In 1984, the Ministry of Plenty handled rationing. The Ministry of Love was in charge of torture. And in the summer of 2011, life imitated art when the National Education Association announced it supports the use of student performance in teacher evaluations. So says their latest...
Posted May 13, 2011 | 19:57:12 (EST)
It can hardly be denied that there are factors outside a student's control that might affect his grades: How smart he is, how much his parents support education, how nutritious the food in his home is, how much his older brother distracts him with PlayStation 3.
Some parents might put...
Posted March 31, 2011 | 15:17:44 (EST)
Should Courts Make Education Policy?
Let me guess: When the court makes a policy you like, your answer is "yes." When the court makes a policy you don't like, you're not so sure. If that's a reasonable summary of your beliefs on this, I'll ask you to reconsider.
And I'll...
Posted February 22, 2011 | 11:59:29 (EST)
As the director of The Cartel documentary, one of the things I learned was how poorly the traditional news media cover issues pertaining to children, in that case corruption in public education. Since the film's release, I often get contacted about other aspects of child protection that I...
Posted January 10, 2011 | 12:48:26 (EST)
If you're a defender of the American public education establishment and an advocate of throwing more money at the problem, 2010 was just an awful year.
In fairness, the establishment types have had a long run. For at least a generation, we American taxpayers were persuaded that money does indeed...
Posted November 29, 2010 | 14:40:49 (EST)
"Simple" and "Simplicity" are funny words. They can be used negatively:
Simplicity is a Bad Thing
In Definitions:
Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com say: "Lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness," "a lack of subtlety," "naivete." Synonym: Unsophistication.
In Quotes:
"For every problem there is a...
Posted October 25, 2010 | 03:32:47 (EST)
Since the theatrical release of The Cartel, I've hosted countless director Q & A's about public education policy and become quite familiar with the establishment's talking points. One of them is that there are thousands of great public schools and great teachers. I know that. I went to...
Posted October 7, 2010 | 02:37:15 (EST)
Fifty years ago this week, John F. Kennedy said a funny thing in his first televised debate with Richard Nixon. Referring to a statistic about all the new schools built during the Eisenhower administration, Kennedy observed:
The reason that the schools have been constructed is because the local...
Posted September 8, 2011 | 13:39:00 (EST)