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Friday, January 25, 2013

Lewis Reed questions Francis Slay's 'Democratic values' : Stltoday

Lewis Reed questions Francis Slay's 'Democratic values' : Stltoday


"When Slay continues to take Republican money and deploy tactics used by corporations to quash union drives and other forms of employee organizing, one has to question how much he holds our core Democratic values," Reed said. "This is the exact kind of unethical tactics in which my administration will refuse to participate. The voters of St. Louis deserve better."  
Slay has received about $100,000 combined from Republican donors Sam Fox and Rex Sinquefield. "


Friday, January 18, 2013

Parent trigger is not the answer - St. Louis American: Community News

Parent trigger is not the answer - St. Louis American: Community News: It is disappointing that Senator-Elect Jamilah Nasheed wants to bring the parent trigger law to Missouri.  It is interesting that she did not …

Monday, January 7, 2013

More on TFA: Save our Schools or Build a Resume?

New York Times, Deal Book:


Deferring Six Figures on Wall Street for Teacher’s Salary

New Book on St Louis School Reform Politics, by Peter Downs

Just out, December 2012: 

Schoolhouse Shams: Myths and Misinformation in School Reform, has just been published by Rowman & Littlefield Education 
by Peter Downs, former President, St Louis School Board

From the publisher's website:
"Written by a parent and school board member, who first embraced many of the ideas of the modern school reform movement, Schoolhouse Shams lays bare much of the mythology and misinformation that underpin many of the failed school reform policies of the last decade. Many of the top strategies of the highly publicized school reform movement already have been tried out in St. Louis with disastrous results. Along with demonstrating the failure of school reform prescriptions to improve education, the experience of St. Louis demonstrates that the ideological premise of the reform movement, that a focus on providing opportunities for private profit-taking will necessarily improve schools, is both wrong and conflicts with the ideals of democracy, accountability, and justice."

"Peter Downs has written a provocative, informative, and timely book about school reform in St. Louis. Its lessons apply to many cities undergoing similar reforms today." Diane Ravitch, research professor in education at New York University, Brown Chair in Education Policy at Brookings Institution, and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System.