“Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions.†This phrase has accompanied many a report on how to improve and reform public education in America and, of course, policy statements from education associations that support the work of teachers. To a large degree, the phrase is not just pithy but also has the ring of truth….
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned aspirationally on a vision of uniting a country many see as severely, if not hopelessly, divided. After all, while Biden amassed over 80 million votes, the most votes ever tallied by any candidate in a presidential election in U.S. history, Trump hauled in the second-most votes ever, finding the support of…
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has fit right in with the Trump administration, treating her government position as opportunity to enrich herself and serve her own narrow ideological interests at taxpayer expense. Given her role in supporting (or not) the public school systems on which the majority of American families depend to educate their children, she…
We hear these days about the importance of the African American vote within the Democratic base, and rightly so. This base has played a key role in the Democratic primaries and, according to all indications, will play a key role in determining the Democratic presidential candidate. Democratic candidates would also be wise as well as…
In his State of the Union Address, Trump took a swipe at what he called “failing government schools.†Most of us use the term “public school†or talk about “public education,†as we refer to institutions set up by, for, and of the people. Trump, of course, is talking about public schools, but his choice…
Back in 2004, Thomas Frank’s book What’s the Matter with Kansas? elevated the state as the textbook case of how the Republican party has been able to leverage a platform of conservative social values to sway the electorate to vote against its economic interests. Railing against abortion, affirmative action, big government, elitism, political correctness, and…
In an interview on Morning Joe after two nights of Democratic primary debates, Colorado Senator and Presidential candidate Michael Bennet pointed out that during those two nights not one question was asked of the twenty candidates regarding educational policy. Indeed, he continued, no question was asked of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the 2016…
It’s time for some historical perspective so we can really understand what is going on with this year’s teachers strikes. A common thread in almost every state under Republican rule is that funding has been taken away from public schools, systematically and over a long period of time. The genius of GOP ideology came up…
Efforts to undermine unions diminish democratic operations in our schools and disempower those who are most attuned to what our children need.
“We spend far more per pupil than any other country in the world. If you look at education. Out of thirty countries. We’re 30th. We’re last.â€
Public education is why kids grow up, many of them, to dismiss crackpot theories like those expressed by Ted Cruz
A new nationwide poll shows the American people overwhelmingly agree that public education should not exist to enrich and profit the charter school privatization movement and they are demanding strong regulatory laws to “rein in documented fiscal malfeasance by private charter schools.â€
Ted Cruz’s father says public education is a communist plot, but for the Founding Fathers, it was America’s hope for the future
Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress, Americans should brace themselves for a serious Koch-style assault on revenue and government agencies. Last year, Mitch McConnell told Kansas Governor Sam Brownback that Republicans were panting to enact a Koch-Kansas economic assault on America that Brownback imposed by giving the rich monumental tax breaks at…
Jindal says Common Core is a federal plot to takeover education, as though the Founding Fathers didn’t support the public funding of education.
