By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, July 23, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Labels: Schools
State Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City) has released a report, months in the making, on school district takeovers all over the country and how they often lead to vouchers, privatization, and little academic improvement.
Click here to download Nadal's report.
8 Comments:
Some very misleading analysis by Nadal regarding the charter school language in SB 564. She makes it sound as if the Senate rejected that proposal. Actually, the language passed overwhelmingly, 25-8, as an amendment onto HB 265, (carried by Senator Rupp), an omnibus education bill that didn't make it back out of the House.
SB 161, to which Nadal refers, came up in the Senate at 5:40 p.m. on the last day of session - with 20 minutes to go in session. That's why there was a tie vote on whether or not it would be considered - even the bill's supporters understood there was no chance of passage at that late juncture.
7/23/2007 11:26 AM
There is not much love lost between Bourisaw and Kent King.
Bourisaw sent this letter---she seems to believe the Gates are better at this stuff than the TexasCan----I was suspicious of texas can when i discovered they had as many as 50 students in their high school science classes---things like that will knock down the costs.
I am not clear about Bourisaw's relation to Bill and melinda Gates. At any rate---I guess King quickly threw Bourisaw's letter into the trash.
I would love to hear Sullivan's assessment of what Bourisaw thinks--and what King thinks. kjoe
Diana M. Bourisaw, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
May 11, 2007
D. Kent King
Commissioner of Education
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
PO Box 480
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Dear Commissioner King and members of the State Board of Education:
I am writing to ask you to not accept the proposal for the State Board of Education to sponsor the charter of MoCAN in the City of St. Louis. It is my understanding the State Board is expected to vote on this measure at next Thursday’s board meeting.
I have reviewed the proposal for this charter school and its programming for at-risk students in grades 6-12. While I concur there is a need for alternative programs for at-risk students, the creation of a new charter school in St. Louis is not the solution.
Please consider our plans to plans for the 2007-2008 school year, including:
1) An expansion of alternative programming for students with chronically disruptive behavior. Beginning in August the district will open three alternative programs - one elementary, one middle, and one high school – to serve approximately 450 students. We are working with the Big Picture Company, www.bigpicture.org, to help us in establishing and staffing these schools. Big Picture is the convener of the Gates Alternative Education initiative. Big Picture has over 40 schools throughout the country including Detroit and Memphis. They have a strong track record of success in both attendance and achievement.
2) Increasing our contract with Alternative Unlimited by 100 seats which will include middle school students. Alternatives Unlimited is an alternative provider for our students who have committed the most serious offenses. A total of 400 seats will be available next school year.
3) Renewal of our agreement with ACE, a credit retrieval provider that graduates our students. ACE will receive a contract for 300 slots. ACE has a strong history of offering credit recovery in St. Louis.
Page 2
Specific to MoCAN, we have requested from their parent company information on their track record in the areas of attendance and student performance. Thus far, we have only received marketing materials.
We understand how disruptive students in the classroom can impact academic achievement for all. As you can see, we have accelerated our efforts to meet the needs of all of our students and would appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate our success.
St. Louis does not need additional charter schools. Rather, we need opportunity to build on the successes of this current school year. We have the right staff in place and all the required tools to transform St. Louis into a model for other urban districts. What we need is time and resources.
Again, please do not take the unusual step of creating the first State-sponsored charter school in St. Louis.
Sincerely,
Dr. Diana Bourisaw
7/23/2007 12:54 PM
This report functions much better as a political document than even a cursory analysis of the situation. It is telling that throughout the authors talk about the failures of districts that have been taken over--and, the situation of some of the private management firms now involved in charter schools--without any sort of context or even comparison. There are numerous, serious analysis of the performance of charter schools that one could have picked out that suitably show the complexity of catergorizing the situation--in some cases, for example, showing that students at charter schools really perform no better than students at equivalent public schools. For the case of district takeover, it would be more instructive to compare districts that have been takeover with equivalent low-performing districts that have not instituted these sort of reform strategies.
