Marie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia

Marie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia:

School 'Choice' in Trumplandia

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Like so many other 'reformers', DeVos will dangle the carrots of 'choice' and vouchers in front of urban parents, and public education as we know it will end—at least in the inner cities where parents have little say. She's already wreaked havoc in Detroit, a city that doesn't need one more ounce of despair. Valerie Strauss writes,

In Detroit, parents of school-age children have plenty of choices, thanks to the nation’s largest urban network of charter schools. 

What remains in short supply is quality.
... 

This deeply dysfunctional educational landscape — where failure is rewarded with opportunities for expansion and “choice” means the opposite for tens of thousands of children — is no accident. It was created by an ideological lobby that has zealously championed free-market education reform for decades, with little regard for the outcome.  

And at the center of that lobby is Betsy DeVos, the west Michigan advocate whose family has contributed millions of dollars to the cause of school choice and unregulated charter expansion throughout Michigan.

'Choice' connotes available options, but for many trapped in 'reform land', there really are none.

When state governments deliberately underfundMarie Corfield: School 'Choice' in Trumplandia: