What Was Christie’s Real Motive in Proposing a Radical — and Unpassable — School Funding Plan?
July 5, 2016Correcting the Record: Education Law Center Gets the Facts (and Scapegoat) Wrong on District Consolidation
July 6, 2016QOD: Remediating America’s “Scandal of K-12 Education” Requires Urgency, not Complacency
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the December 2015 law that replaced No Child Left Behind, individual states, not the federal government, decide how to hold accountable schools with a disproportionate number of failing students. For black and Hispanic students falling behind at an early age, their best hope is for every state, no matter its minority-student poverty rate, to take full responsibility for all students who aren’t making the grade—and get those students help now.
That means adopting an attitude of urgency when it comes to saving a child’s education. Specifically, it requires cities and states to push past any union rules that protect underperforming schools and bad teachers. Urgency also means increasing options for parents, from magnet to charter schools. Embracing competition among schools is essential to heading off complacency based on a few positive signs. American K-12 education is in trouble, especially for minority children, and its continuing neglect is a scandal.