An entire school district may elect to convert to charter status by establishing a home‐rule charter

  Just Say, "NO."

Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)

• "Home Rule Charter Schools (Texas Education Code §§12.014‐12.023):  An entire school district may elect to convert to charter status by establishing a home‐rule charter. This conversion requires multiple steps including: the board of trustees establishing a commission  to frame the charter, obtaining preclearance of the charter by the U.S. Department of Justice (if it would  change the governance of the district), obtaining approval of the charter by the commissioner of education, adoption of the charter by a majority of the qualified voters in an election in  which at least 25 percent of the district’s registered voters participate, and certification of the adopted charter to the secretary of state.  At this time, no Texas school district has sought home‐rule conversion."                                                                                         
• Texas Association of School Boards (TASB)
• Click Here http://www.tasb.org/legislative/resources/documents/charters.pdf

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Adopting a home rule school district will convert a Texas Education Code Chapter 11 Independent School District to a Texas Education Code Chapter 12 Home Rule School District Charter status. 

Dallas ISD will no longer be an Independent District.
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Louisiana's Recovery School District, a special state-run district that focuses on remedying the damage Hurricane Katrina wrought on the schools in its path. (a Charter School District)

"One of those who saw opportunity in the floodwaters of New Orleans was the late Milton Friedman, grand guru of unfettered capitalism and credited with writing the rulebook for the contemporary, hyper-mobile global economy. Ninety-three years old and in failing health, "Uncle Miltie", as he was known to his followers, found the strength to write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal three months after the levees broke. "Most New Orleans schools are in ruins," Friedman observed, "as are the homes of the children who have attended them. The children are now scattered all over the country. This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity." (Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2005)

Friedman's radical idea was that instead of spending a portion of the billions of dollars in reconstruction money on rebuilding and improving New Orleans' existing public school system, the government should provide families with vouchers, which they could spend at private institutions.

In sharp contrast to the glacial pace with which the levees were repaired and the electricity grid brought back online, the auctioning-off of New Orleans' school system took place with military speed and precision. Within 19 months, with most of the city's poor residents still in exile, New Orleans' public school system had been almost completely replaced by privately run charter schools." (The Shock Doctrine - Naoimi Klein - Click Here)

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Arnie Duncan the U.S. Secretary of Education openly advocates mayoral control of urban school districts.

"Speaking at a forum with mayors and superintendents, Duncan promised to help more mayors take over.

"At the end of my tenue, if only seven mayors are in control, I think I will have failed, Duncan said.

 He offered to do whatever he can to make the case. "I'll come to your cities," Duncan said. "I'll meet with your editorial boards. I'll talk with your business communities. I will be there."

(Arne Duncan: Mayors Should Run Schools - NBC Chicago - 3-31-09) - Click Here

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Texas Education Code - Chapter 12 - Charters

Section 12.002: Classes Of Charter

The classes of charter under this chapter are:

(1) a home-rule school district charter as provided by Subchapter B;

(2) a campus or campus program charter as provided by Subchapter C; or

(3) an open-enrollment charter as provided by Subchapter D.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 260, Sec. 1, eff. May 30, 1995.

Dallas ISD Trustee Mike Morath attempted to amend a new cornerstone principle of the Texas Association of School Boards dealing with opposition to using public funds for mechanisms to privatize public education

The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) held its 2013 state Delegate Assembly in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, September 28, 2013. Conference Delegates were presented with a newly proposed Cornerstone Principle for adoption.

The proposed new Cornerstone Principle was written as follows: 

"Opposition to the use of public funds for vouchers, tax credits, and other mechanisms to privatize public education."

Delegates adopted this Cornerstone principle of the Texas Association of School Boards by 95.39 percent (Yes-331, No-16).

Then it was announced that an amendment to the Cornerstone Principle had been sumitted by Mike Morath (Dallas ISD).

The minutes of the Delegate Assembly state the following:

"Hughey announced that an amendment to the proposal had been submitted by Mike Morath (Dallas ISD) with a second by Marshal Wesley (Duncanville ISD). The amendment would alter the language to read:

Morath amendment: "Opposition to the use of public funds for vouchers, tax credits, and other mechanisms to publicly fund private schools.

Original language - "other mechanisms to privatize public education."
Morath Amendment - "other mechanisms to publicly fund private schools."

