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By Dr. Susan Berry
Breitbart
January 6th, 2015

At least 40 conservative groups in Indiana have signed on to an agenda for education reform that will be submitted to the state’s lawmakers Tuesday. Among the top planks of the coalition’s platform are cutting regulations for schools that agree to accept school choice vouchers and freedom to reject the state’s rebranded Common Core-aligned standards.

The coalition’s “Platform for Educational Empowerment” was launched by the grassroots organization Hoosiers Against Common Core, a group working to defeat federal overreach into education.

According to a news release sent to Breitbart News, the coalition of groups will be urging Indiana lawmakers to address these priority issues in the new legislative session:

[R]educing regulations on voucher-accepting schools; Freedom in testing and choice of non-Common Core-aligned/rebranded standards; Forgoing a renewal of Indiana’s federal No Child Left Behind waiver; Greater protection of student data; Empowering parents, as opposed to government-funded institutions, when it comes to the care of children too young for kindergarten; Equalizing basic per-pupil student funding for school; Taking a stand against the College Board’s new and controversial AP U.S. History framework.

“This is a comprehensive document that sets a path for obtaining academic excellence in our schools, by empowering and liberating those closest to the students – local districts, schools, teachers, and parents,” Dave Read of The Central Coalition, a group of 20 central Indiana Tea Parties, says. “It is the antithesis of the failed policies of the last several decades, all of which have been geared toward centralizing government control over Indiana schools. It makes the case for unshackling schools, rather than tightening the government vice-grip.”

At the end of December, the Associated Press reported that Gov. Mike Pence (R) has worked to turn Indiana’s school choice initiative into the most extensive in the nation. Since 2011, when the state’s school choice program was launched, nearly five percent of Indiana students are now using vouchers to enroll in either private or charter schools.

“Pence is pushing to expand it this year by lifting income caps for families seeking state money to send their children to a private school,” AP also reported.

Additionally, Pence would like to see school choice extended to preschools as well, and wants more state funding for charter schools.

However, while many establishment Republicans tout “school choice” programs as a sign of their “conservative” credentials, in reality, many rank and file conservatives are against the idea, especially when the vouchers come with “strings” attached, requiring the voucher-accepting schools to conform to state regulations.

“As conservatives and activists who have been at the forefront of the education debates in Indiana for the past two years, the groups represented here reject recent media reports that the expansion of school vouchers is a major priority for grassroots conservatives,” said Heather Crossin, co-founder of Hoosiers Against Common Core. “School choice needs freedom to thrive; therefore our first priority is to free voucher schools from the stifling regulations which bind them. We believed it was important to set the record straight.”

Similarly, Erin Tuttle, also a co-founder of Hoosiers Against Common Core, added, “Education policy should be driven by parents informed by academia and business, not lobbyists and government agencies informed by their own interests.”

According to the Platform for Educational Empowerment, while Indiana has the largest school voucher program in the country, the Center for Education Reform finds the Hoosier State is “ranked as the second-worst state in the country at ‘infringing on private school autonomy’ due to our voucher program’s many suffocating and unnecessary regulations.”

The Platform continues:

Because of these regulations, Indiana’s voucher program has one of the lowest private-school participation rates in the nation, at one-third of Indiana private schools. State lawmakers should cut all but the most basic of transparency requirements on private voucher schools, given that parents and private accreditation agencies already place higher demands on private schools than any bureaucrat can generate. Particularly egregious is the requirement that voucher-accepting schools administer the new assessment aligned to Indiana’s rebranded/Common Core-aligned standards. Even states such as Florida, a leader in national reform efforts, grant voucher-accepting schools freedom in the selection of standardized assessments, since tests direct curriculum. If true school choice is to be realized, this issue must be addressed so that parents may have genuine and competing curriculum options.

As Breitbart News reported last April, Hoosiers Against Common Core and other groups criticized Pence for signing on to “new” academic standards that are strikingly similar to the Common Core standards the state legislature had repealed.

“For all Pence’s claims of federalism, his signature legislation removing Indiana from the Common Core required the new standards to ‘comply with federal standards to receive a flexibility waiver,’” Tuttle told Breitbart News at the time, quoting from the legislation that had Indiana abandon the Common Core. “His Hoosier process was predicated on satisfying the federal government, thus resulting in a rebrand of the Common Core.”

“The rebrand of Common Core standards in Indiana shows the system is broken,” added Micah Clark, President of American Family Association of Indiana, one of the coalition’s groups. “We will continue to advocate for the liberation of schools from the Common Core-aligned system that still controls them from Washington, D.C.”

Dan Thiele, a conservative activist from northern Indiana, also stated in the press release, “We won’t produce better, brighter students by creating more government programs and expanding the role of government.”

The coalition’s education platform appears timely as Pence said the agenda for this legislative season will be focused on K-12 education, according to WTHR.com.

The report indicates, however, that one of Pence’s agenda items is to urge that the members of the state Department of Education be allowed to elect their chair. Currently, Indiana voters decide who chairs the State Board of Education by electing the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“By allowing for a vote of the board, it allows a sitting Governor to use appointments to stack the Board in his or her favor,” states WTHR.com.

