Why Obama's education reform plan can't work

[tonysam]

The Post's Valerie Stauss has "guest" Jim Horn of the Schools Matter blog pen this piece. Excerpt:

Recently you announced more resources going to bring court challenges against schools that have breached the current Civil Rights laws and regulations.

That is a positive step, but can you imagine what an impact the Department could have if equity, civil rights, and social justice planning were part of the criteria for awarding the $4.35 billion in grants to the States. So far no points (0.00) are offered in Race to the Top to incentivize potential grantees toward novel or innovative solutions to the accelerating re-segregation of American schools.

Unfortunately, the “innovative” choice option that is being advocated in the Blueprint heavily favors charter schools, with the “No Excuses” KIPP Schools as the model to emulate.

Now it doesn’t take Margaret Spellings to see that the KIPP schools that your Department is holding up as models are intensely segregated by race and class, and there is nothing, unfortunately, that KIPP or your Department can do to attract white or middle class students to them.

Why? Because those parents in the leafy suburbs or in the townhouses of the D. C. would never allow their children to be treated like the economically disadvantaged, black and brown children who are being KIPP-notized daily in the KIPPs and the KIPP wannabes, all with the Department’s blessings.

Washington Post

[Dinger]

1. "KIPP-notized"

Perfect.