Tom Ultican loved Katherine Stewart’s new book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism , and he thinks you will too. I have the book but, due to my travels, have not had a chance to read it yet. So I’m grateful for his review. He begins: Katherine Stewart’s The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism is a brilliant piece of investig
Teresa Hanafin writes Fast Forward for the Boston Globe. She writes: Trump has canceled his planned trip to the CDC today, and I figured it was because the researchers there didn’t want him spreading his misinformation and pseudo-facts about the coronavirus while standing in a place that’s supposed to be all about science. Turns out somebody there fell ill. White House aides worried it could be t
Clark Durant, a former member of Congress, started a network of private religious schools called Cornerstone in 1991. In 2009, he changed them to charter schools so they could get government funding. His chain of five schools needed more money because philanthropic donations had dried up. What was not brought up at that moment: Durant’s relationship to property he was detailing, the one he was pr
Education Week examined the extent of state oversight of publicly funded religious schools and found that it was minimal. Betsy DeVos’s goal of public funding for religious school tuition is gaining traction. However, there is one glaring error in the article: it cites positive poll data from Education Next , which strongly supports vouchers, yet fails to mention that voters have repeatedly rejec
The charter industry has lots of problems with stability. The charters open and suddenly close. Scandals and corruption are commonplace so much so that Carol Burris says there is a “crisis of corruption in the charter industry.” Theft and fraud are predictable when non-educators, entrepreneurs and grifters get public money and can open or close their school without any accountability or oversight
I will be speaking at New York University on March 25 at 12:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The title: The Perils of School Choice and Standardized Testing The place: Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, Rosenthal Pavillion, 10th floor. Parking is not easy in the area, but subways lines converge there. This will be my only public lecture in New York City so I hope to say h
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post chalks it up to sexism, although it’s possible that there was not enough space for two progressives in the race. I met Senator Warren about five years ago and we spent half an hour talking. She listened, which is rare. I thought she was the smartest elected official I had ever met. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/05/warrens-wrenching-downfall-sa
Back in 2000, when George W. Bush was running for President, he tales up the (nonexistent) Texas Miracle and said there was a simple answer to solving the problems of Educatuon, raising test scores and graduation rates, and closing achievement gaps. Easy-Peasy. Test every child every years from grades 3-8. Publish the scores. Reward schools that raise scores. Humiliate those that don’t. The secre
Educator Jen Mangrum won the Democratic primary for State Superintendent of Education. She had the support of the state’s biggest teacher associations, and she won the endorsement of the Network for Public Education Action. Jen is a native of North Carolina whose parents were public school teachers. After graduating college, she taught second and third graders and specialized in early childhood e
Keith E. Benson is president of the Camden (New Jersey) Education Association. In his view, the underlying goal of the charter industry is gentrification , and he worries about its long-term implications for his community and its families. He writes: Admittedly [my] fight for Camden’s public schools is personal. Both my grandmothers were teachers, numerous aunts, and two of my uncles were employe
In the past few months, there have been a number of articles about “the science of reading,” all touting the importance of phonics. I don’t know that there is a “science of mathematics” or a “science of history,” or a science of teaching any other subject. Although I have a long record in support of teaching phonics, I have long recognized that many children read without the help of phonics, many
Voters favored candidates endorsed by the United Teachers of Los Angeles for all four contested seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District board. Two of the UTLA candidates, both incumbents–Jackie Goldberg and George McKenna–won outright with a majority. Two are leading their races but heading for a run-off. To read the latest results, go to this website and scroll to the bottom for school
As every reader of this blog knows, Mercedes Schneider is a relentless, dogged, and accurate researcher. She has the skills to dig through IRS reports and other online data that connect the dots and reveal how big money and Dark Money are controlling organizations and elections, thus endangering our democracy. In addition to teaching high school English in Louisiana, she has a doctorate in resear
