Heartbreak, Health and Politics

Every so often a piece of journalism breaks through the flotsam and jetsam that is the contemporary Twitterverse, and compels digestion, contemplation, and discussion. If you’ve given any thought to the trade-offs involved in extending distance learning or resuming campus-based instruction and have yet to read Alec MacGillis’, “The Students Left Behind by…

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Bending Blaine

The horrific shootings took place on a Saturday – the Jewish sabbath, or Shabbat.  April 27, 2019 also happened to be the eighth-and-final-day of Passover, which meant that the Chabad of Poway synagogue was filled with worshipers when the 19-year-old assailant entered the premises and began firing.  Minutes later, one congregant lay dead, and…

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Showdown in New York: Part Two

Last November, New York Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia jolted the state’s private school community by issuing guidelines requiring public school boards to ensure that private schools operating within their boundaries are providing an educational program that is “substantially equivalent” to that offered by district public schools.  The directive, seen by many as a…

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When Teachers Unions Supported Private School Choice

For those who long to see teachers union representatives offering legislative testimony in support of parental choice of private schools, you’ve come to the right place!  We hearken back to the halcyon days of May, 2001, when the California Legislature’s Senate Education Committee considered a bill authored by former State Senator Ray Haynes.  The…

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Of Cards and Causes

Last year, California enacted a law requiring schools (public and private) that issue pupil identification cards to students in any of grades 7-12, inclusive, to print the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline telephone number on either side of the cards.  The measure, SB 972, authored by State Senator Anthony Portantino, won passage in both…

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