Re: Mos U.S. Adults Want to Leave "No Child" Behind -- New National Poll

[Csubstance@aol.com]

Art Burke writes:

<< Does anyone outside of the

> spinmeisters at FairTest really think that most Americans want to leave 
those

> children behind or that they would not embrace the notion that states should

> establish reasonable learning goals, administer tests to measure children's

> progress towards those goals, and step in to do something in schools where

> lots of children are falling behind? >>

June 2, 2007

Like I said. You get 20 minutes once a month.

In answer to that latest iteration of stupid questions from nasty time 
wasters:

I do. 

I've been documenting how it's been done through vicious racial segregation 
and the manipulation of school funding for the past 31 years (I wrote about 
Chicago's segregation policies in "How Chicago Segregates" 31 years ago this 
summer). Before that, my beat was the U.S. Military and the movements against the 
Vietnam War inside of the various branches of service. (See the credits in 
"Soldiers in Revolt" by David Cortright and the new movie "Sir No Sir!" by Dave 
Zeiger for a little note on the kind of "research" I still specialize in. 
Dialectics of reality, as opposed to the cotton candy nonsense that's passed around 
in smug safety today).

So, yes, it's clear that those who rule want to stuff as many poor (read, in 
most places, not white) kids into schools that are then deprived of the 
resources to do what could be done for those children while those children are 
within the schools' walls.

And then the teachers and principals are blamed.

And the poor people get nasty to one another because nobody has enough of 
anything.

And by the time the children (who start with the same smiles and hopes as 
every other child) get to be about age eight or nine, their smiles start to turn 
upside down. And by the time they get large enough, New Age pundits are asking 
them "But why are you so angry? Would you like some anger management?"

Last winter, in just one example of that, I got a call that one of the 
privatized school bus companies that buses special education children to public 
schools in Chicago (Alltown Bus, at 63rd and Prairie) was not pre-heating the 
buses despite the fact that the temperature went below zero for more than seven 
nights straight. As a result, the temperature in the buses was below freezing 
when they began their routes. I stood out there (and almost got frostbite) to 
take pictures of the buses pulling out before dawn with frost inside the windows.

Yes, it's done to poor children (most of whom in Chicago are black and brown) 
every damned phukking day. As usual, I'll sponsor an "Inward Bound" project 
for anyone who quote Education Trust babblings here for the usual rates.

"Inward Bound"?

I set you up with a place to live in the middle of one of Chicago's more 
exotic communities. You get a CTA (public transportation) pass and $3 living 
expenses per day. Like many of the children I taught for 28 years before being 
fired by CPS for telling the truth once too often.

And you have to do it for a year.

For that privilege of real reality reality, you get to pay me and Substance 
$1,000 per week, non refundable, with a penalty of an additional $1,000 per 
week if you bail out before you reach Day 365.

An alternative is for me to hook you up (literally, guys) with a week in Cook 
County Jail. For this reality series, you get a couple of five pointed star 
tattoos, then you get to spend 24/7 on one of the six-pointed tiers. If you 
don't know what I'm talking about, you just flunked a high stakes test that any 
Chicago inner city fifth grader would score at the 99th percentile on. And your 
first night there will be a doozey.

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance
www.substancenews.com



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