While it may have been a quiet holiday for most of us, the Illinois state legislature was busy readying a vote to reduce pensions for teachers and state employees, as a way to address the under-funding of the pension system. Of course, no one seems to talk about the legislature’s habit of skipping required payments […]

Watching the news lately? Seeing/hearing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yell at a teacher  and say all teachers want is more money? NJ school spending has increased, he argues. She then writes to him on a blog, “You have portrayed us as greedy, lazy, money-draining public servants that do nothing. I invite you to come […]

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’ve been writing fewer posts lately. The reason: I’ve been a little busy leading a team to organize a TEDx talks event. TEDxWellsStreetED on Teacher Voice is coming Sept 28 in Chicago. Our theme: “Exploring Teacher Voice Beyond the Classroom.” Our purpose: This event will feature a wide range of speakers […]

So the blogger Eduwonk has noticed that more teacher voices are making themselves heard — through advocacy groups like Educators 4 Excellence. You or I might not agree with all of the stands that they take, but these are teachers speaking up, 7500 in all, in Los Angeles, Minnesota, and New York. They form teams […]

On May 4, 2013, Barnard College hosted a conference titled, Reclaiming the Conversation on Education at which a series of outspoken educators (and one outspoken student!) addressed the concerns that policies, funding, and testing are undermining effective teaching and learning in schools. Groups and events like this are developing with greater and greater frequency, now. […]

More and more voices are urging teachers to project their voices into the public debates on education. We hope teachers hear them and are encouraged to speak out, so permit us to connect you with several good discussions. First, I took part in a Google Hangout panel on this topic Wed. night, June 19th. You […]

Education and poverty add up to a social justice issue . That’s why I keep writing these posts and urging more teachers to speak up. Increases in U.S. childhood poverty by 4.5 million over 11 years are unconscionable, as the numbers are showing. Can education help? Studies by the Chicago Consortium on School Research show […]

New York Times writer Charles Blow outlined in an Aug. 24th column how the U.S. is failing to support education, and the coming consequences for our country (click on the link here or on the “Be Informed” page on this site). Teachers need to speak up not just for themselves and their jobs, and not […]