Corporate Welfare Venture Fund Specialist to Lead Duncan's "Race Over the Cliff" Fund

With $5 billion burning a hole in his pocket and with the ed industry leeches like Whittle lined up at the feeding trough and with the Oligarchs tapping their sharp pencils on the edge of their desks, Arne announced yesterday that a bundler from the corporate tax evasion outfit, the New Schools Venture Fund (NSVF), would be in charge of handing out the dough.  

NSVF is a "non-profit" clearinghouse of sorts for corporate cash looking to generate tax credits in ways that shape social policy to benefit the corporate ideology of unrestrained greed.  Does the appointee know anything about schools?  No, but she's from Princeton.  It should be quite a party:

FOR RELEASE: May 19, 2009

Contact: John White, (202) 401-1576,john.white@ed.gov

Citing a track record of innovative ideas with rapid and effective implementation, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that Joanne Weiss will lead development of the "Race to the Top Fund" to catalyze innovation and restore America's global leadership in public K-12 education.

Weiss has a record of success in investment strategy and management assistance that includes a portfolio of investment ventures at the New Schools Venture Fund, a national nonprofit venture philanthropy firm, during the last eight years. She also led the organization's research agenda and oversaw operations.

"Recruiting successful professionals from the entrepreneurial community is one way we will change the culture and our way of doing business at the Department of Education," Secretary Duncan said during a videoconference today with the audience at the annual NewSchools Venture Fund annual Summit in Pasadena, Calif. "We may never have an opportunity like this again to dramatically improve our country's educational system with huge investments in a few strategic areas to make changes that are deep and foundational."

"Joanne will help us push a strong reform agenda that is entrepreneurial in spirit, providing carrots and sticks, to change the way we do business, and fundamentally turn around underperforming schools in ways that last for decades," Duncan said.

Throughout her career, Weiss has helped to pioneer innovative work to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning processes. Prior to joining NewSchools Venture Fund, she was CEO of Claria Corporation, an e-services recruiting firm that helped emerging-growth companies build teams quickly and well. Weiss has spent 20 years in the design, development, and marketing of technology-based products and services for education. She was senior vice president of product development at Pensare, an e-learning company that created business innovation programs for the Fortune 500 market. Prior to Pensare, she was co-founder, interim CEO, and vice president of products and technologies at Academic Systems, a company that helps hundreds of thousands of college students prepare for college-level work in mathematics and English.

Weiss holds a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University.

From CEDU to Brown Schools to Camelot Schools, Inc.

Click chart to enlarge. From story by Maia Szalavitz, Mother Jones, August 20, 2007.

Much of the brainwashing, behavioral cruelty, and psychological abuse that is so common in "tough love" and "no excuses" school environments of today was inspired by an anti-drug treatment cult called Syanon. Synanon's methods inspired a number of residential treatment and "educational" centers, one of which was CEDU, a questionable outfit that was bought by the Brown Schools in 1998. At that time the CEO of the Brown Schools was a successful entrepreneur, John Harcourt, Jr.:

“It is this Company’s goal to provide the highest quality specialty behavioral and educational services to our country’s youth,” Riley said. “With the newly-formed Educational Services division that was created with the recent acquisition of CEDU, the country’s leading provider of therapeutic and emotional growth education; The Brown Schools has significantly strengthened its commitment to children and their families.”

In the letter below to consultants for the operation, Harcourt basks in the recent acquisition of CEDU. From ZoomInfo:

Posted by by Cindy White from letter of John P. Harcourt, Jr. President and CEO, CEDU Family of Services, The Brown Schools on Tuesday, 10 November 1998, at 9:09 a.m. (eastern time)

October 26, 1998

Dear Consultant:

It has now been a couple of months since the Brown Schools acquired the CEDU Family of Services. What an exciting couple of months it has been! In this short transition period, I have had a chance to speak with a number of our parents, consultants, and others regarding the alliance. I hear a lot of the same questions from one person to the next, and thought it might be helpful for me to address some of these questions with you.

As many of you know, the histories of both CEDU and the Brown Schools are remarkably similar. Both organizations continue to be driven by values, passion, and the dedication to their individual founders. Both are committed to making families whole again. Of course, these are precisely the factors that drove The Brown Schools to acquire CEDU.

While the Brown Schools and CEDU share similar histories and values, both organizations respect the differences in those whom we serve: children, families and consultants. We recognize the unique differences between The Brown Schools and CEDU in methodologies, philosophies, and procedures of both organizations. As such, I would like to assure you that we have no intention of changing the fundamental missions or procedures of either organization. We look to creatd strength in our differences and in the variety of diverse options we provide for families. To do this, it is vital that each organization remain unique.

At CEDU, we will strive for an even higher level of service to our referrals. To that end, I am pleased to report that Saul Rudman, who had announced his intention to resign his position as Marketing Director prior to the acquisition, will be working with CEDU and The Brown Schools as a Consultant to help us achieve our goals.

Of equal interest to you, I am delighted that Lori Armbruster will continue on as CEDU's Director of Consultant Services. We will be adding a Consultant Services Manager in Southern California to assist you with referrals, updating, communication, and visits at CEDU High School and Middle School. Lori will also oversee this position and will always be available to assist you.

Jude Rudolph will move from her position as Admissions Director at ASCENT to the new position of Regional Service Coordinator in Denver, Colorado. Jude will work closely with families and professionals in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Paul Johnson, whom you may already know, will be dedicated to meeting your communication and enrollment needs at ASCENT. Those of you who know Ranel Hanson will be pleased to know that she will continue her role as Parent and Alumni Services Director.

I look forward to seeing those of you who will be at the Fall IECA Conference in Atlanta. In the meantime, please feel free to call anyone at CEDU, including myself, with any questions you may have. Thank you for your support of our work in the past. Please help us to serve you and your clients even better in the future.

