Conservative think tank targets SLCs

After years of supporting multi-billion-dollar Bush administration boondoggles like the scandal-ridden $4 billion Reading First Program, Fordham Foundation’s Mike Petrilli touts Bush’s hit list of programs he wants to cut from the new administration's DOE’s budget.

High on Petrilli list is the Smaller Learning Communities initiative that was launched during the Clinton years. The Republicans have tried unsuccessfully for years to shift spending away from SLCs, which offer the best alternative to top-down reform, to support for private schools and privately-managed charter schools and vouchers. This, despite resistance from educators and parents in large, overcrowded and dangerous high schools.

Among the other programs Petrilli wants cut are just about any and all relating to the arts, social justice, equity and multi-cultural education.

Thanks to Monty Neill for sending us the latest evidence of the complete failure of Petrilli’s pet program, Reading First, (“'Reading First' is a costly failure”).