Lessons from the Massachusetts Charter School Expansion Campaign 

Posted on by Jeffrey L "Jeff" Salisbury

In What We Can Learn from the Massachusetts Ballot Question Campaign on Charter School Expansion, University of Massachusetts Boston professor Lawrence Blum discusses lessons from the Massachusetts campaign and its results—lessons that might inform the debate around future pushes for expansion of charter schools and other market-based reforms.

Professor Blum explains that while the charter expansion advocates supporting “Question 2” on the state ballot argued that charters were necessary for equity, the No side countered that charter schools drained resources from the larger public system. These opponents further contended that only by improving the public school system could we ensure that no students are written off and that equity is served. Opposition by the NAACP and influential local black leaders challenged the Yes side’s familiar narrative that black parents overwhelmingly favor charter schools.

Moreover, while charter expansion advocates outspent their opponents, the No side had many more local people involved, as part of an impressive grassroots ground operation, with organizing by teachers and their unions, by parents, and by students. Communications from the No side also successfully connected charter school expansion to “dark money” and to a market-based ideological agenda.

Acknowledging the localized elements of this campaign, it nevertheless holds possible lessons about the fault lines of the charter school debate and about how the public may be willing to respond to the Trump administration’s likely efforts to expand taxpayer support of privately run schools.

Find What We Can Learn from the Massachusetts Ballot Question Campaign on Charter School Expansion, by Lawrence Blum, on the web at: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/ma-charter

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

Source: Lessons from the Massachusetts Charter School Expansion Campaign | National Education Policy Center

Trump in Michigan: Review of fuel economy standards needed because that “extra thimble of fuel” is killing automakers (PHOTOS) | Eclectablog

Posted on by Jeffrey L "Jeff" Salisbury

“There is no more beautiful sight than an American made car,” Pr*sident Trump said while he was in Michigan today, and that’s why he’s “going to fight to keep vehicle production in the United States.”

“During my first week in office I brought automobile industry leaders to the White House,” Trump said. He went on to say that no president had brought them to the Oval Office before, but he did.

This, of course, is rubbish. In fact, President Obama had leaders of all the major automakers at the White House in May of his first term to announce his plan to improve vehicle mileage standards which will save car owners thousands of dollars over the life of a car and reduce pollution dramatically.

Trump was in town today, largely to let the country know that he’s restoring a review of the emission standards put in place by the Obama administration that will raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to an average of 50.8 mpg by 2025 from 35.3 mpg now.

Right before he left office, the…

READ MORE HERE: Trump in Michigan: Review of fuel economy standards needed because that “extra thimble of fuel” is killing automakers (PHOTOS) | Eclectablog