Yes, Social Impact Bonds. Again

By:  Julie Borst

Originally published on her blog here http://elfasd.blogspot.com/2016/08/yes-social-impact-bonds-again.html

 I've written about Social Impact Bonds, aka, Pay for Success (PFS) before. You can read those blog posts here, here, and here. I provided testimony on Pay for Success to the US Department of Education (USDOE) in Washington DC at the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) hearings. That testimony you can find here. 

This past Friday, August 19th, USDOE announced a Preschool Pay For Success grant competition. Instead of, y'know, actually funding a preschool initiative, USDOE has set aside $2.8 million dollars to go to "7 to 14 grantees" who will have the great privilege of conducting feasibility studies, not on the effectiveness of high quality preschool (we already know that works), but on the effectiveness of PFS. States will have to go out and find partners and then use the USDOE money to fund studies...studies which one really hopes states would have done on their own anyway.

"The ultimate aim of the pilot is to improve early learning outcomes through a future high-quality Pay for Success project by providing grants for feasibility studies. However, the pilot does not fund the implementation of preschool services. Preschool programs that are the focus of these feasibility studies must be inclusive of children with disabilities and the Pilot will also establish safeguards to protect the rights of children with disabilities to ensure that they receive the services they need." (emphasis mine)

Who knows? Maybe they were listening to me last January. I'm very interested to see what those "safeguards" are beyond what the law already prescribes, because that shouldn't be ignored under any circumstances. Right?

To backtrack for second, there are Preschool Development Grants (and Expansion Grants) available through USDOE. In 2014, several states, including New Jersey, received those grants. Here's a brochure from the program. You'll notice that "high quality" programs are necessary for receiving the 2-year grant.

Now, take a look at the program description for Pay ForSuccess.

"This pilot does not limit feasibility studies to programs that meet the definition of “high-quality” preschool used by the Preschool Development Grants (PDG) program in its 2014 grant competition in order to allow the PFS demonstrations to demonstrate high-quality in different ways, including through the impacts that the pilots are able to achieve. In this way, such projects could further develop the evidence-base of programs that are demonstrated to be effective." (emphasis mine)

*Sigh* Let's understand that statement for a moment. USDOE recognizes that "high quality" preschool programs are necessary and work. They are trying to find a way to help out their friends in the banking sector by attempting to justify the use of Pay For Success programs while also desiring successful outcomes for students. They want to demonstrate the cheaper-for-the-taxpayer-to-achieve-great-results-ness of PFS, but the studies USDOE will be paying for do NOT need to include "high quality" preschool programs.

Surely there's a really good reason for that, I am, though, currently at a complete loss of what that might be. Anyone from USDOE is free to shoot me an email at any time. Or, maybe Mike Hynes can ask John King when he finally is granted an audience.

I'll simply say, Pay For Success is a terrible idea. In this context, our children's education is at stake. There has been a specific narrative from those pushing these programs. It's unconscionable that Pay For Success is sitting in the middle of a federal education law. I'm not alone in that thinking.

Yesterday, Kenneth Saltman published an article called "Wall Street's Latest Public Sector Ripoff: Five Myths About Pay For Success" and it's a doozy. Please take the time to read it. I'll give you a teaser on Saltman's reason for the existence of PFS programs:

"Banks love Pay for Success because they can profit massively from it and invest money with high returns at a time of a glut of capital and historically low interest rates. Politicians (especially rightist democrats) love Pay for Success because they can claim to be expanding public services without raising taxes or issuing bonds and will only have the public pay for “what works.” Elite universities and corporate philanthropies love Pay for Success because they support “innovation” and share an ethos that only the prime beneficiaries of the current economy, the rich, can save the poor."

In the context of preschool and how PFS has been used to theoretically lower the rate of special education classification of children entering kindergarten, I could not agree more (and I said as much, months ago) with this:

"Who is authorized to develop the metrics, what is their expertise, what are their interests, and how do they assess the rules they set in place?; To whom are those legislating the accountability measurements accountable? The scientism of metrics obscures these kinds of questions. Accountability should be a part of educational projects but not through restricted metrics that conceal the broader politics informing the project. Rather, accountability should be in a form in which knowledge is comprehended in relation to how subjectivity is formed through broader social forces and in ways in which learning can form the basis for collective action to expand egalitarian and just social relations."

If your state is entertaining using Social Impact Bonds/Pay For Success to pay for preschool, please, I beg, have those conversations with your legislators. Know exactly who is determining the criteria for success and how the money will be paid back and to whom.

#TEAMPAIGESTRONG:  AN OPEN LETTER TO MY LEGISLATORS
BY:  RACHAEL HOPE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON HER BLOG  http://www.readysethope.com/2016/08/teampaigestrong-open-letter-to-my.html


To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to you today to share the story of my friend Anne and her daughter Paige.  Paige is almost 6 years old, and should be starting Kindergarten at her local school.  Unfortunately, Paige is being denied her right to the education she deserves and the special education services she needs.



I'd like to tell you a little bit about Paige and Anne so you can understand the background for this denial.  I met Anne Malone several years ago through a local Mom's Support Network on Facebook.  In 2013 I was one of dozens of friends who watched in horror and heartbreak as Anne's daughter Paige, then 2, began to suffer from unexplained seizures.  As mothers and friends, we were worried and shocked as there was first one post, then multiple posts about Paige seizing and having to be taken to the emergency room.  Losing a child is every parent's worst fear, and we were watching Anne lose her daughter right before her eyes.  Soon, Paige was experiencing dozens of seizures every day.  She suffered from several types, and had to have her chin stitched repeatedly after drop seizures that injured her, despite the helmet she was forced to wear every day.

Anne quit her job to stay with Paige, and still had no answers about why this was happening to her baby girl.  Answers didn't come until a year later, when the owners of the duplex they lived in started having medical problems and discovered that unbeknownst to them, the previous owners had cooked methamphetamines in the house.  The news was devastating.  Test results showed that the meth residue was at 6,000% the tolerable limit.  Anne and her husband then had answers, but still no solutions.  They were forced to leave their home, and leave most of their belongings behind, as the residue is pervasive and had ruined most of what they owned. 

Through the support of the local community, they found a new home, and three months later, Anne decided to try something different.  She was understandably tired of the cocktails of anti-seizure pharmaceuticals that stole her daughter from her all over again.  Some of these worked to stifle Paige's seizures, but they stole her personality and her consciousness.  On one cocktail, Paige slept for 17 hours a day.  On others, she sat and did nothing.  At one point the drugs built up so badly in her system that she was overdosing, and becoming toxic.  Anne had read about the use of cannabis to treat seizures, reading about successful programs in Colorado, and she had asked Paige's doctors about it and been turned down.  Finally, she found a doctor who would help them with cannabis medicine.

The first day that Paige took CBD oil, her seizures reduced by 1/3.  In one day she had 30% fewer seizures than she had been having on traditional pharmaceutical medicine.  At one week, Paige started to regain milestones she'd lost.  As Paige detoxed from the pharmaceuticals, her seizures lessened.  Finally, in late fall of 2015, Paige experienced an entire month seizure free.  After one seizure in December, the streak continued.

As of September 1, 2016, Paige will be seizure free for 9 months, all because of the CBD and THC oil treatments that her mother has learned how to prepare for her.  She is still weaning off of two pharmaceuticals and is doing better than ever.  This medicine has been nothing short of a miracle for Paige.  You can read Paige's story in more detail here.  Friends, family, co-workers, and community members have rallied behind the Malone family to raise money for medical bills and for Anne to get set up to make the medicine that brought her daughter back to her.

