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Christian Nationalists Oppose Separation of Church and State

7 Nov

By Thomas Ultican 11/7/2024

Christian Nationalists are hard at work ridding the US of that pesky first Amendment or as Thomas Jefferson stated it, “A wall of separation between church and state.” We have gone from the admonitions of Jefferson and Madison to witnessing a year in which Lawmakers in 29 states proposed at least 91 bills promoting religion in public schools. Reuters reports, “The movement is fueled by opposition to what conservatives call liberal curriculums, including a focus on diversity and LGBT rights, and by the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent as it moves American law rightward.”

Central to this attack on the first amendment is a fairly new organization with powerful connections, National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). The chemical symbol for salt, NACL, is why they chose the name. It symbolizes their Christian members being the salt of the earth.

An Arkansas politician and Christian preacher, Jason Rapter, founded NACL in 2019 and soon recruited influential figures of the Christian right, including Mike Huckabee, Bob McEwen, and Tony Perkins, to join the group’s advisory board. Their 2021 and 2022 tax form 990s (TIN 84-1804670) both indicated multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. All proceeds going toward supporting their Christian nationalist agenda. At their coming December gathering, the featured honoree and speaker will be Charlie Kirk.

To Arizona’s News21, Rapert stated, “We believe that with all the troubles facing our country, with Democrats and leftists that are advocating cutting penises off of little boys and breasts off of little girls, we have reached a level of debauchery and immorality that is at biblical proportions.” Preacher Rapert is clearly sincere about his faith but someone like him from Crazy-Town should not be designing model legislation.

New Texas Christian Curriculum

A new Texas program called Bluebonnet Learning containing multiple stories from the Bible is generating negative waves in non-evangelical circles. At September’s Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting taking public comments on the new curriculum, parent Sharyn Vane called Bluebonnet Learning, “wildly problematic in its depictions of Jews and Judaism.” She pointed to the second grade lesson on Queen Esther in which Haman, a Persian official, cast lots to decide when to kill Jews. Part of the lesson includes students playing a game with dice. Vane declared:

“This is shocking, offensive and just plain wrong. Do we ask elementary schoolers to pretend to be Hitler?”

Many parents and Texas residents see Bluebonnet Learning as an unhealthily effort to promote a particular Christian philosophy. However evangelical Christians have encouraged their networks to bombard school board members with emails calling for approval:

“The TX State Board of Education is trying to adopt a new curriculum that replaces secular humanism with the Christian values upon which our nation was founded. Email them at SBOEsupport@tea.texas.gov with this message: Please adopt HB 1605 Curriculum without any amendments.”

It seems that some school board members came into the meeting having already decided to support Bluebonnet Learning. Andrea Young a member from Houston wrote in her summer newsletter:

“Much of Western Literature is woven with references to people, characters, metaphors, and themes from the Bible. Texas students will experience a richer reading experience if they have a passing acquaintance with stories and vocabulary from the Bible.”

Bluebonnet Learning was adapted from Amplify’s Core Knowledge Language Arts reading program. Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs controls Amplify which seems to have a corrupt connection with the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Amplify recently was awarded a $50 million dollar contract by TEA.

The new curriculum was released amid a broader push by Texas Republicans, who control state government, to put more Christianity in public schools. During the Texas GOP convention last month, delegates voted on a platform that calls on lawmakers and the SBOE to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance.”

Rice University scholar, David Brockman, notes that Texas is home to a litany of well-known purveyors of Christian nationalism or related ideologies, including Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who claims the United States, is “a Christian nation” and that “there is no separation of church and state. It was not in the constitution.”

The Texas GOP or at least much of it is opposed to “godless secular education.” Secular education is a system of teaching not affiliated with any religious doctrines, focusing instead on academic subjects and critical thinking. This approach emphasizes neutrality in matters of religion, ensuring that students receive an education based on reason, science, and humanistic principles. The web site Fivable makes five points about secular education:

  1. “Secular education emerged in the United States during the 19th century as a response to the growing need for a system that could accommodate a diverse population with varying religious beliefs.
  2. “The establishment of public schools as secular institutions aimed to provide a common educational experience free from religious influence, which was seen as crucial for social cohesion.
  3. “Supreme Court rulings, such as Engel v. Vitale (1962), reinforced the idea of secular education by prohibiting school-sponsored prayer and other religious activities in public schools.
  4. “Secular education promotes critical thinking skills, encouraging students to question and analyze information rather than accepting beliefs based solely on tradition or authority.
  5. “Many educators argue that secular education helps prepare students for a democratic society by fostering tolerance, respect for different beliefs, and an understanding of civic responsibilities.”

This is the education model that Christian Nationalists are striving to overturn.

Not Just Texas

This summer, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom. Governor Landry stated, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law-giver, which was Moses.”

In addition, Landry signed laws that authorize the hiring of chaplains in schools, restrict teachers from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity and prevent schools from using a transgender student’s preferred names or pronouns unless granted permission by parents.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom of Religion Foundation announced plans to challenge the law that requires a specific text of the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed. Their joint statement stated, “Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”

In June, Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved a plan to create the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in a 3-2 vote. This plan was rejected by the Oklahoma Supreme Court but the Catholic Church and supporters of publicly supported Christian schools are pinning their hopes on the United States Supreme Court to override Oklahoma’s court.

A few weeks later, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced that every teacher in the state will have a Bible in their classroom and teach from it. He said, “”Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.” The Oklahoma Education Association claimed the order was illegal and stated, “Public schools cannot indoctrinate students with a particular religious belief or religious curriculum.”

Conclusion

In order to meet the demands of the anti-federalists and ratify the constitution, the Bill of Rights was added as constitutional amendments one thru ten. Amendment one states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Replying to a question about the establishment clause from Danbury Baptists, Jefferson wrote:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”

It is clear that the people who wrote and enacted the first amendment believed it divided government from religion. Current speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, who is a Christian Nationalist, believes Americas’ rights come from “God himself” and claims that the separation of church and state is a relic of the 1960s. It is unlikely that he will defend the constitution of the United States or secular education and I would not expect much help from President elect Donald Trump either.

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More Proof: Charter School Experiment FAILED

25 Oct

By Thomas Ultican 10/25/2024

Two new reports detail the high closure rates of charter schools and the negative effect of school closures on students. In 2020, Network for Public Education (NPE) produced “Broken Promises,” the first ever comprehensive study of charter school closure rates. Their just released new report, “Doomed to Fail,” updates “Broken Promises.” In May, Houston researcher, Jeonghyeok Kim, published “The Long Shadow of School Closures: Impacts on Students’ Educational and Labor Market Outcomes.” Taken together these two new studies demonstrate why the charter school industry is a dangerous failure.

Since the inception of charter schools in the 1990s, billionaires and entrepreneurs have worked to sell these privatized schools. Under Bill Clinton’s leadership, the Democratic Leadership Council embraced school choice believing in the power of the entrepreneurial economy to reform schools (Left Behind Pages 122-127). The federal government started experimenting with charter schools. A rewrite of the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act included a provision for a new federal Charter School Program. In 1995, the new program granted a total of $4,539,548 to nine states. Today, $400 million federal dollars are spent yearly to promote charter schools and oversight is relatively weak.

There is no denying that some charter schools are excellent, however, in general they are unstable. As NPE has documented their closure rates are so high as to be a big risk for parents and students.

Doomed to Fail

Reformers believed that a large-scale charter experiment would either prove or disprove the superiority of charter schools. In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana turned to the new Recovery School District (RSD) and all the schools in New Orleans became charter schools. However, because the students who returned to New Orleans were different from those in the city before, and there was an enormous influx of philanthropic funding, it was impossible to determine if the charter experiment worked.

Gary Rubenstein explained:

“Reformers needed a new experiment where the schools would keep the same students they already had, but the staff at those schools would be replaced with nonunion charter school educators, and charter chains or start-up charter boards would run the schools. Race to the Top provided Tennessee the funding and incentive to test the reformers’ hypotheses.” (Doomed page 19)

The theory was that “failing” schools in the bottom 5% of testing data would be taken over by charter schools. The goal was to show that these privatized schools would soon be in the top 25% of schools on testing results. It was a complete failure. None of the 33 charterized schools ever left the bottom.

