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Poppa Bear:  Why the dumb tests???

3/27/2014

 
What would you do if you found out your high achieving honors student was spending time in English class learning how to remove grass stains from dirty laundry rather than reading classic literature? This Poppa Bear was disgusted, so he contacted Momma Bears and told us all about it... 
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Dear Momma Bears:

    I recently learned that my busy high schooler was forced to use class time to take an on-line test called Discovery Education Assessment (DEA). I had to hear this news from my child because the school did not send home any notice or information about the assessment. While driving home, I got an earful of frustration and complaints about a test already administered twice this year. Now for the third time, an entire class period was wasted on a meaningless assessment that apparently does nothing for the student. It does not affect their grades or prepare them for the ACT or SAT. 

    It was particularly disconcerting to hear my child complain about questions on how to clean laundry stains and Beyonce. After we got home and I took my blood pressure medicine, we had a long talk about what was going on in school. 

    My child has a full load of honors level classes, stays up late studying, and gets up early to be at school by 7:00am. In education, the time is short but the road is long--lots to learn and not enough time. Every minute spent on meaningless assessments is cheating our children out of the education they need to make it in this world. And it every minute spent on homework to make up for that class time cheats my wife and I out of time we could spend with our child. High school flies by, blink your eyes and it's gone. 

    So, what kind of test is so important to poach on precious high school class time? According to my irritated child, it's a bunch of stupid questions about some stupid articles on stupid things like how to remove grass stains, hybrid cars, water conservation tips as well as a smattering of literary excerpts. As an English major, it pains me to see such little regard given to literature where only excerpts are used and not the entire text. I am concerned as to who actually selected the passages contained therein and whether or not the author of the test was qualified to draft the questions. And given that my child is enrolled in an honors level English class, it leaves me bewildered as to why passages such as removing grass stains and Beyonce were used to assess my child's reading comprehension skills.  There was certainly little, if any, time spent testing the use of literary devices or probing the student's ability to think in the abstract. 

   To bring this full circle, I am disgusted by this waste of my child's instructional time. This test has nothing to do with furthering my child's education and only functions as an impediment to my child's education.  It leads me to suspect ulterior motives behind this test. Is someone conducting marketing research? Why else would they want to know if laundry instructions were easily understood by the reader? Let the marketing teams do their own testing on their own time and stop leaning on my children's teachers to proctor such non-productive tests.

                                                     Sincerely,

                                                    An Upset Poppa Bear


Momma Bears would like to thank Poppa Bear for bringing this assessment to our attention. After investigating Discovery Education, we found out he has good reason to be upset. DEA is yet another Pear$on product paid for by our tax dollars. Based on DEA results, students are pulled from class and placed in front of a computer screen for "remediation" of their weak areas. This on-line remediation is called RTI (Response To Intervention) which means more money for Pear$on and less time students spend with classroom teachers.

Poppa Bear is also right about DEA being of little value to students. According to one review, "High school course-specific assessments are also available, as well as a large bank of test items for creating customized district assessments. These are not diagnostic assessments. Reports show students performance in benchmark categories which are very general only covers the grade level of the student so it does not provide any out-of-grade testing. If schools want to use this to guide differentiated instruction, it would not be sufficient. Nor would it be sufficient to really help a classroom teacher. Teachers would/should already know their students' general strengths or weaknesses so the reports' summative information wouldn't be that helpful." 


The Discovery Education Assessment that this Poppa Bear was talking about:
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We sure wish that our leaders would TRUST TEACHERS to teach and evaluate students instead of mandating boring assessments and computerized interventions.

Just for the record

3/22/2014

 
Just for the record:

Momma Bears would never ever ever ever ever,
not in a million years,
no way, no how,
buy a single "like" on Facebook for StudentsFirst.
We wouldn't spend a penny on that organization.

Not even if they gave us all new minivans.

Not even if they offered to clean our houses and do our laundry so we can spend more time blogging.

