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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Schools Matter: Countering the No Excuses PR Machine

Schools Matter: Countering the No Excuses PR Machine

Countering the No Excuses PR Machine

The appeal of the No Excuses segregated chain gang schools for white conservative civil rights advocates (try Googling that phrase) has always been the total compliance behavioral regimen aimed to make those lazy and out-of-control negro children pay attention and work. For sure, there are no curriculum innovations, no instructional breakthroughs, and certainly no assessment experimentation that excites the Fisher or Walton Foundation to cough up between 40 and 60 million dollars each to fund these charter chains. It is, rather, an old-fashioned notion that is as American as apple pie and Sunday lynchings: working hard and keeping your mouth shut will earn you a place at the master's table, or at least a job cleaning up one of his box stores.

The innovation, real innovation, comes in the form of off-the-charts pay for school CEOs, once known as