Michigan advocates seek explicit right to education
Lawyers fighting
a lawsuit on behalf of Detroit schoolchildren hope to persuade the federal courts to recognize a constitutional right to literacy.
But some Michigan education advocates are ready to pursue a more direct route: Amend the state constitution to establish education as a fundamental right in Michigan.
“That is a conversation that many people want to have,” said David Arsen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. “Parents all across the state want to have that conversation. Even if it takes a while for the grassroots, that’s a conversation that’s well worth having.”
Arsen is one of the speakers who will address the topic Oct. 10 at an education forum in Grand Rapids.
Read more here:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2016/10/02/michigan-constitutional-amendment-education/91339100/
‘Harbormasters’ a new corporate education reform industry term for unelected entities seeking to privatize our public schools
“Harbormasters have a mission to buoy the number of high-quality seats in their cities.” – Bellwether Education Partners on behalf of Education Cities
Definitions:
“Harbormasters” are unelected entities that seek to put themselves in control of managing public education in a particular community, and (b) “High-Quality Seats” is a euphemism for more charter schools.
So translated into English, the phrase “Harbormasters have a mission to buoy the number of high-quality seats in their cities” actually means,
If we are to succeed in our goal of opening more charter schools and continuing the efforts to privatize public education we will need more un-elected entities willing to step in and usurp the democratic process that presently stands in our way.”
When one follows this path of edu-jargon they will quickly come across groups like Bellwether Education Partners, Education Cities and similar corporate-funded organizations that are working to remove the term public from public education.
Take for example, Education Cities, a relatively new entity in the privatization game.
Education Cities’ primary mission is to develop and expand the notion of “harbormasters” as part of its ongoing strategy to expand the number of charter schools in targeted cities.
Education Cities claims it is a “non-profit network” of 32 city-based organizations in 25 cities. As the evidence makes clear, it is really just another charter school front group funded by the same cabal of big education reform foundations.
The organization traces its roots back to 2012, when the an Indianapolis, “educational venture capital fund” called The Mind Trust spun off a related entity it called CEE-Trust or Cities for Education Entrepreneurship.
The organization’s stated goal was to bring Indianapolis-like corporate education reforms to other cities around the country.
Changing its name to Education Cities in 2014, the entity collected more than $5.5 million during its first two years as a 501(c) (3). Not surprisingly, major contributions came from The Broad Foundation; the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; The Walton Family Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, all leaders in the effort to privatize public schools in the United States.
Always keen on coining a phrase, the public relations mavens at The Mind Trust and Education Cities announced that their primary strategy was to install “harbormasters” as vehicles to promote and implement their privatization agenda.
And what, pray tell are harbormasters and what role do they have when it comes to implementing the corporate education reform agenda?
Read the full blog post here: http://jonathanpelto.com/2016/10/03/harbormasters-new-corporate-education-reform-industry-term-unelected-entities-seeking-privatize-public-schools/
Schuette issues major ruling on Detroit schools, doesn’t mention money from pro-charter DeVos family
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette weighed in Wednesday on what has become an increasingly contentious issue: Can the state shut down poor-performing Detroit schools at the end of the current academic year?
His answer: Yes.
What he didn’t discuss in his legal opinion was the fact that since 2009 he has received close to $140,000 from pro-charter school proponents like the DeVos family.
In August, Chalkbeat Detroit reported that the state School Reform Office planned to close down hundreds of failing Michigan schools in June 2017 — including dozens of Detroit public schools — if they didn’t get their act together.
The news, specifically the threat of Detroit closures after years of documented neglect, resulted in a thunderous uproar.”Closing a failing school, particularly in Detroit, a city whose schools are famously, notably distressed, won’t have a millimeter of impact on the conditions that caused those schools to fail,”
Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer wrote this summer, pointing out that the news was textbook free-market-education-reform-speak, but ultimately didn’t take into consideration bigger systemic issues, such as funding, a lack of school supplies, and poor infrastructure, that has been holding many of Detroit’s public schools back.
…until next time, keep reading, sharing, discussing, learning!
I am amazed no one has commented about privatisation of pubic schools . Which surly is a typo because I do think the author of the article really means Public Schools ????????????????????