Education

NEA-RI logo overshadows South Kingstown schools logo

The NEA suing Nicole Solas to stop records releases has a few intriguing possibilities.

By Justin Katz | August 9, 2021 |

William Jacobson is on to something when he suggests, on Legal Insurrection, that the National Education Association of Rhode Island’s lawsuit to stop release of public records in Rhode Island “smells collusive”: Whether there was “collusion” in the sense of active cooperation or not, I can imagine a scenario in which there is no real dispute…

An old, rusty chain

CRT education is preparation to unite us all in chains.

By Justin Katz | August 5, 2021 |

This portion of Ramona Bessinger’s experience with the shift toward critical race theory (CRT) in Providence Public Schools may be the most fundamental to danger the ideology actually represents: What saddened me most was that I would not be teaching the Holocaust any longer. The Holocaust unit included one of the following: either Anne Frank,…

The Providence teacher contract estimate should be 144% higher than stated.

By Justin Katz | August 4, 2021 |

It’s a positive thing that state law requires municipalities and school districts to provide cost estimates for the contracts they’re about to approve (even if they tend to issue them when it’s pretty much a done deal), and it’s good that the state hasn’t tried to slip through a transparency loophole in negotiating its contract…

Richard August and Ramona Bessinger

State of the State: Critical Race Theory in Public Schools

By Richard August | August 3, 2021 |

The state takeover of Providence public schools injected critical race theory into the school system, and Middle School Teacher Ramona Bessinger says it’s undermining the school community.

A blurry streetscape

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Incompetent Optics

By Justin Katz | August 2, 2021 |

John and Justin talk about several ways in which Rhode Island’s political elite is trying to control how things appear (and what sort of politics the people are permitted to have).

Elorza confronts McKee

McKee’s classic union ploy with the Providence teacher contract isn’t progress; it’s an 11%-plus pay goose.

By Justin Katz | July 29, 2021 |

Or at least it’s only progress from the perspective of government insiders for whom a comfy working relationship is the only real goal.  Unfortunately, that’s the perspective that tends to set the tone for news coverage and public discussion. Tweeting about his first-to-go-live Boston Globe report on the deal, Dan McGowan used that very word,…

Dan McKee gets vaccinated

How Science Should Inform Masking and Distancing Decisions

By Justin Katz | July 28, 2021 |

McKee has announced a “recommendation” to mask children in school, but he should remember that science is only a process for limiting (but not eliminating) human error in observations and analysis.

Goya Attended by Doctor

Are colleges beginning to train a generation of anti-science doctors?

By Justin Katz | July 28, 2021 |

Local news media has taken an obvious turn in the past few years, and at least part of the explanation appears to be a new generation of journalists who simply don’t believe in objective reporting — or at least they do believe that some social “truths” around identity are just so clear that it isn’t…

A dog in the circus

Politics This Week with John DePetro: The Governing Circus

By Justin Katz | July 26, 2021 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about the politics of the day, with things that should be easy proving difficult and things that would have to be difficult being passed off as easy.

"Injustice Won't Be Postponed" sign

Turning students into trend-following activists is not evidence of civics “proficiency.”

By Justin Katz | July 23, 2021 |

The headline over Alexa Gagosz’s Boston Globe article is misleading: “Civics proficiency now a requirement for all Rhode Island public school graduates.” Just look: … this new law does not necessarily require that students take a separate civics course or civics exam. Instead, individual school districts will determine how their students can “demonstrate proficiency” because according…