by Jeff Bryant,
Earlier this year, spontaneous rebellions against top-down
mandates and budget cuts inflicted on public schools erupted around the nation.
In a months-long Education Spring, students, parents, teachers
and community activists staged boisterous rallies, street demonstrations,
school walkouts, test boycotts, and other actions to protest government
austerity and top-down “accountability” mandates that damage community schools
and diminish students’ opportunities to learn.
The protests spanned the nation and generated national media attention, resulting in a policy impasse in Washington D.C. and many
state capitals, as government leaders and politicians scrambled to pause the
rollouts of new heavy-handed school punishments.
Prominent pundits began to openly question the
intention of a self-defined “reform” movement that has reigned for years but
failed to produce any direct benefits to school children. And prominent
educators, economists, parent advocates, labor and religious leaders, and
community organizers called for a new policy agenda focused on ensuring students
have the opportunities and resources they need to learn as much as they can.
Showdown In California
In California, a confrontation between the state’s
schools chief Tom Torlakson and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is
emblematic of growing resentment toward the education reform movement’s
overreliance on testing.
