Schools Matter: My Way or the Highway

Jim Horn, a professor at Cambridge College, writes a blog called Schools Matter. In it, he rails against charter schools, KIPP, TFA, etc. arguing that they exist to serve the needs of their racist, business-centric, foundation-supported masters. A fine piece of arch-liberal demagoguery. I like it because it pisses me off and makes me think. He writes:

"This space explores issues in public education policy, and it advocates for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasizing testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build."

Professor Horn is from the school of thought that says that until poverty, recism and inequity are eradicated in this country, the public schools are doomed. I would agree with much of that.
Unfortunately, he also seems to believe that we in education should stay the course until those problems are fixed. I agree we need to fix those problems. However, I disagree that we should wait until they're fixed to educate urban kids.

I want my students, the ones facing oppression, racism, classism, etc. to have opportunites to have a better education than their parents. Hell, I want them to have a better education than I had. But for that to happen, they need to be able to read and write and calculate. I, for one, think that my school and others like it are making it happen for a group of kids who wouldn't have had that opportunities in the district schools. It's sad that Professor Horn doesn't think that's ok.

(I wonder if he's even been to a charter school before or has even met the dedicated young people who make up Teach for America. Often, I don't think charter school critics have...)