Shots! Don’t miss New York’s Tom Carroll on the battle lines in the DeVos debacle. Agree or not channels a lot of what you hear behind the scenes by way of recriminations. Plenty of people disagree as well, of course.
Important Marnie Kaplan / Sara Mead analysis from Bellwether on Head Start work policies. Here’s Kaplan with more via The 74. Bellwether’s Jen Meer on thinking about compensation practices and organizational diversity.
Bellwether’s Hailly Korman volunteered as an attorney (she’s actually an attorney, she volunteered to help) at Dulles during the immigration order implementation. The 74 talked with her about that experience.
First day of school for Betsy DeVos. 74 rounds it up. You have to give DeVos points for style and humor in a gracious welcome speech at ED yesterday. Winning the building will be key for her, good first step. The Washington Post says she has a steep curve coming. Greg Toppo on what she may or may not do.
Local media interview with her.
Ross Douthat on why we fight and the comforts of familiar war. Lauren Maddox defends new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Critics totally unconvinced.
Within Trump world there seems to be a split over whether Democrats will just say to no everything no matter what on education or if they can get something done in a bipartisan way. The DeVos episode seems likely to strengthen the former view but wouldn’t the politically smart play by the Trump team be to put forward actually good policies that demand consideration (eg a thoughtful choice proposal) rather than just stuff that easily dismissed out of hand (eg Title I “portability” or a poorly designed tax credit scheme)? Of course, the President of the United States was attacking Nordstrom yesterday from his official White House social media account and this morning busily denying remarks that his own Supreme Court nominee apparently made to a senator…so who the hell knows.
Things actually happening: Charter school enrollment topping 3 million nationwide. The NAACP is conducting a listening tour in the wake of last year’s call for a charter moratorium. Here’s NACSA’s* recent testimony. Also, in all the back and forth around DeVos a good time to point out that charter school accountability is actually quite complicated and authorizers play a key role in that. Every time someone fulminates about whether this or that applies to charter schools make sure to ask what they think the authorizer’s role should be there.
Scholastic with new data on kids and reading.
Must-read Edsall on school integration in the Trump-era. Also, while we’re here, you can do a lot worse than re-read the book Edsall wrote with is wife Mary “Chain Reaction” given our current climate.
Stan Jones, longtime Hoosier reformer, has passed.
Sandy Kress sees more trouble ahead in Texas. Mike Petrilli goes all nanny state on charter authorizing! Anti-Nanny Matt Ladner pushes back.
More on Friedrichs 2.0. Also Missouri passed right-to-work legislation and the new governor there signed it earlier this month. And don’t miss this Rich Yelelson take on President Trump and labor politics. If you are viewing the teachers’ union posture post election through and educational lens you’re missing the game.
Young people and the First Amendment. Is it making a comeback? We’ll see.
Close readers will note what an interesting event this finance discussion should be….
Child labor laws. And vintage Bruce.
*I’m on their policy advisory board but not involved in this.