Joe Williams' Blog
May 26, 2008
New York Times: Playing Footsie With Priorities
We've heard lots of people lamenting how the latest round of (forced?) buy-outs at America's extremely serious newspaper of record will impact the Times' education coverage. This in addition to the recent decision at the paper to scrap the weekly education page.
We now have a better picture of what will fill the void: More stories about the potential peril that comes from ditching your shoes and walking barefoot in the park. Oh Anemona, what happened?
The Times could be a significant crusader on behalf of the families who can barely afford shoes for their kids (and the depressing reality that those kids are the ones who invariably end up in our worst public schools) but alas, we'll have to settle for a campaign against getting planter's warts from the Great Lawn. Great work Pinch!
Posted by Joe Williams on May 26, 2008 11:04 AM
May 17, 2008
The Slopers Want Choice Too???
The Brooklyn Prospect Charter School is out there pitching its services to middle school parents for a fall 2009 opening, according to the Daily News this morning.
So it isn't just low-income people who want good school choices for their kids?
"It's really kind of shameful that we don't have more choices in the neighborhood," said Marietta Brill, a parent at P.S. 321.
So what happens when the have-nots and the have-a-little-want-mores start to demand the same thing? Look out....
Posted by Joe Williams on May 17, 2008 8:36 AM
May 14, 2008
Let Down, Again, By LAUSD
Sometimes a blogger has to know when it is simply best to post the straight-up text from a powerful piece of journalism. This is one of those times. Take it away Tim Rutten:
Every day, the Los Angeles Unified School District fails its tens of thousands of ambitious students, dedicated teachers and hardworking principals in so many ways that it's difficult to imagine how its elephantine bureaucracy could shamble into some new outrage.
Difficult, but not impossible, because the LAUSD runs this city's schools about like the generals run Myanmar.Put aside for a moment the fact that the district can't figure out how to graduate a decent number of its students, or even how to pay its teachers on a reliable basis. Ignore the Daily News' report this week that the administration, confronted with what may be half a billion dollars in budget cuts, nonetheless is spending $173 million on consultants, many of them connected to various bureaucratic functions -- like making the computers in the superintendent's office work.
Consider, instead, how the LAUSD's highest officials have chosen to deal with what would seem to be the fairly straightforward problem of child molestation.
Continue reading "Let Down, Again, By LAUSD"....
Posted by Joe Williams on May 14, 2008 8:56 AM
That's A Whole Lotta TFA
NY Times' Sam Dillon, one of the last remaining vestiges of what is becoming an education journalism ghosttown, reports on the largest class ever of Teach For America corps members.
It is amazing that TFA has become the hottest recruiter on our most prestigious college campuses. God bless them.
What is even more amazing, however, is that there are still some states where credential requirements prevent these bright world-changers from entering the classroom.
AP's Nancy Zuckerbroad writes about the TFA surge here.
I continue to believe that TFA will someday rule the universe.
Posted by Joe Williams on May 14, 2008 8:42 AM
May 13, 2008
Marion Barry Too????
Washington, DC Councilman (and former Mayor) Marion Barry is the latest in a stream of Democrats who are definitively siding with parents who want better schools for their kids. His op-ed in today's Washington Post even supports the district's small private school voucher program.
Writes Barry:
Moms, dads, aunts, uncles and other guardians in my community tell me that these programs are making a difference in their children's lives and giving them hope they have never had. I salute them for working to make the right choices for their children. In March, I held a community meeting at the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, where several families whose children have scholarships told me how much the program has done for them. One mom, Wanda Gaddis, has worked for a long time, including serving as a parent advocate at her daughter's public elementary school, to make sure her daughter gets a great education. At the meeting, I learned that her daughter is attending a private school in Ward 8 through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
Gaddis told me, "The schools in D.C. were not educating my child. At first I did not have a choice, but I am so thankful that I and so many other parents did get choice with the Opportunity Scholarship Program. I can't begin to tell you how much my child's education has improved since starting with this program. It is a program that is helping to educate our children so they can have better, more productive lives and in turn create better communities here in Ward 8 and across D.C."
Posted by Joe Williams on May 13, 2008 12:29 PM
May 12, 2008
Did Reg Weaver's Memo Not Make It To Florida?
Headline from this morning's St. Petersburg Tribune:
Democratic lawmakers warm up to vouchers
Disclosure: Some DFER supporters (including myself) made individual contributions to several of the Democrats who played a role here. In my case, the support was based not on this particular legislation but on the candidates' strong commitment to standing up for the little guy and focusing on the needs of students and their families who craved a better education than we have made available to them in traditional schools.
Posted by Joe Williams on May 12, 2008 3:38 PM
Pelosi: Ironwoman/Magnificent Destructor
The other night I dreamt that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the head of the world's largest military grade weapons manufacturer and that she was captured by meany terrorists who threatened to kill her unless she built them a shock-and-awe-inspiring weapon of mass destruction. She was able to free herself from the cave by secretly building an Ironwoman armor contraption which gave her superpowers, like a bulletproof shield, a veto-proof majority, and the ability to fly using jet propulsion booties. (By Prada, of course.)
The whole thing seemed far-fetched, until like many of you, I read the profile of Pelosi in the Wall Street Journal and learned that she is even more of a destructor than my dream allowed. Pelosi, it turns out, is a fan of Harvard's Clayton Christiansen (pdf) and even describes herself as a "magnificent disrupter."
Shake it up baby!
Posted by Joe Williams on May 12, 2008 2:09 PM
