My Blog

Category: Education

  • College Suspends Obama Pledge Professor

    UPDATE:  Last week we heard about the college prof. who made her students pledge to vote for Obama. A college professor has been placed on leave after she allegedly forced her class to sign a pledge to vote for President Obama in the upcoming elections. via Campus Reform. Justice?  Probably.

  • CTU Deal Will Lead to School Closings & Layoffs

    Four years of up-to-the-limit property tax increases for Chicago homeowners and businesses. Closing scores of under-enrolled and underperforming schools. Thousands of layoffs of teachers and other school staff. More cuts to the central office. That’s what could await the Chicago Public Schools, thanks to the tentative agreement between teachers and the district that is expected…

  • Professor Makes Class Sign “Vote for Obama” Pledge

      A citizen, whose nephew attends Brevard Community College, reports that he brought home the below bookmark pledging to vote for President Obama. The bookmark and pledge was handed out during a mathematics class taught by Assistant Professor Sharon Sweet. This occurred “while the student was in class at the request of his College Algebra…

  • Chicago Teachers Fear Wave of School Closings

    Striking Chicago teachers fear that once they approve a new contract with the school district and end their strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will go ahead with dozens of school closings because of falling enrollment and poor academic performance. via Reuters. Really?  Well what do they think the mayor should do when the city is shrinking…

  • Where I Agree With the Teachers

    On the fourth day of the teachers’ strike, protesters targeted school board member Penny Pritzker, whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain. At 3:30 p.m., thousands of demonstrators dressed in red gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Chicago, at 151 E. Wacker Dr., protesting the $5.2 million in TIF money the city provided for a new…

  • Inner City Kids and a Catholic School

    God Bless John Kass: When Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis led her members out on strike this week, she said real school would be closed. “Negotiations have been intense but productive,” she said. “However, we have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike. Real school will not be open (Monday).”…

  • Then vs. Than

    Then is an adverb referring to a period of time. Than is a conjunction used to make a comparison. I guess no one should be surprised given that 79% of CPS 8th graders are not proficient in reading.

  • How to Help Black Kids Graduate? Vouchers!

    Since CTU is out on strike, this appears to be timely. Educational choice is the civil rights movement of our generation. Then look at a breathtaking new study from researchers at the Brookings Institution and Harvard University. Brookings fellow Matthew M. Chingos and Harvard government professor Paul E. Peterson tracked 1,363 New York elementary school…

  • Teachers’ Unions vs. Children

    When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children. — Albert Shanker, former president of the United Federation of Teachers I wrote about this before, how the truth is that CTU, WEAC, and all other teacher’s unions have a fiduciary duty to the union members.  The union cannot do anything…

  • U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading

    Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math. via CNS News. Very… very… sad. Teachers make over $60/hour.  Get awesome benefits.  Not getting the job done.  On strike demanding more…