By David DeMatthews and David S. Knight Sep. 27, 2018 Texas is a prosperous state, but lawmakers are failing to adequately finance public education, and communities and students are suffering the academic, physical and economic consequences. The upcoming legislative session provides a unique opportunity for our state’s elected leaders to right the past wrongs, but…
Tag: Advocacy
Do Public School Students Have Constitutional Rights?
The Supreme Court used to answer with a resounding yes. In recent decades, regrettably, it has changed its mind. By Justin Driver Mr. Driver is a law professor. Aug. 31, 2018 On Tuesday, as many students around the country start the school year, the eyes of the nation will turn to the Senate Judiciary Committee as…
Public schools and the push to privatize everything
By SAM OSHERSON Sunday, September 23, 2018 (New Hampshire) Despite their euphemisms about “choice” and claims about “personalizing” education, the “school choice” advocates display a surprising ignorance about public education in New Hampshire. Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut, for example, routinely misrepresents what happens in public school classrooms, incorrectly dismisses N.H. public education as a…
New York Test Scores Highlight Gaps Among Students from Different Backgrounds
Public-school students’ state test results showed wide disparities by racial and socioeconomic background, prompting calls for more urgent action 49 COMMENTS By Leslie Brody Updated Sept. 26, 2018 6:41 p.m. ET With only one out of three black and Hispanic students passing New York’s tests in reading and math last spring, educators and advocates called Wednesday…
Willow Public School receives $250,000 grant
Brenden Koch Sep 26, 2018 Willow Public School has been granted $250,000 by the NewSchools Venture Fund. The Walla Walla charter school was one of 19 schools across the nation to receive money from the California-based philanthropic firm, which uses donations received to support teams of educators and entrepreneurs “who are re-imagining public education to…
Education Week ranks Louisiana’s public education as fifth worst in the country, with a D- grade
September 27, 2018 Bethany Blankley The Pelican State ranks 46th and received a D- grade by Education Week in its 2018 K-12 Achievement Index. First published in January and recently updated with federal data, the Index provides a comprehensive assessment of student performance including in math and reading proficiency at the fourth and eighth…
Startling number of city public school students don’t understand basic math, English
By Selim Algar September 26, 2018 (New York) More than half of city public school students still don’t have a basic grasp of math and English, according to the latest round of state test results released Wednesday. Overall, 46.7 percent of kids in grades 3 to 8 were proficient in English and just 42.7 percent in…
“This is a Struggle to Save Public Education”
AN INTERVIEW WITH ARLENE INOUYE The teachers strike wave has reached Los Angeles: teachers there recently voted overwhelmingly to strike. They are fighting against school privatization, wage and benefit cuts, and the nationwide project to dismantle public education. he education strike wave initiated by West Virginia’s wildcat has reached the coasts. Teachers in Washington and Pennsylvania have walked off the job…
Public Schools Question Special Education Funding Fairness As Voucher Program Expands
September 26, 2019 EMILY FILES Is state special education funding in Wisconsin unfair? School districts from Eau Claire to Oak Creek say it is. They see inequity between public schools and a relatively new voucher program. The Special Needs Scholarship Program is another chapter in Wisconsin’s storied school choice movement. It provides an approximate $12,000 scholarship — or…
America’s public school teachers are far less racially and ethnically diverse than their students
Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 20% of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States during the 2015-16 school year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That makes teachers considerably less racially and ethnically diverse than their students – as well as the nation as a whole….
Standing Strong for Public Education! 