AP says "ethic rules have been waived" to allow DOE folks to deal more easily with Gates Foundation

[madfloridian]

The AP today has an interesting story about the impact of the Gates Foundation in pushing merit pay for teachers and other reforms of public education.

Though it appears the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have begun to speak out about these issues...the Department of Education is pleased with the involvement of the Gates Foundation.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan welcomes the foundation's involvement.

"The more all of us are in the game of reform, the more all of us are pushing for dramatic improvement, the better," Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Duncan's inner circle includes two former Gates employees. His chief of staff is Margot Rogers, who was special assistant to Gates' education director. James Shelton, assistant deputy secretary, was a program director for Gates' education division. Rogers said she joined the administration because she was inspired by the its goals for helping kids graduate from high school and finish college.

The administration has waived ethics rules to allow Rogers and Shelton to deal more freely with the foundation, but Rogers said she talks infrequently with her former colleagues.

The Influence Game.

From the Chicago Tribune's blog called The Swamp...they point out that teachers perhaps are being left behind...while the government and Gates Foundation also are working hand in hand.

The Swamp Politics

The government has set aside $4.5 billion, as part of the $787-billion economic stimulus, to spur public schools toward better achievement. As states compete for grants under the "Race to the Top'' program, they are being held to a standard that took root during the Bush administration, with its requirements that schools demonstrate yearly progress, and has blossomed in the Obama administration, which also is setting measurements for progress.

And for both the No Child Left Behind initiative that Bush won during his first year in office and the Race to the Top initiative that Obama's Department of Education is sponsoring in his first year, that means more student testing. It's a clear indicator of the common goals at work that Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and school reformer, and former president's brother, has heartily endorsed the work that Obama's education department is doing.

It has also, as the Associated Press reports in an analysis of a blossoming partnership underway in Washington, spawned a new joke:

"The real secretary of education is Bill Gates."

"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has become the biggest player in the school reform movement, spending around $200 million a year on grants to elementary and secondary education, the AP's Lbby Quaid and Donna Blankenship report. But now the foundation is taking "unprecedented steps to influence education policy, spending millions to influence how the federal government distributes nearly $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools. The federal dollars are unprecedented, too."

The blog called Docudharmah follows this working relationship further.

I pledge allegiance to Bill Gates

"I pledge allegiance to Bill Gates and to the corporation for which he stands. One nation, under Microsoft, with standardized testing and low wages for all."

Yesterday buhdydharma posted a diary Turns Out It Is Not The Republicans After All that I will reference often as I write about the education coup de tat that is occurring right under our noses. The very rich, the ruling class, is usurping our public schools. It is a slow and deliberate coup. They are taking us in with their money, promises, and dictates, and if we don't start paying attention, good public schools will be a thing of the past.

It's difficult to know where to start with so much happening and so little education news ever being reported in the MSM. So, I'm going to start in the middle and hope to provide more information in subsequent diaries. There is so much to know.

First, I want to say that Bill Gates has done much good in the world through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I thought his "small schools" initiative was a good idea in theory, although the execution has left something to be desired. That being said, his newest endeavor is wrong is so many ways. We should pay attention. The people with the most money want to control ours.

At a speech discussing The Race to the Top initiative, here is what President Obama said.

Rather than divvying it up and handing it out, we are letting states and school districts compete for it.

The blog continues with pointing out that the Gates Foundation is right in the middle of deciding who gets the big bucks from the DOE. Two of the set criteria are more testing of students, testing of students tied to teachers directly through a database to be paid for by the stimulus money. And through that testing teachers will receive merit pay. That is the goal of Arne Duncan and the goal of the Gates Foundation.

There is a video of a speech by Obama about education.

