September 27, 2010
(Ongoing updates throughout the day – as technology allows – after the jump…) 8:25AM- Good morning! Sorry for the delay… We’re back. Check out all the live coverage across our sites: Live blog updated throughout the day Twitter Ustream Channel for behind-the-scenes video Right here on Edspresso
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July 30, 2010
(originally posted on Politico‘s The Arena blog) Unpopular positions? Tough love? The teachers unions want you to believe they are being punished by the president’s policies. It makes for great copy and provides cover for both the unions and the Education Department as they manipulate Capitol Hill for a second multi-billion dollar bailout. But the […]
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July 16, 2010
There is no more dedicated charter school foe than Gwinnett County Schools in Georgia. For years, they have targeted Ivy Preparatory Academy, a unique all-girls school in Norcross educating more than 300 students. First they denied Ivy its charter. Then they fought the state board which overruled their rejection. Then they fought the constitutionality of […]
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June 24, 2010
Garden State Governor Chris Christie doesn’t mince words, and doesn’t suffer fools. His reaction to a compromised school choice bill, watered down to allow for swift passage in the legislature: “If you gut the purpose of the program to begin with, what good is it?… If you compromise yourself away to nothing, then I don’t […]
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June 22, 2010
The opening of Virginia’s latest charter school (one of only four operating around the state) has been nothing but a roller coaster ride, not to mention a textbook example of the more-often-than-not contentious relationship between school districts and their charter schools when districts hold all the cards under a weak charter law: Since the start […]
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April 26, 2010
If you’ve picked up a newspaper or turned on the evening news lately, it’s been all doom and gloom for schools, teachers and the future of American education. First, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) tag teamed behind Education Stimulus 2.0 in a hearing on the ED budget, claiming that another […]
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April 1, 2010
I have been accused of being too negative on the ‘Race to the Top’ competition by many, in and out of the education reform world. (I prefer the term cynical – even skeptical or experienced would do.) But recent soul-searching in the aftermath of Monday’s announcement that Delaware and Tennessee would be the inaugural winners […]
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March 17, 2010
In an attempt to win back her crown as Miss Congeniality among anti-school-choice Democrats, Olympia Snowe (R-ME) strolled to the well of the Senate yesterday evening to stab her fellow Mainer, Sen. Susan Collins, in the back by voting against the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. Ms. Collins is one of the program’s chief champions. Despite […]
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March 16, 2010
In the only public “debate” on the Senate Floor today regarding the highly-successful DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan demonstrated that he’s worn out his welcome in Washington, DC (at least in the non-Congressional parts of town). By telling families that if they want to send their kids to private schools (and […]
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February 16, 2010
Charters are not only closing the achievement gap for those stuck in failing schools but educating diverse student populations that represent wide variation in income and race. But what about their effect on students’ futures? A study looked at the achievement and movement of charter students in Florida and Chicago and has found a direct […]
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