GoBigEd

Posted 10:27 AM by Susan Darst Williams

CONSOLIDATED 'LEARNING COMMUNITY
IS PRETTY CREEPY STUFF,
AND VIOLATES FUTURISTIC 'NEW SUBURBANISM'

Nebraskans may not know that the structure of governance that’s espoused in LB 1024, the controversial education bill just passed by the Unicameral, has been set in motion by the federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act.
We’re not innovating or doing anything unique for Nebraska at all. We’re just “caving” in to changes that the feds want. They are transforming U.S. public schools into training academies for the future workforce.
Don’t believe it? Just spend a moment on either of these two Nebraska-based websites. They’re about “preschool through Grade 16” schooling – whatever happened to K-12? – and replacing traditional academics with workforce training as the primary orientation for Nebraska’s schools.
See whether your picture of the purpose of K-12 education squares with what the educrats envision. Notice, especially, that they misspell that word as “invision” on the “p16” homepage, below. That reveals once again that educrats in general, and those who like stuff like “learning communities” in particular, don’t give a fig about academic pursuits such as proper spelling. If they get their way, and this “learning community” is pushed through, then it’ll only be a matter of time before our kids won’t know the difference, either. If you care about that, then you’d better start squawking about this stuff:

http://p16.nebraska.edu

www.futureforcenebraska.org

Fix yourself a cup of hot “c” and read this more global report on how educational infrastructures such as the “learning community” of LB 1024 fit in with this transformation. Take a hard look at what happens to “local control” – it shifts from placing the power in the hands of elected local school boards, to being in the hands of “local” individuals who have been appointed, not elected, to their positions, and who – knowingly or unknowingly – are simply enforcing a “template” of school operations imposed from ‘way up higher by people who are decidedly NOT “local yokels.” That’s what we’d get with the “council” that LB 1024 sets up. See:

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2006/mar06/global-citizenship.html

Last, but not least, consider this article by a futurist on “The New Suburbanism.” It contends that it is folly to try to make our inner-city neighborhoods the same as our suburban ones. People moved to the ‘burbs looking for good schools, safety, privacy and space. You can’t make up for bad city planning by destroying school systems that have developed in the ‘burbs, or forcing them to reconfigure into “local branches” of a standardized whole – like neighborhood McDonald’s outlets for K-12 education.

This article reveals the foolishness of the attempts by the Omaha Public Schools and LB 1024’s “learning community” to try to “standardize” K-12 education. It’s definitely shooting us in the foot in terms of economic development, removing the draw of our “highlight” neighborhoods, where many of the best new jobs are typically located, too. LB 1024 would seek to make everything from curriculum to facilities “equal” and "standardized" in all neighborhoods no matter what it costs or how it might harm what’s already there. It’s not very smart. See for yourself:

http://www.joelkotkin.com/index.htm