Center for the Study of Jobs and Education

www.jobseducationwis.org Welcome to the Center - Director Dennis W. Redovich Redovich@execpc.com Reports and commentaries are available by clicking on the titles from 295 to 59 below. Most of these commentaries and reports have been posted on www.EducationNews.org

Dennis W. Redovich retired as Director of Research, Planning and Development from the Milwaukee Area Technical College in 1991 after 28 years of service. He served as Assistant or Special Assistant to four presidents of MATC (Emeritus President Parkinson and Presidents Ramsey, Taibl and Slicker) 1969 to 1991 He has taught chemistry and math at three Wisconsin high schools (Clinton, Wilmot, Whitefish Bay) and chemistry at MATC, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University. Education: B.S. University of Wisconsin-Madison 1955, M.S. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 1960, M.A.T. Indiana University 1963, Ed.D. Marquette University 1971. Presently Dr. Redovich is an educational consultant, public speaker and Center Director of the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin. Dennis W. Redovich has presented at six international educational conferences, (U. of Twente Holland 1987, Trier Germany 1989, Brussels 1992, Jerusalem 1996, Helsinki Finland 1997 and Beijing China 1999)

Click to order book published -The Big Con in Education: Why must "all" high school graduates be prepared for college? By Dennis W. Redovich universe Inc. July 2005

The following reports and commentaries are available by clicking on the titles below

295 Wisconsin Projections of Employment 2006 to 2016: Education and Training
By Dennis W. Redovich June 2008

The great numbers of high paying jobs of the future that are claimed to require college graduation and high academic skills for all high school students are a hoax. The majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin and the United States are low or average paying jobs that require short term or moderate-term on the job training and do not require high-level academic skills in any academic areas, particularly in higher mathematics.

Higher mathematics, except as an extremely important college entrance requirement, may be the most insignificant academic subject taken by students in elementary and secondary schools. Higher mathematics proficiency is not important for everyday living nor is it required for more than 90% of jobs. But high stakes mathematics testing and higher mathematics course requirements are being used to retain students in lower elementary grades and prevent students from graduation from 8^th Grade and high school. Why is testing math proficiency more important than any other academic subject, other than reading, at every level of K-12 education?

Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans in 2007 consists exclusively of people worth $1.3 billion or more, up $300 million from 2006. As a group, the 400 are worth a record $1.54 trillion compared to $1.25 trillion last year, a gain of $290 billion. The media highlights the richest American each year, Bill Bates a Harvard dropout, who increased his wealth from $53 billion to $59 billion from 2006 to 2007. However the media ignores America’s richest family, five Waltons in the top ten who had a combined Wal-Mart fortune of $77.9 billion in 2006. In 2007 Helen Walton, 86 year old widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, died and left a $16.4 billion fortune to charity and relatives and is no longer on the 400 fortune list. In 2007 six members of the Walton family in the top 400 had a combined wealth of $69.7 billion without Helen Walton’s $16.4 billion.

This report consists of an analysis of the top 203 occupations in the United States in employment projected for 2016 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics November 2007. As shown in Table I below, these 203 occupations are projected to total 135,884,000 employment in 2016, or 81.7% of total employment (166,220,000) in all occupations in the United States projected for 2016.

This is the first of a series of Center reports that will be prepared from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) U. S. Employment Projections 2006-2016 published in the Monthly Labor Review November 2007.

The United States leads the world in technology, scientific research and the quality of its scientists because U.S. science education is the worlds best. From 1950 to 2007 Americans have won 208 or 57% of the 363 Nobel Prizes awarded in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry.

What is the rationale for all United States high students passing three advanced courses in math and science to receive a high school diploma? What is the rationale for “all” high school graduates satisfying the requirements for admission to a four-college program? There is none!

Milwaukee Area Technical College numbers of graduates by program and enrollments by instructional divisions were obtained from the Wisconsin WTCS System. The summary table 1, Summary 2006 Milwaukee Area Technical College Graduate Follow-Up (pages 2 to 5) was prepared from data provided by the Wisconsin WTCS System.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 2007 article, “Regents to revise admissions” and subsequent articles indicated that the University of Wisconsin System Regents had agreed to accept race as one factor in admissions to all UW System universities. The objective is to increase the numbers of minorities admitted to the UW-System. There would be no change in using academic achievement as the most important factor in admissions at all UW-System universities.

The May 28, 2006 Edition of Newsweek, lists the “The Top 100 High Schools” in America in 2006. The rankings of the top 1,253 of 27,468 public high schools in America have been ranked according to a ratio devised by Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews. Fourteen of the top 1,253 public high schools in America in 2006 are located in the State of Wisconsin (Table I) and fourteen of the top 1,200 in 2005 (Table 2) and thirteen of the 1,061 in 2004 (Table 3) and nine of the top 804 public high schools in 2003 (Table 4) that had a ratio of 1.000 or above were located in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Rufus King was overwhelmingly the top rated high school in Wisconsin in 2006 2005, 2004 and 2003. The Milwaukee Public Schools as a District are often labeled “failing schools” without challenge by the Milwaukee media, Choice school politicians and the business interests. 281 What is the Rationale for Requiring Higher Math and Science for All? By Dennis W. Redovich April 2007

What is the rationale for all Wisconsin and United States high school students passing three advanced courses in math and science to receive a high school diploma? What is the rationale for “all” high school graduates satisfying the requirements for admission to a four-college program? There is none!

The motivation for this piece is the book; The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, N.Y. Times foreign affairs columnist. The book has been on the bestseller list for 93 weeks (January 2007) and was number 1 on the list for numerous weeks in 2005 and 2006. The false conclusions stated in this book that claim American public education is failing, particularly in math and science education, have been highlighted in the media without challenge. President Bush and all the 2008 presidential contenders, Republican and Democratic repeat the hogwash claims of a crisis in American education.

Milwaukee Area Technical College numbers of graduates and by program and enrollments by instructional divisions were obtained from the Wisconsin WTCS System. The analysis of MATC 2003 to 2006 graduates in this report and the six tables in this report came from data provided by the Wisconsin WTCS System

The State of Wisconsin in 2006-07 is projected to spend $110.5 million on 124 approved City of Milwaukee Choice schools. The 2006-07 MPCP state aid amount is the 2005-06 $6,351 per student increased by $200 to equal a $6,501 maximum voucher amount per student for 2006-07. “Milwaukee Public School Board President Joe Dannecker said that $7.6 million of the $16.5 million increase in the amount of property tax to be collected for schools this year is due to the voucher program, and that each voucher student increased property tax collections by $447, while each MPS student increased collections by $91.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11/21/06 p.9A)

The United States leads the world in technology, scientific research and the quality of its scientists because U.S. science education is the worlds best. From 1950 to 2006 Americans have won 206 or 58% of the 357 Nobel Prizes awarded in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. In October 2006, Americans were awarded all five of the Nobel Prizes for science achievement.

This report is the third of three reports the Center will prepare analyzing the Wisconsin Employment Projections 2004-2014 of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. This report analyzes the top 100 occupational job titles in numbers of workers and summarizes the three Center Wisconsin 2004-2014 Employment Projections reports.

Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans in 2006 consists exclusively of people worth $1 billion or more. As a group, the 400 are worth a record $1.25 trillion compared to $1.13 trillion last year. The media highlights the richest American each year, Bill Bates a Harvard dropout, who increased his wealth from $51 billion to $53 billion from 2005 to 2006 However the media ignores America’s richest family, five Walton’s who have a combined Wal-Mart fortune of $77.9 billion in 2006.

This report is the second of three reports the Center will prepare analyzing the Wisconsin Projections 2004-2014 of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. This report analyzes the occupational job titles that typically require higher math and science education. Less than 5% of jobs in Wisconsin and the United States require higher math and science preparation.

270 Just Another Big Con: Public Schools - Public Menace By Dennis W. Redovich August 2006

Joel Turtel is the author of the book “Public Schools: Public Menace”. Joel Turtel claimed in an interview with Michael Shaughnessy in a August 3 EducationNews.org, article http://www.educationnews.org/writers/michael/An_Interview_with_Joel_Turtel.htm that: "Teachers might also blame the poverty of low-income families or broken families for the miserable performance of kids in inner cities. That might be partially true. However, when these same kids from poverty backgrounds get a voucher to transfer to a private school, like they do in Milwaukee, all of a sudden these same kids do much better in school."

There is an impending job crisis in the United States, fallaciously attributed to failing American education.

This report is Part 2 of and a continuation of commentary and report 267 Just Another Big Con: Jobs and Education in the United States: United States Employment Projections 2004-2014:

The motivation for this piece is the book; The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, N.Y. Times foreign affairs columnist. The book has been on the bestseller list for 50 weeks (April 2006) and has been number 1 on the list for numerous weeks in 2005, including the month of October.

The words con, deceive, mislead, misinform and bogus can appropriately be used to describe the Achieve Inc. report, “Closing the Expectations Gap”, 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Work. The February 2006 report provides absolutely no factual validated evidence to conclude that the “American high school diploma has lost its currency”. (See www.achieve.org/ for the Achieve report)

263A An Evaluation of Education Week’s Grading of the States Quality Counts 2005 State of the States By Dennis W. Redovich January 2005

The MPS District was one of the best large urban School Districts 1937 to 1951 when I attended MPS schools and it is one of the best large urban districts in the U.S. in 2006.

