Delve into the mind of Betsy DeVos. She is the first Secretary of Education ever to address the American Legislative Exchange Council, the secretive far-right organization funded by the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and major corporations, with the intent of getting rid of unions, standards for teachers, environmental regulations, and anything that gets in the way of corporations. Here is the
Jeannie Kaplan, who served on the Denver school board for two terms, has been a sharp critic of the district’s devotion to charters and high-stakes testing. She has documented time and again that ten years of “reform” has produced nothing
NPR wrote about the protest awaiting Betsy DeVos in Denver. Apparently she is speaking today, although that fact is on neither the ALEC agenda nor the Department of Education website. She is the first Secretary of Education to
Other news outlets focused on Trump’s regret about appointing Jeff Sessions. Or his slap at Rod Rosenstein, Comey and others. But this is what Moyers’ website loved: “If you’ve been away from the news for the past 18 hours or so, the New York Times interview in which Trump rages against Jeff Sessions, Jim Comey, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and maybe the White House
Arthur Goldstein teaches English language learners at Frabis Lewis High School in New York City. In this post, he refutes attacks on teachers by Campbell Brown and the Wall Street Journal. New York City has something called the Absent
The great puzzle in Kansas is how the State got such a thoughtful Supreme Court, one that actually cares about education. Kansas is in a deep budget hole because Governor Sam Brownback cut taxes repeatedly, in the belief that low
Indiana finally got a research study of its voucher program, and the results were lackluster at best. The study showed that students who used vouchers saw their scores go down; after a few years, those who persisted caught up with their
Florida parents and educators opposed HB 7069, a bill which hurts public schools and enriches charter schools (private contractor schools), but the legislature didn’t listen. (Key legislators have financial ties to the charter industry.) They urged Governor Rick Scott to veto it but he didn’t listen. Now school boards, led by the one in Broward County, are suing to block the law and have it decla
The Afghan girls’ robotics team had difficulties entering the United State (ya know, they might be terrorists) but when they finally arrived at the international competition in Washington , they stole the show. Their robot was named “Better Idea of Afghan Girls.” ““I am so happy and so tired,” Alireza Mehraban, an Afghan software engineer who is the team’s mentor, said after the competition concl
Gary Sasso, dean of education at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, asks a simple question : if billionaires like Bill Gates and Eli Broad care about our nation’s future, why don’t they help the public schools, which enroll 85% of America’s children? Sasso wrote in Salon: “Obscured by the rancor of the school reform debate is this fact: Socio-economic status is the most relevant determinant of st
S. Allen Counter led an eventful life. He was a pathbreaking neurologist at Harvard Medical School. His life’s passion, however, was to bring deserved recognition to the life and achievements of Matthew Henson, the explorer who traveled with Admiral Robert Peary to the North Pole. “S. Allen Counter, a Harvard neurobiologist and explorer who reclaimed the reputation of Matthew A. Henson, a black e
Nicholas Kristof wrote an article defending Bridge International Academies’ for-profit schools in Africa. I disagreed with him here. He responded on Twitter by saying, if you want to judge, go visit a government school. His article asserted that when government doesn’t do its job, private enterprise should step in. A reader calling him/herself “NYC Public School Parent” distilled Kristof’s argume
Steven Singer says that anyone in search of understanding education today should turn to teacher-written blogs, not the corporate media. The teachers know what they are talking about. The corporate media, with a few exceptions, recycles the talking points of their corporate owners. He begins by explaining that everyone has a perspective, even though they seem to be objective: “Let’s get one thing
Stuart Egan teaches high school in North Carolina. His son Malcolm was born with Down Syndrome. He is in third grade in public school and is thriving. Stuart helped Malcolm compose this letter to Secretary Betsy DeVos. Malcolm wonders if she cares about kids like him. The letter starts like this: “Dear Secretary DeVos, “My name is Malcolm and I just finished third-grade in the Winston-Salem/Forsy
It’s no secret that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo would like to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president. But first he must be re-elected in New York in 2018. He has already stockpiled more than $25 million, which will intimidate potential challengers. The 1% are on board with Cuomo. Read about his fundraising cocktail party in the Hamptons at a home that cost $147 million. Among his biggest
Jim Hightower pulls no punches as he eviscerates the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos, and other plutocrats who want to privatize public education. He writes in Salon: “While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democra
Education Week reports that Betsy DeVos and ALEC are natural partners. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos—an ardent school choice supporter who has turned out to be among the Trump administration’s most polarizing cabinet picks—will deliver a speech this week to members of a controversial organization that some argue is her best shot at advancing an aggressive school choice agenda. The Ameri
Go to SOS Arizona to learn how to volunteer to gather signatures to stop vouchers. http://sosarizona.org/volunteer Join the campaign here: http://sosarizona.org/pages/110 SOS Arizona has a Facebook page:
