My friend James says:
OK, Hartmann is talking a lot today about education policies. He’s brought a right-winger on, who wants “vouchers.” I shouldn’t be surprised that pops up again, with Republicans in power.
Anyway, if you just want “private” businesses, then schools need to offer a product, and get paid by the consumer for it. Government should not be involved in financing private schools by vouchers.
The Public Schools need to remain, and those people who want those vouchers, want to “extract” that money from the public schools, and use it as a coupon for private schools, which is essentially just going to be giving people who already attend private schools, a huge benefit. And most of these are at least upper-middle class incomes, above sixty thousand a year.
So to get their voucher, which they claim they deserve, they will hurt public schools.
The government should have nothing to do with financing private schools, whether they call them Charter Schools, or “privatized” schools, or what they are called now, they are “private” because they pay for them, and have no government rules imposed on them.
Essentially were we to go to voucher schools, each student would provide their money, to a school–it’d be freedom to choose, so they’ll get to overcome integration, which they have always wanted to do. Worse, the rich folks that manage the school, like private prisons will have as their motivation, extracting as much profit, from the government money they are paid, as possible. Educating children will be secondary. So employees (teachers custodians, administrators) will be paid less, little to no money will be spent to update technologies needed, and they will simply be trying to pocket all the money they receive.
It is a bad move. Certainly we can talk about equalizing some of the worse schools, but solving the problems, many of them that come from the poverty of the parents of the kids attending the schools, or the unstable, perhaps dangerous atmosphere of some of the schools, or other problems that plague schools–and most of these are because of under-funding. But this is no solution, this is more madness, more policy that has proved to not educate children any better than public schools, and might in many cases end up being worse.
And it cuts demand, which as I keep saying, is the problem with our Economy, Demand, and distribution.
To which I reply:
If any of these people are Christians they have the Biblical duty to teach those amongst us; not profit off of their backs. Every child you teach can contribute to you later with: a laugh, opening a door, working for you, healing you, or burying you.
We have some Charter schools in New Mexico and they are gutting the central high schools where “the Others go.” So we will raise a generation of drop outs and that one janitor who can’t read labels (because of the education we gave him) will mix ammonia and clorox to mop the floor and leave it by the intake ducts of the HVAC system in his janitor’s closet and the Republicans on the school board will be killed at a board meeting. Karma…..
Trying to find my facebook link, but I’m beginning to wonder where I posted it.
[…] https://williamhenrymee.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/education-policy/ […]
Dear William,
Senate Democrats: Betsy Devos is not qualified to be secretary of education
Massive public opposition to Betsy DeVos is building. Already more than 220,000 CREDO members have signed our petition urging Senate Democrats to block and resist DeVos’ confirmation. Senate Republicans are feeling our pressure. They just delayed DeVos’ confirmation hearing by a week.
We have the momentum, but our work is not done. Congress must keep the U.S. Department of Education out of the hands of DeVos, an extreme right-wing bigot who has no relevant experience as an educator and did not attend or send her children to public school. Can you help us turn up the pressure?
Tell Senate Democrats: Block and resist Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as secretary of education. Click here to sign the petition.
DeVos is a right-wing voucher and charter school activist whose numerous projects include the disastrous effort to spread charters in Detroit, which failed to increase student achievement while allowing charters to operate with little accountability or oversight.1 She also has an appalling record on civil rights, which indicates she will be a threat to LGBTQ children, especially transgender students, who face prejudice, harassment and bullying in schools and suffer from higher rates of depression and suicide than non-LGBTQ classmates.
DeVos’ nomination for secretary of education is unacceptable, but the only way to block her nomination is if Senate Democrats push back with every tool at their disposal. Can you help make sure they act?
Tell Senate Democrats: Block and resist Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as secretary of education. Click here to sign the petition.
DeVos’ work to promote charters extends across the country but has been especially focused on her home state of Michigan. The results of charter school expansion in Michigan, and especially in Detroit, have been dismal, but DeVos and her family have still pushed to limit accountability and oversight of charters. While most other states monitor charters’ results, hold them accountable for poor performance and require them to renew their charters, schools in Michigan can operate as long as they want, and the state exercises minimal oversight.2
Just as troubling as DeVos’ record on charters are her efforts to promote vouchers, which would force states to spend education dollars to pay for children to attend private and religious schools. Data does not show that this strategy improves achievement for children who are historically underserved by public schools, and it dangerously blurs the line of separation between church and state.3 Some Democrats in Congress are pushing for payment of a delinquent $5.3 million dollar fine incurred by a DeVos-led PAC for giving $870,000 to an Ohio school-choice organization in clear violation of state election law.4 It’s a good first step. Now they need to do all they can to keep her from being confirmed.
DeVos’ record on civil rights is as appalling as her record on education. She has funded a number of anti-LGBTQ organizations that oppose marriage equality.5 She was also supportive of the legal case to overturn affirmative action in Michigan that went all the way to the Supreme Court and resulted in sweeping limits on race-based admissions policies at universities across the country.6
Equal access to high-quality education is one of the cornerstone promises of our democracy. We have a long way to go and much work to do before it’s a promise that is reliably and consistently fulfilled for children of color, children whose first language is not English and children living in poverty. Putting Betsy DeVos at the helm of the Department of Education puts the promise itself at risk.
Democrats must do everything they can to defend the Department of Education, starting with standing united against DeVos. Click the link below to sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/block_devos?t=7&akid=21176.10681440.YaRcrC
Thanks for everything you do,
Heidi Hess, Senior Campaign Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
References:
Douglas N. Harris, “Betsy DeVos and the Wrong Way to Fix Schools,” The New York Times, Nov, 25, 2016.
Valerie Strauss, “A sobering look at what Betsy DeVos did to education in Michigan — and what she might do as secretary of education,” Dec. 8, 2016.
Kristina Rizga, “Trump’s Billionaire Education Secretary Has Been Trying to Gut Public Schools for Years,” Mother Jones, Nov. 29, 2016.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Democratic senators press Trump’s education pick Betsy DeVos to pay years-old $5.3 million fine,” Washington Post, Dec. 14, 2016.
Nidhi Prakash, “Trump’s pick to run the department of education could spell disaster for LGBTQ students,” Fusion, Nov. 29, 2016.
Rock Docksai, “School Choice, But Much More: Making Sense of DeVos Family Philanthropy,” Inside Philanthropy, March 1, 2016.
Here is an article: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/trump-education-pick-plays-hardball-with-her-wealth/article_f64eb7ce-3d87-53a4-9070-d36ccc6e1db4.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/betsy-devos-christian-schools-vouchers-charter-education-secretary
The crafty GOP decided to take over school boards, dumb down textbooks and then do a rash of nonsense testing. Textbooks are a hundreds of million dollars a year prize. School districts dropped the classes like civics, music and PE and stuck to the 3r’s. Then later just “teaching the test.” This was done all at lucrative contracts to GOP donors. Bill Bennett (the $7 million Dollar Gambling Man and Reagan’s Education Secretary) was getting $14.9 million a year for his “help” in the test. For at least ten years. I think he should of volunteered his time.
Plus the “tests” had to be bought from the Bennett firm (whose two other partners got the same salary) for $200 each instead of photocopying them for less than a $1 each.
The GOP is readily destroying education because uneducated workers will be cheap workers. They will have no other choice to accept minimum wage or lower—and in the tRump era who will enforce Labor Department laws?