Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Scott DiMauro 0:14
This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:15
Thanks for joining us for this episode of public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and its nearly 120,000 members who work in Ohio's public schools, where all students are welcome. That's something OEA members take to heart, and so does the Network for Public Education, NPE, which is holding its national conference right here in Ohio on April 5th and 6th, with "Public schools, where all students are welcome" as the theme. And anyone with any connection to the future of our public schools is welcome at the NPE/NPE Action conference, as educators, community leaders, researchers, public school advocates and others come together to dive into the challenges facing public schools across the country and what we can do to save public schools when we stand together. Carol Burris is the executive director of the Network for Public Education and the Network for Public Education Action organizations. She joins us for this episode to share more about what's on the docket for this really important national event, and why every OEA member should consider going.

Carol Burris, thank you so so much for taking the time to sit down with us to talk about this upcoming conference and all of the exciting opportunities. Big picture question, what is going on?

Dr. Carol Burris 1:59
Oh, my goodness, Katie. Way too much is going on. I mean, we are just at a critical moment for public education in this country. In Ohio, unfortunately, it's really been the canary in the mine in many ways, with a concerted effort, and I don't exaggerate when I say this, to destroy public education in the United States of America. You know, this is not about school choice, giving parents choice. This is about the choice of the religious right and the far right and the libertarian right to destroy public schools and to turn it into a marketplace that may or may not be appropriate for all children. So we need all hands on deck, especially as the new administration comes in and brings in the America First agenda to defend public education and to decide what we are going to do collectively and together to save the bedrock of our democracy.

Katie Olmsted 3:05
So I'm talking to you on January 15th, as we're about to welcome in the new federal administration. Ohio already has new Speaker of the House who came over from the Senate, who just last week was signaling that the Fair School Funding Plan the the first time ever we were going to have constitutional school, public school funding here that was supposed to be phased in. The final phase is, is it's sounding like DOA in his mind. And whew, I've got a lot of swears in my heart right now. What can we do? You talked about that, that collective action, that collective voice, what can we do in this climate?

Dr. Carol Burris 3:52
Well, I think one of the first things you can do, and I'm going to make a plug here, is attend our conference right in Columbus, Ohio, April 5th and 6th, because we need each other, and we need that ability to learn from each other, and that's what this conference is going to be about. It's going to be about explaining what's happening, why there is such an attack on public education, and what we can do together to stop it, and it will be bringing together, not only people from Ohio, but from all over the nation who are also experiencing these threats and in some cases successfully fighting back. Folks from Florida, from Arizona, from Indiana, right next door. All of us got getting together, strategizing, sharing the best ideas, and linking our arms and walking forward to stop this, because I'll tell you, Katie, if public education goes it's like Humpty Dumpty on the wall. We're not going to be able to put it back together again. We have to make sure that we preserve our public schools.

Katie Olmsted 5:09
So let's talk a little bit more about this conference. Actually, let's talk a lot more about this conference, because I'm so excited about it. What are the details, and can people still register?

Dr. Carol Burris 5:18
Absolutely, they can. They can either go to www.networkforpubliceducation.org, or npeaction.org and they can sign up to register. Very, very modest registration fee, which essentially covers your meals for two days. And if there's anyone who needs financial help, we'll just have them send me an email, and I'll be happy to let them know. It's going to be in the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. And right now they're really offering a terrific deal for conference goers, but those rules are going fast, so I strongly suggest that when people register, they also immediately make their reservations for a room. We're going to start, actually, on Friday night the 4th, with a conversation between Diane Ravitch, our president, and Josh Cowan, who has been fighting vouchers all over the United States, tirelessly. It will be a fascinating conversation. So if you happen to get there early, you're entitled to go to that certainly, you know, for free, it's just part of the registration. Then we kick off Saturday morning about 8am and we'll go right into the late afternoon. We'll have exciting speakers. We will also have panels discussions. You'll get your choice of six be among six panels every session to attend, which makes it difficult, so you better bring a bunch. I know that's what everybody says. I can't decide which one that I'm going to go to. And then you'll get breakfast with us. You'll get lunch, a big lunch with us. Then Sunday morning, we again, will have guest speakers, we'll have a brunch, and we'll have additional panels as well. And we have lined up, at least tentatively, a very exciting speaker. I cannot formally announce it yet, but I'll tell you when this name, when this name is announced, there are not going to be any tickets left. So it's, I think it's, it's important for people to sign up now.

Katie Olmsted 7:42
Who are you hoping will sign up?

Dr. Carol Burris 7:43
Well, you know, parents, absolutely. You know anybody who loves public schools, but I think especially teachers. I'm looking at a registration so far, I would say the vast majority of the people who are coming are teachers. You know, one or two teachers from each district from all over the United States. Because teachers are so important in this battle. America loves its teachers, and if teachers stand up for public schools, we really, really have a chance. And they're under such terrible attack. If nothing else, they will leave this conference feeling better about themselves, feeling better about what the public believes about them, and, and making new connections that can sustain them forward.

Katie Olmsted 8:42
That's the funny thing. Consistently we see polling that says that educators are trusted, that parents trust educators, that community members trust educators. We have certain politicians who their entire thing is is almost gaslighting educators into feeling like no one trusts them. How important is it to have these opportunities where people can come together and say, "Wow, I am not alone and and, you know, here's, here's what we can do".

