The Truth Behind Reform Speak: Minneapolis Version

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The Truth Behind Reform Speak: Minneapolis Version

Corporate reformers have created impressive networks of astroturf organizations to disseminate the various disguised versions of the same failed plans designed to destroy public education.  The plans are packaged and repackaged and sold to legislators, school board members, and school administrators.

This week Minneapolis Public Schools unveiled its latest version of these reforms under the title, “The Time is Now to Shift.”  The Superintendent invited “all stakeholders” to come and hear the “new” plan and get involved.  Unfortunately, the great unveiling took place at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, which meant teachers and most parents were unable to attend.  Perhaps we are not “stakeholders.”

I think it is important for those of us fighting the corporate reformers, and fighting for strong public schools, to recognize the reform plans in all their various disguises.  While the Superintendent’s speech detailing “the shift” is now available on district’s website, PEJAM is providing the corporate reformer’s outline version of the speech without the extra packaging.

Watch for a version of this near you!

Title: The Time has Come to Double-down on Corporate Reforms! (Call it a “shift”)

Part 1: The current situation according to Gates, Broad, Walton, etc.

·      Generous Greeting of fellow reformers

·      Platitudes

·      Outline speech

·      Platitudes

·      Platitudes

·      Platitudes

·      Platitudes

·      Claim we have tried the “extremes” of top-down and bottom-up operations and declare that both have failed.  We must now take a  “new” approach which means going with the only tried and failed top-down structure, but call it a “partnership.”

·      Share statistics without any meaningful context

·      Platitudes

·      Throw in backhanded praise for teachers

·      Platitudes

·      Declare test-prep charter schools as success stories, and that that will “soon be our norm.”

·      Throw in business jargon

·      Quote Martin Luther King Jr.

Part 2: The “New” Plan

·      Emphasize high standards for all

·      Explain how we will fix teachers

o   Implement flawed and burdensome teacher evaluation and VAM

o   Implement a test-driven, teacher-proof, standardized curriculum (Minneapolis calls it “Focused Instruction”)

o   Explain why there needs to be a strong leader in the “partnership,” and that this will be accomplished by following a TFA approach to principals.  Use a double-dose of TFA jargon for the title of the new principal training program

·      Include a reference to “choice.”

·      Highlight of the plan is a “Strong Partnership.”  (definition of Strong Partnership: a relationship in which one side concedes that the district “partner” is always right, doesn’t argue with the district “partner,” and always does what they are told to do.)

Part 3: Solve Problems by Gutting the Teachers’ Contract

·      Cut Seniority and Tenure Rights!

·      Tagline – “It’s time to shift.” (Wait for applause!)

·      Take away more of the teachers’ personal and family time without concern for burn-out and without fair compensation.

·      Tagline – “It’s time to shift.” (Wait for applause!)

·      Create teacher hierarchy that pits teachers against one another and call it a “career ladder” (because teachers go into teaching hoping to climb away from the students).

·      Tagline – “It’s time to shift.” (Wait for applause!)

·      Cut teacher and staff pay and benefits.  Introduce a merit pay system, but call it being a “good steward of resources.”

·      Tagline – “It’s time to shift.” (Wait for applause!)

Part 4: The Rollout and Big Finish

·      Implement the draconian reforms, first, on the schools with the highest need kids and most beaten-down teachers.

·      “Invite” people to “partner” with you by following your plan.

·      Platitudes

·      Platitudes

·      Message of Urgency

·      Appeal to Emotions

·      Tagline – “Together…we must shift!” (Wait for applause)

·      Wait for results…

·      Wait for results…

·      Wait…

As the Minnesota legislature prepares to vote on an omnibus education bill, defenders of public education are speaking out against a part of the senate version of the bill that gives $1.5 million to Teach for America.  TFA is trying to expand its presence in Minnesota and wants tax money to do it.  This, despite the facts that public schools have been underfunded for years, and we have plenty of fully licensed teachers here in Minnesota.

The following message state legislators and the public was originally posted on MN2020 Hindsight.  Please e-mail your state legislators and tell them not to give public funds to an unneeded non-profit.  Tax dollars should be spent on true public schools.

Caroline Hooper, is a Minneapolis teacher and a member of PEJAM.

Don’t Use Tax Dollars for TFA

By Caroline Hooper, Guest Commentary , April 29, 2013 at 1:30 pm

The State Senate higher education bill provides Teach for America (TFA) up to $1.4 million in taxpayer funding over the next two fiscal years (See line 5.29). TFA undermines and is at odds with Minnesota’s tradition of providing quality education and the best teaching corps in the nation. Minnesota should not be promoting TFA.

• TFA recruits are inexperienced. It is not the individual, young TFA recruits, but the model itself which is problematic. TFA recruits are provided a five week boot camp the summer prior to being placed in some of the most challenging classrooms in the state. Five weeks is hardly enough preparation for successfully managing classrooms of children. Many TFA recruits admit that their training left them ill-prepared for real classrooms.
• TFA recruits lack a commitment to teaching and to the classroom. Not only are these young TFA members unprepared to be effective teachers, 70% to 80% leave the classroom within the first three years, creating a revolving door of inexperienced teachers for children who need the best teachers.
•  TFA infringes on students’ civil rights. TFA targets communities with large numbers of minority and/or low-income students thereby creating teacher turnover in the schools serving these children.
• TFA is not effective. “Multiple studies have demonstrated that TFA recruits are no more effective than traditionally trained new teachers and are far less effective than experienced, career educators. Some studies indicate that TFA recruits actually lower the reading scores of students.
• TFA does not increase academic achievement. TFA misleads the public by conflating learning and academic success with a test score. While test scores may or may not be indicative of the achievement of any individual student at a given point in time; education is much more than a test score and test prep.
• TFA displaces career educators. TFA destroys school and community cohesion by replacing experienced, career educators with inexperienced, ineffective recruits. TFA requires partnering districts to contractually guarantee teaching spots for its recruits, thus forcing cash strapped districts to layoff experienced, career educators.

Furthermore, the goal of TFA in Minnesota is not about providing quality teachers for classrooms; instead the goal is, in the words of Daniel Sellers, TFA alum and head of MinnCAN, "not a teacher-training program. It’s a leadership training program." "Its mission," he said, was to "equip the best and the brightest to go into the most disadvantaged classrooms for two years. After this time, some would stay in teaching while others would move on." TFA sets out to create teacher turnover in the classrooms of some of the neediest students in the state.
Additionally, TFA is not a cash-strapped nonprofit. It is a corporate funded political organization that has over 1800 (non-classroom) employees and annual operating surpluses in the millions--$114 million in a recent federal filing.
Policymakers should not divert public money meant for education into corporate driven reform such as Teach for America. Instead, the legislature should use this money to encourage and support young Minnesotans, especially our young people of color and from our immigrant communities, to pursue careers in teaching.

TFA's 'Transformational' Public Money Grab

Say NO to $1.5 Million in Public Money to TFA!

Teach for America (TFA) is a tax exempt nonprofit with "reported annual operating surpluses of $35 million, $114 million and $37 million" from 2009 to 2011.   In 2010, they received a $50 Million grant from the federal Department of Education, and another $8.3 million funded under the Supporting Effective Educators Development (SEED) program.  The government further subsidizes TFA with student loan forbearance and education awards.  TFA is also looking to get more public money from state legislatures, including Minnesota!

With the state of Minnesota still facing budget deficits, following years of educational spending cuts, TFA is at the capitol with its hand out.  Bills are moving through the Minnesota state legislature that would give Teach for America $1.5 million in public funding (HF 1594 and SF 975).  Minnesota School Districts are already required to pay TFA $3,000 to $5,000 dollars for each TFA corp member they hire, in addition to paying their full teacher salary and benefits.

An e-mail was recently sent out by Crystal Brakke, the Director of TFA - Twin Cities.  Here is what she was asking her supporters:

Hello Choose the Twin Cities weekend attendees!

I’m asking you to take 5 minutes out of your busy schedules today to help expand our impact in Minnesota. WE NEED HELP…and since you decided to come spend the weekend with us in February, I know you are passionate about Minnesota and education here!

Over the past 8 months, our Twin Cities team has been working with the Minnesota State Legislature to secure a state investment of $1.5 million over two years. We are pursuing these funds in response to the demand we are hearing from school leaders that would like to expand partnerships with Teach For America –Twin Cities, and which we simply do not have funding to support. State resources will be used to leverage private dollars to help recruit, train, select and grow our overall Twin Cities corps and alumni force in Minnesota. (It’s also important to note that the state is investing heavily in K-12 education this session, which is fantastic—we’re asking for a very small appropriation that as part of that overall investment.)

Unfortunately, a small but vocal group of individuals opposed to our requested funding are calling on Senate leadership, and in particular the Majority Leader, Senator Tom Bakk of the Iron Range, to reject state support for TFA.

We need your voice! A call to Senator Bakk’s office* in support of TFA’s pending funding could make a real difference in our ability to help expand educational opportunities for children in Minnesota. We also encourage you to enlist the support of others to express support for this smart state investment. I’ve provided contact information and talking points below, if helpful. (*In case it’s helpful to know, when calling you will most likely speak with an assistant in his office that will take note of why you’re calling and share that with Senator Bakk.)

I’d love to know if you’re willing to help and also what you’re hearing in response. Thank you—deeply!

Crystal

PEJAM has also obtained a copy of a letter sent to the Minnesota State Senate leadership, by Mark Bonine, an Associate Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools.  Assoc. Supt. Bonine oversees the MPS Office of New Schools which sponsors charter schools and works with TFA.  Minneapolis Public Schools have clearly embraced the irrational ideas of TFA and the argument that inexperienced and poorly trained teachers can close the achievement gap.

In this letter, Assoc. Supt. Bonine advocates for TFA funding by claiming, "Minnesota can elevate its education system by attracting, developing, and retaining teachers that consistently matches the quality seen in the world's leading systems."  It is truly troubling to see an experienced educator and administrator suggest that someone with five weeks of summer training can walk into a classroom for two years and perform at the levels of teachers in the "world's leading systems."  I hope teachers in Finland and Singapore don't read this. 

Even TFA alum like Matt Barnum who credit the organization with accomplishing some good, would not agree with the claims made by Bonine and other TFA supporters.   Barnum notes that "districts, like the one [he] used to teach in, appear to cycle through corps members every two years, with high turnover among TFA teachers who are in turn replaced by a fresh slate of bushy-tailed, ill-trained corps members."  Barnum explains how poorly prepared TFA corp members are to step into the classroom:

"For many corps members, the required five-week summer training “institute” is close to useless. Why? Not, as some have argued, because it’s so short. Rather, it’s because for many of us the training doesn’t come close to simulating what it’s like to be teaching during the real school year. As alumni blogger Gary Rubinstein has pointed out, many institutes’ corps members teach for very little time in front of very few students."

He goes on to describe how useless the on-the-job "professional development" and "coaching" are:

"TFA loves to talk about the coaching of and professional development for its teachers. This sort of talk sounds good to prospective corps members, to districts, to donors, and to the media. Again, I can only draw from own experience and those of others I know, but with few exceptions, TFA’s continued support rarely made me a better teacher."

Teach for America, an organization that began as a way to serve school districts in areas of the country that could not find qualified licensed teachers, has now been in Minnesota since 2009.  After a decade of declining enrollment and teacher layoffs, the Minneapolis Public School district is responding to a growing student population by sponsoring charter schools and hiring TFA corp members rather than hiring experienced, licensed teachers.  This is the norm for TFA as Stephanie Simon explains:

"The organization that was launched to serve public schools so poor or dysfunctional they couldn't attract qualified teachers now sends fully a third of its recruits to privately run charter schools, many with stellar academic reputations, flush budgets and wealthy donors. TFA also sends its rookies, who typically have just 15 to 20 hours of teaching experience, to districts that have recently laid off scores of more seasoned teachers." 

TFA members are overwhelmingly self-proclaimed liberals, but as Andrew Hartman, who teaches history at Illinois State University, points out:

"The history of TFA reveals the ironies of contemporary education reform. In its mission to deliver justice to underprivileged children, TFA and the liberal education reform movement have advanced an agenda that advances conservative attempts to undercut teacher’s unions. More broadly, TFA has been in the vanguard in forming a neoliberal consensus about the role of public education—and the role of public school teachers—in a deeply unequal society."

Bringing in and promoting TFA in Minnesota has not been based on a shortage of licensed teachers.  We have a surplus of licensed and experienced teachers.  Rather, TFA has cited Minnesota's (specifically Minneapolis') large achievement gap.  Ironically, local corporate reformers who are also behind the push for TFA, and public funds to support it, are also the ones who complain the most about the lack of experienced teachers in our schools with the highest need students.

This shift in TFA's argument is not unique to Minnesota.  In Chicago, thousands of teachers have been laid off while charter schools and TFA proliferate.  The rationale for TFA is now about the quality of teachers.  They essentially argue that poorly trained, but young and enthusiastic teachers will better serve our most challenged students.

