Joe Williams' Blog
The (Good) School Seat Scramble in L.A.
While most of the presidential candidates continue to push supply-side education reforms (trickle-down edunomics) the L.A. Times today takes a good look at the demand-side of the equation. Waiting lists at the best schools numbering in the thousands, parental-frustration, important real estate decisions on the mind, etc. (One family figured they could rent out their North Hollywood home and then move to a $400,000 trailer park in Malibu just for the schools.)
Lo and behold, it turns out both Anglo and non-Anglo parents want good schools just as badly. Who knew? Some interesting stuff on racial integration as well.
And, speaking of Mike Piscal, his public charter schools seem to have some of the longest waiting lists, according to Howard Bloom and Carla Rivera.
Posted by Joe Williams on July 29, 2007 3:31 PM
How Good Was Steve Barr Happy Hour Last Friday?
I've always thought that you could judge the quality of a night out on the town by the wackiness of the business cards you find stuffed in your pocket when you peel yourself off the living room couch the next morning. That being the case, it is safe to say that Friday night's festivities in Manhattan with Green Dot CEO Steve Barr were a doozie.
It was a fun enough time inside the bar, as a fun crowd of ed reform-types were on hand to talk shop. But one of the highlights came near the end of the night, on the street outside, when a small group of late-nighters had the pleasure of bumping into Krazy George, the guy who first invented 'the wave' in big league sports stadiums.
Seriously, the guy is a living legend.
Special credit goes to Barr, who actually recognized Krazy George on the sidewalk. I had forgotten about the chance encounter until I found a baseball card style business card stuffed in my shirt pocket on Saturday morning featuring "Krazy George - Professional Cheerleader." Gotta love that.
Continue reading "How Good Was Steve Barr Happy Hour Last Friday?"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 29, 2007 1:49 PM
July 27, 2007
Big Day For the Dems In St. Louis? Or Same Old, Same Old
The Democratic canidates for president largely embarrassed themselves at Pander-Palooza a few weeks ago (save for a very weak merit pay proposal from Obama) but they have a chance to save face later this morning when several of them will speak at the Urban League's national convention.
The bar was raised pretty high the other day when Independent NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg hit the stage there and actually seemed to talk about the nature of the problem and offered some common-sense, yet seldom discussed proposals to bring meaningful change to our struggling systems of education. Whether Bloomberg's speech serves as an embarrassing reminder of the Democratic Party's intellectual bankruptcy on education issues will be determined by the candidates themselves later today, but there is an obvious hole that Bloomberg left that could be very easily filled.
Continue reading "Big Day For the Dems In St. Louis? Or Same Old, Same Old"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 27, 2007 3:39 AM
DFER Education Warrior: Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson
(We were pleased to have Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson join us for our June 5th launch event in NYC because he has shown the kind of courage that it takes to battle an entrenched status quo in his school system. DFER encourages visitors to learn more about/and support Mayor Peterson's work through a non-profit he helped establish, The Mind Trust. The organization exists to help attract, support, and empower educational entrepreneurs in Indianapolis.)
Recently dubbed “the Peyton Manning of charter schools” by Education Next magazine, Mayor Peterson is the only mayor in the nation running a charter school authorizer out of his office and has proven himself willing to be judged by the results. This past school year, the mayor oversaw 16 charter schools serving 3,870 students. His charter school office issues an annual report on its schools that, in its candor and analytical sophistication, rivals just about any report out there.
Continue reading "DFER Education Warrior: Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 27, 2007 2:14 AM
July 26, 2007
Who Is Holding A Gun To The Heads of The Teachers At Cesar Chavez Charter Schools?
The New America Foundation's Sara Mead (a DFER board member), guestblogging over at Eduwonk, is asking what Cesar Chavez would do about an interesting debate that has been playing out in the blogosphere lately.
It all started with an interesting post from United Federation of Teachers V.P. Leo Casey on Edwize explaining his early days in organizing and activism. At the end of the post, Leo argued that it was uncool that charter schools were named after Cesar Chavez while "denying their teachers the right to organize into a union."
Posted by Joe Williams on July 26, 2007 10:15 PM
Green Dot Invades The Airwaves - Barr Explains What 'Animo' Means
Note: While I am absolutely not above posting shameless plugs for DFER Happy Hour events like Friday's festivities featuring Green Dot Public Schools CEO (And DFER National Advisory Board Member) Steve Barr, the timing of this entry is entirely coincidental.
My wife called breathlessly from her northwoods summer adventure this morning and I assumed it had something to do with her guy Bloomberg again. She said she was listening to North Country Public Radio this morning when, lo and behold, she was treated to an interview with Barr on the program "On Point".
If you can't make it to happy hour to hear Steve talk about what makes him and his unionized charter schools in Los Angeles so special, give it a listen via the link below.
Continue reading "Green Dot Invades The Airwaves - Barr Explains What 'Animo' Means"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 26, 2007 8:50 PM
Does Ed In '08 Have a 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' Thing Going On?
I'm a big fan of what the folks at Ed In 08 are trying to do in terms of raising the issue of education in the presidential races. It is obviously very important work, so I watch them closely for tips. I'm trying to figure out whether they are doing some sort of good cop, bad cop thing right now.
If you read Roy Romer's blog, the former governor/DNC Chair/L.A. School Superintendent is living up to his reputation as a thoughtful, measured dude. Optimistic even, especially about the chances for dramatic change this presidential election cycle. There's a lot of love in that blog, baby.
But then you look at Marc Lampkin's stuff on Huffington Post and you are almost reminded what it looks like to see a can of whoop-a$$ opened up during a policy discussion.
Continue reading "Does Ed In '08 Have a 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' Thing Going On?"....
Posted by Joe Williams on July 26, 2007 4:21 PM
