On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King was in Memphis providing support and encouragement to 1300 African-American sanitation workers who had walked off their jobs in that city. His soaring prose repeats the mission that defined his life – the achievement of justice and equality for African-Americans which our constitution promised to each and every one of us. He made it
Jakes threatened to rouse “thousands” into marches to oppose the “chaos” the proposal would bring. One such march is planned Thursday from Beidler, at Walnut and Kedzie, to the Garfield
Truth be told, I'd completely forgotten that state transparency laws had changed last year, but apparently it's the anniversary of the changes -- and not everyone's happy with the changes: New public records law: Secrecy down, but not out Tribune: Attorney General Lisa Madigan has used her 
Group Protests CPS Consolidation Plan: More than 100 Chicago Public School parents and students spent Friday morning protesting the proposed closing and consolidation of 13 CPS schools... .Beidler backers fight talk of moving elementary Sun Times: Assistant Principal Tony Teague sits at a kindergarten table Thursday to show why Beidler is a poor fit for a charter school... Parents protest school closing plans: Tilton Elementary was yanked from the closings list last year after parents and the alderman protested. This year it's back on the... House approves Chicago charter school changes Tribune: Monique Davis, D-Chicago, who opposes charter schools, contended she had "trouble with" the legislation because so many suburban and Downstate Republicans ginned up support for a bill addressing CPS without consulting city lawmakers... CPS cracks down on kids who start kindergarten late Tribune: The move is angering parents who have held their kids back because they weren't quite ready for kindergarten. CPS says the move is to make sure kids competing for positions at top schools are on a level playing field... MORE NEWS BELOW Simeon junior to be honored as DuSable's 'Rising Star' Sun Times: He's an athlete. He's an actor. He's an entrepreneur. He's been named to the advisory team of Chicago's new mayor..Chicago pupils embrace Arabic class The National: So successful has the Arabic language programme in the CPS been, the four-year-old scheme has already expanded from being offered at three schools citywide in 2007, to 10. An eleventh school is piloting an online course that ... High levels of lead found in air outside Chicago school: Monitor readings of lead pollution prompt investigation by federal, state environmental regulators... Ind. GOP pushes bigger school voucher program Associated Press: Indiana's Republican leadership is pushing ahead with a proposal that would be the nation's broadest use of school vouchers, allowing even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools... School Official Finds Retirement Is Just A Higher Pay Grade: The practice of retiring and then going right back to the same job is restricted under Arizona law, but commonplace because of loopholes... More districts looking at nontraditional candidates to lead schools ... Philly Inquirer: That's what Philadelphia did when it hired Paul Vallas, said a city schools spokesman. Vallas was Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's budget director before he was appointed to lead the Windy City's schools. In New Jersey, where there is no waiver process, ... A Pioneer of Music for Children Is Still Inspiring CNC: Ella Jenkins largely invented the children's-music genre in the 1950s, and at 86 she is still writing, performing and, not surprisingly, being honored...
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| In D.C., starting the march to Koch Industries. |
How to tell that things are really going badly for Michelle Rhee during the next few days? There are two main signs -- none of which involve her critics weighing in gleefully and predicting her downfall as they have been doing for several days now. The first is a flurry of quotes and comments from funders and paid cheerleaders (Broad, Gates, Duncan, Rotherham) saying that she's doing a "great job" and has a lot to offer American education. That's usually the sign that (a) reporters think there's blood in the water and are pressing hard for comments and (b) supporters think that there's something serious enough going on that they have to pipe up. Otherwise they would just ignore, emailing and texting among themselves instead as they were doing all last week. The other sign that 
Rutgers' Bruce Baker, at School Finance 101, has been sounding the alarm that the low-income students served by charter schools in New Jersey are not as poor as the low-income students served by neighborhood schools. He cites the research of Gordon MacInnes showing that the gap in student performance between students receiving "free lunches" and "reduced lunches" can be as large as the difference between "reduced lunches" and affluent students. (After all, many teachers' kids could be eligible for "reduced lunches.") We have long known that the real education challenges come from intense
NY Times: KIPP charter schools receive more money than traditional schools and have a high number of African-American male students leave before reaching high school, according to a new study by Western Michigan University researchers.