The United States is the uncontested leader of the world in scientific research in respect to published accomplishments, Nobel Prizes, volume of research and expenditures on scientific research. The United States is the leader of the world in technology and the unchallenged leader of the world in the global economy. The United States dominates the world because of its educational systems, including K-12 public education, post-secondary colleges and universities that produce the most highly educated, productive and successful workforce in the world.

260 Nobel Prizes in Science: U.S. Science Education the World’s Best By Dennis W. Redovich November 2005

The United States leads the world in technology, scientific research and the quality of its scientists because U.S. science education is the worlds best. From 1951 to 2005 Americans have won 195 or 56% of the 350 Nobel Prizes awarded in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. In October 2005 the Americans were awarded four of the eight Nobel Prizes for science achievement..

259 Wal-Mart and Public Education: Corporate greed in the United States and the world By Dennis W. Redovich November 2005

In the United States today, over 500 times what their employees earn. The result is that the top 1% in the U.S. now owns more wealth than the bottom 95% and we have by far the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the industrialized world.

The Center for the Study of Jobs and Education in the State of Wisconsin has done an analysis of the graduates of the UW-Madison 1990 to 2000 and UW-Milwaukee 1989 to 1999 from data obtained from their web sites and from the UW-Madison Department of Student Tabulations. The analysis includes trends in numbers of graduates by School and College and by major. Special attention was given to majors related to high tech job related fields such as computers, science and math and biotechnology.

Prologue: University research is claimed to be the panacea for the nation’s education, and economic problems and the creation of high paying jobs. In Milwaukee the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the business interests claim that increasing research funding to UWM alone will create significant numbers of new employers and high paying jobs in Milwaukee. Public education and poorly educated workers are used as the scapegoats for all of Milwaukee’s social, economic and employment problems,

257 Dennis Redovich 'Takes Five' His views of education policy aren't conventional From the Oct. 13, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Call Dennis Redovich a contrarian. The retired Milwaukee Area Technical College researcher is a passionate advocate for views that challenge the main thrust of education policy-making today.

In the United States in 2005, greed, selfishness and moral arrogance are being used as weapons of mass destruction against public education and public health and social services. Tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare and no increases of taxes of any kind, regardless of need, are of the highest priority for the holier than thou politicians and electorate of the United States.

Author The Big Con in Education Why must “all” high school graduates be prepared for college?”Copyright 2005 Dennis W. Redovich Publisher iUniverse Inc, New York Lincoln Shanghai . www.iUniverse.com 1-800-288-4677 Also available at http://www.amazon.com/ and bookstores Interview by Daniel Pryzbyla, an EducationNews.org columnist and former Chicago and Milwaukee public school teacher

The math wars and the bashing of American public education over test scores on standardized math tests are nonsense and are much ado about nothing. The claimed math crisis in the United States by public school critics is based on insignificant standardized test scores and bogus analysis of international math test results by country.

The inspiration for this piece is a July 13 Education week article, “Dual Enrollment Spanning the Border Between High School and College—And Reshaping the Landscape of Public Education” By Piedad F. Robertson.

251 Choice Schools in Milwaukee 2004-2005 By Dennis W. Redovich June 2004

The State of Wisconsin in FY2004 is projected to spend at least $76.2 million on 115 approved City of Milwaukee Choice schools, 45% of this amount ($34.3 million) will come from state aids deducted from the Milwaukee Public Schools state aid and the rest ($41.9 million) will come from the state general fund. The 2003-04 MPCP state aid amount is the 2002-03 amounts of $5,783 per student increased by $99 to equal $5,822 per FTE

247 The Crisis in American Mathematics Education: Much Ado About Nothing By Dennis W. Redovich May 2005

The inspiration for this piece is an April 27, 2005 Education Week article, The Real Scandal in American School Mathematics, by Anthony Ralston. Anthony Ralston is a professor emeritus of computer science and mathematics at State University of New York at Buffalo. He lives in London England.

246 The Nonsense of the NCLB Act and High School Reform By Dennis W. Redovich April 2005

The inspiration for this piece is an article by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. (Our High Schools Need Help, By Margaret Spellings Saturday, April 2, 2005; Page A21 Washington Post) A few quotes from the article stated below are followed by the writer’s comments.

The inspiration for this piece is an article, Math Emerges as Big Hurdle for Teenagers, H.S. Improvement Hinges on Critical Subject by Debra Viadero, Education Week, published March 23, 2005. A few quotes from this article that follow illustrate the insanity of high stakes testing in math prevalent in the United States in 2005. The writer’s comments about high stakes testing and requirements in math follow the quotes.

The writer has been reading newspaper articles and commentaries or reports that claim that American K-12 public schools are failing and that public schools of the “past” were superior to current public schools since the1960s. The specific time period when schools were better (the 40s, 50s, 60s 70s etc.) or the valid factual data that proves them better are never stated. The continuing fallacious total belittling of American K-12 public schools in 2005, without any exceptions, is unbelievable.

Diane Ravitch says in a September 13, 2000 Education Week interview headline, "Contemporary School Ills Trace Roots to Progressive Movement". Nothing could be further from the truth. She uses quotes from as far back as the 19th Century (President Lincoln) and the public schools of the 20’s (in particular Winnetka Ill.) as her inspiration and models for 21st Century public education. And she uses quotes of progressives of the early 20th Century as her evidence of the causes of contemporary public school ills. It is incredible that any rational person would take what she says about education seriously.

The great numbers of high paying jobs of the future that are claimed to require college graduation and high academic skills for all high school students are a hoax. The majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin and the United States are low or average paying jobs that require short term or moderate-term on the job training and do not require high-level academic skills in any academic areas, particularly in higher mathematics. 242 Message to Washington: Eliminating Successful Programs Won’t Make them Stronger Why the Carl Perkins and the Adult and Family Literacy Programs Must Be Saved By Paul Gabriel With a preface by Dennis Redovich February 2005

The war against public education in the United States is being callously waged, using useless high stakes standardized tests as weapons, by the Bush Administration. And now the opponents of public education have targeted vocational education and the Perkins Act for vocational education for devastation. It is unbelievable and appalling because there is absolutely no rational reason for national high stakes academic testing for vocational or K-12 public education in the United States.

241 The War Against Vocational Education in the United States By Dennis W. Redovich February 2005

This commentary is an introduction to a major commentary and report to be released on February 28 by the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education In Wisconsin and United States on the reauthorization of the national Perkins vocational education legislation that is currently being debated in the U.S. Congress.

240 Greed, Self Interest and Moral Arrogance, are Dominant Forces in the Economy of the United States By Dennis W. Redovich February 2005

The weapons of mass destruction of the economy of the U.S. are greed, self-interest and moral arrogance. They are being used as weapons of mass destruction against public education and public health and social services. Tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare and no increases of taxes of any kind, regardless of need, are of the highest priority for the holier than thou politicians and electorate of the United States.

The writer will spend the next few months updating and revising his book “The Big Con in Education” in an effort to get it published. It said by critics and some friends of Dennis Redovich that he repeats the same points over and over again in his writings. And that is true. The reason being that the critics and enemies of public education in the United States of all persuasions keep reiterating the same criticisms of public schools over and over again and the popular media keeps reporting them without serious challenge.

The Education Week January 2005 Quality Counts 2005 is divided into two sections. “Financial Evolution” examines the special theme of this year’s report and the “State of the States” section. The Center’s evaluation of the “Financial Evolution” section of Quality Counts 205 is presented in this commentary. The report was found to be inadequate because the report completely ignores the primary reason for large increases in K-12 education expenditures, business operational costs and state and local expenditures, which is healthcare insurance for employees and retirees.

An evaluation of the of the eighth annual Education Week report, Quality Counts 2004 Count Me In: Special Education in an Era of Standards, by the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin and the U.S. gave a grade of F or unsatisfactory to the report. Quality Counts 2003 released in January 2003, Quality Counts 2002 released in January 2002 also was rated an F by the Center. (See Education Week’s Grading of the States Receives a Grade of F www.jobseducationwis.org report 129) The Education Week report Quality Counts is useless for comparing the quality of public education by state. It is unbelievable and incredible that anyone, including the media, could take the ratings of states for Standards and Accountability seriously.

It is claimed by critics of American public education that K-12 public education in the United States is failing and that the future of the American economy and the availability of a skilled American workforce in a global economy is imperiled if significant school reforms such as Charter schools to replace traditional public schools are not implemented. It is a hoax!

The use of K-12 public schools as the scapegoat for any current or envisaged future social, economic and employment problems of the United States has reached a culmination in the 21^st Century. This is a continuation of the never-ending disparagement of American K-12 public education in the 20^th Century.

One of the primary weapons used in the war against American public education is the spurious analysis of standardized test results of any kind on any academic subject that can be construed to show that K-12 schools in the United States are failing. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 math test is an excellent example of a ridiculous test that has absolutely no validated proficiency levels to assess the abilities in math of 15-year olds from 41 countries.

Grandpa and Grandma Redovich enjoyed a grand Thanksgiving holiday with the families of their son and four daughters that includes sixteen grandchildren ages’ 3 months to 17 years. Grandpa is very confident that all sixteen grandchildren will prosper in life like their parents and grandparents. But the economic future of the United States in the near future is frightening. The most vulnerable to an economic depression in the United States are the elderly and poor and lower middle class adults and children. And it has nothing to do with public education.

