POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

I agree 100% with Southern Poverty Law Center. Solutions that effect only one or a few children reduces the pressure to find solutions for all children. We need to think in terms of solutions for ALL not solutions for a few.

Part 1

“In short, SPLC argues that if the law can’t rescue every child from a failing school, then it shouldn’t be allowed to rescue any child. Not only would this line of reasoning hobble almost every government effort to incrementally address any problem, but the argument also rests on a misunderstanding of the status quo and the law’s likely impact.”

Doug and the public education counterparts argues on the line of equality of opportunity. Inequalities? Who cares. Outcomes? Who cares. Its a form of discrimination eroding the education of all children, and locking the ramps to the very education opportunities that the public education professes to provide.

Its the same type of arguments being used by the public education stakeholders for both Canada and United States, concerning SE services. If the SE services is not being used by all SE children, then the SE service will not be approved for used. Ergo - reading, writing and numeracy remediation will fall to the lowest common denominator of the whole group of SE children, regardless of what subgroup the students fall into. The Moore case in Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada calls it discrimination, and rightfully it should be.

Likewise, the Southern Poverty Law Centre - the law suit should be dismissed. But will it?  Time will tell, because the parents in the lawsuit claiming discrimination will have to prove that they did everything possible for their children within the school district. It would mean, eventually adding the school district unto the list who supplied the failing schools in the first place.

Another lawsuit on the go is this one - ” In the name of civil rights, the Department of Justice is trying to prevent black families from exercising school choice.

On the heels of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ridiculous lawsuit against Alabama’s new school choice law, which contends that if a law doesn’t help everyone it can’t help anyone, the U.S. Department of Justice is suing to block the state of Louisiana’s school voucher program for low-income students and students assigned to failing public schools.”  http://lessbull.com/2013/08/doj-lawsuit-would-keep-blacks-in-failing-schools/

Over at the Southern Poverty Law Center web site - ““More than ever, a quality education is critical in today’s world,” Cohen said. “It shouldn’t depend on how much your parents make or where you live.”
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-asks-federal-court-to-block-alabama-education-law-that-discriminates-against-

No it should not be, but the public education stakeholders can’t have it both ways. Sue to block students from obtaining an education other then a public education , while fighting tooth and nail to block lawsuits based on discrimination that the public schools and school districts are blocking access to the education services and opportunities by not providing the education services. Right to Read lawsuit is just another example of how the education stakeholders will fight tooth and nail that no child should have the civil right to learn to read. In the same way, the education stakeholders fought tooth and nail, that the dyslexic students have no right to education services beyond the classroom. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/13/156728852/aclu-files-groundbreaking-lawsuit-claiming-right-to-learn-to-read

In another case where a school district has already spent $17 million plus, is coming to a close. http://couriernews.suntimes.com/news/21271832-418/judge-offers-opinion-in-u46-discrimination-lawsuit.html

A more recent one - “The education of students with disabilities and race discrimination are the subjects of two class action lawsuits filed today in federal court against the Chicago Board of Education by parents of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. The suit also has the support of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The parents seek an injunction against all proposed school closings by the City and CPS for violations of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Illinois Civil Rights Act.”  http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/clinic-files-suit-behalf-parents-children-impacted-cps-closings

Part 2

Its like night and day - polar opposites - Where the one side - “If we wait for education solutions that will help every child, we will end up helping not even one child.”

Very true, and a daily example in the Canadian public education schools - students with learning difficulties trapped in the inclusive classroom without the skills to access the educational opportunities that are offered in the inclusive classroom. Instead, the students are offered the skills of poor reading, writing and numeracy skills. The rest they have to fight tooth and nail, or go to a private tutor.  In Calgary - “A Calgary parent says the public school system is letting down children with learning disabilities.

There are reports of two-year waits for school-based assessments — forcing some parents to pay for the help they believe their children need.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/09/03/calgary-school-psych-assessment-wait-edu.html

Meanwhile, no diagnoses, no SE services relating to reading, writing and numeracy. Hardly seems fair, considering the polar opposite of Doug’s conclusions - “We need to think in terms of solutions for ALL not solutions for a few.”

And the public education officials are so proud to state and willing to defend, if the education services cannot be access by one and all, therefore the education service should not be available to a few students. Its how its done on the line of equality of opportunity. Its the alternative reality where discrimination policies are the norm to facilitate the scarce resources scenarios, and where no child is entitled to a quality education in the public education system. Only in the public education system, there a law that compels parents and students to attend a public school, but are not held to account for the student outcomes. When they are held to account, they will fight tooth and nail to defend their discriminatory practices to prevent all students to reached their full academic potential. Equality of outcomes welcomes choice. Equality of opportunity does NOT welcome choice.

Psst Doug, you ought to check out the sociology pages. Some interesting theories on the go, how the public education system, its structure and culture promotes and replicates the student inequities from one year to the next.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Southern Poverty Law centre is correct but the diagnosis must go much deeper.

The schools in Massechusetts are not failing. What is the Alabama difference? Of course the answer is poverty. The “schools’ are not failing so much as the politicians are failing to reduce poverty which is why the schools are failing.

This is compounded by the fact that Alabama is a Right-to-Work state. This means the teachers unions are weak. When the teacher unions are weak, you can pay teachers much less. When you pay teachers much less, you attract a far less qualified teachers. When the teachers are less qualified, the standard of education goes down (or never rises to the needed level in the first place.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

To Nancy,

The replication arguments have been around for many decades. Bowles and Gintis probably did the best job with “Schooling in Capitalist America”.

Larry Cuban made the famous quote “it is very difficult for the schools to make people equal within a society otherwise dedicated to making them unequal”

I doubt you can find a quote from any of these people that favours privatization. Everybody can be a critic of public education including me. Nobody has a better idea.

Apply the same analogy here to any other social service. We have noticed that the police or fire or hospitals have not been able to save everybody lately so from now on we are only going to try to save a few. Isn’t it better that a few are saved if we can’t save everyone?

No sane person believes this and very few sane people would support sending a few poor kids to private schools.

In the famous movie “7UP” British 7 year olds in posh private schools were asked what would happen if the government were to agree to pay ALL of the costs of ALL of the poor people who would like to attend Eton or Harrow. Even the kids knew “that is not a good idea - the poor will come rushing in here and ruin everything”. Right!

Experience Changes Rhetoric

I used to think that public schools were vehicles for reforming society. And now I think that while good teachers and schools can promote positive intellectual, behavioral, and social change in individual children and youth, schools are (and have been) ineffectual in altering social inequalities.  – Larry Cuban - How My Thinking about School Reform Has Changed over the Decades (Part 1), June 30, 2013 blog entry

https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2013/06/

Better rethink your premise Doug - ought to look at the data streams. There is more failing schools in the strong union states statistically speaking. However, each state calculates it differently.

I selected New York state, and pulled up Buffalo. “In Buffalo, three-fourths of the district’s 59 schools are considered by the state to be failing, based on test scores and graduation rates.” Just remember Doug, Buffalo is the place where teachers can obtained plastic surgery for the nips and tucks of old age, compliments of the Buffalo taxpayers.  http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/buffalo-public-schools/coumo-urges-death-penalty-for-failing-schools-20130829

Guess what Doug? The Buffalo parents are on the Governor’s side - “Amen. Amen. And amen,” said Samuel L. Radford III, president of the District Parent Coordinating Council. “Literally, right now, it’s like we’ve got a governor leading, and he’s speaking what parents feel and what parents want. So whatever we’ve got to do on the ground or locally to support his ‘death penalty’ initiative, he’s got a partner.”  Radford, a parent is very tired of the excuses hailing from the public education system.

What about Alabama?  “As required, the state department has released a table of 72 failing schools and their six years’ worth of “scores.” (Another six schools were labeled as “failing” not for their ranking, but for landing on a federal grant list in 2011 for persistently low-performing schools.)

