My home state of South Carolina is a poster child of disfunction, a self-loathing mutt of myopic bible-thumping, state-rights’ libertarianism mated with historical and systemic poverty born out of racism and the lingering burden of slavery. SC voted for Newt Gingrich in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries and now stands as the home of former-governor turned […]
The Human Costs of School “Reform”
May 2, 2013 By 2 Comments
A study by Elaine Weiss and Don Long of the Bolder Broader Approach shows that the corporate school “reform” experiment has claimed to have raised student achievement but that those gains evaporate upon close examination. A previous post, “The Benefits (and Costs) of ‘Reform’ in Three Cities,” discussed their “Market-Oriented Education Reforms’ Rhetoric Trumps Reality,” […]
Consumed by Advocacy in the Marketplace of Mendacity
April 30, 2013 By 1 Comment
Big Daddy and Brick confront the power of mendacity in a key scene from Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, swept into popular culture by the 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie), Paul Newman (Brick), and Burl Ives (Big Daddy). In the play, Big Daddy replies to Brick’s question, “Have you ever heard […]
The Ignored Arm of the Commons and the Invisible Hand of the Market
April 17, 2013 By 3 Comments
Education Week has posted a new report on charter school funding, the blog titled “Charter Schools’ Funding Lags, Study Finds”: Charter school students receive about $4,000 less in per-pupil funding than their regular public school peers according to an analysis of five regions across the U.S., a new report has found. The report, conducted by […]
Charter schools are not about charter schools
April 16, 2013 By 2 Comments
By Kelvin Smythe Reposted from Networkonnet. The education situation is dire, western economies are struggling, with one of its manifestations being the rich and powerful acting to undermine public schools. Charter schools not being about charter schools is emblematic of that dire situation. Let us look at how this is playing out in New Zealand. Throughout […]
Here We Go Again: Charters NOT Exceptional
March 27, 2013 By 4 Comments
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) offers yet another in a series of misleading claims in order to promote charter schools: “It’s still difficult for some educators to say “charter schools” without sneering. But in Charleston County, charter schools are delivering on promises,” adding: Monday, the once wary Charleston County School Board renewed the Charleston […]
He aha te mea nui? He tangata. He tangata. He tangata. (Maori proverb)
March 14, 2013 By 4 Comments
What is the most important thing? It is people. It is people It is people. I am reminded of this each time I see spin from New Zealand’s National government assuring us that charter schools are about the kids, about bolstering their achievement, raising their grades, helping them learn better. And that they are in […]
Weingarten Gets Arrested for the Cameras in Philadelphia While Remaining Janus-Faced on Charter Schools
March 8, 2013 By 2 Comments
Randi Weingarten is in Philadelphia, pretending to put herself in between the closing of 23 schools and the opening of a new batch of corporate welfare charter schools to replace them. Below is her staged arrest. Seems pretty calm there, Randi. Now when you go on the AFT website and start to look at the […]
Mississippi Charter Bill Would Remove Local Decision Making in Approximately 100 School Districts
March 1, 2013 By 1 Comment
Rep. Busby (R) The next time you hear a Dixiecrat or any white Southern conservative businessman expound on the necessity for local political control, ask him why he does not believe that this sacred right should extend to public education decisions. In Mississippi, white edupreneurs, businessmen, and various other corporate welfare bottom feeders are doing […]
Growing Resistance to Money-Draining and Miseducative Charter Schools
February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Wilson School Board rejects business charter schoolAllentown Morning CallJoe Lewis, former Bethlehem Area School District superintendent and a consultant for the charter’s founders, said he wanted to read the resolution before responding to the board’s reasons for denying the application. He said he wasn’t surprised with …See all stories on this topic » Senate approves online charter school moratoriumSan Francisco ChronicleSANTA FE, N.M. […]
How To Know When Your Charter School Sucks
February 16, 2013 By 1 Comment
Wisdom by Mark Naison: It’s leader calls himself/herself a CEO. The CEO’s salary is more than three times the salary of the highest paid teacher in the school. The board of the school is full of hedge fund executives [or corporate directors]. Teachers in the school are terrorized and students treated as though they were […]
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