Reply #31: Big Fat Fraud

[LWolf]

Intended to make sure that all public schools "fail" so that they can be privatized.

It hinges on high-stakes testing brought on by the conservative "standards and accountabilty" movement begun back in the early 90s, closely connected to the Reagan-era desire to abolish the Department of Education.

It began at the state-level under some conservative governors; both Bushes and Pete Wilson are examples. It migrated to the federal level with GWB in 2000, with a big boost from Ted Kennedy, who bought the Orwellian rhetoric hook, line, and sinker.

It works like this:

1. Mandate standardized testing of all students (beginning 1st-2nd-3rd grade, depending on the state), every year. Get Republican donors, and ed publishing companies with 3-generation relationships with the Bush family, to publish the tests. Build it on the "continuous improvement" model, and make sure that the formula used to measure "improvement" is statistically corrupt. Eventually, no matter how well a school is doing, it will now end up on the "needs improvement" roster.

2. Make sure that all those Republican-loving companies are ready with lots of canned, scripted programs to be sold to schools that have to document their "improvement" plan; make sure all the "programs" on the "approved" list are approved by republican think tanks and committees. Make sure all the canned, scripted programs and curriculums do drill and kill, rote memorization of fact and procedure , with every minute scripted, and cut out the independent thinking part of learning. Make sure mandated money gets spent on private companies who tutor, do "staff development" that flies in the face of the research on how kids learn, etc... Add in lots and lots more tests to prepare for testing, and get those kids trained to bubble as they're told. That will set them up to be good, obedient little voters in the next generation, and allow their parents to brag about their stellar test scores now. They've learned to bubble obediently, and for that they are true scholars.

3. When the test scores drop, make sure the community knows it is because public schools are incompetent. Release all the scores to the public, rank schools, and allow those at the bottom to transfer to other schools. Get the "public schools are incompetent" PR machine going, because....

4. The next step, when the school cannot continue to improve, is to disband the district/school board, and have it taken over by political appointees. Who then step in and restructure the district to suit themselves. Of course, private companies can be hired to run the place, to set up their own curriculum and structure.

5. Meanwhile, schools and teachers are under such threat that school has become a hated place for all, with fun literally not allowed in many "improvement" schools. Teachers literally sanctioned for stepping outside of the assigned script to do something fun. And the public impression of "public schools are bad" continues to grow.

How long before vouchers take the place of public education?