Reformers Could Use a History Lesson
We are teacher educators who have one eye on schooling in the present and the other on the history of education. We can’t help noticing that while many contemporary reform proposals are presented as radically novel, in fact, they have historical precedents.
For example, supporters of school vouchers rarely acknowledge that Southern legislatures initiated voucher programs to fund white students’ attendance at private schools that were exempt from the Brown v Board of Education integration. Since they ignore that history, proponents are not required to explain similarities or differences between the segregating effects of those vouchers and the ones they support.
Some reformers present corporation leaders’ involvement in educational reform as if it was an entirely new phenomenon. Therefore, they are not pressed to address past instances of business engagement with schools and the concerns that arose about the influence of people whose primary public function was the creation of
For example, supporters of school vouchers rarely acknowledge that Southern legislatures initiated voucher programs to fund white students’ attendance at private schools that were exempt from the Brown v Board of Education integration. Since they ignore that history, proponents are not required to explain similarities or differences between the segregating effects of those vouchers and the ones they support.
Some reformers present corporation leaders’ involvement in educational reform as if it was an entirely new phenomenon. Therefore, they are not pressed to address past instances of business engagement with schools and the concerns that arose about the influence of people whose primary public function was the creation of