CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: End of the Yellow Brick Road Edition (10/10)
End of the Yellow Brick Road Edition
Final weekend of the balancing act that is doing live community theater during COVID. It's been a blast, but I look forward to getting my evenings back. In the meantime, I have some reading for you to wile away your Sunday afternoon (or whenever it is that you peruse this list).
Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge.
This story is so much worse than the headline suggests. It's a pro-publica investigative piece of events back in 2016. It's long, but it's the "if you read only one piece on this list" piece for the week.
New Chicago Public Schools CEO Must Address the Catastrophe of Student Based Budgeting
Chicago has a new schools boss, and Jan Resseger is hoping he'll get rid of SBB, the funding model that cements inequity while opening the door for voucher-style shenanigans.
Nice White--Resentful--White Parent Syndrome
Nancy Flanagan has noticed what lies behind much of the current panic over CRT+Everything.
In East Texas, Cleveland ISD Needed Money. The State Sent Charter Schools Instead.
In Texas Monthly, Bekah McNeel reports on the gazillionth example of a state using a local district's challenges not as a call for assistance, but as a marketing opportunity for charters.
Here's how education reform can support teachers instead of undermining them.
With an op-ed in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Gerald K. LeTendre makes a World Teacher Day pleas for help for teachers, and offers some specific recommendations.
Special Ed questions on charter school apps violate federal law, complaints allege
In Colorado, some parents believe that certain application questions are just a filtering mechanism. Chalkbeat has the story.
The Problem with Cute Kids
Janet Lansbury offers some thoughts about how cuteness can be used to minimize children.
Two WV fathers sue state officials over charter school laws
Well, this should be fun. West Virginia is just getting its charter sector up and running, and here come two dads with a lawsuit alleging the state's Charter School Board's ability to overrule local taxpayers is a big no-no.
Why the first Varsity Blues trial really matters
Who better than Akil Bello, writing at Forbes, to explain all the layers and issues in the trial of parents who played the system to get their unqualified children into the college of their choice.
Banned school books focus on sex and race because of parents, not students
Anne Lutz Fernandez writes at NBC Think about the curious phenomenon of book bans that never seem to focus on violence
CATCH UP WITH CURMUDGUCATION
PA: A Bad Teacher Transparency BillPennsylvania Republicans want to jump on the teacher transparency train, motivated no doubt by nothing but good thoughts and in no way pandering to the mob currently demanding that we root Evil Indoctrination out of schools. HB 1332 requires districts to post a bunch of instructional stuff on line; it has just passed the House, and will probably sail through the GOP-controlled Senate as well, but
OH: Protect Our Children From EverythingYou may have seen the opt out form floating around education-related social media, and it appears to have come from a special group in Ohio. Meet the Protect Ohio Children Coalition , "putting daylight on the darkness of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE), and Social Emotional Learning (SEL)." Their mission is stated plainly on the site Children have a legal right to an
OH: One More Push To Defund Public EducationOhio is once again making an effort to surpass Florida in its hostility to public education. This time, it's the Backpack Scholarship Program , yet another voucher bill intended to have tax dollars "follow the child" and not fund the public education system. This bill (HB 290) is the education savings account super-voucher approach, providing $5,500 for elementary and $7,500 for secondary student
A Handy Guide To SCOTUS, Schools, and the Wall between Church and StateWhen I first met Dallas Koehn, he was approaching the end of his rope with education in Oklahoma. Now he's in Indiana, but when he moved, he took with him a background in history, teaching, and consulting (imagine--hiring a consultant who actually works in a classroom). Koehn has been blogging for years at Blue Cereal Education , where he applies a nice combination of insight and sass. All of thos
The Missing School Choice ArgumentSometimes it's what people don't say that tells you a lot about their position. Proponents of school choice rarely-if-ever talk about one of the great obstacles to school choice. Private school admissions. For instance, private schools that explicitly or implicitly forbid LGBTQ students (and faculty). Or private schools that resist admitting students of color. Or private schools that have religio
ICYMI: Applefest Edition (10/3)Once a year, my small town closes the streets, brings in a ton of vendors, runs a whole passel of events, and calls it a festival, and it's pretty cool. Like the Harvest Homes of a century ago, it serves as a city-wide homecoming. It's not quite the same this year (the apple pancake breakfast was take-out only), but it's something. In the meantime, here's your reading list for the week. Fighting
PA: Another "Mom" Group Involved in School Board ElectionsToday PennLive reports that an Open Schools group is throwing big bucks into school board races in the state. Back to School PA is a PAC that intends to drop a ton of money all over the state to back school board candidates who