"Garcia called for a vote on the proposed amendment. The amendment failed with Delegates voting against it by 70.92 percent (Yes-98, No-239)."

"...Garcia called for a vote by Frisbee on the Original proposed language of the new Cornerstone Principle. The Principle was adopted by a two-thirds majority."

The Mike Morath amendment failed: It would have exempted charter schools that have become "mechanisms to privatize public education."

Mayor Mike Rawlings audio tape advocates the removal of elected Dallas ISD Trustees

At a meeting on March 13, 2014 with Hispanic citizens at Agape Memorial United Methodist Church, Mayor Mike Rawlings made his case for taking over Dallas ISD.

Mayor Rawlings specifically mentioned that Dallas ISD Trustee Mike Morath suggested to him that the takeover happen this election year or they would have to wait another two years for the next November election.

On the tape obtained by the Dallas Morning News below, Mayor Rawlings advocates the removal of Dallas ISD Trustees - the same Trustees who have allowed him to unethically meddle into the affairs of Dallas ISD and interfere during the hiring of Superintendent Mike Miles.

Audio: Mayor Mike Rawlings discusses home rule with Hispanic leaders, leaves meeting early-DMN
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'3 Blind Mikes' Song Lyrics - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles and Home-Rule School District Charter

"3 Blind Mikes"

(Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Supt. Mike Miles)

Lyrics by Carla Ranger

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Set to the tune of

"3 Blind Mice"

a popular children's rhyme

written by John Thompson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------

Lyrics by Carla Ranger

3 Blind Mikes

3 Blind Mikes

Watch what they say.

They change what they say.

It's one word by day

But another by night.

They're trying to take away

Voting rights.

Now we must fight it 

With all our might.

3 Blind Mikes
3 Blind Mikes
3 ...     Blind ...     Mikes ...

Click Here

3 Blind Mikes - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles support the radical takeover of Dallas ISD 
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"3 sources say home rule was pitched with Dallas mayor running schools" - Matthew Haag - Dallas Morning News

This following information is a reprint of the full article written by Dallas Morning News staff writer Matthew Haag. The article was published on Saturday, March 8, 2014.

The article shows the real agenda of the backers of Support Our Public Schools, Mayor Mike Rawlings and Trustee Mike Morath.

The agenda is to get voters to give up their right to elect school Trustees in order to create a system giving Mayor Mike Rawlings the right to appoint and control all Dallas ISD school Trustees. 

This will be trading democratic election of school Trustees for undemocratic appointment by a Mayor. 

Just say, "No."

Click Here to see the original article.
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3 sources say home rule was pitched with Dallas mayor running schools

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Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer

Volunteer Jim Olson gets Lorena Villanueva to sign a petition seeking home-rule of the Dallas Independent School District at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Dallas.

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By MATTHEW HAAG

Staff Writer

mhaag@dallasnews.com

Published: 07 March 2014 11:14 PM

Updated: 08 March 2014 03:01 AM

Related

• Q&A: Mike Morath on home rule for DISD

Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas ISD trustee Mike Morath have denied they’re seeking any specific results in supporting an effort to overhaul the school system.

Yet three people who have been briefed on the initiative said they were told the goals include establishing a different system of governing the district, perhaps under the mayor’s oversight.

Rawlings said in a written statement Friday that he has decided that “proposing a specific change in governance was not the right way to go.”

“I spoke with several leaders about this issue before I endorsed Support Our Public Schools, and a lot of potential changes to the charter were discussed,” he said.

If approved by voters after a successful petition drive, Dallas ISD would move to a home-rule charter that would possibly change how it is governed and operates.

A state law grants home-rule districts more freedom to make decisions, such as modifying the state-mandated curriculum, ignoring teacher labor laws and increasing local control of the district.

The initiative became public a week ago. But in the preceding months, Morath and Rawlings worked privately to build political support for it.

The three people, who agreed to speak to The Dallas Morning News on the condition of anonymity, said that in recent conversations, Morath and Rawlings mentioned replacing the district’s publicly elected board with appointed members.

“It is orchestrated. I hate to see stuff that’s not grass roots being portrayed as it is,” said a former city official whom the mayor recruited unsuccessfully to endorse the effort. “They should be straightforward that they are coming after the trustees.”

The five board members of Support Our Public Schools haven’t publicly criticized the district’s trustees or suggested they be replaced. Those members have instead talked about other possibilities with home rule.