Additionally, it is telling that the link the report is really trying to make--that takeover leads to privatization--did not occur in a majority of the cases investigated. In St. Louis, charter schools preceeded state takeover. Additionally, there have been some school districts for which states have mandated a series of privatization measures (charters, vouchers, etc.) without school takeover generally.
If I was a student, faculty or researcher at a local university, I wouldn't want my name on this. I am not an explicit proponent of state takeover or mayoral takeover in all cases, but I do dislike the casual use of the social science literature to masquerade as politics.
The Egghead
7/23/2007 2:19 PM
Egghead, I think you make a good point---I say this in spite of my mostly positive reaction to Nadal's report. There is an awful lot of gray area regarding charters, vouchers and privatization.
The case the Nadal report is up against generally consists of a mindset that "things are pretty bad. It cannot possibly hurt to try something different."
Things can almost always be made worse.
In the case of slps, they have been taken over based on data established more than a year ago by people who are mostly gone-----and for all the talk of the school board circus of 2006-2007, it is possible that some things have been done which are different, and can be evaluated to one degree or another. Maybe some of it was good.
I wonder how soon stats will be available regarding achievement and attendance for this last year---I ask, having no idea what the answers will be. kjoe
7/23/2007 5:12 PM
Bourisaw has not put one thing in her letter in place. What does Sullivan say about this. Bourisaw has made it clear to us in the schoola that Kent King promised her she would keep her job and the takeover would not be completed. She announced this to us back in the spring. This makes one think she has a very good relationship with Kent King.
7/23/2007 6:55 PM
Hey mo dem, have you ever sat in either chamber in the Missouri capitol on the last day. One can go back 20 years and find that 1) at least 50 or more bills are passed in the last hour before the 6pm deadline. This year was an exception because of the deal among repelicans (1055 and HJR 7 in exchange for 577). This must have been your first year as a bystander. There was no tie vote because it was a voice vote. It could only be a tie vote if the votes were recorded. Plus, Rita Days was absent on the last day of session. If there are 34 senators and one was missing, a tie vote would be imposssible.
2)265 and 161 were both identified as posible vehicles for "that" language. The Bearden-Smith amendment came up in the house and was attached to 161. Then went back over to the senate for final approval where it FAILED.
It was returned to the senate in the morning of the last day of session. Gibbons, et al did not choose to raise the point of order until the final 30 minutes of the day. Wonder why? To kill it. republicans like fresh meat.
7/24/2007 12:13 AM
""""""Anonymous said...
Bourisaw has not put one thing in her letter in place. What does Sullivan say about this. Bourisaw has made it clear to us in the schoola that Kent King promised her she would keep her job and the takeover would not be completed. She announced this to us back in the spring. This makes one think she has a very good relationship with Kent King.
7/23/2007 6:55 PM """"
I was not there---so I don't know.
It sounds completely wrong and goes against everything I was reading at that time. I find it hard to believe.
But I was not there---so---kjoe
7/24/2007 1:42 AM
It was reported that Thurgood Marshall Academy closed because of serious Board problems and behavious of board members-
As the proud founder of Thurgood Marshall-If I were interviewed-I would have presented documented proof of the predatory actions of Imagine Charter School Management Company a.k.a. Chancellor Beacon Acadamy , a.ka. Beacon Education Management as they manipulated the Boards Attorney (Mr. Wayne Harvey) who took money from the management firm.
That same management firm is expanding even now in the city of St. Louis.
Please understand that Charter Schools were never intended to provide for- profit firms millions in the children's revenue and utilize the not-for profit as the path to the cash cow; however since these management firms throw cash around to politicians; even filing complaints with DESE, Missouri Attorney General's Office and the Federal Department of Education could not stop the preditors-
Thanks for your report.
7/24/2007 2:43 PM
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