Reader Idle Wild writes: The American Legislative Exchange Council organization has been grading states for years now on the basis of how well each state is, or is not, following the ALEC corporate reform agenda of privatization of public schools. An F grade from ALEC tells a state that it is doing a fine job with public education. An A grade from ALEC lets a state know that its public education system is a mess and has most likely already been heavily privatized.
Grading schools is more of the same, following the ALEC schools-for-private-profit-off-the-public-tax-dollar model. Jeb Bush is hugely affiliated with ALEC, and he especially adheres to and pushes the ALEC education policy.. The ALEC idea is to pass laws in red state legislatures to give each school a grade, based on its high-stakes testing scores.
The problem is that these single scores are nowhere near the true measure of a school. Under this unfair scheme, schools with poor letter grades are closed and private, for-profit charters are opened. By and large the closed schools are in minority and poorer areas. Guess it boils down to whether or not you believe one test grade should define a school. Most teachers, parents, and administrators will tell you that schools are SO much more!
