David R. Taylor

Peter Greene wrote in the Bucks County Beacon about the lucrative real estate deals that produce profits for charter schools. He reviewed the latest report from the Network for Public Education report Chartered for Profit II. It would be easy to assume that charter schools are in the education business, but in fact, many charter […]

Peter Greene: The Business of Many Charter Schools Is Real Estate, Not Education

During President Biden’s State of the Union address, he said that Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare, and the Republican side of the chamber erupted in jeers and shouts of “liar!” Two of those loudly jeering—Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah—had explicitly made those proposals. Biden then masterfully got […]

Michael Hiltzik: Of Course the GOP Wants to Cut Social Security and Medicare

Leonie Haimson has been leading the campaign for class size reduction (CSR) for many years. When I first met her in 2010, she convinced me that the research on class size reduction was overwhelming. It also happens to be the most important priority for parents. I am proud to be a board member of Class […]

New York: Parents and Teachers Thank Gov. Hochul for Signing Class Size Reduction Law — Diane Ravitch’s blog

Big business has been trying to get rid of unions since the first union was created. Corporations don’t want workers to have collective power. They prefer a workplace where they make all the decisions and don’t have to listen to workers’ voices. The share of unionized workers in the private sector is near an all-time […]

EPI: Unions Are Popular Again — Diane Ravitch’s blog

Like a colonial power, a charter school loots and pillages the local tax base but is not required to be governed by the local taxpayers.

With the Death of Queen Elizabeth II, the US Should End Its Biggest Colonial Enterprise – Charter Schools — gadflyonthewallblog

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the meticulous research of Tom Ultican. Tom was a teacher of advanced math and science in the schools of San Diego. He is now a chronicler of the Destroy Public Education movement. This is a sad chapter in that story. It is the story of Stockton, California, […]

Tom Ultican: Destroying Public Schools in Stockton, California — Diane Ravitch’s blog

Donald Trump may be the most litigious person in the United States. On March 24, 2022, Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and various Democratic Party leaders for engaging in a conspiracy against him in 2016. The federal judge tossed the case out yesterday. Believe me, this is a fun read. The judge is […]

Fun Reading: Federal Judge Throws Out Trump’s Lawsuit Against Hillary Clinton — Diane Ravitch’s blog

Since President Biden announced a program to forgive $10,000-20,000 in student loan debt, new attention has been paid to the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. PPP doled out billions of dollars to businesses of all kinds, many of which didn’t need the money but took it anyway. Free money. Among those that collected significant sums […]

Charter Schools Collected $1 Billion in PPP Loans That Were Forgiven — Diane Ravitch’s blog

The lecture is 800 years old (Lecture). Teachers questioning students is millenia-old. Yet these staples of instructional practice in K-12 and higher education, while criticized–often severely by pedagogical reformers–are alive and well in charter schools, regular public schools, and elite universities. Are these ways of teaching simply instances of traditional practices that stick like flypaper because they […]

The Durability of Teacher Lecturing and Questioning: Historical Inertia or Creative Adaptation? — Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, reviews Dana Milbank’s new book about the crackup of the Republican Party. As I have often said, Milbank is my favorite columnist in the Washington Post. Thompson writes: Dana Milbank’s The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five-Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party is based on his quarter of a century […]

John Thompson: How the Republican Party Lost Its Soul — Diane Ravitch’s blog