Elizabeth Warren Clarifies The Charter Schools Debate
September 29, 2016, 2016 Subscribe
THIS WEEK: Structural Racism In Pre-K … No To School Cops … Kaepernick Effect … Important Governors Races … School Board Elections
TOP STORY
Elizabeth Warren Clarifies The Charter Schools Debate
By Jeff Bryant
“This week, Massachusetts news outlets reported the state’s most prominent politician, and one of the nation’s most important progressive leaders, Senator Elizabeth Warren threw the supposedly progressive framing of charter schools into doubt when she announced officially her opposition to a ballot initiative in November to expand the number of charters in the Bay State … Warren has good cause to be concerned about expanding charter schools in her state.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS
Yes, Preschool Teachers Really Do Treat Black And White Children Totally Differently
The Huffington Post
“New research … shows that preschool teachers respond to their black and white students differently. Implicit biases – or unconscious stereotypes – might be at the root of these differences … The first half of the study used eye-tracking equipment to determine where teachers look when they are expecting student misconduct … Teachers tended to focus their eyes on black students … In the second half of the study, the educators read vignettes about a child’s misbehavior … White teachers tended to rate the behavior of the “black” children more mildly than black teachers, who tended to rate the misbehavior of black children more harshly.”
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Coalition Calls For End Of Police Presence In Schools
The Center For Public Integrity
“A coalition of family and civil-rights groups launched a national campaign … to ‘end the regular presence’ of police, armed security and truancy officers posted inside schools … Harsh disciplinary actions of police assigned to schools … have become increasingly controversial in recent years, creating worries that criminalization of minor indiscretions has created a counter-productive ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ … Federal officials have expressed concerns as well, but have stopped short of calling for removal of cops entirely … Arrests, ticketing, and rough physical contact fall most heavily on student with disabilities and students of color.”
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Patriotism And Protest Under Friday Night Lights
The Atlantic
“Across the country, students are sitting, kneeling, and dissenting from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and standing for the national anthem. Many of these acts coincide with [Colin] Kaepernick’s refusal to stand and show pride for what he described as ‘a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color’… It’s almost universally understood by school officials that they have to allow students to excuse themselves from these exercises … Still, the tension remains between knowing the law and obeying it.”
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Fresh Policy Leverage Waits As Governors’ Contests Heat Up
Education Week
“12 states will pick governors Nov. 8, and two-thirds of them will be new faces regardless of the partisan outcome … 6 governorships are held by Democrats, five by Republicans, and one (West Virginia) by an independent. That fluid situation and the Every Student Succeeds Act’s new grant of policy flexibility to the states may clear the way for a more activist stance on education policy by the nation’s governors … School funding, finance formulas, and accountability have dominated the debates.
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School Board Elections: Someone’s Paying Attention But It’s Not Us
The Second Line Education Blog
“According to Ballotpedia, ‘643 of America’s largest school districts by enrollment are holding elections for 2,041 seats. These elections will take place in 38 states. These districts collectively educated a total of 16,965,635 students during the 2013-2014 school year – 34% of all K-12 students in the United States’ … Big money, influence and government are paying attention. Parents are not … Outside donors have set up shop and are not looking to go anywhere anytime soon. The education of our children is seen as a lucrative commodity.”
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