Recently, 60 Minutes showcased Sal Khan, known for the popular Khan Academy, describing Sal Khan’s Khanmigo, a new AI-powered program promising to revolutionize teaching by giving students an online personal tutor. Here’s Khan’s TED talk, “How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education,” Khanmigo’s format, feedback, and human-like online conversation and interactions are clever and innovative. […]
The Dangerous End of School Libraries and Public Education
School libraries are critical to maintaining great democratic public schools. The loss of school libraries threatens their existence and a student’s right to receive information. See the American Library Association and The Universal Right to Free Expression: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. Many public schools no longer have functioning school libraries or qualified […]
The Longtime Plan for Screens to Replace Teachers: School Choice the Prenda Way
No matter your viewpoint on the coronavirus, for those who care about democratic public schools, our fears merge when it comes to worrying that technology will replace teachers and end those schools. Covid-19 is the perfect storm, and Prenda micro-schools are the prototype. These are schools that focus on commercial tech programs without real teachers. […]
The Candidates: How Will They Solve Society’s Problems Without Great Public Schools?
Here we go again. Two nights of Democratic debates and public schools were only mentioned in connection with other issues. The candidates discussed climate change, gun control, health care, foreign policy, free community college, and more. They never tackled the issues surrounding for-profit colleges. There were no questions about the privatization of public education in […]
The Privatization of Teaching Teachers How to Teach Reading: Cashing In on Kids!
Wondering about all the recent articles claiming teachers don’t know how to teach reading, and their education schools are failing them? It appears to be about nonprofits! These groups are competing with universities. They promise to better prepare teachers to teach reading, for a fee, of course! But there’s no proof they will do teacher […]
Charter/Community Schools & Partnerships: Privatization Ending Public Education
A charter school can be a community school, and vice versa. ~National Center for Community Schools There’s new school management these days that might seem nice, but scratch beneath the service and it is privatization and the theft of America’s democratic public schools. There are two points in this blog post. Community schools might be […]
A Student’s Mental Health Could Depend on Putting the Arts Back into the Public School Curriculum
Safety commissions, school districts, PTAs, and other groups and individuals have discussed school safety. One smart move would be to ensure that every school has a legitimate arts program including visual arts, music, drama, and dance. Students who struggle with mental health problems might benefit from the arts. Every child should have access. Students should […]
XQ Super Schools—Business Working to End Public High Schools
Laurene Powell Jobs and her XQ school bus are coming to us via television on major networks on September 8th. She wants to remake high schools. Powell Jobs would have you think that high schools haven’t changed for a hundred years. That’s not true. The American high school can certainly always improve, but the institution […]
Tennessee Legislators Cry, “Thank God for Memphis!”
Many voucher plans are popping up in state legislatures across the country. Here’s what’s happening in Tennessee. By Jim Gifford No matter what, many Tennessee legislators know a good deal when they see it. If a proposed new bill or untested program concerning public education is considered too risky or is unpopular with the constituents […]