Professors Julian Vasquez Heilig and Su Jin Jez, in the most thorough survey of research on TFA corp member effectiveness, found "the students of novice TFA teachers perform significantly less well than those of credentialed beginning teachers.”

As Andrew Hartman also explains:

"TFA, suitably representative of the liberal education reform more generally, underwrites, intentionally or not, the conservative assumptions of the education reform movement: that teacher’s unions serve as barriers to quality education; that testing is the best way to assess quality education; that educating poor children is best done by institutionalizing them; that meritocracy is an end-in-itself; that social class is an unimportant variable in education reform; that education policy is best made by evading politics proper; and that faith in public school teachers is misplaced."

 

This is not just a Minnesota phenomenon.  In Mississippi, TFA asked the state legislature for $12 million and ended up getting $6 million.  This is in addition to the $3,000 - $5,000 school districts must pay TFA for each corp member, plus their full teacher's salary. 

Tom Aswell describes the current effort to get $5 million in funding from Louisiana:

"While Teach for America is going around asking for money from state legislators and local school districts, the organization has quietly been amassing a fortune even as TFA comes under fire from former TFA teachers and the media.

Like a snake trying to swallow its own tail, TFA has begun to devour itself, to feed off its own perceived success to the detriment of those it was formed to help.

Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White, himself a TFA alumnus, calls TFA “an incredibly good investment.”

Of course they are. School districts are laying off veteran teachers with years of education and classroom experience in favor of TFA corps members because they are less expensive to hire. Some districts seem to prefer to cycle through ill-trained TFA teachers every two years.

A former TFA teacher claims that the organization’s five-week training model is ineffective, that TFA spends $33 million “doing a poor job teaching corps members to teach.” He describes the TFA training as “not enough depth, not enough breadth, not enough time.”

This is all on top of the millions of dollars funneled into TFA coffers by the billionaires, hedge fund managers, and foundations looking to dismantle our system of public schools.  Aswell also lists the exorbitant salaries earned by those running this "non-profit" organization.  Wendy Kopp, in her final year as CEO earned $393,600 and Minneapolis local Matthew Kramer was paid $328,100 as TFA President.  Kramer is now a co-CEO of TFA.  His current salary could not be found.

Improving our system of public education requires dedication, commitment, and experience.  Minnesota and other states must invest in teachers who are licensed, fully-trained and committed to teaching as a career.

Teach for America corp members are generally well-intentioned, but the organization is little more than a well-funded front for neo-liberals looking to privatize our public schools. Minnesota must reject the rotating door of cheap, poorly trained labor, that is TFA, and the legislature must vote down the funding bills.

Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller

Defending Public Education in Minneapolis: An Interview on the DTOE Talk Show

DTOE Talk Episode 7 (04.05.13) – Robert Panning-Miller, Minneapolis Teacher, Former MFT President, and Co-Founder of the Public Education Justice Alliance of  Minnesota (PEJAM)

I had a chance to talk with Francesco Portelos on his on-line talk show, Don't Tread on Educators.  We discussed many of the various corporate reforms affecting Minneapolis and Minnesota in general, including charters, teacher evaluations, TFA, and Value-Added Measures (VAM).

Mr. Portelos is one of the New York teachers in the limbo existence known as the "rubber room."  He has made the most of his time by researching the history and effects of the corporate education reform movement and interviewing others working against the neo-liberal agenda.  He has also publicized his own story, his short version is included below:

My name is Francesco Alexander Portelos. I am a parent and educator of Staten Island’s North Shore.  I was teaching technology at Berta Dreyfus IS 49 for 5 years after I left a successful 7 year career in the Environmental Engineering/Inspection field.   My record, as a teacher and school community member, was stellar.  

 After I became a new father in the community, my focus transcended past my praised classroom and I looked at the issues at the school as a whole.   The school is currently ranked 939th out of 1,124 middle schools in NY State.   I had a lot of work to do.   It was a school that my son would be going to in just 10 short years.   As I brought attention to matters, such as discipline, budget and school goals, a hostile work environment was suddenly created around me.   Principal Linda  Hill began calling me a “hindrance to the community” and questioning my classroom instruction that was previously praised.   It did not stop me as I knew something was going on and I pushed forward starting investigations on potential financial misconduct and educational neglect.  I submitted the allegations on January 26, 2012.

Starting on January 30, 2012 20 allegations were made against me, and 3 disciplinary letters were placed in my file in just 10 days, I received my first unsatisfactory classroom observation and I was ultimately removed from school on April 26, 2012. I now sit in exile, at an empty conference room (Rubber Room), 20 miles away at 8201 Rockaway Blvd waiting. Waiting for what? The investigations on the administrators back at Berta Dreyfus 49? The investigations on me? My Federal lawsuit? In the meantime, the  students lose out the most.

Posted by: Robert Panning-Miller

FrankenGuild...It's Alive!

FrankenGuild... 

It's Alive!

The Monster
Two years ago the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) created the Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools and were officially approved by the state to be a sponsor of charter schools.  This effort was financed by two Innovation Grants from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).  The Innovation Grants were funded in part by the Gates Foundation and the Eli Broad Foundation.

This is yet another attempt to do what Pasi Sahlberg called, "trying to do the wrong thing, righter."

Creators
Like our AFT and NEA presidents (Weingarten and Van Roekel), many of our local leaders in Minneapolis believe it is possible to work with those who are trying to privatize our public schools, or in this case, to beat them at their own game.  Both our current MFT President, Lynn Nordgren, and a former president, Louise Sundin, are behind this effort.  In fact both of them are board members of the Guild, along with Sandra Peterson, a former President of the Robbinsdale Federation of Teachers,  former President of the Minnesota Federation of Teachers and former Co-President of Education Minnesota.

They claim we can "show the reformers how to run a school."  While teachers should be an integral part of shared school leadership, the charter school system is a tool of the neo-liberal reformers.  Even if the Guild creates a "great" charter school, it will only empower the corporate reformer agenda.  You can't defeat the master, using the master's tools.

The Guild's Director is Brad Blue, a long-time educational entrepreneur, and a classic salesperson.  He sees no contradiction or irony in having the Guild sponsor a talk by Pasi Sahlberg, an opponent of the corporate reforms.  Mr. Blue has simultaneously worked as the Director of the Guild, while opening another charter school called Upper Mississippi Academy (UMA).  His UMA charter school was launched with the help of Charter School Partners and possibly the Walton Foundation, as noted on the Charter School Partners' blog:

Finally, since 2010, CSP has also assisted in the launch of eight other quality schools either through our Charter Start efforts or Walton Family Foundation support including Cornerstone Montessori (2010), Minneapolis College Prep (2011), Hennepin Elementary School (2012), Mastery School (2012), Adelante Prep (2012), Upper Mississippi Academy (2013), Prodeo Academy (2013), and Venture Academy (2013)).

Charter School Partners has a goal of opening 20 more charter schools in Minneapolis in the next five years.  Minneapolis is already one of the most charter-school-saturated cites in the country.  One of the leaders of Charter School Partners is Katie Barrett Kramer of the local "reformer" dynasty - the Kramers.  The CSP board includes Chris Stewart, a former Minneapolis School Board member and vocal defender of the corporate reform movement, and Daniel Sellers, former President of Teach for America - Twin Cities and current president of MinnCAN.

This Saturday, the Minnesota Guild will hold an open house at the office of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.  Charters are not real public schools, and the measures of success (standardized tests) use to determine which schools work "best" are destructive.  In reality, the Guild is our Frankenstein's monster, and it will help to destroy the true system of public schools we, not only hold dear, but recognize as essential to a socially-just democracy. 

It's time to gather the torches and pitchforks.  This monster must be stopped!

Over 20 years ago, Minnesota created the first charter school law in the nation, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.  Minnesota, especially Minneapolis and St. Paul, are the targets of corporate reforms from across the nation and our own home-grown privatizers.  They are looking to enrich themselves and are destroying our system of public schools in the process.

Valerie Rittler, an active member of PEJAM, a Minneapolis teacher and parent, sums up the assault in the following commentary.  This was originally published on the MN2020 webpage on March 26, 2013.

Education Reform Industry Targets Twin Cities

March 26, 2013 By Valerie Rittler, Guest Commentary

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul owner of Fox News and dozens of other companies around the world, recently announced he was moving into the “education” business. He said, "When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone.”

Murdoch is part of a growing list of corporate executives who see schools as profit centers. The education reform industry and their privatization efforts that have virtually destroyed the public education systems in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans have been quietly, and not so quietly, targeting the Twin Cities.

