I recently came across this 1989 quote from Al Shanker:
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It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve: it's more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.
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I haven't been able to track down where he said this or the full context.
Al Shanker was President of the American Federation of Teachers. He started out as a teacher and then rose through union ranks. While he realized that the government schools had major problems, he seemed to think they could be reformed. I wish he had pushed something radical like getting the Federal Government out of public education or going with vouchers.
Until something major happens to government schools more and more parents will leaved the bureaucratic mess.
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Technorati tags: government schools, children, public school, public education, education
1 comment:
I was a student in the NYC public school system when Al Shanker was head of the union there. What amazes me is that he would admit to the things in that statement, although he doesn't acknowledge his own complicity in the faults of the system. Strange to hear a union guy speak disparagingly of communism. One would almost think he had some sort of an epiphany in his old age. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.
Thanks for all the great articles in the carnival, very interesting.
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