CNSNews' Jeffrey: "It is time to drive public schools out of business"

To the extent that they think about history at all, it's an utterly romanticized version of history that isn't reality-based.

I know that free, public schools existed in the colonies. And that John Adams first rose to notoriety fighting against King George III's appointment of a judge who advocated shutting those down. The judge cited all the same reasons we hear today: schools are failing, private institutions would do a better job for less money, etc.

Decades later his private letters became public. Turns out his big worry was that the public schools were working too *well*. And educated people were unwilling to just listen to "their betters".

The judge was, of course, proven right. The American Revolution is a testament to that fact.

money...

It wasn't universal as well.

It wasn't until the Progressive Era when universal public schools came into being.

Curiously, the reason it was put in place was to get kids out of the workforce and give them something to do, especially in the big cities.

From what you wrote, I guess these free public schools must have been privately owned schools open to the public and funded by donations rather than tuition. So were the Brits trying to force privately owned schools to charge tuition instead of accepting donations?

It sounds king of odd.

I know most kids did not avail themselves of the education. I'm sure a lot of uneducated parents saw no reason for their kids to get an education. And, of course, they needed them to work. Even in the 1970s my dad would not let me participate in high school sports because he wanted me back on the farm.

But there have been free schools referred to as "public schools" since before the United States was a country. I don't understand how people could argue for shutting them down if their taxes weren't helping pay for them.

the aforementioned victoria jackson! ;>0

synonymous with training. Studying for test scores alone, in order to feed the income of test-creating corporations is not what I consider an education, in the first place. My sense of the word is a well-rounded introduction to various aspects of the world we live in, as well as learning the skills necessary to function in it. Knowing is not just about math, reading, writing, etc.

However, if we take it to the private level and corporations have even more say, (they already have influence) then we can expect our children to be trained as servants of the corporate, mono-culture model. Just think of the impact that corporations have already had on culture, business, and our daily lives and wealth. I leave the speculations and extrapolations to the reader.

Or at least charter schools aren't.

are usually 2 years behind in many subjects

like science

and the right-wing and the msm (but i repeat myself) would label this an anti-amurikan terrist organization so fast it would make your head spin.

but this is "our" god we're talking about, so it's all hunky-dory.

or any other private schools. The school does not have to accept them. Where will the kids with special needs, the ones who maybe don't behave all that well or the ones who aren't good students or who do not score well on tests go? The public schools have to take everyone. If this were so for private schools I wonder how well they would score in comparison?

this is why they are so inexpensive.

50 to 100 years ago, many daughters in the large Catholic families were encouraged to become nuns in the teaching orders. This provided the Catholic schools with a large faculty working for "three hots and a cot" and enabled the lower middle class and lower class Catholic families to provide a Catholic based education for their children. During the same period, the public schools taught a sort of "secular Protestantism" which was anathema to the Catholic families. Those Catholic families struggled to maintain parishes and parish schools without much help from the public.

Two factors caused this state of affairs to die off. Catholic families became smaller with fewer "excess" daughters and women taking religious orders did not want to go into teaching, preferring social work or other ways to "make a difference. If you go into any Catholic grade school now, you will find that the majority of the faculty are low paid lay teachers with "unpaid" nuns being the exception.

Asshole.

Repugs would have you believe that there are thousands of right-wing Christian teachers out there just waiting in the wings for the repugs to privatize everything so they can work for next to nothing.

have been teaching evolution in Science classrooms for 30 years AT LEAST....because (most)of the teachers they hire understand the difference between Science and Bullshit, even if you have to attend Mass once a week. Its why Theology is taught as a separate class.

The Vatican may still owe Galileo an actual, formal apology (not sure) but they run one of the most respected Astronomical Observatories in Europe, and have for like 500 years, and that irony is not lost on the Enlightened Catholics of the world. What a jackass this fool is.

(I am NOT trying to start a debate about the subjective or objective value of Faith, or sweep aside the nastier bits of Vatican history with this thread.)

or other businesses running our educational system...get a grip dude.

the best price.

runs charter schools and head start programs, I can say without question her experience has been disheartening.

I can't say how other charter schools are run or head starts managed...but taking the union out of the teachers workplace hurt teachers and students.

My wife HAS to put in at least 55 hours a week to effectively do her job. She is not under contract and is considered an hourly employee. She is not allowed to work over 40 hours for fear that she would lose her job. So she has to do much of her planning at home. Teachers have been told that if you can't do your job in the allotted time ... find another job. They are not allowed to attend company board meetings. When she taught 3rd grade in a charter school, the principle threatened the teachers with dismissal if they attended a board meeting to express their concerns on how the school was run.

She longs for the day she will be able to quit. Not because she hates her job, she is an outstanding teacher, one that any parent would want in front of their kids....but she hates those that manage the system and know very little about what it takes to be an effective teacher but rather what it takes to run a business for profit.

It certainly is a step towards the downfall of our society.

FUCKINGETABOUTITALREADY! The man is a fucking idiot and might be fucking an idiot. Why is it the people that know the LEAST about education always making the MOST fuss about killing off education? Oh I know, Terry was a total flunky in school and never had a single date or friend...he vowed to get even with PE one day by killing it off so no one would have to experience High School as the level 12 geek from the neighbors basement.