What is the Mayor of Wall Street smoking?
*He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a political show, but the mayor’s blueprint for fixing city schools have some asking “what was he smoking?”* -- CBS News In a speech at MIT, Bloomberg said Thursday he would accomplish more with less by slashing the teaching staff in half and doubling class sizes.
Michigan's 'nonpartisan' union busters caught in scandal
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan, calls itself a "nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life." But recently this far-right, free-market think tank has been exposed for its shady, very partisan, and possibly illegal lobbying of state politicians, aimed at nothing less than breaking the back of the state's teachers union and outlawing collective-bargaining in the state of Michigan. According to *Dave Murray*, writing in the Grand Rapids Free Press, the Mackinac Center's true purposes were revealed in secret email commun... more »
For-profit teacher certification is booming
This, according to a Nov. 26 New York Times report. As you might expect, Texas leads the way in for-profit teacher certifications. More than 110 alternative certification programs — including iteachTexas, and nonprofits like Teach for America — produce 40 percent of all new teachers in Texas, according to an analysis of Texas Education Agency data by Ed Fuller, a Penn State University education professor and former University of Texas researcher. For-profit programs dominate that market: in each year since 2007, the two largest companies, A+ Texas Teachers and iteachTexas, have pro... more »
Power philanthropy: 'Influence peddling writ large'
Political reporter *Nicholas Confessore* has an important piece in today's Times, "Policy Making Billionaires" which reveals the disproportional power over public policy and institutions held by and handful of the world's richest men. *“It’s sort of influence-peddling writ large,” said Richard L. Brodsky, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning research organization Demos and a former New York State assemblyman. “The notion that the society is better served by the super-rich exercising their charitable instincts is in the end anti-democratic.”*
'Virtual' schools
The Nation reports: *If the national movement to “reform” public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of “virtual schools”—charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet—as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.* *From Idaho to Indiana to Florida, recently passed laws will radically reshape the face of education in America, shifting the responsibility of teaching generations of Ame... more »
Transparent moments
Every once in a while, a bit of truth comes seeping through the pores of the corporate media. Corporate moguls, media tycoons or politicians become a little remorseful or a little drunk and let us know what they really think. N.Y. *Mayor Bloomberg* let the cat out of the bag in a recent speech at MIT, admitting that if he were king (isn't he?) he'd fire half the teachers and double class size. *He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a political show, but the mayor’s blueprint for fixing city schools have some asking “what was he smoking?”* -- CBS ... more »
Michigan's union-busters caught sending secret emails to pols
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan, calls itself a "nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life." But recently this far-right, free-market think tank has been exposed for its shady, very partisan, and possibly illegal lobbying of state politicians, aimed at nothing less than breaking the back of the state's teachers union and outlawing collective-bargaining in the state of Michigan. According to *Dave Murray*, writing in the Grand Rapids Free Press, the Mackinac Center's true purposes were revealed in secret email commun... more »
More questions for J.C. Brizard
Sorry I can't make it to UIC at noon today for J.C. Brizard's speech. If there were time at the end, I would ask him the questions I posted below. But if you are attending, you might also ask him about this story in today's Trib: "Report finds charters struggling like other CPS schools." Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city leaders have long heralded charter schools' innovative approach to education, but new research suggests many charters in Chicago are performing no better than traditional neighborhood schools and some are actually doing much worse...At Shabazz International... more »
Uncapping and de-regulating charter schools
Spurred on by Race To The Top While public education budgets are being slashed, federal support for privately-managed charter schools has increased to new heights including a $52 million increase in charter school funding last year. Since 2009, with $100 billion in stimulus funding for education, including $4.35 billion in the competitive Race to the Top fund behind him, *Arne Duncan* has offered a stern warning to states: *"Embrace charters or risk losing stimulus dollars."* But while Duncan claims it's all about "quality, not quantity" when it comes to charter school expansion a... more »
Questions for Jean-Claude Brizard
*“We have to take immediate action this year. . . . Too many of our students are in what I call an educational emergency room.’’* -- J.C. Brizard With today's announcement by Brizard, that 10 more Chicago schools were being "turned around," complete with mass firings of faculty and staff and the contracting of new management groups to take them over, a few questions come to mind. 1. In your telephone interview with reporters you say: “We can no longer defend a Chicago Public School system that fails our students year after year.’’ If that's true, exactly how many years-after-yea... more »
Principals revolt against the testing madness
NYT's Mike Winerip gives credit to Obama along with J*ohn B. King Jr*., the New York State commissioner of education, for spurring what is believed to be the first principals’ revolt in history. As of last night, 658 principals around the state had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance. *It is hard to overstate how angry the principals who signed are. Mario Fernandez, principal of Stillwater High School near Saratoga, called the evaluation proces... more »
WEEKEND QUOTABLES
Students from Cleveland High visit the Occupy L.A. site at City Hall to ask questions for their civics class. Occupy L.A. *"It fits in with everything we're doing," said Rebecca Williams, an English literature teacher at the Reseda school. "It's a real-life movement — history in the making."* --L.A. Times Education lagging for Mexican students in N.Y. *“We are stanching an educational hemorrhage, but only partially,” said Robert C. Smith, a sociology professor at the City University of New York who studies the local Mexican population. “The worst outcomes are still possible."* --... more »
Resistance building to Rahm's school closings.
** * "CPS policies have destabilized schools in our community," said Jeanette Taylor, a parent leader with the Kenwood group whose children attend Mollison and Robinson schools, both of which have been on academic probation for several years. "We're all fighting together. They aren't closing any more schools until they do right by us."* -- Chicago Tribune Resistance is building to *Rahm Emanuel's *latest school-closing plan. The plan -- which in effect is a school privatization plan -- calls for the closing of neighborhood schools and replacing many of them with privately-manage... more »