Two days ago, Anne shared some upsetting news.  Because of Paige's medication, she is not permitted to attend public school in Bellingham.  Despite the fact that for those with epilepsy and other illnesses, CBD and THC oils can be the only thing that works, because schools are required to be Drug-Free, Paige will not be allowed to attend. 

Private school is not an option.  For one, private schools are not required to provide the special education services that Paige will need the same way that public schools are.  Her illness has caused gross delays in motor, physical, and speech development.  She is precisely the kind of child who needs special services, and the private schools that might be able to provide this are bound to be expensive and possibly mean the family moving away from their lives in Bellingham.

Homeschooling is the only option left, and even that poses major hurdles for Anne and her family.  Anne doesn't have any of the qualifying home-based instruction that would allow her to homeschool her daughter.  There are lots of resources for homeschoolers in Bellingham, but because all of them receive some sort of federal funding, they have been denied as options for Paige.  Now, after all that they have been through already, Anne has to figure out a way to provide her daughter her basic right to education herself.

Anne has contacted a lawyer to find out if she has any options, and has filed for FAFSA so that she can go to school to become qualified to homeschool Paige by the standards Washington required.  She is frustrated and overwhelmed, and so am I.

I'm writing to you today because this is not enough.  It's unacceptable that a mother has to go through all of this just to get her child an education because of her medication.  It's reprehensible that children can go to school on controlled substances like Adderall and Ritalin, but when a child is taking plant oils that prevent them from having up to 100 seizures per day, they are denied.  It's not okay.  It's time for the community to rally behind the Malones again, to rally behind all of the families whose children are affected by this issue, and change things.  And we need your help.

In June, Colorado passed "Jack's Law" (HB 1373), requiring schools to allow medical marijuana under strict conditions.  It assures districts that if they lose federal funding, state funds will be provided to cover them so that students can get the help they need.  New Jersey also legally allows medical marijuana in schools for students.  It's time for Washington to follow suit, and ensure that children are getting the education and services they need, and that the rules about education are not causing further hardship to families who have already struggled enough. 

In his statement, released after the passage of the Cannabis Patient Protection Act (SB 5052), State Superintendent Randy Dorn stated that "Students need to be engaged and prepared for school. Marijuana doesn’t allow them to be either of those things. Marijuana dulls the brain."  This view is ignorant and uneducated, and a disservice to our children.  Why?  Because marijuana medicine and CBD medicine is not the same as smoking a joint behind the bleachers to get high. Medical marijuana is cultivated to provide specific benefits, and given in the correct concentrations does not cause the high that recreational marijuana does.

At My Little Leaf, you can read Paige's story along with the stories of other children whose lives have been forever improved and changed through the use of medical marijuana.  Despite its federal classification as a Schedule 1 substance, marijuana and CBD and THC oils have been shown again and again to have incredibly powerful medical benefits. 

As your constituent, as a taxpaying resident of Washington, as a mother, and as a member of #teampaigestrong, I urge you to consider this issue and take action.  It's time for Washington State's laws to reflect that our children are important, and that all children have the right to an education.

Thank you,

Rachael Hope   



THE LAW AS IT STANDS

Here's the deal - schools in Washington DO have the ability to say that a student can attend school and even take medical marijuana during school for certain conditions in accordance with the school's medication administration policy.  HOWEVER, any school that does this is in danger of jeopardizing their federal funding because federally, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 illegal substance.  A district that allows marijuana on school grounds risks losing it's Title 1 and other federal funding.  This leaves schools to make a choice between serving the students who attend and possibly losing much-needed funding for the same students.  They are advised NOT to choose students because it's too big a risk to take.

State Superintendent Randy Dorn put out a statement after the passage of the Cannabis Patient Protection Act.  In this statement, Dorn stated:

To receive federal funds, districts must abide by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act and must have a Drug and Tobacco-Free Workplace and a similar student policy in place. Each district’s policy has a number of common requirements about marijuana and other drugs, such as not allowing any student to:

• Possess,
• Distribute,
• Manufacture or
• Be under the influence.

You can find more information about this in the Washington State Guidelines for Medication Administration in Schools and in the Washington State School Directors Newsletter from October 2012.

Washington passed a Cannabis Patient Protection Act (SB 5052), however, because schools receive federal funding, there is a conflict and no protection for children who receive cannabis medicine.



RESOURCES FOR ACTION


Click here for a copy of the above letter you can use when contacting your legislator.

Find your legislators and contact them.

Here is information for Whatcom County.  If you are outside Whatcom County, please use the link above.

District 1/2 Senators:

Maria Cantwell - US Senator
You can email Maria through her website here.
You can reach Maria's Seattle office at (206) 220-6400

Patty Murray - US Senator
You can email Patty through her website here.
You can reach Patty's Everett office at (425) 259-6515.

District 1 Congressperson:

Suzan DelBene - US State Representative

You can email Suzan through her website here.

You can reach Suzan's Mt. Vernon office at (360) 416-7879.

District 2 Congressperson:

Rick Larsen - US State Representative
You can email Rick through his website here.
You can reach Rick's Everett office at (425) 252-3188.

District 42 State Legislators:

Doug Ericksen - State Senator
You can email Doug at doug@senatorericksen.com.
You can reach Doug's office at (360) 786-7682.

Vincent Buys - State House
You can email Vincent at vincent.buys@leg.wa.gov.
You can reach Vincent toll free at (800) 562-6000.

Luanne VanWerven - State House
You can email Luanne at luanne.vanwerven@leg.wa.gov.
You can reach Luanne's toll free at (800) 562-6000

Contact the Washington State Board of Education.

Address:

PO Box 47206
600 Washington ST SE
Olympia, WA 98504-7206

Email: sbe@k12.wa.us
Phone: 360.725.6025

Contact the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Address:

Mail stop: 47200
Old Capitol Building
P.O. Box 47200
Olympia, WA 98504-7200

Contact Greg Baker, Superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools.

Email:  Greg.Baker@bellinghamschools.org
Contact Phone Number:  676-6501 extension 6501

Report from a First Time Union Delegate

By: Chris Willems

“We are fighting a battle of immense proportions that threatens to destroy all we and others in the labor movement have worked for.  This battle is ultimately over who holds power in our economy and our democracy.  It is a battle to reclaim the promise of America.”

                  -AFT CT Resolution on Member Engagement

I am a science teacher in New Haven, CT and am thrilled to have an active role as a national delegate within our local union #933, the New Haven Federation of Teachers.  Eric Maroney and I are first-time delegates, and our responsibilities include attending state and national conventions as the representative voices of our brothers and sisters in the New Haven Federation of Teachers.  It has been a fascinating and energizing experience.  I am going to share an update on what I learned this summer, and I challenge you to engage in the dialogue.

On Saturday May 21, 2016, AFT CT hosted the annual business convention at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville, CT.  Our business involved recognizing affiliates who represented the approximately 30,000 AFT CT members in attendance, approving the minutes from the last convention, amending our constitution, and passing resolutions.

The theme “Reclaiming our Solidarity” rippled through the presentations and celebrations.  AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier spoke of how firefighters have aligned with paraprofessionals to strengthen local unions. I was inspired by the stories Lori told and began to think about ways in which our own union can partner with others in the New Haven community to benefit those we serve.

On a more sobering note, we were reminded to prepare for more legal cases targeting labor unions for elimination.  A Supreme Court case from this past spring that many of our members may have heard about in the national press, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, would likely have been decided against unions had Justice Antonin Scalia not died unexpectedly.  The case was decided 4-4.  This means unions will be able to continue to automatically charge members the agency fees.

