The reader who calls himself or herself “democracy” has written a two-part response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which continues to market the tired cliche–how 30 years old–that our schools are failing and our nation is at risk.
The critics like to cherry-pick international test data to buttress their call for “reform.” I suppose if –– like the Roundtable and the Chamber – you’re willing game the economy for profit at the expense of the nation, while calling for more top-end tax cuts and the axing of social safety net and public programs, then you’re also quite willing to lie about a set of numbers. And if you’re willing to blame teachers, and a lack of “accountability” and“ rigorous” standards, for declining American economic competitiveness – as the “talented and oh-so-privileged Amanda Ripley does –– just to sell books, all the while posturing as an “expert” and posing as an “investigative journalist,” well grandma better watch out, because she might be the next one thrown off the train.
That’s the common refrain among the current crop of “reformers.” Their prescription for“reform” is necessary to “make America more competitive” in the global economy. Bill Gates says it. Jeb Bush says it. The U.S. Chamber says, “Common core academic standards among the states are essential” to U.S. competitiveness. The Business Roundtable rekindles the scary myth from A Nation at Risk that a “rising tide of mediocrity” threaten national security, saying that “Since the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983, it has been increasingly clear that…academic expectations for American students have not been high enough.” Not surprisingly, nimrods like Condaleezza “Mushroom Cloud” Rice and Joel “News Corporation” Klein have added their shrill hysterics to the mix. But there’s no there there!
The World Economic Forum ranks nations each year on competitiveness. It uses “a highly comprehensive index” of the “many factors” that enable “national economies to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity.”
The U.S. is usually in the top five (if not 1 or 2). When it drops, the WEF doesn’t cite education, but stupid economic decisions and policies.
For example, when the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in 2010-11, four factors were cited by the WEF for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.
Last year (2011-12), major factors cited by the WEF are a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.”
And this year (2012-13) the WEF dropped the U.S. to 7th place, citing problems like “increasing inequality and youth unemployment” and, environmentally, “the United States is among the countries that have ratified the fewest environmental treaties.“ The WEF noted that in the U.S.,”the business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions” and “trust in politicians is not strong.” Political dysfunction has led to “a lack of macroeconomic stability” that “continues to be the country’s greatest area of weakness.”
[Note: data on 2009, from the 2010-1011 competitiveness report can be found here:http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2010-11.pdf
The problem in American public education is largely one of poverty. The data show it. Indeed, PISA scores (the scores usually cited by public education critics) are quite sensitive to income level. If one disaggregates U.S. scores the problem becomes clearer: the more poverty a school has, the lower its scores. The presumed do-gooders seem to think that more “competition” and ambitiousness will cause the schools to fix the effects of poverty. Those effects are pernicious. It takes commitment and resources to counteract them. Not testing. Not “rigor.”
Alleviating poverty and its pernicious effects, providing children with high quality environments before they get to school, and following up with health and academic and social policy programs while they are in school, result not only in high-quality education but also in a high-quality citizenry. Both are critical to genuine national security. They constitute the real-world manifestation of equity and promoting the general welfare. This is surely not what corporate “reformers” want. It will require and end to their manipulation and gaming of the “markets” and the tax system. Far easier to blame somebody else, and hold THEM “accountable.”
The public education system in a democratic republic is supposed to develop and nurture democratic character and citizenship. Surely, that’s the kind of reform we need.
And it’s exactly the kind of reform the corporate “reformers” and their allies have little (if any) interest in.
I just read the letter sent to the President regarding testing and was delighted to see that Alma Flor Ada signed it. She worked extensively with our district, providing us with exceptional techniques and wonderful books for the students.
Gee, I wonder whether, if Bill Gates had decided to go into the clothing business, the Chamber of Commerce would now be promoting a single uniform for all citizens to wear. It seems that the Chamber has taken a liking to distant, self-appointed, absolutist regulatory authorities.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce–the self-proclaimed voice of American business–did not arrive at its present positions on education by accident, happenstance, or unintentional evolution. Rather, as Charles Cray writes for Greenpeace USA, “on August 23, 1971, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., an attorney from Richmond, Virginia, [and a future U.S. Supreme Court justice] drafted a confidential memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that describes a strategy for the corporate takeover of the dominant public institutions of American society. Powell and his friend Eugene Sydnor, then-chairman of the Chamber’s education committee, believed the Chamber had to transform itself from a passive business group into a powerful political force capable of taking on what Powell described as a major ongoing ‘attack on the American free enterprise system.'”
The memo–now known as the Powell Memo–is both a battle plan for defeating that so-called attack, and a roadmap depicting a journey that began forty-plus years ago and has led us to much of what passes for education “reform” today.
Bill Moyer provides an insightful analysis of the Powell Memo, taken from the book “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class,” Also recommended is Charlie Cray’s article on the Greenpeace blog. Both are linked below.
http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/the-lewis-powell-memo-corporate-blueprint-to-/blog/36466/
I have worked with poor students in their homes. One of the problems is their lack of enrichment. Their lives are contained in their small neighborhoods. They don’t visit museums or sports arenas or music halls/plays. The tests assume a well rounded life, and the reading passages require background knowledge and interest. The CC requires more rigor and takes away the opportunity for field trips, assemblies, and special classes such as art and music. Many of these students are doomed to fail.
It sucks being poor. It sucks even worse to be a poor student in NYS.
One of the most peculiar aspects of the “A Nation at Risk” crowd [including the recent iteration] is that if education is the fundamental cornerstone, pillar and foundation of all that the United States of America has been, is and will be—
Then the defeat of the Soviet Union and its “evil empire” must have meant that education in the USA was—to at least a 98% “satisfactory” certainty [thank you, Bill Gates!]—an absolutely cage busting achievement gap crushing success story for not just the twentieth century but for centuries to come.
If education and educators and public schools carry all the burden of responsibility and blame, then they should get all the credit and acclaim, right?
The incoherence of the edufrauds is astounding.
But somehow they pull off the impossible…
🙂
And how about those Japanese folks in the 80s? They were eating our lunch and who to blame? Education of course. Then came the 90s, Japan slipped into the doldrums and we were eating their lunch. Think education got any credit? Of course not, it was our heroic entrepreneurs!
I don’t know why people cant see through this incredibly inane game of blame and shame.