Why Bipartisanism Isn't Working for Education Reform

[LWolf]

By Amy Stuart Wells

It must be apparent by now that I'm cleaning out my inbox today. This article requires a subscription to read the entire thing, so I'll leave the introduction to you and post some of the relevant bits only available to subscribers:

<snip>

Today, it is often difficult to distinguish Republicans from Democrats on key education issues. President Obama's signature Race to the Top program, which promotes charter schools, state tests, and tough-love accountability for educators, might just as well have been proposed by a Republican president. While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the level of federal education funding, they continue to move toward each other on what to do with those funds. In fact, as an article in /Education Week/ recently suggested, there is more fighting /within/ than /between/ the two major parties on education reform these days. ("White House Expected to Mount Fresh ESEA Effort," <http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/19/17esea.h30.html> Jan. 19, 2011.)

While it is a difficult moment to not support greater agreement across our political parties, the reality is that this increasing bipartisanism in education reform is not working for our students. In fact, the most agreed-upon solutions---testing, privatization, deregulation, stringent accountability systems, and placement of blame on unions for all that is wrong---are doing more harm than good. Achievement overall has not improved, and the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged has widened. Parents across the country are fed up with the stress and boredom their children feel in schools that are driven by tests and competition. Internationally, countries with better safety nets to support children's well-being are leaving us in the dust. As President Obama noted, while the United States once led the world in education, we are now falling rapidly behind.

Despite this bad news, there appears to be no dramatic change of course on the political horizon, no healthy debate on the bipartisan agenda. Indeed, consensus on bad ideas in education has become much like a naked emperor---no one wants to break from the ranks and state a bold vision.

"The same Democrats who fight Republican efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare have been cajoled into supporting free-market education reforms that would have made their predecessors cringe."




http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/27/20wells.h30.html?r=1693578479

[FBaggins]

1. Would school choice/vouchers actually help?

How many would exchage the current stock of "reforms" for wider "school choice" initiatives.

IOW - are we comfortable that if we left the existing structure alone... our schools would outperform the new competitors?

[LWolf]

4. No, choice/vouchers don't actually "help."

They are based on the assumption that the problem is the school, and leaving it behind leaves the problem behind.

fyi, I'm a decades-long proponent of PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE. Allowing each school to customize, and allowing parents a choice between fully PUBLIC schools.

That doesn't address the root of poor performance, though.

[FBaggins]

6. Sorry.. I think that you missed my point.

I'm saying... what if we let "them" have their way with a set of schools and left the public school model along. Are we confident that ten years from now, the public schools would be clearly performing better than their new model?

If we are, might vouchers/choice be a way to get that?

I'm not advocating it... I'm just wondering what the impact would be.

[LWolf]

7. I don't think you can compare, in any valid way,

schools that serve all with schools that can decide whom to serve and whom to send away. There are so many factors affecting outcomes involved in your suggestion...

Do you mean let the deformers have "their way," and let EDUCATORS have their way with the rest? That doesn't happen now. I don't know that it's ever happened.

Or do you mean, let one set of deformers have a part, and another set manipulate the rest?

Or....

I could keep going. Am I still missing the point?

[Starry Messenger]

2. Well, it is working if the goal is actually to harm education.

:grr: And are we really "falling behind"? I read articles from India and China and their experts also decry their "falling standards". I really think a massive boondoggle is going on. I thought perhaps there was a grain of truth in some of the numbers, or else they couldn't pull this all off. Now I'm really starting to wonder.

[LWolf]

5. We aren't falling behind.

Look at the poverty thread I posted the same day as this one. Cleaning out my inbox.

[teacher gal]

3. Here is another link

to the same article: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/newsbureau/article.htm?id=7842