Unlike in years past, the “scores” themselves do not represent actual average test scores relative to national norms. Nor do they represent actual percentages of children meeting a standard on a specific Alabama test or specific subject.”  http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/08/alabamas_failing_schools_insid.html

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on where one is, the failing schools are in clusters. Low income schools and the mammoth school bureaucracy do not always make good partnerships. More so when the education stakeholders are prone to excuse making, rather then coming up with innovative and creative ways for all students to achieved. In Alabama, over 50 % of parents are in support of vouchers. Campbell, president of BAEO - ““Less than ten percent of black children nationwide are considered college ready,” Campbell quoted to the audience. Statistics like that, he says, should be startling and push the black community to figure out other options. He says it brings to mind a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Our lives will begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’

“We can’t be silent anymore,” Campbell said, referring to black children and education.”
http://www.wafb.com/story/23150937/study-by-baeo-shows-majority-of-louisiana-parents-support-vouchers

Tsk tsk, imagine suing for the right to keep the students in the failing schools, and just to rub salt into the wounds - to remain silent about the dismal data streams. Making parents impotent without options for their children’s education, reminds me of the early years in and around the 2002, where an educator official with the usual PHD in education trying to convince me that someone has to do the work of the MacJobs and Walmart clerks. All in the name to denied an assessment for my child. Only in Canada, a strong teachers’ union presence - they virtually remain silent from coast to coast on the dismal student outcome data streams. Instead, the teachers’ unions uses their political power for other purposes to remained firmly within the equality of opportunities. Sure students can look but there is no guarantee for any student to have the skills, to to take advantage of the education opportunities.

Only in the public education system, will the education stakeholders do everything possible to prevent access to a quality education….........more so for Canada where choice to the public education system,  is almost as evil as the standardized testing…..........

By the way Doug, dig deeper - I am afraid the sociology theories have updated to the 21st century. Education professors would be wise to speak at length to the people holding a PHD in sociology. But alas, as the sociologists have stated, the very culture of the public education system won’t allow them to come out of the 19th century closet. Even some sociologists are advocating choice as the only way out of this education mire that refuses to educate all children to their full academic potential.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

I agree with Larry. Read carefully. What he is saying is that high quality education ‘itself’  cannot lead to a better more equal society. He is totally correct. Education ALONE cannot overcome the dead weight of poverty. Poverty needs to be seriously mitigated and in an ideal society BEFORE education can work its magic.

Finland understands this. 5% child poverty spread evenly across the entire nation, not all piled up in Helsinki or in rural areas allows Finland to reach a point where education can really take off.

The USA (some people at least) believe you can reduce poverty through education alone. This is painfully naive. The prime difference between educationally successful families and those that are less successful is that the parents of the former group have good, well paid (union?) jobs.

The formula works like this: reduce poverty first. After poverty is seriously mitigated, education will begin to work. Everybody knows this except the USA. They cant face up to the fact that savage dog-eat-dog capitalist societies will never lead in education. Advanced welfare states are the answer if you want quality education.

Geoffrey Canada is trying to set up his own mini-social democratic society in Harlem but taking care of the health, nutrition needs of the HCZ kids.

Below are some of the reasons why parents are clamoring for choice and vouchers.

1.”. My problems were labelled as laziness or a lack of interest. Maths was the only class I consistently failed in, which obviously meant I couldn’t be bothered to try. I had an attitude problem. I was constantly frustrated.”
https://medium.com/p/56baa105ef56

2. “Under federal law, public schools are required to provide the necessary help such as extra tutoring or untimed tests. But services can vary tremendously from one district to the next. Or students may get a teacher who doesn’t understand learning differences, dismissing a child as lazy or having a poor attitude. Often kids end up frustrated, hating school and dropping out, despite average or above-average intelligence.”
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-28/news/ct-met-learning-disabilities-school-20130828_1_hyde-park-day-school-boarding-school-wolcott-school

3. “There are five legs of vocabulary. The first one is phonics: the sound spelling combination. The second one is the morphological awareness of the root words or patterns. The third one is syntax. The fourth is semantics and the last one is pragmatics.

