Warren unveils K-12 education plan that skewers unequal funding

[DemocracyMouse]

I rather like much of this. The most significant is the effort to address the unequal funding that public schools get in wealthier districts.

Elizabeth Warren Unveils Education Plan To Fight Segregation And High-Stakes Testing

The sweeping plan also takes aim at charters, suggesting they divert precious resources away from traditional public schools.

By Rebecca Klein 10/21/2019

Huffpost:
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5dacfaffe4b0422422c73a78

The detailed plan also seeks to equalize school funding between low and high-income areas and decrease the influence of police in schools. It proposes a new education grant program funded at a whopping $100 billion over 10 years — the equivalent of $1 million for every school in the country — for schools to use on programs or resources of their choice. Her plan would be paid for by a wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million.

However, her newly released plan is extensive, taking direct aim at some of the most entrenched sources of inequality in K-12 education... On the issue of school segregation ― a polarizing issue that even liberal politicians often shy away from ― Warren pledges to encourage states to use a portion of their federal funds on school integration projects. Under a Warren administration, the departments of Education and Justice will crack down on wealthier, whiter communities that try to break away from their more diverse school districts and hoard resources ― a phenomenon called school district secession.

“Broad public affirmation of the Brown v. Board of Education decisions in the 1950s and recent debates about historical desegregation policies have obscured an uncomfortable truth ― our public schools are more segregated today than they were about thirty years ago,” states the plan, titled, “A Great Public School Education for Every Student.”

Notably, Warren also pledges to “eliminate high-stakes testing.” High-stakes testing came to prominence during the Bush administration, after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which tied schools’ test scores to a series of carrots and sticks. The Obama administration continued to center high-stakes tests as federal officials encouraged states and districts to tie teacher evaluations to test scores.... Warren’s plan represents a stark departure from this line of thinking. She pledges to ban test scores as a significant determinant in personnel terminations, school closures and other “high-stakes decisions,” noting that “the push toward high-stakes standardized testing has hurt both students and teachers.”

...Warren pledges to fight to ban for-profit charter schools, which represent around 15% of the sector. But she also goes after nonprofit ones, promising to end a federal program that provides funding for new schools and opposing provisions that allow them to sometimes evade the same level of transparency and accountability as traditional public schools. The plan seeks to ban nonprofit charters that employ or outsource operations to for-profit service providers and calls for the IRS to investigate these schools’ nonprofit tax status.

[DemocracyMouse]

1. She also trims back the ridiculous testing culture...

... which every teacher knows was replacing a healthy, well rounded education-focused classroom with "teaching-to-the-test." Teachers have been dragged into the bureaucracy of testing because their promotion and pay were tied to test scores. It's produced a generation of American citizens with shallow educations.

Warren knows the testing culture was dreadful having once been a teacher herself.

[blm]

2. ✔️