Sometimes you're just really ready to get to te next chapter, or just the next page. Not an uncommon feeling these days, even though it's not clear that the next chapter will be any less troublesome than this one. We'll see soon enough. In the meantime, here are some readings from the week.
From Sarah Schwartz at EdWeek. And no, she's not talking about those evil teachers who are worried that distance learning will lay bare their terrible indoctrination plans.
Remember the teachers who were shot with non-lethal but really painful and scary bullets during an active shooter drill? They've decided to take it to court.
This op-ed from the York Daily Record looks at how PA cyber schools are hoovering up all the aid, because profiting from a crisis is fun, even if it screws over public schools.
From The Lily. These girls called their school on the whole "we can't require students to wear masks but female skin will be outlawed with the full force of school rules" baloney.
Another editorial about DeVos's recent court losses, which aren't news at this point, but this piece from the Los Angeles Times editorial board is still worth a read.
Second Federal Judge Slams DeVos Plan To Send Federal Funds To Private Schools - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/08/29/second-federal-judge-slams-devos-plan-to-send-federal-funds-to-private-schools/#13860d6a6529 by @palan57 on @forbes
Judge Rejects Betsy DeVos Plan To Send Federal Funds To Private Schools - https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2020/08/22/judge-rejects-betsy-devos-plan-to-send-federal-funds-to-private-schools/#5c061eb52329 by @palan57 on @forbes
Mona Vakilifathi graduated from the4 University of California, San Diego, with a BS in political science and government back in 2009, and she's been working policy jobs ever since. Over at Brookings, she has some thoughts about Democrats, charter schools, and ed policy , and while she seems to mean well, she has missed a few spots here and there. I've read it so you don't have to. Let me get the
I'm feeling a little dumb at the moment, because a light bulb just went on that should have gone on a while ago. I was having the same conversation I've had many times. "Charters and vouchers and public schools could absolutely coexist. There's no reason it has to be a zero sum game," said someone. And I agree, sort of. There are some things that can't help being zero sum, like having enough stude
The New York Times just announced another "project" t o be embedded within the paper and funded by philanthropic types. It's not a new model; the Gates Foundation has been funding journalism "projects" for a while. This piece by Tim Schwab at the Columbia Journalism Review lays out in depressing detail just how large the Bill Gates Underwritten Journalism Industry actually is (freakin' huge). This
According to the folks at the Education Law Center , states are repeating the sins of a decade ago. Let me explain. Pity Tom Corbett. He became one of the few Pennsylvania one term governors, and he lost in no small part because he was accused of cutting education spending by a billion dollars . And he sort of did, but he was also sort of set up by the previous governor, Ed Rendell, who collected
Software that can grade an essay is the great white whale of automating education. If software could actually score an essay effectively, data-mining personalized [sic] algorithm-delivered edu-product could work with more than just multiple choice and true or false questions. I've written a plenty about why this great white whale is not going to be landed any time soon. But let me give you a speci
Trump has released his agenda for his second term , and it's special. Cut taxes. Add jobs. Eradicate Covid-19. End reliance on China. Cover pre-existing conditions. Congressional term limits. Bring violent extremist groups like ANTIFA to justice. Dismantle human trafficking. Build the world's greatest infrastructure system (so, more infrastructure week!) Stop endless wars. It's all familiar hooey,
" This New Nonprofit Is Training Better Online Teachers This Fall " gushes the EdSurge article that is barely disguised PR for yet another reformy initiative. This summer a group of education leaders, many from the world of charter schools and education reform, sought to change that by launching the nonprofit National Summer School Initiative, or NSSI for short. Its solution was both a crash cours
Teachers get back to it this week, with students returning in a week. We're holding our breaths here-- my county has a 2020 total of 69 cases and 1 death (yes, that's for the whole year so far), so local folks have not been
Following is a recap of the first State of the Union address given by Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles at the UTLA Leadership Conference in August. The theme for the conference is “We Rise Together”.
