[Photo by Tony J Case on Flickr]A "must listen" on the state of the American Education System - there is no difference between Dubya's "No Child Left Behind" and Obama's "Race To The Top" - standardized testing based educational system - with Diane Ravitch, former U.S. Asst. Secretary of Education - 32 minutes...but truly important stuff..."education in Finland, a commitment to the life of the mind..."
http://www.smileyandwest.com/this-weeks-show/the-conversation-diane-ravitch/
Listen or Download Podcast: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/tavis/local-tavis-1022267.mp3
And one more link: (cuz sometimes links get broken) http://smileyandwest.ning.com/forum/topics/the-conversation-diane-ravitch
Diane Ravitch's Website
Diane Ravitch's Blog
"Congress doesn't know what to do with 'No Child Left Behind'. It should be thrown out. It's been a failure. We've had it now since 2002. In January of 2002 is when George W. Bush signed it. Congress is just frozen in place, they don't know what to do other than to keep collecting test scores. The Obama administration has not really thrown it out. They created a system of waivers where states can opt out of the November 2014 deadline. There is this crazy idea that by November 2014, 100% of the children in the U.S. will be proficient, and if they're not proficient, then you start getting rid of the schools, close them down, privatize them, give them to the states, all sorts of punishments come into play for not reaching an impossible goal." [Diane Ravitch]
At about the 20:00 minute mark...half a trillion dollars just sitting there...that the profiteers/privateers are just salivating over...much (if not all) of the push for privatization is coming from Wall Street...they are having seminars and workshops to talk about how much money there is to be made by privatizing the education system...then we have U.S. elected representatives in the pockets of the moneyed Wall Street carpet-baggers and their moneyed money mongers...it's all so clear...yet we do nothing about it...
We are witnessing the beginnings of the privatization of the public education system in the U.S. by the right wing. It is a system that has been set up to be doomed to fail so that the profiteers can step in and begin to plunder yet another area of taxpayer funds/cash flow stream...this is my opinion...no evidence of this...it is a gut feeling...and I trust my gut...
