"Wacky" aproaches to state education reform make Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer uneasy.
The editorial writer sees "signs that the educational ground is shifting in Michigan, that major change is headed our way."
Those changes may be driven by folks who we are not entirely sure have students’ best interest at heart.
Kaffer cites Gov. Rick Snyder's focus on job preparation, a House debate over whether to ease graduation requirements and a House vote last Wednesday against core curriculum mandates adopted elsewhere.
Snyder has tacitly approved of, or outright endorsed, some pretty significant efforts to reshape Michigan’s public education system. And it’s not at all clear that any of these reforms will improve educational outcomes for most kids in the state — which should really be the goal of any education reform.
Rather, many of the reforms developed on Snyder’s watch seem to be driven by the ideological belief that applying free-market principles to the education system will result in better outcomes
While acknowledging that "there’s nothing wrong with the idea that an education, particularly a college education, . . . should yield material success," the opinion writer adds:
The idea that the value of education can be measured in material success is kind of missing the point.
Kaffer, a 1998 graduate of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., embraces "the idea that a well-rounded, well-educated person who can think is a person who is equipped to be a productive member of society, whether in material or intellectual terms."
