Listen to Ashley Mitchel talk about charter schools and pre-K on C-Span.  Matt Barnum goes deep on evidence and ESSA plans. Derrell Bradford on the complicated history of public schools that doesn’t lend itself to some of today’s shibboleths:

Our relationship with public institutions — and schools in particular — is only in balance when the individual can wield equivalent force against them. Achieving a state of balance with the nation’s public schools rests not in the constant altruistic acquiescence to them, but the strategic self-interested defiance of them. And as a culture whose debate with public institutions is currently colored by protest and the desire to exit at every level, this dynamic isn’t just obvious, it’s critical.

There is a lot going on in this Malcolm Gladwell interview – some of which pertains to education.  Well worth reading.

Naomi Schaefer Riley pushes back hard on Christopher Emdin. Features John McWhorter and Checker Finn. It’s like the 90s all over again!

Charter school groups are speaking out against the Trump budget (which isn’t very good in my view either). It’s a smart political move, the Trump Administration didn’t do charter schools any favors by making them about the only winner in a budget proposal that creates a lot of losers. And now is the time for coalition politics around education spending levels. But, at the risk of being cynical, I’ve watched and/or worked on federal budget politics for years and have never seen anyone turn down federal money simply because someone else wasn’t getting it. So this kind of signaling is great during the budget process, but when we get to actual appropriations, well that’s where the action is. Also, anyone who thinks this move will help with teachers union politics by buying some goodwill just hasn’t been paying attention.

Alaska kid wins big competition in New York City.