WHY NOW ?
Thirty-five to forty years ago, before there was an “education crisis”, I was teaching in the inner city of Chicago. Teacher unions were never criticized, and teachers were respected and never bashed. Inner city students were dropping out, failing at a great rate, starting school unprepared, and attending the worst schools imaginable. Test scores were low and everyone understood why and no one ever blamed the teachers. All of the teachers in the inner city were screaming about more funding, better schools and longing for any help we could get. We screamed about the need for early childhood education for our students, and the federal government answered when Ronald Reagan vetoed money for “Head Start”, what would have been one of the first attempts at getting inner city preschoolers prepared for school. In short, no one seemed to care and politicians only paid lip service to what all of us knew as the disaster that was going on in our inner city schools.
I find it interesting now that the political party that went out of its way to impede any possible help for inner city schools years ago, is suddenly so concerned about an “education crisis” and how we must solve all our inner city problems by destroying teacher unions, cutting teacher salaries and benefits, and starting charter schools. Our inner city school problems have been there for decades. Why now is a particular political party so concerned
I find it interesting now that the political party that went out of its way to impede any possible help for inner city schools years ago, is suddenly so concerned about an “education crisis” and how we must solve all our inner city problems by destroying teacher unions, cutting teacher salaries and benefits, and starting charter schools. Our inner city school problems have been there for decades. Why now is a particular political party so concerned