Private school vouchers are the zombies of the education reform agenda. No matter how many times they are defeated at the ballot box, they just won’t die. Vouchers are overwhelmingly unpopular with voters, contribute to school segregation, don’t help poor families attend the “school of their choice,” and the most recent research on vouchers suggests that the students who use […]

This is madness. A Michigan law passed by Republicans allows for schools that don’t meet specific requirements for academic achievement to be simply closed. Shut down. Kids thrown out. It’s a draconian step, one that essentially tells parents, “We don’t want to make the investments in your children’s schools needed to bring them up to par, so we are giving […]

Well, it looks like Betsy DeVos is at it again. This time she’s sharing her thoughts about education and teaching with her new friends at CPAC, the conservative political conference going on right now in National Harbor, MD. Here’s a quote from her “prepared remarks” on Thursday: “The faculty, from adjunct professors to deans, tell you what to do, what […]

Less than a year ago, the administration of President Barack Obama issued an historic guidance document instructing school administrators that anti-transgender rules, regulations, and laws are in violation of federal law including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This guidance was received the full-throated support of U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., Attorney General Loretta E. […]

My son asked me today on the ride home from his after school jazz band practice if it ever bothered me that persons with less education than I had made more money–a lot more money–than I did. “That’s an easy one,” I told him. “No. Because how much money someone makes has nothing to do with their value in this […]

Tomorrow, Friday, February 17, 2017, education activists in Detroit will hold a rally to protest the imminent closure of public schools there. The schools are slated to be closed under a draconian new policy in Michigan. The policy says that poor-performing schools that don’t show progress over a three year period may be shut down. 25 schools in Detroit and […]

Peter Greene, the amazing education blogger at Curmudgucation, broke a story this week that should send a chill down the spine of anyone who values both public education and the separation of church and state. In his piece “The Hard Right’s Planning Document for Education”, he reveals a new report out from the hard right group Council for National Policy […]

There has been a lot of chatter recently about the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate federal arts agencies, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Public Broadcasting Service. As has been reported widely, eliminating these agencies would only amount to a savings of 0.02% of the federal budget, but they seem […]

I was honored to be giving a talk on education policy at Wayne State University today (thanks for the invite, Drs. Wendy Matthews and Abby Butler!) during the Senate vote on Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education. While it was painfully ironic for all of us when Ms. DeVos was approved–by the closest vote for a Cabinet […]

It’s a common refrain among the reformer Illuminati whenever they experience any push-back against their anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-public education, anti-Motherhood-apple-pie-and-hot-dogs agenda. You can bet your bottom privatization dollar that as soon as these edu-tourists hear any reasonable, evidence-based rationale refuting their radical positions on teacher evaluation, tenure or the use of Value-Added Measures, they will inevitably blurt out the one […]

I’ve been seeing lots of posts lately about how the fight against Betsy DeVos and the “school reform” movement in general is “all about the kids.” But it’s not all about the kids. And it shouldn’t be. I’m a career teacher and have been a teacher educator for about 20 years now. I love kids, and have my own children […]