Op-Ed Columnist - Our Greatest National Shame - NYTimes.com
Read This Read This Read This Read This.... Read Kristof's column ... if you are interested in the quality and relevance of public education.
Kristof argues that the evidence is overwhelming that public education is broken. Maybe it can be fixed, but not without a change in governance, teacher quality and breaking the union stranglehold on the system. (He fails to mention the stranglehold!)
Obama's stimulus tosses $ billions toward public education. But will his Education Secretary Arne Duncan stimulate real reform? Who will hold his feet to the fire? If he has not shown significant progress toward substantive reform within a couple of years, he should be fired.
But wait, education is a local and state issue, many say. The problem must lie there. Our state, Vermont, has shown no progress in changing the cost, governance and quality of education. While students here perform somewhat better than the national averages, they should. We do not have the poverty, racial and ethnic tensions prevalent in many other places. In addition, we do have the smallest student/teacher ratio and class sizes in the nation.
We should be able to deliver the same quality at far less cost. The Governor has proposed a recessionary freeze on education spending, but the EduLobby and the Legislature seem inclined to continue exorbitant spending even in this recession. That's foolishness.
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