School Choice Wisconsin: Wisconsin voters strongly support making all families eligible for the state’s school choice programs and favor ending funding inequities between choice, charter, and traditional public schools. These are among key findings on education issues in a scientific, random sample poll conducted earlier this month by one of the nation’s leading opinion research … Continue reading Notes on pro school choice poll results →

Keith David: At the American university where I teach, one of my assigned tasks is to advise undergraduates—mostly freshmen and sophomores. This essay describes a conversation I had in 2017 with one of those advisees. I will call him Daniel. Daniel was a sophomore at the time. He had been an advisee of mine for … Continue reading Notes on academic veracity →

Elizabeth Beyer: Caire, UW-Oshkosh and Madison Area Technical College are hashing out a dual enrollment partnership that would allow students to gain college credits while in high school and potentially earn an associate degree, too, which could be used to transfer to a UW campus or an institution outside the System. The idea may even … Continue reading Notes on One City Schools’ Monona Expansion →

Don Watkins and Robert Hendershott The safest way to travel is by air—and air travel has never been safer. MIT researchers found that from 1988 to 1997 there was one fatality per 1.3 million passenger boardings globally. From 2008 to 2017 that number had plummeted to one fatality per 7.9 million boardings.  “The worldwide risk of being … Continue reading The Failure Paradox
Ingenuism Essays →

Joel Kotkin: The urban fringe is where the American dream is now being re­discovered. But these fringes remain widely disdained in academia, media, and the planning community. This was most evident during the financial crisis when there were widespread media accounts suggesting, among other things, that the exurbs would become “the next slums,” the equivalent … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Population Changes →

Sharon Lerner: The “lab-leak” hypothesis is bolstered by a long history of accidents at facilities that study pathogens and the fact that one such laboratory that specializes in coronaviruses, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, is located in the very city where the pandemic first began. As many have noted, China has not been … Continue reading Civics: taxpayer supported non transparency from the US CDC →

David Blaska: One conclusion from the first debate among candidates for Madison school board: Stop blaming COVID for our failing schools and own up to what we’ve done to our kids. Covid was the cover story school board president Ali Muldrow spun for the on-going chaos in Madison’s classrooms. (Another brawl at East high school Monday 02-21-22.) But … Continue reading Madison school governance climate amidst long term, disastrous reading results →

Apporva Mandavilli: Much of the withheld information could help state and local health officials better target their efforts to bring the virus under control. Detailed, timely data on hospitalizations by age and race would help health officials identify and help the populations at highest risk. Information on hospitalizations and death by age and vaccination status … Continue reading Civics and we know best: The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects →

Libby Sobic and Will Flanders #1 – Wisconsin is 8th in Education Nationwide Governor Evers made the claim during his state of the state that Wisconsin’s “education system” has moved from 18th to 8th in the nation during his administration, and gave the credit to increased spending in public schools.  His claim appears to come from a report … Continue reading Commentary on Wisconsin K-12 Rhetoric →

Emily Oster: Local governments are relaxing pandemic restrictions at a dizzying pace, removing mask requirements and vaccine entry rules for businesses. Politicians are generally pushing for a return to normalcy. But for one group, change is not forthcoming: children. The removal of mask mandates in schools is likely weeks, if not months, away in some … Continue reading “Adults first” policy commentary →

David Blaska: Critical race theory denialists trot out the same university professors who promote CRT to confirm that mom and dad are unwitting pawns of the Republican Borg (as the WI State Journal did.) It’s like asking Putin what day he plans to invade. CNN asked a Columbia University professor to put San Francisco voters under … Continue reading Commentary on Wisconsin K-12 Curriculum and Taxpayer Governance →

No. The American state prints literally trillions of dollars, and spends more every year. It’s not capital-limited, it’s competence-limited. https://t.co/nTa3HKYgEm pic.twitter.com/OcnNvrFHtg — Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) February 20, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are … Continue reading “Competence limited” →

Lucas Robinson: After a nearly 30-minute back-and-forth with another finalist, Blessed Sacrament sixth-grader Aiden Wijeyakulasuriya walked away a champion at the Madison All-City Spelling Bee Saturday morning. Aiden, 11, properly spelled “effete” and then “agate” after runner-up Vincent Bautista misspelled “effete” with an “a” at the beginning. Vincent, a student at St. Maria Goretti School, went … Continue reading Blessed Sacrament sixth-grader Aiden Wijeyakulasuriya wins Madison Spelling Bee →

