Betsy DeVos Is Good At Politics And There Are A Lot Of Politics About Betsy DeVos, Plus Pensions, Personalized Learning, Vouchers, Spec Ed At The High Court, Race & Student Debt, Texas, Ed Tech, And More!

Betsy DeVos confirmation hearing pushed back a week. Earlier this week I wrote in USN about five questions I’d like to see aired out. 

Pensions and bears in CA. Kirsten Schmitz has more. Make a New Year’s talent strategy resolution.

Mike Petrilli says you should rethink your voucher position. Julie Squire says conservatives should slow down and think through their voucher position.

Just a friendly reminder that while there is a lot of almost religious – pun not intended – fervor around the idea of public money going to private schools it’s actually at this point more of a policy question. Private and parochial schools participate in a variety of federal programs under a legal theory dating to the 60s and the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of parochial school vouchers if they are part of a larger choice system intended to benefit kids not religious schools. Plenty of room for disagreement about all of this and some ideas floating around (Title I “portability” for instance is one of those ideas that works better in theory than practice) but the choice conversation that is breaking out relative to the incoming administration and Betsy DeVos is oddly divorced from some of the underlying facts and context.

Big special education case at the Supreme Court yesterday. Argument recap here.

This Louisiana charter case matters, too. NACPS statement here.

It’s entirely possible the HR practices of K-12 school districts are not state of the art. The indispensable Matt Barnum on that.

The told ya so’s are easy. New York’s mayor deserves credit for changing course here rather than doubling down on a talking point that doesn’t work. That happens too infrequently.

Smart take on ed tech and research.  Stan Litow on reclaiming America’s educational edge. Sandy Kress with a dispatch from the front lines in Texas!

NASBE on charter schools. And is it Common Core versus personalized learning, or not?

Race and student debt.

Department of Education OCR with new resource guide, dear colleague, and Q and As on special education, discipline and also special education and charters. And resources on intentionally diverse charter schools from National Charter School Resource Center.

Betsy DeVos is good at politics.

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