Mumia Abu-jamal's Radio Essays

The Law That Promotes Punishment (Instead of Education) [col. writ. 10/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal It's been 5 years since the No Child Left Behind law was put into place, and around the nation, it has left wreckage in its wake. That's because, like many such laws pushed by the paranoid right wind, what a law is called has little (or nothing) to do with what a law does. Calling it No Child Left Behind gave it the benign imagery of caring for children and their futures. It's like the so-called Patriot Act -- an act, to be sure, but one so patently unconstitutional in its evisceration of the 4th Amendment (and other constitutional provisions) that no true patriot could ever support it. While the imagery of a catchy title might've helped in it's selling, the lesser known side of the law is now about to kick in -- and it threatens to transform public schools into private businesses, transfer them into charter schools, allow state takeovers -- or close them. This law is of a piece from the rig