Alexander Russo

BEST OF THE WEEK NBC News: Powerball Windfall? Schools Don’t Always Benefit From Lottery Sales http://ow.ly/X7lPv Sun-Times: Chicago Teachers Union allies benefit from newly enriched union foundation http://ow.ly/X7m1I Politico: Conservative group nears big payoff in Supreme Court case http://ow.ly/X7nxZ WNYC: Cuomo Strikes a Different Tone on Education This Year http://ow.ly/X7mXY KPLU: A ‘No-Nonsense’ Classroom Where Teachers Don’t Say […]

Teachers’ Unions Get Cold Reception at U.S. Supreme Court https://t.co/TuXAEvBSH0 #schoollaw — Mark Walsh (@SchoolLawBlog) January 11, 2016 Mark Walsh is the only journalist that I know of who focuses on education-related Supreme Court cases, though his writing at EdWeek (@SchoolLawBlog)and on SCOTUSblog. So it was great to get Walsh’s take on the big Supreme Court case […]

Fact-Checking Chris Christie on Common Core PK12: Does the exchange in the debate mean the Common Core State Standards are back in the mix as a campaign issue? Maybe. See also Slate. NJ to Consider Eliminating Opt-Out Option For PARCC Standardized TestNew Brunswick Today: Students in New Jersey might no longer have the option to opt out of […]

Map of 183 KIPP schools across the nation. Click here for details. Eleven years ago, KIPP was on Oprah. Four years later, the network was the subject of a book written by the same guy who wrote about Jaime Escalante (of “Stand and Deliver” fame). Since then, the charter school network — perhaps the best-recognized […]

Cuomo Strikes a Different Tone on Education This Year WNYC: The Cuomo who presented his new budget on Wednesday sounded very different. He conceded a shift was necessary after roughly 20 percent of students opted out of the state math and reading tests in grades 3 through 8 this spring. Beyond the change in rhetoric, Cuomo’s […]

No, this isn’t how EdSource Today’s John Fensterwald covers California education news. It’s pretty easy to miss EdSource Today, the California-based education news outlet. They don’t have a big social media presence. Their pieces aren’t usually accompanied by interactive graphics or other fun visuals. There aren’t any publishing partnerships with big commercial outlets.  And — […]

Obama: I Will Keep Fighting for Preschool and College Access PK12: President Barack Obama used his very last State of the Union address to press for action on unfinished pieces of his agenda—including universal prekindergarten and offering two years of free community college to most students. See also Washington Post. The President Wants Every Student To Learn […]

Screengrab of recent Mother Jones story about the new federal education law. Looking at the headline for this recent Mother Jones story — “There’s a Way to Help Inner-City Schools. Obama’s New Education Law Isn’t It.” — a reader might be understandably confused about whose view was being expressed.   Is it an in-house editorial position, or […]

Detroit Public School Teachers Protest WNYC: Earley called the “sickout” in Detroit yesterday an action by a minority of public school teachers, saying it “served no purpose other than to harm and disrupt the efforts intended for those who cannot afford to lose instruction time, social building time, and time in the classrooms.” See also Washington Post. Could Lottery […]

Today’s high-profile consideration of the Friedrichs case against mandatory union fees is a great opportunity to think about media coverage of the Supreme Court and school law issues in general. So far as I’ve seen, much of the coverage has focused on the complex legal issues and precedents, the conservative support for the Friedrichs complaint […]