A Chicago Blog

Eric Zorn reminds us that the latest Meeks stunt was years in the making.

One of the reasons public education is such a mess in this country is lack of clear ownership. Ownership produces accountability. But who owns the public schools? Well … the public, I suppose. But how can the public be held responsible for failure and besides, what incentive does the public have to hold itself accountable? [...]

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune reported that thousands in state grants, funnelled through the Illinois State Board of Education, were going to questionable organizations.
In a church on Chicago’s West Side, two homeless children fiddled aimlessly on unplugged computers, awaiting their “tutor.”
Another church sat darkened and padlocked during after-school hours even though it was presented as a [...]

So I’ve been experimenting with this powerful web product called Caspio. It allows a novice user to create interactive databases without any programming knowledge. Some database familiarity is still required, but over all, this product tremendously simplifies the process of putting data online. I haven’t found their pricing info yet. Let’s hope it isn’t too [...]

I just found out, they don’t allow my twelve year old niece to run during recess. They don’t want any accidents. They do allow them to walk fast.

While we’re on education today, I want to comment briefly on the absurd column by Alice Armstrong in the State Journal Register yesterday. In her column, Alice criticizes Collin Hitt (Disclaimer: I’ve co-written several articles with Collin) for allegedly “oversimplifying” the issue when he suggested that Illinois’ charter schools have been successful and that it’s [...]

Let’s see, get arrested on charges of racketeering because you took $150k from a booster for steering a talented player to the University of Alabama. Lose your teaching license. Get convicted and sentenced for time served. Do god knows what for a couple years. Get your teaching certification reinstated?
Yep, sounds like the American public education [...]

A fellow blogivist alerts us to a breaking development in Georgia. The State Senate has approved a tuition tax credit scholarship program (read the full bill). The bill now just needs to be signed by the Governor, Sonny Perdue. Perdue signed a special-needs voucher program last year, so there is every reason to expect he’ll [...]