In California, the new NEA leader Lily Eskelsen García is working to gather charter school teachers to unionize. HERE. She appears savvy and smart and gave an uplifting, firery introductory speech to teachers upon her election. As a retired member of the NEA, I wish her well. But she has thus far claimed, like AFT’s […]
Prestigious Dyslexic Lawyer David Boies Now Supports Campbell Brown’s Attacks on Teacher Tenure
Campbell Brown was just on Morning Joe again with David Boies as her new Chairman of the Partnership for Education Justice to fight teacher tenure. Remember David Boies, the respected, folksy, tennis shoed, liberal lawyer of Gore v. Bush fame? He has had many other high-profile cases too. I’ve always seen him as a good […]
Quality Teachers for Poor Students: Another Missed Opportunity to Address Real Change
This past week President Obama sat down to a lovely salmon dinner with a few teachers with inspirational stories, to discuss his new program to get excellent teachers for children in poor school districts. The problem of poor children in school is critical. Educational Week reported last fall that almost half the students in America […]
Freedom and America’s Public Schools and School Boards: They Belong to All of Us
It is difficult to find a more patriotic day than the 4th of July. While many problems face the country, and there are plenty of differences, most of us look forward to celebrating the birth of our nation. While we are free to hold different beliefs, Americans enjoy waving their flags and they love their […]
Au Revoir NOLA Public Schools
They can call charter schools public schools all they want. They will never be public until they accept ALL children and hire credentialed teachers, led by actual school administrators who understand children and how they learn. How sad for New Orleans. How sad for a country that was conned into thinking charters were going to […]
Brown v. Board of Education—Still Further Apart than Ever Before On Its Anniversary
On the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education I don’t believe we are working on the issue of school integration in the least when it comes to public schools. Here are the two biggest examples: 1. In 2010, the UCLA Civil Rights Project determined that charter schools “isolate students by race and class” yet charter […]
The Lawsuits Students Really Deserve in New York City and the Rest of the Country!
Aren’t there some fine lawyers who would, preferably with pro-bono work, support families who have children with disabilities, all kinds of disabilities, or children who have second language hurdles, or the really really poor children, to sue the charter operators and their rich donors for denying these students a slot in their elite charter schools? […]
SAT Scores Damned Public Schools and Teachers for Years—Why a Facelift NOW?
We’re told the SAT needs a facelift to level the playing field and make the test more relevant for disadvantaged students. Whoa! Let’s rewind that tape a bit shall we? The SAT has been used for years to damn public schools and teachers who were unjustly accused for not preparing all students well enough for […]
Bill Gates and Kindy Coding
The Memphis Commercial Appeal recently had an article about a private school incorporating iPad computing coding for kindergarteners. At first I was appalled. Kindergarteners? Coding? Why, they should be learning to tie their shoes! Then, after sputtering a few cuss words (nothing too bad) to myself, especially when I saw Bill Gates name and the […]