Since 1995, budget cuts and poor policy decisions have closed at least two dozen public elementary schools in Minneapolis, according to Eric Myott, research fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity (IMO). The impact has been larger class sizes and fewer neighborhood schools.

At the same time, the number of taxpayer funded charter school slots in Minneapolis has skyrocketed by over 600 percent from 1,529 in 2000 to 10,895 in 2010. In St. Paul, the increase in public funded charter seats has grown from 3,721 to 8,339, a 124 percent increase, according to school enrolment data compiled by IMO.

As our public schools deal with insufficient resources and increasing challenges, they need more support, not less.

But a group of unelected, corporate oriented, “education reform leaders” have announced that they are pushing to develop 20 more charter schools in Minneapolis. Last year, Charter School Partners, a pro-charter school lobbying and advocacy group rolled out their “Charters 2.0” initiative, in which they will use public funds to finance “the creation and growth” of charter schools and fast-track the approval process for new charter schools.

As part of their coordinated “Education Reform” effort, organizations from around the country are pouring money into an aggressive lobbying and public relations efforts to promote the expansion of charters.

According to recent lobbying reports, StudentsFirst, Inc., the controversial Sacramento-based education reform group headed by Michele Rhee, spent $99,122 over the past two years on media advertising to “influence legislative action” and other lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, the New York City-based 50CAN, Inc. spent $144,396 to lobby here. The chair of 50-CAN, Minnesota’s own Matthew Kramer, is also the CEO of Teach for America, a group that has also been spending money in Minnesota to impact legislation and campaigns.

What the national and state charter school proponents fail to reveal is that their “solution” to the challenges facing public education in America is failing.

For example, charter schools in the Twin Cities are even more racially isolated than our public schools. As of 2011, fewer than one in five Twin Cities’ charter schools qualified as “integrated.” As our cities grapple with the negative effects of segregation, charter schools in Minneapolis are making the problem significantly worse.

Just as troubling is the fact that studies continue to prove that charter schools are not “high achieving.” A major study conducted by the University of Minnesota School of Law’s non-profit; non-partisan Institute on Race & Poverty determined that “traditional schools outperformed charter schools after controlling for student poverty, race, special education needs, limited language abilities, student mobility rates and school size.”

The greatest threat of all is that charter schools are undermining the fundamental American principle that public schools should be governed by the communities they were built to serve. But one need only look at the Board of Directors of these various charter schools to see where education reform is taking us. Hiawatha Academies, for example, has a board of executives from major corporate entities such as United Health, Best Buy, Standard Health, and U.S. Bank. Similar evidence can be found with dozens of other charters. In some cases, the charter chain headquarters are not even located in Minnesota.

It is time for our elected leaders to put a stop to this attack on public education and re-dedicate themselves to rebuilding and renewing the public schools of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Valerie Rittler is a Minneapolis Public High School teacher and parent of three children in Minneapolis Public Schools.

New Reformer Strategy? Close Schools Before they Open.

For over a decade, school boards across the country have been closing public schools and replacing them with privately managed charter schools.  Minneapolis has closed 20 public schools between 2005 and 2011, and the district now sponsors four charter schools (each with private, unaccountable boards), There is also a plan to sponsor at least 4 more charters.

North High School in Minneapolis was to be closed in 2010 and replaced with a new District sponsored charter school.  While parents, teachers, and the community were able to stop the closure of North High, the District still sponsored the charter high school that opened in 2012 less than a mile from North High.

Another Minneapolis school, Cityview Elementary, was closed by the board just months after their failed attempt to close North High.  Cityview was replaced with another District sponsored charter school called the Minnesota School of Science.  This is the same charter school that told the district this past summer it would not help to mainstream special education students, because it would lower their test scores.

After losing students for a decade, Minneapolis started to experience an increase in school age children in the fall of 2011.  Even before this, the District's efforts to "right size" its schools had led to overcrowding and increased class sizes.  Normally, this would be good news for a school district and all efforts would be made to accommodate the growing student population.  Although two school buildings have reopened, the Minneapolis School Board sees this as an opportunity to open even more charter schools. 

During the last Minneapolis School Board meeting on March 12th, the board voted to sell a school building to a to the Charter Schools Development Corporation on behalf of the Hiawatha Leadership Academy charter schools.  So rather than re-opening the building to address overcrowding and create space for new students, the board has abandoned its responsibilities to Minneapolis students.

By sponsoring more charter schools, the school district seems to think they will not have to go through the ugly process of telling parents and students they are closing their schools.  They will just allow charter schools to absorb the growing student population.  They are all but telling students, especially minority and low income students, to try their luck with a charter school.

This is part of a Minneapolis District - Charter Collaborative Compact signed in 2010.  It also follows the plan set forth in 2008 by National Alliance for Public Charter Schools to replace urban school districts with a collection of charter schools as they are doing in New Orleans, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other cities.

The District - Charter Compacts being promoted by the Gates Foundation are sold as a win-win-win for charter schools, public schools, and students.  In fact only charter school operators are winning.  The drive to privatize is destroying public schools, and our students are paying the price. 

We All Need to Fight for Our Public Schools, Not Abandon Them

“Minneapolis Public Schools promises an inspirational education experience in a safe, welcoming environment for all diverse learners to acquire the tools and skills necessary to confidently engage in the global community. “

                                                                        -  MPS “Mission and Vision” webpage (emphasis mine)

“It is the duty and the function of the district to furnish school facilities to every child of school age residing in any part of the district”

                                                                        - Minnesota statute 123B.02, Subd. 2. 

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) must provide an education for EVERY child that comes into its schools.  We continue to have a school board that is not willing to accept this obligation.  At the last Minneapolis School Board meeting on Tuesday, February 26, board members continued to abdicate their responsibility to serve all students.

One of the items on their agenda was a recommendation by the administration to sell a school building that was closed 8 years ago to a property company that would then lease it to a charter school.  There is currently a shortage of classroom space throughout the district, and yet Minneapolis is looking to sell off one of its buildings so a charter school can open in that space.  Why don’t they re-open this building as a district school?

School board members have repeatedly claimed that charter schools could better serve students of color and low-income students.  This is done despite the fact that the majority of charter schools do no better, and often worse than, true public schools.  Charters that are listed as “beating-the-odds" are based scores on standardized tests.  No attention is given to the charter schools’ ability to manipulate its student population such as weeding out students with the greatest challenges, or how they teach to the tests with “drill and kill" curriculum.  Rather than trying to better serve students of color and students from low-income families, the school board simply tells the students to try their luck with charter schools.

The Chair of the Minneapolis School Board, Director Monserrate, was notably quiet during the discussion of selling the building to a charter school.  Could it be his conflict of interest?  As Minneapolis parent Ralph Crowder pointed out during the public comment section, Monserrate had served on the board of Hiawatha Leadership Academy.  Hiawatha is the charter school operator planning to lease the Minneapolis Public School building that is for sale.

As if this blatant willingness to privatize the public schools they are responsible for was not bad enough, one of our school board members told parents and students that it might be best if they just left MPS.

Two weeks ago at South High School in Minneapolis, there was a fight at lunch that included as many as 200 – 300 students.  Many students and parents described this as the result of growing tensions between Somali-American and African American students.  Director Samatar said this was about “the leadership of the building, about the leadership of this district, including [him]self as a board member.”

He then said, “I will have no doubt, anytime that I see that the community has not been served...I will tell any [of them], anytime, if they don’t get what they need from the district with respect and decency, to get up and find another site, another school, another district…If you don’t get what you need from the district, you have to make…better choices.”

Why did he not tell them, public schools belong to all students?  Why did he not tell them to fight for their public schools, and that he, as a school board member, would lead that fight?  Instead, he, other school board members, and the Superintendent are quick to tell dissatisfied parents and students, we can't help you.

Public schools must serve all students.  We must do better, but we don't do it by abandoning groups of our students or privatizing our public schools.  If school board members don't share this commitment, they are the ones who need to make "better choices" and resign.

"Scrap the MAP" and TFA!

Last Tuesday, February 12th, the Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota (PEJAM) continued its campaign to end high-stakes standardized testing.  For the second Minneapolis School Board meeting in a row, PEJAM teachers and parents went to call on them to "scrap the MAP" (Measure of Academic Progress test).  Our efforts were strengthened by the District's decision to start their meeting with a "Public Hearing on Negotiations."  This hearing was billed as an opportunity for the public "to share their perspectives on what they would like to see be a part of the school district's union employment contracts."