This experiment demonstrated that it was not the public schools causing poor performance and privatizing them provided no improvement. The type of school, charter or public, made no difference. However, unstable schools are harmful and “Doomed to Fail” shows that charter schools induce a failure rate crap shoot.

The NPE report describes how professional marketing campaigns convince parents that the new charter school is different and better than the nearby public school. “Doomed to Fail” states:

“However, as hundreds of thousands of families have found, enrolling your child in a charter school comes with enormous risk. Charter schools close at far higher rates than public schools. And, unlike public school districts where infrequent closures are orderly with the district finding a new school for the child, charter school closures are often chaotic and abrupt, taking parents by surprise.” (Doomed Page 1)

“Doomed to Fail” Page 11

Researcher Ryan Pfleger, Ph.D. used the federal Common Core of Data to create the table above. Each cohort is comprised of every year’s batch of new charter schools. The table informs us that 16% of new charter schools close their doors within the first three years. The ten 15-year cohorts failed at a 49% rate which is a 1% improvement over the 2020 “Broken Promises” report. However, the huge federal COVID payments of 2021 probably kept many schools in business that otherwise would have failed. The 20-year failure rate of 55% makes it clear that failure keeps happening and that more than half of all charter schools close their doors forcing families to make other arrangements.

The charter industry says their schools are more academically accountable and are closed if they do not meet the agreed to goals. However, NPE’s research discovered that this was the cause for only a minority of the schools that closed. Not being able to maintain enough enrollment to be viable or corruption and mismanagement were the cause in more than 68% of closures. 

“Doomed to Fail” Page 13

Closures Bring Long Term Negative Effects

In 2019, Matt Barnum of Chalkbeat reported on 17 studies of the effect of school closures on students. There were differing results but in general reading and math scores suffered but after three years, the academic effects seemed to have disappeared.

Researcher Jeonghyeok Kim took a longer range look at the student outcomes and the results were surprising. Like other studies, Kim’s showed a short term academic decline and then recovery within three years. However, he also discovered long term discipline issues, lowered college completion rates and reduced incomes.

In EdWeek, Libby Stanford reported, “Kim centered his research around a dataset of 470 Texas schools that closed from 1998 to 2015.” Stanford also noted, “In a study of federal enrollment data from 2000 to 2018, researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that majority-Black schools were three times more likely to close than schools with smaller enrollments of Black students.” Since Kim associated the harshest closed school outcomes with economically disadvantaged families, this represents a double whammy.

The abstract from Kim’s paper states:

“Each year, over a thousand public schools in the US close due to declining enrollments and chronic low performance, displacing hundreds of thousands of students. Using Texas administrative data and empirical strategies that use within-student across-time and within-school across-cohort variation, I explore the impact of school closures on students’ educational and labor market outcomes. The findings indicate that experiencing school closures results in disruptions in both test scores and behavior. While the drop in test scores is recovered within three years, behavioral issues persist. This study further finds decreases in post-secondary education attainment, employment, and earnings at ages 25–27. These impacts are particularly pronounced among students in secondary education, Hispanic students, and those from originally low-performing schools and economically disadvantaged families.”

Kim’s ground breaking research shows that the negative effects of experiencing a school closure are not just short term, but appear to be a life long hindrance.

Conclusion

NPE’s new study, “Doomed to Fail,” makes it clear how unstable privatized schools are. The study also reports on charter skullduggery and specific school closures like Jubilee academy, sharing:

“On August 14, 2023, Jubilee Academies Highland Park in San Antonio, Texas, began the school year. Two weeks later, parents were informed that the school would close by mid-September. Families would have to find another school or agree to bus their child to another Jubilee school. Two hundred and ten students were displaced.” (Doomed Page 14)

When “Doomed to Fail” is combined with Jeonghyeok Kim’s new research, it is clear that parents are risking the future of their children when they enroll them in a charter school.

To be clear, trusting your child to a charter school is a bad idea.

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Education Support, More Harm than Help

10 Oct

By Thomas Ultican 10/10/2024

In California, we have the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assist Team (FCMAT – pronounced fick-mat) which is more often the bane of its clients than a help. It is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization signed into law in 1992 by Governor Pete Wilson. FCMAT was a response to the financial collapse of the Richmond school district. Unfortunately organizations with this structure become bureaucratic and overtly support the political agenda of whoever is in power. The unhelpful nature of FCMAT recently reared its ugly head in Stockton Unified Schools District (SUSD).

The story of Stockton is that of a small city less than 50 miles south of Sacramento whose school district has become the target of unrelenting attacks by billionaires. It is a minority majority city of about 321,000 people. The demographic makeup is 45.2% Hispanic, 20.9% Asian, 31.3% White and 11.6% Black. The city has a little more than a 15.6% poverty rate; however, SUSD reports that 77% of their students live in poverty.

California’s Data Quest enrollment data for the 2023-24 school year shows charter schools with 6,282 students, public schools with 32,448. That means charter school enrollment is 16% of the 38,730 total publicly supported students in Stockton.

The two biggest problems for the schools is massive spending by billionaires to privatize them and an unrelenting superintendent of schools turnover. Since 2005, there has been a revolving door for superintendents. The longest serving one in that period was John Deasy and he resigned June 15, 2020 serving just 2 weeks more than 2 years.

Deasy was succeeded by Brian Beiderman who already worked in the district and appeared to have been Deasy’s choice. Beiderman was interim superintendent for 8 months and then resigned. He was replaced by John Ramirez Jr., who resigned under a cloud just over one year from being appointed interim superintendent. Going into the 2022-23 school year, the SUSD board settled on Dr. Traci E. Miller as interim superintendent.

In December 2022, Superintendent Miller was informed that “we have decided to go in another direction” six months before her contract was allowed to expire. She says the call was from Don Shalvey, CEO of San Joaquin A+, and Fritz Grupe a real estate developer, who leases charter facilities. It is of note that neither of these gentlemen had any actual standing in SUSD.

June 30 2020, was the 75 year old Shalvey’s last day at the Gates’ Foundation. For the entire 11 years he worked for Bill Gates, Shalvey commuted from his ranch in Linwood, California where he lived with his wife Sue. Linwood is 10 miles outside of Stockton.

San Joaquin A+ was a small non-profit (TIN: 51-0536117) supporting education initiative with modest holdings of less than $40,000. Coincident with Shalvey’s availability, Helen Schwab, a San Francisco billionaire, donated $400,000 to A+ and Shalvey was named CEO. In the three years prior to his arrival, A+ had taken in $15,169. The haul in 2020 was $3,176,833 and in 2021, $3,942,790. Shalvey’s new part-time job was paying him a high six-figure salary and billionaire dollars were flooding Stockton.

FCMAT Arrived

FCMAT Main Web-Page

John Ramirez, who was interim superintendent in 2021, appeared concerned about the reliability of his district’s budget. He contacted FCMAT for help. In June 2022, an odd Stockton grand jury reported on the district. Local news group Stocktonia briefed:

“The biggest concern: SUSD is “headed toward at least a $30 million deficit by `the fiscal year 2024-2025.” And if the current management practices continue, that deficit will “likely escalate.”’

Despite Ramirez having called on FCMAT months before this grand jury report, the San Joaquin County office of Education stated:

“The SJCOE can confirm that it has contracted with the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) in order to conduct a comprehensive review of the school district.  The San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools initiated the AB139 Extraordinary Audit earlier this year.”  (An AB139 audit gets its name from the assembly bill 139 that authorized these audits of school district budgets.)

In 2023, FCMAT issued two reports. February saw the release of their Extraordinary Audit which was a bureaucratic nightmare. On page 33, the report states, “Based on the findings in this report, there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that fraud, misappropriation of funds and/or assets, or other illegal fiscal practices may have occurred in the specific areas reviewed.” The audit cost the district $50,000 and provided no insight into the looming $30 million dollar deficit or what evidence of fraud and illegal fiscal practices had been unearthed.

The same unfounded claims of criminality were lobbed by FCMAT CEO Michael Fine at Sweetwater Union High School District where I worked. No serious legal charges were ever made and the district finally got FCMAT off their back.

The final report, Fiscal Health Risk Analysis, was presented in August. FCMAT has developed a group of tables with a series of questions having three possible responses, yes, no or N/A. They then use some secret formula to turn these answers into numbers which guides the conclusion. They determined that SUSD’s solvency risk factor was high. The report is not that convincing.

