  Monday, November 29, 2010  Will Citizens of All Political
Stripes Coalesce Against the Billionaire Boys' Club?  For many
Democrats and Republicans (at least the ones that Diane Ravitch
likes to remember), the intrusion of the federal government into
state and local education issues has been an acceptable burden
to bear, since it was only the Federal government that could
guarantee the enforcement of civil rights laws.  In fact, ESEA
was enacted in 1965 as the carrot for Southern states to enforce
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which the apartheid South
considered a big stick.  Now, the federal government under the
direction of the modern day efficiency experts of the corporate
foundations, incentivizes states to create segregative charter
schools and ignores the goals of integrated and democratic
living as a primary purpose of the public schools.  In short,
there is no longer any reason for democrats to support federal
intervention in education.   The question, then, goes to
Republicans, and it is asked toda