Out of all the legs, this article pertains to the second one, root words — the most important, but underemphasized, part of curriculum.”
http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2013/09/05/opinion/doc52262bc3edb7a254433485.txt?viewmode=2

4. On a different note - the school culture - and beliefs of the educators - ” From very early ages, we see struggle as an indicator that you’re just not very smart. It’s a sign of low ability. People who are smart don’t struggle, they just naturally get it. It’s our folk theory, whereas in Asian cultures they tend to see struggle more as an opportunity.”
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/02/218067142/why-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning-differently

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Oh please Nancy, look at the PISA results by state. Union states do far better as they do on the NAEP. it is not even close.

Not a single US state participated in PISA 2006.  http://educationnext.org/the-international-pisa-test/

I can’t find any mention of individual states participating in PISA 2009 either, but I’m undoubtedly looking in the wrong places.  Please help me with citations.

Its too bad that the poverty definition is undergoing change to reflect the realities on the ground, and not the political realities. “Poverty is measured in relation to the median living standard of each country. Thus, the living standards of poor people in rich countries can not be compared to the poor in poor countries. The United Kingdom for example counts 17 % of poverty, but the poverty threshold at 60 % is 853 Euro per month and per person, against 176 Euro for Romania, which counts 21 % of poor people. The British poverty threshold is 2.8 times higher than the Romanian median income. These different thresholds are usually calculated with the purchasing power: thus they consider the differences of living standards between countries. The 10 % richest living in Romania would be among the 10 % poorest in the United Kingdom…”
http://www.inequalitywatch.eu/spip.php?article99

Poverty in Finland stands at 13.1 % which is low in comparison to other European countries. Just imagine if poverty was calculated in the way in United States and Canada, I wonder what the numbers would reflect, considering that the public education systems of both countries, Canada and United States are demanding more monies from the taxpayers and parents at a time when inequality has never been higher. A time of paying more money for fewer education services without options to escape the public education system.

BS Doug - “. What he is saying is that high quality education ‘itself’  cannot lead to a better more equal society. He is totally correct. Education ALONE cannot overcome the dead weight of poverty. Poverty needs to be seriously mitigated and in an ideal society BEFORE education can work its magic.”

I watched the CBC documentary, Teach last night. I was spellbound for the whole two hours. Four different teachers across United States saying the same thing, the reading, writing and math skills needs to be upgraded real fast, if there is any hope at all to raise the economic fortunes of America and the futures of students. What can you do in a public education system that socially promotes students or even promotes them when the students are not at grade level in the basic 3 Rs?  The whole two hours was all about the lack of the reading, writing and numeracy skills of the students.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/08/06/teach-a-two-hour-special-exploring-americas-education-system-to-premiere-friday-september-6-on-cbs/195866/

And here - http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/09/05/2743759/kuna-teacher-to-be-featured-on.html

Doug, its the excuses that nothing can be done, until poverty is mitigated sentences the low income and for that matter all students to various life sentences depending on where one is on the social-income ladder. There is absolutely no excuse in the 21st century, that all students should have a solid foundation of the 3 Rs. Considering the research in cognitive and learning sciences, why are students still being sentenced to a life time of limited social mobility based on their education levels. A person can’t go far without having a firm foundation in the 3 Rs, to access the sets of knowledge that allows the students to progress and meet the criteria in higher learning. There was a boy on the Teach documentary, who wants to become a pilot, but as he said - I have to pass algebra to get into pilot school. Near the end of Teach, he managed to get a C, instead of a failure. What the boy lacked was a firm foundation in basic arithmetic, but that is no surprise considering the data streams. No surprise at all, since the very culture within the education stakeholders keeps on insisting that the basic 3 Rs don’t matter in the 21st century.

Another documentary that was release is Embracing Dyslexia. “Experts and educators define what dyslexia is and illustrate why early dyslexia screening for all children is vital. They also share how effective tutoring, classroom accommodations, and recognizing and fostering the natural gifts and abilities of a child with dyslexia can take them from feeling stupid and experiencing failure on a daily basis to believing in themselves and knowing that they can be successful.”
http://www.embracingdyslexia.com/

The public education system and the stakeholders have a lot to answer for on their role for not providing a quality education for one and all. Why, the public education system insists to imposed the 19th century beliefs on learning unto the 21st century students, is a good place to start off. In 2013, parents are still hearing that dyslexia does not exist, no one needs a firm foundation in math, and writing skills are not important due to the 21st century technology.