These reports were responses that provided little to no help for SUSD, who originally asked for the audit. The Extraordinary audit seemed to be a regurgitation of the grand jury findings. FCMAT trashed the board and management of the school but offered few insights. During COVID, the school board received federal money to do things like improve ventilation in schools. The audit spent five of 45 pages on the air purifier purchase from IAQ that the board made. It seems some people wanted a different company to get the contract and felt the school board froze them out. However, this was a – spend the money or lose it – purchase, and did not affect the viability of the budget.

An interesting character in this episode is financial expert Susan Montoya. She was chief financial officer when John Ramirez was superintendent of the district. Supposedly she informed Ramirez that she would be away for a while, but would have the 2021-2022 budget ready. She did return with the budget in hand and then resigned. Later, Montoya was hired by San Joaquin County school superintendent, Troy Brown, to be the counties “Fiscal Expert.”

Before Montoya’s hiring, SUSD interim superintendent, Traci Miller, wrote Brown sternly warning against the hiring. Miller stated that Montoya was unprofessional and many of the district’s “current fiscal problems can be traced back to Montoya.” Miller feared she “will sabotage our progress and our implementation of new and improved processes.” Miller was ignored.

When FCMAT was conducting its audit, the county’s “Fiscal Expert,” Susan Montoya, was a primary source. The person Traci Miller blamed for the district’s fiscal problems was part of the team doing the audit. In effect, grading her own home work. In the extraordinary audit, FCMAT writes, “Limiting the possibility of any personal influence, either directly or indirectly, is about avoiding even the appearance of a conflict.” (Page 10) Their statement seems a little hypocritical.

To put a cherry on the top, SUSD has discovered that the $30 million budget deficit was rouge. Supposedly, Montoya had created phantom positions that were being funded and that was the source of the apparent deficit that never existed.

Public Schools are Resilient

After years of turbulence and leadership turnover, it could be that SUSD is on a better path. Traci Miller took over a mess and improved the district’s functioning. In 2003, the district hired Michelle Rodriguez to be superintendent. After one year on the job, her contract was extended from three to five years.

Rodriguez studied at Chico State University and upon graduation went to Spain for further study. She is fully bilingual. Rodriguez earned a PhD from University of Southern California, was a principal in San Diego, became chief academic officer in Santa Ana and was Superintendent of Pajaro Unified School District in Watsonville for 7 years prior to accepting the Stockton job. Michelle stated she expects to be in Stockton for 7 years declaring, “I plan to retire here. I plan to stay here and affect change.” 

SUSD has been demeaned because it does not have good standardized test scores. In statistics, the r-value correlation has a value between o and 1 for determining the effects of different inputs on education testing results. An r = 0 means there in no relationship and an r = 1 means the input is 100% determinative. Inputs like teacher, curriculum design, class size, etc. can be evaluated. The only input ever found with more than 0.3 r-value is family wealth at a 0.9 r-value. Stockton parents are poor and many of the students are language learners; for them to perform as well on standardized tests as wealthy students would show statistical evaluations to be meaningless.

The California dashboard reveals that Stockton has no academic areas in crisis and meets all professional standards. It has a relatively low graduation rate of 82% but is improving the rates of chronic absenteeism. Public schools are very resilient. With the constant leadership turnover, high poverty rates, billionaire attacks and widespread belief the district is corrupt, schools are still functioning at a high level. With a little stability and professionalism at the top, the future looks bright.

On the other hand, FCMAT needs to be defunded. Programs aiding districts should be in the California Department of Education and not be in some semi-private organization in Bakersfield, California.

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Polikoff Makes NCLB Type Accountability Call

17 Sep

By Thomas Ultican 9/17/2024

Article by Professor Morgan Polikoff, University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, is a throwback to the No Child Left Behind era. The piece’s purpose was to advertise a new report he worked on with the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). The teaser for his article at The 74 says, “Given the importance of public education and the need for student data, how can states justify doing such a lousy job at informing parents?” Because of COVID learning loss, he says state education report cards need big improvements.

Is leaning loss a real thing? Probably not but let’s ignore that argument for now. Polikoff shared, “I’m on the board of the Data Quality Campaign and I’ve written extensively (and favorably) about the role of accountability in promoting educational improvement.” Additionally, the 2023 Data Quality Campaign “Show Me the Data Report” says, “13 [states] did not include growth data from the 2021–22 school year, and 4 states did not include growth data at all.”

Virtually everything Polikoff shares is billionaire funded baloney.

Center for Reinventing Public Education

In 1993, Political Science Professor, Paul T. Hill, established the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE).

Professor Hill, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, was a member of Brookings’ cadre of researchers convinced that American public education was failing. Furthermore, they shared a general agreement that market based business principles were central to fixing schools and declared teachers unions and governance by locally elected school boards must be overturned.

CRPE was fortunate to be in Seattle, Washington where the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, decided to implement his opinions concerning education. The fact that he was so rich appeared to be his only qualification for what became an outsized influence over public education. CRPE became one of his tools.

“Doing School Choice Right” was a CRPE project funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. CPRE listed two salient goals for their study:

  • “Create models for how school districts can oversee public schools in multiple ways—including direct operation, chartering, contracting, and licensing private schools to admit voucher students. This study is conducted in partnership with the National Charter School Research Project.”
  • “Examine issues involved in moving toward pupil-based funding, particularly technical, legal, and regulatory barriers.”

Out of this study, the “portfolio school” management model was created. In October 2009, CRPE published “Portfolio School Districts for Big Cities: An Interim Report.” It became popular with billionaire school reformers and in 2018 was a central purpose for Jon Arnold and Reed Hastings to establish The City Fund.

By 2019, CRPE quit sharing who it funders are. In 2018, their listed funders were:

  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Carnegie Corporation of New York
  • Laura and John Arnold Foundation
  • Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
  • US Department of Education
  • Walton Family Foundation  

Data Quality Campaign

Kati Haycock the founder of Education Trust became leader of the Data Quality Campaign (DQC). Ed Trust was a central player in foisting Common Core State Standards on America. Haycock had a lot of experience working around education but like most reformers had no actual teaching experience. Mercedes Schneider’s book Common Core Dilemma details how DQC was created and for what purpose (Pages 44-56).

DQC is described as a national collaborative effort to improve accountability and the use of data. It is an effort by technocrats to control the way standardized testing data is collected and used to improve student achievement. Originally conceived by the National Governors Association, it was assigned to Haycock and Education Trust.

The big unrecognized problem for DQC is that Standardized testing is useless. Student data does not indicate learning, teacher effectiveness or school quality. A correlation study of how testing data is affected by various factors assigns r-values of between 1 and 0. A value of 1 means 100% correlated and a value of 0 means not correlated at all. When correlation studies are done with standardized testing data there is only one factor that has an r-value greater the 0.3 (weakly correlated) and that is family wealth which has an r-value of 0.9.

Teacher quality, class size, urban or rural, race, gender, curriculum design, music availability, art availability and so on all effect education outcomes but these effects are swamped by family wealth. Noel Wilson’s famous 1997 peer-reviewed article, “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” fundamentally states that the error involved in educational testing is so great validity is compromised. This paper has been ignored but never debunked.

In other words, family wealth so overwhelms all other effects, standardized testing becomes meaningless.

In the No Child Left Behind era, testing data was used as proof that public schools were failing. Of course, 100% of those so called “failing schools” were in poor zip codes.

DQC calls for mandating ten pieces of data tied to standardized testing, includes unique student identifiers, a teacher identifier system to match teachers to students and the ability to match student records between the P–12 and postsecondary systems. Students, parents and teachers would need to trust them and give up all pretenses of privacy.

These unprofessional and misguided organizations continue to operate because billionaires support them. As of 2022, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (ISN: 56-2618866) has financed Ed Trust and DQC with more than $114,000,000 while other billionaires have also kicked in money.

Growth Models

When professor Polikoff calls for growth data he is referring to growth models.

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and California Office of Reform Education (CORE) sound like official governmental organizations but they are not. Billionaires created these institutions. In 2019, PACE was determined to sell California on growth models. Morgan Polikoff, produced a policy brief stating:

“Based on the existing literature and an examination of California’s own goals for the Dashboard and the continuous improvement system, the state should adopt a student-level growth model as soon as possible. Forty-eight states have already done so; there is no reason for California to hang back with Kansas while other states use growth data to improve their schools.”

Jesse Rothstein, professor of public policy and economics at University of California, Berkeley, ran a verification test and found, “these models indicate large ‘effects’ of 5th grade teachers on 4th grade test score gains.”

There are fundamentally three types of growth models. The gain-model is the least mathematically manipulated model with the least amount of assumptions required. The residual-gain model requires significantly more manipulation and the multivariate model is the most complex, manipulated and opaque of them all. None of the three models have been decisively shown to provide accurate analysis but strong evidence has emerged that they do not.

All of these models face the same insurmountable problem when modeling testing data, garbage in leads to garbage out.

Conclusions

Polikoff excoriates state education reporting sites for being difficult to navigate and not being standardized.

The education writer, Peter Greene, wrote about Polikoff’s report:

“It’s that same childlike faith that transparency and data will drive the education marketplace towards excellence, which is doomed because A) excellence in education defies transparent data collection (BS Test results are not it) and B) that’s not how the marketplace works, anyway.”

“I’m not sure there is any audience for these sites at all. It’s the kind of thing I think of as a library publication–something that puts down information that needs to be stored somewhere, because it’s important and the odd researcher or historian may want it at some point.”

Billionaires believe in testing because it is an avenue for them to centralize power and exert greater control over public education. Growth models, which are opaque and force us to accept mathematics experts like Polikoff, are fueled by bad data. It is part of a two decades long technocratic attack on public schools.

America rose to power in the world because of democratic principles and public education. Selfish and short sighted interests are working to destroy both.

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Another Oklahoma Education Blunder

8 Sep

By Thomas Ultican 9/8/2024

Under the suspect leadership of Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters, the education department released testing results he described as “tremendous.” However, they were a fiction. With the new unannounced cut scores, 51% of third graders were proficient in reading or better compared to last year’s 29%. That is just one of many examples.

September 10, 2020, Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Walters Oklahoma’s Secretary of Education. In 2022, Walters ran for Superintendent of Public Instruction receiving the governor’s endorsement and that of Texas Senator, Ted Cruz. Walters won 53% of the vote in a Republican primary runoff against April Grace and then easily defeated Democrat Jena Nelson in the general election.

The 2022 election appeared to be part of the seven mountains movement. Crazy Ted’s father, Rafael Cruz, is a seven mountains advocate, who during a live streamed Patriot Mobil sermon, asserted that the separation of church and state is a myth. He claimed the founders meant it to be a “one-way wall” preventing the government from interfering with the church, not preventing the church from having dominion over the government. Clearly Kevin Stitt spent political capital appointing Walters and then supporting him ever since for a reason. Walter’s behavior in office, mandating Bible lessons, attacking the LGBTQ+ community and teachers, looks like dominionism.

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) known as the nation’s report card has consistently shown Oklahoma results trailing most states. In 2022, NAEP testing results after COVID were down for the nation. The fourth and eighth grade math and reading results reveal that the average declines in Oklahoma were worse than the national averages. This is the first data that is related to Walters’s leadership of education in Oklahoma.

The testing fiasco is odd. Was it just incompetence or was there something else happening? This is not a unique event. As a member of the Technical Advisory committee wrote in May to the education department’s assessment director, “Historically, I understand that [the department] has handled these types of changes with media events where the department has invited news organizations to help support the communication of changes to the system.” For some reason, these past practices were not followed. Maybe Walters thought he could make the state’s poor testing performance disappear.

Attacking the Media

When the testing issue exploded, Ryan Walters responded:

“It is an incredible position of the media gaslighting the public on what’s happening here. We have not rolled out the test scores yet. So to be attacked on how we rolled out test scores before we roll out test scores, I found [a] really fascinating bit of fan fiction out there.”

Was he purposefully lying or didn’t he know? Neither case looks good. Walters’ department had already posted the statewide testing data to the state website before his attack on the media.

Another odd lie from Walters was his claim that no public announcements were made because his administration was busy explaining the new results to school districts. Several school leaders claimed they received their test scores from the state Department of Education with no notice of material changes to scoring.

Even without an explanation, it was obvious to district leaders something must have changed. Midwest City-Del City Public Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb said, “We’re probably seeing some growth, probably hitting that point past the pandemic where statewide we’re reversing the learning loss, but we didn’t reverse 20% of it in one year.” In Watonga Public Schools, Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran said he expected his students to show improvement, but the leap in statewide averages told him the state must have reset its scores.

The Oklahoma Voice developed a source in the state assessment group allowing them to report:

“Fifth-grade results in English language arts had the greatest boost from the new scoring method. About 59% of fifth graders will be considered proficient this year, an increase of 33%.

“Without the recent scoring changes, their proficiency rate would drop to 26%. In 2023, the proficiency rate for fifth-grade English was 28%.”

Impeachment Possible

Many are blaming Walters for the communications breakdown. They cite his messy political brawls over the summer as distracting him from doing his job. In June, he drew national attention by mandating that all public schools teach the Bible. A federal audit by the U.S. Department of Education called Oklahoma out of compliance with testing and handling Title I funds. Walters of course blamed the previous administration.

On top of all that, seventeen Republican said they would be seeking an impeachment investigation against him. Their signed letter included:

  1. Denied entry into a Department of Education executive board meeting for an Education Committee member.
  2. Employed significant delays in answering Committee inquires (2 committees).
  3. Failed to comply with legislative budgetary directive regarding school security dollars.
  4. Failed to turn over complete information regarding spending on travel.
  5. Failed to fill in a timely manner Open Records Act requests.
  6. Defied legislative appropriation authority by refusing to buy critically needed asthma inhalers.

The letter from the sub-committee on education chair, Mark McBride, was addressed to Speaker of the House, Charles McCall. McCall said he would not act on the letter unless 51 house Republicans signed on which is two thirds of them. McBride responded, “I don’t know that 51 is obtainable, but I think at 26, that’s concerning to me if I was in his shoes.” Twenty-six members would represent half the Republican caucus.

The Education Committee member barred from the Department of Education’s executive board meeting was former teacher and Democratic Representative, Jacob Roscrants. The former teacher observed:

“If you look at the state statute and how it spells out how you impeach a statewide-elected official, in my eyes, Superintendent Walters has far exceeded that. There’s so much incompetence coming from Superintendent Walters, his board and the State Department of Education under him.”

Walters reacted defiantly to the call for his impeachment. In reporting on this, the Oklahoma Voice header read, “Ryan Walters urges Oklahoma House to start his impeachment proceedings ‘immediately.’” He claimed lawmakers have publicized baseless lies about him.

Walters accused House Speaker, McCall, and Education Committee Chairman, McBride, of trying to impeach him for political gain. He asserted the speaker plans to run for governor in 2026. “The speaker wants to impeach me for political advantage in the 2026 governor’s race,” Walters declared.

On another front, the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT), an investigative service for the Oklahoma legislature, was activated. It is investigating the allegation that Walters was withholding funds for school security, asthma inhalers and teacher maternity leave. Speaker McCall reported, “This investigation by LOFT allows us to address these concerns efficiently without the need for a costly special session.”

In another related occurrence, Phil Bacharach, a spokesperson for Attorney General Gentner Drummond, said, “We are very concerned by what appeared to be a willful violation of the Open Meeting Act.” He noted that his office is investigating and will “take appropriate action.”

Walters had an eventful August.

Observations

Former school teacher, Ryan Walters, with no administrative experience was put in charge of Oklahoma education by Governor Kevin Stitt. The only obvious reason for his selection is he is a Christian culture warrior. Makes me wonder if Oklahoma has been captured by a dangerous Christian cult?

A member of the Republican Party, Walters, has been a vocal critic of critical race theory, LGBT students’ rights, and teachers’ unions. He has been described as “the state’s top culture warrior.” Walters appointed anti-gay “The Libs of TikTok” creator, Chaya Raichik, to the Oklahoma Library Advisory Board.

He campaigned for and won the removal of Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist and supported the conservative political organization Moms for Liberty.

When non-binary, Nex Benedict, died after an horrific bathroom beating, Walters showed off his profound ignorance saying he does not believe non-binary or transgender people exit. He stated:

“There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us.”

This is what it looks like when a dangerous cult gains power.

