Response #5

Crisis with Education
In your article “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital” you talk about how public schools need reformed. I agree with you, our public schools are in need of major reforming. I think that private Ivy League schools are great for those that can afford them, but there are only a few that can. I think that the way public schools teach needs to be changed to better match up with private schools. Like you I agree that education has become a way for individuals and businesses to become rich. I don’t feel that any one person or business should become rich off our children. I don’t agree that schools should be considered a money making business.
In your article I feel that you can convey the message that public schools, elementary and secondary levels, are not aimed at making children knowledgeable or skilled. It is aimed more at teaching kid’s routine and behavior. I agree with you to some extent. Kids today do not have the knowledge today like they once had. It seems that more and more students have a behavior problem that takes a lot of time and effort from the teacher. If schools are teaching behavior modification then why have things gotten so bad? In public schools I think that is one of the first things that needs addressed.
In order for public schools to work they need to follow the private Ivy League example. Changing public schools curriculum and teaching levels to match the private schools would be no more expensive on the public schools. The teachers at the public schools income would be much lower than the private schools, but the children would have the benefits of the higher education. In education a rich child should have no more opportunities than a poor child. Your article seems to say that public school children grow to become unskilled general labor workers, where private school kids should be leaders of the government. That is just not fair.
While reading your article I read about Bush’s NCLB program. Holding teachers accountable when children don’t learn is important. A teacher must really have the desire to educate children. They can’t just think of their jobs as a paycheck. In the NCLB program it does hold teachers accountable to some extent. The plan was designed to make children more proficient in learning. According to your article this is done by making standardized testing mandatory. If the school does not rate proficient in the testing they have a certain amount of time to raise their scores. After reading your article I learned that if schools are unable to raise their scores then they had to undergo reconstruction. Reconstruction was done by the following “ a)change to a charter school b) lay off principal and staff and hire new ones c)hand over school to private management d) give control of the school to the state”. I feel that this is a good program because it does hold the facility accountable for teaching children.
I agree with you that education needs reformed teaching our kids is not about making money. Rich kids and poor kids both need the benefits of a good education. Bush’s NCLB program is a good start at reforming our schools public or private.







Works cited

Foster, John Bellamy. "Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital :: Monthly Review." Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine. Web. 07 Sept. 2011. .