Comments on: What the Fuck is Wrong With Portland Public Schools, Pt. 2

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:33:26 +0000

Thanks for this analysis. I have learned a lot from you, and Barbara Miner of Rethinking Schools and Susan Ohanian of Substance Magazine about neoliberalism and its influence on education policy.

The takedown of public education is going on all over the US. Until we connect the dots from the Houston School Board to NCLB to the Broad Foundation to Gates and more we will be struggling to keep our heads above water. When you point these connections out people will call you a conspiracy theorist, but the ties become clearer every day.
Now Gates and Broad are working together, for example. This plus the Buffet money is a huge merging of power and money.
Keep on telling the truth Hockey God. We need to see the bigger picture or we will never take back our public schools.

By: Hope

Hope — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:38:50 +0000

Thank you for Part II. It was worth the wait.

By: Himself

Himself — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:43:26 +0000

Liberal school choice in Portland has resulted in resegregation and unequal educational opportunities based on race, economics and neighborhood.

This has demonstrably harmed public education in Portland. It falls into the category of destroying a village in order to save it.

You always have the choice to enroll your child in parochial school if you question the value to civilization of public education.

By: Rich Paul

Rich Paul — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 01:29:19 +0000

It startles me that you seem to think that if parents were free to choose the best schools for their children, somehow “education” would suffer. Since my definition of “education” is people learning things, and since children are generally loved more by their parents then by the governments they live under, and since most parents think it would be good if the kids learned more, I would suspect the opposite. More people would learn more things at less expense if parents were free to choose for their children the schools that best suited them.

This would also solve the “one size fits all” problem, which is inherent in all government schemes. Of course the voucher would be only “one size”, but you could choose the school that fit your preference. The problem is, of course, that you could not impose your values on others. If a school chose to teach something to which you are opposed, you would be powerless to stop them, you would just be able to choose a different school for your kids.

But of course, that “problem” is inherent in any program which is not “one size fits all”.