Never intended to become a parent advocate until I watched the great schools in my little town come under attack. The more I learned about what was happening the more I read. The more I read the more I saw how what is happening here is tied to towns across not only New Jersey, but the country. And now I'm in the thick of it, and I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
Showing posts with label Save Our Schools NJ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Save Our Schools NJ. Show all posts
She did it again in August, this time without the cheeky game, merely presenting it as a fact that Save Our Schools NJ is not only connected to the NJEA, but that we are united in our "vested interest in quashing NJ's charter school movement."
I couldn't resist turning the tables on Ms. Waters (see comment section of link above) and played the Kevin Bacon game with her in an attempt to point out how ludicrous her connection was:
Wait, wait, this is a fun game! Let me try!! Laura Waters writes an anti-union EdReformer blog. She has garnered enough attention to write opinion pieces for NJ Spotlight. One of those opinion pieces was highlighted by the ed reform blog redefinEd (stay with us here) which is run by venture capital entrepreneur John F. Kirtley. So, Laura Waters is being paid by ed reformer venture capitalists to attack teachers unions! I knew it! No big surprise there.
And then apparently Ms. Waters received an email from Kathy Mone about last weeks charter school panel discussion in Highland Park, and she saw her golden opportunity! NJEA "top brass" at an event sponsored by Save Our Schools NJ! FINALLY! She could prove the connection!!
So I got a hearty chuckle today when I saw this on the B4K Facebook page:
B4K and the NJEA co-sponsoring a panel discussion!?! I'll be waiting for Ms. Waters to blog indignantly about the connections between the NJEA and B4K as a way to discredit B4K. And since the audience will likely be "composed completely of NJEA top brass", as she so nefariously described the audience of the Highland Park panel, the credibility of the entire Grading The Teachers panel will have to be brought into question as well!I bet VINCE might even be there!
Wait... what's that you say dear reader? Maybe it's GOOD for the likes of B4K and the NJEA to come together in a room, and actually TALK to each other? Huh, maybe you're right...
Ms. Waters, I beg you. Quit it.
It ISgood for people on different sides of this debate to come together and hash things out. Your attempt to discredit Save Our Schools NJ as an NJEA plant merely because you can connect them by playing the Kevin Bacon game (for the record, I can connect myself to Kevin Bacon in four degrees) or members of the two groups are in the same room, is a slap in the face to over 7,000 parents and concerned citizens across the state, like myself, who joined because they want to see public schools work for ALL kids, not just THEIR kids.
And like it or not Ms. Waters, we're not going away...
One of the founders of Speak Up South Jersey (yes, you heard that right, Speak Up Highland Park is branching out…) posted a link to a YouTube video on their Facebook page that, I'm not ashamed to admit, literally brought me to tears:
I say we take the Ragin' Grannies on tour. Their fight in Chapel Hill is in many ways the same as the fight in Cherry Hill. What sets their fight apart however is the inclusion of a for-profit entity, in this case National Heritage Academy, which prides itself on it's "mandatory and extensive" use of testing data to "inform and adjust teaching."
But it's only a matter of time before New Jersey is confronted with a massive for-profit invasion.
Among the proposals were some with ties to out-of-state charter school networks, like Imagine Schools, which helped local residents write applications in Jersey City, Newark, Camden, Trenton.
Imagine serves 40,000 students in 72 schools in 12 states, according to its website. "New Jersey is an area that is favorable for (education) alternatives," Samuel Howard, Imagine School’s executive vice president, said.
Christie has said he hoped to attract charter networks to New Jersey, but out-of-state companies face a roundabout process. A local group must first win approval for a charter then, if it wants to outsource the operation, must ask for bids. (emphasis mine)
Meanwhile, in St. Louis Missouri Imagine schools are an unmitigated disaster:
Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro advised Jim French, chairman of the university's education division, to announce "immediately" the closure of the underperforming schools after this school year.
Nicastro's recommendation comes days after French said the university needed more support and direction from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as it scrutinizes the charter schools operated by Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc.
The six schools, which enroll about 3,800 students, fared worse on standardized tests this year than nearly all traditional and charter schools in St. Louis. French said the university is not getting the direction it needs from the education department or from state statutes to ensure the schools are living up to their charters.
Nicastro wrote that it is the sponsor's role, not the state's, to regulate charter schools.
So with Imagine's abysmal track record across the nation, clearly New Jersey should be wary of for-profit operators. And since a university authorized and oversaw Imagine in St. Louis, and then seemed not to know what to do with the ensuing disaster, clearly we should also be careful about who we select as authorizers.
Earlier this week in his State of the State speech, Governor Christie urged the legislature to make much needed changes to the state’s charter school law through bill A-4167 introduced last June. Sweeping changes to New Jersey’s charter school laws are needed to remove barriers and roadblocks to the growth of high-quality charter schools. The current laws and rules governing charter schools act as a deterrent to growth instead of fostering expansion.It is time to aggressively encourage some of the nation’s most-respected and successful charter school operators to come to New Jersey while making it possible to implement the same model of innovation and results in other new and existing charter schools.(emphasis mine)
Guess the Governor got tired of that "round about process." So, what is added to, and taken away from, the charter school law in bill A-4167 to make it easier for for-profits to step in?