Nada Elmikashfi: While all city employees at one time were required to live within the city limits, the residency requirement was eliminated for Madison Metro drivers in the 1980s and in subsequent years for other unionized employees as well. Arguments to keep the requirement were based in part on concerns over a dwindling middle class, … Continue reading Commentary on the taxpayer supported Madison K-12 school climate →

Clara Jeffery: But let’s review the array of irritants. Remote learning: Against every other issue I’m about to name, some of which were on a slow boil before the pandemic, you need to understand that SF schools stayed closed until the fall of 2021, longer than most districts in America. Now: SF takes the pandemic damn … Continue reading “it was a for vote to put performance over performativeness” →

Dylan Brogan: The Madison school district is delaying its plan to eliminate standalone honors classes at its high schools. The district hasn’t publicly announced the policy shift or if it’s considering scrapping the plan entirely. At its Dec. 6 meeting, school board members were told by Director of Advanced Learning Sharon Alexander that the district … Continue reading Madison school district hits ‘pause’ on plan to end standalone honors classes →

Jill Tucker & Anni Vainshtein: San Francisco voters overwhelmingly supported the ouster of three school board members Tuesday in the city’s first recall election in nearly 40 years. The landslide decision means board President Gabriela López and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga will officially be removed from office and replaced by mayoral appointments 10 days after … Continue reading Competitive School Board Races (!) San Francisco & Mount Horeb Incumbents Ousted. Madison? →

Scott Girard: Blaska announced his candidacy in a blog post (link!! not present in the article) on Friday. The longtime critic of the Madison School Board wrote that “Madison voters unhappy with the direction of Madison’s public schools ought to be able to register a protest vote.” He included a list of solutions that is … Continue reading Commentary on David Blaska’s 2022 Madison School Board campaign, no links, however →

Jeffrey Mervis: A new data-rich report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirms China has overtaken the United States as the world’s leader in several key scientific metrics, including the overall number of papers published and patents awarded. U.S. scientists also have serious competition from foreign researchers in certain fields, it finds. That loss of … Continue reading Growing (science) competition means U.S. must decide where to excel, says National Science Board’s Julia Phillips →

Updating my obesity lecture notes with the most recent data from England’s National Child Measurement Programme. The data are so shockingly upsetting I have to share. 1/8 First off is the clear covid effect, both in reception (ages 4-5 for non-UK tweeps)… pic.twitter.com/K1jjzaAesA — Dr. J Bernadette Moore (@TheMooreLab) February 13, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and … Continue reading The ongoing, long term price of lockdown mandates →

David Blaska David Blaska is running for Madison school board after all. No, his name won’t be on the ballot because he is a write-in for Seat #4. That’s the one occupied by school board president Ali Muldrow. We were opponents three years ago and Ali (truly a lovely young lady in many ways) beat me handily. … Continue reading 2022 Write in candidate for the taxpayer supported Madison School Board →

The Economist: Global Democracy continued its precipitous decline in 2021, according to the latest edition of the Democracy Index from our sister company, EIU. The annual survey, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries on the basis of five measures—electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and … Continue reading More pandemic restrictions damaged democratic freedoms in 2021 →

DPI Superintendent Jill Underly: Dear Wisconsin Families and Educators, I am writing this letter to you as a fellow parent and a former teacher. Like you, I know what it means to be involved with my children’s education, and I love it. But I look at the way politicians talk about parental involvement, and I … Continue reading Commentary on Parents and Taxpayer supported k-12 Wisconsin schools →

Will Flanders & Libby Sobic: Presumably, the Representative was specifically responding to testimony from parents from around Wisconsin in support of AB 963. In an era where parents who attend school board meetings are called potential terrorists by the National Association of School Boards and subjected to monitoring by the federal government, it is more … Continue reading Commentary on Wisconsin’s taxpayer supported K-12 Governance model and parents →

Stop what you’re doing and watch this. Kids at a Las Vegas elementary school burst out into cheers after learning they no longer have to wear a mask to school pic.twitter.com/xIuHgFtmHo — Courtney Holland 🇺🇸 (@hollandcourtney) February 11, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is … Continue reading Maskless students →

