You Can Become a Millionaire if You Go into Education!
Suppose we could say to the young: “You should go into teaching. Someday, you can be a millionaire! You can be the next Nathaniel A. Davis!”
Corporate education. That’s the ticket!.
Before we turn to Mr. Davis, however, we need to set the background. This week Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee offered up the latest in a long string of schemes to fix the public schools. Teachers, I imagine, might wonder, “Shouldn’t education in this country be fixed by now? How many plans have politicians put forward?”
Ignore that conundrum.
Here’s the bold new plan—not to be confused with previous bold new plans. Such as: No Child Left Behind. Mr. Alexander wants Congress to free up federal funds for 11,000,000 students from low-income families. Not new funds. No, Alexander is a fiscal hawk. His idea is to take away money that the public schools already receive. Then he wants to give it to parents to spend so they can enroll their children in schools of their choice. Choice! That’s what makes America great. Well, not counting parents who are gay or lesbian and might want to choose whom they marry.
Ignore that too.
What Senator Alexander wants is to divert $24 billion in funding. That’s 41% of federal dollars spent on K-12 education. Or: $2,100 per child.
Under his plan states might use the money to:
a) Help low-income students attend public schools outside their neighborhoods.
b) Fund individual scholarships to help pay private school tuition.
c) Attend charter schools, including “for profit” institutions.
Choice is cool! Like: would a member of Congress rather go to a fine restaurant with a lobbyist and A Teacher on Teaching: You Can Become a Millionaire if You Go into Education!:
Corporate education. That’s the ticket!.
Before we turn to Mr. Davis, however, we need to set the background. This week Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee offered up the latest in a long string of schemes to fix the public schools. Teachers, I imagine, might wonder, “Shouldn’t education in this country be fixed by now? How many plans have politicians put forward?”
Ignore that conundrum.
 |
| Alexander was Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush. (At no time in his life did he ever really work in education.) By the way: the answer to that questions was "no." |
Here’s the bold new plan—not to be confused with previous bold new plans. Such as: No Child Left Behind. Mr. Alexander wants Congress to free up federal funds for 11,000,000 students from low-income families. Not new funds. No, Alexander is a fiscal hawk. His idea is to take away money that the public schools already receive. Then he wants to give it to parents to spend so they can enroll their children in schools of their choice. Choice! That’s what makes America great. Well, not counting parents who are gay or lesbian and might want to choose whom they marry.
Ignore that too.
What Senator Alexander wants is to divert $24 billion in funding. That’s 41% of federal dollars spent on K-12 education. Or: $2,100 per child.
Under his plan states might use the money to:
a) Help low-income students attend public schools outside their neighborhoods.
b) Fund individual scholarships to help pay private school tuition.
c) Attend charter schools, including “for profit” institutions.
Choice is cool! Like: would a member of Congress rather go to a fine restaurant with a lobbyist and A Teacher on Teaching: You Can Become a Millionaire if You Go into Education!:
