Even a former Bushie recognizes that we're going the wrong way on education

[MadHound]

Ravitch Warns Obama on Education Policy: 'Change Course Before it is Too Late"

Q) Why do you think your book became a best seller? What space is it filling? A) My book is in its 7th printing in its first three months and it continues to do well. The book has a couple of important pluses: As a historian of education, I am able to explain the historical background of many current policies; readers like that. Also, I write for non-specialists; I avoid jargon. Readers like that too.

I truly think that its popularity has been driven by teachers and parents who are looking for an alternative narrative about the current era of "school reform." Teachers and parents don't understand why President Obama latched onto charters and testing, and my book provides historical context. I have received literally hundreds of emails from teachers thanking me for giving them hope. I am not sure why they find it hopeful, because the situation these days looks hopeless.

As a historian, I cling to the belief that bad ideas eventually lose steam and that evidence will eventually prevail. So much is at stake -- really, our children and our future as a nation -- that we can't afford to lose hope, to stop pushing for a broader, more generous conception of education. We must stop blaming the schools and teachers for social conditions that are beyond their control. We need a far better vision of education than NCLB, the Race or Obama's Blueprint offers.
<http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/22-3>



Hopefully she's right, hopefully these bad ideas run out of steam. But as it stands now, an entire profession is under attack by this administration, and worse, an entire generation is being lost. This is our future we're talking about here, do we really want to continue to destroy our future?

[NJmaverick]

1. I am surprised you quote a former Bush admin as a source of good judgment

[MadHound]

2. It's amazing where one can find the truth,

From a former Bushie, printed on a Socialist website. Did you even read the piece, or are you just kneejerking again?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I trust her judgment completely

Read her book. She knows what she is talking about.

[Dinger]

3. K & R

But I'm feeling beaten, about to give up, but not yet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I don't know that we should call her a Bushie

She is a Democrat who worked in the US Dept of Education under Bush. And she left when she didn't like the direction the Feds were taking.

[MadHound]

6. Well, I put that out there since it was in the article

I am going to have to read this book, something to pick up next time at the book store.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. You can borrow mine

If you're coming this way let me know. I'll be glad to lend it to you.

I haven't been this inspired by a book on education since Kozol.

Ravitch is awesome. We're hearing rumors she may be at the AFT convention in Seattle. I certainly hope so. I'd love to hear her speak and shake her hand.

[tom_paine]

8. Destruction of education for the poor and lower middle class is obviously high on the Corporate

Agenda.

Both sides of Good Cop/Bad Cop are pushing it and hard. Bush and Obama.

You know where they more closely agree in policy - destroying public education, war, National Security, Civil Liberties, prosecuting whistleblowers, rolling back Social Security (look at the people Obama appointed to that commision starting with Social Security haters Simposn and Bowles) - is where the REAL action and agenda of Our Corporate and Aristocratic Masters is.

Unfortunately, one thing is clear now that agenda is going THROUGH.

Bad times ahead for us "Little People". It is about to go back (within no more than a century and probably an awful lot sooner) to what it was for most of the last 5000 years of human history.

I hope I am wrong, but the trends are quickening, it seems. Obama's embracing Bush Doctrine on Education is one more facet in the overall picture.

At least Obama is "Good Cop". I shudder to think what is going to happen when "Bad Cop" gets back in the saddle (may that time be at LEAST a decade in coming - though how can it with the Corporate M$M now fused with the RW Lie Machine most times)

[MadHound]

9. Sadly, I think you're right

This assault on public education, on education period, is a bipartisan effort. It is a huge pool of money that corporations want to get their greedy little hands on, and nobody is going to stop them at this point unless the people wake up. That may happen, but probably way to late.

[tom_paine]

10. There's no waking up - Corporate has a contingency plan

That's what the TeaBagger PsyOp is about Well, it's about alot of things, such as using the RW Lie Machine/Corporate M$M Fusion to pull the nation ever more Right-Authoritarian-ward.

But, in the end, if there's any hint that the American Subject Populace is waking up to who screwed them and what the game is about, the RW Lie Machine/Corporate M$M will redirect it to "blame/kill the Liberals"...or maybe just another War on Eastasia. Who can guess the details?

But the framework is there - as long as everything doesn't go to shit, The Corporate Aristocracy can now control large statistical majorities, so sophistanced is advertsiing, PR, marketing & mass psychology.

And if everything goes to shit, what's coming is likely much worse.

Let's hope THAT doesn't happen in the next 30 years, though it's very possible.

[MadHound]

11. Oh, sooner or later people wake up

You can't wipe out the entire middle class and expect a long term stable society. It's been shown time and again that without a middle class there is nothing preventing the poor from revolting and taking out the rich. The middle class is a vital buffer in any society.

The question is whether people will wake up before it's too late and the shit hits the fan. Probably not, but hey, I always wondered what it was like to watch an empire fall.

[stray cat]

12. What did the GOP do in 8 years that improved education

We do need a better vision but its not the one we have had for 10 years and one focused on real ideas to help students and not just unions.

People with money can afford to live in districts with good public schools - that is discrimination against poorer families and students who we gladly currently let rot in the worst of the worst public schools where students have a better chance of being killed in school then those who served on the front lines in Vietnam.