Mann, Jefferson, Dewey and others had a very simple view of public education. To these men, public education in America would be the great equalizer. It would create a common American culture and an educated citizenry that would make decisions that would benefit the whole nation. An educated citizenry that could think for itself would preserve democratic institutions and create a nation that would give opportunity to all.
However, in the warped view of Gates, Zuckerberg, Duncan, Broad, Bloomberg, Rhee, et al., public education has been nothing but a failure. It is preventing the achievement of high need students and is the main if not the "only" cause of poverty in America. There is only one solution. A standardized national curriculum will enable every child to become college ready. All you need is a super bright Ivy League college student who can efficiently teach this curriculum to 40 to 60 kids at a time (according to Emperor Bloomberg) or a computer program that has enough artificial intelligence to differentiate instruction. It is a curriculum that is teacher proof and student proof. The only thing standing in our way are these reactionary unprofessional unionized public school teachers who only teach kids to line their pockets with public money and who work less than six months out of the year. It is only the private sector that can implement the magic curriculum in such an efficient manner that it will save the public money while at the same time create the most literate nation in the world. Only market forces can create the type of efficiency that will enable everyone to master this common national curriculum that will put a college degree within grasp of every child--no matter their socio-economic status or disability. According to these "experts in education," all this can be efficiently measured by testing and more testing to see if teachers are successfully implementing this magic curriculum which will get every student a college degree in America.
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