Misleading the Public Again

The following was stated in a report by MIRS today (Lawmakers Tout Per-Pupil Funding Hikes For Schools) on the reporting out of the school aid bill by the School Aid Conference Committee in Lansing. It obviously came from Republican talking points that try to frame the state's effort to fix a problem with the state retirement system they created as an actual funding increase for public school districts:

Likewise, Sen. Howard WALKER (R-Traverse City), chairman of the Senate' school aid subcommittee, touched on the issue.  

"Foundation allowance is what everybody recognizes," Walker said. "But I think it's incumbent on the media and us as legislators to let the public know that the school districts are accruing retirement liability by virtue of their local contracts. 

"The MPSERS payments that we're making in this budget are a huge benefit to the liability which local school districts have accrued." 

This statement is inaccurate and misleading. Simply put, the teacher retirement system was wholly created by the state not the school districts, was dumped onto school districts by former Governor Engler, then was severely eroded as a direct result of continuing legislation taking more and more contributors out of the system through expansive charters, pressure to privatize non-instructional services, and the need by districts to offer retirement incentives forcing more people into the retirement system early due to declining funding support from the state.

A recent report by the Citizen's Research Council highlights the problem:

"Traditional public school districts are required to participate in MPSERS, and they really have no control over their contribution levels," said Bob Schneider, CRC's Director of State Affairs. "From their perspective, a big increase in the MPSERS contribution is effectively the same as getting a decrease in their foundation allowance or other state aid. It means something else has to go to make the budget balance. In effect, the MPSERS costs end up crowding out other spending."

With all due respect, there is little to no valid evidence supporting Sen. Walker's accusation that local district contracts are primarily causing the retirement system problem. This is simply misleading voters and a shell game to hide the fact that the ruling class in Lansing does not want to adequately or equitably fund our public school system.

“Skunk Works” is dead; Long live “value schools!” - Progress Michigan

“Skunk Works” is dead; Long live “value schools!” - Progress Michigan

Coming soon: Kmart "blue light special" schools for low-income, urban kids because Michigan certainly doesn't want them to get the same education Governor Snyder's kids are getting (at $20K+ per pupil). No sir, Richard McLellan wants a low-cost, teach-to-the-test-only school to ensure a large source of future low-skilled, cheap labor.

Don't believe that's what he really is trying to do? Just keep watching, continue to remain silent, and do absolutely nothing like the majority of John Q. Publics are doing.

It's coming so get ready to clip your cut-rate coupons.

The Myth of Michelle Rhee

We're seeing the unravelling of the myths that unwittingly placed Michelle Rhee in the national spotlight as "reformer in chief" for public education, myths created initially and largely at the expense of DC school children and their teachers. They were myths promulgated by the media, particularly those catering to the right-wing, anti-public education crowd.

In my State of Michigan, Rhee was afforded an unusual platform in front of the legislature as reported by Mlive.com in the following post:

Michelle Rhee: Michigan lawmakers need to focus on reforms to help students, not the adults  

Rhee, a 'rock star' of the reform movement, has appeared on magazine covers and in the documentary "Waiting for Superman," and is criticized by union leaders who say her reforms are too dependent on firing teachers and principals.

 

With an overflow crowd in the state Capitol, Rhee was asked about her experiences with issues including merit pay, evaluations, parental involvement and rules the require the most recently hired teachers to be the first laid off.

Yes, he did actually use the term, "rock star." 

And as the next article demonstrates, Rhee was afforded access to the point she actually wrote or at least contributed to the spate of anti-teacher laws that recently passed the state legislature:

Probe shows union-busting Michelle Rhee wrote Michigan anti-teacher law The document from Rhee's group specifically says that it worked on the package of four Michigan education bills. One abolishes "reasonable and just cause" as the only reason for firing teachers and replaces it with any reason that "is not arbitrary and capricious." Another bill axes collective bargaining. A third makes tenure tough and lets school districts easily throw teachers back on probation. 

But as of late (and it does come pretty late), NPR's highly respected and longtime education reporter John Merrow has torn down the facade and revealed, "The empress has no clothes!" But who created Rhee?

Who Created "Michelle Rhee"?  We, the mainstream media, created "Michelle Rhee." Good argument there. Rhee blew into Washington like a whirlwind, where she was a great story and an overdo gust of fresh air. DC schools were pretty bad, and she was candid, accessible, energetic, young, and attractive–everything reporters love. While I don't think my reporting for the NewsHour was puffery, we did produce twelve (!) pieces about her efforts over the 40 months — about two hours of primetime coverage. That's an awful lot of attention.

