Burris and Kilfoyle: The Charter Schools That Are Double-Dipping Federal CARES Funds | Diane Ravitch's blog

Burris and Kilfoyle: The Charter Schools That Are Double-Dipping Federal CARES Funds | Diane Ravitch's blog

Burris and Kilfoyle: The Charter Schools That Are Double-Dipping Federal CARES Funds

Are charter schools public schools or small businesses with government contracts? They claim to be public schools, even though they have private, unelected boards and private management. Yet many charter schools applied for and received federal funds from the CARES Act, at the urging of their lobbyists, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

They took money intended to save small businesses. Public schools are not allowed to apply.

Writing at Valerie Strauss’s “The Answer Sheet,” Carol Burris and Marla Kilfoyle of the Network for Public Education ask Why charter schools get this money?

Please open the article to see the many links to sources.

Valerie Strauss writes:

When Congress passed a huge economic assistance aid package in March, known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, it included $13.5 billion in funding for K-12 grants to states. Most of the money was supposed to be distributed to school districts and charter schools through a formula based on their share of Title 1 funds, which are intended to help CONTINUE READING: Burris and Kilfoyle: The Charter Schools That Are Double-Dipping Federal CARES Funds | Diane Ravitch's blog

Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2)

That the 2020 pandemic closed public venues including schools for three to six months across 13,000 districts in the country startled American families upending familiar daily routines. Most Moms and Dads had never experienced such a turnabout in their daily lives. Then many Americans learned of earlier influenza and polio epidemics when public officials closed schools during the first half of the 20th century.

But the vast majority of Americans know next to nothing about a Virginia county in 1959 that shut down its public schools until 1963.

That is what happened in Prince Edward County when an all-white school board, refusing a court order to desegregate, shuttered its schools and using public funds for vouchers and tax credits created a private white-only academy for students. That decision left black children and youth with no access to public elementary and secondary schooling for five years.

What did black families do when the doors to their schools were locked?

Black leaders, parents, students, and a few whites protested. The white-controlled Board of Supervisors and the County Board of Education, nonetheless, kept the schools closed.

Some families sent their sons and daughters to relatives elsewhere in Virginia where at least segregated schools were open, to families in North Carolina, CONTINUE READING: Schools Closed for Five Years: The Prince Edward County Story (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

BEST DOG AND PONY SHOW OF THE SEASON: SCUSD May Revise Presentation with comments - YouTube

May Revise Presentation with comments - YouTube

BEST DOG AND PONY SHOW OF THE SEASON
SCUSD May Revise Presentation with comments

May Revise Presentation with comments - YouTube

Annie Tan: My First-Year Disaster with Teach for America | deutsch29

Annie Tan: My First-Year Disaster with Teach for America | deutsch29

Annie Tan: My First-Year Disaster with Teach for America

On May 26, 2020, a tweet by NYC teacher Annie Tan caught my attention:

I first heard of Teach for America (TFA) in 1991. I was finishing my undergraduate degree in education, and a friend who was not an education major told me that upon graduation, he would be teaching for a couple of years via provisional certification in a city with teacher shortages, in connection with an organization called Teach for America.

At the time, in 1991, I thought, that sounds okay.

Cut to 2013, the year in which I wrote my first book, A Chronicle of Echoes, which CONTINUE READING: Annie Tan: My First-Year Disaster with Teach for America | deutsch29

I’m Teaching From Home and Don’t Know How Long We Can Keep This Up | The New Republic - https://newrepublic.com/article/157601/im-teaching-home-dont-know-long-can-keep on @newrepublic

Tell Congress to protect your family’s privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Tell Congress to protect your family’s privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

TELL CONGRESS TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY’S PRIVACY

HR 6172, the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act, would reauthorize portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governing the intelligence agencies’ search and surveillance activities. A critical privacy amendment introduced by Senators Wyden and Daines failed by only one vote in the Senate last week that would have prohibited the government from spying on private citizens’ internet searches without a warrant, as well as their phone and computer histories.

Please send a letter to your Representatives in Congress today, asking them to support an amendment to FISA with similar language, to protect your privacy and that of your children under the Fourth Amendment against the government surveilling your family’s internet searches and phone and computer histories without a warrant.

Since the Wyden-Daine amendment failed, a bipartisan coalition of more than 60 groups wrote a letter to Congress saying that the FBI should not be allowed to to spy on Americans’ internet activity without a warrant.   More on this in Roll Call.

Especially in these times of students being required to use the internet for remote learning, let your House members know that the protecting privacy and civil rights of your family and all Americans are important to you.

thanks!

Cheri Kiesecker and Leonie Haimson

Co-chairs, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

Tell Congress to protect your family’s privacy | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

NYC Public School Parents: Latest podcast of "Talk out of School": My Interview with Chancellor Betty Rosa

NYC Public School Parents: Latest podcast of "Talk out of School": My Interview with Chancellor Betty Rosa

Latest podcast of "Talk out of School": My Interview with Chancellor Betty Rosa

Check out the latest "Talk out of School" podcast of my interview with NY Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa on today's "Talk Out of School" on the Regents task force on reopening schools, the search for a new NYSED Commissioner, the process of reviewing the Regents HS exit exams, the need to revisit the state  3-8th grade exams as well, and more.  The interview already made the LoHud news here.

You can apply for the job of NY State Education Commissioner here.  I think this is the most important quality among those listed, sadly lacking in most of our previous Commissioners:
"Ability to collaborate effectively, communicate openly, and listen carefully."

Episode Summary

NYC Public School Parents: Latest podcast of "Talk out of School": My Interview with Chancellor Betty Rosa

SSPI Renews Call for Investments in Tech Needs - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

SSPI Renews Call for Investments in Tech Needs - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Renews Call for New Investments as Technology Needs Still Unmet for Many California Students and Schools Look to Reopen

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Wednesday called on California’s cross-sector partners to accelerate investments that can help all California students access the technology they need to succeed academically in all educational settings. During a virtual media check-in earlier today,  Thurmond stressed the importance of the continued efforts to support California public school students’ widespread technology needs as schools look to possibly utilize distance learning in the fall. As plans for the next school year are being made now, most will likely including a component of distance learning, and students will only be successful if they have equitable access to devices and internet connectivity.

“Before the pandemic, we knew there were huge inequities that existed in regards to student access to devices and internet connectivity. The effects of COVID-19 have only made this more visible and created a sense of urgency that we must address now,” said Thurmond. “Access to technology and reliable, affordable internet is not only necessary for distance learning but also for lifelong success. It’s time we level the playing field for our students.”

During today’s news conference, the State Superintendent announced that it will cost at least $500,000,000 to meet the technology needs of all students. He thanked those that have donated and called upon others to consider donating now. He also invited Verizon to announce a new opportunity for students and their families to receive discounted service and hotspots for internet connectivity. The agreement was originally between Verizon and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), but thanks to the work of the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force, Verizon has graciously extended the offer beyond LAUSD, and it is now available to any districts located in Verizon’s service areas throughout California.

In addition to efforts being made to close the digital divide, Superintendent Thurmond also announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) is planning to release guidance on reopening schools in early June. He discussed ways that schools will need to implement safety considerations, such as providing face coverings for students and staff, maintaining physical distance of six feet, and taking temperatures as students and staff enter school campuses. Many of these measures will require increased costs for schools, and he reminded viewers of the need for support from the federal government via stimulus money to help schools offset these increased costs to safely reopen campuses. Federal support is also needed to help reimburse funding for nutrition service efforts as meals continue to be provided to students and families during this time.

Anyone interested in making a donation to purchase devices or hotspots can email donatetech@cde.ca.gov. If you would like to view the full media check in, please visit the CDE’s Facebook page.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

SSPI Renews Call for Investments in Tech Needs - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

CURMUDGUCATION: Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year?

CURMUDGUCATION: Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year?

Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year?

Testing in the fall? Let's talk about that idea.