Not even if they gave our neighborhood schools thousands of dollars so we wouldn't have to do cookie dough & wrapping paper fundraisers to pay for art supplies, music instruments, and playgrounds for students.  

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StudentsFirst's "likes" on Facebook: Pathetic Popularity Contest

3/18/2014

 
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Momma Bears has often wondered about the gullible people who fall for the StudentsFirst sales pitch.  StudentsFirst is an underhanded, astroturf organization funded by corporate billionaires (HERE and HERE).  This is Michelle Rhee's group.  Yes, the same Michelle Rhee that legislators don't want to be associated with because she has such a bad reputation. How on earth do they have over 75,000 "likes" on Facebook?  The people commenting on their posts obviously don't agree with them (read them when you need a laugh, it is pretty funny).  They rarely get any "likes" at all on their posts despite having 75,000 "members" on their facebook page.

Well, we found the answer...  those gullible people were really not people at all!!!   


StudentsFirst's Facebook "likes" were bought from Bangladesh!!!   

We aren't kidding!  Look:
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See the red circle around "Dhaka, Bangladesh"?  It is listed as the "Most Popular City" for likes on this page. 

 Search on Facebook for "We Sell Likes in Bangladesh."  You'll see that anyone can buy 1000 likes for about $15 bucks.  (Click HERE to go buy likes or fake friends for yourself.)  Click HERE to read an article that tells about the dishonest business of buying popularity on social media sites.

Check out this page from StudentsFirst in Alabama:
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See that their most popular city is Istanbul, Turkey?
See that their most popular age group is 18-24 year olds?

See how the graph lines were pretty low until it spiked the week of March 9?

Yep, apparently, someone bought themselves some cheap, overseas popularity... because informed parents sure don't "like" what StudentsFirst is pushing on our kids and schools in America!  


  No, we don't "like" their corporate donors profiting from our kids and our public schools.  
  No, we don't "like" their stinking vouchers or manipulative parent trigger law. 
  No, we don't "like" our kids doing common core.
  No, we don't "like" our public schools converted to charter schools for their profit at the expense of our children. 


Smart parents want strong neighborhood public schools in their communities, which is the total opposite of what StudentsFirst spends its millions of dollars on in our state to lobby our elected officials and fund campaigns to sway our politicians.  


StudentsFirst is, literally, buying votes in TN.  Unfortunately, their money in TN makes them very popular.  The TN legislators who received the most money from StudentsFirst (Senator Delores Gresham, Rep. John DeBerry, and the members of the Education committees) vote lock-step with what StudentsFirst wants. Every. Single. Time.  (That's a big reason that the TN House just circumvented those bought & paid-for committee members by hijacking a bill and adding amendments on it to delay PARCC & common core.)


FAUX Parents
This is what we Momma Bears now like to affectionately call, "Faux Parents."  See, when Commissioner Kevin Huffman told a group of rich Chamber of Commerce people that he couldn't possibly listen to parents because there are many "Faux Parent" groups in TN with ulterior motives, we thought he was talking about Momma Bears and groups like ours.  Obviously, we were wrong.  He was talking about his ex-wife's organization, StudentsFirst!  (Okay, he really was probably talking about us and trying to discredit our voices, but still, you gotta note the irony of his claim and the truth of StudentsFirst's purchased popularity!)   Check out the Twitter storm (#fauxparent) to see pictures of real parents holding signs about being a "faux parent."  Parents, sure do have great senses of humor!

The sad part of this can be stated by a mom who said this:

"StudentsFirst has lobbyists galore up on the hill telling our legislators that they are speaking on behalf of parents. They are just neglecting to mention that the parents are living in Bangladesh not the US and certainly not Tennessee."  


With tongue-in-cheek, she also says:


"Clearly Rhee (Michelle Rhee, CEO of StudentsFirst) is not on her "A" game because her home state of California only has 241 likes on it. Seems like someone needs to put a call in to the folks in Bangladesh and get that fixed."



