Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy–a retired educator who served as deputy commissioner of education for the state of Ohio- asks the question that is the title of this post. And he answers: What educational opportunities do charters provide that would not exist if there were no charters? Sometimes public school advocates say, “I don’t have a problem with charters, but…” A sh
Two charter schools in Memphis are breaking their ten-year contracts, leaving Memphis because of under enrollment. http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2017/03/27/heres-why-charter-operators-
I was a founding board member of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (now, Institute). It is a pro-choice organization. I opposed the decision to sponsor charter schools in Ohio, because I thought it was outside the work of a think tank. My ideal think tank would exercise independence in reviewing government policy and gain respect for avoiding doctrinaire conclusions. On that issues, I was out vote
“Closed by Choice” is an important report about what politicians have done to the children and communities of Chicago for the past 20 years. They have systematically defunded and closed public schools, offering various lame excuses, while opening well-resourced charter schools. The report can be found here . ” *Of the 108 new charter schools opened between 2000 and 2015, 62% of new charter school
Happily, the New York Times published an article saying that children need to move more . There is actual scientific research proving that immobility is not healthy. It is not healthy for adults but especially not for children, whose bodies are growing. Some nations, like Finland, realized this a long time ago, so students have recess and outdoor play after every class. Recess! Time to go outside
Last night, the blog passed the 30 million mark. That is the number of times that someone has opened a post. I started the blog at the end of April 2012. Five years. I have loved getting to know so many new people, if only virtually. I have spent five years learning about What is happening many districts and states. I have read every one of the nearly 400,000 comments you have left. I draw upon w
EDUCATION LAW CENTER NEW YORK APPEALS COURT ORDERS CUOMO ADMINISTRATION TO RELEASE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT GRANTS In a major victory for parents, a New York appeals court has ordered the State Division of Budget to immediately release over $37 million in improvement grants to 20 needy schools across the state. A year ago, the grants were frozen by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget Director, Robert Mujica
Fred Smith is a testing expert who worked for the New York City Board of Education for many years. In retirement, he volunteers for parent groups fighting to stop excessive and pointless standardized testing. The testing starts tomorrow across the state, and the State Education Department is pulling out all the stops to hinder, deter, and block the opt-out movement. The New York State Education D
The Trump administration continues to stack the federal government with radical right wing extremists. ProPublica reports that Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation will head the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to opposing the rights of transgender people, Severino oppose marriage equality and public funding of Planned Parenthood. “The Trump
Superintendent David Gamberg leads the schools of two adjoining school districts on Long Island, Greenport and Southold on Long Island. Gamberg has a holistic view of education. He believes in the full development of young children as happy, healthy, well-rounded people. He thinks that the arts are far more important than test scores. He wants the children to explore their talents. His schools ha
A while back, Ohio Governor John Kasich proposed that teachers should be required for recertification to spend time in a business so they could understand the real world. Sarah Guinn of The Athens “Messenger” reported that: “Some legislators responded by proposing the Get REALS Act (Governor’s Externship for Training of Realistic Expectations of Academic Leadership in Schools) which would require
Laura Chapman discovered the list of staff hired to work at the U.S. Department of Education. All of the appointments to date are political cronies of Trump or DeVos. None of the high-level positions, which require an ethics review, have been filled. No educators have been appointed to any position. Chapman writes: I have been trying to find out who is probably running the show at USDE. Here is a
Trump has put his son-in-law Jared Kushner, a 36-year-old real estate investor, in charge of streamlining the federal bureaucracy, drawing upon business ideas. At the same time, Kushner is Trump’s lead advisor on foreign and domestic policy and oversees relations with Mexico, Canada, China, and the Middle East. “President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping auth
This article reviews the many legal and political challenges that still face the Keystone Pipeline. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/legal-challenges-await-keystone-xl-pipeline-after-trump-grants-permit He said it would create thousands of jobs, but they are temporary construction jobs. Once the pipeline is completed, it will be run by 50 people, only 35 with permanent jobs. Environme
Usually a new presidency has a honeymoon period, a time of good feeling and high poll numbers. As they battle for their policies and legislation, their poll numbers change, for better or worse. Newsweek reports that Trump and his cabinet have very low approval ratings. The cabinet member with the lowest approval rating is Betsy DeVos at 34.5%. She is highly divisive because her agenda is unpopula
As the previous post noted, the Trump administration wants to eliminate the after school program, because it doesn’t raise test scores. Budget director Mick Mulvaney said the same thing about feeding children: it doesn’t raise their test scores, so why pay for it? Peter Greene was appalled . Is that the reason we feed children? To raise their test scores? “Well, we’ve all seen it by now: “There i
The Daily Signal is published by the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation. I am on their mailing list. In yesterday’s report, it congratulated Trump for proposing to eliminate federal funding for after-school programs because they harm children. They hailed the defunding of 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Based on a study published 10 years ago that found that participants in the progra
Jeff Bryant spells out the Big Lie embedded in Trump’s budget proposal for education. He plans to cut programs that directly aid poor kids while bolstering charters and vouchers, pretending they are equivalent. They are not. Yet much of the mainstream media has fallen for the Trump-DeVos bait-and-switch. “Public school supporters are angry at President Trump’s budget proposal, which plans to cut
The epicenter of New York’s historic test refusal movement is gearing up for a repeat performance when testing begins on Monday. The state is hoping that the introduction of computer-based testing will mollify parents but it shouldn’t. Numerous studies have shown that students get lower scores on computer-
