Ex-U.S education official knocks school closings as ‘destabilizing’ BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK Staff Reporter lfitzpatrick@suntimes.com October 15, 2012 11:01AM Diane Ravitch, nationally respected education expert speaking at City Club of Chicago, Monday, October 15, 2012. I John H. White~Sun-Times storyidforme: 38341434 tmspicid: 14161229 fileheaderid: 6495414 Updated: October 15, 2012 6:54PM Shuttering public schools to reopen new ones won’t fix Chicago’s schools, but it will destroy communities, education historian and New York University professor Diane Ravitch said Monday during a post-strike visit to Chicago.
And charters are no silver bullet, she told members of the City Club of Chicago at a gathering that included Gov. “This whole approach that you can fix the schools by closing them sounds a lot like Vietnam: You can save the village by bombing it,” she said. Chicago Public Schools must publicize its list of proposed schools to close by Dec. 1, rumored to number around 100. An assistant secretary of education under George H.W. Judith Warner: Why Are The Rich So Interested in Public School Reform. It was perhaps inevitable that the political moment that has given birth to the Occupy movement, pitting Main Street against Wall Street and the 99% against the financial elite, would eventually succeed in making some chinks in the armor of the 1%’s favorite feel-good hobby: the school reform movement.
It’s been a good decade now that the direction of school reform has been greatly influenced by a number of highly effective Master (and Mistress) of the Universe types: men and women like Princeton grad Wendy Kopp, the founder of the Teach for America program, her husband, Harvard graduate Richard Barth, who heads up the charter school Knowledge Is Power Program, the hard-charging former D.C. schools chancellor (and Cornell and Harvard grad) Michelle Rhee and the many hedge fund founders who are now investing significant resources in the cause of expanding charter schools. (MORE: Andrew J. Rotherham: Cheating on the Hard Work of School Reform) Earlier this year, S.
What Happens When The Edu-Bubble Bursts? Heard the term "edu-bubble" yet? Chances are you will soon. No doubt you've heard of the "dot-com bubble. " And if you're like millions of Americans, you may be currently experiencing the ravages of the "housing bubble. " But the edu-bubble?
During the dot-com bubble, from 1990-2000, speculative capital drove up the wildly inflated prospects of internet-based businesses. But not every business could make the flip. Some successful businesses -- Cisco, SAS, Dell -- were "forged in the cauldron of the dot-com market," so to speak. The housing bubble followed much the same trajectory as the dot-com forebearer. Again, the whole bubble burst, but this time the consequences were far more severe than the dot-com fallout. Much like the aftermath of the dot-com implosion, the few who benefited the most from the housing bubble are left to go merrily on their way while business leaders and policy makers make excuses and blame the masses for being "irresponsible.
" How did this happen? Want to create youth jobs? Get money out of politics - The Hill's Congress Blog. Meanwhile, in spite of our Congressional paralysis, amazing young Americans are growing startups every day, leading to true job creation. If you look at OURTIME.org's Buyyoung.com initiative, you will learn about young earth-conscious shoemakers, vegan nail polish vendors, gourmet mushroom farmers and trendy sunglass designers who are creating thousands of jobs each month. One of the Buyyoung.com partners, State Bicycle Co., experienced firsthand the obvious hurdles in the process to get their business off the ground in the current economic landscape. Raising their own capital and forgoing a paycheck to reinvest all of their initial income back into the business, the three founders (all in their mid-twenties) have built a successful new company with the ability to continue hiring other young Americans as the company grows.
While startups represent only three percent of the workforce, they account for a whopping 20 percent of gross job creation. The solution? Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Show. International Baccalaureate Program. My experience attending the International Baccalaureate program in a Chicago public high school seems like a million years ago. In actuality, it was from 1993-1997. Back then, Lincoln Park High School was the only IB program in Chicago. Now there are several schools that offer IB, and more to come, if Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets his way. As Elizabeth Brackett reports, a recent University of Chicago study found that students in IB programs are 40 percent more likely to go to college, and STAY in college, than non-IB CPS students.
When I heard that statistic, I wasn’t surprised. The academic portion of the IB program is extremely rigorous, structured and difficult. The workload is intense to say the least. When I got to college at UCLA, it was a breeze compared to high school for me. Lincoln Park High School The structure of the IB program allowed very little freedom as far as choosing classes. The IB program definitely taught me discipline, determination and the payoff of hard work.
Why College Is Becoming A Distant Dream For Most Young Americans.