Note to Biddy Martin: You’re not the queen
Apparently University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Biddy Martin is blocking tweets from those who disagree with her on her preferred higher-ed policy, including her own faculty. Dear Chancellor Biddy Martin, A key way to lose confidence among faculty and students is demonstrating thin skin either by yourself directly or by whoever you have picked to manage […]
SB 736 on the way to Governor Rick Scott
The Florida House passed its version of the teacher working-conditions bill that was Senate Bill 6 last year and Senate Bill 736 this year. It's one of the policy issues I just haven't had time to discuss in the last month, though it's probably the largest attempt to change the nature of teaching as an […]
Test document for Google Docs comments available
Now that Google Docs allow comments, you may want to know how to work it and try it in a sandbox? Head to this hand-dandy Lorem Ipsum’ed document to try it out. It’ll probably be available for a few weeks for anyone to try their hand, and then I’ll take it down and change/delete this […]
Go for the jugular, not “politicization” as a process attack
I’ve been going back and forth a bit on Twitter with David Cohen and Rachel Levy about the term “politicization” when applied to education policy, with Cohen and Levy arguing that the high-stakes accountability policies they dislike represent politicization. As an historian, I’m skeptical of the term “politicization” in policy discourse for two reasons: first, […]
The Baumol fallacy, from an historian’s view
Time to hike up my trousers and wade into some intellectual flotsam. In my entry on the politics of Scott Walker's anti-unionism, there's a comment demi-thread about the Baumol "cost-disease" argument started by Glen McPhee that I want to bring into a main entry, because the fallacy embedded in it is similar to Tyler Cowen's argument […]