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GOP Attacking Trans Kids

1 Sep

By Thomas Ultican 9/1/2024

Less than 2% of Americans are born with gender-dysphoria, a mismatch between gender identity and their own personal sense of gender. Republican culture-warriors have made this group of people their latest victims, to insure evangelicals vote. Despite a strong showing of support by Americans including Republicans for LGBTQ+ equality, Republican dominated states have bombarded us with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation since 2020, particularly anti-transgender bills.

This month in San Diego County, the culture war bloomed in the Cajon Valley School District. All five board members voted to expand parental rights, including the right to review curricula and challenge books in the school library. However the most controversial part of the rules that had parents lining up to speak was the requirement that administrators must inform parents if any student under age 12 was requesting to change their gender identity by asking to be called by a different name or pronoun or use a different restroom.

In September 2023, Chino Valley School District enacted a similar rule and was immediately sued by California State Attorney General Rob Bonta. Judge Michael Sachs came down on the Attorney General’s side stating that “mandatory gender disclosure policies are facially unconstitutional as they violate the Equal Protection Clause of California’s Constitution and discriminate against transgender and gender nonconforming students.” In other words, students also have rights.

The state department of education has previously interpreted the equal protection clause to mean that schools must not notify parents or others of a student’s transgender status without getting the student’s consent; claiming doing so could endanger student safety.

In July 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law barring school districts from passing policies that require schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identification. Cajon Valley was aware of this law which takes effect January 1st but apparently wants the fight.

The San Diego Union reported the new law came about after several California school districts passed policies requiring that parents be notified if a child indicated wanting to change their gender identification. This led to push-back by Democratic state officials, who say students have a right to privacy.

Parent’s Rights and Children’s Rights

Jill Filipovic in an opinion piece for CNN wrote, “And while ‘parents rights’ or ‘parental rights’ may seem like common sense – of course parents should have the broad ability to guide their children, keep them safe and make decisions that children are too young to take on – those terms are too often trotted out to strip children and teenagers of their basic rights …”

Some people refuse medical care for children in the name of Christ. Others have adopted a fundamentalist Christian child-rearing book called To Train Up A Child which advises raising children to obey without question by starting to spank when they’re just a few months old. The book has been implicated in the beating deaths of several children. Forced childhood marriages, which are get-out of jail free cards for statutory rapists, are still a common practice in much of this country.

Where do parent’s rights end and children’s rights begin?

Filipovic continued:

“In the meantime, many conservatives have exploited understandable parental fears about their kids making significant emotional and physical changes, casting transgender people and those who support them as ‘groomers’ and dangerous sources of indoctrination. They have drawn gender-affirming care and even the simple recognition of transgender people under the umbrella of ‘parental rights,’ and essentially tell parents, ‘No one should be making decisions about your child’s gender identity but you.”’

In an article for EdWeek, on the same subject, Libby Stafford reported that groups like Moms for Liberty (M4L) have been behind much of the criticism of schools when they don’t disclose a student’s transgender changes to parents. M4L supports eliminating mention of gender identity and sexuality from school curriculum and accuses schools of “indoctrinating” students with “woke” values through pride celebrations and other efforts affirming LGBTQ+ identities.

Two years ago, Florida passed an attack on LGBTQ+ rights known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. CNN’s report by Zachary Wolf says, “Suffice it to say the new Florida law suggests a minor child should not have the ability to speak in confidence to a counselor at school.”

Commenting on the new Florida law, medical director of the Thrive Gender Development program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Scott Leibowitz noted, “It basically sends a message to these young, vulnerable people that politicians are willing to sacrifice the youths’ emotional and physical well-being and health for political gain.”

Politico reported on a Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment about the Florida anti-gay law. Colin Jost said to cast member Kate McKinnon, this bill “means that you can’t acknowledge that ‘gay’ exists at all.” McKinnon heatedly replied, “I am deeply gay — sorry, deeply concerned. It just seems like this is going to make kids, gay and trans — sorry, depressed and suicidal.” It is a valid point.

Killing Trans Kids

Many of the new laws popping up in Republican led states block physicians from providing care to trans children and block insurance companies from paying for it. Lillian Rivera, director of family programming for the nonprofit Gender Spectrum observed, “It’s very confusing when people put forth legislation that will harm the health and well-being of children and teens.” In some states, doctors are caught in a vice between living up to their Hippocratic Oath and following state law.

For many trans kids, finding good medical care and guidance is literally life or death. Ignoring the impulses is not an option. Some kids must have both the physical and psychological relief to survive.

A typical issue with trans children was shared by a Texas mom, Cindy Crawford. She and her gender fluid child, who just made a serious suicide attempt, were in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. The 14-year-old was saved but the pain that led to an attempted suicide remained.

Today Crawford says, “Gender-affirming care is what is keeping my child alive, literally.”  After receiving a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and the accompanying therapy and hormones, the depression and anxiety lessened. While there are risks associated with medical interventions, there are also significant risks associated with continued untreated gender dysphoria.

Reporter, Lisa Selin Davis, shared, “Despite rumors that parents are rushing their kids into body-changing hormones and surgeries, the opposite … is true.” And Lillian Rivera noted:

“No parent is having their 8, 9, 10-year-old undergo surgery to change their bodies. But that’s the narrative that folks are putting forth.”

In Texas and other states, laws are being considered that redefine “child abuse” to include administering gender-affirming care. Ignorance is a frightful thing. Making life saving practices illegal is senseless but led by lies and bad politics right wing politicians are attempting to do just that.

The GOP Embrace of Homophobia is Despicable

How benighted is the evangelical community that GOP politicians think attacking trans children will keep them voting? Both homosexuality and gender dysphoria are naturally occurring phenomena. They are not a mistake. There is nothing wrong with either set of human beings other than living with the craven fools in their environment.

I grew up on a ranch in Idaho where we had homosexual animals regularly appearing in our herds. For cattle and sheep ranchers, this just meant you were not going to select them as breed animals. In other words, homosexuality is a naturally occurring phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom. The same can be said about gender fluid individuals.

In the human realm, we have many examples of creative members of the LGBTQ+ community making significant contributions in science, art, law and so on. When the HIV/aids epidemic tore through the gay community in the early 1980s, Broadway and Hollywood were devastated spiritually and critically. Some of society’s greatest leaders are members of the gay community.

The bigotry and lack of human understanding shown the LGBTQ+ community and gender fluid children is unacceptable.

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San Diego School Board Election 2024

26 Aug

By Thomas Ultican 8/26/2024

This year, unlike 2022, when several school board candidates appeared anti-public education and divisive, the current crop is mostly sincere public school advocates. Some do not have much insight into education while others are profoundly qualified to lead school districts. After evaluating the candidates for the County Board of Education and San Diego’s 10 largest school districts, the following recommendations were made.

San Diego County Board of Education

For the County Board of Education, the only contested seat is district-4. Incumbents Gregg Robinson in district-1 and Guadalupe Gonzalez in district-2 are running unopposed. Districts 3 and 5 are not up this time around.

In district-4, two delightful and qualified young women, Erin Evans and Sarah Song, are vying for the seat. Both are passionate educators but Evans has more experience and is now teaching at Mesa College. Recommended for County Board of Education district-4 is Erin Evans.

San Diego County Board of Education Districts

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD)

This year SDUSD has three of the five district seats on the ballot, district-A, district-D and district-E. Incumbents, Richard Barrera district-D and Sharon D. Whitehurst-Payne district-E, are running unopposed.

In district-A , Sabrina Bazzo the incumbent is facing challenger Crystal Trull. Both women’s resumes show them to be highly qualified. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties have weighed in with Democrats endorsing Bazzo and Republicans endorsing Trull. The list of Bazzo endorsements is superior to Trull’s endorsements plus Bazzo’s four years on the board separates the two candidates. Recommended for SDUSD district-A is Sabrina Bazzo.

Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD)

The even numbered districts 2 and 4 are on the ballot this year. In district-2, Adrian E. Arancibia is facing off against Angelica Martinez. Not much is known about Angelica but professor Arancibia is quite well known including being featured in a very positive La Prensa piece. He is also endorsed by the Democratic Party. Recommended for SUHSD district-2 is Adrian E. Arancibia.

District-4 has a matchup between Olga Espinoza and Rodolfo “Rudy” Lopez. Olga ran for the San Ysidro school district board and that campaign Facebook page is the only information about her. Rudy was a member of the San Ysidro school board and has a campaign Facebook page. Recommended for SUHSD district-4 is Rodolfo “Rudy” Lopez.

