Recommended weekend listening: an influential Idaho business group has harsh words about the voucher mania that's sweeping red states: *As we roll this out, it is going to become the biggest scam in American history* Latest Have You Heard on.soundcloud.com/RA1ocx4yXQPcAi…

Funny. I wrote basically the same piece some time ago: washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sh…

Check out the article of the month from History of Education Quarterly, free to access until the end of May at ☑️ cup.org/4bk6phu
#twitterstorians #HistEd
HEQ&A

And for a historical perspective on schools’ efforts to improve attendance, check out this Tyack and Berkowitz piece: jstor.org/stable/pdf/271…

“The Man Nobody Liked: Toward A Social History of the Truant Officer, 1840-1940”

Very relevant to attendance initiatives today:

For a historical perspective on school attendance, check out this History of Education Quarterly blog by Carole Shammas. 8-12 weeks of schooling was the norm in early America.
cambridge.org/core/blog/2023…

File under: 'There is nothing new under the sun.'

'The most disturbing finding is that more than a third (35%) of [NYC] high school students fall into the category of chronically absent. More than a quarter of these students, or 10% of the total, miss school more than 50 days a semester.'

1983, folks.

You have to respect the fact that they included this caveat from me in their school ratings. Such warnings should be standard.

“Will we allow a great university to be brought to its knees by a noisy dissident minority? Will we meet their neurotic vulgarities with vacillation and weakness?”

That's Ronald Reagan in 1966, running for governor of California and leveraging campus unrest for political gain.

In the latest episode of Have You Heard, we look at why voucher schemes have hit a snag in Idaho (and what that means for grassroots resistance efforts):
soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpo…

New Have You Heard Vouchers flamed out in Idaho this legislative session. One big reason: business leaders were strongly opposed, warning that vouchers would blow up the state budget & undermine Idaho's public schools on.soundcloud.com/RA1ocx4yXQPcAi…

“[Demonising students in the 1960s] was politically brilliant, even if disastrous for students. I was surprised it has taken so long for the Republican Party to nationalise that approach, but that’s what we’re seeing here.” – Jack Schneider Jack Schneider
timeshighereducation.com/depth/gaza-pro…

'Berkshire [Jennifer Berkshire] and Schneider [Jack Schneider] do a fabulous job highlighting hypocrisy . . . It’s an invaluable primer on what’s motivating the public education culture wars.'-Publishers Weekly's 🌟 STARRED 🌟 review of THE EDUCATION WARS! ow.ly/z5Yh50RmEw3

Why are campus protests such big news right now? Because the Republican Party remembers a lesson taught by Reagan and Nixon:

Legislators pushing vouchers have not only subverted state constitutions but the people’s will: “73% of participants [nationally] said funds should go to public schools,” not private schools. Even a majority of higher income republicans oppose vouchers. 1/ edsurge.com/news/2024-04-2…

Gitlin and Margonis (1995): 'Teachers have for over one and one-half centuries been subjected to reform efforts that bounded their authority and intensified their work.'

So much school reform fails because it is additive in nature.

For everything you add, you have to take something away. Equilibrium is the key.

But that isn't how reform tends to work. It just adds and adds and adds.

No wonder it mostly slides off into the gutter of history.

I love this line, from a 1995 study: 'Some teachers openly showed their disdain for the reform process by engaging in other activities, such as marking papers or, in one instance, polishing bowling shoes for the entire meeting.'