Thomas Toch is one of those reformsters who has managed to bounce from job to reformy job. Currently, he's head honcho at FutureEd, an ed reform advocacy group that bills itself as a thinky tank, and there isn't an educational disruption that they haven't tried to make a case for. This spring they have been vocal in trying to protect the future of the Big Standardized Test, which brings us to Toch's appearance yesterday in The Hill.

"Don't abandon standardized testing in schools next year — rethink it," pleads Toch, offering a plate of weak sauce to make his case.

His opening salvo is that students are currently falling behind, and that's not particularly arguable-- crisis schooling has been anywhere from "challenging" to "a freakin' mess." We could (and probably should at some point) have a whole conversation about the use of phrases like "catch up" that imply there is some heaven-set path and some objectively correct speed for students to move along it, and they dasn't fall behind or else... well, something bad will happen, apparently. It's a problematic model for education, but for the moment, yeah, we all get that the usual progress of education is not really happening.

Which brings us to Toch's first thesis--

To catch students up, schools will need to get a handle on exactly how far students have fallen CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Why shouldn't high stakes testing be abandoned next year?

Shanker Blog: What's Next for Schools After Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Big Issues and Opportunities | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: What's Next for Schools After Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Big Issues and Opportunities | National Education Policy Center

Shanker Blog: What's Next for Schools After Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Big Issues and Opportunities

This is post is our first in a new blog series entitled Teaching and Learning During a Pandemic, in which we invite guest authors to reflect on the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic for teaching and learning. Our contributor today is Andy Hargreaves who is Research Professor at Boston College. This blog post originally appeared in The Conversation. Future posts in the series will be compiled here. 

No schools, no exams, more online learning and parents in COVID-19 lockdown with their kids. What a mess!

People are responding heroically. Some parents are working from home, others have lost their jobs and teachers are creating an entire new way of doing their jobs — not to mention the kids themselves, stuck inside without their friends. Somehow, we will get through this. When we do, how will things look when school starts again? 

One of my university projects connects and supports the education leaders of six countries and two Canadian provinces to advance humanitarian values, including in their responses to COVID-19. 

From communication with these leaders, and drawing on my project team’s expertise in educational leadership and large-scale change, here are five big and lasting issues and opportunities that we anticipate will surface once school starts again.

Extra student support needed

After weeks or months at home, students will have lost their teachers’ face-to-face support. Many young people will have experienced poverty and stress. They may have seen family members become ill, or worse. They might have had little chance to play outside. 

Rates of domestic abuse and fights over custody arrangements have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Many children will have lost the habits that schools teach them — sitting in a circle, waiting your turn, knowing how to listen and co-operate. More than a few will exhibit the signs of post-traumatic stress. 

A lot will have spent hours looking at smartphones or playing video games.

And the learning gaps will undoubtedly widen between children from poorer and better-off homes.

Although governments may be anticipating upcoming austerity, we’ll actually need additional resources. We’ll need counsellors, mental heath specialists and learning support teachers to help our weakest learners and most vulnerable children settle down and catch up.

Prioritizing well-being

Well-being will no longer be dismissed as a fad. Before this crisis, there were murmurings that CONTINUE READING: Shanker Blog: What's Next for Schools After Coronavirus? Here Are 5 Big Issues and Opportunities | National Education Policy Center

Polls: 20 percent of teachers not likely to return to reopened schools - The Washington Post

Polls: 20 percent of teachers not likely to return to reopened schools - The Washington Post

Polls: 20 percent of teachers not likely to return to classrooms if schools reopen this fall

Twenty percent of U.S. teachers say they are not likely to return to their classrooms this fall if schools reopen — and most parents and educators believe that school buildings will open, according to polls published Tuesday.

The polls — one taken of K-12 teachers and the other of parents with school-age children — found that 73 percent of parents and 64 percent of teachers said they believe that children will eventually make up for learning lost because of the disruption of school during the coronavirus crisis. And 63 percent of parents and 65 percent of teachers said they believe school buildings in their areas will reopen this fall.