Poway Unified School District (PUSD)

There are two seats contested in PUSD, trustee area-A and trustee area-E. Area-A has a contest between Timothy Dougherty and Devesh Vashishtha. Tim’s web page presents a normal guy not out to burn down public education but his supporters are a concern. Mike Allman has been a disruptive anti-teacher force in the San Dieguito district and Carl DeMaio with his organization Reform California has a long disruptive history. Doctor Vashishtha comes with an impressive list of endorsements including two currently serving PUSD board members, Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and Heather Plotzke. Recommended for PUSD trustee area-A is Devesh Vashishtha.

Trustee area-E has three candidates on the ballot, Craig Pond, David Cheng and incumbent Cindy Sytsma. David Cheng is listed on the ballot as an attorney and consumer advocate. Craig Pond is a software engineer from General Atomics and has a web page. Cindy is a wife, mother, former deputy sheriff and teacher, and currently a college professor. Recommended for PUSD trustee area-E is Cindy Sytsma.

Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD)

This district has contests in the even number districts 2 and 4. In district-2, incumbent Lucy Ugarte is challenged by Sharmane Estolano. Ugarte is a 28-year educator, union activist and has a long list of endorsements. Estolano is a member of the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce and is a real estate professional. She is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for CVESD district-2 is Lucy Ugarte.

District-4’s race is odd. There are five candidates, incumbent Kate Bishop, Zenith Khan, Jesus F. Partida, Tanya Williams and board member Francisco Tamayo. Tamayo was re-elected to a four year term representing District-1 in 2022. In an unusual move, he is running against Bishop. If he loses Tamayo will remain district-1’s trustee. If he wins, the new board will have to select someone to fill the rest of his term in district-1. La Prensa has reported on this development. The Democratic Party, which endorsed Tamayo 2-years ago, labeled him unacceptable and endorsed Bishop. She has also been endorsed by Congressman Juan Vargas, State Senator Steve Padilla and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre. Zenith Khan is a mother and teacher who is active in Democratic politics. Jesus Partida is a lawyer practicing in Chula Vista. Tanya Williams is principal at Courage Christian Academy and is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for CVESD district-4 is Kate Bishop.

Vista Unified School District (VUSD)

In Vista, trustee areas 1, 4 and 5 are on the ballot. Amanda “Mandy” Remmen is running against Mike Markov for trustee area-1. Remmen is a long time PTA volunteer and president for the last two terms. Markov trained in Physics at UC Irvine holding a patent in drone technology. He is also a father of a Vista middle school student. He is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for trustee area-1 is Mike Markov.

Trustee Area-4 has the only incumbent running for re-election, Cipriano Vargas. Opposing him are Frank Nunez and Zulema Gomez. Vargas is endorsed by the Democratic Party and many heavy hitters in the Party. Nunez is endorsed by The Republican Party. Gomez is a 15-year educator who stresses a bilingual approach. She is endorsed by school board members and Vista educators. Recommended for trustee area-4 is Zulema Gomez.

Anthony “TJ” Crossman is vying with Sue Martin for trustee area-5. Martin is a recently retired Vista Unified social studies teacher and is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Crossman is a Vista businessman who is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for trustee area-5 is Sue Martin.

San Marco Unified School District (SMUSD)

Trustee areas A, B and D are up for election. In trustee area-A, Carlos Ulloa faces off with Heidi Herrick. Ulloa holds a doctorate in education, teaches in elementary school and lectures at San Diego State University. He is endorsed by the Democratic Party and is currently president of the SMUSD board. Heidi lists herself as parent and business owner. Recommended for trustee area-A is Caros Ulloa.

Trustee area-B has a contest between incumbent Sarah Ahmad and small business manager Brittany Bower. Ahmad, who works in the semi-conductor industry, is endorsed by the San Marcos Educators Association and the Democratic Party. Brittany Bower is a project estimator for ServiceMaster EMT. Recommended for trustee area-B is Sarah Ahmad.

Incumbent Jamie Chamberlain is trying to fend off Lena Lauer Meum in trustee area-D. Chamberlain studied at the University of the Pacific, Hawaii where she earned and bachelor of business administration, international studies. She is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Meum, who earned a master of business education at California State University San Marcos, is pro-school choice. She is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for trustee area-D is Jamie Chamberlain.

Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD)

Trustee areas 1 and 2 are being contested this year. Trustee area-1 has candidates, Azura Chrisawn (small business owner), Randall Dear (marine conservation educator), Chris Fite (incumbent and retired teacher) and Debra Harrington (community volunteer). Searches reveal almost no additional information about Chrisawn or Harrington. Randal Dear is endorsed by the Republican Party and Citizens for a Better East County reported giving him a contribution of $8,382 shown in an August 14 form 497 report. Dear’s understanding of what test data means is a suspect. Recommended for trustee area-1 is Chris Fite.

Trustee area-2 has five contestants, Jay Steiger (public school teacher), Marsha J. Christman (community volunteer), Scott Eckert (public school teacher), Jim Stieringer (retired La Mesa treasurer) and Andrew Simmerman. Simmerman is a former Teach For America educator and works as a KIPP San Diego executive. Stieringer is a political game player who sent out a deceptive flyer associating himself, a life-long Republican, with progressives in 2020. Stieger is endorsed by the Democratic Party and has a very active campaign. Scott Eckert looks like a MAGA candidate endorsed by the Republican Party and just received a donation of $11,509 from Citizens for a Better East County. Recommended for trustee area-2 is Jay Steiger.

San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD)

This year the even numbered districts 2 and 4 are on the ballot. Trustee area-2 has parent and finance professional, Kelly Friis, running against the former Encinitas Union school board member and lawyer, Jodie Williams. Friis is endorsed by the Republican Party and Williams is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Both are talented professionals but Williams has more experience with education. Recommended for trustee area-2 is Jodie Williams.

San Dieguito trustee area-4 has incumbent, Michael Allman, being challenged by political consultant, educator and county health and quality board member, Kevin Sabellico. Allman has been a polarizing and disruptive force on the SDUHSD board since first elected in 2020. He is endorsed by the Republican Party. Sabellico says, “Teachers deserve to be supported, not attacked and vilified.” He calls for integrity and civility to be restored to the board and is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Recommended for trustee area-4 is Kevin Sabellico.

Escondido Union High School District (EUHSD)

In Escondido, four people are running for trustee areas 3 and 4. In trustee area-3, retired teacher, Clay Brown, is challenging incumbent Christi Knight. Brown stresses that he is an independent with deep understanding of how to run schools. The lightly educated, Knight, was appointed to the board in 2013 and has represented Area-3 ever since. Recommended for trustee area-3 is Clay Brown.

Escondido’s trustee area-4 is a matchup between incumbent, Ryan S. Williams, and executive coach, Dara Czerwonka. Czerwonka served on the San Pasqual Union School District board from 2018 to 2022 and she is endorsed by the Democratic Women’s Club of San Diego County and the Democratic Party. Before being appointed to the board in 2023, Williams studied manufacturing systems and earned an MBA at Brigham Young University. Recommended for trustee area-4 is Dara Czerwonka.

Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD)

Areas 2 and 5 are up for election this time around. In trustee area-2, Emily Wichmann is running to unseat incumbent Eleanor Evans. Wichmann ran for the County Board of Education in 2022 and was soundly defeated by Richard Shea. In her Facebook posts, Wichmann tacitly supports anti-LGBTQ attacks, backs standardized testing and promotes school choice. She is endorsed by the Republican Party. Evans is an education professional with deep ties to San Diego State. This teacher, counselor, and administrator is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Recommended for trustee area-2 is Eleanor Evans.

Trustee area-5 matches incumbent, Mike Blessing, against teacher, Rosie Higuera. Blessing was first elected to the board in 2008 after serving since the 1970s as Oceanside’s city manager. He is endorsed by the Democratic Party. Higuera has a wealth of experience as an educator however given the recent spurious attacks on public education her calls for “an environment free from discrimination, bullying, sexualization, and indoctrination” is a concern. She is endorsed by the Republican Party. Recommended for trustee area-5 is Mike Blessing.

