This is a hard day for the folks at my house. Easter is a big deal, with music and family breakfast and a bunch of things that we will not have yet again this year. But at least this year there's a possible light at the maybe end of a probably tunnel. At any rate, if you need to while away some time today, here's some reading from the week.
How a couple worked charter school regulations to make millions.
Yes, here's another one of these stories. It's almost as if the charter industry is so unregulated and unaccountable that it invites folks to exploit it. This time it's California, the Fresh Start Charter School, and Clark and Jeanette Parker.
Free education is a public good
New Hampshire is ground zero for an attempt at the biggest pay-as-you-go voucher system in the nation. In an op-ed for the Concord Monitor, state representative Linda Tanner lays out why this is bad news.
President Biden's infrastructure plan should include teachers! Here's why.
On her blog, Nancy Bailey writes about why teachers should be a piece of the massive infrastructure bill.
Teaching Black children well is the purest form of activism
Maureen Downey at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reports on a panel about attracting and retaining Black teachers, one of the critical issues of our era.
State leaders hijacking stimulus funds meant for Texas public schools
Oh, that wacky Texas legislature. Something like $18 billion dollars in stimulus money is supposed to be for schools, but they're thinking they'd like to balance the budget instead. From the San Antonio Report.
Alabama upholds ban on yoga in public schools
Also, you can't say "namaste." The ban goes back to 1993, and the legislature just refused to reverse it, because Jesus.
DC urban parents forum reinforces segregation
I'm going to complain that the Washington Post in its headline shortened the DC Urban Moms and Dads forum to "a DC moms forum." The story looks at some research by Brookings about the forum, and once again, we lift up a rock and find racism crawling out from underneath it.
School District Spending and Equal Educational Opportunity
Shanker Institute teamed up with Mark Weber and Bruce Baker to produce a massive data set showing how much districts are above or below their ideal financial state. Follow the links to the full report, and enjoy clicking on the color-coded map.
Dennis Baxley gets real about Bright Futures funding
The battle about the Bright Futures college scholarship program continues to rage in Florida, where Accountabaloney has the newest on this newest onslaught by America's Worst Legislature
A bold idea for testing: Opt-in
Simple and bold-- let parents opt in to the Big Standardized Test instead of making them opt out. The original story of a district trying this is behind a paywall, but Diane Ravitch has the highlights.
Big increase in Montana's tax credit program
Montana birthed the Espinoza case, back when the state's tax credit scholarship program was about a lousy $150. Now the GOP would like to increase the cap to $200,000.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a new study that shows how education inequity is endemic in the collar counties of Philadelphia.
Nancy Flanagan once again offers the voice of a reasonable grown up, and reminds us that demonizing and ad homineming are not particularly useful in any debate.
"In terms of funding, suburban districts with greater shares of Black and Hispanic students have less to spend on instruction, according to the report. Those that are mostly Black or Hispanic — 9 of 61 — spend an average of $11,418 per student on instruction, a figure that grows as the enrollment of those students decreases. In districts with less than 10% Black or Hispanic students, instructional spending per pupil is $12,910. Multiplied across 24 students in a classroom, that gap amounts to more than $35,000."
ReplyDeleteDoes the reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer really think that a first grade teacher with a class of 24 students has close to $300,000 for "instructional spending" to run her program? In reality, elementary teachers receive about $300 for supplies and materials.
Peter,
Please consider a post on the meaning of "cost per pupil" data. It is the most misunderstood and misrepresented information in education.