Janresseger: Who Is Linda McMahon and What Would Be Her Priorities as Education Secretary? Janresseger: Who Is Linda McMahon and What Would Be Her Priorities as Education Secretary? Last week President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will nominate Linda McMahon to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Education. Linda McMahon formerly served as an executive of World Wrestling Entertainment; led the Small Business Administr…

Janresseger: The Dangerous Values Underneath the Politics of School Choice Janresseger: The Dangerous Values Underneath the Politics of School Choice I suppose many of us think about the classes we wish we had signed up for in college.  Right now, as somebody who believes public schools are among our nation’s most important and most threatened public institutions, I wish that in addition to enrolling in T…

Janresseger: Voucher Programs Prove Again and Again What We Already Know Janresseger: Voucher Programs Prove Again and Again What We Already Know As we all know,  state legislators across the country originally justified passing small, experimental voucher programs as a way to help poor kids escape from their so-called “failing” public schools. A year ago, at the end of The School Voucher Illusion: Expo…

Janresseger: Ohio Has a New Universal Voucher Program, and the Problems Are Already Starting Janresseger: Ohio Has a New Universal Voucher Program, and the Problems Are Already Starting As we watch the emergence of Ohio’s new universal school voucher program, passed in June as part of the state’s new biennial budget, problems have already become apparent. Voucher Program Is Already Exceeding Cost Estimates It is already cl…

Janresseger: Orwellian Language and the Moral Perversion of American Politics Janresseger: Orwellian Language and the Moral Perversion of American Politics Back in 2021, in a policy memo, Understanding the Attacks on Critical Race Theory, scholars at the National Education Policy Center described the working philosophy of Christopher Rufo, the right-wing political operative we have, since that time, come to …

Janresseger: What Will We Lose if Public Schools Are Privatized? Janresseger: What Will We Lose if Public Schools Are Privatized? In our gerrymandered statehouses, school voucher bills of various sorts are being fast tracked. Koch money, dark money, so-called think tanks in the State Policy Network, and big advocacy organizations like Bradley, Heritage and Goldwater are behind all this activity …