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Notes On Education
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If The People Rule, The People Must Be Wise
Education is not a privilege. Education is a duty and a right. At least, that's the way it must be in a democracy, if that democracy is to succeed, if that democracy is to remain a democracy. Those are the lessons that my teachers taught me in school so long ago. I cannot say why others have failed to learn those lessons, or maybe they just forgot them, but I know that I learned them and I know that I will not forgot them.
Thinking that education is a privilege for the privileged — I know where that sad idea came from — it came from the Old World that we fought to form this New Republic. I do not know what spells have raised that old ghost from the grave of history, but I think it's time to call it “Riddikulus!”
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Real educators will have to educate the public as to what real education is, and stop taking guff from bean counters who don't know beans about it.
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The pushers of regressive education do not care about the quality of education in our public schools. They are bent on destroying our system of universal free public education and the disruptive technology of testing is simply one of the weapons in their arsenal. It is a technology of control not a means of improving education. Real education is something these bean counters don't know beans about.
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If The People Rule, The People Must Be Wise
The fundamental principle is that being educated and informed is essential to the exercise of one's duty as a citizen, so education must be as universal as the franchise. If the People must provide for their education and information, then the People must insure the quality of both.
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The Logic Of Democracy
Our Nation's Founders saw the catch that decides the fate of every try at democratic government —
If The People Rule, The People Must Be Wise.
The upshot is that education and information are not just private commodities but vital public interests. Their widest distribution is essential to the wisest functioning of democratic government. And the public must provide its members with the means to do their civic duty.
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Universal Free Public Education
The principle of Universal Free Public Education is fundamental to the proper functioning of our democracy, as the Founders of our Nation well understood. Provisions for charter schools have long been in place, and there is no problem with that in principle, but it becomes a problem when charter schools are used to undermine the right to Universal Free Public Education. Parochial, pay, and private schools do not operate on that principle and they should not be subsidized by public funds.
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The principle of Universal Free Public Education is fundamental to our democracy. I gather that provisions for charter schools have long been in place, and there need be no problem with that in principle, but it becomes a problem when charter schools are used to undermine the right to Universal Free Public Education. Parochial, pay, and private schools violate that principle.
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The principle of Universal Free Public Education is fundamental to the working of our democracy. Provisions for charter schools have long been in place, and there need be no problem with that in principle, but it becomes a problem when charter schools are used to undermine the right to Universal Free Public Education. Parochial, pay, and private schools violate that principle.
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Taxes are properly levied in support of the public good. Universal free public education is a public good essential to the working of our representative democracy. Taxation in support of parochial, pay, and private schools violates the principle of universal free public education, and that is not a good thing.
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Taxes are properly levied in support of the public good. Universal free public education is a public good that remains essential to the working of our representative democracy. Taxation in support of parochial, pay, and private schools violates the principle of universal free public education, and that is not a good thing.
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url=http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/]Diane Ravitch[/url] • [url=http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2011/05/the_outrage_of_the_week.html]The Outrage of the Week[/url][/b]
What I think from reading the comments is that many people get it, the same caring, hard-working, and wise people who have always gotten it. But let's face it — $$$ for the sake of making more $$$ speaks far louder in the U.S. today than all the caring, hard work, and wisdom put together. You are talking to people who just don't care, who simply laugh out their asses at the sorts of saps who would actually spend their evenings grading papers and preparing lesson plans instead of working their portfolios on e*trade™. Wake up and smell the TEA, you will have to strike early, strike often, and strike nationwide. You are going to have to throw a Corporate Armada full of money-grubbing privateers out of your schools while you still have a profession left to call your own. That's what I think.
— [url=http://www.edweek.org/persona.html?U=2222558&plckUserId=2222558]Jon Awbrey[/url] • [url=http://sitelife.edweek.org/ver1.0/gocomm?ck=CommentKey%3ad2b75bf6-289b-4894-ae64-21a3a76954d2]3 May 2011[/url]
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That is a common confusion. It comes from viewing everything from education to environment to healthcare to the parks and zoos as market commodities rather than common resources. People have been by misled by certain brands of bean-counter thinking to regard education as a private good, something you buy so you and yours can get ahead of them and theirs in life. But that is not how the very wise founders of our democracy saw it. They knew that universal free public education was essential to making our novel form of democracy succeed where all previous and even many later attempts failed. You can't have one without the other, as the old song goes.
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Who is screwing who is always a good question in politics. Where does the fault rest? Does it rest with the members of the local school board who decide where to spend the funds they receive? Does it rest with the Governor and Legislature who decide how they will act on the priorities that the People of Michigan express as their deepest concerns and highest values?
As long as we have a democratic government we have a way of holding elected officials accountable. We do not have that power over the appointed managers, emergency or other otherwise, of private corporations. Human mendacity and perfidy being what they are, what kind of system would you trust to be more accountable to the people — a private corporation or a democratic government?
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