{"id":4058,"date":"2023-06-29T15:53:52","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T20:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4058"},"modified":"2023-06-29T15:53:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T20:53:53","slug":"progressive-and-racist-education-is-destroying-public-education-and-it-aint-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4058","title":{"rendered":"PROGRESSIVE AND RACIST EDUCATION IS DESTROYING PUBLIC EDUCATION \u2026 AND IT AIN\u2019T NEW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20370%20247'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-1024x512.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-4059\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-1024x512.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4059\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-1024x512.png 1024w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-770x385.png 770w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-585x293.png 585w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-1170x585.png 1170w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-293x147.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127-390x195.png 390w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/image-127.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For the record, the largest portion of my career was dealing with education \u2013 as senior consultant to the Chicago and Detroit Boards of Education, the Milton Friedman Foundation for School Choice, the Chicago Teachers\u2019 Academy, Marva Collins\u2019 Westside Prep for children trapped in the segregated ghetto \u2026 and many other client and voluntary involvements.\u00a0 I derive my perspective and opinions from on-the-job experience \u2013 not from political narratives of the right or the left.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the 1960s can be viewed as a positive pivot point for feminism, gay rights and civil rights, it was a disaster for patriotism, law enforcement, family values, work ethic \u2026 and education.\u00a0 In fact, the realignment of the American public-school systems away from the so-called \u201cbasics\u201d into laboratories of social and cultural indoctrination may have been the reasons for the other corrupting trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Education has a two-fold purpose; to provide the next generation with the intellectual skills to function in society and to achieve in the American opportunity society \u2026 and to provide an understanding and appreciation of the civics, history and values of the unique American culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After more than half century of evolving \u201cliberalism,\u201d we now have an American education system \u2013 from pre-school to advanced degrees \u2013 that is failing in both purposes.\u00a0 The United States is far from the world leader in producing the best brains in the world \u2013 and basic American values have been supplanted with a leftwing culture based on arbitrary and faux progressive paradigms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shift in cultural values has become a front-burner issue, pitting parents against the current education industrial complex.&nbsp; While that is a critical issue \u2013 and one I visit periodically \u2013 this commentary focuses on the failure of progressive education in terms of the basics.&nbsp; That refers to the body of knowledge that the American people need to maintain world leadership in science, commerce and standard-of-living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the wake of the latest achievement report, there has been an uptick in political and media attention \u2013 and public concern.\u00a0 And well there should be.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) \u2013 often referred to as the Nation\u2019s Report Card \u2014 America has suffered a historic decline in student achievement in math, science and reading across grades and groups.&nbsp; The NAEP reports that there has been no student improvement since the 1990s.&nbsp; And this year, America suffered a major decline in student outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many attribute this precipitous decline to the impact of the Covid Pandemic \u2013 using it as an excuse to gloss over the longer trend.\u00a0 There is some truth to the impact of Covid, but the decline has been going on for decades.\u00a0 Furthermore, the alleged impact of Covid is now recognized as the result of progressive and woke policies that shut down the American education system unnecessarily \u2013 for political reasons, not legitimate health or learning concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The education industrial establishment often uses artificial evaluations of school quality that are designed to mask the results of achievement testing.\u00a0 During my days as consultant to the Chicago Board of Education, the union published a report alleging \u201dimprovement\u201d in the quality of public school education.\u00a0 It was based on the morale of teachers \u2013 not student test scores.\u00a0 In fact, the latter were declining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently (2022), US News and World Report \u2013 in cooperation with Wharton School \u2013 published an article claiming American higher education was number one in the world, followed by Britian, Germany, Canada and France.&nbsp; The survey was based on the \u201cperceptions\u201d of respondents \u2013 mostly associated with the education establishment \u2013 not on student test scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We do have recent studies based on student achievement.\u00a0 And what do they show?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Program for International Student Achievement (PISA) \u2013 which studies reading, math and science scores in 79 nations \u2013 the United States is 38<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0in math, 19<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0in science and 13<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0in reading.\u00a0 In the all-important math category, the top seven nations are all Asian \u2013 China, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.\u00a0 You will note that China, Macao, Hong Kong (and arguably Taiwan) are ALL China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is our main interest the satisfaction of those running the schools or the students\u2019 education?\u00a0 The education establishment \u2013 along with their unions \u2013 has long opposed student testing that indicates real academic outcomes in key disciplines.\u00a0 They oppose teacher testing to ascertain competence.\u00a0 They protect incompetent teachers from being replaced.\u00a0 The unions and the leftwing education establishment have \u2013 from time to time \u2013 promoted Ebonics for black children, shortened workdays, shortened school years, social promotion, concealment of dropout rate, lowering standards and opposition to successful charter and choice school programs.\u00a0 And much more.\u00a0 Instead of improving student performance, the education establishment changes (dumbs down) the evaluation of process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Progressives currently exert massive control over the education of American children \u2013 and the curriculum.&nbsp; There has been a realignment of education from the \u201cbasics\u201d to cultural controversies that have transformed schools from loci of education to laboratories of political and philosophic indoctrination based on the meaningless and divisiveness of identity politics, political correctness and wokeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the greatest and most sinister failure of public school education is in the segregated minority communities in America\u2019s major cities.\u00a0 This is not a natural outcome, but the results of sinister institutional racism that only advantages the political, union and education establishment that run those generationally failed schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The education establishment mostly blames lack of funding and classroom size for the declining educational quality in America \u2013 when not blaming the parents.&nbsp; Those are canards.&nbsp; There is no correlation between funding and classroom achievement.&nbsp; Private, parochial and charter schools consistently outperform public schools despite lower costs and larger classroom sizes.&nbsp; Students \u2013 even in highly acclaimed suburban public schools \u2013 generally trend lower than their international or private school counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>America has a crisis in education.&nbsp; It will not be corrected by an educational established that relies on the current system for power and profit.&nbsp; The most promising reform is school choice \u2013 in which parents and students can use the taxpayer resources to select the best schools without being forced into inferior or misguided education by the education lobby \u2014 and the politicians it supports.&nbsp; Through competition, public schools will either improve or die off on an individual basis.&nbsp; And that is a good thing \u2013 unless you believe in supporting those who have been responsible for the dangerous decline in American education.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In researching this commentary, I came across this quote. \u201cThe legacy of the 1960s is still evident in American education today, but so are its problems.\u201d\u00a0 It implies that the legacy of the 1960s was positive. I would contend that the legacy of the 1960s IS the problem \u2013 and we are seeing the tragic results today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Original Article:<a href=\"https:\/\/punchingbagpost.com\/progressive-and-racist-education-is-destroying-public-education-and-it-aint-new\/\">https:\/\/punchingbagpost.com\/progressive-and-racist-education-is-destroying-public-education-and-it-aint-new\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the record, the largest portion of my career was dealing with education \u2013 as senior consultant to the Chicago and Detroit Boards of Education, the Milton Friedman Foundation for School Choice, the Chicago Teachers\u2019 Academy, Marva Collins\u2019 Westside Prep for children trapped in the segregated ghetto \u2026 and many other client and voluntary involvements.\u00a0 I derive my perspective and opinions from on-the-job experience \u2013 not from political narratives of the right or the left. While the 1960s can be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4060,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4058\/revisions\/4060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}