Portland school board gets a 'Broad' (as in toad) education

The Portland School Board's dalliance with the Broad (as in toad-or toady, for that matter) Foundation is puzzling indeed.  But it may also explain the Board's commitment to school choice and its growing flirtation with charter schools. 

Founded by billionaire businessman Eli Broad, the Broad Foundation is the self-proclaimed savior of public urban school systems.  Long a philanthropist and benefactor of the arts,  Eli Broad somewhere along the line reinvented himself as an expert on public education and decided that he (and his billions) could save the schools from their long decline into mediocrity.  How he decided that the schools you and I (and our kids) attended have slipped into hopeless mediocrity probably has a lot to do with the conservative assault on public education dating back to the mid 80's with the publication of A Nation at Risk. 

I say probably because I don't know if Broad ever read A Nation at Risk.  But I do know that the Broad Foundation has teamed up with George W. Bush's Department of Education "to help the nation's schools meet the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act."  And NCLB is nothing if not a direct assault on public education.  Many people, like me, believe that NCLB is a Trojan horse for the soldiers fighting for public school privatization.

Ironicallly, Eli Broad is the product of an urban public high school in Detroit where he was  an "average student at best" and where he "goofed off too much".  But that didn't prevent him from getting a degree in accounting from Michigan State University and going on to make a gazillion dollars as a business tycoon.  But apparently the same public schools today are no longer up to the task.

So what's the problem that Broad wants to fix?  School "governance" primarily, which is what you hear all the time from charter school fanatics like Rob Kremer.  Broad is indeed a charter school proponent, believing that traditional school "governance" discourages flexibility and innovation, thereby failing to prepare students for competition in the "global economy".   He also strongly believes that the school accountability movement -  testing kids to death - makes schools more competitive and more likely to improve.

I don't know about you, but I don't buy into the notion that schools are supposed to prepare kids for the "global economy", whatever that is.  Nor is it the function of schools to prepare little "worker bees".  Schools are there to educate kids, and to prepare them as citizens able to participate in a democracy.  Only public schools -"common schools" as Horace Mann called them- can perform the latter task.  That's the mission of universal compulsory education, where children of all classes (and races) gather together to learn not only how to read, write, and compute, but about how other people, different people, people they might never otherwise meet, go about their lives.  That's democracy.

All the blather about the inflexibility of schools which conservatives blame on the influence of teacher unions is just that - blather.  Any school can change if it has the educational leadership, starting with the school board.  And by leadership I mean empowerment, not half-baked dictates from the top down.  Empowerment implies bottom up reform, which is what happened at Marshall High School.when it created small schools within the larger school.  The school uniform and single sex academies  debacle at Jefferson is a classic example of top down "leadership".

So here's my advice to the school board.  Stop wasting money on Broad (as in toad) Foundation training.  It's leading you down the path to privatization.  Don't forget that you serve a public school district.

One last note (there's more) on the Broad Foundation's connection to the Bush Administration.  The press secretary to First School Teacher Laura Bush, Noelia Rodriguez, quit her job a couple of years ago to become chief of staff to none other than Eli Broad. 

Comments

[Anne]

Broad does seminars for school boards. His philosophy that says that privatization cannot move fast enough, and will somehow improve(?!) our public schools. The PPS school board canceled the February 27 meeting so they could attend a Broad seminar. So they are being steeped in right wing politics AND leaving town in the middle of a huge budget crisis.

Other Right wing think tanks are influencing PPS decisions. At the Jan 23, 06 Board meeting, members of Neighborhood Schools Alliance pointed out that PPS had used Heritage Foundation research for background for the Jefferson Design Team. Board member Wynde vigorously denied any connection.
The Board minutes from that meeting say "Co-Chair Wynde addressed the remark regarding the Heritage Foundation, and said it is a right-wing think tank and would be very far removed from the thinking of anyone on the Board or on the Jefferson Design Team." Unfortunately he was wrong. If he had read the "No Excuses" report that they used closely, he would have noticed that it came from a Heritage Scholar.

I believe that at least some of the decision makers have been unaware of how right wing all this is. I think this is because conservative think tanks, in particular Broad, uses seemingly progressive phrases like "reform" and "bridging the achievement gap" in their work. Sort of like Bush's rhetoric "No Child Left Behind", Clean Air Initiative etc

Thanks for writing this, Terry. My sense is that PPS is insidiously creeping further and further right in its ideology and if most of the residents of this city knew they would be appalled. It is a nationwide trend--Chicago just converted three of its public high schools to military academies!
We need to continually speak out and fight back against a right wing takeover of our public schools.

[gus]

Terry wrote: (Public) "Schools are there to educate kids, and to prepare them as citizens able to participate in a democracy. Only public schools -"common schools" as Horace Mann called them- can perform the latter task. That's the mission of universal compulsory education, where children of all classes (and races) gather together to learn not only how to read, write, and compute, but about how other people, different people, people they might never otherwise meet, go about their lives. That's democracy."

Anne wrote: "We need to continually speak out and fight back against a right wing takeover of our public schools."

It is interesting to note that schools in greatest danger of "right wing takeover" are failing schools in urban districts. Failure is obvious in those schools. It is evidenced by limited parental support, sporadic attendance, unruly students, high dropout rates, vandalism, reluctance by teachers to work in such buildings and yes, low scores on standardized tests. As long as those schools exist, they will be reminders that public schools in urban locales are not meeting Horace Mann's ideals and those schools will be magnets for reformers of all stripes.

[Terry]

The only "failure" that counts is low test scores. Need I point out, Gus, that EVERY Portland high school, and nearly every middle school, has "failed" to make Adequate Yearly Progress under the test-based standards of No Child Left Behind?

[gus]

I would point out to you, Terry, that NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress standards must be met by each demographic sub-group within a school. Penalties so far under NCLB have been limited to district subsidized transportation of students to better performing schools and can only be levied on schools that qualify for federal Title I funding. The majority of PPS schools do not qualify for Title I funding so their students do not get transfer subsidies. As yet, not a single PPS school has been closed because of NCLB.

Portland's failed schools have been obvious long before NCLB or Oregon's "Report Cards". It has always been evidenced by limited parental support, sporadic attendance, unruly students, high dropout rates, vandalism, reluctance by teachers to work in such buildings and yes, low scores on standardized tests.

[Ruth Adkins]

Maybe Gus doesn't know that Jefferson posted the largest test score gains of any high school in Portland last year.

Maybe Gus didn't come to the recent Board hearing at Jefferson where a stream of articulate, intelligent and yes, "well behaved" Jeff students testified eloquently about the resources and support their school needs. And where dedicated, talented Jeff teachers testified to the great work that is being done.

[gus]

Ruth:

I am aware of all those things as well as the gap that still remains between Jeff's scores and those at Lincoln. Grant, Benson and other schools. I am also aware that 70% of kids eligible to attend Jefferson opt to attend other PPS schools. I would go on Ruth but your drive-by shot was neither informative nor even relevant to my posts in this string.

[Terrified]

I have been reading about the mess and havoc in Oakland, Chicago, San Diego, etc. and the involvement of the Broad Foundation in the school districts of these cities. There was some hope at sf-frontline.com, however. That city was smart enough to drive their autocratic Broad-friendly, superintendent out of town. I have been in chat rooms and reading blogs where people are defending the school closures as necessary. (Budget problems...What else are we to do?etc.) People are buying the PR put out by Phillips and the School Board. The Broad Foundation is on its way to usurping the power of our citizens. They have to be stopped. Portland deserves better.