Portfolio School Reform: What Does It Mean in Chicago? Newark? New York City?
Contriversy about charter schools has heated up this spring in New York City, over whether charter schools should be co-located into buildings shared by traditional public schools and whether charter schools ought to be charged rent; in Newark, over Governor Chris Christie and state appointed caretaker superintendent Cami Anderson’s One Newark Plan that would close traditional schools and fire tea
YESTERDAY
The Koch Brothers Are Part of What’s the Matter with Kansas
Since when does school funding legislation have to come with a quid pro quo legislative tidbit for the Koch Brothers? Here is some background for what happened in Kansas last weekend. The legislature had been warned by the state’s supreme court that the state’s school funding had slipped far from parity. The Court gave the legislature until July 1 to allocate more state money to the poorest scho
Columnist Susie Kaeser Imagines Educational Nightmare
This column by Cleveland Heights, Ohio public education activist Susie Kaeser flips our point of view about what has come to be called “corporate school reform.” Imagine — “When it comes to academic success, all children are immune to such factors as their parents’ situation, access to food and health care, vision or hearing issues, early childhood education or enrichment experiences, stress, expe
It’s a Myth That Charter Schools Take Everybody
On March 30, Paul Krugman (the Princeton economist and NY Times opinion writer) wrote a column that introduced the concept of a zombie idea — “an idea that should have been killed by evidence, but refuses to die.” There are a lot of these mythical, zombie ideas in the world of so-called education “reform,” with one of the most persistent being that charter schools do a better job of educating the
Governor Cuomo Orchestrated Charter School Deal at Behest of Campaign Supporters
In New York last month there appeared to be a welling up of concern by parents because the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, had threatened to change course. He planned to turn away from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s overwhelming support for the charter schools that serve 6 percent of the city’s children and move support to the traditional public schools serving 94 percent of the children along with adding
Scandal of Ohio Charter School Governance Finally Gets Some Attention
Nearly a billion dollars flowing out of the state’s public education budget every year. Scandals brought to light years after a charter school closes, money not recoverable because it’s been so long, no news coverage in time to make a difference. Blog postings here and there about outrageous profits for Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow czar, William Lager. Charter czars and management companies
Zombie Ideas and Conventional Wisdom: Why NYC’s School “Reform” Matters to the Rest of Us
Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist and NY Times columnist, wrote a column earlier this week about myths in economics. He calls them “zombie ideas.” Here is how Krugman defines a zombie idea: “one of those things that everyone important knows must be true, because everyone they know says it’s true.” Back in 1958 in a famous book, The Affluent Society, another economist John Kennet
Akron Beacon Journal Launches Investigation of Ohio’s Charter Schools
On Sunday, a long article appeared in the print edition of Cleveland Plain Dealer, the launch of an investigation of Ohio’s 393 charter schools. The reporters phoned or faxed each of the state’s charter schools to begin to create a data base. Reporters asked: Who runs the building? Who is that person’s supervisor? Is there a management company and what company is it? Who serves on the school’s s
Ravitch on Charters: NY Review of Books and Bill Moyers Interview
According to the NY Times, a deal has been cut in a New York state budget bill that will stop New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio from charging rent to charter schools and also prevent his halting the practice of co-location (putting charter schools in buildings that already house a traditional public school). The budget agreement will preserve these policies of Mayor Bloomberg that Mayor de Blasi
In New Jersey, Abbott School Districts Model Unified, Enriched Pre-Kindergarten
This morning the NY Times reports new analysis from economist James Heckman showing that the North Carolina Abecedarian Project, a study developed in the 1970s to mitigate hardship in early childhood, had long term health benefits added to its intellectual benefits for the impoverished children who received fully enriched services. There is much talk these days of the need for public programs to
Jeff Bryant and Amy Stuart Wells Show How Test-and-Punish Contributes to School Segregation
In an important and insightful piece yesterday for the Education Opportunity Network, How ‘Education Reform’ Perpetuates Racial Disparity, Jeff Bryant examines a new report (released late last week by the U.S. Department of Education) about racial disparities in public schools. Bryant writes: “America was shocked, shocked, by new data from the U.S. Department of Education last week showing that a