The Privatization Scam Charters a Course for Disaster 0

A confluence of cons runs out of steam.

As much as my day-to-life is steeped in tech and as much I love making computers do stuff, I have, from the beginning, considered the idea of cyber-schools to be too stupid for words, a pipe dream of those enamored by electrons and exploited by those enamored of new sources of vigorish. They might have some use in areas where the population is too dispersed for regular schools, but the idea that they are some sort of magickal mystickal tool to remake education is hooey of the highest order.

If you want to school people, you need people in a school.

Kids (and adults) have a hard enough time learning in real schools with real teachers doing real things. The idea that turning real schools into “cyber-schools,” further removing students from teachers by interposing a layer of electrons, would somehow make learning easier and more effective while making teaching cheaper was mug’s dream from the start, embraced by those deluded by the cool graphics on their screens and promoted by con artists rapacious for new marks.

(Ask me nicely; I’ll tell you what I really think.)