Jeff Bryant
AlterNet
Chapel Hill, NC, United States
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Past articles by Jeff:
Community schools could be the ultimate tool for addressing education inequity
A district in the Washington, D.C., suburbs may foretell whether a transformative approach to school improvement can address longstanding opportunity gaps in education. → Read More
How can community schools rescue a ‘troubled’ district?
“Why are we still fighting for basic needs?” asked Karen Guzman, a parent and community organizer for the local teachers’ union in Prince George’s County, Maryland, a suburban sprawl of communities that lie just to the east of Washington D.C., Guzman’s union, the Prince George’s County Educators Ass → Read More
Inside the chaotic charter schools run by a for-profit company
Former teachers and board members say charters run by Accel Schools are designed to fail. → Read More
How community schools are helping a hard-hit city dig out of tough times
Days after the GE Transportation plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, announced a round of crippling layoffs in 2013, an employee was found hanging from a crane in “Building 20,” according to the Erie Times-News. The image of a dead worker dangling from a crane in a dying factory seemed symbolic of a city g → Read More
The critical race theory panic is a new weapon in the right-wing war on public education
"No one deserves the school I went to," says Celia Gottlieb. → Read More
Here's the truth behind the right-wing attacks on critical race theory
When North Carolina public school teacher Justin Parmenter penned an opinion piece for the Charlotte Observer about the difficulties of teaching in hybrid mode during the pandemic, with students both in-person in the classroom and remote online, he didn't expect to get called out by a legislator on ... → Read More
Derek Black: We Need Public Schools Now More than Ever
The author of Schoolhouse Burning explains why public education is fundamental to American democracy and the nation’s founding principles. → Read More
Bad Leadership Is Plunging Public Schools Into a Crisis
COVID-19 exposed how important teachers are to students and families—it’s a shame that school leaders still won’t listen to them. → Read More
A community of color was failed by 30 years of school choice — now teachers push a positive alternative
“It’s something students are definitely going to want to talk about when they come back to school,” Samantha Garrett told me while schools were closed for the summer in Milwaukee, and the community was grappling with the uncertainty of how the district would reopen amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. B → Read More
We underfunded schools for years — and only now are leaders realizing how much we need them
“After 9/11, New York City police and firefighters were hailed as heroes,” said Mary Parr-Sanchez, president of the New Mexico affiliate of the National Education Association, when I spoke with her about how educators have responded to the pandemic in her state. “After this, I hope teachers will be → Read More
Education Secretary DeVos Uses the Pandemic
While DeVos radicalizes education policy at the federal level, her agenda is trickling down to Republican lawmakers and school policies at state levels. → Read More
How Betsy DeVos is using the pandemic to get what she wants
As American deaths from COVID-19 crested 100,000, the New York Times reported U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re receiving through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARE → Read More
How Betsy DeVos and the charter school movement are exploiting the pandemic to advance their agendas
COVID-19 has shuttered public schools across the nation, state governments are threatening to slash education budgets due to the economic collapse caused by the outbreak, and emergency aid provided by the federal government is far short of what is needed, according to a broad coalition of education → Read More
Homeschoolers want you to believe the pandemic has a silver lining — they’re wrong
While the public experiences a health calamity, the homeschooling movement sees a big opportunity → Read More
The homeschooling movement sees the pandemic as big opportunity — but they’re wrong – A
In the early days of the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S., when the number of known cases was barely cresting 1,000, advocates for homeschooling were greeting news of the outbreak as an opportunity to promote their cause. “While the virus has caused illness and hardship for many, keeping chi → Read More
How corporations are forcing their way into America’s public schools
A story unfolding in Virginia reveals how big corporations want to control schools right down to the curriculum. → Read More
‘We’re being hijacked’: How corporations are forcing their way into America’s public schools – A
In the expanding effort to privatize the nation’s public education system, an ominous, less-understood strain of the movement is the corporate influence in Career and Technical Education (CTE) that is shaping the K-12 curriculum in local communities. An apt case study of the growing corporate inf → Read More
Have Democrats Changed Course On Charters?
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bennet wants you to know how much he cares—really cares—about education. Speaking at the Public Education Forum 2020… → Read More
Why the federal government’s billion-dollar charter school program is a complete disaster
Earlier this year when members of Congress repeatedly confronted U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about a study finding the federal government’s charter school grant program had wasted an estimated $1 billion on schools that had never opened or opened and quickly closed, she dismissed the findings and accused the report authors of having a “political agenda against charter schools.” On… → Read More
The U.S. government’s billion-dollar charter school boondoggle was an even bigger disaster than we knew
Earlier this year when members of Congress repeatedly confronted U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about a study finding the federal government’s charter school grant program had wasted an estimated $1 billion on schools that had never opened or opened and quickly closed, she dismissed the fin → Read More