cspan was showing the SC (R) gubernatorial debate between haily and the other guy.
video link
when asked about what they would do to deal with the cuts in education etc.. they both took the typical conservative route to getting rid of the department of education (if only implicitly).
their talking point is: "to treat schools like a business!"
ok, this is where progressives come in.
if we're gonna treat schools like a business then we should get a few thing defined.
- is it a for-profit or not-for-profit business model?
- what is the 'product' of this business?
- how do we measure the 'success' of this 'product' ?
- how to we improve the 'product' ?
- who is accountable for effectiveness ?
etc.
this debate should be about: how do we develop students, going through our educational system, to graduate with more tools to become as productive members of our nation as they are capable to become. to barrow & modify from G.H.W.Bush, we need a vision of millions of points of light.
the industrial revolution is still a lasting ball&chain around the ankle of schools. whereas what was needed back then was an army of obedient human cogs, to submissively work on the line; what we need today is an agile, creative, collaborative, & motivated school-graduate. a young-person who knows how to learn, that knows what they are passionate about, & where to go to self-actualize themselves. for some it's more education, for some it's learning a specific set of skills, for others it's right to the drawing board and venture capital firms.
we also need to shake the meta-orthodoxy that is a side-effect of mass-public/private educational architecture.
how many people here went to college/university and where the ones who actually participated in class/studio/lecture sessions ? one of the things that shocked me the most while i was going to university was the amount of student apathy. they just didnt seem to be passionate about it much. what's the point of spending tons of money on a hazy attitude, without a trajectory.
i think those things (and other factors) should be debated, not all the peripheral bullshit, that conservatives get away with, that dominates the public debate.
enough.