On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 13:24:21 GMT, "J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Richard Ulrich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]: > > > I am cynical about the Bush-initiative; I think that they used this > > chance to criticize public schools, in hopes that it would help > > destroy them. > > In the eight years of the Clinton adminstration, did you witness a vast > improvement in the quality of U.S. public education? Let us say: I had no fears that the administration might want to abandon public education, because there is no movement in that direction among Democrats. I think that the test scores continued to creep up. > Do you really > believe the Bush crowd truly wants to "destroy" the public schools? Are > you serious? Okay, let us say, it could be a secondary strategy? Does it sound innocent enough if I say that the 'Bush crowd' (I think of the most extreme Right, which he seems pleased to mollify) includes people who would be happy to see public education disappear? In my cynical moments, I think that those folks are willing to use the tactic of damaging the schools, to decrease their popular support. So, either the tactic improves the schools, OR it helps to get rid of them, by making them worse. In their odd view, public schools are a basic example of 'socialism' which is a curse word. Adding to the injury, a huge number of teachers are unionized and are a potent lobby for Democrats; Bush wouldn't take a unified department of Homeland Security until he could strip out unionization and civil service. Damaging what they want to get rid of is a tactic of the Right; they do not like what government is doing, so they are happy to see it do it worse. - These are the folks that thought the public would be happy when Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government for a few days, about 8 years ago. - These are the folks that sponsored hearings for the purpose of damaging the IRS, collecting testimony of 'IRS abuses' that were eventually, out of the limelight, shown to be 95% bogus. "Make people more unhappy about paying taxes." Yes, I think that today's national Republican apparatus is a rare example of leadership that is happy to do a bad job in governing, program by program, when they see virtue lies in dismembering programs. > The dumbing down phenomenon has done more to harm the > public schools than anything. Parents place their kids in schools where > the main goal is not a satisfied teachers' union, but rather one in which > all children learn to their capacity. My own kids were products of > public schools and universities, but had we doubted the level of > education in our neighborhood schools, we would have moved them into > private ones without hesitation. It is obvious you want to make this So, you are happy with your public school, despite what you hear about elsewhere.... > into a partisan political issue, but IMHO, it is vastly more complex than > which party happens to control the White House. If we elect Kerry in > November, do you think there will be a major turnaround in the nation's > public schools? > Kerry? I do think that Kerry is likely to restore the fiscal integrity, the *lack* of which destabilizes public schools today. I don't know what he says about education, directly. I am willing to discuss this as a partisan political issue, where it seems that partisanship underlies the discussion and the laws being enacted. I would come closer to believing that the Bush crowd were sincere in wanting reforms to succeed if they would fund (merely) what they promised out the outset. - Do I need to know more about what they have done to meet (vehement) complaints, either about funding or badly done standards? I admit that I have not seen much, and so I have been assuming that they have not done much. -- Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
