Student advocacy at work

This is a great story coming in from New Bedford's School Committee meeting on Monday on student advocacy around menstruation and schools:

Zhang spoke with fellow Keith students eighth-grader Alizeh Johnson and seventh-grader Najah Burks, accompanied by Jordan Pouliot Latham, development associate at the YWCA. Superintendent Thomas Anderson said after meeting with them, he invited the young women to come back to the School Committee to provide an update on their project. They spoke during public comment at the February committee meeting, asking for pads and tampons to be included in the fiscal 2020 budget.
“Many girls in New Bedford are low income,” Zhang continued, and parents may not want to spend their limited money on menstrual hygiene products, and even if they do, they may not be able to afford them since they’re not covered by government assistance programs like SNAP and WIC.
Being able to use an unlocked bathroom on the same floor that their class is, instead of visiting the nurse which takes several minutes, will help menstruating students stay in class longer, she said.

They started with the superintendent, who took them seriously and invited them to share their concerns with the School Committee, as this is a budgetary issue.
It isn't only a budgetary issue, however; too many schools severely limit bathroom access during the school day, which is a policy issue:

She said students understand that teachers would prefer they use the bathroom in between classes, but that’s not always possible. It’s not safe to go an entire day without changing a pad or tampon due to the potential of Toxic Shock Syndrome, infections or rashes, she said.
“We need teachers and staff to support menstruating students,” Johnson said.

And sign of a thoughtful elected official? Being aware you're still learning:

Josh Amaral admitted he was ignorant to the issue and its scale, but said it’s a “no brainer,” and that like providing lunch, it’s an essential health need.

More of this: more of thinking about students' holistic health, more of taking student concerns seriously, more of remembering students are people, and more of learning during meetings.

"Our children should not wait any longer."

Advocacy on the foundation budget bill reconciliation coming in from Foxboro today:

Any missed opportunity to invest in our kids stunts all of our collective futures. When we provide adequate educational resources for all children, we provide a foundation, an opportunity for success regardless of the child’s background.
We know that there are competing budgetary priorities for all publicly funded entities, but we are fierce competitors prepared to battle for our children.

Devin McCourty, Matthew Slater, and Jason McCourty of the New England Patriots argue in favor of implementation of all aspects of the foundation budget. It was even mentioned at today's press conference:

In response to questions about the NFL's anthem policy, Devin McCourty said he wants to see more coverage of players' work in the community. He's currently helping push a bill for more funding for local schools.

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) July 25, 2018

Never again

While it's school vacation week in Massachusetts, note that gun protests are happening at schools across the country:

"I just feel like some people might be scared to protest. It was real nerve-wracking," Pierre said. "But once you do it, you feel liberated, and you feel like you're connecting. All the people that you don't know who's hurting, you find out they're hurting with you, and you're just more connected through protesting."

Upcoming actions:

• Some Florida students will be walking out today at noon. UPDATE: Students walked out ACROSS THE COUNTRY today! 
• The youth of the Women's March are organizing a 17 minute walkout on March 14.  Those youth interested in organizing local actions can sign up for organizing calls.  I see Cape students are already organizing in Massachusetts. The map of actions is here. 
• The National March for Our Lives in DC and across the country is Saturday, March 24. There is a Boston event here and a Worcester event here. Follow #NeverAgain and #MarchForOurLives. 
• The National School Walkout is April 20 (the anniversary of the Columbine shootings). Note that this is a vacation week for Massachusetts and some other schools. You can find more at School Walkout US and #NationalSchoolWalkout. There is a sign-up here. 

I'll update with more links as I find them. 

While we are talking about student protests, may I introduce (or reintroduce) you to Tinker v. Des Moines? This is the case that gives us the oft-cited line about students not shedding their rights "at the schoolyard gate" as well as the question of if students are "disrupting school assembly." I'd point you also to this:

That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.

I'd suggest reading what the ACLU has about this case and its implications if you plan action at school. UPDATE: The ACLU is also having a "Know Your Rights" phone call for such students.

Harvard Graduate School of Education offers this collection of information for creating resilency after violence. It includes this statement:

When students engage in protests, civil disobedience, or any other form of activism, it’s important for school leaders to listen to their concerns and to support their right to protest, says educational ethicist Meira Levinson. Educators can support students' right to protest without taking a stand on those views themselves. Defending students' right to voice their views can help foster civic participation and bolster a strong climate. Educators should encourage conversations about difficult or controversial issues, and should do so regularly throughout the year.

