After the Billionaires Kick Down Teachers and Students, Who Is Next?
After the Billionaires Kick Down Teachers and Students, Who Is Next?
by John Thompson
Commentator Jim Hightower’s metaphor nailed the latest assaults launched by the bubble-in school “reform” movement. The quotable Texan observes that a dog knows the difference between being stumbled over and being kicked.
Over the last 20 years ago, non-educators have stumbled over our troubled inner city schools. These elite do-gooders were shocked that poverty still existed. Because the post-modern world was bestowing great bounty on them, the “Billionaires Boys Club” assumed that poor children of color just needed to follow their footsteps into the digital economy. Without bothering to study the complex history of urban education, numbers-driven “reformers” adopted the venture capitalist’s model of “disruptive innovation.” These do-gooders made the snap judgment that the way to help kids was to destroy the system that they defined as the “status quo.”
So, with the best of intentions, these novices assumed the mantle of “accountability.” Market-driven “reformers” set out to destroy education schools, teachers’ due process, and local systems of governance. These accountability hawks had great political success, but educationally they failed. Corporate “reformers” never understood why it is easier to kick down a barn than to build one. So, tens of billions of dollars has been wasted