I cannot find the individual US states participating in PISA either. I know the PISA results for Canada, the individual provinces numbers are stated. Perhaps the reason is, that PISA is a comparison of countries and not a comparison of the individual states/provinces that composes a country.

Although, I can assure you that United States did participate in all the PISA since 2000. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008016

By the way Doug, using international numbers such as PISA, can hide and masked the true realities of the state of education in each country.

All I am saying, there is more failing schools in strong union states as opposed to the right to work states. Unless you are saying, that the educators are of a poorer quality in the right to work states?? Last time I check, overall, the teachers’ unions are uniformly quiet on issues of students’ outcomes and their futures in both strong union and right to work states.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Do unions effect results?

Well almost all of the states without strong unions are at the bottom of the pack.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/how-states-with-no-teacher-uni.html

Vouchers for a few poor kids had no positive results overall in NYC and therefore are simply not worth it.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w19271

I am not at all making reference to the union presence if they affect student achievement. I am simply stating the number of failing schools are higher in strong union states. Regardless of binding and non-binding contracts, its pretty hard to determined a relationship between student achievement and unions. In particular when the norm has always been a strong presence of teachers’ unions in Europe and Canada.

What would it matter to the students and their academic achievement how and in what matter the teachers are paid their salaries. Does it mean, that the teachers who belong to a union, have a better grasp of material than the teachers who don’t belong to a union? 

It be an interesting study for Canada to crunch the numbers in each province and school boards. It be interesting to see where are the failing schools in terms of lower literacy and numeracy levels. Then crunch the numbers for funding dollars for each school district and schools and then compared both sets of numbers looking for patterns. I have a funny feeling, a pattern will emerge of a percentage of schools being deliberately shortchange and corresponds with lower levels of literacy and numeracy levels of students. The same pattern can be found in Buffalo, NY. Funding per student has now reached $21,000 and 2/3rds of students have not reached average levels in literacy and numeracy.  No wonder, the parents are clamouring for vouchers and charter schools. 

In Canada, the realities are masked. I somehow suspect there is a lot of variance within a school district that allows some schools more of the shrinking resource pie, while other schools have to squeezed more using far less money. Its all part of the inequalities that are formed from the get-go, in order to stay within the framework of equality of opportunities. After all, it would not do if the low income school started to win all the math competitions. beating out the higher income schools. Equality of opportunity is a task master, on keeping to the narratives rooted in the 19th century, that the lower one is on the social-income ladder, the less bright the students are and as a general rule, the low income population needs a lot of guidance by government to guide their lives. The latter scenario can be seen daily in the news in many shape and forms, plus the experiences of the people dealing with government.

Would it not be a different world, if ALL students have average to above average skills in the 3 Rs?  Now that would truly be a transformation where government and their education systems would be the ones that needed to change. In the end, just maybe they would not be any more charges of the installation of $165 pencil sharpeners, lousy curriculum, no need for the school compulsory laws on the books and the other laws/regulations needed to managed all the inequalities cause by a public education system rooted in the 19th century knowledge matrix.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Nancy,

The strong union states, NY California, Illinois are all huge states, the RTW states are almost all small. Overall results are far higher in union states.

Almost all of the charter schools in New Orleans are failing badly.

Look around the world. All of the very strong nations in education are highly unionized.

Charter school in Alberta forces out special ed kid

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Mother+fears+special+needs+child+will+forced+school/8868546/story.html?google_editors_picks=true

Alberta public schools required to support special ed kids. Charter schools are not so hard to serve kids forced out.

Nancy, you support that?

You can continued to go around the bush and avoid that there is greater numbers of failing schools in strong union states in the United States, but it won’t change the data streams. Either way, right to work or unionized states, there should be no failing schools in the U.S. The only logical reason left, is the cultural aspects and belief systems embedded within the structure of the public education model that prevents ALL students from reaching their academic potential.

