Mike Klonsky's Blog: 4th of July Quotables

Mike Klonsky's Blog: 4th of July Quotables

4th of July Quotables

There are lots of good reasons to oppose and resist Trump's ultra-militarization and ultra-politicization of Independence Day, including the cost. But if cost is your only concern, chill out. It's a drop in the bucket when compared to using these same warplanes and tanks to invade or bomb other countries.

"The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam, 1967

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”
-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.”
– James Bryce

Langston Hughes

O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
-- Langston Hughes

"You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: 4th of July Quotables

Why an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass should be taught to students today - The Washington Post

Why an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass should be taught to students today - The Washington Post

Why an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass should be taught to students today
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” offers a window into slavery and the experiences of black Americans.

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” That’s the revelatory title of a speech that black statesman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered July 5, 1852, in Rochester, N.Y.

It is an oration that students should learn along with the history of how the Continental Congress, meeting July 2, 1776, in Philadelphia, declared independence from Britain and then on July 4 approved the document stating the reasons for the action.

[Five things you think you know about July 4 that are (mostly) wrong]

Douglass delivered the speech in Corinthian Hall to white members of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. He expressed respect for the country’s Founding Fathers, calling them “brave” and “truly great.” He compared the way they were treated by the British before independence to the treatment of slaves and urged them to view slaves as Americans.

(You may remember that on Feb. 1, 2017, President Trump made comments to honor Black History Month and spoke about Douglass as if he were still alive: “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.” Presumably, someone has told Trump by now that Douglass is long gone, although his work has always been appreciated.)

The Civil War was less than a decade away when Douglass gave this speech, in which he referred to Independence Day celebrations that took place the previous day:

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too — great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July!

The speech is a reminder of how enslaved Americans viewed the Fourth of July in the mid-19th century, and it continues to resonate today amid a renewed national discussion about reparations for slavery.

“It provides a different view of what that moment in history meant to hundreds of thousands of Americans; that black people are forgotten on CONTINUE READING: Why an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass should be taught to students today - The Washington Post

Jonetta Rose Barras on July 11 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

Jonetta Rose Barras on July 11 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

JONETTA ROSE BARRAS ON JULY 11 EDUCATION TOWN HALL

We are privileged to have as our guest in studio for the July 11 Education Town Hall Washington, DC, journalist and political analyst Jonetta Rose Barras. She will engage with Thomas Byrd, the show’s creator and host, on a wide-ranging discussion of the state of DC’s public schools. Listen at 11 a.m. EASTERN on Thursday, July 11, via TuneIn or by visiting We Act Radio and clicking on arrow at upper left (NOTE: Not all “listen” buttons are working at present). 

Jonetta Rose Barras is a New Orleans native and long-time DC resident whose acclaimed work has included investigative journalism, political commentary, three books exploring African American families and leadership, radio shows, and a column for the local news source, The DC Line. A trenchant observer of DC public education for decades, Barras has recently written about persistent underfunding of DC schools in the poorest wards of the city and DC charter school leaders ignoring the law. She also has a blog, The Barras Report, in which she explores topics of concern to DC residents.

Jonetta Rose Barras, photo from her website

The Education Town Hall with Thomas Byrd
broadcasts from Historic Anacostia
in Washington, DC, on We Act Radio,
Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. Eastern
New programming 2nd and 4th Thursdays, alternating with classic shows.
Listen live via TuneIn.
Shows are archived for convenient listening shortly after broadcast.

After years of weekly broadcasts, the program now focuses one show each month on local issues and one on “the BUS,” organized by BadAss Teachers, United Opt Out, and SOS March.

Jonetta Rose Barras on July 11 Education Town Hall – Education Town Hall Forum

CURMUDGUCATION: When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

CURMUDGUCATION: When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

As noted earlier this week, the Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that could blow a hole in the wall separating religion from public schools. Lots of folks are salivating at the prospect, from hard-core libertarians to the Dominionist folks who think the church should take back the school system.

So let me say again what I have said many times before-- if the wall separating church and state comes down, people of faith will rue the day.

June provided an example of exactly why rue-age will ensue. The Kenai Peninsula Borough council decided it would try to work its way around the establishment clause since, like many local government bodies around the country, it really wanted to get some prayer into its meetings. But not just any prayer-- so they whipped up a policy saying that only chaplains serving in the military, law enforcement agencies, or representatives of local established religious organizations could offer a pre-meeting prayer. The Alaska Superior Court, because they've read the Constitution and are not dopes, ruled that policy unconstitutional. The board tried to broaden its policy, feeling the heat from an atheist, a member of the Satanic Temple and a representative of the local Jewish community. They were unsuccessful.

And that's how members of the council and the public ended up walking out on their own meeting CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: When The Wall Of Separation Comes Down

VALERIE JABLOW: Seeing Stars | educationdc

Seeing Stars | educationdc

Seeing Stars

Last week, on a broadcast of the local (and live!) radio show Education Town Hall, educators from Anacostia High School talked about the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools and connected it to the school’s history and future. As Anacostia HS has only 1 star in our new STAR rating of DC’s publicly funded schools, part of that future includes working with DCPS on a plan of action.

Anacostia HS psychologist Dr. Byron McClure noted that the STAR rating is particularly difficult for his school, as some students read at a 5th grade level when they enter. Thus, no matter how well Anacostia educators work with those students over the course of four years, with no growth measure for high schools in the rating, student growth simply doesn’t exist unless and until those students score well on PARCC.

Despite public outcry, our STAR rating is mainly (70%) based on test scores. Like other public schools in DC, Anacostia HS also struggles with the other measures in that rating, mainly attendance, suspensions, and re-enrollment rates.

For instance, during a January 31 council hearing on attendance, council member CONTINUE READING: Seeing Stars | educationdc

FINALLY DESEGREGATED PUBLIC EDUCATION- THE BEST REPARATION - Perdaily.com

FINALLY DESEGREGATED PUBLIC EDUCATION- THE BEST REPARATION - Perdaily.com

FINALLY DESEGREGATED PUBLIC EDUCATION- THE BEST REPARATION

The Civil War ended in 1865 with the occupation of the South by Northern troops, which established a Reconstruction plan to try and dismantle the South's several centuries old culture founded on slavery and the institutionalized legal inferiority of African Americans. One of the proposed mechanisms to supposedly try and integrate Blacks into a reinvented Southern society was the proposal to give all ex-slaves 40 acres of land and a mule to make them econmically self sufficient. Regrettably, it never came to pass or things might be very different today.

In the presidential election of 1876, although Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat from New York, beat Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican from Ohio in the popular vote (50.9% to 47.9%), Hayes was nonetheless declared president in a shady deal memorialized by the Compromise of 1877, where Hayes was elected president by the electoral college through the key support of 4 Southern states. This Southern electoral college support was garnered by Hayes agreeing to support the Compromise of 1877, that called for the removal of all federal troops from the South. And with the removal of these troops came the re-institutionalization of Black second-class citizenship, which was given an anchronistic reprieve that even the civil rights movement of the much later 1960s and beyond has yet to dislodge from the South and elsewhere in the United States. Black Americans are still waiting to be given the equal opportunity that even immigrants, who came to this country hundreds of years after them, have been CONTINUE READING: FINALLY DESEGREGATED PUBLIC EDUCATION- THE BEST REPARATION - Perdaily.com

Charter School Advocates Try to Downplay Growing Opposition to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Try to Downplay Growing Opposition to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Try to Downplay Growing Opposition to Charter Schools

Prominent charter school advocates are understandably shaken and worried about the growing tide of opposition to privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools that have been wreaking havoc across the country for nearly 30 years. Charter school supporters are speaking out more in hopes of saving these deregulated and segregated schools that often perform poorly and foster corruption.

“We’ve seen this kind of resistance before, it’s no big deal” is the general refrain issued by worried charter school advocates. “Yes, we are experiencing some troubled times and blowback right now, but it is not unusual and it will eventually pass” is another variation of this revealing refrain.

Charter school promoters know that the charter school sector, which has never been grass-roots in any way, shape, or form, is in trouble. But advocates of pay-the-rich schemes like privately-operated charter schools are too dogmatic and profit-focused to see the wood for the trees. Objectively, they are unable and unwilling to come to terms with the fact that people do not want education privatized and turned into a consumer good subject to the chaos, anarchy, and violence of the “free market.” People want fully-funded public schools under public control, completely free of the destructive influence of wealthy private interests.

Opposition to privately-operated charter schools is real, strong, growing, and irreversible. Individuals, organizations, and states across the country are taking real steps to rein them in. Worn-out platitudes, one-liners, lies, and absurd statements about these “innovative” schools that treat education as a business increasingly hold less sway.

Shawgi Tell is author of the book Charter School Report Card. He can be reached at stell5@naz.edu.. Read other articles by Shawgi.

This article was posted on Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019 at 5:39am and is filed under Charter Schools, Education.

