Ah, here we go: the reaction we predicted yesterday to Governor Paterson's suggestion that budget cuts might be headed our way is here.

Randi Weingarten, head of New York City’s public school teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, warned that cutting financing midyear threatened chaos for districts that have already budgeted for the current school year.

“When you do something midyear, you destabilize the entire school system,” Ms. Weingarten said. “Budget cuts next year are bad enough. But at least you’ve planned for them.”

Because no matter how horrendous our schools are, no matter how dire the budget outlook, the correct answer is always this: spend more money on teachers salaries. So, have the attack ads been cut yet?

The motives and methods of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Schools Chancellor Joel Klein on education issues are mysterious to me. In Tuesday's NY Post, Katheryn Wylde, the head of the NYC Partnership wrote an intensely swiftboatish personal attack on Educational Historian and frequent Bloomberg critic Diane Ravitch. You should read it yourself, but the gist is that Ravitch is a flip-flopper. In my view the article comes out of the Rove playbook and is remarkably un-nuanced -- it's deceptive about the facts

As it transpires, the real attacker of Ms. Ravitch was Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education; Ms. Wylde only their tool. The NY Sun's education reporter Elizabeth Green reveals that the "content" of Ms.Wylde's attack on Ms Ravitch was actually concocted at tax-payer expense at the Tweed Courthouse. What are these guys, thinking, drinking?  read more »

If you, as I do, worry about the quality of public education, hang out with public school teachers or have a child in school, you’ve probably given a thought to the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” an odd, ground-breaking statute which resulted from an alliance between President Bush and Senator Kennedy. (text, regulations & USDOE guidence here .) It’s brought vast increases in standardized testing to our nation’s schools, caused vast uproar among educators, parents and other “stakeholders” (standardized test vendors, prep course crammers and textbook publishers).

It’s up for renewal and /or major modification. One of my education heroes, Jonathan Kozol, on booktour with Letters to A Young Teacher, reports he has spent time talking with Democratic Senators about proposed revisions and says he thinks the renewed statute may more properly focus educational efforts away from standardized testing as the sole benchmark of student and school success. (Kozol was on WNYC last week – hear him here .

Wednesday, August 29, 2007, Rep George Miller (D.Calif), House education chair, floated the first Congressional proposals for revision of No Child Left Behind. The Education Week story is here (free registration required, sorry),  read more »