All Aboard the Marijuana Money Train in Virginia and New Jersey, with Oregon Decriminalizing All Drugs
With dollar signs dancing in their heads, state officials across the country already have or are now considering legalizing recreational marijuana. Virginia recently joined their ranks, though the law won’t go into effect until 2024, disappointing even the ACLU...
Political Correctness on Steroids: The WOKE Cancel Culture
“… Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~ Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1946 *** In 2009’s Read Across America Day, Obama called Seuss “one of America’s revered wordsmiths." In 2016, he said that the writer “used his incredible talent to...
Illinois’s “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards”: The End of Learning as We’ve Known It
Make no mistake, these “Culturally Responsive Standards” have nothing to do with reading, writing, or math, but, on February 16, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules of the Illinois General Assembly approved them anyway—and they’re on track to go national....
Policy Changes on the Way with Biden and the Democrats Now at the Helm
1. A recent John Fritze USA Today piece headlines with “Biden Eyes High Court Panel,” and continued by saying he would proceed via a “bipartisan” commission to study Supreme Court reforms. At the same time, eight progressive organizations have joined to...
The Oregon Department of Education Offers “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction” Course to Its Teachers on February 21
Without comment--and no grammatical, punctuation, wording changes--what follows is a sampling from the 82-page antiracist "A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: *** “White supremacy culture infiltrates math classroom in everyday teacher action. Coupled with the...
Schooling in 2021: Declining Enrollment, a Watered-Down Call for Reopenings, Transgender Rights, and More
*** 1. A recent Barr Foundation survey found that 50% of kids prefer full-time, in-person learning vs. 34% preferring a hybrid model, and just 16% going with remote instruction. *** 2. About 20% of National Education Association teachers have now been vaccinated,...
Headlining: Axing the 1776 Commission, Bezos As Educator, Rising Suicides, Toddlers on Touchscreens, and More
We already know Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so six more weeks of winter. We also know that we’ve got a new President and Congress, and that the pandemic is still in charge of much of our lives, as we scramble to get vaccinated. But did you know that: On his very...
Ready or Not: Big Debt, New Hires, Name Changes, Banned Books, and the “F” Word, Too
Hold on to your collective hats, everyone. 2021 is just one month old, but big changes are in the air. What’s old is new again, and some things will never be the same … The 2020 federal budget deficit hit $3 trillion+. So far, each taxpayer’s share of the federal...
And the Biden $1.9 Trillion Goes To…
Before rounding the corner and homing in on home plate—Inauguration Day 2021—President-Elect Joe Biden unveiled his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, an add-on to Congress’s March $3 Trillion COVID relief plan and December’s $900 billion. Here’s a quick—albeit...
Substitute Teacher Shortages and Disconnected Homeless Students
An August 2020 National Education Association survey found that: 28% of educators said the pandemic made them likelier to leave teaching. Meanwhile, back in mid-November, the EdWeek Research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 913 pre-K educators--...
The Toll Exacted by Learning & Living Remotely
Thanks to the COVID vaccine, the light is on at the end of the tunnel, but it’s still a long way off and for many kids that translates into more on and off again remote instruction, with mental health and more on the chopping block… Turns out that 39% of districts...
Biden’s Secretary of Education Pick: Miguel Cardona
So, who is this fellow on tap to replace Betsy DeVos as the 12th U.S. Secretary of Education, jumping ahead of both NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia and AFT president Randi Weingarten? Well, for starters, he was an English Language Learner when a student himself,...
To Open or Shutter Schools: Are the Teachers’ Unions Deciding?
Recently Education Week’s Madeline Will wrote a piece called, “How Teachers’ Unions Are Influencing Decisions on School Reopenings.” Here some excerpts from the article about what's being said about the unions and reopenings: “Teachers’ unions have an outsized...
A Must Read: Superintendent Gibson’s Snow Day Letter
It snowed a lot in the northeast last week, making for a perfect snow day, a time to unleash kids and teachers alike from devices of all sorts to play--making snow balls, snowmen, snow angels, and maybe get in some sledding, too. But the likes of Philadelphia School...
Screened-In, Kids Lose Out Educationally, Socially, & Emotionally
Stuck at home and screened-in for much of the day, kids are paying a huge price in the fight against COVID-19--but they're not the super-spreaders. Still, many, including a number of teachers, are all in with remote instruction, but justifiably so? Give a listen:...
The Cost of School Closures & Semi-Closures
As the heartbreaking pandemic wears on and new restrictions are added, subtracted, and resurrected, give a listen to those who know well the cost of closures to students, their parents, and teachers: “The United States has extracted an enormous sacrifice from its...
Remote Learning’s Already Apparent Shortcomings
A mid-October Pew Research Center survey that compared taking an online-only course with an in-person one found that: Just 30% said they “provide equal educational value.” 68% said they do NOT. So now imagine being one of the countless kids who, from mid-March to...
2020: Scams, Loss, Death, and Other COVID Side Effects
Since mid-March we’ve been pretty much stuck in an unending bad movie or Twilight Zone episode called COVID-19 that’s now infected 12,818,000 Americans and claimed some 262,000 lives. Among the virus’s other miserable side effects: Finds the U.S. Census Bureau, about...
On the Way to Normal with Pfizer, Moderna, with Thanks
On November 18, Dr. Anthony Fauci, reassuringly said, “The cavalry is on its way. It’s not here yet, but it’s going to come. We have an even better than expected efficacy signal on two vaccines. We’re likely to already start having distribution of doses, hopefully by...
The Other Pandemic: Closed School’s Effect on Teen Well-Being
Mid-June Common Sense Media/America’s Promise Alliance surveys found that schooling’s “new normal” has hit teenagers hard—especially those who are black, Latino, and Asian. If a parent, you’re not surprised. As school psychologist Rob Coad reminds us: “One of their...