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 […]
Seattle’s Demolition of Special Education: Making Way for Common Core
The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped. —Hubert H. Humphrey Every student achieving, everyone accountable. —The Seattle […]
A Little School Privatization History About Memphis
If you think it is just the poor schools that will be turned to charters, think again. Sooner or later they will want to turn your middle class school into one, and my guess is you will pay for it, and you will have no say into how it is run. In the fall of […]
Courses We Once Knew: Home Economics, Family and Jobs!
Sometimes, caught up in fighting high-stakes testing and Common Core, we might forget about other insidious ways our public schools have been changed due to harmful standards. We recognize easily the loss of the arts. And serious classes, important to a democracy, like civics, are given short shrift these days. But what about the great […]
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 […]
Why the Education Reformers Worry about Special Education
Posted on November 12, 2013 with updated changes by Nancy Bailey I heard someone, a parent or teacher, blurt out at an informal education meeting that education reformers are afraid of special education. I think that person is right. Many of those currently in charge of condemning public schools don’t understand anything about students with […]
Hey! Who’s that With the Baby Grand on their Back?
Memphis and the surrounding suburbs have been through quite a lot of “churning” with the school merger of the city schools with the county schools. Most everyone spots the corporate fingerprints. They’re all over the place. Chain charters, Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, Common Core, etc. are, with the help of Stand for […]
To Watch NBC’s Education Nation or to Not Watch NBC’s Education Nation…That is the Question
It is almost time for…drumroll…NBC’s Education Nation! If you are like me, I like many of the NBC hosts. They are personable. I even think Brian Williams should be a regular on Saturday Night Live. If I have a chance to watch TV in the morning I am torn between the Today Show and Morning […]