David Blaska: Look sharp, readers! Make sure car doors are locked and crash air bags working! Tavion J. Flowers, the gift that keeps on taking, is back on the mean streets of Madison! Sprung from the Dane County Jail Monday 02-07-22 for the paltry price of $400.  A week after the 18-year-old’s most recent excellent adventure. Mr. Flowers … Continue reading Notes on Judges and Youth crime activity →

Andrew Yang: The data are clear. Boys are more than twice as likely as girls to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; are five times as likely to spend time in juvenile detention; and are less likely to finish high school. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get better when boys become adults. Men … Continue reading Boys and mental health commentary →

Heather Smith: School board primary elections are next week, and there is much consternation in the education establishment about the civic engagement of parents who are stepping up to take a more active role in the education of their children. The pandemic brought to light many things about our school system that served as an education … Continue reading Commentary on The Education Establishment and Tuesday’s Wisconsin Primary Election →

Wisconsin state representative just deleted this tweet. pic.twitter.com/Mj8pEs9afe — Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) February 10, 2022 I deleted my Tweet since it was lacking in nuance and easily misinterpreted. I wouldn't want anyone to think that parents do not have a role in their child's public education-I sure did. I encourage all parents to engage … Continue reading K-12 taxpayer funded governance: Wisconsin elected official edition →

Antonis Adam and Sofia Tsarsitalidou We use Benford’s law of first digits to determine whether there is evidence of data misreporting in the total COVID19 reported cases across countries. We try to model the differences in the Mean Absolute Deviation of actual data from those predicted by Benford’s law to indicate the factors that lead … Continue reading Data misreporting during the COVID19 crisis: The role of political institutions →

THURSDAY: Assembly Committee on Education will be hearing testimony on a Parent Bill of Rights. pic.twitter.com/2zPwBJmbwu — WILL (@WILawLiberty) February 9, 2022 Notes: Parent Bill of Rights: In recent years, WILL has represented several public-school parents after their local public schools established policies and procedures that undermined the parent’s rights to make decisions about their … Continue reading Hearing on a proposed Parent bill of rights →

David Blaska: Spot quiz: What word will not be spoken by any of Madison’s candidates for school board? Time’s up! Groucho Marx’s secret word is “discipline.” Discipline is defined as “training to act in accordance with rules; activity, exercise or a regimen that develops or improves a skill.” Discipline is the sine qua non (more Latin) of education. Mathematics, language, … Continue reading Notes on discipline and character in the taxpayer supported Madison K-12 school district’s governance →

Emily Hamer: Madison police were called to respond to a lunchtime fight between East High School students Wednesday off campus, but students began to dissipate just before officers arrived, according to the school’s interim principal. While only a few students were involved in the physical altercation near the parking lot of Milio’s Sandwiches, 2202 E. Johnson … Continue reading Off campus Madison East high fight →

By Lisa Lerer, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Astead W. Herndon It was Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey who began the effort last fall, weeks after he was stunned by the energy of right-wing voters in his blue state, who nearly ousted him from office in what was widely expected to be an easy re-election … Continue reading The politics of mask “mandates”; meanwhile in Dane County (Madison) →

Scott Girard: Tompkins, who considers himself fortunate to have since found a new job, said he was similarly disappointed to not receive an explanation. He submitted a letter from the pastor of his family church and his reasoning for not getting the vaccine, he said. On appeal, the district asked for “a more in-depth letter” … Continue reading Notes on Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district’s vaccine mandate teacher firing →

Scott Mildred and Phil Hands: An outdated state law requires only Madison to elect its School Board members in such an odd way. That law should be changed. (Interestingly, I saw no inquiry on how the legislation occurred….) Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not … Continue reading Commentary on unopposed taxpayer supported K-12 Madison school board elections →

Elizabeth Beyer: In solidly Democratic Madison there’s markedly less enthusiasm for running for School Board than in other parts of the state. Of the three seats up for election this year, only one is contested after two incumbents opted not to run again. Madison School Board President Ali Muldrow, who is up for reelection but … Continue reading Commentary on School board elections & unopposed Madison 2022 seats →

Will Flanders: Findings: Counting the Cost: Wisconsin School Closures and Student Proficiency, by Will Flanders and Miranda Spindt, reviewed school closure decisions in the 2020-21 school year and ran an analysis to see their impact on recent Forward Exam data. The findings point towards significant learning loss for students in districts that chose virtual learning over a … Continue reading “school closures hurt the academic performance of students who can least afford setbacks in education” →

