Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers + The Florida GOP Taliban

Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

"You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

Teachers cannot be trusted, and don’t take my word for it, take Commissioner Corcoran's 

Little boot Corcoran said of the 185 thousand teachers in Florida’s public schools; none of them can be trusted (see the video above). They have to be continually policed to make sure they aren’t sneaking on crazy liberal stuff. The book publishers can’t be trusted either because, like teachers, they will try and sneak stuff in.

Sadly he is the warped one out to indoctrinate kids, but since up is down in Florida, he thinks he is the hero. 

The commissioner has proposed a rule that will prevent teachers from having opinions during school hours, and it will pass too because the state board of education, a board as unqualified as Corcoran, is just as radicalized.  

From First Coast News, 

 Separating fact from opinion in teaching is what Florida's education commissioner says he wants to do with CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: "You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

The Florida GOP Taliban

Florida has a recipe for disaster. Add one part gerrymandering, one part far-right dogma, and a heaping pile of intolerance and sexism to Florida, and we get a state where the zealots at the top impose their will on all those beneath them. The Taliban didn't become the Taliban overnight, they evolved into it, and if we open our eyes, we can see disturbing parallels in the GOP in Florida.

Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis pairing with the far-right Hillsdale College plans to rewrite our civics curriculum including a liberal amount of God and the Ten commandments while completely avoiding the issue of race. DeSantis says to anyone who will listen that kids are being taught to hate our country in our schools. Corcoran practically bragged how he rigged the book-buying process to eliminate crazy liberal stuff and how teachers have to be constantly replaced. Neither has considered that it is their ideas and actions which are driving people away from them.  

Speaking of actions, this past session saw an anti-trans bill that called for the inspecting of children's genitalia pass the house. Now the final bill wasn't quite as onerous, but at the end of the day, it was a solution without a problem designed to marginalize and attack an already marginalized group. Unfortunately, the GOP in Florida sent a loud and clear message to our LGBTQ community and that's they are second-class citizens who can be excluded from everyday life.  

Then look what has happened in St. Johns county as 80 girls at a high school had their yearbook photos altered because the powers that be determined they were too revealing. The thing is they weren't, but they, CONTINUE READING: The Florida GOP Taliban

Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired

When Gina Raimondo was Governor of Rhode Island (she is now Biden’s Secretary of the Treasury), she determined that the only way to fix the Providence schools was a state takeover. Raimondo, a former hedge fund manager, hired Angelica Infante-Green as state commissioner, although Green’s experience was limited to two years of Teach for America and a few years as a state bureaucrat (she was never a principal). Green promptly joined Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, whose members favor privatization and oppose unions.

Green hired Harrison Peters as superintendent of schools for the troubled Providence district. Peters hired ex-Tampa administrator Olayinka Alege to be the Providence network superintendent of secondary schools.

Then parents and students began to complain that Alege liked to massage their feet and pop their toes. More boys came forward to report toe-popping incidents. Alege said CONTINUE READING: Providence: State Takeover Stumbles As “Toe-Popping” Official and Superintendent Are Fired | Diane Ravitch's blog

Nikole Hannah-Jones was terminated because she did not come from a “traditional academic-type background.” Good grief. Racism in academia. – Fred Klonsky

Nikole Hannah-Jones was terminated because she did not come from a “traditional academic-type background.” Good grief. Racism in academia. – Fred Klonsky

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES WAS TERMINATED BECAUSE SHE DID NOT COME FROM A “TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC-TYPE BACKGROUND.” GOOD GRIEF. RACISM IN ACADEMIA.

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill said Thursday that the tenure application for New York Times journalist and The 1619 Project lead author Nikole Hannah-Jones was terminated because she did not come from a “traditional academic-type background.”

As a journalist for the New York Times, Nikole Hannah-Jones has been a leading researcher on the impact of race on education.

Her work on the on the ground-breaking 1619 Project is profound in its story of America’s foundation in the labor of enslaved people, and has found its way into classroom across the country.

And it is racism that led UNC to deny Hannah-Jones tenure.

Nothing else.

My professor and doctoral advisor at the University of Illinois Chicago, Dr. William CONTINUE READING: Nikole Hannah-Jones was terminated because she did not come from a “traditional academic-type background.” Good grief. Racism in academia. – Fred Klonsky

NYC Educator: What Do Large Schools Need to Reopen?

NYC Educator: What Do Large Schools Need to Reopen?

What Do Large Schools Need to Reopen?

UFT President Michael Mulgrew has a column in the NY Daily News laying out a program for reopening. Mulgrew correctly points to the safeguards we insisted on as a reason schools were relatively safe this year. He asks that schools reach out to parents and enact a remote option for those who still aren't comfortable. These are all good ideas, and I think they apply to most city schools.

My school, however, is a little different. We routinely operate at somewhere around 240% capacity and the city doesn't give a hoot how uncomfortable or unhealthy that is. One of the first things I did as chapter leader was to get our school in the media, and we've been covered in not only all three major newspapers, but also on TV. We even had Bloomberg and Klein make cheery, misleading statements about us, because what were they gonna do? Fix the problem?

Surprisingly, though, their DOE did take a shot at it. UFT arranged a meeting at Tweed in which our then principal gave up a group of selected students, and for that they agreed to give us smaller incoming cohorts. They also agreed to more carefully screen incoming students, so that they couldn't simply say they lived where they did not. I personally had students who officially lived in Fresh Meadows who could never make it in on time, because their actual journey from the Bronx took them so long. 

Uncharacteristically, the Bloomberg people kept their word. Somehow when de Blasio came in, every aspect of our deal was left swirling the bowl. The selected students came back, and so did the veritable swarms of incoming CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: What Do Large Schools Need to Reopen?

The movement to privatize public schools marches on during coronavirus pandemic - Network For Public Education

The movement to privatize public schools marches on during coronavirus pandemic - Network For Public Education

The movement to privatize public schools marches on during coronavirus pandemic

Legislatures in 35 states have proposed bills to enact or expand voucher programs or charter schools. A few have passed; others have failed. Still others are sitting on governors’ desks or are stalled in the state’s House or Senate. Several are obvious attempts to please right-wing donors with no chance of moving out of committee. So far, eight states have enacted one or more bills.

A flurry of proposed school privatization legislation appearing on state dockets has been the pattern for several years. What is different this year is their success, albeit limited. In prior years, few, if any, reached the finish line. So what is different about 2021?

You can read the rest of Carol’s post in The Answer Sheet here. 

The movement to privatize public schools marches on during coronavirus pandemic - Network For Public Education

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT THIS WEEK

 TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT

TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT THIS WEEK

Physicians Urge Schools to Maintain Mask Mandates, Protect Kids

22by Andy Spears / 2d

A group of Tennessee physicians this week responded to Gov. Bill Lee urging local school districts to drop mask mandates. Here’s more from a press release: “Mask requirements for our classrooms keep COVID out so our kids can stay in school, parents at work and most importantly, protect vulnerable children who do not have the option to get vaccinated yet, ” said Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, an internal me

A Response to “Moms for Liberty”

94by Andy Spears / 2d

Williamson County parent group One WillCo has been organizing and speaking out in favor of diversity and inclusion in schools. Now, the group is out with a public statement in response to national group “Moms for Liberty” and their campaign against so-called “Critical Race Theory.” Here’s the statement from One WillCo: Ahead of one of the nationally-coordinated “Moms for Liberty” misinformation e

Memphis Teachers to See Pay Raise

by Andy Spears / 2d

Thanks in large part to federal stimulus money, teachers in Shelby County will see a raise and the district plans to build new schools and renovate additional buildings if the County Commission signs off on the proposed budget unanimously adopted by the School Board. Chalkbeat has more: Shelby County Schools board members unanimously approved a proposed budget of $2.19 billion Tuesday night, an i

Williamson Parents Speak Out for Diversity, Inclusion

21by Andy Spears / 3d

A group known as One WillCo helped organize a parent response to a plan by Williamson County Schools to focus attention on diversity in the district and address issues of systemic racism. Here’s more from a press release: Before tonight’s school board meeting, over 100 community members joined outside the Williamson County Admin Complex to show support of the district’s hiring of “Fostering Healt

Williamson County Group to Make Stand for Diversity & Inclusion

59by Andy Spears / 4d

A group known as OneWillCo plans to be in attendance at tonight’s Williamson County School Board meeting to show support for efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the district’s schools. Here’s more from a press statement provided by the group: A large group of parents and community members will show up at tonight’s school board meeting to show public support of the efforts by the WCS Sch

April Showers

32by Andy Spears / 7d

Erik Schelzig in the Tennessee Journal’s On the Hill blog notes that Tennessee’s April revenues were $600 million more than the budgeted estimate. Go ahead, read that again. In one month, the state collected $600 million more than planned. Here’s more from Schelzig: Tennessee’s general fund revenue collections were nearly $600 million above estimates in April, bringing the state’s surplus to $1.9

A Warning on Privatization

by Andy Spears / 11d

This article originally appeared in The Progressive . In 2012, Tennessee’s began a scheme known as the Achievement School District, or ASD. The goal was simple and bold: Take a handful of schools in the bottom 5 percent of student achievement, according to state test scores, and move those schools into the top 25 percent in student achievement in just five years. This miraculous shift, officials

Welcome to the Charter Party

300+by Andy Spears / 11d

On Friday afternoon before Mother’s Day weekend and just after the Tennessee General Assembly had adjourned, the Tennessee Department of Education announced 15 grants for charter school applicants – including grants for charter applications in several districts that do not currently authorize any charter schools – Rutherford County, Montgomery County, Millington Municipal, Fayette County, and Wil

 TENNESSEE EDUCATION REPORT