Scandal squad
Dallas has hit a rough patch. After their 13-3 season, the Cowboys' pitiable exit from the NFL playoffs has left the city despondent. And then there are Dallas's schools, which are so plagued by corruption that the district has created a 15-person investigative office just to crack down on such malfeasance.
How's your drink?
The market's ability to improve school quality has faced growing skepticism lately (see below). And now this.
Endorsements aren't everything
Mike AntonucciDon't get me wrong. Mike Petrilli's much-needed analysis of teacher characteristics ("Why teachers like Mike") is on the mark. Teachers' political preferences reflect the make-up of their workforce (mostly white, middle-aged females).
Enough
Sol Stern no longer walks hand-in-hand with the invisible hand. In an article in the Winter 2008 City Journal, he reconsiders his once staunch belief that educational choice will cure ailing public-school systems.
It's not just the economy, stupid
Conventional wisdom tells us that the U.S. economy demands gobs more workers with bachelor's degrees. Veteran analyst and all-around-smart-guy Paul Barton thinks that this conventional wisdom is wrong and that the demand for college graduates is overstated.
What if I do janitorial overtime?
As a veteran teacher in Georgia, a non-union state, I see Mike Petrilli's latest article ("Older teachers for Clinton, younger teachers for Obama?") has hit on one of the big facts about teacher salaries, unions, and retirement: they're all based on the fact that most young teachers won't make it.
Winds of change from Wyoming
It's official. Wyoming is adequate--or at least it adequately funds its public schools. The Cowboy State's Supreme Court ruled last week that the state's method of paying school districts is constitutional, thus putting an end to 14 years of judicial oversight of how primary-secondary education in Wyoming is financed.