James Causey: Stop passing kids you know are behind. It sets them up for a lifetime of failure. If they can’t read, nothing else will matter. They will be on the road to dropping out and a life of unemployment or low-paying, dead-end jobs. In Milwaukee Public Schools, only half of the Black boys who … Continue reading “Teachers know this. But these students too often are passed onto the next grade anyway” →

Molly Beck: Two Republicans running for governor said this week they would sign legislation that dissolves the state’s largest school district while the Democratic incumbent who spent a career in education said the idea would throw Milwaukee’s children into “chaos.” Gov. Tony Evers, a former state superintendent and public school educator, signaled Tuesday he would … Continue reading 2022 Wisconsin Governer’s Race and K-12 changes →

Chester Finn Monday’s Washington Post featured a long, front-page article by the estimable Laura Meckler titled “Public schools facing a crisis of epic proportions.” In it, she skillfully summarized a laundry list of current woes facing traditional public education: The scores are down and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying … Continue reading Mission vs organization: taxpayer supported k-12 edition →

“A child who attends a traditional public school in Milwaukee is worth more than $4,000 more in the eyes of government than that same child if they attend the private choice school down the street.”https://t.co/cg2mB7LZ4L — WILL (@WILawLiberty) February 3, 2022 This is a Renaissance painting.No, the opposite of a Renaissance.Dégringolade.20 years.2 stalls.A full press … Continue reading Perverse Financial Incentives & taxpayer supported K-12 Schools →

Dylan Brogan: And there is pressure to ignore the realities of missed work: “A kid zones out the entire semester, doesn’t do any work, and we’re being told [from administrators] to get them to quickly make up a couple of assignments and give him a passing grade. It’s a terrible message we are sending.” ….. … Continue reading “The students come to school and pretend to learn. Teachers come to school and pretend to teach. We are all just trying to get through the day.” →

Wisconsin State Senator Alberta Darling: Wisconsin has a reputation for reform. It’s time we regain our status as a national leader and innovator for education reform,” Darling said, “We are putting parents and their children firstw , we are going to increase transparency and accountability, and we will be funding students, not systems.” Parental Bill … Continue reading Taxpayer supported K-12 governance legislation →

Ann Althouse: Said an unnamed 2021 graduate, quoted in “Remote learning led to rampant cheating at NYC’s Stuyvesant High School” (NY Post). Stuyvesant is a phenomenally elite public high school, with admission based on the Specialized High School Admissions Test. Also quoted, an unnamed sophomore: “A lot of people didn’t actually learn as much last year because … Continue reading Here they are, America, your new elite. →

Rick Mayer: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have concluded that lockdowns have done little to reduce COVID deaths but have had “devastating effects” on economies and numerous social ills. The study, titled “A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality,” said lockdowns in Europe and the U.S. reduced COVID-19 deaths … Continue reading A Johns Hopkins study says ‘ill-founded’ lockdowns did little to limit COVID deaths →

Urgency of Normal: In much of the United States, adults have the option of returning to life essentially as we knew it in 2019. However, children continue to experience disproportionate restrictions, and the costs are mounting.  Youth depression, suspected suicide attempts, drug overdose deaths, and obesity have all risen dramatically during the pandemic. The unintended … Continue reading An Open Call to Restore Normalcy for U.S. Children →

Zachary Stein: The need to rediscover and reinvigorate education as the deeper codes and sources of culture is aided by Zak’s skilful reviving of the spirit of John Amos Comenius, an educator of world-historical importance. But why education exactly? Because education is not just children in uniform with their feet under desks holding pencils expectantly while … Continue reading Education must make History Again →

Benjamin Yount: It’s the latest snapshot of just how many parents in Wisconsin want to explore educational options for their kids. Tuesday was the first day for parents to enroll in the state’s Private School Choice Program. By midday, the state’s website crashed because of a flood of applications. “Due to high volume, the system … Continue reading “Due to high volume, the system is temporarily unavailable” →

MARTIN KULLDORFF AND JAY BHATTACHARYA With millions of Americans getting infected and over 800,000 reported COVID-19 deaths, most people now realize that Washington’s pandemic policies failed. Lockdowns just postponed the inevitable while causing enormous collateral damage on cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, tuberculosis, mental health, education and much else. So, the blame game is in full … Continue reading Civics: Dr. Fauci and the Coronavirus Policy Blame Game →