The rhetoric sounds impressive especially when Obama says it. But, the underlying theme is privatization of our public schools. In the above video, which is long I know, Obama mentions Bill Gates by name (around the 13:00 mark) and his stake in the new program. Gates wastes no time in positioning himself. He identifies 15 states to assist in getting the funding. The 15 states are: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. The foundation has hand-picked these states to receive up to $250,000 each to hire consultants to help them fill out their applications. Other states cry foul and plea for assistance, also. If you think Gates is acting out of altruism, you might be mistaken. In this letter to the other 35 states, notice how he tells them how they must answer the questions in order to qualify for funding.

The blog posts the letter from the Gates Foundation to the other 35 states, "notice how he tells them how they must answer the questions in order to qualify for funding."

After much discussion and careful consideration of your feedback, we have decided to offer funds for consulting support to any of the remaining 35 states who can meet similar criteria for funding. This support will assist those states in the development of proposals to the federal government for the initial distribution of RTTT funds. Offering assistance to all states able to meet the criteria we have established for assistance will, we hope, help accelerate progress.

Here are the criteria in the letter, with instructions on how to fill out the form to make sure they get the money.

Criteria for Funding

1. Has your state signed the MOA regarding the Common Core Standards currently being developed by NGA/CCSSO? (Answer must be "yes")
2. Does your state plan to adopt the common core standards by June 2010 (as currently referenced in the draft RTT guidance)? (Answer must be "yes")
3. Demonstrate how your state plans to adopt/prioritize the common core standards currently being developed by NGA/CCSSO? (Answers will be scrutinized to assess commitment and viability)
4. Does your state offer an alternative route(s) to teacher certification? (Answer must be "yes")
5. Does your state grant teacher tenure in fewer than three years? (Answer must be "no" or the state should be able to demonstrate a plan to set a higher bar for tenure)
6. Does your state have policies or grant programs (e.g., TIF grant) in place that encourage the
placement of the most effective teachers in schools with most disadvantaged kids (e.g.to
campuses undergoing state/fed accountability intervention) (Answer must be "yes" or state
must demonstrate commitment and/or plans to put policies in place)
7. Does state have at least six of the DQC's 10 essential data elements? (Required six: unique
student identifier, teacher?student link, student level enrollment data, graduation and dropout data.)
8.Does your state have policies that prohibit the linkage and/or usage of student achievement data in teacher evaluations?

There it is in plain English. Link student scores to teachers in forming merit pay...which puts students in the driver's seat, BTW. It puts teachers in the position of praying and hoping the kids have a good mental health day the day of the test, that the students are capable of doing well on a one size fits all test.

In fact Bill Gates is so serious about merit pay...that his foundation just gave 60 million to Green Dot Charter if they do merit pay

"Saturday, 24 October 2009
Merit Pay
Last week Green Dot Charter Schools held an evening information session to share proposed changes with their teachers. These changes will be implemented when they receive a portion of $60 million from the Gates Foundation. (The money is not secured, but Green Dot is in the final stages of the proposal. The actual announcement will come mid November.) The Gates money is contingent on Green Dot (and the other charter schools in the proposal) implementing certain polices, including merit pay for teachers.

Merit pay ties teacher pay to student performance (how they do on standardized tests). Basically, students are tested at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year. Teacher salary is determined by these test scores. This "alternative compensation" can add 3 to 22 thousand dollars to a teacher's base pay. The extra pay comes with a controversial mandatory extra month of service each year and added responsibilities like coaching and mentoring other teachers. Furthermore, these teachers will be placed in the "highest need classrooms." No teacher will be able to rest on his or her laurels. Teachers that do not consistently raise test scores will be "counseled to leave" (fired)."

But also there in the criteria in plain English...it says to basically get rid of tenure for your teachers if you want that federal money.

It's hard for school districts and teachers' unions to fight money like that, it is easier to give in and go with the flow.

[Gabi Hayes]

1. too depressing for words....

hasta luego

[Hannah Bell]

2. They hardly even try to disguise the corruption anymore.

Or the top-down hands dictating public policy.

[mopinko]

3. you are in favor of tenure in less than three years?

you oppose any change whatsoever or what?

[rpannier]

10. I do and I don't teach

Within 3 years you have a pretty good idea of who is going to make it and who isn't

Many schools at the University level offer tenure after 3 years of teaching (or writing books)

I support tenure at three years and I oppose federal government initiatives like the ones this Administration proposes

We've been saddled with federal government involvement since the Russians launched Sputnik and 95% of them have been garbage.
IMO we're at the point where the feds need to stop getting involved with their top-down management of the nations schools.

[mopinko]

15. i'm sorry, but tenure in 3 is just nuts. it flies in the face of what tenure is

supposed to be. unless they are simultaneously making it easier to get rid of bad tenured teachers, this is a horrible move.

[rpannier]

23. And how long a period would you choose?

How long should someone wait before being tenured?
5 years?
10 years?
Never?

[mopinko]

24. 10 years

3 years is a joke.

[madfloridian]

4. About tenure

Last I heard Florida teachers still get tenure after 3 years. That is not a bad timeline for it.

My problem is that when getting money from the federal government includes that requirement, then it appears to be a mandate to get federal support.

It is a way of negotiating down what teachers' unions worked so hard for. The ones involved in the education reform have contempt for those on tenure. There seems to be a demand in the new school reform for first year teachers. Cheaper to pay, easy to manipulate, and easier to fire at the end of a year or so.

Though the requirement is at least 3 years, it will be negotiated downward very soon.

Teachers are not only subject to whims of their principals, but every time a parent does not get their way the teacher is marked down.

The way things are going few will survive the 3 years to get it.

[alp227]

19. In California it's 2 years

In 2005, teh Governator put out ballot initiative Proposition 74, which evolved from the Put Kids First Act. Prop 74 would've increased the tenure period from 2 consecutive school years to 5. 55% of California voters rejected it.

[girl gone mad]

5. Once again I have to ask..

why are we taking advice from a college dropout whose claim to fame was getting insanely wealthy by tricking a computer programmer into selling him code after he had already secured deals to sell the code to someone else?

[waiting for hope]

6. This is the kicker ...

"The blog continues with pointing out that the Gates Foundation is right in the middle of deciding who gets the big bucks from the DOE."

How many more times is it going to be shown that corporations run this country and no one takes a stand against it? My state is in that "approved" number - what I want to know, who sold their soul for that.

K&R - as usual madfloridan, you deliver on what is important to know.

[madfloridian]

7. Bill Gates has done a lot for schools. What he is doing now is wrong.

It is enabling the privatization of schools by converting them to something else....public charter, private charter. The money still goes with the student, with no guaranties of coming back to the district.

Merit pay is putting the students in control of how a teacher is evaluated. It assumes every student is equal in mental ability and motivation. We are deluding ourselves if we think that is true.

Robyn Blumner of the St Pete Times had a column this week called The Impotence of Positive Thinking.

If we adhere to the theory that every child can learn in similar ways, learn things with the same amount of difficulty...then we are using positive thinking in a harmful way.

Bill Gates should be commended for his contributions to education. Then he should back away from donating hundreds of millions for schools that only achieve HIS goals.

Arne should also.

[clyrc]

11. I liked the article you linked to

but some of the comments on it are just jaw dropping. The way some people cling to stupid is amazing.

[madfloridian]

12. I think they are organized here to post ugly comments on the internet.

I really do. There are so many religious colleges near the area...they organize to skew polls and to make their numbers sound greater. There are also a lot of Glenn Beck wanna be's around.

Good to see you posting. :hi:

[clyrc]

13. I'm still around, I just don't post much

:hi:

[alp227]

20. I thought charter schools were to accommodate those with different learning styles

and give more individual attention to students through smaller class sizes etc. I always thought that private schools and charter schools cared more about the students rather than bureaucracy. So why the animosity and assumptions that it's another plain "one size fits all" model?

[madfloridian]

28. Wrong in your premise. Most private schools are about profit.

And you need to do some research on the various charter school EMOs.

They are also about profit. But their profit comes in large part from my tax dollars.

And I don't get a say in what they teach.

[alp227]

30. Cause and effect?

Private schools/charter schools are mostly about profit. Thus, because they can pay teachers more, most good teachers would rather teach there than in those anarchic public schools that parents use negligently for "free day care". Apparently that's what causes those schools to generate better students, not inherently the academic standards?

And you say you don't have a voice in what privates/charters teach. Well, as far as I can understand, a variety of bodies do manage private schools. For example, for Catholic schools in a particular region, the diocese manages them. For others, a "board of directors" perhaps? And charter school management varies state to state, as either the local school district or some managing board must approve it.

Oh yeah, I've heard of that Stanford University study that showed only 17% of charter schools were superior to traditional public ones. I wonder if Secretary Duncan has even barely heard of it too.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. This was the core:

"The very rich, the ruling class, is usurping our public schools."

[Nikki Stone1]

9. BTW, this is another thread that should be given as many recs as possible

The future of our nation is in the hands of Bill Gates and the power elite. :(

[Overseas]

14. So sad. We've had enough privatization and union busting already.

It is sad to see our government pushing more privatization. We need strong, equal public schooling all across the country. We need our unionized workforces to show us models of cooperation for our future challenges.

The incentivizing, merit pay systems imply that the reason students are underperforming is because the public schools are too communist-- so like in the Soviet Union, you see, people just didn't produce when they were working for the state but by golly, once things went private those goods started flowing again. Could we please get Alan Greenspan out of our lives already? Our schools may not be failing because Good Teacher gets paid the same as Bad Teacher. There may be some deeper problems at work. Like chronic under-funding-- "but we already spend so much already!"-- compared to the military?

So yes, it is sad seeing money diverted from improving all public schools nationwide to favoring some over others and encouraging growth in the private sector.

[YvonneCa]

16. Age Discrimination is also being done...

...in some districts, asd a result of the pressure on districts to compete.

[Mithreal]

17. You got me to call the White House comment line. K&R

The person who answered was engaged, asked questions and gave me more time than I expected.

Anyway, now it is another DU'ers turn to call.

[w4rma]

18. Damnit. This is bad. (nt)

[Dinger]

21. madfloridian, You Amaze Me

YOU ought to be the Secretary Of Education! I mean that.

[london calling]

22. SOE for MadFloridian

Except I have seen school districts renting and buying church property at absurd rates. Crony hires of spouses, sister in laws, brother in laws by school districts. Sweetheart deals for property bought and sold by districts. Corrupt bribery induced purchases of equipment. BUT MadFloridian only comments on similar bad behavior by Charter Schools, voucher programs etc. Not all school districts are honest and not all charters are corrupt but MF seems to see it that way.

[madfloridian]

25. Yes, that is what I do. Because public schools can be fixed...others can not.

Public schools are under public authority, and if wrongdoings are found they can be fixed. Problem is that once the schools are turned over to charter companies....they are not regulated like that. In Florida for example only a few counties are allowed by the state to control their charter schools at all.

So who is going to hold them responsible?

As long as my taxpayer money is going to vouchers to private school which can be religious schools, as long as my taxpayer money is going to charter schools which are taking money from public schools....you can bet your sweet bippy that Madfloridian will keep griping.

[Dinger]

26. Hear Hear!

:) O8) :toast: :bounce: :thumbsup: :kick: :hug: :fistbump: :pals: :headbang: :yourock: :applause: :patriot:

[london calling]

27. Farewell to MF

Charter schools are public schools. Some have a lot of oversight. Some have little. Some follow all of the same rules as traditional public schools. If you do not understand that charter schools are public schools, I feel there is no point in reading anything you say. Your myopic opinion of anything that is not in your view a public school is simply wrong. I do not believe that public money should go to private companies without accountability. I do not believe public money should go to any religious based organization (schools, feeding the homeless, etc.) However, you have decided that only your model of public education is accountable. I am sure your will keep griping, I won't be listening.

[madfloridian]

29. Yes, I probably will keep griping.

Not that it makes any difference at all.

Farewell to you, too.