Marcie Lipsitt is a special education activist for children in Michigan, and she sent out a report about the serious loss of services there for children with mental health problems. It’s entitled, “In crisis, mentally ill children forced to wait days or weeks for hospital beds,” and includes the plight of a parent who has […]
Serving Moms of Students with Special Needs in Public Schools
This Mother’s Day I thought I’d direct my attention to moms who have students with special needs, and ask, “How could public schools do a better job of helping them out?” Of course this relates to dads too, but usually moms are more on the front line and it is their day! Education Secretary Arne […]
25 Reasons Why You Should Appreciate Public School Teachers
Please feel free to add to this list in the comment section. Teachers in public school teach all children—they reject no one. Teachers choose teaching because of their subject and mostly because they like the students. Teachers don’t pick their careers for the money. Their teaching is free (well except for AP). Many teachers pay-out-of-pocket […]
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 […]
Bill Gates’s Double Standards and High Tech High K-12 Schools
Here is a good example of what I would call double standards relating to traditional public schools and charter schools–more specifically the High Tech High K-12 Schools. High Tech High Charter Schools, computer/project driven schools, dot the landscape in California. They started out as one charter in 2000, run by San Diego business leaders and […]
Tennessee is Dating School Vouchers but Will They Get Hitched?
In Tennessee, like a lot of other states in the country, K-12 vouchers are back on the table. Vouchers are the one area in education where Republicans and Democrats differ. Although there are some Dems out there who probably embrace vouchers too. They certainly never see a charter school they don’t like. Click HERE to […]
The Student Success Act—The End of Public Schools?
Last week on FOX News, Host Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery said, “there really shouldn’t be public schools anymore.” Before Democrats could shake their heads and say, “Those silly Republicans,” Steve Benen on The Rachel Maddow Show Blog, referencing Lisa’s statement, said, “what was once an unheard of idea is slowly becoming a little more common. For […]
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Education President—Lyndon B. Johnson
Today is Martin Luther King Day to honor the man who did so much to bring people together. We have also been through several weeks of media presentations with Arne Duncan discussing the renewal of Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). And, the movie Selma debuted in theaters across the country. What do […]
Art Charters v. Traditional No Art Schools
Why are the arts removed from traditional public schools while at the same time charter schools are given carte blanche to create art schools? The New York Times has an article about Voice Charter School where students sing and “outperform” their peers…. Academically, students at Voice did significantly better than the city average on New […]
The Sneaky Takeover of America’s Teacher Ed. Programs: Today’s Target Eastern Michigan University
My last post was about the sneaky way the University of Memphis education school was being side-swiped by the Relay Graduate School, a faux education group of pretend-educators who will end professional teacher preparation as we know it. Now, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has a similar, but slightly different, situation brewing. Moveon.org has a petition […]