By Anthony Cody. The schools of Chicago are ruled by a school board appointed by the mayor (though efforts are under way to allow for a democratically elected board.) For this reason, educators, students and parents are very interested in the upcoming mayoral election. The Chicago Teachers Union has been …
By Anthony Cody. Bill Gates sounded surprisingly defensive when asked about the Gates Foundation’s work in education, in a video interview made available this week by the Wall Street Journal. His statement suggests he is unaware of much of what his money is buying in the field of education. Here is the exchange …
By Sara Lahm. Recently, a friend pointed me to an opinion piece she thought I’d like, because, she said, it reminded her of the article I recently wrote for the Nation’s Investigative Fund, about all of the outside money being spent on this year’s Minneapolis school board race. The opinion piece is by one of …
By John Thompson I twice supported Barack Obama for president. Throughout President Obama’s first term, I asked what we teachers might have done to provoke him so. Were his anti-teacher policies the avoidable result of teachers and unions being too slow to address conditions in Chicago schools? By now, it is …
Across the country, politicians are reacting to the Common Core debate. Some are sinking and others are swimming in their support or condemnation of the national standards.
By Anthony Cody. The teachers of America have been learning some very deep lessons about the nature of 21st century capitalism. And these lessons may turn teachers into a political force to be reckoned with in the years to come. Those who have studied Marxist theory know that he predicted that the exploited …
By Paul Horton. Part two of three. In the twenty-five years after the last major Civil Rights Act of 1968, most whites abandoned the Democrats in the South as white flight and the Southern Baptist Convention sought public support for private schools that were created in suburban areas like Cobb and northern …
by Paul Horton. Part one of three. My son and I took our annual road trip last week. We listen to books on tape and blues as we travel. He is learning to drive so, for the first time, he was able to take the wheel for hours at a time while I bit my fingernails and chewed my gum. On the morning of our arrival to …
eraBy John Thompson. Valerie Strauss’s “’Education Reform’ Now a Pejorative Term to Many Progressive Democrats” and Jeff Bryant’s “Education ‘Reform’ Loses the Netroots” are just two of the recent celebrations of the way that Democrats and progressives are rejecting corporate school reform. …
By Michelle Gunderson. What would our city look like if it were run by Chicago teachers alongside other labor and community groups? This was the thought that kept running through my head as we gathered to support the launch of the new United Working Families political organization in Chicago. I have strong hope …