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Bigots and Title IX

14 Aug

By Thomas Ultican 8/13/2024

Biden administration’s update for Title IX of the national education law was scheduled for implementation on August 1st. However, a coalition of bigots and creepy right wing billionaires won court relief for about half of America’s schools. Moms for Liberty, claiming members with students in 2000 schools nationally, got a stay for those schools on July 26. With the addition of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina on July 31, the total number of states challenging the law rose to 26.

The latest stays came when the US District court in the Northern District of Alabama ruled that the Biden/Harris rewrite should take effect. That was July 30th. An immediate appeal was filed that day by Independent Women’s Forum, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.

The three supposedly grassroots organizations that joined the legal challenge are libertarian billionaire creations … specifically Charles Koch’s.

A 2021 Washington Post report about Charles Koch fueling the opposition to mask wearing in schools, noted work of the Independent Women’s Forum:

“In 2003, Independent Women’s Forum announced that it was formally affiliating with Americans for Prosperity, the Koch network’s main political arm, and that the two organizations would share office space. ‘The affiliation agreement provides for staff and resource sharing between Americans for Prosperity and the Independent Women’s Forum,’ an archived news release stated, explaining that Nancy Pfotenhauer, then-president of Independent Women’s Forum, would also serve as president of Americans for Prosperity.”

Speech First and Parents Defending Education are two more Koch-created entities. Speech First founder Nicole Neily, now leading Parents Defending Education, is a long-time Koch operative.

Source Watch reported:

“Speech First’s president and only listed employee, Nicole Neily has worked for many Koch-affiliated groups. Neily was the president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the Cato Institute’s manager of external relations, the coalition relations manager for FreedomWorks’ Center for Global Economic Growth, and a “Koch summer fellow for both the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.”

Neily worked from 2009-2012 at the Independent Women’s Forum where she served eight months as executive director.

On January 2021, Neily became founder and president of Parents Defending Education.

This attack on Biden’s Title IX update is not an organic grassroots effort. It is a billionaire financed attack on public schools and equity … a bigoted aggression on homosexuality.

Charles Koch Opposes Justness

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed on the campus of University of Colorado, briefly reported on resistance to the Title IX changes, sharing:

“Preventing exclusion based on gender identity: This section is one of the more contentious elements of the changes even though it does not apply to school sports, which have been the focus of much of the controversy in recent years related to transgender students in schools.”

The new rules also made discrimination against gay students easier to demonstrate. Trump’s 2020 rewrite required a discrimination complaint be severe AND pervasive. Under Biden, NEPC observes, “[T]he incident(s) need only be severe OR pervasive, making it easier to file a successful complaint.”

It does not seem these legal appeals will lead to overturning the new rules but will delay their implementation. The language is consistent with prior case law interpretations of Title IX, including Whitaker v. Kenosha (2017) and Grimm v. Gloucester (2020).

From the 2017 case record:

“Ashton, a transgender high school senior, requested to use the boys’ restroom while at school. The Kenosha School District denied the request, indicating that Ashton’s mere presence would invade the privacy rights of his male classmates.”

The Seventh Circuit upheld this injunction, stating, “Harms identified by the District are all speculative, whereas the harms to Ashton are well‐documented.”

In 2020, the Fourth Circuit ruled, in a similar case, “The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 can protect transgender students from school bathroom policies that prohibit them from affirming their gender.”

These are just outcomes which billionaire Charles Koch is fighting against!

Save the Children

Many of us are not well-informed about the plight of transgender children. However, as cited above, courts find ignoring transgender youths’ issues inhuman. A small subset of human beings is born with gender-dysphoria, a mismatch between gender identity and their own personal sense of gender. Scientific American reported almost all major American medical groups have “policy statements and guidelines on how to provide age-appropriate gender-affirming care” and “find such care to be evidence-based and medically necessary.”

Columbia University Psychiatry states:

“It is well documented that TGNB [transgender non-binary] adolescents and young adults experience anxiety and depression, as well as suicidal ideation, at a much higher rate than their cisgender peers. According to The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 54 percent of young people who identified as transgender or nonbinary reported having seriously considered suicide in the last year, and 29 percent have made an attempt to end their lives.”

Transgender children are fine just the way they are but society can be flawed. People tend to see a small group of people that are different from themselves and make negative judgments. There is no healthy way for these children to change so the rest of us need to grow and express our humane side.

A 2022 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute identified 0.6% of Americans, over 13, as transgender. Adults over 17 had a rate 0.5% while youths 13 to 17 came in at 1.4%. The numbers are quite small but not insignificant.

The new Title IX rules, fought by Charles Koch and right wing Republicans, are designed to protect these people.

Conclusion

The new rules reverse a requirement that schools only investigate alleged incidents on their campus and end a demand for in-person live courtroom-like hearings in sexual misconduct cases. Betsy DeVos called this a “radical rewrite” of the law, claiming it is an “endeavor born entirely of progressive politics, not sound policy.”

Kel O’Hara, a senior attorney at Equal Rights Advocates, has a much different view:

“The new regulations put an end to unfair and traumatic grievance procedures that favor harassers. No longer will student survivors be subjected to processes that prioritize the interests of their perpetrators over their own well being and safety.”

I don’t expect anything from Mom’s for Liberty, a feckless organization that only exists because of billionaire dollars. However, seeing 26 states in this country side with homophobia and discrimination is disheartening. Since their claims against Biden’s rules are baseless, the only conclusion is that many leaders in these Republican-dominated states are hoping to delay equity until head bigot, Donald Trump, is elected President of the United States.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community are among the most creative and productive citizens in America.

Aren’t bigots who encourage hate campaigns against them, benighted fools? 

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Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual

5 Aug

By Thomas Ultican 8/5/2024

Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider just published The Education Wars. In their 2020 book, A Wolf at the School House Door, the focus was the rightwing and neoliberal attacks on public education. In this new book, they address actions taken to end taxpayer funded universal public education and the resistance. It is a handbook and guide.

Historian and author of Democracy in Chains, Nancy MacLean noted:

“Who would want to ‘take down the education system as we know it’—and why? Read this fast-paced, lucid, and gripping account to understand who is behind the escalating attacks on public education and what, exactly, they seek.”

Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach, highlighted the unique dilemma facing public education in America, commenting:

“We’ve argued about our schools from the earliest days of public education. But never before have our public schools been threatened with a well-financed strategy to bring the system down, replace education with indoctrination, shred our social fabric, undermine opportunity for millions of kids, and consign them to second-class citizenship. This is a vital handbook for all who want to enlist in the never-ending struggle for a ‘more perfect union.’”

What’s in it for Billionaires?

Eric Anderson, cited in the book, worked in a Bavarian-themed restaurant for the mother of Betsy DeVos and Eric Prince. He shares about waiting tables and overhearing billionaires’ conversations which gave him insights. In his 2023 article about DeVos pushing for vouchers in Pennsylvania, he stated:

“Equality does not serve the ruling classes well. It never has, which is why the plutocrats lobby so hard against it. It’s why they pursue agendas, such as school vouchers, that are guaranteed to exacerbate inequality.”

“An uneducated populace is bad for democracy, but it’s great for the rich and powerful, who can more easily pull the wool over the eyes of voters. The less able you are to reason, the more amenable you are to lies and smokescreens and dog whistles (e.g., ‘school choice,’ ‘parental rights,’ etc.). Education liberates. Ignorance subjugates.”

While many self-styled school reformers seek profits, for billionaires, the motive is securing control over democratic processes to solidify their privileged positions in society.

The push for vouchers by Charles Koch and Betsy DeVos has multiple purposes. Vouchers undermine public schools and voucher laws are written to limit government oversight. Furthermore, this creates an environment for indoctrinating students with conservative beliefs.

Getting rid of oversight is key for voucher-pushing billionaires. The authors also note:

“Want to sow a revolt against the largest expense in most state budgets? Make it impossible for the public to see where their tax dollars are going.” (Page 22)

Public Schools are Better than Ever

One important point made early in the handbook is that public schools have continually improved as have student outcomes. On NAEP, the nation’s report card, scores have increased over the last 50 years. Since the 1980s, graduation rates have soared from less than 70% to almost 90%.

Teachers and curriculum have significantly improved. Back in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho where I attended school, almost all teachers were graduates of Albion Normal school. It was a two-year institution for teacher training after which they went directly into the classroom. The highest math my algebra instructor studied was algebra I. Today, a vast majority of teachers have at least a bachelor’s degree plus a year of supervised teaching practice. Math, science, social studies and English teachers are experts in their field.

