An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

Staff / Truthdig Jun 13, 2013 Good schools are essential to democracy and prosperity -- and it is our collective responsibility to educate all children, not just a fortunate few, according to a manifesto on the Education Opportunity Network. To rebuild America, we need a vision for 21st-century education based on seven principles, it urges. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Privatizing Education in Chicago

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig May 28, 2013 The Chicago Board of Education voted last week to close 50 of the city's public schools as part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to save more than $500 million, or half the district's deficit. Some 30,000 students will be affected, about 90 percent of them African-American. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Do the Charter School Hustle

Staff / Truthdig Apr 25, 2013 Since I’m a public school teacher, everybody always asks me what I think about charter schools. You got an hour? Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Big Money Is Behind Charter Schools in Washington State

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Oct 26, 2012 Voters in Washington state will have a chance to direct public funds toward private bank accounts if they adopt an initiative to create charter schools this November. Who are the bajillionaires behind the campaign? Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

When Parents Stand Up for Kids and Corporations (Video)

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Sep 27, 2012 Concerned parents in the new film “Won’t Back Down” use an educational “trigger” law to exercise their democratic right to forfeit any influence they might have over their children’s education. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Charter Schools Are Not the Silver Bullet

David Sirota / Truthdig Mar 23, 2012 In recent years, major studies suggest that, on the whole, charter schools are producing worse educational achievement results than traditional public schools. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Education Reformers Send Their Kids to Private School

David Sirota / Truthdig Jan 13, 2012 There really are "Two Americas," as the saying goes -- and that's no accident. Nowhere is this more obvious than in education -- a realm in which this elite physically separates itself from us mere serfs. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Michigan Mauls Public Education

Staff / Truthdig Dec 7, 2011 In the ongoing, hitherto successful, conservative-led effort to divert education money to corporations, Republican lawmakers in Michigan are exploiting the economic downturn to push a set of initiatives that would outsource teaching jobs, curtail collective bargaining rights and defang teachers’ unions. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

A Peek at Henry A. Giroux’s ‘Education and the Crisis of Public Values’

Staff / Truthdig Oct 1, 2011 "We are more than a nation in decline; we are a nation moving toward the bittersweet simplisms, policies and values of a new form of authoritarianism," writes Henry Giroux, in an article adapted from his new book on America's shift away from democratic values toward a rigid, market-driven uniformity. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The Education of Ana Ponce: A Success Story

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Jul 6, 2011 Succeeding against all odds certainly describes Ana Ponce, chief executive officer of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, which runs five charter schools, the majority in the most crowded, impoverished and gang-ridden section of Los Angeles. During this dreary age of war and economic hard times, I sometimes consider looking for stories that make me feel good. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Blinded by Reform

Mike Rose / Truthdig Oct 22, 2009 The Obama administration has committed serious money to education reform, but many of the Department of Education's big ideas are flawed. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Education ‘Miracles’ Don’t Survive Scrutiny

Mike Rose / Truthdig Aug 13, 2009 What miracle talk and magic-bullet solutions share is the reduction of complexity, of the many levels of hard, creative work necessary to make schooling successful in the United States.Miracle talk ignores the many levels of hard, creative work necessary to make schooling successful in the United States. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )