Analysis

of the right-wing's war on public education.

Bogle is correct in criticizing the "accountability movement" in education, where the constant emphasis on testing is merely a trap into which teachers' unions are falling. Then gutting funding only exacerbates the problems in the schools. However, accountability and budget cutbacks are the first steps in the right's scheme to privatize something that can't be driven by the profit motive. Even though it can't, that doesn't stop them from trying to do it, as the right is inherently against democracy and all of its institutions. He is correct in noting studies showing any difference in academic achievement between public and private schools are inherently flawed as private schools can pick and choose which students can attend their schools. Any scores showing "superiority" in academics by private schools can be shot down by pointing out these schools tend to be front-loaded with high-achieving, even gifted, kids.

Pointing out the eroding tax base thanks to the gutting of well-paying jobs is a point very seldom mentioned when discussing the "problem" of public education.

Teachers and other education professionals need to wake up to what is really at stake.