Charter Schools are Hugely Controversial Nationally

It is surprising that MAP/RVC believed that their charter petition would be unopposed by our community. It shows a lack of understanding of the national conversation about charters, which are highly controversial and divisive. The turning over of taxpayer dollars to self-appointed charter boards and/or for-profit companies represents a huge policy shift. The influence of titans of industry (Koch Brothers, Charles Schwab, Fisher Family (the Gap), Bush Family, Bill Gates, Eli Broad & the Waltons) on our educational system and their financial support of charters is unprecedented. The assumption that a business model can successfully be applied to the education of our children is a gamble taking place across our nation.

For example, the US Secretary of Ed, and charter school champion, Arne Duncan, former "CEO" of Chicago Public Schools (click here to read his bio) has no experience as a teacher or educator. His recently announced resignation has caused reflection on his controversial tenure. 

According to Education Opportunity Network, the day he announced his stepping down,  "Duncan rattled the education policy world with news of a controversial grant of $249 million ($157 the first year) to the charter school industry. This announcement was controversial because, as The Washington Post reports, an audit by his department’s own inspector general found 'that the agency has done a poor job of overseeing federal dollars sent to charter schools.'"

Click here to read the article in its entirety. 

Charter schools divide communities - whether in Fairfax, Chicago or New Orleans, and it is incumbent upon us to follow the money to  try to understand why these business leaders are investing so much in privatizing our public system. Click here to read more about privatization on former U.S. Secretary of Education, teacher, and noted education historian, Dr. Diane Ravitch's blog, and here to read more about how the billionaire class is trying to rule our schools. Is nothing sacred??

Why Are We Anonymous?

Fairfax is a small town and the history of the MAP supporters is that anyone with a dissenting opinion against their program has been labeled as being anti-MAP, i.e. divisive or uninformed or someone that is deliberately misleading people.  Many parents that have spoken out over the years gave up and transferred to the other district schools because it was too uncomfortable to remain at Manor.  For these reasons, we choose to remain anonymous.   The facts in the documents we link to demonstrate the validity of what we are posting.  Our bias is to do what is best for ALL the children in the district, not just a select few. 

At the charter meeting last year, the district received such threatening emails that the San Anselmo police were in attendance to ensure safety.  Think about the need to have the police attend a board meeting and ask yourself if you would be willing to subject your family to retaliation from this same group of people? 

Let's Play "Charter Land!"

Check out this video about how charter schools have advantages over public schools, leading to discrimination and segregation. 

Many of the examples shown in the video are policies which MAP utilized until last year, when our Ross Valley School District implemented policies to end their discriminatory practices. 

Feds Deny California's Charter Grant Application

We are not certain how this will impact Ross Valley Charter, but it seems they were counting on $200,000 in  grant funding from a source which has dried up.

Why did the Feds deny California's application to renew 5 years of funding for charter schools? According to this article by The Charter Schools Development Center,

"Grant readers dinged California’s application on multiple fronts, stating that it offered a weak “vision for authorizing” (the USDOE’s new criterion for state-driven chartering), a vague management plan and inadequate plans to target disadvantaged student populations."

Sounds similar to the RVSD's denial report on the Ross Valley Charter.

Sounds like more bad news for charter schools!

MAP's Status as an 'Alternative Program of Choice' has been Fraught for over 10 years

When current Superintendent Rick Bagley came aboard 18 months ago, he realized that RVSD, and/or MAP Leadership had not submitted their paperwork to the state since their inception 19+ years ago. The below document from the Manor Work Group shows that then RVSD Trustees (including current Ross Valley Charter Board members Conn Hickey and Sharon Sagar) felt MAP did not need to file such paperwork, as they were a school based program. Thus, Dr. Bagley changed MAP's official designation to match the ways MAP has been operating (as a Manor-based program) for 18 of its 19 years. 

The requirements for an "alternative program of choice" go beyond simply filling out a waiver. CA Department of Education requires an annual report to evaluate how the program is doing. It makes sense to report on how an alternative program is doing. Why did MAP leaders fail to assess their program for 18 years?!!! (Click here to read the California Department of Education (CDE) requirements for annual reports for an alternative program of choice) 

Click here to see the agenda item that details the votes and discussion around changing this designation. The item CLEARLY states that MAP was out of compliance.  "And since the program has not been in compliance with the statutory reporting requirements of this designation for the past seventeen years, it is questionable whether the program's current designation exists at all."

Perhaps some of the confusion was that MAP was not held accountable for this waiver and reporting requirements by the RVSD trustees as far back as 2005.  Check out the image of notes taken from a Manor Community Meeting in February 2005, and the response from RVSD, which was governed in part by then Trustees, and current Ross Valley Charter Board members, Conn Hickey and Sharon Sagar.  These notes detail the REASONS that MAP did not report but is in direct contradiction to the CDE requirements.  It states clearly on the CDE website:  The school district must annually evaluate such schools and programs.

