Stephen Downes

I still don't understand the nuances behind Scholastic's censorship of an education blog. Among others, Doug Noon comments on "the disappearance of Marc Dean Millot's post from Alexander Russo's TWIE (This Week in Education). Here's the post that was pulled. Millot, unfortunately, writes like the lawyer he is, meaning that his explanation of the matter (part one, part two, part three forthcoming on Tuttle) is incomprehensible. But I do understand that the issue is about connections and influence, and that Scholastic is up to its armpits in educational policy and politics. And as Noon notes, "another test of Alexander Russo's editorial independence presents itself" as "Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines earned more than $150,000 last year for serving on the board of one of the nation's leading educational publishing companies, a firm with more than $16 million in contracts with the school district over the last five years." That company? Scholastic.