Sincerely,
John P. Harcourt, Jr./s/
President and CEO
CEDU Family of Services
The Brown Schools

CEDU did, indeed, go bust in 2005, along with Brown Schools that owned it. Through a number of legal manipulations, CEDU/Brown avoided settling a number of lawsuits involving mistreatment, sexual abuse of employees, deceptive practices, etc. From the Austin American Statesman in 2005:

In recent months, three Austin lawyers say, Brown Schools Inc. offered to settle claims by their clients for everything from sexual abuse by its employees to deceptive business practices.

But there was a catch, according to the lawyers: Brown Schools said the plaintiffs had to accept less money and delayed payments so that the Austin-based company, which operates facilities for troubled children, could avoid bankruptcy, a filing that would likely have left the families with nothing.

On March 25, Brown Schools filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in Bankruptcy Court, jeopardizing all of the payments. Most of the company's facilities have closed, putting 700 employees out of work. . . .

Where did the CEDU/Brown assets go, and where did the Brown School leaders end up? The Brown Schools leaders, including John Harcourt, ended up running Camelot Schools, with the same finesse, we may assume, that they ran the Brown/CEDU operation.

So where am am I going with all this? A few days ago the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a Philly charter school, consultant, Brien Gardiner, had committed suicide. Gardiner was under investigation for thievery and other forms of corruption related to his work for a number of charter school outfits, including one called Camelot Schools of Pennslyvania. Gardiner had been instrumental in guiding Camelot to part of the $40 million that Philadelphia schoolman, Paul Vallas, was paying out to have Philadelphia's "high-need" students professionally handled.

This is where this little story gets interesting, because in the news piece below from May 14, there is some clear indication that some of the school district officials in Philly smell something rotten about this Camelot deal. With Gardiner dead and the contract up for renewal, this has turned into quite a little corporate charter school mystery:

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

By VALERIE RUSS
Philadelphia Daily News
russv@phillynews.com 215-854-5987

PHILADELPHIA School District officials are reviewing the background of a company with $13.1 million in contracts to run three alternative schools, after a city councilman raised concerns about the firm's ties to treatment centers at which five students died.

The company, Camelot Schools of Pennsylvania, also had ties to Brien N. Gardiner, founder of the Philadelphia Academy Charter School, who had been under federal investigation when he committed suicide yesterday.

On Tuesday, during budget hearings at City Hall, Councilman James Kenney asked the district to reconsider renewing its contracts with Camelot Schools, saying that he had heard reports that the firm was managed by some of the same executives who once ran problem-plagued centers for troubled children.

Five students at those centers died after being physically restrained, according to a Texas teachers' union official.

"When you're talking about issues related to child safety, I just want them to make sure they look under every rock," Kenney said yesterday.

In 2000, a 9-year-old Nevada boy died of a heart attack a day after he was held facedown by employees at the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center, in San Antonio, Texas, for throwing a temper tantrum, the San Antonio Express-News reported at the time.

Laurel Ridge was run by the Brown Schools, a now-defunct company that operated 11 treatment centers in several states for children with emotional and behavioral problems, according to Gayle Fallon, a top official of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

Camelot Schools has contracts worth $13.1 million to run the Excel Academy, an alternative school for "over-age" high school students on Bustleton Avenue, near Harbison, in the Northeast; and two disciplinary schools, Daniel Boone, at 26th and Jefferson streets, Strawberry Mansion, and Shallcross, at Woodhaven Road near Knights, in the Far Northeast.

Todd Bock, Camelot senior vice president for education services, said yesterday that he and others had been officers of both firms, but adamantly denied that his firm was the latest incarnation of Brown Schools, which went bankrupt in 2005.

"Camelot Schools is not Brown Schools," Bock said yesterday. "That's like the difference between IBM and Apple. They never have been affiliated.

"Whoever is putting that piece of information out clearly does not have the facts correct . . .

Facts correct? You need some correct facts, Todd? Here are some facts for you and your creepy outfit that should be shut down with the rest of the school prisons that our tax money funds all over the country. IBM and Apple? Great analogy, Todd--since both perform exactly the same functions.

From a cached page at Zoom Info on the main of Camelot Schools, Inc.

John Harcourt – President and CEO
Mr. Harcourt has been the President and CEO of the Company since he and a partner acquired the business in 2002. Previously, Mr. Harcourt was the President and CEO of The Brown Schools, Inc., a 60 year-old company that provided educational and therapeutic services to children and adolescents. Prior to joining The Brown Schools, he was President and CEO of Rock Creek Center, a psychiatric hospital focused on children’s needs. Earlier in his more than 30-year healthcare career, Mr. Harcourt served as Executive Deputy Director of the NY State Office of Mental Health and the COO of the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]

Dayna Stewart – Vice President of Corporate Development
Before joining Camelot in early 2006, Ms. Stewart was Vice President of Marketing, Development & Oversight of Implementation for Childhelp, Inc., where she managed multi-state operations for programs in California, Arizona, Tennessee, Virginia and Michigan. Her responsibilities included operations, finance, marketing, referral development, contract negotiations and board management. Prior to that, she was Vice President for Marketing and Development at MHM Services, a business that provides mental health services for correctional facilities. Ms. Stewart was formerly associated with The Brown Schools as Vice President for Development where she was responsible for acquisitions and development and Cornell Corrections, Inc. where she was responsible for marketing and development for the juvenile division. [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]

Rod Young – Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Young joined the Company in 2005 as Chief Executive Officer of Desert Springs Medical Center. He was previously employed as Vice President, Public Education Operations and Vice President, Administrative Services at The Brown Schools/CEDU Education, a position he held for 6 years. From 1986 until joining The Brown Schools, he held Human Resources Executive positions at Per-Se Technologies, a medical software company, and Charter Behavioral Health Systems. [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]

