The Education Serfs Are Revolting... Democracy is Coming, to the U.S.A.

Should be an exciting week for education activists. The Test Revolt in New York goes into its second week, with more students and families opting out every day; a new Test Revolt may start in New Jersey, where state tests are yet to be administered, and a student walkout against School Closings and Testing will be taking place on Wednesday in Chicago.

Finally, after 12 years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, where top down reform of education, featuring national standards for testing and accountability, has turned teachers, parents and students into Education Serfs, with little or no control over  what is happening in the nation's classrooms, the Serfs are revolting. Soon, the test makers, the plutocrats, and the politicians who serve them will find that children and teachers are no longer clay in their hands to be molded at will, that they have the power to demand their voices be heard,  their rights be respected, and that atmosphere of classrooms should be built around nurturing thinkers, dreamers, creators and  citizens, not  a compliant labor force for the nation's big corporations.

What we are seeing unfold before us is a popular uprising of massive proportions, crossing lines of ideology and political party, demanding that schools be returned to the people and communities they serve, not controlled by the powerful for profit and personal gain.

Watch out School Reformers!  To quote Leonard Cohen "Democracy is Coming- to the U.S.A."