The Opinion Pages

Editorials

Editorial: Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

By Becky O'Malley
Friday December 21, 2007
The current issue is one that readers will either love or hate. Much of it has been written by readers themselves, and not everyone thinks that’s a good idea. -more-

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Friday December 21, 2007

Reader Commentaries

Commentary: The Planet and Democracy

By Ben H. Bagdikian
Friday December 21, 2007
I speak here not about Planet Earth, though god knows we need to protect it from the Strangeloves in Washington who don’t mind pulmonary disease from truck exhausts and lost shorelines from rising sea levels. I’m referring to the Berkeley Daily Planet because democracy in the United States requires something that is provided by papers like the Planet. -more-

Commentary: The Drive to Oust the Middle Class from Inner City Public Schools

By Margot Pepper
Friday December 21, 2007
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law in 2001 by President George Bush, backed by both Democrats and Republicans. The backbone of the program, allegedly designed to hold schools accountable for academic failure, is standardized state testing for students and educators. Rather than improve public education, however, there is now ample evidence that NCLB testing is part of a systematic effort to privatize diverse urban public schools in the United States. The objectives of privatization have been threefold: first, to divert taxpayer money from the public sector to the corporate sector; second, to capture part of the market, which would otherwise be receiving free education; and third, to drive out middle class accountability, leaving behind a disposable population that won’t have a voice about the inappropriate use of their tax dollars, nor the bleak outlook on their futures. -more-