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One of the Major Issues in Education is Pro Privatization Groups Attempt to Destroy Public EducationOne of the major issues in education is the attempt by proprivatization groups to discredit and destroy public education, replacing it with for profit schools. There are many major issues in education, but this attempt to discredit and destroy public education tops the list because it is through public education that the United States attained its world technological lead by the 1950s. American public education has come under heavier and heavier attacks over the past several years. Those on the attack say that public school isn't educating our children properly. This attack continues unabated and is one of the major issues in education today. Who and why are they on the attack? According to one 2005 article, by Robert Freeman, there exists an organized, intense lobby to privatize public education and win the 500 billion dollars in contracts for grades K-12 that would be made available by such a victory. Hence, in the interest of private industry, teachers are being criticized as lazy, public schools as failing, and public bureaucracies as unresponsive. A steady vilification of the public education system has been occurring over the past twenty years by these private interests and is one of the major issues in education. But is public education really failing our children? According to one article, the answer is a resounding no. Freeman maintains that the Scholastic Aptitude Test is the best measure of student progress for the following reasons:
as follows: "Probably the most reliable, broad-based, long-term tool for measuring the quality of public education is the Scholastic Aptitude Test....Because of its long history, its nationwide reach, and its comprehensive nature, SAT results transcend the negative one-off anecdotes commonly bandied about to disparage public education. No other instrument even comes close to equaling these strengths as a singular measure of national educational progress." Freeman goes on to eloquently cite the SAT findings as follows: "Last year's SAT scores were the highest in 30 years. English scores were the highest in 28 years. Math scores were the highest in 36 years. The scores were at record levels for all ethnic groups: whites; Asian-Americans; African-Americans; Native Americans; and Latinos. And they were achieved by the broadest test-taking pool in testing history. Forty-eight per cent of the nation's 2.9 million high school seniors took the test--a record. Thirty-six percent of the test takers were minorities, another record. Thirty years ago, only the most elite 15 percent of students took the test. And remember, elites usually test better than averages. So the fact that scores have gone up while the test-taking pool has gotten both larger and more diverse may be the most powerful performance indicator of all. These scores are a huge victory for those who have believed in and fought so hard for public education. Even more impressive, public schools have accomplished these new highs while confronting some of the greatest obstacles they have ever faced. Consider just a few of these almost Herculean challenges:
most vitriolic, unremitting campaigns of character assassination in American history, public education has delivered the highest performing group of graduates in over a generation. Against this record, those who would "privatize" public education have virtually nothing to show for their decades of hucksterish claims. In trial after trial, experiments with educational vouchers (the most popular form of school privatization) have proven a bust. Voucher programs in Milwaukee, New York, Washington D.C., and in Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio have shown no long-term gains in student achievement. And this, despite in some cases skimming the cream off the top of local student populations-recruiting only the best students while keeping problem or special-needs children out." The Freeman article appears to be a compelling defense of public education as one of the major issues in education. Read Freeman's defense of public education, one of the major issues in education, here. Points to ponder, concerning public education as one of the major issues in education, are:
How is the No Child Left Behind Act used to destroy public education? The War on Kids |
