A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that called out Lusher Charter School officials for making misleading, alarmist claims about an upcoming change to their school funding formula. Now, unfortunately, it appears that Lusher officials have decided to take their misinformation campaign a step further. On Monday, Lusher CEO Kathy Riedlinger and Board […] More
Although I like Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire personally, it’s safe to say that when it comes to education policy, we agree to disagree on most points. However, I think I finally found an education issue on which we are more-or-less aligned: independent charter school authorizers. On Tuesday, Salon published an interview Berkshire conducted with the authors […] More
Apparently some folks haven’t gotten the memo, so let me reiterate something: The war over Common Core in Louisiana is over. Yep, kaput. Done. Finito. The ship has sailed. The curtain has fallen. Louisiana’s citizens have spoken through their elected representatives in the legislature, who have rejected every single bill – and there have been […] More
Update – 9/15/15: Lottie Beebe sent the following tweet in response to this piece: @petercook The date error has been corrected (human error) and no campaign funds were raised/spent in that time. — Lottie P. Beebe (@beebeforbese) September 15, 2015 Lottie Beebe, who is running for reelection as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s […] More
“Dozens of employees indicted or convicted on corruption charges. Tens of millions of dollars unaccounted for. Eight superintendents in seven years. Rock-bottom test scores. Shootings, sirens and police uniforms, often. The threat of bankruptcy and bounced checks, constantly. “In the dismal gallery of failing urban school systems, New Orleans may be the biggest horror of […] More
In case you missed it, on Monday Salon published a lopsided piece (In Salon? No kidding.) by Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire on New Orleans’ school reforms that painted a very misleading portrait of things on the ground in the Big Easy. I thought I would add much needed clarifications and context to the piece (which I’ve […] More
The question of whether eligible Recovery School District (RSD) charters should be returned to the control of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) has gotten a lot of attention in recent weeks, thanks to House Bill 166, a proposal from Rep. Joseph Bouie, which would have forced eligible RSD charters to return to OPSB within […] More
Today I received several emails from Vimeo that they had taken down a few of my video clips in response to notices they received that I violated their Community Guidelines. Around the same time, Danielle Dreilinger, education reporter at the Times-Picayune, tweeted the following about these videos: .@petercook's anti-OPSB video, which apparently is so outrageous […] More
A RESOLUTION OPPOSING ASININE RESOLUTIONS FROM THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD WHEREAS, generations of young New Orleanians were denied an adequate education in the city’s public schools prior to Hurricane Katrina as a result of chronic mismanagement by Orleans Parish School Board; and WHEREAS, the State of Louisiana, as duly authorized by […] More
Members of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) are embroiled in bitter infighting once again and (surprise!) the issue at the center of the dispute is the allocation of district construction contracts. The recent strife began after the district announced its plan to award a $51 million contract to Woodward Design + Build for the […] More
Part IV: Strategic Planning: The final installment of a four-part series exploring the reform of the Jefferson Parish Public School System JPPSS Superintendent James Meza turned to Mass Insight Education (MIE) for help in developing a plan that would help achieve his vision of a leaner, more decentralized school system focused on supporting schools. MIE’s collaboration with JPPSS […] More
Peter Cook