Corporate Charter schools, privately run with public funding, have sold $1.6 billion of—state guaranteed—securities in 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s more than all of last year and the most in Bloomberg data beginning in 2007. What this means is that in some states the state government is making promises to financially insure corporate Charter schools with public taxes.
On their own, charters would be considered junk bond status. But state guarantees allow them to issue bonds with higher ratings.
U.S. charter schools are issuing a record amount of municipal debt, with Texas leading the charge as borrowers rated close to junk tap a program that gives their bonds top credit grades.
The institutions, privately run with public funding, have sold $1.6 billion of securities in 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s more than all of last year and the most in Bloomberg data beginning in 2007. About $464 million has come from Texas, which for the first time in April backed a charter-school deal with its Permanent School Fund. The state-run pool guarantees bonds, lending the debt the AAA grade that Standard & Poor’s accords…
Will the REAL Eva Moskowitz—the human wrecking ball of public education and the automation of children—please stand up and reveal yourself for what you really are.
On November 4, 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was re-elected. As the New York Times reports, some voters lamented “lack of an acceptable option.”
In the days preceding the election, Cuomo vowed to “bust” the public school “monopoly.”
In the days following Cuomo’s reelection, New York charter queen Eva Moskowitz, who is hinting at a NYC mayoral run in 2017, was featured in the Reason TV interview embedded at the end of this post.
The interview portrays Moskowitz as an individual champion of NYC K12 education coming up against the teachers union machine.
According to the Reason TV promo,
Reason TV’s new video examines how a charter school pioneer is delivering impressive test scores and countering the political influence of fighting education reform. Reason’s Nick Gillespie and Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, discuss why…
There are more teacher in the world than people who might want to silence them. So speak, act, march, discuss and demand to be heard. Apparently, teachers might have the 14th Amendment on our side if they can force our leaders and/or the courts to enforce it
Franchesca Warren is outraged by “the deadening silence of teachers.” Teachers are afraid to say what they know and believe for fear of being fired.
She writes:
“As a pretty opinionated teacher, I am always full of ideas and speak out regularly against practices that are unjust or not beneficial to students. However, time and time again I have been “scolded” by more veteran teachers who warn me that being vocal would quickly get me “blackballed” in the district. This fact was even more evident when I was invited to a private screening of a new documentary entitled “Scapegoats.” The film uses teacher interviews to examine how teachers have historically been made to be the scapegoats with anything bad that occurs in education. While I was in total agreement with what was being said in the document, I was dismayed that more than half of the teachers interviewed opted…
Bob Herbert’s new book Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America is one of the most important, most compelling books that I have read in many years. For those of us who have felt that something has gone seriously wrong in our country, Herbert connects the dots. He provides a carefully documented, well-written account of what went wrong and why. As he pulls together a sweeping narrative, he weaves it through the personal accounts of individuals whose stories are emblematic and heartbreaking.
Herbert reminds us of a time when America’s policymakers had great visions for the future and acted to make them real, whether it was the building of the Erie Canal or the transcontinental rail system, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s TVA, or Dwight D. Eisenhower’s national highway system. He reminds us that the American dream was to create a nation where there were good jobs for those…
The Common Core goals are clearly stated: “The standards … are designed to ensure students are prepared for today’s entry-level careers, freshman-level college courses, and workforce training programs.”
According to bls.gov, in 2013, 26-percent of the 143.9 million jobs [37.4 million] did not require a high school diploma or its equivalent; 40-percent [57.56 million] only required a high school degree; 6% [8.6 million] required a post-secondary non-degree award (I think that is some form of specific job training that may lead to a certificate – for instance, a plumber, mechanic, etc.); 4% required an Associate degree—about 2 years of college [5.7 million]; 18% requied a BA degree [25.9 million], 2% a Master’s degree [2.87 million], and 3% [4.3 million] a doctoral or professional degree—I think a professional degree includes public school teachers.