Pence is considered to be a 2016 presidential hopeful and may be preparing for a run. IndyStar reported that one of Pence’s supporters in the state legislature, Indiana State Sen. Mike Delph (R), submitted legislation that would allow a state lawmaker or sitting governor to seek both re-election to state office and to a federal office at the same time.

“I think it’s good for the state of Indiana to have a sitting governor in the national conversation and because of that I think it’s in our interest to make the obstacles and roadblocks for Pence as minimal as possible,” Delph said.

Breitbart News phone and email requests to Gov. Pence’s office for comments received no response.

Parent & Child Magazine
December 31, 2014

If you’re like many modern parents, your own parents’ school choices were simple: kids walked to the local public school or attended the town’s religious school. In contrast, many parents today face a dizzying array of options, from magnet programs, charter schools, virtual schools, and private school vouchers to religious and independent schools. At least 46 states and the District of Columbia offer public school choice, according to the Center for Education Reform.

“There are great schools out there, but the school that most closely meets a child’s needs is the best one for him,” says Myra McGovern, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Independent Schools. “It may not be the best school for the neighbor’s child, and if you have two or more kids, it may not be the best school for a sibling.”

Here are some issues to consider when choosing or changing schools:

• Your child’s needs: Weigh school size, class size, and special programs or interests. Does she need the personalized experience of a small school or the social interaction of a larger community?  Single sex or co-ed? Many schools offer signature programs such as foreign language immersion or a focus on science or performing arts. Does your child have special academic needs, whether the challenge of rigorous course offerings or a curriculum adapted for children with learning differences?
• Your family’s needs: Consider transportation, before- and after-school care, and cost of tuition if applicable. No matter how great the school, “if it’s two hours away, it’s not a good fit. It’s too disruptive to the family,” says McGovern.
• Academics: Examine test score data, then dig deeper and look at the school’s curriculum, style of teaching, and educational philosophy. “Some parents aren’t comfortable if they don’t see desks in a row,” says Jodi Goldberg, director of local programs for GreatSchools, which offers a comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Right Schooland parent ratings of over 120,000 schools. “If you’re not comfortable walking into your child’s school, then you’re not going to be involved. The child will take cues from the parent.”
• Extracurriculars: Experts say art, music, and sports can teach discipline, foster creativity, and help children become more engaged in school. Are these “specials” integrated into the school day? Available after school?
• School finances: Look at the school’s financial health. “Is the school being managed well?” asks Audrey Williams, public affairs manager of the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board. Occasionally, schools close midyear, leaving students scrambling.
• School culture: Make sure the school’s values match your own. Is the environment nurturing or competitive? Is the faculty and student body diverse? Is parent involvement expected? Is there a dress code or uniforms?  

Start the process a year in advance, as many schools have waiting lists or lottery deadlines. Be sure to visit classes, meet the principal, and talk to parents. Though it may seem daunting, investigate all your options. Says Goldberg: “You’re hopefully not making this choice too many times, so you want to explore all your options the first time.”

By Alexandria Neason
The New Orleans Advocate
December 28th, 2014

Kaycee Eckhardt, a former charter school teacher in New Orleans, has decidedly mixed feelings about teachers unions. She believes they play an important role in certain issues, including ensuring teachers aren’t overworked. But she worries they sometimes squelch teacher voices by insisting on a party line.

“You can’t tell teachers what to say,” she said. “Unions do that a lot, even with good intentions.”

So Eckhardt joined America Achieves, one of a growing number of new organizations aimed at amplifying teachers’ voices — but outside of traditional union pathways. The groups go by names like Teach Plus, Educators 4 Excellence and Leading Educators, and they offer teachers everything from media training to peer networking opportunities.

The organizations’ power and influence have been growing, particularly among charter school teachers. But recent developments suggest that unions aren’t dead yet — even in places like New Orleans, where charters are becoming the new norm.

Interviews with several charter school teachers in the city elicited complicated perspectives on the future of unions — a stark contrast to the simplistic, polarized rhetoric that often dominates the national debate.

Like Eckhardt, most teachers want at least some of what traditional unions have to offer, but often they want it in a different and more flexible form. And slowly but surely, they are helping to redefine what it means for teachers to organize.

For some New Orleans charter teachers, that means embracing the new alternative groups; for others, it means working to adapt traditional unions to meet charters’ sometimes unique needs.

“We can create a new and better path forward for unions,” said Greg Swanson, an English teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School, where earlier this year 85 percent of teachers signed a petition in support of unionization. Franklin is one of two New Orleans charter schools — out of about 75 — whose teachers have pushed to unionize over the last year.

But Swanson said the Franklin teachers are steering clear of demanding tenure because “it’s such a poison word.” Instead, they’re pushing for something in between tenure, which can make it difficult to fire even poor teachers, and their current at-will status, which affords them little job protection.

No unions at most charters

Nationally, the vast majority of charter schools have no union affiliation, and most of those charters that have unionized teachers are required to do so by state law. Moreover, the percentage of charters with unionized teachers is shrinking: In 2009, 12 percent of charter schools had some union affiliation compared with 7 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter group.

