In New Zealand a few months ago, David Hursh, a professor of education at the University of Rochester, talked to a group about the privatization movement in public education in the US. He told a long and depressing story, for those who have enough courage to listen.
“I find it amazing that I’ve come to the point of saying that public education in New York may be ending,” he said. “I also want to make clear that I’m not saying education will not be publicly paid for. Rather, taxpayers will fund schools that will be run by private corporations.”
The current reform agenda, he said, consists of the following:
- Assessing students, teachers, and schools through standardized tests based on national standards developed almost entirely without the participation of teachers
- Shifting education policy away from the school and community level to the state and national levels, where the government, corporations, and philanthropies will make decisions without input from or accountability to the public
- Creating publicly funded but privately operated charter schools that siphon the most able students and funding from the public schools
“The public schools will be increasingly burdened with educating students the charter schools do not want—those who live in poverty or have disabilities, placing the remaining public schools in a downward spiral, with a higher percentage of students requiring more services with decreased funding.”
Editorial
Before I started any website at all, I editorialized that the only thing that really matters in education is what happens between teachers and students in our schools. Education happens at the teacher-student interface, I argued, and what happens in Washington, Springfield, Annapolis, or even a principal’s office couldn’t hold a candle to what happens in a classroom.
It turns out, I was dead wrong, and I’m sorry about that.
Today, what happens in Washington matters most of all, but in my defense, I had no idea what No Child Left Behind and the standardized tests it brought—some of the worst tests kids have ever taken in the history of schools—could do.
But the shift away from the teacher-student interface and toward the government-corporation interface has happened. Academics like Mr Hursh complain, warn, and fly red flags from the decks of their ships, but the smart people—those attending public schools, in our cities now but in the suburbs soon—are desperate to find alternatives.
Public schools are on life support and may have already died in cities like Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago. Smart families leave, of course, exacerbating the situation, and mayors and superintendents are quick to take steps to put neighborhood public schools out of their misery.
Oh, and about the kids—well—all I know is, they’re far away from the thoughts of anyone in Washington or in corporate boardrooms.
I miss the days when my biggest worry, in terms of interference with education, was what was happening in the principal’s office. Now I seem to be answering to philanthropists and captains of industry. Just a few more steps before absolute plutocracy sets in.