Well, this is kind of weird… Ernie Chambers is Nebraska’s only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the “angriest black man in Nebraska.” Ernie Chambers, the only African-American in the [...]

They were told to sell their house and move. Imagine this situation. Two black children, a brother and a sister, enrol at a school which is predominatly white. they are subject to racial slurs and other harrassment. They are threatened and assaulted. In one instance, after the girl is threatened, her white nemesis is forced [...]

I think Rhode Island has made the right move on a faith-based abstinence program. More from The Westerly Sun: PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island education officials have banned from public schools a federally funded abstinence program that civil rights advocates said embraced sexist stereotypes and included a voluntary student health survey that violated privacy laws. Lawyers [...]

That isn’t my proclamation. That’s what an English Archbishop is saying. From the Guardian: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism – the Bible-based account of the origins of the world – should be taught in schools. [...]

A 10 year old read the book Freakonomics and emailed author Steven Levitt with a correction. Needless to say, Levitt posted it on his blog, and since they get far more traffic than we do, I’m reprinting the email in full. From the Freakonomics blog: Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. [...]

The editor of the University of Illinois’ student newspaper has been fired for running the controversial Mohammad cartoons that sparked recent protests and violence throughout the Islamic world. Technically, editor-in-chief Acton Gorton was fired because he did not seek proper advice before running the cartoons. But that just sounds like a dodge by the board [...]

I think smart money management is one of the most valuable things you can teach anyone, period. Why? Well, I’m of the opinion that dysfunctional spending leads to a lot of problems in peoples’ lives that they otherwise would have avoided. And sure, people can be retaught when they’re older, but I wish that early [...]

The New Editor rounds up just the tip of the iceberg of the failure of America’s woeful public school systems to actually educate. And it’s one iceberg that isn’t shrinking: A survey by ACT college testing service found “only 51 percent of students showed they were ready to handle the reading requirements of a typical [...]

You don’t eliminate programs called “Teacher Quality Enhancement“: Partnership Grants for Improving Teacher Preparation provide funds to partnerships among teacher preparation institutions, schools of arts and sciences, and local school districts in high-need areas. The partners work to strengthen teacher education through activities such as: implementing reforms that hold teacher education programs accountable, improving prospective [...]

Spanish kids aren’t allowed to speak Spanish in school, and yet Latinos make up 20% of the school-age population in this country. What message does that send them? Jeezus…the Kansas public school system continues to “impress.” KANSAS CITY, Kan., Dec. 8 — Most of the time, 16-year-old Zach Rubio converses in clear, unaccented American teen-speak, [...]

Again. STORRS, Conn. – Conservative columnist Ann Coulter gave up trying to finish a speech at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday night when boos and jeers from the audience became overwhelming. Coulter cut off the talk after 15 minutes and instead held a half-hour question-and-answer session. Not that she was crying over it, or [...]

Having watched the creationism insurgency flare up in half a dozen different school boards since the mid-1980s, I’ve noticed a pattern. It helps me reconcile some aspects of this issue that don’t seem to fit. Most Americans, according to polls, lean toward religious explanations of the origin of life, and most favor some discussion of [...]

Bring computing power to the third world and the shackles of poverty and desperation could begin to break under the weight of knowledge. More from the Independent: One man in Boston has a plan that he hopes will bridge the world’s gaping digital divide – and quickly. The visionary is Nicholas Negroponte, director of the [...]

What do those two things have in common? Well, apparently the U.S. Department of Education thinks that some of the students who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina should go to the private, religious schools that they attended before the Hurricane hit. They even saw fit to put a $488 million school voucher proposal into the [...]

In Dover School District, just across the Susquehanna from where I live, Intelligent Design has been slipped into the science curriculum in a “camel’s nose in the tent” sort of way. Predictably, it’s been challenged, and defended, and the case is now in court. Patrick Gillen, a lawyer defending the school district, said the case [...]

There is an old saying, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” Which could mean bad news for abstinence-only advocates. Maine has become the third state to refuse federal abstinence education funds. Good. Under newly tightened federal rules, “This money has to be part of an abstinence-only program,” and that would prevent the state from [...]

Marc Schulman at “American Future” picks up on the narrative and background of the Sept. 11 attacks as it appears in some recent textbooks marketed to public high schools. Looks like there’s still some work to be done. A different approach can be found in The American Promise, by James Roark et al., an introductory [...]

Or are they Donklephants at heart? An interesting study that was just released suggests that most law professors are Democrats. Here are some reactions around the blogosphere: First, Ann Althouse: For what it’s worth, I haven’t given any political contributions in a while, but when I did, it was to Democrats â€â€? mostly Russ Feingold. [...]