Here is what Ms. Myart-Cruz had to say:
I recognize the shoulders in which I stand on as the 3rd woman to ever lead UTLA in it’s 50 year history and its first woman of color. Here I stand as biracial Black Latina leading this organization. I pay homage to both Judy Solkovits who was elected UTLA President in 1970 and Helen Bernstein who was elected in 1990 for paving the way for me.
I laid out five priorities that we as UTLA will need to collectively come together around to really build power.
Our Union must take on racial justice, unapologetically, understanding that our schools are not free of systemic racism and fully understanding that racial justice is educational justice.
1. Make crisis distance learning work as well as possible through site organizing.
2. Any and all MOU talks of in-person school reopening must be guided by science and safety.
3. We must fight for new revenue streams to public education and pass Schools and Communities First in November
4. We must advocate for the communities we serve including bringing forward common good demands that will uplift us all.
5. We must win the school board election in November.
These five priorities will be the guiding light of our work but you, the members are the North Star. We must have strong sites, where we bring back the joy in our craft. The joy CONTINUE READING: Common Good, Community and UTLA - LA Progressive
Texas: IDEA Corporate Charter Chain Plans Massive Expansion
The IDEA charter chain hopes to double its enrollment in Texas. This is the free-spending chain that planned to lease a private jet for $2 million a year but backed off after bad publicity; that flies its e ecurives and their families in first-class; that bought premium box seats for professional basketball games; that pays its executives exorbitant salaries; that has received more that $200 million in federal funding from Betsy DeVos.
If the expansion plan goes forward, the IDEA enrollment will grow from 50,000 to nearly 100,000; its annual budget will grow from half a billion to one billion. This is larger than the budget of the University of Texas at Austin. Just in the past five years, IDEA’s budget has tripled.
One state representative called for an audit, but was careful to praise the organization that is gobbling up public dollars and sucking the life out of community public schools.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE TERRY CANALES CALLS FOR COMPREHENSIVE STATE AUDIT OF IDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
For Immediate Release August 18, 2020 Contact: Curtis Smith (512) 463-0426 office
AUSTIN, TX – In a letter addressed to Commissioner Mike Morath of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Texas First Assistant State Auditor Lisa Collier, State Representative Terry Canales calls for a comprehensive and multi-agency audit of the IDEA Public Schools (IDEA) after recent disclosures of lavish expenditures for its CONTINUE READING: Texas: IDEA Corporate Charter Chain Plans Massive Expansion | Diane Ravitch's blog
Derek Black: Betsy DeVos and the Theft of CARES Funding
In this article in the New York Daily News, constitutional lawyer Derek Black explains how Betsy DeVos used her authority as Secretary of Educatiin to send federal dollars intended for public schools to elite private schools and religious schools. Black’s new book, “School House Burning,” is an outstanding read.
He writes:
Betsy DeVos’ agenda to expand private education has floundered for three years. In 2017, public schools’ financial hole was too deep for either party in Congress to consider digging it deeper. But since March of this year, amidst a pandemic that has killed more than 170,000 Americans, cratered the economy and underlined the importance of public education, the U.S. secretary of education has made more headway than in the last three years combined.
Naively, Congress assumed that DeVos would put coronavirus response ahead of her ideological agenda. They were wrong, and now she is on the verge of turning the education policy world upside down.
For this month, I found enough cartoons that tickled me (or at least got me to smile) at a time when I need being tickled, given the pandemic. I selected cartoons that deal with re-opening schools and the anxieties they arouse among parents, teachers, and students. Enjoy!
Mona Vakilifathi graduated from the4 University of California, San Diego, with a BS in political science and government back in 2009, and she's been working policy jobs ever since. Over at Brookings, she has some thoughts about Democrats, charter schools, and ed policy, and while she seems to mean well, she has missed a few spots here and there. I've read it so you don't have to.
