The typical Chicago public school loses more than half of all its teachers within five years -- and about two-thirds of its new ones, a study released today by the University of Chicago indicates. Teacher churning is especially severe in high-poverty, heavily African-American schools -- about a hundred total -- where half of all teachers disappear after only three years, the study found.

Arne Duncan's rethoric back when he was in charge of Chicago's schools do not match with the facts.

You can tell Arne Duncan doesn't like public schools advocates by the way he threatened them to whithold millions if they do so. States such as Maine that don't allow charter schools are putting themselves at a "competitive disadvantage," the country's top education official said Monday. The 10 states that do not allow charter schools -- and the 26 that put caps on the number they allow -- endanger their chances for awards from a $4.4 billion education innovation fund that's part of the federal economic stimulus package, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.

Will N.C. be denied funds over charters? State's cap on number of schools could thwart efforts to win a slice of education money.

Do you want to know what Chicago's Duncan look like? Read this small example. Teachers File Racial Discrimination Suit Against Obama Administration's School 'Turnaround' Plan.

A must see video for public school advocates. The Obama administration has made opening more charter schools one of its top priorities in its plans to improve the nation’s education system. On Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at the annual gathering of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington, DC. His address came on the heels of a new Stanford University report that found that, on average, students in charter schools were not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

Look at what Arne Duncan did to the Chicago Public Schools.‘Turnaround,’ is a savage program that befalls a school after it has misbehaved. Everyone is fired: teachers, cafeteria staff, administration, and the mascot. Then the school is absorbed into the infamous Renaissance 2010 machine, Mayor Richard Daley’s shock & awe program to overhaul his school system by privatizing public education just as ‘da Mayor’ privatized parking meters. C.O.R.E. member Ed Gallagher was interviewed and said, ‘the Chicago model of education reform is not about improving schools, it is about putting money into the hands of political insiders and turning the schools over to the mayor’s political allies.’

President Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals. The goal is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years, by beefing up funding for the federal school-turnaround program created by the No Child Left Behind law, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday. Duncan said that might mean firing an entire staff and bringing in a new one, replacing a principal, or turning a school over to a charter-school operator. The point, he said in a speech to the Brookings Institution, is to take bold action in persistently low-achieving schools.

From bad to worse! What is going on with non-educators taking on huge responsabilities at state and national levels? The man who replaced U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the helm of the nation's third-largest school district has no previous education experience. But Ron Huberman hasn't had time for remedial lessons. Just three months into his fourth high-profile job in Mayor Richard Daley's administration, Huberman, 37, has had to tackle many of the challenges facing large urban school districts nationwide, including a record number of student slayings.

If the future of public education is framed in an either vouchers or charter schools, with Obama and Arne Duncan, there seems to be no future. Instead of more vouchers, Obama wants to increase the number of charter schools, which operate under contracts with public school districts in Washington and most states. Charter schools are exempt from many state and local regulations that govern traditional public schools.

One-third of Washington’s 70,000 public-school students now go to charter schools, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington-based Center on Education Policy.

Arnee Duncan is determined to evaluate public school teachers using some measure of student achievement. As for charter schools, it is enough to know their status.

 

When are we going to tell Obama --who states that charter school are not selective-- to look beyond the superficial information about charter schools before supporting them so much?

 

 

Arne Duncan was pragmatic in Chicago, which means not being inclusive, like public education does. Education is for everyone, not for some. Tutoring is fundamentally different from teaching, but Arne Duncan seems to not distinguish this difference.

 

President Obama praises charter schools and Arene Duncan helps them. There is no publicity better than free publicity, and if from the President, even better. Can anyone make President Obama praise public education as well?

 

 

Last July, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Oregon $16.5 million to help launch more charter schools over the next three years. Public Education money going to charter schools.

 

“President Obama’s enthusiasm for charter schools is baffling. Doesn’t he realize that they are a deregulation strategy much beloved by Republicans?” wrote NYU education historian Diane Ravitch, “If he thinks that deregulation is the cure for American education, I have some AIG stock I’d like to sell him.” Obama's plan for education does not seem different from Bush's plan: it privatizes public education.

 

 

Here is a good question for Arne Duncan and president Obama. In Chicago, despite the backing of perhaps the nation’s strongest mayor, an energetic business and civic leadership, and the entrepreneurial Chicago Education Fund, it appears that most of your successes entailed reforms like merit-pay pilot programs and charter schools — reforms that come on top of and around the existing school system. .

 

 

President Obama states that it is the public schools that are failing. California no longer has a charter cap, but some local union leaders have said that the state needs one again, because charters are draining money as well as motivated students from traditional schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District has more charters than any other school system in the nation -- and dozens more are on the way. Privatizers are thrilled

 

 

President Obama's speech on Education gets a variety of reactions. In Hawaii, people like some ideas, but they think it is more a question of details.

 

 

Can we stop criticism with pleas to  those who want public education to fail? The president of NYSTU explains his view on education, charter schools, AFT and NEA efforts and asks for support, not criticism. Good piece.

 

 

 

 

For such schools, I recommend we craft a LEAN school of choice subsidy from the state targeted at a portion of those students and families who are currently choosing to transfer out of their public school district or charter school. LEAN stands for Learning and Excellence in America Now.With the idea of choice comes new proposals to get money away from public schools .

 

 

 

 

In Michigan, Obama's suggestion to lift the cap on the number of charter schools is welcomed . . . by charter school supporters.

 

 

 

 

Charter school opponents, watch out. Charter schools have become Corporate America's most successful method of introducing privatization and market-style competition into public education. That's right--the same free-market dynamics that have wreaked havoc in the fields of health care, housing and high finance are coming to education.

 

Try this sample of the novel ideas from S of E Arne Duncan. Duncan idea of making school the center of a community does not seems to reconcile with what’s left of the communities in Chicago where he close local schools and then opened charter schools.  I cannot figure out the logistics of this change and its overall impact.

 

 

 

Are students in charter schools  better behaved or safer than in public schools?

 

Is Obama supporting charter schools at the expense of public schools? Yes, it is. According to Barbara Bradley, a spokeswoman fo the NY State of Boards Association,