Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? A site to discuss better education for all #REDFORED #tbats #COVID-19 #REOPENSCHOOLSSAFELY #edsec

 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all


DID YOU MISS DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG TODAY? 

A site to discuss better education for all


Big Education Ape: KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2021/01/keep-up-catch-up-with-diane-ravitchs.html


John Thompson: Who is Cleta Mitchell, Trump’s Latest Election Lawyer?
John Thompson, retired teacher in Oklahoma, knows who Cleta Mitchell is. Her career began in Oklahoma. Cleta Mitchell sat alongside Trump and Mark Meadows as they made the now famous phone call to Georgia election officials to try to persuade or bully them into “finding” enough votes to reverse the election results in that state. Georgia law enforcement officials are now considering filing crimin
Julian Vasquez Heilig Refutes Jonathan Chait on Charters, With Facts
Jonathan Chait loves charters but he does not know the extensive research that refutes his ardor. New York magazine publishes his misinformed opinions without fact-checking. Julian Vasquez Heilig, dean of the College of Education at the University of Kentucky and one of the nation’s most eminent experts on race and equity, refutes Chait here. Here is a brief excerpt from his brilliant rebuttal: C
Carol Burris: The CARES 2 Act Allows Charter Schools to Double Dip
As you probably know by now, charter schools took federal money from two different pots in the CARES Act passed last spring. They got a share of the money allocated for public schools, then had the privilege of getting more money from the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to save small businesses in danger of shuttering their doors. Now there is new relief Act, which is far more gen
John Ewing: “Learning Loss” is an Absurd Concept
John Ewing, president of Math for America, skewers the concept of “learning loss” in this article in Forbes. I have been a fan of Dr. Ewing ever since I read his article “Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data,” in which he eviscerated the idiotic idea of rating students by the test scores of their students. If you have not read it, you should. In his latest essay, he shows how various int
Bob Shepherd: The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Bob Shepherd, our resident polymath, essayist, humorist, and lexicographer, wrote the following rumination on Trump’s visit to Georgia last night. He was supposed to “get out the vote” for the two billionaire Republican Senators, but spent most of his talk complaining about how the Georgia state officials had cheated him, how the election was rigged against him, and airing his usual woe-is-me vic
Denis Smith: “The American Taliban”
When Congress meets to accept the results of the vote of the Electoral College, a large number of Republicans say they will object. They will object not because of facts or evidence or court decisions, but because they want to prove their devotion to Trump, the most incompetent and unhinged man ever to hold the presidency. The Republican members of Congress who deny the election of Joe Biden are,
Georgia: Federal Judge Tosses Another Trump Lawsuit
The Trump campaign filed yet another lawsuit in Georgia to overturn the state’s vote, and once again Trump lost. Remember that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results? The Trump team, by that definition, is insane. At what point will these fake lawyers be disciplined for clogging the calendars of state and federal courts with lawsuit
Steve Schmidt: January 6 is “the Beginning of the End” for the GOP
Steve Schmidt used to be a Republican insider. He ran Republican campaigns. He drew a line at Trump. He saw Trump for the phony and self-obsessed con man that he is. He joined the Lincoln Project. He changed his party registration. He is no longer a Republican. He says that January 6 marks the beginning of the end for the GOP. Here is an excerpt from his remarks. The die is cast for the Republica
Trump’s Wild-Eyed Conspiracy Theories Run Out of Time
As we learned in the recording of his outrageous conversation with the Georgia Secretary of State, Trump will stop at nothing in his crazed efforts to cling to his office. He has lost interest in governing, but not in ruling. His base believes whatever claptrap he spews. Some theorize that it was Trump who released the recording of the conversation where he bullied Brad Raffensperger and tried to
Should Private and Religious Schools Receive COVID Funds Meant to Save Small Businesses?
Last spring, when the pandemic began crippling the economy, Congress passed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act). It was a rare moment of bipartisan action. Included in the act was the Paycheck Protection Program, which offered $660 billion to help small businesses weather an economic catastrophe in which many would be forced to close their doors and la
St. Louis: Privatizers and Assorted Billionaires Pick Over Bones of Public School System
Tracee Miller, a member of the St. Louis Board of Education, writes that she was shocked and dismayed to discover that a proposal to raise taxes for early childhood education was actually a disguised effort to divert more public money to charter schools. The truth leaked out: Emails exposed via public 

 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all