On the Occasion of Martin Luther King’s Birthday

Jan 212014
 
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” These words of Martin Luther King gained immortality in his 1967 speech against the Viet Nam War. In our era, during over a decade of a War on Public Education, thousands of aware–yet afraid, and silent–teachers have contributed to victory after victory for an enemy who is stealing their joy, their livelihood and their pensions. Meanwhile, the theft of our children’s education, and with it, the future of our country, is no less compelling. Let 2014, then, be remembered as the year we found our conscience, and so our voice.

 

WITH LEONARD LOPATE YESTERDAY ON NPR

Oct 172013
 

How gratifying to be using my teaching experience and comprehension of the stakes in high stakes, to get the word out about the disastrous scam that’s passing for education these days. Wish I’d had another couple hours to Bloviate on Bloomberg, but Helen Fielding, the “Bridget Jones” author, was up next and scratching her acrylics at the door. 

RADIO INTERVIEWS TODAY

Oct 172013
 

This morning I started the “morning drive” radio interviews for Davonte’s Inferno straight from my kitchen table and out to the world! One station in Cleveland brought the perfect opportunity to rip into mayoral control, which they’ve had since 1995 and has yielded nothing but the lowest performance. Another Philly station got my riff on the horrific school budget deficit thanks to Governor Tom Corbett’s (named on the Worst Governors List) 2011 slash of $1 billion. Last I heard they didn’t even have people to answer the phones (though to be fair to Corbett, he DID cut taxes for corporations, too!). Along with the school warriors in Chicago, valiant Philly educators give us awesome inspiration–there was even a hunger strike last summer to protest! 

EBOOK RELEASE NEXT WEEK

Oct 112013
 

Davonte’s Inferno: Ten Years in the New York Public School Gulag will be released October 15th or soon after on ebook. The print release is November 12th. Thanks for your patience! 

Mitch Daniels Calls for College-Level High Stakes Testing

Oct 082013
 

October 9, 2013  

This morning I saw former Indiana union-busting governor Mitch Daniels on MSNBC, here for NBC’s annual Miseducation Nation. Daniels’s main claim to education was his attempt to censor Howard Zinn’s writings from state schools, dismissing them as “crap” and “propaganda.” Now as president of Purdue, this heavy-hitting intellectual is seeking to expand high-stakes testing to college kids, in the name of accountability. In the neocon vision of the future, there’s no escape from inundata–they’ll do whatever it takes to choke the joy from learning.