This was clearly an opportunity for the local corporate reformers to come and bash teachers and attack seniority.  As a result, Minneapolis teachers, parents, and union members came in overwhelming numbers to not only defend our contract, but to identify the actual problems our schools face.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and former School Board Member Pam Costain

Aside from Pam Costain, a form Minneapolis School Board member, and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (who is out of office in less than a year and seems to be looking for work with one of the corporate education reform groups), the vast majority of speakers called for less top-down mandates and less testing.  The one contract people seemed most interested in was the District's contract with Teach for America (TFA).  As outline in earlier posts(see HERE and HERE), TFA has not just found its way into the classrooms, but have a strong presence in District leadership, including our newest school board member, Josh Reimnitz. 

Josh Reimnitz - TFA alum and new Minneapolis School Board Member

Teachers and parents are trying to raise awareness as to what TFA is really doing in Minneapolis (see above links on TFA) and how it is hurting our students.  TFA needs be kicked out of Minneapolis and they can take the standardized tests with them.

Click here to view the Public Hearing.  The first half-hour was an "open" public comment section, the next hour is the official "Public Hearing on Negotiations."  Parents and Teachers discuss their concerns in both sections.

Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller

Out of our way kids!

The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is showing how much it values public education by interrupting it.  Tomorrow, February 14^th, the Chamber will hold an event that is part of its Leadership Twin Cities program in the Media Center of Roosevelt High School.  This is during the students’ day, from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Students will be unable to access the books, computers, and other resources in the Media Center before, during, or after school.

You might think teachers and students would have enough notice so they could work around it.  It would not be that big of an inconvenience.  Of course you would be mistaken.  The history teachers had already scheduled the Media Center for their students’ History Day projects, including using it on February 14th.  They were told last week that they would have to make other plans.  They and their students are being booted so future business leaders can “reach a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing today’s schools.”

The program flyer claims they are trying to understand educational issues in the community, so it makes sense to visit a public school, interact with the students, talk to teachers and understand what they face everyday.  Unfortunately, that is not why they are there.  The schedule lists a “Tour of Roosevelt High School” from 12:30 – 1:00 p.m., but staff was told that item had been cancelled.

So how will they learn about the “challenges and opportunities facing today’s schools?”  From people who are working the hardest to destroy teachers’ collective bargaining, de-professionalize teaching, and privatize public schools.  The agenda includes the following speakers:

·      Pam Costain – Former Minneapolis School Board Member, now CEO of Achieve Minneapolis.  On the school board she worked aggressively to strip seniority rights of teachers with regard to transfers, and has used her new position to fight to end seniority layoff protections (LIFO).  She is an advocate for more charter schools and Teach for America (TFA).  Costain was a key supporter of Josh Reimnitz.  Reimnitz is our newly elected school board member who learned how to run a large urban district by teaching for two years as a TFA teacher.  Josh is also listed as one of the planners of tomorrow’s event.

·      Jon Bacal, is the “Chief Entrepreneurship Officer and Founder” of Venture Academy, a new Minneapolis charter school scheduled to open this fall (yes, that really is his title).  He has made a living promoting charter schools including his two years serving as Executive Director of the Office of New Schools for Minneapolis Public Schools (2009-2011).  His talk is titled “Charter Schools’ Role in Education.”

·      Kerry Muse is the Chief Learning Officer and Head of School for the same Venture Academy charter school.  He has spent the last six years as a math “teacher” at KIPP Bay Area Schools.  His Linkedin page only identifies him as earning a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts.  That’s it.  No educational degree.  No math degree!

·      Daniel Sellers, the Executive Director of MinnCAN, will finish the day discussing “Issues in Education Reform.”  According to his Linkedin page, starting in 2006, Daniel was a Teach for America teacher in Eastern North Carolina.  He taught 6th grade math, and by his second year, he had “essentially eliminat[ed] the achievement gap between [his] students and their peers in wealthier communities.”  This despite no evidence of earning a teaching degree or license, and teaching math having earned a B.A. in sociology and anthropology!

The other speakers are Sondra Samuels, President and CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone, Rob Grunewald, an economist, and Adrienne Jordan, Assistant to the Superintendent/Liaison to the Board of Education for Minneapolis Public Schools.  None of these three have ever taught or earned a teaching license.

So why hold this meeting at Roosevelt High School when students are in class?  Roosevelt is one of the many urban schools that “reformers” like these label a “failure.”  They have a simple plan for failing schools – close them and replace them with a charter school.  Tomorrow, Roosevelt students will not have their Media Center.  If many of the people involved in this meeting get their way, they will not have Roosevelt High School.  

Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller
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