Campbell Brown, Founder of the 74 Million. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The 74 Million is a non-profit, non-partisan news site, launched by Campbell Brown, that covers education in America and the crises facing the public education system. The site, named for the 74 million children in America, features reporting that exposes corruption and inequality and highlights positive changes to American schools.
Recently, the 74 had an uplifting profile of Kriner Cash, the new “superintendent receiver” trying to affect positive change for failing schools in Buffalo, New York. The new law that appointed Cash to this role gives him “unprecedented powers” – including bypassing the teachers contract – “to fix five ‘persistently failing’ schools in Buffalo, among 20 such schools across the state of New York.”
Cash faces some significant obstacles. The teachers union in Buffalo is unhappy about the new law and about Cash’s aggressive proposed reforms, and the city struggles with racial division, especially on the school board, and a history of segregated schools. But Dr. Cash is dedicated to his “New Education Bargain” plan to revamp the system, and has a track record as one of the nation’s leaders in assessing teacher performance. Read the full story here, and comment to share your experiences with your own public school system, if relevant. What are the biggest challenges and pitfalls of the education system in your community? What reforms would you like to see instituted?
Be sure to check out The Policy Circle’s brief on K – 12 Education Reform.