Education deform roundup

Given the drumbeat of the education deformers there is a surprising amount of real information about what their efforts have wrought, and what they are likely to bring in the future. Here's a little roundup of stories featuring points of view you are unlikely to ever read in the Strib:

1) Truthout:  Lessons to Be Learned From Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich.

2) The Guardian: The corporate takeover of American schools.

3) New York Review of Books: The myth of Charter Schools, by Diane Ravich.

4) Washington Post On Faith: Many charter schools continue to defy church-state separation.

The last link is particularly disturbing, chronicling how charter schools are often covert religious schools funded by public money:

In June, The New York Times published a glowing article about the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn--an institution that isn't run by a rabbi or synagogue but nevertheless, in my view, represents much that is wrongheaded about the charter school movement. Each class has both a Hebrew and English teacher. Children receive an hour of formal Hebrew instruction a day and Israeli history is stressed. The students watch Israeli children's TV and celebrate Israeli Independence Day in addition to American holidays.

 There's an interesting passage in that last story:

"...several parents told the Times that were it not for the free public charter school, they would have sent their children to Jewish day schools that cost $20,000 a year."