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Philosophy of Education
From the book "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," by Thom Hartmann:
"As somebody involved in education issues (I'm on the board of directors of a private school in New Hampshire, and have written six education-related books) I had wondered why the Bush administration would propose doubling the testing burden on public schoolchildren when both good science and common sense say that decreasing classroom size, increasing teacher training and resources, and other less expensive and more local methods are far more effective at helping children learn.
"Then the office of Senator Jim Jeffords gave me a study from the Congressional Research Service from July 9, 2001, titled "Educational Testing: Bush Administration Proposals and Congressional Response." The report, produced for members of Congress and not generally available to the public, noted, "Estimated aggregate state-level expenditures for assessment programs in FY2001 are $422.8 million."
"Suddenly, it all made sense: Most standardized tests are sold to schools by a small number of very large corporations, and those corporations are now scheduled to make hundreds of millions more dollars under the Bush proposals.
"In fact, the report notes that the Senate version of the Bush plan would "authorize a total of $400 million for state assessment development grants for FY2002;" "authorize $110 million for expansion of NAEP state assessments," and "authorize $50 million for state performance awards" -- all in addition to the current $422 million that the states were already spending on testing. The testing industry would more than double in size in a single year, helping a handful of large corporations get very much richer from this redistribution of tax dollars, whether it helps kids learn or not." (page 239)
You may buy "Unequal Protection" from Amazon, half.com, and other fine booksellers.
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