How an issue is framed is often crucial to its ultimate disposition. Who in their right mind, after all, can object to education "reform". But calling what Duncan, Obama and Jonathan Alter want to do to public ed , "reform" is like Bush and the Crew calling the carnage they created in 2002 " Operation Iraqi Freedom". People eventually will get wise but in the meantime the evildoers will do a lot of damage.
Anyway... "privatization" ( as an alternative term) is OK by me, since, while it's use is not *scrupulously* fair to those on the other side who claim not to be hostile to public ed ( but motivated instead by a desire to expand options for consumers), it pretty much captures the ideological essence of the "reform" movement: There can be no significant improvement without the involvement of educational... ahem... "entrepreneurs".
I was going to critique Jonathan Alter's latest column skewering teachers but I stumbled across this on the net and like it better than what I was going to say.
(BTW: did I mention that Alter, like Obama, Duncan, Rhee et al, went to *private* school. That is: before becoming experts on *public* school? And like the rest of the crew' he's never taught school?)
Enjoy. Can't wait to get back to class tomorrow so I can put my head down on the desk and sleep all day.
http://teacherscount.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/does-jonathan-alter-read-newsweek/Does Jonathan Alter Read Newsweek?
I don’t know where to start on Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter’s education. He is clearly an at risk journalist.
Had he read Anna Quindlen’s column in the same issue of Newseek, he would have learned what happens to successful teachers brave enough to try and truly educate. Had he read about Edison Schools, he would have learned about what happens when one tries to impose a cookie cutter system in education on a nationwide basis, a lesson on why national standards are a bad idea. Had he read “Students Observed to be on Task Less as Class Size Increases he would never have discounted class size as a meaningful improvement. Had he read about “How Performance Pay Studies Show Few Achievement Gains” he would not be recommending performance based pay. Had Jonathan Alter read “NAEP Gap Continuing For Charters” he would be reluctant to anoint Charter Schools as a superior system of education.
Jonathan Alter has not read much about education. As columnist who was once a student, but who does not teach in either elementary or high school, whether it be a suburban, rural, or urban, Jonathan Alter is an expert. Like most experts who don’t teach, he doesn’t recognize his ignorance.
Jonathan Alter has demonstrated he doesn’t know much about education yet he recommends a Charter School as a national model despite the fact it has only demonstrated success one demographic area, and there with privileges’ public schools do not enjoy. KIPP can remove students at will and they can require parental involvement. In short, KIPP teaches well behaved students with parental involvement. There are no greater indicators for success than the attributes KIPP requires. How does that make them great?
But had Alter read Qundlen’s column last week he would have seen what happens to teachers who act on their own to get parents involved. While Quindlen points out the problems associated with bureaucracy, Alter calls for more of it. Had Alter read “Changing The Odds” or just about anything on reducing the achievement gap he would have known the most important item in reducing the achievement gap is high quality early education.
By far my favorite Alter comment is when he quotes Andy Stern, head of the SEIU: “Education is like any business. You need a return on an investment.” My God, have these people not studied the history of what led to failure in our education system? Had Stern read the Rand Report on the school competitive model he would have known competition has no significant impact on education. It was exactly those words, “Return on Investment,” that endeared us to stop educating citizens and start educating employees, that is when we started building factory schools, that is when we combined school districts, forced busing, and disempowered parents. That is when class size increased and of course lawyers and politicians jumped in establishing everyone’s right to an education and suing when one’s right infringed on another’s right. Fear of lawsuits are the biggest impediment to creating meaningful (not physical) discipline in our schools. Fear of law suits are the dynamic preventing our schools from being safe. Fear of law suits are the number one reason we cannot create ideal learning environments in our schools.
Like Alter, many who are not familiar with education profess they know how to fix education. Truly to fix education we need to get business out, get the lawyers out, get the government out, and let educators establish rules and methodology schools will be run by. It is only fair if we want to hold teachers accountable that teachers have a say in the system. Currently teachers are being held accountable for failed policies designed and implemented by “education experts.” You wouldn’t let a bad Doctor operate on you twice, why let these experts design our education system again? Alter’s article, “Obama’s No-Brainer on Education,” demonstrates that like Alter, many of these experts are indeed no-brainers on education.
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