Headline writers
Sometimes the headlines don’t match the story. Accidents or click bait? Either way, these headline writers need improvement.
Salon: “Reform makes broken New Orleans schools worse.”
Writer Jennifer Berkshire, better known as EduShyster, is a school choice and education reform critic. Reform can be messy. It isn’t perfect. Berkshire’s moniker tells us where she stands, and critics can serve as foils who keep us grounded.
She doesn’t tell the whole story about education reform in New Orleans, but she raises a number of worries from the potential disenfranchisement of local residents in the decision making process to reductions in the ranks of black teachers. Those are issues reformers should answer for. The simplistic, distorted headline undermines the argument.
News & Record: “Another offensive reform in the machinery of death”
What could this article possibly be about? Military reform? Executions? Nope, it’s about vouchers.
Chris Fitzsimon, founder of the progressive N.C. Policy Watch, wrote this article about the perceived problems of sending students to private schools that aren’t required to administer the state test, hire certified teachers, or use the state’s curriculum. Some of his points have merit; others don’t (public schooling doesn’t solve the issue of crazy or incorrect curriculum being taught), and many of them rehash the usual talking points.
But if vouchers are the “offensive reform” what is the “machinery of death?” Public education?
Grade: Needs Improvement
Schools That Can Milwaukee
Schools That Can Milwaukee has a goal of putting 20,000 students into high-quality schools by 2020. But to create those schools, this Milwaukee based non-profit is going to need to find and train a lot of high-quality talent to lead these schools.
The organization is agnostic about where kids enroll, so long as the school performs. To that end, the non-profit supports leaders at district, charter and private choice schools.
This is what true public education should be about.
Grade: Satisfactory
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones has expressed reservations about school choice programs leading to increased racial segregation. In St. Louis, Mo., however, she discovers a school choice program that accidentally increased integration by allowing mostly poor black children to transfer to mostly white upper-middle class schools.
While Hannah-Jones doesnt refer to Missouri’s public school transfer law as a school choice program, she poignantly portrays its impact on low-income African-American students, as well as the reactions of white parents and school district officials seeking to stop the transfers. Listen to the hour-long This American Life segment here.
School segregation and the systematic barriers students face deserve this level of attention from all mainstream outlets. The Report Card has also covered this issue, including efforts by the state and receiving districts to stop school choice, here, here, here and here.
Grade: Satisfactory
