America Begins to Awaken:
Years into the conflict that has been necessary only to the major oil companies and the banks, Americans are beginning to realize that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorist actions against the American people.
A recent poll taken by The New York Times/CBS News indicates that 51 percent of Americans now no longer believe that Bush's war on Iraq has anything to do with the so called "war on terrorism" (sic).
As Americans abandon GM and Ford for Toyota in an attempt to contend with ever increasing gasoline prices, they are starting to clear their ears and wipe their eyes of the honeyed nonsense that has spewed from the mouths of the administration for the better part of a decade and to realize they've been had.
The big questions at this point: Just how much damage has been done and how much effort will it take to repair, if it even can be?
Charter Schools — Tax Payer Rip Off? Or Political Gerrymandering?
Recent studies of test scoring, comparing public schools with charter schools shows that either the charter schools fair no better at educating our children or actually perform worse. So what's the charter school business all about? Business, of course.
We taxpayers heard all about how charter schools would give us a choice and choice would inevitably mean competition that would drive school administrators and teachers in general to improve the quality of education across the board.
The truth is that we had about as much chance to win this one as the village idiot has to win "the shell game." You know that one — a con man sets up a table with three cups and you get to select the one with the pea under it. That's choice. Has anyone of you ever known someone who could regularly beat the con artist at this game? Uh-huh, thought not.
Charter schools, we are told, would perform better because they are run by business men, people who open and run them in order to make a profit. The way you make a profit in business is to sell your goods or services for more than their actual value; that is, you convince the buyer that the value of the item or service is greater than what you actually believe it is worth. Does this sound like a recipe for improving education?
So what then is the purpose of charter schools within the Republican agenda? To start with, Republicans have traditionally been the party of the business man. Creating charter schools generates more business votes.
Second, charter schools are by and large nonunion shops. Public schools have teachers who belong to one of the most powerful unions in the country, and they consistently vote for the Democrats. By promoting charter schools, Republicans seek to break the back of the teachers' union or at least to limit its power. Improving education has never been a factor in this formula.
Years into the conflict that has been necessary only to the major oil companies and the banks, Americans are beginning to realize that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorist actions against the American people.
A recent poll taken by The New York Times/CBS News indicates that 51 percent of Americans now no longer believe that Bush's war on Iraq has anything to do with the so called "war on terrorism" (sic).
As Americans abandon GM and Ford for Toyota in an attempt to contend with ever increasing gasoline prices, they are starting to clear their ears and wipe their eyes of the honeyed nonsense that has spewed from the mouths of the administration for the better part of a decade and to realize they've been had.
The big questions at this point: Just how much damage has been done and how much effort will it take to repair, if it even can be?
Charter Schools — Tax Payer Rip Off? Or Political Gerrymandering?
Recent studies of test scoring, comparing public schools with charter schools shows that either the charter schools fair no better at educating our children or actually perform worse. So what's the charter school business all about? Business, of course.
We taxpayers heard all about how charter schools would give us a choice and choice would inevitably mean competition that would drive school administrators and teachers in general to improve the quality of education across the board.
The truth is that we had about as much chance to win this one as the village idiot has to win "the shell game." You know that one — a con man sets up a table with three cups and you get to select the one with the pea under it. That's choice. Has anyone of you ever known someone who could regularly beat the con artist at this game? Uh-huh, thought not.
Charter schools, we are told, would perform better because they are run by business men, people who open and run them in order to make a profit. The way you make a profit in business is to sell your goods or services for more than their actual value; that is, you convince the buyer that the value of the item or service is greater than what you actually believe it is worth. Does this sound like a recipe for improving education?
So what then is the purpose of charter schools within the Republican agenda? To start with, Republicans have traditionally been the party of the business man. Creating charter schools generates more business votes.
Second, charter schools are by and large nonunion shops. Public schools have teachers who belong to one of the most powerful unions in the country, and they consistently vote for the Democrats. By promoting charter schools, Republicans seek to break the back of the teachers' union or at least to limit its power. Improving education has never been a factor in this formula.
posted by Jim | 12:46 PM
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