While everyone is distracted by the pandemic... legislation to unmake public education is being rolled out across the U.S.

[Thread]
Arizona: Senate Bill 1041 will expand state spending on vouchers.

This is in a state that already has a massive and terrifying neo-voucher.
Florida: Senate Bill 48 to expand vouchers.

Like Arizona, Florida has been a leader in channeling taxpayer funds to private schools. Many of these schools discriminate against students (though there are other reasons to dislike such a plan).
Georgia: House Bill 60 would allow students to take their local public school dollars with them to a private school.

Schools will be financially kneecapped by this. To say nothing of how the public good will be undercut.
Indiana: House Bill 1005 will expand the state's existing voucher program to higher-income earners.

This could cost $100 million in the first year alone. All at the expense of public schools.
Iowa: As my co-author and podcasting partner @BisforBerkshire has been pointing out, SSB 1065 is being fast-tracked.

Over $5,000 per student would be awarded for "state scholarships" (aka vouchers). Public education would never look the same there.
Kansas: House Bill 2068 and Senate Bill 61 will expand vouchers. This is in a state that @SchlFinance101 has done lots of work on, and if you want more Kansas info you should go to him.
Kentucky: House Bill 149 would do the same thing we're seeing lots of places -- divert public dollars to private schools.

If you don't see why that's a problem, we can talk. But start by reading works by @DianeRavitch @DerekWBlack and @nrookie
Missouri: Senate Bill 55 creates $100 million in neo-vouchers.

Why "neo"? Because it's a money laundering scheme. State dollars don't flow directly to private (often religious) schools. Instead, a corporation "gives" the money, and then they get "reimbursed" by the state. Yikes.
New Hampshire: House Bill 20 is the scariest of all...

"Education Freedom Accounts" would create a universal voucher for all families in the state to withdraw funds from public schools and divert them to...basically anything "education-related."
For more, join @pfpsorg and @NPEaction on Feb. 4 at 4pm EST ("Fighting Voucher Legislation in 2021").
pfps.org/join-pfps-and-…
For details about all of these privatization bills, check out the essential work by @NEPCtweet:
npeaction.org/alert-school-p…
Finally, you may be left with questions...questions like:
- What's motivating this massive state-by-state effort?
- Who's behind all of this?
- What other scary edu-policies are being rolled-out?
- What will schools look like if these policies succeed?
Well...if you've got questions...@BisforBerkshire and I have answers.

A whole book full of answers right here: wolfattheschoolhousedoor.com
@BisforBerkshire Oh yeah, and we have a podcast where this is a regular beat of ours: soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpo…
Betsy DeVos is gone. But guess what... she was the tip of the iceberg.

The real threat is a little harder to see...and much, much broader.

[End]

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More from @Edu_Historian

2 Oct 20
Quick thread on race, class, and "accountability" in public education.

1/
Educational accountability systems are designed to never challenge the value of high-income, white schools (because it would "invalidate" the rankings).

2/
Instead, they are designed in a manner that persistently identifies the "weakness" of schools serving low-income and racially-marginalized populations. (This aligns with "common sense.")

3/
Read 11 tweets
30 Sep 20
I can’t watch this debate anymore. So I’m digging into @DerekWBlack’s new book, and thinking about race, schools, and America.

A short little thread on that theme.

1/
People often interpret racial segregation in our schools as a matter of personal choice and individual prejudice.

2/
But as Derek points out, whites in the South worked immediately after Reconstruction to segregate their tax dollars.

3/
Read 10 tweets
26 Sep 20
Lots of people have been reacting as if this is a big deal.
[Short thread]
chalkbeat.org/2020/9/24/2145…
But as long as school ratings are created by a private corporation *unaccountable* to the public...and as long as those ratings are baked into real estate websites...we have a problem.
[2/n]
washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sh…
This encourages shallow, competitive school-shopping.

Moreover, I have very serious doubts that a racist and classist understanding of school quality will be overturned.
[3/n]
integratedschools.org/the-problem-wi…
Read 4 tweets
11 Sep 20
When we're talking about "good" schools, it's important to consider what we mean by "good."

(Thread)
Let's imagine that my mentor @DLabaree is right, and that there are three major aims in American education:

1. Democratic equality
2. Social efficiency
3. Social mobility

2/
@DLabaree Democratic equality represents the perspective of the citizen. The goal is to foster a functional participatory republic for all.

3/
Read 19 tweets
3 Sep 20
I'm so proud of our @HaveYouHeardPod graduate student research contest, which has given the mic to five new scholars over the past two years. Here's the latest episode, with our 2020 winner: soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpo…
@HaveYouHeardPod If you missed our episode with runners-up @MimiArnoldLyon and @AdamKirkEdge, you can get that here: soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpo…
Read 4 tweets
1 Sep 20
Hey @BostonMagazine, I fixed your "Best Public High Schools in Boston" list.

(Thread)
@BostonMagazine Here's your webpage: bostonmagazine.com/education/best…

Let's start with the title. I suggest: "These Are the High Schools with the Highest Test Scores (and We Know Almost Nothing Else about Them!)"
@BostonMagazine Also, you say "...in Boston."

But all of the schools on this list are in homogeneous white and affluent suburbs. That's not Boston.

So let's add "...in Wealthy Suburbs" to the title.

Ok...onward!
Read 14 tweets

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