Thomas Ultican is a retired teacher of physics and advanced mathematics who has developed a passionate interest in the inner workings of the Privatization and Disruption Movement (also known as the Destroy Public Education Movement). This is his account of the new and very well-funded plaything of the Billionaire Boys (and Girls) Club: the City Fund. It sees itself as part of a movement, but it i
A relatively new corporate reform group—the City Fund— acts as a pass-through for billionaires Reed Hastings (Netflix) and John Arnold (ex-Enron). The staff consists of six or seven (or more) veterans of the privatization movement. It opened its operations with $200 million in pledges from its billionaire funders. It has staff but no members. Its mission is to push the “portfolio district” (i.e.,
John Thompson is a historian and a retired teacher in Oklahoma. This article appeared originally in the Oklahoma Observer. How the Billionaire Boys Club Ravaged America’s Public Schools SLAYING GOLIATH The Passionate Resistance To Privatization And The Right to Save America’s Public Schools Diane Ravitch started writing Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to
How much has changed in only one week! A week ago, Biden was counted out and had almost run out of money. Then came South Carolina, and African American voters picked Biden and turned him into a top contender. Endorsements by Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Beto quickly buoyed Biden’s campaign. Michael Bloomberg, the only open supporter of charter schools, was routed, despite spending more than all the
Some of the nation’s leading civil rights legal teams are supporting parents in Memphis and Metro Nashville who have sued to block the enactment of a voucher bill that applies only to their cash-strapped districts. The bill passed by one vote, after that legislator was promised that his own district would not get vouchers. CONTACTS: Ashley Levett, SPLC, ashley.levett@splcenter.org / 334-296-0084
The usual charter-friendly billionaires a re pouring money into the Los Angeles school board race in hopes of breaking its pro-public education majority and restoring control to the pro-charter faction. The usual suspects are trying to buy the board. With majority control of Los Angeles Unified’s school board hanging in the balance, it has surprised no one that a flood of outside privatization mo
Sarah Lahm writes here that teachers in St. Paul, Minnesota, are on the verge of striking to secure better funding for the public schools and their students. In the early morning of February 26, a chill hung in the air as a line of teachers and school support staffers clad in bright red union hats, jackets or some combination thereof stood on a busy street corner outside of Highland Park Middle S
A few days ago, the House Subcommittee that controls federal education appropriations invited Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to testify about her budget proposals, which seek to eliminate 29 federal programs and turn their funding over to the state as a block grant. At the same time, she wants to slash the Department’s funding. And…of course, she wants $5 billion for vouchers for private and
Thomas Good sent me this research paper about teacher evaluation that he wrote with Alyson Lavigne. Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association is proud to announce their second policy brief, “Addressing Teacher Evaluation Appropriately.” This brief, focused on teacher evaluation practices and policies in schools was written by Alyson Lavigne and Thomas Good. A
As most of the readers of this blog know, I don’t endorse candidates in Democratic primaries. Here is where I stand. I read a comment a few weeks ago on Twitter where someone wrote that he would vote for a toothbrush over Trump. I agree. I am a member of the Toothbrush Party. I would vote for my beautiful, loving, compassionate mutt Mitzi over Trump. I think he is a danger to our society and to t
I thought Trump would attack Biden by calling him corrupt (Ukraine) but look at what Mr. malaprop is saying, via Politico: #BEBEST … NYT’S MAGGIE HABERMAN in Charlotte and PETER BAKER: “Trump Targets Biden Again as Democratic Race Hits Critical Stage”: “He gleefully repeated recent misstatements by Mr. Biden, including his confusion over names and states, his statement that he was a candidate for
MEDIA ADVISORY March 2, 2020 Contact: Anna Bakalis, 213-305-9654 Los Angeles — The stakes are high in the LAUSD School board race to elect Patricia Castellanos in District 7, Scott Schmerelson in District 3, Jackie Goldberg in District 5 and George McKenna in District 1. As of Monday morning, the California Charter Schools Association PAC and billionaires like Bill Bloomfield, who sits on the CCS
John Thompson, historian and retired teachers, sees signs of disaster in the policies adopted by Oklahoma’s two biggest cities: Tulsaand Oklahoma City. “reform” (aka Disruption) means closing schools. This is a good time to remind readers that SLAYING GOLIATH, to whic he refers, does not say that Go,oath is dead.it says that Goliath (federal policy, billionaires, Wall Street and other agents of d
Last week, I had a whirlwind visit to Chicago to talk about my new book. Fortunately before my flight to Charleston, West Virginia, I had time in the morning to visit Karen Lewis at an assisted living facility where the care is excellent. Karen is a brilliant charismatic woman who taught science in the Chicago public schools for more than 20 years. In 2010, Karen led a faction of the Chicago Teac
I don’t know why, but I find it fascinating to read about entrepreneurial ventures in education that launch with dazzling publicity, then quietly disappear. For some reason, entrepreneurs with no education experience think it should be easy to revolutionize schooling. Bill Gates has been reinventing American education for about 20 years. Laurene Powell Jobs started the Emerson Collective and the
One of the themes of my new book SLAYING GOLIATH is that billionaires are disrupting education by buying control of school districts and states. That, in conjunction with the federal government’s mean-spirited and useless mandate for annual standardized testing (no high-performing nation tests every child every year in grades 3-8), has posed a mortal threat to public schools. TIME magazine publis
Sara Roos writes in the new L.A. Education Examiner that more charter millions are flowing into the school board race. The biggest spender is billionaire Bill Bloomfield, who has thus far spent nearly $4 million to defeat pro-publics school incumbents. He says he is “against special interests,” but fails to recognize or admit that he alone is putting his thumb on the scale to support a pro-charte
Last year,Tennessee passed a voucher bill targeting only two urban districts, despite the fact that their legislators opposed it. The controversial bill passed by one vote, and the vote was delayed for last-minute arm twisting. Parents from the affected districts are holding a press briefing tomorrow along with civil tights groups opposed to diversion of public funds to private schools. MEDIA ADV
Mike Bloomberg knows there are many ways to buy an election. Such as flooding airwaves with campaign commercials. Then there is hiring the vice-chair of the state Democratic Parties in Texas and California. In addition to their influence in the party, they just happen to be superdelegates who will get to cast a vote if no candidate wins a majority of votes on the first round. Have any other candi
Mike Rose is a thinker, writer, and scholar whose works I greatly admire. He has the capacity to identify with the lives of those he writes about and to understand their point of view. He tends to align himself with those who live on the margins, not the rich and powerful who enjoy the exercise of power over others, the others who who did not choose to be the subjects of the powerful. I was there
Only days ago, the American Federation of Teachers encouraged its members to support one of the following three candidates: Joe Biden, Bernard Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren. Today, Randi announced her support for Warren. Some locals, such as UTLA, have already endorsed Sanders. The AFT endorsement will be one of the three already named. This is Randi’s personal statement: Why I’m Supporting Elizab
Donald Trump is in charge of the nation’s response to the coronavirus, which may or may not become a global pandemic. He oversees the Centers for Disease Control, whose spokesperson warned that it was no longer a question of if but when the virus would affect the U.S. Trump sought to reassure the public by putting VP Pence in charge of coordinating federal agencies that are involved, despite the
During the last Democratic debate, billionaire MIchael Bloomberg boasted about his education record as mayor of New York City. None of the other candidates knew enough about the details—or the other side of the story—to challenge him. Jan Resseger tells the other side of the story here. If you love Republican policies of high-stakes testing, school choice, and accountability (i.e., punishing stud
While in Chicago, I was interviewed about SLAYING GOLIATH by Justin Kaufman of WGN Radio, who is one of the best interviewers I have met. We had enough time to go into depth and he asked smart questions. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch: “What you are basically measuring with standardized tests is family income and family education”
Say this for Eric Hanushek: He never gives up on his obsession with paying teachers more if their students get higher test scores. Arne Duncan built this concept into the requirements of his disastrous Race to the Top” program, which caused almost every state to adopt a teacher evaluation plan in which student test scores played a significant role. Harvard economist Raj Chetty wtote a highly-publ
Randi Weingarten will be in Providence on Saturday to discuss the role of teachers in the state takeover engineered by neoliberal Governor Gina Raimondo. The governor is openly hostile to teachers and unions and a major
