Good Summer Reading on Failure of Business Model in Education & Other News and Commentary

My colleague Marc Epstein has written a piece showing how the business model has failed in public education but as usual there is no accountability for failure. Like everything else, accountability is for little people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-epstein/which-business-model-is-b_b_909695.html

While I was away on vacation, the news was depressing as a judge sided with the city and will allow charter co-locations in public schools and school closings to continue. The judge did leave a window open to continue the suit but this fall will be a disaster for kids in many closing schools as Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters pointed out.

Then there is the related issue about what is likely to happen to the kids who are currently enrolled at the closing schools. At Jamaica HS, they are planning to allow only the high-achieving kids in the Gateway program to transfer into the new selective small school in the building, called Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences . For most of the rest, they will either be forced to drop out, be discharged to GED programs, or given sub-standard “credit recovery” programs, and never be allowed to graduate with a real HS education. A recent summary shows what happened at Tilden HS when it closed. 44 Haitian students fell between the cracks; they “came to the United States in search of better educational opportunities, but they didn’t find it.” There is no evidence that DOE has learned anything from the past and will do anything different in the future.

I don't know who the person was who confronted a deputy chancellor at the DOE happy hour celebrating the court ruling that will leave thousands of children behind in separate and unequal schools but those of us at Jamaica and Paul Robeson thank you.

It was good to see the parents fighting back on charter co-locations in a new lawsuit filed yesterday.

The march to Save our Schools is Saturday in DC. Great news that wounded education activist Norm Scott will be there.

The DOE has also told principals how they will implement the new ATR agreement. In their video they inform principals that they can still put substitutes into positions and don't have to hire ATRs to fill vacancies.

We hate to say we told them so again and again but each time the UFT makes a deal with the DOE, the DOE subsequently does everything they can to not abide by their part. Shouldn't the UFT learn by now?