The findings came in USA Today-Ipsos polls published Tuesday in USA Today. The newspaper and Ipsos, a global research and marketing firm, conducted two polls at the same time from May 18-21 and said that the “credibility intervals,” which are similar to margins of error, are plus or minus five percentage points for the teachers survey and 5.6 percent for the survey of parents.

It is not possible to know how school districts would be affected if 1 in 5 teachers did not show up to reopened schools, because schedules and attendance expectations will probably be different in the fall to comply with social distancing requirements.

School districts are racing to complete plans for the fall semester but are also factoring in contingencies: full-scale openings, no openings or some hybrid.

Many districts have said they are considering having students come in on some school days but not others so that social distancing rules inside classrooms can be respected. An outbreak of the coronavirus on any school campus could lead to a full-scale closure.

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

In the polls, about two-thirds of both teachers and parents said they support having students go to class up to three days a week and staying at home to work remotely the other days. Such a schedule could CONTINUE READING: Polls: 20 percent of teachers not likely to return to reopened schools - The Washington Post

A Bold Pitch To Boost School Funding For The Nation's Most Vulnerable Students | 89.3 KPCC

A Bold Pitch To Boost School Funding For The Nation's Most Vulnerable Students | 89.3 KPCC

A Bold Pitch To Boost School Funding For The Nation's Most Vulnerable Students

School district lines have become engines of inequity in many states. Not only can they be used to keep children out of a neighborhood's schools, they can also keep a district's wealth in. But with many districts facing severe budget cuts because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report proposes a radical solution:

Leave the lines, but spread the wealth.

The report, titled Clean Slate, comes from EdBuild, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable school funding. It's a moonshot pitch to many district and state leaders that recommends distributing local property tax revenue more broadly — at the county or even state level. According to EdBuild, only 13 states currently do this.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

After a nationwide analysis of school funding data, the report found, "the bigger the school district taxing jurisdiction, the more equity was being created," says Rebecca Sibilia, EdBuild's founder and CEO.

Under this reimagining of America's school funding system, EdBuild found, more than 2 out of 3 K-12 students (69%) — and 76% of low-income students — would receive equal or greater school funding than they do now, an average increase of nearly $1,000 per student.

Sibilia admits some communities may see this idea as a threat to their local control of schools, but funding should not be confused with governance, she says.

"I hope this report will take the first step toward really challenging this question of whether or not being able to run your own schools means being able to keep all of the money that you happen to have," Sibilia says.

To understand Sibilia's proposed solution, here's a quick primer on the system as it is: On average, America's schools receive nearly half of their funding from local sources, mostly property taxes. But those local dollars usually don't cross school district lines. So if one community's property wealth far surpasses that of its neighbors across the road, the inequity will show up not just in the size of the homes or the number of businesses, but in classroom spending, too.

According to EdBuild, in counties with more than one school district, the average CONTINUE READING: A Bold Pitch To Boost School Funding For The Nation's Most Vulnerable Students | 89.3 KPCC

Teacher Tom: Why Does Children's Play Enrage So Many Adults?

Teacher Tom: Why Does Children's Play Enrage So Many Adults?

Why Does Children's Play Enrage So Many Adults?

Back in the olden days, children, we used to fly on jet airplanes that took us to new and exciting places to meet new and exciting people. Some of us remember the airports, places where people dashed and dawdled from jet airplane to jet airplane. What they don't tell you in your history books, however, is that most of what we did in airports during those more innocent times was wait. Can you imagine?

At least that's how it feels in these days of plague, as if air travel is something from a bygone era. Yesterday I mentioned to my sister that I needed to get my passport renewed and she asked me pointedly "Why?" And, of course, as I've noted repeatedly right here, I've very much enjoy breathing crystal clean air that has resulted, in part, from the grounding of all those jet airplanes. Still, I'm eager for it to return, if only for the waiting.

