Since the 1980s, assaulting public education has been a blood sport of politicians and journalists, fueled by disinformation and political ideology.The 1983 publication of "A Nation at Risk," which tried to tie trends in college aptitude tests to declining U.S. international economic competitiveness, incited the assault on the nation's schools. Villification of public education by politicians and the press accelerated in the 1990s, even though the nation's economy blossomed. If teachers were the reason for economic problems in 1980s, they should have received some credit for the nation's economic recovery in the 1990s.
Actually, criticism of public education is an effort by some to erode the public's trust in its teachers in order to leverage education privatization by charter schools, for-profit businesses and vouchers. Clearly, our public education system is only broken in the eyes of thinkers who do not understand the complexities of trying to educate an extreme culturally and racially diverse population.
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