California School Boards Association on Needed Reforms of Charter Law | Diane Ravitch's blog

California School Boards Association on Needed Reforms of Charter Law | Diane Ravitch's blog

California School Boards Association on Needed Reforms of Charter Law

Almost everyone in California seems to acknowledge that the state charter law is broken and needs reform. Governor Gavin Newsom created a Task Force, under the leadership of Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, charged with coming up with ways to fix the law. Since the majority of the Governor’s Task Force has ties to the charter industry (including two members of the state’s charter lobbying organization), it bears watching to see whether the proposals are effective or cosmetic.

Now the California School Boards Association has released its recommendations. Its report mentions in passing that only one of every three charter schools outperforms the public schools in the district where it is located.

“After more than 25 years of continued charter school growth, California now finds itself far removed from the original mission and vision of the Act, which was, in part, meant to improve student learning with an emphasis on CONTINUE READING: California School Boards Association on Needed Reforms of Charter Law | Diane Ravitch's blog

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and this educator is starting to cringe: ‘I’ll trade appreciation for respect any day’ - The Washington Post

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and this educator is starting to cringe: ‘I’ll trade appreciation for respect any day’ - The Washington Post

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and this educator is starting to cringe: ‘I’ll trade appreciation for respect any day’

Teacher Appreciation Week is fast approaching — the first full week in May — but New York City educator Emily James is already starting to cringe.

Every year, the week is sponsored by the National Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) in an effort, the group’s website says, “to show our thanks and gratitude” to “stellar educators.” How? Here are headlines on some Internet stories about how to mark the week:

• “All the Perks and Freebies You Can Get for Teacher Appreciation Week”
• “7 Meaningful Ways to Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week,” with the first suggestion being “gifts” and the sixth being “classroom supplies” (because, unfortunately, too many classrooms aren’t properly equipped).
• “Teachers Can Get Free Flights to the Caribbean in Honor of Teacher Appreciation Week”

To James, this week represents nothing more than lip service to teachers and is “a Band-Aid for a much larger problem, which is a systemic lack of respect for our educators.” In the post below, she notes that there are no appreciation weeks for doctors and other professionals.

To James, teachers need more than an annual appreciation week, which she finds cringeworthy. James, a writer as well as an educator, created a petition on change.org demanding paid parental leave for city public school teachers last year. It garnered 85,000 signatures, leading to negotiations that ended with city public school teachers getting paid parental leave starting last June.

Her work has been published in the New York Daily News, HuffPost and various literary magazines. She was the recipient of the 2019 Bechtel Prize from Teachers and Writers Magazine. You can follow her on Twitter @missg3rd.

By Emily James

As Teacher Appreciation Week comes near, I feel my annual cringe coming on. While the occasional “THANK YOU” pencil is nice (and I do love a buy-one-get-one-free Chipotle burrito), this week often feels like a faulty Band-Aid for a serious issue that educators in our country face day in and day out.

As a society, we don’t flaunt lawyer appreciation weeks, doctor appreciation weeks, engineer appreciation weeks. Why? Because the image and perceptions of these careers hold a certain respect from our communities, along with a certain respect within the field.

As educators, it often feels like no matter how many years we prove ourselves as competent, to make the CONTINUE READING: Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and this educator is starting to cringe: ‘I’ll trade appreciation for respect any day’ - The Washington Post

Betsy DeVos has become a punchline -- here's why Trump still keeps her around

Betsy DeVos has become a punchline -- here's why Trump still keeps her around

Betsy DeVos has become a punchline — here’s why Trump still keeps her around

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has become a punchline for late-night television hosts and “Saturday Night Live,” but she’s managed to stay alive in President Donald Trump’s political game of “Survivor.”

A recent Washington Post report took a deep dive into the benefits of the Trump cabinet official that revealed why the fraught appointment manages to hold, despite so much controversy.

DeVos is, at her core, an advocate of privatized and religious education that conservatives champion to help build a Christian army. She has fought tirelessly to undermine public schools by taking much-needed funds and passing them to costly private institutions.

“There’s an audience I play to, and it’s just an audience of one,” she said to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. “That’s a true north star.”

Trump’s lackluster “Christianity” has caused public flubs that makes his support from the evangelical community look like partisan hypocrisy. DeVos lends credibility to Trump’s faith claims. According to The Post, DeVos’s “deeply religious” beliefs help carry Trump among his base. Those voters continue to support him to the tune of 67 percent, according to the recent Washington Post/ABC News poll.

“He has staffed his administration and surrounded himself with people who have deep roots and street cred in the faith community. Betsy would be at or near the top of that list,” said Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed.

DeVos’s other benefit is about cold-hard-cash. The spouse of a billionaire has a long history of philanthropy and connections to old-money and deep-pockets among the elite Trump has few relationships with.

She’s managed to succeed where other right-wing education policy-makers have failed, in large part because Trump has no idea about public education and little interest in CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos has become a punchline -- here's why Trump still keeps her around

Charter schools nearly destroyed McDonogh 35. Now it will become one

Charter schools nearly destroyed McDonogh 35. Now it will become one

Charter schools nearly destroyed this New Orleans school. Now it will become one.
The first black high school in New Orleans, McDonogh 35, was a source of pride, until the chartering of the city’s schools after Hurricane Katrina contributed to its academic collapse. Now, the school board hopes turning it over to a charter organization can save it

NEW ORLEANS — The McDonogh 35 “Roneagles” were killing their opponents on the softball field. Junior Tye Mansion had just stolen a base, and her teammates in the dugout were going wild, chanting and taunting the other team. Tye’s mom Tyra Mansion was cheering her on behind home plate.

“That’s my superstar. That’s Hollywood,” she said.

Off the field, life was less glamorous for Tye this spring. She had taken and retaken the ACT, trying to get a score high enough to get into college, with a scholarship. Her mom said Tye’s school, McDonogh 35 Senior High School, wasn’t giving her the academic support she needed to improve her score, so Mansion had to go elsewhere for help — taking Tye to programs at the local university, and paying for private tutoring.

This story also appeared in WWNO

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“We may have to go five different places to get it, but we get it,” Mansion said.

McDonogh 35’s average ACT score was a 16.1 last year. That’s well below the national average, of 20.8 and not nearly high enough to get into most colleges. It’s a stark contrast to when, 15 years ago, McDonogh 35 students posted some of the highest test scores in the district. The century-old high school — the city’s first public school for black students — boasted alumni who went on to become mayors and judges.

Then Hurricane Katrina hit. McDonogh 35 was one of the few schools that weathered the storm mostly intact. It was the onslaught of charter schools that followed that contributed to the school’s near collapse in academics.

As school after school became chartered in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, McDonogh 35 High School remained under district control. Money and attention turned to the new, privately run schools. Teachers, resources and programs for McDonogh 35 disappeared. The school, once a selective magnet, became a last-resort school for some of the city’s most vulnerable students. Alumni of the historic black high school accused the school district of CONTINUE READING: Charter schools nearly destroyed McDonogh 35. Now it will become one

“Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

“Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

“Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools

More writers, commentators, and researchers are increasingly reminding the public that a large number of democrats at all levels of government have long supported and promoted privately-operated charter schools that annually siphon billions of public dollars from thousands of over-tested and vilified public schools.

The oft-repeated myth that the privatization and destruction of public education has always largely been “a Republican thing” or “a right-wing thing” is slowly dissolving. It was always a fairytale. Just like the widely-rejected No Child Left Behind Act, and its much-worse successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act, nonprofit and for-profit charter schools continue to have bipartisan support: both parties of the rich support these “free market” schools plagued by corruption, discriminatory enrollment practices, low transparency, high teacher turnover rates, intense controversy, and a high rate of failure and closure.

Some Democrats here and there have broken ranks and come out opposing, or at least criticizing, charter schools, but mostly to save face or to self-servingly incubate a specialized voting bloc for themselves in a discredited political system. The next few months will be revealing in terms of which democrats at different levels of government will represent the public will and have the courage to vocally oppose charter schools and unequivocally defend public schools instead.

Many are not holding their breath.

Pete Buttigieg is the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and one of almost two dozen 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Much of the mainstream media is touting him as a great progressive guy, a breath of fresh air, someone we might be able to get behind. But Buttigieg has unabashedly made it clear that he is not opposed to charter schools, repeating worn-out disinformation like charter schools are laboratories of innovation others can learn from.

