Get a Degree at Starbucks
When Starbucks announced it would help employees get four-year degrees, media praised the company’s altruism. Few looked at the fine print.
Report: Charters Creating Two-Tier Education
As an antidote to the “grow grow grow” mentality of the elected officials and business leaders pushing charter schools, a recent report by University of Oregon professor and political economist Gordon Lafer outlines what’s wrong with privatization of public schools.
The report, titled Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, focuses on the model of Rocketship, a national charter elementary school organization that hopes to expand its Milwaukee footprint to eight schools by 2018.
Fix Schools First, Say Charter Teachers
Charter school teachers in Philadelphia are speaking out against their employer taking over another school while ignoring teachers at existing schools.
Instead of supporting management’s expansion plans, they’re making common cause with parents at the targeted school, Luis Muñoz-Marín Elementary. The teachers want to unionize in the charter teacher local of the AFT.
Transit Irony: The More You Rely on It, the More They Cut
On one side of town, tourists and young professionals head downtown on light rail: clean, air-conditioned, fast. If there’s a problem with service, the city diverts buses to help.
On the other side of town, workers wait at bus stops. The buses that carry them to work come less and less frequently, thanks to service cuts. Drivers struggle to get through their routes in less time.
Theater in a Hospital Throws Spotlight on Inequality
Edward Albee's play "The Death of Bessie Smith" portrays a segregated hospital in 1937. Staged inside an empty Brooklyn hospital wing, it's drawing attention to the "medical apartheid" hospital workers say persists today.