Cloaking Inequity

Cloaking Inequity is back! I am now stateside from a hiatus to attend meetings at the Brazilian Senate in Brasilia. I am addicted to pão de queijo. A few photos from the signing of a new collaborative agreement Brazil and the University of Texas at Austin. Speaking of the Senate… As young children, Americans are inculcated with […]

I suspect P.T. Barnum would be proud of the showmanship eminating from Louisiana— an educational policy circus. The Recovery School District has been acclaimed as “a game changer for New Orleans” and very likely today be up for a vote in the Texas House in Senate Bill 1718— and perhaps soon in a Legislature near you. […]

One of the most challenging aspects of charters and choice that our society is struggling with are the potential incompatibilities with democratic and community control of schools. Last year NEPC recently released a report entitled  Democracy Left Behind: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education.  I previously discussed the brief in context […]

At the recent AERA conference in San Francisco, I was having a conversation with a local San Franciscan. He we mentioning that he was disappointed that he had not been able to take financial advantage of the last two “bubbles.” He was asking aloud what other thought was going to be the next “bubble.” I […]

I had a coffee conversation with Mike Feinberg yesterday. About two weeks ago Mike Feinberg contacted me via email about one of my posts on Cloaking Inequity. He related that he wanted to clarify the conversation about KIPP’s funding. I agreed to meet with him at the Blanton Museum Café at UT-Austin for a coffee […]

As discussed in an earlier post, I travelled last week to Chicago for a panel discussion on Reframing Reform: Achieving Equity and Excellence in Public Education held by The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. As you might expect, the Chicago Public School closures was a prominent part of the conversation. Jitu Brown, a parent and community organizer in […]

  Wikipedia describes the BASIS charter schools: BASIS Schools, Inc. is an Arizona charter school operator. It operates eight schools in Arizona and one in the District of Columbia….BASIS recently announced plans to add three more schools for the 2013-2014 year: one in Ahwatukee, one in San Antonio, Texas, and a new K-4 program near their original location […]

Apologize for the CI hiatus. I have six PhD students that want to graduate, which translates to about 1,000 pages dissertation reading these past few days. I recently had a conversation with a conservative Harvard-trained attorney last Saturday in Houston. We were discussing Finland (I blogged about Finland a few weeks ago) and her point […]

Today on the Cloaking Inequity series, The Teat, I examine where parent trigger proponents get their $. I had pondered parent trigger— because from the outside looking in it appeared to be a community-based approach led by parents and civil rights activists to address the inequalities that have plagued our schools for generations. Recently we even […]

Today The Teat returns to discuss neoliberal education “reformers.” Reformers argue that their approach is about “students first”… parent trigger, online courses, universal charters, Teach For America, vouchers, anti-organizing, school closings etc… if you are to believe the “reformers,” all of these efforts are about the students… not about the adults… Who is paying the bills for […]

Dear Civil Rights and choice advocate, I have noticed that some Civil Rights advocates are supporting and leading the school “choice” movement. They are searching for alternatives as our nation has consistently and purposely underserved students of color. As one reformer from Los Angeles told me, Latina/os and African Americans have been forced to attend “f_cked […]

WTF: Why the Finnish? It is ironic that reformers and the popular discourse (such as films like Waiting for Superman) often cite Finland, the “West’s reigning education superpower,” but actually completely ignore their approach to reform. They often use Finland as an example of success and then overlay their own ideas for reforms that are […]

My mouth is agape. Rahmbo, the quasi-Democratic mayor of Chicago is angling to close more than 50 schools— about 11% of the district. Ingrained in the American psyche since birth is the mantra not to trust politicians. Yet, we have handed over the keys to our public schools to mayors in many large cities from Chicago to […]

Jaime Kohlmann, Libertarian and President of Texas Families First Coalition commented on Parent trigger: Wolves in sheep’s clothing and astroturfing. Dr. Heilig–have you read HB300? If you have, you’ll notice it’s not based at all on ALEC’s model legislation that you cite. Does HB300 contain a parent trigger? Yes. But does it contain a whole lot of other components […]

Reblogged from Crazy Crawfish's Blog: I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed by all the rapid changes happening in the education sphere. I’m positive I’m not alone in feeling this way - based on the feedback, articles and correspondence I’ve been receiving from local and national groups and individuals. As I struggled […]

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves (Matthew 7:15). The true nature of corporate-minded “reformers” (i.e. DFERs) will be revealed by their actions (by their fruits shall ye know them, verse 16). Parent trigger laws inspired by ALEC and others have been introduced from California to Georgia […]

Politicians and others often frame a narrative that charters are on par or better than traditional public schools. I have discussed how charters stack up traditional public schools extensively in posts here on CI on charters. Are there charters that are islands of excellence? Of course, there are some and I discussed this in my […]

Jeb is in the building. Another Bush (and his junior) is in the capitol today in Austin to discuss the education miracle that Florida purportedly achieved on the cheap. As discussed yesterday, there is a cadre of politicians that believe we can get something for nothing. That we can do education cheaper and cheaper. That […]