CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: PA Fake Summer Edition (10/11)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: PA Fake Summer Edition (10/11)

PA Fake Summer Edition 

Every Fall, in Western PA, we get a week or so of fake summer. This year it's particularly nice to get another pass at playing outside  in shorts and sweatshirt weather. The board of directors has suddenly taken an interest in gardening, and the timing is perfect since there's hardly anything going on that they could kill. 

Meanwhile, there's some stuff for you to read. Remember, sharing these readings helps amplify the message. Help out.

Bill Gates Quest for the Mythical Magic Bullet   
Ed in the Apple takes a look at the newest attempt by Gates to remake education; this time it's going to be Algebra I for everybody!

What does it mean when hardly anybody stands up for the basic needs of children and public schools.
Jan Resseger talks about how much it sucks that public education continues to be an orphan in these miserable times

Virtual Instruction: 5 pros and 5 cons  
Steven Singer takes a look at the pluses and minuses of trying to educate via computer connection

The Freedom to be That Change
Teacher Tom talks about the challenge of raising children to be moral, ethical beings.

NC can leave the dark ages on education    
Justen Parmenter offers an op-ed in the Charlotte Observer laying out in fairly short, stark terms, how leaders in North Carolina have lost the educational plot.

Governor accused of improperly using Covid relief money to fund vouchers  
Meanwhile, in South Carolina the governor decided he woud just go ahead and implement the DeVosian voucher plan on his own. From EdWeek.

Everybody needs to work less   
At Slate, Dan Kois notes that pandemic distance learning is stretching everybody, and the crazy radical has a solution to offer that doesn't involve dumping the problem on teachers or parents.

The lost year fallacy  
Nancy Flanagan takes a look back through history to see if it's legit to write off 20-21.

The corruption of charter schools in Alaska   
The Anchorage Daily News looks at how the  charter industry in Alaska is a money-grubbing mess

How online learning companies are using the pandemic to take over the classroom
Jef Bryant takes a look at the corporate opportunism going on right now.

Greatschools wanted to disrupt school ratings. Did they make segregation worse?  
Well, yeah, probably. And the hidden culprit is, once again, high stakes testing. A thorough look from Mother Jones.

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: PA Fake Summer Edition (10/11)

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

AND DON'T FORGET PETER GREENE ON FORBES CLICK HERE 

Know Your Price And The Assets Of Education - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/10/09/know-your-price-and-the-assets-of-education/#6564c7716f06 by @palan57 on @forbes

Pennsylvania Poised To Turn CARES Money Into School Vouchers - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/09/30/pennsylvania-poised-to-turn-cares-money-into-school-vouchers/#5994d5c16910 by @palan57 on @forbes

Dear Secretary DeVos: Either Help Or Hush

500+by Peter Greene / 21h

Dear Secretary Devos: Teachers in the US are facing unprecedented challenges this fall, trying to make the best out of whatever bad solution their local districts have chosen. It's a tough time, the kind of time in which we look for help and leadership from folks at the top. You have not been helpful. Last Wednesday, you took a conference call with the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles , a collection of yo

Democracy Is Not The Point

36by Peter Greene / 3d

Twitter is often a fine place to catch people saying the quiet parts out loud. For instance, this tweet from this morning: Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that. — Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) October 8, 2020 Mike Lee is a Senator from Utah who tilts all the way over into Libertarian rightness. He loves

Has Miami-Dade Really Found The Secret Of Cheap Excellence?

27by Peter Greene / 3d

From school choice to school finance, Florida is the state education disruptors love to point at, though they tend to point verrrrry carefully at very specific features of the Floridian education landscape. For instance, here's Michael Q. McShane at Education Next running a piece about how Miami-Dade schools have "bucked the staffing surge tren d" while still maintaining "student achievement." Hi

CAP: It's the School System's Fault

31by Peter Greene / 4d

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is nominally a left-tilted thinky tank, but they have always been solidly on the side of reformsterism , backing charter schools and relentlessly stumping for the Common Core. They're also fans of the narrow reformster view of education as a mill for churning out meat widgets, and here they are at it again in a post from mid-September (you know, about ten yea

ICYMI: Another Week That Lasted Ten Years Edition (10/4)

55by Peter Greene / 7d

Holy crap. Let's take a moment to wax nostalgic about last weekend, those happy times when a story like the First Lady talking about how we should [expletive] Christmas would have gotten at least fifteen minutes of attention instead of being completely wiped out by a raging news cycle. Those happy times when the national news seen was merely a dumpster fire and not a dumpster fire dragged across a

DeVos Awards Another $131 Mill From Failed Federal Charter Fund

100+by Peter Greene / 7d

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Friday that the department will pump yet another $131 million into the charter school industry (you may have missed the news; a few other things have happened in the last 48 hours). The grants go to 19 different organizations, primarily charter school "developers." Amounts range from a tiny $299,988 to Acadia Academy in Maine up to $18 mill to Florida's

Covid Slide Panic Is Still Baloney

45by Peter Greene / 8d

Back in April, NWEA (the MAP test folks) issued a "report" about what we've taken to calling the Covid Slide , which is sadly not a cool new line dance, but is instead an important tool for people in education-flavored businesses who want to try to panic school districts and bureaucrats. Now Stanford 

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