I know it sounds strange. The waiting is the bane of the existence of most travelers, but I have come to embrace it. From the time I was a boy, I've experienced airports as places apart. Sure, the buildings might physically exist in Seoul or Frankfurt, but in another sense they are no place at all. Hailing simply from planet Earth, there are no permanent residents, we are all visitors, in transit, just passing through. I think this is what makes airports such an incredible habitat for people watching.

I consider myself a researcher. I read, of course, but most of my research is done by observing. Here on the blog, I tend to write about things I've thought and noticed in the classroom, but it nags at me that the fact of my presence, that I'm a CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Why Does Children's Play Enrage So Many Adults?

Congress Must Pass Additional Fiscal Relief to Prevent Alarming Cuts to School District Budgets | janresseger

Congress Must Pass Additional Fiscal Relief to Prevent Alarming Cuts to School District Budgets | janresseger

Congress Must Pass Additional Fiscal Relief to Prevent Alarming Cuts to School District Budgets

There is plenty of confirmation from the experts about the 50 states’ desperate need for additional federal relief dollars for school districts to open public schools next fall. Without immediate help from Congress, state budget cuts will diminish educational opportunity especially for the school districts that serve our nation’s poorest children. We must not take for granted that public schools will be able to provide the same programs for our children as they did before what promises to be a deep recession. The pending school funding crisis—across all 50 states—has received scanty coverage in the press, which has paid more attention to whether, how, and when schools can reopen. Here are the grim fiscal realities.

On May 15, the House passed a new federal relief program—the HEROES Act (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act), but the U.S. Senate went on a Memorial Day Recess prior to even taking up the bill.  Education Week‘s Evie Blad reports: “The HEROES Act would create a $90 billion ‘state fiscal stabilization fund’ for the U.S. Department of Education to support K-12 and higher education. About 65 percent of that fund—or roughly $58 billion—would go through states to local school districts. The bill would also provide $1 billion to shore up state and local government budgets that have been hard hit by declining tax revenues as businesses closed to slow the spread of the virus.”

The HEROES Act passed by the House on May 15 is far from perfect.  The New York Times Editorial Board explains: “The Democratic-led House passed a $3 trillion relief package on May 15. That bill was imperfect but it was something.  Mr. McConnell, on the other hand, has repeatedly said he’s in no hurry for the Senate to offer its own proposal.  He has put talks on an indefinite pause, saying he wants to see how the economy responds to previous relief measures. The Senate may get around to putting together a plan when it reconvenes next month. Or perhaps it will be in July.”

School districts cannot plan for essential staff like teachers, counselors, nurses, social workers, and librarians when their state budget allocations are being reduced right now before the fiscal year ends on June 30—with more state budget cuts projected moving into next fiscal year.  The director of state policy research for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, CONTINUE READING: Congress Must Pass Additional Fiscal Relief to Prevent Alarming Cuts to School District Budgets | janresseger

The University of California System Abandons the SAT/ACT: Will SUNY Follow? How Will Prospective Students Be Selected? | Ed In The Apple

The University of California System Abandons the SAT/ACT: Will SUNY Follow? How Will Prospective Students Be Selected? | Ed In The Apple

The University of California System Abandons the SAT/ACT: Will SUNY Follow? How Will Prospective Students Be Selected?

In a historic move likely to have national repercussions, the University of California Board of Regents voted … to stop requiring students to submit college-entrance tests the SAT or ACT for admissions purposes. The vote was a unanimous 23-0.

The system has given itself until the fall of 2025 to develop a bespoke standardized test for California residents. If the UC cannot create a new test that better aligns with what students learned in school, it’ll drop the testing requirement completely for Californians. 

The debate over college admissions has been ongoing for years, many years: Are the current tests discriminatory? Can you create a non-discriminatory test? Are other methods, for example, class standing discriminatory to another class of students?

The Scholastic Aptitude Test, the SAT, has been around, in many forms, since the 1920s.  The SAT (and the more recent ACT) have been the gatekeepers determining admission to colleges. Elite colleges have required higher scores and have made allowances for legacy students, students of alumni, commonly contributors to the school.

