Peter Greene reports on how the Koch Network is getting into the substack game with an ed reform newsletter. Here’s more:
The Koch Network is getting with the times and launching an edu-reform substack. Yay.
The substack is co-hosted by Lisa Snell, director of K-12 education policy for Stand Together, aka the Charles Koch Institute. Previously she spent 23 years as Director of Education at the Reason Foundation. Her co-host is Adam Peshek, who is part of the same Kochtopus, having arrived Jeb Bush's ExcelinEd (formerly FEE). Peshek also works at Yes, Every Kid, a rebranding of some standard reform ideas.
Their new platform is called "Learning Everywhere," and so far, they're playing all the hits. "Time to scrap the factory approach to education" is the first... issue? ...post? What are we going to call these substack things? The subheading is "Individualization, not standardization, empowers learners to thrive," which kind of captures one of the odd whiplashes in the reform movement; I'm betting that while he was at ExcelinEd, Peshek spent a lot of time advocating for the Common Core standards, the one-size-fits-all standardization that Jeb Bush backed right into a conservative buzzsaw. But standardization is no longer where it's at.
Tennessee’s Aggressive Advancement of Charters
First, there’s this story about how Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is using discretionary, “emergency” funding to rapidly expand the number of charter schools in the state, including into five districts which currently do not have any charter schools. I wonder if all the rural and suburban voters who backed Lee were planning on seeing their districts charterized without any say in the matter.
On Friday afternoon before Mother’s Day weekend and just after the Tennessee General Assembly had adjourned, the Tennessee Department of Education announced 15 grants for charter school applicants – including grants for charter applications in several districts that do not currently authorize any charter schools – Rutherford County, Montgomery County, Millington Municipal, Fayette County, and Williamson County. The grants would allow applicants to plan and design their applications, and the applicants could ultimately bypass local school districts and receive charter authorization from Gov. Lee’s “Super Charter Commission.” The grants could also result in usurping the authority of elected school boards in Shelby, Hamilton, and Davidson counties.
Then, there’s this little nugget tucked into a speech given by Florida’s Commissioner of Education and reported on Accountabaloney:
Dr. Arnn was talking about Tennessee asking for 100 Barney Initiative Charter Schools, that’s a game changer, once you have that and the governor leaves… and its a liberal that comes in, you can’t put the animals back in the barn.
And there’s this on the Barney Initiative:
Hillsdale College is a small private Christian college in Michigan which is considered to be one of the most conservative in the country. Part of Hillsdale College’s mission involves advancing the establishment of Classical Charter schools through its Barney Charter School Initiative. Such schools vow to provide public school children “instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue.” Richard Corcoran’s wife founded a Barney Charter School Initiative Charter and Hillsdale College was intimately involved in the embedding of Civics education into the writing of Florida’s new B.E.S.T. standards.
Silencing Teachers Who Tell the Truth
Chalkbeat has a story on Tennessee legislation that would prevent teachers from teaching in any way that is perceived to promote “critical race theory.”
Legal scholars are questioning whether a recently passed bill that seeks to restrict Tennessee educators’ teachings about race and racism will pass legal muster given past precedent, including one case that dates back 50 years.
The GOP-backed measure, which passed in the Tennessee House and Senate among partisan lines, would penalize school districts if teachers tie past and present events to white privilege, institutional racism, and unconscious bias.
Meanwhile, a group of parents in Williamson County is making a stand for diversity and inclusion.
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