Considering Michelle Rhee's cheating scandal and how her organization has paid big campaign bucks to gullible politicians, this Facebook debacle doesn't surprise Momma Bears one bit.
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UPDATE:  People have contacted us wanting to how to see for themselves that StudentsFirst's "likes" really are from Bangladesh.  It is easy:  Go to the Students First facebook page (Note: In the Facebook search bar, you have to put a space between Students and First for their national page, but some of their state pages don't have a space.  For example, StudentsFirst Alabama.  Weird.)  Anyway, just click on the word, "Likes," (see red arrow below) and you'll get to the details page we posted images of above.  See, easy, right?
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For some reason, Facebook only shows "Most Popular City" for some pages and not others, so some of the smaller Students First (or StudentsFirst) State pages don't show the most popular city.  We can't figure out why this is.  Of course, Facebook changes more often than the weather, so don't be surprised if this, changes, too.  

Here's our new Momma Bears facebook page.  "Like" us because you really do, not because you're paid to.  Thanks!

Governor Is Gettin Desperate

3/17/2014

 
Surprise!  Governor Haslam is coming to Indian Trail Intermediate School in Johnson City, on Tuesday, March 18. He is expected to arrive around 11:30 and be at the school for about an hour.

This is an invitation-only event. The list will include superintendents, school board members, Common Core Coaches, and the media. The assumption that unless you fit into one of those categories, that we will not be able to attend. This saddens us to know that the meeting is restricted. To our knowledge, teachers and parents have not been invited.

What that also tells us is that this visit has a political reason behind it. A Representative in Nashville said that Haslam is trying to drum up support for Common Core State Standards given the bill that was passed last week to delay further implementation of CCSS and PARCC for two years.

Supposedly a group of community members are going to be at the corner of Lambeth and Roan St. (by the parking lot near the football field) to protest common core.  This is public property.  We know this is late notice, and it is hard to be spontaneous when you have children, but if you can, join them.

If you have it in your closet, wear red clothing. It is part of the "Wear Red for Public Ed" campaign. It is a small, non-aggressive, non-obtrusive way to send a message that you are in favor of public education.  Signage can include:  No Common Core, No PARCC, or I am not a Faux Parent. 

We have also heard that the Governor is going to be at Cedar Grove Elementary at 8:45 AM in Smyrna (near Murfreesboro) tomorrow.

And we heard there is a third school site scheduled for tomorrow but we aren't sure where in the state it is. 



UPDATE on 3/18/14: 

Lexington Middle School is the 3rd school Governor Haslam is gracing with his presence, disrupting learning to push his political agenda.  

Did you notice that all 3 schools are in districts where there was a push from legislators against Common Core?  Yep, not a coincidence.  

Did you notice that there has been no notice given?  Teachers found out late yesterday about these visits to their schools.  Yep, not a coincidence either.  It is hard to stage a protest if nobody knows he's coming.  This is a very deliberate, very desperate attempt to save Common Core.
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Time to Roar Even LOUDER!

3/15/2014

 
As you contact state senators and ask them to support the House's overwhelming vote to delay further implementation of CCSS and PARCC for 2 more years, be sure to reach out to legislators about other bills that are coming before the legislature this week.

Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence (TREE) has a short post about the voucher, for-profit charter, and state-charter authorizer bills that will be voted on this coming Monday and Tuesday. If passed, these bills will further deplete our schools of resources, make profit more important than our children, and remove a locally elected school board's power to determine which publicly funded, private schools can be approved by a district. (It is not surprising that Education Commissioner Huffman is also supporting these bills.) 

Please click on this TREE link and fill out the very short electronic form that will send emails out to legislators, letting them know that you oppose these bills.

Stop the Tennessee Testing Madness also has a legislative alert on the the following bills. Parental Notification of Testing (SB 2404), Reimbursement for Common Core Tests (SB 2057), Testing Opt-Out (SB 2221), Parental Review of Materials/Opt Out (SB 2559). 

Please click on this Stop the Tennessee Testing Madness LINK and follow the instructions to contact committees about your SUPPORT of these bills.

