BATs Congratulate Hillary ClintonThe Badass Teachers Association would like to congratulate you on your recent announcement to run for president.  The Badass Teachers Association is an education activist organization that is nationwide. Currently, we are 55,000 strong with chapters in every state.  We are organizing on the ground to change the conversation back to what public education should be, about children and their future.  We have far reaching capability on Twitter, via our website, our blog, and Pinterest.Our organization was founded in June of 2013.  We fight for strong public education for all children and for teacher autonomy in the classroom. We are a group that refuses to take the blame for our government’s inability to address child poverty and its impact on how children perform in school. We fight, on a daily basis, the efforts of big money to privatize our schools and use our children as market capital.We have been reviewing the history of your educational platform with interest in anticipation of your announcement.   Read the rest of the letter at Badass Teachers Association

by Catherine LuceyDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Eight years after Mike Huckabee tapped the support of evangelical homeschooling families as part of his winning coalition in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, a lineup of GOP hopefuls is seeking to duplicate that effort.Five Republican 2016 prospects courted homeschool families in Des Moines on Thursday at an annual gathering sponsored by a statewide group called the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators. While the number of homeschoolers in the state may be relatively small, they are viewed as a well-organized subset of the evangelical population that participates in the political process.”Some of the most coveted activists in the Iowa caucuses are homeschool parents,” said conservative radio show host Steve Deace, himself a homeschool parent who appeared at Thursday’s event. Read the rest of the story in The Huffington Post. 

Nancie Atwell’s advice for young people to “work in the private sector” reflects how testing and mandates have drained public education’s spirit.

9 April 2015 – Just one third of countries have achieved all the measurable education goals set in 2000 and only half of all countries have achieved universal primary enrolment, the United Nations agency mandated with promoting learning spotlighted today, urging countries to bridge the $22 billion annual finance gap needed to achieve quality basic education for all by 2030.“The world has made tremendous progress towards ‘Education for All’…however the agenda is far from finished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on the heels of the key findings produced in the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) .Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges, produced by UNESCO tracks the progress of a set of six goals ranging from improving quality of education to ensuring equal access to learning. Released today, the report found that 47 per cent of countries reached the goal of early childhood education, and another eight per cent were close. Twenty per cent were very far from the goal. Yet, in 2012, nearly two-thirds more children were enrolled in early childhood education than in 1999. Read the rest of the story at UN News Centre.

by Nick Valencia

Lord James Knight, formerly the Minister for Education in England and current Managing Director of Online Learning at TSL Education, took time to answer questions about the state of online and blended learning in education across the globe. Lord Knight’s response to my last question about the future and expanse of online learning speaks,