No, public schools are not modeled after factories. Here’s why Betsy DeVos keeps saying they are.
Valerie Strauss
(The New Press)
For years we’ve heard Democrats such as Arne Duncan, education secretary under President Barack Obama, and Republicans such as Betsy DeVos, education secretary under President Trump, slam America’s public schools as being built on a “factory model” that deprives students of their individuality and churns them out like widgets.
Here’s the excerpt, which I have been given permission to publish.
The Factory Model
Pulling apart a public institution long central to American communities can be a hard sell, especially when accompanied by talk of budget cuts, school closures, and teacher layoffs. In response to public opposition, free-market advocates have made a strategic shift. They have presented their work as a quest not to unmake public schools, but to “personalize” them.