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Re: economic plus race integration?!
Yes, Kathy, I'd say that your example is a
microcosm of the general state of US capitalism
in the post WWII era. Not that Europe and Japan
are saints, as they too practice and benefit from
exploitation and imperialism and social inequality (they're capitalists!!!!)
But the US economy has become increasingly ruled
by finance capital (Wall St) at the expense of
its own infrastructure, witness the latest insane
tax cuts for the rich (bye bye
revenues!!!) Expect to see more bridges
collapsing and other preventible disasters ( the
Katrina floods were the result of lack of
preventive maintenance on the levees). The rust
bowl reflects the lack of interest in capital
investment for production (manufacturing and its
complementary spending on decent wages, benefits,
etc), in favor of quick profit superexploitation
of 3rd world cheap labor (maquiladoras,
etc). When Chrysler got the government bailout
in the 1970s (our tax money), it failed to invest
most of it into new plants, but instead poured
huge sums into bolstering its stock value to
appease stock market investors, short term.
By the way, Marx explained the falling rate of
profit (of interest to investors, mostly the
super rich) that is built into the capitalist
market (Wall St), and that increases as
production of goods improves (of interest to most
of us as consumers). As manufacturing increases
the quantity (and potentially the quality) of
goods, the parasitic investors are less able to
make huge profits in their legalized gambling system (trading on the market)
So, there is PLENTY of money in the US that could
be used for public education, but it's tied up in
military spending (Iraq, etc) and in the pockets
of the obscenely rich, including Gates, Broad,
etc Once again, this is not "unintended
consequences," it is the deliberate program of the elite, the New World Order.
Pete
At 11:37 AM 7/21/2008, Kathy Emery wrote:
Interesting article in this past sunday NY Times
magazine (below are significant
excerpts)--notice the acknowledgement that test
scores are problematic, yet the reality so the
entire article is based on the "reality" -- which isn't. so orwellian.
an aside: regarding short term thinking. The
last time United Airlines bought a new plane was
right before 9/11. European and Asian airlines
have been buying new planes all along. RESULT=
U.S airlines like United are burdened with old,
gas guzzlers and breaking under the price of
oil. European and Asian airlines have new, high
tech planes that use much less fuel and hence
are doing just fine, thank you very
much. American capitalism really pushes short
term thinking decision making -- and CEO's take
the same approach to education as they do to every other aspect of their lives.
kathy
The New York Times, July 20, 2008 --Sunday Magazine Section
The Next Kind of Integration
By EMILY BAZELON
[At the beginning of the article]
Race has been the organizing principle of
integration since Brown v. Board of Education.
At the time of the court?s ruling in Meredith,
hundreds of districts were pursuing some sort of
racial integration, with or without a court
order, while only a few dozen at most were
trying any form of socioeconomic integration.
Over the years, racial integration has proved to
have tangible benefits. Amy Stuart Wells, an
education professor at Columbia Teachers
College, has found that going to school with
substantial numbers of white students helped
black students to form cross-racial friendships
and, by giving them access to white social
networks, eventually to find work in jobs higher
up the economic ladder.However important these
gains are, they are long-term and cannot be
easily or quickly assessed. And increasingly,
schools are held to a standard of immediately
measurable outcomes. The No Child Left Behind
Act, signed into law in 2002, demands student
test scores that climb ever upward, with a
mandate for all students to be proficient in
reading and math by 2014. Test scores may not be
the best way to assess the quality of a teacher
or a school, but the pressure to improve scores,
whatever its shortcomings, is itself on the
rise. And if high test scores are the goal, it
turns out, class-based integration may be the more effective tool.
[towards the end of article]
. . . . Todd?s first stop was at a forum
sponsored jointly by the Urban League and the
N.A.A.C.P., groups associated with Louisville?s
black establishment. Most of their members
supported the school district, but some clergy
members who worked with the city?s black youth
spoke against it. The Rev. John Carter,
associate minister at Green Street Baptist
Church, pointed to the district?s black-white
achievement gap and called for a return to
neighborhood schools and an earlier era of black self-reliance.
As more forums followed in high-school
auditoriums across the county, white parents
asked a different question: How would the new
assignment plan affect their kids? Would they be
forced to switch schools in second, third or
fourth grade? ?We like the diversity,? a white
parent named Niki Noe told me the next morning
at her son?s elementary school, St. Matthews.
?But if we have to go to Chenoweth? ? a school
with lower test scores ? ?we?ll pull out and go to private school.?
[Conclusion]
. . . . As the schools shift to the new
class-plus-race formula, the district will
closely watch the test scores of black students
and poor students, hoping for an upsurge, and
those of middle-class students, hoping to see
achievement hold steady. And if they do, maybe
the court?s decision in Meredith will come to
seem less like a cause for regret and more like an unexpected opportunity.
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