Digging Into Our 'Disagreements' on Schools
What we need to start with is a consensus that schools have to raise kids alongside their families; they have to join together on behalf of building a generation of strong citizens. Read Full Post >
What we need to start with is a consensus that schools have to raise kids alongside their families; they have to join together on behalf of building a generation of strong citizens. Read Full Post >
When disaster strikes (like Sandy) we don't expect the police to volunteer their time, nor the firemen, nor doctors and nurses—although no doubt many do go above and beyond their obligations. But we do expect teachers to make up for the impact of poverty and austerity politics on schoolchildren. Read Full Post >
So, two years after passage of the parent trigger law in California, here are the results. Three other states have passed similar laws: Connecticut, Mississippi, and Texas. Not a single school in California or anywhere else has been turned into a charter. Read Full Post >
Is there any evidence that any of these changes will improve education? No, none whatsoever. Does the Jindal law follow the lead of any of the high-performing nations? No. Read Full Post >
Dear Deborah, Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of job protections and collective bargaining rights. Even some Democratic governors, seeing the strong ri... Read Full Post >
Does she really think that students will learn more if their teachers live in fear? How can she feel good about leading a campaign to turn public education into a for-profit enterprise and reduce teaching to a job, not a profession. Read Full Post >
Like No Child Left Behind, the Soviet state set goals for everyone to meet—or else. Since they were unmeetable goals, it produced a culture of lies and cover-ups and a climate of fear. Does that sound familiar? Read Full Post >
Today, the question of democracy looms large as we see increasing efforts to privatize the control of public schools. There is an even more worrisome and allied trend, and that is the growing influence of money in education politics at the state and local levels. Read Full Post >
But, for the moment, my unambivalent "Hurrah!" to the protesters on Wall Street, to Van Jones' effort to mobilize nationally, to SOS (Save Our Schools), and many more. The future looks, at least, interesting. Read Full Post >
For me personally, and Vito, too, there's a special poignancy because not only are we in danger of losing what was a growing school reform consensus in the 1980s, but we're at risk of losing all traces of a century-old progressive tradition which pitted efficiency-mavens against democracy-mavens in school reform and all the other strands of New Deal and Fair Deal reform. Read Full Post >
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