Charter School Advocates Try to Downplay Growing Opposition to Charter Schools | Dissident Voice

We asked every Democratic candidate for president about desegregating schools. Here’s what they told us.

We asked every Democratic candidate for president about desegregating schools. Here’s what they told us.

We asked every Democratic candidate for president about desegregating schools. Here’s what they told us.

When California Senator Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden on his past opposition to school integration programs during a Democratic primary debate, she started a conversation few candidates seemed interested in having.

Although many of the 2020 field’s 25 Democratic candidates have put out some education policy ideas, few of them have emphasized integration. Harris, for her part, has focused on boosting teacher salaries and adding billions for teacher training.

The lack of emphasis on integration is not surprising, says Brett Gadsden, a Northwestern history professor who has written about three decades of school desegregation efforts in Delaware, including the role of former Vice President Biden.

“I think too often we are constructing him as a kind of anomaly in Democratic party politics in the 1970s forward, when I think there is a consensus among Democrats and liberals that school segregation is kind of a social fact,” he said. “No one has picked up the ball and attempted to advance a concerted challenge to that problem in American education today.”

So Chalkbeat asked the candidates where they stand on school desegregation and on the debate about busing. We compiled what they’ve said or done on the issue in the past, too.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet told us that he believes busing for desegregation can be helpful, but isn’t sufficient. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s campaign said “we should consider every tool at our disposal” to desegregate schools. And a spokesperson for former Representative Beto O’Rourke said that he “absolutely believes that the federal government has a responsibility and a role to play” in desegregation efforts.

Few offered details, though. We’ve listed the candidates in the order of their recent CONTINUE READING: We asked every Democratic candidate for president about desegregating schools. Here’s what they told us.

Carol Burris Responds to Charter Industry Critique of NPE’s “Asleep At the Wheel” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris Responds to Charter Industry Critique of NPE’s “Asleep At the Wheel” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris Responds to Charter Industry Critique of NPE’s “Asleep At the Wheel”

Last March, the Network for Public Education released a report written and researched by Carol Burris and Jeff Bryant, titled Asleep At the Wheel. It reviewed grants awarded by the federal Charter Schools Program and found that about a third of the grants went to charters that either never opened or closed soon after opening. It also reported that the CSP administrators did not conduct due diligence reviews and were basically handing out money without careful review. The report was cited by members of Congress when questioning Betsy DeVos. Burris has continued to release state reports on federal CSP awards, and she has found several states where the failure rate was 40%.

As you can imagine, the rightwing charter supporters were not happy. They responded not by calling for greater accountability and transparency by the charters, but by attacking the report! The critique was written by an employee of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. This is the organization that just honored Fernando Zulueta, who runs a highly political for-Profit Charter empire in Florida and amassed a real estate portfolio of more than $100 million.

Carol Burris responds here. 

All the links are included.

Carol Burris Responds to Charter Industry Critique of NPE’s “Asleep At the Wheel” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Neoliberalism Undermines the Common Good by Promoting Vouchers and Charter Schools | janresseger

Neoliberalism Undermines the Common Good by Promoting Vouchers and Charter Schools | janresseger

Neoliberalism Undermines the Common Good by Promoting Vouchers and Charter Schools

When you read about “neoliberalism,” do you clearly understand the term and what people mean when they talk about neoliberal education reform?  It is confusing because “neoliberal” is used to describe policies we typically think of as politically conservative, while political liberals are the people we think of as supporting programs typified by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.  How is it that we call the people who support school privatization through vouchers and charter schools “neoliberals?”

For those of us who are not political theorists, Robert Kuttner simply and clearly defines“neoliberalism.” Kuttner is the  co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and a professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. Kuttner hardly touches on the specific area of neoliberalism as it applies to public education, but his precise definition is invaluable for clarifying our thinking. “It’s worth taking a moment to unpack the term ‘neoliberalism.’ The coinage can be confusing to American ears because the ‘liberal’ part refers not to the word’s ordinary American usage, meaning moderately left-of-center, but to classical economic liberalism otherwise known as free-market economics. The ‘neo’ part refers to the reassertion of the claim that the laissez-faire model of the economy was basically correct after all. Few proponents of these views embraced the term neoliberal. Mostly, they called themselves free-market conservatives. ‘Neoliberal’ was a coinage used mainly by their critics, sometimes as a neutral descriptive term, sometimes as an epithet. The use became widespread in the era of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.”

Kuttner traces the history of neoliberalism: “Since the late 1970s. we’ve had a grand experiment to test the claim that free markets really do work best… (I)n the 1970s, libertarian economic theory got another turn at bat…  Neoliberalism’s premise is that free markets can regulate themselves; that government is inherently incompetent, captive to special interests, and an intrusion on the efficiency of the market; that in distributive terms, market outcomes CONTINUE READING: Neoliberalism Undermines the Common Good by Promoting Vouchers and Charter Schools | janresseger

Hostile Takeover 2.0 – redqueeninla

Hostile Takeover 2.0 – redqueeninla

Hostile Takeover 2.0

Charter schools in California band together as an embattled group, agitating for hostile takeover of the Public Commons. They serially convene, dissolve and reform a plethora of working groups to bombard public schools with “messaging” and disinformation.  The groups as well as charters themselves of course, drain resources from schools, necessitating capital (monetary and human) defending what should be protected by the people, for the people.

One of these itinerant ideologues is Ben Austin, founder of the “Parent Trigger”, who in 2014 resigned from his astroturf group to foment a new one, Kids Coalition. A collection of emails made public by the municipal-transparency site michaelkolhaas.org uncovered a set of strategies developed among this cabal, reported by Howard Blume at the LATimes here and here.

The collusion, as one of them explains elsewhere, is “all about the messaging”. And the message revealed in aggregate over 5000+ emails, lays out a very stark code-shift. The catchy phrase, “kids first”, is a logical fallacy. Iterated unceasingly by charter advocates, it simultaneously casts aspersions on a presumed alternative (‘a time or place when kids were not first’) even while kids in schools have always been “first”. But consistent with the ideology of long-standing and now charter-mega-funders Koch and Walton (among others), that term “kids first” effectively codes for “anti-union”. Because if formerly it were true that kids were not first, it would be the fault of the system that transposed their status, their teacher’s union. ‘If the proper order of kids is not upheld, it must be the fault of their teachers’ is the sly message.

Likewise there is a constant drum-beat against “bureaucracy” and “adult issues” CONTINUE READING: Hostile Takeover 2.0 – redqueeninla

Parent Sues over New Orleans Charter High School Grade-fixing Fiasco | deutsch29

Parent Sues over New Orleans Charter High School Grade-fixing Fiasco | deutsch29

Parent Sues over New Orleans Charter High School Grade-fixing Fiasco

A New Orleans charter high school operated by New Beginnings Schools, John F. Kennedy High School at Lake Area, is in the throes of a grade-fixing scandal that has resulted in at least 92 out of 177 (that’s 52 percent) of its Class of 2019 deemed ineligible to graduate after all.

One of the consequences of this collosal display of the ineptitude in overseeing New Orleans charter schools is that the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) superintendent Henderson Lewis has made the post-scandal decision to audit the student records of all New Orleans high schools.

Lewis has also asked the Louisiana’s inpector general to conduct a criminal investigation into Kennedy’s grade-fixing mess.

I wondered how long it would take for parents of Kennedy seniors to sue. Well, I need not wonder any more.

According to nola.com, on Monday, July 01, 2019, Darnette Daniels, the parent of a Kennedy senior who participated in Kennedy’s graduation ceremony then discovered she was not eligible to graduate, Tayler McClendon, did just that. On behalf of her daughter, Daniels is suing the State of Louisiana, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), OPSB, New Beginnings Schools Foundation, and TenSquare, LLC, a charter school support organization involved in the management of Kennedy.

One can view the 14-page lawsuit here: Daniels-v-New-Beginnings;

Daniels’ lawsuit details the chaos at Kennedy, including its impact on her CONTINUE READING: Parent Sues over New Orleans Charter High School Grade-fixing Fiasco | deutsch29

Success Academy (Again) Takes — And Bombs — The Algebra II Regents | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Success Academy (Again) Takes — And Bombs — The Algebra II Regents | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Success Academy (Again) Takes — And Bombs — The Algebra II Regents

Last year I wrote about how the top charter chain in New York City, Success Academy, only managed to have three students get between 52% and 72% of the questions correct on the Algebra II Regents.

In New York State, the standardized end of the year exams for high school are called ‘The Regents.’  In math there are three Regents:  Algebra I is for 9th graders (or advanced 8th graders), Geometry is for 10th graders (or advanced 9th graders), and Algebra II is for 11th graders (or advanced 10th graders).  To get a diploma you only have to pass Algebra I, but to be ‘college ready’ you generally take the other two courses and, depending on what year you complete Algebra II, you take precalculus and possibly AP Calculus.

