Comments on: Business Week busts the Gateses http://www.edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Maisie http://www.edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses/comment-page-1#comment-7041 Maisie Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:44:13 +0000 http://edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses#comment-7041 Mike Klonsky saw this post and quoted part of it on his own blog (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6z6IhP08cqXp9kfshYQPv87gCfJyFg--?cq=1&p=611), but complained that I didn't raise the burning issue of special ed. He's so right. A glaring issue with the new small schools is that they serve very few special ed kids and justify this by saying it's too hard to do for a startup school. Yo, it's hard everywhere and that's why there's federal and state legislation that says you have to. Why should Klein/Gates get a pass? I attended a small schools conference that Mike Klonsky organized in Chicago in 1989 and I'm still referring to what I learned there. It was awesome. Thanks for setting me straight, Mike. Mike Klonsky saw this post and quoted part of it on his own blog (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6z6IhP08cqXp9kfshYQPv87gCfJyFg–?cq=1&p=611), but complained that I didn’t raise the burning issue of special ed. He’s so right. A glaring issue with the new small schools is that they serve very few special ed kids and justify this by saying it’s too hard to do for a startup school. Yo, it’s hard everywhere and that’s why there’s federal and state legislation that says you have to. Why should Klein/Gates get a pass? I attended a small schools conference that Mike Klonsky organized in Chicago in 1989 and I’m still referring to what I learned there. It was awesome. Thanks for setting me straight, Mike.

]]> By: Maisie http://www.edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses/comment-page-1#comment-7035 Maisie Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:14:10 +0000 http://edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses#comment-7035 Chaz--I think you are in baby/bathwater territory here. Many small schools do just fine by their students and staff. The UFT has been a supporter of small schools and the Task Force made very clear that it was the hasty creation of too many such schools that was the problem, not small schools themselves. Going to the media to complain? Sorry, but that's naive, and a losing strategy. The media mostly plays the UFT/DOE story as a mud-wrestling match. We have a nuanced story to tell here--we support small schools but demand they have real educational expertise behind them. Want to try to write that headline for the NY Post? Chaz–I think you are in baby/bathwater territory here. Many small schools do just fine by their students and staff. The UFT has been a supporter of small schools and the Task Force made very clear that it was the hasty creation of too many such schools that was the problem, not small schools themselves. Going to the media to complain? Sorry, but that’s naive, and a losing strategy. The media mostly plays the UFT/DOE story as a mud-wrestling match. We have a nuanced story to tell here–we support small schools but demand they have real educational expertise behind them. Want to try to write that headline for the NY Post?

]]> By: Chaz http://www.edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses/comment-page-1#comment-7015 Chaz Sun, 25 Jun 2006 17:30:59 +0000 http://edwize.org/business-week-busts-the-gateses#comment-7015 Maisie; I agree with you on the small schools. Unless you screen the students as DOE tries to do, they are no better than the large schools they replace. In fact, the poor administration and inexperienced teachers of these schools make many of them worse! Now the real issue. When is the UFT going to the media to complain about it? I'm not holding my breath. Maisie;

I agree with you on the small schools. Unless you screen the students as DOE tries to do, they are no better than the large schools they replace. In fact, the poor administration and inexperienced teachers of these schools make many of them worse!

Now the real issue. When is the UFT going to the media to complain about it? I’m not holding my breath.

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