A New Wave of Pro-Public-School Organizing
Right-wing efforts to undermine public schools are designed to shock the public into permanently lowering our expectations for what public schools can be. Those efforts may be backfiring.
37 Articles by: Nora De La Cour
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Nora De La Cour writes about education and has worked in public schools in a variety of roles.
We Can’t Win the School Culture Wars
Flash-in-the-pan school controversies distract us from the Right’s long-standing aim: destroying public education itself. To preserve this audacious experiment in democracy, we must bridge cultural and ideological divisions to find common ground.
Blaming Low Wages on Bad Schooling Is a Neoliberal Myth
For the past 40 years, privately funded interest groups and lawmakers have promoted the idea that US schools are failing and causing economic dysfunction. The story provides cover for the real culprits of inequality: wealth-hoarding bosses.
State Legislatures Are Waging War on Public Schools
A new report ranks US states in terms of how well their legislatures are protecting public schools and the students who attend them. From expanding charters to launching illiberal attacks on kids and families, a worrying number of states failed the test.
North Carolina School Privatizers Are Subverting Democracy
Across the US, right-wing state legislatures have disregarded popular will to enact costly school privatization plans. In North Carolina, they flouted democracy to advance their agenda.
North Carolina’s Legislature Wants to Destroy Public Schools
North Carolina’s voucher plan diverts vast amounts of public money to private schools, many of which provide substandard education and engage in open discrimination. Weakening public schools in the process, the scheme violates the universal right to education.
Religious Charter Schools Undermine the Foundations of Public Education
A church-run charter school is on track to open in Oklahoma — publicly funded but run by the archdiocese. The arrival of religious charter schools is one more piece of evidence that public charter schools are not so public after all.
Texas’s Governor Is Trying to Destroy Public Education — and Dim Those Friday Night Lights
Texas governor Greg Abbott is on a crusade against public education. But even rural Republicans aren’t going along with his privatization scheme, recognizing the threat it poses to youth education, adult employment, and Texas’s beloved football teams.
Public Schools Have Been Made to Answer for Capitalism’s Crimes
Unwilling to disrupt the economic system that created mass inequality, liberals invested schools with magical powers to fix a broken society. When public schools failed to clean up capitalism’s mess, they ended up on the chopping block.
It’s Long Past Time to End the Tyranny of High-Stakes Testing in Public Education
When we sort children into “proficient” and “failing” categories based on test scores, we’re not solving the opportunity gaps that show up in public education — we’re just creating new ones.
Every Child Has the Right to a Free School Meal
When schools offer universal free meals, hungry kids eat. They also have better academic performance, behavior, attendance, and psychosocial functioning. These benefits should be available to all — with no questions asked, and no such thing as lunch debt.
From Meager Pay to Malnutrition, School Cafeterias Are in Crisis
School meal programs across the US are in disarray due to major staffing shortages and exploitative business practices, and kids are shouldering the burden. We can’t fix the nationwide cafeteria crisis without making life sustainable for the “lunch ladies.”
Neoliberal Education Reform Paved the Way for Right-Wing “Classical Education”
The “classical education” concept promoted by Ron DeSantis, Chris Rufo, and Hillsdale College is a reactionary far-right project. But it wouldn’t be gaining so much ground if bipartisan education reform hadn’t sucked the life out of our public schools.
This Potential SCOTUS Case Could Change the Course of US Charter Schools
A North Carolina charter school that receives 95% of its funding from public sources is forcing girls to wear skirts. If the Supreme Court hears the case, it could determine if constitutional protections governing public education apply to charter schools.
Ron DeSantis’s Crusade Against “Wokeness” in Public Schools Isn’t Popular
Despite what major news outlets say, Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s attack on public schools is not the driving force behind his popularity. His recent success can be chalked up to a GOP-led voter registration effort and record-breaking campaign funds.
Teachers Are Burned Out. Unions Can Help Them Understand Why — and That They’re Not Alone.
It’s an incredibly difficult time to be a public school teacher. Collective action can help teachers realize that their problems are caused by systemic issues, not individual failings, and that the solutions require acting together.
The Results Are In: Americans Love Public Schools
The Right has long pushed a narrative that parents are ready to turn away from public schools. But in this week’s midterms, voters in several states approved ballot measures that increase school funding.
Neoliberal Education Reform Is Killing Public Schools — and It’s on the Ballot Nationwide
New research finds that market-style education reforms, like those pioneered in Wisconsin decades ago, have devastating consequences for students. This election, Wisconsin and the rest of the nation must choose whether to plow ahead or reverse course.
Teachers Don’t Need Improved Self-Care Techniques. They Need a Raise.
Compared to similarly educated peers in the workforce, teachers earn 76 cents on the dollar. Bubble baths and mindfulness apps can’t make up for the systematic denial of life-sustaining wages.
Secular Schooling Is Critical to a Functioning Democracy
The US education system is being desecularized as public money floods into private religious schools. This mix of religious conservatism and free-market fundamentalism threatens to unravel public education.