Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

9-18-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:




Bill De Blasio Praises New York City Teachers
The UFT officially endorsed Bill de Blasio today. Here is what de Blasio said about teachers at that announcement:"I just want to say humanly, personally, Charlaine and I have just the deepest appreciation for the dozens and dozens of teachers who took Chiara and Dante by the hand over the last 14 years and supported them, uplifted them, were there for them in so many ways," he said at t

Common Core Proponents Have Bright Idea To End Opposition To The Standards - Change The Name From "Common Core" To Something Else
Can't get any more Orwellian than this:Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction wants to take the politics out of the Arizona Common Core Standards without loosening any requirements of the state’s tough new academic program. On Tuesday, John Huppenthal said the term “Common Core” has become so politically charged it has become nearly impossible to explain the state’s new academic standards
De Blasio Gains Votes In Recanvass - He's Up To 40.88% Now
It looks like Bill Thompson has nothing to worry about - Bill de Blasio isn't looking like he's going to fall below 40%:The NYC Board of Elections has released updated results from last Tuesday’s Democratic primary following the recanvass of the old lever machines, and the outcome is more good news for Bill de Blasio.After the recount of roughly 5,100 voting machines and so-called “emergency” pape

Arne Duncan Is, As Usual, Full Of Crap
Lisa Fleischer at the Wall Street Journal:The next New York City mayor will take control of the nation’s largest school system. But don’t look to the U.S. Secretary of Education for guidance on which candidate would be best for the city’s 1.1 million public schoolchildren. “I haven’t followed it that closely,” Secretary Arne Duncan said of the mayor’s race in an interview Tuesday.Duncan famously s

Cuomo, Lhota Compadre On Charter Schools, Other Issues
So says our old ed deform friend and failed DFER candidate Basil Smikle:Smikle said Cuomo also is philosophically closer to Lhota than de Blasio on education issues, particularly on charter schools. For his part, de Blasio has proposed a moratorium on charters, which are publicly funded but privately run, and even supports charging them rent.“That would eviscerate the charter school movement,” sai

New York Daily News Gets Nearly EVERYTHING Wrong On Navy Yard Shooter Story
More classic DN journalism - just about everything wrong:The cover of Tuesday's New York Daily News about Monday's Navy Yard shooting is now almost entirely wrong.The cover features a large AR-15 gun with the headline "Same Gun, Different Slay," and a photo widely circulated on Monday of people tending to a man laid out on a Washington, D.C. corner.In a press conference Tuesday afternoon
Not The Fault Of Schools Or Teachers
From today's NY Times:WASHINGTON — Despite the addition of more than two million jobs last year, soaring corporate profits and continuing economic growth, income for the typical American household did not rise in 2012 and poverty failed to fall, new data from the Census Bureau show. “The poverty and income numbers are a metaphor for the entire economy,” said Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institutio
9-17-13 Perdido Street School
Perdido Street School: Lhota Campaign Launches First AdHere's the ad: And you can see the campaign pamphlet they've put out:Here's what's inside:In the mid-1970s, things were considerably rougher in the Big Apple—so much rougher that the Council for Public Safety (police, firefighters and other unions) had plenty of material to publish a scaremongering pamphlet called "Welcome to Fear City: A