First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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1. Why, as we have studied many times in the past, does the U.S. rank DEAD LAST among industrialized nations in terms of virtually every measure of civilization (e.g., infant mortality, literacy, life expectancy, upward mobility, etc., etc.)?

2. Who said “The poor you will always have with you”? Was He right?

3. What statistics does Prof. Diane Ravitch cite for the size of America’s Permanent Under-Caste?

4. Do other industrialized countries have Permanent Under-Castes of their own?

5. How did America create its Permanent Under-Caste?

6. Given the size of America’s Permanent Under-Caste and the fact that other industrialized countries have NOT created Permanent Under-Castes of their own, is there any mystery why the U.S. ranks DEAD LAST among industrialized nations in terms of virtually every measure of civilization (e.g., infant mortality, literacy, life expectancy, upward mobility, etc., etc.)?

7. What is the Snake Oil claim which is NEVER accompanied by any proof and which is made by the purveyors of the school-privatization movement (such as vouchers and school choice) regarding the comparative effectiveness of charter schools vs. public schools?

8. What is the TRUTH about this Snake Oil claim by the only two definitive studies, one of which was even funded, to their embarrassment based on the results, by the mega-foundations that have been purveying school privatization -- as reported by Prof. Ravitch in “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education” which was the focus of our 9/12/2012 meeting?

9. What is the Snake Oil claim which is NEVER accompanied by any proof and which is made by the purveyors of the school-privatization movement (such as vouchers and school choice) regarding whether America’s public schools are “broken” and “failing”?

10. What is the TRUTH about this Snake Oil claim according to the only available data capable of evaluating such claims –- as reported by Prof. Ravitch in "Reign of Error, the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to American Public Schools" which is the focus for our 6/17/2015 meeting?

11. Why do the purveyors of the school-privatization movement insist that the SINGLE-DIGIT graduation rates for our inner-city high schools are an EDUCATION problem rather than a SOCIOLOGY problem and that their school-privatization proposals (such as vouchers and school choice) make any more sense than closing a police precinct in whose jurisdiction a crime is committed and hiring amateurs in their place?

12. Now that America’s unique Permanent Under-Caste has caused it to rank DEAD LAST in terms of virtually every measure of civilization, will the purveyors of the school-privatization movement (such as vouchers and school choice) succeed in sending America back to The Stone Age?

13. Will their success in sending America back to The Stone Age be based on the principle that if falsehoods are repeated often enough, they are accepted as truth?