Education

Flier for the Zinn Education Project day of action

As usual, the Left scandalizes on the Right what the Left is actually doing.

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2021 |

For a week or so, the big political scandal in Rhode Island involved government officials, journalists, and a talk radio host questioning whether South Kingstown mother Nicole Solas was in league with some national organization on the issue of Critical Race Theory (CRT).  The evidence suggests that she was not, but look how differently left-wing…

South Kingstown bond mailer

A Start to Fixing South Kingstown Schools’ Misbehavior

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2021 |

Revelations about the source of student information for a political mailer in South Kingstown give hints of the statewide machine taxpayers have to resist.

Students graduating from college.

Even things like “legacy admissions” to college can have unexplored benefits.

By Justin Katz | June 14, 2021 |

News that Colorado has become “the first state to ban ‘legacy admissions’ for higher education,” as the headline on an Epoch Times article by Isabel Van Brugen puts it, might justifiably inspire ambivalence: Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill (pdf) that puts an end to public higher education officials giving preference to candidates with familial relationships…

Jennifer Bergevine's email to students

Barrington High School shows how “project-based civics” makes students left-wing activists.

By Justin Katz | June 14, 2021 |

Parents Defending Education has released the Barrington school department’s response to its Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request concerning some teachers’ encouraging students to testify on a bill that seeks to ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Rhode Island schools: It appears from the documents that the administration was completely unaware both that students…

A white student looks away

An education lesson from Australia suggests two ways to improve a lot and quickly.

By Justin Katz | June 10, 2021 |

The headline from an Australia-focused article in The Epoch Times, by Rebecca Zhu, carries a lesson: “Increased School Funding Does Not Lead to Better Performance: Education Minister.”  Here’s the evidence Zhu provides: Over the last 10 years, the UK has cut spending, while achieving better results in reading, maths, and science. “In the past decade, the…

NEA-RI logo overshadows South Kingstown schools logo

It appears that NEA-RI is stalking South Kingstown.

By Justin Katz | June 9, 2021 |

Most people who pay attention to these sorts of things know that the South Kingstown school department has the dubious distinction of having as one of its governing school committee members, Sarah Markey,  an actual organizer from the National Education Association of Rhode Island (NEA-RI), which is the state-level union representing the district’s teachers.  That…

A shush post at VisionLab

When Journalists Deride Requests for Public Access in Government

By Justin Katz | June 8, 2021 |

With their ideological bias, Rhode Island journalists don’t see themselves as aligned with those seeking public accountability regardless of worldview, but with the powerful seeking to impose their worldview on the powerless.

Colors in a bubble

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Blowing Progressive Bubbles in RI

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2021 |

This week, John and Justin discuss how Rhode Island media, politicians, and officials trip themselves and others up because they see the world from within bubbles.

Nicole Solas on Fox & Friends

Nicole Solas only seems suspect from within Tara Granahan’s media bubble.

By Justin Katz | June 7, 2021 |

For twenty minutes of your time, Tara Granahan’s WPRO interview with the South Kingstown mother whom the local school committee nearly sued to stop her from seeking information about their ideological curriculum provides a short lesson in how Rhode Island insiders think. PODCAST: The @TaraGranahan interview with Nicole Solas that everyone is talking about: https://t.co/ci0kpITtTG…

Angelica Infante-Green

The education commissioner should go after the teachers unions for the right reasons.

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2021 |

I’m with Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green in believing that negotiating teacher contracts should be a professional endeavor of well-meaning parties and that professional union organizers prevent that from being the case when they aren’t getting their way.  Indeed, from the early months after her arrival in the state, I’ve been saying Infante-Green was…