Wisconsin is dominating the news. Count me among those who think it is significant for a bunch of reasons – but not because of November’s presidential contest. What jumps out at me from last night are two figures (a) 38 percent of people with a union member in their household went for Scott Walker according to exits. That’s a wake-up call given the context of this election. And (b) voters in San Jose passed a serious pension reform 70-30. That’s actually a bigger wake-up call, in my view. More on what it might mean soon.
Elsewhere, in The Times Michael Winerip takes Newsweek to task on high school rankings. I wish he’d taken a look at the U.S. News list (full disclosure I helped design the methodology at its inception) because although you see some usual suspects at the top and in the top 100 you also see some very diverse and open-admission schools.
Aspire Public Charter Schools are coming to Memphis. This is a big deal. And they join others in the state. The big issue here to watch is the differences in state finance for charters (pdf). That’s going to raise a host of issues as more charter networks operate nationally. Will states respond by improving charter finance? Or will we see resistance from policymakers in higher spending states? Unfortunately I’d bet on the latter. Stay tuned.
Chris Cerf throws the gauntlet down in New Jersey.
In Louisiana Jefferson Parish Public Schools are hiring for a lot of interesting roles. And Ithaca Public Schools, they just managed to lure spectacular principal Matt Landahl to be their Chief Elementary Officer is hiring for several roles including Chief Excellence Officer. Most common reaction to that title here.
Teacher, teacher, teacher.
Cops and fireman also were hammered in the San Jose deal.
Why didn’t you mention that even once?
Another though experiment. How is the Hippocratic oath in agreement with soaring doctor pay and denial of health care to many people in this country?
Shouldn’t doctors work for the love of the job? Is it moral for a doctor to enter the profession drawn by the exorbitant pay? What does healing the sick have to do with a big paycheck?
Is is that smart people respond to incentives, and that they may be pecuniary? Heck, teachers do not even take the Hippocratic oath, and yet are told my people like you, R, that they have to work in lousy conditions for declining benefits, and LOVE IT. And on top of that, agree to deny the importance of their advance qualifications, while bowing down to the public policy degrees of their leaders.