Bronson's Choice: Jump Off a Cliff or Get Pushed Off

When ignorant people like Peter Bronson write about public eduction I get a very large twinge in my right temple from the wasted time I spent reading his columns. Yes, I get that every time I read one of his columns, but lets skip the red herring for today.

Bronson goes on and on about CPS. He does seem to understand how they can't turn a profit. Well, lets state the obvious first, the government is not in the profit business. I won't go worry about the anti-government insanity right now, and instead talk about the false choice Bronson is putting forth.

As many Conservatives do, Bronson likes to look at market competition and claim that it works. Well, it works when everyone has more than a choice of execution. The problem with Bronson's desire to create a market based education system is that he forgets about the law. He forgets that it is the law that every student age 5 to 16 is guaranteed the ability to go to school. In Bronson's world of privately run schools or charter schools he hides a small fact, those schools can turn kids away. How many privately run schools, religious schools, and charter schools are taking in special education children? Where do the behavioral problem students end up?

In Bronson's world the schools he champions can avoid all of the special needs students and stick with the rich or cheap kids and look like they are brilliant, when really they are just manipulators.

Education is a right. Public education is the way to make that right a reality and funding public schools is how this is done. Gimmicks don't work. Walling in the poor within the inner city schools doesn't do anything but make the poor-phobic feel "safer" in the suburban white schools. Cherry picking the smart inner city kids might make Bronson sleep better at night, but it doesn't provide speech therapy or wheel chair ramps to the inner city kid who doesn't get good grades.

Public Education has worked dating back before the Revolutionary War. Why not work on public education policies, instead of working to dismantle it?

Monzel Under Attack

Who is spending their time forging letters in an attempt to discredit Chris Monzel's campaign for Council? I can understand why someone would want to disparage Monzel's voting record, but who would be stupid enough to think that the addressees wouldn't find out that 3 well known local Republicans didn't send the letters in question? If you are going to try an amateur dirty trick, you might want to try something that isn't possible fraud and isn't that transparent.

Fiscal Five Fizzled

For all the belly aching they did, the Fiscal Five's efforts were less than stellar in the end when they couldn't defeat the Tarbell arts funding plan. Cole wasn't even there for the vote. When grandstanding take the place of real political effort and consideration, nothing comes out of their efforts. We are all better off because the Fiscal Five monolith is hollow.

Angry At Commerical Radio

With the firing of Richard Skinner and the dismantling of quality local sports talk radio, we have yet another sign in a litany of signs that local commercial radio is a nearly dead entity. Radio appears to be headed in a bizarre direction. I think locally, the public radio stations are doing well, at least on the outside looking in. So much of radio is soulless drivel. In the long run, I don't know how it will survive as a local media.

UPDATE: I changed the post for a serious case of sports-talk dyslexia.

Bridge Climb Falls

The Purple People Bridge Climb has ceased operations. It was an interesting idea. I think it had too many legal hold-ups that resulted in this downfall.

Walnut Hills High School 34th Best in the Nation

The Jewel of CPS has been ranked 34th best public school in the USA. That was up 31 spots from the prior year.

CAC Relaunches Their Website

The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center has redesigned their website: www.contemporaryartscenter.org.

VIA the CincinnatiArts.com Blog