The plan to culturally sterilize all of Memphis's poor black kids in lockdown, segregated corporate charter schools has run into stiff opposition from parents and some Memphis school board members in recent years.
Most of the federal Race to the Top money for such a venture has dried up, along with the cash from the Gates Foundation. The Waltons are still pumping money into the paternalistic Teach for America in Memphis, as well as other corporate white missionary preparation programs, but much of the enthusiasm for turning Memphis into Corporate Teacher Town has waned.
One can imagine the half-empty craft beer joints and coffee boutiques, as the edupreneurial leeches who rushed into Memphis over the past decade are now moving on to other urban areas to seize onto less anemic hosts.
With the charter balloon now coming back to earth, the future of the "Broken Windows" KIPP schooling model in Memphis is up for grabs, which means the private and church schools in Memphis have now entered into the multi-billion dollar contest to lay claim to state education funds once dedicated to public schools.
A school voucher bill has been introduced by scurrilous members of the Tennessee Taliban, aka the General Assembly, that is aimed to privatize ONLY Memphis, and it has been sailing through legislative committees until this week, when it hit a real snag. It seems that the more desperate private schools in Memphis are eager to get the state cash for their share of the poor children they would otherwise shun, were it not for the $6,000 vouchers in their lunch pails each year, but only if they do not have to take the same state tests that have been used to demonize and detonate the public schools in the poor areas of the state.
Most of the federal Race to the Top money for such a venture has dried up, along with the cash from the Gates Foundation. The Waltons are still pumping money into the paternalistic Teach for America in Memphis, as well as other corporate white missionary preparation programs, but much of the enthusiasm for turning Memphis into Corporate Teacher Town has waned.
One can imagine the half-empty craft beer joints and coffee boutiques, as the edupreneurial leeches who rushed into Memphis over the past decade are now moving on to other urban areas to seize onto less anemic hosts.
With the charter balloon now coming back to earth, the future of the "Broken Windows" KIPP schooling model in Memphis is up for grabs, which means the private and church schools in Memphis have now entered into the multi-billion dollar contest to lay claim to state education funds once dedicated to public schools.
A school voucher bill has been introduced by scurrilous members of the Tennessee Taliban, aka the General Assembly, that is aimed to privatize ONLY Memphis, and it has been sailing through legislative committees until this week, when it hit a real snag. It seems that the more desperate private schools in Memphis are eager to get the state cash for their share of the poor children they would otherwise shun, were it not for the $6,000 vouchers in their lunch pails each year, but only if they do not have to take the same state tests that have been used to demonize and detonate the public schools in the poor areas of the state.
The panel voted narrowly to amend the bill so that voucher participants could take tests in their private schools that are different from what their counterparts take in public schools. But lawmakers stopped short of sending the amended bill to their finance committee after Rep. Mike Stewart, who opposes vouchers, moved to adjourn.Meanwhile, income inequality continues to rot the remaining social fabric in Tennessee's slave and cotton capital, even as the surrounding leafy suburban towns get ready for prom, graduation, and summers of travel before going off to college.
There is a new market for standardized tests for voucher fed private schools. Isn't that wonderful? The real private schools for the Trump children ilk will survive sans the testing mania I presume.
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We are living in the Matrix of
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