Education

Conflicts?

This entry was posted in Education on by

Uhh, just what is going on here?

Florida’s state pension fund is investing $174-million in a controversial for-profit school management company.
Through one of its money managers, Liberty Partners, the pension fund has agreed to buy out the shareholders of Edison Schools Inc., taking the New York company private.
In effect, the fund that provides for the retirement pensions of Florida teachers and other public employees will own a company that has played a leading role in privatizing school management.

Oh, and one of Atrios’ commenters notes that Liberty Patners has exactly one client. Can you guess who?

Placing the Class of 2007

This entry was posted in Culture Education on by

Beloit College presents its annual (since 1998) Mindset List for the Class of 2007. It

helps to slow the rapid onset of �hardening of the references,� in the classroom.

A few examples:

3. Iraq has always been a problem.
5. Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
6. Pete Rose has always been a gambler.
8. An automatic is a weapon, not a transmission.
11. There has always been a screening test for AIDS.
12. Gas has always been unleaded

And, much of what applied to the classes of 2002-2006 applies as well.
Send them suggestions for the Class of 2008.
Via Mark Morford.

w Funds Effective Reading

This entry was posted in bush Capitalism Education Federalism on by

In today’s weekly radio address w tells us about his admin’s record in supporting the No Child Left Behind Act. Next year’s budget proposes a cool $1.1 billion for effective reading programs. That seem like a pretty large sum at first glance but then reality sets in.
In 2001 there were 46,906,607 students in public schools. So that $1.1 billion works out to a little over $23/student. Perhaps enough to buy 1/3 of a textbook each. I’ll bet, though, that the money comes with the usual federal hooks: do it this way or you will not get the money.

Educating our Kids?

This entry was posted in Education on by

It is stuff like this that will lead more people to question the credibility of governmental structures:

The hard lesson came from an Albany judge who ruled against Angela’s age-discrimination suit challenging the state Education Department’s edict that kids have to stay in school until age 16 and can’t get general equivalency diplomas until they turn 17….
“It’s very demoralizing,” said Lipsman, who vowed that he’ll “go to prison before my daughter goes to a city high school.”
Albany Supreme Court Justice Bernard Malone blamed Lipsman for steering his brainy daughter to college after she completed eighth grade at Public School 187 in Washington Heights.
“Angela was not legally free to skip high school,” Malone wrote this week in ruling against Angela.
He noted that Angela could have been declared a home-schooled student and placed in a fast-track program, or she could have attended high school programs that allow students to earn college credits simultaneously.

Trying to put everyone in the same box leads us to the lowest common denominator: great in math and broken in human affairs.

Via Hanah at Quare
.

Getting the Diploma

This entry was posted in Education on by

The airwaves and papers are filled this time of year with stories of graduations: college, highschool, junior high, middle school, 6th grade, etc. It seems everybody is graduating from somewhere.

A lot of students put in a lot of hard work to earn the right to walk across a stage and receive some token to represent their accomplishments. Some students don’t get to make this walk because they did not do the required work. Others were prevented because of sheer stupidity. Thanks to Jaquandor for the link to Michael Lopez’s riff on this.