Accused of Sexism!
Former State Senator Gloria Romero of California accused me of being sexist and possibly anti-Latina as well. (Please read the comments that follow the article.)
Romero is now an employee of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ organization Democrats for Education Reform, which advocates for charters and eliminating tenure and seniority.
Romero is hurt that I did not give her credit for having invented the Parent Trigger idea (which I call the Parent Tricker law). She says I mistakenly gave credit to the far-right group ALEC, which has developed model legislation for Parent Trigger legislation.
Actually, I don’t care who came up with this obnoxious idea that 51% of the parents in a school can “seize
Romero is now an employee of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ organization Democrats for Education Reform, which advocates for charters and eliminating tenure and seniority.
Romero is hurt that I did not give her credit for having invented the Parent Trigger idea (which I call the Parent Tricker law). She says I mistakenly gave credit to the far-right group ALEC, which has developed model legislation for Parent Trigger legislation.
Actually, I don’t care who came up with this obnoxious idea that 51% of the parents in a school can “seize
What Will the Principal Say?
Diana Senechal imagines a conversation between a principal and a parent to discuss the teacher’s’ value-added ratings. This is the conversation that Mayor Bloomberg hopes will happen in every school. He wants every principal to contact every parent and tell them the rating of their child’s teacher. I blogged about that recently.
But what would the principal say if he thinks it is wrong to make teachers’ ratings public? What would she or he say if they honestly believe that the ratings are so inaccurate that they are worthless?
But what would the principal say if he thinks it is wrong to make teachers’ ratings public? What would she or he say if they honestly believe that the ratings are so inaccurate that they are worthless?
Does “College-for-All” Make Sense?
A number of readers have responded with good comments to the ongoing discussion of “college-for-all.”
I love education, love learning, and want everyone to be able to get as much education as they want, but I have my doubts about the goal of college for all.
Maybe the most irritating aspect of this issue is that college has become unaffordable for many, many young people. They may want to go to college, but they can’t pay the costs, and our state and federal government is content to saddle them with heavy debt that they will spend years repaying. We can’t have a goal of being “first in the world” in college graduates if the cost of college continues to soar.
Also, I am not sure why it is important to be first in the world. So what if we are seventh or twelfth in the world? Why does it matter? I think we should aim for the goal of being first in the world in college affordability. Then let
I love education, love learning, and want everyone to be able to get as much education as they want, but I have my doubts about the goal of college for all.
Maybe the most irritating aspect of this issue is that college has become unaffordable for many, many young people. They may want to go to college, but they can’t pay the costs, and our state and federal government is content to saddle them with heavy debt that they will spend years repaying. We can’t have a goal of being “first in the world” in college graduates if the cost of college continues to soar.
Also, I am not sure why it is important to be first in the world. So what if we are seventh or twelfth in the world? Why does it matter? I think we should aim for the goal of being first in the world in college affordability. Then let
A Civics Lesson for the 4th of July
In response to a post this morning:
| Why is it that most people don’t understand basic civics? They think the majority should always win. That’s not what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they created our great society. If the majority always won, we wouldn’t need the Supreme Court, the rights of the minority would never be protected, Civil Rights legislation would never have passed, we would still have Jim Crow laws, and most likely we would be in a state of turmoil much like what is happening in Egypt and other countries in the world.Our country is not about 51%, On this 4th of July it is appropriate to quote our Declaration of Independence ,“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient What Is Stand for Children?This is an evolving definition. Stand for Children began in Portland, Oregon, as a grassroots organization to advocate for more funding for public schools (readers in Portland and elsewhere, correct me if I am wrong). At some point in the past two or three years, Stand shifted priorities and discovered that it would have far greater impact if it aligned itself with the financiers behind the corporate reform movement. Their numbers are small, but their wallet is large. They want more privately managed charts, and Stand was okay with that, after all, charters provide an escape from “bad” public schools. They want teachers to serve at-will, with no job protections (after all, don’t job protections protect “bad” teachers). They want teachers to be evaluated by student test scores (after all, isn’t that a good way to identify and boot those “bad” teachers). And until we hear a different account from Stand’s founder, Jonah Edelman, we must conclude that it is now a A Sign of Educational Madness?I just read that ACT is developing a test of college-and career-readiness for children in kindergarten. When I read something like this, my first reaction is to think it is a joke, a parody, a satire. Surely, no adult can take this nonsense seriously. But it is not a joke. Someone is laying out millions of dollars to find out whether 5-year-olds are ready for college or career. |