Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a leading figure in the
campaign to gut the public school system, recently stated that the
high school dropout rate is “unacceptable.” About one in four
young people do not graduate, while Black and Latino students,
suffering from the added burden of racism, drop out at a rate of 40
percent.
Much of the funding for education comes from local property taxes.
As a result, schools in wealthy areas are well-funded, but
working-class school districts are deprived of basic resources.
Instead of addressing this issue, Duncan announced the launch of a
motivational website encouraging students to stay in school.
Secretary Duncan and other school “reformers” hypocritically
cite dropout rates to build the case for profit-driven charter
schools in an attempt to further transform education into a
commodity. As budget cuts deal additional blows to our already suffering schools, it
is more important than ever to fight for equal, high-quality public education.
