The pincer movement to destroy American Public Education.

[WinkyDink]

1. Go after Public Employees' Pensions via the Norquist Method: Bleed the state budgets dry.

2. Hype "Teach for America" fast-track 2-year appointments to schools that can ill-afford them.
http://eduratireview.com/2010/04/looking-past-the-spin-teach-for-america/

3. Push for "Vouchers" to keep public schools and Administrators in a constant state of disequilibrium.
"In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court ruled a voucher system, unconstitutional."
http://www.newsy.com/videos/florida-drawing-criticism-for-school-voucher-plan/

4. Bribe P.S. Administrators with Gates Money AND TAX MONIES to turn their schools into Charters.
http://www.isreview.org/issues/62/feat-charterschools.shtml
Liberals who support the idea of charter schools give cover to politicians who champion privatization schemes. One of the main platforms for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is support for charter schools. He told Teach for America, “I have been a big fan of public charter schools throughout my career. In the Illinois legislature, I was a leading advocate of public charters and helped pass legislation that authorized Chicago to create 15 new charter schools. I’ve said before that more resources alone will not improve our schools.”8 In a speech to the National Education Association this summer, Obama made two concrete policy suggestions about education—teacher bonuses based on students’ test scores, if the unions approve (merit pay by another name), and an increase in charter schools.

Even a major proponent of Vouchers has criticized the charters known as KIPP Schools:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/charter-schools/myths-and-realities-about-kipp.html

5. Impose impossible NCLB standardized-testing requirements. The costs of DUMBING DOWN:
Mr. Toch writes that even more worrisome is the pressure on states to dumb down their tests — to switch from challenging tests with essay questions to multiple choice to save money and meet federal reporting deadlines. He points out how much cheaper and faster machine-scored multiple-choice tests are to grade. Florida can do a million multiple-choice tests in a day, while correcting tests with essay questions can take weeks. It costs a test company 50 cents to $5 to score an essay, compared with pennies for each multiple-choice question.

The result? "Many of the tests that states are introducing under N.C.L.B. contain many questions that require students to merely recall and restate facts, rather than do more demanding tasks like applying or evaluating information," Mr. Toch writes in his study, which can be found at www.educationsector.org.

A recent Education Week survey found that 42 percent of students are now taking state reading and math tests that are entirely multiple choice. To save time and money, Kansas and Mississippi switched to all-multiple-choice tests this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/education/22education.html

6. Under the guise of the swell-sounding "Merit Pay," tie individual teachers' annual salaries to student scores on standardized tests, creating annual economic insecurity for those teachers and, by virtue of not having every discrete school subject so tested (e.g., not art, physical education, home economics, or even physics), creating an unequal job situation within the public school system.

7. Rule that Seniority is not to be considered during lay-offs (themselves an attack). Get rid of seasoned, knowledgeable, dedicated staff. Oh, and higher-salaried, coincidentally.

8. "Rate" individual teachers in the media.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100815,0,2695044.story
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THE MAIN GOAL:
Regardless of the weapon of choice, regardless of the level of acquiescence of the victim, the goal of all the above = (are you sitting down?) MONEY. PUBLIC TAX MONEY.

THE SECONDARY GOAL:
A work-force trained to obey, to repeat, and to believe that they will achieve the so-called "American Dream," while those astronomically wealthier are striving mightily to deny them their due, even unto retirement, sickness, and death.

THE TERTIARY GOAL:
Destroy a major union.

[snappyturtle]

1. To see all the destructive means on one page is truly scary.

The slow erosion of public education began decades ago and now we can clearly vision the future. The advancements in technology that aid education have been over shadowed by the dumbing down of textbooks. Couple this with the threatening environment for educators, I foresee a doomed system. imho

[Hannah Bell]

2. yep, pretty much. total war, multi-fronts, unlimited funding.

when the ruling class decides things need to change, they spare no expense.

democracy? pfft.

they will *make* you want what they say you want.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Pincer movement--*excellent description*

k&r

[maryf]

4. Regarding the Secondary goal: As NY Governor Pataki said a couple years ago.

and I paraphrase: all most people need is an eighth grade education.

K&R thanks!

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. k n r

[Reader Rabbit]

6. The sad thing is that so many purported "liberals" buy into this.

Even here on DU, there are voices in favor of any number of these steps. It's disheartening, to say the least.