Beto O’Rourke, another young Democratic presidential candidate (from Texas) who is also receiving many glowing reviews from the mainstream CONTINUE READING: “Progressive” 2020 Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Who Support Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Betsy DeVos Gave This Charter Chain $225 Million. It Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Gave This Charter Chain $225 Million. It Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test | Diane Ravitch's blog

Betsy DeVos Gave This Charter Chain $225 Million. It Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test

Betsy DeVos recently gave $116 million to the IDEA charter chain, mostly to expand in Texas. Previously, she had already given millions to IDEA, altogether this lucky business has received $225 million in federal funds.

In El Paso alone, IDEA will open 20 new charters. That’s bad news for the El Paso public schools, because IDEA is known for pushing out the kids it doesn’t want and sending them back to the public schools, which will have to slash their budgets to adjust to lost enrollment.

Veteran Texas educator Tim Holt says that this IDEA invasion doesn’t pass the smell test. Parents and taxpayers are being fooled. He wrote this before DeVos gave IDEA its latest plum, $116 million.

“In the next few years, IDEA plans to increase from one school today in El Paso to over 20, making them larger than either the Anthony, Canutillo, San Eli, Fabens, or Clint ISD’s in terms of number of campuses. (“IDEA’s big goal is to serve 100,000 students by 2022” in Tejas according to the IDEA website.

“That would make them larger than Ft. Worth or Austin ISDs, which each have about 88,000 students each.) Of course, local districts are concerned because they get CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Gave This Charter Chain $225 Million. It Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test | Diane Ravitch's blog

National Average Teacher Salary Down 4.5% - NEA Today

National Average Teacher Salary Down 4.5% - NEA Today

National Average Teacher Salary Down 4.5%

Amber McCoy, a fourth grade teacher at Kellogg Elementary in Huntington, West Virginia, has 16 years’ experience under her belt, but still makes just $44,000 a year. She also has about $40,000 left in student loans to pay off. McCoy has worked as a tutor, pet sitter, and Amazon customer service rep to make ends meet.

In February 2018, she decided enough was enough and joined thousands of her fed-up colleagues across the state in launching a successful nine-day work stoppage.

“[It] was our last resort, but it raised public awareness about persistent low pay,” McCoy says.

The average salary in West Virginia is $45,642, one of the lowest in the nation. The national average teacher salary, adjusted for inflation, has decreased 4.5 percent over the past decade, according to NEA Ranking of the States 2018 and Estimates of School Statistics 2019, released this week.

“Across the nation educator pay continues to erode, expanding the large pay gap between what teachers earn and what similarly educated and experienced professionals in other fields earn,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García.

“Educators don’t do this work to get rich, they do this work because they believe in students. But their pay is not commensurate with the dedication and expertise they CONTINUE READING: National Average Teacher Salary Down 4.5% - NEA Today

Frank Biden, His For-Profit Charter Chain, Mavericks in Education, and More | deutsch29

Frank Biden, His For-Profit Charter Chain, Mavericks in Education, and More | deutsch29

Frank Biden, His For-Profit Charter Chain, Mavericks in Education, and More

NOTE: This post is not an indictment of Joe Biden. it is an investigation into the charter school association of his brother, Frank Biden. I have seen info on social media regarding Frank Biden’s for-profit charter school involvement, but the info is old. So, I investigated.

Joe Biden is not involved, but his brother has time and again capitalized on the “my brother Joe” name-dropping, including in his charter school ventures.

As for Joe Biden: Like all presidential hopefuls, he needs to offer the public a clear statement regarding his position on K12 public education, including clarity about his thoughts on school choice.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Frank Biden is the brother of former US vice president and 2020 presidential hopeful, Joe Biden.

In 2008, Frank Biden was passionate about charter schools, enough so to become involved with the Florida for-profit charter school chain, Mavericks in Education.

