Tuesday, July 15, 2014

CHARTER SCHOOLS FOR DUMMIES

How many parents know what tax-funded charter schools, with their unelected boards, really are? 
  •     How their children's academic education is changing from academics to workforce training.
  •     How the governance of their town/city/school is shifting to the unelected council form of government.
  •     How the operation of public health agencies and welfare departments is changing and is being merged into the community school. 


NEW AMERICAN SCHOOLS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (NASDC) WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1991. President George Bush requested that the business community raise funds to support development of “radical, break-the-mold” schools (one in each Congressional district) which would in the future be known as “charter schools” (public school “choice” schools). The Request for Proposals from NASDC required that:
Design teams should define the scope and focus of their own work. Student age-grouping may be unconventional, and designs may serve students younger than five years of age and older than eighteen; students need not all be assembled in a single building or at a particular time of day; the school day and school year may be redefined. The duties of administrators, teachers, volunteers, parents, and all other adults may be changed.... The design may entail major changes in community governance, community structures and the functions of other institutions such as public health agencies and welfare departments. Alternatively, designs may adopt conventional arrangements for any of above. [From my book the deliberate dumbing down of america, p. 290]
For examples of "major changes in community governance," read articles like these: