When I visited you two years ago After an absence of at least fifteen years I noticed the slip You forgot what you did only moments before More than once And you were not aware that you forgot. It was a mild shock for me. You remember the far away events Better than the recent. I knew, but I did not want to know. Still, I adjust. I repeat myself as often as you need, Without any hint that I alrea
On December 24, 2018, the Associated Press (AP) published this article about the billionaire Walton family’s attempts to purchase “like minded” persons of color in order to advance charter schools in America. From the AP article: Amid fierce debate over whether charter schools are good for black students, the heirs to the Walmart company fortune have been working to make inroads with advocates an
It’s Christmas. This morning, I had several pieces of Whitman’s chocolate for breakfast–a childhood dream (smile). And like an adult who understands digestive action and consequence, I followed that chocolate dining wonder with a bowl of bran cereal, for I know the time will come to, ahem, “pay the piper,” so to speak. Christmas is a slow morning for me, providing a relaxation that I savor. This
I have not read journalist Jordan Flaherty’s book, No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality , but an October 2017 review of the book surely resonates with my experiences regarding the overwhelmingly wealthy, white steamroller of market-based ed reform with destructive message, “We are white; we have money, and we’re in charge For Your Own Good.” Below are excerpts from Aura B
Gentrification is the process of displacing the original, usually lower-class, residents in an urban area with more affluent residents. It is a controversial means of “improving” the socioeconomics of a city by driving out the previous residents because many original residents can no longer afford to live in the area. The new, affluent residents are often the ones who enjoy the benefits of gentri
After learning that their teacher has been diagnosed with cancer, an assembly of her students sings a song of comfort to her. From Twitter, on December 18, 2018: My heart They sing to their teacher after they find out she has cancer Retweet pic.twitter.com/cLdcrS1dBt — StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) December 18, 2018 It turns out that the video above of the students’ beautiful tribute was filmed in
In May 2018, Anna Wulick of ACT’s PrepScholar blog posted this informative entry for high school graduates who wish to attend four-year college but who have less-than-impressive GPAs. For those high school grads whose GPAs are really low (like, “I walked the D-average line class after class, year after year”), the piece includes three institutions that base acceptance on criteria other than GPA:
It seems so. On December 14, 2018, Kentucky’s Courier Journal reported that the Kentucky GOP has filed numerous public records requests for teacher emails, and it seems that these requests are little more than an attempt to intimidate Democratic teachers from running for office. In November 2018, an astounding 51 Kentucky teachers ran for election for the Kentucky House and Senate, with 36 runnin
It seems that Orleans Parish Schools superintendent Henderson Lewis has his hands full in dealing with New Orleans charter schools that find themselves in fiscal trouble. As the November 13, 2018, New Orleans Lens reports , Lewis has decided to close three charter schools “in the past six months,” and he threatened to close two others “last year”: Orleans Parish schools Superintendent Henderson L
In April 2018, the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) announced that it formed two new nonprofits for the purpose of loaning money to charter schools “to make it easier and more affordable for public charter schools to find, secure and renovate facilities.” Siblings Robson, Alice, and Jim Walton One particular point about the above press release caught my attention. But first, a splash of Walton ed r
The history of school vouchers in American K12 education is rooted in racism. This fact is indisputable. Economist Milton Friedman, known as “the father of school choice,” is the name most commonly connected to the use of vouchers in K12 education. His 1955 paper, “The Role of Government in Education,” is the text often cited as central to Friedman’s views on school choice in the form of vouchers
I teach in southern Louisiana, and our school’s lunch policy does not include fronting meals to students who do not qualify for free lunch. (Over the years, I have on numerous occasions either loaned or given students lunch money or directly provided them with food. However, in all cases, this was my personal decision.) So, the idea of a policy that allows for students (parents?) to accrue lunch
Corporate tax breaks divert public support for a state’s infrastructure into the corporate coffers. It is a way to give away tax money without ever collecting it. One of the lines of defense for the corporate tax break is that the tax break does not constitute giving away tax money since the money was never collected. Nice try. However, the diverting of tax money into corporate tax breaks results
Charter school teachers are not supposed to strike. They are supposed to be at-will employees, able to be fired at the will of their employer, without due process. Such is the dream of market-based ed reform: Power concentrated at the top, with the average worker discouraged (prevented?) from any collective negotiations. However, those on the losing end of market ed reform’s doormatism become tir
UPDATE 12-05-18: Fundraising goal has been reached! As of this writing, the campaign has $1405 in donations ($1355 after GoFundMe fees). Many thanks to all who have contributed! _____________________________________________________________________________________ I was surprised to find one of our school’s regular substitutes crying in the teachers’ lounge. I asked what had happened, and she expl
If you read about a school with a 100-percent college acceptance rate for its grads, keep in mind that one of the surest ways to achieve such astounding results is to lie– to whip up fictitious student success stories that include a horrid home life and a string of glowing achievements that shows that these students Beat the Odds. Such is apparently the tack of the husband and wife leadership at
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Want to read about the history of charter schools and vouchers?
