Category Archives: K-12 Education

by | March 25, 2011 · 9:22 pm

When did Tom Corbett lose faith in *public* education?

Thanks and kudos to WCU student Kevin Mann for this catch:

As a candidate, Tom Corbett wrote a position paper about education policy posted at the very useful site Vote Smart.  There’s not really anything in it you wouldn’t expect from a Republican gubernatorial candidate–lots of talk about accountability, making sure money is spent wisely, rewarding quality teaching and ousting bad teachers, all the usual suspects.

Interestingly, however, there’s a passage in his statement that jumped out at Kevin, and me:

Tom Corbett believes in Pennsylvania’s public school system and will make funding our schools a top priority. Putting students first means ensuring the resources intended to support their education make it to the schools and classrooms they attend.

The second half of that is standard issue conservative education-reform-speak.  But notice in the first sentence the commitment to public education.

At the bottom of the page is a link to then-candidate Corbett’s own campaign website, on which you’d find a somewhat shorter, lightly edited version of the same statement.  I’ll point you specifically to the most interesting, uh, edit.

Tom Corbett believes in Pennsylvania’s education system and will make funding our schools a top priority. Putting students first means ensuring the resources intended to support their education make it to the schools and classrooms they attend.

See what’s missing?  Tom Corbett doesn’t care about public education anymore!

And I can’t even begin to prove what I’m about to posit, but I’m going to posit it anyway.  Sue me.

According to Follow the Money, one of the largest individual contributors to the Corbett for Governor campaign is a fella named Vahan Gureghian, CEO of Charter School Management Corporation.  I’ve written about this relationship elsewhere and won’t (don’t need to?) rehash it here; the short version is that it’s awfully difficult to believe that Corbett’s, um, turn away from support for public education isn’t connected, at least in some way, with huge amounts of money appearing in his campaign coffers from somebody who stands to profit massively from cuts to the public education system.

Gee.  What a surprise.  The Governor supported public education, until he didn’t.  He supported publication, more likely, until a rich charter-school “entrepeneur” persuaded (!) him not to.  And here we are today.

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Filed under Follow the Money, K-12 Education, Tom Corbett, VoteSmart.org

by | March 19, 2011 · 12:33 pm

West Chester district superintendent responds to budget proposal

This morning, a WCU faculty member with a child in the West Chester Area School District sent me this link, with a letter issued last week by the district’s Superintendent.

I’m posting it on the blog for a couple of reasons.

First, I’m concerned that some members of the WCU community aren’t yet convinced of the gravity of the situation, and I hope that seeing yet another example (with concrete, and large and scary, numbers included) of what this budget will do to education will light the fire under your toes (or wherever it needs to get lit).

Second, I’m concerned that some members of the community believe, for whatever bizarre reason, that the faculty’s (and staff’s, and students’) responses to the proposal are somehow aimed at selfish faculty interests–that somehow the faculty are insidiously pushing a selfish agenda on everyone else as we fight to protect a university system to which we’re deeply committed, and learning conditions for students without which you can’t flourish.  Seeing this letter from the WCASD Superintendent, therefore, is intended to demonstrate that the loud and angry reaction and call for response isn’t ideologically or selfishly motivated.

Go take a good look at what the Governor’s budget will do to our local schools.  And then think about what that means for you–as faculty at WCU, as parents of K-12 students, as WCU students preparing for teaching careers, as anybody who actually cares about the well-being of our state and not just the elite economic interests that paid for your term in the Governor’s mansion.

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Filed under Budget, K-12 Education, Student activism, Tom Corbett

by | March 18, 2011 · 9:54 pm

Links for 3/18

A light day in terms of quantity, but important stuff.  The second article should make us fight harder, not rest on our laurels.  Our efforts, as new as they are, are already starting to make a dent–but they won’t finish the job unless we KEEP PUSHING.

 

Gov. Corbett’s Education Cuts 10 Times Higher in Poor Districts Than Wealthy Ones

I know some of you are less inclined to use a term like “class warfare” than I am, but the data and analysis in this piece make pretty clear that Gov. Corbett has no interest in serving the poor and working classes of this state (if you had any doubts).

If you have kids or family members in school districts that aren’t upper-middle class or higher, you should read this too–see what’s coming down the pike.

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Corbett May Have Lost Some Budget Support

Aside from the assumption that he EVER had support for the kind of drastic proposals he’s made, the most interesting feature of this article is the way it exposes how out of touch Corbett is with his own state.  The usual “I don’t govern by polls” stance rings even more anti-democratic when the numbers are so overwhelmingly in support of the exact institutions (K-12, higher ed) he’s attacking, and in favor of taxing the very wealthy to pay for those institutions.

What’s hard about this, Governor?

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Filed under Budget, K-12 Education, Links, Poll numbers