In an article on Salon, writer James Cersonsky describes the state GOP’s attack on universities.
He calls it “the Enron-esque Higher Ed Plan: Fire Tenured Faculty to Fund Students Dorms.”
In Tom Corbett’s Pennsylvania, he says, if it’s public and it’s education, burn it down!
The same can be said for K-12 education.
Corbett is up for re-election.
The good news is that his poll numbers are down. Only 36% of voters approve of his performance, and about as many support him. All of the Democratic contenders have higher numbers in a poll published last month.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“All of the Democratic contenders have higher numbers in a poll published last month.”
That’s good, I guess, but what are their positions on K-12 and higher education? Will they do anything that much differently than Corbett?
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In a recent Lancaster newspaper poll, only about 50% of Republicans thought he should run for re-election. I know that probably won’t mean m uch in the actual election, when people will tow the party line. Hopefully the people of Pennsylvania are tired of his corporate cronyism and elect someone else. Almost anyone would be an improvement.
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Never forget Corbett said Christy was his idol! New Jersey educational reform initiatives was used as a model for Pennsylvania educational reform initiatives.
Where do you think RAC concept came from? Pennsylvania!
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Is there an example of an ed reform governor who strengthened the public ed system he or she inherited?
I can’t think of one. The metric would be “I made existing public ed entities stronger and better than when I walked in the door and they were handed to me”.
We know they can close or weaken existing systems and replace them with privatized systems. They’re real good at closing and opening. What about the public system they were handed? How’s that doing under ed reformer leadership?
Shouldn’t that be a huge part of the measure? It would be if they valued the public schools they were handed.
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I don’t understand…They told me that the dinosaurs were all EXTINCT1
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The public has grown tired to the tea partiers and nutty right-wing ideas about education. How does it help your state’s economy to put more people out of work? The whole idea of attacking public education has to be one of the most childish things the Republican Party has come up with.
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I’m pretty sure this national trend toward “improving education” i.e. destroying public school teachers unions is part of a bigger objective which is to privatize everything and walmartize it. Give people jobs that pay barely living wages. Also I believe it may be part of a tactic by the Republicans to take revenge on Obama anyway they can.. I mean voter id laws? How bout JIm Crow laws … sort of synonymous… Prove who you are by signing this document… ops forgot to cross the t can’t vote… Hmmm… How bout public schools.. low and behold most student in urban and rural Pa. public school live in poverty or just above poverty level… Any way you can limit access to mobility for poor people is a way to keep them off the ladder where middle class peoples children are… so yes close/ limit resources for public schools including access to college guidance counseling. Carville used to be right in his assessment of Pennsylvania politics.. Phila in the east Pitt in the west and MIssissippi in the middle looking like all Mississippi to me now… I am a public school teacher have been for 20 years, my children attend Phila. public schools and i’m a tax payer… triple whammy …. . can’t wait for next november. can’t come soon enough…
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