The United States national government under George W. Bush is an active participant in a military world war against terrorism, a world economic war for economic superiority and a war against public education in the United States.

The presidential election results of November 2004 suggest that the war against public education in the United States will continue and perhaps escalate. Outrageously, public education is being used as the scapegoat for the serious economic and social problems of the United States. Useless NAEP standardized testing and bogus analysis of international test results, ACT, state by state testing and college entrance testing are being used to falsely claim that there is an impending skilled worker crisis in the United States. Incredibly it is said that an education crisis may result in the United States becoming a second rate economic power behind large population countries such as China and India. (See www.jobseducationwis.org 230 The Myths of a Global Economy)

The myths of the high tech, high skill and high pay jobs of the future have survived and flourished since the 1960’s. The New Economy is the fiction of the economists and the casino royal players on Wall Street. The most frequent business media story line from the 1960’s to the 2000s is that there is an impending serious skilled worker shortage in the 21^st Century because it was projected with certainty that the number of high skill jobs would significantly increase and the number of high skill worker retirees would eventually exceed the number of new workers. Unbelievably, the myths of the 1960’s are still being highlighted without challenge by the media in 2004.

There is no crisis in education in Wisconsin or the United States; there are problems that require immediate attention. There is an impending serious economic and job crisis in the United States and Wisconsin. The economic conditions of the 1930’s and the maldistribution of wealth are being replicated in a high tech and so-called information based global economy. The majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin (2002 to 2012) as well as the United States will be in short-term on the job training (one month or less) or moderate length on the job training (one to twelve months with informal training) jobs. The great majority of jobs do not require above average academic skills, most particularly in mathematics.

228 Analysis of Wisconsin Employment by Job Title 2002-2012 By Dennis W. Redovich October 2004

The United States leads the world in technology, scientific research and the quality of its scientists because U.S. science education is the worlds best. From 1951 to 2004 Americans have won 191 or 56% of the 342 Nobel Prizes awarded in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. In October 2004 the Americans were awarded six of the eight Nobel Prizes for science achievement. The country of citizenship of Nobel Prize winners in 2004 is; Medicine: American 2, Physics: American 3, Chemistry: American 1, Israel 2. (See page 2 Nobel Prizes in Science 1951 to 2004)

There is an impending serious economic and job crisis in the United States and Wisconsin. The economic conditions of the 1930’s and the maldistribution of wealth are being replicated in a high tech and so-called information based global economy. As will be shown in this report, the majority of the jobs of the future in Wisconsin (2002 to 2012) as well as the United States will be in short-term on the job training (one month or less) or moderate length on the job training (one to twelve months with informal training) jobs. These jobs are often lower paying jobs that do not require high academic skills or higher education.

In the United States today, CEOs of major corporations make over 500 times what their employees earn. The result is that the top 1% in the U.S. now owns more wealth than the bottom 95% and we have by far the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the industrialized world.

The author’s analysis of the reading proficiency levels of Milwaukee Charter schools, including instrumentality and non-instrumentality Charter schools established by the Milwaukee School Board, Charter schools established by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the City of Milwaukee concludes the following. It is impossible to compare the quality of instruction of “all” Charter schools to “all” regular public schools based on the average test scores of any size sample of schools. Valid evaluations can only be made on “individual” Charter schools or regular public schools that include student characteristics and multiple measures of academic achievement. Designating any school to be a Charter or Choice school does not make the school superior to any public school. Regular MPS public schools compare favorably to Charter schools on State of Wisconsin tests.

223 The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World

But money is too precious to waste on the working poor, poor children and the elderly

By Dennis W. Redovich September 11, 2004

The United States of America was the greatest country in the world in September 2001 and also is the greatest nation in the history of the world. I am not saying that the United States in September 2001 was not without especially serious flaws, nor am I saying that through its history the United States was not significantly flawed and without serious sins. But in comparison with the nations of the world over time there is no doubt that in September 2001 the United States had grown better over time (As Will Rogers once said, “the good old days never was”) and is at the summit as the leader of the economic, political and military world on

Earth.

222 The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World 2001-2004 But money is too precious to waste on the working poor, poor children and the elderly By Dennis W. Redovich September 2004

The Unites States is the Greatest Nation in the World was originally written in September 2001. Updates were written in September 2002 and 2003. (171 The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World was posted on EducationNews.org on 9/15/2003) This piece is a September 2004 update.

The Bush administration, the business interests and the stock market entrepreneurs have been boasting about U.S. job gains in the last few months to enhance their own greedy self-interests. The media is unquestioningly reporting the BLS monthly employment reports as if the gains after several years of job losses are significant and that an impending job boom is imminent. It is nothing but hype. Reality is that the recent gains in employment are a blip of a majority of lower quality jobs in an economy that will continue to be stagnant and lose and gain jobs in economic cycles.

"In order for somebody to undertake a Big Lie, they must first believe Niccolo Machiavelli's premise (in "The Prince," 1532) that the end justifies the means.” (The end goal of critics of American education is the privatization and obliteration of public education, a government monopoly) “Two steps were necessary to promote a Big Lie so that the majority of the people in a nation would believe it. ---- The first was to reduce an issue to a simple black-and-white choice that "even the most feebleminded could understand." “The second was to repeat the oversimplification over and over. If these two steps were followed, people would always come to believe the Big Lie.” (What Would Machiavelli Do? The Big Lie Lives On, Thom Hartmann CommonDreams.org)

The inspiration for this piece is the hysterical critical reaction to a August 17 NY Times article about an American Federation of Teachers analysis of NAEP charter school achievement data (which is presented in the same way NAEP results are typically reported) that shows charter school students mostly under perform and sometimes score about as well as regular public school students. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, the creator of the Texas miracle that turned out to be a scam, says with no evidence that the AFT study is flawed. Flawed may be too mild a term to describe some of the pro-charter and anti-public school research done by well-fed conservative think tank researchers. .

Kathy Emery and Susan Ohanian have written the most well documented and researched book written on Corporate America’s plans, led nationally by the Business Roundtable (BRT), to privatize American public education. The authors never specifically answer the direct question, “Why is corporate America bashing our public schools?” In 205 pages of concisely written and documented examples from the 1980s to the 21^st Century of the BRT’s plans for “systematic reform” of public schools are obviously designed to use high standards and testing to uniformly label all of public education as failing and to claim that the private sector is the only salvation for “all” students to be prepared for higher education or for “all” 21^stCentury jobs.

The Bush administration, the business interests and the stock market entrepreneurs have been boasting about U.S. job gains in the last few months to enhance their own self-interests. The media has been unquestioningly reporting the BLS monthly employment reports as if the gains after several years of job losses are really significant and that an impending job boom is imminent. It is nothing but political hype

The inspirations for this piece are two major July 31 national media stories about the American economy, “Federal deficit to hit all time high of $445 billion this year”, and “Economy slows to 3% GDP growth”. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ($10.5 trillion or $10,446 billion in 2003) is not growing as fast as the rate of growth of the national debt (6%) to more than $7 Trillion dollars ($7,000 billion) at the end of FY 2004. (U.S. Treasury July 2004) The interest on the national debt that has been declining since 2000, ($361 billion) to $315 billion in FY 2003 and $275 billion in FY 2004 only because interest rates are at record lows. (www.publicdebt.treas.gov/, July 2004)

An Education Trust article posted on EducationNews.org on July 23, 2004 “Current Perkins Bills: NOT GOOD ENOUGH” is the inspiration for this piece. The Education Trust says, “Right now, the federal program (known as “Perkins”) is at best ambiguous and ambivalent about the need to ensure that vocational education programs integrate strong academics along with more narrow technical and vocational skills.” All high school graduates – regardless of whether they plan to enter college or go directly into the workforce – need strong reading, writing, and math skills. These bedrock skills of lifelong learning are an absolute necessity for our future citizens, soldiers, and workforce. Baloney! Nothing could be further from the truth!

Since 1989, the Wisconsin Reading Comprehension Test (formerly called the Third Grade Reading Test) has been administered annually at grade 3 to help school districts identify students who may need additional assistance to improve their reading comprehension skills. Beginning in 1998, while continuing to identify students who may be in need of remediation, the test also identifies advanced, proficient, basic, and minimal reading performance levels. Since 2001-02 the Wisconsin Reading Comprehension Test has been administered to UWM and City of Milwaukee Charter Schools.

The critical rhetoric from the business interests and their hired hand consultants and economists about American workers at all levels of education and skill has been going on forever. The business media in the 21^st Century, as it has forever, reiterates the complaints of employers about the quality of American workers and the shortage of so-called skilled workers without serious challenge. .

212A Privatizing War in Iraq, NCLB fuels deception

By Center Advisory Board Member Daniel Pryzbyla July 2004 (Posted www.EducationNews.org 7/5/04)

Dismantling government public services and replacing them with privatization has never been a secret of Republican neoconservatives. Still, feeding at the taxpayers’ trough uses lots of deception.

211 The Impending Job and Economic Crisis of the United States By Dennis W. Redovich June 2004

American public education and workers are increasingly being used as scapegoats for the social, economic and employment problems of the United States. Outrageously, public education alone has been designated as responsible for alleviating “all” of the serious social, economic and employment problems of the United States. The following statements summarize the absolute nonsense that is printed everyday in the American media.

