Great Post Malkin !  For better or worse, it is unlikely that a natural disaster will serve us up the opportunity to re-invent our seriously aged and clogged educational establishment. In Ontario ..from the blog linked..
“Hurricane Katrina was a huge disaster which gave us the greatest opportunity of many lifetimes. We literally disassembed the entire educational structure of New Orleans and restructured it in a new model, principally based upon CHARTER SCHOOLS.”

Interestingly, the AskBlog examined a different but similar subject, with regards to adaption, in this case what has precipitated the increase in IQ in younger children recently…  http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/the-flynn-effect-puzzle/

Perhaps the a core element of the arteriosclerosis of our education system could be an overly rich diet of bureaucratic security and benefits. Dieting has the amazing affect of releasing a tremendous amount of creative energy when the fat hits the road.  Perceptions of what is important get seriously reshuffled, especially after a bi-pass operation.  Might not a pro-active, reform based approach be better than dealing with an unplanned crisis ?

Antsy Consumers Need Skilled Management

[Antsy — restless, impatient, nervous; apprehensive, uneasy, anxious]

A colonial power, a monopoly industry, an enslaving invader, a protected guild — whatever the entity that holds its clientele as a captive audience — when endangered from losing its business will pull out all the stops they can to hold on to a sure thing.

Thus it is in education.  A huge international industry, which learns from its fellow power-holders, will use a whole arsenal of techniques with which to hold on.  Demonizing and labeling opponents of their exclusive hold on power will be used. Thus opponents of the centrally controlled education systems are successfully labeled “right-wing fanatics”. 

When the game changes, as it did drastically in New Orleans, and all clients were provided with an alternative to the public school system, why not then entrap the free-choice clients and shape them to your needs?  But, these are called “fake choices” and parents are now being intensively trained in 20-week courses to be change agents.  Probably no expense is spared — the hospitality food, the babysitting costs, the heavy psychological “stroking”, etc., etc.  These trained “leaders” will then be part of the herding necessary to keep others in line and participating obediently in their “fake choices”.

The aim is to create communities of care of all children.  This is the collective, communitarian way.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qtpdSQox0&app=desktop

The other way that the job of education can be accomplished is the individualistic way.  Set up education savings accounts and have parents use the money as they see fit in acquiring the schooling or services they deem best for their children.  But, this is too much of a threat to the establishment.  Thus the name-calling.

The “system” carries on.  Educators, consultants, gurus, still have their jobs.  The children are secured in their classrooms.  The parents are compliant.

And the School Wars continue.  Reading is still a problem, Math is still a problem.  Boys are still discriminated in academics. The dark agendas of engineering a new society or new world order continues — social justice, feminism against patriarchy, racism, classism, 21st Century competencies, etc. etc. 

Only when parents become the true drivers of education agendas will the young and society show great benefits.

We need a federal watchdog.
There is no accountability whatsoever.

I am very respectful of teachers,this isn`t aimed at them,to get improvements,we all need to have someone watching over us.

At the moment,tax payer money is used to fund bureaucracy,certainly not to help underachieving kids.
Other than Malkin,Doretta and this organization who stand up for children and their families,let`s not pretend the “Liz Sandals” stance is anything other than political grandstanding.

Jo-Anne,

As for the Federal watch dog,  thusfar we haven’t been able to manage one of the biggest school boards in Canada, let alone start steering a reform course. 

As for the teachers,  they are along for the ride with their masters unless they stand up for some principles that don’t come with a tax receipt.  Until the pay wagon wheels start falling off, I am not holding my breath.

Nothing will happen without “the force”,we are blowing wind and we`ll continue to do so.