CHEERS
CharterFolk celebrates six years of contributions this week, and Jed Wallace used the occasion to highlight the extraordinary work of charter schools in Paradise, California, where educators weathered the devastating 2018 fires, rebuilt, and expanded schools to serve the community.
JEERS
Last week in The New York Times, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries offered more details on the court cases pitting school districts against social media giants. Much was disappointing if not altogether surprising, but her reporting on how the National PTA solicited money from TikTok and other platforms over the years—taking in eye-popping sums to promote the companies—is especially maddening.
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“What are public-sector unions for, exactly? What problem are they supposed to solve?” So begins Nicholas Bagley in The Atlantic, pointing out how “unions routinely insist on pay packages and work rules that degrade the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.” In schools, unions lead to a reliable increase in spending without reliable improvements in student outcomes—and they are stronger in blue states, on average, than red ones.
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a twice-weekly free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation.
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Sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates
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Curated commentary from across the ed-policy world
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Lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback
