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Best Way to Eliminate Public Education

by dianerav

Lance Hill of New Orleans responded to blogger Mike Deshotels, who noted the double standard for charter schools and public schools. Public schools must meet standards, but voucher schools do not? Lance writes:
Mike, excellent post on the contradictions of the Louisiana accountability
plan.  

This isn’t even a policy debate: it’s a debate on simple logic.   Imagine a
hospital that graded doctors on mortality rates. If a hospital administrator
transferred all the critical care patients into the maternity ward, suddenly
the maternity ward doctors would go from an A grade to an F grade.    

If  a policy defies simple logic, there has to be some motive for it other

When StudentsFirst Came to Alabama

by dianerav

Earlier this year, there was a big push to get charter legislation passed in Alabama. It failed. One of the pronents for charter legislation was StudentsFirst, which sent in an organizer from Florida to build support. She said that StudentsFirst has 17,000 members in the state, but when SF called a meeting in Montgomery, only 25 people showed up, some about half were anti-charter. A writer from Alabama sends this account:

So here is the deal with StudentsFirst.  I can become a member by going toChange.org and signing a petition that says nothing about this organization and if I write favorable comments about “pro reform” then someone with StudentsFirst  may even send me a gift card to my favorite restaurant.

And how do I know all of this?  Because a good friend signed a petition at Change.org and 

A Florida Teacher Writes a Letter to Parents

by dianerav

I received a letter from a teacher in Florida. He explainswho’s the valuation system works and why it is absurd:

Dear Florida Parents,

I want to call your attention to a serious and destructive policy that will have dire consequences for your children.  Due to Florida’s ill-