www.sfgate.com Fixing our failing schools

Fixing our failing schools:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed legislation to make California eligible for President Obama's 'Race to the Top' funding. The president's plan rewards states that have 'innovative' educational programs with funding for schools."



California's bill places parents in the driver's seat in terms of where their child attends school, focuses on the creation of charter schools and gives parents greater say in the hiring and retention of school staff.
Herein lies one of the principal reasons why California's educational programs have gone from No. 1 in the nation to 48th in the past four decades. Those who are the furthest removed from the classroom are the ones who create laws that impact our children's learning. Think tanks, special interest groups and politicians are the ones who have created one failed program after another over the past 40 years.
"Scientific research" and "education experts" have served to justify the "new math" of the 1960s, the "relevant education" of the 1970s, the "whole language" approach to reading of the 1980s, and the experiments with "higher learning expectations for children," charter schools, "high stakes testing," and small schools since the 1990s.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/28/ED4C1BP3TJ.DTL#ixzz0e0TofrUy