In this post, Mercedes Schneider tries to explain the ludicrous claim that vouchers are more “democratic” that public schools controlled by elected school boards.
The choice advocates contend that letting parents choose their child’s school is the height of democracy. They do not admit that the schools choose their students, and some will slam their doors to students who don’t fit.
Now with Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, the nation has a choice zealot in the bully pulpit, talking about the only subject she knows: choice. School quality doesn’t matter; results don’t matter. The only thing that matters is choice, even if you can’t exercise it.
Mercedes reviews recent events–including the Edelman-Weingarten article opposing vouchers and defending charters–but the meat of her piece goes to the origins of svhool choice as a strategy to evade desegregation.
She places DeVos in the same boat with the notorious Southern governors, senators, and legislators who knew that their chance of defeating the Brown Decision of 1954 was to advocate school choice.
It is important to know history so you won’t be fooled.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, history is more important than ever these days. People are so busy arguing about what’s fake in the present, just clicked moment that wholesale manipulation and outright destruction of our collective past is slipping right by us. But, you know, it’s hard enough concentrating on all the crazy crap Trump and his enablers are doing in the here and now. It’s like juggling 101 different sized, sharp, flaming objects. Trump is waging his own bizarre form of “shock and awe” warfare on us, his own nation.
The so-called conservatives used to have at least a passing interest in understanding and preserving history -real history, not some Disneyfied fantasy land. Now they have to work relentlessly to bury Trump’s latest foolishness as “yesterday’s news”. No wonder they want to avoid thinking about the real past, about the truth. History only proves that our 45th president is a buffoon. It seems the past only matters to conservatives when it comes to ranting about Hillary or Barack supposed wrongdoing.
BTW…..a quote from Mercedes’ article caught my eye: “But Betsy isn’t giving up. When her family’s $12.9 million didn’t pay off, she established the org/PAC, Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), to promote school choice in Michigan, and she still has AFC”
“GLEP”….It sounds like a noise from someone who is about to throw up, or drown or is having something really unpleasant shoved down his or her gullet.
GLEP…..an acronym that ranks right up there in history with CREEP.
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Thanks for reminding everyone of that most necessary TRUTH: “It is important to know history so you won’t be fooled.”
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Malcolm X would probably have called Chavous a “house negro”.
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Lived some of that history.
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JFK attended Choate, an exclusive prep school, which chooses which students may attend.
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All private schools choose their students. That’s why it is misleading to tell parents they get to choose. The school chooses, not the family. In public schools, all children are admitted. Even if they have cognitive disabilities.
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The public system provides a place for every student, even if not in the school he prefers. He is not turned away and told to find another school, if he can.
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