Momma Bears appreciates all of these parent advocacy groups keeping up with what is going on in Nashville at our General Assembly. Show your support Momma Bears and ROAR! You are making a difference.

Thanks to the Union City, TN Momma Bear who sent us this image.

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ALERT: Is this in YOUR child's library at school?

3/7/2014

 
A Mom in Shelby County, TN sent us images from a book that her child checked out of his elementary school library.  Her son knew that there were some forbidden words in the book that he was not allowed to say, so he showed it to his mom.  Smart boy!
***Warning***
Rated R words and sexual innuendo below

The front cover looks harmless enough.  
"Stuck in the Middle"
by Ariel Schrag
It appears to be a book containing comics about middle school: 
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front cover of the book
But inside the book... 
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The title of a chapter
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Putting "--" on that curse word doesn't make it right
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Inappropriate for a school library
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inappropriate sexual descriptions and remarks
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Mom put sticky tabs on every page containing inappropriate pictures or words
So the Mom contacted Momma Bears to ask what we recommend.  We advised her to talk to her child's principal.  She did.  The Principal was appalled, apologized, immediately removed the book from the school library, and was going to speak to the Librarian to make sure there weren't other copies.  Who knows how long it was there, though, and how many children read it though?

Look on the spine...
Something else really disturbing is that this book is rated a 3.0 on the Accelerated Reader scale.  
Look there, on the spine below, you'll see that this book is an "AR" book, which means that students can take an Accelerated Reader quiz and earn points (some schools give out prizes for points).  Accelerated Reader is a company owned by Renaissance Learning, Inc. (Renaissance Learning has 4 registered lobbyists in TN)
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Accelerated Reader Reading Level = 3.0 (3rd grade) Worth 2.0 points on AR quiz
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Book Level = 3.0 (3rd grade) / Interest Level = Middle Grades (4th-8th)
Momma Bears contacted the Renaissance Learning Company and asked them to remove this book from their website and AR quizzing system.  We received a prompt email response back, but it didn't make us feel much better:
Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding our quiz on Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age, a graphic novel edited by Ariel Schrag.

We understand your concern and have taken steps to improve our book record. Please note that our ATOS readability level for this text is 3.0, which indicates that a student reading at a third-grade level can read and understand the text.  The ATOS readability formula is not based on content, but calculates three variables to measure the text complexity level of a book.  Graphic novels tend to produce a lower readability level because of the short sentence structure.  To help educators and parents guide students to appropriate books, we also provide an interest level for each book, based on publisher and review source recommendations.  The Interest Level indicates the grade level for which the content may be most appropriate.  We recommend that the interest level always be used in conjunction with the ATOS book level when guiding students to books.

In recent years, we also began to add disclaimers to summaries that alert parents and educators to what may be objectionable content for some.  This quiz was produced before that process was put into place, but has now been updated.  The revised summary will be available in AR BookFinder with this week’s update, on Thursday, March 6. Because of your concern, we have also raised the Interest Level from MG to MG+ (Grade 6 and above,) more closely matching review sources. You may want to coordinate with the AR coordinator at your child’s school to make sure their database is also updated.  

We provide quizzes on a wide range of books, for all genres and levels.  Providing a quiz on any particular title neither endorses nor condones that book.  Our products, including AR quizzes, provide a service to our customers on books that students are already reading.  Our title selection criteria follows that of most schools and librarians, including national review sources, award winning books, and recommended reading lists.  This particular title received starred reviews from four national sources, including a review by School Library Journal.  

I hope my explanations have helped address your concerns. We have several articles that further explain our processes.  If you would like more information sent to you, please let me know.  If you have additional comments or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.

Regards,

Geri Romens
Content Supervisor
Renaissance Learning, Inc
.
So, basically, their company blames lots of other groups, systems, and disclaimers.  They don't "endorse" or "condone" books.  It isn't their fault or their responsibility to screen books.  They are just providing a service by creating quizzes for kids to take.  But doesn't a human being have to read the book to create a quiz on it???  Momma Bears finds it hard to believe that someone working for that company wouldn't have the common sense and integrity to say: "This book isn't appropriate for children at any level.  We shouldn't include it in our AR system."  Someone?  Anyone???

