Ed Notes Online: What Happened to Public Education on Election Night?

Ed Notes Online: What Happened to Public Education on Election Night?:

What Happened to Public Education on Election Night?

by ed notes online

The Always Amazing Joanne Barkan Does it Again

Dissent: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/what-happened-to-public-education-on-election-night

By Joanne Barkan - November 26, 2012

Barack Obama’s K-12 “reform” policies have brought misery to public schools across the country: more standardized testing, faulty evaluations for teachers based on student test scores, more public schools shut down rather than improved, more privately managed and for-profit charter schools soaking up tax dollars but providing little improvement, more money wasted on unproven computer-based instruction, and more opportunities for private foundations to steer public policy. Obama’s agenda has also fortified a crazy-quilt political coalition on education that stretches from centrist ed-reform functionaries to conservatives aiming to undermine unions and privatize public schools to right-wingers seeking tax dollars for religious charters. Mitt Romney’s education program was worse in only one significant way: Romney also supported vouchers that allow parents to take their per-child public-education funding to private schools, including religious schools.

After the November 6 elections, public school supporters speculated about (hoped for) a change in direction in Obama’s second term. Unfortunately, there’s no reason to expect a shift. By the time Obama launched his first