But the former city official said the mayor’s spokesman, Sam Merten, called several weeks ago and spoke bluntly about the effort.

“He said that the mayor would run DISD or oversee it. You wouldn’t have trustees. If you did, they wouldn’t be making decisions,” the former official said.

Merten said Friday that he doesn’t recall telling anyone that the mayor would oversee DISD and has only mentioned it as a possibility.

In an interview Friday, Morath said he has “nothing to do with Support Our Public Schools.” But he also called DISD’s board “broken” and said all options for change should be considered.

“We have a system of governance that doesn’t focus its energy or attention or goals on improving outcomes for kids,” he said. “When was the last time the board talked about the achievement gap?”

Meeting with the News editorial board Thursday, an impassioned Rawlings spoke about his dissatisfaction with voter apathy in DISD board elections and the community’s complacency with student achievement.

“An average of a thousand votes per board of trustee? No wonder we are this bad,” the mayor said. “This is a disaster, and for us to sit around and try to argue kind of politics about this is naive and is not going to change things.”

The school charter has never been used in Texas. But if 5 percent of DISD’s registered voters sign a Support Our Public Schools petition, the school board would be required to name 15 people to a commission to write the district’s charter.

The charter then would need approval of local voters and the state education commissioner. The group declined Friday to say how many of the required 24,459 signatures it had collected.

Because district trustees would appoint the commissioners, the process suggests that outside forces couldn’t control the outcome. However, according to the former city official, Merten said the group’s backers had recruited people to be on the commission and believed a majority of DISD trustees would vote them in.

“He said he would propose a slate of people for the charter that they knew would put in place the charter they would want. They would have enough votes on the DISD board to get that passed,” the person said. “You’d have the folks in place already who are committed no matter the public outpouring or opposition.”

Merten denied telling anyone that and said there is not a list of suggested commissioners. “That’s completely inaccurate. There has not been one conversation about who would serve on this potential commission,” he said.

While Rawlings has no current oversight of Dallas ISD, he has long been interested in the district. When he ran for mayor, he made education a top priority. And his biography on the city’s website says he has taken a “hands-on approach” to the schools. Rawlings also suggested Miles’ name to the school board’s superintendent search firm.

A former DISD board member said Rawlings told him that if just two Miles’ supporters left, the majority could swing against the superintendent.

“The mayor pushed back on me and said, ‘What if [trustee] Dan Micciche or [board president] Eric Cowan leaves and suddenly we lose this momentum?’” the former DISD board member said. “That is a valid concern.”

A current city official who spoke to Morath said he mentioned mayoral control of DISD along with a hybrid system of five elected trustees and four appointed. He said Morath wants a system that would grade trustees and allow for their removal, but the trustee didn’t provide specifics.

Support Our Public Schools’ financial supporters include John Arnold, a Hillcrest High School graduate and billionaire Houston philanthropist. Allyn Media, a Dallas public relations firm that assisted Rawlings’ mayoral campaign, is directing Support Our Public Schools’ communication plan.

The former city official said the mayor wanted to recruit 10 influential people who would make the case to the news media and public.

Follow Matthew Haag on Twitter at @matthewhaag.

Mayor Mike Rawlings hostile takeover of Dallas ISD is now confirmed by citizens

3 sources say home rule was pitched with Dallas mayor running schools-Matthew Haag-DMN-3-8-14

"The three people, who agreed to speak to The Dallas Morning News on the condition of anonymity, said that in recent conversations, Morath and Rawlings mentioned replacing the district’s publicly elected board with appointed members.

“It is orchestrated. I hate to see stuff that’s not grass roots being portrayed as it is,” said a former city official whom the mayor recruited unsuccessfully to endorse the effort. “They should be straightforward that they are coming after the trustees.”

***************************************************

This is the way it always works.  Things planned in secret cannot stand the light of day. Sunshine has a way of revealing the truth.

Take a look an article the morning newspaper by education reporter Matthew Haag. 

It clearly shows the intention to promote a takeover of Dallas ISD by Mayor Mike Rawlings. That was always the agenda and it remains the agenda.

Listen to the double talk: "The Mayor has decided that “proposing a specific change in governance was not the right way to go.”

Yet, citizens are being pre-sold on the Mayoral takeover of public schools. 

Citizens would give up their right to vote and the Mayor becomes dictator of Dallas ISD. Trustee would be appointed. Voters would no longer elect Trustees.

That was the agenda all along. 

You will have decades of Mayoral control.

Mayoral control of public education is the worst idea in public education. Where it exists, it has been proven that it solves nothing.

So this is certainly not about having a conversation. 

It is about control of the school system by the Mayor.

Citizens are simply pawns in a game that has already been decided.

Don't let anybody fool you. 

The Mayor wants to get total control of Dallas ISD for his political agenda.

Do not sign this petition.

The whole truth is not being told.

******************************************************

3 sources say home rule was pitched with Dallas mayor running schools-Matthew Haag-DMN-3-8-14

"Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas ISD trustee Mike Morath have denied they’re seeking any specific results in supporting an effort to overhaul the school system.

Yet three people who have been briefed on the initiative said they were told the goals include establishing a different system of governing the district, perhaps under the mayor’s oversight.

Rawlings said in a written statement Friday that he has decided that “proposing a specific change in governance was not the right way to go.”

“I spoke with several leaders about this issue before I endorsed Support Our Public Schools, and a lot of potential changes to the charter were discussed,” he said." (Dallas Morning News)

3 Blind Mikes - Mayor Mike Rawlings - Trustee Mike Morath - Superintendent Mike Miles support the radical takeover of Dallas ISD financed by secret rich backers

Citizens of Dallas!

Please do not sign a petition today or any other day that is clearly intended to undermine citizen control of Dallas ISD.

You will end up with an appointed corporate controlled board financed by secret backers and no voice in electing future Trustees.

A power grabbing Mayor Mike Rawlings
An arrogant Dallas ISD Trustee - Mike Morath
A self-serving Superintendent Mike Miles

The 3 blind Mikes all support the most radical power grab in the history of Dallas ISD.

A meddling Mayor Mike Rawlings who doesn't care about unethically interfering in the affairs of a major independent urban (code word) school district.

There is no Mayor in the Texas Education Code. 

Mayor Rawlings has no right and no authority to impose his political agenda on Dallas ISD.

Mike Morath is an arrogant Dallas ISD Trustee who is acting to undermine the governance of the independent school district he was elected to serve, protect and defend.

The self-serving Superintendent Mike Miles never should have been hired. He was assisted by the political interference in Dallas ISD by Mayor Mike Rawlings and others.

Superintendent Mike Miles is the first Superintendent in recent history who is being allowed to openly undermine the Board of Trustees that has the authority to hire and fire the Superintendent.

Superintendent Mike Miles supports this latest effort to replace the elected school Trustees with an appointed Board that will likely be accountable only to the Mayor - not the citizens and taxpayers.

Superintendent Miles should be fired, and he would be if I could vote five times.

The secret group of financial backers is now publicly supported by Mayor Mike Rawlings.

The so-called Support Our Public Schools is an innocent sounding name covering up a nasty reality.

They will take advantage of uninformed citizens who have no understanding of what the paper they sign really means.

It was all to start today (election day) without public awareness

Mayor Mike Rawlings and others should not be allowed to buy the school district and use our students as pawns to create more wrongheaded reform myths.

Corporate school reform has failed over and over again.  Mayor controlled public education invites the worst form of political corruption.

There is no magic bullet in education. There never was.  There never will be. That is clear.

I would support teachers and educators any day over money and power driven corporate reformers who are seeking to make a dollar on the backs of our poor and needy children by privatizing public education and turning it into a profit-making business.
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Do Not Sign or Support the following Petition:

Support Our Public Schools (Petition Language) - No!
"I know the purpose of this petition is to request that the Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District appoint a Charter Commission to frame a home-rule school district charter for Dallas ISD. I understand that by signing more than one petition to request the appointment of a Charter Commission for Dallas ISD is prohibited."

What this is really intended to do is to destroy your right to elect Dallas ISD Trustees.
*********************************************************************************

Businessman Don Williams calls Bill McKenzie's DMN editorial on Superintendent Mike Miles 'seriously flawed'

From Don Williams
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
To: Bill McKenzie
Subject: Your September 17 Editorial
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill:

Although I have great respect for you, your Op Ed piece is seriously flawed:

1) Any tour or appearance with Miles, as well as his public presentations, are carefully choreographed events – spin control – and are quite different when done directly with teachers and principals; your piece echoes fellow traveler journalists getting a “special inside look” into a totalitarian state hiding the truth, the everyday control of its citizens.

