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 […]
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 […]
When One School District Falls: HISD is a Preview for All Schools
I think there is a likelihood that we will be seeing more state takeover of districts. ~Kenneth Wong, education policy researcher and former advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, March 28, 2023 Houston faces harsh public school reforms, a sad example of the continuing efforts in America to destroy all public education and […]
Who’s Behind PBS News Hour’s Gloomy Reporting About Student Learning?
Arne Duncan (Obama) and Margaret Spellings (G. W. Bush), noneducators and former education secretaries, recently appeared on PBS News Hour, Study shows parents overestimate their student’s academic progress to dash any hope parents might have that their children are doing well in school. Who’s behind such gloomy reporting? Here’s how PBS begins, and here’s the survey: […]
Special Education and School Choice: Not Great Choices, If Any
Years of school reforms have stripped public schools of disability services, creating problems for parents (See Carl Peterson’s recent Exterminating Special Education). Parents may turn to charter, parochial or private schools, online learning, or homeschooling, only to find choices lacking, or the school may not want their child, leaving parents in the lurch. Charter Schools […]
Religion’s Destructive Effect on Public Education this July 4th
Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly? ~Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor On this 4th of July, the country faces divisive problems, including losing […]
The End of Public Schools? 5 Community School Concerns
Are community schools privatizing public education from within through partnerships? If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, isn’t it a duck? It’s hard to distinguish the Biden administration’s Full-Service Community Schools and Charter School difference (see below). Americans fail to invest in schools and children have unmet […]
Cult-Like Social-Emotional Learning? Questioning Valor Charters and Powered by Compass
How many hours during the school day should students reflect upon how they think and act? Valor Collegiate Charter Schools focus heavily on social-emotional learning (SEL). They aggressively market their program Powered by Compass to schools. Students gather in circles to contemplate their lives and analyze their behavior. Valor’s philanthropic partners include the Bill & […]
Green Schools: Are they Child and Teacher Friendly and Public?
Environmentally friendly school facilities are critical. Teaching students environmental awareness and how to be good stewards of the earth is imperative. But are new green school buildings encompassing a whole curriculum? Are they practical, focused on the environment and the students, supportive of real teachers, designed to be democratic and public, or are they about […]