Teacher evaluations are now tied to test scores.
Teacher tenure is now a moot point since teachers can be declared "ineffective" after two years of test scores that do not "add value" to their students' education levels and fired during an expedited 60 day process.
The charter cap has been lifted to 260.
Bloomberg and Klein get to create 151 new charters over the next four years.
They can still put charters wherever they want.
Klein's office says he still gets complete oversight over the opening and closing of charters in NYC, though the law appears to be a little ambiguous on that point (but remember, Bloomberg and Klein always read ambiguity as WE GET TO DO WHAT WE WANT AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT YOU CAN GO F#$K YOURSELF.)
The regulation of the charter industry will be hampered by the regulator having its budget cut by 70%.
Yeah, that should make the regulatory process go smooth - if by smooth, you mean by avoiding any meaning regulation whatsoever.
Bloomberg, Klein, Obama, Duncan, Gates, Broad, et al. got EVERYTHING they wanted from the unions in the state and the pro-traditional public schools on these points.
As far as I can see, except for the ban on for-profits running new charters, I cannot see any compromise made by the pro-charter side.
And within four years, we'll be right back at this juncture and the pro-charter people will be calling for a lifting of the cap to 1,000 and a return to a policy that allows "market forces" to govern who runs new charter schools.
And of course Bloomberg and Klein will have continued to starve traditional public schools of resources while making sure Mistress Eva and For-Profit Geoffrey and other charter operators get everything they need.
With pro-charter/pro-education deform politicians in charge at City Hall, Washington D.C. and soon Albany (yes, the current clown is pro-charter, but no one listens to him about anything), you can be sure the complete and utter destruction of the traditional public school system will have been accomplished within ten years.
It will be a heckuva job.
It won't actually improve the education levels of students, of course.
But education "reform" has never really been about that.
It's always been about breaking the last bastion of unionized workers, imposing a corporate-friendly structure on schools that socializes school children to expect to work 60 hour/6 day weeks and grow up to be compliant corporate employees, and opening up the public school coffers for profit-taking.
Mission accomplished.
This is a return to the time of corporate robber barons and Pinkerton-type mercenaries e.g. Wackenhut. At least our country had one century where there was at least a facade of civilization and humanity. It's now a memory of what could have been from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteSadly true, anon. Sadly true.
ReplyDeleteMakes me feel a little like Butch Cassidy.
The Pinkertons won.
You are probably right, and the real losers are the children and grandchildren of many of the young TFA and newbie teachers who are helping to carry the fight for the reformers. A shame and the minority parents who believe in their hype will be the first parents to realize this after it is too late.
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