Amazon Workers in Staten Island, New York, Warehouse Vote to UnionizeThis could be a historic moment for the American labor movement. Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to join a union. NEW YORK — Workers voted Friday to unionize an Amazon Staten Island warehouse, a historic decision that marks the first successful U.S. effort at the e-commerce giant and a major victory for the domestic labor movement. Amazon, the country’s second-largest private emp
Michael J. Petrilli: Test the Babies!Michael J. Petrilli drew a lot of criticism a few months ago when he proposed to give NAEP tests to children in kindergarten, arguing that fourth grade was too late to start assessing student skills. Now he has an even more radical proposal: test the babies, he says. He writes: Earlier this year, I took to the pages of Education Next to make the case for NAEP to test starting in kindergarten, sta
How Russia Defends the War That Is Not a WarA friend forwarded this message from her friend in St. Petersburg, Russia: 1. Russia did not attack Ukraine, but Ukraine must definitely stop defending itself. 2. A special operation is not a war, but economic sanctions are a war. 3. The war began so that the war would not start. 4. Conscripts were not sent to Ukraine, but some of them died there. 5. The maternity hospital was bombed because the
Kevin Welner: New Courses Teach Laws Forbidding Teaching What the Law is AboutWith so many laws passed forbidding the teaching of “critical race theory,” Kevin Welner has come up with an ingenious solution. Teach the law itself! Kevin is a lawyer who teaches education policy at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He is also director of the National Education Policy Center. He means this as an April Fool’s joke, but like all satires, there is more than a kernel of truth
Steve Nelson: The Bizarre Ironies of “Parent Rights”Steve Nelson, the retired headmaster of the Calhoun School in New York City, has spotted the ironies and hypocrisies in the GOP pandering to the “parent rights” movement. Read the Bible and gasp at the references to incest and licentiousness. Nelson writes: There is a certain hypocritical Victorian flavor to the GOP these days, as they are turgid with moral rectitude when considering – gasp – tra
Frank Breslin: Children Deserve the Truth, Not Fairy Tales about the PastFrank Breslin is a retired teacher in New Jersey. This article originally appeared in the NJEA monthly publication. What if your race had known only tragedy throughout America’s history? What if your people had been enslaved, murdered, persecuted and denied their civil rights? And what if, instead of owning up to having inflicted such outrages, showing remorse, asking forgiveness, and making amen
Carol Burris: How Charter Operators Get Rich: “Sweeps Contracts”People often wonder how charter entrepreneurs make money. This article by Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, appeared on Valerie Strauss’s Answer Sheet blog in 2019. It’s a cautionary tale that is as important now as it was then. The new regulations for the federal Charter Schools Program would ban “sweeps contacts” in which for-profit corporations control the f
Jan Resseger: Feds Propose New Rules to Bar ProfiteersJan Resseger writes here about the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed new regulations f or the federal Charter Schools Program. To a significant extent, the Department has incorporated recommendations offered by the Network for Public Education aimed at blocking for-profit entrepreneurs from winning federal funding. The charter lobby is fighting furiously to block these new regulations. Publ
Peter Greene: Write a Letter to Support the Federal Ban on Funding For-Profit Charter SchoolsPeter Greene writes here about the proposal to tighten federal regulations so that for-profit corporations will not qualify to receive federal charter funding. Greene writes: This is exactly the kind of boring policy wonk stuff that can make ordinary humans nod off. But it;’s worth paying attention to. It’s even worth giving the feds your two cents. I’ll tell you how at the end of this. First let
Please Support the U.S. Department of Education’s Proposals to Regulate Federal Funding of Charter SchoolsThis year, for the first time since the federal Charter Schools program was established in 1994, the U.S. Department of Education is setting forth meaningful regulation of the program. This is a historic development and great news for those of us who have watched the charter industry escape accountability and transparency, while tolerating grift and profiteering. As the Network for Public Educati
