Posts Tagged ‘schools’

Some costs of teacher tenure

Citing a study by Stanford University researcher Eric Hanushek, Howard notes that bad teachers have a much greater negative effect on student performance than good teachers have a positive effect. Based on student-performance data, Hanushek’s study concluded that dismissing the worst 8 percent of American public school teachers would put American students on par with those of Finland, which has the highest-scoring students in the world. Yet it’s nearly impossible to fire tenured teachers. In Los Angeles, an effort to fire just seven notoriously bad instructors cost the city $3.5 million, and only got rid of four of the teachers.

— Jonathan Leaf, City Journal, reviewing Philip K. Howard’s new book Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left.

Filed under: Los Angeles, schools, teacher tenure

“If you’re football, hockey or soccer, the insurance business doesn’t want you.”

Not just football in its various forms with its known concussion dangers, but other games too face an insurance drought, especially as regards youth participation: “Overall, I think that there is a real threat to the viability of contact sports.” [Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada, ESPN]

Filed under: football, schools, sports

Schools and childhood roundup

“It also highlights the shortcomings of federal education [privacy] laws that protect even admitted killers like [the Parkland, Florida school gunman] who are no longer students.” [Brittany Wallman, Megan O’Matz and Paula McMahon, South Florida Sun Sentinel]
Germany forbids homeschooling and the European Court of Human Rights has just upheld the removal of four children from their parents’ home over the issue [BBC] Is there a constitutional right to homeschool in the U.S.? [Eugene Volokh]
By contrast, claims of a federal constitutional right to education tend to amount to a contemplated way for courts to order spending hikes for public schools, as many already do under state constitutions, a bandwagon the U.S. Supreme Court declined to join in San Antonio v. Rodriguez [Alia Wong, The Atlantic on Rhode Island suit]
Read and marvel at a waiver and indemnity form for letting an 8 year old walk home a block by herself [Let Grow] “Nine-Year-Old Boy Leads The Way As Colorado Town Legalizes Snowball Fights” [Bill Galluccio, iHeartRadio]
Texas school district settles case of student expelled for not standing during Pledge of Allegiance [Massarah Mikati and Gabrielle Banks, Houston Chronicle via Sarah McLaughlin and Popehat (“Alternative headline: Expensive, Uncertain, Stressful Federal Lawsuit Required To Force Texas School To Acknowledge Right Unequivocally Established By Supreme Court In 1943; Taxpayers To Pay Costs Of Lawsuit; Lawless Administrator Will Face No Consequences”)]
Latest leave-kid-in-car-for-a-few-minutes horror: mom arrested, charged with contributing to delinquency of minor (to whom nothing had happened) [Lenore Skenazy]
“The Trump administration got it right on school-discipline policy” [Hans Bader letter, Washington Post]

Filed under: Germany, Rhode Island, school discipline, schools

Justin Driver, The Schoolhouse Gate

The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, The Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, a new book by Justin Driver of the University of Chicago Law School, is a cross-cutting look at the constitutional law of American public schools — a change from the usual format of broad constitutional law scholarship, which tends to stick closely to doctrinal categories such as criminal procedure or equal protection. Introduced by Will Baude, Driver guest-posted at the Volokh Conspiracy in September on why the Supreme Court has made a difference; the high-water mark and retreat of student speech rights; corporal punishment; Plyler v. Doe on the education of undocumented minors; and transgender student restroom cases. He also summed up some of his work in a New York Times op-ed.

Filed under: constitutional law, schools

Schools roundup

Social justice education: on the march and coming to a school system near you [Frederick M. Hess and Grant Addison, National Review]
New wave of institutional reform litigation aims to replace democratic oversight of public schools with governance by courts, lawyers, and NGOs [Dana Goldstein, New York Times]
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, trying to force a student to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, ignores 75 years of Supreme Court precedent [Scott Shackford] “My Daughter’s Middle School Plans to Teach Her Meek Compliance With Indiscriminate Invasions of Privacy” [Jacob Sullum]
“The Regressive Effects of Child-Care Regulations: More strenuous requirements raise child-care prices but have little apparent effect on quality” [Ryan Bourne, Regulation and Governing]
“Denver Schools Stopped ‘Lunch-Shaming’ Kids Whose Parents Didn’t Pay. The Results Were Predictable.” [Hess and Addison]
Wisconsin public union reform: “A school district’s implementation of Act 10 is associated with an increase in math proficiency on average. The positive impact … is consistent across small town, rural, and suburban school districts.” [Will Flanders and Collin Roth, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty]
“Look to the Dutch for true educational pluralism” [Charles Glenn, Acton Institute]

Filed under: institutional reform litigation, Netherlands, public employment, school lunch, schools, Wisconsin

“The pros and cons of ‘mandated reporting.'”

Advocates are pushing for laws much expanding the ranks of private actors required by law to inform to authorities on suspicions about child abuse (“mandatory reporters”). Naomi S. Riley quotes some of my misgivings: “As Walter Olson of the Cato Institute notes, increasing the number of mandated reporters could ‘incentivize’ people ‘to resolve uncertain, gray areas in favor of reporting.’ It will multiply “investigations based on hunches or ambiguous evidence which can harm the innocent, traumatize families, result in CPS [child protective services] raids, and stimulate false allegations,’ he says.” [Weekly Standard]

Filed under: Catholic Church, Child Protective Services, churches, schools

August 29 roundup

Astonishing investigation into feds’ “235 school shootings a year” statistic: “NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. …We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents.” [Anya Kamenetz, Alexis Arnold, and Emily Cardinali, NPR]
Sentences that make you go back and read twice: “Mister Cookie Face lawyer Blake Hannafan also applauds the verdict and says 600 lb Gorillas ‘overreached.’” [AP/WHEC, Metro West Daily News on legal battle between Massachusetts dessert company and ice cream supplier]
“In-N-Out Burger sends pun-filled letter to beer maker to address ‘brewing’ trademark issue” [ABA Journal]
In Arkansas, socially conservative Family Council Action Committee enlists in the ranks against liability reform, and some less-than-charitable souls wonder whether $150,000 in donations from a Little Rock law firm might have had anything to do with that [Andrew DeMillo, AP]
AG Brian Frosh’s embarrassing SALT suit, religious adoption fight, Cardin’s red meat thrown to Left, union influence in Montgomery County, Baltimore water supply, and more Maryland stuff in my new Free State Notes roundup;
Federal court strikes down North Carolina’s U.S. House map as partisan gerrymandering, which could (or might not) lead to lively doings at the Supreme Court between now and Election Day [my new post at Cato]

Filed under: Baltimore, guns, litigation lobby, Maryland, redistricting reform, schools, trademarks

Schools and childhood roundup

Judge greenlights lawsuit claiming right to literacy under California constitution [Stephen Sawchuk, Education Week] Whatever its surface appeal, legal right to literacy (or access to same) not in fact a good idea [Scott Greenfield on Michigan suit]
“Teachers’ unions plan to become ‘more political, not less political'” [Frederick Hess and Grant Addison] “The Long-Run Effects of Teacher Strikes: Evidence from Argentina” [David Jaume and Alexander Willén, Cato Research Brief] Worsening human capital outcomes: “The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining” [Michael Lovenheim and Alexander Willén, NBER via Tyler Cowen]
D.C.’s credentialism will hurt families: “Childcare Regulation and Quality” [Ryan Bourne, Cato, earlier here, here, here, and here]
“The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Wrong for Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law” [Gail Heriot, parts one, two, three]
“Mom Brings Coughing 10-Month-Old to the Hospital. Days Later, Cops Take the Baby.” [Lenore Skenazy, Minnesota]
“The New Head of the Office for Civil Rights Charts a Very Different Course” [George Leef, Martin Center profile of Kenneth Marcus]

Filed under: Child Protective Services, labor unions, school discipline, schools

Janus aftermath roundup

“Why It Was Proper (and Necessary) to Overturn Old Precedent” [Ilya Shapiro and Aaron Barnes, Cato, earlier on Janus v. AFSCME case]
Mackinac Center has launched national exit-encouraging campaign [My Pay My Say] Class action suits in several states against government unions seek refund of fees paid [Bill McMorris, Free Beacon]
Proposal to have public employers simply pay unions directly could eliminate workers’ choice in the matter [Benjamin Sachs and Sharon Block, Vox (favoring idea); Eugene Volokh]
“California’s Government Unions Take Steps to Obliterate Janus Impact” [Edward Ring, California Policy Center, earlier on California aftermaths]
“How NY will thwart Janus rights” [Ken Girardin, Empire Center; Eric Boehm; earlier on evasion] When right to work came in, “Michigan unions didn’t simply refrain from identifying the exits. They actively worked to make leaving difficult and onerous.” [Joseph G. Lehman and John R. LaPlante, USA Today]
And now for something completely different: “After Janus, Conservatives and Teachers’ Unions Should Collaborate” [Max Eden; Erica L. Green, New York Times on how American Federation of Teachers is coping with decision]

Filed under: labor unions, public employment, schools, Supreme Court

“Illinois 13-year-old charged with eavesdropping felony for recording meeting with principal”

“For years, [Illinois] cops used the state’s eavesdropping laws to arrest citizens who attempted to record them. This practice finally stopped when three consecutive courts — including a federal appeals court — ruled the law was unconstitutional when applied to target citizens recording public servants.” But the law is “still being used by government officials to punish people they don’t like. Illinois Policy reports a 13-year-old student is facing felony charges for recording a meeting between him and two school administrators.” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt; Austin Berg, Illinois Policy, related]

Filed under: Illinois, schools, surveillance