school reform

I read an article in the Post by a champion of "school reform" about why it failed. It astounds me that people can be so well-meaning, so well-educated, so evidently bright, and yet so deeply wrong about the root of problems. The failures of NCLB and the charter movement failed because they are liberal and neoliberal, with their focus on individual freedom and individual responsibility and their utterly misplaced faith in the market and the ideal of "competition." A charter advocate has a "gee golly we should have focused on the funding gap" moment at the end of the article. That is just exasperating. How did you miss the structural problem, lady?! Schools are embedded in society. They are a public good. The idea that you could fix the problems of poor and minority-majority schools by making stricter and narrower standards and then punishing poor performers is just nutty.

It reminded me of something Jonathan Kozol said when I saw him speak at Michigan in ~2005: "People say to me, 'So what are you saying, we should just throw more money at schools?' And I say, 'Yes! Yes, exactly!'" Also, bring back busing. I should ask Gabby about this, he worked in charter schools and now he's assistant principal of a public school.