I wish I could find more satisfaction in something I’ve hoped would happen for 4 years. But as usual, Ms. DeVos did the absolute least she could do (resign), well past the time when it could have made a difference (with 13 days left in her lamest of all duck terms), and is probably only doing it to avoid doing […]

I got an email from our school’s business manager on Friday at 5:11pm with an “emergency request” to complete a new required training module. The deadline for completing this module? The following Monday morning. As usual, the “system” didn’t allow me to even start the training module–some sort of IT glitch I assume–so I called the business manager, who was […]

Dear Teachers, As we prepare for the uncertainty and confusion regarding the return of school, one  piece of advice: Please keep the receipts for *anything* you purchase in order to teach online this fall… new office chairs tables computer monitors laptop stands headphones mics speakers cameras lights routers wifi extenders upgraded laptops, tablets, and smart phones enhanced internet service professional […]

Vice President Mike Pence visited a school in North Carolina today, ostensibly to show how the power of school choice is the key to reopening schools this fall… In an email sent Monday, school officials said Pence will visit Thales Academy K-5 to see how school choice works and to advocate for its further implementation. Pence also tweeted about how […]

You know how I know that the corporate education reformers, and their leader, Betsy DeVos, were never serious about actually improving public education? Because now, in the midst of a global pandemic, and a complete lack of national education policy guidance beyond “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!“, none of these education policy “experts” have come up with any “out […]

If you’ve seen your teacher friends warning about the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic providing an opportunity for unscrupulous education reformers, like US Secretary of Education and serial public school defunder, Betsy DeVos, to dismantle our system of public schools and wondered to yourself, “Now how would these people do that?”…here’s how. In the Utica (MI) Community Schools (UCS), the […]

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has pulled a lot of shady stuff in her time in President Trump’s Cabinet. But her latest action may take the cake for brazen, underhanded political malfeasance. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars […]

According to a breaking story in USA Today, a Betsy DeVos-sanctioned accreditation agency gave approval to operate for Reagan National University in South Dakota, a “university” with no students, faculty, administration, or facilities–things which one might think an “accreditation agency” might notice. DeVos’ Department of Education saved this accreditor from being removed from the DoE’s list of approved accreditation agencies, […]

Amidst the overnight announcement of John Bolton’s upcoming tell-all memoir, based on his front-row seat for this administration’s extortion of Ukraine in order to cheat in the 2020 elections, other members of Trump’s inner circle are now drooling over the prospects of 7-figure book deals of their own. Although none of these books have been announced as of this date, […]

In the aftermath of the recent Public Education Forum in Pittsburgh last week, I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of education reform related posts on social media. Unfortunately, just as with our more strictly political dialogue these days, it can be difficult to distinguish between facts and “Corporate-Reform-Agenda-Propaganda” (i.e., CRAP), or #alternativefacts. In the spirit of giving, I offer […]

Betsy Devos has done it again. On August 29th, the Department of Education sent a letter to the Consortium for Middle East Studies departments at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, claiming that the program “disproportionately portrays ‘the positive aspects of Islam’”. They threatened that if the schools do not make amendments to the program by September 22nd, […]