Summary: In a replay of past legal challenges to private sector unions’ ability to organize workers, conservative donors and foundations line up to challenge public sector unions, which eventually may put teachers’ salaries and their collective political clout in harm’s way. Continue reading
Summary: Charters are gaining ground. High time for public school boards, including Seattle’s, to make their peace, authorize a limited number of charters over time, and harness their creative energy. Continue reading
Summary: Institutional leadership in the charter era, the fate of a deep student underclass, and the teaching of civics are three topics which mistakenly get short shrift in the current conversation around schools. Continue reading
Summary: While the Seattle School Board votes to fight a zoning waiver for a new Green Dot charter high school, the Board members seem to ignore complex forces gathering at their door. Continue reading
Summary: Huge cuts in state funding for higher education have left our premier public universities to thirst after the money well to do families from out of state are able to pay for a selective education. As a consequence, membership of moneyed families in upper socioeconomic echelons is solidified and the portal for entry by lower income youth is contracted. Continue reading
Summary: In a climate of federal retreat to the nineteenth century, and sometimes unintentional de facto assaults from our friends, teachers nonetheless shape the future by their own good practice in the present day, every day. Continue reading
