A Hero of Public Education in Michigan: Ellen Cogen Lipton
State Representative Ellen Cogen Lipton has bravely fought for public education and for the children of Michigan in a hostile environment, in a state where free-market fundamentalists control the governorship and the legislature. She has been unable to hold back hostile legislation and anti-civic policies, but she has actively resisted those who encourage the plundering of precious taxpayer dolla
John Austin, President of the Michigan State Board of Education, Writes the Readers of This Blog
I have posted several articles about Governor Rick Snyder’s all-out assault on public education, most recently, this one earlier today. Some 80% of charters operate for profit, fiscally troubled districts have been handed over to for-profit charter corporations (with poor track records) that extract as much in profit as the district’s deficit (this happens only in majority African-American distric
Politico: A Wish List for Obama’s State of the Union Address
Politico.com asked a number of people to suggest what President Obama should say in his annual State of the Union Address and what he was likely to say instead. Yours truly weighed in below. You will see that I recommended that he toss out Race to the Top as a failed initiative and get a new Secretary of Education. But just take a look at the headline summary of my written remarks. Since most of t
“What Are We Willing to Stand Up For?” Why Parents Opt Out of Testing
Rebecca Mead has written a brilliant blog post for “The New Yorker” explaining why parents plan to opt their children out of NewYork’s Common Core testing in 2014. It Is as succinct an explanation as I have read, and it is vivid because the writer is a parent in a progressive public school that teaches students to think for themselves. The principal of the Brooklyn New School has spoken out again
Peter Greene: John King Said What??
I didn’t plan to say anything at all about Néw York Commissioner John King’s tasteless commentary on Martin Luther King Day. He twisted logic and common sense to claim that adopting Common Core was somehow a fulfillment of Dr. King’s noble vision of justice and equality. I thought it best to let it pass unremarked. But Peter Greene, who has a keen sense of language, literacy, and simple decency d
EduShyster Takes a Ride on a Rocketship and Finds Miraculous Visions
In this post, EduShyster surveys the progress of the Rocketship charter chain, which aspires to enroll 1 million children in its low-cost, high-tech fleet of schools. She writes: “The audacious exercise in audaciousness was off to an audacious start. Fueled by an explosive combo of Silicon Valley funding and free advertising from *journalists* who found the use of rocket-related terminology irresi
Teacher: My Experience in a Turkish Gulen Charter School
The Gulen charter schools are the largest charter chain in the nation. To learn more about them, read Sharon Higgins’ blog. William Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition posted this story by a teacher in Ohio: Matt Blair, an Ohio teacher, with experience in a Turkish Gulen charter school, provides a glimpse into this operation, which is unaccountable and nontransparent. How charter s
Michigan: Governor Snyder Is Succeeding…..in Destroying Public Education
One of our readers brought this sad article to my attention. Under Governor Rick Snyder, more school districts have collapsed into emergency status than during the time of any of his predecessors. Failing districts get taken over by the state and put into its Emergency Achievement District, an oxymoron. Once in the EAA, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy arranges to dissolve democratic
Developer in NC Gets OK for Charter At Entrance to His Gated Community
North Carolina policymakers are putty in the hands of Art Pope, the zillionaire libertarian who funds the John Locke Institute and is also state budget director. Bill Moyers featured him in an exposé and Jane Mayer of the New Yorker wrote an article about his successful takeover of the state, in which he successfully defeated moderate Republicans with extremists to his liking. The far-out anti-pu
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-22-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Author of NC Proposal RespondsLodge McKammon, author of the 60-30-10 plan for teachers in North Carolina, which would encourage larger class sizes, sent this comment: “For the record, this article in NC Policy Watch was published before I had a chance to speak with the author. These are, in a sense, some of the ideas that I have be