Tuesday, December 23, 2003
You Better Watch Out, I'm Telling You Why
A friend e-mailed me a story from the Washington Post about the obstacles to school choice, despite the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. It's the Law of Unintended Consequences come home to roost--Exhibit A for how the real world works in spite of the ways the geniuses running the Bush Administration believe it will.
The school choice provisions of NCLB sound for all the world like something written by bureaucrats whose families have gone to private school for generations. You don't like your school, you pick up and move to another, and if enough people do it, the school that no longer pleases its "customers" goes out of business. This is the marketplace competition model conservatives have been pushing on the public education system at least since the first Bush administration. Trouble is, escaping a failing school is not as easy as crossing the street. To believe it is fails to recognize that not every street has a school on both sides. Also, as the Post article indicates, not every street that does have a school is able to accept students who want to cross--or even wants to accept them.
There's a broader question percolating in the shadows of NCLB as well--the question of its ultimate purpose. Conservatives have dreamed of abolishing the public school system for a long time. Unfettered choice could certainly do it, at least in some areas of the country, where it could exacerbate white flight and leave only the poorest students in failing schools, which could then be shut down for lack of achievement and replaced with--what? Workhouses?
Recommended reading: From the Center for American Progress and the crack staff of "The Progress Report," "Naughty and Nice 2003," an exhaustive list of those deserving nice gifts and those deserving lumps of coal for their public performance in the year drawing to a close. The biggest gift Santa can bring should go to David, Christy, and Judd, who compile "The Progress Report" daily. In the few short weeks of its life so far, it's become absolutely indispensable for anybody who cares about progressive politics and policing the unconscionable nonsense of the Bush Administration.
Also from the Center, via TomPaine.Com, it's "2003: Claim vs. Fact." Like much that comes from the Center, it's a magic bullet that kills Republican spin--in this case, correcting the distortions in the Bush Administration's "2003: A Year of Accomplishment for the American People."
By the way, the White House's document of its accomplishments this year is a wacky laff riot, clearly written during the White House Christmas party while the liquor was flowing, butts were being xeroxed, and lampshades were turning into hats. It features such knee-slappers as: "President Bush's economic leadership is producing positive results," "The President is continuing to give our nation's first responder and public health system the training and equipment to prepare, prevent and respond to any future terrorist attack," and my favorite, "The president has continued to restrain spending." Stop it, ya crazy bastards, before I wet my pants.
A friend e-mailed me a story from the Washington Post about the obstacles to school choice, despite the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. It's the Law of Unintended Consequences come home to roost--Exhibit A for how the real world works in spite of the ways the geniuses running the Bush Administration believe it will.
The school choice provisions of NCLB sound for all the world like something written by bureaucrats whose families have gone to private school for generations. You don't like your school, you pick up and move to another, and if enough people do it, the school that no longer pleases its "customers" goes out of business. This is the marketplace competition model conservatives have been pushing on the public education system at least since the first Bush administration. Trouble is, escaping a failing school is not as easy as crossing the street. To believe it is fails to recognize that not every street has a school on both sides. Also, as the Post article indicates, not every street that does have a school is able to accept students who want to cross--or even wants to accept them.
There's a broader question percolating in the shadows of NCLB as well--the question of its ultimate purpose. Conservatives have dreamed of abolishing the public school system for a long time. Unfettered choice could certainly do it, at least in some areas of the country, where it could exacerbate white flight and leave only the poorest students in failing schools, which could then be shut down for lack of achievement and replaced with--what? Workhouses?
Recommended reading: From the Center for American Progress and the crack staff of "The Progress Report," "Naughty and Nice 2003," an exhaustive list of those deserving nice gifts and those deserving lumps of coal for their public performance in the year drawing to a close. The biggest gift Santa can bring should go to David, Christy, and Judd, who compile "The Progress Report" daily. In the few short weeks of its life so far, it's become absolutely indispensable for anybody who cares about progressive politics and policing the unconscionable nonsense of the Bush Administration.
Also from the Center, via TomPaine.Com, it's "2003: Claim vs. Fact." Like much that comes from the Center, it's a magic bullet that kills Republican spin--in this case, correcting the distortions in the Bush Administration's "2003: A Year of Accomplishment for the American People."
By the way, the White House's document of its accomplishments this year is a wacky laff riot, clearly written during the White House Christmas party while the liquor was flowing, butts were being xeroxed, and lampshades were turning into hats. It features such knee-slappers as: "President Bush's economic leadership is producing positive results," "The President is continuing to give our nation's first responder and public health system the training and equipment to prepare, prevent and respond to any future terrorist attack," and my favorite, "The president has continued to restrain spending." Stop it, ya crazy bastards, before I wet my pants.
