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Yesterday I shared some reactions to a video making the rounds, in which Jonah Edelman describes the way his non-profit organization, Stand For Children, maneuvered to get legislation enacted in the state of Illinois. This seems to represent the sort of money-fueled policy that education historian Diane Ravitch has been warning us about, so I asked her for her thoughts.

This video of corporate reformer Jonah Edelman has been causing a stir in the edu-blogosphere this weekend. You may not want to watch the whole thing (it's down below), as it gets into the weeds of a specific political fight taking place in Illinois over "Senate Bill 7," but it is instructive for a larger reason.

Video of Commissioner King's presentation at the NYSCOSS Fall Conference on Superintendent Leadership and the Regents Reform Agenda.

Michael Mulgrew talks pension reform, the millionaires tax and Occupy Wall Street on NY1's "Inside City Hall" (Video)

"As part of Wal-Mart's back-to-school marketing efforts, the company recently launched a series of teacher appreciation videos, ads, hashtags and discounts. Teachers--who routinely dig deep into their own pockets to pay for supplies and materials for their students--are grateful for appreciation in all its forms. They are understandably less pleased when half-hearted discounts come from a company with a terrible track record for respecting its own employees and are accompanied by a large-scale effort to dismantle our nation's public education system and silence their voice. In fact, teachers are so offended by the so-called education reform agenda promoted by Wal-Mart's owners, the Waltons, that one teacher recently launched a petition calling on his peers not to shop at Wal-Mart this back-to-school season. More than 5,000 teachers have already added their names to his pledge. A closer look at the Walton family's massive investment in "education" paints a clear picture of why teachers are so upset. Since 2000, the Walton Family Foundation has given more than $1 billion to destabilize public education--draining funds from students and closing neighborhood schools, and instead supporting corporate-style education policies in an attempt to bring Wal-Mart's business model to classrooms across the country."

"NPE is proud to share this interactive infographic detailing the last 15 years of Bill Gates's public education experiments. It contains links to 13 reports from 12 of the nation's leading pro-public education advocates (which you will also find in the "Around the States" entries below.) Hover your cursor over the green, yellow, and red entries to reveal links to the reports. You'll also find a video of Gates embedded in the center quote. Please share widely to let others know the full extent of the destructive influence Bill and Melinda Gates have had, and continue to have, on the democratic institution of public education."

Governor uses national platform to pitch for vouchers, dump on Newark public schools

The virtual teacher has arrived - flickering away on a screen on a school bus, in a bunk bed or in the shade of a beach umbrella, and turning traditional education on its head.

Ten years ago, George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, the law that has dominated U.S. education-and the education policy debate-for the entire decade. While lawmakers are struggling to update that measure, experts across the political spectrum are struggling to make sense of its impact and legacy. Did NCLB, and the consequential accountability movement it embodied, succeed? And with near-stagnant national test scores of late, is there reason to think that this approach to school reform is exhausted? If not "consequential accountability," what could take the U.S. to the next level of student achievement? Join three leading experts at the Fordham Institute at 8:30 a.m. EST on January 5 as they wrestle with these questions. Panelists include Hoover Institute economist Eric Hanushek, DFER's Charles Barone, and former NCES commissioner Mark Schneider, author of a forthcoming Fordham analysis of the effects of consequential accountability.

Anna Scholl, ProgressVA, joins Thom Hartmann in exposing ALEC - the American Legislative Exchange Council. In case you dont know what ALEC is - it's a far-rightwing organization that brings together corporate CEOs and lobbyists with elected lawmakers to come up with custom-made legislation that benefits anti-public school  "reformers", big polluters, job outsourcers, and banksters, and hurts unions, poor people, and voters. And apparently it's found a friend in the Virginia General Assembly, where since 2007, over 50 different pieces of legislation have been introduced that are exact carbon copies of ALEC written legislation.

Lessons learned from efforts to improve public education.Recommendations for reform and moving forward. A debate between Wendy Kopp and Diane Ravitch.

Gallup hosted an event to present the findings from two national research initiatives led by Lumina Foundation and PDK International of their annual survey, which measures public attitudes and opinions about U.S. public schools.

Chester Finn, President of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, discusses radical changes that are needed in education, and the key role that states must play to move forward, both in fundamentally changing existing schools and adding "new models" that provide many options for education for children.

Panelists talked about early childhood education programs. Among the topics they addressed were improving Head Start programs, school accountability, education funding, and monitoring the effectiveness of various programs. They also responded to questions from the audience.

A Conversation with Dr. Diane Ravitch hosted by Arnold Dodge Of Long Islang University, C.W. Post Campus

Diane Ravitch interviews Steve Brill.

The American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Enterprise Insitute Education Policy Director Frederick Hess debated reforms affecting teachers.

Moderated by Charlayne Hunter-Gault Essence, Africa Bureau Chief, and author of New News Out of Africa: Uncovering the African Renaissance Lawrence D. Bobo W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University James P. Comer Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center Angel L. Harris Associate Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies, Princeton University Diane Ravitch Research Professor of Education, New York University Michelle A. Rhee Founder and CEO, StudentsFirst