Analysis of United States occupational employment projections to 2012 indicate that most new jobs will arise in occupations that require only work related training (on-the-job training or work experience in a related occupation), even though these occupations are projected to grow more slowly, on average, than occupations that require more education. “This reflects the fact these occupations, (OJT and work experience related) accounted for about 7 out of 10 jobs in 2002.” Total Employment in the U.S. in 2002 was 144,014,000 a decrease from 145,594,000 in 2000, which is projected to increase 21,305,000 (14.8%) to 165,319,000 workers in 2012.

American public education and workers are increasingly being used as scapegoats for all of the social, economic and employment problems of the United States. Unbelievably, both liberal and conservative critics of public schools from the universities, business interests and government claim there is a crisis in K-12 education and drastic school reforms are required in “all” K-12 school systems for “all” students. The bashing of schools is an American tradition. Unfortunately, in the 21^st Century too many school reforms are irrational, are harmful to poor students and are based on false premises.

208 The Gender Wage Gap in 2004 is Phony By Dennis W. Redovich June 2004

In the 21^st Century the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled. The graduation rates of women from high school and higher education are most often higher than for men. The number of women graduates from most professional occupations, including higher paying medicine, law and business, will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future. In numerous occupational areas with a majority of women graduates, salaries already surpass salaries in occupational areas with a majority of men graduates.

The Bush administration, the business interests and the stock market entrepreneurs are boasting about U.S. job gains in the last few months to enhance their own greedy self-interests. The media is unquestioningly reporting the BLS monthly employment reports as if the gains after several years of job losses are significant and that an impending job boom is imminent. It is nothing but hype. Reality is that the current gains in employment are a blip of a majority of lower quality jobs in an economy that will continue to be stagnant and lose and gain jobs in economic cycles.

What is the rationale for requiring that all public 3^rd to 12^th grade public school students in the United States score at a “proficient” or advanced level on reading and math by the year 2014? (This excludes limited English proficient and special needs students) What is the rationale to severely sanction schools who receive NCLB Title I funds if they fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP)? A school can fail if a sufficient percentage of all its students or its students in any one defined group—low income, limited English proficient, racial ethnic minority (African American, Hispanic Asian, Native American Indian), or students with disabilities – do not reach the proficient level in either math or reading, or if it does not test 95 percent of its students in any category.

The 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s desegregation decision has motivated the American print media to produce an enormous volume of articles and editorials about the decision that evokes a sense of national failure. Segregation of minorities and whites in schools is increasing in recent years and an achievement gap remains between whites and blacks and most minorities.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel education reporters and editorial writer Gregory Stanford consistently belittle the quality of the Milwaukee Public Schools whenever possible. Unfortunately, the primary source of information about the Milwaukee Public Schools available to the citizens of the Milwaukee Area, State of Wisconsin and the United States is the only major newspaper, the Journal Sentinel.

The war against public education in the United States is being callously waged, using ineffectual high stakes standardized tests as weapons, by the Bush Administration and conservative foundations such as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and numerous others. And now the opponents of public education have targeted vocational education and the Perkins Act for vocational education for devastation. It is unbelievable because there is absolutely no rational reason for national high stakes academic testing for vocational or K-12 public education in the United States and to require that “all” high school vocational students enroll in and pass high-level academic courses

The Wisconsin Technical College annual follow-up reports reflect the reality of employment in the State of Wisconsin and the U.S. and not the hype from the universities and business interests about the so-called high tech jobs of the future and the phony shortage of educated skilled workers that is reported in the popular media. The data in this report comes from state reports such as the annual Wisconsin Technical College Graduate Follow-up prepared by WTCS Board staff that is one of the finest in the U.S and is a source of data for this report. The “2002-03 Graduate Follow-up “April 2004, (www.wtcsystem.org Publications) reflects only those students who graduate.

One of the most unintelligent, if it isn’t the worst, Editorial page Op-Ed column on American education I have ever read is “Losing Our Edge” by Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times. (April 22, 2004) Unbelievably in this piece, Friedman equates a conceived crisis in American K-12 science education and the percentage of U.S. college graduates with science and engineering degrees with the war on terrorism.

I returned from an eighteen day People to People visit to schools and sights in five cities of China on October 19, 1999. I presented my Big Con piece in Beijing at the Beijing Normal University and Government Beijing TV taped an interview. I discovered, as I suspected, that the big con in education is a worldwide phenomenon.

EducationNews.org posted on Tuesday April 6 a background briefing by senior administration officials on the President Bush’s new job training and education initiatives for high schools, higher education and the U.S. training workforce system. The information about the administrations new job training initiatives in this article comes from this briefing and articles in various U.S. newspapers.

The Rand Corporation report, The 21st Century at Work: Forces Shaping the Future Workforce and Workplace in the UnitedStates By Lynn A. Karoly and Constantijn Panis is posted on EducationNews.org, Previous Commentaries and Reports Wednesday, March 31, 2004
”What are the forces that will continue to shape the U.S. workforce and workplace over the next 10 to 15 years? With its eye on forming sound policy and helping stakeholders in the private and public sectors make informed decisions, the U.S. Department of Labor asked RAND to look at the future of work. The authors analyze trends in and the implications of shifting demographic patterns, the pace of technological change, and the path of economic globalization.”

There is an impending serious economic and job crisis in the United States and Wisconsin. The economic conditions of the 1930’s and the maldistribution of wealth are being replicated in a high tech and so-called information based global economy. Incredibly, a manufactured crisis in American K-12 public education has been used since the 1980s to label failing K-12 public schools as a scapegoat for all the social, economic and job depression problems that already exist in poor areas of the United States, such as the central City of Milwaukee.

197 Bogus Graduation Rate Studies and Reality from Wisconsin By Dennis W. Redovich March 2004

The inspiration for this commentary is the latest bogus United States graduation rate study, STUDY: ONLY "50-50" CHANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION FOR U.S. MINORITY STUDENTS; WEAK ACCOUNTABILITY RULES FOUND Civil Rights Project at Harvard and the Urban Institute (Posted on educationnews.org 2/26/ 04). The 1998-99 to 2002-03 graduation rates for whites and minorities in Wisconsin published 3/11/04 by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (www.dpi.state.wi.us) are compared to the graduation rates calculated in the Harvard and Urban Institute study.

Gerald W. Bracey is a member of the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Jobs and Education in Wisconsin and the United States. Dr. Bracey is the greatest defender of public education and one of the most knowledgeable and courageous educational researchers in the United States. The defenders of American public education, like Bracey, are few in number because those who dare challenging the great numbers of negative reports and commentaries on American education prepared by well financed writers from the conservative foundation think tanks, big time corporations like IBM and prestigious universities like Harvard, are subject to the strongest of censure. Being antischool is where the money is. There is little funding available for those not critical of schools and the popular media has very little interest in stories that present a positive view of American schools.

195 The Big Con in Education in the United States Why must “all” high school graduates be prepared for college? Money is too precious to waste on poor children in the war on public education By Dennis W. Redovich March 2004

The title of this piece is the title of a book I am writing that I hope to have published later in 2004 by a publisher who is currently reviewing my proposal. The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is the big con. Public schools have been bashed by politicians, “the business interests”, and learned elite forever. Bashing public education is a nation wide United States phenomenon in the 21^st Century.

Critics of American public schools use education as the scapegoat for all of the social and economic problems of the United States. The panacea for all of the problems of our urban and poor rural areas including, crime and incarcerations, poverty, jobs, housing and family stability and teen age pregnancies is increasing the number of college graduates and demanding that every student meet the requirements of college entrance in order to earn a high school diploma. Higher education and increasing levels of high school education and standards for graduation will automatically create jobs, higher incomes, and lower crime and increase family stability. Nothing could be further from the truth!

193 Jobs & Education: The Folly of Allan Greenspan and the Global Economists By Dennis W. Redovich February 2004

The ignorance of the President of the United States economic advisors, including most notably Federal Reserve Chairman Allan Greenspan, about the real world of jobs and education in the United States and the global economy is pathetic and unbelievable. The writer most often just ignores the gibberish of Allan Greenspan, but the Wall Street operators playing casino royal games in the stock market use whatever he says about economic measures such as interest rates, inflation or job growth for their own economic advantage.

This blanket assertion has been constantly repeated for more than 20 years, “typical high school graduates in the U.S. are not prepared for college or for the workplace and the quality of American public education is declining”. This spurious statement is most often made without any valid research based evidence or relevant and valid statistics. The popular media will gleefully print the assertion that there is a “crisis in American public education” from almost any organization, without serious challenge.

In the 50 years since January 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools there has been very large and significant increases in the numbers and percentages of black and white high school and college graduates in all regions of the United States. The gap between the percentages of high school graduates of blacks and whites has been dramatically reduced.

190 The War Against the Milwaukee Public Schools By Dennis W. Redovich February 2004

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in January 2004 is running a series of major front page articles regarding the unanimous 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregating students in public schools by race denied black children their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. The Journal Sentinel says the civil rights movement wrought enormous change to America's laws and public schools. “Yet 50 years later, most African-American children in Wisconsin remain far behind whites in education, jobs, housing, safety and family stability - further behind, in some measures, than in any other state. Why, in a Northern state with a progressive tradition, have we seen so little progress after so much time?”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blindly supports without reservation City of Milwaukee and UW-Milwaukee Charter schools and the Milwaukee voucher program. And they consistently demean the exemplary Milwaukee Public Schools and their teachers in their editorials. Absolutely no credible evidence is ever presented for the criticisms of the MPS School District in Journal Sentinel editorials.

Christmas is always a joyous and wonderful time of the year for my wife and I. Our family is blessed with four daughters and one son who are successful in all aspects of life and the parenting of our fifteen wonderful grandchildren. The economic future of our entire family is safe and sound in 2003 and for the foreseeable future, including all of our bright and energetic grandchildren. My concern is not with family and myself but with the growing poverty and economic problems of the United States and the world.

Why are local, state and national business and political leaders labeling, without differentiations, K-12 public education as failing? It is all about money! Tax revenues spent for public schools are clearly labeled on property tax bills and in State budgets so that all are aware that public schools are a major expenditure for local and state taxpayers. Those of property and income wealth do not wish to pay increasing taxes of any kind for poor children in public schools, regardless of need. Outrageously, public schools are used as scapegoats for the serious social and economic problems of the United States on the local, State and national level. Public school teachers and schools must contend with serious social and economic problems they did not create.

American public education is a system unique in the world that produces the most productive workers (Germany and Japan are about 80% as productive as American workers) in the world. The United States is blessed with the finest scientists, engineers, engineering and science technicians, computer systems workers, health workers and educators in the world. Less than 5% of United States or Wisconsin workers “might require” higher math and/or science education knowledge for their jobs. What is the rationale for requiring all children to meet arbitrary standards in math to be promoted one K-12 grade level or graduate from high school? There is none!

The State of Wisconsin in FY2004 is projected to spend at least $76.2 million on 107 approved City of Milwaukee Choice schools, 45% of this amount ($34.3 million) will come from state aids deducted from the Milwaukee Public Schools state aid and the rest ($41.9 million) will come from the state general fund. The 2003-04 MPCP state aid amount is the 2002-03 amounts of $5,783 per student increased by $99 to equal $5,822 per FTE

The February 2000 Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau is not an evaluation. It is a descriptive report on the history of the Milwaukee Choice Program and the current status of the program.

The inspirations for this commentary are two Journal Sentinel newspaper quotes by MPS Supt. William Andrekopoulos. The first “There is little risk in changing the status quo at MPS, because the status quo is unacceptable”. (“Small high schools would mean big changes for MPS” 11/15 page 1A) This is an insult to the excellent teachers and administrators of MPS who have made great improvements in increasing the graduation rate and decreasing the annual dropout rate since 1993-94.

Like Corporate America’s CEO’s and business interest organizations, too many American university administrators and faculty use American public school systems as convenient scapegoats for the social and economic problems of the United States. The motivation for too many in Corporate America and the universities to criticize K-12 public education is the same, greed and self-interest.

The 11/7/03 headlines on the front pages and business sections of the nation’s newspapers read like the New York Times feature article published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Job surge a signal of faster recovery”. The number of jobs increased from 130,006,000 to 130,132,000 (126,000 or 0.1%) and unemployment decreased from 6.1% to 6.0% from September to October 2003 and was described as unchanged by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its publications.

Corporate America funds a war on public education in the United States through its conservative foundations and so-called think tanks. Corporate America has manufactured a spurious crisis in American education using millions of dollars to proliferate lies and deceptions about the foundation of our great democracy, American public education. An academically challenged media reiterates the garbage of Corporate America about public education without serious challenge. The reason is the greed and avarice of Corporate America, which includes the American media. Money is too precious to waste on the public education of the children of the working poor!

59. A Review of Caroline Minter Hoxby’s Rising Tide By Dennis W. Redovich December 2001

Prof.. Hoxby expounds the fundamental beliefs of school choice zealots: (1) Choice schools create competition with the public schools and as a consequence, prods school reform. (2) School reform is responsible for any improvement in academic achievement (3) Public schools that improve in academic achievement create reforms solely because of competitive forces and (4) Schools designated as choice or charter schools inevitably are superior to ordinary public schools. There is absolutely no evidence that these beliefs have any truth in fact. Like a big lie, these unproven beliefs have been repeated for the last ten years in Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Public Schools are participating in a Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce project funded by the Gates Foundation for $17,250,000 that is based on deceptive and unproven background information about MPS high schools. The project entitled, A NEW VISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION: SMALL SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT IN MILWAUKEE is a ruse to provide money to create 10 new small Choice high schools outside of the MPS system and an enrollment expansion of 2,000 students in Milwaukee Choice high schools. There is absolutely no evidence presented by the MMAC to justify an expansion of small high schools outside of MPS schools.

The United States leads the world in technology and the quality of its scientists because U.S. science education is the worlds best. From 1951 to 2003 Americans have won 185 or 55% of the 334 Nobel Prizes awarded in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. In October 2003 the United States won five of the seven Nobel Prizes for science achievement. The country of citizenship of Nobel Prize winners in 2003 is; Medicine: American 1, Great Britain 1, Physics: American 2, Russia 1, Chemistry: American 2.

175A Prologue to Nobel Prizes in Science: U.S. Science Education the Worlds Best By Dennis W. Redovich October 2003

The United States is the uncontested leader of the world in scientific research in respect to published accomplishments, Nobel Prizes, volume of research and expenditures on scientific research. The United States is the leader of the world in technology and the unchallenged leader of the world in the global economy. The United States dominates the world because of its educational systems, including K-12 public education that produces the most highly educated, productive and successful workforce in the world.

It is unbelievably ironic and a paradox that the City of Milwaukee, where the exemplary Milwaukee Public Schools have developed since the 1970’s a unique system of public school choice, including small private Partnership schools is also the Mecca of the anti-public school movement and private school choice outside of MPS, including religious schools. The anti-public school movement has been successful in defaming highly commendable MPS schools and their teachers. How is it possible that a School District that for 30 years has provided more choice of schools than any in the U.S. or the world can be the Mecca of private school choice?

The inspiration for this commentary is the awarding of Milwaukee $20 million dollars by the National Science foundation “to improve training of math teachers in the city--- and hopefully boost low math scores in Milwaukee Public Schools”. The grant was discussed in a 9/27 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article; “MPS gets money for math teacher training”. The grant is an example of many millions I have observed wasted on math instruction reforms in the United States since I taught math in high schools more than forty years ago. The primary beneficiaries of millions for these reforms are higher education schools who dream up the reforms and staff who administer and work in them.

When I attended excellent public elementary and high schools in Milwaukee, 1937 to 1951, students were tested annually in elementary school in reading and basic skills using tests such as the Iowa Basic Skills. The purpose of the tests was to identify individual students with learning difficulties and to identify specific curriculum areas that needed overall improvement. Students were socially promoted and there was no high stakes testing for promotion or graduation. High School and 8^th Grade graduation rates were lower than in 2002 and students were allowed to leave school at age 16 and go to the Milwaukee Vocational School one day a week until age 18.

Classical comedian buffs recognize the legendary Abbott and Costello “Who’s on first?” baseball comedy routine as one of the greatest of all time. NCLB follies are not too far behind.

171 The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World But money is too precious to waste on poor children By Dennis W. Redovich September 2003

The research universities in the United States have become business enterprises competing for hundreds of millions of funding from the business interests who use the universities to increase their profits. Universities also compete for hundreds of millions of funding from foundations and government agencies. State governments are in deficit and are reducing the revenues given to state higher education institutions. The priority of university administrators and tenured faculty is revenue from any source for research that is too often insignificant and of no value to students or society. It is a big money game played by the universities that costs students thousands of dollars in additional tuition and extra years trying to earn a degree of any kind.

Neighborhoods in poor urban and rural areas throughout the United States have double-digit unemployment and are in an economic and job depression that continues to get worse. The working poor in these neighborhoods with jobs and their families are in most cases living in poverty. These economic conditions produce crime, drug addiction, truancy and juvenile delinquency. The economic conditions of the 1930’s depression years are in place in these poor neighborhoods while income and property wealth neighborhoods may prosper. Milwaukee is a good example of these economic conditions.

Since the 1970s the so-called experts of the political, educational and business interests have been claiming that the majority of jobs of the future would require higher academic skills and that there was a serious shortage of so-called “skilled workers” which undermined the economic growth of the United States and every state of the union. And outrageously, without any credible evidence, the blame for the social and economic problems of the United States and poverty of our urban areas was blamed on “failing schools”.

The United States and the industrialized world are moving from small growth recession economies toward economies in economic depression. The emphasis in this piece is to highlight the unbelievable attack on public education, lead by the President and some of the largest corporation CEO’s in the United States. They imply that K-12 public education is a cause of our economic problems and that improving academic achievement can be a major solution of economic and employment problems in the United States..

166 Jobs and Education and An Economic Depression in the United States By Dennis W. Redovich August 2003

The United States since 2001 is in a growth recession economy with job market depressions that will lead eventually to a serious economic depression. Significant declines in consumer demand for manufactured goods and services in the United States and the global economy will result from the loss of jobs and income. Outrageously, politicians and the business interests have used public education in the United States as the scapegoat for economic development and job growth in the United States forever. The elements are in place for an eventual economic depression in the United States that will be described in future Monday pieces with statistical evidence, not political hype.

It is outrageous that Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin politicians and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) use the exemplary Milwaukee Public Schools as scapegoats for the economic and social problems of Milwaukee. Political and business leaders are responsible for creating jobs and economic development but they shamelessly put the onus on MPS teachers and administrators who are expected to do academic miracles with poor academically disadvantaged children from economically disadvantaged families.

165A Voucher fireworks light up Milwaukee By Daniel Pryzbyla August 2003

In addition to the usual rounds of colorful fireworks on July 4th, voucher warlords in Milwaukee added their own colorful explosions later during the month.

Critics of public education such as the business interests (MMAC), Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist and university professors from numerous institutions funded by millions from conservative foundations have labeled the Milwaukee Public Schools as “failing schools”. This label is based solely on district average statewide WKCE reading and math test results and dropout rates. Nothing could be further from the truth! Milwaukee is one the finest urban school districts in the United States that serves students from a large majority of economically disadvantaged minority families with at least 17% of its students identified as needing special education and/or English proficiency instruction.

There is absolutely no question that MPS schools are far superior to eight of the nine private Milwaukee Charter schools on the 3^rd grade Reading test and the statewide 4^th and 8^th Grade tests. Outrageous is too mild a term to label the Milwaukee Public Schools as failing schools. Nothing could be further from the truth! And the most outrageous statement of all is that private Milwaukee Choice schools which have absolutely no accountability provide a higher quality education than MPS. (See www.jobseducationwis.org 87 The War Against the Milwaukee Public Schools, 158 A Brief Synopsis of the War Against MPS and 160 Hypocrisy and Stupidity in Milwaukee)

The partisan mouthpiece for the exaltation and expansion of school choice in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Many millions in private funding from the Bradley Foundation, other conservative foundations and the business interests in Milwaukee and the United States fund bogus research prepared by elite academic think tanks and political donations for MPS school board members that support private religious and secular choice schools in Milwaukee.

161 State and Local Taxes and the Funding of Public Education By Dennis W. Redovich July 2003

The business interests at the highest levels at the national, state and local level have been major critics of universal American public education since the 19^th Century. It is observable since the 1950’s that nationally the Business Roundtable and numerous CEO’s of the largest and most prestigious corporations in the U.S. and Wisconsin have been shockingly using American public education and local urban school districts as scapegoats for the economic problems of the United States.

The hypocrisy of the Milwaukee business leaders, UW-Milwaukee, Mayor Norquist and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is incomprehensible. They fail to address and take responsibility for the serious social and economic problems of the City of Milwaukee’s working poor families and individuals. The Milwaukee Public Schools are labeled as failing schools and are used as scapegoats for alleviating the serious social and economic problems of people in Milwaukee that the schools did not create.

The United States and the world is on the verge of a continuous job depression, that will perpetuate high unemployment and staggering under employment of the most highly educated workforce in the history of the world. The U.S. workforce has lost 2.5 million jobs in the last two years. The so-called high tech jobs of the future have declined at least 12%. Educational attainment of employed U.S. workers in 2002 and projections of jobs by education and training to 2010 indicate there is a glut of college graduates required for jobs in the U.S. and the world. (See education and job statistics starting on page 2)

The war against the Milwaukee Public Schools began in 1990 with the initiation of private Milwaukee Choice schools and is aggressively being waged in 2003. The war continues to be financed by the business interests and conservative foundations that contribute to MPS school board members who are traitors to public education and state legislators, who represent in most cases wealthy Republican school districts outside the City of Milwaukee, but incredibly include Choice zealot Mayor Norquist of Milwaukee

87 The War Against the Milwaukee Public Schools By Dennis W. Redovich April 2002

It is unbelievably ironic and a paradox that the City of Milwaukee, where the exemplary Milwaukee Public Schools have developed since the 1970’s a unique system of public school choice, is also the Mecca of the anti-public school movement and private school choice, including religious schools. The anti-public school movement has been successful in defaming MPS schools and their teachers. How is it possible that a School District that for 30 years has provided more choice of schools than any in the U.S. or the world can be the Mecca of private school choice? Big time money from conservative foundations nationwide like the Milwaukee based Bradley Foundation, great political power since the 80s like that from Mayor Norquist of Milwaukee and Governor Thompson of Wisconsin and the blatantly biased editorials and reporting of the only major Milwaukee newspaper, The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, are the answer.

101. The Milwaukee Partnership Academy: The Ultimate Hype and Hypocrisy By Dennis W. Redovich July 2002

I could not believe the sincerity of Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that is shown in a July 14 Milwaukee Journal Crossroads commentary, “Milwaukee Partnership Academy stays the course”. She says in this piece,” Recall that on May 13, the MPA announced a broad based com munity initiative to ensure that “every” Milwaukee Public Schools student performs at or above grade level in reading, writing and math”. Incredibly Dr. Zimpher’s UW-Milwaukee education experts, who are going to teach MPS teachers how to teach, has contracted with Edison Schools Inc. for the last two years to operate the private K-8 charter school named the Milwaukee Academy of Science.

156 Money is Sacred in the State of Wisconsin and the United States By Dennis W. Redovich June 2003

Following the leadership of the President of the United States, in the total greed, selfish and morally arrogant atmosphere that exists across the United States, the only acceptable solution to the serious economic problems at the national, state and local level is to cut government spending on health, education and welfare. Money is too precious to waste on the working poor, poor children and the elderly. Money is a sacred entity in the view of too many politicians in Wisconsin and the United States.

155 NCLB weapons of mass public education destruction By Daniel Pryzbyla June 2003

Kept secret from the rest of the world, our country’s public schools have been producing the dumbest students on the planet earth. There was only one solution left for the U.S. Department of Education. High-stakes testing!

The true weapons of mass destruction are greed, selfishness and moral arrogance. In the United States in 2003, greed, selfishness and moral arrogance are being used as weapons of mass destruction against public education and public health and social services. Tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare and no increases of taxes of any kind, regardless of need, are of the highest priority for the holier than thou politicians and electorate of the United States.

What is the rationale for requiring all high school students to complete the requirements for entrance into a four college in order to graduate from high school, and in some states pass an academic graduation test? The hype and propaganda about the manufactured crisis in K-12 education and the need to produce more college graduates because the so-called knowledge based jobs of the future require higher education including math and science for all students and workers has been continual since the 1960s. It is a political hoax perpetuated in self-interest by universities and politicians. Nothing could be further from reality! Let’s look at the hoax first and then discuss reality later.

Sacred profits and the accumulation of great individual wealth rather than the welfare of people is the priority of the business interests of the U.S. and the world. The greed and selfishness of corporate America, and too many American politicians and naïve self-interested voters is unbelievable. Corporate welfare, tax breaks and special privilege for the rich and comfortable are on the top of the agenda for too many local, state and national politicians feeding at the corporate political campaign troughs.

A big con is being planned and getting ready for execution in Milwaukee that will provide at least $6 million for useless planning and at least $2 million to initiate 10 new small private Milwaukee Choice High schools. At least 2,000 students will be taken away from MPS high schools. The 10 new Choice schools will eventually be operated using State funding with absolutely no accountability to Wisconsin taxpayers.

The WTCS follow-up reports reflect the reality of employment in the State of Wisconsin and the U.S. and not the hype from the universities and business interests about the so-called high tech jobs of the future and the phony shortage of educated skilled workers that is reported in the popular media.

I attended an Academic Convocation at the Milwaukee Area Technical College on April 16, 2003 and heard with pleasure about the great accomplishments of MATC as described by the President, Provost, and MATC Board, faculty and student representatives. But the Keynote Address by Dr. Carol D’Amico, U.S. Assistant Secretary for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Dept. of Education was a complete contradiction of vocational education practices that have been successfully carried out in Milwaukee and the United States since the 1900’s.

The following table was prepared from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational employment projections to 2010, Monthly Labor Review, November 2001.and U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000 National Occupational and Employment and Wage Estimates, 2001.

147 Just Another Big Con in Education in the United States: Every student must achieve at the highest academic standards to graduate from high school and to be employable in a family living wage job. (Posted EducationNews.org 8/26/02) By Dennis W. Redovich August 2002 (Revised April 2003)

The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is the big con. Public schools have been bashed by politicians, the business interests and learned elite forever. Bashing schools is a national phenomenon and is not confined to a few states like Texas and New York or a few cities like Cleveland and Milwaukee in the United States. Too many people, including educators, public officials, university professors and conservative think tank con artists feeding at the trough, have conceived the con. And it is gleefully perpetuated without question by an academically disadvantaged media without serious challenge.

146 Analysis of Wisconsin Employment by Job Title 2000-2010 By Dennis W. Redovich April 2003

All of the job data for this report comes from the Wisconsin Projections 2000-2010 prepared by The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Workforce Solutions, Bureau of Workforce Information, March 2003. The DWD report describes in detail the Wisconsin Labor Force, Industries and Occupations. It is a well-organized report that contains the best available information on the Wisconsin labor force and projections for the future.

Stupid is too mild a term to describe the harmful high states testing in math and science prevalent in the United States. The United States is blessed with the finest scientists, engineers, engineering and science technicians, computer systems workers and educators in the world. As shown in Table I below, less than 5% of United States or Wisconsin workers “might require” higher math and/or science education knowledge for their jobs. What is the rationale for requiring all children to meet arbitrary standards in math to be promoted one K-12 grade level or graduate from high school? There is none!

In a war, a town or city and its population may be destroyed in order to “save the people”. In the war against public education many children are being seriously harmed using high stakes standardized testing as weapons to label public education as failing in order to destroy public education, as we know it, for private personal profit. The greed and selfishness of too many of our political and business leaders is unbelievable. Money is too precious to waste on poor children and the working poor for education, healthcare and welfare. And too many in the media, in Milwaukee most notably the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, give aid and credibility to the enemies of public education.

