Walking to DC opposing the immoral ground of school choice policies

My response to Connecticut Governor Malloy budget increases for charter schools would be the same response for any state increasing it's funding for charter schools. Their is no data to support them as education reform successes. 
It is obvious our politicians, policy makers, and their education reformer pals are not reading the research on choice schools and charters. The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles from UCLA 40 states review of school choice impacts 2010 reported that charter school actually increase racial isolation. See:
Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G., Wang, J. (2010). Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA; www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu. 

Perhaps the reading level is too high for these so-called education reformers to understand?
"Executive Summary
Seven years after the Civil Rights Project first documented extensive patterns of charter school segregation, the charter sector continues to stratify students by race, class and possibly language. This study is released at a time of mounting federal pressure to expand charter schools, despite on-going and accumulating evidence of charter school segregation."....
"Their analysis of the 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students reveals that charter schools are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the nation."

As for Connecticut Connecticut Voices For Children issued their 2014 report: 

Choice Watch: Diversity and Access in Connecticut's School Choice Programs Robert Cotto, Jr., Ed.M. & Kenneth Feder

http://www.ctvoices.org/publications/choice-watch-diversity-and-access-connecticuts-school-choice-programs

Let me make this simple, school choice provides cover for Connecticut being one of 49 states who spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools." This is a moral struggle with immoral policy that fails to provide all our children with an equal start and finish in our public schools. Education reform should begin with providing children in all 50 states an equal start and finish not with gimmicks. Study after study reveals one simple finding Choice without equity is a failure, and that our political leaders either can't comprehend data, or they just don't care. If they don't care then everything they are doing is rooted in immorality.
One Man Walking To DC In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

If you you like to know what song inspired my walk today? It's Barry Lane's "More Than A Number" https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Barry+lane+more+than+a+number+utbue\&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35

How many miles must we walk until we have equity in our schools?

http://jonathanpelto.com/2015/02/13/connecticut-teacher-union-perfects-concept-sleeping-enemy/

In the above blog Jonathan Pelto is asking how teacher unions could agree to any teacher being evaluated with unvalidated tests that are racially, culturally, and linguistically bias? 

Our children, their teachers, and their local schools are held accountable to testing that does nothing to address inequity. While the state of Connecticut is one of the 49 states who spends more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools is not held accountable.
Isn't it time we start holding those 49 states accountable?
Our governors and their Commissioners of Education love giving A to F grades to our public schools. They loved holding back children who can't past their mandated test, they love not allowing high school students to graduate if they fail their state mandated test. Secretary Arne Duncan promotes testing as the means to reach equity. That's sort of like telling everyone you can run the race, but some kids have to run with back packs full of bricks.
I have decided to give letter grades to Arne Duncan's United State Department of Education, and those 49 governors.
Their Grade is an F for failure to make a difference to our most needy children.
1.2 trillion dollars was allocated for No Child Left Behind, and 13 year later the only thing we know is that it has succeeded in leaving millions of special needs children and poor children behind. 
One Man Walking To DC In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

 

Got to love these BATs! 

PS the one state that is not spending more money on it's wealthy schools than their poor schools is Alaska.

Inspired to walk by the acts of courage of fellow teachers

This is a must read for every teacher and parent. It gives us a clear human picture of what these fake education reformers, and our policy makers and politicians are do to our schools. 

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/10/gasps-of-disbelief-as-live-with-kelly-and-michael-top-teacher-winner-resigns-over-common-core-testing/

Is this how the Common Core keeps good teachers in the classroom, or chasing them out? Is this how testing improves learning, or it?

Every day I find another reason to walk to DC, another reason to stand up, speak out, and act.
Today my reason to walk to DC came from Ohio Veteran teacher Stacie Starr when she announced her retirement.
She was chosen as the winner of the “Live with Kelly and Michael” 2014 Top Teacher Search. This past Monday she announced her retirement. Her reasons, she cited the increasing pressures on students and teachers under the mandated Common Core standards and testing mandates.
At the same Board Meeting Dawn Neely another teacher told the board:

“I don’t know what to do. I am morally against what we are doing, and I think history will judge us for what we do to fight for our kids,” she told the Elyria school board. “Look through the test books and you tell me if you think they are developmentally appropriate. No one is advocating for our district, and I am asking my district to be honest with the parents about what we are doing to students.”

Board president Kathryn Karpus reply: The district’s hands are tied. They are bound by Ohio laws that mandate the testing.

Dr. Martin Luther King said this about laws: There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’
It is a teacher moral responsibility to obey just laws, but it is also his/her responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Ms Starr and Ms. Neely are answering the call to their moral responsibility as teachers. I am humbled by them, and salute them. God bless you Stacie, God bless you Dawn, and God bless every parent and teacher who answers this moral call to stand up for our children.
Why are you walking to DC Jesse?
I am walking, because someone has to tell them in DC that our children, our teachers, and our schools are more than test scores. More than their data, their profits, and their scapegoats that allow 49 states to spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools. This walk is my moral responsibility, my higher call to serve the children in our public schools.
Who are you walking for Jesse?
I am walking for Stacie Starr, Dawn Neely, every teacher and student in Ohio. A change is gonna come, and I plan on fighting for that change.
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love,
Jesse

What am I watching as I prepare for my walk today? I am watching the utube video of Stacie Starr when her school found out she won Top Teacher award.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AGtFJ0qg9c <
My song of the day Sam Cooke's A change is gonna come"
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs <