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Teachers Aren’t The Problem by Paul Tough, salon.com | September 5, 2012
Liberals and conservatives differ sharply on what the government should do to aid families in poverty, but just about everyone agrees that it should do something. Helping to alleviate the impact of poverty and providing young people with opportunities to escape it: that has historically been one of the essential functions of any national government, right up there with building bridges and defending borders. But while Americans remain as committed as ever to helping their less fortunate neighbors succeed, something important has changed in the past few decades: what was once a noisy and impassioned national conversation about how best to combat poverty has faded almost to silence. It is not that poverty itself has disappeared. Far from it. Something else has happened in the past decade or so that also helps explain why the poverty debate disappeared: it merged with the education debate. read more »High Performing Charter Schools: Beating The Odds, Or Beating The Test? by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | August 30, 2012
[My guest blogger today is Rob Levine. Rob is a Minneapolis-based researcher whose writing focuses on the media, conservative philanthropy and education. His writing can be found at the Cucking Stool blog.] read more »A Growing Problem for All Families: Student Loan Debt by Jessica Camacho, aflcio.org | August 23, 2012
As a low-income and first-generation college student in my family, the subject of student loans has been a matter of acute concern to me. High school counselors constantly told me that student loans are “good debt.” This type of information made it justifiable for peers in similar socioeconomic situations to borrow federal and private loans. But lenders take advantage of first-time borrowers by failing to explain in full detail future payment plans, which may cause individuals to be fiscally unprepared for post-graduate life. Current student debt trends must be fixed in order to stop setting up graduates for a lifetime of financial struggles. While the nation engages in debate about the country’s financial future, the topic of student debt must be recognized as an important issue and for its potentially crippling impact on the lives of young college graduates and as an effect of the strength of our economic recovery. read more »To End the Jobs Recession, Invest an Extra $20 Billion in Public Education by Salvatore Babones, inequality.org | August 22, 2012
Over the past three years, the economy has grown at an average rate of 2.2 percent per year. The economic recession is economic history. But the jobs recession is reality. The U.S. economy may have gained 2.7 million jobs over the past three years, but it still employs 4.8 million fewer people than it used to. Many of those lost jobs were in public education. Education employment fell by 306,000 in the three school years following the end of the recession in June 2009. It’s set to fall even further this year. If the economy is expanding and job creation is our top priority, why are local school districts laying people off? Governments at all levels are cutting back their investments in public education. The problem isn’t a lack of money. The problem is where the money is going. read more »School Choice Is the Tip of a Titanic Iceberg by Steve Nelson, Huffington Post | August 22, 2012
Today's SAT prep question (and answer): Ayn Rand:philosophy as Chuck E.Cheese:fine dining. Even at age 16, when I waded through Atlas Shrugged out of curiosity, I experienced her worldview as cartoonish, filled with absurd caricatures, and about as philosophically sophisticated as a Batman episode. Complex human issues cannot be effectively addressed by seeing the world in heroes and villains, black and white, absolute right and wrong. The direst threat to our national well-being is posed by the Romney/Ryan highly selective embrace of Ayn Rand's so-called philosophy. While avoiding her atheism and other inconvenient dimensions of her amateurish objectivism, the GOP ticket embodies the Randian notion of rugged individualism. This election may present the most profound political choice of our lifetime. Nowhere is this threat more acutely realized than in education. read more »Segregation, The Black-White Achievement Gap, And The Romneys by Richard Rothstein, epi.org | August 22, 2012
We cannot remedy the large racial achievement gaps in American education if we continue to close our eyes to the continued racial segregation of schools, owing primarily to the continued segregation of our neighborhoods. We pretend that this segregation is nobody’s fault in particular (we call it “de facto” segregation), and that therefore there is nothing we can or should do about it. Instead, we think that somehow we can devise reform programs that will create separate but equal education. One after another of these programs has failed — more teacher accountability and charter schools being only the latest — but we persist. The presidential campaign can be a reminder, though, of the opportunities we’ve missed and continue to miss. read more »It's Paul Ryan - Not School Teachers - Putting Children At Risk by Jeff Bryant, OurFuture.org | August 20, 2012
Just like you can count on "Back to School" season cranking up retail sales this time of year, you can also count on it bringing on a new volley of criticism aimed at school teachers and their unions. read more »Six Reasons Teachers Unions Are Good for Kids by Kristin Rawls, alternet.org | August 20, 2012
