“Though the rise of the hedge-fund managers as charter school operators may distress us, it thrills others because it dovetails so perfectly with the Obama administration's Race to the Top. I don't know about you, but I am getting sick of the rhetoric of the Race to the Top, as it implies the very opposite of ‘equal educational opportunity.’ But ‘equal educational opportunity’ is so ... yesterday, so now we shall all ‘race to the top,’ to see who can get there first. Who can privatize the most schools? Who can close the most public schools? Which district can replace the most public schools with charter schools? Who can compel their teachers to focus intently on those pesky math and reading test scores? Who can boot out the most teachers whose students didn't get higher scores than last year? Who seriously believes that this combination of policies will produce better education?”
-- Diane Ravitch writing Tuesday in the Bridging Differences blog that she produces with Deborah Meier for Education Week.
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There is not much doubt that
There is not much doubt that education in the U.S. is a failed enterprise. It lacks leadership and policies that will remake it into something that effectively prepares young people for success in all aspects of their lives. The challenge is that it has been a weak system for decades. The fix is not easy and will not be quick. I support Obama's approach. while the slogan is not as warm and fuzzy as "No Child Left Behind", it is positioned better for success with the needed funding and rational, achievable goals. Besides, a growing conversation about assessment has been happening for some time at all levels of education and is moving us to a more accountable, outcomes-based model which will be the foundation of any successful overhaul of the ed. system.
Like health care, we need to get the education system unstuck, moving in a new direction and continue to work on it as we see more clearly what the next steps should be. Also like health care, education has been decaying under the weight of political and ideological wrangling from all sides while significant numbers of Americans have suffered and few have profitted. The era of talking problems into submission has got to end now.