Public schools continue to become more equitable. Into the 1950s, a separate curriculum was provided for girls, low-income students and students of color, emphasizing domestic or industrial training. The Education Wars states, “Schools were segregated by race, students with disabilities were mostly turned away and students not proficient in English were isolated in schools with limited academic opportunities.” (Page 14)

Work still needs to be done but the campaign for equal schooling has come a long way.

In the 1970s, both Republicans and Democrats decided that the primary purpose of school was to prepare students for jobs. Democrats especially advanced the idea that education was the way to address the nation’s deepening wealth gap. They saw education as expanding the middle class without resorting to politically-challenging ideas like wealth redistribution.

Since then, public education has been expected to solve poverty: “The view that education is a ‘passport out of poverty,’ as Lyndon Johnson insisted, holds deep sway.” (Page 43) The reality is the biggest indicator of poor education performance is poverty and schools have no control over the wealth of neighborhoods in which they reside. It is not surprising that these institutions disappoint when held responsible for things out of their control.

Schools Attacked in New Era of Fierce Partisanship

 At a Moms for Liberty event in 2023, Donald Trump claimed public schools were infested by “Marxist lunatics and perverts.” He also said he would “liberate our children” by cutting federal funding to any school pushing “inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” (Page 45)

Over the top rhetoric like this has become common place, even though there is scant evidence to support it.

Since its founding in 1973, Heritage Foundation has been fanning the flames of school culture ideology. They see it as the key to undermining faith in public schools. Over the decades, specific issues have changed but their goal of ending public education has persisted.

In 1992, while stumping for president, Patrick Buchanan claimed he would be the president of parents. He said, “I will shut down the U.S. Department of Education, and parental rights will prevail in our public schools again.” (Page 80)

Today, his claim has become parental rights, almost exclusively for religious conservatives as these disingenuous and divisive calls continue. A Virginia law governing the treatment of transgender and non-binary students allows parents of other students objecting to a student’s preferred pronouns, based on the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.

The handbook shares:

“Justifying this policy, Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration pointed to what it identified as parents’ fundamental rights. But a more accurate explanation is that the rights of certain parents are being privileged above others.”   (Page 89)

Milton Friedman’s vouchers have become taxpayer-funded discrimination. Civil rights attorney, Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick, suggested, “Let’s stop calling it a ‘choice program’ and let’s call it a private discriminatory education program funded with your tax dollars.” (Page 109)

Education as a Public Good

In the final chapter, “Reclaiming Education as a Public Good,” Beth Lewis of Saving Our Schools Arizona says:

The defining issue here is: Do you care about other people’s kids or not? Do we want to live in a world that’s based on the understanding of a public good, or one where only the individual good matters? (Page 134)

The authors assert, “We can start by reducing the responsibility that education bears for achieving minimal social and economic security.” (Page 145)

Currently schools are asked to do the impossible and blamed for failing. Literally billions of dollars are being spent to destroy public education, the foundation of Democracy.

The Education Wars is a handbook to help parents and citizens recognize feckless attacks and defeat them.

America’s public education system is a treasure and if lost, will never come back.

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Kamala Harris and Public Education

31 Jul

By Thomas Ultican 7/31/2024

Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, has a good record with public education. Her opponent, who appointed Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education, disagrees and says she is a “radical liberal,” responsible for Mr. Biden’s most left-leaning policies. It is unlikely he has any actual knowledge of what she might have been responsible for. To this fascist leaning fellow, the entire Democratic Party and a slice of the GOP look like “radical liberals.” With the two major candidates for president, there is a clear difference in education policy: Harris is pro-public education, Trump wants to end it.

Ruby Bridges’ Shadow and Kamala Harris

Her Record

In a 2020 run for President, Harris stated at a Houston rally, “You can judge a society by the way it treats its children, and one of the greatest expressions of love that a society can give to its children is educating those children with resources they need.” At that time, she identified the “pay gap” between teachers and other college graduates, as undermining the required resources. She wrote in the Washington Post:

“As president, I will make the largest federal investment in teacher pay in U.S. history. We will fully close the teacher pay gap during my first term, and provide the average teacher a $13,500 raise.”

Her plan would have included $315 billion in federal funding over 10 years to subsidize pay for K-12 educators and reward state and local governments for raising teacher’s salaries. This was to be paid for by adjusting estate taxes.

She has yet to mention teachers’ pay in 2024 but, obviously, it is something to which she has given a lot of thought and believes needs attention.

In 2019, as California’s U.S. senator, considering a presidential run, she supported the teachers strike in Los Angeles. Harris wrote, “Los Angeles teachers work day in and day out to inspire and educate the next generation of leaders.” Besides wage increases, teachers were demanding smaller class sizes and more support staff. The union victory in the strike was a defeat for pro-charter school billionaire Eli Broad and the California charter school movement.

Cecily Myart-Cruz, current president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, remembered Harris’s support “was such a boost.”

In July 2020, the President of the United States and his Secretary of Education demanded schools open with in-person classes five days a week. Parents were worried about the safety of their children and teachers were frightened.

President Trump tweeted,

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”

Michelle Goldberg of NY Times wrote, “… with their crude attempts at coercion, they’ve politicized school reopening just as Trump politicized mask-wearing and hydroxychloroquine.” It was the beginning of a rightwing offensive toward public schools, eventually leading to open bigotry, attacks on school board meetings and book banning.

Harris and Orange County Congresswoman, Katie Porter, responded to Trump with a letter agreeing that in-person schooling was crucial for children’s well-being and for parents’ ability to work. They also wrote that lives could be at risk if schools reopened without stringent safety measures such as social distancing, regular randomized virus testing and virus contact tracing.

These were never seriously addressed by Trump.

In some liberal-leaning states, including California, millions of students went 18 months without in-school classes. However outcomes have not matched expectations. In New York, which opened schools in fall 2020, their 2022 reading and math scores fell while in Los Angeles, math and reading scores improved. Commissioner, Peggy Carr, of the National Center for Education statistics reported, “There’s nothing in this data that tells us there is a measurable difference in the performance between states and districts based solely on how long schools were closed.”

Last week, when Harris addressed the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention in Houston, Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, accused her of “already ignoring parents and getting cozy with the same teachers union bosses who she allowed to dictate school reopening guidance and keep kids out of the classrooms.”

Republicans believe that by not enthusiastically embracing Trump’s open school edict and siding with teachers unions made her vulnerable to political attack. However, his “divide-and-conquer” incompetent management of the COVID crisis and demand to open schools without preparations makes him more exposed to current criticism.

At last Tuesday’s AFT convention, Harris shared education issues to be focused on between now and Election Day: student loan forgiveness, protecting schools from gun violence and resisting Republican attempts to restrict curriculums.

In 2023, she flew to Florida to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on what he dismissed as “woke indoctrination” in schools. Harris was particularly incensed by the state’s middle school standards, arguing that enslaved people “developed skills that could, in some instances, be applied for their personal benefit.” 

As attorney-general in the state of California, she went after for-profit colleges, accusing them of false advertising and intentionally misrepresenting to students the benefits provided. She won a $1 billion judgment  against the California-based Corinthians Colleges Inc. stating, “For years, Corinthian profited off the backs of poor people – now they have to pay.”

Harris was not blowing political smoke when kicking off her campaign saying in her long career as a prosecutor, she has taken on all kinds of predators:

“Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”

EducationWeek says Harris is unlikely to stray far from Biden’s education agenda. She will continue working to overcome court challenges against forgiving student loan debt and expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students and school staff through a rewrite of rules for Title IX, the nation’s landmark sex discrimination law.

It also states, “On the Republican side, the party has proposed a platform that calls for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, defunding schools that teach ‘critical race theory’ or ‘gender ideology,’ and universal private school choice.”

This is disingenuous. No k-12 schools teach “critical race theory” and never have nor do they teach “gender ideology.” These are false claims designed to scare and divide people in order to garner votes. “Universal private school choice” is a scheme to end universal taxpayer funded public education.

Conclusions

Kamala Harris is a strong supporter of public education and embraces our nation’s outstanding teaching force which she wants to enhance. She will be dealing with people who believe public education is too expensive and charter schools are helpful but her track record says she will protect this important foundation for American democracy and national achievement.

The soon-to-be Madam President has good instincts and I look forward to her pro-public education administration!

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