The number of states that have added an option to allow some or all of the funds for K-12 education in public schools to follow the children appears to be causing issues with....teachers unions. In the following article from The Washington Examiner they spell out some of the efforts and tactics teachers unions are going to try and stop "choice" Voters in Nebraska are likely to weigh in on the state's school choice program after a group submitted more than 100,000 signatures last week, seeking to force a ballot referendum. The effort seeks to repeal a state law passed this year that established a $25 million tax credit program for donors who give money to a scholarship fund that … [Read more...]
‘Equity’ in Education: Equal Opportunity or Equal Outcome?
This article does a good job explaining why "equity" and "equality" are two completely different terms in K-12 education. The article also goes on to describe the damage focusing on equity causes. The original article can be found at: The American Spectator K-12 public education nationwide is fixated on the term “equity.” It has been added to many public school mission statements and core values, but the positive-sounding term means something more — and something more destructive — than providing equal opportunity for students. Identifying and labeling students based on their socioeconomic and ethnic or race group dominates the education conversation, with group academic … [Read more...]
Are you happy with what your children learn in school?
Today we share an article published at the Pew Research Center written by JULIANA MENASCE HOROWITZ The article discusses parents views of what should and should not be taught in schools and comes to the conclusion that while unhappy most parents won't rock the boat. Saying that, the number of students being removed from public schools continues to accelerate so their conclusions may not be totally accurate. Give the article a read either at the original site or by reading below...then...share your thoughts. Note: The full article is REALLY long so grab something to drink and plan on spending 10-15 minutes reading and pondering. Parents Differ Sharply by Party Over What Their … [Read more...]
A Kansas public school teacher is suing school officials for requiring her to address students by their preferred names and pronouns
Is the attempt to force use of "pronouns" on our society one of equity or equality or an effort to desexualize children? Why this attempt to remove a sense of gender? Today's article comes to us from The Conservative Review and Samuel Mangold-Lenett. A public school teacher in Kansas is suing the principal of her school, the district’s superintendent, and members of the school board after being suspended for not using a student’s preferred name. Pamela Ricard taught math at Fort Riley Middle School. She says that she refused to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender and nonbinary students because it violates her religious beliefs, CNN reported. After being … [Read more...]
Equity and Equality in K-12 education?
We hear the terms equity and equality being used ad nauseam. Is there really a difference between the two terms and if so what are they? How is "equity" being used as a tool of change and does it make sense or is it more political and a power grab? Today we delve into equity and equality in K-12 education. Update: As we get ready to go to press here's an article from New York on gifted children programs being phased out due to...equity concerns...how far will this go? https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/10/08/new-york-city-has-run-out-of-gifted-and-talented-students-n1522585 Let's start off with some definitions: What does equity in education mean? Equity in … [Read more...]
Deepfake teachers & technology: the future of K-12 public education?
Ready to glimpse the future of K-12 public education? Put your walking shoes on and check your skepticism at the door and enter the looking glass with me... The future of K-12 public education is...Deepfake teachers. First what the heck is "deepfake"? Definition: "an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said" "Deepfake (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") is a technique for human image synthesis based on artificial intelligence(A.I). It is used to combine and superimpose (Photoshop/Edit) existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a … [Read more...]
Per Pupil Expenditures (PPE) – the true cost of K-12 education in Washington State
There is a national organization called NCES – National Center for Education Statistics (https://nces.ed.gov) that tracks education data across the United States. They have a recommended method for identifying the true cost of K-12 education...and the State of Washington (OSPI) does NOT conform to that recommended standard. Specifically, NCES says there are four (4) cost factors in determining what the true cost of educating a student in public schools is: State contributions to a school district Local levy funds Local capital bonds Debt service costs Washington State (OSPI) only includes state contributions and local levies. They ignore capital bond and … [Read more...]
Virtual Teachers: The future of K-12 education
Covid has led a number of school districts and states to move to an on-line "virtual learning" environment. In this model the students do NOT go to school physically. Instead they stay at home and use a computer and internet access to be a member of a "virtual classroom". Teachers can see the students and the students can see the teacher. Lessons and tests are done on-line. Depending on the school district, students may attend daily or several times a week for period ranging up to 2-3 hours. This starts to mimic other on-line learning sources that have been in place for a number of years (We have shared two articles you may want to review: https://swweducation.org?p=6453 and … [Read more...]
Re-imagining K-12 education
K-12 education has become a quagmire of social, emotional, health, nutrition, gender and other focuses such that the core of education has faded into the background. A number of demands come from Federal and State government entities; some come from special interest groups and others are local decisions. It’s time to strip everything away from education as we currently know it and rebuild from the ground up. The focus should be on helping students learn what they need to live in tomorrows world and to fulfill their interests and develop skills and knowledge that will make them productive, confident and happy people. This doesn’t mean producing robots who are programed. This doesn’t mean … [Read more...]
History of K-12 education in America
Today we bring you a snapshot of the history of K-12 education in America. Why? We realized that for the hundreds of articles we have shared they must have a base to have meaning. So, your reading pleasure we offer the following. Our source for this? An article published at Wise Geek on Nov 18, 2019. The K-12 education system is the public education system that most people are familiar with today. Comprised of 13 grades, kindergarten through 12th, it refers to the public school system in all of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and parts of Europe as well. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact history of education, as it has been occurring in some form for centuries in … [Read more...]
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