Must-See TV, Must-Read Mathews, PTA Must Call Hannaway!…And, From The Gray Lady, More Incoming?

This (two words Game 6) is all that matters today, but apparently there is news elsewhere, anyway.

MO’s Sager (who as a New York journo is in a position to know such things) says that the New York Times is working on another hit piece on charter schools. Apparently it’s about ideology. Hopefully they will check out this New Yorker article (pdf) by Katherine Boo. It shows the human side of charter schools. When you move past the silly and hyper-ideological political debate, it’s about creating good public schools and good places for kids who right now are getting screwed by the system. That’s why a lot of liberals are opening charter schools, it’s “people against the powerful” in action.

This article from WA State gets at the same thing, check the lede. Let’s see, local activists trying to help the disadvantaged and powerful groups opposing them…once upon a time would have seemed like the just the job for…The New York Times.



Senator John Kerry on NCLB (and other issues) from the Des Moines Register. Via Jacobs.



Three important Washington Post stories:

A look at the membership woes of the National PTA (note the Jane Hannaway quote, what’s the over-under on angry calls about that?).

In a must-read Jay Mathews writes that No Child Left Behind is helping principals and takes Post columnist Marc Fisher to task (what’s the over-under on angry notes about that one, too?).

Finally, Post education ace Rosalind Helderman writes-up new data on graduation rates in Virginia. Turns out the claims of critics that the SOLs would keep thousands of kids from graduating have not been realized (most likely in part because of supports that VA Governor Mark Warner put in place). But, about one out of four 9th-graders are still not making it through high school in Virginia (though that figure has not changed much with the SOL’s so they’re not the culprit).

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