Todd Bock - Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Camelot PA
Mr. Bock joined Camelot PA in 2003. He was previously employed by the Glen Mills Schools (a behavioral institution for children) and more recently at the Brown Schools. Mr. Bock holds a B.S. from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and has over 10 years of management experience operating for-profit educational programs for at-risk youth. His recognized specialty is the management of school programs for children with behavioral, emotional and developmental challenges. Under John Harcourt’s direction at the Brown Schools, Mr. Bock developed a public school partnership program with the school district of Houston, TX. The Houston program was highly successful and allowed Mr. Bock to apply his discipline and behavioral expertise to a public school environment, a model that the Company has successfully extended to Philadelphia. [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]

Timothy Kenna – Vice President of Finance / CFO
Mr. Kenna joined Camelot in late 2004. He has 25 years of experience in the healthcare field. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Kenna was CEO and CFO at Fort Lauderdale Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Prior to his Fort Lauderdale experience, Mr. Kenna held CFO positions at three other private psychiatric hospitals located in New York, Illinois and Texas. He has a B.S. in accounting from the University of Wisconsin. [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]

Camelot in now operating in New Orleans. It seems that everywhere Paul Vallas goes that Camelot is not far behind? Plenty of those "high need" students still living in those poisoned FEMA trailers.

How Would Duncan Provide Oversight for a Charter School Treasurer Like Carl Shye?

Obama/Duncan can't get enough of those charter schools, where entrepreneurial spirit and bold action must never be mistaken for slimeball corruption and recklessness. Right? The story of one treasurer and three charter schools in Dayton, Ohio--from the Dayton Daily News:

DAYTON — Sixteen teachers and staff of New City charter school are wondering how their medical bills will be paid after learning Friday their health insurance had been dropped because the school had failed to pay the premiums.

In a May 15 letter to staffers that accompanied their paychecks, school administrators blamed the cancellation on school Treasurer Carl W. Shye, who also oversees the books for two other fiscally troubled charter schools in Dayton.

“Mr. Shye, the school treasurer, failed to send in the payment in a timely manner,” the letter provided to the Dayton Daily News said.

Contacted Monday, Shye said, “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” and that he would call back. He did not.

New City board Chairman Scott Nekrosius said he assumed bills were being paid and he was “surprised” Friday when he learned of the cancellation.

“We’re going to solve this problem as best we can,” he said.

The letter confirmed suspicions of teacher Kyle Muntzinger, who said his health insurance company has rejected more than $69,000 in claims this year related to the birth and health problems of his infant son. He said it’s the second time this school year his health insurance has lapsed at New City, a charter school for 130 students in grades kindergarten through eight.

“This is just an add-on to a miserable year of trying to catch up and fix problems,” Muntzinger said, adding that three of his paychecks have bounced this year, too.

New City Superintendent Robert Burns said the health policy lapsed May 7, while Muntzinger said his research shows it lapsed Feb. 28.

The canceled insurance policy is one of several fiscal problems for New City School, 1516 Salem Ave.

School leaders say the school is on the mend financially, but the most recent state audit available paints a dire picture of the balance sheet and books managed by Shye Jr., a Columbus-area accountant who is also treasurer for Arise Academy and Nu Bethel Center of Excellence.

According to Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor’s audit of New City’s 2007 school year, the school was $202,319 in debt, didn’t have documentation for $30,146 in disbursements and it didn’t have the chief executive’s approval for $217,506 in expenditures. It didn’t reconcile bank statements monthly or properly document “several deposits,” nor did it have a capital assets list or provide proof it carried insurance with the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.

The bureau said Monday it couldn’t find evidence that New City carries the BWC insurance.

Nekrosius said the school has improved since that audit.

“We’re holding our own,” he said. “We’ll come out even at the end of the year.”

The Dayton Daily News has reported similar troubles at Arise Academy, a dropout/recovery high school at 1 Elizabeth Place, and Nu Bethel school at 3560 W. Siebenthaler Ave.

Shye said then that he made some mistakes, but he attributed most of the problems to state funding issues, school administrators and computer problems.

Ask Arne About This Longer School Day Plan

The results are in on Rudy Crew's $100,000,000 gamble. From the Miami Herald (ht to Monty Neill):

BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY
KMCGRORY@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A $100 million investment in Miami-Dade County's lowest performing public schools failed to boost student achievement, according to the school district's final report on the program.

The School Improvement Zone was a three-year push at 39 elementary, middle and senior high schools throughout the county. Students participated in a specialized reading program and had a longer school day than students at other schools. They also had a longer school year.

The zone was former Superintendent Rudy Crew's pet project. It was praised in education circles across the country.

But the investment yielded few results when it came to student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests, according to the district analysis.

And both students and teachers said they were exhausted by the extra hour a day in the classroom and the heavy workload.

Preempting Duncan's Prevarications

Duncan will be testifying before Congress tomorrow, no doubt repeating the same dog-eared sheaf of lies and exaggerations that the minions of the oligarchs, Gates and Broad, have handed him to read. It would be too much to ask, I suppose, that Dunc do some homework tonight by reading yesterday's story by the AP's Libby Quaid, whom I owe an apology for assuming that she was continuing in the tradition of former AP ed writer and lapdog of Margaret Spellings, Ben Feller. Ms. Quaid, I apologize, humbly.

So let me recommend Quaid's piece to anyone not on the Gates/Broad Christmas list, along with another piece that was posted by Dr. Bracey at Huffington Post on May 12. Together they will help neutralize the poison that Obama and Duncan, WaPo and the NY Times, have continued to pour into the education mix, even after Bush has moved to his own undisclosed location to await indictment for war crimes.

