THE KING STAY THE KING
The reform-minded John King is leaving his current post as New York’s Education Commissioner in order to accept a position in the Department of Education. While his tenure in the state has received plaudits from some in the pro-charter movement, King’s departure is sure to please union officials who called for his resignation last spring. He’s also the latest in a series of reformers to leave top spots in their states, as Fordham’s own Andy Smarick observed today.
SNOW JOB
In a unanimous vote, state Board of Education officials in West Virginia approved a trial plan to introduce more flexible instructional time in a select number of schools. Selected schools will still be required to have 180 school days, but the schools will be able to choose how long each school day is and employ out-of-classroom teaching, such as online learning, on a snow day. At the time of this writing, there was no news yet on whether the state’s children had threatened to hold their breath until they turned blue in protest.
BUT WHEN WILL KETCHUP REJOIN ITS VEGETABLE BROTHERS?
Outraging first ladies and delighting children across the land, Congress has included compromise elements in the much-debated Omnibus Appropriations Bill that will allow schools to back away from including whole grains in their meals, as well as slow-walk the adoption of stricter sodium restrictions until 2017. That means that the world remains safe for cafeteria french fries and cardboard-tasting pizza—for now.
LONG READ OF THE WEEK
Jonathan Zimmerman surveys three new books on teaching by Dana Goldstein, Elizabeth Green, and Garret Keizer in the pages of the irreplaceable New York Review of Books. “Who becomes a teacher in America?” he asks. “The answer keeps changing, and not in ways that should make any of us proud.”
