Catching up...on education.

As the federal government pours an ever increasing billions of dollars into public education, students learn less and the powers-that-be grow more and more powerful. The New English Review makes the simple argument that the current structure does little more than protect special interests ~ government bureaucrats, leaders of the teacher's unions, politicians and countless other education-related concerns ~ at the cost of the future of millions of students. I know. Where's the surprise?

Perfectly said (with my emphasis):

Education is big government and big business with far reaching impacts into every nook and cranny in our society, as every school age child attends school, whether public, private or home school. Children use textbooks, computers and receive myriad educational services through the publicly funded K-12 program. Thus, there is much to gain to become ingrained as one of the system’s cohorts.

And regarding most reforms, including No Child Left Behind (Bush) and Race to the Top (Obama):

On the other hand, pseudo-reform is welcomed with open arms because massive sums of money are poured into the system, increasing personnel and power. These faux reforms and fads implemented within the political-bureaucratic education system have this in common: they make no lasting, widespread changes to the education system; they dramatically increase education costs; and they have been unable to significantly improve student performance.

The movie Waiting For Superman shows exactly how the current educational establishment works...and fails. Given the number of people who have avoided seeing Superman, just based on conversations I've had with a few teachers and friends who don't want to 'hear' it, the movie has done pretty well since its release 10 weeks ago. After a weak $139,033 first weekend, it's made $6.2 million to date, and that is with a fairly small release. I would expect that once it hits the rental market the audience for it, via word-of-mouth, will be huge.

It may be my imagination, but it seems like a growing number of people are questioning the structure of the education system and, more surprising, the role the teacher's unions play in the collapse of it. The most recent Phi Delta Kappa & Gallup Poll showed the majority of respondents favoring merit pay for teachers and increasing the number of charter schools. Parents in Chicago have certainly lost their patience.





Frustration doesn't begin to describe how these and thousands of other parents across the country are feeling as their children's school years are wasted ~ heartbreak is more like it. They are done waiting.

And just wait until they see this film. As one of the parents in the moves says, "it's a sad scene but they've been pimping our children for a long time. Read that again out loud without crying.



Writing in The Huffington Post the filmmaker, Bob Bowdon, talks about the reactions he's received from people who have seen The Cartel, especially from those who do their best to argue against breaking up the fortress that protects the educational establishment.

John Taylor Gatto, New York Teacher of the Year in 1991 and long a hero of mine, describes the Big Business of education very well, including the affect it has on the children:

 "By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."

Maybe if public school teachers were made to send their own children to the schools were they teach, we'd see a little more real change.