A seemingly good college prep charter here in Oklahoma City has encountered publicity that it didn’t plan on, and perhaps wants badly to just go away. Continue reading Deeper Issues than Dancing Dead Cats
Deeper Issues than Dancing Dead Cats
Category Archives: Education
If competition is good for education, how about the police?
If competition would improve public education, would it also improve police services?
Certainly with issues of public policing continuing to rise throughout the U.S. from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, the question about how to improve policing is rising along with concerns.
But we have not heard much of anything about creating private competition for publicly-funded police departments as a way of improving them.
If, as school choice advocates maintain, competition is good and transformative for public services like education, why not for the police?
Continue reading If competition is good for education, how about the police?
Oklahoma’s Poor Need Much More than Charters Can Give
There has been a surge of anti-public-education talk in the past several weeks. Why?
Legislation to allow the governments of Tulsa and Oklahoma City to establish their own charter schools has come back to life as an amendment to another bill in the Oklahoma Legislature.
And the bill’s promoters want to make their case that the two biggest urban districts in the state are horrible, dystopic places that deserve abandonment instead of support and renewal. Continue reading Oklahoma’s Poor Need Much More than Charters Can Give
Book Review: Our City, Our Kids — by Ben Felder
The concluding two sentences in Ben Felder’s new book Our City, Our Kids is an unmistakable commitment to public schools in Oklahoma City:
Any Failure in the Oklahoma City Public School district is our failure as a community and city. These are our schools, and these are our kids.
A prolific journalist covering everything in the core of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Gazette reporter has used his extensive knowledge of Oklahoma City Public Schools to fashion a very efficient 50 page book that succeeds as a quick source of information and a call to action for residents of the central part of the Oklahoma City metro.
The key question that he addresses is this: What should residents of the central part of Oklahoma City know, think, and do about their school district whether they have children or not? Continue reading Book Review: Our City, Our Kids — by Ben Felder
The Hostile Workplace of Teachers
For most of us parents, the first impression that we have of school is that it is a warm, welcoming place. It’s because that first impression comes from viewing the Kindergarten class on an occasional basis when our children first start school. Continue reading The Hostile Workplace of Teachers
Latest Test Security Issue Creates Anxiety for Teachers
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Atlanta test cheating scandal fresh on their minds, Oklahoma teachers have had a higher-than-usual level of anxiety over a security flub by a test vendor. Continue reading Latest Test Security Issue Creates Anxiety for Teachers
OK House Ed Comm Dismantles Sloppy “Predator” Bill
OKLAHOMA CITY — It was a tough Monday morning for Oklahoma Rep. Scott Biggs (R-Dist. 51) as he tried to sell SB 301 to skeptical GOP and Democratic House members in the Education Committee*.
The bill is intended to establish a dedicated investigator of the state Board of Education to make sure that teachers suspected of being “sexual predators” can’t move from one school district to another when legal prosecutions fall apart.
But the committee wasn’t buying it — not even the Republicans.
Continue reading OK House Ed Comm Dismantles Sloppy “Predator” Bill
Do Okla Board of Ed Members Need their Own Investigator?
In an unusual turn of events, some members of the Oklahoma Board of Education are promoting legislation that would give them their own investigator who would be under their control. Continue reading Do Okla Board of Ed Members Need their Own Investigator?
Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?
Photo by Brett Dickerson
There are Republican politicians in Oklahoma. And then, there is that Republican politician. You know — that Joy Hofmeister.
She’s the Republican who primaried and beat Janet Barresi, incumbent Republican sweetheart of the public school bashing bandwagon. Continue reading Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?
School Choice and the Fear of “Those People”
“School Choice” is more about the deep fear of “those people” than proponents will admit. Continue reading School Choice and the Fear of “Those People”