Christopher Ingraham: But in 2021 that all changed. The very-happies plummeted from 31 percent of the population in 2018 down to 19, while the not-too-happies surged by a nearly identical amount, from 13 to 24 percent. The balance is made up by the pretty-happies at around 57 percent, who I omitted from the chart because … Continue reading The latest release from the General Social Survey shows the toll the pandemic has taken on our mental health →

American Federation of teachers: Notwithstanding the considerable difficulties of the pandemic, public school parents express high levels of satisfaction with the schools serving their children and say that public schools are helping their children achieve their full potential.• More than seven in 10 public school parents give a high performance rating to their children’s schools. … Continue reading AFT Parent Survey →

LEAKED: new documents coming in hot from multiple teachers at Madison, Wis. School District, fed up with new direction. Adoption of BLM curriculum to destroy and disrupt the nuclear family pic.twitter.com/i3rsG7Rwne — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) January 29, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not … Continue reading Taxpayer Supported Madison K-12 Curriculum Documents →

Ambika Kandasamy, Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict … Continue reading A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON
COVID-19 MORTALITY →

Sean Cooper: he attempted to instruct the student that the word was offensive. In doing so, he used the slur himself, which was overheard by administrators who had recently installed a zero tolerance anti-racism policy that prompted them to immediately fire Anderson for the utterance. Students subsequently rallied to Anderson’s defense, walking out of class … Continue reading Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school policies in the spotlight: Marlon Anderson edition →

Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya: The pandemic is on its way out, but how many Americans think the U.S. approach succeeded? More than 600,000 Americans died from Covid, and lockdowns have left extensive collateral damage. Trust in science has eroded, and the damage won’t be limited to epidemiology, virology and public health. Scientists in other … Continue reading A Covid Commission Americans Can Trust: The country has lost faith in experts, but a thorough review free from conflicts of interest could help. →

Randi Weingarten’s union is buying a service to filter news for “misinformation” for millions of students. pic.twitter.com/mAhR9LCkWb — Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) January 25, 2022 What’s happening: The AFT teachers union is buying NewsGuard licenses for its 1.7 million teachers, who will then be able to share it with tens of millions students around the … Continue reading Censorship and Teacher Union spending →

Given the academic and social challenges that students face, many local education agencies are planning to use #Covidrelief money to hire more staff members and beef up training, benefits and pay for those already on the payroll. https://t.co/UiT0INSU8N — FutureEd (@FutureEdGU) January 25, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that … Continue reading An Emphasis on adult employment →

Scott Girard: A Madison Metropolitan School District teacher plans to challenge what he considers unequal application of the district’s religious exemption to its staff COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Nathan Hataj, a technology and engineering teacher at La Follette High School, “didn’t think of it as an issue” when the School Board unanimously approved the staff vaccine mandate … Continue reading 49 taxpayer supported Madison school district staff cashiered →

Washington Post Editorial: Announcing his selection of Aimee Rogstad Guidera as education secretary, Mr. Youngkin cited her work in “advocating for innovation and choice, data-driven reform, and high standards.” Ms. Guidera is a national expert on the use of data in education policy. She headed up the Guidera Strategy consulting firm and is the founder and former … Continue reading Youngkin’s choice for education secretary might be a sign of good things to come →

Mike Antonucci: As is plain from the numbers, we spiked in both during the summer of 2020, and everything returned to normal soon after. Not one of the above stories, nor any news report on the issue I have seen, contains any mention that public education employment has the second lowest quit rate of any … Continue reading “public education employment has the second lowest quit rate of any sector of the U.S. economy” →

Stacey Lance: I am proud to be a teacher. I’ve worked in the Canadian public school system for the past 15 years, mostly at the high school level, teaching morals and ethics. I don’t claim to be a doctor or an expert in virology. There is a lot I don’t know. But I spend my … Continue reading My students were taught to think of themselves as vectors of disease. This has fundamentally altered their understanding of themselves. →

Left Voice: Our union members were going in. Some people stopped responding to our chat after the first day. They needed their paycheck, or they didn’t want to ruffle feathers, whatever their reason, they turned their back on us. This was happening everywhere. Since this wasn’t an official strike, people did not see the problem … Continue reading A post mortem on the Chicago Teacher walk out that fizzled →

