U.S. Secretary of Mixed Metaphors
“Investing in the status quo is not going to move the ball down the field,” said Arne Duncan in discussing California education, and I wince. This is a Secretary of Education who thinks “incent” is a word, and when asked yesterday what happens when he plays the president in basketball, he answered, Everyone asks me […]
Shamless book plug in response to Kevin Carey
Kevin Carey has a very interesting personal history of school funding reform in Indiana, and then later writes that maybe he should have written differently, without “lie” as a verb. In retrospect, titling that post “Lie To Me” and talking about hiding information from parents was a bad idea–as is blogging at 4 AM after […]
Kibitzing mayoral control
I hope that my friends in New York will forgive this intrusion, but after Randi Weingarten’s op-ed this morning, which I suspect will break the legislative logjam on mayoral control in NYC, I have a few perspectives for denizens of New York or any other entity considering mayoral control: Any governance system requires an independent […]
GAO report on child restraint, abuse, and death
Anyone who has children or has worked in schools should be sobered by this week’s GAO report on the use of restraint tactics with children with behavior problems, especially children receiving special education services. There are summaries of the report in articles appearing in USA Today and the Palm Beach Post, and Charles Barone is […]
A blogger to USDOE?
Peter Orszag is being joined by Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, the newly-announced assistant secretary of education nominee, who has maintained a blog while running the Pomona school district.