Some clips, first from Libby Quaid:

. . . .Here is a look at recent statements about the standing of the U.S. educational system and how they square with the facts.
———
TEST SCORES
Obama says the rest of the developed world is passing America by. "Our schools continue to trail other developed countries and, in some cases, developing countries," he told the National Academy of Sciences on April 27. "Our students are outperformed in math and science by their peers in Singapore, Japan, England, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Korea, among others."

That is not the whole story.

The U.S. does trail the most high-achieving countries, mostly developed nations in Asia such as Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.

But the U.S. holds its own in the group that comes next, a group of developed countries that, depending on the test, includes England, Germany and Russia.

In fact, the U.S. has gained on some of its toughest competitors since 1995, making bigger strides in math than Singapore and Japan, and in science than Japan.

That is according to the most recent international tests, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, the study Obama was citing. A lead TIMSS researcher took issue with the idea the U.S. is trailing.

"Certainly, our results do not show the United States trailing the developed world by any stretch of the imagination," said Ina V.S. Mullis, a Boston College research professor and co-director of the study.

"The Asian countries are way ahead of the rest of developed countries, but mostly the developed countries are relatively similar," Mullis said. "And the United States might be one of the leaders of that group, depending on whether you're talking about math or science in the fourth- or the eighth-grade."
———
MORE TEST SCORES
Obama also delivered this dismal news: "Another assessment shows American 15-year-olds ranked 25th in math and 21st in science when compared to nations around the world."

Bill Gates Sr., co-chairman and trustee of his son's Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, used similar figures in a National Public Radio interview last month when he said, "The condition of our public education is very, very poor."

At issue is the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which is given to 15-year-olds in 30 developed countries.

Obama's numbers are correct, but perhaps misleading. PISA is not designed to measure what children have learned in school. Instead, it measures how well kids apply math to real-world problems, which could be learned in school, but also at home or elsewhere.

In contrast, the other test Obama cited, TIMSS, is designed to measure how much math children have learned in school.

Because of that difference—a big one in the world of educational research—experts including the Brookings Institution's Tom Loveless have cautioned against lumping PISA results together with other test scores. Loveless serves on the U.S. advisory board for PISA and is a representative to the group that administers TIMSS.
———
SCHOOL TIME
Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, says American kids don't spend enough time in school.

"Our children are competing for jobs against children in India and China today, and those children are going to school 25, 30 percent more than us," Duncan said at Brookings this past week.

Obama himself said in March: "Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea every year. If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America."
The president is in luck: The U.S. already is doing it.

South Koreans do have a longer school year, measured in days. But Americans actually spend more time in school. The average U.S. eighth-grader has 1,146 instructional hours a year, compared with 923 hours a year in South Korea.

In fact, the U.S. has more instructional hours than many better-performing countries, though that raises a separate question about how well American schools spend classroom time.

A longer school year would shorten summer vacation and perhaps minimize the summer learning loss that hurts struggling students. Duncan is urging school districts to consider a longer year.

The school-time data come from the Education Department, which relied on information from the group that administers TIMSS.

As for Duncan's comparison, the department says there isn't reliable data on how much time Chinese or Indian children spend in school.
———
GRADUATION RATES
Helping more students finish college is a priority among the many philanthropies that work on education issues. In a December speech at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the younger Gates said the U.S. problem is acute.

"In the case of college education, we were No. 1 in the world 20 years ago in the percentage of young adults with a postsecondary credential. Now we're number 10 and dropping," Gates said.

Obama said this in March: "In just a single generation, America has fallen from second place to 11th place in the portion of students completing college. That is unfortunate, but it's by no means irreversible."

The college figures come from various tables provided by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs the PISA test of 15-year-olds.

But those figures are misleading for several reasons, said Cliff Adelman, a former Education Department researcher now at the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

—They are based on entire populations, not on what actually happens to students who enter college in a given year. Graduation rates in a large, growing country such as the U.S. will not look as good as those of a smaller country whose population is declining.

—Countries have different definitions for who is counted; for example, some exclude noncitizens, while the U.S. includes them.

—Since 2000, many European countries have switched to three-year degrees from four-to-six year degrees, making their rates look better than before.

What about high school? There again, international comparisons present similar problems. Other countries have more complex systems with many different types of high schools and can limit who is admitted.

No one disputes that the U.S. high school dropout rate, 1 in 4 kids and worse among minorities, is awful.
But as with other international comparisons, measuring the U.S. against the rest of the world is like comparing apples and oranges.

And now, from Bracey:

I have not the expertise to address the merits of President Obama's speech to Congress on the issues of the economy. I do claim some expertise on education. He blew it.

He accepted the same garbage that the propagandists, fear mongers such as Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Roy Romer, Bob Wise, Craig Barrett and many others--God help us, Arne Duncan?--have been spewing for years.

Obama said, ""Right now, three quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half of our citizens have that level of education. Scary, huh? Not really. This statistic was a favorite of ex secretary of education of education Margaret Spellings, about whom we can all express a sigh of relief that the operative word is, "ex."

If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics stats on job projections, it is almost true (but not really) that what Obama said is right. But there are two hugely compromising factors that make this statistic much less fearsome that it first appears:

1. The definition of "more than a high school diploma" is a weasel phrase, an incredibly slippery statistic. It does not mean a B. A., an Associates Degree, nor even a year of on-the-job training. The BLS projects that the overwhelming majority of jobs to be created between now and 2016 will require "short term on the job training." That's one week to three months.

