It's time for the school board to sue.

From today's meeting,

City Council, what did OPPAGA say about your plans?

School Board, sorry we haven't asked them because we can't until the referendum has been approved.

City Council, well we won't consider approving your referendum until OPPAGA (the Office of Program Policy and Government Accountability) weighs in.

School District, well they can't weigh in until the referendum has been approved. It's kind of the law.

City council, we aren't approving it until they do, takes bite of an apple.

School District oh for %$#@s sake, lets sue





The last line was what I would wish the SB would say.

There is nothing the board can do which will appease Bowman who is on record saying he wants to replace our public schools with charters. Nothing.

If, lots of letters government advisory body, would have weighed in he would have wanted something else. Unless the board goes okay we will give our schools to charters and all the tax money to, the referendum isn't going anywhere and its time we stopped pretending it might.

The board should be applauded for trying to go through the process despite the deck being stacked against them They should be, but it should be obvious by now that this is over.

It's time to get the lawyers involved.

City Council, Aaron Bowman wants to turn our public schools over to charters.

Well it's out there. After years of  people saying, hey guys they are coming for our schools, Aaron Bowman and several other city council members during today's finance meeting made it official, they want our school district privatized and the public schools replaced with charters. No more beating around the bush, no more lies about them supporting our schools, not even smiles to the districts faces while they stabbed them in the back. Nope, they want charters and more money for them and the districts public schools can wither on the vine for all they care.

I don't have a link to the video which isn't up yet but at the meeting he said he wanted our public schools to be given to the IDEA charter chain which recently announced plans to open several charter schools here in 4 years.

Why wait though right? I mean we have schools, why not just move the district staff out and the IDEA staff in. Who wants to bet they will find money to fix up the schools if that happened?

Bowman, fix our schools, nah, support the school district, forget about it, now replace them with charters who pick and choose who they take and keep, staffed with Teach for America, now that is the ticket.

He wasn't the only council member either,

LeAnna Cumber despite the millions charters already get, wants them to get even more, as does Ron Salem. Think about that, instead of helping our public schools, they want more money to go to often for profit schools.

So much for being less than a percentage point away from being an A district.

This is shameful. City Council members fighting against the improvement of our public schools. This was a dark day for education in Jacksonville.

Shameful.

 

Richard Corcoran's wife owns a Taj Mahal charter school, our kids can go learn under a tree

Richard Corcoran believes in the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules.

While visiting Duval some of whose schools are literally crumbling, when asked about a special tax referendum they local board is trying to get on the ballot, he commented that Jacksonville doesn't need mini-Taj Mahals for their children and they would do just as well if they were taught under trees.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/301071-corcoran-casey-jacksonville

This is a picture of his wife's charter school, why do I feel like they want for nothing.



This is a picture of the public school down the street from former board member Becki Couch



Um which looks more like the Taj Mahal? That's black mold on the walls by the way.

We are not being led in Florida we are being ruled. 

DCPS is strongly considering bringing back Teach for America

This from a draft contract that the board will discuss at its August meeting,

Previous Outcomes TFA teacher performance based on Florida DOE Valued Added Model (VAM) score was reviewed for TFA teachers in TFA cohorts 2013-2015 to 2016-2018 using VAM data from 1415 to 1718 school years. There were 473 TFA teacher scores during those years. Of those, 53.9% were Effective or Highly Effective and 46.1% were Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory.

Um if almost half were considered needs improvement or unsatisfactory why for goodness sake would we even be considering bringing them back?

Well maybe its because they cut their initial asking price of 14 k to nine grand per teacher. Also from the draft contract.



Um 9 k per TFA teacher?!? Why don't we have somebody going to the states education colleges and offering graduates that money? You know people who were trained to be teachers and who will have a much greater probability of staying more than two years.

Last year we had 18 TFA teachers and the district didn't have to pay a dime. They applied just like anyone else would.

I hate to think this is a quid pro quo to get the Bully  and TFA supporter Gary Chartrand to support the tax referendum but regardless this is short term thinking. It allows TFA to remain a presence in the city until those 10-15 IDEA schools get here. Do you know who works at IDEA schools? Teach for America that is who.

Teach for America was an expensive and terrible program that did the exact opposite of what we know our most vulnerable children need and the district should not entertain for one moment bringing them back. 

I am not saying we don't need more teachers, we do, I am saying this solution makes things far worse not better.

Come on DCPS you are better than this.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran comes to town and promptly embarrasses himself, me, you, everyone, ugh

Ugh,

Sigh,

I guess I will just let his words do the talking for him, from Florida Politics,

Corcoran is not sold on the performance of Duval County Schools in terms of certain turnaround schools. In that context, we asked Monday if Corcoran approved of the proposal.

The Commissioner does not seem to back the school tax as proposed.

“I’ve been on record: You can teach Plato under a tree,” Corcoran said. “That’s what I say all the time.”

Regarding the capital tax question, Corcoran suggested the money would be better spent on operating expenses.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/301071-corcoran-casey-jacksonville

Um what?

Maybe you can teach Plato under a tree (come on you know he read that is some privatization manual) but can you teach Miguel who doesn't speak English, Emily, who is in a wheelchair or thirty kids from neighborhoods wracked with poverty who don't want to be there under a tree?

Also I want to remind you Corcoran is the education commissioner. how does he know tax referendum's can't be used on operating expenses, they have to be used for maintenance, construction and technology. Um shouldn't he know that?

Corcoran however didn't stop there, also from Florida Politics,

“Every single resource that any local entity has should be going into the classroom. Quality teachers,” Corcoran said. “That’s what’s going to change the outcomes for these students.”

Regarding the referendum, “it’s not going to change” those outcomes, Corcoran predicted.

“You can put every single one of those kids in a ‘Taj Mahal’ and he’s not going to suddenly go from a poor student to a great student,” Corcoran said. “I’ve been very vocal in my opposition to two billion dollars to build new ‘Taj Mahals.’ That’s not a solution.”

Is anyone amazed he mentioned resources? Resources which have been systematically taken away by the state. District's get about a thousand dollars less per student  when you factor in inflation from 2007, and that doesn't include all the unfunded mandates that Tallahassee has burdened districts with.

Then Taj Mahals, what the %$#& how about schools with air conditioners or that don't have mold? This guy is a travesty.Also his attack seems really specific against Jacksonville. 23 other counties have special taxes to help them because Tallahassee has been absent with the resources.

Corcoran whose wife manages charter schools, who has voted on legislation that benefits him and his family has long been a foe of public education, yet because we live in Florida and here we put foxes in charge of hen houses he was made education commissioner but today's embarrassing display just once again showed he has no business being anywhere near our schools.

Floriduh

Lenny Curry shows he is pulling the strings in the referendum fight

Earlier in the day Times Union education reporter Emily Bloch tweeted that after a meeting last week Curry was willing to support a referendum being put on the 2020 ballot.




Lenny Curry pushed back



I don't want to call the mayor a liar but at this point he has attempted to deceive the public dozens of times about the referendum, saying the district hasn't answered questions,provided information or included the community and they have done all three.

It's my bet he was embarrassed that Hershey wanted to include the board in any decision making process, you know, do her job, unlike Curry who planned to just tell the council what to do, because that's what Curry does, he pulls the strings of the council. The thing is he has strings too and they are being pulled by his rich donors to the detriment of the city.

Notice he mentions commitments to charters, um the board over and over again, to my chagrin, has spoken of their commitment to charters. Curry's problem is they have also spoken of commitments to be good stewards of the public's money making sure it is spent on public property, something Curry and his donors don't want because it takes money out of their pockets. 

Curry is not fighting for the best interests of the city, he is fighting for the interests of a handful of rich donors and it is shameful.

Lenny Curry, Gary Chartrand and Tallahassee don't want public schools to be able to compete against charters

One of the many dubious reasons given for the need of charter schools was they would foster competition. Since that is the case why are Gary Chartrand, Lenny Curry and Tallahassee handcuffing our public schools ability to compete?

It started with Tallahassee systematically under funding and hamstringing public education something they have done for over a decade now. Here is the thing you might forgive them for cutting budgets during the great recession, but the great recession ended 7 years ago and you could argue right now we are engaged in economic prosperity but when you factor in inflation we are almost a thousand dollars below the per pupil funding of 12 years ago. How is that acceptable?

To make matters worse. Tallahassee has limited how much money school boards can raise through property taxes while giving them a pittance of PECO funds while giving charters the lions share to charters. Then they exempt charter schools from hiring and building requirements while providing tax breaks and grants like they were water coming from a broken hydrant.

Also did you know Charters use both public money to advertise for their schools and are allowed to use district resources to recruit students?

Here is a post about charters using the district's computer system to recruit then board member Becki Couch's son.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-local-media-is-letting-us-down.html

They have stacked the deck against public schools, so how does that foster competition?