In the 2012 youtube video interview below sponsored by Florida-based, school choice promoter, Tripp Scott law firm, Biden refers to a chance meeting with someone associated with charter schools in Florida. That someone was Mark CONTINUE READING: Frank Biden, His For-Profit Charter Chain, Mavericks in Education, and More | deutsch29

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part V | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part V | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part V

Star Wars fans know that Episode 5 — The Empire Strikes Back, was the best of the Star Wars saga.  And of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the most famous is surely his fifth.  Likewise, of the seven episodes of Startup’s podcast about Success Academy, the fifth (found here) is the most powerful and the most important.

To say that this episode has the ‘smoking gun’ would be an understatement.  This episode has not just the smoking gun, but a video of the culprit firing that gun.  I’m not sure why this episode hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.  Maybe because it is so many hours into the podcast and most people don’t listen to all the parts.  Or maybe there are so many Success Academy excuses and talking points weaved into all the other episodes that this episode just seems like a small blemish on a generally favorable portrait of the controversial charter network.  Whatever the reason, I’m hoping that people will take the time to listen to the whole podcast and to share it, along with my summary, widely.

This episode is entitled ‘Expectations’ and it explores whether or not the expectations Success Academy has for it’s students and for the parents of those students are something that the students and parents rise to meet or if they scare away potential families and families who struggle to keep up with those expectations.

They play a tape of Eva Moskowitz speaking to families who have been CONTINUE READING: Revealing Podcast About Success Academy — Part V | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

The Writer Who Couldn't Answer Standardized Test Questions About Her Own Work (Again)!

The Writer Who Couldn't Answer Standardized Test Questions About Her Own Work (Again)!

The Writer Who Couldn't Answer Standardized Test Questions About Her Own Work (Again)!

We are in standardized test season, and all across the country, students are taking the Big Standardized Test by which they, their schools, and their teachers will be judged. How absurd are these tests? Meet Sara Holbrook, the writer who couldn't answer test questions about her own work.

Back in 2017, Holbrook wrote an essay for Huffington Post entitled, "I Can't Answer These Texas Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems." The writer had discovered that two of her poems were part of the Texas STAAR state assessment tests, and she was bit startled to discover that she was unable to answer some of the questions.

One reason was simple inaccuracy. One question asked why the poet had inserted a stanza break in a particular spot-- and then didn't insert a stanza break in the testing materials. But there was a second issue. Holbrook is a performance poet, and she had inserted the break at the point where, in live readings, she pauses. That choice was not one of the choices available on the test.

In fact, much of Holbrook's issue with the questions was a sort of existential dilemma. Several questions asked, directly or indirectly, for the test taker to judge the author's intentions. The author knew some of her intentions, sort-of-remembered others, and had others that were layered and complex. But the manufacturers of the test--who had never asked her about any of this--provided only four choices that did not allow her to choose the answer that she knew to be correct.

Now, it's possible that Holbrook is such an angsty, tortured soul of a CONTINUE READING: The Writer Who Couldn't Answer Standardized Test Questions About Her Own Work (Again)!

enrique baloyra: FLORIDA TO BECOME MOST ANTI-IMMIGRANT STATE- YouTube

Florida to become most anti-immigrant state - YouTube

FLORIDA TO BECOME MOST ANTI-IMMIGRANT STATE

enrique baloyra

Heading into the final week of this year’s regular legislative session, and Florida lawmakers have pushed through most of the controversial measures we’ve discussed.
The senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a House bill that would deny the will of over five million Florida voters in restoring voting rights for ex-felons.
A bill by Miami Springs Rep. Bryan Avila is close to stripping public school teachers of the raises voters approved through local referenda. That omnibus education package with an unconstitutional voucher program creating a separate and unequal school system has a clear path to the governor’s desk. And the senate has approved a bill arming classroom teachers. No word yet on who’s going to pay for the insurance.
Most disturbing, Republicans in both chambers have passed a ban on so-called “sanctuary cities.” The Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald that “there is no such thing as a sanctuary city in Florida.” In fact, the Justice Department has found no evidence that local governments are withholding information from immigration authorities.
Supporters claim that what amounts to a family separation bill is actually about safety.
But critics say the measure is an excuse to harass and intimidate immigrant communities and a handout to the corporate prison industrial complex. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...

