Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Another brilliant column by Diane


After screwing up our schools, the Gates foundation now proceeds to spread its tentacles into the US Dept. of Education; where Arne Duncan, armed with a $5 billion slush fund to push the agenda of the Billionaire boy’s club agenda of more charter schools and merit pay; with KIPP, Kopp and Klein joining the advisory board of the Broad foundation to further their hostile takeover of public education, Diane asks the very timely question, Will Public Education Survive the Embrace of Big Money?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"after screwing up our schools..."

you write as if Gates broke something that worked. everything you write is klein this, bloomberg that...now it's your fault bill gates! and you wendy kopp for your hostile take over of public schools!

wendy kopp? really?

founder of Teach for America which is a RESPONSE to the dire situation in poor communities around the city.

please, enough is enough. this blog is nothing but broad sweeping statements, exaggeration and complaints about the good 'ol days that never existed.

Anonymous said...

At least before Bloomberg Klein, Kopp, and Gates grades were honest. this group of scoundrels milk and rose color everything scheme they perform. So uncreative and greedy. Why aren't new cops, firemen, and doctors hired like TFA newbies? I don't understand. Explain it, Anon.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

Gates pressured school districts across the country to break up large high schools into small schools. In the process billions of dollars of taxpayer capital funds were sucked into support of his policy to reconfigure space. Then recently he does an about face and says the small school approach doesn't work. So yes, he has screwed up our schools.

The increase in anonymous posters on this blog is directly proportional to the amount of money Bloomberg and his friends have doled out to outfits like Learn NY and other lobbyists / paid preservers of his legacy. Who pays you to come here and attack us?

inexile said...

I'd also like to say to Anonymous that in this whole discussion of schools, the point missing is that many schools did work for many children. Yes, there were schools that needed to be improved, and students who needed more help. In fact, our previous Chancellor, Rudy Crew had addressed these issues by creating the Chancellor's District. I believe this was a successful approach to helping failing schools and at-risk students. Now nothing works. We have overcrowded classrooms, kids who are wait-listed for kindergarten in their zoned schools with no plan on how to accommodate more students, an overemphasis on test scores and finally an inexperienced, dilettante teaching force of well-meaning young people putting in a few years so they can add it to their law school applications. Those are just a few improvements. When you say broad, sweeping statements and exaggeration I think you mean the mayor's and his cronies' hyperbole about the progress that has been made over these last 8 years. I only pray that New Yorkers don't vote for Mr. Bloomberg in November.