Mark Weber is a music teacher and expert on school finance. In this piece from New Jersey Policy Perspective, he explains why the proposal to create school vouchers in New Jersey is a bad idea. New Jersey’s public schools are among the strongest in the nation, a direct result of robust state funding that supports... View Article The post Mark Weber: No Matter What You Call Them, Private School Vouchers Are Bad for New Jersey appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Steve Nuzum is a blogger and education advocate in South Carolina. In a recent post, he notes increased attempts to stifle student activism. Education writer Jennifer Berkshire recently tweeted that it was “[i]mpossible to overstate how much of Florida education politics right now— mandatory K-12 anti-communism curriculum, the push for conservative *classical* charters— is an attempt to... View Article The post Steve Nuzum: Crackdowns on Student Advocacy appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Thomas Ultican looks at some useful tools from Truth In Funding. Reposted with permission.  I am sure you’ll be shocked to your core but there are some really bad people out there trying to end publicly-financed free education. Since the beginning to the 21st millennium, misguided wealthy people have been attacking public education. The reasons range... View Article The post Thomas Ultican: Defend the People’s Schools appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Teacher and researcher Mercedes Schneider always does her homework. Here’s one data point in the new drive to replace school with work for young people (aka “cheap labor pool”)–a Louisiana bill putting the needs of employers over those of the teens they employ, and you’ll never guess what business the bill’s author is in. Reposted... View Article The post Mercedes Schneider: Louisiana: Lunch Breaks in Question for Teen Workers appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Vermont is getting its own unqualified education secretary and John Walters, at the Vermont Political Observer, has some questions for her. There are some obvious questions I wouldn’t bother to ask because others will. Questions about charter schools and school choice, for instance. Saunders is well practiced in answering those with a flurry of multisyllabic... View Article The post John Walters: A Few Questions for Zoie Saunders appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Marc Stier is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center. This op ed originally appeared in the Penn Capital-Star. Last year, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer ruled that Pennsylvania’s public school funding system was unconstitutional because it failed to guarantee every student a “thorough and efficient education.” In January, the Basic Education Funding... View Article The post Marc Stier: We can’t afford not to fund public education appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Do you remember the date? Do you remember how you remember it? Nancy Flanagan does, but she wonders if you could still learn it that way today. Reposted with permission.  Does “the 18th of April” ring any bells for you? Years ago, in a graduate seminar in education leadership (full of would-be superintendents working on PhDs at... View Article The post Nancy Flanagan: The 18th of April… appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Steve Hinnefeld looks at an example of charter shenanigans in Indiana. Dropped by your old authorizer? Just shop for a new one. Trine University came to the rescue eight years ago when Thea Bowman Leadership Academy was in danger of losing its charter and being shut down. Now Trine has revoked the Gary, Indiana, school’s... View Article The post Steve Hinnefeld: Charter school goes shopping appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Cheryl Binkley writes at 4 Public Education, where she lays out just a few of the problems with Governor Glenn Youngkin’s plans for special charter schools. Two hundred thirty-three amendments: there are so many problems with the Governor’s amendments to the bipartisan budget that it’s hard to know where to start. I mean, who thinks... View Article The post Cheryl Binkley: Youngkin’s Charter-Lab Schools Push in 2024 appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more

Chicago was once a leader in neoliberal education reform. Now it’s trying to undo that mess. Jan Resseger blogs about it. Reposted with permission.  Right now we are watching in real time as Chicago tries to figure out how to undo the consequences of a catastrophic, two-decades long experiment in marketplace school reform. Chicago’s Board of... View Article The post Jan Resseger: Chicago Begins the Hard Work of Dismantling Neoliberal School Reform appeared first on Network For Public Education ..read more