Michigan State University, state partner to study competency-based education

Michigan State University researchers will help the state develop a new student-centered approach to learning with nearly $1.5 million in private grant funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Seven Michigan school districts are piloting competency-based education, or CBE, programs, which give students individualized support and opportunities to advance based on their own levels of mastery.

READ, SHARE, DISCUSS, LEARN here – https://edwp.educ.msu.edu/news/2019/msu-state-partner-to-study-competency-based-education/

Bill & Melinda Gates Don’t Discuss Their Takeover of America’s Public Schools

by Nancy Bailey

Bill and Melinda Gates’s 2019 letter “We Didn’t See This Coming,” is filled with their concerns and optimism about everything from commodes to climate change. Always eager to discuss their global initiatives to help the poor, and a variety of other endeavors, they say little about the aggressive ways they are remaking public education to their […]

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY March 8, 1971: FBI’s COINTELPRO Exposed

#tdih 1971, a cab driver, a day care director, and two professors broke into an FBI office in Media, Penn., and stole more than 1,000 classified documents that they mailed anonymously to U.S. papers. The documents revealed the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program—COINTELPRO. The FBI conducted surveillance, infiltration, discreditation, and the disruption of domestic political organizations—including actions that led to murder.

Learn more on the link below and access the free lesson to bring this history to the classroom. https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/cointelpro-exposed

DeVos’s New Tuition Tax Credit Voucher Proposal Is Dead on Arrival in Congress

janresseger

Even if you believe public schools are among America’s most important public institutions, you have to give Betsy DeVos credit. She is perfectly consistent and doggedly persistent. Last week she proposed a new $5 billion federal tuition tax credit neo-voucher program.  She is determined to privatize the public schools; fortunately she doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

For the NY Times, Erica Green describes DeVos’s pitch: “She called it a ‘bold’ proposal that gives ‘hundreds of thousands of students across the country the power to find the right fit for their education… The biggest winners will be America’s forgotten children, who will finally have choices previously available only for the rich, the powerful and the well-connected.'”

So… what is Betsy proposing in 2919?  The Washington Post‘s Laura Meckler explains: “The proposal would authorize a 100 percent credit for contributions to any state-sanctioned scholarship fund, meaning donors could…

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Groups renew lobbying push to protect ‘Dreamers’ ahead of House vote

From Amazon to the Koch brothers, a wide range of groups are united in support of legislation to protect Dreamers as the House braces for the DREAM Act’s re-introduction next week.
Read more about their efforts here

 

Major League Baseball is almost back, but it never left Capitol Hill

With Opening Day fast approaching, baseball fans are counting down the days until the season begins. Perhaps the only thing more American than baseball is its government, and the two have a long relationship. Learn about it here

 

Carly Fiorina’s PAC is still spending money — on Uber rides, furniture and hair styling

It’s been nearly three years since she was the shortest-lived vice presidential candidate in history, but a hybrid PAC made in support of Carly Fiorina is alive and well – spending $784,782 in the 2018 cycle. Read more

Interest groups lobby for and against Democrats’ HR1 ahead of Friday House vote

On Friday, the House will vote on H.R. 1 or the “For the People Act,” a massive overhaul of transparency, campaign finance and lobbying rules. The 571-page bill, backed by Democrats, tackles a variety of issues from requiring “dark money” groups to release their donors and presidents to release their tax returns to tightening FARA registration to making Election Day a federal holiday. Like any major legislative effort, this one has attracted a number of groups to lobby on its behalf.

As the House prepares to vote on H.R. 1, a group of 71 predominantly liberal groups are working to convince lawmakers to support the measure. Notable names backing the legislation include End Citizens United Action Fund, the Center for American Progress and Planned Parenthood.

The package includes legislation to establish automatic voter registration, the creation of an independent redistricting commission, legislation restricting the use of straw companies for donations, and stricter rules on super PAC-candidate coordination, among many other new proposals.

READ, SHARE, DISCUSS, LEARN – 

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/interest-groups-lobby-for-democrats-hr1-ahead-of-friday-house-vote/