2. The "fastest-growing occupations" account for very few jobs. For every systems engineer, we need about 15 sales people on the floor at Wal-Mart (and we have three newly minted scientists and engineers for every new job in those fields). The huge job numbers in this country are accounted for by retail sales, janitors, maids, food workers, waiters, truck drivers, home care assistants (low paid folk who come to take care those of us who are getting up in years), and similar low-trained, low-paid occupations. Note that I did not say these people are "low-skilled." As Barbara Ehrenreich showed after she spent two years working in "low-skilled" jobs, there really is no such thing (see her Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America).

"We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation, and half of our students who begin college never finish."

Because test scores no longer work to prove American school failure, the statistic of choice to prove what a lousy job we're doing is the graduation rate. How dare those European and Asian nations have the audacity to recover from World War II! The dropout rates across nations are, so far as I can tell, incomparable, since secondary school programs in other nations range from two to five years. In other nations, once students finish the equivalent of 8th grade, they are tracked into vocational, technical or precollege programs whereas American students go to comprehensive high schools (although, as we all know, there is plenty of informal tracking within those).

Many people do not complete college for many reasons. One of my major regrets as a researcher is a failure to follow up, in the late 60's, on groups of students who failed to complete their education at Temple University, a center city school in Philadelphia vs. those who finished on time--at the time restrictions to access to personal data were much freer. The standout statistic in the data I looked at was that the SAT scores of those who finished in four years was only infinitesimally higher than those who had dropped out or been dismissed for academic reasons.

I also don't know much about college completion rates in Europe, but do know that you can hang around as a student at the Sorbonne in Paris forever. Incidentally, you want a riot in Europe? Try imposing college tuition.

The World Economic Forum, and the Institute for Management Development, two Swiss think tanks, rate the U. S. as the most globally competitive nation in the world, IMD using 50+ nations, WEF, 135. What things will look like when their new rankings emerge from the current catastrophe this fall is hard to say. But looking at tests, high-scoring Iceland is an economic basket case. High-scoring France is on strike. And even higher-scoring Japan, the idol that "A Nation At Risk" prostrated itself to in 1983 because its test scores surely ensured economic prosperity, endured a "lost decade" of recession starting around 1990 and, in 2007 was in recession once again. Japan's students still ace tests.

When will we ever learn?

Kathy Reidlinger, NOLA Charter Schools' Top Scammer

Kathy Reidlinger's $200,000+ salary as CEO of a New Orleans charter school (why wouldn't they call it Lusher?) surpasses the previous top scammer trophy held by Eva Moskowitz, who raked in $371,000 for managing four Harlem charter schools in 2007.

The Times-Picayune continues the coverage in the Sunday edition:

For a quarter-century before Hurricane Katrina, Kathy Riedlinger held one of the most coveted jobs in the New Orleans school system: principal of Lusher Elementary, the Uptown magnet school. But neither she nor her peers at other public schools were ever going to get rich.

In 2004, Riedlinger earned a base salary barely topping $60,000, though with stipends she boosted her take to $91,488, according to her tax form.

That number skyrocketed after Lusher became an independent charter school in the dark days after the flood. Lusher's new board of directors -- whom Riedlinger helped choose -- would soon grant her more money than most district superintendents.

This year, Riedlinger will haul in $203,556, including a $5,000 yearly car allowance. That doesn't include a possible performance bonus, such as the extra $10,000 Lusher's nonprofit board granted Riedlinger last year. The school's attorney, James Brown, declined to comment on whether she would get a similar sum this year. "That's in the discretion of the board. That's all I'm authorized to say," Brown said. . . .

Why would a successful public magnet school decide privatize itself as a corporate charter? Here is a little background from a thoroughly-researched piece by Carl Bernofsky that introduces the other players in this corporate welfare movement by rich white folks: Tulane University and Johnson Controls--and FEMA under BushCo.:

Tulane's other ambition is to create an exclusive high school that would employ its own personnel and be financed by the state [37]. Activists have labeled the plan racist because the new school would primarily benefit the children of Tulane professors at the expense of other public schools that are seriously underfunded [38]. Despite employment practices by Tulane that would conflict with policies negotiated between the Orleans Parish School Board and the American Federation of Teachers for school employees, some school board members endorsed Tulane's participation in establishing a new high school [39].

With the prospect of further access to public funding, Tulane began to insinuate itself into the New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) with devices such as a new Internet library resource "offered only to educators in the New Orleans Public School District..." [40]. Although Tulane does not have a school of education, it began "testing the waters" by sending student observers into various public schools and by enlisting the cooperation of Kathy Riedlinger, principal of Lusher Extension School [41]. It also installed a business program into the John McDonogh High School curriculum [41].

Exercising powers newly afforded him by Senate Act 193, Superintendent of Schools Anthony Amato quietly negotiated with Tulane to make it a "partner" in a new Lusher High School that would be housed in an uptown school building (Sophie B. Wright Middle School), whose current students would be displaced [42]. Public outrage following disclosure of this "under-the-radar" scheme was a factor that contributed to Amato's abrupt resignation [42].

Well-organized Lusher parents, determined to sever the school's relationship with a dysfunctional central administration now in crisis, drafted a proposal to convert Lusher into a publicly-supported charter school administered by a private board selected by the school's parents. In a move toward self-imposed privatization, Lusher teachers overwhelmingly agreed to give up their representation by the teachers' union in exchange for a system of accountability to an untried administrative board with which they will now have to negotiate salaries, working conditions and benefits and depend upon to resolve disputes and grievances [43]. Presumably, the new Lusher board will be empowered to set student enrollment qualifications, hire and dismiss teachers at will, receive private funding, expand to upper grade levels, create alternative programs, and enter into relationships with other academic institutions.

. . . .