Success Academy is known for their Grades 3-8 ELA and Math test scores, but up until recently they weren’t taking the Regents at all, for unknown reasons.

In today’s New York Post there was an article about how 100% of the eighth graders from Success Academy Bronx 2 scored a level 5 on the recent Algebra I regents.  As this has been celebrated by various charter cheerleaders on Twitter, I wanted to give my analysis of this event.

First of all, there is a generous curve on the Algebra I Regents where 31% correct curves up to a 65.  For the higher scores, it is less generous, but still to get an 85 which is a level 5, CONTINUE READING: Success Academy (Again) Takes — And Bombs — The Algebra II Regents | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Bernie Sanders Takes a Sledgehammer to Student Debt

Bernie Sanders Takes a Sledgehammer to Student Debt

Bernie Sanders Takes a Sledgehammer to Student Debt

Bottom line is we should not be punishing people for getting a higher education. It is time to hit the reset button.”
– Bernie Sanders

Americans currently have about $1.6 Trillion in outstanding student loan debt. This has crushing consequences for our economy as some debtors struggle to pay off these loans in a job market where income growth barely keeps up with inflation. Unlike Trump’s businesses that were able to take advantage of bankruptcy six times, those with student loan debt cannot have their loans discharged. They tried to finance the American Dream and are now stuck in a nightmare that they cannot escape.

Bernie Sanders has become the latest Democratic presidential candidate to propose a plan to help those who are struggling with their student loan debt. Unfortunately, this plan overshoots the target by eliminating all debt. The relief is not subject to an income test so that everyone will be helped, regardless of need. It also makes no differentiation between debt incurred at a community college or at an overpriced private university. Without narrowing the focus, this plan is the financial equivalent of using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.

The other flaw in the plan is that it does not take into account those who made sacrifices to avoid the debt in the first place. Parents who CONTINUE READING: Bernie Sanders Takes a Sledgehammer to Student Debt

Who is Choosing Who? A Charter School Places Barriers to Entry

Who is Choosing Who? A Charter School Places Barriers to Entry

Who is Choosing Who? A Charter School Places Barriers to Entry

“This is a conditional admission practice contrary to the law requiring charter schools to admit all who wish to attend.”

- LAUSD Charter School Division

When the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Charter School Division recommended that the school board deny the North Valley Military Institute’s (NVMI) charter renewal in 2017, they cited the school’s requirement that “[a]ll students enrolling in NVMI must successfully complete an Entrance Camp” as one of the reasons. The district bureaucrats found that this requirement amounted to “a conditional admission practice” and, therefore, violated the provisions of “the law requiring charter schools to admit all who wish to attend.”

Since 2011, Granada Hills Charter High School has included a requirement that all students attend a “Summer Transition Academy (STA) as a graduation requirement for all students.” The school’s enrollment documents state that “New students programmed into the 2019 STA session who do not report to or complete the STA will receive a grade of F”. Unlike NVMI, this requirement did not prevent the Charter School Division from recommending to the school board that they should approve the renewal of Granada’s charter when it came before them last year.

When asked why NVMI’s requirement was seen as a violation while Granada’s was not, the Charter School Division replied that Granada’s program “is not a CONTINUE READING: Who is Choosing Who? A Charter School Places Barriers to Entry

CURMUDGUCATION: Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

CURMUDGUCATION: Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

We have repeatedly seen examples of ed tech innovations that hinge on surveillance, and not just surveillance, but software to interpret what the surveilled data means.

This results in some huge promises. Here's software that says it will read student facial expressions and eye movements to determine if anyone is learning. Companies are lining up to tell you all about the social and emotional well-being of students. And in one of the finest examples of building mountainous conclusions out of data molehills, NWEA will now tell you how hard students are working and how well they're engaged, based on how long it takes them to bubble in a multiple-choice answer.

ProPublica and Wired decided to take a look at yet another piece of software that claims to be able to read hearts and minds both in schools and in a few other places as well. You will be shocked--shocked!-- to discover that this is yet another piece of tech that has big dreams but little to back them up with.

Sound Intelligence, a Dutch company that hopes to set up shop in Chicago, has some audio analytics it wants to sell you.

Sound Intelligence's patented sound classification solutions make security monitoring systems proactive, enabling early detection of potential incidents, swift intervention, and in many cases, prevention of further escalation.

Yes, in addition to more standard fare like gunshot detection and breaking glass detection, Sound CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Big Brother Is Listening (More Ed Tech From The Surveillance State)

NOT TO MENTION WATCHING