Now, I am glad that you pointed out another story from Alberta, dealing with SE services. The first one - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/09/03/calgary-school-psych-assessment-wait-edu.html

And the second one Doug has pointed out - are the same peas from the same pod. Its all about putting locks at the SE access doors. In the first story, its all about the two year waiting lists for psycho-educational assessments and Doug’s link points out what amounts to locking the SE access doors for resident and charter school students. Upon further investigation, I found no where in the Alberta school act that this statement is true - “A charter school is designed to meet the needs of a specific group of students, not every student in Alberta. Sections 44 (Resident student) and 47 (Special education program) of the School Act do not apply to charter schools, since that responsibility is already delegated to local school boards. ”  http://www.education.alberta.ca/parents/educationsys/ourstudents/iv.aspx

The Alberta School Act - http://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=s03.cfm&leg_type=Acts&isbncln=9780779759668&display=html

I could not find anything in the act, that actually stated resident and special education students or programs are not welcome in the act. There is special limitations place upon the resident student, but nowhere could I find a specific clause dealing with charter schools or school boards of accepting students with differences.

That said, the mother of the child with cerebral palsy, has a case for discrimination based on disability. As for parents who are on the two-year waiting lists in Alberta, and for that matter across the country, is another case of discrimination. In both cases, its the denial of access to SE services.

In reference to Doug’s statement - “Alberta public schools required to support special ed kids. Charter schools are not so hard to serve kids forced out.”

Charter schools in Alberta do not get a free pass bypassing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because the charter schools are funded by the public tax-purse. Nor do public education facilities get a free pass by putting up numerous barriers and locks at the SE access doors for services beyond the inclusive classrooms. The Moore decision of the Supreme Court of Canada called it discrimination when school boards blocks access to services that would allow the students to access the broader educational opportunities that are offer at the schools whether public or charter.  Waiting two years for an assessment, is giving the students a lifetime of low achievement and placing them at high risk for failure in the far off future.

If anybody has the opportunity to watch the CBS documentary Teach, listen to the teachers. I am sure there is thousands upon thousands of Canadian teachers feel the same frustration of an education system that allows students to fall so behind, that is almost becomes hopeless and a thankless task for the high school educators. In the case of Alberta, its not an isolated example. It is happening throughout Canada, where cuts are taking place in SE services. Funding is being redirected to other areas such as ESL students or early childhood education or to fund the technology aspects of the 21st century. The students who are struggling in learning or have a specific need that is not relating to learning necessarily, are put on the back burner. The documentary Teach presents it very well dealing with the low-income students and their low skills sets concerning the 3 Rs.

Just imagine having a triple whammy - ESL - ADHD - low-income: the student is toast in the public education system rooted in the 19th century. The public education system has never turned off the station of the 19th century. Ergo, the schools, their methods and practices are geared only to the best and brightest students, unless one is low-income. And we end up with regulations/laws in the school acts that actively reinforces the 19th century mindset of class structure, middle-class culture and values in the 21st century.

Its the education system, its design and belief values that is doing a lot of damage to students and their education regardless of income. We can no longer overlook the outcome data streams of students, nor should students be paying the heavy price of a mediocre education of academic and knowledge gaps of what should be common knowledge among us all.

“If we wait for education solutions that will help every child, we will end up helping not even one child.”  Children don’t have that luxury of waiting on a list for two years, nor do children with mobility issues to go without an aid. ““Should Salem continue as a student at Calgary Arts Academy, she would receive the same program and level of service provided to other students.”

Right across Canada - two year waiting lists just to get a diagnostic label and having cut-offs based on grade and age for students with a mobility disability for aids. Worse yet, narrowly defined criteria must be met to access the SE services relating to the remediation of the 3 Rs. Most are trapped in the inclusive classroom, and the classroom educators sees the outcomes daily, but remain silent for the most part. Instead of educating students, they are managing the behaviour of the diverse classroom. Some parents no doubt probably have received a hastily scrawl note - ‘having trouble’ or ‘fix it’ with an exclamation point behind it, from the educators this new school year.

