Educator and blogger, Peter Greene, had an excellent take down of the recent proposals at educational “reform” coming from Arkansas’ new governor. Gov. Sanders’ proposed Arkansas LEARNS plan would fundamentally change K-12 education in the state … and not for the better.
I take what Peter Green has exposed, and add the Autside twist. For subscribers, keep reading. For others, please support my work by joining the community as a paid subscriber.
Early Childhood Education
In her proposal, all responsibilities and controls over Early Childhood Education would fall to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). The ADE would create a website that would act as a sort of “parent portal.” It will include “accountability” scores that will be based on “ratings indicative of child outcomes.” No word on what the heck that means. There will be a bunch of locally controlled “early childhood lead organizations” that are going to “create alignment among the community's public and private providers and agencies.” So local control, but not, or something, along the way to funneling a ton of federal education dollars to private corporations.
Early Literacy
Everybody has to get with the Science of Reading program. Does it matter that there isn’t a single piece of evidence that the so-called Science of Reading works with autistic, dyslexic, or other special populations? Of course not. Gov. Sanders likely didn’t check the What Works Clearinghouse to find the evidence behind the so-called “evidence-based strategies.”
I spent 96 hours of Professional Development time at the Rollins Center in Atlanta learning all bout this Science of Reading. When I bitched about the lack of evidence that it is applicable to autistic populations, I was ghosted by the staff. There, they’ve never heard of Natural Language Acquisition or Gestalt Language Processors. The Science of Reading cheerleaders believe in the lie of eugenics, that there is one way (and one way only - the Science of Reading) to teach language to all humans. It’s just silly. Yet, the governor and her supporters have found one more cudgel with which to club public education.
Just in case you need more grief, the governor’s plan asks the state to hire 120 “literacy coaches” for low-performing schools. The schools will, clearly, be judged on performance, but the coaches will be judged on “student growth.” Will these corporate hires know about marginalized populations? Probably not. It’s yet another giveaway to Big Ed.
But, it gets worse. As Peter Greene points out,
“Students who don't pass the 3rd grade reading test are eligible for up to $500 to hire a tutor. If that doesn't work and they still fail the test, they don't pass 3rd grade. This is a terrible, abusive policy, and it doesn't even do any good (except for politicians who are promising to get tough with those slacker eight year olds. Also, they'll be sure to loop parents in on how things are going, because parents' rights are super-important and parents know their kids best, except for third graders who don't pass the standardized reading test--those parents don't know jack and they get no say in this.”
There is nothing autistic people hate more than a standardized, high-stakes test. In Arkansas, kids will get their first sample of oligarchical gatekeeping in grade three. This is simply cruel.
Career Readiness
File this one under “the Oligarchs need more free labour.” This proposal has schools asking businesses what kind of “widgets” they'd like to have. The schools then set up programs to train “widget makers” for the state’s businesses. Studets would then be identified by special “career-ready diplomas.” The Arkansas Workforce Development Board will collect a ton of data on “student outcomes” so the programs can be tweaked as time goes on. As you work through the rest of the plan parts which involve a clown car full of alternate education systems, ask yourself how anyone can possibly track it all. Hint: you can’t. And that’s the point. Whilst you’re trying to figure it all out, the money flows. Businesses get state sponsored training programmes and students get a “career.” What could possibly go wrong with this one?
How about asking eighth graders to pick a career / diploma pathway (declare their major)? They can change their minds later, but only with parental approval. But, what if they choose a pathway that the local businesses won’t support? How much choice will they actually be afforded in such a system when business is ultimately in control?
Plus, students are required to serve a total of 75 hours of community service. This sounds like a great idea until you're the community service organization dealing with “volunteer” workers who don't want to be there or you’re a student who wants to get credit for volunteering in an un-approved entity (like passing out leaflets for the Party for Socialism and Liberation).
Educator Workforce: Teacher Pay
The minimum teacher salary in Arkansas will be moved from $36,000 to $50,000. Does $50K sound like a good starting salary? Does it sound like a good salary to make for the rest of your entire teaching career? Because with that $50K salary comes the end of all step increases for years of experience or bonuses for having a Masters Degree or Doctorate. Arkansas teacher pay is so lousy that a $50K salary might actually represent an increase in career earnings, even though inflation will steadily whittle it away. Also, the plan adds three more days in the school year.
But, “eligible teachers” might get an annual bonus of up to $10K. Maybe it’s for extra duties, or mentoring. What ever it is, it’ll be measured with the Value Added Model, aka That Thing That Has Been Widely and Thoroughly Debunked. A Texas court rejected it. Even Oklahoma booted it. The VAM only provides direct scores for Reading and Math, so other teachers get rated based on scores of students they’ve never taught. VAM systems are an absolute nightmare and a scam. It’s yet another way to torment teachers.
The “fun” part of this scam is the section refers to “this fund” for the bonuses, which suggests that the available money for teacher bonuses in any given year will be finite. This means that teachers get to fight each other for a limited slice of a limited pie. There will also be a program for some loan forgiveness for teachers in “critical shortage” areas (but not for the “ineffective” ones). The gods help special education teachers under this tyranny.
Also - and this is not nothing for a young teacher starting a family - bonuses don't count when you're applying for things like mortgages, nor are they pensionable.
Charter Schools
It’s full stop on the privatisation of the public space. Her plan features no local approvals. The state will speed up the process. This, and the taxpayers will be pumping money into a fund created to help charters buy or build facilities. What fun?! This also comes with an “education savings account voucher system.” That features all the usual garbage for funneling public tax dollars to private vendors, phased in over a quick three years.
Question: how many of these private schools will support students with IEPs? How many job openings for SPED teachers will there be with these new private vendors?
Cultural Relevance
“The Secretary of Education will review Department of Education regulations, policies, materials, and communications to ensure they do not indoctrinate students with ideologies that conflict with the principle of equal protection under the law.”
Great. Since Culturally Relevant teaching practices do not conflict with that principle, there should be no problem. LOL! Arkansas will continue to work hard to keep that “race stuff” out of schools. Kiddos will continue to have their native culture obliterated on contact.
Impacts
You might be thinking, I’m glad that I don’t live in Arkansas. My state surely wouldn’t do something like that. But, as we’ve seen in America, as governors look to solidify their base and gain traction as a national candidate, they tend to swing the Overton Window way too far. De Santis said no to an AP African American studies program. So, how does Sanders top that, we see now with her Arkansas LEARNS plan. What further crap with the corporatist oligarchs come up with next to fleece the taxpayers and the working classes?
Thanks for reading and for your support. Please consider sharing these posts with a friend by gifting them a subscription.