StickWithANose

I’ve been posting on the stupidity going down in Texas over its new curriculum standards for some time, and the madness now looks poised to go into overdrive. The genius behind this push to introduce conservatism into the social studies curriculum, Don McLeroy, has proven to be too crazy for even his evangelical base and [...]

Former Assistant Secretary of Education under George H. Bush and Bill Clinton and noted think tank scholar Diane Ravitch has undergone a conversion of sorts from being a strong proponent of charter schools to a fierce opponent. The impetus for her conversion is the mounting evidence that, despite their popularity on both sides of the [...]

We’ve long had to endure the hollow narrative of the “Liberal Media” from the noise machine, and it was always a load of manure. However, it is a narrative that has burrowed deeply into the republican psyche with little evidence that it might go away any time soon. So, here’s one to save for those [...]

Diane Ravitch has reached the same conclusion as I in regard to where current trends in education reform are leading us. The “free marketeers”  driving the education policies of BOTH political parties are not interested in capitalism and market competition; they seek to create and dominate politicized educational markets. Their primary concern is to establish [...]

If you’re wondering why President Obama is now adopting a policy position that candidate Obama rightly ridiculed John McCain for you need look no further than the Rubinites advising him. Obama’s supposed spending freeze is but the opening act for the headliner: making significant cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid. NYT
It is the growth [...]

After Beck and doughy pantload served up their own particular view of ‘Liberal Fascism’ this past Friday night, real historians are [at last] pushing back against this tragic re-writing of history. For those who aren’t politically active, this may all appear to be much ado about nothing, however it is deadly serious. The only real [...]

Same as it ever was… Chicago Tribune
Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city’s school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data.
Scores from the elementary schools created under Renaissance [...]

Here’s one to file away for the next time you encounter a talk radio listener making noise about federal deficits and “entitlement” cuts: Angry Bear
[L]et us suppose that Krasting were right (he is not) and that we have depleted the [Social Security] Trust Fund. Would this be a catastrophe? Would Social Security be “broke.” Would [...]

You would think that the meeting of these two minds would have caused some irreparable tear in the time-space continuum. Alas, all that we get for sitting through this most painful of interviews is vague references to changing an ambiguous “system” that is never quite defined just as how these two public intellectuals fit, or [...]