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Re: [Phys-l] Glass's "The Fate of Public Education in America"; an Alternate View



A recent commercial posted on this listserve gave a link to Chapter 10 of Glass's book, available for review online.

The commercial asserted Glass showed that, " the central education policy debates at the start of the 21st century (vouchers,
charter schools, tax credits, high-stakes testing, bilingual education) are actually about two underlying issues: how can the costs of public education be cut, and how can the education of the White middle-class be "quasi-privatized" at public expense?" Excerpts from the book have Glass claiming that the self-serving, self-interested white retirees are fueling these debates to keep from spending their money on the education of children darker than they. Hogwash. Typical race-baiting politics-as-usual that has plagued the public education debate for far too long.

Glass makes many assertions about the racial inadequacies of any system save the public educational status quo, while ignoring all real quantifiable data; data like the Joint Center for Educational and Political Studies survey that found support for school vouchers 21% higher on average among African Americans than among white Americans, or Stanford University Professor Terry Moe's survey that showed the greatest support for vouchers in American public education is among the urban poor (79%). In those inner city areas where vouchers have been used (see reference notes on Milwaukee and Cleveland), the results have been astounding, with the greatest benefit to poor minority children who otherwise would not have access to any alternative to the system that has already failed them. Rather than seeing alternatives to the current status of education as motivated by race-hatred and self-interest, most thinking Americans realize that school choice and competition offer poor inner city minorities their greatest chance to escape the cycle of forced poverty. It is no wonder that former Baltimore City Mayor Kurt Schmoke (current Dean of Howard University School of Law, Baltimore's first elected African American mayor, and founder of the city's "Baltimore: the City that Reads adult literacy program) is a staunch supporter of all forms of educational choice.

To summarize my review: Glass's book: Bahhhh!

References:
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/1998/spring_education_peterson.aspx
http://www.city-journal.org/html/9_1_a1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Schmoke
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_20.htm

Dr. Ann M. Reagan
Adjunct Faculty
Department of Math/Physics/Engineering
College of Southern Maryland, Leonardtown Campus