History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Reasons against Chicago's longer school day
- 09-23-2011
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Blog by Deborah Meier/Education Week
Dear Diane, It's a conspiracy to wear us down! Every day a new, dumb idea becomes a brilliant reform, and the next day it's implemented. So we keep trying to put out fires, when we also need to spend time thinking about how we got here and where we should be going. I'm stumped at how we do this with virtually no financial resources to fight against ideas that have incredible wealth behind them. Yes, as the wise ancient Greeks said (and here I don't quote): There's no point in giving powerless people a vote and pretending it's democracy. That's why they didn't do it. That's why our brilliant founding fathers didn't do it either—the vote was reserved for white, land-owning males. All others, in the founders' view, had neither the leisure nor the freedom to govern themselves wisely! We won that battle on behalf of property-less citizens, people of color, and women. But we didn't confront the underlying contradiction. (more...)
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