Correcting The Record On Education Reform
As Retort covered more than two months ago, the union-backed antics of NPE this spring are focused squarely on defunding charter schools and eschewing teacher accountability. After sending dozens of emails and near nonstop tweeting about a fabricated scandal involving some charter schools accepting Federal PPP funds aimed at buoying companies through COVID-related lock downs, […] More
This post originally appeared here. Police in Stillwater, Oklahoma, arrested Alberto Morejon on a charge of “lewd proposals to a minor.” Morejon is an 8th grade teacher at Stillwater Junior High and was one of the organizers of the statewide teacher walkout in 2018. In a press release with few details, police say they were […] More
Like most districts across the country, Milwaukee Public Schools has shuttered school doors due to the Coronavirus. Still, Crystal Manuel of Milwaukee is mystified that her son had yet to hear from his teachers while friends and family outside the city have hit the ground running with online instruction. In fact, until late last week, […] More
While the U.S. and world continues to grapple with the implications of COVID-19, the Network for Public Education, better known as a marionette advocacy group led by Carol Burris, continues an unrelenting assault on charter school families, teachers, and supporters. In an email sent Monday, NPE asks supporters to message legislators in opposition to charter […] More
Not ones to miss an opportunity to capitalize on a crisis, several teacher unions across the country are leveraging anxiety about schools and COVID-19 to threaten lawmakers and attack charter schools. In Southern California just yesterday, UTLA seeks to halt new charter co-locations for next school year by citing established misinformation. In Oregon, the Department […] More
Wednedsday, Phi Delta Kappan, the online “professional journal for educators”, published a hand-wringing piece asking an important if misguided question: How do increasingly unionized newsrooms complicate reporting? Titled “Covering Education in a Unionized Newsroom,” authorial reins are handed over to Rachel Cohen, a freelance writer who recently came on Retort’s radar by writing then deleting […] More
Last week, NBC announced it will host a nationally-televised forum for Democratic presidential candidates on December 14th that will focus exclusively on public education issues. NBC’s Public Education Forum 2020, which is being held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, will be moderated by MSNBC Live host Ali Velshi and NBC […] More
A few years ago, the St. Paul Federation of Educators was boasting about how it was “bargaining for the common good” by using contract negotiations to advocate for policies that benefitted not only teachers, but parents and community stakeholders. As then-SPFE president (and current Minnesota Commissioner of Education) Mary Cathryn Ricker explained in a piece […] More
The Council of the District of Columbia will consider legislation that could lead to the dismantling of IMPACT, the teacher evaluation system that has been used by D.C. Public Schools for the past decade. The bill, which was drafted by the Washington Teachers Union and introduced by Councilman Trayon White last week, would make evaluations […] More
The self-described mission of the Network for Public Education, the anti-education reform organization founded by Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris, centers on “building alliances with grassroots groups across the nation” that oppose all the usual boogeymen: standardized testing, charter schools, school and district accountability, teacher evaluation, etc. Who exactly are the groups in NPE’s coalition? […] More
Tens of thousands of teachers in Los Angeles returned to their classrooms yesterday following a six-day strike that disrupted the lives of over 467,000 students and cost the L.A. Unified School District over $151 million in lost revenue. Tuesday morning, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, flanked by LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner and United Teachers of Los […] More
Investigators hired by the Portland Public Schools board released a damning 320-page report last week detailing how the district repeatedly failed to address allegations of serious sexual misconduct against Mitch Whitehurst, a former Portland Public Schools teacher who retired in 2015 after 32 years with the school system. Whitehurst’s misdeeds – and the district’s complacency in […] More
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Seth Saavedra
Peter Cook