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Michael Dunn's Blog – March 2011 Archive (8)

Arne Duncan: 80% of America’s Schools Are Failing

For once it appears that Ed Deformer in Chief, Arne Duncan, is saying something honest about Ed Deform: NCLB is an utter failure. On Wednesday, Duncan told Congress that over 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools could be labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Duncan said that this statistic, based on an analysis of testing trends and the law’s pass-fail school rating…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 11, 2011 at 12:42am — 1 Comment

Birth of California's First Mega-Charter School

Two of California’s largest charter school organizations are planning a merger which would make the new organization one of the biggest in the U.S. with 12,000 students. Talks are currently underway between financially struggling ICEF Public Schools and Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, both… Continue

Added by Michael Dunn on March 11, 2011 at 12:40am — No Comments

Charter Schools: The New Jim Crow

The Civil Rights Project, at UCLA, has just released a new report documenting the intense segregation that occurs at charter schools. The organization has been studying charter schools for seven years and has found that students are substantially more isolated by race and class than at traditional public schools.…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 1:05am — No Comments

Public Sector Pensions: Too Big To Fail?

Public sector pensions have become a popular bogey man. It is true that most have huge unfunded liabilities and this is a problem. However, the blame is always placed on the workers themselves who have nothing at all to do with the problem. The pensions are in trouble primarily because the financial crisis…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 1:03am — No Comments

Protecting Poor Kids By Firing Veteran Teachers (& Undermining Collective Bargaining)

An appeals court yesterday refused to delay a settlement that would shield low income schools in Los Angeles from layoffs. The settlement came in the aftermath of a lawsuit by the ACLU on behalf of low income families who argued that seniority-based layoffs…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 1:01am — No Comments

Idaho Students Walk Out , Idaho Union Mourns

Public school students throughout the State of Idaho staged a series of walkouts and demonstrations last week to protest planned budget cuts and teacher layoffs. Hundreds of students walked out in Boise and other cities, while at least 100 Boise High School students staged a sit-in at the state capitol…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 1:00am — No Comments

Brave New Common Core Curricula

Support for Common Core Standards (CCS), or the idea that all students across the country should be taught the same rigorous material, is growing. 40 states have already adopted the national CCS for math and English, while the…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 12:52am — No Comments

Relax, Public Pensions Are Fine!

Why all the sturm und drang around public sector pensions? Like most crises that get conservatives’ panties in a bunch, the crisis around public sector employee pensions is not a crisis at all. It is yet another attempt to squeeze workers so that the rich don’t have to pay any…

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Added by Michael Dunn on March 9, 2011 at 12:30am — No Comments