Why You Can Kiss Public Education (and the Middle Class) Goodbye
http://www.alternet.org/education/why-you-can-kiss-public-education-and-middle-class-goodbye
Quick - when you hear "public housing," what picture jumps into your mind? Or "public hospital"?
All around us, our public institutions are disintegrating, and the most important public institution of all our public education system is the next to be ghettoized.
Despite several progressive victories this Election Day, there was one significant defeat in Georgia, as voters approved of Constitutional Amendment 1 , which changes Georgias Constitution to give Republicans in that state the power to create charter schools as part of Georgias public education system. The result will be crucial taxpayer dollars being funneled away from free public schools and directed toward brand new, sometimes for-profit, privately-run charter schools.
Even though studies show that costly private schools dont produce any better educational results than free public schools, for-profit schools have popped up all around the nation in recent years because of how valuable they are to corporate America. In fact, the historic Chicago Teachers Union strike earlier this year was largely in response to the citys push to open up more charter schools to replace traditional public schools.