Thank you for sharing the output huge amount of research you have obviously done for this post. It paints a worrying picture. In the UK, we've also suffered from delusional thinking about the market being the only sensible model for all social institutions and activities to follow, education included.
I know Reagan and Thatcher were beasties and ushered in neoliberalism, but I never imagined the U.S. would ever champion someone like T**** and a movement like MAGA. T*** is being more ans more vocal with his Nazi rhetoric now. He's always held those beliefs though. He kept a copy of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet by.his bedside.
This is an amazing dive into the plans for public education if Trump is reelected. It's really alarming and I don't think a lot of parents understand how dysfunctional many state's public school systems already are. Unfortunately of the parents who do see the dysfunction many of them are buying exactly this kind of garbage as the solution. It's a real problem. I've always supported public schools and never planned on sending my children to private school. My daughter attends public middle school but after getting into the best public K-12 magnet school in our state for kindergarten I had to pull her out because they would not honor her IEP and she was coming home with bruises, ripped clothing, exhausted and hungry. (She had gross motor delays with balance issues and the school was a multistory building so I believe these were from all the stair-climbing etc, not bullying or abuse). There was no room in any of the elementary schools that were our other choices for the next year and mid year transfers weren't an option either. So she went to a small Catholic school for 1st through 5th grade. This year until a few weeks ago her school of 1000 students had one guidance counselor, no IEP coordinator, and only one assistant principal. Her advanced level 6th grade class read one book last year. I don't know if I can keep her in public school another 5 years. And I feel like a terrible hypocrite for this, but I'm not sure what the solution is.
Here's a link to the APM podcast about cue-based reading. Don't misunderstand my concern about this and other failures in some public schools as an indicator that I don't support them. They are taking on so many complex types of services that are reaching kids now who would never have received them before. We are not helping enough as a society and as individuals to make sure facilities are in good physical condition and every student is learning at the best rate possible for them.
My daughter is entering Hugh school next year and we looked at and she applied to several CPS schools and a Catholic school. There are excellent Chicago Public high schools but that excellence and structure is not applied to other high schools and certainly nor neighborhood schools. No equity at all. It's wrong, racist, ableist and classist.
A big thing to me is that (knock on wood) no shootings have been attempted in any all girls schools. I know that sounds like a crazy reason but I'm in Kentucky where there are guns literally everywhere. And she's my only child and I think it's bullshit to have to worry about so much nightmare shit in addition to everything else. I want our schools to succeed but if they can't follow her IEP and half the kids can barely read and she's bored to tears and bullied (now that's a problem) it's just overwhelming. And we can't actually afford it. But my in-laws will pay for Catholic school (and only Catholic school) and my husband works for the university so she'll get free tuition there (even though I want her out of this state ASAP) hopefully her grades will be fantastic and she can get into some scholarship paid for post-grad program at McGill or somewhere even farther away.
Thank you for sharing the output huge amount of research you have obviously done for this post. It paints a worrying picture. In the UK, we've also suffered from delusional thinking about the market being the only sensible model for all social institutions and activities to follow, education included.
I know Reagan and Thatcher were beasties and ushered in neoliberalism, but I never imagined the U.S. would ever champion someone like T**** and a movement like MAGA. T*** is being more ans more vocal with his Nazi rhetoric now. He's always held those beliefs though. He kept a copy of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet by.his bedside.
I worry about Germany, too: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-afd-hits-record-high-poll-after-budget-chaos-2023-12-19/
This is an amazing dive into the plans for public education if Trump is reelected. It's really alarming and I don't think a lot of parents understand how dysfunctional many state's public school systems already are. Unfortunately of the parents who do see the dysfunction many of them are buying exactly this kind of garbage as the solution. It's a real problem. I've always supported public schools and never planned on sending my children to private school. My daughter attends public middle school but after getting into the best public K-12 magnet school in our state for kindergarten I had to pull her out because they would not honor her IEP and she was coming home with bruises, ripped clothing, exhausted and hungry. (She had gross motor delays with balance issues and the school was a multistory building so I believe these were from all the stair-climbing etc, not bullying or abuse). There was no room in any of the elementary schools that were our other choices for the next year and mid year transfers weren't an option either. So she went to a small Catholic school for 1st through 5th grade. This year until a few weeks ago her school of 1000 students had one guidance counselor, no IEP coordinator, and only one assistant principal. Her advanced level 6th grade class read one book last year. I don't know if I can keep her in public school another 5 years. And I feel like a terrible hypocrite for this, but I'm not sure what the solution is.
Here's a link to the APM podcast about cue-based reading. Don't misunderstand my concern about this and other failures in some public schools as an indicator that I don't support them. They are taking on so many complex types of services that are reaching kids now who would never have received them before. We are not helping enough as a society and as individuals to make sure facilities are in good physical condition and every student is learning at the best rate possible for them.
Anyway, here's the link:
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
My daughter is entering Hugh school next year and we looked at and she applied to several CPS schools and a Catholic school. There are excellent Chicago Public high schools but that excellence and structure is not applied to other high schools and certainly nor neighborhood schools. No equity at all. It's wrong, racist, ableist and classist.
A big thing to me is that (knock on wood) no shootings have been attempted in any all girls schools. I know that sounds like a crazy reason but I'm in Kentucky where there are guns literally everywhere. And she's my only child and I think it's bullshit to have to worry about so much nightmare shit in addition to everything else. I want our schools to succeed but if they can't follow her IEP and half the kids can barely read and she's bored to tears and bullied (now that's a problem) it's just overwhelming. And we can't actually afford it. But my in-laws will pay for Catholic school (and only Catholic school) and my husband works for the university so she'll get free tuition there (even though I want her out of this state ASAP) hopefully her grades will be fantastic and she can get into some scholarship paid for post-grad program at McGill or somewhere even farther away.
Excellent work. Thanks. Seems that Burke’s Mission Statement should just read Divide and Conquer.