Friday, May 06, 2011

An Ed Reform Metaphor More Idiotic than RiShawn Biddle's "Hollywood Model"

Guy Brandenburg (responding to):

Having lived in various lower-income regions and mostly-black ghettoes in Boston, DC, Manhattan, and Chicago, as well as in poor rural areas of VT, NH, MO, and MD, as well as in nicer parts of various cities, towns and suburbs, I can say that yes, American supermarkets ARE a lot like our public schools.

When I lived in those low-income, segregated regions of some of our great American cities and countryside, and I would walk or drive to the local supermarket, guess what: I found that they sucked. There were rats, roaches, and mice; the tiles on the floor were coming up; the shopping carts wouldn’t work; the refrigeration often was broken; you risked getting robbed walking home with your bags in your arms; the food was old, of poor quality, and almost guaranteed to give you high blood pressureand to make you obese. Plus, numerous studies showed that the prices for this crappy merchandise was often higher than at fancy supermarkets in more well-to-do neighborhoods. Any laws to prevent this sort of nasty racial and economic discrimination are and were toothless and/or gutted by business interests.

And yes, that’s very comparable to the situation with our public schools.

Also, Scocca.

1 comment:

Leroy's Mom said...

LMAO! That proves how so-called "free markets" treat poor
neighborhoods, and if ANYTHING is an argument against privatizing, or
doing reform based on "business" principles.

I've noted this effect since I saw it first hand when I worked in a
bank that was happy to provide cash services and financing to check cashing stores, but wouldn't deign to locate one of their own branches in those same neighborhoods. You can just picture what they'd come up with for "education".