Corey DeAngelis and Christos Makridis: The long-term closing of schools, and the harm it did to children nationwide, was a decision based not on health, but on politics — thanks to teachers unions and the Democratic politicians they fund. A study by researchers at Michigan State University found that when governors left it up to districts whether to have in-person … Continue reading School closures have been made with politics in mind — not science →

Stacey Lance: I am proud to be a teacher. I’ve worked in the Canadian public school system for the past 15 years, mostly at the high school level, teaching morals and ethics. I don’t claim to be a doctor or an expert in virology. There is a lot I don’t know. But I spend my … Continue reading I’m a Public School Teacher. The Kids Aren’t Alright. →

Will Flanders, DPI itself has also contributed to this problem in a number of ways.  Nearly $150,000,000 of state education spending is retained at the state level for operations.  In addition, DPI has contributed and created the barriers for teachers to access the classroom. With barrier upon barrier to get licensed to teach, it is difficult to recruit and … Continue reading almost half of education spending in the state goes for activities other than instruction, including nearly 23% on administrative costs. →

1. Ok, let’s talk about a different strategy for Biden and Dems, going all the way back to inauguration. Instead of seeing the election as a mandate to expand the safety with weird badly designed programs, what would a good agenda have been? Deal with Covid. What does that mean? — Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December … Continue reading School Climate: Federalism and Leadership →

Alison Dirr: The City of Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday approved a new mask mandate, and Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson plans to sign it. But it’s not the same mask mandate that residents and businesses had grown accustomed to earlier in the pandemic. This one comes with a likely end date — and a pared … Continue reading Voting on a mask policy vs administrative mandates →

Molly Beck: Low-performing schools in Wisconsin would be forced to close under a plan to overhaul K-12 education put forward by Kevin Nicholson, a Republican who is expected to announce this week he is running for governor.   Nicholson, who was defeated in a Republican U.S. Senate primary in 2018 by former state Sen. Leah Vukmir … Continue reading Advocating accountability for taxpayer supported K-12 schools →

Scott Girard: Registration can be completed online through the district’s Volunteer Tracker program, which allows volunteers to select the schools where they’d like to volunteer and identify what roles they can volunteer for. In an interview last week, Jenkins suggested that the district needs individuals and local businesses to step up to help keep school buildings open, … Continue reading Volunteer opportunities in the taxpayer supported Madison School District →

Francis Fukuyama: BEGINNING A FEW DECADES AGO, WORLD POLITICS STARTED TO EXPERIENCE A DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION. From the early 1970s to the first decade of this century, the number of electoral democracies increased from about 35 to more than 110. Over the same period, the world’s output of goods and services quadrupled, and growth extended to virtually … Continue reading Civics: Against Identity Politics →

Ilya Somin: Georgetown philosophy Prof. Jason Brennan, himself the author of an important book on the morality of resistance to government power, has a useful summary of King’s views on these issues. As Brennan points out, King believed that disobedience to unjust laws is often entirely justified, even when the laws in question were enacted by democratic governments: Many … Continue reading Martin Luther King on the Ethics of Resistance to State Authority →

Jonathan Chait: Within blue America, transparently irrational ideas like this were able to carry the day for a disturbingly long period of time. In recent days, Angie Schmitt and Rebecca Bodenheimer have both written essays recounting the disorienting and lonely experience they had watching their friends and putative political allies denounce them for supporting a return to in-person learning. … Continue reading School Closures Were a Catastrophic Error. Progressives Still Haven’t Reckoned With It. →

Kim Feller-Janus: Several years ago I became disenchanted by my profession. I was not happy with the results of my work as a Reading Interventionist in a large school district. Yes, the students assigned to me made progress and the principals, teachers, and parents were pleased with my work, but I wasn’t. Year after year … Continue reading Feller School: a Madison, Wisconsin Startup →

I recently saw a sign prominently posted in a Madison restaurant that said: “Wear a Mask, it’s the law”. This is a teaching moment. The current Dane County Madison Public Health mask requirement is a mandate, not (yet) a law. The status of said mask requirement is the subject of law fare and activism. Some … Continue reading Civics: Mandates vs “laws” →

Scott Girard: “This time, I’m going to the business community, to the churches and saying, ‘Hey, let’s start anticipating together, scenario planning, so if something happens, we can be a model for how you do it,’” he said. “Keep it rolling and keep safety first and then the rest of the stuff.” That “rest of … Continue reading Madison schools head says schools need ongoing community help to support students →

Barry Adams: Almost all of the lessons at the Kickapoo Valley Forest School are held outdoors, even on days when the temperature plunges well below freezing. The nature-based curriculum is central for the 4K and kindergarten students and their teachers, who have had lunch outside all but four days since the first day of school … Continue reading Watch now: A charter school with all-day outdoor education in the middle of winter →

Jesse Kauffman: The greatest casualty of the pandemic era is, without question, America’s public education system. Shuttering public schools in the first panicked days of March 2020 was perhaps understandable. However, many schools—such as those my children attend in Ann Arbor, Michigan—failed to open the following year. Schools closed in defiance of any reasonable accounting … Continue reading ‘The greatest casualty of the pandemic era is, without question, America’s public education system’ →

Emily Everson Layden: Rutgers researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging our understanding of humanity’s earliest agricultural practices. Their findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports. “Overall, the presence of millet in ancient Iraq during this earlier time period challenges the accepted narrative of agricultural development … Continue reading Ancient Mesopotamian Discovery Transforms Knowledge of Early Farming →

104 Page PDF: The Early Literacy and Beyond Task Force was established in December 2020, charged with analyzing promising approaches to literacy education and making recommendations to Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and the teacher education programs at the University of Wisconsin -Madison School of Education (UW-SoE) to improve literacy outcomes and reduce gaps in … Continue reading Madison School District’s Early Literacy Task Force Report →

mp3 audio (about 3 hours – not the entire session): Machine generated transcript. School and District Report Cards and the recent changes made to those Report Cards Invited speakers include: School Choice Wisconsin Action (Jim Bender) Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (Thomas McCarthy) Stride, Inc. Siena Catholic Schools Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (Prepared … Continue reading Wisconsin Assembly Education Committee Meeting 12 January 2022 on DPI’s “K-12 Report Cards” →

Shared via brownstone: Two years late, you finally realize that a respiratory virus cannot be defeated and that any such attempt is doomed to fail. You do not admit it, because you have admitted almost no mistake in the last two years, but in retrospect it is clear that you have failed miserably in almost … Continue reading Ehud Qimron’s Powerful Letter to the Israeli Ministry of Health →

Mike Antonucci: The Chicago Teachers Union decided last week to cease in-person schooling until a variety of conditions were met. In response, Chicago Public Schools refused to allow teachers to log in for remote instruction and demanded they return to the classroom. After days of negotiations, the two sides reached a tentative agreement. In-person classes … Continue reading Chicago Teachers Walkout Calls the Questions — What Does ‘Safe’ Mean, and Who Gets to Decide? →

The Economist: Over the past two years America’s children have missed more time in the classroom than those in most of the rich world. School closures that began there in early 2020 dragged on until the summer of 2021. During that time the districts that stayed closed longest forced all or some of their children … Continue reading Teachers’ unions have ignored encouraging findings from other countries, such as research suggesting that teachers in schools that had opened faced no greater risk of severe sickness than other professionals. →

Lindsey Burke and Corey DeAngelis: Imagine being a second grader in a major city right now. If you entered kindergarten during the 2019-20 school year, COVID-19 first closed your school in March, potentially offering “remote learning.” As you prepared to enter first grade the following fall, you were one of more than half of students … Continue reading Commentary on teacher union influence and closed taxpayer supported schools →

Helen Lewis: I got my COVID-19 booster shot last week, on the first day I was eligible. My shot was delayed because I caught COVID in early December, an experience that was low-key grim: two days of shotgun sneezing, no taste or smell for a week, and a constant fatigue that didn’t abate until the … Continue reading After multiple lockdowns, three vaccines, and one bout of COVID, I want my life back. →

Scott Calvert: Public-school attendance across the U.S. has dropped to unusually low levels, complicating efforts to keep schools open, as districts also contend with major staff shortages. Many students in kindergarten through 12th grade are out sick because of Covid-19 or are being kept home by anxious parents, as the Omicron variant surges, officials say. Remote learning often isn’t being … Continue reading Depressed attendance rates create challenges for teaching and learning; ‘there has never been anything like this’ →

Joy Pullman: Americans are starting to feel the increasing collateral damage from our unprecedented, ineffective, and ill-advised Covid lockdowns. It was known before March 2020 that lockdowns would cause lifelong and avoidable damage to billions, yet the world’s ruling classes who claim to have earned their place atop a “meritocracy” strenuously demanded such damage be inflicted especially on children and … Continue reading Did any of these people tell the truth back when it could have saved the generation that comprises the world’s future? Nope. →

Scott Girard: MMSD spokesman Tim LeMonds told the Cap Times in an email Tuesday the district’s attendance rate Monday was 80.6%. That’s below the average of more than 90% throughout the 2020-21 school year, according to attendance data received through an open records request. Other area school districts, which all returned from winter break as … Continue reading Notes on Madison area K – 12 taxpayer supported school attendance →

Selena Zito: Some days, people would pull an ornament from their jacket pocket and add it while on their daily stride. On other days, one might see a parent pushing a stroller or with a child on their little bicycle stop and look at the delightful little ornaments. Without fail, each child would look at … Continue reading COVID-19 allowed too many to pervert their power →

Thomas Fazi and Toby Green: All of which has meant that, until the Observer’s interview with Mark Woolhouse, there has been painfully little critical analysis from the mainstream Left as to whether the raft of restrictive Covid measures we have seen over the past two years have indeed served the collective good — or saved lives … Continue reading The Great Barrington Declaration and closed schools;
Lockdowns failed to serve the collective good →

Shannon Whitworth: I work at a high school where the majority of the students are from inner-city Milwaukee. They are confronted almost daily with some form of dysfunction, depravity, or violence. One day, some of my students challenged me as to why they should put a lot of effort into their studies when, from their … Continue reading Commentary on K-12 student choice →

Angie Schmitt: I kept hoping that someone in our all-Democratic political leadership would take a stand on behalf of Cleveland’s 37,000 public-school children or seem to care about what was happening. Weren’t Democrats supposed to stick up for low-income kids? Instead, our veteran Democratic mayor avoided remarking on the crisis facing the city’s public-school families. … Continue reading COVID school policies set me adrift from my tribe. →

Scott Mildred (and others) Our community didn’t let the district’s tardiness slide without a stern warning. That’s because missing in-person classes for the last week (with two days of online school) badly disrupted people’s lives, especially working parents who don’t have easy options for emergency child care. The district’s spokesman had told the State Journal on Dec. … Continue reading Commentary on Closed taxpayer supported Madison Schools (no achievement discussion) →

Corrinne Hess: At the urging of Milwaukee Public Schools and area restaurants, a Milwaukee Common Council committee moved forward an ordinance Friday for a city-wide mask mandate. Under the plan, a face covering would be required for anyone 3 years old and up inside a public building whenever the rate of transmission of the COVID-19 virus … Continue reading Civics: Milwaukee votes on health policy while Dane County continues unelected administrative mandates →

Dana Goldstein and Noam Scheiber: Few American cities have labor politics as fraught as Chicago’s, where the nation’s third-largest school system shut down this week after teachers’ union members refused to work in person, arguing that classrooms were unsafe amid the Omicron surge. But in a number of other places, the tenuous labor peace that … Continue reading Teacher Unions vs Parents and Children: political commentary →

Liberty Justice Center: – A group of Chicago parents have filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Teachers Union, calling this week’s school closures an “illegal strike” and demanding that teachers return to school for in-person learning. The lawsuit was filed late Thursday by attorneys at the Liberty Justice Center, a national nonprofit law firm that … Continue reading Parents sue to end illegal Chicago Teachers Union Strike →

Alan Borsuk: This all said, MPS is in a small club of school districts that have switched to all-virtual schooling during the current surge. The vast majority of American schools are staying in-person, even if it’s a struggle. One board member, Megan O’Halloran, suggested that schools that were reporting comparatively few COVID cases among teachers … Continue reading Milwaukee Public Schools are staying virtual for now, and none of the reasons involve improving student education →

STOP Award More than 340,000 Chicago Public School students have been forced to stay home by self-interests who dominate the Chicago Public School system. The failure of Chicago’s leadership to open school even after receiving more than $1.5 billion from the federal government in the past year to ensure they are always open safely to … Continue reading $5M in Grants to save Chicago Public School Children →

Someone just sent a picture of their child’s homework to me. Sorry @GovEvers 🤣💗 pic.twitter.com/Kf8iCOpbJu — Katie Rosenberg ✌ (@katierosenberg) January 7, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” 2017: West … Continue reading Civics: Wisconsin Electoral Awareness →