Letters in Sunday's NY Times "Sunday Dialogue": Common Core
Letter posted to the NY Times website, July 16, 2012. Readers were invited to respond to this letter for the NY Times Sunday Dialogue with the understand that I would respond.
To the Editor: The common core movement seems to be common sense: Our schools should have similar standards, what students should know at each grade. The movement, however, is based on the false assumption that our schools are broken, that ineffective teaching is the problem and that rigorous standards and tests are necessary to improve things. The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem. The problem is
Bricks and Mortar Schools vs. Cyberspace
Finally getting the message straight.
Taxpayers are funding privately-held, no transparency cyber charter schools with that giant sucking sound - moving jobs, not overseas like with NAFTA for cheap labor but bringing it to a school and a neighborhood near you. Who needs building, gyms, cafeterias, food, nurses, or teachers when all you need is to put a kid in front of a computer. Pa Cyber will take care of your kids, don't worry just because Pa is a crook.
Taxpayers are funding privately-held, no transparency cyber charter schools with that giant sucking sound - moving jobs, not overseas like with NAFTA for cheap labor but bringing it to a school and a neighborhood near you. Who needs building, gyms, cafeterias, food, nurses, or teachers when all you need is to put a kid in front of a computer. Pa Cyber will take care of your kids, don't worry just because Pa is a crook.
Cyber excess: Taxpayers should not over-fund charter schools
July 20, 2012 12:00 am
/ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
There is something very wrong with an education funding system that has public school districts chopping staff and ending programs while a publicly funded charter school is making so much money that it can pay millions to