Once upon a time, labor unions enjoyed a fair amount of political legitimacy among both the public and political elites. Yet over the last three decades, the power of unions has decreased steadily -- especially as a result of the hostility to business regulation that characterized Reagan-era politics of the 1980s, and the anti-communist Cold War propaganda of the time that made the general public more suspicious than ever of labor activism. But if unions as a whole have taken a reputational hit over the last 30 years, teachers unions in particular have found themselves especially demonized. Yet by a number of important measures, there is no doubt that teachers unions continue to play a vital role in the health and well-being of our schools, the teachers who work in them and the children they serve. Here are six reasons teachers unions continue to be good for America’s kids. read more »Washington, Are You Listening? by Mattea Kramer, otherwords.org | August 20, 2012
Patrick Pylvainen grew up in a small town outside Minneapolis. The Minneostan college student has seven siblings, so he borrows money for his tuition. Now, those more affordable federal loans are in jeopardy. The cascade of federal budget cuts expected to begin in January would slash every single program the government classifies as "discretionary," including funding for education. That's heartbreaking, since public investment in education was a driving force behind historic U.S. prosperity. But this isn't how it has to be. One of the most heated debates this election season is what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Those tax cuts aren't often mentioned in the same breath as education funding, but they should be. That's because the Bush tax cuts siphon off money that could fund education and other crucial programs. read more »The Walmart Model for Education by Josh Eidelson, commondreams.org | August 16, 2012
The world’s largest private-sector employer and the country’s most prominent conservative entertainment company have teamed up to sponsor a fundraiser called “Teachers Rock.” Backed by Walmart and Anschutz Film Group, the August 14 event will feature live performances from musicians like Josh Groban and appearances from actresses like Viola Davis; it will be broadcast August 18 as a CBS special with messages from actresses like Meryl Streep. And it will promote the upcoming feature film Won’t Back Down, Anschutz’s entry in the “education reform” wars. Won’t Back Down is reportedly a highly sympathetic fictional portrayal of “parent trigger” laws, a major flashpoint in debates over education and collective bargaining. read more »
The Latest
Poll: Schools Not Preparing Kids, USA Today | June 30, 2008
Half of Americans say U.S. schools are doing only a fair to poor job preparing kids for college and the work force. Even more feel that way about the skills kids need to survive as adults, according to a recent Associated Press poll. more »
Food Prices Hit School Lunches, MSNBC News | June 9, 2008
The cost of staples that make up the backbone of school meal programs has soared in the past year, far outstripping federal subsidies. While inflation has driven up the price of milk by 12 percent, cheese by 15 percent and bread by 17 percent, the National School Lunch Program has increased what it pays local school districts to feed 30.1 million schoolchildren by only 3 percent. more »
No Child Left Behind Doomed?, time.com | June 9, 2008
There was always something slightly insane about No Child Left Behind, the ambitious education law often described as the Bush administration's signature domestic achievement. Educators cited its unattainable goals for schools and unrealistic expectations of students. more »
Student Loans to Bypass 2-Year Colleges, The New York Times | June 2, 2008
Some of the nation's biggest banks have closed their doors to students at community colleges, for-profit universities and other less competitive institutions, even as they continue to extend federally backed loans to students at the nation's top universities. more »
Government Enters Student Lending, The Washington Post | May 21, 2008
The Department of Education is preparing to exercise broad new powers in the coming weeks that could fundamentally recast how millions of students pay for college. This initiative could transform the federal government from a guarantor of student loans into the dominant provider, replacing the outside lenders to whom students and their families have long turned. more »
More Schools Failing, MSNBC News | May 20, 2008
The federal No Child Left Behind law says that by the 2013-14 school year all students must pass state tests in these subjects. According to a recent study, about half of the states have steady annual goals for increasing the percentage of students passing, or working at their proper grade level. more »
Failing Grade for Reading Program, The Washington Post | May 2, 2008
Students enrolled in a $6 billion federal reading program that is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law are not reading any better than those who don't participate, according to a U.S. government report. more »
Education Act Reformed, MSNBC News | April 23, 2008
Unable to push education fixes through Congress, the Bush administration is taking its own pen to the No Child Left Behind law. The Education Department plans to make a host of changes to the education law through regulations. Among the biggest changes is a requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states must calculate their high school graduation rates in a uniform way.
1 Million Drop Out Annually, news.newamericamedia.org | April 20, 2008
A recent study found urban schools in metropolitan areas surrounding 35 of the nation’s largest cities have lower graduation rates than schools in nearby suburban communities. Approximately 1.2 million students drop out each year–about 7,000 every school day, or one every 26 seconds. more »
Student Loan Bill Passes House, The Washington Post | April 18, 2008
The House, trying to avert a looming shortage in available student loans, approved a measure allowing the Department of Education to buy federally guaranteed loans that lenders are unable to sell to private investors. more »
