A piece of Xtranormal satire on the current education debate and what those of us who are trying to make this argument from the grassroots level are up against. Frustratingly accurate, I’m afraid.
(Hat tip to @DianeRavitch who tweeted out the link.)
A View From the Schoolhouse
A piece of Xtranormal satire on the current education debate and what those of us who are trying to make this argument from the grassroots level are up against. Frustratingly accurate, I’m afraid.
(Hat tip to @DianeRavitch who tweeted out the link.)
I spent the past several days in Lynchburg, VA where my wife grew up. We saw a bunch of her old friends from (public) high school, and what struck me was that not one of them send their children to public school. These were middle and upper-middle class families who were all the products of public school. All of them spoke well of the education they received in Lynchburg public schools, and all of them spoke of the difficulty of the decision to send their children to private schools. We heard several reasons, and among them were:
These were not hippy, lefty, progressives. These were professionals in Lynchburg, VA. And they were all families who would have sent their kids to public schools in the past. And none of them were, mostly because of policy decisions our nation has made about public schools in the past decade. And what’s so scary is that perception has become reality. Despite the fact that every parent I spoke to had a positive experience in the very school system where they would send their child (often at the same school they were zoned for), they didn’t send their kids there. Perception had become reality. Because the US has created a narrative that says their schools weren’t good, families who have the financial ability to make other choices, chose not to send their kids to the public schools, despite their own positive experiences with public school.
And it struck me – how long does this last? If more and more families who can, choose to opt out of the public system, how long will be have one? With so many families making major financial decisions to send their children to private schools and so many more families sending their children to charter schools that do not typically think of themselves as "public school families," how long will we have a public school system that educates the majority of Americans?
It is why I think we will see more and more legislation for voucher programs in the coming years, and while they have mostly been focused at the state level, I think we will see federal legislation for vouchers within the next couple of years. And sadly, I cannot imagine a better way to move Americans toward wanting one than the current national dialogue about school.
We have undermined support for one of the longest standing public institutions we have, and I worry that we are on the verge of replacing it with a franchise model of education where Americans will take their tax credits and shop them to whomever will accept their child. Families of means will take their credit and happily subsidize their children’s private education. Families who cannot will take the monies – minus the necessary cut for oversight of this new system – and find the best schools they can. And the best of the democratic ideals that our public schools were built on will be further eroded in favor of "the market."
Caveat emptor.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Shawnee,United States
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
— Emma Lazarus, 1883
I’m ashamed of our nation today.
I’m ashamed that the U. S. Senate had the chance to do the right thing.
And instead, the U. S. Senate could not muster 60 votes to bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor for a vote.
It would have cost nothing, in fact, in a very short amount of time, it would have contributed to the national economy.
It would have allowed thousands of kids who believe that America is their home to have the chance to live the American dream.
It, simply, was the right thing to do.
I am proud of Senator Dick Durbin who said,
I want to make it clear to my colleagues, you wont get many chances in the United States Senate, in the course of your career, to face clear votes on the issue of justice…. Thousands of children in America who live in the shadows dream of greatness. They are children who have been raised in this country. They stand in the classrooms and pledge allegiance to our flag. They sing our Star-Spangled Banner as our national anthem. They believe in their heart of hearts this is home. This is the only country they have every known.
These are the names of the senators who voted against it or – in an even more cowardly fashion, chose not to vote at all. These are the senators who do not believe that those who were brought to this country through no choice of their own do not have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are the men and women who denied children the chance to live a dream. I want every person on the list below to have to sit down and listen to a group of students who lives were affected by their vote. I want them to listen to the stories that so many of us in schools hear day after day, year after year. I want them to look at them and try to justify their vote. This vote was abut moving past politics. It was, simply, about doing the right thing.
Every Senator on this list should have to answer for their vote. Our students whose lives would be profoundly changed by the passage of the DREAM Act should, simply, ask, "Why did you vote against giving me a chance at the American Dream." They can’t, of course, because to do so would be to put themselves at risk. So I will ask for them. And I call on everyone who reads this blog to do the same.
"Senators, why did you deny innocent children the chance at the American Dream?"
No Votes – 41
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (R-MA)
Brownback (R-KS)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagan (D-NC)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting – 4
Bunning (R-KY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)