With regard to issues specific to education, AFT National president Randi Weingarten celebrated the new federal education law, “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA), and said it promises to decouple high stakes standardized tests from teacher evaluation.  Ms. Weingarten encouraged us to get involved in the implementation of ESSA in CT.  She said the “starve and privatize” strategy of 20 years ago is dead and we are now in a new era.  She spoke of the power of community schools and the potential under ESSA to adopt the practices of the Performance Assessment Consortium of NYC.  http://performanceassessment.org/

Ms. Weingarten spoke of the pain caused by the job-killing 2016 CT state budget.

There are over $830 million dollars in cuts:  Education Cost Sharing was cut by 34 million (5.7% cut); $7 million was cut from the Technical High School System; higher education and Medicare are also facing deep cuts.

She suggested we turn our legitimate anger against Governor Dannel Malloy to action.  She suggested we “fight the really bad things and fight harder for the good things”.   Specifically, she suggested we call out the legislators who voted for Malloy’s harmful budget.  To that end, AFT CT is interviewing politicians before giving endorsements for the fall.  Visit http://aftct.org for opportunities to get involved.

As AFT CT delegates, we passed very powerful, worker-centered resolutions on climate change, community engagement, member engagement, teacher leadership, and teacher diversity.  This year, we plan to focus on supporting these resolutions and making them come alive in New Haven.  Our first event will be joining AFT CT on Thursday, October 6 for school “Walk Ins” as part of our Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS).  http://www.reclaimourschools.org

The last exciting news at the AFT CT meeting was seeing NHFT leadership learn about the powerful online “Toolkit” for membership and training.   These web tools are available on mobile devices and will allow our local to more efficiently communicate and organize!

The AFT National Convention was held in Minneapolis from July 18-21, 2016 and was a HUGE event!  Eric and I knew it was going to be big, but we were blown away by the amazing diversity and the passion that members brought to the presentations and debates. There were 2,600 delegates representing 1.6 million teachers and healthcare workers.  We had the opportunity to hear from giants of union activism such as Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers, as well as Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton!   Each day, the convention center was filled with passionate workers from all over our country, and most notably the red-shirt wearing Chicago Teachers Union delegates!  CTU represented unified teacher resistance in action.  Next time, we will have NHFT tee shirts!

I chose to serve on the Labor and the Economy Committee.  At the convention, we moved three resolutions: Attacking Income Inequality, Opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Achieving Tax Fairness by Cracking Down on Offshore Tax Havens.  My fellow first-time delegate, Eric Maroney, served on the Organizing and Collective Bargaining Committee.  All passed resolutions are at http://www.aft.org/about/resolutions.  We will be following the legislative and organizing actions AFT takes to advance these critical issues.  Before the next convention in 2018 in Pittsburgh, we will have the opportunity to propose new action resolutions.

When I first arrived at the convention, I was thrilled to see a table announcing the formation of a new caucus.  Our AFT-BATs caucus will collaborate to advance our work as pro-public education teacher activists.

At the convention, Badass Teacher leaders, Marla Kilfoyle and Jamy Brice-Hyde, shared the results of this year’s BATS/AFT Quality-of Worklife survey of 30,000 educators http://www.aft.org/news/survey-shows-need-national-focus-workplace-stress.  These distressing survey results are a powerful reminder that a teacher’s work environment is also our students’ learning environment.  We need to be kind and take care of one another – all our school colleagues and students!

Please contact me or any other member of the NHFT Community Action Now committee.  NHFT CAN is excited for the Thursday, October 6 “Walk Ins”.

I look forward to continuing to serve as a delegate.  I’m closing with another quote from the AFT CT Resolution on Member Engagement:

“Our soul, our heart, our courage and our power lie with our members and our communities, and always have.”

I believe our solidarity with one another and our New Haven community is more important in these uncertain times.  There are powerful forces jockeying for influence and money.  We must support one another and be supported, so we can continue to provide direct support to our students.