I note that both Fairfax County and Howard County Boards of Education (Maryland) have passed measures "supporting student voice regarding school safety." The ever-growing list of colleges that have issued statements supporting student protests (and saying discipline resulting thereof won't be held against them) is here.
This Atlantic piece is good on why these student voices seem to be gaining traction.

And with the Senate passing their budget tonight...

The Senate passed amendment 75, which implements the Foundation Budget Review Commission recommendations, UNANIMOUSLY. Not only that, but Senate President Rosenberg cast a rare vote (generally the president doesn't vote) in favor.
Nice advocacy!

On to conference committee! Let your representative know that THIS IS A PRIORITY!

Advocating on the Foundation Budget Review Commission

Mary Ann Stewart has compiled a Storify of much of the action on Twitter.

advocating for Head Start

at the request of Ms. Ramirez, who sits on their board, as they're facing substantial funding cuts.

Joint Committee on Education hearings

Full letter posted here.

Wednesday, May 6 10:00AM (Room)A2
   School Climate & Safety; Student Discipline

Tuesday, May 12 10:00AM A2
   ELLs & At Risk Students

Tuesday, May 26 10:00AM A2
   Accountability & Charter Schools

Wednesday, June 3 10:00AM A1
   Health

Thursday, June 11 10:00AM A2
   Assessments & Technology

Wednesday, June 17 10:00AM A1
   Special Education

Wednesday, July 8 10:00AM A2
   SPED Finance

Wednesday, July 15 10:00AM A2
   Collaboratives, Regional Schools, Transportation, Voc-Tech & SBA

Family and Community Academy report

...is the report of the Superintendent tonight. You can find the presentation here.
Boone: how we more closely involve parents and families in schools
Cary: "began several years ago as a result of work with several organizations in the city"
the more families are involved, the more parents are involved in their children's education, the more successful the children are
has increased in success and participation
began to be "branded" in the community as a recognizable name
participation of WPS as part of effort starting last year
support parents and families "in developing the skills and confidence for lifelong learning and active engagement in the development of the whole child"
Rojas: meaningful ways that parents can participate in their children's education
building relationships among parents--schools--community providers
Four areas: advocacy, learning, child development, culture & community
offering "Academy Credits" for completing workshops

• a core certificate is for 15 credits across two areas
• a leadership certificate is form 25 credits across all 4 areas (5 in each catagory, plus 5 in another area of interest)

"to develop a cadre of parent leadership to support their child, support their school, and support their district"
Developing a course catalog of learning: putting together those offered by various other parents
more organized way of disseminating information
website being developed (not up yet)
will reflect from parent input on process
Boone: trying to develop a family academy, community academy that has some real takeaways for parents

Monfredo: how are the parents invited?
Cary: targeted mailing list from each community group, CPPAC, Connect-Ed from WPS
meet at various times, last week's training on MASC site councils
"courses on the go" for training on the go
Rojas: community partners have been doing this work for years
Biancheria: comfort zone for people to attend, acknowledgement that they're learning while in the program beneficial to students as well as parents
asks that those who complete things be acknowledged by School Committee
O'Connell: growth of year to year, addressed in a series of logical ways
"as you continue to succeed, parents working with their schools...for the benefit of education"
"nurture it, support it, and encourage it"
CPPAC needs and welcomes new members
site council parity (of parent participation)

Myths of the WPS budget: BUSTED!

As we head into March and the schools  hear a bit more about how the district budget will affect them, I suspect we'll begin also to hear some of the myths about the Worcester Public Schools budget that come back every year.

Let's take care of those now.

Myth #1: "Every year they say that there is a HUGE gap and every year it is magically taken care of by June."
To begin with, we don't always start off with a deficit: this time last year, we didn't have a structural deficit, and we were close to break even in 2012; the last time we had a structural deficit was in 2011.
More importantly, we are required to pass a balanced budget: our expenses must equal the money coming in. Any deficit does not magically vanish: it is made up by cuts. So, for example, back in 2011, the structural deficit was filled through cutting teaching positions, skilled trade positions, 2 finance office clerical staff positions, a school plant manager position, and merging two vocational admin positions.
It doesn't just happen. We as a Committee don't have the power to increase the funds coming in; we can only reallocate what we get, and administration has the harsh job of making recommendations that will make the budget balance.
This is why I'm concerned not to be hearing more from parents and community members about the FY15 budget. As presented to us in January, we have a deficit of $27 million. That isn't magically going to vanish. It's going to mean cuts unless the money coming in increases, which can only happen through advocacy with the state and city (more on that to come).

Myth #2: "Worcester spends too much on education already."
For FY14, 35 cents of each tax revenue dollar went to the Worcester Public Schools. This is not a substantial amount compared to other communities. Moreover, as my colleague Mr. Monfredo points out in Worcester Magazine today, Worcester remains far behind the rest of the state when it comes to covering the real costs of education by funding above foundation: we're in the bottom 2%.

Myth #3:  "Too much money goes to administration."
We've now heard this one so often that it got its own slide last year. The vast majority of the money spent on administration--for FY13, the budget is $11.3 million--is for school-based administrators. That's principals and assistant principals.
As far as I know, no one is actually complaining that we have too many of those, so I assume that the complaint is actually about central administration, which for FY13 is budgeted at $2.5 million. That's somewhere around eight-tenths of a percent of the entire budget. It's also, if you see the chart above, a number that puts us right in the middle on administrative spending, and that's when we include the cityside administration costs over which we have no control.

Myth #4: "It's a black hole: I don't know where the money goes."
The whole FY14 budget--every last nickel of it--is here online.If you want to know how much each specific school costs, it's in there. If you want to know how much we spend account by account, it's in there. If you want to know what comes in as grants and how that's spent, it's in there.
I have a sneaking suspicion that in some cases this is really a bit of "math is hard" at bottom. The numbers are big, no question. How some of it gets figured out can be, at your first time through, pretty overwhelming. But there are lots of us, myself very much included, who are happy to go through this with anyone who wants some help figuring it out. So please don't give up: give it a shot.


Next up: what you can do!

Monday morning links

Should you have missed them over the weekend:

• You should read this great story from 1839 of how knowing how to read rescued a boy kidnapped into slavery. Also, I love that we have T&G reporters digging through the Worcester Historical Museum files! Nice work, Mr. Caywood!
• An important read on how the correlation between being married and avoiding poverty may well be for the reverse reason than is being forwarded.
• Matt Damon did an Ask Me Anything on reddit and tackled education policy. To wit: "We would never let businessmen design warheads, why would you cut out educators when you're designing education policy?" His mom is Nancy Carlsson-Paige, who we are fortunate enough to have as an early childhood ed advocate in Massachusetts, so he does know whereof he speaks. 
• There was a massive march at the North Carolina state capital on Saturday to support the Voting Rights Act, part of the "Moral Monday" marches that have been held there to protest an array of government actions, including some lousy education policies.
• I was saddened to learn that education advocate Ted Olsen of Oregon recently died. He was among the first to break publicly with Stand for Children when it became clear that they do not, in fact, stand for children. I share this column about his granddaughter's close friend and how our system continues to fail them in his memory. Thanks, Alain!
• OUR local education reporter, Jackie Reis, got a second place award  for education reporting in the 2014 New England Newspaper and Press Association awards.Congratulations, Jackie!
• Finally, more to come on this, but public comments on the  proposed changes to the charter school regs are due next week.

MASC 13: Advocacy Strategies for School Leaders

Paul Schlictman, MASC Past President
advocacy committee through MASC
multi-layered approach: voters, locally, state, nationally

Deja vu all over again

If you've been part of Stand for Children in Massachusetts, what Susan Barrett has to say about what's going on with Stand in Oregon will sound familiar.

Gates-funded astroturf

Excellent--and badly-overdue--article on the far reaches of the Gates Foundation empire when it comes to education research, advocacy, and spin in the New York Times today.

Given the scale and scope of the largess, some worry that the foundation’s assertive philanthropy is squelching independent thought, while others express concerns about transparency. Few policy makers, reporters or members of the public who encounter advocates like Teach Plus or pundits like Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute realize they are underwritten by the foundation.

“It’s Orwellian in the sense that through this vast funding they start to control even how we tacitly think about the problems facing public education,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who said he received no financing from the foundation.

