• Cut funding to prerecession levels and never restore it
• Increase “accountability” through more and more tests and test prep
• Threaten people’s jobs and make them feel unappreciated for doing more with less
• cut music, art, lunch and recess to make room for tests and test prep
(These factors are magnified in high needs schools, by the way)
• Behavior deteriorates, discipline issues rise
• fears of state takeover make adults focus on adult concerns
• things get swept under the rug
• Talk of safety drowns out front-end support needs
• Spending increases because everything is punitive and reactionary
• Blame teachers
• Try to end busing, end Choice, resegregate schools
• Pass a Charter school bill (barely)
• be sure the mayor is an authorizer since he wants in on it
• be sure conversion charter language is in the bill just in case you can’t get permanent funding
• Get temporary funding in place by gutting a bill about dog ownership
• Blame teachers some more. Accuse them of being unsophisticated
• Destroy teacher pensions by gutting a sewer bill
• Accuse teachers of causing students to be abused and doing drugs – guaranteed – for walking out
• Dumb down instruction and pay scales by lowering teaching certification standards
• Try to get permanent funding for charters in budget year without constituents noticing
When that fails…
• Replace board members with pro charter minions
• Get Board to replace highly qualified and experienced commissioner with private school graduate turned charter ideologist with 5 years teaching experience, none of which are in Kentucky
• get new commissioner to declare state’s largest district in need of a takeover
• use fancy talking points to make it sound like education funding is the highest in history
• appoint charter proponent and likely investor to board
KBE elects Hal Heiner chair; Milton Seymore elected vice chair
name said investor to chair the board just a few meetings later
• Blame teachers some more. Say they are like drowning swimmers and they should be knocked unconscious for their own good
• whatever you do, don’t allow a hearing to take place because we need to keep the public asleep at the wheel until after nov 6
• if voters make a ruckus about the takeover, propose a compromise made up of things you can do anyway, and make voters think you won by avoiding a hearing
• since the big pot is now off limits for a coupe of years, release a new rating system that labels nearly half of the schools in the state failing – fresh meat!
• get Board to name interim commissioner permanent after just 5 months and no national search
• keep them swatting at flies so they are constantly distracted and not able to focus on the true agenda
• Increase high school graduation requirements without providing supports or resources to increase student success rate
• Accuse highly educated and engaged education advocacy groups of being misinformed and misleading the public
Next up:
• Conversion charters. Rural TSI and CSI schools and JCPS PLA schools are easy pickings.
••••••••••••••••••••••
YEP. Seems to me everything is going exactly as planned.
What are we going to do about it?