Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford professor often acknowledged as the most influential educator researcher in the U.S.A, has written an extremely compelling article about the state of American education. I urge all of you to read it (it is not a lengthy article), particularly before you vote on your next local school tax measure:
“What Teacher Strikes Are Really About.”
An excerpt follows:
“A nation that under-educates its children in the 21st century cannot long survive as a world power. Prisons — which now absorb more of our tax resources than public higher education did in the 1980s — are filled with high school dropouts and those with low levels of literacy. We pay three times more for each prisoner than we invest in each child’s education annually. With an aging population and only three workers for every person on Social Security, the United States especially needs all young people to be well-educated enough to gain good work in the complex and rapidly changing economy they are entering. Without their ability to pay the taxes that support the rest of society, the social contract will dissolve.”
