-
How political organizers are channeling parents’ education frustrations
“I hope that the race in Virginia really woke a lot of people up and said, OK, there is a groundswell of parents,” Schillinger said. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of parents are in Facebook groups focused on keeping schools open. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found 48% of parents said they should have a lot of say in what their child’s school teaches. Keri Rodrigues is president of the National Parents Union, a collective of organizations that work to empower parents’ voices. “They’re entirely right to say that we’re angry. They’re entirely wrong about what we’re really angry about,” Rodrigues said. “I would tell you that 90 to 95%…
-
Pandemic gives us opportunity to transform education
American schools are in crisis – addled by pandemic shutdowns and growing controversies over curriculum, masks and vaccines. Many students suffered severe learning loss, and others fret for their health and safety on campus. Worse, well before coronavirus took hold, too many students were ill-served by our K-12 school system. As John F. Kennedy said in 1959 of the challenges facing the nation, crisis represents both danger and opportunity. So too does this moment of peril afford – and truly require – us to treat the problem as a chance to transform our schools. If we take the moment of danger seriously, and implement real change, the disruption and damage done over…
-
Experimenting with Higher Education | Daily Nous
A new university is being created by a group of academics and media personalities who, unlike you and the university you work or study at, care about the truth: And, might I add, they care about it fearlessly: Featuring a number of figures who have fearlessly quit previous jobs rather than be around people who disagreed with them, the University of Austin promises to be “fiercely independent—financially, intellectually, and politically,” by being funded via a libertarian think tank. It will have a physical campus in Austin, Texas, because “it’s good enough for [thinkers as radically different from one another as] Elon Musk and Joe Rogan.” The full curriculum is still…
-
Democrats Quietly Nix Biden’s $100B for School Modernization From Infrastructure Package | Education News
On a hot late August day, less than 24 hours before students were set to return to classrooms at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber in Philadelphia – the majority for the first time in 18 months – city council member Helen Gym joined educators, parents and students gathered in front of the school’s red doors and stately columns to protest the unsafe conditions inside, where an ongoing construction project had left asbestos exposed, layers of dust caking hallways and a shortage of working bathrooms for 700 students. An emergency order notified parents and school staff earlier that day that, as a result of the facilities issues, high school students would…
-
MSNBC’s Joy Reid: ‘Education’ issue is ‘code’ for White parents who don’t want race taught in schools
MSNBC’s Joy Reid called the issue of education a “code” for White parents who don’t want their children to be taught about race during her coverage of the Virginia gubernatorial election Tuesday. Citing exit polling, Reid noted that while the coronavirus factored low on the issues most important to Virginia voters this election, education ranked high. Reid used air quotes when saying the word education. ELECTION DAY: VIRGINIA, NEW JERSEY POLLS OPEN IN GOVERNOR’S RACE SEEN AS REFERENDUM ON BIDEN: LIVE She called it “code for White parents who don’t like the idea about teaching about race.” Aimee Allison (L), founder and president of the She the People organization, kicks…
-
Plans to push NC lawmakers to fund a ‘sound basic education’ due Monday in decades-long Leandro case :: WRAL.com
By Emily Walkenhorst, WRAL education reporter Raleigh, N.C. — Groups fighting for more equitable education funding will tell a judge Monday how to incentivize lawmakers to change laws and spend more on schools. State Superior Court Judge W. David Lee has ordered the state to change how it funds schools and to spend billions more doing so. It’s part of the 27-year lawsuit known as the “Leandro” case, which resulted in courts finding that the state wasn’t giving counties the money they needed to provide a “sound basic education” to students. Since lawmakers have not proposed, nor agreed upon, a plan to comply with the court order, Lee asked plaintiff…
-
‘We are at a breaking point’: School officials ask legislators not to pass new education laws
Vermont educators urged lawmakers Wednesday to avoid new education reforms in the upcoming year, saying it would further burden schools that are already “in survival mode.” In testimony before the Vermont House Committee on Education on Wednesday, school officials described schools struggling in the first two months of the fall 2021 semester and asked legislators not to pass new laws that would add to their workload. “Try as best you can this year to be the ‘do-nothing Congress,’” Vermont Principals’ Association Jay Nichols told the committee. “And if you’re going to add anything, please take things off their plate at the same time.” Prior to the meeting, Rep. Kate Webb,…
Skillful education crafters
