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"The push for educational equity was a major part of the Civil Rights movement. Although we have made much progress from the days of segregated schools we have yet to achieve a system of education that is equitable for all children. Low-income children and children of color continue to be failed by our public school system. There is much work to done as we continue to march towards Dr. King's dream. Corporate education reform is not an ally in our fight for educational justice. We must not be fooled by those who seek to use the legacy of our struggle to turn a profit at the expense of our children's education. A strong democratic republic needs high quality public schools that offer a free and appropriate public education to all."

"While small schools and theme academies have faded as a focus of reform initiatives, charters have expanded rapidly. They raise similar issues and many more. In fact, given the growing promotion of charters by federal and state policymakers as a strategy to "reform" public education, the stakes are much higher. According to Education Week, there are now more than 6,000 publicly funded charter schools in the United States enrolling about 4 percent of all students. Since 2008, the number of charter schools has grown by almost 50 percent, while over that same period nearly 4,000 traditional public schools have closed.[i] This represents a huge transfer of resources and students from our public education system to the publicly funded, but privately managed charter sector. These trends raise concerns about the future of public education and its promise of quality education for all."

"The Gates Foundation has decided that the variable we can most readily change is the effectiveness of the classroom teacher. Therefore all their powers of measurement have focused on this single variable. We have explored in the past some of the problems with this. In particular, the fact that less than 15% of the differences in student growth can be attributed to their teacher suggests that perhaps we ought to be looking in the realm of the out of school factors, which have been found to account for more than 60% of these differences. Today I want to explore some of the areas that have remained unexamined."

"Milwaukee's program has long been a model for other cities and state programs, from Cleveland, to New Orleans, Florida, and Indiana. Beginning in 1990 with 300 students in seven non-sectarian schools, by 2012 vouchers had expanded to almost 23,000 students in more than 100 private schools, most of them religious-based. In size, the voucher program now rivals Wisconsin's largest school districts, but with minimal public accountability or oversight. For more than twenty years, supporters of vouchers for private schools have had a chance to prove their assertion that the marketplace and parental choice are the bedrocks of educational success, that unions and government bureaucracy are the enemies of reform, and that vouchers will lead to increased academic achievement. After two decades and more than $1.27 billion in public funding, however, the Milwaukee voucher program's enticing promises have not materialized."

Once considered a solution to desegregate racially divided districts, magnet schools today have been forced to evolve, given legal barriers that bar using race to determine school enrollment and increasing pressure to provide more public school choices.

An example from the Civil Rights era of what happens without public education.

One pattern of failure in education reform is that political leadership and the public focus attention and resources on solutions while rarely asking what problems we are addressing or how those solutions address identified problems. The current and possibly increasing advocacy of charter schools is a perfect example of that flawed approach to improving our schools across the U.S. Let's start with two clarifications. First, the overwhelming problems contributing to school quality are pockets of poverty across the country and school policies and practices mirroring and increasing social inequities for children once they enter many schools.

As a parent I find it easy to understand the appeal of charter schools, especially for parents and students who feel that traditional public schools have failed them. As a historical sociologist who studies race and politics, however, I am disturbed both by the significant challenges that plague the contemporary charter school movement, and by the ugly history of segregationist tactics that link past educational practices to the troubling present. 

The Louisiana "reforms" are intended to encourage pupils to transfer out of public education. There is nothing in them to improve public schools, just to promote alternatives so that students can "escape." The Jindal "reforms" are a template for the Romney education program. Romney, who went to elite private schools and sent his own children to elite private schools,  views public education as a disaster. Given his Bain background, he may see public education as a business that should be shut down, with its component parts sold off. From his perspective, privatization makes sense.

"Advocacy that remains blind to evidence is a dangerous thing-especially in the pursuit of equity and democracy."

La Salle Language Academy is a magnet school in the middle of one of Chicago's richest neighborhoods. The Mayor lives there. It was one of the first magnet schools established as a result of the order to desegregate Chicago schools three decades ago. La Salle is now slated for demagnetizing by the same Mayor who is shutting down schools primarily on the south and west side. It will take a desegregated school and turn it mostly white.

n 2007, the city put an end to the diversity-based admissions policies at the East Village Community School and other elementary schools in the neighborhood. Since then, the East Village Community School has seen a rapid influx of white and high-income families, according to parents and Department of Education figures. "Our school has radically changed since they stopped looking at ethnicity," said Kessler, 47, an East Village resident who is co-president of the school's PTA and has two children there. "I think it would be better for my kids to be exposed to a range of people."

"This is the third and final post about Education in Chile by Professor Mario Waissbluth, which he wrote for this blog to help us understand a system that took Milton Friedman's advice and relied heavily on testing and choice."

"Billionaires like privately managed schools. Parents are lured with glittering promises of getting their kids a sure ticket to college. Politicians want to appear to be champions of "school reform" with charters. But charters will not end the poverty at the root of low academic performance or transform our nation's schools into a high-performing system. The world's top-performing systems - Finland and Korea, for example - do not have charter schools. They have strong public school programs with well-prepared, experienced teachers and administrators. Charters and that other faux reform, vouchers, transform schooling into a consumer good, in which choice is the highest value."

"Over at the Bridging Differences blog, a fascinating dialogue is occurring, where Michael Petrilli has been laying out the philosophical arguments for a two tier educational system. I appreciate Mr. Petrilli, because while some reformers hide their intentions behind mushy rhetoric, he has laid out his argument plainly, where it can be debated."

Long before the Bloomberg administration, districts offered school choice. But in recent years the process has intensified. The reform movement has created an educational marketplace that presses schools to compete for students. This is good for the students selected for the strongest schools but not so good for children left behind and grouped as the weakest.

"A federal appeals court on Tuesday held that lower-court supervision of a desegregation decree for the Tucson, Ariz., school district, must continue in a case that began 37 years ago."

"This is an interview that veteran teacher Anthony Cody did with Jonathan Kozol"

This film and investigation connects the dots and reveals why the Koch brothers are trying to end public education and how their wealth winds up in the hands of Jim Crow. Watch the video, then call David Koch and tell him to stop funding school resegregation now. His number is 212-319-1100. 

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently published an essay titled "We Aren't Serious."  Spellings calls our nation's public school teachers "non-believers."  The non-believers, she claims, don't believe poor and minority kids can learn.  Further, she accuses our nation's teachers of being the single biggest obstacle to student's success.  Ms. Spellings, your shameless attempt to slander and discredit the nation's teachers will not stand.  We aren't "non-believers."  I do believe, Ms. Spellings.  Let me count the ways.