Sunday, June 27, 2021

CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION + ICYMI: Warming Way The Hell Up Edition (6/27)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Warming Way The Hell Up Edition (6/27)


Warming Way The Hell Up Edition

The Institute is located right on the banks of the Allegheny River, which means while I'm sitting here baking I can at least look at water, but dang, it is unpleasant today. Not as unpleasant as it is out West. But I'm sure this is all just a momentary blip and nothing to be concerned about. In the meantime, here's a batch of reading from the week.

I oppose indoctrination, which is why I want schools to prove they are thinking acceptable things

Ordinarily I put the yuks at the end, but Alexandra Petri is a national treasure, and her take on Ron DeSantis new anti-wrongthink measure is exactly on point.

This critical race theory panic is a chip off the old block

Not sure how I missed this last week, but Gillian Frank and Friend of the Institute Adam Laats wrote a great piece for Slate showing the many times we have been here before.

Employers, don't blame the "skills gap" on workers

Or, for that matter, schools. Andre Perry and Anthony Barr write about a Philliy apprenticeship program that shows how it can be done.

PA should consolidate racetracks, not universities

Susan Spicka is the executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania. Here she takes a look at a plan to consolidate state universities and cut costs, even as legislators look to shore up horse racing. Because, for some reason, they think only one of those things has significant economic impact.

Platinum Equity Inks $4.5B Deal To Buy McGraw Hill

Your regular reminder that publishing is largely in the hands of people whose major interest is not publishing. 

Why Americans are so divided over teaching critical race theory

Better than average summation/overview of the current mess, from NPR. You can listen or read.

How mob attacks on social media are silencing UK teachers

It's not just here, if that's any consolation. The Guardian reports on how British Trumpism is making life miserable for teachers.

If Pittsburgh council really wants to help city schools, there's an obvious solution

Different cities have different local issues. In Pittsburgh, one issue is that the city has actually been taking a slice of the tax dollars that are supposed to go to schools. Steven Snyder explains. 

Take this job and shove it. Or change it.

Nancy Flanagan looks at the great post-pandemic employment reshuffle and considers what it means to teachers.

Supreme Court rules that Arkansas teachers pension were suckers to trust Goldman Sachs

Among SCOTUS decisions this round was one declaring that the Arkansas teacher pension system had no reason to trust the integrity of Goldman Sachs. Seriously. Fred Klonsky blogs about the story.

A new look at cyber charter balances

Public Citizens for Children and Youth just released a report about data showing that Pennsylvania's cyber charters are sitting in $74 million in reserves. Just some extra money they're banking for, well, because they can.

Religious freedom in America is protected for some more than others

As SCOTUS considers the right of religious folks to express their religion through state-funded discrimination, this op-ed from the LA Times points out some inconsistencies in how religious freedom tends to play out.

Why GPA tells us so much

In Psychology Today, an argument for why GPA is so much more valid a predictor of college success than SAT or ACT.

America's school teachers aren't the Marxist cabal Foix News keeps depicting

Anne Lutz Fernandez writes an op-ed for NBC THINK explaining just how radical US teachers really are.

The pandemic showed remote proctoring to be worse than useless

Cory Doctorow breaks down the abuses and more abuses of remote proctoring.

Never let a good crisis go to waste: Michigan Ed Reform edition

At Eclectablog, Mitchell Robinson looks at the same old problem of reformsters who may fail, but who never go away.

Illinois legislature begins to repair the damage of Chicago school reform.

Jan Ressefer has been tracking this stuff for a long time. Here's a capsule history of ed reform in Chicago, and what might happen to fix at least some of the damage.

The End of Friedmanomics

If only. But this piece in the New Republic made several conservatives sad, and it captures just how much damage Friedman has done, and why his ideas about education are toxic.

Literally, Seriously, and Institutional Integrity

I think Andy Smarick is wrong on a lot of education policy, but I also find him to be thoughtful and often a classic conservative, as opposed to whatever it is that conservatism has been replaced with. This piece is not short, but it's an attempt to explicate a whole world of truthfulness in rhetoric. 







YESTERDAY

CRT Warriors Are Coming For Individual Teachers
Anti-Critical Race Theory warriors are coming for schools, and for the teachers in them. In New York City, the group Free To Learn is spending millions of dollars on ad buys to target NYC schools (including some private ones) who are accused of indoctrinating children. The group says it supports the basic principle that students should be free to ask questions, develop individual thoughts and opi
NY: Buffalo's New (Probably) Mayor Knows About Charter Pushout
Buffalo, NY, primary voters tossed out a four-year incumbent in favor of India Walton, a nurse and self-identified socialist (as oppose to someone targeted with the S-word by cranky conservatives). Buffalo is a busy city for charter schools. It is where Carl Paladino put on a master class in how to use charter schools to make a profitable real estate empire . At one point he got himself elected t
Email subscribers reminder
Just a reminder that the old email subscription software is about to go bye-bye, and if you want to keep me popping up in your inbox, you'll need to re-subscribe using the new service. Just use the subscription box on the right. And if you've never followed by email before, consider it now. Quick, simple, and saves you clicking about.

JUN 24

FL: More Education Bigly Bad News (There Is No Bottom)
Florida continues to demonstrate that there is no bottom, absolutely no depth at which the legislature and their governor will say, "No way--that's just going too far." Having created a gag rule for shutting teachers up about All That Race Stuff, Current Governor and Future Heir To the Trump Presidential Crown Ron DeSantis just signed three more bills to clamp down on education and any nefarious

JUN 23

SCOTUS Backs F-bomb Cheerleader
Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the high school cheerleade r who had been suspended for out-of-school speech. Brandy Levy had made a Snapchat post after failing to make the varsity squad . So Saturday, from a convenience store, she posted a picture of herself flipping the bird captioned," Fuck school, fuck softball, fuck cheer, fuck everything." She was 14 and in a mood. And it was Snap

JUN 22

AI Wants To Take Your Order (Among Other Things)
Back in 2019, McDonald's acquired an AI company called Apprente , a company launched in Silicon Valley in 2017 with the singular goal of automating drive-through. That was the third tech company McD's got its floppy clown fingers on that year. The others were an app vendor and a personalization outfit. All of this fits into McDonald's apparent trend toward becoming a company of giant food vending

JUN 21

Is There Common Ground on Race and Education in Plain Sight
Back in May, Mike Petrilli, head honcho at the right-tilted Fordham Institute, proposed that when it comes to the current culture wars surrounding "critical race theory, “anti-racist” education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom," a common ground exists. As Petrilli's sub-head puts it, "five promising practices most of us can get behind, regardless of politics." Is it possible

JUN 20

Things My Father Taught Me
My father is in his mid-eighties and still plenty peppy. Still the smartest person I know. He and my mother celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last week. They got married the summer before she started a teaching job and before he started his senior year of college. One of his graduation pictures includes infant me. Who let those children get married? By the time he graduated, he had a soli
ICYMI: Father's Day Edition (6/20)
My father is in his mid-80s, not quite as spry as he once was, but still the smartest human I know. I have a lot more to say, but I just erased a humongous paragraph because I realized it just needs to be a separate post. So let's get on to the reading for this week. I will warn you up front that there's a lot of critical race theory stuff on the list this week, and you might want to skim and jus