Asphyxiating Education

[Half-Century Man]

3. I think attitude is caused by our government being infected by business ideas.

I have always thought one of the biggest red flags about the qualification of a candidate is whether or not they ever earned an MBA. In spite of the assurances of those who wish to control government, business is nothing like government. It might be the antithesis of government; at least democratic government.
Business is concerned with extracting the most while expending the least (buy low, sell high). They are focused on mainly short term goals. There is a built in disposition to serve a master; be that master stockholders, (due to stock options frequently the company executives making the decisions) or an owner.
Democratic government shouldn't be extracting anything, but building a framework which allows the greatest amount of satisfaction for the greatest amount of people. While maintaining the best level of equality. Governmental goals should be hundreds of years long; or at least decades. There should be no masters, just participants, each worth the same amount.

We do not have that. We, once, were on the path to that.

Having suffered for many years under the inept hand of Corporate America, I recognize this administration's obsession with standardized testing as the product of Corporate obsession with benchmarks. The insane idea that a cookie cutter check point can be crammed onto every situation and produce reliable results. It doesn't work that well in the far more regulated and mature world of the workplace. So, expecting it to work in the exuberant dynamic world of a school is insane. But, it will produce information which can be interpreted in any number of ways. Remember, figures don't lie, but liars can figure.