Boycott Newsweek Disinfomercials
"There just is very little evidence in terms of what works in quickly turning around a persistently low-performing school," said Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, a Brookings Institution scholar who oversaw education research under President George W. Bush. --Washington PostIf Obama is willing to go in the dark where even Bush feared to tread, and if Arne Duncan is reckless enough to proceed where even Margaret Spelling drew the line, you can bet that there is enough corporate-government money in the current reform school agenda to buy the media and the research and the politicians needed to push forward with the continued demolition of American public education.
The only problem: no one with any brains believes any of the Gates-Broad propaganda, and resentment against the Oligarchs is growing as the force of their iron fists becomes felt. With the news last week that the Borg might have blinked in Central Falls, and with the very public defection of Diane Ravitch from the deformer ranks, Gates and Broad and paying big bucks to yellow rags likeNewsweek to print lengthy disinfomercials in support of the demolition of public schools.
Newsweek has brought out top guns Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert to offer two such blatantly-biased features in the same issue that they would make Armstrong Williams blush. Check outthe screeching pic of union leader, Weingarten, next to the calm resolve of the Oligarchs' poster girl, Michelle Rhee. A couple of short samples will suffice:
The relative decline of American education at the elementary- and high-school levels has long been a national embarrassment as well as a threat to the nation's future. Once