The “dumbing” of America has just about
reached its goal!
I have been writing about this very subject
now for about five years. My first stab at it was an article concerning
Michelle Rhee and her attempt to transform our Nation’s school system. The more
I
researched this woman, the more skeptical I became about her motives and her
process. It soon
became clear to me that she was off on the wrong track. She
neglected to link Corporate America
and its money and power to the Public
Education System in this Country. If I didn’t feel that this
phenomenon was
unremarkable, I wouldn’t have given it much ink. I could make a long story of
it,
here, but I will spare you the drudgery.
In a nutshell, my first-hand experience with
this problem
happened when I was able to continue my “higher” education at the
ripe old age of forty three. I had
always felt that I had received a better
than average education throughout my youth. It wasn’t until I encountered
students at the college level that were about half my age that I realized just
how good my childhood education was.
I swear on a stack of
cheeseburgers that none of these “kids” could put a complete thought down on paper.
They couldn’t do Mathematics without a calculator. They had absolutely no idea
what was happening socially, economically, or politically in this Country, not
to mention the rest of the World. And, so it was that from that point on I was
very aware that something sinister and counterproductive was going on with our
Public School System. Whenever I see the likes of this “dumbing” of America, I
have to ask who’s pulling the strings;
who’s spending the money; and, who are
the Power Brokers behind the scenes.
The article, below, comes to much the same
conclusion as I did. Corporate
America has had their sleazy little fingers in
the pie for some forty years.
They have executed the old “divide and conquer”
theory by creating a Nation
of numbskulls who will drink their Kool-Aide, and
toe the line. What better
Labor Force could any CEO want?
Monday, 18 November
2013 08:50
The Fraudulent 1%
Campaign to Stigmatize Public Schools as "Socialist Failures"
PAUL
BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Right
Wing Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast called the public school system a "socialist
regime." Michelle Rhee cautions us against commending students for their
'participation' in sports and other activities.Privatizers believe that any form of working together as a community is
anti-American. To them, individual achievement is all that matters. They're now
applying their winner-take-all profit motive to our children.
We're Sliding Backwards, Towards "Separate and Unequal"
In 1954, the Supreme Court decision in Brown
vs. the Board of Education seemed to place our country on the right
track. Chief Justice Earl Warren said that education "is a right which
must be made available to all on equal terms." Thurgood Marshall insisted
on "the right of every American to an equal start in life."
But then we got derailed. We've become a nation of inequality, worse than ever
before, worse than during the racist "separate but equal" policy
of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA shows that "segregated schools are
systematically linked to unequal educational opportunities." The Economic Policy Institute tells us that "African American students are more
isolated than they were 40 years ago."
The privatizers clamor for vouchers and charters to improve education, but such
methods generally don't serve those who need it most. According to a Center on Education Policy report,
private schools serve 12 percent of the nation's elementary and secondary
students, but only one percent of disabled students. Forty-three percent of
public school students are from minority families, compared to 24% of private
school students.
Meanwhile, as teachers continue to get blamed, the Census Bureau tells
us that an incredible 38 percent of black children live in poverty.
The Underprivileged Have Been Cheated Out Of Taxes
A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
(CBPP) report revealed that total K-12 education cuts for fiscal 2012 were
about $12.7 billion.
Almost 90 percent
of K-12 funding comes from state and local taxes. But in 2011 and
2012, 155 of the largest U.S. corporations paid only about half of their required
state taxes. That comes to $14 billion per year in unpaid
taxes, more than the K-12 cuts.
Untaxed and Unqualified Foundations Want To "Save Our Schools"
The "starve the beast" mentality
allows the privatizers to claim that our "Soviet-style" schools don't work, and that a business approach must be
used instead. Philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad and Michael
Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family, who have little Educational experience
among them, and who have little accountability to
the public, are promoting "education reform" with lots of
standardized testing.
But according to the National Research Council,
"The tests that are typically used to measure performance in education
fall short of providing a complete measure of desired educational outcomes in
many ways." Diane Ravitch notes that the test-based Common Core standards were
developed by a Gates-funded organization with almost no public input. Desperate
states had to adopt the standards to get funding.
Bill Gates may be well-intentioned, but he's a tech guy, and his programming of
children into educational objects is disturbing. One of his ideas is to videotape
teachers and then analyze their performances.
The means of choosing 'analysts' is unclear. Another Gates idea is the Galvanic Skin Response bracelet, which would be attached to a child to measure
classroom engagement, and ultimately gauge teacher performance. It all sounds like
a drug company's test lab.
As noted by Ravitch and others, philanthropic organizations tend to contribute to
"like-minded entities," which are likely to exclude representatives of the
neediest community organizations. They are also tax-exempt. And when
educational experiments go wrong, they can just leave their mess behind and move
on
to their next project.
Getting Past Our "Exceptionalism"
If we're willing to look beyond our borders
for help, we will see the short-sightedness of our educational
"reforms." Finland's schools were considered mediocre
30 years ago, but they've achieved a
remarkable turnaround
by
essentially challenging their teachers before they're entrusted with the
welfare of the children. Most Finnish teachers are unionized, and they undergo
rigorous masters-level training to ensure proficiency in the teaching profession,
which is held in the same high esteem as law and medicine. In keeping with this
respect for learning, government funding is applied equally
to all schools, classes in the arts are available to all
students, and tuition is free.
As a result, Finnish students, who are not subjected to standardized
testing, finish at or near the top of international comparisons for reading, math, and science.
It's not just Finland with such impressive results. Research at the National
Center on Education and the Economy has confirmed that educational systems in Japan, Shanghai, and
Ontario, Canada have prospered with an emphasis on the preparation of teachers for
the essential task of instructing their young people.
A Strong Community Leads To Individual Success
George Lakoff summarizes: "The Public provides
freedom...Individualism begins after the roads are built, after individualists
have had an education, after medical research has cured their diseases...
Public education is vital to the promise of equal opportunity for all. But it
will only succeed if we work together as a community, and stop listening to the
voices of profit and inexperience.
Paul
Buchheit
7355 W
Ibsen
Chicago
IL 60631
Paul
Buchheit is a college teacher, a writer for progressive publications, and the
founder and developer of social justice and educational websites
(UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org).paul@UsAgainstGreed.org
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