The Attack on Public Education & the “Fight Back”: Bill Ayers, 1 of 2 We face an astonishing moment in schools. Public schools are under attack in ways unthinkable. Standardized testing lowers our imaginative horizons, and perhaps fatally. The New Yorker ran a puff piece about Arne Duncan, which was revealing, and the author argues two positions in ed reform. One is the radical reformer who says, crush the unions, use market based solutions. The other pole was those who defend the status quo without question (all teacher colleges are great, etc.). We are sure to be defeated, if we let them frame the issue that way. Framing is everything. Why are we not framing the issues? The thunder from above tells us what the horizons of the imagination can be.

The Attack on Public Education & the “Fight Back”: Bill Ayers, 2 of 2 People use the word ‘accountability,” but we don’t examine the word. Accountability to whom? And for what? When they use the word they mean a simple standardized test that works as an autopsy, as much as a diagnostic.
Standardized tests merely test class background. The clear indication is the education and income of your parents. That’s what it is testing—kids’ access to culture. Test questions are biased culturally.
You must push leaders to change. Lyndon Johnson was never part of the black freedom movement. He was a cracker from Texas. He did the right thing only because of pressure from the ground. President Lincoln was pressured by activists. By nature, politicians preserve the status quo. By nature, an agitator pushes against the status quo.