Sea to Shining Sea

Did you know that we organized Sunday’s Rolling Rally here in Pittsburgh to coincide with public education actions all over the United States? Starting tomorrow with an information picket line and student walkout in Philadelphia and running for six straight days there will be major actions in cities from coast to coast. Local organizers designed these events to show solidarity with the terrible situation in Chicago, where students are facing a tidal wave of 54 school closings. At all of these rallies you will likely see banners proclaiming:

Our City. Our Schools. Our Voice.
We Stand with Chicago!

Here’s how Pittsburgh fits into the national scene:

1. San Francisco (May 20^th at12 noon, City College of San Francisco (CCSF) Mission campus, 1125 Valencia Street). A rally and press conference will link the school closings in Chicago with the threatened closure of CCSF. Action will include street theater (“Chicago comes to San Francisco”), speakers (students, faculty, community organization rep), and a call to action.
2. New York City (May 18^th from 10am -4pm, PS 28 at 560 West 169^th Street). Mirabal Sisters, a member of the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, is holding a Parent Convention and plans to organize a Skype session with Chicago parents to link school closings in both cities.
3. New York City (May 21^st from 5:30 8:00pm, Brooklyn Borough Hall). Training for approximately 75 parent leaders on the national school reform landscape, with a particular focus on the corporate school reform agenda. The link will be drawn between the school closing struggle in Chicago and the NYC 2013 parent-led education justice organizing led by the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice and the Urban Youth Collaborative.
4. Philadelphia (May 17^th, Philadelphia School District Building). Hundreds of teachers will organize a citywide informational picket in support of full funding for public schools as students arrive in the morning. A citywide student walkout & press conference at City Hall is being organized in the afternoon to call on local politicians to fund Philadelphia public schools with the supports students need.
5. Pittsburgh (May 19^th, buses pick up at Weil, Obama, Burgwin; end at Schenley). Bus tour with parents, students, educators and community activists of schools that have been closed or converted to charter schools. At each school, the bus will pick up more people, and speakers will talk about the impact of the school closing on the local neighborhood.
6. Houston (May 19^th, Harris County AFL-CIO located at 2506 Sutherland Street). Community Voices for Public Education, the Texas Organizing Project, and the Houston Federation of Teachers are organizing a teach-in to explain the corporate agenda for public education, with an emphasis on school privatization, charter expansion, and testing.
7. Kansas City (May 22^nd at 6pm, Kansas City Public Library located at 4801 Main Street where Michelle Rhee will be speaking). Community members from MORE2 will be leafleting outside the event linking Michelle Rhee to the national corporate agenda for public education and what is happening in Kansas City and Chicago. Teachers will be inside the event sitting in silent protest.
8. Boston (May 18^th, English High School at 144 McBride Street). Educators for Social Justice Conference with parents, students and educators, with a focus on “creating the schools we deserve” and exposing the corporate agenda.
9. Newark (May 22^nd, Roseville Avenue School located at 70 Roseville Avenue). Activists will hold a large press conference calling on the Mayor and Governor to halt school closings, end the State takeover of Newark Public Schools, and express solidarity with the struggle in Chicago.
10. Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida (May 18^th, 9:30am-12:00pm, University Area Community Development Center, 14013 N. 22^nd ST, Tampa, FL). Public education advocates will hold a second Town Hall, with a partial focus on the national context.
11. New Orleans (May 20^th at 5pm, John Mcdonogh Senior High School, 2426 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans). A large press conference, followed by a town hall meeting, will highlight the national and local context of school closures and to end the state takeover of public schools.
12. New Orleans (May 21^st at 5pm, McDonogh 35 High School, 1331 Kerlerec Street, New Orleans). Another press conference will demand that the Orleans Parish School Board expands seats available in successful public schools so that parents and students have a real choice.
13. New Britain, CT (May 22^nd at 6pm, Central Park of New Britain). “Education is a Civil Right” is the message of this broad rally and march in support of funding for the public schools.
14. Cleveland (May 20^th, CASTLE Charter School located in downtown Cleveland). This action will draw the link between school closings and charter expansion, highlighting the lack of charter accountability.
15. Cincinnati (May 20^th, Cincinnati Public Schools headquarters). Testimony by union and community leaders at the School Board meeting will declare that Cincinnati must not adopt the school closing policy being proposed for Chicago, and that Cincinnati teachers and parents stand in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union and community.
16. St. Paul (May 20^th, Como Park at 1225 Eastbrook Drive). The St. Paul Federation of Teachers will express solidarity with teachers and parents in Chicago

Pretty exciting, eh? We here in Pittsburgh are not alone. We have grassroots colleagues from sea to shining sea working on the very same issues. And when we work together we are powerful.

Please plan to come to the Rolling Rally on Sunday to learn more about school closures – and take a tour of our Steel City. Yinzercation is co-sponsoring this Get on the Bus event with our partners: the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, PIIN, Action United, One Pittsburgh, AFSCME, SEIU Healthcare PA, and the Hill District Education Council. The school buses will make several pickups, so hop on at a stop near you:

• Weil School – 3PM
• Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (across from Obama School) – 3:30PM
• Manchester School – 3:45PM
• Burgwin School – 4:15PM

We will end the tour with a big action at the former Schenley High School in Oakland at 5PM. More information and RSVP on our Facebook event page. Come ride the bus in solidarity with Chicago, and come because we need to talk about school closure in Pittsburgh, too.

School Spacing

We’re digging into the issues behind potential new school closures in Pittsburgh. So far we’ve talked about school size and school utilization. Another key issue we need to understand is school spacing: where schools are located, in which neighborhoods, how far students must travel to get to a school, and population density.

Here is the current map of Pittsburgh schools (click to open a separate window where you can navigate the map):

You can see that we still have a pretty broad distribution of schools in all grade bands. Yet with the last four rounds of closures, some neighborhoods have lost all of their schools. Activists in places like Hazelwood have told us how losing every single school in the area has had a terrible impact on families. Researchers who study nutrition and urban planning call communities without grocery stores “food deserts.” After Hazelwood’s schools closed it also lost its last grocery store, making it both a food desert and a school desert.

Of course we understand that not every neighborhood in Pittsburgh will have its own school. We are way past those days. In fact, because of our unique topography and history, Pittsburgh has 90 recognized neighborhoods, some quite tiny. So I don’t think any of us is arguing that every student in Pittsburgh should literally have a neighborhood school right up the street.

But a comment from a Facebook reader got me thinking about the difference between “neighborhood schools,” and what we might start calling “community schools.” This reader suggested that we shouldn’t be so fixated on the idea of old-fashioned neighborhood schools, saying, “Students in low density suburbs like Fox Chapel don’t have ‘neighborhood’ schools and yet no one seems to complain about the quality of education there.”

This is a valid argument, but the point is that Fox Chapel residents still have community schools. In fact, they have six of them (a high school, a middle school, and four elementary schools). Compare that to our example of Hazelwood, which has a population of 6,407 people, about a thousand more people than Fox Chapel with a population of 5,388, but without a single school. And Hazelwood residents are much less wealthy than Fox Chapel residents: so, for example, fewer people are likely to own cars to drive across the city to be engaged with their children’s education at a distant school.

At the Envisioning Educational Excellence advisory meeting on Monday, our break-out group discussed the idea of “equity and choice” in our schools. The community members at our table were adamant that all families should have a great school in their area. No one thought it must be at the end of the street, but everyone agreed that there is no such thing as “choice” unless there is a reasonably nearby school that offers a full, rich curriculum for every kid. No student should have to go all the way across the city just to receive world language instruction. In fact, rather than putting more resources into creating additional magnet programs spread around the city, our group was fairly vocal about its belief that families want great community schools.

Superintendent Dr. Linda Lane told the Post-Gazette “she was struck by how one small discussion group noted that equity is more important than choice.” That is exactly what we said. Except that our community schools must be both equitable and excellent. She noted, “That’s pretty powerful.” I couldn’t agree more. Dr. Lane also acknowledged our group’s “concerns for communities that feel disenfranchised because they don’t have a school” and recognized that we “spoke of a need for stability and consistency, not only in keeping schools open but also in keeping the same principal.” [Post-Gazette, 5-14-13]

So as we continue to think about potential school closings in Pittsburgh, I suggest we think more expansively about community schools. These will necessarily be spaced farther apart than the neighborhood schools of yore, but as we look at our maps and plan, we need to consider what happens to our communities when we create school deserts.

To see this process up close, please Get on the Bus! Yinzercation is co-sponsoring a Rolling Rally through Pittsburgh this Sunday to highlight this conversation about school closure. It will be fun, educational, and productive – so please plan to join us. (Really! Have you been to Hazelwood? This is your chance to see some important parts of Pittsburgh with a tour guide.) The school buses will make several pickups, so hop on at a stop near you:

• Weil School – 3PM
• Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (across from Obama School) – 3:30PM
• Manchester School – 3:45PM
• Burgwin School (now closed) – 4:15PM

We will end the tour with a big action at the former Schenley High School in Oakland at 5PM. More  information and RSVP on our Facebook event page. This is a new group of partners working together called the Pittsburgh Great Schools Coalition, and includes the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, PIIN, Action United, One Pittsburgh, AFSCME, Yinzercation, SEIU Healthcare PA, and the Hill District Education Council. Come be a part of the conversation about school closure and community schools.

School Utilization

Last week we talked about school size – a key issue in the debate over whether to close schools, which ones, and how many. I made the argument that we should probably not fear somewhat larger schools, simply on the basis of size, if they come with adequate resources for the students in every building. [See “School Size”]

But school size alone doesn’t tell us much. We need to know how each building is being utilized. Last night, the Pittsburgh Public School administration shared some new data with the Envisioning Educational Excellence advisory group that sheds some light on this very issue. Here’s what I learned. [All data from PPS Envisioning Update]

To see how we stack up against other school districts, PPS compared itself to several other Pennsylvania cities that it considers comparable in terms of racial composition, poverty rates, and other factors. In the following graph, the administration makes the case that our school size average is “far below” those peer districts.

I have a couple issues with this data. First, I am uncomfortable comparing Pittsburgh to the towns PPS selected as “peers”: Allentown, Erie, Hazleton, Lancaster, Reading, and Scranton. While the demographics might be similar, it strikes me as foolish to benchmark ourselves against a place like Reading, for instance, now rated the second poorest city in the entire country. If they have enormous schools, that might not necessarily be what I want for our children in the Steel City.

Why not compare Pittsburgh, as I did last week, to the Upper St. Clairs and Fox Chapels of the world? In fact, let’s make our comparisons local – since this is how the public views things. The comment I hear all the time is, “If Mt. Lebanon can do it, why can’t Pittsburgh … ?” I would love to see some local data that illustrates how PPS is doing in comparison to those districts around here – both great and struggling. I was far more convinced that larger school sizes might be OK for our kids when looking at our own wealthy suburbs and seeing how we stack up (and we do appear small, at least compared to the two districts I analyzed).

Furthermore, the PPS graph above compares all schools together – elementary, middle, high schools, K-8s, everything. This is not a useful metric, since we know that elementary schools tend to be much smaller than high schools. Though it can be difficult to compare apples to apples – since, for instance, some districts do not have K-8 schools or 6-12 schools – we need to see that data broken out by grade band.

Next, the district shared a graph on school utilization. This is more illuminating, but not without problems.

According to this graphic, the majority of our schools are in the 60-80% or over 80% full range. In fact, three times as many schools (35) are in this range as those in the 40-60% or less than 40% full range (15 schools). Yet, the graph is titled, “Pittsburgh has Under-Utilized School Space throughout the City.” Of course, this chart does not provide geographic data, so we can’t see how this actually maps onto the city (though the district did provide the raw data, see below). I also don’t feel separating schools by type (magnet vs. feeder) tells us anything, but the district is clearly trying to determine what parent preferences are based on building utilization.

Perhaps the most significant thing we have learned is the way that PPS defines adequate utilization. With increased “target class sizes” for this year, the administration is now calling anything under 30 students at the 6-12 and 9-12 level under-enrolled. Parents in the grassroots movement have been very clear that they would like to see smaller class sizes, not larger. In fact, looking at the average class sizes for our various school types, it seems to me that only our 6-12 and high schools might be considered on the small side:

However, the district suggests in another slide that, “the under-capacity issue is most pronounced at the 6-8 and 6-12 level,” where 5 of the 12 schools are enrolled at less than 50%:

Right now, using those increased “target” class sizes, the district is arguing that a quarter of our schools are at less than half capacity. I just want to caution again that this “half empty” school narrative is a seductive one that goes over quite well with those ready to slash school budgets and implement privatization plans, as we have seen all too clearly in Chicago. So far, I have not heard our administration officials using this line and I am grateful.

But it does appear they are ready to argue that our average school is a third-empty. By their measurement, the average school is at 67% capacity (or just over two-thirds full). My own children’s school is rated at 69% capacity – which would probably come as a surprise to any parent who has ever walked in the building and found it nearly bursting at the seams with students. I don’t see classrooms with a third of the desks empty. In fact, this is the school where my sixth-grader has 39 students in his math class. And using the district’s numbers, we would need 1,036 students to fill the school to capacity. Are you kidding? Colfax with over 1,000 kids?

I leave you with the raw data from the district to mull over. One note here: the right-hand column lists the percentage of students from a school’s feeder pattern who attend the school. This is not the percentage of students at the school who are from the feeder, but rather a measurement of what we might call the “catchment rate” (there’s probably a technical term for this) – the percentage of all eligible students who live in the catchment area who choose to attend that school. This is not a terribly useful number without a sense of why parents are choosing the schools that they do. A public school with a low catchment rate may be in an area with a large proportion of private schools yet still be great; or a school with a low catchment rate might indicate that families are high-tailing it out when given the option. This data doesn’t tell us.

What do you think about school utilization in Pittsburgh?

Come out Sunday to a Rolling Rally to talk about school closure and the impact on our neighborhoods. Learn more and RSVP on Facebook. Help us spread the word!

Dial That Phone

It’s time to pick up your phone and dial. Our statewide partner, EducationVotersPA, is asking everyone to call their legislators today to support our public schools. When we do this together, it works. Here’s what you need to know.

Q.  Why do I need to call my legislators?
A.  Governor Corbett has cut almost $1 BILLION from public education in each of the last two years. As a result, our children have lost nearly 20,000 teachers across the state, and we are seeing increased class size, deep programs cuts and the elimination of vital positions like librarians and counselors. Negotiations for the 2013-14 state budget are heating up, and the Governor and state legislature need to hear from us that we want them to support public schools.

Q.  Phone calls seem so simple. Do they really work?
A.  Yes! We know that just 10 calls in one day to a legislator will put this issue on their radar. When we participate in these call-in days, we add our voices to a state-wide movement – there’s a real multiplier effect when we all do this together on a single day. Our other actions are important, too (rallies, letters, face-to-face meetings) – but these call-in days are an opportunity for all of us to speak up and be heard directly by our politicians. They are listening! Last year, this kind of direct action and contact helped to save $100 million in proposed cuts.

Q.  How do these calls help our movement?
A.  One of the most important things our grassroots movement is doing is to help each other learn about: how the education budget is set, who makes policy decisions, and how we can be a part of that process. Through this movement, many people are learning who their legislators are and that it’s OK to call them. This is the definition of empowerment and parent engagement – the very things we know make our public schools strong. These call-in days are opportunities to talk to other parents and our networks about the issues facing public education and to encourage those folks to join our movement. Use this chance to spread the word to your colleagues and friends.

Q.  What should I tell my legislators?
A.  Give a couple examples about how two years of state budget cuts have had a devastating impact on our schools. Then get specific about what we want to see happen this year. We are asking legislators to:

1. Reinstate $270 million in funding to K-12 education in this year’s budget (and for the next 2 years – to restore the nearly $1 billion in state funding level cuts over a three year timetable).
2. Put in place funding formulas that have a strategy for allocating dollars, working toward a permanent, rational funding formula. Formulas must account for the number of students, include “weights” for the additional costs for educating students with special needs (including students in poverty, gifted students and English language learners), and provide sustainable and predictable funding for districts.
3. Begin to address formula and funding mechanism flaws in the way that charter schools are funded (a good formula will set rates appropriately & not pit groups of children against each other).

