I know this sounds a little weird, but I think I’m experiencing a bad case of deja vu. The topics of three posts I wrote last week all re-emerged this Friday morning:

1. On Monday the 15th I noted that the school spending transparency debate had returned to the State Capitol. While Senate Bill 91 here was killed, I see that our neighbors to the Southwest – Arizona – are giving serious consideration to a bill that would bring detailed spending transparency to public school agencies and all other governments.
2. On Wednesday the 17th I highlighted our new podcast with Harrison superintendent Mike Miles about his district’s groundbreaking performance-based teacher pay program. Today the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) posted their interview with Miles about the very same topic in its weekly Teacher Quality Bulletin.
3. Last but not least, on Thursday the 18th I brought your attention to Rick Hess’s new blog and promised to cut back on using the “It’s For the Kid” line. This morning the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci observes that it didn’t take very long for NEA to help make Hess’s argument for him.

Here’s hoping the month of March brings something new. Have a great weekend!

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Look, I’m not perfect. Using the “for the children” argument is something I have resorted to only on a few occasions. I’ve even had fun mocking someone for using the counter-intuitive “blame the children” argument. For a little kid like myself, that’s not a bad record.

But now I’ve got to keep on my toes. The sharp and cynical education policy maven Rick Hess now has his own blog for Education Week, and right out of the gate he’s not pulling punches beating on the “It’s For the Kids” (ITFK) mantra — including letting us all know how silly AFT president Randi Weingarten and former U.S. Department of Education officials sound doing it:

Such variants of the IFTK genus are intended to stifle questions by flaunting moral superiority. Playing the IFTK card ignores the likelihood that no one is eager to leave anybody’s kids behind and the reality that policies entail imperfect choices. By squelching honest dissent, IFTK excuses incoherent policy and practice in the name of moral urgency.

So, here’s a wild idea. Can’t we just presume that everybody cares (or admit that we can’t tell the posers from the real deal) and just argue policies and practices instead?

It’s a good reminder to me, as well. I don’t claim (nor do I aspire) to have nearly the sharp cynical wit that Mr. Hess does. But I promise to try even harder to steer clear of using the “It’s For the Kids” line here at Ed Is Watching — unless it’s in support of begging my parents and other faithful readers to help build my Lego collection.

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You’ve all heard that little girl singing about all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. Well, forget her. All I want for Christmas (and I really, really mean it … no Legos, no Nintendo games, nothing else would matter) is to be nominated for the 2009 Edublog Awards — Best Individual Blog category. Because their rules say I can’t nominate myself, I am dependent on the kindness of strangers.

In shameless hopes of a little reciprocation (hey, I’m 5 years old … what maturity level do you expect?), I will take this opportunity to nominate a few of my favorites:

• Best Individual Blog: Colorado Charters
• Best Group Blog: Jay P. Greene
• Best New Blog: Education Next

Okay, now please hurry up! You only have until next Tuesday, December 8, to nominate me (read the instructions here). I won’t ask for anything else for Christmas … I promise. Well, maybe, except for the Denver Broncos Mr. Potatohead — that would be totally awesome!

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Colorado is a great place to be for families seeking a free online public education. There are 18 different multi-district cyberschools in the state, in addition to single-district and other supplemental online programs.

Over the past several months I’ve introduced you to insights on the transformative power of online education through a podcast interview with Dr. Terry Moe, and helped give you a better glimpse of this fast-growing type of education with local cyberschool leaders and with Colorado’s Online Elementary Teacher of the Year.

Now you can hear the perspective of those who matter the most: some of the students. Sean, Shannon and Ashlyn Cooney have been enrolled in the Colorado Virtual Academy (COVA) (the state’s largest online charter school) for several years now. Click the play button below to listen to them talk about what cyberschool life is like on an iVoices podcast with my Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno: Continue Reading »

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If you aren’t a regular reader of Mike Antonucci’s Education Intelligence Agency (EIA), you don’t know what you’re missing. Mr. Antonucci is one of the best national experts on teachers unions, has a very keen perspective on the significance of issues in unions and education politics, and breaks many stories with his vast network of (mostly anonymous) sources.

That’s why when he took a break from his online reporting and commentary for nine or 10 days a little earlier this month, I was suffering from a mild case of withdrawal. But EIA’s Intercepts blog is back, with two new pieces I commend to your reading enjoyment and enlightenment:

• “NEA & ACORN: The Details” (adding more depth to an issue my Education Policy Center friends covered recently on our Independent Teachers site)
• How the two national teachers unions now face the equivalent of a political “electric chair” in their education policy discussions with a Democratic presidential administration … big stuff

EIA is back with a bang. Happy Monday!

