"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Sunday, September 26, 2010

What's next...WalMart Elementary?

Earlier today I posted an entry from Mr. Talk at Accountable Talk about Oprah and her recent shows about Waiting for Superman.

I just went back there and caught some of the comments. Two really caught my attention. The first, from Katje who said,
When billionaires with political agendas shape education reform, we'll get more of the same. They have no interest in making the system better because they accrued their wealth through the system.

If (as a nation) we truly believed in educating our children, we would have informed voters who could separate fact from opinion. Then we (as a nation) would bring about meaningful reform through parents, teachers, and communities that truly care about children.
The billionaires (Gates, Broad, and now, it seems, Oprah) may be sincere in their attempts to improve schools, but they, along with the Obama-Duncan team running the show, don't know anything about education.

I get so tired of people who think they are experts on the public schools when their only experience in education was their own schooling, which for some, such as Duncan, never included a public school.

Back to the comments. My favorite was from Fred Kilgallin (who didn't seem to have a profile to link to). He was right on in his prediction of where this is all leading...
Hey, if you like what WalMart did for shopping, you're going to absolutely LOVE their new school system. What do we imagine it'll look like when they get done pouring their billions into it?
Maybe I could come out of retirement to become a WalMart greeter/recess monitor.

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