AnnArbor.com
May 10, 2013
"Parents and concerned citizens across the state have been appalled by stories emerging from our state capital about a secret secret "skunk works" project to create bargain-basement schools. Their plan has two key parts: the first is a voucher-like debit card that students could use to "buy" bits of education here and there. Schools would become simply vendors. If a student "purchases" a bargain education, the balance on the card could be used for extras like sports fees, music lessons, and so on.
"The other part of the plan is to create the value-priced school where students could find these "value menu" bargains. The skunk works group hopes to create schools that could operate with $2,000 less per pupil than the current minimum funding — but still allowing for vendors to make a profit.
"As their documents make clear, the only real way to do this was to depend on fully online education, with a small number of teachers overseeing a large number of students in an internet-based program. What makes this so cheap, of course, is that much of the time students are interacting with canned videos and worksheets....
"Is this what education means these days? Watching videos on a computer and asking chat room questions of a teacher somewhere else who is managing 50, 70 or 100 other students?"
No comments:
Post a Comment