Lessons from Chicago: Good Reform, Bad Reform?
This commentary was written by Kristin, one of our contributors.
Dora
Lessons From Chicago: Good Reform, Bad Reform?
Talking with other parents about the corporate-funded “education reform” that’s currently taking place in the United States, I have been really surprised to the extent at which other parents – parents I respect – support policies that I see as extremely destructive to education in general. While I see charter schools, increased standardized testing, and replacement of certified teachers with Teach for America recruits as harming our children, others see them as desperately needed solution for longstanding inequalities in education. Why the difference?
Part of the answer is that a lot of money has been put into movies and news articles that support these reforms. It’s really surprising, once you start to follow the money, how many billionaires and corporations have been putting grant money into public relations campaigns, otherwise known as propaganda.
But that’s not the whole answer. Public schools are failing many of our children, and we know it. How could we