It was 30 years ago today that the Challenger lifted off from Florida – with New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard as one of the seven astronauts on that mission.
There’s a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake’s, complete.
Peggy Noonan discusses the President’s speech with Carl Cannon here.
For a lot of parents school choice isn’t about ideology, it’s about pragmatism in the face of an inflexible system. Marilyn Rhames:
This is School Choice Week, and undoubtedly there will be blog posts and podcasts championing free-market competition, vouchers for private schools, parents’ rights, yadda, yadda, yadda.
But when I placed my kids in a charter school, I didn’t know much about those arguments. It was all about logistics. I looked specifically for a good school close to my job so I could navigate the kids’ start and end times with more ease.
New Center for American Progress analysis (pdf) on student achievement. Spoiler alert: Probably worse than you thought. I’m always amazed when people argue there isn’t a real problem here (or worse that we’re doing pretty well except for “those” kids). This is a slow motion plane crash.
Today at the French Revolution. Tenure implications from the U of Missouri “muscle” case (and the best footnote you will read today). AP on the status here.
Cami Anderson on charter growth. A lot of her anti-charter critics never understood her nuance on the charter issue (surprise!). Mike Petrilli offers up a school choice typology.
Don’t spend your free college money just yet, WaPo ed board:
Mr. Sanders is a lot like many other politicians. Strong ideological preferences guide his thinking, except when politics does, as it has on gun control. When reality is ideologically or politically inconvenient, he and his campaign talk around it. Mr. Sanders’s success so far does not show that the country is ready for a political revolution. It merely proves that many progressives like being told everything they want to hear.
Steve Barr for Mayor? Virginia transgender bathroom case could be precedent setting. Jefferson Accelerator at UVA partners with Agile Mind. Great interview about teacher effectiveness via AOTH.
Great White sharks are dangerous. Don’t touch.
