Schneider offers a capsule of education history and concludes:
“When critics contend that America’s public schools are preparing students for the jobs of the past, they are engaging in a kind of rhetorical feint. The implication is that today’s students are already being trained for work, and that such a focus has always been an aim of schooling. It suggests that vocational training is something that Americans broadly agree upon, and that is simply in need of an update.
“In reality, workforce preparation would represent a significant shift in the mission of schools. President Donald Trump made this shift plain in 2018 when he unveiled a plan to combine the Department of Education with the Department of Labor into a new agency called the Department of Education and the Workforce. (There seems to be little movement on the proposal since it was announced.)
“Jobs certainly matter, and the future labor productivity of today’s students will impact the entire economy. Yet even if schools could be reoriented to focus effectively on job training, the result would hardly be an unqualified good. Any shift in the present orientation of schools will come at the expense of school activities organized around the preservation of rights and liberties, as well as the inherent value of education. By and large, Americans of the past were unwilling to make that trade-off. If they’re aware of what’s happening, Americans of the present may be no different.”
in the past, vocational training was often designed to prepare students for occupations that would soon be obsolete.
Blogger Andy Spears reports that an admitted sex offender in the legislature has a key role in shaping education policy. He wrote: Yesterday, the House Education Administration Subcommittee met for the first time. The meeting was the first chaired by admitted sex offender David Byrd. Readers will recall that while both former House Speaker Beth Harwell and current Lt. Governor Randy McNally calle
Dutch historian Rutger Bergman stunned the super-elite at the World Economic Forum at Davos by telling them that the biggest problem in the world today is the refusal of the richest to pay their fair share of taxes. He said that listening totheir discussions was akin to a fireman’s conference that never mentioned water. He became an instant folk hero for his bold truth telling. Davos is an annual
Jack Schneider, historian of education, urges Betsy DeVos to stop telling lies about our nation’s schools. Schneider offers a capsule of education history and concludes: “When critics contend that America’s public schools are preparing students for the jobs of the past, they are engaging in a kind of rhetorical feint. The implication is that today’s students are already being trained for work, an
The DeVos Plan is working! Education funding in Michigan declined more in the past 25 years than in any other state. Charters and choice were a substitute for funding. Michigan’s NAEP scores dropped from the middle of the pack to the bottom 10. DeVos and the Koch brothers will destroy American education if allowed to continue, and they do so with the help of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, An
Nevada’s State Commissioner Steve Canavero and two of his deputies are leaving. “Nevada’s K-12 system consistently ranks as one of the worst-performing in the nation, according to NAEP scores and Education Week ‘s Quality Counts. This has frustrated state and local politicians, technocrats and practitioners and led to a series of ambitious efforts over the years to improve the system. “Canavero,
Mark Zuckerberg and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funded the Summit learning program, which is computer-based online instruction. not personalized learning. Students in Kansas sent a message to Zuckerberg: Another student #walkout vs #SummitLearning – this time at McPherson MS in Kansas. Like earlier one in Brooklyn, protest was sparked by students’ frustrations about inadequacies of the online
Justin Parmenter, an NBCT high school teacher in North Carolina, writes here about the rapid expansion of charter schools in his state, which is doing serious damage to public schools. Charters were not promoted in North Carolina but by Tea Party Republicans who want to destroy public schools and make money. Charter schools are playing a damaging role in North Carolina, acting as a vehicle for re
“ Poor Bill Gates. He has poured billions into reinventing education, and nothing has worked. Nothing! Not even in his home state. One of his fondest desires was to open charter schools in Washington State. He poured millions into a referendum (the fourth in the state), and it barely passed. Then the highest court in the state said the charters couldn’t be supported by the general fund, because t
Republican legislators in West Virginia want to tie pay increases for teachers—which they were promised when they went on strike last year—to the introduction of charter schools and vouchers. They think that school choice will