“In some Florida cities, police have already been documented mistreating immigrants and calling ICE and Border Patrol on people — a tactic not usually embraced by law enforcement because it deters witnesses from coming forward and victims from reporting crimes.” https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claims the bill is necessary because undocumented workers drive down wages. Too bad he and his buddies who control the legislature aren’t in any position to, say, raise the minimum wage.
An open letter signed by 44 Florida businesses and community leaders says immigrants “contribute to every sector of Florida’s economy, driving innovation, creating jobs and adding billions in tax revenue…”
Economists predict the impact on Florida could exceed $3.5 billion in losses.
The ACLU is warning that all travelers to Florida, “including U.S. citizens, may encounter racial profiling, unjust detention, [and even] deportation.”
And if you live here, just don’t speak in Spanish. At least not in public.

Florida to become most anti-immigrant state - YouTube

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Post-Easter Chill Edition (4/28)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Post-Easter Chill Edition (4/28)

ICYMI: Post-Easter Chill Edition 

In my neck of the woods, we figure that spring can't arrive until there has been a post-Easter snow. We appear to be working on tht today. So while we sip our hot chocolate of shivery bitterness, here are some current readings to absorb and-- please-- share!

Choice As A Substitute For Adequacy 

Did states deal with the Great Recession by expanding choice to cover their cuts to public education? School Finance 101 takes a look.

The X-odus Files

Tim Slekar has long believed (as do I) that there is no teacher shortage, but rather a nationwide slow-motion one-at-a-time walkout. And he's started collecting the stories as evidence.

School Districts Are Going Into Debt To Keep Up With Technology  

Cash-strapped districts are financing their tech programs with debt (which just makes the tech even more expensive). The Hechinger Report digs in  .

Tony Soprano Visits Tennessee Legislators

A look at the GOP assault on education and voting rights and oh, boy, is Tennessee a fun place right now.

For all the Talk About School Competition in Camden, Families Really Haven’t Had a Choice 

When choice turns out to be not choice at all.

Success Academy Podcast IV- Got To Go

Gary Rubinstein is listening his way through a podcast about Success Academy. It's not exactly hard hitting, but he finds some content worth talking about.

A Flippity-Do-Da Day In Tennessee

Momma Bears look at how Governor Lee slimed his way to passage of his assorted bills. This is not how it was described by Schoolhouse Rock.

How Is School Choice "Freedom" When Students Lose School Libraries and Librarians 

Nancy Bailey looks at one of the casualties of the school choice movement.

The Problem With Education Research Fixated on "What Works"  

 Rick Hess makes his contribution to the research wars, and it' a good one. Really.

An Ambitious Plan To Combat Segregation Just Made Things Worse

Dana Goldstein in the NYT looks at the San Francisco plan to desegregate and how it only made matters worse.

Who Should Pay For Public Education  

Nancy Flanagan answers the question, "So if philanthropists want to spend their money on education, what's the problem?"

Let Us March On 'Til Victory Is Won

Jose Luis Vilson is a poet of connections. Here we find Beyonce, testing season, and school spaces. 


CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Post-Easter Chill Edition (4/28)

Big Education Ape: CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/04/catch-up-with-curmudgucation.html

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION

Charter Lessons From Democracy Prep

63by Peter Greene / 1d

I was as unimpressed as anyone when education privatization fan Campbell Brown launched the 74 site as a platform for the same old "Charters schools rule, public schools drool" song and dance. But since that launch, and particularly since Brown stepped away from the site, the straight journalism side of the operation has done some commendable work (though the propaganda side is still frying up its

APR 26

Another Free Market Lesson

100+by Peter Greene / 2d

Even as Florida continues its race to become the first state to completely do away with public education and replace it with a free market free for all, lessons abound in why that's a lousy idea. This frickin ' guy. At Tarbell, Simon Davis-Cohen takes us on a trip to I owa where an ALEC governor privatized Medicaid. Former governor Terry Branstad was a founding member of the American Legislative E

APR 25

Is AI A Game-Changer For Education (International Edition)?

