WEEKEND QUOTABLES

“The new contracts ensure that hotel workers will keep their health care if they’re laid off in the wintertime,” UNITE HERE Local 1, the union representing the striking workers, said in a statement. 

Rebecca Solnit

This has been a truly remarkable decade for movement-building, social change, and deep, profound shifts in ideas, perspective, and frameworks for broad parts of the population (and, of course, backlashes against all those things). -- On Hope in Dark Times

 Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che

"Typically, when you’re asked about a sexual assault and you’re drinking problem at a job interview, you don’t get the damn job." -- SNL

Peter Greene

 Parents can try to do their due diligence, but part of running a business is doing marketing, and charters are not going to market themselves with phrases like "financially troubled" or "featuring a curriculum made up by unqualified amateurs" or "barely hanging on." -- Forbes

D.T. on Kim Jong Un

 "...And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.” -- WSJ

CA Sen. Scott Wiener, Net Neutrality law’s author 

“This is a historic day for California. A free and open internet is a cornerstone of 21st century life: our democracy, our economy, our health care and public safety systems, and day-to-day activities." -- Sun-Times

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Wesley Mann

Sankofa co-director Raoul Roach (son of Max Roach), Harry Belafonte and Gina Belafonte at the Many Rivers to Cross festival in Fairburn, Ga. 

 Harry Belafonte

“America has a cancer that’s at work, and it’s slowly distributing itself through the national body. There’s a million reasons to mobilize, but [now] Donald Trump has stepped into the space. It isn’t Trump the man, [it’s] the number of people who approve of him, who embrace him.” -- Billboard

Author Paul Mason

If we do not break this cycle, you can easily see capitalism being replaced by a stagnant neo-feudalism. -- Postcapitalism and the city

Michael Zilles, President Newton, MA Teachers Association

...once this cruel experiment in market competition has played itself out, we are left with chronically underfunded public schools, school closures, disrupted lives, and an ever more unbreakable pattern of segregation, inequality, and poverty. To avoid that risk, any reasonable person would vote “no” on Question 2. -- Boston Globe

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair Dave Archambault II

"We need the federal government to step in and start protecting us from the state officials." -- Democracy Now

 Bill McKibben

 "The shocking images of the National Guard destroying tepees and sweat lodges and arresting elders this week remind us that the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of the longest-running drama in American history -- the United States Army versus Native Americans." -- New York Times

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Troy LaRaviere 

"For those who plan on taking some kind of action, please ensure it is purposeful and well-informed. I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED OF THE CHARGES AGAINST ME. At this point, this should be at the core of any effort to support my case. Any protest or other efforts should focus on forcing CPS to tell me what they’re charging me with. 

 Again, since we don’t know what the alleged violations are, I believe ANY EFFORTS TO SUPPORT MY CASE SHOULD FOCUS ON FORCING CPS TO TELL ME WHAT THEY’RE CHARGING ME WITH [Troy's emphasis]. After they reveal the charges people can then decide what next steps need to be taken.

This is not about me. This is about corruption, and I am an obstacle to that corruption." -- Troy LaRaviere's Blog

Laughable quotes on LaRaviere firing

Janice Jackson, the chief education officer for the Chicago Public Schools: "We did not consult the mayor in making this decision."

Mayoral spokeswoman Kelley Quinn: "CPS handles its own personnel matters, with which the mayor does not interfere." -- Eric Zorn, "The Sacking of Troy"

Rick Perlstein

Competitors compete: the proposition seems axiomatic. But charter schools don’t really compete with traditional public schools, which rely solely on tax dollars to operate; charters get slathered with private cash, too. -- The Chicago School

Kate Grossman

 Chicago has a poor track record of delivering for its weakest students but this latest chapter, arguably an inevitable and predictable consequence of school choice, may be a new low.  -- Atlantic

Bill Gates

 “We really haven’t changed [students’ academic] outcomes.” -- EdWeek Market Brief

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Ferguson Protester Lisha Williams. 

"It was no fight, it was no shots fired. The only ones who fired was police. All we did was march to the command center to fall to our knees and say, 'Don't shoot.' And they started shooting." --CNN

Malcolm London

Chicago poet, Malcolm London

"They don't talk about white-on-white crime in the news." -- Huffington 

Attorney Benjamin Crump

"What we're really asking for is simple justice. We're not asking for anything extraordinary. They just want what anybody else would want if their children were shot down in broad daylight." -- CNN

Justice Taney

Melissa Harris-Perry

 In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that [Dred] Scott had no right to sue because as a black man he was never intended to be an American. Speaking of the clause in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” Taney wrote:
“It is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration.” Taney went on to say that black men “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” -- MSNBC

 U.C. Prof. David Kirp

While technology can be put to good use by talented teachers, they, and not the futurists, must take the lead. The process of teaching and learning is an intimate act that neither computers nor markets can hope to replicate. Small wonder, then, that the business model hasn’t worked in reforming the schools — there is simply no substitute for the personal element. -- Sunday NYT, "Teaching is not a business"

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

E.L. Doctorow (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

E.L. Doctorow at National Book Awards

We in this room especially have to appreciate metaphor. We're the descendants of writers who saw the sun as Helios' chariot riding across the sky. And yet... when was the last time, hearing the word mouse, that you thought of a small gray rodent? Or heard the word web and thought of a spider? -- "The Promise—and Threat—of the Internet" 

N.Y Times on de Blasio's pick

The choice [of Carmen Farina] reflected Mr. de Blasio’s desire to depart radically from the educational policies of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, including his emphasis on data and his policy of shuttering low-performing schools. -- "Veteran of City School System Is Said to Be Next Chancellor"

Carmen Farina

CUNY Prof. David Bloomfield

“Clearly the teacher evaluation system will be on the table immediately. That would be my day one activity if it hasn’t started already.” -- Carmen Farina to head D.O.E

TFA & KIPP Teacher

 "Five weeks was not enough to create the type of magic that Teach For America describes in its vision. Training was like leading us to the top of a cliff before we had to jump off into the reality of our own classrooms. All I can say is the mountain was high and the fall was hard." -- Julian Vasquez Heilig's blog

Darling-Hammond on Common Core

Stanford prof Linda Darling-Hammond, who should have been our Sec. of Education, shares her thoughts on Common Core.

We should use the standards as guideposts and not straitjackets. And we should develop robust performance-based assessments of the kind I describe in my book that provide exciting opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning and for teachers to be engaged in development and scoring – used for information and improvement, not for sanctions and punishments. 

Read her entire post on Diane Ravitch's blog.

Nothing new here
Another federal charter school fraud trial begins in Philly. What else is new you ask? Look for more of the same in a city whose mass school closings, budget cuts and charter school expansion make it look like post-Katrina New Orleans. And I don't mean that in a good way, Sec. Duncan.

Rebranding
Speaking of Duncan, he made an appearance, along with Gov. Quinn and U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider at suburban Wheeling High School yesterday, for a photo op and to hail the school's makeover. Duncan labeled Wheeling as "a school of last resort" until this year.  Then it got on the receiving end of more than a million dollars in new STEM money, including the building last summer of a nanotechnology lab, an electron and atomic force microscope, an optical profiler, a 3-D printer and several pieces of advanced technology. According to Duncan, the addition of the lab and an introductory nanotechnology course this fall with about 30 students, has led to "a remarkable turnaround."

"We needed to strategically rebrand," said David Schuler, district superintendent.

Okay, say Chicago's inner-city high schools, many of which have also been rebranded as STEM schools. Where's our million-dollar makeover?

The man from Gates

The L.A. Times says that John Deasy, who was sent in by the Gates Foundation, is headed out the door in L.A. It's about time. He has left a train wreck in every district he's been. The teacher-bashing Deasy, who was a Broad-trained superintendent, will be remembered for imposing so-called Value-Added teacher evaluations based on student test scores and having them publicly posted in the newspapers besides teachers names. His failed game plan called for rapid expansion of scandal-plagued charter schools and  replacing veteran teachers with 5-week wonders from TFA.

Deasy was closely allied with former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who left office this year because of term limits. Deasy's political position weakened further in recent school board elections, when two candidates backed by Deasy allies lost. The newly constituted board has made no moves against Deasy, but quickly began to challenge more of his policies.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Satrapi

Persepolis author, Marjane Satrapi

 “For me, the worst in all of that is it’s absolutely the biggest insult to the intelligence of the teachers.” -- Sun-Times

 More from Marjane Satrapi

 I’m absolutely shocked. Even in Texas I didn’t have trouble with Persepolis.” -- Sun-Times

CPS liar-in-chief, Becky Carroll

"The book was never banned.” -- Sun-Times

Lane Tech students 

 - This is a SIT IN…We will SIT. And READ. You do not need to bring the book with you. You can hold up signs expressing your opinions toward CPS, Persepolis, Censorship, etc. - If you have other banned books, feel free to bring them and read them there. -- Flyer announcing today's sit-in in the library

Lane Tech Teacher, Steve Parsons

"I tell my students all the time, this is what education is all about. You don't learn just so you can take a test. You learn so you can change the world. They are actually doing that now." -- Chicago Tribune

Barbara Jones, American Library Assoc.

The CPS directive to remove this book from the hands of students represents a heavy-handed denial of students’ rights to access information, and smacks of censorship... As an institution of democracy and learning, CPS has a responsibility to actively model and practice the ideals of free speech, free thought, and access to information at the heart of our democracy. -- Washington Post

Hillary lectures India about "bogus" education

Clinton warns Indian Ed Minister Kapil Sibal: "It doesn't add up. It doesn't make a difference."

The idea of Hillary Clinton lecturing India's Education Minister about "bogus" distance learning programs is almost too much to bear.

"I think we have to be very thoughtful about how to make the most of these efforts, because, to be very frank, some of what passes for distance learning and computerised instructions is really bogus," Clinton said in her address to the opening session of India-US Higher Education Dialogue.

As you might expect, Hillary then goes on to tout the billions of dollars worth of distance learning programs now deluging American schools and universities. None of those high-profit U.S. corporate-owned programs of course, would fall under her definition of bogus.

India, by the way, has more math and science graduates that does the U.S. and Canada. Is Hillary carrying the white man's burden?

Oops...wrong decree!

Plane reading -- Heading back to sweet home Chicago today, thank God. I hate hotels. Need my own pillow to sleep, these days. I've been lugging around my review copy of Education and Capitalism. Maybe I'll get into it on the plane home.

The Reader's Ben Joravsky, as usual, knocks it out of Wrigley Field with his piece on bananas dictator Rahm's longer-school-day insanity.

If you recall, I valiantly tried to save Mayor Emanuel from the mess he got himself into when he unilaterally declared that, from here on out, the public school children of Chicago would have to wear their underwear on the outside of their clothes. Whoops—wrong decree.

The view from D.C -- (actually neighboring Fairfax County, VA) where Woody should film his Bananas sequel. Fairfax schools could become the first in the Washington region to create Virginia Virtual Academy that would allow students to take all their classes from a computer at home.

No sports teams. No pep rallies. No lockers, no hall passes. Instead, assignments delivered on-screen and after-school clubs that meet online. It’s a reimagination of the American high school experience. And it’s a nod to the power of the school choice movement, which has given rise to the widespread expectation that parents should have a menu of options to customize their children’s education.

If I owned an ipad -- which I don't, I'd be keeping my eye right on it even while getting groped.  

Ownership Society News

Bennett

K12 Inc. buys Inc.'s high school online program

Kaplan has been the Washington Post's main profit center. But in the past year, the company has been riddled with student loan scandals and mismangement. Kaplan remains one of the biggest testing companies and has a distance-learning component which makes it compatable with the Republican connected K12 Inc. Kaplan Virtual Education, which provides online education for grades six through 12, bought Insight Schools Inc. from Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) in February. It is now selling that brand, as well as the schools branded under Kaplan Virtual Education, to K12.

