Anger about schools not reopening is directed at teachers and their unions. Sometimes it’s made to sound like they’re the problem and not Covid-19! Many public schools have opened their buildings, and teachers never quit working during the pandemic. Teachers aren’t epidemiologists, they aren’t statisticians. They want to rely on information and recommendations concerning Covid-19. […]
Drastic Public School Cuts in Memphis—The New America
Shelby County Schools in Memphis are cutting programs like special education and teachers and staff and other important positions and resources that help a good school function. They need to make $50 million or maybe even $86 million in cuts to public schools. The biggest hit to a single department under academics is in special […]
U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students
According to information given to me by Deborah Abramson Brooks Wsm, the U.S. Dept. of Education is insisting that the New York Board of Education continue to force all students with disabilities, except for those with the severest disabilities, to take the tests matching their chronological age, not their developmental age, ignoring their cognitive disabilities. […]
Tricky Business in New York Special Ed. and Maybe Where You Live
By Monica Kennedy Kounter I am a parent of a special needs child, a certified lay advocate, and I have a Master’s of Science in Early Childhood Education. I have been fighting Common Core on the behalf of students with disabilities in New York State for a year now. I am a relative newcomer to […]
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? […]
Are they “Special Interests” or Voices of a Democracy?
The blogger buzz this past weekend concerned an angry audience voicing concerns about Common Core Standards (CCS). It took place at a Poughkeepsie, New York town hall meeting with the state’s Ed. Commissioner Dr. John King. Indignant parents and teachers listened to King for 1 hour and 40 minutes then, with their meager left-over 23 […]