We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, October 5, 2012

Education Profiteering; Wall Street's Next Big Thing?

Click here to access article by Jeff Faux from Huffington Post.
The end of the Chicago teachers' strike was but a temporary regional truce in the civil war that plagues the nation's public schools. There is no end in sight, in part because -- as often happens in wartime -- the conflict is increasingly being driven by profiteers.
The familiar media narrative tells us that this is a fight over how to improve our schools.
After demolishing the myths about charter schools, which is another one of those public-private partnership scams, the author explains what is driving the campaign to privatize schools (read this). After finishing with the mortgage scam, they see another golden profit opportunity -- harvesting your kids. (For example, read this) But, to make big bucks they need to get rid of teachers.