Taking our Responsibility Seriously

Saturday, I attended a session that was hosted by Black Lives Matters - Atlantic City titled Beyond the Slogan/Conversations on Race, Privilege, Power.  https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterAC

This group has been hosting monthly conversations for about a year in the city and this was the first time that I my schedule was clear and I was actually able to attend. The two hour presentation and conversation was so personally worthwhile that I am going to try to make sure my calendar is clear for future sessions. 

Reverend Williams hosted the event in a community church with Dr. Christina Jackson, of Stockton University,  as the moderator. Dr. Williams opened up the forum by speaking about the intent of the group over the past few months, to have conversation about the sudden violence vs. slow violence in our communities. The next focus will be on collecting stories from community members this Fall.

The first speaker, Glynnis Reed , is a professional visual artists that is now located in the South Jersey area. She delved into her work, explaining the background of what she does and why she does it with enough personal detail to make me able to feel the emotion and the pride that is behind her images. Her goal: creating images that counter the mass media, typical image of the Black woman that also integrate nature is apparent and definitely realized as one views her images. 

Speaking with the artist after the show, I was delighted to hear that she will be teaching art in a Philadelphia school this year. This school and her students will be very lucky to have her. For more information on her work, please visit http://www.glynnisreed.com/. I personally love her Ascending Beauty series.

The next speaker was Dr. Donnetrice Allison, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and

Africana Studies at Stockton University. Dr Allison opened up with a discussion about the history of media and how it impacts where we find ourselves right now. She focused mostly on television and film, taking us through the times of when black men and women were portrayed as “coons” and “mammies”, through the turning point that changed the portrayal of the black man to one of a violent threatening figure and the messaging that “Blacks will ruin the rest of the country” that was portrayed in A Birth of A Nation. She mentioned the divide during the Civil Rights Movement of what people were viewing on television in the news against what was being shown on television sitcoms. A strong point was made to the audience in the room to be mindful of how good images can actually be harmful, talking about the first Black woman in drama shows that were given roles that conveyed a sense of a responsible career woman, but at the same time, the personal lives of the characters were always a mess, suggesting that Black woman cannot handle it all.

The ending discussion, lead by questions from Dr. Jackson and the audience, followed up on Dr. Allison’s thoughts about the balance that Black media stars face when weighing the opportunity to facilitate and pave a way for more positive and authentic Black images in the media, and the responsibility of making sure they are are not put in a position of compromise or selling out in order to pander to what the power system says will sell to the masses. The final thoughts from the two speakers that we were left with were answers to the question, “What one action would you like us to leave with today that will inspire change?” Dr Allison urged us to interrogate our media. Glennis Reed encouraged us to work towards having more personal experiences with others. 

As I was sitting there through the session, I really wanted to take what they showed me and bring it to my children and to my students. Developing an understanding of what you are seeing and hearing and how it is tied to messaging that power structures want you to see is an important strategy to help our youth navigate their future lives. Messaging permeates our media to encroach upon our beliefs, our values, and our purchasing decisions. It shapes the way we live and yet most of us tend to not think about or question it. As a white teacher, in the past, I did not even think about how it permeates my lessons. But we owe it to our students to be more aware.

How can we teach this in the classroom. It is a fine line we are supposed to walk, not to be too political. Yet, we owe it to ourselves and to our students to push that line forward at all times. The Common Core State Standards (and any incantation that has been developed since) emphasize critical thinking. If this is the structure we are currently forced to work with, let’s use it to our advantage. Teach critical thinking to our students that teaches them to “interrogate our media”. Use compare and contrast techniques to show them the difference of then and now, of white and black, of men and women.

But in order to be aware and become proficient in how to do this in our classrooms, we first must become aware of it ourselves.

End note: I spoke with Dr. Allison after the session to ask about what types of initiatives are being implemented in Stockton to help our future educators to be more culturally responsive to their students. She told me of some courses already in place and of some people that are working to implement more. I look forward to seeing how this progresses! 

Written by Melissa Tomlinson, Assistant Executive Director, BATs