Kriner Cash is celebrating what exactly?

Yes, it's that time of year when students report back to school. And and the administration of the Buffalo CSD tries to make a big deal about the changes that they have made at a few schools. Namely five schools.

First: Class sizes will be smaller at the city's most struggling schools. I will respond to this in the most polite way possible. Well, duh. Research shows that smaller class sizes increases achievement. The ideal class size is 15 students per teacher. Buffalo will be aiming for 18 – 20 students per teacher. This will be down from 27-36 students in other schools.

Second: After school support and enrichment will be offered. Holy cow. How much brainstorming did it take for them to come up with that. No. Wait. Research shows this increases student achievement. Yes, with academic enrichment, support in emotional and behavioral supports for students that need them. And snacks. Yes, food for students that might not have enough at home.

Third: Thirteen schools will become “community schools” that will offer services beyond education, like access to social services. These services will include adult education, immigration and legal services (which the poor usually can't afford anyways), and voter registration. (Republicans should be outraged at that one, I wonder how long before that is challenged?) All that and the school libraries will be open longer. Gee whiz. After Erie County went on a library killing spree years ago the Buffalo schools are going to make up for the slack that the students needed. I wonder if the boneheads that slashed the public libraries realized what they were going to be doing to the community? Doubt it. I think it was Republicans that killed the libraries.

Fourth: Innovative high schools. These are high schools that are affiliated with specific college programs. Kind of like college prep schools. Or vocational schools. There's a medical program, a program that will be affiliated with Solar City (if it ever opens), computer science, a law/police program, and an international program. This is innovative because? Services like this have existed in BOCES and similar educational programs for years. The big deal is … ?

Fifth: New Technology like iPads and 1 to 1 laptop programs to make computing more available. I come from a district that is in its third year of a 1 to 1 program. It's a tool. If a student isn't going to do paper homework, they aren't going to do it on a computer. And if the student does not have Internet access at home, this is gong to help them how? And I have students that use them as glorified mp3 players, video game platforms, and social media services. Technology is a tool. I don't see it as a cure all. And I've seen it fail. I've also seen some amazing success stories. It depends on so many things.

Sixth: Multi Language Reform. Great. The school is complying with a civil right, namely the right to and education. If the student can't speak the language (namely English) they aren't going to learn. Providing a translator is the responsibility of the district. So the district is going to make a big deal about upholding a civil right and a responsibility. What ever will they thing of next?

Seventh: Hiring more Special Education teachers! (Surprise!) Yes, meeting the educational needs of special needs students is a real nice thought. It's also the law.

So the district is trying to make a big deal about doing what it is supposed to be doing in the first place.

They are celebrating this because?

Now to do something about the chronic absenteeism that some students face because they don't have a stable home life, or one consistent address to call home, or parents that are there for them because they (the parents) are working two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet in an city that is becoming more un-affordable for the poor.

I can't wait to hear what they plan to do about that.

Yes. I want to be there when Carl Paladino talks about the problems that capitalism causes.

Pardon my snarkiness in this blog post, but I don't see what the big deal is.

This is what schools should be doing in the first place.

Buffalo has been plagued by the crises that capitalism causes for years with the loss of manufacturing and other good paying jobs that have been sent to wherever labor is the cheapest.

And the students in Buffalo and WNY have been suffering from the failures of capitalism.

It's time for capitalism to pay for the crises that it has caused in so many peoples' lives.

Sadly, capitalism's solution to the educational crisis that it has made is charter schools.

We need to fight to prevent any more from coming into Buffalo and WNY.

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And I'm afraid to move my computer because my cats are all chilling out listening to Duane Eddy. I'm playing it on the CD drive. Even the wacky little kitten is chilling out.

I am being oppressed by cats.

I may have to write up the Catmunist Manifesto in order to liberate myself from this tyranny of cats.

Teach for Failure

Now I have to find the article in the Buffalo News. And they hid it quite well. I'll probably find it easier on their web-site by searching for “Teach for America.” It'll pop up almost as fast as the profits that private charter schools make.

It's a “filler” article that the News used to fill a small corner of a page, so it's unlikely to catch your attention.

And it is about Teach for America – the private corporation that claims it can prepare a willing candidate to be a qualified school teacher in six to eight weeks. This is compared to the one year (actually two college semesters) of instruction and practice (aka the “placement:” eight weeks at one school and six weeks at another) that school teachers normally receive.

The article reported that Teach for America would be at Lafayette High School for another two years and that the candidates would be serving in the English Department. There was a small spiel about race and what have you in order to make the program sound better that it really is.

The big deal: Lafayette High School was targeted for closure and “realignment” in one of Superintendent Kriner Cash's “Turnaround Schools.” Lafayette is designated as the “International School” with programs to serve English Language Learners and others.

The bigger deal: Lafayette was targeted because of poor English Language test scores.

Aside from the fact that the school serves students that immigrated from other countries and that they do not speak English very well, if at all, do you think that they are not learning English because they don't have a teacher that knows how to teach English to them?

Remember: In Teach for America, you receive the training and are sent out to work in a school for two years and then you are done and gone. That's it. Any professional teacher will tell you that it takes three to five years to hit your stride as a teacher. These teachers will be out in two and replaced. What type of learning are students supposed to do under these circumstances?

So Lafayette High School has seen new a new English teacher every two years. And the students aren't learning English well enough to score decently on the mandated standardized tests. Do you think that the Buffalo News would make a big deal that they do not have a stable English program because of itinerant Teach for America members? (I refuse to call them teachers because they do not have a NYS Teaching Certificate or a degree from an accredited program in teaching for their core area.)

No because it does not fit the Buffalo News' agenda of union ad teacher bashing and pro-privatization.

I find it interesting that they let that article slip into the paper where anyone who read it and was aware of the Buffalo City schools' problems would be able to play “Connect the Dots.”

Back Door Privatization

The Buffalo City School District is “relaunching” five under-performing” schools next September. They are announcing it now so that they have sufficient time to sell the parents and students the lie behind each of the schools.

The lie?

Bennett High School is being relaunched as a school with a focus on computer science and engineering. Students will focus on computer programming and other software applications. This will prepare those “lucky” enough to attend to be able to walk into careers that are focused on computer science and engineering. From what I have read, many of the 43 North competition companies are focusing on software and programming. Graduate from Bennett & join a 43 North company.

The South Park High School Solar Pathways program will allow those that graduate from the school and its program to walk across the stage, receive their diploma, and then walk right into Solar City – the “local” company that is helping with the program.

The Bioinformantics and Life Sciences Research Lab, located on East Delevan, is a college prep school that it teaming up with SUNY Buffalo and Buff State, and Empire Genomics to prepare students for the burgeoning medical campus and medical industries that are coming to Buffalo and WNY. Graduate, go to UB,get your degree, and walk right into a medical research job in downtown Buffalo.

Lafayette High School, which is noted for its struggles with ELL students (that's English Language Learners) is going to be transformed into a school that serves the immigrant population and prepares them for degrees in international business, law, and teaching. What a better use of an immigrant's native language. Teach them how to act as front men (and women) for US corporations that want to build factories in their countries and exploit the cheap labor costs and non-existent environmental regulations.

And East Community High School will teach its students about law, corrections and security, and public safety. Presumably to help with all the law enforcement issues that Buffalo and Erie County is having?

And in all (or most of these cases the taxpayer is footing the bill for educating students that are going across the stage and right into the private sector. It's almost like the schools are attached directly to private industries that the Buffalo Billion is bribing companies to come here and start.

And the students that used to attend these schools? Anyone that researches these schools will notice that they are all the “turnaround” schools – they were performing so poorly on state mandated exams (that have no validity anywhere in educational theory) that either Buffalo did something with them or the state was going to come in and take them over. So Superintendent Kriner Cash took the schools and made them publicly funded private schools that march students across a stage and right into the open arms of private corporations. Except East, East graduates will be policing the streets and keeping the city and county “safe” from trouble makers.

And the students that were attending these schools and not meeting the expected standards? They will be shipped off to other schools where they might make it or drag down the school's rating so that the Superintendent can make those schools publicly funded private ventures.

No where in this privatization plan is there anything that looks at the students that are failing, asks why they are failing, and works to address or remedy their situation. Instead they will be shuffled around Buffalo where the district hopes that, at best, they will be able to be swept under the rug and lost in the shuffle or drag the school down so that the state forces a change.

Or to be less than kind, sacrificial pawns in the chess match of school privatization.

So this plan draws the best and brightest out of the schools that they are attending and puts them into programs that prepare them for specific careers after school. It replaces the high performing and highly interested students with under performing students that will drag the school down.

I'd say I smell a rat, but I have had pet rats and they are quite intelligent animals that are very clean.

This is something worse and it will only serve the interests of the corporate class that is looking to privatize and take over the Buffalo City School District any way it can. If not by outright coup, like what happened in New Orleans after Katrina, then by more subtle and secretive means.

Either way, the public schools are being privatized and students are losing out.