In New York City, the local American Federation of Teachers chapter founded a charter school in Brooklyn that continues to struggle nearly a decade after it opened.

The new organizations like America Achieves differ in their specific goals and structure, but they all seek to amplify teachers’ voice in policy debates, and they rarely, if ever, concern themselves with protecting one of unions’ main reasons for being: teacher tenure.

At times, the groups advocate for specific policy positions, as when Educators 4 Excellence aggressively campaigned against “last in, first out” layoff policies — traditionally espoused by unions — after New York City threatened to lay off 6,000 teachers in 2011. But, as the Educators 4 Excellence campaign showed, some of the groups are just as likely to position themselves against unions as alongside them.

America Achieves, where Eckhardt is now the head of the teacher fellowship program, focuses less on advocating for specific positions and more on helping teachers learn how to advocate for themselves.

At any given time, the fellowship program trains between 50 and 75 teachers from across the country, focusing on public speaking, writing op-ed columns and giving media interviews. Teachers complete an “impact project,” a sort of thesis, on topics such as Common Core.

Mostly, though, the program helps put teachers in front of significant policy makers, as when fellows met with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2010.

When NBC News launched Education Nation, a multi-day conference in 2010 about the nation’s most pressing educational issues, America Achieves brought nearly 50 teachers to the event. But the group didn’t tell the teachers what to say — something Eckhardt said would never have happened with a union.

“It’s like sitting down and talking about building a building and not inviting an architect,” Eckhardt said. “And then we wonder why the building is constantly crumbling.”

Varying agendas

Jim Testerman, who leads the National Education Association’s Center for Organizing, responded that his union’s agenda comes directly from teachers and is shaped by “tens of thousands” of conversations with members. “This is an association led by members,” he said. “They set the policy.”

Like America Achieves, Boston-based Teach Plus brings together district and charter school teachers with the goal of helping teachers help themselves. Teach Plus works in seven different cities, and their specific agenda and activities vary considerably depending on the locale.

Fellows in Boston partnered with the Boston Public School District to help put in place a recruitment program to place the most effective teachers in the most struggling schools. In Indianapolis, Teach Plus teachers voted to downplay the role of seniority in teacher layoffs, favoring classroom performance. The measure was included in a reform package passed in 2011.

Elizabeth Dean, a Teach Plus fellow, is a special education teacher at Alliance College-Ready Academy High School 16, a charter school in downtown Los Angeles. The program appealed to her because it offered the opportunity to escape the isolation of her classroom and get involved in “big picture” conversations. The Los Angeles group is a mix of district and charter teachers — some unionized and some not.

“So often there is a big rift between charter schools and district ideology, and it’s sort of artificially created,” Dean said.

While Dean, a third-year teacher, has never belonged to a union, she worries that they get absorbed in parochial battles, missing the opportunity to help teachers speak out on more universal issues, like teacher retention.

“We’re all here for the same issues and the same purpose,” she said.

The biggest teachers union, the National Education Association, has teamed up with Teach Plus to win over young teachers, according to Halley Potter, a fellow at the Century Foundation and author of a book about charter schools.

Potter said unions need to find ways to engage and partner with younger teachers, including those at charters, if they hope to remain vital and relevant in the long run.

That’s definitely true in New Orleans, where nearly all of the city’s schools are now charters. Just months after Hurricane Katrina, the city’s school board fired all of the district’s teachers, ending collective bargaining and paving the way for a charter-dominated system where most teachers are at-will employees.

Traditional union values

In recent years, a growing subset of New Orleans teachers, including Franklin’s Swanson, have said they prefer traditional union values that protect teachers’ rights rather than the new union alternatives. A majority of teachers at both Ben Franklin High School and Morris Jeff Community School have voted to unionize, although neither union has yet formalized a contract with the school’s board of directors.

Unions remain “necessary in charters because charters by design are eroding the rights of teachers as workers,” said Rowan Shafer, a third-grade teacher at Morris Jeff and co-president of the school’s fledgling union. “Charters hire young people who will work ridiculous hours and burn out rather than provide a sustainable work environment.”

That said, Shafer stresses that Morris Jeff’s teachers do not feel chronically or systemically abused.

One of the first issues the school’s teachers tackled was letters of employment. In the absence of a contract, teachers weren’t getting any written notice that told them whether they’d be asked back at the end of the school year. The school’s board agreed teachers needed this protection, according to Shafer.

The union also hopes to address the issue of lunch breaks for teachers. At present, some have to eat standing up while monitoring kids.

Teachers at Franklin unionized amid revelations of discrepancies in teacher pay and concerns that teachers were left out of too many decisions.

Mark Quirk, a math teacher at the school, said the staff wants to be consulted when changes are made, even seemingly minor ones.

Last year, for instance, the principal abruptly switched to a new online grading system two weeks before the school year started, Quirk said. Teachers felt that it needlessly made their lives more complicated.

“A lot of complaints building up to our organizing fell on deaf ears,” he said.

Although the teachers remain shy about the word “tenure,” Quirk said their efforts have been motivated by something even more basic: to “know we have a job if we are doing good work and continue to teach kids well.”