School Isn't Out - Yet!

The final highlight of 2013 is the fact that my school has not yet been shut down by the anti-public education privatization pirates.

This is a minor miracle, though it may have to do with a lack of process as opposed to a lack of desire on the pirates behalf.

The Koch/DeVos backed right-wingers/tea baggers had hoped to push through a last minute bill that would have expanded the powers and scope of a state-wide "turn around" district, or the EAA.  Please do not be fooled by the pretty charts.  How can any statistician claim those numbers are valid when the "district" has lost 24 percent of its student population since last year?

A bill passed the state Senate but could not muster enough votes in the House.  The bill would have given the EAA authority to take over an unlimited amount of "low performing" schools (like mine), denied workers the right to collective bargaining, stripped teachers of the ability to pay into the state pension fund, and never let a school leave the EAA's control.  Sound great, doesn't it?

Would it surprise you to find out that, when pressed for information, the EAA was a little reticent to comply?  Nah, because this venture has nothing to do with helping schools.

My school has terrible test scores.  I won't even go into the myriad of reasons for our scores.  Some tea bagging troll will come in here and call me a union thug who should be fired.  Of course, my 20 years of experience means nothing and I won't get into an intellectual, factual, and philosophical battle with an unarmed opponent.    We are, however, still an official public school .  We are not out of the woods yet.

The state superintendent Mike Flanagan promised to move more schools under the EAA's authority.  Those schools will be announced in January and I suppose we could be one of them.  For now, we wait.  Also, the EAA bill will come back for a vote.  The wealthy and the powerful will not be satiated until it has been fed with more profits from the public trust.