How the Democratic Party Became an Enemy of Public Education
Perhaps the title “WHO influenced the Democratic Party into becoming an enemy of public education?” would more accurately represent the subject here.
But the reason for the title came from an article in my “To Read” file. “How to Destroy a Public-School System,” a 2014 article, describes a scenario we should all be familiar with by now. Perhaps that is why I had set it aside, thinking I knew it all. I don’t; we don’t.
We know all about —
“the designation of neighborhood schools as ‘failing’ under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)…” followed by the “turnaround” or take-over by charter schools.
But do we know the depth of the intentional under-funding of public schools in order to create a market for private-sector education reforms?
Private sector — for-profit (like Edison) charter schools or non-profit (like Mastery) charters — it doesn’t matter. They are private entities. And privatization is crushing the chance for more effective public-sector education reform to be utilized.
The private-sector reforms are politically and financially driven. The public has little input or recourse when those reforms are harmful to our schools.
So here’s how it went in Philadelphia as described in 2014.
December 21, 2001, Philadelphia, State takeover of Philly’s schools went into effect … “at the time, the largest experiment in privatization—in the history of US public education. The message was clear: publicHow the Democratic Party Became an Enemy of Public Education - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People:
