American media covers the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, but ignores the protests in Israel, usually led by the families of the hostages who were seized on October 7. Rescuing the hostages was one of the main goals of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but that goal has taken a back seat to the other goal—eliminating Hamas. Prime Minister Netanyahu seems determined to pursue the destruction of Hamas, but the brutality of the invasion guarantees the emergence of new terrorists. Yesterday, Hamas released a video featuring one of the hostages. Such videos must be seen with the understan ..read more

Bill Kristol is a Never Trumper who writes for The Bulwark. He reminds me of my conservative roots. I have always feared mobs. Once mobs form, it’s impossible to know what direction they will take and who is leading them. In the few times in my life that I inadvertently found myself stuck in a mob, I was terrified and got out as quickly as I could. There is something about a mob that is fundamentally in opposition to rationalism and the democratic temperament. Disagree with me if you wish, but please, be civil. Kristol writes: The AP reports on this week’s spring breakdown:  Columbi ..read more

Years ago, there was buzz about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s tendency to quote taxi drivers to capture the view of the “man on the street.” Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for public Education, has recently noticed that Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute has a similar journalistic gambit. He picks up policy clues from Uber drivers. She writes: It seems like Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank that loves all things school choice, has an extraordinary gift for bringing out the inner Betsy DeVos in every Uber Driver he meets ..read more

Iowa was once respected for the quality of its public schools. Now the Republican elected officials are tearing down the state’s public schools. They launched a voucher program, and they are now expanding it, at the expense of public schools. There are some things we know for sure about voucher programs after three decades of experience. First, the actual cost always outstrips the projected cost. Two, whatever the eligibility requirements are in the first year, they will be stripped away so that eventually all students will be eligible for vouchers. Third, vouchers may be initially targeted to ..read more

Timmslekar is a fearless warrior for public schools, teachers, and students. I will be talking to him about Slaying Goliath and the struggle to protect public schools from the depredations of billionaires and zealots. This Thursday on Civic Media: Dive Back into “Slaying Goliath” with Diane Ravitch Grab your pencils—BustEDpencils is gearing up for a no-holds-barred revival of Diane Ravitch’s game-changing book, *Slaying Goliath*, live this Thursday on Civic Media.  Launched into a world on the brink of a pandemic, *Slaying Goliath* hit the shelves with a mission: to arm th ..read more

Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig is a noted scholar of charter schools, with experience as a parent of a charter school student and board member of a charter school. He is Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Western Michigan University. And, he is a founding board member of the Network for public Education! Recently, Dr. Heilig testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He explained that the research on charters shows that they are no more successful than public schools, they close frequently, they have high teacher turnover, and they promote segregation. In a ..read more

America has had a large number of shootings over the past decades. Whenever there is a massacre of students, the public gets angry and mourns the horrific event. Politicians react along partisan lines. Democrats call for gun control; Republicans want to arm teachers and school staff. Since the Supreme Court has decisively ruled against most gun restrictions, the Republicans have had the upper hand. In Tennessee, the Republican-dominated legislature passed a bill yesterday to arm teachers and other school staff. This was a response to a deadly shooting at a private Christian school. Parents at ..read more

This is what may be the finest example of chutzpah thus far in the year 2024. The story was written by my favorite education journalists in Florida, Leslie Postal and Annie Martin. They specialize in exposing scams. A state legislator sought permission to make her home tax-exempt, claiming it was part of Central Christian University, whose campus is elsewhere. The “university” has 15 students. Until last year, Rep. Amesty was the university’s vice-president; her father, who lives in the home, is the president. Her request was denied. The Orlando Sentinel reported: The small university run by R ..read more

John Thompson, historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma, writes here about a book that is important in Oklahoma history and American history. He writes: When I first read Victor Luckerson’s Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street, I was stunned by his beautiful prose. Watching Luckerson on CSPAN Book T.V., I was reminded of his eloquence. And I was even more impressed by the timeliness of the story of the communities and families who built and rebuilt Greenwood after the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, and who then had to repeatedly fight to ke ..read more

When PEN America released its latest national report on book banning, the state with the worst record was Florida. If you hear any bragging about test scores in Florida, think twice. Educated people typically don’t fear books; uneducated people do. Chris Tomlinson, columnist for The Houston Chronicle, reports that book banning is getting more absurd in Texas. Why do school board members think they can censor ideas and images that are widely available on the Internet? At the same time, the state has barred public universities from administering programs that promote “diversity, equity, and incl ..read more