Mr. Hess, a frequent blogger on education whose institute received $500,000 from the Gates foundation in 2009 “to influence the national education debates,” acknowledged that he and others sometimes felt constrained. “As researchers, we have a reasonable self-preservation instinct,” he said. “There can be an exquisite carefulness about how we’re going to say anything that could reflect badly on a foundation.”

“Everybody’s implicated,” he added.

Indeed, the foundation’s 2009 tax filing runs to 263 pages and includes about 360 education grants. There are the more traditional and publicly celebrated programmatic initiatives, like financing charter school operators and early-college high schools. Then there are the less well-known advocacy grants to civil rights groups like the Education Equality Project and Education Trust that try to influence policy, to research institutes that study the policies’ effectiveness, and to Education Week and public radio and television stations that cover education policies.

Parent advocacy at CPPAC

Parent advocacy for increased funding to schools being spoken of at CPPAC. Currently the city is contributing .3% over foundation; the statewide average is 15% over foundation. Urban districts have an average of 3.6% over foundation. The goal for the parents is to work the city contribution up to the urban average.

O'Brien comments

major responsibility of School Committee is to address concerns
to advocate for school system
to build public support for the system
to provide resources for public schools

comments that this doesn't necessarily fit under any of the district's goals, but fall pretty directly under the School Committee purview, anyway

Stand: Grassroots no more

crossposted at Blue Mass. Group

Grassroots: of or pertaining to society at the local level rather than at the center of political activity especially as contrasted with the leadership or elite of a political party, social organization, etc

A memo from Jonah Edelman has been making the rounds of Stand for Children in Massachusetts (and one assumes nationwide). It demonstrates how very far away Stand has come from that march on Washington for children.

He writes of the need to be "more ambitious" in an agenda "to concretely improve student outcomes." (Note: whenever anyone speaks of "concretely" improving anything in education, they're inevitably going to lead you to test scores.) He writes of policy "derived from best practices and data-driven research" (something we have yet to see at the state or national level, and certainly nothing that has yet been supported by Stand for Children).

He then lays out five principles, in phrasing that one could easily find on on a memo written by Arne Duncan. Note, first, the dismissal of the poverty in the first line (how about organizing around fixing poverty, which has everything to do with the so-called 'achievement gap'?). It's all well and good to say there should be no gap, but as poverty is a direct cause of the gap, this is a nonsensical statement.
Not much of a quibble with education having something to do with the rest of one's life, 'though exceptions abound.
The boldface in the third and fourth options line up quite nicely with the so-called "reform" happening in the strong mayor cities and in Race to the Top, all driven, one notes, by those who have no or very little experience in education, little patience for research, and often no respect for parents. These are spelling out on the ground to firing faculty at low-income urban schools, extended day, state takeovers, common core standards, and lots of high-stakes testing.

The "entrenched, well-funded political opposition and bureaucratic inertia" includes, of course, the ever-vilified teachers' unions (and often teachers themselves), school boards, and basically anyone who thinks that maybe the national ed reform effort might be heading in the wrong direction (read, Diane Ravitch, et al). Remarkably, of course, this often parallels the groups that are closest to children and their education.

In terms of the "successful campaigns," note the inclusion of charter schools as a victory, despite reassurances in Worcester to the contrary. And the "school-based innovation" would be firing the principals at Union Hill and Chandler Elementary.

The clarification of the "issue process" clarifies this: sometimes there isn't time to consult with the members. Note also the "up or down" nature of the votes.

The PowerPoint presentation calls attention to a focus on districts like Worcester:

Moving forward, we will focus our staff resources on the state’s lowest performing districts with the highest need (often large urban centers), where the urgency for turning around underperforming schools and closing the achievement gap is paramount for kids.

(it'll be interesting to see if they get anywhere in Boston, which has parental and student advocacy organizations of longstanding on the ground)

Also, "one team" chapters cannot use Stand as a local advocacy organization (for a 2 1/2 override, or for political action). They exist only to be foot soldiers for the state organization and may not organize against the actions of the statewide group under the Stand name.
Multi-team chapters (read: Worcester) may do so if supported by a member vote, 'though if they disagree, they still cannot do so as a local chapter. All of the push for the state and national agenda--largely set in the memo by Edelman--is also there.

So, who's up for starting a local parent advocacy group? Worcester could use one!

