Surprise. The Mitt Romney education plan — vouchers and charter schools and otherwise decreased support for conventional public schools and a pox on teachers — is built on demonstrable falsehoods. Diane Ravitch writes in New York Review of Books. Of course, a Walton-financed “reformer” from Walton U. is on Romney’s Team Billionaires. Writes Ravitch:

And candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.” “Restore” suggests a return to the past. When in American history did the for-profit sector run American schools? Which state ever permitted it until the advent in our own time of for-profit charter corporations and for-profit online corporations? Which founding fathers ever railed against public education? John Adams, that crusty conservative, said this:

The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.

Restoring the promise of American education should mean rejuvenating public schools, not destroying them.

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