Capitalism : Bottled Water : : Democrats : Education Reform
The Obama administration’s education reform policy is a scam, just like bottled water – a capitalist scheme to manufacture markets through the privatization of public wealth.
Race to the Top and the ESEA Blueprint are education “reform” mechanisms that use test scores to label schools as failing, thereby creating incentives for states to relax charter school regulations, establish common standards, set up expensive data tracking systems to determine which teachers get merit pay, and which get the harsh reform measures – while doing nothing to improve curriculum and instruction, teacher preparation, or physical conditions in the schools themselves.
It’s like water bottling companies who exploit people’s misgivings about impure drinking water – water that may have been degraded through corporate negligence – so they can package and sell an alternative which is often just tap water, the very same water they’ve convinced people they should avoid.
How do they get away with this? According to Annie Leonard, it’s simple. “Scaring us, seducing us, and misleading us – these strategies are all core parts of manufacturing demand.”
It’s all here, in The Story of Bottled Water:
I don’t see any other way to look at what’s going on in schools now. We shouldn’t buy it.
Great post and analogy, Doug. Thanks.
I’ve said before that the basic plan is this: starve the system, prove that the starving system is inadequate, punish the system for its inadequacy, repeat until you have enough support to destroy the system completely and thereby justify privatization.
Great thinking……this will really help to maintain the quality of education…Nice article………
Great analogy – I had explained it to others that corporate America was trying to get their cup under the “faucet” with public school districts. Even if they can just get a juice glass full of the money they will experience a financial boom.
The problem with the analogy is there are still kids that aren’t served well in the public system that need other options. I told you to look at a good deal of options that from my experience (worked at a special needs summer camp a few years ago, a lot of the kids there went to them, either Monarch Academy or any of a number of them in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area) they work a lot better, and in the long run are a lot cheaper (individiual aides cost a lot more money).
I think a better analogy would be comparing it to health food stores. Yea, for most those are the exact same products, but for some that need say a glutien free diet or the like it is a life saver.
Beyond that you mention teacher preperation (which in my experience has just gotten better over the past decade) but lets focus on that for a second. I think 95% of the problem when it comes to teachers working with special needs kids is they don’t have enough education in how to do this. My solution is to make all teachers who work with special needs students (which is all teachers) take 12 credit hours in practices of special education courses. All current teachers who do not have said courses have 3 years to get them or lose licensure. Do you think teacher’s unions will go for my teacher preperation plan?
@Endersdragon: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the idea of requiring teachers to have focused training to more effectively work with “X” type of student, particularly when/if “X” type is prevalent within a given school district. But when should the teacher take the time to do this? And who will pay for the courses? And given the proliferation of “types,” how many would be enough?
The system needs to be very careful about how many requirements it piles on the backs of teachers without offering any help in lifting those burdens. That’s a huge (HUGE) problem with the current system already: teachers are expected to be the one-stop solution to the problems of students everywhere … and with very little outside help or extrinsic compensation.
My point exactly, thats why I think school choice is a much better idea. I have a friend that started going to a school made just for special needs kids this year. He is doing so much better and learning so much more. Why, A) he is around kids that are like him (helps SOOOOOOOOOO much) and B) he is around teachers that specialize in special needs kids (helps SOOOOOOOOOO much more). Sadly, the finicial expenitures that his mom is paying makes the school impossible to afford, but it would still be cheaper to the government then to put him in public school. When the need is legimate, lets fulfil it, and not just give it to the rich.