Those factors led the researchers to question the success of
Deputy Education Secretary Tony Miller reads at a DC charter school
When one boy instead covered his page with fierce black scribbles, Principal Laura Bowen leaned over his shoulder and told him to stop. “I don’t want any more scribbles,” she said. “I want a story.”
Such encounters are part of the new frontier as D.C.’s thriving charter-school movement expands into early childhood programs, where per-pupil funding is higher and, advocates say, early intervention might lead to bigger gains in academic achievement.
LEAP is part of the nonprofit KIPP chain, which started with just one middle school in Houston 15
Why Martin Luther King Jr. Would Support the Public Worker Protests | 
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In this guest column, Martin Luther King III, president and chief executive officer of The King Center, explains why his father would be on the front lines today supporting public employees.
Forty-three years ago my father, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated while he was in Memphis, Tenn., supporting a strike of municipal sanitation workers. It was, in his eyes, more than a quest for a few more dollars in a paycheck. He saw the strike as part of the great struggle of his time—a struggle for democracy, for truth, for justice and for human dignity.
These are the same basic reasons that my father would be joining with millions of other Americans today in supporting public employees in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and other states, where collective bargaining is now under attack.
Martin Luther King Jr. would be marching for democracy: During the 2010 election campaigns in Wisconsin, the Republican candidate for governor did not honestly present his
Last week, the House passed a largely symbolic measure to reauthorize the District of Columbia school-voucher program. The measure is unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate and is opposed by the White House. The voucher concept is gaining ground among Republicans, however, as a way to promote more parental and local involvement in schools. The Indiana House passed a voucher bill a day after the vote on the D.C. voucher program, part of an education agenda being pushed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Opponents of vouchers, including the White House, say they are a poor use of taxpayer dollars and are not an effective way of improving student achievement. Americans United for Separation of Church and State says vouchers force taxpayers to subsidize religious schools.
That's the national debate on school choice. At the local level, people feel disconnected from the schools in their communities, according to a new study from the United Way. People say they want more community involvement in children's education, particularly by faith leaders; 86 percent of respondents said "faith communities need to play a greater role in helping children succeed."
Is the frustration with local schools explored by the United Way study a problem with the education system or with other community and socioeconomic issues? Are people happier with their community's schools if they have more alternatives? Are the concepts of school choice and community involvement intertwined? Or are they separate issues? How can communities boost local school activity without imposing a taxpayer-funded voucher system?
-- Fawn Johnson, NationalJournal.com
Posted By: Anthony Cody
To: Members in Save Our Schools: March and National Call to Action
The Superintendent Heard Round the World: John Kuhn
A few weeks ago a superintendent from the Perrin-Whitt School District in Texas took the mike at a Save Texas Schools rally at the Capitol building and issued a thundering call for justice for our students. You may have seen the video on YouTube or read his words here.
John Kuhn has spoken for so many of us, and his voice will be heard from the podium at the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC, on July 30th.
Next Sunday evening, we will hold a Save Our Schools conversation with this courageous Texas superintendent,
My guest is Peggy Robertson, who taught kindergarten, first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth grade in Missouri and Kansas for 10 years. She was hired by Richard C. Owen Publishers in 2001 to serve as a Learning Network coordinator and spent the next three years training teacher leaders and administrators in educational theory and practice in various states. In 2004 she became literacy coordinator for the Adams 50 School District in Westminster, Colorado. A version of this appeared onher blog, Peg with Pen..
This is an open letter to President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Bill Gates and other billionaires who have invested millions of dollars in support of business-driven education reforms.
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| April 4, 1968 |
RESPONDED ON APRIL 4, 2011 9:53 AM
School Choice: A Battering Ram
In the past, school choice advocates used to claim that competition would improve the local public schools, but they seem to have given up on that hope in light of Milwaukee's twenty years of vouchers. In Milwaukee, there has been no improvement in the Milwaukee schools and continued unimpressive results for students in voucher schools. So now choice advocates claim that school choice builds community. But communities of choice come at a high price, because they cause collateral damage to neighborhood schools.
The best way to build community is to strengthen neighborhood public schools. After all, children and families live in geographic communities, where services and problems are mutually experienced and affect everyone. Democracy begins in local communities, where neighbors have the opportunity to work together to improve their neighborhood and solve its needs.
Unfortunately, school choice programs today tend to shatter neighborhoods and to set neighbor against neighbor. In New York City, for instance, charter operators flood neighborhoods w...
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