Ed Navigator, Good News (Really!) On Ohio Charters, Edujobs, No Dem Iowa Ed Forum, But Dem Accountability In NCLB, My Theory Of Graft Tested In Chicago!

Ed Navigator. This is cool and has some smart, proven, non-profit entrepreneurs behind it.

Charter school reform in Ohio…at last. More here from Columbus Dispatch. Pleased Bellwether played a role in this. The legislation incorporates all or part of 28 of the 34 recommendations we made to the state to clean up their sector. More to do but significant step forward. The noise about Ohio’s federal charter school grant is continuing but this makes it more of a moot point (not the grant process, the entire federal education grant process needs work but on this particular issue).

Dems pushing hard for more accountability in the new NCLB law.

I’m skeptical of social impact bonds but if they become a tool for interventions like this Utah idea then it could be a workaround  for the problem of governments not being able to borrow against future funding streams to more effectively deploy the money now.  That’s something because there are a lot of educational situations where a one time investment of X would save an ongoing cost of Y but school districts or states don’t have X and Y gets paid out slowly over time.

You knew this was coming, even if you only read the newspapers at the time she left CPS.

Related, this is honestly one of the stranger press statements I’ve read in a while:

While we wish Mrs. Byrd-Bennett well in her legal battles, the Chicago Teachers Union remains fully and unequivocally committed to securing a fair contract for our members and ensuring their ability to properly serve the public school students and families in the city of Chicago.

Wish her well? When someone gets indicted you either say you think they were wrongly indicted, we should let the process run its course, or that it’s high time they were held accountable. But wish them well in the process? You wish someone well when they have a cold, not here….Plus she’s pleading guilty and cooperating, there is no battle?

Also, my working theory on graft in our sector is that most things are so small time that the risk – reward ratios don’t even work. In other words, even if you have compromised ethics and are game for these sorts of shenanigans so long as you can do math you’ll realize  you will actually make more money over time by just being good at your job. Obviously not everyone follows that rule. But I may need to rethink that theory overall, the numbers being thrown around here are substantial.

The 74* , The Des Moines Register, and the American Federation of Children tried to host an education forum in Iowa with Dem candidates similar to the one in August with the Rs in New Hampshire. No dice.

Scroll down the page for some edujobs, including one at the Robertson Foundation.

Great kicker in this 5-3 write up of the Gates Foundation’s meeting this week. Time to start angling to get Gates funding again…Mary Landreiu on the charter situation in Washington State. 40 percent of teachers don’t participate in Social Security. That’s a problem that doesn’t get the attention it should.

*I’m on the board.

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