On Jeb Bush, the United Nations and drunk teachers in Michigan

By: Mike Thomas

In one of her latest posts, Diane Ravitch unleashes a stream of non sequiturs that begins with Michelle Rhee and Michigan, veers off to the United Nations and Canada, takes on global corporations and then does a quick drive-by on Jeb Bush.

I must say, there’s never a dull moment with Diane.

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Getting judged on the job I do makes me do it better

By: Minda Corso

Joining the Foundation for Excellence in Education has been the most challenging job I’ve undertaken.

My education background is in community health.

But my mission here is “to ignite a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education for the 21^st Century.”

Obviously I had some catching up to do.

Ain’t schools grand in Oklahoma!

By: Mike Thomas

Now I understand all the protests over Oklahoma’s school grading system.

It is very misleading, although not for the reasons cited by the school superintendents. The state awarded 160 schools an A and only 9 got an F?

This is more than a 10-1 ratio of excellence to failure.

Writer flunks AP exam

By: Adam Peshek

When I was in high school, I wasn’t exactly sure what Advanced Placement courses were. All I knew was classes with “A-P” in front of them carried a level of rigor that underachievers shied away from. As a student who foolishly avoided valuable courses like the plague (i.e. math and science), I decided to hedge my bets with a couple AP courses in history and government. The courses proved to be valuable in many ways: more rigorous curriculum, more engaged peers, back-end financial savings, and a leg-up on college courses.

Beg and borrow because tomorrow is another day

By: Mike Thomas

The Philadelphia school district is taking the rather unprecedented step of borrowing $300 million to stay afloat. This is akin to a starving man munching on his toes.

And it is on top of $3 billion in outstanding bonds. Philadelphia is paying today’s bills by borrowing against the future.

This might work if the school district could grow its way out of the problem.

Baumol’s Disease By Design (Part 4)

By: Dr. Matthew Ladner

So the Heritage Foundation just released these fantastically illustrative charts documenting Baumol’s Disease in American K-12 education. The first shows that total employment in public schools increased by ten times more than enrollment growth, with non-teaching staff leading the way with an incredible 138% increase: