Today’s HT front-page story by Bethany Nolan detailing an informational meeting about the state’s expansive voucher program is titled “School Vouchers Praised for Adding Options,” while the online edition changes its title somewhat to “School Vouchers Praised for Broadening Educational Options”. I won’t hold Nolan responsible for the variation, though it seems a questionable practice (which article is considered the article of “record”?); and I…
Facebook Ban Doomed a la Footloose! But That’s Not the Real Lesson…
The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act in Missouri is set to go into effect on August 28th. The law’s primary purpose is to protect children against sexual predators. Here is the section that has come to be called the Facebook Ban: SECTION 162.069: By January 1, 2010, every school district must develop a written policy concerning teacher-student communication and employee-student communications. Each policy must include…
Turnaround in Schools is Aggressive Coercive Takeover
(Update below) An Errant favorite Indiana Ed blog, School Matters, is sounding alarms over the State Department of Education’s plans to take-over and sell “turnaround” services to “reform” companies. One company in particular, EdisonLearning. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett announced last month that the Department of Education had selected Edison, Charter Schools USA, and EdPower as “turnaround operators” to potentially take over seven Indiana…
We Trust in Tech Companies? (Pew Poll)
This is from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and serves to add more detail to the recent Errant post In None Do We Trust. It’s an article regarding poll information on public (dis)trust in government (and other groups as well). You won’t be surprised to learn that there is very little to be found. But more interesting to me was…
Rise of the Divine Ape
I am in no position to critique the Rise of the Planet of the Apes as one in a a franchise of films (and TV series). I have seen the Planet of the Apes, but it was long ago and I have not seen any of the others. I did no movie homework before going to see this “inception” film. I am, then, something of…
Politicians, Corporations, Unions…In None Do We Trust
First, who’s this “we”? I don’t know…”Americans”? Is there such a thing? So, on the heels of recent cursory research into the salaries of our local major liberal arts university as well as a report in the HT about our local school corporation’s remuneration for its administrators (quick reminder, of 1700 employees, 42 make over 75K, all administrators but one, with the new head Kommissar…
An Illegitimate Public Discourse – Or, Liars Everywhere
Bear with me on this…it’s a simple point and one I’ll keep making as The Errant keeps “heralding the unwritten”: Where will we find truth regarding our world–the world that is factual and verifiable? Politics has devolved and those in positions of power seem as unlikely to know the facts of the issues they “debate” as anyone who looks to newspapers or television or partisan…
Privitization of Schools: What Faith Are You Funding?
“…I think privatization and choice programs will grow massively at the state level. We’ll have poor schools with declining budgets for the poor inner-city kids and rural kids, largely made up of kids of color and poor whites, and we’ll have the relatively affluent schools in other areas.” Michael Apple, 1998 It has been blindingly obvious that the private schools most ready, willing and able…
New Yorker Spins a Grimm Fairy Tale: The Monster Hunt for Osama
In the mood for a good monster story, or tired of reading good journalism? (Cue laugh track.) I highly recommend picking up this week’s New Yorker for some good, old fashioned propaganda. In the latest issue of The New Yorker, I found a shockingly abhorrent article about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden: Getting Bin Laden (subtitle, What happened that night in Abottabad.) Expecting a…
What’s In a Name? School District as Corporation
“It rocks the core of education and what we’ve been accustomed to. From the changes in collective bargaining to teacher/principal evaluations, merit pay and changes in the immigration laws, it’s just been one thing after another. We’ve had a ton of changes thrown at us at one time. We will all have to roll up our sleeves and try to do the best we can…