If the Problem Is Child Poverty- Union Busting and Common Core Aligned Tests are the Wrong Response

As someone who has spent the last 45 years working with Bronx schools and community organizations, it utterly astonishes me that Hedge fund managers, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and Hollywood celebrities seem to think that undermining teachers unions, funding charter schools and deluging schools with Common Core aligned tests are the answer to rising child poverty:

Especially since I have yet to hear them say a peep about

1. The children in Bronx schools who start crying Friday afternoon because they are afraid they won't eat over the weekend

2. The tens ( and possibly hundreds) of thousands of children in the Bronx sleeping on couches or doubled up in beds because many families in the borough can't afford their own apartments.

3. The rampant child obesity problems in the Bronx because there are few places to shop for healthy food and because recess, physical education and after school programs have been transformed into test prep.

4, The fear that Bronx teenagers, especially young men, have of being "stopped and frisked" whenever they are walking the streets.

Forgive me for being cynical. but their version of School Reform seems much more like a diversion than a realistic confrontation with the problem of Child Poverty.