Today I have some odds and ends as summer winds down and kids go back to school. And it’s Friday so fish.
New WonkyFolk. This is a fun and important one, Jed and I sit down with Shaka Mitchell of American Federation for Children to talk about the – big – new education tax credit program that was part of the recent federal tax bill. Did I mention it’s big? The Commodore estimates $28 billion annually. And it’s going to be politically disruptive. We get into all of that and Shaka’s take on what there is to learn from past experiences with choice.
You can get it wherever you get podcasts or through the links below:
Katrina 20. On Monday I hosted a discussion with three-term Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, NOLA educators Jamar McNeely and Alexina Medley, and Tulane’s Doug Harris to discuss education in New Orleans post-Katrina.
You can watch the video here. If you want to hear from people who were there, before the storm, and in the rebuilding after, along with a fact base on what’s happened, then this is it. It’s part of a series of Bellwether webinars on different aspects of education in New Orleans.
Smart disagreement. This discussion from The Disagreement about exam schools is worth your time. Ian Rowe and Stefan Redding Lollinger talk through the issues with host Alex Grodd. Nuance!
You should hold space for this: Third Way with a political memo about language, that reads like a bingo card from the last education meeting you attended.
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Equitable grading, now rebranded under some other names, is not popular with teachers. There are a few issues like this where a lot of people are suddenly struck mute. They go on and on about teacher voice until it conflicts with some political norm. You run into a lot of teachers who are scared to speak up, too.
This article from The Boston Globe is something else.
It’s a little hard to square the idea of a lot of class skipping and, as the article suggests, students not paying attention when they are present, with an average GPA north of 3.8. I dunno, would the viewpoint diversity problem—apparently blamed on overcommitted students by the faculty—be even worse if students showed up more often?
Here’s Ben Sayeski slinging some candor in CharterFolk:
This seems directionally correct to me. It’s also worth pointing out, though, that some people have a different theory of action, sort of a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil approach believing that the best way to garner support for public schools is to tell a certain story. I think that theory is flawed on a few levels (it’s the wrong thing to do and won’t work indefinitely anyway) but it is a theory of action. There is also just the generalized adult-first politics of the sector.
Fish Porn
Here’s Cognia’s Brad Wever in West Grand Traverse Bay near Traverse City, Michigan with a beauty. Michigan is a fantastic state, with great river and lake fishing, if you like to be outside .
Want more? Here are hundreds of pics of education folks with fish. Even more pics here. Send me yours!
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