Mark Tapscott from the Washington Examiner explains why it’s happened. The Rev. Al Sharpton has come out against teachers’ unions and in favor of charter schools. “I’m not anti-charter schools. I’m pro-good charter schools. We want what’s best for our kids, even if it doesn’t follow the liberal status quo.” “I think there’s a new [...]
“Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher — in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in this City. That is our commitment. Today . . . we take another step toward making that commitment a reality.’’ —Michelle Rhee, D.C. Schools [...]
The Hill’s Walter Alarkon reports today on the fight within the Democrat Party on education funding. The Obama administration’s Department of Education– in the person of Secretary Arne Duncan–is counting on the competitive grant program Race to the Top (RttT) to reform education. But not all the Dems in Congress are on board. The intra-party [...]
The National Education Association (NEA) convention (July 2-11) is underway in New Orleans. There’s plenty of goings-on to interest political junkies- even those who don’t care all that much about education issues. Neither President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—nor anyone from the current administration for that matter– is scheduled to speak to the delegates [...]
In an odd case in Texas, teachers won the right to give students the grades that they earned, no matter how low a failing grade might be. According to the Houston Chronicle, Texas law requires that students receive truthful grades on their work. Eleven school districts challenged the law: The school districts — most of [...]
Kevin Carey’s post at The Quick and the Ed clarifies what’s going on in education reform right now and how’s it’s changed since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001. We’re in what Carey calls the “post-NCLB era of education reform.” For one thing, today’s major players are different: When I began [...]
You’ve no doubt heard about the massive upcoming teacher layoffs and that $23 billion is need right now to save public education. Chris Lane at the Washington Post says you can calm down. It’s just hype. For one thing, the predicted “as many as” figure of 300,000 teachers affected is misleading: Start with that scary [...]
We’ve mentioned Madeleine Sackler’s documentary here before. Read the great interview Bari Weiss did with Sackler at the Wall Street Journal. One nugget among many: “We drove by that protest,” Ms. Sackler recalls. “We were on our way to another interview and we jumped out of the van and started filming.” There she discovered that [...]
The Foundry asks: Is Hollywood Turning on Teachers Unions? How did we get to the point where The Foundry is even asking the question? It seems to me that the unions are facing opposition on two fronts. One is the growing antipathy towards unions in general. Economic realities are forcing city and state governments to [...]
Check out the latest video of New Jersey’s governor Christie on the state’s teachers’ union. His argument isn’t with teachers, it’s with the teachers’ union. The fight, according to Christie, is this: Who is going to run public education in New Jersey? The parents and the officials that they’ve elected? Or the “mindless, faceless” union [...]