Education

A water drop and ripples

Paying your debts is social justice.

By Justin Katz | March 8, 2022 |

Maybe I’m just entering that late-middle-age phase, but it seems to me that younger adults — or all of us, with reference to times that were before our time — too infrequently understand the experience of the past.  Consider this find from Tim Worstall for Accuracy in Media: A new piece from Teen Vogue says that…

A water drop and ripples

Funny how we’ve forgotten why the state took over Providence schools.

By Justin Katz | March 7, 2022 |

It’s depressing to say, but it looks like the anti-reform strategy of the teachers unions and other special interests succeeded.  From the beginning, it was clear that the plan was to delay and obfuscate attempts at correcting the unforgivably terrible performance of Providence schools until the attention of the public moved on. For some reason,…

Richard August, Jim McGwin, and Megan Reilly on State of the State

State of the State: Racism and “The Aaron Thomas Affair”

By Richard August | March 6, 2022 |

Host Richard August and guests Jim McGwin and Megan Reilly focus on two topics of concern involving the North Kingstown School Department.

A skull screams amidst hands

The Cultural Weaponization of Public Education

By Justin Katz | March 1, 2022 |

Concerns that the predominant culture might insinuate itself unnecessarily into everything that schools attempt to do have flipped to the aggressive practice of using schools to deconstruct and destroy the predominant culture behind parents’ backs.

A white student looks away

Is the Met School abusing students with anti-racism indoctrination?

By Justin Katz | February 28, 2022 |

South Kingstown parent advocate Nicole Solas has been, let’s say, having words with Met School special education teacher Emily Bowden.  The back-and-forth is mainly social media snark shooting, so we shouldn’t assume that Bowden’s bombast is evidence of the school’s operation, but she does facilitate an important point that isn’t often made in these arguments.…

An empty classroom

Yes, we have a near-monopoly in education.

By Justin Katz | February 21, 2022 |

The following sentence, concerning the attorney general’s scuttling of a hospital merger deal, from Ted Nesi’s weekend roundup column brought to mind a different industry: Yet in the end, their plans were derailed by a concern raised on day one: how could a hospital group with roughly 80% market share be stopped from abusing its…

A hoodie on a beaten school bus

A healthy state would force money-grubbing special interests out of schools.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

You know you’re dealing with greedy special interests most concerned with maintaining their own position when you read something like this, emphasis added: The plan has the support of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, the Rhode Island School Superintendents’ Association, the National Education Association Rhode Island and the Hassenfeld Institute for…

Child being grabbed by monsters

Of course groomers see parents as the enemy, at Teen Vogue or in schools.

By Justin Katz | February 16, 2022 |

As in a horror story in which some trusted institution becomes possessed by an evil force, something has changed in youth culture and our schools. Youth media has long (always?) fostered doubt about whether parents could really understand what their children were going through (as opposed to glossy magazines, Hollywood, and pop stars).  As the evil…

American flag behind a barred window

Activists can do harm with sledgehammer ideology, especially when schools hire them as if they’re objective analysts.

By Justin Katz | February 14, 2022 |

Watchers of the mainstream narrative may be a little surprised that there hasn’t been much coverage of an incident on February 1 at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence during which a school resource officer (SRO) was caught on video being aggressive with a student.  These incidents are difficult to judge from video clips, and…

An old house next to a graveyard

How can anybody upset with discriminatory housing oppose total school choice?

By Justin Katz | February 10, 2022 |

Judy Schwalbach makes that connection explicit in a report on school choice policies and history in Washington, D.C.: During the 20th century, federally sanctioned housing “redlining” influenced the composition of neighborhoods in large cities across the country, including Washington, D.C. The term “redlining” came from the color-coded maps developed by the Home Owners Loan Corporation…