Due to Momma Bears contacting them, the AR people adjusted the "Interest level" to Middle Grades (6th grade and up) and included in the description that the text and pictures contain profanity and sexual references.  (Great... middle school kids will love that.  It will probably be the most popular book in the library!)  However, this book is still listed as a level 3.0 book though on the AR quizzing system, so when children go to the school library and are given a "reading level" of books to select from, this one is still technically appropriate for children reading at a 3rd grade level. 
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Updated "Interest Level" and description
So what should you do about it?
Check with your child's principal and/or librarian to make sure this book isn't in your child's school.  You could even forward them this blog.  You might want to check for other books by this author, as well.  This author's books appear juvenile, but contain very mature content.  Don't judge a book by its cover, especially in this case.


Most importantly:  Know what your kids are reading.  Look at what they've checked out of the library.  Also ask them what they're learning on the computers at school.  Parents never see these AR quiz questions; teachers don't see the quiz questions either since the quizzes are done on computer.  We trust that the AR people will pick quality books and rate them appropriately.  We can't be that naive anymore.  

We can't be that naive with their educational products, either...  
Many students use STAR Reading, STAR Math, Accelerated Math, Successful Reader, or "English in a Flash" computerized interventions at school.  Guess what?  Owned by the same company. AR is designed to integrate with those programs, combining a student's information together in one account and storing it in a cloud in cyberspace.  In fact, in many schools, a student's reading level is determined by their STAR reading test.  But do you know what questions they're asked on those computerized assessments?  What reading examples are given for them to learn from?  There's no textbook to inspect.  There are no papers coming home for parents to look at.  It is all done online on computers.  How can we trust that this company has our children's best interests at heart?

Renaissance Learning just got a massive $40 million investment from Google.  There's big money to be made in educational products!  Profit is the motive of these companies, not rating appropriate books for our children.

Stay vigilant, Momma Bears!  
Know what your cubs are being exposed to.

Schools need VIGOR, not Rigor

3/6/2014

 
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This world can be a cold, cruel place, but our children's classrooms shouldn't be.  Schools should be a place of warmth, of joyful learning, and of respect for each unique child and their needs.  Rigor is not a nice word, but reformers keep saying "rigor" as if it is.  Which definition do you like best:
www.Dictionary.com:  rig·or [rig-er] (noun)
1. strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people.
2. the full or extreme severity of laws, rules, etc.
3. severity of living conditions; hardship; austerity: the rigor of wartime existence.
4. a severe or harsh act, circumstance, etc.
5. scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence: the logical rigor of mathematics.
World English Dictionary: rigor (ˈraɪɡɔː, ˈrɪɡə) — n
1. med a sudden feeling of chilliness, often accompanied by shivering: it sometimes precedes a fever
2. pathol rigidity of a muscle; muscular cramp
3. a state of rigidity assumed by some animals in reaction to sudden shock
4. the inertia assumed by some plants in conditions unfavourable to growth
Synonyms: 1. inflexibility, stringency. 4. cruelty.

None of these definitions sound pleasant, do they?  In fact, if you, as an adult, had to attend a training course with any of the above descriptions, I bet you'd not wake up energized in the morning looking forward to learning, would you? 

How about using the word, "VIGOR," instead?

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www.Dictionary.com:  vig·or  [vig-er]  noun
1.active strength or force.
2.healthy physical or mental energy or power; vitality.
3.energetic activity; energy; intensity: The economic recovery has given the country a new vigor.
4.force of healthy growth in any living matter or organism, as a plant.
5.active or effective force, especially legal validity.

World English Dictionary:  vigour or  ( US ) vigor  (ˈvɪɡə)  — n
1.exuberant and resilient strength of body or mind; vitality
2.substantial effective energy or force: the vigour of the tempest
3.forcefulness; intensity: the vigour of her complaints
4.the capacity for survival or strong healthy growth in a plant or animal: hybrid vigour
5.the most active period or stage of life, manhood, etc; prime
Those definitions are much, much better, aren't they?

Here are some better words we'd like to hear to describe our children's schools:
  • joy 
  • enthusiasm
  • respect
  • creativity
  • flexibility
  • human
  • valuable
  • worthwhile

Standardized testing and common core don't align with any of those nice words.  Common Core does not RESPECT our children, it respects the corporations who are making a money from selling their curriculum, their assessments, and their standardized tests.  


Therein lies the problem:  Corporations respect money, not children.  
Just consider the words they use to refer to people: 

         "Human Capital" 

It de-humanizes and corporatizes our children, their teachers, and their learning environments.  So cold and unpersonal.

Don't believe us?  Look what was just announced this week:  


Bill Gates' Microsoft is partnering with the Pearson Publishing Giant to create a Common Core curriculum.  (Click HERE to see the article about it).  It will be for "a digital personalized learning environment that is 100 percent aligned to the new standards for college and career readiness." 
And it is going to "reduce costs."  How???  by removing the real, human teacher from the equation because, after all, it is much cheaper to buy a Microsoft computer program than to pay the salary & benefits of a professional teacher.  (Of course, Bill Gates' children won't do this program... They attend the best private school money can buy in Seattle that has a low student:teacher ratio, rich and varied Arts programs, and plenty of hands-on learning opportunities).  Another case of profiting from Other People's Children...  


Momma Bears aren't happy about this destruction and depersonalization of our children's education...  Be prepared to face OUR "Rigor" as we fight for "Vigor" in our children's schools.


UPDATE:  "Silencing our Voices"

3/3/2014

 
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Since Momma Bears first posted the "Silencing our Voices" post on Friday, we have learned even more about HB 2293 that would effectively allow County Commissions to remove the ability of elected county school boards to hire lobbyists. 

1) This bill, as written, does not apply to charter schools; therefore, county commissions will not have the authority to control lobbying expenditures by charter schools. This seems extremely unfair because charter schools use public money just like zoned schools. This is just another example of how charter schools are treated differently than traditional, zoned schools in our state. 

2) There are actually 59 registered lobbyists (not 31 as we originally reported) that are pushing privatization and/or testing agendas that, in our opinion, are undermining public schools in Tennessee.  

Here is an UPDATED list of all of these groups and the number of lobbyists they employ:
1. Tennessee Federation of Children (charters, vouchers): 5 lobbyists
2. Tennessee Charter Center: 8 lobbyists
3. Stand for Children (charters, vouchers): 2 lobbyists
4. Beacon Center of TN (vouchers): 2 lobbyists
5. Pearson, Inc. (high-stakes testing): 1 lobbyist
6. K-12, Inc. (for-profit virtual charter schools): 5 lobbyists
7. Aspire Charter Schools: 1 lobbyist (They've had as many as 3.) 
8. National Heritage Academies (for-profit charter company): 3 lobbyists
9. Charter Schools USA (for-profit charter company): 3 lobbyists
10. Education 2020 (K-12, Inc. competitor): 2 lobbyists
11. Connections Education (for-profit virtual charter school): 1 lobbyist
12. SCORE (charters): 2 lobbyists 
13. Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce (They support this bill and lobby for charters.): 5 lobbyists
14. Rennaissance Learning (testing): 4 lobbyists
15. Parent Power Fund (parent-trigger bill): 1 lobbyists 
16. Public Consulting Group: 1 lobbyist 
17. Americans for Prosperity (They support vouchers, charters, and HB 2293): 2 lobbyists
18. Catholic Public Policy Commission of TN (vouchers): 3 lobbyists 


     And last, but definitely not least, 

19. StudentsFirst (charters, vouchers, and Michelle Rhee!): 8 lobbyists

Final Score:
PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION = 6 lobbyists
PRIVATIZATION/TESTING = 59 lobbyists

3) We have heard from some Tennesseans in a particular county that they asked the current sponsor, Rep. Jeremy Durham, to introduce the bill because they are upset with a particular lobbyist their school district is using to lobby for them. We agree on many issues with them, so we hope to not offend them, but we also hope that they understand that this bill, which is a reaction to something that is happening at a local level has serious repercussions for the rest of our state. And the fact that a group such as StudentsFirst supports this bill should set off alarm bells because this organization has made no effort to hide their belief that elected school boards should be bypassed and handed over to other elected officials, including mayors and governors. 

How this bill could be devastating for other districts across Tennessee:

This bill could really hurt the newly formed municipal public school districts in Shelby County and Memphis.  Over the past 2 years, the Shelby County Commission sued the municipal districts.  There is no doubt that the animosity that the Commission has towards these districts will result in them cutting lobbying out of their budgets. (Please note that the bill is not clear in how it relates to municipal districts and commissions, but based on the overriding theme of the bill, it appears that the Shelby County Commission would likely have the authority to veto municipal-district lobbying monies.) 



In Metro Nashville the Mayor is very much in favor of charters and vouchers and there is little doubt that he will attempt to pressure the City Council to cut lobbying out of the school board budget as well. (It should be noted that the lobbyists that represent Metro Nashville Public Schools lobby against vouchers, for-profit charters, and the state charter authorizer.) 

Some claim that, in the state of Tennessee, county commissions currently have line item veto power over every other county department except for school districts and this would just allow commissions to exercise that same authority over them. But, and this is a very big BUT, the departments over which they exert this authority are appointed by the commissions--they are not elected by voters. School boards, which oversee the development of budgets, are elected by their constituents for the sole purpose of overseeing the function of their schools. County commissions were not elected for this purpose and, thereby, should not have the authority to override the will of the voters who selected, by virtue of their votes, the members of  a  school board.


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Some Knox County residents and teachers have been very unhappy with the actions of their school board and school superintendent. But instead of pushing for legislation that could override the will of every elected school board in the state, they are clearly expressing their disapproval for the school board's actions and will this year elect school board candidates who will support their agenda. It seems that this approach would be effective for the county in question because it will help resolve their concerns and it will continue to give elected school boards the right to determine if they need to pay for lobbyists. And it will protect the county if, in the future, a pro-privatization commission is elected and denies money for lobbying, which will leave the county district with little defense against a variety of destructive bills such as for-profit charters, a state-level charter authorizer, and vouchers that will interject Common Core into private schools. And, believe us, the costs of these lobbyists is far cheaper than the costs taxpayers will incur if the lobbyists for "privatizers" have free reign at Legislative Plaza! 

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With all due respect for some of the supporters of this bill, this seems to be the equivalent of using a sledgehammer to kill a fly when a simple fly swatter would do. We respectfully urge you to attempt to work out your concerns with your locally elected school board rather than pushing this bill onto the entire state. This will have very serious repercussions for many counties and, ironically, could very well end up backfiring and creating problems for those in the very county who support it. 

We urge those of you reading this to contact Rep. Jeremy Durham and ask him to pull HB 2293. If you are in Williamson County and/or are one of his constituents, it is vitally important that you contact him and let him know that you feel it is a very dangerous bill that sets a terrible precedent. His phone number is 615-741-1864 and his email is rep.jeremy.durham@capitol.tn.gov. You can also contact the members of the Local Government Committee that is meeting on Tuesday and ask them to vote against the bill.

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You can cut and paste the following addresses into your email:  
Rep.matthew.hill@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.richard.floyd@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.dale.carr@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.vince.dean@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jeremy.durham@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jimmy.eldridge@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jeremy.faison@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.steve.hall@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.andy.holt@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.sherry.jones@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.larry.miller@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.bo.mitchell@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.antonio.parkinson@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.mike.sparks@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.mike.stewart@capitol.tn.gov

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