tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post7942448711449506679..comments2024-03-13T06:04:34.407-04:00Comments on The 21st Century Principal: Voucher and School Privatization Advocates Get What They Want in Demonization of TeachersJohn Robinson Ed.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14155145743617621924noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2158157279489866895.post-13531373029258052010-04-26T00:28:36.541-04:002010-04-26T00:28:36.541-04:00I think, sadly, this is the only explanation of th...I think, sadly, this is the only explanation of this policy.<br /><br />You did, however, forget one other piece of the puzzle that this solves... how many states across the country have mismanaged their state employee pension funds? Privatizing education and ending the defined benefit, government-run pension plans will solve problems that were created when we denied teachers a wage commensurate with the job and gave defined-benefit pensions instead... and then used the "surplus" in the pension funds to mask state deficits. <br /><br />What we are seeing now, in my opinion, is nothing less than the betrayal of public trust -- our own government is undermining its own system so that it can absolve itself of the obligation to education its children. Instead, government will become the block grant funder of a private educational system and all they will do is shuffle what schools in our poorest communities receive their accreditation, and every time the new "accountability" agency that is set up in this model says that a school that isn't making its numbers cannot receive vouchers -- thus shutting them down in our cities -- the politicians will use that as evidence that they are serious about education. <br /><br />All the while, our kids in our poorest communities will be shuffled from school to school, parents with a voucher check in hand.<br /><br />I keep wanting someone to tell me a better narrative to explain what we're seeing, and I don't want to be this cynical, but it's the only story that makes any sense. <br /><br />Or do people think that Newt Gingrich has suddenly become the champion of the underprivileged?Chris Lehmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02492590985930881814noreply@blogger.com