143 Standardized Testing, Accountability and Computer Assisted Learning By Dennis W. Redovich October 2001 (Revised March 2003)

There is absolutely no accountability for computer-aided instruction. Like Big Oil, Big High-Tech companies are accountable for nothing when high profits are at stake. And the computer and equipment manufacturers for the Internet and networking are making billions in the Big Education business. No standardized testing to measure increases in academic achievement are necessary, only hype.

142 Just Another Big Con, “Education on the Internet” By Dennis W. Redovich May 2001 (Revised March 2003)

In the 21^st Century basic computer skills, including keyboarding, word processing and other software tools, are being taught in the early primary grades. The so-called experts claim it is an absolute necessity for children to learn computer skills early to survive in a technological world. By the 8^th grade students in elementary schools in the 21^st Century, including my grandchildren, are often more proficient using computers and technology than most adults, including educational and political leaders I have known for the last 30 years in Wisconsin. There is substantial evidence in Wisconsin and throughout the United States that computer skills training in K-12 schools has been successfully implemented.

The following is a draft of a Preface to a book I am writing, “Jobs and Education: The Big Con in Education in the United States. I would be very interested in comments or anecdotal stories or hard statistical data that pertain to the topic of the book. I am particularly interested in comments and materials that are not in agreement with my views. redovich@execpc.com Thank you.

The change in government philosophy in the 1980s that has been venerated by George W. Bush is frightening. Government is inefficient and bad and privatization leads to competition that is efficient and good economically (and good for education) for everyone is the dogma of too many political leaders since the 1980s. The greed and selfishness of corporate America and too many American politicians, most notably President Bush is unbelievable. Corporate welfare, tax breaks and special privilege for the rich and comfortable are on the top of the agenda for too many local, state and national politicians feeding at the corporate political campaign troughs. One hundred Billion dollars or more for a war in Iraq that may result in many thousands of innocent casualties and include American military is said to be based on a just moral right. Money and the business interests control government policy, rather than the public good. Money is too precious to waste on the working poor, and disadvantaged children for health care and education or senior citizens for Medicare and Social Security.

The business interests and too many university administrators have formed alliances that are utilizing K-12 education teachers and systems as the principle scapegoat for the social and economic problems of the United States, including the City of Milwaukee. A manufactured education crisis has been created in Milwaukee to serve the self-interests of the business community and the politicians who serve them. As the famous Editor H. L. Mencken wrote, “Politicians are forever inventing crisis so that they can be perceived to save the electorate from the invented crisis.” The media, most notably the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cooperates fully with the business interests and gleefully reports the manufactured crisis in education, particularly in the Milwaukee Public Schools, because it is in their view a good story.

The United States in the 21^st Century is the greatest nation in the history of the world and the world’s only superpower. The United States K-12 education systems (Just under 90% enrolled in public K-12 schools) and postsecondary institutions (About 78% in public universities and 2 or 4-year colleges) produce the most productive workers in the world. (The productivity of Japan and Germany workers is about 80% of the U.S.) American education systems produce the world’s finest scientists, engineers, medical doctors, business leaders, computer and technical industry developers and technicians and military personnel. Using the success of its graduates as the criteria for quality, American education systems are the finest in the world.

In articles in newspapers across the country and reported in EducationNews (April 13, 2000) the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended that four years of math be required of all students in American high schools. The four-year requirement is higher than that proposed by politicians and bureaucrats in most states but is consistent with the adoration and sanctification of mathematics commonly accepted by school reformers of many persuasions.

The 1995 book The Manufactured Crisis in Education by Berliner and Biddle exposed American school bashing as a manufactured attack on urban education and schools attended by students from families living in poverty for reasons of political and economic gain for those of means. Berliner and Biddle’s valiant attempt to alert political and educational leaders and the media about this manufactured crisis in education has been largely ignored. Incredibly, a new manufactured crisis in math and science education has been created. The accountability measures for schools and high stakes testing in math and science for “all” are harming poor students in our urban areas such as Milwaukee.

The war against public education in the United States is being callously waged, using useless high stakes standardized tests as weapons, by the Bush Administration and unscrupulous conservative foundations such as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and numerous others. And now the opponents of public education have targeted vocational education and the Perkins Act for vocational education for devastation. It is unbelievable and appalling because there is absolutely no rational reason for national high stakes academic testing for vocational or K-12 public education in the United States.

The United States in the year 2003, has settled in to a period of stagnant job growth, a stock market depression and a growth recession economy that is reflected in the economies of the entire global economy. The global stock markets continue to fall and stagnate, led by Japan, which has declined, from 30,000 in the 1980’s to the 8,000’s in 2003. There is absolutely no evidence that the bull markets of the 1990’s will ever return; the bubble has burst on stocks and jobs. Stock prices will fluctuate up and down as big time speculators make money on the fluctuating prices and other investors, large and small, lose faith in the casino royal stock market and the greed, selfishness and corruption of the corporate world and get out. Uncertainties such as the threats and costs of war just make things worse and mask the very real economic problems of the United States and the entire global economy.

I have read carefully the 26-page report (“From Large to Small” Strategies for Personalizing the High school, Adria Steinberg and Lili Allen, Jobs for the Future Boston MA 02110), and found it to be of absolutely little pragmatic value. The eight strategies described for moving from large to small and the 5 C’s for effective learning environments are useless academic rhetoric. This report is typical of too many educational research reports that I have read that have come from the university academic community over the last fifty years. But this is a report that may be the basis for a Milwaukee Public Schools proposal for millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to improve academic achievement and the MPS graduation rate by creating small schools within or independent of large schools. Large to small is just another education fad.

The word con has many meanings including, deceive, misinform, trick, bamboozle, dupe bilk and hoodwink, all of which are appropriate in describing the hype about jobs and education and the jobs of the future. The word con does not mean conspiracy. There is no conspiracy in the statements following in the next paragraph, just common everyday ignorance that are the basis for useless school reforms that include stupid standardized testing, that are harmful to K-12 students nationwide, that are used for no rational reasons.

131 Jobs & Education: The Job Crisis in Milwaukee and the United States By Dennis W. Redovich January 2003

The Employment and Training Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been surveying Milwaukee metro companies since 1993 to determine the number of jobs open for immediate hire. The latest survey in October 2002 was based on a stratified sample of the 35,723 companies listed by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce as doing business in the four county metro area of Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties. This Center report is based on the analysis of data compiled by the UWM Employment and Training Institute. A summary of the October 2002 survey results and some previous years survey results can be found at the Institute’s web site www.eti.uwm.edu.

“They’re at the starting gate. They’re off!” How can it be thoroughbred racehorses breaking from the starting gate run on a more “equal playing field” to be competitive than students taking state-mandated graduation tests and No Child Left Behind high-stakes tests? Politicians and education brain trusts need more horse sense.

An evaluation of the of the seventh annual Education Week report on public education in the 50 states, Quality Counts 2003, by the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin and the U.S. gave a grade of F or unsatisfactory to the report. Quality Counts 2002 released in January 2002 and Quality Counts 2001 released in January 2001 also was rated an F by the Center. (See Education Week’s Grading of the States Receives a Grade of F www.jobseducationwis.org report 66 and 67) The Education Week report Quality Counts is useless for comparing the quality of education by state. It is unbelievable and incredible that anyone, including the media, could take the comparisons of states for Standards and Accountability seriously.

129A Quality Counts 2003: The Teacher Gap By Dennis W. Redovich January 2002.

The January 9, 2003 Quality Counts 2003 published by Education week added a new first section entitled, “The Teacher Gap”. Quality Counts 2003 focuses on states efforts to end the "achievement gap" between minority and non-minority students and those from rich and poor families. Quality Counts writers claim that the states must first end the "teacher gap": the dearth of well-qualified teachers for high poverty, high minority and low-achieving schools that need them most. The Teacher Gap is a big nothing collection of anecdotal stories and phony academic research that is highlighted by Education Week to cover for the useless and spurious Quality Counts rating of the states report it has been publishing for seven years.

128 Milwaukee Charter Schools 2002-2003 By Dennis W. Redovich December 2002

This commentary and report is based on data from the annual analysis of Milwaukee’s Charter schools by the Public Policy Forum and from data compiled by the Center for the Study of Jobs & Education in Wisconsin. The Public Policy Forum is a Milwaukee nonpartisan public policy research organization and good government watchdog that examines issues that impact our community, state and nation. The Public Policy Forum complete report, “MPS Charter Students Outscore City, UWM”, can be seen at www.publicpolicyforum.org. All original data for this report comes from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Madison Wisconsin.

“Jobs and Education and The Big Con” is the proposed title of a book I have begun writing. The book will include an analysis of the historic relationships between jobs and education and projections of employment from 2000 to 2010 for the United States by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and projections for the State of Texas by the Texas Workforce Commission and the State of Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. The Texas and Wisconsin projections 2000-2010 will not be published until February 2003 and the book will not be completed until midyear 2003.

In the Christmas spirit, getting ready to celebrate a happy Christmas Eve with my wife and the families of our four daughters and one son, including thirteen grandchildren and number 14 on the way, I was not planning on posting a Monday piece this week. But the labeling of public schools, including the Milwaukee Public Schools, as failing and the scapegoats for Milwaukee and the nations social and economic problems continues even during this joyous time of the year. Most galling are the claims of the insatiable and self-interested business community and the universities that have ordained themselves to be the saviors of public education in Milwaukee. And the educationally disadvantaged Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sanctifies their efforts and the charge that MPS schools are failing without challenge.

