The folks at The Awl have published my longish essay on the Occupy movement, Mayor Bloomberg, and the public schools. Since I attended the education reform "teach-in" at Zuccotti Park last Friday, I've been thinking through whether the 99 percent/1 percent critique applies to school reform, as Bloomberg critics argue. Here's part of what I concluded:
The trouble with this narrative comes in comparing education reformers with greedy bankers. The dominant ethos of the school choice/Bloomberg/Obama reform movement is one borrowed not from Wall Street, with its desperate lust for profit, but from Silicon Valley, with its commitment to meritocratic innovation that—yes, of course—earns money, but also serves the public.
There's a lot more in the piece, so please check it out.
Comments