Please indulge me. I usually read the New York Times every day, and yesterday I could not resist juxtaposing two interesting and weird stories. This one is a Ripley “Believe It or Not” story about a woman born to a royal family in Burma
Six teens from Burundi competed recently in the international robotics contest in Washington, D.C. None had ever built a robot before but they learned to do it online and Skyping. They did well, coming in 73rd of 160 teams. When the three-day tournament was over, the entire team disappeared. Two are safel
Watch this 2-minute clip, in which New York City parents and activists explain why class size in the public schools is far too large and how this hurts children and reduces educational opportunity. After a legal challenge, a judge ten years
This very important post was written for this blog by Jim Scheurich on behalf of himself, Gayle Cosby, and Nathanial Williams, who are identified in the text. They are experienced in the school politics of Indianapolis, a city whose school
Jeff Bryant is doing an article about the St. Louis public schools. As he has delved into the issues, he learned how the state of Missouri has underfunded the schools for years. And he learned something more. The city is gentrifying. It wants young childless couples. Parents of school age children are a burden to the budget. “As a local St. Louis reporter tells it, during a public meeting about a
In some states, like Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, charter operators get what they want by making campaign contributions to state legislators and the governor. Florida is different. The charter operators and members of their families are members of the legislature. They shamelessly engage in self-dealing. You may well wonder: How can this be legal? I don’t know. This article in the Miami Hera
Valerie Strauss summarizes here the mess created in Florida by former Governor Jeb Bush’s harsh accountability policies and the legislation passed recently to enrich the charter industry at the expense of public schools across the state. She begins: “The K-12 education system in Florida — the one that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos likes to praise as a model for the nation — is in chaos. “Tradit
Mike Klonsky writes tonight about the Twitter war between AFT and Betsy DeVos. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/07/devos-in-twitter-war-with-aft.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1 Betsy has the nutty idea that a public education system somehow is bad for individual children. She favors individual children. Right, so do we all. But for
James Warren wonders why Betsy DeVos is steering clear of the media . Typically, the Secretary of Education speaks to the annual meeting of the Education Writers Association. But she declined. She had something better to do, something more important than meeting with education writers. “Instead, she surfaced at a session of National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. “A long way from ho
We have seen how privately managed charter schools are exempt from transparency and accountability, thanks to the big bucks that pave their way. But Utah is considering a new low for preferential treatment of charters. Utah legislators are discussing whether charters should have the power of eminent domain, to seize private properties for their own use. Two conservative principles are at odds on
The Phoenix New Times has an long, in-depth article about one of the state’s nearly 600 charter schools. It is possibly the weirdest and proud of it. Nepotism abounds because it is not against the law for charters (only for public schools). The founder of the school has a free hand to do whatever he wants. State laws don’t matter much at Metro Arts Institute. It begins: “The photograph is hard to
Politico posted Trump’s tweets. Here you see what he is fixated on. The big obsession is Hillary. I think she keeps a very low profile because at any moment, he could direct the Justice Department to open an investigation of her emails (again) and “lock her up.” The only way to stand up to this guy is if you have nothing to lose. “WHAT’S ON THE PRESIDENT’S MIND — at 6:33 a.m.: “A new INTELLIGENCE
Astana Bigard, parent activist in New Orleans, reports that poor children are regularly suspended and expelled from charter schools because they can’t afford to pay for a uniform. “When a New Orleans charter school made headlines
