Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/4/17
Featured PostHappy the 4th of July - The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's new grad requirements an 'empty gesture'
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's new grad requirements an 'empty gesture':
Rahm's new grad requirements an 'empty gesture'
With black and Latino youth unemployment in the city running at over 50% and the cost of college putting it of reach for most students, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has decided unilaterally, that kids without a job offer or college acceptance can no longer graduate from high school.
Oh yes, there's one exception to the new rule. Enlisting in the military can fulfill the graduation requirement. Chicago is now in position to become the nation's number-one military recruiter.
The ill-conceived and unenforceable plan now being imposed from above, without input from parents or educators, comes in the wake of Rahm's cutting hundreds of counselor positions throughout the district. Counselors are now reporting caseloads of up over 400. Morgan Park High School now has three guidance counselors and a college and career coach for about 1,300 students in grades seven through 12.
The Washington Post reports:
Rahm's new grad requirements an 'empty gesture'
| Jermiya Mitchell, 17, a rising senior at Morgan Park High School on the South Side, said she has had few interactions with her guidance counselor. “We never had that conversation about life after high school,” she said. “I would like to have a counselor that really wanted to know what I wanted to do after high school and would help me get there.” (Washington Post) |
Oh yes, there's one exception to the new rule. Enlisting in the military can fulfill the graduation requirement. Chicago is now in position to become the nation's number-one military recruiter.
The ill-conceived and unenforceable plan now being imposed from above, without input from parents or educators, comes in the wake of Rahm's cutting hundreds of counselor positions throughout the district. Counselors are now reporting caseloads of up over 400. Morgan Park High School now has three guidance counselors and a college and career coach for about 1,300 students in grades seven through 12.
The Washington Post reports:
Critics say Emanuel’s idea is an empty gesture that does nothing to address the fact that many teenagers are graduating in impoverished, violence-racked neighborhoods with few jobs, or that the most readily accessible community Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's new grad requirements an 'empty gesture':
Teachers' union considers hard line on charter schools
Teachers' union considers hard line on charter schools:
Teachers' union considers hard line on charter schools
Teachers' union considers hard line on charter schools
The USA’s largest teachers’ union is poised to take a hard line against charter schools, publicly funded but often privately run K-12 schools that now educate about one in 16 public school students.
Meeting in Boston this week, the National Education Association (NEA) is expected to vote Tuesday on an overhaul of its policy statement on charter schools. A policy statement is the highest-level position the union can adopt on an issue. Though it is 160 years old, NEA has policy statements on fewer than a dozen issues.
The new statement is NEA’s first since it took up the matter in 2001. At the time, charter schools were something of a curiosity: They were less than a decade old and enrolled around 571,000 students. The statement took a wait-and-see attitude, recommending that educators evaluate charter schools on a case-by-case basis.
Today, charter school enrollment tops 3 million, more than five times the 2001 total. The new statement, appended to a lengthy April 26 report from an NEA task force, says charter schools’ explosive growth has led to the rise of “separate and unequal systems of charter schools that are not subject to the same basic safeguards and standards that apply to public schools.”
Since the first charter school opened in St. Paul, Minn., in 1992, the sector has grown steadily. Last fall alone, more than 300 charter schools opened, says the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. More than 6,900 charter schools now enroll an estimated 3.1 million students.
Overall, about 50.4 million students attend public K-12 schools, federal statistics show. About 5.2 million attend private schools.
But a quarter-century after the first charter school opened, the movement is at a crossroads. Though it stands to grow even more under President Donald Trump, a few Teachers' union considers hard line on charter schools:
Public Schools and Freedom: A New Threat as We Celebrate This 4th of July
Public Schools and Freedom: A New Threat as We Celebrate This 4th of July:
Public Schools and Freedom: A New Threat as We Celebrate This 4th of July
Public Schools and Freedom: A New Threat as We Celebrate This 4th of July
I wish to dedicate this post to the woman I’m calling America’s librarian, Joan Kramer, who lost her battle with cancer last week. Joan fought for children, their libraries, and their schools, bolstering us with her strong but kind ways. I felt it was important to acknowledge her this 4th of July.
A hero and friend to us all, Joan was a fine activist and pursuer of social justice. Our hearts are heavy. We miss her. But I think the finest compliment to Joan, is to let her spirit live on in us, the best way we know how.
So, this one’s for you, Joan!
Public Schools: One of the Last Democratic Institutions in America!
On this 4th of July, when we celebrate America’s freedoms, it’s a perfect time to discuss our free public schools, and where we are with them when it comes to school reform. It’s important to understand that our public schools have a new threat, as I will explain below.
Public schools, with all their faults, are the only truly democratic institution we own “together” as a country. Our public schools open their doors to all children.
Teachers take on the challenge of working with the oppressed, the poor, immigrants, Public Schools and Freedom: A New Threat as We Celebrate This 4th of July:
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