Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/15938
California didn’t make it to the finalists, but was so desperate for RTTT money that legislators changed three laws they believed would increase eligibility. One removes a “statewide firewall” prohibiting the use of student test scores in evaluating teachers. The second was an open-enrollment measure that allows students in the lowest-performing schools to apply to other schools anywhere in the state, including in their own district. The third was a “parent trigger” provision, where- by 50 percent of the parents in a low-per- forming school could force districts to adopt a major reform plan, such as closing the school, firing the principal and up to half the teachers, or turning it into a charter. “California didn’t get any money, and now we are stuck with these bad laws and are struggling with how to implement them,” says Sanchez. California and most other states without Gates backing didn’t fare much better in Round 2 of RTTT. According to Education Week, nine of the 12 winning applicants from a field of 47 states over two rounds of the RTTT competition were backed by Gates and given $250,000 apiece to craft propos- als that were in “good strategic alignment” with the foundation on key issues such as supporting charter school expansion and evaluating and compensating teachers based on test scores. “The real secretary of education, the joke goes, is Bill Gates,” states an Associated Press news analysis. However, it’s not a laughing matter; Duncan’s inner circle includes several individuals closely aligned with the Gates and Broad foundations. (See sidebar, page 13.) Gates has denied that his foundation is a “partner” in the RTTT program but has this to say: “We’re doing all kinds of exper- iments that are different. The Race to the Top is going to do many different ones. There’s no group-think.” The U.S. shouldn’t be experimenting on American children. They deserve prov- en reforms. Experiments gone awry In 2000, the Gates Foundation decid- ed that small schools were the answer to boosting graduation rates, so Gates pumped about $2 billion into a campaign to restructure American high schools. This included 45 states and founding 2,600 schools with fewer than 400 stu- dents. Some of the schools were newly created and others were the result of di- viding large, comprehensive high schools into smaller ones. “Al though foundation of f icial s Diane Ravitch regularly claimed that their decision to support small schools was based on research, most of the research available at that time was written by advocates of small schools, so the foundation had no warning signs of the difficulties it would encounter in pursuing its agenda,” writes Diane Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education, in her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. “The foundation seemed unaware of the disadvantages of small high schools, that is, schools with fewer than 400 students,” writes Ravitch. “Because of their size, they seldom have enough students or teachers to of fer advanced courses in mathematics and science elec- t ives, advanced placement courses, career and technical education, choir, band, sports teams and other programs that many teenagers want. Nor can most offer adequate support for English- language learners or students with spe- cial needs.” Gates admitted in 2009, “Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way.” Meanwhile, many school districts today are dealing with the fallout from Gates’ failed experi- ments — including those in Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento and other areas. (See accompanying stories.) Having given up on small schools, Gates set his sights on charter schools and, according to Ravitch, has supplied nearly $100 million since 2000 to charter management organizations such as New Schools Venture Fund. In 2008, after changing course, Gates Running schools like a business doesn’t work Based on the belief that schools should be run as a business, billionaire Eli Broad has spent millions to train school administrators who have no experience in public education. The results have been disastrous for some Broad-trained leaders, causing disruptions in communities. A few examples: > Deborah Sims, superintendent of the Antioch School District, was asked to resign in 2009 due to her top-down, abrasive style of management, in a campaign led by outraged members of the Antioch Education Association. > In March 2009, the Capistrano School District terminated its superintendent, Arnold Woodrow Carter, for “material breach.” > In San Diego, Alan Bersin served as superintendent before being ousted by the San Diego Education Association and the community. announced that in addition to funding charters, he planned to invest millions in performance-based pay programs for teachers, creating data systems, pro- moting national standards and tests, and finding ways for school districts to fire “ineffective” teachers. This put him on the same page as bi llionaire Eli Broad, who is also devoted to charters, merit pay for teachers, and the belief that schools should function as busi- nesses — a philosophy also shared by the Walton family, of Wal-Mart stores. The Obama administration and Dun- can have embraced this philosophy, and Ravitch worries this will impact the fu- ture of education in America. Charters, she asserts, are creating a two-tiered system in urban districts, with charter schools for motivated students and pub- lic schools for the rest. They drain mon- ey from existing schools and cause teacher burnout. And judging teachers solely on test scores and paying them accordingly is unfair to both teachers SEPTEMBER 2010 | www.cta.org 11