Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's plan for education reform takes the wrong path (opinion from Richard Franklin and Vi Parramore)
By Richard Franklin and Vi Parramore
Nothing is more important for the future of our children and, frankly, our democracy, than getting public education right.Since the 1983 release of the National Commission on Excellence in Education’s “A Nation at Risk” report, there has been a sense of urgency to improve our public schools and reduce the achievement gap.
Urgency is good if it leads us down the path to great public schools for all children. But sadly, the urgency has been used to fixate on testing, starve public schools with austerity budgets and privatize public schools through vouchers and charters.
None of these so-called reforms has moved the needle in a positive direction. It’s outrageous that outside lobbyists peddle this long-expired brand of education to communities with the message that it will be the elixir for what ails their public schools. We want what works for Alabama students, not what works for the lobbyists and the corporations promoting these “reforms.”
We need to reclaim the promise of public education, which is under attack by those who think the answer revolves around more testing and less teaching; ideology over evidence; privatizing, not fixing, public schools; and sanctions based on test scores,