One of the funniest and sharpest commentators on the follies and madness of contemporary education policy is EduShyster, known to friends and family as Jennifer Berkshire.
Jennifer is launching a podcast, which she calls “Have You Heard?”
Her first podcast is about the opt-out movement in Philadelphia. She is a great interviewer, and her podcasts will help to spread the word about the good and terrible things happening in education today.
She travels the country in search of stories, and she will be interviewing some of the leading figures in education from different ends of the ideological spectrum, asking tough questions.
Add EduShyster’s podcast to your reading and listening routine.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a great idea!
Not that I have any business suggesting topics to someone already so in touch with what needs to be said, but just in case… Here’s another great “Have you heard” topic:
The latest letter from the New York State Education Department:
Click to access changes2016grades3-8ela-math-tests.pdf
I urge all in the state of New York to read the letter. So many questions begging to be asked. (What exactly is an “un-timed” State test???)
Are these the kinds of “genuine breakthroughs” our NYSUT union leaders are insisting we applaud and support?
Wow.
(and thanks Ms. Berkshire. I look forward to hearing your podcasts!)
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I love this podcast! I hope teacher educators will make sure their students listen and talk with them about parents’ perspectives on testing and opting out.
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This inaugural broadcast is essential listening and foreshadows more insightful broadcasts to come.
Progressives need to use these tactics to broaden the perspectives of school boards, superintendents, politicians and activists who too often follow a prescribed company line. What Jennifer has accomplished here is to demonstrate how coalitions can be built with intelligence.
We are always asking how suburban and urban, black, white and other minority interests can be best served as we struggle against corporatism that co-opts all our children.
Listen to this podcast and consider contributing some donation to further reportage from this team.
We all benefit from this kind of journalism. It might lead others to imitate it.
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It’s important for parents to have access to this podcast. They are the ones that have to decide if they want to subject their children to endless testing and experimentation. Parents also are unlikely to hear anything negative about charters on mainstream media outlets.
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How many of these stories of charter expansion do we have to read to acknowledge that, clearly, the numerous failures of the charter model are not making one lick of difference.
We can report ad nauseam about charter failure. Those failures can be part of the public record. It doesn’t matter. The reformers/privatizers and their politicians are, in no way, off put by those reports. Doesn’t seem like much of the public is either.
Our side thinks that if we could just prove the failures of the reform agenda and charters, etc., then obviously the reform movement will somehow say “oh wow, we were so wrong! You can have your schools back now!” No.
This isn’t a debate. It doesn’t matter that we are right on like every level.
The charters keep expanding. The reformers keep up their reforms. It’s not about being right. It’s about privatizing the commons. We need to understand this and realize that we need to, at some point, get in front of this machine in real, tangible ways. Being right and opting out helps, but that’s far from enough of what’s called for here.
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Whoops. Posted that totally on the wrong thread. Sorry.
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