Dismissing the role played by the five local universities that actually operate departments of education (University of New Orleans, Loyola, Dillard, Xavier and Southern University at New Orleans), Isaacson, himself a Tulane graduate, declared Cowen to be "the hero when it comes to New Orleans education." [53] Cowen made it clear that, "his only focus when it came to public education was to find a school available in January 2006 for the children of Tulane faculty and staff." [65] However, despite this narrow focus, he was honored with the prestigious Shofar Award of New York's Central Synagogue for his leadership in rebuilding "the city's public education system" as well as "[h]is determination to save the City of New Orleans..." [66]. The reality is that by the end of 2006, the lack of concern for children of the city's poor resulted in a failure to meet the educational needs of many students and caused the flight of many teachers from some of the city's dysfunctional state-run schools. [67].

With a selective enrollment policy and first preference given to the children of professional staff at Tulane, Loyola, Dillard and Xavier Universities [68], places at Lusher Charter Schools were rapidly filled, forcing some parents in the Lusher district who were not connected with those universities to look elsewhere for schools to educate their children [69]. About 44% of Lusher's students were children from families of Tulane employees [70].

What remained was repairing the storm-damaged facilities that Lusher Charter Schools would occupy, particularly the Alcee Fortier High School building, which was in disrepair even before the storm and which required an estimated $10-15 million to refurbish [71]. This was solved by soliciting Johnson Controls Inc. to repair Lusher's elementary school and assist with the fund-raising needed to renovate the upper-grade facility. Johnson Controls complied [72]. The engineering company was eager to make amends to a city shaken by a corruption scandal that involved an earlier $81 million contract with City Hall [73,74], and it saw an opportunity to become a major player in the reconstruction of other storm-damaged New Orleans' institutions, businesses and infrastructure [72,75]. Both Tulane and Johnson Controls understand how to profit from investments and how to wield power for their financial advantage, so their alliance seemed natural. On the other hand, New Orleans' elected officials appeared ineffective and demoralized when they relinquished power to the traditional elite and accepted a firm so recently mired in corruption. The reelection of Mayor Ray Nagin on May 20, 2006 suggests a level of comfort by the white and business communities with the existing city administration [76].

From a political process unique to New Orleans, of the $52 million in FEMA money allocated for all schools in Orleans Parish, $16 million was used to renovate Alcee Fortier High School building for the upper grades of Tulane-affiliated Lusher Charter School [77].

As far as the future of public education is concerned, the Bush administration, eager to promote privatization of the public schools, awarded $20.9 million in September, 2005 and $23.9 million in June, 2006 to the state of Louisiana, much of it earmarked for charter school development in Hurricane-Katrina affected areas [78]. The teachers union is being eliminated or marginalized by charter schools, and the "recovery-district schools" will largely be operated by the state. That leaves only a handful of schools that will, for now, be retaining their collective bargaining rights [79]. More than a year after Katrina, Judge Ethel Simms-Julien denied a complaint that about 7,000 fired New Orleans public school employees were not given proper consideration for jobs after the state took over 107 of the city's 128 public schools.[80]. On December 6, 2006 Tulane announced the establishment of the Scott Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives [81], ostensibly to assist the state with educational policy decisions and perhaps collaborate in government-funded projects [82]. On February 14, 2007 construction began on the $1.9-million, 11,000-square-foot Goldring Performance Arts Center at Lusher Charter School [83]. . . . .

Philanthrocapitalists Speak, Duncan Listens

     Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently announced his hope to see 5,000 schools turned around during the next five years.  Increases in federal spending directly tied to school restructuring (firing entire staff; closing the school; turning the school over to charter operators; or new curriculum materials) will drive this intended reform.  Duncan's plan for school turnarounds should not be a surprise given his tenure in Chicago, the current DOE's connections to various philanthrocapitalists, and the political climate in Washington.  

     Take, for example, this recent document put out by the Coalition for Student Achievement, a group funded by (among others): Business Roundtable, Center for American Progress, Democrats for Education Reform, NewSchools Venture Fund, Stupski Foundation, Gates Foundation, Business Coalition for Education Excellence, Commission on No Child Left Behind, Broad Foundation, Fordham Institute, and Center on Reinventing Public Education.   The reform agenda pushed in "Smart Options: Investing the Recovery Funds in Student Success," was constructed during an early 2009 meeting in Washington, D.C (p. 2). Many notable education entrepreneurs, philanthropic foundations, think tanks representatives, and a number of the most noteworthy education reformers attended the meeting: TFA representatives, NewSchools Venture Fund CEO and California State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, NewSchools Venture Fund partner Jonathan Schorr, Green Dot CEO Steve Barr, and New Teacher Project CEO Timothy Daly; four Gates Foundation representatives, two Broad representatives (although Andrew J. Rotherham is not listed as representing the Broad Foundation even though he serves on their board); Thomas B. Fordham's Chester Finn, and Education Sector's Chad Alderman and Rotherham; Michelle Rhee, NYC Chancellor Joel Klein and the NYC COO, and the Louisiana Superintendent Paul Pastorek.  And don't forget to throw in two McKinsey & Co. representatives for a touch of global management flavor.  Their cumulative thoughts were summarized in "Smart Options" and proposed as a blueprint for education reform.  

     The document notes that "nearly 5,000 schools (or about 5 percent of all U.S. public schools) are now in at least Program Improvement 5 status" (p. 26)  But districts and states have avoided firing the entire staff of a school, closing the school, or turning the school over to charter management organizations.  Speaking about national education, KIPP, Green Dot, Uncommon Schools, Yes Prep, and Aspire are specifically mentioned as "high-performing schools serving high-poverty students" before the document calls for governors and state officials to "Aggressively close poor-performing schools and replace them with new high-performing schools." [their bold](p. 27)  Many other ideas - from teacher reform to national standards to data-driven instruction - are shared with Duncan's like-minded reformers.  These may not be Duncan's words - but this outline could easily be confused with an official outline of the DOE's plans for education reform and the unprecedented $100 billion.

     There is not an ounce of evidence to suggest these kind of reform efforts will work.  But the Philanthropy Roundtable operates with its own set of rules - just check the guiding principles of the Philanthropy Roundtable, listed on page 139 of this recent document.  The reform efforts are guaranteed to do one thing and one thing only: apply market mechanisms to public education. Markets are a great way to do some things - but not a way to provide equitable, high-quality public services to everyone.

Welcoming New Contributor, Ken Libby

I am happy to welcome Ken Libby as a new contributor to SM. Ken is a month away from getting his Masters in the Art of Teaching from Lewis and Clark's Graduate School of Education in Portland, Oregon. Hey, West Coast!

Here's Ken:

My entire work history involves children - three years as a part-time nanny, summer camp counselor, work with children and grief, teaching assistant in an expensive private school, and student-teacher in the Portland Public Schools. My diverse work experience has led me to see education as a deeply personal, social, and transformative process when done correctly; it can also be stale, violent, and forceful when behaviorism and testing strip away all that is human from schooling.

The emerging leaders of my generation (I'm 26) have always known economic prosperity - the MTV era of marketing, the internet and tech explosion, and the endless search for more and greater profits. There are alternatives to No Child Left Behind, charter schools, privatization, and high-stakes testing. I hope my generation can learn from the mistakes of our past and ignore the endless reform ideas of the business world and other economic interests in an attempt to address issues of global and national significance - poverty, climate change, and violence.

Welcoming Kenneth Bernstein, aka teacherken

I am happy to welcome another Ken as a new contributor to SM.

Take it away, Ken (in the third person):

Kenneth Bernstein began fulltime teaching in 1995 after a career in data processing and a varied background including service in the Marines, selling cars, selling incense in Greenwich Village (it was the '60s), and other odd and interesting occupations, all of which he thinks broadens his perspective as a teacher. With degrees in Music, Religion, and Education, naturally he teaches Social Studies (in which he has National Board Certification). He blogs on a variety of topics at a variety of places (including at their initiative at the New York Times) where usually he writes as "teacherken" although occasionally under his own name. ABD in Educational Administration and Policy Studies, he promises never to inflict his proposed dissertation upon the unsuspecting world. But beware, he is spreading across the internet.

Peace

Brown v Board of Education after 55 years

Fifty-five years ago today the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously issued Earl Warren's opinion in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, in which it stated unequivocally that

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

And yet even after 55 years the promise of the Brown decision we still have not overcome what is effectively a system of educational apartheid.

Below the fold I am offering the text of a piece by Sam Chaltain, the National Director of The Forum for Education and Democracy. I am going to urge you to read carefully his words. I will offer a few additional comments of my own, but the primary purpose of this diary is to make Sam's statement more widely known.

Doesn’t Every Child Deserve a High Quality Education?
By Sam Chaltain


On May 17, America will mark the 55th anniversary of Thurgood Marshall’s historic victory in Brown v. Board of Education. If Marshall were alive, however, he would urge us to stop celebrating 1954 and start accepting responsibility for our complicity in the creation of a “separate but equal” education apartheid system – with one method of instruction for the poor, and another for the privileged.

In theory, the Brown decision represents the most hopeful strains of the American narrative: working within a system of laws to extend the promise of freedom, more fairly and fully, to each succeeding generation. “In the field of public education,” the unanimous Court wrote, “the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” and the opportunity to learn “is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” The Chicago Defender proclaimed May 17, 1954 as “the beginning of the end of the dual society in American life and the system of segregation that supports it.” Marshall himself remembered feeling “so happy I was numb.”

In practice, integrated schools today are as much of a dream now as they were then, and the subject of segregation has all but disappeared from the national conversation about education reform. Worse still, many of the newest and most promising schools in our nation’s cities are actually increasing the racial stratification of young people and communities – not lessening it.

Providing ‘separate but equal’ facilities, it seems, has once again become an acceptable justification for allowing an inequitable schooling system to exist. In this system, some schools receive ample funding, while others scrape by. Some schools are filled with passionate, experienced educators, while others are flooded with passionate, inexperienced rookies. And while one child is being taught that the key to success is finding the right (multiple-choice) answer to other people’s questions, another is learning that success comes from finding his voice and discovering his rightful place in the world.

Which child is more likely to do well in life, and in a democratic society?

Ostensibly, this inequity was what the Court ended in 1954. But legal changes tend to outpace social changes, and so in 1973 the Court was again asked to intervene, this time when a group of poor Texas parents claimed that their state’s reliance on local taxes to determine per-pupil expenditures violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. A state court agreed, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 decision, reversed.

The unfair distribution of resources, Justice Potter Stewart conceded, “has resulted in a system of public education that can fairly be described as chaotic and unjust. It does not follow, however, that this system violates the Constitution.”

Justice Lewis Powell agreed. “Though education is one of the most important services performed by the state, it is not within the limited category of rights recognized by this Court as guaranteed by the Constitution.” If it were, Powell conceded, “virtually every State will not pass muster.”

For Justice Marshall, a sitting member of the Court he had stood before two decades prior, that was precisely the point. “The Court concludes that public education is not constitutionally guaranteed,” he wrote, even though “no other state function is so uniformly recognized as an essential element of our society’s well being.”

Marshall understood that without equal access to a high-quality public education, democracy doesn’t work. “Education directly affects the ability of a child to exercise his First Amendment rights,” he explained. “Education prepares individuals to be self-reliant and self-sufficient participants in society. Both facets of this observation are suggestive of the substantial relationship which education bears to guarantees of our Constitution.”

After so many years and so little real change, something new – perhaps even something drastic – needs to be done.

What if Powell and Stewart were wrong? What if we made the guarantee of a high-quality public education our nation’s 28th Constitutional Amendment? Is that the game-changer we need to make the promise of Brown a reality, 55 years later?

Sam Chaltain is the National Director of The Forum for Education & Democracy, a national education “action tank” committed to the public, democratic role of public education — the preparation of engaged and thoughtful democratic citizens.

(follow Sam on Twitter)

Let me start by noting again the words of Justice Powell, that Though education is one of the most important services performed by the state, it is not within the limited category of rights recognized by this Court as guaranteed by the Constitution. And still today, more than a quarter century after that opinion in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, it is still true, as Powell wrote in 1972, that virtually every State will not pass muster.

Some states guarantee a free and appropriate public education in their state constitution, although such guarantees were often from a time when such education was only through the 8th grade.

We have come out of a two-term presidency where the focus on No Child Left Behind as the supposed means of addressing the inequity that is still pervasive in America's schools has had the unfortunate effect of narrowing the educational opportunities for many children of color. The recent scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) show that while scores at the elementary level have risen somewhat (albeit less than in the previous periodic assessment covering a time when NCLB had only briefly been in effect), the gap between white and black had not closed and at the high school level there had been no significant change in performance. In short, we are still leaving many children behind. And in the meantime we are robbing them of access to the arts, which are not tested, and incredibly to history and civic education, which also are not part of the calculation of Adequate Yearly Progress under NCLB, and hence get ignored inr restricted in favor of more time to raise scores on those tests whose results do get included.

I teach government. Thus the words of Thurgood Marshall in dissent are to me quite relevant: Education directly affects the ability of a child to exercise his First Amendment rights. Our students need to understand those writes to be fully participating citizens helping shape their own future and the future of this nation. Marshall recognized this: Education prepares individuals to be self-reliant and self-sufficient participants in society. Both facets of this observation are suggestive of the substantial relationship which education bears to guarantees of our Constitution.

But these ideas are not new now, nor were they when Marshall expressed them in 1972. Let me offer a selection from Warren's opinion in Brown that remains as relevant today as it was 55 years ago:

Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.

We must remember that despite the unanimity of the Brown decision there was strong resistance. I write these words from the Commonwealth of Virginia, which after the succeeding Brown 2 decision of 1955, which said that segregated school systems must be integrated with all deliberate speed chose a path of "massive resistance" repeatedly articulated in the editorial pages of a major newspaper, the Richmond News Leader, penned by the very articulate editor James Jackson Kilpatrick. We often forget that Topeka was only one of 5 districts involved in the Brown case. There were two parallel decisions, because one case came from our national capital which since it was note a state had to be decided on somewhat different legal grounds as it was in Bolling v Sharpe. The other states, besides Virginia, included South Carolina and Delaware. The Virginia situation is illustrative of how difficult it has been to achieve racial equity in public schools. The General Assembly had allowed the closing of public schools that were to be integrated, but this was ruled unconstitutional in 1959, whereupon the General Assembly repealed compulsory school attendance and left it to local option. That meant either integrated public schools or no public schools. Prince Edward County, which had been the subject of the Virginia case combined into Brown, chose to be the sole Virginia district that abandoned public education. From May 1, 1959 until in 1964 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled unconstitutional governments making grants to private (segregated) schools, Prince Edward County had no public schools.

Too many do not know the history of that time. The decision 55 years ago today did not magically erase an era of racial discrimination in education. While it might no longer be de jure on racial grounds today, the inequity of schools serving primarily or exclusively minority populations is not so much better, despite the various federal and state efforts that have been made. The process of of addressing the failures of such schools has inextricably become a political football used by some to advance causes that have little to do with the meaningful education of children whose economic situations give them less access to educationally related activities outside of school, and whose in-school education has increasingly been narrowed to preparation for tests to "prove" we are offering an education, even if the unstated purposes on the part of many advocates are things like destroying the legitimacy of (and hence the support for) public education and destruction of teachers unions as a force both in educational policy and in politics.

Education is essential if we are to remain a liberal democracy. It is one of the few ways we can empower all of our citizens to something beyond a dependence on the whims of corporations whose sole purpose is maximizing their profits. Education should prepare people for a future that is more than merely for the workforce, but also for civil society, for the body politic, for the future of America.

We have come 55 years since the Brown decision was issued. We have not yet come close to fulfilling the promise contained in Warren's sweeping opinion. Despite the unanimity of the Court in 1954, we have never achieved a consensus on the purposes of public education, nor do we have a willingness to make the commitment necessary to achieve the promise of the right to a high quality public education.

Perhaps pursuing a federal Constitutional Amendment is the only way of refocusing our attention as a nation to what Brown was supposed to help us achieve. Certainly the public discussion that would ensue from exploring that option would benefit the nation, whether or not we ever ratify such a proposal.

Warren wrote in Brown that

To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.

Allowing clearly inferior educational opportunities, even if nominally not done specifically on racial grounds, nevertheless still has the same impact. Students are not idiots - they quickly realize that the inferiority of their facilities, in some cases teachers, and in many cases quality of instruction indicates that society does not truly care about them despite the rhetoric about leaving no child behind, of overcoming the disparity that is apparent when we look even at gross indicators like test scores. Their hearts and minds are still battered by the inequity a continuing part of the experience of far too many children of lesser economic circumstances. They may be children of color in inner cities. They may be whites in economically distressed rural communities. They are often children in schools on the reservations in which many Native Americans still grow up.

Regardless of race or location, when we do not offer them a high quality education, we betray the basic principles of our Constitutional system and give lie to the promise of the Brown decision.

Fifty-five years. We have come somewhat. We have not come far enough.

Peace.