No sooner do I send out my annual Mother's Day appeal (below) for the Fistula Foundation (which I'm on the board of) than Nick Kristof writes a wonderful op ed in today's NY Times about this terrible scourge, specifically mentioning the Fistula Foundation!

Left untreated, women and girls with fistulas become pariahs. Their husbands divorce them, and they are moved to a hut at the edge of the village. They lie there in pools of their waste, feeling deeply ashamed, trying to avoid food and water because of the shame of incontinence, and eventually they die of an infection or simple starvation.

But there's renewed hope for these women. The Fistula Foundation has been underwriting corrective surgery in many countries, and the United States Agency for International Development is helping as well. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, says she will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would create a program to eradicate fistulas worldwide.

For years, Dr. Arrowsmith has been dreaming — along with Dr. Lewis Wall, a fistula expert at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis — of establishing a fistula hospital in West Africa. After I wrote about their organization, the Worldwide Fistula Fund, a couple of years ago, Times readers responded with an outpouring of support — some $500,000.

This is what your contributions achieved: The hospital recently opened in Danja, Niger. More than 60 women with fistulas were waiting at the ribbon-cutting, and a surgeon from the nearby country of Burkina Faso is working through the backlog.

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My email: It's Mother's Day and if you're looking for a great idea for what you can get for your mom, look no further! Give a gift in her name to the Fistula Foundation:https://www.fistulafoundation.org/donation/donatenow/charitable.  I'm on the board of this wonderful organization, which helps women in developing countries suffering from a terrible childbirth injury called an obstetric fistula.

 

Here are pictures from one of my visits to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 2001:www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Fistula (user name: tilson; pw: funds), and here's an excerpt from an article I wrote about my visit (www.fool.com/news/foth/2001/foth010417.htm):

Life in Ethiopia is very hard for most everyone, but it's especially hard on the women. Like women in most of the developing world, they tend to do the most difficult, dirty work, yet generally do not have access to the few opportunities that exist for an education and a good job. Many are married off at a young age -- sometimes as young as 10 -- and often start bearing children by their early teens. Childbirth rarely occurs with a qualified attendant, much less at a hospital. If there's a problem during delivery, common given the lack of prenatal care, the babies often die and the mothers can suffer injuries.

A common injury is called an obstetrical fistula, which occurs when the baby tears a hole into the bladder and/or rectum, causing the mother to become permanently incontinent and constantly smelly. When this happens, the husband almost always abandons his wife, who returns to her family, often to be rejected again. These women have lives of unspeakable misery. One didn't leave her bed, much less her family's hut, for nine years before making her way to the Fistula Hospital.

The hospital specializes in the relatively simple surgical procedure that repairs the fistulas, allowing the patients to return to normal life and even bear children again. It heals more than 1,000 women annually, at a total cost of a mere $400,000 -- a pittance by Western standards, but a fortune in Ethiopia.

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Saving the Lives of Moms

A Tanzanian woman getting a spinal anesthetic before a $450 surgery that would repair her fistula — and her life.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: May 12, 2012

New Orleans slides and the Experiment

 STOP THE PRESSES! Check out the attached 7 slides with data from New Orleans, showing the incredible improvements post-Katrina and rebutting the argument (such as this one: http://shankerblog.org/?p=5695) that it's due to less disadvantaged kids.  I'm more excited than ever for the showing of The Experiment on the 21^st and the panel afterward. Speaking of which:

 

·        I'm delighted to report that the first superintendent of New Orleans schools after Katrina, Paul Vallas, is joining the panel.  He's now interim superintendent of the Bridgeport Public Schools and, prior to New Orleans, was CEO of Chicago Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia.

·        The 350 seats sold out in only a few hours, so I booked the adjacent smaller theater, where The Experiment will be shown simultaneously and where the panel discussion will be simulcast.  People in the adjacent theater will be able to ask questions since we'll be doing then via notecards that I'll read.  To RSVP, go to: http://theexperimentscreeningnyc.eventbrite.com/.  Again, don't delay, as I expect this theater to sell out quickly as well.

 

Philadelphia School District plan would dismantle central office, close schools

Among the panelists, one person appears out of place since he has no link to New Orleans: Mike Wang, who manages the Philadelphia School Partnership's outreach and growth strategy. I invited him because I think what's happening in Philadelphia right now is the closest thing to the "relinquisher" model in any other city – here's an article about it from The Philadelphia Inquirer (you know it must be really good stuff in light of the response of the local union boss: "He called it a "cynical, right-wing, market-driven" blueprint"):

 

The realities are ugly, leaders said Tuesday - the Philadelphia School District is nearly insolvent, lags behind most other urban districts in academics, and loses students to charters because parents believe it does not keep their children safe.

 

"What we do know through lots of history and evidence and practice is that the current structure doesn't work," School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos said. "It's not fiscally sustainable and it doesn't produce high-quality schools for all kids."

 

So, at the SRC's direction, Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen on Tuesday announced a plan that would essentially blow up the district and start with a new structure.

 

The plan - subject to public comment and SRC approval - would close 40 schools next year and 64 by 2017, move thousands more students to charters, and dismantle the central office in favor of "achievement networks" that would compete to run groups of 25 schools and would sign performance-based contracts.

 

Knudsen, in a news conference, avoided references to the "Philadelphia School District."

 

"We are now looking at a much broader definition of education in the city that includes not only district schools but other schools as well," he said.

 

Mayor Nutter hailed the plan, which he said would push control over education down to the school level.

