Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Steering clear of the fight

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Steering clear of the fight:


Steering clear of the fight

After Romney laid out the Republican platform on eduction, including union busting, vouchers and larger class size, the Democrats, including Pres. Obama and Sec. Duncan, immediately went into hiding. The reason? Thus far, their own agenda on education has been essentially the same as the Republicans and their appears to be no change in sight. Even on the few issues where they supposedly disagree, for example on school vouchers, Obama won't take Romney head-on, for fear I suppose, of alienating his wealthy and powerful corporate "reform" backers in Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).

As a result, the fight to save and transform public education has been left to a growing and vibrant grassroots movement of independent voices. Here's Dan Archer and Adam Bessie, masters of graphic journalism, posting their hard-hitting comic strip at Truthout:
Welcome to other side of the looking glass, and into the Bizarro world of so-called "education reform" - an upside-down universe in which up is down, left is right and multimillionaire CEOs are civil rights heroes championing social justice, while public school teachers are corrupt fat cats, maintaining a status quo which oppresses students in poverty and racism. -- The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum