Schools Matter:
Schools Matter All Week
In the August 30 NYTimes, Richard Kahlenberg and Halley Potter offer us a pipe dream of a high performing charter school world, one with diverse student populations and unionized faculty, where pedagogical innovation and shared governance are realities of everyday life. Sadly, Kahlenberg and Potter offer a thinnest sprinkle of evidence that either integrated or unionized charter schools are anyt
Sallie Mae has a long, dirty history (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) of preying on those dependent upon student loans for a college education. Recently, the dirty bastards spun off a company, which according to Forbes, is really the old, rotten version of Sallie Mae that we have come to hate:The new company which is being spun out – Navient – is equivalent to the old Sallie Mae. It
PBS Higher Ed Series Reeks of Gates and Lumina
from Pando DailyIt's easy to understand how PBS and NPR can remain commercial free, once you accept the fact that they are heavily sponsored by billionaires and their foundations who get their commercials worked into the news stories, themselves. Call it the latest in product placement.Over the past 8 years, NPR has received millions from the Gates Foundation to “to expand NPR education coverage
AUG 28
Hold Your Booing--Michelle Rhee Has Left the Stadium
One of the employees from Michelle First sent out an email to subscribers that included this observation:"In the end, Michelle’s critics weren’t demonizing her because they were horrible people."How true. The real reason is that Michelle is a horrible person! A farewell from Salon, with an assessment of Rhee's legacy.
Little Eva Moves to Wall Street
from Juan Gonzalez at the Daily News:Eva Moskowitz, the firebrand chief of the city’s fastest growing charter chain, isn’t just backed by Wall Street, she’s officially moved there — with Wall Street-type salaries to boot.Last November, Moskowitz, who for years boasted of opening her Success Academy Charter Schools in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, quietly shifted her corporate headquarters from
AUG 27
Lee County, Florida First to Opt Out Entire System From State Standardized Testing
Lee Schools made history Wednesday night when they voted to become the first school district in the state to opt out of all statewide, standardized tests.
"TeacherTown" Now Paying Charters Over $80 Million Per Year in Projected Enrollment Cash
Not only is Shelby County and the State coughing up over $80 million each year for corporate reform schools whose test scores are, for the most part, the same or worse than the schools they replaced, but almost $20 million of that is for enrollment that never materialized. In 2013-14, the profiteering charters over-estimated their enrollment to collect millions they use to make more. When they d
AUG 26
Economic Performance and Its Zero Correlation to Test Scores
The next time you hear one of the pencil-necked corporatists like Kevin Carey spew about our low test scores and competing economically, point him to this one chart and explain it to him.
The High Cost of Resegregation: Charters Cost PA Taxpayers Billions for Worse Test Results
Erica Frankenberg has some fascinating research on charter enrollement costs and resegregation via charter schools in Pennsylvania. Below are a three charts worth spending a few minutes on letting the data soak in. Bottom line: 1) charter schools are more segregative than traditional public schools (TPS) 2) charter schools have cost Pennsylvania taxpayer over $4 billion over 6 years (that's mor
Klein Doing Damage Control for Deasy While Selling His Own Tablet Solution
Ole McChoakumchild, himself, Joel Klein, had his media mothballs removed long enough this morning to go on CBS to pretend to defend "Dr." John Deasy's slimeware that he provided for Apple hardware and Pearson software to complete the Los Angeles IPad fiasco deal. What he was really for is to get Murdoch's Amplify tablets under the national spotlight. And what a salesman Klein is! A ra
AUG 25
Why Feinberg's Kids Will Never Go to KIPP
Corporate cult leaders, Mike Feinberg and David Levin, are their own biggest fans, and to prove it, they gave themselves 80 minutes onstage at the recent million dollar summit in Houston to answer some puffball questions for the KIPPnotized KIPPsters in the auditorium. Oops, someone got this embarrassing question through: Will you send your own kids to KIPP? At about 54:00 on the video, Levin be
Palm Beach School Board Member: "Sometimes It Takes An Act of Civil Disobedience to Move Forward--We Cannot Allow Fear to Hold Us Back"
Edited by Dr. Rich Swier, from Palm Beach School Board Meeting August 20, 2014:
AUG 24
Teachers Must Have Parents' Help to Protect Children from Testing Abuse
Read this if you are a parent or grandparent. And then act.
Bloomberg's Impoverished Poverty Eradication Plan
Since finally leaving his New York mayor's throne to someone far less princely, Mike Bloomberg is spending his time jetting around the world playing big shot with his bags of cash and, like all bullies, an unhealthy disdain for anyone who disagrees with him. These days he claims to be all about giving away all his dough before he dies, but if Forbes is right, Bloomberg obviously plans to live on i
AUG 23
What's It Worth to Jesse Register to Corporatize Nashville's Public Schools?
In June a corporate reform school outfit called STRIVE, which is headed by a former TFA cult member, had its application rejected unanimously by Metro's school board. With the help of CorpEd crony superintendent, Jesse Register, that all changed last week. From Joey Garrison at the Tennessean:. . . .STRIVE, a middle school, is cleared to open next fall, joining five other new charters already ap
KIPP Memphis Collegiate $230,000 In Debt to Shelby County As State Test Scores Crater
Today's Commercial Appeal reported in the print edition that KIPP Collegiate Schools owe Shelby County Schools $229,443.42 for overpayment based on KIPP's projected enrollment or for failure to pay teacher retirement benefits, utility bills, etc. to the County. There is no link because the story has been scrubbed from the Commercial Appeal website.Shelby County is asking the State "to allow
Marshall Tuck's staunchest supporters are unabashed Ayn Rand votaries
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." — John Rogers I'm frequently accused o