 

"If we don't take significant action, the system will collapse," the mayor said at a separate news conference. "If you care about kids and if you care about education, if you care about the future of this city, that's what we need to all grow up and deal with."

 

Teachers union president Jerry Jordan decried the radical restructuring as the SRC divesting itself of many of the core responsibilities of public education. He called it a "cynical, right-wing, market-driven" blueprint.

 

"This is totally dismantling the system," Jordan said. "It's a business plan crafted to privatize the services within the School District."

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Philadelphia School District plan would dismantle central office, close schools

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kristin Graham

http://articles.philly.com/2012-04-25/news/31399341_1_central-office-school-level-achievement

Speaking of exciting, check out what's happening in Connecticut thanks to Commissioner of Education (and ed warrior) Stephen Pryor and Gov. Dan Malloy.  It's especially exciting because Malloy is a Democrat and it's a heavily Democratic state, so it shows that bold reforms are possible even when this is the case. To be clear: this is not a perfect bill but it definitively represents major progress – much more than anyone could have possibly envisioned in year 1: tenure reform, statewide evaluations, low-performing-school turnaround mechanism, increased charter support, finance reform and accountability, early childhood, and more. All in one package. Amazing!  Attached is a collection of articles about this, and below is a WSJ article that begins:

In a sweeping education deal with lawmakers and teacher unions here, Gov. Dannel Malloy gave ground on some of his farthest-reaching proposals but contended the compromise was still a historic overhaul of public-school policy in a state that has proved resistant to change.

Mr. Malloy, a Democrat, has dedicated the second year of his term to revamping the public education system, calling for the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass measures on charter schools, teacher evaluations and other policies. And while so-called education reform advocates would have liked the scaled-back legislation to achieve more, they say the bill marks a landmark first step.

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• NY SCHOOLS
• May 8, 2012, 11:14 p.m. ET
• http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304451104577392564250794468.html

Schools Deal Sets Overhaul

By JOSEPH DE AVILA

 RiShawn Biddle with an article which show the key role black politicians in CT played in getting a much more reform-oriented bill passed – and how they should be a model:

For the past two months, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy's school reform agenda had been torn apart by his fellow Democrats controlling the state legislature. Thanks to aggressive lobbying efforts from the Nutmeg State's National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers affiliates (and memories of what happened two years ago to then-Rep. Jason Bartlett after he teamed up with what is now the Connecticut Parents Union to successfully advocate for the passage of the nation's second Parent Trigger law), the state legislature's education committee all but ditched Malloy's proposed teacher quality reforms and expansion of charter schools.

Legislative leaders in that state have proven to be so pusillanimous that they all but kowtowed to the NEA during one of its rallies.

But as it turns out, at least half of Malloy's reform effort may actually survive. Why?

Largely because of the legislature's Black and Latino caucus offering up its own support of Malloy's original plan last week through their own set of proposals. By unveiling their own proposals, the group (which includes state representatives Gary Holder-Winfield and Billie Miller) stood up to the NEA and AFT affiliates, and called out the legislature's education committee – along with state House Speaker Christopher Donovan and Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, who engaged in last month's embarrassing display of poor leadership.

More importantly, their endorsement — coming just as the legislative session is coming to an end — gave Malloy and grassroots reformers on the ground enough well-timed support to force legislators to come up with more reform-minded legislation. Whether or not the new version will be a strong step toward systemic reform is a different question entirely.

The leadership showed by Holder-Winfield, Miller and their colleagues on behalf of Connecticut's poor and minority children is absolutely commendable. And it is an example Black politicians elsewhere should follow.

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When Black Politicians Stand Up For Our Kids

BY RISHAWN BIDDLE

http://politic365.com/2012/05/10/when-black-politicians-stand-up-for-our-kids 

Campaign 2012: How Vouchers Are Like Same-Sex Marriage

Alexander Russo with a compelling (I hope!) analogy that I hadn't considered:

Campaign 2012: How Vouchers Are Like Same-Sex Marriage

It's not just because Arne Duncan played a role in the President's decision to come out in support of gay marriage that education-watchers should pay attention to the way politicians talk about the issue. The other, much more interesting reason, is that some Democratic politicians favor private school vouchers (with conditions, usually) but, as with same sex marriage, they often are loathe to say so out loud, knowing that the political consequences are high. They signal their support in various ways -- pretzeling themselves around rhetorically like Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanual did last week in San Francisco.  And yet they know it's increasingly difficult to oppose vouchers, and are waiting for the moment when the conditions are right (by necessity or reduced danger) to make their true feelings known.  

National Charter Schools Week

It's National Charter Schools Week and I want to encourage you to come to the National Charter Schools Conference, which will be in Minneapolis this year from June 19-22.  It's always a blast!  Here's more info:

 

It is National Charter Schools Week, celebrating the 20^th anniversary year of the public charter school movement.  Educators, parents, students and advocates across the nation have spent the last few days promoting the successes of public charter schools and thinking of ways to improve upon these successes!  The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools marked this week by convening nearly 100 individuals for its Washington, DC based activities which included a Capitol Hill Advocacy Day and an evening reception at the US Capitol where US Senator Tom Harkin, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, North Carolina State Senator Malcolm Graham and Indiana Representative Brian Bosma were all honored as champions for public charter schools.

 

In just a few short weeks, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will host the nation's largest observance of the 20^th anniversary of public charter schools in the birthplace of this education innovation – Minneapolis, MN.  Be sure to join the celebration, featuring Bill Cosby, from June 19-22^nd by registering for the National Charter Schools Conference today!