How Democrats Are Abandoning the Most Vulnerable in Our Public Schools
One wonders what late Senator Ted Kennedy would make of the current school reform movement. The senate icon, who is widely seen as the father and champion of special education in the nation’s public schools, died in 2009 before folks like Michelle Rhee and the rich guys of Democrats for Education Reform took to the national stage. Kennedy’s co-sponsorship in 1975 of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) shifted the way that the nation’s disabled and disadvantaged children were treated in public schools across the nation. In no way, shape or form is IDEA flawless, but the spirit and cost of the new policies which emerged still are accepted by the American sense of compassion.
Sadly, today’s education reform movement is in many ways ignoring these most vulnerable children. High stakes testing, charter school expansion and tax credit voucher schemes advance as though these kids do not exist. Democrats have long assumed - and in many cases justifiably – to be the protectors of these children. Lets examine why this is no longer the case.
No better place to start in any discussion of education policy involves the most polarizing figure in former DC school chancellor turned super-lobbyist, Michelle Rhee. And no more effective take on Rhee exists than in this recent observation by the nation’s most influential champion of public schools in Diane Ravitch.
Sadly, today’s education reform movement is in many ways ignoring these most vulnerable children. High stakes testing, charter school expansion and tax credit voucher schemes advance as though these kids do not exist. Democrats have long assumed - and in many cases justifiably – to be the protectors of these children. Lets examine why this is no longer the case.
No better place to start in any discussion of education policy involves the most polarizing figure in former DC school chancellor turned super-lobbyist, Michelle Rhee. And no more effective take on Rhee exists than in this recent observation by the nation’s most influential champion of public schools in Diane Ravitch.
I am trying to understand Michelle Rhee. She has allied herself with the most right-wing governors