by David Safier Great idea from the Goldwater Institute: cut teachers — only the bad ones — and add their students to the good teachers' classes. No, I'm not kidding. From Fool's Gold's Matthew Ladner: Research shows, however, that students would be much better off if schools did let their most ineffective teachers go, and redistributed the … Read more
by David Safier It's going to be interesting — far too weak a word, but the only one that comes to mind — to see how the reaction to the proposed budget cuts build over the next few days (From what I hear, the Republicans plan to have their budget finalized by the end of … Read more
by David Safier Interesting conversation with Bill Gates from NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Most of the column deals with Gates' commitment to fighting third world poverty and disease — good, hopeful stuff — but toward the end, Gates talks about his continuing efforts to improve education in this country. What I like about Gates … Read more
by David Safier Federal employees have been writing to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo the past few days about their first impressions of the new people in charge. The reviews have been positive to glowing. Here's one from the Department of Ed about the new Secretary, Arne Duncan. It says nothing about substance but … Read more
by David Safier Information is beginning to trickle in about the nature of federal bailout money that could go to states. For me, the most important passage of this article is, states won't get federal money to replace dollars they cut: Some portions of the package may not provide a net increase to Arizona if … Read more