Plunderbund

In a recent interview with the Columbus Education Association, Governor Strickland discussed his plans to improve Ohio’s educational system.
The first goal of his plan is “to strengthen our commitment to Ohio’s public schools and public education.” With this commitment comes “increased accountability measures for charters.”
But the Governor admits this won’t happen while Republicans control […]

It’s pretty well recognized that college professors as a group are more liberal than the population at large. The unexplored question was always “why?” People like David Horowitz would blindly speculate that it was hostility towards conservatives that drove them from academia, but nobody actually tried to learn why there weren’t more conservatives […]

AP, via MSNBC:
In a troubling reversal, the nation’s teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, surprising government health officials who had no immediate explanation.
The birth rate had been dropping since its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday, government statisticians said it rose 3 percent […]

American prominence on the world stage has not been due to some issue of “national character”; our people are not inherently different than people anywhere else in the world. But we have, in the past, had better educational resources, and a greater emphasis on science and engineering. But no longer.
Back in September, […]

Someone My good friend and quite awesome blogger Joseph IM’d me this quote from Bush yesterday. Another classic example of how it is possible to have some sheepskin hanging, but still not have a fucking clue:
“As yesterday’s positive report card shows,” Bush said, “childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.”

Here […]

On average, 15% of incoming college freshmen do not have a parent who attended college. At Ohio State, that number is nearly 23%.
Ohio State’s numbers are fantastic, because we know that many of these students come from families that haven’t traditionally considered college,” said Tally Hart, director of the Economic Access Initiative.
According to the […]

Jenna Bush, that’s who. Yes, the President’s (blond) daughter. When asked by Diane Sawyer if she supported her father’s “abstinence-only” plan.
No, I mean, not at all, first, because I’m not part of the administration. You know, I’m just my father’s daughter. … I think that when we’re talking about keeping kids safe, and […]

That Jerid is a pretty smart kid. He pointed out the other day that Bill Todd’s school funding lawsuit was one big publicity stunt. And now, Buckeye Institute is playing right along, calling the suit a “21st Century Brown vs. Board of Education”.

Of course, “playing along” probably isn’t a strong enough phrase, since […]

Jill has a huge rant up about the costs of education (and I don’t just mean $$$). It is brilliant. She completely captures my objections to profit-motives in education:
For me, it is about the motive. And people who are in education, for-profit, by definition, will not have the outcome of their “industry” - […]

That headline there is factually correct - an Oregon DA has dropped felony charges against two people who were slapping 13 year old girls’ asses. But there’s a twist - the persons charged (now with misdemeanor sexual assault) are 13 year old boys. (If you read the link, you’ll get their names, but […]

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) talking about why the College Cost Reduction Act is a good thing, and why the GOP shouldn’t have tried to kill the bill. Got the chamber pretty fired up.

The bill passed the House yesterday, despite the best efforts of Pryce, Tiberi, Chabot, Gillmor, Jordon, Hobson, and Schmidt. Nancy Pelosi’s […]

You will love this one. That headline is an actual quote from an Odessa, Texas school official crowing in an email about using curriculum which clearly violates the First Amendment. Shannon Baker, the ECISD director of curriculum and instruction sent out an email after a 4-2 vote approving the curriculum:
YES, WE ARE USING […]

via email from my friends at America Votes:
We hear it from the news, elected officials and our kids – there are problems with Ohio’s schools that range from inadequate funding to classrooms being too full. Join America Votes, ProgressOhio, coalition partners and allies for a community forum on education.
We are bringing […]

So, the Ohio GOP (and the right-wing blogosphere) is apoplectic over SoS Brunner’s plan to encourage HS graduates to register to vote, and specifically, the counties targeted for the pilot test run of the program. The gist of the complaint is that of the 5 pilot counties (Knox, Lucas, Montgomery, Scioto, and Trumbull), only […]

No wonder the kiddos were out in such force! The week before was National Charter Schools Week. Silly.
George says:
Because they are not bound by many regulatory requirements, charter schools have the flexibility to innovate in ways that will best meet students’ academic needs.
Yes. Innovations. Some of these innovations include the ability […]