Let’s dare to be honest about charter schools. There is no “testable” benefit. Which is to say that testing tells us the same thing about any school environment. Kids, as humans, grow and develop variably,…
Posts tagged vouchers
The Privilege of the Engaged
In a recent “rant” about Indiana’s “testing regime” and its instrument of student “achievement” measurement, the I-STEP, posted on the blog page of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, the Chair of the Monroe County…
Pot and Kettle Mind
Yesterday Steve at School Matters offered a post on Indy Mayor Greg Ballard’s decision to revoke TPS’s Charter (see Doug Martin’s thorough account here). I anticipated trouble by the title alone: Choice vs. standards at the…
In the City of Corporate Love and Beyond: The Boston Consulting Group, Gates, and the Filthy Rich
When the Michelle Rhee/Betsy Devos-endorsed Pennsylvania governor, Tom Corbett, slashed $1.1 billion in educational funding over the last two years, he was merely continuing the disaster capitalism agenda against Philadelphia schools which began in 1998,…
Educating Business Ethics
The population of the US seems to be experiencing a kind of national awakening regarding the harsh and endemic inequalities of our “Us vs Them” economic reality. Though it seems possible that our bail-out and…
A Little Ditty ‘Bout Jeb and Patty: Bush Ed Lobby Director Levesque Hearts Tony Bennett
Editor’s note–this is especially compelling coming on the heels of the I-Read 3 results (see the last “success” listed for TB below). FROM: Doug Martin TO: Indiana Select Commission on Education Dear Indiana Select Commission…
Experts Serving Interests: Academic Collusion in the Corporate State
Readers of Errant musings know that my primary focus seems to always have a common theme: the loss of local human good to the abstractions of wealth and power. We are seeing a very rapid…
The Parent Trigger Trap
This from a piece in the the Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY and Southern Indiana) titled “Bill would give Indiana parents ability to convert schools to charters,” about the so-called “Parent Trigger.” As a nod to my…
Accumulation by Dispossession: Land Theft Masquerading as “Empowering Parents”
Just read these two pieces and see if you need much more to understand the reality of what “loosing” the beast upon the prey that is your public schools, and by very near and dear…
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…