SALON: Education “reform’s” big lie: The real reason right has declared war on our public schools

[yurbud]

The profound corruption and failure of corporate-driven K-12 education reform is getting more and more attention in the media.

Even grassroots CONSERVATIVES chafe at the Common Core scam that is more about standardizing curriculum so vendors don't have make different textbooks for different states (and so Pearson can profit from selling materials and tests based on it).

I would like to send my kid to public schools, but my wife is a public school teacher who sees first hand the overcrowded classrooms, the narrowing of the curriculum to a cult-like focus on "the test, the results of which are used to punish teachers and schools rather than give them the resources they need to succeed. Because she sees that, my wife absolutely refuses to send our child to public school, and I have to agree.

So we spend money we could be using to buy a house or save for our child's education to send her to a private school.

This is insane. Congress and our Democratic president have so deformed our public schools that they can't do their job.

If the Democratic Party doesn't change course and admit this policy is a colossal failure, they could well see an American Syriza rise up on their left, and do to them when the Republicans did to the Whigs 150 years ago.

Reform (noun): a policy that is designed to undermine the effectiveness of a public institution in a way that generates private gains.

Reform (verb): to make something worse.

When did reform become a dirty word? Thirty years of education reform have brought a barren, test-bound curriculum that stigmatizes students, vilifies teachers, and encourages administrators to commit wholesale fraud in order to hit the testing goals that have been set for them. Strangely, reform has gone from being a progressive cause to being a conservative curse. It used to be that good people pursued reform to make the world a better place, usually by bringing public services under transparent, meritocratic, democratically governed public control. Today, reform more often involves firing people and dismantling public services in the pursuit of private gain. Where did it all go so wrong? Who stole our ever-progressing public sector, and in the process stole one of our most effective words for improving it?

At least so far as education reform is concerned, the answer is clear. The current age of education reform can be traced to the landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, subtitled “The Imperative for Educational Reform.” Future dictionaries may mark this report as the turning point when the definition of reform changed from cause to a curse. In 1981 Ronald Reagan’s first Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell appointed an 18-person commission to look into the state of US schools. He charged the commission with addressing “the widespread public perception that something is seriously remiss in our educational system.” The commission included 12 administrators, 1 businessperson, 1 chemist, 1 physicist, 1 politician, 1 conservative activist, and 1 teacher. No students or recent graduates. No everyday parents. No representatives of parents’ organizations. No social workers, school psychologists, or guidance counselors. No representatives of teacher’s unions (God forbid). Just one practicing teacher and not a single academic expert on education.

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[AuntPatsy]

1. Bookmarking

[on point]

2. The conservatives started trying to destroy public schools when religion was banned

That in my mind is the start. If we can't have the bible in the schools then we will destroy them in order to create public support for private schools where we can teach religion and no science.

[yurbud]

3. unfortunately, they discovered an even more powerful motive: $600 billion spend on K-12 public ed

whenever they see a big pot of money that isn't being diverted to the pockets of the rich, they decide to do something about it.

Unfortunately, on this issue, most Democratic politicians are on board too.

[Igel]

4. The previous "era" of reforms hadn't proved very successful.

That's the nasty truth of the matter: Every attempt at reform has played around at the margins, largely because many of the central issues are so wrapped in political peril that few politicians dare to approach them.

The messiah-envy that many reformers have also plays into this. So many education reformers are convinced that they and their ideas are the only ones able to save millions of kids from ______________ (poverty, penury, racism, various -obias and other -isms, ignorance, themselves, their parents, society ... Pick your poison).

[yurbud]

5. part of the fix isn't in education at all. If kids are hungry, don't know where their next meal is

going to come from, etc. they are going to have a hard time learning.

[yurbud]

6. this era of reform differs in that it isn't a well-meaning failure

the real goal was profit from the start, and the quality of results was secondary so long as corrupt politicians kept the lucrative contracts coming.

[libodem]

7. K&R

Bookmarked.

[world wide wally]

8. I always remind people that prior to the time Reagan urged "a Nation At Risk" to be

published in order to create this "manufactured" crisis in education, the United States lead the world in virtually everything. We were world's true military superpower, we were the first in space, we lead the world in food production, manufacturing and technology. And about 95% of Americans were educated in public schools.
Thanks, Reagan.