"I suppose you have them lecturing by speaker phone," I said sarcastically.
"Even better. They create the lessons, have some teenage videohead record them, and the students can see it on their own computers. Distance Education and Technology is where it's at. Besides, it's cheaper than paying live people who demand a lunch break after five classes, and call off sick just because they broke a hip or some other useless joint."
"If you're dumping courses, downsizing and outsourcing, how are you going to improve the scores?"
"Not a problem," Marshbaum said, explaining that the state has specific questions to which the students must know the answers. "We just make sure we drill the students on what they'll be tested upon."
"That's not education, that's teaching to the test. Your students may get high scores, but they probably won't get much knowledge."
"So where's the problem?"
And with that, Marshbaum grabbed his backpack and went out to recruit more voucher-laden students.
[Walter Brasch spent 30 years as a university professor of mass communications, while continuing his work as a journalist. Now retired from teaching, he continues as a journalist/columnist. His latest of 17 books is the critically-acclaimed novel, Before the First Snow, which looks at critical social issues through the eyes of a '60s self-described "hippie chick" teacher who is still protesting war, attacks upon the environment, due process issues, and fighting for the rights of all citizens to have adequate health care.]
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