Tag: K-12

Not everyone’s buddy, apparently

April 1, 2013 at 4:33 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Last week’s Policy Watch profile of state Board of Education nominee A.L. “Buddy” Collins by Education Reporter Lindsay Wagner was enough to cause a believer in public education to have some real concerns about Collins’ appropriateness for the position. Collins admitted in the interview to essentially supporting the entire far-right school privatization agenda.

Over the weekend, however, came more damning news: As reported by Amanda Terkel at the Huffington Post, Collins is also apparently a loyal trooper in the ongoing social conservative effort to oppose laws and policies that protect LGBT kids from bullying.

This is from the HuffPo article:

“A. L. “Buddy” Collins is an attorney and a longtime member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board of Education. He has clashed with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) over the years surrounding the group’s efforts to stop bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

‘Buddy Collins has always been a retrograde voice, inimical to the interests of youth, on the school board,’ said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard. Read More…

Don’t miss Diane Ravitch next week!

March 13, 2013 at 8:24 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

Diane RavitchAmerica’s leading spokesperson for public education, Diane Ravitch, will be in Raleigh next Thursday March 21 to headline an NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon. Diane is, among other things, the author of several books including “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,” a professor at NYU, a former Bush I administration official and a prolific speaker and blogger. You can follow her at www.dianeravitch.net. 

Click here to register

When: Thursday, March 21, at 12:00 p.m. — Box lunches will be available at 11:45 a.m.

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett St. in downtown Raleigh.

Cost: $10 – includes box lunch.

Although we have moved the event to a larger hall at Marbles, tickets are going fast so don’t get shut out and miss the opportunity to hear from this important American at this critical time. 

Questions?? Contact Rob Schofield at 919-861-2065 or rob@ncpolicywatch.com.

 

Fayetteville Observer decries state’s teacher pay crisis

March 11, 2013 at 8:31 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

This morning’s editorial in the Fayetteville Observer takes on the subject of teacher pay in North Carolina and gets things pretty much on the money:

“Few things are beyond dispute, but this comes close: North Carolina will never become a mecca for top-flight teachers if teacher pay remains just four slots out of last place.

Fifteen years ago, lawmakers could and did seriously (although unproductively) debate bringing the state’s average up to the national average with a mere 7 percent raise. A decade ago, our average was 21st in the nation. Five years ago it was still in the middle of the pack.

Now it’s 46th. What was that about ‘throwing money at education’?”

Read the rest of the editorial by clicking here.

This morning’s Monday Numbers edition of the Fitzsimon File has all the sobering statistics on this issue.

The assault on public schools continues

March 1, 2013 at 12:01 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Two new items of note in Raleigh’s News & Observer highlight the ongoing existential threat to the future of public education in North Carolina posed by the state’s conservative political leadership.

Item #1 is an excellent editorial entitled “Voucher ploy could be disastrous to public schools.” In it, the paper rightfully blasts the legislature’s growing infatuation with privatizing public schools through the introduction of vouchers:

“Now, once again, some in the General Assembly want vouchers. The idea is presented as an opportunity for lower-income people, targeted to them in order to provide them with an educational ‘option.’ But the logic sounds more like a way to get a voucher foot in the door of the public bank. Read More…

An education message we could use in North Carolina

February 28, 2013 at 9:22 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

Last Saturday, a local school superintendent from Texas named John Kuhn spoke at a “Save Texas Schools” rally in the Lone Star state. Yesterday, one of the nation’s foremost education policy experts, Diane Ravitch, posted his comments on her blog. Today, we are happy to reproduce them here. You may want to consider distributing/forwarding them as well.

Are there any teachers in this crowd?

I want to say something to teachers that our lawmakers should have said long ago: Thank You! Thank you for keeping our children safe. Thank you for drying their tears when they scrape their knees, for cheering on our junior high basketball players, for going up to your room on Sundays to get ready to teach my kids on Monday. Gracias por cuidarlos! As a dad, I thank you.

Coaches, thank you for fixing little girls’ softball swings and for showing our boys how to tie their ties. Thank you for getting our children safely home on the yellow dog after late ballgames, marching contests, and one-act plays.

Thank you for buying all those raffle tickets, hams, pies, discount cards, Girl Scout cookies, insulated mugs and pumpkin rolls, for buying more playoff shirts than any one person could possibly need and on top of all that spending your own money on pencils and prizes and supplies for your classroom.

There are those poor deluded souls who say you take more than you give, and I disagree with them with everything I am. Don’t let them get you down. They wouldn’t last a day in your classroom. You are NOT a drain on this economy; you are a bubbling spring of tomorrow’s prosperity. Read More…