ICYMI: Another Week That Lasted Ten Years Edition (10/4)

Holy crap. Let's take a moment to wax nostalgic about last weekend, those happy times when a story like the First Lady talking about how we should [expletive] Christmas would have gotten at least fifteen minutes of attention instead of being completely wiped out by a raging news cycle. Those happy times when the national news seen was merely a dumpster fire and not a dumpster fire dragged across a wasted landscape by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The best we can say is that there was a lot of worthwhile writing that appeared, and here's some of it--

How The School Choice Debate Is Failing Our Public Schools 

I am not always a Samantha Bee/Full Frontal fan; on a bad day she just feels like the Lefty version of Ann Coulter. But she does a really nice job of covering the school choice issue in less than seven and a half minutes. Worth watching and sharing with your non-education policy friends.



Epic Owes Oklahoma $8.9 Million

Tulsa World has the story of Epic schools, one more charter business that managed to rip off the state by making off with millions and millions of dollars.

Significant Lack of Equity in K-12 Education

Michigan Civil Rights Commission took a hard look at equity in Michigan schools, and it found many, many problems. Covered here by Michigan Live

New Jersey Spent 35 Years and $100 Billion Trying To Fix School Inequity 

Speaking of states that have failed to straighten equity issues out, here's Politico taking a look at New Jersey. And wonder of wonders, rather than talking to Mike Petrilli, they talked to Bruce Baker (School Finance 101) instead.

Public Schools and School Libraries: The Hubs of Democracy Face Crises

Nancy Bailey takes a look at how the current crisis is eroding some pretty important institutions

Battling for the Soul of Black Girls

Erica Green (along with Eliza Shapiro and Mark Walker) has put together a serious and moving look at the problems growing for what is ":arguably the most at-risk student group" in the country. This is a hell of a piece.

How the SAT Failed America 

And speaking of in-depth reporting, here's Susan Adams at Forbes covering both the broad swath and important details of the College Board's business woes under David Coleman (who, shockingly, does not come off looking good, once again).

The Wealth Gap 

Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat explains how measuring income rather than wealth leaves many families in financial straits unseen.

Student Absences and Juvenile Justice 

Yes, I know you may not read the reformy Bellwhether blog often, but this piece about how the involvement of juvenile justice system in student lives tends to make things worse--well, this is some research worth knowing about. One more piece of the school-to-prison pipeline

In Internet Dead Zones, Rural Schools Struggle With Distance Learning   \

True that. This is NPR reporting about an issue that some of us are far too familiar with.

The Rich and The Rest 

Nothing about this Have You Heard podcast will likely surprise you, but still listen/read as Jennifer and Jack explain just how the rich and the rest of us do not have the same priorities when it comes to public education.

My Way 

Grumpy Old Teacher gives a picture of a real teacher dealing with the real issues of this miserable pandemess in the classroom.

Weird Al Yankovic: We're All Doomed

Just in case you missed it-- Weird Al + Autotuned Candidates = verion of this week's debate that is actually tolerable.