RHEE - VOLUTION

"Education should be about the students. Their needs should come before the demands of special interests and big bureaucracies. Students First will work on behalf of the children, not the adults."

-- Michelle Rhee


Former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee has launched a nonpartisan group that she says will advocate for reform of the sort that was applauded in the documentary Waiting for Superman. With an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and a column in Newsweek magazine, Rhee announced the creation of Students First, a 501(c)4 group that will value students above all else. Rhee estimates her revolution will require a billion dollars.

Learn more: www.studentsfirst.org

Initiative on Latino Education

President Obama signed an executive order Tuesday intended to boost Hispanic education achievement.
The measure is intended to widen the scope of a long-standing White House initiative on Latino education by increasing partnerships with the private sector and soliciting more input from the community. The objective is to focus on the educational challenges faced by the Hispanic community in order to increase enrollment and outcomes.
"This is not just a Latino problem. This is an American problem. We've got to solve it," the president said. "Because if we allow these trends to continue, it won't just be one community that falls behind. We will all fall behind together."

America's Education Moment

With the White House pushing its Race to the Top initiative, and Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for "Superman" sparking a national conversation about our public schools, America is having an Education Moment.

As a result Huffington Post has established an important new education section to their website: HuffPost Education. Guggenheim's "take action" site is also worth a look.

Waiting for "Superman"

Davis Guggenheim discusses the motive behind making his heavily debated new documentary.

Valued Families

What is a family?

Almost everyone in the nation can agree on the meaning of the word "family," but there is wide disagreement about who qualifies under that definition.

Who is a family?

The US Census Bureau definition of family is quite simple: "A family is a group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together."

Different folks, however, have very different ideas.

University of Indiana sociologist, Brian Powell, conducted three surveys over seven years that charted what Americans were willing to define as a family unit. A recent Time Magazine article reviews the results:

Currently, 68% of Americans count a same-sex couple with children as a family, up from 54% in 2003. Clearly the kids have something to do with it -- just 33% of people see a same-sex couple sans children as a family. Some 30% of respondents were willing to group pets into their menage, but not the same-sex couples.

Remarking on the findings, Powell told the Associated Press: "The sheer idea that gay couples are given less status than pets should give us pause."

AD and Subtract

Commercial advertising has always been forbidden by Minneapolis Public Schools. However, due to recent budget short-falls, things have changed.

Schools in Rosemount - Apple Valley - Eagan will likely begin selling advertising space on their websites this Fall. Although contrary to long-standing policy, district leaders have modified the rules in an effort to make money.

Anoka - Hennepin has similarly adjusted some rules and is considering website ads.

Desperate for dollars, districts all over the nation are abandoning policy and letting advertisers into their schools. The latest trend? Billboards on the sides of school buses.

(The "golden arches" paid the $1,600 cost of printing
Seminole County, Florida report cards -- in exchange
for a restaurant meal coupon on the report's cover.)

Advertising in and around an educational setting is obviously a disastrous idea.

For one thing, the school is essentially endorsing whatever products are being hawked. Also, ads directed at children tend to be for unhealthy snacks, fast food and trendy movies with product tie-ins to toys.

Ultimately, commercial advertising in our schools amounts to the exploitation of vulnerable, impressionable, young people. Children are daily inundated with advertising from a multitude of sources -- much of it insidiously manipulative and filled with sexist and racist images.

Instead of piling on, educators should strive to limit such influences during school.

"Students, if you're thirsty after

class . . . try an ice cold COKE!"