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Sunday, August 27, 2023

ICYMI: Quiet Soon Edition (8/27)

Both the Board of Directors and the CMO head back to school this week, leaving me to manage the sudden lack of noise here at the institute. Time to brush off that old vinyl and start ramping up some projects in an attempt to distract myself. In the meantime, here's some reading from the week.

Low pay, culture wars, and ‘bulldozer parents.’ Why Michigan’s best teachers are calling it quits.

Schools starting up, so it's time for media outlets to spend a week or two noticing education issues, like the continuing teacher exodus. Here's Melissa Frick in Michigan Live noticing the loss in DeVosland.

Gun deaths among U.S. children hit a new record high

More ugly news from the journal Pediatrics, as reported in Axios

The Battle Over a ‘Catholic Public School’ in Oklahoma

At The Progressive, Andrew Seidel takes a look at the Oklahoma proposal to start a taxpayer funded religious charter. What is it really about? Seidel says it;s the hostile takeover of public schools.

Dear God, The FLBOE Is Now Beginning Its Meetings With Prayer.

Speaking of ignoring the wall between church and state, Sue Kingery Woltanski informs us that the Florida Board of Education has a fun new custom--opening with a prayer that, in one instance, involves noting that the common good is "to build a nation that gives God glory."

Let’s Stop Pretending College Degrees Don’t Matter

There's been a lot of talk about getting rid of the whole credentialling thing, but at the New York Times, Ben Wildavsky says let's stop kidding ourselves and our children.

A Nation at Risk: Will the Truth finally set US free?

If you're a podcast person, you should have Bust-ED Pencils on your list, and a great place to start is with this new episode featuring James Harvey. He was there when A Nation At Risk, the federal report that kicked off the whole "US education sucks" thing, and he's here to tell us that it was bunk.

‘Moms’ Radical Attack on Public Education

Maurice Cunningham is one of the top researchers in the world of dark money and reformy astro-turf. Here he is in the Shepherd (Milwaukee's alternative news source) explaining what Moms for Liberty is all about.

The Model of a Modern School Administrator

RealClear Education is a reformy publication, and Max Eden's reformster credentials are impeccable, so this piece in which Eden takes a flamethrower to the current leadership of the very reformy Chiefs for Change is an unexpected barrel of Something Else.

Hard “pass” on new PA school voucher program\

Voucher fans are still fighting to get more of them in PA, but folks are still stepping up to say no, like Ada Miller in the Bucks County Herald.

More than 100 chaplains urge Texans not to hire school chaplains

Governor Abbott thought he had a clever way to get religion into schools, but a whole bunch of religious folks are not on board with his program.

Florida schools got hundreds of book complaints — mostly from 2 people

Behind the Tampa Bay Times paywall, but the headline has a lot of the story. And one these crazypants reading opponents is, I'm sorry to say, a teacher.

Teachers—or Teacher Unions? Or maybe—Neither.

Beating up on teacher unions is cool again, at least if you're one of those GOP candidates wasting his time primarying. But Nancy Flanagan has some thoughts about unions and parents and the attempts to pit them against each other.

What is a "Classical Education"?

We hear a lot about classical education, particularly from charters and private schools and places like Hillsdale College, but what is that, anyway. Steve Nuzum has a good explainer.

Is Florida’s SAT Replacement Exam A) Christian Nationalism or B) Woke Propaganda?

If you've encountered the creator of the Classic Learning Test on social media, it probably didn't leave a glowing impression. But Kiera Butler at Mother Jones has put together a fair and balanced look at this attempt to upset the SAT/ACT apple cart.

The College Board Tells TikTok and Facebook Your SAT Scores

Speaking of those odious test manufacturers, Gizmodo has a reminder that they have not changed their data-mining-and-selling ways.

Where Have School Libraries Gone?

It's not just Houston. Steven Singer was shocked and dismayed to find his old school library is now vacant space.

Superintendents continue to call for cyber charter school reform

PA cyber school funding is in dire need of fixing, and yet, superintendents and many others have to keep trying to convince the legislature to do something, and they mostly don't.

This week at Forbes. com, I wrote about the new PEN America report on teacher intimidation bills, and about the shredding of literature teaching by the Big Standardized Test. 

It's been almost a year since I launched the substack version of the Curmudgucation Institute's output, and I'm plenty pleased with how it's working. It makes it easy and convenient to follow my stuff as much or as little as you want-- it's just one more piece of email in your inbox. It's absolutely free, and I encourage you to sign up.



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