No

ALEC’s Schoolhouse Rock

Indiana Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett was the darling of the education reform movement. In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Bennett and Governor Mitch Daniels created the country’s largest school voucher program, enacted rigid teacher evaluation requirements, and imposed school grading systems, in many cases using “model legislation” from their friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Wisconsin’s Voucher Vultures

Scott Jensen began his career shilling for corporations at the Wisconsin state capitol as a lobbyist for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in the 1980s. He was then hired by the Republican Assembly Caucus as staff director and within a few years moved into the position of chief of staff for then-Governor Tommy Thompson. After a couple of years, he ran for public office himself and served as an Assembly representative for fourteen years, including as the speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly for some of that time.

All About the Benjamins

A retired hedge fund billionaire says that it’s time for teachers to stop living so large. Let’s face it, reader. Most teachers go into the teaching biz for one reason and one reason only: the money. And the only reason they continue to show up, day after day, year after year, is to collect the golden parachutes, otherwise known as pensions, that will make their golden years literally golden. But is there anyone brave enough to look these fat cats in the eye? Meet billionaire and 38-year-old retiree John Arnold who is on a quest to rescue the nation from large-living teachers and at last put students first.

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Tall tale signs

Thanks to the generosity of billionaires with names like Gates and Walton, not to mention a growing roster of hedge fund managers, the US is now home to an astonishing number of so-called education reform groups. But beneath the grandiose claims of standing for excellence and putting children and students first—not to mention the ubiquitous images of high achieving minority youngsters—lies a surprisingly lucrative agenda. Scratch the surface and you’ll find a whole lot of green behind the education reform movement—and it’s not grassroots.

Mother Crusader

Never intended to become a parent advocate until I watched the great schools in my little town come under attack. The more I learned about what was happening the more I read. The more I read the more I saw how what is happening here is tied to towns across not only New Jersey, but the country. And now I'm in the thick of it, and I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

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UNO Charter Schools

Tennessee Using SAT-10 In 85 Percent of K-2 Classrooms for Teacher Evaluation Purposes

That’s right–high stakes testing is not just for kids who can read and count anymore. Commissioner (M. Rhee’s ex) Huffman is leading an effort to make sure that children in 117 of its 137 districts are provided funding to fully test before the onset of literacy. Had Huffman ever had a course in child development during law school, he would know that he is beginning testing during a volatile developmental window that varies so much that such testing has been deemed, for scientific and humane reasons, so much psychometric confetti in the past.

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