It sounds so patriotic…Educational Freedom. But public education in traditional public schools is what is truly educational freedom. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other conservatives like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and current Tennessee Governor Bill Lee are touting their idea of Educational Freedom and they repeatedly make comments implying that poor children will get […]
School Choice Deception: Florida’s Plan and Students Who Don’t Measure Up
Florida is a bellwether state. What happens to schools there will move to other states in one form or another. I would like to share a personal story of how I met school choice as a teacher in Florida and how it helped cement in me the desire to advocate for a public school system […]
How Do We Stop Bullying? Florida’s New Voucher Scam Doesn’t Ask that Question
Behind bullying behavior we usually find a depressed individual who needs help. We need to understand why a child bullies and get them that help so they will stop bullying. Most people understand how serious the issue of bullying is to children and the country, and how schools should be on the forefront of addressing […]
IEPs are a Public School Thing: Let’s Not Forget That!
The Governor of Florida and other education reformers seem to have forgotten where Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) started. In this post, I’d like to remind them. The other night I watched the movie Danny Collins. It’s a loosely based true story about a burned out rock star who learns that years earlier he received a […]
Private Schools: 3 Reasons Public Schools Are Better!
Private schools don’t always want your children, might not want vouchers, and don’t necessarily do better than public schools! There’s some fascinating information flying around about private schools vs. public schools, and I thought I would write about it today since vouchers are likely going to be a big part of 2017. Kellyanne Conway and […]
Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future
The charter movement has since expanded to include 43 states plus the District of Columbia, and over 2.5 million students—or about 5 percent of the total K-12 public student population. Arianna Prothers, Education Week June 4, 2016 Charter schools are 25 years old. My, how time flies. Yesterday, Education Week printed an interview with Ember […]
Hillary Clinton, Zip Codes, and School Equality
The point often made during debates by Sec. Hillary Clinton is that children should not get a poor education based on their zip code. Most of us would agree about poverty and its harmful effects on children in school. But the zip code message was co-opted a long time ago by those who want to […]
Public v. Private Charter Schools and Bernie Sanders
Sen. Bernie Sanders is praising public education and teachers. Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a neoliberal group that supports the privatization of public schools, is unfairly making Sanders out to be a flip-flopper on charter schools. When asked about whether he supports charter schools, Sanders says he “supports public charter schools.” He says the same […]
School Choice v. Local Control—Oil and Water!
Republican Presidential candidates claim to be for choice, including vouchers, charters and opportunity scholarships, and they also claim to be for local control of schools. But school choice and local control are like oil and water. You must choose one or the other. For example, Brandon Wright, in “Donald Trump Quotes about Education” from The […]
Students Can’t Hide From Common Core No Matter What School they Attend
The more I read about Common Core and education reform, the more I am convinced that one of the most important issues is that all students will have to be instructed with these standards if they choose to attend college. A misconception exists about students in private or parochial schools being lucky that they won’t […]