Affection Or Animosity For Maggie’s Methods?

I was saddened to hear that the Iron Lady died after suffering a stroke at age 87. Margaret Thatcher truly transformed Britain. However, she was also a union buster. I bet she would have supported the corporate ways of education had she been around today!

She ushered in an era of greed that kicked the weak out onto the streets and let the rich become filthy rich. Like her close friend and political ally Ronald Reagan, Thatcher, like Mayor Bloomberg, Rupert “Brit phone tapping criminal” Murdoch,  Bill Gates, the Walton family, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Chiefs for Change, ALEC, Bobby Jindal and last but not least the infamous Michelle Rhee where the Washington DC high stakes testing scandal took place when she was chancellor there -had an adamant unbendable belief that free markets would build a better country  than reliance on a strong, central government.

This philosophy now permeates the educational system thanks to the gutless wimp, Arne Duncan with his RaceToTop mandates, who with his strange education bedfellow, Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel, who while vacationing in Colorado had his underling announce the closing of 53 Chicago schools (I guess the little guy couldn’t do it himself- too busy skiing) have followed the Republican playbook on how to deal with public education: Eliminate it and replace with vouchers, charters and online privatization schemes!