Linda Darling-Hammond writes here about the historic protests by teachers now sweeping through red states.
She writes:
“A nation that under-educates its children in the 21st century cannot long survive as a world power. Prisons — which now absorb more of our tax resources than public higher education did in the 1980s — are filled with high school dropouts and those with low levels of literacy. We pay three times more for each prisoner than we invest in each child’s education annually. With an aging population and only three workers for every person on Social Security, the United States especially needs all young people to be well-educated enough to gain good work in the complex and rapidly changing economy they are entering. Without their ability to pay the taxes that support the rest of society, the social contract will dissolve
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
She should have been Obama’s Sec of Ed. but Duncan brought in the donors she couldn’t.
Eli Broad would never, ever have allowed her to be Secretary of Education, just as Citibank (while it was simultaneously receiving the largest government bailout in history) was insuring that Timothy Geithner would be Secretary of the Treasury, and that not a single banker would go to jail for causing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
If you don’t think that had something to do with Trump’s election, I’ve got bridge I’d like to sell you.
If the head of just one banking big shot had been put on a stick out side the White House (metaphorically speaking, unfortunately) under Obama, Hillary would be residing there today.
We do agree .
https://www.paulstreet.org/obamas-big-cash-matters/
Duncan brought in basketballs that she couldn’t.
Under the influence of billionaires and libertarians, our country has its priorities backwards. We are investing more in “law and order” than education. Investing in prisons does not pay off to elevate a society, but education pays off in a big way. We know this from our own history. We will not be able to compete with other industrialized nations unless we change our position and get the money out of politics. Other nations like Canada, Australia, Singapore and Finland have managed to create schools with more opportunity for all, and we can do if we reject the dead end policy road we are on and vote out those that support the corporate vandals.
No Singapore has not created schoosl with “more opportunity for all”. Neither has Australia which has been under the NAPALM TESTUCATION, oops I mean NAPLAN standardized testing regime doing the same damage to its public education as here in the US. See the Treehorn Express blog for more info. Canad is increasingly coming under the spell of “individualized” computer/technologically based education. So that leaves Finland, which, being smart does not start formal schooling for its children until they ar 7.
An excellent report with some vital stats. Not included, but worth finding and publicizing, is the proportion of adults of working age, say 18-64, and theoretically able to support education and social services for children from infancy to age 17. Unless I am misreading some US Census projections, the proportion of adults who might have children and might care about education and social services is rapidly declining. Mustering political support for public education could be more difficult while reducing the costs of medical care might be of greater interest..
“We pay three times more for each prisoner than we invest in each child’s education annually.”
This is a shocking and very compelling statistics.
Even more financially shocking: while huge money is ‘spent’ for prisons, the actual conditions and reality for prisoners is far from acceptable. Where does that money go….
“As child poverty, food insecurity and homelessness have climbed to among the highest levels in the industrialized world (more than one in five live in poverty and in 2014 one in 30 were homeless), ”
But if we look at large US cities, the child poverty rate is much higher: in 1 in 3. Memphis’s child poverty rate is almost 50%, so basically 1 in 2 children (under 18) in Memphis live in poverty. But we do not have the highest child poverty rate in the country (Detroit’s is almost an unbelievable 60%)—though we do have the highest adult poverty rate.
Here’s the key phrase:
“the social contract will dissolve…”
This is exactly what conservatives have in mind…this is the goal…this is what they want. In fact, this is what they’ve desired for a long time.
The fact that there are lots of working class people who voted for Trump and for other conservative Republicans suggests that there are either an awful lot of really stupid people, or a lot of people have been snookered. By flimsy and false campaign promises. By lies. By Russian and Fox news propaganda.
Bottom line, there’s a dire need for the teaching of critical, reflective thinking. And there’s a very real need for public schools to focus attention on citizenship education, on what Aristotle called “the character of democracy.”
There’s a constitutional crisis waiting to happen. The constitutional Republic is at stake.
Somewhat off-thread, but having to do w/Darling-Hammond: has anyone else received her think tank’s e-mail about their research on & development of “deeper learning assessments,” & was anyone else (deeply) disturbed by it?
Is it possible to run a post on it here, Diane?