how AP works. As I stated in the post, it began as one or two classes to introduce advanced learners to college. Now many high schools rank their students (a questionable practice) according to how many AP classes they take. High school students feel pressure to take AP classes if they hope to get into college. Parents often hope their kids will take AP to shorten college attendance and cut costs (motivating reason). But not all colleges accept AP. School districts, teachers, and parents spend a lot of money on AP. It seems like privatization of coursework.
I also question whether these classes are as intellectually challenging as you state. Many can be likened to test prep.
I worry about students who may not be advanced academically by AP standards, but who are bright and very capable of succeeding. AP has become a showy status symbol. Why wouldn’t students who don’t get into those classes feel like they are not capable? There’s also an argument that segregating advanced students from students who do average work is detrimental. Smaller class sizes might be the key to that problem.
I know Diane Ravitch. She is the ultimate crusader for public schools. It is my understanding that she has grandchildren in public school now, and I believe I heard her once say she regrets sending her children to private school. Diane has, of course, changed her thinking about public schools over the years.
We may disagree, John, but I always appreciate the debate. Thanks for commenting.
John Webster says
AP is not perfect, and from what I saw of my own kids’ college-level courses the actual college classes were better (one exception from a few years ago: AP U.S. History was definitely better than a similar course my son took at a community college). And what’s wrong with families wanting to save money on college costs? The higher ed. world has ridiculously bloated administrative costs, and there is no limit to the money they demand from governments and families. Why shouldn’t motivated students be able to accelerate their learning beyond the typical high school offerings? If you want to destroy public support for traditional public schools like the one my kids graduated from, eliminate accelerated options.
Diane Ravitch regrets sending her own kids to private schools because it makes her now slavish support for the traditional public school establishment look hypocritical. She wants to force all kids back into traditional public schools, no matter how bad they are. There are hundreds of thousands of African-American parents who don’t agree with her.
I commend you for allowing dissenting opinions to be posted here.
Nancy Bailey says
If you read my blog, you know that I resent children being pushed to grow up faster developmentally due to reformers who want to privatize public education. When students are not able to do advanced work they are made to look like they failed and their schools and teachers failed.
I agree that higher ed. is bloated with admin. costs. This is tied to reform too, and it’s what should be fixed!
Not all African Americans. Many don’t like segregated charters that are strictly run. But their choices are slim because their public schools have been defunded throughout the years and they aren’t good schools either. So start funding real public schools!
Diane believes in a democratic public school system opened to all children. She attended a public school herself. You might want to read her books to learn more about why she believes in public schools now.
John Webster says
No kid should be forced to take courses that they aren’t ready for. But few students are coerced into accelerated learning options in high school – almost all the the kids who take those courses want to. I graduated from high school in 1976, a time and place where none of the great options that my kids had were available to me. I could have accomplished far more academically in high school had there been other options, and I would have enjoyed those years more. Public schools should not simply be centers for custodial care; kids know when that’s the case and they don’t respect those schools.
I recently read “Left Back” and over the years I’ve read many online postings written by Diane Ravitch. She has abandoned almost everything she ever believed, some out of genuine conviction, some because she loves the adulation that everyone receives when she moves leftward in the political or other fields. It’s the “Strange New Respect” phenomenon. One point that Ms. Ravitch made in “Left Back” still is true today: traditional public school districts tend to be very bureaucratic and resistant to meaningful changes; parents have little hope that they (parents) can bring about any reforms. These days she would force all students to remain in even the worst traditional public schools. Sorry, even most political liberals aren’t buying that idea.
And the higher ed. administrative bloat has nothing to do with the reformers you oppose; much of that bloat is about conforming to whatever the current requirements of political correctness are. An article last year noted that UC-Berkeley has a total student population of about 42,000; they have 175 staff people just in the “diversity and inclusion” office. You know, UC-Berkeley, that hotbed of right-wing thinking. What do those 175 people do all day to justify their expense to students?
Nancy Bailey says
You really carry unfair and untrue biases against public schools and Diane Ravitch. I worked with her on a book and found her to be seriously intent on saving democratic public schools.
She believes they are great schools because charters and vouchers have NEVER proven to be better than traditional public schools! Even though they often skim students.
Public schools change quite a bit and not always for the better. Do you remember the open concept? They are especially prone the last 30 years to make changes foisted upon them by school reformers with no background in education. High-stakes testing, Common Core, etc. You’re arguing with a retired teacher who has been around a long time. So it is difficult to win a debate with me about schools and change. I remember the changes!
Also, AP? Which I argue against, but it was change.
I am around your age and my high school had good options. I remember my classes pretty fondly except high school geometry and especially chemistry which was difficult. The teacher offered help groups so I never had to get outside tutoring.
You sound like a walking advertisement for AP and the College Board. We are going around in circles here.
I could argue too about higher ed. but I’ve got enough worries about K12, and don’t have the energy to find the articles etc. to prove you wrong. Take care. You can have the last word but please, no more criticism of Diane Ravitch.
Peter Wieczorek says
“Any inclusive, successful charter schools, run by credentialed teachers and parents, should be placed under the umbrella of the local school district as alternative schools.” What about charter schools that meet all of these criteria, have publicly elected school boards, are held to accountability standards by authorizers and the state, and receive less per pupil funding than the district schools. Folding charters into the district, even as an alternative program, would take away the autonomy and innovation that make many charters work better for some students. Plus our local union would never allow us as teachers do the things we are doing – flexible schedules, overnight expeditions, additional PD days, teacher majority school board.
Nancy Bailey says
I disagree. Who are your authorizers? What criteria? How transparent is the charter to the public? Why should your charter get tax funding and be able to run without general oversight?
I’ve known of excellent alternative schools in school districts, that are transparent to the public but run differently. Their administrator was often a teacher who creates a plan that addresses the unmet needs of students in the district.
I can’t imagine your union telling you to curb it unless it isn’t necessary or safe.
Peter Wieczorek says
Bethel University is our authorizer. We are required to have all of the same transparencies as the district schools, including annual financial audits, publicly elected board members, and all state requirements. Truly there is more general oversight since the authorize is required to do annual visits and five year contracts, in addition to the state requirements. I agree there are many great ALCs in our state – I work closely with many of them, but they are bound by their districts master contract and don’t have the flexibility and autonomy that we do.
Nancy Bailey says
Why isn’t it simply a parochial school? I believe in the Separation of Church and State so you lose me there. I also don’t know if your teachers are certified in what they teach or if they have degrees in education. Maybe your charter follows rules but a lot of them don’t. Thanks for the discussion.
Peter Wieczorek says
Bethel University has a Christian affiliation, but that has never in 21 years crossed over to our school and our school has no religious affiliation. Our authorizer liaison is from the college of education and supports us on multiple educational fronts, but authorizers are not to manage the charter school – they are there for oversight and compliance. All teachers in our state are required to be properly licensed and trained, including ongoing professional development. While I don’t disagree with you that in some states charter laws are greatly lacking, but I just caution that by a blanket elimination of charter schools, you would displace thousands of students across the country who have found a school and community that works for them, including many black and brown students, at-risk students, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities. Particularly during this time of monumental systematic changes there is an appeal by parents and students to have smaller, more student focused and innovative learning opportunities.
Nancy Bailey says
Yes that is what all the religious organizations say about charters and vouchers. So why are they so interested in running charter schools? Why don’t they run their own parochial school?
I said any good charter school could work under the umbrella of the local school system. I am mostly concerned about EMOs and religious schools.
Ongoing PD is often a cover for teachers who don’t have the credentials. Like learning to fly while piloting a plane. But I will take you at your word.
At this time Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is far more worried about charters that traditional public schools. Please read the Burris/Bryant report I linked to my blog post.
Traditional public schools are in big trouble right now, as are the qualified teachers in this country. I really fear many will lose their jobs and schools will close.
Lonnie Rowell says
Your list is a good starting point. It represents very steep hill to climb, for sure, but the work of reviving and recovering public education is going to take just this kind of bigger picture thinking. I would add a ninth point: End the dysfunctional relationship with so-called ‘evidence-based practice.’ E-BP in education was supposed to signify stronger and healthier relations between science and teaching. Like so many seemingly good ideas in education, it was distorted by the Corporate Reform movement. Instead of addressing the gaps between research and practice, E-BP has reinforced a rigid hierarchy in which only big-money researchers are thought to have the capacity to find ‘answers’ to key questions of educational practice. It’s a big mistake that has cost us hundreds of millions of dollars. In the meantime, educators in the trenches are forced to attend dog-and-pony show professional development sessions based on ‘theories’ the practitioners frequently scoff at during the coffee breaks. We can do better that that.
Nancy Bailey says
I thought about a reply to this, Lonnie, because I like the words evidence-based. Learning should be about science and creativity. But then I realized that what you say is pretty true. So, thanks!
Lonnie Rowell says
My concern is that the phrase “evidence-based practice” has been hijacked. I totally agree re: nothing wrong with evidence., and I certainly respect the role of science in education. As I have written elsewhere, my concern is “the tendency of higher education to appropriate for itself all discursive space associated with knowledge and its production.” My preference these days is to address knowledge production in education in the context of ‘practice-based research evidence..’ It may seem like a small distinction, but my hope is that the term helps shift the focus a bit. Best wishes.
Nancy Bailey says
I understand. That’s a concern of mine as well. Thank you, Lonnie.
Peter Wieczorek says
Nancy, our authorizer does not run our school, by state statute they are only allowed to provide oversight and monitor compliance – zero management. Several universities in our state authorize charter schools. They are interested in supporting options for students and promoting innovation.
Not sure why you question whether or not our teachers are licensed – again state statute. I can certainly share copies of our licenses, plus they are all listed on the department of education website.
EMOs have a lot of issues, but the reality is the majority of charter schools in the country are independent single purpose schools that fill a need that isn’t being met by the district school.
You may be right that traditional district schools will be replaced by smaller public charter schools, using online technologies as one of many methods to expand learning for all students, but that may have more to do with the world moving faster than traditional schools can keep up and not meeting the needs of today’s learners. The old model of 1000+ student schools is no longer the preferred option for many students and parents. I know it’s easy to blame the boogeyman of billionaires, but the reality is there is a movement to update education that is being lead by students and families, not billionaires. Now that students have experienced something different then what they have always done it shouldn’t be a surprise when they don’t want to go back to the old ways.
Nancy Bailey says
Many do not wish to spend tax dollars on schools connected to any religious organization no matter their intent.
From the looks of this current Covid remote learning experiment parents and students are aching for their schools to return.
I am not anti-tech. But there is no research to indicate that online charters are going to turn out students with the skills they need to do well in the future.