Let's make sure that Joe Biden chooses a public education advocate for the next Secretary of Education. We need a leader who rejects corporate reforms, high-stakes testing and school privatization. It is time to rebuild our public schools. Send your letter to the Biden team today. Use our letter or create your own.
Joel Greenblatt is a hedge fund guy from NYC who, like many hedge fund guys, has it All Figured Out and occasionally writes books to share his insights with rest of us.
Of course, that includes education. It was Greenblatt and fellow Rich Guy John Petry who recruited Eva Moskowitz to take their little charter school, Harlem Success Academy, and turn it into the Success Academy juggernaut. They even came up with some creative means of paying her huge compensation.
Greenblatt's new book of wisdominess resulted in an interview with Michael Cannivet, a "markets" contributor at Forbes.com in which he explains the various topics he writes about ("I thought I could bring a fresh perspective to certain issues I care about"), and one, of course, is education.
In discussing his book of "common sense," Greenblatt includes some standard bromides, like "The biggest factor that unleashes upward mobility is education" which is a good example of conventional wisdom that isn't actually rooted in facts (I'm no Raj Chetty fan, but he has tackled the issue of mobility pretty effectively). Also, college grads earn more than high school diploma folks "so we've got to do better," and while the interview doesn't get into details, I'm guessing he doesn't mean "we need to unrig the system so that people on the bottom are better paid."
But when it comes to education, there are lots of things that Greenblatt doesn't know. His idea is workaround solutions. He illustrates this with a riddle-- How do you beat Tiger Woods? Don't play CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Another Rich Guy Wants To Fix Education
About this Event
In A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, education historian Jack Schneider and journalist Jennifer Berkshire trace the war on public education to its origins, offering the deep backstory necessary to understand the threat presently posed to America's schools.
During our book conversation, we will be joined by Jennifer and Jack and have the opportunity to hear more from them about why they decided to write the book and about the current state of public education with time for attendees to also share their thoughts and experiences.
We recommend purchasing A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door from an independent bookseller or borrowing it from your local library.
Though the book the club is free to join, we are offering attendees the option to donate to The Haven Project, the only organization north of Boston, MA dedicated specifically to providing age appropriate services to a growing, vulnerable 17-24 year old homeless young adult population.
A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door Virtual Book Chat Tickets, Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 3:00 PM | Eventbrite
During the campaign, Joe Biden made clear commitments to support community public schools. He promised transparency and accountability for privately managed charter schools, as well as a ban on federal funding for charters operated for profit. He also unequivocally took a stand against standardized testing in a public meeting with hundreds of educators in Pittsburgh. NPE board member Denisha Jones asked him at that time if he would commit to ending standardized testing in the schools. He unequivocally said yes.
The Network for Public Education, joined by dozens of other
groups, calls on President-Elect Biden to keep his promises.
To add your group’s name, contact NPE.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/about-npe/