Did anyone else get that much air time from us? Well, yes, we also produced twelve reports about Paul Vallas in New Orleans. But Vallas never received the positive treatment (or even the coverage) from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Charlie Rose, et alia, that Rhee did back in 2007-2009.

Were we skeptical enough about the 'miracle' gains in her first year? Unfortunately not. So we certainly helped create the public phenomenon that is "Michelle Rhee."

 

Michelle Rhee and the Washington Post Why has the Post's editorial page been so uncritical? Some have suggested that it must emanate from the top of the masthead, from Donald Graham, the Chairman of the Washington Post Company. He denies exerting any direct influence, although he did say that it has been the Post's long-standing tradition to support the superintendent, whoever that may be, because, he told me, "The Post wants the schools to improve."

And now the Huffington Post has chimed in with the truth:

Time to Stop Waiting for Superman  There was no DC miracle. Browbeating students and teachers into raising scores on state tests only makes them better at taking state tests, and reforming our schools in hopes of replicating an illusion is a petty crime against humanity.  Even George W. Bush was forced to admit there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and we've long since gotten over the shock that Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire were juiced more than a Florida orange grove. We believe lies at our own peril. It's time to stop waiting for Superman and focus on the hard work of teaching our children the way we know works.

And who is/was Michelle Rhee anyway? Nobody who was made somebody simply by firing a few teachers and wowing the anti-public education movement. 

Rhee attracted a lot of attention before getting the top spot in DC. When Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed her superintendent, she went from managing an education nonprofit with 120 employees to running a school system with 55,000 students, 11,500 employees and a budget of $200 million. She'd never even been a principal before, and her only classroom experience was Teach for America. (Jason Stanford, The Huffington Post)

So when will this come full circle? When Mlive.com and our Michigan legislature admit they were duped by the radiance of Rhee's self-made glow.

Probably never.

The Common Core State Standards - just another rehashed, botched reform?

It's incredible how much today's education reform efforts are little more than half-baked reclamations of failed past attempts to transform public education into a one-size-fits-all training program for the American business community.

Take for example, Christopher Tienken and Donald C. Orlich's exhortation in their expose, The School Reform Landscape: Fraud, Myth and Lies:

"The Cardinal Principles were futuristic in their specific ideas about socializing all peoples into democracy on a level playing field, but they were more about ideas and less about actions. The 1920s through 1940s saw an explosion of progressive/experimentalist experiments and the eventual operationalization of the Cardinal Principles.

 

"Thorndike's initial study (1901), and then later his 1924 landmark study with 8,564 children, once and for all crushed the myth of mental discipline when his results demonstrated that there was not a hierarchy of secondary school subjects, and no one subject was superior to another when it came to overall growth in intelligence. Thorndike's studies exposed the fundamental flaws in the Committee of Ten's recommendations for one set program of studies in high school.

 

"Unfortunately, it appears as if many of the state commissioners of education and various education bureaucrats in the United States either don't remember Thorndike or did not read the study. This is evidenced by the majority of education bureaucrats who jumped on the bandwagon of the American Diploma Project (ADP) vended by Achieve, Inc. (2008) and now blindly support the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative.

 

"The ADP and CCSS are simply reincarnation of an educationally bankrupt idea that was empirically destroyed over 85 years ago, yet due to a lack of understanding of their own history, education leaders are willing to follow business interests over the cliff of botched reforms again."

Their assertion that few of today's political leaders or education reformers have studies past attempts to reform education are obviously correct given the penchant for grabbing the first idea that comes along, even if it has already been proven a failure. Standardization of education through the CCSS, nationalized assessments, and a common high school diploma path are only the latest example of ignorance leading the blind.

"Education is a Common Good: There Should Be No Losers"

Given the reality that we should be educating all children, it may surprise the uninformed observer that the market-based approach is alive and well in the education field – driving a set of reforms that is slowly eroding our public school system and creating an even wider and more troubling achievement gap; ensuring that more affluent students have access to better schools and more resources, while low-income students receive a second-class education. Last week the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education (BAA), an initiative at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), released Market-Oriented Reformers’ Rhetoric Trumps Reality. The report looked at three key urban districts – DC, Chicago and New York City – that have implemented market-oriented reforms including vouchers, charter schools and pay-for-performance, but failed to deliver on the significant student outcomes they promised would result from such efforts. Key findings include:

• Test scores increased less, and achievement gaps grew more, in “reform” cities than in other urban districts

• Test-based accountability prompted churn that thinned the ranks of experienced teachers, but not necessarily bad teachers 

• School closures did not send students to better schools or save school districts money

Education is a Common Good: There Should Be No Losers | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights