Education

The Problem With Paying Teachers Less

It’s not often that you hear teachers should be paid less. In fact, it’s almost always the exact opposite. From teachers unions to education reformers to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the refrain that teachers are underpaid …

Coming Together to Kill Education Reform

A new consensus is emerging in education politics. But can the center hold? And would reformers even want it to? Bipartisanship is supposed to be a good thing — except for when Republicans and Democrats come together to try to paper over our education problems. That’s what worries me about the recent string of seemingly positive events:

Obama’s Education Waiver Plan: No Child Left Behind’s Final Chapter?

President Obama announced on Friday his plan to offer relief to states that are chafing under the strict requirements of No Child Left Behind, the federal education standards championed by George W. Bush in 2002. The proposal would grant states waivers from some NCLB rules that officials have long complained are impossible to meet, …

Grading the GOP Candidates on Education

Given how preoccupied everyone is with the economy, education is even less of an issue in this presidential campaign than usual. Most of the Republican candidates do not even include education positions on their websites. And the two GOP heavyweights who have garnered the best reviews from education reformers on both sides of the aisle …

More on Head Start

I’ve received quite a few responses to last week’s print column about Head Start. In the next print edition, you’ll see responses from HHS Secretary Katherine Sibelius and others defending the program–even though none dispute the results of the HHS study, which shows it doesn’t work. Some individuals vehemently defend the Head Start …

Obama Defends His Record on Gas Prices, Budget Talks and Libya

President Obama today rejected GOP criticisms that he has not done enough to address the rising price of oil and that his Administration had helped cause the spike by limiting domestic oil and gas production.

“Last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003,” Obama told reporters in a wide-ranging press …

Democratic Lawmakers Boycott Anti-Union Bill As Protests Escalate

Shelly Moore, 37, has taught English and drama at Ellsworth High School, in a rural patch of northwest Wisconsin, for 13 years. Her base salary is $49,000. She’s unmarried and without kids, so in addition to her regular classes, she teaches AP literature, directs a fall musical and a spring play, and coaches the school speech team. Those …

Dogs, Homework and New Jersey’s $400 Million Mistake

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has been promoted as a model of effective Republican governance, has been faced this week with a clerical error that prevented New Jersey from being in the running for a Race to the Top grant of $400 million. The governor had initially defended his education commissioner Bret Schundler, saying that …

Who is Joe Miller?

The buzz this week is about a 43-year-old Fairbanks lawyer who seems to have knocked Senator Lisa Murkowski out of the Alaskan Republican primary for U.S. Senate. So, who is Joe Miller? Right now, he’s not talking to journalists, so it’s hard to tell but here’s what I’ve managed to gather about him:

The bearded self-described …

RE: Rangel’s Rant

Thanks to TIME’s Katy Steinmetz, a rough transcript of Rep. Charlie Rangel’s speech on the floor today:

The Speaker Pro Tempore: For what purpose does the gentleman from New York seek recognition? The house will be in order. Members will take their seats. The house will be in order. Members will please clear the aisles. The chair is …

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