"While our experience in online learning made the Insight Schools an attractive acquisition with long-term potential, we determined that the timing was not right for us to devote intensive energy and resources to this initiative right now," a Kaplan spokesman said in an emailed statement. "Exiting this business will enable us to focus on our core businesses of higher education and test preparation." -- WSJ

K12 has been expanding rapidly, using it's political connections to win lucrative contracts, as online schooling gains in popularity across the country. In November, the company bought American Education Corp., a provider of instructional software, and it snatched up KC Distance Learning Inc. in July. The company reported enrollment of 101,030 in the latest quarter.

K12 was started by Republican operative and former Sec. of  Education William Bennett but the company was forced to remove Bennett as chairman of its directors following a series of racist remarks and gambling scandals which threatened the company's marketability. K12 Inc. has been under  investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, which has been looking into K12's involvement in a project that received an improper multimillion-dollar grant from the Department of Education during Bennett's tenure at the firm. Meanwhile, during some of his television appearances, Bennett has continued to comment on administration education policy and the No Child Left Behind Act without mentioning the grant..

Am I a Luddite? No

I love my i-phone as much as the next guy. I've been Tweeting all morning, haven't I? And here I am at 6 a.m., on a perfectly good Thursday morning, tied by a thousand threads to the blogging machine. I hope I'm still around in 2020 when I'm sure all kid's will have tracking devices sown into their clothes (skulls?) like the elementary school kids in Contra Costa.

So why am I so unimpressed with all the latest chatter about "innovation" by the education experts over at the National Journal? It's not that I don't find it interesting. I do (wonder why I'm not on the invited list?). I'm especially interested in the tepid responses to Arne Duncan's i3 innovation grants which basically poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of long-established Duncan favorites like KIPP (are time-outs "I am a miscreant" signs around kids' necks, really innovations?), TFA, and New Leaders.

The problem I have with the whole discussion is that innovation is equated only with technology (Tom VanderArk is even selling ipads). Missing is the total absence of words like, "equity," "democracy," and "community."

Case in point: the early small-schools movement was a real driver of ed-innovation. Why no mention? Same could be said of the Mississippi Freedom Schools of the early 60s. It seems the experts are looking up, not down, for innovation.

No, I'm not a Luddite. I just think that technology and democratic education have to develop in harmony for real innovation to take place.

Forbes cheers the "end of education as we know it"

It will be much cheaper without teachers

Even if the economy rebounds, the situation for public education will remain bleak. With baby boomers set to retire en masse, state and local governments, which provide the majority of school funds, will face mounting retiree health care and nonpension benefit obligations for which they haven't made proper allowances. And local districts haven't yet felt the full pain of the housing crisis in reducing revenue from property taxes. In other words, we have only seen the beginning of the red ink. (Forbes)

But fear not. Harvard prof and tech guru Christiansen & Horn, have it all figured out. Wrote the book on latest buzzwords, "blended classrooms" and "disruptive innovation" without which so-called ed reformers like VanderArk wouldn't be able to speak at all.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Tilson The Terminator

Hedge fund school reformer Whitney Tilson, whose best quotable ("There's a very fine line between what all of us do, and fraud") was reported here a few weeks ago, now advises Arne Duncan to ditch his turnaround plan. His single strategy for neighborhood public schools?

"TERMINATE THEM...SHUT THEM DOWN!

More hedge fund school reformers on the fashion page

This time its about Tilson's investment partner Ravenel Boykin Curry IV:

That hedge fund multimillionaires have embraced the charter movement may seem odd: their own children are unlikely ever to see the inside of a neighborhood school, and there are more traditional routes to social prominence through philanthropy, like support of hospitals and cultural institutions. But to those who know the sociology of Wall Street, it makes sense. Charter schools appeal to the maverick instincts of many who run hedge funds. (Fashion & Style section of New York Times)

The education business

Forget all that crap about instructional leadership. Duncan says principals need to be CEOs.

"We have to treat them as such, and we have to train them as such," he says in this new podcast, the second in a series of interviews with some of the nation's brightest leaders. (US News)

Not just preparation...

In the end, it is time to stop thinking of school as preparation for real life and instead show students that the time they spend in school can be a vital and enriching part of their very real and very important lives. (Chris Lehman in Principal Leadership)