60by Peter Greene / 3d

Sometimes it's informative to see how some of this stuff is playing out in other settings. A post on Entrepreneur India makes the claim that " Artificial Intelligence Can be a Game-Changer for Education, Here are 5 Reasons Why " and its five arguments are, well, intriguing. The post is from Vishal Meena from the start-up MadGuy Labs , an Indian on-line test prep company that promises to prep you f

APR 24

Using Cultural Competency To Sell Personalized [sic] Learning

60by Peter Greene / 3d

Over at EdTechTimes, a site that for a consulting group that clearly is interested in pushing personalized [sic] learning, I found a podcast by Mariel Cariker entitled " Cultural Competency: Finding Ways To Bring Equity Through Personalized Learning. " (It is accompanied by a transcript.) The podcast is sponsored by TeachPlus. Like many of the arguments being used to push PL, it's an odd little mi

APR 22

Guest Post: The True Cost of College

200+by Peter Greene / 6d

I've known Beth Pfohl for years. She was a top student in my Honors English class, and years before that I cast her as Annie in our community theater production. When she was a senior, I installed her as editor of the yearbook. She's an exceptional human being. Beth is currently finishing up her college education at Miami of Ohio, and it is from that vantage point that she wrote the following pos

APR 21

ICYMI: Easter Edition (4/21)

73by Peter Greene / 7d

One of my favorite holidays is today, but whether you celebrate or not, here's some reading from the past week to feed your brain. Against Metrics: How measuring performance by numbers backfires . Not directly tied to education (though the subject comes up), this piece takes a look at the problems of people who think numbers are magical. If we don't work on pedagogy, nothing else matters . One of

APR 20

When Local Control Turns Toxic

100+by Peter Greene / 8d

I am a fan of local control for school districts, but I'm not going to pretend that under the wrong circumstances it won't produce some terrible results. EdBuild has just issued a report on a troubling phenomenon-- the secession of wealthy communities from larger school districts . This issue has been reported on before , but this is a report that collects instances of attempts across the nation.

APR 19

KY: DeVos, Bevin, Loving Vouchers, Hating Teachers

79by Peter Greene / 8d

Betsy DeVos took her Education Freedom Voucher Tour to Kentucky, and things went just about as well as you could expect. Secretary of Education DeVos has been crisscrossing the country in an attempt to sell her $5 billion voucher plan . Her latest stop was Kentucky, a state that has achieved a sort of choice limbo ; there's a charter law on the books, but the legislature has so far refused to fund

Creating More Defective Children

300+by Peter Greene / 8d

This has always been a dangerous side effect of educational certainty. If I'm absolutely certain that my program is awesome, my pedagogy is flawless, my materials are on point, and classroom is just generally perfect-- and yet some students are not learning-- well, there's only one possible explanation. The student must be defective. The defect effect appears to be cropping up in a new place. As r

APR 18

Why DeVos Doesn't Care About Charter Closings

100+by Peter Greene / 10d

During the recent House hearings, Betsy DeVos was confronted with some of the results of the Network for Public Education study of federal dollars going to charters, a huge number of which have closed or never even opened. She was unmoved : Let me first comment on the study you’re referring to. I’m not sure you can even call it a study. We’re looking more closely at it of course, and anything that

APR 17

The Charter Effect On Teachers

80by Peter Greene / 10d

Unions, we have been told, have a deleterious effect on teachers, forcing them to accept lousier deals than they could get in a free market where they each negotiated their own deals. In such a market, schools would compete for teachers, bidding up the salary offers. Teachers could negotiate from a place of strength. No teacher would ever want a union ever gain. I confess that there was a time whe

APR 16

Guns Headed For The Classroom

500+by Peter Greene / 11d

Of all the bad ideas. I know there are folks who believe in their heart of hearts that arming teachers will make schools safer, or that putting armed police in the building will be helpful. But there are so many bad signs. I want to believe that school resource officers can be helpful. Earlier this month, a school shooting was likely averted just up the road because students at the school felt com

Melinda Gates Achieves Peak Epic Cluelessness

500+by Peter Greene / 12d

Sigh. Melinda Gates seems like a nice lady who means well, but her recent interview at the New York Times Magazine is a master class in how living in a very wealthy bubble can leave you out of touch with the rest of the world and an understanding of your place in it. It starts in the very first paragraph. “There are absolutely different points of view about philanthropy,” says Melinda Gates, who,

CURMUDGUCATION