Q.  Who is my legislator? What numbers do I call?
A.  You can look up your state representative and senator here. You can call either their local office or Harrisburg office. Also, please be sure to call the Governor’s office at (717) 787-2500.

Q.  But my legislator is already supportive of public education. Why should I bother him (or her) about this?
A.  Even if your representative generally supports public education, we want her (or him) to take a more active role – especially during these next two months. You might ask your legislator to become a public education champion. And it doesn’t hurt to let them know that we “have their back” on this issue. We will never see sustainable dollars put back into our schools unless our legislators take this issue by the horns. And many legislators are feeling the Boiled Frogs effect, too – we need to let our supporters know that the water is getting hotter!

Q.  I keep hearing state officials say they actually increased funding for our schools. What’s going on?
A.  Governor Corbett and his administration are very fond of saying this and you will likely hear this statement when you call his office. The fact is, he collapsed several budget line items into one, “Basic Education,” so he could say that he increased funding for this, when in reality, he has drastically decreased overall education spending. He has even admitted as much in interviews, but the administration continues to use this extremely misleading sound-bite. [See “The Numbers Game”]

Q.   I’m nervous, what should I say?
A.  You will be speaking to a staff member. Introduce yourself and identify yourself as a constituent. For example: “Hi this is _____, I am a constituent of Representative _____, and I am calling because I strongly support public education and I am very concerned about the impact of budget cuts on my school, and on our community.” Then in your own words, say something about what you are seeing at your school. You might explain that every child must have an opportunity to learn and good schools make stronger communities, or that education is a human right. You might also say that education is a top priority issue for you as a voter. Let them know you plan to follow these issues and see what happens. For example: “I am interested in the Representative’s position on these cuts and would like to hear back about it.  My email address is ….  Thank you.”

Do you need more motivation? Last year our movement held “sidewalk parties” outside many schools on call-in days. Look how much fun parents had making their calls:

Boiled Frogs

Remember the story about boiling frogs? If you put a frog into a pot of hot water, he will jump right back out; but if you put him in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, he doesn’t notice until it’s too late, and you have a boiled frog. Unless you want to cook poor little amphibians, the point of this story is that we humans often get used to terrible situations – even as the danger slowly increases around us. We can’t let this happen in public education, where our pot is nearing the boiling point.

Quite simply, the situation in our schools is worse this year than last year. Despite what Gov. Corbett’s administration continues to claim (see our response to yesterday’s ridiculous assertion), here in Pennsylvania our children are now dealing with the combined loss of nearly $2 billion. That’s the initial $1 billion trouncing that Gov. Corbett gave our schools in 2011, followed by the 2012 budget that locked those cuts in. Last year, the consequences of those cuts were new and raw, and our grassroots response was swift and loud. But we need to remember what is happening right now and not become complacent: we can’t accept this as some inevitable new reality.

This year at the public school my two children attend, we lost our parent engagement specialist, despite the fact that she served a critical role connecting with our hardest-to-reach families, and was having one of the most direct impacts on our trenchant racial achievement gap. Our beloved school is labeled a “failure” by the state, yet instead of receiving additional resources – as we are entitled to under the federal NCLB law – the district cut our after-school and Saturday tutoring program. For the second year in a row, parents have been organizing a volunteer tutoring program in its place with local college students and racing to raise thousands of dollars to cover other essential costs. Parents are also raising money to pay for transportation so students can continue to go on field trips.

Our 7^th and 8^th graders lost library; 3^rd and 4^th graders lost instrumental music; and the middle level students lost their in-school gifted services and their baseball team. We lost a full time member of the office staff, leaving only 1.5 people to serve a school of 720 kids and their families. Yes – 720. Parents have provided nearly all of the school’s supplies this year, from pencils to tissues. And our school now operates on a 6-day schedule so that we can call that a “week,” cramming in long blocks of reading and math to meet state requirements, while our kids get reduced access to “specials” like music, art, world languages, and library.

Perhaps worst of all, we lost 2.5 full-time teachers and 2 paraprofessionals. Not only has that reduced the number of rounds we can have per grade and increased class sizes (my sixth grader is now sitting in a math class with 39 students), but the cuts have also wrecked havoc with our master schedule. With fewer adults in the building, we don’t have enough coverage for lunch and recess and teachers are scrambling to teach multiple subjects across different grades. In order to keep our librarian, she now has to teach a course on top of her regular duties. Other teachers are split half-time between our school and another, so they are only in the building three out of six days and students have two different teachers for the same class. All this juggling looks “clean” on paper when it appears we “only” lost 4.5 educators, but the impact on students is much larger, despite the heroic efforts of the principal to make the changes as seamless as possible.

These cuts aren’t just affecting my children’s school. Last year, Pittsburgh Public Schools desperately cut programs across the city, spending $11.5 million less than the year before. But even after slashing almost 19% of its employees over the past five years, the district still estimates that it will be broke by 2016. That’s a tiny improvement over 2015, when the district formerly projected we would be bankrupt, but certainly not good news. [Post-Gazette, 3-22-13] The district is working on a strategic plan that will almost certainly include a proposal for closing more schools, echoing Philadelphia which has just announced it will shutter 23 more of its schools (while opening up more privately managed charter schools at the same time). [See “Philly Today, Pittsburgh Tomorrow”]

Think this is only a big city problem? Think again. The state just put Wilkinsburg and Aliquippa school districts on their financial watch list. Both Southwest, PA towns are struggling to pay their bills and Wilkinsburg will only get through this year on a new $3 million loan it was forced to take out. [Post-Gazette, 3-15-13] Of course, the state’s new “early warning system” designating districts as financially troubled seems to do nothing to actually help them. There is no recognition by Governor Corbett or the Department of Education of what these districts have in common: poverty and a large proportion of African American students.

The state also just added Reading, PA – the second poorest city in the country (it was first in 2011) – to its watch list. [New York Times, 9-26-11] And it added Steelton-Highspire school district near Harrisburg – which as the name suggests, is in an old industrial area – and also serves a large proportion of African American students. That school district just announced that it will eliminate pre-K and cut all Kindergarten to half days next school year. [PennLive, 3-21-13] Yes, read that sentence again. Districts are now forced to cut the very things we know work the best to help students. Meanwhile, the Allentown school board has just approved what it calls the “worst possible scenario,” eliminating all remaining art, library and physical education staff from its elementary schools. [Morning Call, 3-21-13] Check out this brave Allentown teacher who recently made this short video explaining the situation there:

Are you starting to see the connections here? High poverty school districts, towns suffering from post-industrial decline, school boards with limited ability to raise taxes (additionally hampered by state laws), and students of color being disproportionately affected by a growing list of cuts to absolutely essential education programs. No one in their right mind thinks we should be cutting early childhood education or Kindergarten. Can you imagine your child in an elementary school with no art, no library, and no gym?

Pennsylvania is becoming a dangerous place for kids and amphibians. Before we become boiled frogs, it’s time to leap out of that hot water and make some noise. Next Wednesday, April 10^th, will be a great chance: plan to join EdVoters’ state-wide call-in-day and take a few minutes to contact your legislators. Can you help organize an event at your school or place of work? Here’s what we will be calling on the state legislature to do this year:

• Reinstate $270 million in funding to K-12 education in this year’s budget (and for the next 2 years – to restore the nearly $1 billion in state funding level cuts over a three year timetable).

• Put in place funding formulas that have a strategy for allocating dollars, working toward a permanent, rational funding formula. Formulas must account for the number of students, include “weights” for the additional costs for educating students with special needs (including students in poverty, gifted students and English language learners), and provide sustainable and predictable funding for districts.

• Begin to address formula and funding mechanism flaws in the way that charter schools are funded (a good formula will set rates appropriately and not pit groups of children against each other);

• They must also provide cost of living increases for special education (which has been flat funded for 6 straight years) and career-technical education;

• Develop a comprehensive plan to guarantee that the students in financially distressed districts have the resources necessary to meet the state’s academic standards.

Ribbet. Ribbet.

Why I’m Going to D.C.

Two weeks from today I will be standing on a street-corner in our nation’s capitol giving a speech. That’s a strange place for an academic to be giving a talk, but this is no ordinary event. I’ve been asked to go to Washington D.C. to join public education advocates from all over the country for a four-day occupation of the sidewalk outside the U.S. Department of Education.

This “Occupy the D.O.E. 2.0” is essentially a national teach-in, with a different speaker every 20 minutes for four straight days. I’m honored to be sharing the microphone with the likes of education historian Diane Ravitch, Chicago teacher’s union president Karen Lewis, early childhood education expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige, filmmaker Brian Jones, education researcher Deborah Meier and many, many others. Pennsylvania will be in the spotlight the afternoon of Friday, April 5^th, and I hope all of you from the keystone state will consider coming down for part, or all, of this significant event.

The occupation runs from April 4-7, 2013 and on Saturday, April 6, there will be an organized march to the White House. Organized for a second year in a row by the grassroots volunteers of United Opt Out National, the event promises to be a “gathering of progressive education activists endeavoring to resist the destructive influences of corporate and for-profit education reforms, which began in previous administrations and persist with the current one.” The planners explain, “We cannot and will not stand silent as the threats to dismantle our system of public education continue. These threats include the erosion of the teaching profession, excessive use of standardized testing, mandated scripted curriculum, the absolute disregard of child poverty, and reforms which disproportionately impact minority communities.”

Here’s my statement that is on the United Opt Out National homepage. I hope to see you there.

—————-

I am coming to Washington D.C. to Occupy the Department of Education this April because our public schools in Pennsylvania have lost $2 BILLION these past two years. Draconian state budget cuts of this magnitude are only possible when people stop believing in public education as a public good. Too many in this country have been swayed by the national narrative of “failing public schools” and taken in by the false promises of the corporate-reform movement with its seductive rhetoric of competition, choice, and accountability. But the implementation of those ideas has meant widespread privatization and out of control high-stakes-testing, causing real harm to our students, our teachers, and our schools. And poor kids — and students of color, in particular — have been harmed the most.

Here in Pennsylvania, our students have lost nearly 20,000 of their teachers; they’ve lost music, art, library, foreign languages and even tutoring and Kindergarten programs; kids are in classrooms with 39 students; and they are spending more and more of their precious time on testing and test-prep. Meanwhile, some of the deepest pockets on the planet have been dumping millions of dollars into our state through superPACs to get voucher laws and other privatization policies passed; ALEC has been writing our state legislation; four of the state’s top donors to political campaigns this past fall had direct ties to charter schools; and school districts in five Pennsylvania cities are literally circling the drain, on the verge of total collapse.

But there is hope. A grassroots movement of volunteer parents, students, teachers, and community members has been fighting back, educating itself on the issues, reaching out to learn from and work with others, and connecting to groups all over the country. I am coming to Occupy the DOE because in studying the history of social movements I have come to understand that ordinary people, acting together, make real change happen. I am coming to Washington D.C. to stand on a street corner with all of you to shout, “Public education is a public good!”

Back to the Budget

The governor is talking about education funding again, so it’s time to check back in on our state budget. Yesterday Gov. Corbett visited the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce to tout his liquor privatization plan, which he estimates will yield $1 billion that he will require school districts to spend on science and technology initiatives. [Delco Times, 3-13-13] I’m all for getting schools money after the draconian cuts they have suffered these past two years – totaling $2 billion now – but this plan has some serious holes in it.

First, you may have noticed that the dollar amounts don’t quite add up. This plan only talks about half the amount that schools are currently missing (after the nearly $1 billion cut in 2011 and the budget freeze in 2012 that locked in those cuts for a second year in a row). The governor believes that the state will collect around $1billion in revenue from the sale of licenses and auctioning off wine and spirit retails stores over the course of four years. [Post-Gazette, 1-30-13] As we pointed out before, that’s not a sustainable model. [See “Kids or Booze”.]

Even the Governor acknowledged this was “one shot” funding. But he suggested this would give school districts the chance to try out new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs or buy new experimental equipment. He told school districts in Delaware County, “These are like planting seeds and getting programs going.” [Delco Times, 3-13-13] Um, does someone want to remind Gov. Corbett that our problem is not getting new programs going – it’s funding the perfectly wonderful old programs we had before they were slashed under his budget cuts. New STEM programs would be lovely, but that’s almost a cruel joke when our students have lost their actual science teachers. New science equipment? How about basic supplies? Parents at my sons’ school have donated all the pencils, erasers, folders, tissues, and other classroom supplies this year. Yes – donated. All.

Larry Feinberg of the Keystone State Education Coalition attended the press conference yesterday where Governor Corbett argued that liquor stores are not a core function of government and that 48 states do not have such systems. Feinberg notes that it was good to finally hear the governor say that education is a core function of our state government, and points out, “If education is a core function we should fund it that way. Forty-seven states have funding formulas that provide predictable and sustainable funding for their schools.” [KYSEC, 3-14-13]

Indeed, as a new report out from the Education Law Center (ELC) has found, Pennsylvania is one of only three states that does not use a modern funding formula. The study notes that, “Pennsylvania is a national outlier when it comes to following basic budgeting principles — accuracy, fairness, and transparency – that most states use when it comes to public school funding.” Our state government is not using an accurate student count when it calculates and distributes its education budget. It doesn’t recognize that it costs more to educate students with special needs, English language learners, or students living in poverty. Ironically, Pennsylvania did have a modern funding formula similar to what many other states use. But “that formula was mostly abandoned in 2011 and amended completely out of use last year by the state legislature.” [ELC, 2-28-13]

At the same time, a new report out this week from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center finds that the keystone state is increasingly giving away its keys to corporations in the form of tax breaks. In just the past ten years, the cost of these tax breaks has “skyrocketed” – more than tripling “since 2003-04 from $850 million to just under $3.2 billion per year.” And the report notes that, “these tax cuts compete with state funding for schools, the state’s colleges and universities, early childhood education, and human services.” [PBPC, 3-12-13]

So we’re giving away over $3 billion in relatively new tax breaks, while our students are going without books and teachers, and Gov. Corbett proposes a one-time shot of booze money to pay for some science equipment? The only thing more insulting is that the governor has also proposed a whole new round of tax cuts starting in 2015 – precisely the year that Pittsburgh Public Schools anticipate going flat broke. As the PA Budget and Policy Center analysts explain: “enacting a permanent phase down of business taxes puts profitable corporations first in line when future budgets are negotiated, diverting resources that are critical to children.” [PBPC, 3-12-13]

So what are we going to do about this? My friends, we must protest. A coalition of over 50 groups called Better Choices for Pennsylvania did just that on Tuesday: they went around the capitol building and delivered a half a pie to every legislator, reminding them that all those tax cuts for large corporations have left our schools and communities with a smaller share of the state budget pie. [DailyKos, 3-13-13] Last year we held Mock Bake Sales across the state, perhaps this year is the year of the pie?

EducationVoters PA has set up an on-line form you can fill out right now that will find your legislators and send a message asking them to support fair funding and meaningful reform in the 2013-14 budget. They have also scheduled the next state-wide call-your-legislator day for Wednesday, April 10^th. [Remember what happens when “Yinzer Nation is on the Phone”?] Who can help organize events this year?

We can’t let our legislators think that the Governor’s proposed booze money is the answer to the school funding crisis he created. It’s time to get back to the budget and prioritize resources for our children, fix the state funding formula, and enact real reforms that support public education.

Charter Reform Now

Charter schools are all over the news today. The Post-Gazette has not one but two articles, there is new legislation pending in the state House this week, and a new grassroots movement launched today aimed at reforming the broken state funding formula. Sounds like time to catch up on what is going on with our charter schools.

First, the Post-Gazette’s cover story looks at the competition to get into both charter schools and the city’s magnet schools. Places like the Environmental Charter School have so many applicants their admission rate is lower than Yale’s. [Post-Gazette, 3-11-13] But a number of Pittsburgh Public Schools also have large numbers of applications for relatively few spots, including Dilworth, Linden, and Phillips. This story did not factor in two of the city’s most coveted schools – Pittsburgh CAPA and Pittsburgh Sci-Tech – which would surely have illustrated just how competitive some of our traditional public schools have become.

While I was glad the paper included Pittsburgh’s public schools in this article, I was disappointed to see it trot out the use of waiting list statistics. This is a marketing tool frequently used by charter school advocates, who claim that there are 44,000 Pennsylvania students on waiting lists. [Post-Gazette, 3-11-13] The problem is that traditional public schools don’t keep waiting lists. They are open to everyone. All the time. For instance, those who do not get coveted spots in Pittsburgh’s magnet schools must be accepted into their feeder pattern school. And the public system is not keeping “waiting lists” for any of their schools. If you don’t get a magnet spot this year, you have to reapply next year with everyone else.

