How do you keep score when the presidential candidates talk education? They always begin by saying schools are and must remain local affairs. But then they rush right on to talk about testing to national standards and increasing the leverage of Federal money. The tug of local vs. national is just the first of the coded paradoxes in the slogans and buzzwords of the schools debate: accountability, sure, but to whom? more money for just what?
When George W. Bush talks about vouchers, charters, or mandatory annual testing of elementary school kids, do you hear the voice of the Chamber of Commerce demanding a bigger bang for fewer bucks. When Al Gore talks about a funding crisis, class size and voluntary testing, are we really listening to the teachers union? The rueful historian of a golden age that never was, of a century's school reforms and why they failed, Diane Ravitch, puts it all in context this hour on the Connection. (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
