Education
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Was the Opt-Out Movement a Failure?
Read more: Was the Opt-Out Movement a Failure?In his 1789 work An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Jeremy Bentham gives a definition for ethical behavior. Ethics at large may be defined as the art of directing men’s actions to the production of the greatest possible quantity of happiness for those whose interests are in view. Bentham’s thinking later became…
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Taylor Threatens MoCo’s Charter School for Black and Brown Students
Read more: Taylor Threatens MoCo’s Charter School for Black and Brown StudentsIn 2003, Vladimir Putin ordered the arrest of Russia’s wealthiest citizen Mikhail Khodorkovsky. During the preceding decade, the oligarch had challenged Putin’s increasingly centralized authority. Those challenges included funding opposition political parties. The charges against Khodorkovsky included fraud, tax evasion, and embezzlement. There is strong evidence that these charges were synthetic. After his conviction, Khodorkovsky’s…
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Let’s Allocate Food The Way MCPS Allocates IB Placement
Read more: Let’s Allocate Food The Way MCPS Allocates IB PlacementAmy Ming walks into my vegetable store and wants to buy a few tomatoes. I ask her a few harmless demographic questions such as address, race, income, net worth, marital status, pronouns, gender identification, party registration, and positions on LGBT/Trump/DEI. (You know, the standard stuff we all have to disclose.) She provides all the answers…
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Taylor Offers Reparations for Failed MCPS Graduates
Read more: Taylor Offers Reparations for Failed MCPS GraduatesThere’s a knock at your door. You open the door. A former bouncer at the 9:30 Club announces, “Mr. Gonzales of Aspen Hill never received his delivery of an Omega Speedmaster co-axial automatic men’s chronograph watch, so you are paying for the replacement.” The man then enters your premises and confiscates your Tesla charging station,…
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Tax Credits for Your Child’s Private School Education
Read more: Tax Credits for Your Child’s Private School EducationTLDR: Send a message to Wes Moore expressing support for the ECCA. The recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act has a few provisions that are transformative (some less so), and one of them is the associated Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). This act provides a tax credit for private school tuition. Nothing in the…
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A Message to an AP US History Student
Read more: A Message to an AP US History StudentA parent wrote in expressing concern about the tone of a lesson in Sandy Young’s AP US History class at Churchill High School. The student did not feel comfortable during the lesson which included an apparent negative juxtaposition between President Trump/MAGA and Governor Moore. (The lead image above is from the lesson presentation.) You can…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 3—The Fallacy of Classroom Size
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 3—The Fallacy of Classroom SizeIn his 2023 piece Reforming our school budgets, county executive candidate Evan Glass emphasizes the importance of funding and reducing classroom size as a primary pathway to improved school performance. As I talk with parents, educators and residents, there is common agreement on the need to ensure that the money we allocate to Montgomery County…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 2—The Voting Record
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 2—The Voting RecordIn Part 1 of this series we suggested that County Executive candidate Evan Glass bolster his demands for transparency by disclosing those MCPS union members and administrators involved in the Beidelman cover-up. In this post we look at Mr. Glass’s voting record on the MCPS budget. Mr. Glass made an emphatic case for transparency in…
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Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 1—Open MoCo’s Epstein Files
Read more: Glass’s MCPS Transparency Promise: Part 1—Open MoCo’s Epstein FilesCounty Executive candidate Evan Glass recently posted a call for MCPS transparency and a link to his piece in Bethesda Magazine Reforming our school budgets. That piece also focused on a demand for transparency in MCPS. In this series we’ll investigate just how sincere his demands are. The “Epstein Files” are all the rage, nowadays…
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‘Administrative Burden’ in the Pre-K Schools
Read more: ‘Administrative Burden’ in the Pre-K SchoolsWith the 2025–2026 academic year opening, I recently overheard two fathers talking about their children’s pre-K school. The matter at hand was before-care and after-care. “We got a MailChimp survey asking the parents if they need before-care starting at 7:30 and after-care until 6:00.” “What was the result?” “Only a few parents out of the…