Four Recent Must Read Articles in Indiana

Why The Walton Family Foundation Is Upping The Ante In Indiana

Our public schools have never before been subject to such a sustained assault on their very foundations. Never before were there so many people, with such vast resources, intent on dismantling public education,”blogs education historian Diane Ravitch at EdWeek. Ravitch has criticized charter and voucher schools, and says Walton is part of a “Billionaire Boys Club” in education philanthropy.

 Great Comment: Regarding the quote from Ed Kirby of the Walton foundation, who says their focus is "unapologetically the interests of parents": I am a parent and I do not feel represented at all by this foundation, or by the move toward privatization...which mainly seems like an attempt to expand the profitability of the education sector on the backs of our children. For instance, the new "technology" charter that Tony Bennett invited to Indianapolis that features a ratio of seventy students to one teacher, aided by computer programs. More choice? I question that. An attempt to make teaching our children cheaper? Clearly.

A Message from a Mom  In Indiana to the Waltons and the Walmart Foundation

(And this is only a small piece of her mind...be sure to read the whole thing)

1. Why do you continue to promote competition?  Competitive pressure implies and does produce ‘a winner’ and ‘a loser’.  Academic achievement for children cannot be attained when ‘losers’ are a possible outcome.

2. Why do you not accept grant submissions from public school and only accept them from charter schools and/or charter school developers? If you did accept unsolicited, or even soliticied, grants from public schools, then you couldn’t rob public schools.http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grantees/instructions-for-grant-applicants-all-other-grant

3. “When all families are empowered to choose from among several quality school options, all schools will be fully motivated to provide the best possible education.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Creation of charter schools and vouchers have robbed public schools of vital funding to provide the best possible education.  When funds are split among public, charter and private schools, there are not enough funds to provide the best possible education at either public or charter schools.

4. “Better school performance leads, in turn, to higher student achievement, lower dropout rates and greater numbers of students entering and completing college.”  How schools are measured right now with only using high stakes assessment tests is simply unethical because using a one time a year test goes against the testing profession’s own Joint (ethical) Standards of never assessing a child’s learning with one test.  In addition, learning in a school is nothing like counting ‘beans’ for a business or assessing the outcome performance of a factory line; therefore, the application of business ‘performance standards’ for assessing whether children, teachers or schools “fail” in their learning and teaching is unethical.  Yet, this is the ‘performance standards’ that are being forced upon students, teachers and schools and the testing companies are making millions of dollars off of our children’s work on standardized testing.(btw, that’s child labor and is against the law!) In addition, the high stakes tied to the test has created hostile and harassing work environment which, in turn, create hostile and harassing learning environment for our children.

So, Walton family…

I OPT OUT of supporting you, The Walton Family Foundation!

I will no longer shop at any Wal-Mart store.

I am enclosing my cut-in-half Sam’s Club card and I think you know where you can swipe it.

Bennett for US education chief? 

 Now that he's facing reelection, Bennett is visiting more public schools than he likely did in all of his first three years in office, but his travel schedule last year seemed to suggest he was running for a much higher profile job.

Interactive Map: Campaign Contributions To Tony Bennett Since 2008

Look who wants to sponsor Hoosier Children's Education.