Education

Too often, when it comes to determining whether a new public program is too expensive or not, no one asks, “Compared to what?” What high-performing business, for instance, would forego the need to invest new capital in something that is vital to its profitability and...

The end of another school year is leaving a bad taste in many people's mouths. A steady diet of government austerity and top-down "accountability" mandates have left numerous communities across the country with a severe case of sour stomachs over how their schools are...

As a populist wave of discontent with top-down education mandates continues to sweep the country, more than 25,000 concerned citizens have coalesced behind an Education Declaration to Rebuild America. If you haven't already, show your support for the Declaration here....

The growing revolution against top-down education mandates based on high-stakes testing and standardization has been building over the months into a widespread Education Spring. Every revolution needs a declaration calling for a positive, new way forward. This week,...

With the 59th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education rapidly receding, it's important to remember that the original purpose of federal intervention in local education was to guarantee access and equity. Any Southerner on the front lines of that effort can attest...

Well, someone in the mainstream media finally had to ask the question. MSNBC's Chris Hayes, on his "All In" program on May 24, covered the forced closing of 50 public schools in Chicago – the largest incident of mass school closings in the nation's history. Joining...

In three days of protests over the weekend and lapping into Monday, people who look like they would be involved in a civil rights cause were protesting against the city's decision to close their neighborhood schools.

"It's always hard to tell for sure exactly when a revolution starts," wrote John Tierny in The Atlantic recently. "I'm not an expert on revolutions," he continued, "but even I can see that a new one is taking shape in American K-12 public education." Tierney pointed...

By now it's become clear to anyone willing to pay attention that our nation's obsession over education standards and testing has gotten out of hand. In a moment of sanity last week, a leading proponent of the new standards-aligned tests defected from the run-up to implementation and called for a moratorium on the high stakes associated with the Common Core and its new tests.

Cuts to government spending like the now-reviled "sequester" are not only "dumb" as my colleague Robert Borosage explained this week. They are literally making us dumber. What's dumb is to cut money for air traffic controllers and endanger airline passengers and...