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Senator Cory Booker Whiffs It

You can count me amongst the people who have been worried about the meteoric rise of Cory Booker. He is the neoliberal politician personified and I was a little surprised he didn’t end up as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential choice. Maybe his views on public education had something to do with it. As Daniel Katz… Read more »

Trump and “higher national standards”

“The President-elect and Vice President-elect then met with Ms. Michelle Rhee and enjoyed an in-depth discussion about the future of public education in our country. This included the possibility for increasing competition through charter and choice schools. They also brought the idea of merit pay for teachers going above and beyond in their classrooms into… Read more »

DeVos’ Michigan schools experiment gets poor grades

More on the experiment that is the nuclear option for Western civilization. “Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, Betsy DeVos, has spent two decades successfully pushing “school choice” in her home state of Michigan — a policy that she and her husband vowed in 1999 would “fundamentally improve education.” Except the track record… Read more »

A Nashville School Board Member Figures Out the Secret: How Charter SchoolsGet Rich Off Public Tax Dollars

An excellent article. Even though it’s out of Tennessee, it’s spot-on true for anywhere. Share it with the pro-charter legislator you love to hate.  “I explained that there are many ways non-profit charters make money, including: (1) a 39% federal tax credit that allows investors to double their money in seven years; (2) all sorts… Read more »

Now is the time to talk about what we are actually talking about

A fair statement to say that Chimamanda Negozi Adichie has become a voice that I turn to when I need my soul recharged. Her piece in the New Yorker on Friday needs to find its way on to everyone’s reading list. While the piece in its entirety speaks to our current shift in society towards… Read more »

Betsy Devos and Public Education: The Coming Storm

In which blogger Michael Lambert summarizes all of the articles about Betsy DeVos that have been passed round the last week, and includes the wise warnings of Alison Hawver McDowell: “What’s so scary about DeVos is that she may fast forward and jump over charters by offering lean “value” private schools that rely on cyber education… Read more »

Stop blaming teachers for falling results and give them the trust and time to actually teach

I am so sick of this shit. I don’t really understand, I guess, how hard it is to understand: the more stupid crap I have to do to prove that I’m a good teacher takes away from my time to actually be one. I know, I know- it’s a political thing meant to frame the… Read more »

Message to Journalists in the Trump Era

WaPo editor Marty Baron: “Just do our job. Do it as it’s supposed to be done.” I know how ya feel, my man. I know because that’s what teachers have been trying to do. Especially in the face of popular mainstream media selling the corporate Democrat stories of bad teachers and accountability and the need… Read more »

The Problem with Choice

I’m so friggin’ sick of the “failing school” argument. Yes, we can have “school choice”- we can choose to make our public schools better. We’ve been saying this for years: “If we want true education reformation, we need to make sure the public tax dollars are being used correctly to create an actual choice movement within… Read more »

What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice might tell us about his plans

Progressive advocates for public schools weren’t going to like anyone who Trump selected for Education Secretary. But now we know what his vision for public education is and who he thinks can stand against us. Wrong. The Revolution Begins. What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice… Read more »