I have posted a number of comments on the subject of whether, when and how schools are like businesses. This reader says that public education is not a business.
Of course, it is important to understand that the purpose of the accountability measures and the choice policies is to get us all in the habit of thinking we are shoppers, consumers of education services that compete for our children and our dollars.
Parents are supposed to take the school letter grades and go shopping. They are supposed to teach the teacher evaluations and ask for a different teacher. This is supposed to reform schools and make kids smarter somehow. But the real purpose is to get us to view our public services and public goods with a consumer mentality. You can begin to see how nutty this is. Can we shop for a different police department? Can we shop to change our public parks and beaches? No, but we can turn over their management to private vendors. You see, when you start thinking like a consumer, then you forget the distinction between a public service and a business venture.
If they get enough of us to think like this, then we will acquiesce as they privatize everything so we can shop for everything. Or have the illusion of shopping, the illusion of consumer choice. Kind of like when you go to the grocery story and see fifty different cereals and then discover they were all made by the same company.
The problem with this comment is that it is incorrect about the definition of a business. In the second line of the first paragraph, the commenter states:“Schools are a business — they have employees, labor costs, capital costs, and budgets.”Having employees, labor costs, capital costs, and budgets is not the definition of a business. A well-to-do household could have all those things, and nobody would claim it’s a business. Many charities have those things, and they are not businesses. And of course, governments have those things, and they are not businesses.
The real definition of a business can be found in the last line of the first paragraph, although the commenter just casts it aside: “The critical difference between schools and what we commonly think of as a business — Verizon or Citibank — is that the ultimate purpose of the schools is to provide the service (educate the children) while, for the conventional service business such as Verizon or Citibank, the provision of the service is simply a means to the ultimate purpose of making a profit for the business’ owners.” Yes, businesses’ ultimate purpose is to make a profit for the business owners. That’s what makes a business a business. It’s the one integral, universal trait of all businesses. That is the definition of a business: It makes a profit for the business owners. That’s it. Public Education does not meet the one actual requirement of what a business is. To say it has a few things in common so it must be the same is just wrong. And to work from that premise leads to more poor logic, misguided decisions, and poor outcomes. Public Eduction is not a business. |
I question how the business model is really working for US businesses as a whole since so many businesses are shipping their jobs abroad?
That’s the teachers’ fault because the businesses can’t find “qualified” applicants, even though there are usually hundreds for most positions. Remember it’s the teachers’ fault
That IS the business model Always cut costs
Diane Ravitch
“You see, when you start thinking like a consumer, then you forget the distinction between a public service and a business venture.”
Exactly, that’s part of the stragedy! (We use that term in playing Yachtzee when someone makes a strategic blunder that trajically harms the player’s chance to win-What a stragedy!!!, and then we laugh).
“If they get enough of us to think like this, then we will acquiesce as they privatize everything so we can shop for everything. Or have the illusion of shopping, the illusion of consumer choice. Kind of like when you go to the grocery story and see fifty different cereals and then discover they were all made by the same company.”
Yep, Americans sure seem to like illusion to reality. And then they’ll pay the highest price for the name brand of cereal for less than half the amount of the cheaper store brand that costs one third the brand cost. Branding works and that is what the privatizing educational deformers are attempting to build, brand loyalty.
I only caught the tail end, but Rhee was on Meet the Press with her usual trite comments. It gets to the point where enough is enough with her self promotion. I am so sick of her bashing our profession. Nothing will happen I am sure, but I sent this to David Gregory and NBC:
Mr. Gregory and NBC:Mr. Gregory and NBC:
Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of the Michelle Rhee appearance with her usual platitudes about how we must all stay focused on the children. What is it that YOU believe teachers across our country do every single day? Sit around talking and counting our big paychecks? Did you have any intentions of questioning Ms. Rhee on her not-so-stellar record as a teacher, chancellor and faux reformer?
Did you know she giddily bragged about taping students mouths shuts when she dallied as teach for a while failure?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/08/michelle_rhee_first-year_teach.html
Did you know she is presently being sued by a DC teacher she fired after he tried to report cheating on the high stakes test, which is also under investigation and all under her reign?
Click to access second_amended_complaint.pdf
Do you know about her fraudulent petitions via change.org where she tricks the average person to become a grassroots supporter as a way to hide her true astro turf billionaire dilettante supporters?
