Klein compares Bloomberg to Putin
No, he didn’t, but at the mayoral-control hearing in Albany, according to the indefatigable Elizabeth Green, Klein defended himself passionately, arguing that mayoral control is a democratic governance structure, not an authoritarian one, as some members painted it. The logic here is weak: under that view, a plebiscite dictatorship is democratic because every few years […]
Getting into the weeds: when did $25 billion become the weeds??
Charles Barone has been writing about the stimulus debate with the type of detail that no one else has, at least publicly. That’s the importance of having people with legislative experience who really can get deeply into the weeds. What’s jaw-dropping is that the stimulus package is so large that the Senate cut of $24.8 […]
UTLA and “benchmark” or “periodic” testing
Last week, the United Teachers of Los Angeles called for the cessation of every-few-months testing in the district. The response of the district: such testing is an important tool in improving student achievement, which they know because schools with such testing have had annual-test scores higher than schools without such testing. The flaw in the […]
More charter-school organizing
Congratulations to United Teachers Los Angeles for organizing Accelerated School. If the reporting in the story is correct, some of the same issues motivating KIPP teachers in New York to join UFT are also motivating teachers in Accelerated School: teacher turnover, teacher voice in decisionmaking. It’s never all about the money. (Hat tip.)