Can we trust MAP and RVC leaders to run a charter when they were unable to comply with the requirements of running their program? 

We Can't Afford This!

Our cash-strapped District continues to spend a disproportionate amount of money and time on a program which benefits a small number of children (less than 10%). If you think your child is not being negatively impacted by the antics of a few, read on.

In the past three years, RVSD has spent over $112,000 dollars on legal fees related to MAP. This does NOT include fees spent on the current charter which will most likely add another $40,000 to $50,000 to the total.  This is money which cannot be spent on teacher salaries, librarians, classroom aids, shade structures, increased recess supervision, etc. Click here to see the legal fees spent through February 2015. 

In addition to the monetary cost to the district (did we say we can't afford this?), MAP/RVC has soaked up a disproportionate amount of staff time!  A legal review of MAP's policies began in 2012.  RVSD legal council determined that MAP's practice of gender balancing in enrollment, and the self-governance of MAP needed to end. MAP has been on the agenda for an average of SIX (out of 12) Board meetings a year, and in 2013, a whopping TEN meetings, including a special MAP/RVSD workshop in October where MAP leaders fought for gender balancing and to retain their district program status. During this meeting the inequities in ELL/IEP were discussed yet MAP leaders did absolutely NOTHING to recruit from these protected classes of children. They claim now it was the district's fault and responsibility to recruit but given that the MAP Board created their enrollment policies for the prior 17 years, it seems disingenuous.   Click here to see all the agenda items since 2012. 

WE CANNOT AFFORD THIS!  That money could be spent on all of our children instead of wasted on legal fees for a group of people that time and time again have refused to do what is best for ALL of our children.  And the bills will continue to skyrocket if the charter is approved.  Take action and email Mary Jane Burke and MCOE to urge them to deny the charter!

What's With All the Subterfuge, MAP/RVC?

We've noticed a trend; MAP/RVC folks not being completely honest about their affiliations.

We first noticed this when RVC Board member and Treasurer, Conn Hickey, wrote a letter to the IJ about the charter (click here, scroll half way down) , and only identified himself as a "Former RVSD Trustee." 

Then, he and Sharon Sagar, also an RVC Board member, plus all of the MAP teachers (who are petitioners for the Ross Valley Charter), were listed on RVSD Board candidate Susie Bergen's endorsements page (click here) without disclosing their MAP/RVC affiliation.

Finally, the Totally Awesome Really Really Fun Run, which was billed as a fundraiser for San Anselmo Parks and Rec, was also partially a fundraiser for Ross Valley Charter, though we found no mention of this except in the email to the right.

What gives?

Where Did Charter Schools Come From?

The origins of charter school law were to help underprivileged kids and to reinvigorate public schools. Those initial aims were admirable, but were co-opted long ago by the corporate and billionaire classes whose rhetoric and tactics appeal to privileged parents in suburbs across the country. According to this blog from noted educator, researcher and former Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, 

"The tragedy of the charter school movement is that the original idea was admirable. They were supposed to be schools with a contract for five years or so, during which they would enroll students at risk of failure and dropouts; the teachers would seek innovative ways to spark their motivation in education. The teachers of charter schools would share their fresh ideas with their colleagues in the public schools. The students would return to their public school, re-energized and mmotivated. The public school would adopt the new methods pioneered by the charters. It was to be a collaboration.

But as charters began to open, the original idea was eclipsed by a philosophy not of collaboration, but corruption. Ambitious entrepreneurs created chains of charter schools. A new industry emerged, led not by educators, but by savvy lawyers, industrialists, and flim-flam artists. Some charters claimed they were far better than the public schools and showed contempt for public schools. They boasted that their scores were better than the public forces. They want to beat the public schools, not help them. They became a malignant force for privatization and union-busting.

Families for Excellent Schools is just one more of the deceptive names of organizations that are led by the 1% and whose goal is the impoverishment and –eventually–abandonment of public education."

California PTA Supports Increased Charter Scrutiny

Read below (click here for original article) about the bills aimed at increasing the accountability of charter schools. These bills are supported by California PTA. Why do charters deserve more scrutiny? Well, read here about the 2,500 failed charters which closed for a variety of reasons, including two in Marin County! Also, click here to read the sad news about the now shuttered Sunnyvale charter which didn't have a policy to background check and fingerprint its employees.

Information on Candidates for RVSD Board

Not sure who to vote for in the upcoming Ross Valley School Board election? Here's an article from the Marin IJ about the 5 candidates.

Interestingly, four of the five candidates believe that our current RVSD leadership is on the right track. New candidates Mark Reagan and Amy Blanchard seemed to agree with the voting records of incumbents Anne Capron and Annelise Bauer.

According to the IJ, the fifth candidate, Susie Bergen, said, "the district failed to support the MAP program sufficiently leaving MAP teachers 'no choice but to charter out.'"