This isn’t meant to be a dig at Jeff, but his site needs some organization. It takes a while to get used to html and blogging for those not familiar with it so here is what he needs:
A blog host that can hold excerpts and extended entries–this would ensure he could tease the highlights and then put the full text in the post without the reader getting lost.
Someone to update the basic text to make it a bit easier to read.
So someone see if you can help him out, I think a lot of the content is quite good–especially for us without access to the show.
A couple highlights I found interesting include
1) the discussion on affordable housing. Jeff is a bit unfair when he suggests that a 10% target would mean all poor people should be able to live in any communities. First, the bill isn’t just about the poor, but those of modest means. Second, 10% affordable hardly affords all people in the class the ability to live somewhere. It does however, encourage less economic segregation. The problem is the affordable units may not remain that way (depending on tax credit restrictions I suppose) since people pay amazing sums to live in what they perceive as a good districts. The idea isn’t as crazy as Jeff makes it out to be and within the constraints of a program that operates primarily by carrots it could produce some good results.
2) The requirements in NCLB do add costs and in some of the more successful districts it is unclear that the NCLB strategies are superior. So adding tutoring may not be as effective as other strategies in that community, but it is required. Additionally, we know the rather ridiculous conditions under which it can identify a school or District as underperforming with a small sample of students.
3) Serafin’s take on the Senate Race and Ryan’s decisions is quite good.