Tallahassee is anti-public education, I think we got it, and since that is the case something like 23 other districts have passed referendums to support public schools. The reasons given vary, safety, the arts, technology, construction and maintenance but the real reason is so they can compete against charters which don't have to supply basics like lunch, busing and covered walk ways. 

So what happens when DCPS decides they need to have the resources to compete against charters? A charter loving mayor and businessmen with close ties to charters fight against them, giving one dubious reason after another. Why because they know if DCPS is allowed to compete they will blow charter school performance away.

You can't say you want public schools to compete with charters, something by the way charters were never meant to do, and then prevent public schools from being able to compete, well you shouldn't be able to anyways and if we had a decent mayor he would know that and ignore his donors and fight for our public schools.

Competition, saving children from zip codes, both just canards the school choice movement uses to sell their snake oil and to hide their true purpose which is to replace public ed. 

Mike Clark, apparently believes anything the civic council says.

First a little background. My mother worked for the Times Union for 29 years. She was hired shortly after we moved here in 1974 until she retired in April of 2005, she passed away in May of 2005.

I grew up reading the old Jacksonville Journal when we had two papers, morning and afternoon editions. Then some of my fondest memories were going to these awesome parties the RailRoad which owned the paper would throw. I say parties but they were more like festivals where you could eat and drink as much as you wanted while playing a whole hose of games. As a child it was better than Christmas.

It was even a Times Union editor Phill Frentz that suggested I start the blog. He would print me twice a month like clockwork. One letter to the editor and one point of view piece. The problem was I was sending him 20 pieces a month and he said to me, Chris start a blog get it out there. He believed in public ed, something the editorial board has not done since he retired.

So I have a little history with the Times Union.

I believe the local media has constantly dropped the ball when it comes to education. That if we had fierce advocates fighting for our children, teachers and schools we wouldn't be where we are at. You know what some of the biggest problems Jax has? It's apathy and ignorance. With the referendum being in the news recently I can't tell you how many times somebody has said, what about the lottery. The lottery!?! That hasn't truly helped our schools in over a decade. Or why is the district opening all these charter schools if these other schools are falling apart. The people of Jax, a good number anyways. don't realize that the district doesn't have a choice in the matter. The bottom line is the media in Jacksonville has all to often treated education like an afterthought. Except the Times Union's editorial board who has joined the war against public ed and the teaching profession.   

Now you might be saying, they are editors doing opinion pieces and that's true, but the thing is they have an undeserved credibility because they are in the paper. If Mike Clark says KIPP is good, despite the data saying its not and ignoring the fact it receives millions extra, it is suddenly good to a large swathe of the city. When Mike Clark says Teach for America, despite it being both expensive and doing the exact opposite of what poor children need, is good, it's suddenly good to a large swathe of the city. Throw in their ridiculous attack on the school board building, charter schools, their love affair with Gary Chartrand and the civic council, and they are consistently misinforming the people of Jacksonville, contributing to the peoples apathy and ignorance. 

This is what the Times Union's editorial board wrote about the Civic Council just the other day.

The Civic Council, said CEO Jeanne Miller, has identified improving K-12 education as its top priority. Getting rid of public schools is not the Civic Council’s agenda, Miller emphasized; instead the priority is to recognize that we already have a system of schools and a widespread array of choices.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20190711/OPINION/190719558/SH/

Oh she says its not on their agenda. Once again, the rep for the civic council says it's not their agenda. One more time, the well paid rep for the Civic Council says its not their agenda. Mike Clark says, well okay sounds good.

He doesn't mention all the civic councils close ties to charter schools, including one that owes two members 11 plus million dollars.

He doesn't mention that the civic council doesn't seem to have any other priorities, They haven't weighed in on anything else in years.

He doesn't mention Gary Chartrand's 8 years on the state board of education where public schools and the teaching profession endured withering attacks while charters despite hundreds failing were allowed to expand and gain power.

He doesn't mention the packing of the charter review commission with a bevy of both dubious and pro school choice people.

He doesn't mention the huge drain on the public education system that charters have been.

He doesn't mention all the contributions the civic council has given the mayor who regularly tweets pro charter sentiment while fighting against a referendum that would bring economic prosperity and improved schools to the city.

He doesn't mention that we have a school board who is elected to make education choices and that the civic council when you break it down are just a bunch of guys who prefer through their history and actions charter schools.

he doesn't mention all the times Gary Chartrand has been less than truthful, and attempted to bully the school district to get its way.

He just says, oh okay, sounds good to me.

Clark closes with a disingenuous talking point that the pro privatization crowd often use, again from the editorial.