The research is overwhelming re the discriminatory impact of current “standardized” tests.

The evidence for a stubborn race gap on this test does… provide a snapshot into CONTINUE READING: The University of California System Abandons the SAT/ACT: Will SUNY Follow? How Will Prospective Students Be Selected? | Ed In The Apple

SSPI Works Toward Internet Access for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

SSPI Works Toward Internet Access for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Digital Divide Task Force Work Toward Solutions to Inequitable Internet Access for Students

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and state leaders serving on the Closing the Digital Divide Task Force continued their work today on behalf of California’s most vulnerable students and families who continue to experience barriers to internet access despite calls for providers to expand their services.

During the task force’s latest hearing, Thurmond and members heard testimony from advocates for students living in urban and rural areas, who described continued inequities that stand to put California’s most at-risk learners further behind. During the hearing, representatives from internet service providers were asked to respond to concerns raised, including limited or no service in specific zip codes, “free” internet offers that require costly long-term contracts, mandatory deposits, and other constraints to access.

An archived broadcast of the task force hearing can be watched on the California Department of Education (CDE) Facebook web page.

“We must find solutions to connect our most vulnerable students, many of whom live in underserved, low-income neighborhoods or rural areas and already experience numerous barriers to academic success,” said Thurmond. “The testimonials we heard today from parent and student advocates, and the challenges they continue to face accessing reliable and affordable internet connections, is troubling. We agree with today’s speakers that a student’s ability to access the tools necessary for success should not be determined by their zip code.”

The task force heard testimony from the following speakers:

• Ryan Smith, Chief External Officer, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
• Stephanie Hernandez, Manager, Parent Leadership and Advocacy, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
• Anna Hasselblad, Public Policy Director, United Ways of California
• Sunne McPeak, Chief Executive Officer, California Emerging Technology Fund

The task force, co-chaired by Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), has held multiple hearings and asked that internet service providers offer free guest access to all California students and do more to expand and promote their services to those in need.

“As the task force continues its important work to eliminate the technology gaps faced by far too many students in California, I am pleased that our ever-increasing partnerships with stakeholders—including internet service providers—are resulting in important momentum and commitments that will help to address the digital divide in our state,” Leyva said. “The current pandemic has made clear what we all already knew: the digital divide is real and largely impacts students in poor and/or rural households and communities.  I am confident that the work we are doing will continue to bear fruit since all California students, regardless of their household income or where they may live, deserve nothing less than true and ongoing digital access.

Joining State Superintendent Thurmond and Senator Leyva on the task force are Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), Assemblymember Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella), Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), and Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa).

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

SSPI Works Toward Internet Access for Students - Year 2020 (CA Dept of Education)

WHAT HAVE 50 YEARS BROUGHT? – Dad Gone Wild

WHAT HAVE 50 YEARS BROUGHT? – Dad Gone Wild

WHAT HAVE 50 YEARS BROUGHT?

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”
― J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister

Yesterday the Weber family engaged in our holiday day trip tradition. Every summer holiday – Memorial, Labor, Independence – we pile into the car and head out of town towards some vague destination within 2 hours of the city limits. Yesterday we pointed the car towards Erin Tennessee, which proudly offers a slice of the old country in Tennessee, to do a little exploring.

Upon arrival, we walked around Erin for a bit before heading towards Dover. On the way, we stopped at the animal resource management lands and witnessed an osprey on her nest. In Dover, we ate at a Taco Johns – which I don’t recommend – and went for a hike at Fort Donaldson – which I do recommend. Along the way we talked, observed, and interacted in an effort to ensure that our family connections remain strong.

In the evening we joined our neighbors for a pleasant holiday BBQ. It was the kind of day holidays are built for. Unfortunately, as I scrolled through social media at the end of the day, the good vibes instilled by a day well spent fled like a herd of gazelles faced with a pride of lions.

As I flipped from public shaming to public shaming, it was like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Vehicles hurling towards each other, the outcome beyond doubt, yet no means offered to alter the quickly approaching calamity.

