Time to Circle the Wagons and Protect Public Schools

ByAccountabaloney

On November 22, 2016, I spoke before my Monroe County School Board, imploring them to take the threat of privatization of public education seriously. Please consider making similar comments to your local school board. I have posted, below, the notes from my comments (you can watch my speech here at 1:47). The day after I spoke, Betsy DeVos was nominated for US Secretary of Education. Ms. DeVos’ advocacy “career” has focused on the privatization of public education (read about her here and here). The threats of privatization are real. It is time to speak out before we lose our public schools.

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Public Comments by Dr. Sue Woltanski, given before the Monroe County School Board on 11/22/2016:

I want to welcome Mindy Conn to the Board. I am hopeful the five of you will work together to guide our district through what looks to be a very important time. Powerful forces are working to completely privatize public education, putting the very existence of our schools at risk and the 5 of you will make decisions that will impact the future of public education in the Keys. If you think I am being overly dramatic, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Some decisions may seem minor to you at the time or be hidden on the Consent Agenda, like approving expensive developmentally inappropriate education technology for Head Start. Today, you heard about the district’s planned expansion towards 1:1 digital devices for our youngest students (despite the state only mandating only 1:10). I am encouraged to hear you begin to question these expenses.

Today, you, also, discussed the application to establish a new charter middle school in the Lower Keys, Somerset Academy, which will be managed by Academica, the largest for profit charter management company in Florida. Academica also employs our current state Senator, Anitere Flores. Apparently, it was a calculated decision to ask for a new charter for a middle school rather than expand the existing charter of the Academica high school, Key West Collegiate, because grant money is available to new charters and, as a board, you could have denied expansion of an existing charter but could not deny a new charter from a “High Performing Charter Network.” I notice that the charter application fails to mention the failing Somerset Academy charter schools in Duval county. As you learned today from Todd German, a board member for the new charter, there was NO community survey done to determine a need for this new school; instead it was the “idea” of Jonathan Gueverra, the President of the Florida Keys Community College (FKCC), where the charter will be co-located. “Coincidentally”, Senator Flores sponsored and paste at bill last session allowing the building of much needed dormitory rooms at FKCC, Senate Bill 576. (Perhaps this is an example of quid pro quo?)

Two years ago, I stood before you and I quoted then Representative Keith Perry’s desire to completely destroy public education with the intention of building something better in the wreckage, he called it “creative destruction”. I am opposed to this because my children need these schools NOW… not sometime in the future. Keith Perry is now a state Senator seeking a leadership position on the Senate Education Committee.

Last Winter, I alerted you to the dangers of Competency Based education or CBE, where computer algorithms, rather than teachers, control a child’s promotion along a mandated, established education path. Over the past 6 months, Florida has handed 3rd grade promotion decisions over to more and more CBE programs, like iStation and iReady, and teachers’ input has been practically removed from this important decision. In Monroe, the competency based iStation is now listed as part of the Core Curriculum for Math and Reading in k-5. The continued expansion of CBE will simultaneously destroy the teaching profession and enrich corporate investors. This is a win-win for Ed reform and it is the goal.

If we allow Monroe County’s highly trained and dedicated teachers to be replaced by computer algorithms, we will never get them back. And as I implored you before, our children need teachers.

On Election Night, the Florida Federation for Children, a well-funded political group supporting vouchers, celebrated that they had defeated 21 of the 22 candidates they had targeted, including our former Senator Dwight Bullard, who was often the lone voice speaking out against privatization and destructive Ed reform policies. Two years ago, the same group targeted individual members of the Florida School Board Association and effectively terminated that group’s participation in the voucher law suit.

This year, incoming House speaker Richard Corcoran has made it clear that Universal Vouchers and the complete privatization of public education is the goal. Having eliminated nearly all opposition, it should be smooth sailing for them. Understand that Universal Vouchers will allow the state to continue to underfund public education while requiring virtually no accountability for the tax dollars funneled towards voucher funded private schools. Expansion of CBE will funnel education dollars directly to technology companies and gradually eliminate the need for qualified teachers. These are the goals.

Our new President has a policy agenda that is surprisingly similar to Obama’s: it heavily favors vouchers, charters, expanded Edtech and privatization. Is it a coincidence that Erik Fresen, whose family owns Academica, was in New York this weekend? Maybe… The only glimmer of hope is in Trump’s insistence on local control.

We must insist on local control at the COMMUNITY LEVEL.

Please consider this:

Is this Board willing to take a stand for public education or will you sit back and watch the district continue to be ravaged by education policy designed to destroy it?

Will you fight for control or continue to allow Tallahassee and Washington to dictate what happens in our schools?

Will you fall for the rhetoric that suggests 3 and 4 year olds somehow need to be prepared for a global economic future or will you fight for a high quality, developmentally appropriate education for all our Keys kids?

Will you fight against Universal Vouchers, even at the risk of wealthy Federations threatening your School Board seats, or will you back down like your colleagues and allow the privatization of our schools?

Tallahassee and Washington have told us their goals: the total privatization of public education. It is time for Monroe County to circle the wagons and protect our public schools. Please work together to do so.

Again, if you think I am being overly dramatic, then you haven’t been paying attention.

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