From Powell Memo To Tri-lateral Commission: Chomsky on Education and the Oligarchs. The PTB were greatly upset with and terrified of the eruption of people and student power in the 60s, and decided to kill it off. Enter the "Powell Memo":
Powell drew the obvious conclusion: “The campuses from which much of this criticism emanates are supported by tax funds generated largely from American business, contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees at universities are overwhelmingly composed of men and women who are leaders in the business system and most of the media, including the national TV systems are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend on profits and the enterprise system on which they survive.”The solution? Impose economic hardship, reduce educatiuonal opportunities, make it more expensive, and impose conservative 'litmus tests.' It worked.
Therefore, the oppressed business people who have lost all influence should organize and defend themselves instead of idly sitting by while fundamental freedoms are destroyed by the Marxist onslaught from the media, universities and the government. Those are the expression of the concerns elicited by '60s activism at the right end of the mainstream spectrum.
Meanwhile, How Stupid Is TOO Stupid: Participatory democracy requires a certain amount of critical acumen and discernment from its benefactors. There are doubts whether or not Murkins still possess the necessary qualities.
The study cited above which found that people in the UK, Denmark and Finland are significantly better informed about the issues of the day noted that some of the differences can be attributed to various models of media funding. The three European countries all have more public television and radio, which the researchers found offered more hard news and analysis, and less puffery.It IS ALWAYS money that matters: The ZIP Code of a student's family residence is a better predictor of 'academic success' than any other bit of personal data.
Education is another big difference. In those countries, spending on education is more or less uniform between schools and school districts. In the U.S., the amount spent on education varies wildly by school, district and state. And while it's in vogue to blame teachers and their unions for what ails our educational system, the reality is that poverty and inequality are the driving forces behind our kids' relatively low educational outcomes.
As Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford, recently told AlterNet, “students in American schools where fewer than 10 percent of the students live in poverty actually are number one in the world in reading. The place where we really see the negative effects are in the growing number of schools with concentrated poverty, where more than 75 percent of children are poor. The children in those schools score at levels that are near those of developing countries.”
Charter/Charnel Schools: I spent about a year before starting my Ph.D.at LSU working for the Morning Adequate (the local daily paper, the "Advocate") covering the River parishes, out of town, north and south of the capitol: parish council, school boards, etc. By 1985 or so, the only white kids NOT in "private schools" were poor and/or disabled.
Covering the Lege, it was depressing listening to predominantly white, "middle class" legislators deciding how LITTLE money they could spend in St. John's parish (e.g.), and get away with it. It wasn't spoken so baldly, but the implications were clear... Teachers didn't flee, but as the white parental support left, the influence of public schools in the State declined and resources were redirected or dried up. That pattern is visible all over the South.
I'mv NOT blaming the schools. They do the best with what they're given. But when there's no local property base to supplement the state appropriation, and that is the absolute bare minimum that can be gotten for mostly black schools from mostly white legislators, schools and students suffer.>
Charter schools are usually only a means by which greed-heads can mine the local school funds for their own enrichment and fuck the kids.
Chas Roemer is a dick, btw.
Speaking of Charter Schools: Charter Schools have been used all over the country as camouflage by which christard, religious interests have been able to import their theocratic curricula into 'public schools. Bill Moyers provided this interactive map to afford you a way to track the inroads the Dominionist fuckers are making in YOUR schools.
In this case, an average, but white, girl is suing the State and UT-A for denying her a place, while admitting "minority" students whom she regards as "not as qualified." This is grist for the mill of the "colorblind" set I recommend you read the text to prepare yourself for the next time some idiotic, racist fucktard makes the same argument.
Back to the Future: Elsewhere on the ReSeg Front: North Carolina schools are trying to use Charter Schools to resegregate theit public schools.
No, Really.
North Carolina could soon see a dramatic increase in the number of charter schools, with as many as 150 of the public-private hybrids opening across the state next year.See what truly creative use of the Charter Schools can do? Take you back to the glory days of the '60s!
But new research from Duke University suggests the charter school boom will result in greater racial imbalance in the state's public education system -- and that can have negative educational consequences for students.
North Carolina limited the number of charter schools that could operate in the state to 100 until 2011. That's when the General Assembly -- with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction and embracing a school-choice agenda -- lifted the cap.
Charter schools are K-12 schools that are publicly funded but privately run, are exempt from some regulations that traditional public institutions must follow, and are attended by choice rather than by assignment. Though operated as nonprofits, some are managed by for-profit corporations.
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