The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is a scam used by politicians, the business interests and public school critics of many persuasions, from conservative to libertarian, to destroy public schools, as we know them. When economic times are good, schools are blamed for a so-called “skilled worker” shortage that hinders economic growth. When economic conditions are bad and unemployment rises schools are blamed for too many high school dropouts and not preparing students properly for post secondary education which is said be absolutely essential for a majority of jobs now and in the future. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In this secular age, many conservative thinkers who think of themselves as rational and urbane have put their faith in the idea of infallible high stakes academic testing and elimination of social promotion as piously as they put their faith in religious beliefs. It is only right and just that students, who are not able to achieve at a sacred proficient or above level, not be promoted on schedule to the 9^th grade from 8^th grade and with no exceptions, not be allowed to receive the most holy standard high school diploma.

The change in government philosophy in the 1980s that has been venerated by George W. Bush is frightening. Government is inefficient and bad and privatization leads to competition that is efficient and good economically (and good for education) for everyone is the dogma of too many political leaders since the 1980s. The greed and selfishness of corporate America and too many American politicians is unbelievable. Corporate welfare, tax breaks and special privilege for the rich and comfortable are on the top of the agenda for too many local, state and national politicians feeding at the corporate political campaign troughs in 2002. Money and the business interests control government policy, rather than the public good. Money is too precious to waste on the working poor, and disadvantaged children for health care and education or senior citizens for Medicare and Social Security.

How can supposedly intelligent and educated people (many with advanced graduate degrees, including U.S. political and education leaders at the highest levels) be so dim-witted about the teaching of mathematics, science and standardized testing? They advocate senseless high stakes testing and elimination of social promotion based on standardized testing that is destroying poor children for no rational reasons. An intellectually challenged popular media gleefully perpetuates the war, without challenge, against public education by well-funded Machiavellian organizations and political and business leaders that erroneously use K-12 public education as a scapegoat for the social and economic problems of the United States.

How can supposedly intelligent and educated people (many with advanced graduate degrees) be so stupid about the teaching of mathematics and standardized testing? The math wars are much ado about nothing. But even worse is the fact that stupid high stakes testing and elimination of social promotion based on standardized testing is destroying poor children for no rational reasons. Insane is too mild a term for the math and testing mania in the United States! An academically disadvantaged popular media gleefully perpetuates a meaningless war of irrelevant words, and a naïve public believes the nonsense rhetoric.

119 American Education and the University Mystique By Dennis W. Redovich November 2002

The biggest myth in the world in education that has been perpetuated forever is "The quality and importance of university research”. Like all myths the secret to establishing the myth and accomplishing a successful con is consistency. The learned tenured professors of the world who profit greatly by this continuing myth keep repeating over and over again the importance and necessity of their research. The naive people of the world believe it.

The hype and propaganda about the manufactured crisis in K-12 education and the need to produce more college graduates because the so-called knowledge based jobs of the future require higher education including math and science for all students and workers has been continual since the 1960s. The terminology may change, information based and high tech jobs are now knowledge-based jobs in a knowledge based global economy. Nothing could be further from reality.

The big lie in Milwaukee espoused by Howard Fuller, the champion of school vouchers, is that the Milwaukee Public Schools are a failing public school system. Nothing could be further from the truth. This big lie has been reiterated for more than ten years and in 2002 national, state and local media repeat this lie in print and TV without any challenge. The callous repetition of this statement in media reports of the U.S. Supreme Court Cleveland school voucher decision is the inspiration for this commentary report.

Jay P. Greene and many others who are well funded by conservative think tanks such as the Manhattan Institute expound the fundamental beliefs of school choice zealots: (1) Choice schools create competition with the public schools and as a consequence, prods school reform. (2) School reform is responsible for any improvement in academic achievement (3) Public schools that improve in academic achievement create reforms solely because of competitive forces and (4) Schools designated as choice or charter schools inevitably are superior to ordinary public schools. There is absolutely no evidence that these beliefs have any truth in fact. Like a big lie, these unproven beliefs have been repeated for the last ten years in Milwaukee

The State of Wisconsin in FY2002 is projected to spend at least $59.7 million on 107 approved City of Milwaukee Choice schools, 45% of this amount ($26.9 million) will come from state aids deducted from the Milwaukee Public Schools state aid and the rest ($32.8 million) will come from the state general fund. In September 2001 the total headcount enrollment of 101 schools with enrolled students was 10,739 up 1,101 from 9,638 in September 2000. The State of Wisconsin has allocated $5,553 per full time Choice student for the 2001-2002 school year. What is the rationale for funding 6,575 (61.2%) of choice students in 65 religious schools and 4,164 (38.8%) in 36 private schools (that may teach sectarian beliefs) without any evaluation of the curriculums or academic achievement of the students attending these schools?

Author WHAT HAPPENED TO RECESS AND WHY ARE OUR CHILDREN STRUGGLING IN KINDERGARTEN Interviewer Dennis W. Redovich August 2002

The inspiration for this commentary and report is my annual analysis since 1994-95 of the State of Wisconsin 3^rd Grade Comprehensive Reading Test results for the Milwaukee Public Schools. In 2000-01 and 2001-02 MPS student reading skills can be compared to 3rd grade students in private Milwaukee Charter schools sponsored by the City of Milwaukee and Charter schools operated by the for-profit Edison Schools sponsored by the education experts from the UW-Milwaukee. My findings are that MPS schools continue to do an exemplary job of teaching reading in the 3^rd grade and that Charter schools need to improve significantly in order to reach the reading proficiency levels of average MPS schools

100 Faith Based and Private Education in Milwaukee: Hype and Hypocrisy By Dennis W. Redovich July 2002

On July 2, 2002 President George W. Bush triumphantly visited the four schools of the Holy Redeemer church education complex at 35^th and Hampton in Milwaukee celebrating with unnamed local, and state politicians at the highest levels (Former Gov. Thompson without identification was shown on a front page holy picture of President Bush chatting with Holy Redeemers Bishop Sedgwick Daniels). The several hundred participants were all were celebrating the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling backing the constitutionality of school vouchers. It was an unbelievable example of hype and hypocrisy by politicians at the highest levels of so-called big government.

This commentary, with the same title, was originally written in June 2000. Private health care in the United States is still a national disgrace in June 2002 because health care costs are increasing rapidly and large numbers of employers and lower income workers are not able to afford adequate health insurance and therefore health services. A real national crisis in health care is being created. At the same time there is a war being waged against public education, as we know it. It is a paradox that the privatization models of the health care industry and the newly private prison systems are the business interests solution for the manufactured crisis in public education.

86 Interview with Gerald W. Bracey

Author The War Against America’s Public Schools Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education, Interviewer Dennis W. Redovich, April 2002

85 Choice in American Education By Dennis W. Redovich March 2002

What is the purpose of American public education? Historically it appears that three major purposes have emerged: 1) Prepare people to live in a civilized society and perform the daily tasks necessary to survive. 2) Prepare individuals for work and 3) Prepare students for higher education. In the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program low income parents choose Choice schools for two major reasons 1) Religious instruction and 2) Four year and five year old Kindergarten. (see www.jobseducationwis.org 57 Choice Schools in Milwaukee 2001-2002)

84 The Ultimate Hype: Universities High-Tech Jobs and the New Economy By Dennis W. Redovich March 2001 Revised March 2002

83 2000 Wisconsin Economic Summit White Paper The Wisconsin Economy, University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College Graduates and the Jobs of the Future By Dennis W. Redovich November 2000

I have recently read one of the most absurd articles I have ever encountered in my 47 years as an educator, “How did we get a federal curriculum?” by Phyllis Schlafly. I have read numerous senseless Schlafly quotes in the media over the years that severely criticize K-12 public education curriculum because she believed they were offensive to her personal conservative and/or religious beliefs. Phyllis Schlafly, without any rational evidence, continues to argue that “government” controlled by left-wing professors and teacher unions is absolutely dictating curriculum for public schools. Hypocritically, she attempts to dictate a total public education curriculum that is 100% consistent with conservative political opinion and religious beliefs on the local, state and national level.

The use of schools and workers as scapegoats for our nations social and economic problems is a big con. Schools have been bashed by politicians, the business interests and learned elite forever. Bashing schools is a worldwide phenomenon and is not confined to Texas. Texas just likes to do things big time. The con has been conceived by too many people, including educators and public officials feeding at the trough and is gleefully perpetuated without question by an academically challenged media.

59. A Hoxby Hoax: Review of Caroline Minter Hoxby’s Rising Tide By Dennis W. Redovich December 2001

I previously read in April 2001 Prof. Hoxby’s SCHOOL CHOICE AND SCHOOL PRODUCTIVITY ” (OR, COULD SCHOOL CHOICE BE A TIDE THAT LIFTS ALL BOATS?) National Bureau of Economic Research Inc., Cambridge MA. (76 pages) This paper was discussed at a CONFERENCE ON THE ECONOMICS OF SCHOOL CHOICE February 22- 24 2001, Cheeca Lodge Islamorada FL. The eight-page published article Rising Tide is a summary of the Florida conference paper.