For 2013, the U.S. Census Beurau reported education attainment in the United States for age 25 and over. Keep in mind that the Census refers to the entire adult population age 25 and over and not just those who have jobs.
High school graduates 88.15% (meaning 11.8% of the adult population does not have a high school degree.)
Some college 58.33%
Associate’s and or Bachelor’s degree 41.5%
Bachelor’s degree 31.66%
Master’s and/or Doctorate and/or professional degree 11.57%
Doctorate and/or professional degree 3.16%
Doctorate 1.67%.
The population of the U.S. is about 316 million, but 32.4% are under the age of 25, and 14.6% are 65+. That leaves almost 168 million Americans ages 25 to 64.
A MUST SEE VIDEO!!!!
Highly recommended to get you thinking.
In conclusion:
26% of the jobs do not require a high school degree, but only 11.8% of the adults who dropped out of high school are qualified for these jobs. More than half are overqualified.
40% of the jobs require a high school degree, but more than 88% of Americans have a high school degree—more than double the jobs that require this much education.
For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to combine everyone with a college degree—associate degree, BA, masters, professional and doctorate—and only 27% of the jobs in America require one of these college degrees, but 53% of the adult population might be qualified for these jobs—more than twice the number required.
This means a large sector of the American work force is highly over educated and working in jobs that don’t require the education they earned, because those jobs do not exist.
In addition, if there are shortages of skilled workers in some fields, how can that be blamed on the public schools, teachers and teachers’ unions. After all, Americans pride themselves on the freedom of choice regarding their lifestyles, and our children and adults make academic choices as they age. For whatever reason, these choices lead to dropping out of high school or staying in school to graduate and/or go on to earn an associate, BA, professional or doctorate degree. If an individual majors in the wrong field, do we blame k – 12 teachers for that, too?
>>>>> Feel free to share this post on Social Media, as long as you link to this original post. In fact, you may copy and paste the following Tweet to your Twitter page. If you do, I think you in advance.
It is a fact that the U,S, already met the Common Core’s stated goals
Before the Common Core … http://wp.me/pLJTE-Pk via @lflwriter
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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran,
who taught in the public schools for thirty years (1975 – 2005).
His third book is Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé, a memoir. “Lofthouse presents us with grungy classrooms, kids who don’t want to be in school, and the consequences of growing up in a hardscrabble world. While some parents support his efforts, many sabotage them—and isolated administrators make the work of Lofthouse and his peers even more difficult.” – Bruce Reeves
Lofthouse’s first novel was the award winning historical fiction My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. His second novel was the award winning thriller Running with the Enemy. His short story A Night at the “Well of Purity” was named a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards. His wife is Anchee Min, the international, best-selling, award winning author of Red Azalea, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1992).
To follow this Blog via E-mail see upper right-hand column and click on “Sign me up!”
The race has been flooded with more than 25 million dollars, with Tuck raising approximately $3.5 million more than Torlakson at latest count. Much of the corporate reform money for Tuck is flowing through a PAC deceptively named “Parents and Teachers for Tuck for State Superintendent 2014.”
Familiar corporate-ed reform philanthropists top the list of donors, including Eli Broad ($1,375,000); Walton daughters and heirs, Alice ($450,000) and Carrie ($500,000); Julian Robertson of the Robertson Foundation ($1,000,000) and Doris Fisher of the Donald and Doris Fisher Fund ($950,000). Ex NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $250,000, as did Houston billionaire and DFER friend John Arnold and San Francisco venture capitalist and TFA Board member Arthur Rock.
Network for Public Education endorses Tom Torlakson for California State Superintendent
Network for Public Education is proud to endorse public education champion Tom Torlakson for California State Superintendent. NPE Board president Diane Ravitch says, “I hope that the voters choose Tom Torlakson, a veteran educator who will truly fight for the kids, their teachers, and their public schools.” The race in California is a test of democracy and a referendum on public education. Can the voters be hoodwinked by Big Lies and Big Money?
The 2014 election receiving staggering contributions from Big Outside Money is the State Superintendent race between the incumbent, former teacher and legislator Tom Torlakson and the challenger, former Wall Street and charter school executive Marshall Tuck. It’s no surprise that corporate reform heav y weights have come out in droves in support of the candidate with ties to Wall Street and charters.
The Network for Public Education supports candidates who are dedicated to public education. We respond to requests for our support by sending questionnaires to all candidates in the race. We review their responses and endorse those who pledge to improve our public schools, not close or privatize them, and to those who are critical of the status quo of high-stakes testing.
Here are the candidates we endorsed in 2014:
.
Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, California
Robert Garcia, Etiwanda School District, California
Michael Charney, Ohio State Board of Education, District 7
Dr. Randall Friese, Arizona House of Representatives, District 9
Sherry Gary Dagnogo, Michigan State Representative District 8
Anne Duff, Fort Wayne Community Schools Board, IN
Victoria Steele, Arizona House of Representatives, District 9
David Spring, Washington State House of Representatives, District 5
Wealthy supporters: Hedge fund managers, or technocrats who although very successful in the world of finance have no clue about education. And they think a spreadsheet leads to all worldly answers and profits.
Paul Karrer, a veteran teacher in Castroville, explains why Californians should not vote for Marshall Tuck, who is a candidate for state superintendent. He represents the tiny but fabulously wealthy hedge fund managers who want to destroy public education. With backing from the powerful charter school industry, he has garnered endorsements from newspapers across the state, despite his lack of any accomplishment in education.
Karrer writes in The Herald of Monterrey:
I want to weep when noneducators use the destructive words and framing of those who would destroy public education. The Herald writes, “Tuck led Green Dot public schools in L.A., garners support from charter operators, and even tech companies along with wealthy backers who champion reform. He supports merit pay for teachers, and using student test scores as a means to evaluate teachers.”
None of those things are good!
He add, referring to Tuck’s experience at the Green…
Take a look at who is on Marshall Tuck’s $500,000+ donor list. Each and every one of these donors has supported Republican campaigns, efforts to deregulate almost every major industry, gut workers rights and fight every sensible Obama initiative. And now several of them are among the largest donors to the Republican effort to take the U.S. Senate. Here are just a few:
Julian Robertson 1,000,000
Eli Broad $1,000,000
Michael Bloomberg $1,000,000
Bill Bloomfield $1,000,000
AliceWalton $1,000,000
Carrie Penner Walton $500,000
John Douglas Arnold $500,000
Steve Zimmer is a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board. He began his career in education with Teach for America, then stayed as a classroom teacher in Los Angeles for 17 years. When he ran for re-election, corporate reformers amassed a huge campaign chest to defeat him. He was outspent 4-1, but he won.
Zimmer is known as a thoughtful board member who cares about children, class size, and the quality of education for all children.
He posted the following on his Facebook page:
Friends,
It is less than 24 hours until Election Day.
I never imagined the right wing billionaires that tried to take me out of my school board seat in 2013 could donate more and distort the truth greater than they did against me. But that time has come. In tomorrow’s election for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the billionaires have outdone themselves, pouring…
Discover how Common Core driven VAM method of teacher ranking that sometimes leads to teachers being yanked hard from their desired profession is nothing but a lottery, a crap shoot, that has nothing to do with teaching and/or learning.
In 2013-14, I was rated as a “highly effective” teacher.
The rating was based upon two classroom observations by one of our school administrators, an in-house semester “exam” (the quotes around the word exam are meant to convey a shoddy, last-minute delivery of an exam that if it were an assignment for a course I taught, it would surely have failed for its obviousness as an undisguised effort to “turn in something, anything”), and a more formal exam known as an End-of-Course (EOC) exam administered three weeks prior to the actual end of the course.
The “placing of my bet” was done via Student Learning Targets (SLT) focused on the outcomes of the in-house exam and the EOC. SLT isn’t value-added modeling (VAM), but it is still gambling.
My formal observation is the component over which I have the most control. The school administrator who observed me appreciated that I…
Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé 