Author: Lloyd Lofthouse

Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network notes that the charter industry has launched an advertising campaign to sell the charter idea to the public. But, writes Bryant, there have been so many revelations of corruption, self-dealing, and rogiterring by charter schools in recent months that the public should be wary of their self-promotion.…

Originally posted on dr. p.l. (paul) thomas: It was bad enough when NPR whitewashed the “grit” narrative, but now NPR is whitewashing charter schools and disaster capitalism in New Orleans. Framed as “remarkable changes,” erasing public schools and firing all public school faculty (a significant percentage of the black middle class in New Orleans) are whitewashed beneath a masking narrative embracing all…

Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: Last May, Ruth Conniff, editor of “The Progressive,” joined a group of other women on a tour of voucher schools in Milwaukee. The others included another journalist, a state legislator, and Milwaukee grandmothers Gail Hicks and Marva Herndon. “Herndon and Hicks formed a group called Women Committed to an Informed Community, also known as…

Originally posted on the EARTH ABIDES project: After several months, the Earth Abides Project weblog is back. The long “vacation” was necessary as this writer wandered for a time, then settled in to a summer of volunteering as a Camp Host in an isolated Forest Service Campground. But the volunteer summer is ending, so there’s time to write more about…

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: The art of manipulation and fooling people has become an industry of deception. For instance, Katie Couric interviews Melinda Gates about the Gates Foundation’s pledge to donate $1 million to DonorsChoose. Melinda Gates says that million will go to help teachers. To discover the obvious, The Journal.com reports “Public school teachers…

Originally posted on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé: What is the role of the public schools? The Center for Ethical Leadership (founded in 1991) says that public education is foundational to a healthy democracy and developing our humanity—not to have every student achieve high scores on standardized tests. After you read this post, you decide if the U.S. public…