Re: the education trust's disinformation campaign

["GERALD BRACEY" <gbracey1@verizon.net>]

Art,

Re, "Arguments that NCLB is a...stalking horse for vouchers...are so far out 
that they play only in propaganda outlets like this one."

Well, er, ah, in the original legislation voucher provisions existed.  They 
came into play after a school failed to make AYP for 3 years.  Kennedy 
balked.  Bush compromised and took SES instead, but John Boehner tried to 
reinsert vouchers on six separate occasions.

After a voucher-less NCLB passed, Bush introduced a voucher program for a 
half-dozen cities.  The Dems rejected this.  Bush limited his voucher 
efforts to DC and Dems rejected that four times, even though Dianne 
Feinstein switched her vote (saying she would NEVER vote for vouchers in 
California).  The DC voucher program passed only after Bush operatives 
attached it to a $378 billion omnibus spending bill which, if rejected, 
would have shut down government a la Newt Gingrich and they knew how THAT 
played out.

I think it's a stalking horse for vouchers?  Silly me.

JB



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <aburke5054@aol.com>
To: <arn-l@interversity.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: [arn-l] the education trust's disinformation campaign


> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: GERALD BRACEY <gbracey1@verizon.net>
>
> To: arn-l@interversity.org
> Sent: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:23 am
> Subject: Re: [arn-l] the education trust's disinformation campaign
>
>
> Art,
>
> You can listen to the show at www.wbur.org.  Do it.
>
> _________________________________________________
>
> I tried, but 20 minutes of nothing was all I could take.  You have too 
> much time on your hands.  American public education works much better for 
> some children than for others.  Getting it to work better for all children 
> is a great reason to have NCLB, or something similar, with or without 
> considering how well American kids are stacking up in international 
> comparisons.  Devoting yourself to nailing careless talk by the Secretary 
> about "grade levels," or correcting misstatements about international 
> comparisons, is setting your sights too low.  Arguments that NCLB is an 
> attack on teachers, or a stalking horse for vouchers, or the first step in 
> privatizing the public schools, or that it's DIBELizing education are so 
> far out that they play only in propaganda outlets like this one.  It's 
> over for all that stuff.  Get down to the real work of how to make the 
> schools better for all kids.  The sad fact is that resistance to doing so 
> comes from inside public education and that is another great reason to 
> have NCLB.
>
> Art
> ________________________________________________________________________
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