The Man Who Dared to Challenge PutinOne man tried to stop Vladimir Putin. His name was Boris Nemtsov. He formed a new political party and planned to run against Putin. In 2015, he was assassinated. New information reported by the BBC funds that he was followed by members of Russia’s security squad, who murdered him only days before he planned to lead a public protest against Putin. Here is his Wikipedia entry: Boris Yefimovich Nemt
Steve Ruis: There Are Lies and There Are Breitbart LiesSteve Ruis doesn’t like lies. And he understands that some lies are worse than others. This Breitbart lie, he writes, is a giant whopper. A young man tragically took his life in Virginia. His mother went to the local school board and said he killed himself because of COVID isolation and “critical race theory.” Breitbart said so. But what Breitbart did not say was that the young man graduated high
National Education Policy Center: Vouchers Do Not Save MoneyRecently, a pro-voucher organization released a report claiming that vouchers save money. The National Education Policy Center assigned the report to two scholars, and they found that the report’s claims were untrue. In addition, numerous studies have shown that students who use vouchers are likely to fall behind their peers in public schools, especially in mathematics. If you care about educatin
Vladimir Tismaneanu: Putin Is an Assassin of MemoryVladimir Tismaneanu writes in American Purpose to denounce Putin’s claim that he is anti-Nazi. He is the author of “Putin’s Totalitarian Democracy.” “Taming” Vladimir Putin is an impossible task, based on wishful thinking. Western democracies are procedural, contractual, constitutional arrangements. The FSB-controlled Russia is none of those things. Last month I watched the 2021 movie Munich: The
“Vouchers Hurt Ohio”More than 100 school districts in Ohio have joined a lawsuit against the state of Ohio opposing vouchers. Bill Phillis, former deputy superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education, now leads a pro-public school advocacy group called the Ohio Coalition of Equity and Adequacy. He and a new group called have organized the campaign to have the voucher program declared unconstitutional. This is
The Delights of Vacationing in Mexico CityAs you read this, I am boarding a flight from Mexico City to New York City. I have been here for a week with my partner and our 15-year-old grandson. Two years ago, we planned to take the same trip in mid-March 2020. It was our gift for his bar mitzvah. But the week we were supposed to fly to Mexico City, COVID shut down everything, including our flight and hotel. We stayed in a centrally located
Frank Breslin: Why the Framers Wanted Separation of Church and StateFrank Breslin is a retired teacher in New Jersey who taught English, social studies, Latin, and German. He wrote recently in Church & State magazine about why the Framers of the Constitution wanted separation of church and state. His article reminded me of a Tom Lehrer song in which he sang, “The Catholics hate the Protestants, the Protestants hate the Catholics, and everyone hates the Jews.” Tom
Arizona: School Choice Allies Back Funding Overhaul to Benefit Charters, Hurt Public SchoolsWhenever the school choice lobby in Arizona submits a new bill, you can be sure it will help charter schools, not public schools. As the legislative session winds down, a bill has been introduced to change the state’s funding formula. Charter schools would benefit, but many public schools, especially rural schools, would lose.. Mary Jo Pitzl writes in the Arizona Republic : A major overhaul of sc
Florida: Charter School Leader Convicted of Embezzling Nearly $400,000You have to say this about Florida: the Republican leadership is not deterred by the theft of public funds. No matter how many charter school scandals are exposed, no matter how many charter leaders are convicted of theft, Florida continues to pour money into charters. In the latest scandal, a charter leader was convicted of misappropriatfing nearly $400,000. MIAMI — A former Florida charter scho
Kentucky: Charter Bill Rises from the Dead, Like a ZombieGay Adelmann, a tenacious champion of public schools in Kentucky, especially Jefferson County Louisville) reports here on the effort by Republicans to pass funding for charter schools. She writes: Hello friends, I regret to inform you that the harmful charter school legislation that we’ve managed to stave off in Kentucky since 2017, ( https://www.wdrb.com/news/education/revised-version-of-charter
