According to the latest reports, the emergency manager in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, proposes to kill off public education and replace the public schools with charter schools. The reason for this is that Muskegon Heights has a debt of $12 million. So the emergency manager figures that it is best to replace all the public schools with privately managed schools.
This looks like bankruptcy. After the public schools are closed, the new charters will have private management.
Now, if you accept the fact that the overwhelming majority of studies show that charter schools do not provide better education or even better test scores than public schools, then it is inescapable that this move has nothing to do with the best interests of the children.
If you accept the fact that the debt remains and must be paid by the taxpayers of Muskegon Heights.
Then what exactly is the reason for closing down public education in Muskegon Heights?
Is it about abrogating the contracts of unionized workers and making them all at-will? How will that save millions of dollars?
Can anyone explain?
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is unrelated to the post.
As a citizen of Memphis, I’m gravely concerned about the city’s (and the state’s) direction of education policy. Leaders are praising New Orleans and changing laws to become more like the poor city. The laws on charter schools were loosened to include anyone http://bit.ly/K8foVv . The Achievement School District (ASD) is a state-run organization headed by Chris Barbic http://bit.ly/K8fSuP . The ASD will take over, or oversee the takeover by charters like these http://bit.ly/K8gi4k , the bottom 5% of schools across the state (a super-majority of which are in Memphis). Their stated goal is to turn them into top 25% performing schools. This will not happen unless there is a lot of dumping, attrition, teaching to the test, cheating, etc. The state-run schools seek to employ Teach For America corpsmen because they have been “proven” to make the best gains.
I say this partly in the hope that you will focus more on Tennessee, one of if not THE center of education “reform” efforts. But the main reason is Shelby County (Memphis) is merging to become one district. The commission advising the merger is not likely to recommend hiring either of the current superintendents http://bit.ly/KXI2of . Kriner Cash, of Memphis City Schools, is the one who sparked all these reform efforts and sought Gates Foundation money which led to Tennessee becoming the first state winning Race to the Top. His teachers do not respect him and the suburban county residents are threatening to create municipal school districts partly because of his administration. John Aitken, of Shelby County Schools, heads a much less poverty-striken http://bit.ly/KXI2of , and thus more successful suburban district. The “fiscally responsible” citizens of the county allowed his contract to be extended 2 years past the merger date, so if he is not retained as superintendent of unified district the county will have to pay him $400,000.
My question to you is: Do you know any great candidates for the job?
The Boston Consulting Group is advising the Transition Planning Commission on the selection of the new superintendent http://bit.ly/KXJAON . The only way to influence the school board is with teachers providing alternatives.
One error in the post above. Wrong link. It should be:
“The commission advising the merger is not likely to recommend hiring either of the current superintendents” http://bit.ly/K8ewjG
When democratically elected mayors lose their jobs, and are replaced with emergency managers, you can no longer call your city democratically-run. Taking over neighborhood schools, and turning them into privately-run charters is basically a corporate coup d’etat.
This is what authoritarianism looks like.
Michigen has been experiencing an anti democratic pro business coup d’etat since it went into “emergency” , when the governor has the ability to replace any elected officials with an un elected unaccountable corporate style manager. The explanation is quite simple and was laid in full by Naomi Klein in her excellent book ‘The Sock Doctrine’ where she describes the the path of ‘disaster capitalism’ as envisioned by the father of neoconservative economy Milton Friedman.
The first stage of any corporate take over is a disaster which creates a state of shock among people. This is by neo conservative ideology the window in which unpopular damaging policies can be implemented with little or no popular backlash. Klein quotes Friedman saying: “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produce real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depends on the ideas that are lying around” (from ‘Capitalism and freedom’). In more recent times corporations have created the disaster – economical social and educational – and are here hand in hand with crony politicians to save us from that disaster. Furthermore, as Friedman pointed out, the disaster does not have to be real but just perceived. Obama and local governments have been generating crisis and fear by obsessing over the deficit as the root of our problems They have taken this opportunity in order to cut social spending, keep unemployment high and handing education – and defense – to private hands. That is why the most extreme deficit Hawks, while describing the US as broke, will keep cutting taxes to the rich, never cut defense – endless wars – and will not prob ‘no bid contracts’ – education and defense.
