When did parents and teachers become enemies of education?

Steve Norton:

The evidence is piling up that the Snyder administration was closely involved in the effort to construct an alternative "education" system whose top priority is to minimize public school costs, not improve education. According to emails obtained by the Detroit News, top advisers to Gov. Rick Snyder helped put the so-called "skunk works" group together or approved of its creation as early as September 2012.

From the parent perspective, one of the most disturbing discoveries was a statement by Gov. Snyder's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore. "Frankly, there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing the education community in a fratz," Muchmore wrote not long after the "skunk works" story first broke.

Thousands of parents, educators, and other concerned citizens who care about quality public education expressed their outrage at the secrecy and narrow vision of the "skunk works" project. Since when did we become the enemy? What kind of distorted lens must members of the Snyder administration be using that they see in concerned parents an opponent to be overcome rather than a constituency to be heard?

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 13, 2013 2:30 AM
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