Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill Thinks So « Larry Miller's Blog

Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill Thinks So « Larry Miller's Blog

Can Teachers Alone Overcome Poverty? Steven Brill Thinks So

by millerlf

By Dana Goldstein | The Nation – Wed, Aug 10, 2011 Steven Brill, the journalist and media entrepreneur, has come a long way since he helicoptered onto the education beat in 2009. That’s when The New Yorker published Brill’s exposé of the New York City “rubber rooms,” where the Department of Education parked the one-twentieth of 1 percent of the city’s 80,000 public school teachers—about forty people—who had been accused of gross negligence and removed from the classroom. As they awaited the due process hearings guaranteed in their union contracts, rubber room teachers received full pay and benefits, sometimes for up to three years. The article sparked outrage among readers, who were appalled that millions of tax dollars were spent annually paying the salaries and arbitrating the cases of teachers who came to work inebriated or practiced corporal punishment. Despite the fact that the Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers shared

New Del. law toughens scrutiny of charter schools

by millerlf

August 19, 2011 AP

DOVER, Del.—Board members at Delaware’s charter schools will have to undergo criminal background and child abuse registry checks under a bill being signed into law by Gov. Jack Markell. The bill Markell is signing Friday also prohibits individuals who have felony convictions or convictions for a crime against a child from serving on a charter school board.

Charter school board members also will be required to disclose any financial interest they may have in the