Michigan is by no means is an isolated story. New Orleans after the disaster of Katrina that left 1400 dead and thousands homeless was seen by Friedman and Obama’s Arne Duncan as a great opportunity or “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans”. According to Naomi Klein’s account, New Orleans had 123 public schools before ‘Katrina’ and four (yes 4) after.
We therefore seeing the continues looting of public money with no accountability, in order to satisfy corporatism. But since most of the population will not support this process it has to be done in secret, and while corroding and demolishing democracy.
As Milton Friedman wrote about the role of government:”…to protect our freedom both from enemies outside our gates and from our fellow-citizens: to preserve law and order, TO ENFORCE PRIVATE CONTRACTS, to foster competitive market.”
Nothing about democracy, on the contrary, just like in Michigan when government oppresses democracy -protect itself ‘from our fellow-citizens’ by demolishing the right to vote – while under “emergency” enforcing private contracts. That is economical, educational, social coup d’etat.
I have been following the progress of emergency managers in Michigan since 2009 when an emergency manager was appointed for Detroit Public Schools. Privatization appears likely to be the primary result in the end. The state wants to prevent bankruptcy because of the negative im
impact on state and school district credit ratings.
Here’s the blueprint plus some selected passages:
http://educationnext.org/wave-of-the-future/
Wave of the Future
Why charter schools should replace failing urban schools
By Andy Smarick
“… The only course that is sustainable, for both chartering and urban education, embraces a third, more expansive view of the movement’s future: replace the district-based system in America’s large cities with fluid, self-improving systems of charter schools.”
…
“As chartering increases its market share in a city, the district will come under growing financial pressure. The district, despite educating fewer and fewer students, will still require a large administrative staff to process payroll and benefits, administer federal programs, and oversee special education. With a lopsided adult-to-student ratio, the district’s per-pupil costs will skyrocket.”
“At some point along the district’s path from monopoly provider to financially unsustainable marginal player, the city’s investors and stakeholders—taxpayers, foundations, business leaders, elected officials, and editorial boards—are likely to demand fundamental change. That is, eventually the financial crisis will become a political crisis. If the district has progressive leadership, one of two best-case scenarios may result. The district could voluntarily begin the shift to an authorizer, developing a new relationship with its schools and reworking its administrative structure to meet the new conditions. Or, believing the organization is unable to make this change, the district could gradually transfer its schools to an established authorizer.”
Free. Andy Smarick has never run a school. He was on the board of a KIPP charter. He worked for a rightwing member of Congress and a conservative think tank. He knows nothing of the lives of children that he is harming. No expertise, no experience, no credibility
Diane
If we disregard for now the fact that that man Smarick doesn’t have true knowledge in education but in management. If we set aside the ideas in his text that seem vague at best – if not a spin on the truth, we can still recognize a pattern in his ideology which ought to be quoted:
“In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans decided to rebuild its decimated public education system largely as a system of charter schools. The conditions were ideal for this groundbreaking shift: a citywide consensus that the old system had failed; a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new system from scratch”
Just like other neo conservatives reactionaries like Milton Friedman and Obama’s Duncan, Smarick sees the disaster as an opportunity to push his ideas and ideology. It is the “shock doctrine”, when a disaster – real or not – leaves population in state of shock and disarray, confused, homeless, hungry and demoralized. At this point crony corporatism and its partners like Smarick take advantage of people who can not efficiently resist and pass their new world order, Knowing how unpopular and devastating it will be to local community.
Samrick and his alike found a loophole in democracy, They can promote an anti democratic pro business agenda without backlash.
By doing so they secure the transferred of public wealth into the hands of few unaccountable tyrannies, and for the long run the breaking down of community or solidarity alongside the corrosion of democracy.
