public schools
Most Children Left Behind: The Right’s Assault on Public Education in America
Back when American conservatives took fiscal responsibility seriously (i.e., the early 1990s), they floated the idea of a constitutional amendment banning unfunded federal mandates. How the tables have turned! Today, the No Child Left Behind Act, which embodies the conservative approach to educational reform, is under legal attack for failing to provide any money for the requirements it imposes on states and school districts, at a time when local budgets are stretched to the breaking point.
Intelligent Designs
Is American education devolving? Are our school districts regressing to an earlier form of intellectual life? Does the specter of William Jennings Bryan, prosecuting attorney in the 1925 Scopes trial, walk abroad at night?
Proposal May Undermine Efforts to Improve the Quality of Education in California: Impact of Changing Class Size Reduction Program
This white paper is a Commonweal Institute study that shows how a short term effort to deal with the financial crisis in California, through legislation (AB 42) that would redefine classroom size reduction criteria, could have serious long-term consequence with regard to both quality of education and future costs.
Read the paper.