In other words, “waiting lists” are inaccurate comparisons of public demand for particular schools. They have also been prone to exaggeration, as occurred in Florida recently. During a legislative hearing, a charter school lobbyist claimed that there are 80,000 kids on the waiting list in that state, but then back-pedaled fast after being confronted with problems of students being double counted, among other issues with the numbers. [The Answer Sheet, 2-10-13]

Regardless, I appreciate the things that some charters, such as the Environmental Charter School, are able to offer their students. Beautifully designed classrooms. Individualized iPad lessons. Time to hike in local parks. A hands-on curriculum. New playgrounds. An outstanding lunch program. Environmental literacy classes. Low student-teacher ratios. Authentic parent engagement. [Post-Gazette, 3-11-13] These are the things we should have in every public school. Our poorest students, and particularly our students of color, deserve all this and so much more.

Charter schools were conceived back in the 1990s to develop new ideas and share them with traditional public schools. And I am glad to see Pittsburgh superintendent Dr. Linda Lane meeting with the city’s charter schools to warm those relationships. [Post-Gazette, 2-26-13] But in this era of massive state budget cuts, any good ideas that get shared are made nearly impossible to implement as our schools are forced to increase class sizes, furlough teachers, cut the arts, and even eliminate tutoring. So we have to ask, is the problem really that our traditional, urban public schools don’t have good ideas?

One thing we must do is reform the state funding formula so that school districts are properly reimbursing charter schools for what it actually costs them to operate. For instance, the state’s Auditor General estimates that cyber-charters are costing us taxpayers $365 million per year – that’s $1 million per day – in over-payments. [See “One Million Per Day”] State Rep. James Roebuck has just introduced legislation that will go a long way towards fixing a number of problems. [See Post-Gazette, 3-11-13 and PA House Memorandum, 2-25-13] Locally, Rep. Dan Frankel has already signed on to co-sponsor the bill. And Republicans, who seem equally focused on addressing the cyber-charter funding problems, in particular, have introduced other bills.

The time has come for much needed reform and it appears that political will has shifted in that direction. Pittsburgh alone has budgeted close to $53 million for charter schools this year, and that’s up $5.5 million from last year. With the state’s massive defunding of public schools, Gov. Corbett slashed reimbursements to districts for charter school tuition payments – that is costing Pittsburgh $14.8 million this year. [Post-Gazette, 11-13-12] A new grassroots effort, spearheaded by our colleague Susan Spicka in the middle part of the state, has launched today to tell our legislators that they need to act now. Please take a moment to check out the “Reform PA Charter Schools” site and sign the petition.

Let’s fix this funding formula and other regulatory issues (such as accountability and oversight) so that we can move on to talking about beautifully designed classrooms, individualized iPad lessons, new playgrounds, and small classes for all our children.

School Boards Matter

Pittsburgh’s school board is about to get a major shake up. Five of its nine spots are open this year, and there are multiple candidates running in some districts. Because of the nature of city politics, many of these seats are likely to be decided in the May primary, so we just have a couple months to get to know those who are running.

Making this election cycle more confusing, the city has just re-drawn school board lines, moving entire neighborhoods into new districts. [See Post-Gazette, 11-12-12 for list of changes.] And the new map does not align with other political boundaries such as those for city council, state representatives, or even school catchment areas. But these are extremely important races and it’s worth taking a minute to make sure you know which district you are in.

New board members will be making crucial decisions about school closings. (And we know for sure Pittsburgh will see more devastating loss of neighborhood schools in the next couple years.) Board members also sign-off on accepting grant money from foundations and approve contracts with consulting firms. [Remember “PPS: Planning a Privatization Scheme?”] And they approve new charter schools, which are frequently opened to replace the public schools that just closed.

In fact, charter schools and the use of high-stakes-testing for teacher evaluation are two of the hottest school board issues across the country right now. In Los Angeles, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tried to take over the school board in 2006 as several other large cities have done (called “mayoral control,” this has been a key strategy to remove power from democratically elected school boards, allowing for swift imposition of the corporate-reform agenda, especially school closure). When his attempt failed, Mayor Villaraigosa switched to backing school board members who support corporate-style reforms. He solicited donations from New York’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave a whopping $1 million, and from Michelle Rhee, whose StudentsFirst group gave another $250,000. [New York Times, 3-4-12]

We need to seriously question why these wealthy individuals and astro-turf groups are dumping millions into the Los Angeles school board races. The good news this morning is that it appears all those dollars did not work: with returns now in, it looks like school board member Steve Zimmer, a moderate who dared to question privatization, has retained his seat against an opponent who was backed by the mayor, Bloomberg, and Rhee, as well as the Los Angeles Times editorial board and billionaires Eli Broad (of the Broad Foundation that trains school superintendents) and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. [DianeRavitch, LA Upset] That’s a major victory for public education advocates in California – and a lesson for us in Pennsylvania.

School board elections matter. They matter a lot. And one of the benefits of being in Pittsburgh, say, and not Los Angeles, is that – at least so far – we don’t have ultra-wealthy outsiders tromping in with their dollars and agendas, trying to trounce on our democratic process. So please do your part and get to know your local candidates. Here’s the perfect chance to ask questions and learn where your future school board members stand on privatization, school closures, charter reform, high-stakes-testing, and sticking up for adequate state funding: on Monday, March 11, 2013, PIIN will host a town hall meeting from 6:30-9PM with all the school board candidates at University Prep 6-12 at Milliones, in the Hill District (3117 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219).

In advance of this town hall, Yinzercation has been working with a coalition of education partners to develop a vision statement for Pittsburgh public schools, including a pledge for school board members. Members of the coalition include PIIN, the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, Action United, OnePittsburgh, and A+Schools. We want school board members who are more than just fiscal watchdogs in these challenging financial times. With the district scheduled to run out of money in 2015, it will be too easy to let budgets drive decision-making.

In other words, we need school board members with vision, who are:

1. Careful policy makers and objective evaluators of data and research-based reforms
2. Wise stewards of public school resources
3. Promoters of public education as a public good
4. Fearless advocates for restoring adequate State funding for our schools
5. Advocates for enhanced revenues and fair executors of the school board taxing authority to ensure that everyone pays their fair share.
6. Committed to achieving equity by supporting teachers, parents, students and community members in developing school specific plans to implement the District’s Equity Plan.
7. Real partners with all stakeholders to set the highest professional standards and nurture collaboration across our school system
8. Leaders who engage parents, educators, administrators, and community members in authentic, ongoing dialogue that improves our school and enriches our democracy
9. Committed to implementing community driven solutions that come from real engagement and collaboration between parents, students, educators, administrators and community not outside consulting firms.

This is some of the language we have been working on. What do you think? Please come to the town hall on Monday and get this crucial conversation going. Keep the grassroots in our elections so there’s no room for the billionaire corporate-reformers to play with Pittsburgh’s school board.

No More Whoohoo

“Whoohoo!” Curb your enthusiasm kids and under no circumstances should you ever start a sentence like that. In another sign that high-stakes-testing is out of control and hurting our children, students are now being told to follow rigid writing guidelines that have nothing to do with real learning and everything to do with how they will be measured on tests.

At last week’s Rally for Public Education, Dr. Tim Slekar, head of the education department at Penn State Altoona, told the story about his son, Luke, just learning to read and write. Luke was supposedly having trouble responding to writing prompts and therefore not doing well in school. For example, instructed to write about a favorite time with his family, he started his little essay by saying, “Whoohoo! Let me tell you about my great vacation …” and earned a big fat zero for the assignment. The teacher explained to Dr. Slekar that if this had been the PSSA (Pennsylvania’s high-stakes, standardized test), his son would have failed. She then had Luke tell his dad what was “wrong” with his essay. “Whoohoo is not a sentence,” Luke said glumly, “and writing prompts must always start by restating the prompt.”

As Dr. Slekar told the dismayed audience at the Rally, the teacher was under tremendous pressure to make sure her students scored well on the PSSAs. “Luke was actually experimenting with writing and trying to communicate to his readers a sense of excitement – ‘Whoo hoo!’ … but the PSSAs were forcing Luke to parrot sentences in a pre-ordained structure so that low-paid temp workers would be able to score it.” Dr. Slekar calls this a “disastrous system” of high-stakes testing, that forces teachers to comply with systems established by legislators, not educators, and that actually damages student learning.

If you missed the Rally, please take four minutes to watch Dr. Slekar’s extremely compelling comments. (And we now have links to video of the rest of that amazing event at “What a Rally!”) Consider how parents all over the country have been opting their children out of these high-stakes-tests (including a big group right here in Mt. Lebanon); how entire schools of teachers in Seattle are refusing to administer such tests; how students in places like Portland, Oregon are standing up and fighting back. This Opt Out movement is not against assessment, it is opposed to high-stakes-tests that are being used to label our children, their schools and their teachers as failures; it is opposed to the culture of testing and test-prep that has pushed meaningful, rich learning experiences out of our schools; it is opposed to the perverse consequences of high-stakes pressure such as cheating scandals and stress-related symptoms in our children.

Some people have asked me what concern for high-stakes-testing has to do with budget cuts, which is where this grassroots movement started. The answer is that the historic budget cuts we are suffering here in Pennsylvania could not happen without the logic provided by high-stakes-testing. These tests provide the “data” that seem to “prove” that public education is failing; they reinforce what many (falsely) already believe about cities, urban youth, and students of color in particular. You cannot massively slash programs that have broad support: but high-stakes-tests and this insidious national narrative of “failing public schools,” have thoroughly convinced many that we need to scrap public education altogether and start over. Too many have lost faith that public education is a public good. And when that happens, Governor Corbett here in Pennsylvania (like many others around the country) can legitimize the defunding of our schools.

Meanwhile, the state uses PSSA test scores to label individual schools as failures and justifies draining public taxpayer dollars through the EITC corporate-tax credit programs, sending our revenues to private schools, while claiming we do not have enough money to support public education. And the tests themselves cost our state – us taxpayers – millions and millions of dollars, which are going to enrich private testing corporations that are making immense profits. Finally, when school districts are hit with budget cuts, they are forced to slash everything that doesn’t count on a test: since only reading and math are measured, students lose art, music, history, library, languages, and even tutoring programs (which just demonstrates how perverse this system really is). And when pressed to the limits of existence by state budget cuts those districts decide they must close individual schools, they inevitably shut down the “failing” school full of “under-achieving” students defined by those test-scores.

If you are interested in learning more about your legal right to opt your children out of high-stakes-testing, please join us for a conversation at the Squirrel Hill Library at 3:30PM this coming Sunday, February 24, 2013. The Opt Out movement is coming to Yinzer Nation. Whoo hoo!