Stand's stands

or, Follow the money.
(cross-posted on Blue Mass. Group)
A few days ago, a commenter asked why Stand for Children came out in support of taking the federal turnaround funds that would require Worcester to implement one of the four federal turnaround models. My response was they want the federal money. It's a bit more complicated than that.

Stand for Children has two arms: the Leadership Center is a registered non-profit 501(c)3, and the advocacy arm (which goes by just "Stand for Children") is 501(c)4, which means that they [unlike 501(c)3's] may lobby for and against legislation. However, that arm is not a charity, and so donations to that arm are not tax-deductible (they also don't have to be made public).

The Foundation Center has online the 990--federal tax forms--of many non-profits. Stand for Children's forms (they file two 990's each year, one for each arm) tell the money story.

In 2008, the 501 (c) 4 advocacy arm brought in $564,095 in membership dues (if you're a local member, you sent in a check) and spent $498,465, largely, interestingly, on fundraising and office work (That's all on page 1 of the form; you can see the breakdown by state for Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts on page 2. The breakdown on "other expenses is on page 10) In other words, about as much was spent on bringing in the money as money that came in.

The members are not funding the organization.

So what money is the organization running on, if it isn't donations from members?

The Stand for Children 2008 annual report lists the major donors to the charitable arm (p.10). The list of donors of a quarter of a million dollars or above reads as follows:

• Joshua and Anita Bekenstein
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• New Profit, Inc.

Moving over to the 2008 990 form, you'll see (page 1) that the charitable arm brought in about $3.6 million that year, and spent nearly all of it. So even if we assume that each of the above donors gave only $250,000, it's clear that just those three donors gave nearly a quarter of the funding for Stand's work in 2008.

So who are these donors?

The Bekensteins, who a quick Google search will turn up on plenty of donation lists, are best known otherwise for Mr. Bekenstein's position in Bain Capital, founded, among others, by Mitt Romney. If you look farther down the donor list for Stand, you'll see Bain's charitable arm on there, too.

Bain Capital got a great deal of press during Romney's presidential run for their history of leveraged buyouts that led to layoffs. They also took a number of previously public companies private.
Bain also has an educational and governmental consulting business, where, as they say, "Recently, the use of stimulus funds and regulatory reform has further blurred the lines between public and private entities." (This gets us into the Bridgespan group, which is more than fodder for another post, as they're connected not only to Bain, but also to the Broad Foundation and elsewhere.) Yes, they stand to make money on everything from Race to the Top to School Turnaround Grants.

New Profit refers to itself as a "social entrepreneurship" organization and speak of "advancing a national social innovation agenda."

I think we all know who Bill Gates is, but what you may not know is that the Gates Foundation was the funder of grants for states in writing their Race to the Top applications, largely because the policies of Race to the Top, from expansion of charters to tying of perceived teacher proficiency to student test scores, lined up with the Gates Foundation vision of education.

Steve Ballmer, next on the list, is the CEO of Microsoft (who, interestingly enough, has been donating in Portland's school board race, too).

The Denherts founded Hanna Andersson.

Michael Krupka is with Bain Capital, as is Jonathan Lavine. Lavine serves on Stand for Children's Leadership Center Board of Directors. (A number of people associated with Bain have previously served on Stand for Children's Board.)

Reuben Munger manages Bright Automotive, but has a history in investment.

Farther down, Paul G. Allen is a co-founder of Microsoft.

There's a great deal of money here coming from two places: Microsoft and Bain Capital. All of it can be declared as a charitable donation by the giver. And added together, it's a large piece of the operations budget of Stand for Children.

It's corporate money.
It's a corporate vision.

Education, however, is a civic endeavor. Corporate influence in education, whether it's an insistence that education be measurable on charts that go eternally up, or that those whose numbers don't go up be fired, clouds what ought to be a common endeavor.

The places where Stand for Children in the past has stood for what is clearly in the interest of Worcester's schoolchildren--the push to raise investment in education, the work against Question 1--undoubtedly are grassroots endeavors. Local people worked on issues that clearly mattered greatly in the education of our local children, and they were representing their own, and local children's interests, in doing so.

The places where Stand's public advocacy has been confusing locally--raising the charter cap, pushing federal policy--it's worth looking at where the money and the influence come from.

It isn't Worcester (or Gloucester, or...)