[Here's a sample:] .... The "education industry," a term coined by
EduVentures, an investment banking firm, is estimated to be worth
between $630 and $680 billion in the United States. The stock value
of 30 publicly traded educational companies is growing twice as fast
as the Dow Jones Average. Brokerage firms like Lehman Brothers and
Montgomery Securities have specialists seeking out venture capital
for the 'education industry.'.... >>Analysts at the conservative
think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation, Hudson and Pioneer
Institutes, tell us that the problems in education stem from
inefficient, bloated school bureaucracies. Conservatives talk about
"school choice," referring to vouchers and other public/private
schemes. Free marketeers strike a chord with many parents when they
point out that families do not have the choices they deserve,
especially in urban school districts.
However, according to progressive school activists, the problems in
education have their roots in decades of unequal school funding. They
say that as long as school districts are financed through property
taxes, kids in poor, urban districts will never receive an equal
education with suburban schoolkids. Wide disparities in school resources
open the door for corporations to fill the gap (and their pockets),
especially in inner-city schools.
Real choice, progressive school reformers argue, would mean that all
schools were good...<
forwarded by
Linda Purrington,
Title IX Advocates,
lpurring@earthlink.net