Having a democratically governed local school, accessible to all students and fully accountable to the public for how its spends taxpayer money, has been a given for most American families […]

One of the more disturbing aspects of the push to create more charter schools was on full display during a Congressional hearing this week when charter proponents stacked the agenda […]

America’s ongoing saga to “reform” public schools is filled with stories of state officials taking over “underperforming” school districts. Recent presidential administrations, including Obama’s, have approved of such takeovers even […]

In reviewing the losers in this week’s primary elections in eight states, one shouldn’t overlook the charter school industry, which took a drubbing in the California governor’s race where its […]

Charter schools already have a segregation problem. But a new law about to pass in North Carolina would direct even more taxpayer money into funding charter schools that by design, […]

Anyone wondering whether teacher uprisings this spring will influence party politics and elections in November should look at what’s happened in this year’s primaries so far. Most prominent among primary […]

Why does it take shutting down thousands of schools to get political leaders’ attention? What is this “dialogue people haven’t been wanting to have”? The gap between what goes on in schools and what gets decided in state capitals and Washington D.C. has gotten way too wide.

Proclaiming May 6-12 National Charter Schools Week, President Trump kicked off a huge public relations campaign by the charter industry to ballyhoo the supposed success of these schools, although that […]

As mass teacher walkouts and protests ebb in Arizona and Colorado, bold new actions are ramping up in North Carolina. This spring’s teacher uprisings may well last through the end […]

Headlines about teachers’ strikes may have moved on from Kentucky and Oklahoma to Arizona and Colorado, but the uprisings these wildcat teachers started have not, according to numerous sources I’ve […]

We can add Arizona to the ever-growing list of states where teachers are saying “enough” to state-imposed financial austerity, and walking off the job to protest years of pay cuts, […]

Surprising results from a new survey of teachers reveal the depth of “financial strain” classroom professionals face. These include high levels of college debt, stagnation of already subpar pay, increasing […]

Conservatives are quick to blame stagnant school test scores on Obama and Common Core, but if we were to play the pin the tail on the presidential donkey, we would be looking at that guy who preceded him – George W. Bush.

The momentum of this spring’s teacher uprising is growing, as Oklahoma teachers extend their walkout into a second week and teachers in Kentucky and Arizona are increasingly eager for some kind […]

Teacher strikes that started in West Virginia and are now raging in Oklahoma and whipping up in Kentucky and Arizona are being called a “nationwide movement.” But a nationwide movement for […]

While progressives lament their recent failure in an Illinois primary to knock out Dan Lipinski – a conservative, anti-abortion, Congressional Democrat who voted against the Affordable Care Act – they […]

Despite the strong marketing for “school choice” by politicians and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, communities that know firsthand what it’s like to have lots of “options,” like charter […]

True to form, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s testimony before Congress this week was yet another example of how her utterances about American public education and her governance over the […]

The revolution may not be televised, but it is happening in public schools. This is evident in the growth of student and teacher actions across the country, from walkouts to […]

In the much-written-about 60 Minutes interview of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos by CBS reporter Lesley Stahl there was a telling exchange when Stahl queried DeVos on whether she […]

The West Virginia teachers’ strike is not only a startling victory for labor rights; it’s also a reminder of the important role public schools and public school educators can and should play in progressive populism.

The media's big lie is that "we've done nothing" to address school shootings since Sandy Hook. Actually, we've done the wrong things. We've spent millions on armed school personnel that harm learning and don't decrease shootings.

Students and teachers are taking over the debate on gun control that politicians have botched for decades. The protestors are directing their anger at opponents of sensible gun control and are intent on making them pay at the ballot box.

State and local governments claim there's "no money" for public services like education, yet lavish huge tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy. The St. Paul teachers' union has shown progressives how to fight back, and win.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been dismantling policies that protect students' civil rights, yet accuses anyone who points this out of being "hurtful," and blocks them from having their voices heard. She threatens our democracy.

Puerto Rico is privatizing schools wholesale in the wake of Hurricane Maria, just as New Orleans did after Hurricane Katrina. This compounds the damage done by the storm, and is part of a pattern of disaster capitalism that hurts children.

A nationwide movement is underfoot as educators wear Black Lives Matter shirts to school this week and teach lessons about structural racism, intersectional black identities, black history, and anti-racist movements.

The Koch brothers' dark-money network says public schools are the "lowest hanging fruit" in their campaign to dismantle government institutions. It's time for Democrats to step up and defend public education from this coming assault.

A massive charter school closure in Ohio leaves thousands of students in the lurch, and the state with the bill. This failure prompts questions about accountability in this business model, but how many school-choice zealots will ask them?

President Trump ran on promises to "drain the swamp" of special interests and corporate lobbyists in Washington, DC, but higher education policy in his administration is a quagmire of Okefenokee proportions.

Stories about freezing classrooms in Baltimore and a teacher being handcuffed and arrested for asking a question to her school board in Louisiana reveal why the nation's school funding crisis is a race and gender justice issue.

DeVos calls loudly for K-12 "school choice" and neglects younger students' civil rights, but she has proven far more effective at gutting regulations that protect the rights of college students and college student loan borrowers.

Betsy Devos' Republican friends in Congress have put new provisions in their tax plan that open a back door to federally-supported school vouchers, which will give millions of dollars from public treasuries to private and religious schools.

Students frequently suspended from school are at high risk of getting involved with the criminal justice system. The Obama administration set up new regulations to address the school-to-prison pipeline. Now Betsy DeVos is undermining them.

A controversial rewrite of the Higher Education Act turns back the clock to when predatory for-profit colleges and lenders could purchase government officials and political appointees, then cripple students with debt and worthless degrees.

The GOP's proposed rewrite of the Higher Education Act will compound the harm done by their tax plan. It further constricts learning opportunities for students, adds to the costs of education, and steers more money to for-profit businesses.

As the Republican-controlled Congress advances tax plans that slash public education, a new report reveals how state and local government officials, especially where GOP leadership dominates, are butchering school funding.

Election results in Denver, Virginia and elsewhere were good news for Democrats but not for Democratic "education reformers" who've supported the Republican agenda of school privatization, standardized testing and tough-on-teacher measures.

What Republicans propose in their tax plans isn't just a raid on budget items for the sake of fiscal efficiency; their plans are part of a strategic offensive against the very idea that all children and youth have a right to learn.

The Tar Heel states shows how charter schools and other forms of 'school choice' turn education funding into a contest between haves and have-nots, in ways that divide communities and segregate students.