OntheWilderSide

All my life, public schools have been holding bake sales to pay for basics, teachers have been buying class supplies, and the “great day” longed for in that classic bumper sticker remains elusive: “It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”

Reform after reform churns through our schools, imposed on our kids. Teachers grit their teeth, adjust to the latest “new math” or standardization fad, until it becomes discredited or passé the next one comes along.

This time is different, though: the reformers seem to want nothing less than catastrophe and absolutes, and if they don’t occur naturally like Katrina, the ed reformers are willing to create disaster themselves — mass firings of teachers in D.C. by School Chancellor Michelle Rhee (though she may be out of a job soon herself); the firing of the entire staff of a high school in Central Falls, R.I.; perfectly good principals fired — sacrificed because President Bush’s malingering No Child Left Behind policy demands that someone pay if a school isn’t providing the expected test scores. The reformers also like to vilify teachers under the guise of “accountability.” In at least one terrible case, it is clear the “teacher effectiveness” storm-troopers have gone too far.

via The Shocking Doctrine of Ed Reform Laid Bare by NBC | Naomi Klein.

Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, children, Education, media, News Tagged: | Air Force, Education, Education reform, Educators, Michelle Rhee, Naomi Klein, NBC, united states