Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
Holding OutIf for longthe light isdimmer ordisappeared,don’t despair—there are moonson some seaaimed at youas you lookthat way, dear—eyes knowinghow darknesswas illusionfor what lostlove concealed.
Are you listening, Tennessee teachers, principals, school boards, superintendents?From the Great Neck Record:The Great Neck School District is not about to release any information on any Great Neck students to InBloom nor to any other such third party provider. The Board of Education’s decision against releasing any such information came at the recommendation of Dr. Thomas Dolan, superintendent of
The other day Diane Ravitch had more "breaking" Randi news about how Weingarten is once again standing tall for teachers against the corporate forces. Perhaps it was this bit of spinning that prompted the storm of responses (84 at last count) that almost all disagree with Ravitch's lame take: Randi Weingarten was unusually outspoken in criticizing the rush to impose the Common Core,
Duncan Invites Parents to Conduct Research on Reasons for Racist Practices in Schools
Duncan sent one of his underlings to the News Hour this evening to express her disgust that 3 and 4 year old students, most of whom are minority children, would be suspended from school. The young African-American woman from the Duncan's Civil Rights Office leaned forward into the camera and expressed her disgust at such practices. When the interviewer asked her why this was happening, she stopp
Gulen Webinar, Part I, with Sharon Higgins
"Video of January 22, 2014 webinar focusing on an introduction to the secretive transnational Turkish social movement whose members have effective control of some 150 American taxpayer-funded public charter schools."Thank you, Sharon for your leadership on this: Gulen 101 Session One With Sharon Higgins from Tim Furman on Vimeo.
Corporate Reform Schools Helping the Poor?
By Jim Naureckas at FAIR:Richard Cohen doesn't understand why people are so down on the rich. The Washington Post columnist (3/18/14) writes:The rich are incessantly accused of being slyly manipulative and self-serving. For instance, they support charter schools. Apparently, there is nothing worse.I am mystified. Charter schools are not private schools. They are free public schools open to any st
Human Rights: The Civil Rights Issue of This Generation
By now it is abundantly clear that the federal government plans to do nothing about enforcing the Fair Housing Act, which was passed in 1968 as a sop to those grieving the assassination of Dr. King, just as it is clear that the Feds plan to do nothing to stop funding the resegregation and cultural neutering of American minority children by corporate reform charter school missionaries. When Arne D
MAR 20
Haslam and Huffman Sued by TEA Teacher Over VAM Unfairness
Full story from the Tennessean:Tennessee’s largest teachers’ union is suing Gov. Bill Haslam and his commissioner of education over an evaluation tool they say penalizes good educators unfairly.It’s the second suit filed recently against the Knox County Board of Education on behalf of a teacher, but this one expands legal action to name top state officials as defendants. The plaintiff is Mark Tayl
MAR 19
Haslam Fiddles with Vouchers and More Tests While Tennesseans Go Without Health Care
Is school privatization really more important than keeping the most vulnerable citizens from having access to health care? What would it cost the State of Tennessee to say Yes to expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act? Nothing, except the wrath of the billionaires.The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook
Stemming STEM Will Help Everyone Except the Billionaires
I have been railing for a number of years about the corporate socialism at work in the creation of an oversupply of scientists, technocrats, and engineers. Follow the links.So here is a clip from a very thoughtful piece from the Atlantic today, which concludes that the creation of an oversupply of workers in science, tech, and engineering could, in fact, make these fields of endeavor so unattracti
MAR 18
Governor Christie Starving Public Education for a Fifth Year
Governor Chris Christie is still bullying public schools and public school teachers who do not work for his bosses in New Jersey. You know, the ones who are being paid off with favors and punished for not bowing down to him.The governor who is under investigation for closing bridges and playing games with Hurricane Sandy funds, is once again putting children and families in harms way by not adequa
When Will Ravitch Stop Enabling Weingarten's Corporate Addiction?
From PsychCentral:Enabling is a term often used in the context of a relationship with an addict. It might be a drug addict or alcoholic, a gambler, or a compulsive overeater. Enablers, rather than addicts, suffer the effects of the addict’s behavior. Enabling is “removing the natural consequences to the addict of his or her behavior.” Professionals warn against enabling because evidence has sho
MAR 17
Carol Burris Corrects More Duncan Lies from Massachusetts
Boston's CorpEd rag, the Boston Globe, quoted Arne Duncan's recent lie that 40 percent of MA high school grads attending 4 year colleges take remedial courses. Did it occur to Globe's Scot Lehigh to do a little fact-checking? Oh, I forgot, his is a column, so any lie repeated is totally fair.Correction from The Answer Sheet:. . . .What is “staggering” is the gross inaccuracy of the claim. Here a
Duncan Warns Data Predators to Whom He Gave Privileges in 2009
At the behest of the Silicon Valley billionaires and the testing giants, the Obama Administration gutted FERPA protections for children in schools soon after coming into office, so that now corporate privateers and data predators have rich feeding grounds to collect, sift, and mine student and teacher data for whatever purposes they see fit.With parents and school boards with their hair on fire ab
The common core and testing fever
Sent to the Oregonian, March 19, 2014Brett Bigham suggests that we need more standards and less testing ("Common Core Standards are not insidious: Guest opinion," March 16). The Common Core, however, is requiring an astonishing amount of standardized testing, far more than No Child Left Behind (NCLB) required. The new tests include the usual end of year tests, but in more subjects and
MAR 16
Call Your State Senator Tomorrow in Tennessee
Local TV news in Knoxville has typical coverage below of the move by the TN House last week, which voted overwhelmingly to delay implementation of Common Core testing. Note that Mike Edwards, who leads off the "fair and balanced coverage," is the President of Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, a Board of Director member of the Teneessee Business Roundtable, member of the U. S. Chamber of Hor