Five Harmful “Reform” Ideas
When you read Bruce Baker’s work, you hear a fresh and thoughtful voice in the education debates.
I wish that President Obama was listening to him instead of the number-crunchers now in control of the U.S. Department of Education.
Bruce Baker is an economist of education at Rutgers University. Unlike many economists, he was a teacher in public and private schools before he became an academic. So he has a depth of knowledge and understanding and empathy that many others in his field lack.
In his latest blog, he reviews some of the truly terrible reform ideas of the day.
The Perils of Privatization
Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has an important article in the New York Times. Krugman reflects on a major investigative series in the newspaper about privatized prisons in New Jersey, run by for-profit corporations..
The prisons described in the articles are akin to “hell on earth — an understaffed, poorly run system, with a demoralized work force...”
Krugman says we should read the story in the “broader context of a nationwide drive on the part of America’s right to privatize government functions, very much including the operation of prisons.”
Aside from making money, you might think that the motivation for privatization is the conservatives’ “belief in the magic of the marketplace, in the superiority of free-market competition over government planning. And that’s
Here Are Some Fun Websites
Readers sent these to me.
I liked them.
I think you will like them too.
Daniel Pink says really useful things about motivation here. I enjoyed his book Drive and recommend it.
This one explains research showing how people can be identified by the way they fill in their Scantron bubbles. Isn’t it good to know that the bubble tests have an auxiliary value?
This one explains how some of our most important problems get solved while we aren’t thinking about them.
The point is that some really creative thinking happens when we are daydreaming or gardening or dozing or
A Scholar in Michigan Defends the Schools
I have been hoping that professors would step up and join the struggle to save our nation’s public schools from the stealth attacks on them. I don’t know if I can use the word stealth any more. It’s out inrt he open, as the privatizers grow bolder and more confident. What other political movement can claim bipartisan support, even as it seeks to destroy a basic public institution?
Rodney Clarken, a teacher educator in Michigan, stepped up to the plate. He was outraged by the constant attacks on his students, his graduates, and the schools they work in. He wrote the following comment, which includes a link to his book refuting the attacks. I urge you to read it.
Rodney Clarken, a teacher educator in Michigan, stepped up to the plate. He was outraged by the constant attacks on his students, his graduates, and the schools they work in. He wrote the following comment, which includes a link to his book refuting the attacks. I urge you to read it.
I began sharing some reactions to Michigan governor’s special message on education reform with the teacher education faculty at my university. Since then it has morphed into a book that I have published online called Education Under Attack-What Schools Can and Cannot Do and How Popular |
Will This North Carolina Judge Protect the State’s Children?
On Monday, a Superior Court judge in Wake County, North Carolina, will decide whether to permit the for-profit corporation K12 to open an online charter school for the state of North Carolina. K12 received preliminary approval from the Cabarrus school district, after K12 promised the district 4 percent of its revenues. That’s a nice commission for this little district but a disservice to the other children of North Carolina.
The majority of school boards in the state oppose the online school, because its revenues will come directly out of their public school budgets. By opening this school, students across the state will have more crowded classrooms and fewer resources.
Numerous studies have shown that online schools get worse results than brick-and-mortar schools. Their
The majority of school boards in the state oppose the online school, because its revenues will come directly out of their public school budgets. By opening this school, students across the state will have more crowded classrooms and fewer resources.
Numerous studies have shown that online schools get worse results than brick-and-mortar schools. Their