Of course the ‘Shock Doctrine” does not require a natural disaster like ‘Katrina” but also a man made disaster. Samrick, Duncan, Bloomberg and many other “reformers” have created a disaster by starving the public education. This is ‘failure by design’
The same people who created a disaster and push public education to the brink, present themselves as the saviors or “reformers”, and push a more destructive agenda that guarantees the transferred of wealth. This “reform” is also design to grow a more ignorant obedient generation, one that will not know enough to question.
Andy Smarick is now the Deputy Commissioner of Education in New Jersey. I shudder to think of what is going to happen to NJ’s great public schools.
Diane…it’s already been done as of Friday http://mea.org/em-turns-muskegon-heights-schools-charter-district-terminates-staff
Diane, we (teachers and communities) are suffering with this threat all over Michigan. When the Republican legislature removes $1.8 billion from the school aid fund to pay for business tax cuts, and only allows for receiving funds if you meet certain “best-practices” and improvement in test scores, then your Michigan publics schools will ALL be starved to the point where they will be shut down. But…let’s start with the ones that “won’t notice”. We took a 2 year paycut and privatized services to “save” the district financially so that it would not be in the hands of an EM. Districts have cut millions in the last few years, and even last year, their superintendents called a forum with the legislators to ask, “what else can they cut” to stay alive. Republicans are cutting off our funding, hence the end of public education, slowly but surely. They have voted to remove the caps for charter and cyber schools, so, look who’s moving in.
[…] read Diane Ravitch’s response to this news… According to the latest reports, the emergency manager in Muskegon Heights, […]
I have to leave for work, and I don’t have time to trace this Googled link connecting Witherspoon to the Eli Broad School of Business Management at Michegan State.
Patricia Banyas, Academic Technology Specialist, Eli Broad School of
http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId…targetid…
Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University … your Mortgage and your Identity” , by Donald Weatherspoon, Ph.D. Michigan State University; Joyce …
Somebody please get on it, okay? Yesterday would be best, but today is urgent.
Dr. Ravitch, you ask how shifting to charters could save millions of dollars. Well, some of it does have to do with the peculiarities of how Michigan public schools are funded. One of the biggest factors is payments into the state public school employee retirement system. Thanks to the market crash of a couple of years ago, and unremitting increases in the cost of health care, all public districts in Michigan are required to pay 24% of their total payroll as the mandatory contribution to the retirement system (MPSERS). This is forecast to increase to 27% next year and over 30% the year after that, absent changes that may come from pending legislation. This comes out of the funds available for school operations, and is entirely the responsibility of each district.
However, the AG’s office has determined that charter school employees are only part of MPSERS – and contributions are only required – if they are direct employees of the charter school proper. However, employees of a management company who work at a charter school are NOT part of the retirement system and thus no contributions need be made on their behalf. Most charters with a CMO actually have no direct employees at all, just the school board. Even “self-managed” charters often contract out most employees to placement services so as to avoid the cost of retirement contributions.
(Of course, the whole retirement discussion is loaded, because employees also contribute to the system and the district contributions are not held in individual accounts but go to keep the system solvent and pay for current retiree health care on a pay-as-you-go basis. Efforts to “reform” the system primarily consist of higher contributions from employees and cuts in benefits. But that’s a whole other topic.)
Local districts receive all operational funding on a per-pupil basis, but that money includes a required local contribution that gets topped off by the state. On average, about 25% of school operating funds comes directly from local taxes; the rest is funneled through the state School Aid Fund. Funding for charters, however, comes entirely from the state. The small amount of local taxing authority left to the district will ensure that money which had been the local contribution will now be available to pay down the debt.
Finally, recent legislation also allows charters authorized by a local school district to opt out of participating in existing collective bargaining agreements. Lower pay, employee churn, and thin retirement benefits is how you save millions. But how much do the private CMO’s make? We can’t peer into their books, because they are private entities.
Aren’t you glad you asked?