K-12 education has been one of President Obama’s weakest policy areas, and if you’re not convinced of that yet, consider this:
The Education Department has for more than 10 years poured in excess of $3 billion into the creation and operation of charter schools, but according to a new audit by the agency’s own inspector general’s office, it has failed in some cases to provide adequate oversight and as a result has put its own grants at risk. [...]
The newly released report comes just as the department announced $245 million in new grants to state educational agencies and CMOs under its Charter Schools Program, which funds the creation and expansion of charters around the country. The Charter Schools Program has invested more than $3 billion into these schools since 1995, helping more than 2,500 charter schools open.
Lack of oversight is far from the only thing wrong with charter schools as they exist today, but you’re certainly never going to fix any of their other problems through expansion without oversight.
● Might the Labor Department act to strengthen workers compensation protections? Not if Donald Trump is elected, that’s for damn sure. But:
A U.S. Department of Labor report released today details the bleak fate facing the nation’s injured workers, noting that those hurt on the job are at “great risk of falling into poverty” because state workers’ compensation systems are failing to provide them with adequate benefits.
The report lays the groundwork for renewed federal oversight of state workers’ comp programs, providing a detailed history of the government’s past efforts to step in when states fell short. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in a statement Tuesday night that he was drafting legislation “to address many of the troubling findings laid out in this report” and hoped to advance it in the next Congress.
● Harvard University has plenty of money, to understate things somewhat. Its low-wage workers shouldn’t feel like they have to strike to get paid enough to live on.
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● Boston is one of those school committees.
● Let’s not forget that Donald Trump is lying about trade.
● Your periodic reminder to follow @blogwood if you’re interested in labor.
● A reporter goes looking for the Chinese factories that make Donald Trump's ties:
Although the Chinese provenance of his ties had formed a primary line of attack against Trump, nothing much else was known about them. And Clinton wasn't the only one with questions. During the preceding year, a variety of labor groups had quietly tried and failed to find the Chinese factories that manufactured the candidate's apparel lines. On shipping records collected by the US government and compiled by databases like ImportGenius and Panjiva, the Donald Trump name was almost totally absent (with a few older exceptions, all in smaller countries), causing researchers to throw up their hands.
● Ever wonder what an orchestra on strike sounds like?
● A judge dismissed a lawsuit aimed at lifting Massachusetts’ charter school cap, but the issue is still being fought out in a ballot vote.
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