In Mississippi, the speaker of the House of Representatives announced that he was appointing a proponent of charter schools to the state board of education that oversees public education.
The nominee was home-schooled.
Is Mississippi moving boldly forward into a world without public schools or dumbly backward into a world that predates the establishment of public education?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In the last week there have been posts about Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. So, after same-sex marriage, will the Supreme Court accept appeals on Brown v. Board? Plyler v. Doe? Title IX? …
Horrors!
When was the date at which public education became nation wide? How did people get educated prior to that. Oh horrors! You mean Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Lincoln, were not educated in the public schools? Incroyable! They must have known nothing, because certified, government teachers did not teach them. Jesus too was not educated in American public schools. Augustine. Moses Maimonades. Descartes was educated by Jesuits (oh my goodness, in a religious school). Shakespeare wasn’t educated at all, he only was a country school teacher for a few years. Not certifiable, and doing home schools in Lancashire, to boot. Daniel Webster? Noah Webster? Louisa May Alcott? Granted, Ronald Reagan was educated in the public schools, and we all know what a dummy he was. Obama was educated in a private school for high school. Perhaps that accounts for his incompetence and bias. Harry Truman? Dwight D. Eisenhower? Hillary Clinton? Michelle Obama? Some very puzzling questions about the relationship of public education to stellar achievement. But of course public education must be working as it should because young people voted 60% for Obama, so public education must be working. But why then, is Obama stabbing public education in the back, sending Arne Duncan like the lawyer in THE GODFATHER, Tom Sullivan, to states to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Sarcasm aside, many people did NOT get educated before public education in the U.S. and many did not after, as well. And, while many charters, consortium, and magnet schools love to tout their “publicness” because public school funds are siphoned off the public schools into the boutiques, I don’t see the enrollments that public.
Yes, the corporate big wigs and charter advocates exclaim they can teach kids more economically with their streamlined and scripted curriculum – -( I know, I know – IB is far from scripted) but they don’t do the math on costs of educating every child – the ones who are subtly screened out of the boutiques – those with disabilities and those whose first language is not English.
Public schools do not have applications online.
Public school doors are open to all and in spite of the headlines – all of them – urban, suburban, and rural – do well in spite of the federal obsession with testing and control and state obsession with capping taxes, solving the wrong problems, and ignoring mandates. Public schools have much to improve – but touting corporate take over, dictating, curriculum-by-testing, and pretending the charters are public…
Jere Hochman: I agree with your sentiments, but—and this is only my opinion—perhaps it is best to let Harlan deal with his own demons.
What is happening in Chicago today is far more important to discuss.
Again, just my opinion.
Wow, handpicking multiple historical figures who were schooled at a time when there were no public schools and using that as anecdotal evidence to support your “thesis”…that is like picking the survivors of a cholera epidemic and stating that, because they survived, we should do away with public water treatment. Really childish sarcasm. Anti-intellectual. Btw, my 6th graders ( public school educated, Title 1) would be able to label your techniques of propaganda. The one homeschooled teacher that we have teaching on campus, would have started railing on it being an Obama issue and brought religion in. I am sure that there are many homeschooled kids who are bright and educated, but there are just as many being raised by religious bigots who spout about nonsense that makes about as much of sense as your post.
Thank you for your constructive criticism disguised as a personal attack. Am I correct in assuming that for you, Marie, “believer”=bigot?
Another “Most Obtuse Comment Of The Week” Award for Harlan Whatshisnameandwhocaresanyway!
Hey, Harlan, you’re right: Before free, universal public education, people DID get educated. But only rich, connected people comprising less than 1% of the population.
I guess that’s YOUR idea of a social good for the commonwealth…huh?
AMAZING! That all these public school boards are now being run by people who don’t believe in public education. This is what is happening all around and here in Los Angeles. We have an on-line educated superintendent in the pocket of special interest like Eli Broad, running one of the largest school districts in the country. Its sad and should be a call to arms for all those who support public education. We must act now, we must get rid of these privateers now!
Sounds like a death threat to me. “call to arms” “get rid of these privateers now1” Or, or, or . . . is it possible you are merely speaking metaphorically?
Harlan, after spending your whole career at an elite private school with strict admissions policies (according to their website), you have to understand why people might be skeptical about your depth of understanding regarding the public education system in the poorest communities in Mississippi. You are obviously one of the most educated and experienced people commenting here according to your LinkedIn account. However, there is wisdom regarding public education that only people who have spent their lives working in the poverty stricken inner city public schools have that can broaden all of our views. Wisdom comes from experience, not education as you pointed out when referring to so many of our founding fathers in your first post today.
Public school teachers are mad at what they perceive as the potential end result of siphoning off public school money into private schools. That end result being the stratification of learners and the segregation of society, leaving mostly poor, minority, and emotionally challenged students in public education. (https://dianeravitch.net/2013/03/26/the-swedish-voucher-system-an-appraisal/)
However, we have no right to demonize private school educators like yourself, and I don’t think we intend to. It is obvious that the college preparatory private school at Greenshill does an exceptional job with the diverse but gifted children that they let in after reviewing their scores on standardized tests. I would have been glad to have my children attend your school. But your school would have been unrecognizable if it allowed in everyone. Most of us have no idea what it is like to teach in a school that doesn’t have locks on the lockers. Gang members would be stealing each others drugs and all hell would break loose. Most of us wouldn’t know what to do in a school with an 8:1 teacher ratio like Greenshill, MI has. (http://greenhillsschool.org/about-greenhills/head-school-welcome)
I think it is the methods which some private school advocates are selectively using, for profit charter schools in particular, that we perceive as skewed, cherry picked, or disingenuous at best. Along with calling all public schools failures, a term hardly used until 1990, reformers are trying to convince the US population that school choice is the best option for everyone and that public school educators are the reason that they need to make different choices. (http://federaleducationpolicy.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/historic-use-of-the-term-failing-school/)
I believe that all teachers, public and private, go to work with the desire to make a difference and to do their very best in what are wildly variable circumstances. It is no wonder teachers are so demoralized when treated as lazy union thugs. I am sure you were never lazy and neither are the public school teachers that I have met. (http://www.schoolbook.org/2012/03/08/teachers-morale-reaches-20-year-low) So let’s all take a breath and try to discuss things with the goal of knowing more, rather than just venting at each other. The end result will definitely be more productive and more professional.
There is a propaganda war going on that isn’t hard to see and this site is the only one that offers a retort to it so it is understandable that public school teachers will speak their mind here. Let’s remember that this blog is titled Diane Ravitch’s Blog: A SITE TO DISCUSS BETTER EDUCATION FOR ALL. I invite your input; we can use a little clarity from someone with a dissenting opinion to remind us that private schools also have a place in our society.
The problem with Harlan’s critiques are that they rival the Unabomber’s manifesto. They really trail off into the bizarre. That is why he has lost credibility. Other people who disagree on here like Joe Nathan and Teachecon. don’t get the same scorn. It is the bizarre nature of the posts. It is hard to believe he is an actual teacher because I’d think a lot of people would actually lose their jobs due to the bizarre nature of the posts.
You’re being too gracious to Joe Nathan, DeeDee, he’s actually more confused, disturbed and myopic than Harlan.