They Hate Me, They Really Really Hate Me!

Kevin Carey, of the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector, didn't have the decency to defame me by name when he attacked the cover story, School Wars, I wrote for the current issue of Good Magazine.

It's ironic to be accused of "policy juvenalia" in a blog oh so cleverly entitled "Bad Magazine."

In a time when smart people of good faith occupy both sides of many heated and complex education debates, it makes sense occasionally to pause, take a deep breath, and denounce things like the incoherent mishmash of policy juvenalia, useless sentiment, and blatant lies found in this article, published by GOOD Magazine, in which we are told that NCLB "requires all of the nation’s schoolchildren to be above the mean on standardized tests," Bill Gates and Eli Broad are spearheading the corporate conspiracy to privatize K-12 education, and standardized tests come with instructions about what to do if students throw up on them. It's sort of a perfect distillation of woolly-minded HuffPost-type conventional education wisdom, and in that sense is oddly valuable, because you can read it and know everything that a not-inconsequential percentage of people know (or rather, don't know) about education.

It's not "useless sentiment" to care about children.

Ever since President Bush told me to "use the Google," I have found it to be an indispensable tool for learning all sorts of interesting things. One thing I learned when I clicked on the "Who We Are" link on the Education Sector web site was that the "independent" and "innovative" Education Sector is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Eli Broad.

It is awfully refreshing to see such "independent" and "innovative" analysts strenuously defending their sugar daddies. It's kind of sweet.

For the record, my article was carefully fact-checked by Good Magazine. In fact, a good deal of my juiciest stuff about Eli Broad was left on the cutting-room floor. Stay tuned, keep reading and don't forget to follow the money!

Web 2.Cola

Extend your PBD (personal beverage democracy) and order bottles of Cola featuring your favorite Presidential candidate. Now, thanks to the wisdom of the crowds, you - lonely blogger, can also be a candidate for POTUS, if only virtually via soda bottles.


The web truly does change everything in revolutionary ways.

Give me liberty or give me root beer
- Lawrence Lessig

On the Cover of the Rolling Stone

Well, sort of... Good Magazine

Teachers Can't Be Trusted to Use Google or Email an Attachment

But this is perfectly fine?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/15/texas-school-district-to_n_119282.html

Sent from my iPhone

My First Cover Story of a Magazine Sold at Newsstands!

I'm really honored that the article I wrote, School Wars, is the cover story for the September/October issue of Good Magazine.

While they edited out a good number of my jokes and a bunch of stuff about Eli Broad, I am thrilled to have been asked to write such a large and unconventional article for a lifestyle magazine. After ten years of writing for trade magazines and the web, I think this makes me an actual journalist! (My dues is paid up too)

While you can certainly read the article online here, I suggest you find a copy of Good at a local newsstand, bookstore or Whole Foods so you can see the provocative art they used to enhance my article. Plus, you can have me autograph the issue the next time you see me :-)

It's also not such a bad idea to buy the issue in order to send the message that you wish to read thoughtful pieces about education in the mainstream media. It takes a pretty gutsy magazine to pay me to question the motives of Bill Gates and Eli Broad.

Petty & Pathetic Show of Disrespect and Tact

I realize that many of my fellow Americans are racists and that Barack Obama's poll numbers drop anytime "race" is an issue. One pundit joked (half-heartedly) that Senator Obama will be disavowing Nelson Mandela by November.

Here's another fine example of how the presumptive Democratic nominee is bending over backwards to avoid being associated with the previous generations' civil rights leadership. Congressman Charles Rangel, the highest-ranking Democrat in Congress is being kept off the Democratic National Convention program because he supported Senator Clinton's bid for the nomination.

The Obama campaign is denying House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel a speaking role at this month's Democratic National Convention - a move those close to the powerhouse Harlem congressman view as a spiteful snub... But they were told that the 78-year-old congressman's support for Clinton earned him a place at the end of the line behind Barack Obama's loyalists - even if Rangel played a crucial part in prodding Clinton to abandon her presidential bid in June.

This snub supports my concern regarding Obama's tactical ability after he wins the Presidency. Does he have relations with the powerful Congressional leaders required to make "change?" You would think that the guy responsible for tax policy would be a good friend to have.
Read the entire story here.

Irony?

Read the rest of the article here...