What's happening to Schools

[xoxoxoBruce]

A claim by Marion Brady it's a plan.

A scorching editorial by public education advocate Marion Brady describes the 30 year program of sneak-attacks on public education in America. It starts by whipping up fear that foreign workforces are "eating our lunch" because of education standards in the US (rather than, say, multinationals taking jobs to places with lower wages and fewer labor protections), then blaming "unaccountable" teachers and insisting on charters, de-unionization, standardized testing (which can be used to prove that teachers aren't "accountable") and standardized curriculum (so there's something to test on the standardized test).

Lather, rinse repeat: give it 30 years and you'll find public funds increasingly diverted to private hands; teachers hamstrung when it comes to delivering personalized education; mounting xenophobic fear of having your lunch eaten; and a relentless focus on standardized testing at the expense of real learning.

[Undertoad]

"There is a secret 30 year conspiracy theory to privatize education."

no

[Clodfobble]

Local newspaper just had an article about the rapidly expanding charter schools in my area, focusing on the one my kids go to. They have "taken" over 700 students from the Round Rock public school district in just 4 years, which is to say, 700 students have fled--and it's not even a bad district as far as those things go, not at all.

Whether it's a conspiracy or not, it is happening.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, and they don't have to fled in some places, where the public schools are taken over like the prison system has.

[Undertoad]

When one side does not understand the other side, there's a struggle to explain how the other side's arguments work and why they could possibly become appealing. In this case the other side is portrayed as actually evil. Sneak attacks, whipping up fear, focusing on blame, etc. etc.

How did they win? They hid behind rocks. We agreed not to do that.

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, this guy's theory sounds extreme, but because it's his version of why, for a what that everyone can see, it can't be dismissed out of hand. In some areas, particularly in the bible belt, the schools have been publicized as an end run by fundamentalists to circumvent state and federal law. Another is new wave progressives who believe you should never say no to my little snowflake.
Greed driven capitalists who can't possible compete with the military-industrial empire, said where is tax money being spent and how do we get some/all of it. Schools, prisons, and health care, become primary targets because each of them is minded by "somebody else", as most people don't, and don't want to, actively get involved with how they work.
So while the likelihood of a coordinated sneak attack on schools is slim to none, that doesn't rule out multiple attacks by people with the same goals.