Robert Reich on What Needs to Happen in Public Education

MoveOn.org is looking for the 10 best ideas to save the economy.  One comes from former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, who says Reinvent Education.

In the Big Picture, much of our education system was built to mirror the assembly lines that powered the American economy for the last century, not cultivate the critical thinking skills needed today. And cuts to higher education funding have led to skyrocketing tuition, leading to a student debt crisis. We must:

  • Make public higher education completely free, as it was in many states in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Stop the wall-to-wall testing that is destroying the love of teaching and learning, limit classrooms to 20 children so teachers can give students the individual attention they need, expand federal funding for education, and raise the pay and improve conditions for the men and women who power our schools.
  • Provide high-quality, universal pre-school and after-school care.
  • Offer high school seniors the option of a year of technical education, followed by two years of free technical education at a community college.

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