As expected, many are outraged by the Klein-Bloomberg plan to make kindergarten kids take a 90 minute test. Here's one opinion piece in the New York Times from Monday Sept. 1. The additional comments make interesting reading too.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/09/01/2008-09-01_mayors_plan_fails_our_kids.html

I'm all for teachers getting more money but I'd also like to know how well my son is being taught. I don't know what the American model is but if it give parents power to make informed decisions, I'm all for it. It seems like educational institutions look first and foremost to their survival, even if according to all social and economic indices (such as demand) their survival is not warranted. Put parents in the centre of the picture.

Cheryl,

If you really want to know how well your children are doing you need to look inside the school. If you are asked politely what you are doing wandering around the school then politely escorted to where you want to go - that's a start. How do the kids play in the playground? are the different age cohorts seperated? Walk into a class, can an adult hear themselves think? can the teacher explain new material in silence? how effectively can the teacher control the class? are there rumours of drug taking? are there stories of fights?

These are not measures of individual teacher performance rather of whole school performance.

My nieces went to a secondary school with a very good academic record, trouble was my nieces played dumb princess and were told to study terminal maths, they changed schools and got HECS places in Melbourne University Arts. Their first high school has large numbers of girls from Malaysia entering at Year 10 and Year 11 level.

The logical conclusion of New York City style report cards is that non-performing state schools will close and private schools will open using the same facilities. Personally I am not a fan of small government and charter schools but if Rudd wants to pursue it then I say get rid of state governments because education is one of their major responsibilities. It's a pity Rudd kept the old Howard advisors because I voted to get rid of Howard and his mean spirited government.

Bloomberg's micro-management of education - like his imperious meddling in Kalifornia with steroid man/Hitler admirer Arnie - just proves the colossal greed and egos of multi-billionaires. Like so many other oligarchs now, Bloomberg sees boundless political opportunities to spread his power; education is just one of these, and this current exercise proves that he does not regard the US sector as some limit either.

Klein is, by his own admission, completely without qualification in the field; he regards that as some special, more objective, quality to justify his involvement in policy, or perhaps in a more conceited way he sees it as proof of just how smart he must be to be dabbling in something so far removed from his experience.

The situation with the above two would confirm just how truly feudal the system has now become. The prospect of state school closures seems part of a self-fulfilling prophecy when privatizers hover like vultures - just ask Bloomberg and his mate Schwarzenegger.

How is it possible to measure peformance in schools where there is wide variation in demographics, migrant populations and other socio-economic factors. How would you compare the results of a school in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney to one in the outer West? A teacher who gained brilliant results in one school may find after transferrig to another school a less brilliant result. Has the teacher's competency suddenly changed overnight? Of course not!

Are schools going to be overly focussed on mainpulating performance indicators than on teaching?

The idea that we 'punish' schools who underachieve by giving them less money with the expectation that they should do 'more' is astonishing.

As a parent I knew how well my school was doing by seeing what my children bought home and by being involved with the school. Yes there were some problem teachers (some who could not string a sentence together) but mostly the teachers were wonderful, committed and literate.

What about supporting educators and education more by:

1. Increasing the budgets for extra assistance for children with special needs including gifted children;
2. Making classroom sizes smaller;
3. Encouraging high achievers into teaching by offering larger salaries rather than losing them to other disciplines; and
4. Increasing the University Admissions Index for teaching to ensure quality candidates.

This new 'education revolution' reeks more of being seen to be doing something rather than actually doing what is needed.

Well there you have it, pelican.

There were clearly much fairer, more merit-based and generally higher-achieving education systems in the old (still-maligned) Yugoslavia, Warsaw Pact Czechoslavakia, East Germany, Hungary and much of the Soviet Union. End the Cold War and you end the incentive to make the west a fairer place; in other words, that ended real and meaningful "competition" from the perspective of those who work for a living.

The feudalization of education here merely follows what is happening throughout the rest of this corrupt network of countries that claim the mantle of "western civilization". Thus ensues a looting process, as more and more public money is spent to fund:

- massive bail-outs of banks and hedge funds (now well exceeding a trillion USD)
- various band-aid works for infrastructure that is already either fully privatized, or virtually so (PPP), and thereby long neglected
- subsidies and bonuses to snob schools and unis
- similar incentives and perks to speculators and others who buy into the debt-based and monetarist feudal paradigms and myths

... and so on

The effect of Bloomberg-style initiatives would be more profound, but a logical continuation of trends to date. Performing such brutal actions on the education system would accustom younger generations and recent migrants to the many inequities, injustices and lies which leading oligarchs intend to normalize.