A BIG SPOONFUL OF THIS WAR ON TEACHERS
"There is something fundamentally anti-democratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private foundations run by society's wealthiest people. When the wealthiest of these foundations are joined in common purpose, they represent an unusually powerful force that is beyond the reach of democratic institutions. ..The foundations demand that public schools and teachers be held accountable for performance, but they themselves are accountable to no one. If their plans fail, no sanctions are levied against them. They are bastions of unaccountability." — Diane Ravitch (The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education) On the face of it, arguments that call for more accountability, greater efficiency and better outcomes make good sense. When those arguments were first offered to support Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program, they