CSotD: Silencing the squeaking wheels
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In Candorville, Darrin Bell uses a multi-panel approach to commentary as well as, and generally better than, anyone else out there.
His use of understated conversations rather than pious lecturing is very effective. By setting up the incongruities and then letting them dangle in the air, he forces the reader to finish the point, and engaging readers on that level is an advanced strategy.
Now, specific to this conversation, the nit to pick is that, while the "greater good" spin is definitely being used on this issue, pro-voucher forces are just as apt to say, "It's my money because I pay taxes" as to wring their hands over the poor.
But, yes, maybe they only think it, while saying the other. That's becoming the style.
Underlying it is a shameless, selfish attitude that defies any appeal to the social contract.
It is a sociopathic lack of empathy built on a world view derived from stereotype, rumor and pure delusion, as well as a refusal to observe or learn.
It is one thing to theorize, for example, that we shouldn't require people to carry health insurance.
But then what do you do for the young father who falls off the roof while fixing the chimney and breaks his neck? Let him die? Deny him rehab? Let his family starve?
If you don't see the disconnect between theoretical principles and real-world outcomes, then, yes, you are a sociopath.
And, if you still think there is no "Vast Rightwing Conspiracy," let me introduce you to the Koch Brothers, talk radio, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and the rest of the gang, all of whom are happy to reinforce this lack of social consciousness for their own selfish ends.
Which is where the aforementioned spin comes into play.
The big, shining cherry on the top of the pile of steaming poo they call "Educational Reform" is "school choice," and, more specifically, "charter schools."
The groundwork for charter schools was laid in the form of No Child Left Behind and its standardized testing. It is a heartless, antisocial scam.
Start with the fact that the "Texas Miracle" upon which NCLB is based turned out to be a massive fraud.
Add to that the well-grounded suspicion that rightwing darling Michelle Rhee so pressured her teachers for results that they produced them by altering test answers. (Which pressure, by the way, is easier to apply if you do away with tenure and unions.)
And then there came the wildy overhyped "Waiting for Superman" — otherwise known as "The Michelle Rhee Infomercial" – which promoted charter schools by depicting despairing parents hoping to get their kids out of failing city schools and into these academies.
Indeed, as the fellow in today's strip says, "Poor kids deserve private school, too."
Why?
A clue comes in this passage from the above-linked USA Today story about Rhee and test-fraud:
A former Noyes parent, Marvin Tucker, says he suspected something was wrong in 2003, when the test scores his daughter, Marlana, brought home from school showed she was proficient in math.
Tucker says he was skeptical because the third-grader was getting daily instruction from a private tutor yet struggled with addition and subtraction. "She was nowhere near where they said she was on the test," he says. "I thought something was wrong with the test."
He questioned Ryan, the principal, and teachers about his daughter's scores but no one could explain how she had scored so high, Tucker recalls. Ultimately, Ryan barred him from the school for a year, saying he had threatened staff members, Tucker says. Tucker denies that.
So here is the key to the rightwing's embrace of charter schools:
It's less expensive to create small charter schools for the children of parents who pay attention to their kids' education and who raise hell than it is to fix the entire system so that all children — even those whose parents don't raise hell — get good educations.
It's like treating famine in Africa by setting up centralized aid stations. Those children whose parents manage to carry them to the aid stations get help. Those who aren't brought in … well, they're out there somewhere in the desert where we don't have to see them anyway.
And it's not our fault. They should have come in.
A reader in Daytona Beach recently directed me to a strip called "Mr. Fitz," a strip by a Florida teacher. I've been reading it and I like it, though it's maybe a little too "insider" for a general audience.
He also has an excellent blog, upon which he has posted a most prodigious rant. Most prodigious indeed.
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