Voting for Trump/Vance and Project 2025 would devastate public education. Most Republican Governors are working hard to end our public schools. For example, Cheryl Binkley describes how Virginia, a state whose public schools have been some of the best in the nation, is being privatized under Rep. Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Similar scenarios are happening in […]
Crystal Ball: A President, VP, and the Future of Public Schools
Clairvoyance is the name of the game when it comes to public schools, the Democratic party, and Presidential elections. In contrast, we know Republicans want to end them. Vice President Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, have yet to devise an education agenda. Walz’s past as a teacher, coach, and governor and his […]
Project 2025: Ending Public Education for Students with Disabilities
The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expense of it. ~John Adams, President and Statesman, 1758 The Fourth of July always makes me think of freedom and free public schools for all America’s children, including students with disabilities. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 […]
The Comprehension Problem with New Reading Programs: Ignoring the Books Children LIKE to Read!
I’m not a gambler, but if I were, I’d bet that a lot of parents whose elementary school-age children are getting explicit phonics instruction, memorizing rules, and who can define words like diphthong and schwa will be disappointed when their children get to high school and couldn’t care less about reading. New reading programs promising […]
Ask When Children Should Begin to Read
In 1936, Mabel Vogel Morphett and Carleton Washburne wrote When Should Children Begin to Read? a research paper published in The Elementary School Journal. This is a critical question because if children are pushed to read before they’re ready, they might not get it, then hate it, fail to read later and decide that reading […]
Reports Show How Phonics Crowds Out Quality Reading Like Picture Books
In 2023, Science of Reading (SoR) supporters were offended by The Science of Reading and the Rejection of Picture Books. At that time, I included reports and observations showing an overfocus on phonics instead of reading for enjoyment in SoR classrooms. If you’re a teacher who combines phonics with reading picture books for enjoyment and […]
Stuck on the Merry-Go-Round of Bad Ed. Policy for 40 Years!
Can you imagine never being able to jump off a Merry Go Round? The fight over education policy is like that. It involves the same worn-out problems that could have been addressed years ago if Americans truly got behind their democratic public schools. The middle class and the poor, Democrats and Republicans, who understand the […]
There’s Too Much Stuff on Classroom Walls!
Classroom walls for young children learning to read are often covered with words, letters, word sounds, symbols, vocabulary, and even speech therapy pronunciation mouths, which are creepy. For years, Word Walls have ruled. Bare walls are also dull and uninviting, but Word Walls scream emergency. Children must learn fast, real fast, and it’s laid out […]
Where’s the “Evidence” in State-Mandated Science of Reading Programs?
Last I looked, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have signed reading laws (Schwartz 2024). Parents, educators, school administrators, and state and local policymakers hear the Science of Reading is critical for children to read, and “evidence-based” and “research-based” are words tagged to make believers. But finding the evidence takes work. Scholars are raising […]
The Public Ed Threat Behind the Knowledge Building Curriculum
Knowledge Building is used to market curriculum programs, many of which are online, but what does it mean? It seems that Knowledge Building highlights technology and moves children to a place where they won’t need teachers or public schools, at least not the kind we are familiar with. Knowledge Building makes some sense, making it deceptive. […]