Tag Archives: Education

If competition is good for education, how about the police?

Police and community
We expect the police to be close to the population that they serve to create order and peace. Photo Credit: class M planet via Compfight cc

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?

Book Review: Our City, Our Kids — by Ben Felder

New Ben Felder Book


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

Are Okla GOP Politicians Still For a Strong Supt?

Joy Hofmeister, Superintendent, education, tests,
Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction
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?

Quality Teachers Are Developed — Not Found

Jaime Escalante
The real Jaime Escalante did come from computer programming into teaching, but his celebrated success came after years of developing his own teaching skills and math program at the same high school. Photo credit: MyHero.com

Are quality teachers found or developed? This is not just a rhetorical exercise. The answer has everything to do with how we go about the whole management of our teacher workforce.  Continue reading Quality Teachers Are Developed — Not Found