2) You refer approvingly to the Todd Williams piece, which repeats his mantra of “focus on classroom instruction and concern for the kids vs. adult issues,“ which is used as a blunt instrument to silence critics and deflect legitimate differences and conversations about important issues needing public debate – everyone I know in this debate is equally concerned about the kids; in fact it is the teachers who are daily on the front line helping the kids learn and develop and whose opinions should be garnered and carry the greater weight. You (along with Williams and Morath Op Ed pieces) refer to “uptick” in student achievement but you ignore the evidence from Colorado Springs and here, e.g., ACT test scores being manipulated by testing 18% fewer students year over year to reveal a better but false picture.

3) You and the editorial board blame conflict within and questioning by the School Board for problems in fact created by Miles himself. It is the Board's responsibility to deal with these issues and raise questions about legitimate concerns, particularly when the CEO has given them inaccurate or misleading information, violated board approved policies, and is orchestrating a public and private campaign to keep his job.

4) Please, no one is worried about Miles’ lack of jocular style, but many are worried about his lack of integrity.

5) You say “his style is not berating, belittling or autocratic…” and question allegations of his “bullying style,” despite scores of teachers and principals reporting such tactics, as you heard from their representatives last week, and as I and many others have heard directly.

6) Of course, change agents can be “disruptive,” for good or bad; remember Bill Rojas at DISD and Ron Johnson and Dick Brown as the new CEOs at JC Penney and EDS respectively who were indeed disruptive but were soon fired by boards before destroying their organizations – that’s what is at risk here and now. That Miles should not have been hired is no excuse for keeping him here.

Frankly, it’s hard for me to understand how such whimsical and musing Op Ed pieces crowd out serious interpretive reporting and opinions on hard news issues such as those raised by Tawnell Hobbs and Matthew Haag in posts on the DMN education blog and those raised by Channel 8’s Brett Shipp.

Bill, if you truly believe in the corporate reform movement, high stakes testing, students as ciphers and teachers as assembly line managers, please just say so. But don’t insult the public intelligence of this community by trying to defend Miles as a good guy or a good leader. The weight of evidence is clear that he is neither.

Best,

Don

Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles evaluation instruments approved 8-1

 'We can teach our way to the top, but we cannot test our way to the top..." 
Heath Morrison - Superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 - Called Board Meeting - 5:30 P.M.

Discussion, Consideration and Take Possible Action to Approve Superintendent of Schools Evaluation Instruments

Dallas Morning News - December 25, 2012- Click Here

"Trustee Mike Morath, who was part of a board committee that created the evaluation criteria, said he believes it’s a more rigorous assessment than used for the past superintendent. 

“We wanted to raise the bar in terms of performance expectations, and we wanted explicit ties to student achievement,” he said. (Translation - "we wanted explicit ties to student test scores")

Trustees approved the Superintendent of Schools evaluation instruments by an 8-1 vote.

Voting Yes to tying Superintendent pay to student test results
Lew Blackburn
Mike Morath
Bernadette Nutall
Nancy Bingham
Eric Cowan
Elizabeth Jones
Dan Micciche
Adam Medrano

Voting No
Carla Ranger

Paul Thomas of Furman University (Ed.D) in South Carolina states:

Tests Fail South's Legacy of Inequity - Click Here 

"The essential flaws with high-stakes standardized tests are magnified in states shackled by social inequity and poverty because tests function as gatekeepers (for example, the SAT) and mechanisms for educational inequity: Children born into poverty are tested, labeled, and then sorted into a educational system that reflects and perpetuates that inequity. 

For decades now, ample evidence shows that test-based accountability labels high-poverty schools as failures and affluent schools as successful. Any deviations from these patterns are rare and outliers.

Continuing to focusing on tests and seeking new and better tests are commitments to distracting society and education from addressing the real and systemic problems facing both. America's test-mania is a test we are failing. 

Especially in the South, investing in new and more high-stakes standardized testing is a failure we can no longer afford."

Dallas ISD Trustees have now monetized tests as never before in the history of the district. 

Trustees have now imposed additional test related pressure on the teachers and students of Dallas ISD by connecting standard test results to huge monetary awards for the Superintendent.

Some call it "a more rigorous assessment" but others might call it irresponsible to put huge dollar signs on the backs of children and teachers based on "an inadequate and unreliable measure of both student learning and educator effectiveness."

National Resolution on High Stakes Testing- Click Here