Dr. Carol Burris 9:13
Yeah, I mean, I think it's critical. I think it's, I think it's the key to stopping what we see. But, you know, teachers deserve so much respect. I was a teacher in the middle school, in the high school. After that, I was a high school principal. I loved my teachers. I mean, there were times we didn't always agree, but I never doubted their sincerity and their absolute goodness to make that commitment to walk among children and boy, you don't do it for the money, that's for sure. And you don't do it because you want a life with no stress, that's for sure. So you know, we just have. And there's an attack on public schools. That's an attack on teachers, no matter what they might say. I mean, my gosh, I'm following right now this woman down in Austin, Texas who is trying to open up charter schools with no teachers, with artificial intelligence, teaching children two hours a day and well, she'll have kind of teachers, but she calls them guides, on the side. I mean, this is the kind of craziness that's out there. She has applications in five states. I don't know if she has an application to open a charter school in Ohio, because unfortunately, we don't always have access to these applications publicly when they're put in, but she got approved in Arizona.

Katie Olmsted 10:51
Help me understand why? Like, why would you want to open a charter school with AI? Like, why would you send your child to that school knowing they're not going to have a teacher. What is, what is the motivation here? I mean, I can kind of listen from the opening, run it for dirt cheap, can't you? But then these kids get adirt cheap education. And what is that going to do for them in their lives?

Dr. Carol Burris 11:16
Oh, well, absolutely. And this is an online school, by the way, too. She runs private schools called Alpha Academies in Texas. She's expanding to California, also Florida, and for those schools, she charges $40,000 a year in tuition.

Katie Olmsted 11:35
It's an audio only podcast but my jaw just dropped.

Dr. Carol Burris 11:37
I'm sure that she's helping to get some of that good old, you know, free government money through vouchers to help this venture. Those are brick and mortar schools. The charter schools are online charter schools. Now, why would you do it? Okay, well, her software company right called two hour learning provides the the education. Another corporation of which her husband is the chief financial officer will do all of the business services. Another corporation in which her husband is the Chief Financial Officer, is going to do the recruiting through a company called Crossover. And then there is also another corporation that's involved, called YYYYY. Yeah, it's five Y's, yeah, five Y's LLC that her husband is president of, and they're kicking in some money as a donation, plus they are the education management organization, according to the Pennsylvania application. So why?

Katie Olmsted 11:54
YEah, W-H-Y, WHY, WHY?

Dr. Carol Burris 13:01
So, yeah, you know, is this about educating children, or is this about making a quick buck. And the marketing has been exquisite. I mean, you know, they're just glamor shots of this woman appearing everywhere. And you know what happens. You have a parent for whatever reason their child isn't doing well in school, or they just read the marketing, and they believe it, and they believe that their children are going to learn twice as fast with this artificial intelligence instruction that's personal. I mean, all of these scams. My gosh, you know, Ohio has been the epicenter for for-profit charter school scams. The epicenter, over 50% of your charter schools are operated by for-profits.

Katie Olmsted 13:55
And we have organizations like NPE/NPE Action, who are the watch dogs on that, because I think a lot of people don't even know. They have no idea. So to have not just your organization, but to have your organization come to Ohio, the epicenter of this, to bring people together to stand up and use their united voice to stand, to fight back against this, that's everything

Dr. Carol Burris 14:20
It is. And I mean, this is not only a conference for teachers, this is a conference for retired educators, who remember the good old days when people really supported public schools? This is, this is for the people who work in the offices and schools, for the for people who who maybe are a part of the custodial staff or secretaries. I mean this, this is a conference for everyone who cares about public education and is saying enough is enough. I understand the America First agenda.And that agenda is to destroy public schools. You know, one of their big things, Katie, is to have the money follow the child. I know you hear that all the time in Ohio. "Why can't the money just follow the child? Right?" So, but nobody ever thinks about the long term implications of that. Suppose you have a rural town in Ohio where there is fundamentalist Christian private school, and the majority of families go to the church associated with that school, and the majority of families decide they're going to take that money and they're all going to go to that religious private school, and the money follows a child. What happens to the secular families? Because if you lose enough students, your public school is going to go away. There is nothing that these people think about to preserve the public school.

Katie Olmsted 15:56
And that money when it's in the public schools, has all sorts of accountability measures attached to it. For better or for worse, there is accountability for our public schools on a level that is just very intense. And that is not the same for when our dollars are following our kids anywhere else. One of many, many things that I'm sure are going to be the topics du jour at the upcoming conference. Carol, thank you so much for joining us to share your perspective and to really get me and everyone else really pumped up to go. I can't wait.

Dr. Carol Burris 16:31
Thank you so much. Katie. Please go to go to our conference site. On our website, you'll see at conference tab, you'll see who some of the speakers are, and we're going to be putting out a lot of media, you know, showing folks who the panels are. And we really hope to see you there. We love Ohio, and we want to do what we can to save your public schools.

Katie Olmsted 16:58
The link to register and to get the discounted hotel rate during the NPE/NPE Action conference are in the show notes for this episode. Please make sure you register by early March, and please make sure you subscribe to this podcast on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss any of our conversations about the big issues facing public education now and in the future, new episodes of podcasts continue to drop every Thursday, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai