“A self-fulfilling conflict of interest”: Charter schools, testing mania, and Arne Duncan
Rep. Raul Grijalva sounds off to Salon on starved public schools and White House's "market-based philosophy"
Obama’s education secretary is “a market-based person,” his education policy manifests a “market-based philosophy,” and “we continue to starve public schools,” the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus charged in an interview Wednesday afternoon.
The privatization of education “began as driven by ideology, but now [it’s] getting momentum because of the financial aspects,” Rep. Raul Grijalva argued to Salon. The Arizona Democrat called charter schools “a step towards” privatization, called the Chicago teachers’ strike a “necessary pushback” and warned of a “self-fulfilling conflict of interest.” A condensed version of our conversation follows.
You were the first congressman to echo a call from the Network for Public Education for hearings on standardized testing, saying it’s critical to hold hearings on what you called “mandatory testing and privatization efforts” and “the dismantling of public education.” What do you want those hearings to accomplish?
I want them to answer some very fundamental questions, Josh. You know, the education committee has talked about a lot of issues that have minimal consequence to public education …
One of the things driving, right now, education is … mandatory testing … the frequency, the quantity of the testing that’s going on …
I understand accountability. I don’t have a problem with testing as a teaching tool, to help to guide the improvement in children. But what’s happened is the standardized testing has become the end-all-be-all in terms of curriculum, in terms of how you prepare students for the future.
And I think that issues related to what these tests are, how we are impacting communities that “A self-fulfilling conflict of interest”: Charter schools, testing mania, and Arne Duncan - Salon.com: