A troubling feature of the Science of Reading (SoR) is the connection between those who believe in the power of phonemes (and more) and those who want to privatize public schools. The old NCLB crowd has been rejuvenated and seems onboard with digital instruction replacing public schools and teachers. Understanding this connection is critical for […]
Hurricane Ian: How Are the Children and Public Schools?
Hearts go out to those suffering from Hurricane Ian. It’s hard to fathom what Florida residents and those from hurricane-affected areas are experiencing. How are the children? How are they handling the disruption? Will public schools change? As of Tuesday morning, October 4, 2022, according to the Florida Department of Education, the following K-12 school […]
Dear Dr. Cardona: Punitive Student Assessment is Meant to Privatize Public Schools!
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recently wrote to tell state education departments not to use test data punitively after the pandemic. He doesn’t seem to understand the history of high-stakes testing and its use to privatize public schools. From Cardona: The purpose of this letter is to remind all who report and interpret student outcomes this […]
The Future of Education? Who Decides How OUR Public Schools Run?
Who determines how America’s democratic public schools are run? Is it the Americans, Democrats, and Republicans, who elect a school board to democratically represent their community? Why do nonprofits working with corporations get to decide the future of our public schools? What gives them the right to determine what teachers should teach and how schools […]
The End of Public Schools? 5 Community School Concerns
Are community schools privatizing public education from within through partnerships? If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, isn’t it a duck? It’s hard to distinguish the Biden administration’s Full-Service Community Schools and Charter School difference (see below). Americans fail to invest in schools and children have unmet […]
Are Education Secretary Cardona and Betsy Devos Twins?
Teachers had hope when President Biden chose Miguel Cardona to be education secretary, an educator, that he’d be different from the billionaire corporate shill, protector from grizzly bears, and school choice proponent Betsy DeVos. There’s still hope for that, but there are also reasons to wonder. Cardona’s reactions to the Covid crisis seem eerily like […]
Charters and Vouchers to Destroy Virginia’s Public Schools Will Involve Questionable Data Collected on Children
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin is wasting no time setting the wheels in motion to destroy public education in Virginia, considered the fourth-best public school system in the country. If he manages to do this, it will add to America’s already ominous future of free public schooling, school ownership shifted to big business instead of constituents. Most […]
Democrats the Education Party? Stop Promoting that Message
I’m sorry Democrats didn’t do better last night because they might be somewhat better for public education. Maybe they will regroup and come back stronger for real public education and teacher support. Last night during the election results, the media portrayed Democrats as the education party, but for years Democratic policymakers have turned on teachers […]
Adult Organized Recess Isn’t Real Recess! How the Pandemic is Being Used to Privatize P.E. As Recess
Children should own recess. Adults own P.E. It should be as easily understood as that. But those who wish to privatize public education are conflating the two. They’re using Covid-19, and social-emotional learning, to privatize P.E, calling it recess when it’s not. A Brief History of The Loss of Recess In 1998, The New York […]
Kindergarten Learning Loss Message Is HORRIFYING for Children!
No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, Common Core, and other bad school reform measures are coming together with Covid-19 to destroy the futures of America’s youngest learners! They include the same equity and disparity talk used to ramp up the above harmful policies. Those changes to schools, all that rigor talk, […]