I want to thank “Izzy” again for his comments to the last post in this series. I recommend to those of you who are following this series that you read that comment thread between Izzy and me to help understand in more depth some of what I will be discussing throughout the remainder of this [...]
Texas Education V: Language skill is the basic component of a “Knowledge-Based” Curriculum
October 1, 2012 By
Texas Education IV: A Case Study in the Failure of a Method-Based Curriculum
August 27, 2012 By
I want to thank “Izzy,” who is a frequent commentator on the posts here on Big Jolly Politics, for his very creative comment to my last post, because it helped crystalize for me how I need to start this discussion about reforming our curriculum and our classrooms—very carefully. You see, one reason reform efforts over [...]
Texas Education III: National Policy is not the Answer to the Problem in our Classrooms
August 24, 2012 By
During the Carter Administration, Congress created the Department of Education. Many conservatives denounced this move as federal usurpation of a power left to state and local governments, and Ronald Reagan advocated abolishing the agency. His position of antipathy toward federal involvement in public education has been, more or less, the Republican Party’s official position ever [...]
Schools trim few teachers following Texas state budget cuts, sky not falling just yet
February 20, 2012 By
Few teachers actually laid off in Texas. In many cases teachers were re-hired. In at least one case, a district reported having more teachers than it had before the state budget cuts. On a warm Saturday last March before a rally of more than 10,000 people on the south steps of the Texas Capitol, John [...]
What is the Fundamental Purpose of Our Public Universities?
April 16, 2011 By
I want to congratulate our Republican legislators in both Austin and Washington, who have started the long process of addressing our fiscal problems. What they’ve passed so far is not perfect, nor everything that many of us wanted, but it has been a good and needed first step. In fact, the federal budget plan passed [...]
Texans not very outraged about cuts
March 16, 2011 By
That was the message that politicians should have received from the lame attempt at a protest yesterday afternoon in front of Houston’s City Hall. I’ll be generous and guess that there were around 400 “protesters” attending the rally, warning politicians not to cut spending. Of course, you can’t have a protest without a counter protest [...]
Houston ISD Tax Dollars At Work: Paying For National Rifle Association Memberships?
March 15, 2011 By
Yesterday’s search of Houston ISD’s check register was by vendor names beginning with the letter “N”. The point of highlighting this expenditure is not to emphasize the amount, but to highlight the arrogance and blatant disregard for prioritizing common sense spending of tax dollars by the public sector. From another search of HISD’s check register (click [...]
Texas Legislature should use part of Rainy Day Fund
March 14, 2011 By
Uh, oh, there I go being all liberal again. That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? It’s okay, I’m used to it and I promise it doesn’t bother me a bit. Because if you think that, chances are you do not understand the Texas budget and/or the Economic Stabilization Fund. So before you start jabbering, hear [...]
