Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Unhappily, a new study found 83 percent of recent college graduates could not identify the statement, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” as coming from the famous speech. This is appalling. But according to a recent Common Core Watch blog post by College Board vice president (and Fordham Institute trustee) Stefanie Sanford, the Common Core literacy standards can help improve civic education.
A flurry of news releases on Tuesday morning weighed in on whether or not the Department of Justice had dropped their ill-conceived desegregation suit against Louisiana’s school-voucher program. The current word on the street is that the DOJ is no longer attempting to block the Bayou State’s voucher program and, instead, would limit its intervention to a yearly demand for information on children using vouchers. The case will go before a federal district judge on Friday. For our take, listen to this week’s Education Gadfly Show.
Also on Tuesday, President Obama launched Youth CareerConnect, a competitive grant program designed to better prepare high school students for high-tech careers. The program, funded through the Department of Labor, would provide grants to schools that partner with private-sector organizations to provide job training for employment in a few high-growth industries. The first round of awards would be made in early 2014. The reception was frosty, with some arguing that the administration’s continued affinity for competitive funding is wrong. Will rural schools, which have less access to potential private-sector partners and generally don’t have grant-writers on staff, be placed at a disadvantage?
