Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Educational News (from Canada)

It seems that this article is all about Naomi Klein's book "Disaster Capitalism." In it, she attacks the late Milton Friedman and his desire to restructure New Orleans' schools after Katrina. While it reviews her book in general, it reminded me that I want to continue on message here at FEMA, Katrina, and other bad words.

I am not sure the idea to totally start clean was totally unfounded (even I suggested it was a great chance to start fresh), but I also don't necessarily agree with vouchers. I definitely don't agree with the decision to fire all school employees.

Nonetheless, I do believe in purging the cronyism and corruption that has blatantly stolen money and resources from the future of New Orleans. How long will it take to recover - 10 years? 30 years? Never? How many more generations will be shackled by what has happened with the school board and the state in the last 35 years? How many are lost or illiterate or uneducated despite attending school?

Something had and continues to have to be done to improve education FOR EVERY NEW ORLEANIAN CHILD.

Charter schools are one (and only one) option. There should be excellent neighborhood schools with high degrees of parental involvement. (See Michael Homan for exactly how to do this).

1 comment:

Michael Homan said...

I remember hearing quite a bit about Milton Friedman's free-market economic philosophy when he passed away. But I didn't know about his direct involvement in charter schools in New Orleans until I read your post Latin Teacher. Friedman's article in the Wall Street Journal back in December of 2005: The Promise of Vouchers.