The hot debate this past week in NY Education circles is Mayoral Control. When I started teaching, New York City schools were controlled by the Board of Education. The board appointed a chancellor. The system was supposed to balance community control as well as some centralized decision making. The system was created in the late 60s and was entrenched through my schooling. By the time I was a teacher I think it was pretty much a given that the system didn't work.

If we properly prepare CS teachers, won't they just jump ship and take tech industry jobs? I hear that a lot. Tech pays big. Teaching? Not so much. Tech workers are respected and have flexible jobs. Teaching? Again, not so much. Those chanting these refrains advocate the current simple teacher "training" - scripted lessons, minimal pedagogical content knowledge, even less real content knowledge. That will keep them in the classroom.

I'm guessing my views on this aren't very popular -that's OK, every community needs a curmudgeon. A few years ago, I cautioned if we weren't careful, once the big players got involved, CS Ed would go the way of other disciplines, and not in a good way. It looks like indeed we're well on our way down that road. I've ranted before about things like non-profits, drop in and summer programs.

Like many of my fellow bloggers and tweeters, I generally keep this site clear of political issues with the exception of those that are directly related to education. Also, like many of my fellow bloggers and tweeters, this week has provided a reason to break with that tradition. Many people, including some friends, all more eloquent than I have already posted, tweeted, and Facebooked about the behavior of our President and government.

The other day, a friend posited a question on Facebook (paraphrased): If called upon, would you take a job in an administration who's policies you strongly disagreed with? Would you go work for an administration that you reviled in order to get a seat at the table? To try to affect change from the inside or would you consider yourself a sellout or worse, publicly promote positions you disagree with.

This old article has been reposted a few times in my circles over the past few weeks http://educationnext.org/facadeofexcellence/. It's from 2003 and complains about the lack of flexibility schools had back then with regard to hiring and salary. The article is old and out of date and the seniority system no longer holds for hiring but it does for lay offs. The salary scale from back then, though, is still in place.

If you know me you know that my morning reads include a visit over to avc.com, Today, Fred's post talked about development and progress, evolution, if you would, in the city. Although not directly related, it got me thinking about gentrification. To me, gentrification all too often seems to result in pushing out people and business that were there during the hard times. We don't need to force out long time residents that can no longer make rent - we need to uplift communities with pathways to towards greater economic opportunity.

I'm way behind on my Communications of the ACM. I generally only read them when I use my trainer in the mornings and with summer running and outside riding, I'm still on the December 2015 issue. This morning, I read a viewpoint by Jeremy Scott and Alan Bundy on a program in Scotland. If you're an ACM member, and if you're a CS practitioner, student, academic, or teacher you should be, you can read the piece for details.

I saw this headline earlier today: The U.S. Just Made a Bold Move to Improve Diversity in Tech. The article talks about a program by which a number of code schools will be able to accept federal student aid. I don't know if we're talking student loans or grants but I'm not sure it matters. The headline sounds great. I'm not so sure that this is a good thing.

Earlier today I read this post by Eliot Horowitz, founder and CTO of MongoDB. Eliot titled the post "Innovate vs Appropriate" and talks about the importance of knowing when to come up with something new vs when to use the accepted tool, technique, or method. Eliot, of course is discussing this as it applies to MongoDB and it's well worth a read but it got me thinking about the ever popular need to "disrupt" education.