Thornton Revisited? by George W. Liebmann Baltimore Sun, July 6, 2016 A Commission under the chairmanship of former University of Maryland Chancellor William Kirwan has been studying the ‘adequacy’ of financing of Maryland’s K-12 education system. Creation of the commission was provided for in 2002 ; it is carefully composed of only two designees […]
K-12 Public Education Reform: A 19-Point Check List, The American Conservative, May 11, 2017 by George W. Liebmann The last forty years of controversy over education reform has largely involved argument from fixed positions. Reformers have aimed at the heart of teacher-union power by seeking to establish charter schools and voucher programs and by attempts […]
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-populist-agenda-eleven-suggestions/ A Populist Agenda? Eleven Suggestions by George W. Liebmann President Trump’s victory has been ascribed to a recognition on his part, and that of Steven Bannon, that identity politics was a game that any number can play. Alternatively, it has been ascribed to their recognition of three social deficits: 1) trade-induced unemployment, especially […]
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-deplorables-defense-20160914-story.html
Gleichschaltung–American Style by George W. Liebmann Gleiichschaltung was the process by which the new Nazi regime in Germany subordinated to itself every independent organism in the German state–the Prussian police (1932, under the Papen government), the political parties, federal states, labor unions, universities and Protestant churches (1933), the Army (1934). The underlying purpose was set […]
1920 Revisited? by George W. Liebmann Many Americans are bemused by the success of a candidate who has mastered the fascist speaking techniques described by the sociologist David Riesman in 1942: “The violence and daring of the verbal onslaughts exercise a great appeal over the imagination of lower middle-class folk who live insipid and anxious […]
The Court and the Candidates by George W. Liebmann How did we wind up with two presidential candidates who evoke widespread if not universal contempt? A surprising number of the root causes can be laid at the door of the Supreme Court.. The crux of its influence on American culture is found in the so-called […]
Baltimore’s Problems–And the Nation’s by George W. Liebmann According to the President and the media, the disturbances here are the product of gratuitous police brutality, the elimination of which is “the great civil rights cause of our generation.” This agenda is one with which the civil rights establishment is comfortable. But, as Arthur Schlesinger pointed […]
To the Editor: Sarah Love contends (“No Private School Funding,” April 9) that “publkic schools take all comers.” When it comes to faculty, a recent Calvert Institute study shows that our public schools exclude 90% of qualified scientists and liberal arts graduates from the teaching force, by requiring 27 credit hours of ‘,methods’ courses. […]
Time for ‘Bottom-Up’ Education Reform by George W. Liebmann The renewed clamor for postponement of ‘common core’ testing provides further evidence of the failure of ‘top-down’ reform in Maryland public schools. Who can forget MSPAP, the State Board’s high stakes tests for graduation, and the procrastination in fulfilling the ‘Race to the Top’ promise that […]