The Shame of Our Nation
Posted: 10/19/2013 1:09 pm
Remember all the times that "reformers" like Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Wendy Kopp, and Joel Klein have said that the answer to poverty is to "fix" schools first? Remember their claims that school reform (more testing, more charters, more inexperienced teachers, larger classes, more technology) would vanquish poverty? For the past decade, our society has followed their advice, pouring billions into the pockets of the testing industry, consultants, and technology companies, as well as the over-hyped charter industry, Teach for America, and the multi-billion-dollar search for a surefire metric to evaluate teachers.
But what if they are wrong? What if all those billions were wasted on their pet projects, ambitions, and hunches, while child poverty kept growing?
The latest study, reported by Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post, reports a staggering increase in child poverty across the nation. The majority of public school students in the