Good for a laugh. 

Villaraigosa pitched his takeover plan to the teachers’ unions yesterday.  Predictably, they sounded, shall we say, less than enthusiastic:

"I don’t doubt his commitment, but I feel as a relatively new mayor that there are so many other things on his plate," said Mary Bergan, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which adopted a resolution earlier this year opposing mayoral control of schools. "I don’t know what kind of upheaval it would bring."

The California PTA has not taken a position on the takeover plan, but President-elect Pam Brady said she was impressed by Villaraigosa’s overture to her organization.

"I felt like we were listened to, like he was open to us taking any position, whether it was in opposition or not," Brady said. "He honestly laid his plan on the table and understood that some people will like it and some people won’t."

Meanwhile, back on the ranch…

In Los Angeles, the mayor’s takeover plan took a drubbing at a special hearing called by the Los Angeles Board of Education. The meeting was ostensibly held for the board to hear "case studies" of how other cities have managed mayoral control of schools, but, with one exception, no effort was made to present the mayors’ points of view.

The board had invited speakers from parent organizations in New York, Chicago and Detroit, all of which have experimented with mayoral control of education, and a mayoral aide from San Francisco, which has not. Either implicitly or explicitly, all of the speakers warned against a mayoral takeover in Los Angeles. School board members responded with some of their sharpest remarks about Villaraigosa’s effort.

Carmen Colon, a parent from Brooklyn who is president of the Assn. of New York City Education Councils, warned that the school takeover by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had marginalized parents with a relatively trivial advisory role.

"All I can say to you is, it’s your city, it’s your school, it’s your child, and don’t let them forget that," she said.

Ismail Vargas, assistant director of a parent group in Chicago, said the school takeover in his city by Mayor Richard M. Daley had resulted in a more aloof, less responsive school system.

"This is the problem of mayors trying to take charge of the public education system," he said. "We call this the public education system — it’s for the public, not for the mayor."

Shanta Driver, a parent from Detroit, described the short-lived mayoral control of the schools there as "a complete disaster."

"Any time you have a proposal for improving the schools that you can’t get a majority of the school board to back, you know that proposal stinks," she said.

In light of these developments, School Me has broken out the Predict-O-Meter ^TM again.  Guess which way the needle turns? 

George Mason University economics department chair Donald Boudreaux describes the economic behavior of public schools:

Government K-12 schools, as now run everywhere in the U.S., will never excel at educating students. The reason is that each school gets its students and its budget without having to compete for them.

Imagine if, say, supermarkets were run the same way we run schools. Everyone in my county would pay taxes to fund the county supermarket system; each one of us would then be assigned one specific county supermarket at which we are allowed to shop.

Of course, once in our assigned store, all the groceries that each of us gets are "free" — meaning, we don’t have to pay for them on the spot. If the products and services supplied by the supermarket are of poor quality, we’re not allowed to switch to other county markets; we must, instead, complain to politicians.

The managers of the supermarkets will agree that their stores offer abysmal service and undesirable products; they will assert that this sad fact is caused by underfunding. We will be warned that only by paying higher taxes will we have any possibility of getting better supermarkets.

So our taxes will rise and funding for supermarkets will increase. But quality will remain poor — and the excuses offered by the government-employed managers of the supermarkets will remain that they need yet more funding.

Kind of like I said here.  Except, you know, more professorlike.  (Hat tip to Hispanic Pundit.) 

Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial:

"The biggest revolution caused by No Child Left Behind is the revolution in education research," says Georgia State University’s Gary Henry, a scholar in educational policy and evaluation. "We are getting better at figuring out what works. But what we are seeing is almost nothing that has a very large effect."

Even when the research shows a gain, it’s a very small gain produced under the best of circumstances. That’s because most reforms only tug at the edges and don’t address central flaws in public education: A teacher’s track record of improving student performance is hidden from public view, and that performance is not used as a factor in teacher salaries.

Researchers agree that the most reliable predictor of teacher success is past success. So what parents ought to look for is a teacher who has demonstrated gains in student scores from one year to the next. That track record is more telling than a teacher’s academic credentials or experience. Yet, parents never see that crucial piece of the puzzle.

"We should, as parents, have that full data," says Henry. "We have the capacity here in Georgia to make that data available. Basically, it is a flip of a switch. That would empower parents to really be active."

Apparently, that’s just what schools fear, a flood of active parents armed with data showing that Ms. X raises test scores year after year and Mr. Y does not. Because that would force schools to do something about Mr. Y— either offer him professional development or suggest a career change.

Meanwhile, Ken De Rosa examines a report on a Charlotte high school and notes this comment:

As the school year draws to a close, the principal is still pushing a two-pronged mission: Get students to take responsibility for their own success. And get teachers to believe in students. (emphasis added)

Ken’s commentary:

So, the students have to take responsibility for learning while the teachers don’t quite have to take responsibility for teaching. They just have to "believe in students." I suppose believing is better than nothing.

I’m wondering how a student is supposed to take responsibility for learning if the teaching isn’t any good. Isn’t good teaching, which starts with teachers taking responsibility for teaching well, a prerequisite to any student learning?

Fossella talks to bishop about NY tuition tax credits - In an effort to drum up support for federal legislation that would give parents of students in parochial and private schools a $4,500 tax credit to help pay for tuition, Rep. Vito Fossella reached out yesterday to the leader of the Brooklyn Diocese. (more)

Lazy FL media focuses on wrong story - The Associated Press reports that the Democratic candidates for governor are unknown to the citizens of Florida. Not only is that a clipping to be filed in the "lazy story" pile, but it’s also an indictment of a slumbering media. (more)

Preschool benefits grossly exaggerated - A Rand Corporation study that claims universal preschool will deliver $2.62 in benefits for every dollar spent by California taxpayers has been thoroughly discredited … (more)

Come back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

AP:Black, Hispanic pupils see school as tough - Black and Hispanic students see school as a more rowdy, disrespectful and dangerous place than their white classmates do, a poll says. (more)

UPDATE:

49% of parents got first choice schools in Lee - Only 49 percent of parents got their top choice during Lee County’s second round of school choice registration, down from 82 percent in the first round. (more).

Parents: Know educational choices - With the application deadline fast approaching, 561 students, 1.2 percent of those eligible, have signed up for the new statewide EdChoice school voucher program. (more).

Fossella and the Bishop - Albany botched education tax credits when lawmakers took up the issue this spring, but if New Yorkers are lucky, a New York congressman will do better in Washington. (more)

America’s Opportunity Scholarships for Kids: School Choice for … - Millions of students across the United States are enrolled in persistently failing public schools. During the 2004-2005 school year, 2,112 Title I public schools were identified as having failed to make adequate yearly progress for five or more years. This represents 23 percent of all Title I-eligible schools. (more)

Opinion: Strengthen what works in Michigan’s schools - Good schools change lives. That’s why the Skillman Foundation just awarded $1.5 million to 32 elementary and middle schools in Detroit that we believe are making a difference in the lives of local children. (more)