By Rex Reed 9/25/12 7:57pm

movies

Substitutes Chalk It Up in Won’t Back Down

Taking on the school choice issue that has made its way into the headlines via California’s controversial new parent trigger laws, Won’t Back Down faces an uphill climb at the box office. Its heroes are the parents and renegade teachers who risk everything to improve the education of children in failing schools. Its villains are the teachers’ unions that stand between a million rules and restrictions and the chance of a better life for a handful of children. The movie is going to be controversial, depending on how you feel about labor unions. My feeling is that the schoolroom is no place for political agendas, and all that matters is how good a movie it is. And it is pretty good, but flawed for a number of reasons, detailed below. Nevertheless, it’s a film that deserves to be seen, savored, debated and given serious attention.  Read More

By The Editors 1/10/12 8:03pm

opinion

An Advocate for Students

Governor Cuomo has assigned himself a new task, that of chief lobbyist and advocate for the state’s public school children. Good luck, Governor. If you’re serious about the new assignment—and we hope you are—you have lots of work ahead of you.

As Mr. Cuomo noted himself, there is no shortage of lobbyists seeking to influence the state’s educational policy. The teachers’ union, most notably, has plenty of political muscle, but so do principals, superintendents, janitors and every other stakeholder in the public school system. So who represents students? Mr. Cuomo says he will. Read More

By James Camp 8/09/11 7:56pm

books

Trying For Aces.

No Easy Fix for U.S. Schools

Education is the Bermuda Triangle of America’s bureaucracy—a black hole in broad daylight, where good intentions, together with the funds that fuel them, tend to vanish without a ripple. The role call of those who have tried, and failed, to upraise the American school system is as disheartening as it is august. Presidents have been Read More