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Who doesn’t like carnivals? I’m thinking about the carousels, moonwalks, ferris wheels, and the cool prizes — don’t forget the hot dogs, popcorn, and funnel cakes!

Okay, now that I’ve whet your appetite and got you nostalgic for childhood, what I really wanted to bring your attention to is the new weekly Carnival of Education Innovation — as explained by Dave Saba, the first host and guy who got it going:

It’s basically a collection of links to recent blog posts on a particular subject. People can come browse the links as a sort of one-stop-shop for all that’s happening in education innovation that week—a “best of the week” so to speak, taking place each Tuesday.

This blog carnival has started out small, with only six participants — including yours truly. I far and away won the prize for the youngest carnival contributor with my post on dead people receiving health insurance benefits from Detroit Public Schools.

Six participants isn’t enough. Let’s keep this thing growing. Submit your blog entries, and encourage others you know writing about education innovation to join in. Thanks to Joanne Jacobs for bringing attention to the carnival!

The idea of the blog carnival is to rotate hosting among the different members. I’m hoping that Ed Is Watching will get its turn soon. Please stay tuned, and come join in the fun!

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For some reason, these days all the big people are talking a lot more about health care than education. Hey, I’m not a huge fan of going to the doctor or going to school. But at least at school, you’ve got some of your friends around you. And learning can be fun, too (but don’t tell my friends I said that).

Anyway, my other friends in the Education Policy Center provide one overlooked example of how the two issues overlap with this post on the Independent Teachers blog:

If you were a full-time member of the National Education Association (NEA) through joining your local teachers union, then you sent money during the 2007-08 school year to support the current proposal from Congress and President Obama to promote socialized medicine.

According to the latest disclosure report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, NEA gave $500,000 in 2007-08 to the group Health Care for America Now, a 501c4 political organization that is backing President Obama’s health care plan. (It is likely that NEA has made further contributions to this group since 2007-08, since NEA is listed as being a member of the HCAN steering committee.)

Wow, you think the union could at least bother to ask first. No luck, though. I happen to know of another group that represents Colorado teachers that doesn’t take sides on the health care debate and costs considerably less to join: the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE).

Maybe the union leaders change their minds on the issue if they watched this cool new animated health reform video made by my friends at the Independence Institute.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled edublogging now.

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The major publication National Journal has convened a group of “Education Experts” to answer major policy questions on a new blog. Their inaugural question is about the “magical money tree”:

Given the bleak budgetary outlook for many states, should stimulus funds be primarily devoted to staving off education cuts, or should the administration focus on leveraging the money to drive its reform agenda?

Some key quips I like so far…. Continue Reading »

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Every student in Colorado deserves to have a top-notch teacher in the classroom — especially those kids who are “at-risk” because of poverty and related issues.

We shouldn’t put unnecessary obstacles in the way of getting skilled and caring new teachers licensed and ready to go. Instead, we should be looking for high-quality alternative programs that serve the needs of those college-educated adults who want to change careers without going back to get an education degree. We need more content experts, especially in math and science, who have a firm footing in the basics of pedagogy and classroom management.

This year Colorado passed Senate Bill 160 (PDF). By giving the state board of education greater flexibility to approve alternative licensure programs, this new law may enable the recruitment and preparation of more highly-qualified teachers to help fill needs in Colorado schools.

This week David Saba, president of the American Board for Certification of Teaching Excellence (ABCTE), talked more about these issues on an iVoices podcast, which you can listen to by clicking the play button below:

Continue Reading »

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I’m 5 years old. Generally speaking, I like puppets and think they’re pretty cool. Recently learning that Kermit the Frog himself was a puppet (or muppet, you know what I mean) only increased my respect for him. But when heavily-funded teachers unions use other groups as puppets to oppose education reforms like choice and accountability — reforms that help kids like me, but especially kids in more dire straits — that’s a different story.

Case #1: Thanks to the hard work of the Education Intelligence Agency’s intrepid Mike Antonucci, we learn that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the group Republicans Opposing Voucher Efforts (ROVE). The company that registered the ROVE website is run by a former high-level National Education Association (NEA) staffer. As Greg Forster notes, it “sure looks a whole lot like it has the NEA’s arm sticking out the bottom”. Continue Reading »

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