Billy Townsend: A Florida School District That Is Fighting Privatizers and WinningBilly Townsend tells the story in this post of Hillsborough County in Florida, where parents and community activists are actively resisting the State Legislature’s demand for privatization of public schools. It is a fascinating post that shows that regular people can beat big money and political power when they get angry enough about scams and shady real estate deals and schools that exclude limi
John Thompson on The Perfect Storm of Destructive School ReformJohn Thompson is a historian and a retired teacher in Oklahoma. He has written on this blog frequently. He writes: The Perfect Storm of Education Reform: High Stakes Testing and Teacher Evaluation , by Sheryl Croft, M. Roberts, and Vera Stenhouse provided an essential service to public education by explaining that the corporate school reform disaster wasn’t due to its “discrete singular efforts.”
Rhode Island: Legislature Proposes that Every Child in State Be Placed in Charter LotteryWhen Gina Raimondo, now Secretary of Commerce, was governor of Rhode Island, she was an enthusiastic supporter of privately-run charter schools. Her successor as governor was director of a charter school (Blackstone Valley Prep) before he ran for office. Now, the Rhode Island House of Representatives has proposed a bill that would “automaticallly enter all public school students into charter scho
Florida Passes Law to Investigate “Indoctrination” in Higher EducationGovernor Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature are worried that the state’s colleges and universities are hotbeds of socialism, so they passed a bill to survey students and faculty about their beliefs. They worry that there is a lack of “intellectual diversity” on the state’s campuses. What next? Loyalty oaths? In his continued push against the “indoctrination” of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis o
Brian Franklin: The Contradiction Between Celebrating Juneteenth and Banning Discussion of RacismBrian Franklin, a historian at Southern Methodist University, wonders how the politicians in Texas can reconcile their support for teaching about Juneteenth while banning honest teaching about slavery and racism. Franklin previously wrote a brilliant article about Governor Abbott’s “1836 Project” to teach Texas history based on the founding documents. He pointed out that the state’s founding docu
New Hampshire: What Happens When Society Stops Caring for Its Children?Jeanne Dietsch writes regularly about politics and social welfare in New Hampshire. She is a former legislator. The Republican legislature recently voted to cut public school funding, to launch vouchers for private schools and homeschooling, and to cut property taxes. She wrote: A decade ago, I read a story in The Atlantic about a boy stranded at sea, in a boat that had been carefully crafted and
Economic Policy Institute: CEO Pay Rose by 16% in Last Year, While Worker Pay Rose by 1.8%The Economic Policy Institute unabashedly advocates for workers and unions and publishes accurate data about inequality. It recently revealed that CEO pay rose by 16% between 2019 and 2020, while the average worker saw a pay increase of only 1.8%. In 1950, the average CEO was paid twenty times the wages of the average worker. By 2019, the average CEO was paid 320 times as much as the average work
The U.S. Has a Long History of Banning Controversial Topics and Blaming TeachersHistorians Gillian Frank and Adam Laats write in Slate about the long history of suppressing textbooks that discuss race and class and investigating or firing teachers who veer away from the standard patriotic view of American history. They describe the classic story of the textbook series written by progressive educator Harold Rugg of Teachers College, Columbia. Rugg wanted students to learn abo
Campaign to Shame NYC Prep Schools for Teaching About Diversity Secretly Managed by Rightwing GroupVice News r eported that a notorious rightwing, anti-union group w as running an astroturf campaign to shame New York City private schools for teaching about diversity and racial bias. The organization was called “Prep School Accountability” and was able to gin up lots of stories, especially in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, about the “indoctrination” of privileged young minds. The man behind th
Jeremy Mohler: A Promising Strategy to Build Ties Between Schools and CommunitiesJeremy Mohler, communications director for In the Public Interest, an organization that fights privatization of public services, reports on the growing adoption of the community schools model, which brings families and communities closer to schools. Frankly, this approach makes a lot more sense than turning public money over to private operators and charter chains, some of which is siphoned away
The Issue That Will Decide the NYC Mayor’s Race: Charter SchoolsThe New York Times reported that the billionaires are investing in the leading candidates, and that their biggest issue is the expansion of charter schools. Although many people have already voted, Tuesday is the official election. When Andrew Yang led the pack, he received big contributions to his super PAC. When Eric Adams surged ahead of Yang, the big money flowed to him. With the exception of
Betsy DeVos Is Subsidizing the News About Education on Many Radio StationsJournalist Rachel M. Cohen broke the news in “The Intercept” that “the school privatization lobby places fake news on local stations.” She writes: ON A WEEKLY basis over the last three years, an arm of the national school privatization lobbying group the American Federation for Children has been producing fake news segments and distributing them to local news stations. The stations often air the
The Man Who Turned “Critical Race Theory” into a Red-Hot Political IssueChristopher Rufo was a successful documentary maker, some of whose shows were broadcast on PBS. He moved to Seattle and his politics moved rightward. The New Yorker wrote about his rise as a star of conservative politics. An employee of the Seattle city government sent him slides about anti-bias training that started Rufo on a crusade to expose the bias in anti-bias programs. …in July, 2020, when
Stanford Study: High School Students Lack Digital Skills to Spot Fake NewsWe live in an age when politicians, advertisers, and others develop and distribute fake news to sell their wares. It’s more important than ever for people to have the digital skills to check the accuracy of what they see online. A recent study conducted by Stanford Universi ty researchers reached a sobering conclusion. Most students don’t know how to fact-check what they see online. The Universit
Alabama: Politicians Win, Educators LoseLarry Lee, a close follower of education politics in Alabama and former board member in Montgomery, writes here about an ill-informed decision by Governor Kay Ivey. Over the objections of experienced educators, Governor Ivey vetoed a bill that would have delayed implementation of the Alabama Literacy Act by two years. The Act requires that third grades be retained if they can’t the third grade re
Gary Rubenstein: Faking the ASD StoryGary Rubenstein has been following the tale of the so-called Achievement School District in Tennessee for a decade. It was started with $100 million of the state’s $500 million from the Race to the Top (remember “Race to the Top”?). The ASD pledged to raise achievement dramatically in the state’s lowest performing schools, and it failed. Several other states were so impressed by the idea of the A
Florida: Billy Townsend Dissects Politicians’ Lame Efforts to Ban CRT and Deny RacismThis is another wonderful post by Billy Townsend about politics and education in Florida. He begins by questioning the staff of a Black Republican Congressman, Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) for using the term “redemption” in a tweet without being aware that this was the word used by white supremacists who wanted to end Reconstruction and restore the status quo of Black servitude. I have posted only abou
