We teachers live in two worlds: One is of collaboration and democracy. The other is of contest and domination.
We’ve done well with that first world, the one of collaboration. It’s that second one of the contest and mental brutality of eliminating the competition that we have a hard time swallowing. Continue reading Teacher, You Live in Two Worlds
Apparently, Governor Mary Fallin is still sold on the A-F school grading model from the very latest new and improved “government transparency” website that was rolled out during her state of the state address on February 2. Continue reading Gov Fallin Won’t Give Up on Punishing Public Schools
So, you think that you want to expand “school choice” for parents by passing proposed legislation that would allow charters and private schools to take tax money with little of the financial or quality safeguards that publicly controlled schools now have?
Continue reading So You Want Evidence of Choice and Charter Problems?
Once upon a time in Oklahoma, magnet public schools were the “choice” that allowed for much more creativity and freedom. They helped to break years of racial/economic segregation. But that’s not the point of a huge “school choice” push today. Continue reading Cynical School Choice Stunts Ramp Up In Oklahoma
This is “school choice” week for those who propose that all parents just take a certain amount of tax money and choose whatever school they want their child to be in. But it doesn’t always work that way. Continue reading Does School Choice Mean that You Choose the School?
A sweeping charter school bill was defeated last year in the Oklahoma Legislature. If passed, they would have allowed investor-owned charters to spring up in direct competition to public schools everywhere, even in the smallest of towns.
The “reform” argument was the same as it has always been when selling “education reform”: Continue reading Bait and Switch with “Parent Choice”?
When it comes to public schools in Oklahoma, the effort to move parents from the status of citizen to consumer has started in earnest, and there is big, big money behind it. Continue reading Here Comes The Money
Even though experienced teachers as a group have a high degree of love for their students and their work, they are leaving education in large numbers. The teacher brain drain has been happening for about ten years now, and very little grief expressed. Why? Continue reading Education Reformers Engineer a Teacher Brain Drain
We are always looking for lesser messiahs than The Messiah. A new President will fix it. Yeah, a new governor will make it right. If we can just elect a new attorney general, then…. But it seldom works that way.
Continue reading Sorry, the Kingdom Will Not Come for Education on Monday
Education reformers love to strike a heroic pose as they refer to themselves as engaging in “disruptive innovation”. Thing is, that’s not what they are doing. It’s more like what corporate raiders did in the 1980s. Continue reading Education Reform is Not Disruptive Innovation