The 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Ed in the Shadow of 'School Choice'
Glen Ford: The corporate education reform movement has exacerbated inequities in public schools in the name of civil rights -
Bio
Glen Ford is a distinguished radio-show host and commentator. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America's Black Forum, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. In 1987, Ford launched Rap It Up, the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. Ford co-founded the Black Commentator in 2002 and in 2006 he launched the Black Agenda Report. Ford is also the author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.
Transcript:
The 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Ed in the Shadow of 'School Choice'JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore. And welcome to the latest edition of .
We're now joined by Glen Ford, who's cofounder and executive director of Black Agenda Report and author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.
Thank you so much for joining us again, Glen.
GLEN FORD, EXEC. EDITOR, BLACK AGENDA REPORT: Thanks for the invitation.
NOOR: So, Glen, we're at the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, which ruled that separate is not equal and that public schools need to be desegregated, especially in the U.S. South. Now, you know, 60 years later, corporate education reformers, those that advocate charter schools, such as Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City public schools, has said that education reform is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. But now we have an increasing amount of data which indicates that segregation is at the same or even worse than it was 60 years ago in public schools, and also that, you know, one of the favorite tools of corporate education reform, charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately run, that they actually make segregation worse. And this is, of course, a policy that was first really expanded under No Child Left Behind under President Bush but has been expanded dramatically with Race to the Top under President Obama. So talk about where we are 60 years later as far as segregation goes in public schools.
FORD: Well, the charter school proponents never talk about the most fundamental issue in society, and that is democracy. And we see a total lack of democracy in their approach to privatization of education.
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