Indeed about half of all students in Florida don’t attend their neighborhood schools, and it’s not because of force — it’s by choice.

Friends there is a huge difference between the myriad of options the elected school board gives and charters and schools that take vouchers. They are not the same. He should know that, and he probably does but repeats their talking points anyways. 

We have not had the media we needed in Jacksonville, and we are not where we should or could be and a big part of that falls on the Times Union's editorial board's shoulders.  

Scott Wilson City Council President aww shucks leadership is wearing thin.

Scott Wilson a few days ago, 

From the Times Union, 

• On the sales tax referendum, he admits he knows little about the school system. At a neighborhood meeting, there was a clear lack of information on the subject.

“Everyone I have talked to among business leaders agrees that they need the money,” he said.

Though one poll shows support, Wilson is convinced the referendum would not pass this year.

Wilson says the community needs a lot more information, so he doesn’t support a referendum this fall. 

“I just think there needs to be more public participation,” he said. “We should hold hearings on the schools they’re talking about closing. People should really understand this plan before they vote on it.”

He also wondered about the school district’s plans on their riverfront administration building. The School Board has been passive about moving off the river.

“All of this should be part of the equation,” he said.

https://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/20190707/sundays-editorial-scott-wilson-is-ready-to-lead?fbclid=IwAR0TuCUM8HtXwJJXQY2_1nT4_rG-YSKglJpdB_CbDQ8T_kLeR7OyXRAiR_A

Oy vey, all the people he has spoken to, you know Curry, Chartrand, Baker. Okay deep breaths.

This from the Times Union yesterday,

Wilson said if the discussion is about a referendum in November 2020, there would be time for City Council members to dig into the School Board’s plan for using a half-cent sales tax lasting 15 years.

“For me, since day one, I’ve said that the schools definitely need additional dollars,” Wilson said. “I’ve never wavered from that. I have had concerns about how much or what projects or what schools.”

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190712/school-leaders-upbeat-after-curry-meeting

Um has he been on board since day 1? How many times since Wilson got to city hall has he said schools need more money, any? 

But now this man who admitted just a few days ago he didn't really no much about the school system and as a member of the city council why would he (sic) has concerns about how much or what schools. Oh for &$#s sake! It's insulting that he thinks we are that dumb.

I hope we all understand Wilson is just making it up as he goes along while trying to serve his masters on the Civic Council. We deserve much better than Scott Wilson and it's going to be a long year if his first 12 days are any example of what we can expect.

Oh and Scott the school board doesn't work for you, why don't you do your job and let them do theirs.

Did Ju'Coby pittman make a deal with the devil, err mayor, to fight against the sales tax referendum.

This post was inspired by the following comment left by a reader,

Listening to councilwoman Jacoby Pittman today on first coast connect I thought I heard Lenny Curry's talking points. She's all for the referendum in 2020 as long as specific questions are answered to her satisfaction. Questions that have already been answered. She just doesn't like the answers.

Ms. Pittman is also in charge of the Clara White mission whose funding was cut by thr city. Curiously she failed to criticize the mayor's office for doing so. Now she's dependent on the kindness of strangers to make up that shortfall. I wonder if those donations will come with strings attached? No conflict of interest there. This whole thing wreaks like a bad 3rd grade play.

Oy vey, so I listened to her on the first coast connect program,

https://news.wjct.org/programs/first-coast-connect-melissa-ross

You should really listen to her fumble for answers at about the 12 minute mark.

You know she was appointed by Rick Scott to the City Council before inexplicably winning a seat.

I want to pause real quick and just say Jacksonville Sucks, as a populace we vacillate from willfully uninformed to apathetic. Most people who vote R do so reflexively even if it is against their self interests and most people who vote D, don't unless it is a big national election and then bitch about how bad the city has become.

Back to Pittman, so she may not care about our public schools to begin with, she wouldn't be the only D not to do so, Just look at Kimberly Daniels. She isn't just a pretend democrat she is a corrupt one, or so the ethics office keeps saying over and over again, too. 

So the city cuts the Clara White Mission's budget and Pittman shrugs her shoulders, but that school board better come correct with reams of data, and answers to whatever questions no matter how obtuse or how many times answered and they better do so with hat in hand. 

Is there some quid pro quo, fight against the school referendum and we'll get you back later? I don't know but this is Jacksonville and that is how the sausage is made here. 

I will give Mrs Pittman one Kudo, she takes home only 94 thousand dollars as director of the mission, most non profit directors and Eric Mann I am looking at you and your 330 thousand Y salary, take home a lot more.