Tales of people without masks intentionally coughing on those with masks, packed swimming holes in the Ozark’s or Texas, a 70-second video of a confrontation between a white woman and a black man in Central Park, videos of customers verbally chasing a non-mask wearing person from a CONTINUE READING: WHAT HAVE 50 YEARS BROUGHT? – Dad Gone Wild

Former Leaders of SDS, Meet the Current Members of DSA - In These Times

Former Leaders of SDS, Meet the Current Members of DSA - In These Times

Former Leaders of SDS, Meet the Current Members of DSA
The authors of “An Open Letter to the New New Left From the Old New Left” failed to grasp several things about the Democratic Socialists of America.

Generic anti-Trumpism and leftward tut-tutting is not a winning campaign strategy. It is choosing ease over effort, convenience over organizing.

As the Trump administration abdicates its responsibility for mass testing and contact tracing, tens of thousands of Americans—disproportionately working-class and people of color—are dying.

Meanwhile, America’s young people—loaded with college debt, inadequate health insurance and bleak job prospects—confronts an increasingly dystopic future. The pandemic is, of course, not the only threat; climate change is poised to wreak unimaginable havoc. Young people rightly think that the free market has failed to provide solutions to both crises.

Inspired by Bernie Sanders, many millennials have turned to democratic socialism. In one of the most hopeful political developments in decades, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has seen its membership grow from 6,500 in 2014 to 66,000 today. (In These Times was founded by members of the New American Movement and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, which merged in 1982 to form DSA.)

So it is disconcerting to read an open letter in The Nation, signed by 81 former leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, that condescends to tell DSA youth to “face facts.” Those facts being: “A common effort to unseat [Trump] is our high moral and political responsibility.” The signatories are “gravely concerned.” They worry that some Bernie supporters have refused to endorse Biden, “including the leadership of Democratic Socialists of America.”

Before being so quick with the pen, these members of the  “Old New Left”—as they describe themselves—should have considered how DSA operates, what its members do and the considerations that inform its approach.

DSA is a democratic organization. At the most recent convention, delegates voted to only endorse candidates who openly identify as socialists, like Bernie Sanders.

But the group’s stance on 2020 does not mean DSA members will be sitting out the election. After Sanders suspended his campaign, DSA’s governing body, the 16-member National Political Committee (elected every two years by ranked-choice voting), issued this statement: “We fully agree with Sen. Sanders that taking on the reactionary, racist and nationalist right wing represented by Donald Trump is CONTINUE READING: Former Leaders of SDS, Meet the Current Members of DSA - In These Times

NYC Educator: College Credit for High School Students? It's Not Working.

NYC Educator: College Credit for High School Students? It's Not Working.

College Credit for High School Students? It's Not Working.

So says Professor Nicholas Tampio, of AP courses, and I couldn't agree more. There is a whole lot involved in college courses that may or may not be covered in AP courses. The fact is these courses are a financial bonanza for the College Board, which uses us and our schools as resources, then shares nothing back with our system. My friend Jonathan gives chapter and verse on his blog.

In fact, according to state regulations, there's a whole lot involved in teaching high school that isn't required for college. At Francis Lewis High School we have a program called College Now, given in cooperation with Queensborough Community College. Essentially, a bunch of college teachers unqualified to teach high school students come in and teach high school students. Of course these teachers are not certified to teach high school, and that's just fine with the DOE. Rules are for the little people.

I had to take all sorts of tests to get this job. I had to be fingerprinted. I had to send my college transcripts in to multiple places more times than I can count. I had to take specialized courses in special education, which I don't teach, and a whole bunch of other things so varied I can't even recall what they are. I had to fulfill requirements for certification. When I couldn't get a job teaching under that certification, I had to get another one. In fact, I've got three altogether.

Do you know what the requirements are to teach in college? I'll tell you. The one and only requirement is to get the college to give you a job. I taught for twenty years at the CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: College Credit for High School Students? It's Not Working.