It is time to care about the education of other people’s children. Other people’s children are or will be our neighbors. Other people’s children – from almost anywhere in the United States and beyond – could end up as our coworkers. Other people’s children are tomorrow’s potential voters. How, what, and with whom they learn […]
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Trump’s Education Budget: Cruel And Unusual Punishment
President Trump’s budget proposal violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The crime it punishes is not being wealthy, healthy and deserving of tax cuts. Budgets are values statements. Trump’s first full education budget proposal is no exception. Its $9.2 Billion or 13.6% cut in the spending level approved by the already spendthrift […]
The Passover Principle
Year-after-year at my family’s secular Seder, we follow the Jewish custom of retelling the ancient story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt. Because we are not religious, our tale is that of the struggles of many different peoples’ for freedom from bondage and oppression at their own hands, rather than by deliverance by God. […]
Don’t Be April Fooled: Public is Better
It’s April Fools Day, which reminds me: Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos want us to think that private schools are better, not just for rich folks like them, but for everyone else too– Just like with Paul Ryan and health care. Don’t be fooled. It is a ruse. Public is better! Growing up, I knew […]
Isolation and Segregation Make Us Stupid. Integration and Belonging Make Us Smart
Mr. Casey, my high school English teacher, was fond of proclaiming,“From suffering alone comes wisdom.” There seems to be plenty of suffering around, but wisdom seems insufficiently distributed to protect our nation from the alarming triple threats to our democracy from escalating authoritarianism, inequality and divisiveness. I wonder: What is it that turns the banality of […]
The Winning Democratic Alternative to Privatization in Education
Democrats need to provide a winning alternative to privatization of America’s public schools. The outpouring of opposition to Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education provides an opening– if Democrats seize the opportunity. Suddenly, education is on the national stage where it should have been during the presidential […]
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