End Privatization of Public Education - PARCC & Common Core

This statement also applies to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s corporate education reform policies. We at Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates and the following signers hereby assume that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation experts are motivated by a sincere desire to improve education. But we fail to understand how your organization has become the national and global arbiter of the means and ends of education in the United States and around the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s narrow focus on standardized testing risks turning learning into drudgery and killing the joy of learning. As the Gates Foundation’s national and global push for the Common Core, high-stakes testing, and teacher evaluations based on test scores has led many governments into a national and international competition for higher test scores, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has assumed the power to shape education policy in the United States and around the world, with no debate about the necessity or limitations of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s goals. We are deeply concerned that measuring a great diversity of educational traditions and cultures using a single, narrow, biased yardstick could, in the end, do irreparable harm to our communities, our schools, our profession, and our students.

You and the OECD have much in common, Bill and Melinda. Your imposition of corporate reform policies, which are measured using a single, narrow, biased yardstick, are successful in one area only: making a profit for you, test companies, publishers, and the privatizing corporate reformers. Your policies continue to use our children as guinea pigs in your corporate reform experiments and risk doing “irreparable harm to our schools and our students”.
We the undersigned reject the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s tight control of education policy. Venture philanthropy’s influence on public education has been all-pervasive and we demand an immediate restoration of democracy in our schools. Divest from corporate education reform.
(Note: We will deliver this letter with signatures along with a published copy of all Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates at the #EducatingGatesRally in Seattle on June 26th. Readers, please send us a note to add your name as a signer. Join us at the rally! )
Sincerely,

Susan DuFresne, General Education and Special Education Kindergarten Teacher, Co-Author of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates

Katie Lapham, NYC public school teacher, Co-Author of Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates

Anthony Cody, NBCT, M.Ed, Retired Teacher of 24 years, Author and Education Blogger at Living in Dialogue
Jennifer Rumsey, Parent, High School English Teacher

Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University and Co-Founder of the Badass Teachers Association

Julianna K. Dauble, M. Ed. Teacher, Activist & Parent

Linda Myrick, Teacher, Bellevue School District

Kris Nielsen, Parent, Teacher, Activist

Keitha Bryson 1st grade teacher – Highline Public Schools

Michelle Murphy Ramey Elizabeth Lynch – Public School Teacher, Adjunct Professor, Grandparent, Activist

Lance Fialkoff, Founder, Musical Media for Education (MME)

Joan Kramer, Retired School Librarian

Noel Hammatt

Susan Polos, National Board Certified Teacher, Board Member Section of School Librarians, New York Libray Association

Kathleen Canavan, M.Ed.

Terry Preuss, NBCT, Career Public Educator, Broward Teachers Union Executive Board, Broward County Public Schools District Advisory Council, Concerned American Parent and Citizen

Helmut G. Preuss, Concerned Parent, co-founder ABC+LOVE

Tracy Eddins, Kindergarten Teacher, Parent and concerned human

Cynthia Liu, Parent and Founder, K-12 News Network

Rosalie Romano, Educator for a sustainable future with social justice for all

Ani McHugh, Parent and English Teacher

Lissa L. Coleman, Certified School Dropout Prevention Specialist

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters
Judie Haynes, ESL author, educator and professional development provider

Thomas Garrard, Teacher Librarian

Amy Walls, Teacher and Parent

T. Daniel Brown, Parent, 4th grade Teacher, Grand Ledge, Michigan

Susan M. Goncarovs, Art Teacher K-12 and ^0^

Sheri Kittay, Parent and Teacher

Karen Glennon Retired Teacher with Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, Master Teacher, author, and parent

Krisha M. Allgood, Badass student and Teacher-to-be

Ms. Robin Lunt, Parent

Sabrina Joy Stevens, former teacher, current public school guardian & Executive Director, Integrity in Education

Maria Schrenger, Parent and 1st grade Teacher

Marie Corfield, BFA, MAT, Elementary Art Educator, Concerned Parent, Vice President Flemington-Raritan Education Association, Vice President Hunterdon County Education Association http://mcorfield.blogspot.com/
Lesa Aloan Wilbert, M. Ed. Karen Adlum, Trained Professional Teacher, Early Childhood Development/Elementary Education and concerned citizen for our future democracy

Robert D. Skeels, public education advocate

Becca Ritchie, Veteran Middle School Educator, Education Activist and concerned citizen

Mary Reed, 1st grade Teacher

Linda Liddell-English teacher

Ann Marie Finnen, Music Teacher and Parent

Sherm Koons, Teacher, human, Washington County Career Center, Marietta Ohiohttp://hypnohio.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Berrong, California Public Educator

Tina Andres, California Teacher and parent

Michael Struchen, proud public school English Teacher

Jannike Johnsen, M.Ed, Special Education Teacher, parent, and concerned citizen

Stewart Bloom, Retired Elementary/Reading Recovery Teacher, Fort Wayne, Indiana.http://bloom-at.blogspot.com
Kathleen Jeskey, Teacher, Parent, Grandparent; Oregon Save Our Schools, Oregon BATs

Gerardo Barboza, M.Ed. Education Policy Research englishincostarica.org
Helen Sadler, Educator

Nancy Bailey, Ph.D. former Special Education Teacher and Principal, public education advocate, author and blogger Nancy Bailey’s Education Website athttp://nancye...