10. Section 4 of P.L.1995, c.426 (C.18A:36A-4) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. A charter school may be established by:
(1) teaching staff members[, parents with children attending the schools of the district, or a combination of teaching staff members and parents. A charter school may also be established by an institution of higher education or a private entity located within the State in conjunction with teaching staff members and parents of children attending the schools of the district]who either reside or are employed in the State;
(2) community residents who reside in the State;
(3) a public institution of higher education, except that a charter school authorizer which is an institution of higher education shall be prohibited from reviewing and approving a charter application submitted by that same institution of higher education;
(4) a private entity that is either for-profit or not-for-profit;
(5) a charter school that is currently operating in the State; or
(6) a combination of any of the above. (emphasis mine, and for damn good reason, too)
Here's your lesson for the day on how to read a proposed bill, if you don't already know that is. Everything not underlined is the original legislation, and everything underlined is new and what's in [brackets] comes out.
In the original law, an eligible applicant had to either teach in the district they wanted to serve or have kids in the PUBLIC schools of that district. But even with this supposed limited pool of eligible applicants, who were supposed to represent the needs of the community, the charter school movement in New Jersey easily managed to subvert the intent of the law and to override local wishes.
Bill A-4167 will REMOVE the part about being a public school parent or teacher ENTIRELY, and will open the door to everybody and anybody, unless you are the actual authorizer. That sure does make it easier, now doesn't it?
So who is going to do the authorizing? The bill will allow public institutions of higher education in New Jersey to be authorizers.
The fact that the Imagine Schools in St. Louis were authorized by Missouri Baptist University doesn't lend much credence to the fact that adding universities as authorizers will increase accountability. Did you notice that when the Imagine Schools blew up in their face MBU looked to the state and said, "What should we do?"
The bill does however say that the local school board may be an authorizer…
NOW we're getting somewhere. Until districts and/or voters have local control over their schools, I think we can expect many more disasters like Imagine schools in St. Louis.
And with the Christie administration behind legislation that will open the door to non-profits, we NEED local control more than ever. Keep up with Save Our Schools NJ to help fight for legislation that will work for students, not for-profits.
Take it grannies:
Let's say no to charter schools They don't follow any rules
NHA will rip us off For-profit at a very high cost
What to do, oh, what to do Support Carrboro and Public Schools
I have a thought or two about Neil Brown's guest opinion column.
I am disappointed by what is said by many of those who will establish recently approved charters. When asked what is special about their school’s program, they often say something like: “We plan to hire high-quality teachers and have longer hours.” My former students would call that a “duh” statement — their fancy term for a tautology.
All too often, proposed schools seem more like boutiques, catering to communities that demonstrate neither much need nor broad demand, while so many other communities are desperate for truly innovative schools. Rarely is anything proposed that is innovative or experimental, which circumvents the original charter school legislation’s intent.
I am much more than disappointed Mr. Brown. That the boutique charters getting approved are not "special" is the tip of the iceberg.
In an earlier post I shared my Senate Education Committee testimony. I was truly disheartened to be steam rolled by lobbyists in crisp suits with shiny brochures as I and other parents from across the state tried to explain to the Education Committee the effect the current legislation is having on our districts. All of the lobbyists against the legislation Save Our Schools NJ is fighting for are bought and paid for by big foundations like the Walton Foundation whose "core strategy is to infuse competitive pressure into America’s K-12 education system." While this may not have been the initial intention of charter legislation, that's who is impacting the legislative agenda now.
If you are truly paying attention to what's happening with charter schools in New Jersey you can't help but be genuinely dismayed. Please see my previous post about the for profit charter operator already getting a foothold in New Jersey. Please also read the numerous letters here and here and here from increasingly frustrated superintendents tired of receiving huge bills for charters they feel are not warranted in their districts. The other common themes are that local district and community wishes are ignored in the application process, and real problems with applications are being ignored too in the NJDOE's charter approval process. Did you know that in the last round paid national consultants led teams of NJDOE employees in reviewing applications? Of course this was only revealed after a lawsuit and several OPRA requests.
Are you seeing the pattern? The same national lobbyists that are pushing for legislation are reviewing the applications. Gee, that just doesn't seem right now does it?
And this is your best argument against local control legislation that will take these decisions away from national lobbyists with corporate agendas and put the power back in the hands of the people of New Jersey?
Unless residents are privy to a proposed school’s mission statement and curriculum, how can they possibly make an informed decision? They can’t. Given our traditionally low voter turnout, the problem is compounded.
You don't think voters could grasp the mission of a proposed charter yet they can vote on multi-million dollar budgets? And why do residents have to be privy to the curriculum? In the current application process a completed curriculum isn't even a requirement. If the Acting Commissioner doesn't need to see the schools curriculum before giving a school the thumbs up or down, why is this a reasonable argument against the voters getting to decide? And if low voter turnout is one of your reasons, hell, why do we vote on anything? You definitely need stronger arguments here Mr. Brown.
Local control legislation sounds a lot more reasonable than a system where the Acting Commissioner gets to make the decisions but the districts and taxpayers get to foot the bills. You don't find THATdisappointing?
The more than 4,200 people that signed the Save Our School NJ petition for local control are distressed that not only do they have no say in how their district's money is being spent, they are almost entirely shut out of the application process.
The charter proposal you are working on for homeless children and children of incarcerated parents sounds noble, but why shouldn't district schools have the funding and ability to service these children without taking much needed funding away from the rest of the children that will be left behind in the district schools?
And while I agree that the state should reevaluate the original intent of the charter school law, it is abundantly clear that the players with money and influence have no intention of time traveling back to 1995. Our state is on an entirely different trajectory.
