The Washington Post, July 9, 2010 by Valerie Strauss
http://bit.ly/c01Iu9
For example, they cite University of California at Berkeley Professor David L. Kirp’s argument that market pressures have prompted colleges to give students more leisure time, and the contention by Murray Sperber of Indiana University that professors eased up on students for various reasons, including a desire to spend more time doing research.
New America Foundation, Early Ed Watch, June 10, 2010 by David L. Kirp
bit.ly/bb3MWO
Despite the widespread recognition that good early education can alter the arc of children’s lives, the conventional wisdom, that children don’t matter because they don’t vote, endures. In national politics, children come last.
San Francisco Chronicle, May 31, 2009 by David L. Kirp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/31/ING317S58S.DTL&type=printable
All the research tells the same story: Expectations are crucial. Advise minority students with comparatively weak paper records that they have a decent shot at succeeding, enroll them in highly demanding schools, and they’re more likely to thrive than if they’re fed an intellectual diet of pabulum.
San Francisco Chronicle, February 10, 2009 by David L. Kirp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/EDS415Q7U9.DTL&type=printable
Every added Head Start dollar means new jobs for teachers, aides and staff, many of them poor women who are the economic anchors of their communities. Providing more Head Start slots also means that poor parents have time to find work or get the training they need to secure a decent job. The $1.05 billion that’s in jeopardy of being cut would create thousands of teaching and staff positions, in addition to the jobs generated when Head Start centers start buying cribs, crayons, cookies and computers.
San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 2009 by David L. Kirp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/19/EDEU15BU9O.DTL&type=printable
What matters far more are the big-ticket federal policies that can make or break people’s lives - hate crimes, employment discrimination, the don’t ask, don’t tell policy—and, on those issues, Obama is on the side of the angels.
The American Prospect, Nov. 24, 2008 by David Kirp
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=college_for_the_few
In Real Education, Murray turns the spotlight on higher education. He’s up to his familiar tricks: This time the provocation is that too many people go to college. Murray loves to make broad-brush, simple-sounding claims—welfare causes dependency, intelligence is inherited—and Real Education offers four of these “simple truths.”
The New York Times, Nov. 2, 2008 by Jesse McKinley
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/weekinreview/02mckinley.html?_r=1&sq=Berkeley&st=cse&scp=6&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
“Schools are still there as part of the story because whatever their politics, families are conservative when it comes to their kids,” said David L. Kirp, a professor of law and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. “No family regards their kids as a social experiment.”
The American Prospect, September 22, by David L. Kirp
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=audacity_in_harlem
“From the outset, the Harlem Children’s Zone has been both the beneficiary and the victim of hype and expectations. The national media regard New York City as the center of the known universe, and so this high-voltage program has been smothered with coverage. Out-of-town delegations, looking to devise their own children’s zones, descend in droves.”
- San Francisco Chronicle, September 2, by Douglas Kirp and W. Stephen Barnett
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/01/ED3612LC8C.DTL
“When pre-K is done right … the evidence confirms that it can alter the arc of children’s lives. That’s why the goal of policy should be to guarantee every 3- and 4-year-old a preschool opportunity as good as what the wisest parents would want for their own children.”
- KERA-TV, Think, September 5, Host Krys Boyd
http://www.kera.org/video
“If you think about the investments that a state can make—investing in little kids, investing in young kids, investing in their education—is probably the smartest thing that could be done. Just in terms of who’s going to be the taxpayers of the next generation, who the knowledge workers are going to be in the next generation … it’s important to appreciate how valuable [preschool] is for kids.”