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President Obama yesterday gave a major speech on deficit reduction in which he lambasted the GOP proposal to cut spending. The speech came days after members of Congress had agreed in principle to a federal budget for fiscal year 2011-2012. The draft of the federal budget includes significant cuts to education funding. In addition to restricting Pell Grant awardees to only one such grant a year, $20 million in funding was cut from the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants. Both types of grants are geared toward helping low-income students pay for college. The bill, which is expected to be signed this week, also cut $23 million from AmeriCorps, which helps to fund the national Teach for America program. Across the board, cuts in education at the federal level, and at the state level are ensuring that already under funded school systems have to lay off teachers and reduce assistance to poor students. Combined with the political assault at the state and city level on teachers unions, and you have a nation where the right to a quality education seems to be a thing of the past. But this trend is part of a long-term one that began with a over-reliance of standardized testing, the imposition of charter schools, and a demonization of teachers. It was continued by President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Policy and, more recently, President Obama’s Race to the Top Initiative. According to journalist and author Chris Hedges, “A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind.”

GUEST: Chris Hedges, regular columnist for Truthdig.com. He was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

Read Chris Hedges’ article here: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410/