And yet the educator stakeholders are determined to locked up the education services and resources behind three doors so everyone can pretend they are on an even playing field, in an inclusive classroom receiving the same level of service and programs. No more or no less and no one is allowed to memorized the times table because it would be an unfair advantage over other students. Got to replicate the percentages of the 19th century in the 21st century no matter what the price is being paid by the students and by extension, society.

Does anyone else want to help me in tossing out life rings (starfish)  to rescue the students from the stormy seas of the education model rooted in the 19th century knowledge matrix? 

The 90% School Voucher - ARIZONA

Instead of qualifying for a voucher to a private school, which you can’t possibly attend, would you accept a 90% voucher to spend on more accessible education services?

Here are two states: 

1   ALABAMA where some parents/guardians are saying either ALL children should be able to be rescued from failing public schools or none should.  All or none.  They oppose vouchers if their qualifying child would be unable to reach a private school of choice due to transportation issues, for example. Jay P Greene link http://jaypgreene.com/2013/08/21/choice-and-starfish/

2   ARIZONA, which provides a 90% voucher for students with disabilities or from a failing (D or F public or charter school) to spend on approved education services, including tutoring and homeschooling supplies.  Perhaps these “empowerment scholarship accounts” (effectively, an education debit card) could even be used to form small co-operative learning pods as some home educators do now.  Jay P Greene link http://jaypgreene.com/2013/08/29/the-future-of-school-choice-today/

I am really surprised that there have been no comments in discussion on Greene’s blog on these two stories. 

I feel the Arizona idea really needs discussion and consideration, especially as it opens up the taboo topic of whether the state should be involved in providing education in the first place.  It also opens up the question of whether “schooling”  (some would call “seat-warming”) which state schools provide really serve the education or pedagogical function public and parents expect.  A third question arises regarding current common core and 21st Century Learning imperatives which are being resisted by some as being untested experimentation — leading to ever more vociferous calls for school choice.

Two new books openly discuss “public” as not necessarily meaning “government” education.  The possibility is raised that the civic goal of attaining an educated public can be served just as well by various combinations of public/private partnerships or wholly outside of government provision.  Our own education historian in BC, Thomas Fleming, even predicts a “post-public” universe of schooling if our collective bargaining turbulence does not settle down.

I haven’t read these books, but I sure would like to see a symposium somewhere in the world, preferably in Canada so we can attend, on this topic —  “The Proper Role of Government in Education – Monopoly, Exit, or Somewhere in Between?”

- Private Enterprise and Public Education, Editors Frederick M Hess, Michael B Horn, Teachers College Press, 2013
- Achieving Education for All Through Public-Private Partnerships? Editor, Pauline Rose. Routledge, 2011

Just a little expansion on Arizona’s Education Debit Card

http://www.edchoice.org/Research/Reports/The-Education-Debit-Card—What-Arizona-Parents-Purchase-with-Education-Savings-Accounts.aspx

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/07/expanding-education-choices-from-vouchers-and-tax-credits-to-savings-accounts

On Ask a Mom blog - http://askamomaz.com/arizonas-education-savings-accounts-a-way-for-all-children-to-fit-in/

One of the objections - We all hear this excuse - ” What could possibly go wrong?

Some parents have bought things like gas for their cars—to transport their kids to school—and school uniforms. When the Dept of Ed finds an inappropriate expense, it adjusts the account accordingly.”
http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2012/11/put-my-kids-education-on-my-state-debit-card-please.html

On another front in Arizona - its being billed as the anti-education bill by the opponents.
Arizona House passes anti-federal education bill

http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-house-passes-anti-federal-165707503.html

The teachers’ unions and the public education stakeholders are clearly entrenched against education debit cards, but more importantly against choice for parents and their children with disabilities, low income, military families and other students who are not being well served by the public education system. Its why the Arizona teachers’ union is plowing ahead to the next level in court battles, after losing in the first round.

As for the anti-education bill, it should be interesting how far it gets through the court proceedings, if the bill is passed. It certainly be challenged by the federal counterparts…............