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/18-4
I suggest your staff conduct a little more research before you choose a self promoting teacher bashing TFA dropout to represent the education concerns for an entire country.
Once again, those backed by billionaires get to repeat trite remarks and general mistruths over and over again and then it becomes the truth.
Here is one more of her shameless self promotions mocking the US Olympics and all US students:
http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/07/22/first-ever-studentsfirst-video-that-did-not-make-me-laugh/
Linda 1,
Thank you for taking the time to put that letter together. Please don’t hold your breath while waiting for a reply as we need your excellent commentary here and I’m sure your students need you in the classroom.
Duane
Duane,
I know I know….I say just ignore it and then I can’t. With school starting soon I have to scale back and invest my energy where it will benefit the kids. I can’t stand the lies and the media fawning all over this sociopath. I feel better when I hit submit.
Enjoy your Sunday….beautiful day and thank you for all your thoughts and insights. I read you everyday.
We’re mixing up different concepts. We could have the traditional no-consumer-choice model in which the only govt-paid-for school is the neighborhood school. Or, as the current school reformers advocate, we chould add an element of consumer choice by providing govt-paid-for alternatives to the neighborhood school. These alternatives could be limited to non-profit charters, could include for-profit charters, or could include private schools (i.e., vouchers for private schools, including religious schools).
In other words, we could have a system that included consumer choice but did not include for-profit institutions.
In my opinion, the traditional no-consumer-choice model is far superior. Once we introduce an element of consumer choice, we inevitably segregate students based on how concerned/functional their parents are — perhaps a minor concern in the suburbs, but a huge concern in the low-SES inner-cities.
And, in order for consumer choice — that is, the “invisible hand” of the market — to improve the quality of the product offered by competing sellers, the market must function rationally/efficiently. However, there are several important failures in the school-choice market.
Many — in the low-SES inner-city most — parents lack the interest/ability to make rational decisions. Even interested/capable parents lack information regarding the quality of the product provided by competing schools — how many of us actually know what happens each day inside our children’s schools? Similarly, many/most parents lack information regarding their own children’s particular needs and how each competing school would meet those needs — would the child benefit from individualized reading instruction but group instruction in math? From multiple short recesses or fewer longer recesses? Strict behavior code or more relaxed behavior code? Wouldn’t most school-choice decisions be driven by neighborhood rumors, where a student’s friends were going, or availability of transportation?
Given these market failures, consumer choice would not trigger invisible-hand improvements in school quality. We should stick with the traditional no-consumer-choice model and focus school reform efforts on identifying/remedying weaknesses in the instructional programs at the traditional neighborhood public schools — an approach that the current school reform advocates largely ignore.
LL,
You stated: “And, in order for consumer choice — that is, the “invisible hand” of the market — to improve the quality of the product offered by competing sellers, the market must function rationally/efficiently. However, there are several important failures in the school-choice market.”
There is no “invisible hand”. The “market” doesn’t do anything as it is a non-acting entity, only economists’ descriptions of very human interactions. It is a logical mistake to assign the “market” or “invisible hand” the ability (s) to do anything. This logical fallacy perpetuates the misunderstanding that human economic interaction are controlled by some force greater than said human interaction. Which is akin to Zeus controlling the other gods, or Huitzilopochtli controlling Aztec society with a corresponding need to placate him through massive sacrificial rites, and I won’t even mention the various current metaphysical myths that control much of today’s world.
No, the “invisible hand” and “market” do absolutely nothing in regards to “improving quality of products”. Human’s do! So let’s place the blame and accolades where they should be and that is on the very human economic interactions, even more so the humans who make/cause those interactions that make up the “invisible hand” and “market”
What would Jesus do? Before I go further, this is not going to to be a religious pontification but putting comtemporary education discussion into a story that many are familiar with. Most people who believe in the story of Jesus believe that he was amoung many things a teacher. He had a large following, didn’t force his views on people evidenced in one of the stories I remember where he instructed one of his followers to simply leave town and shake the dust off his sandals as he left if his message wasn’t welcomed. He provided his own transportation so that bussing of his students was not needed. His lessons were free of charge to the taxpayers and it was not compulsory schooling. Obviously he had a certain set of standards he followed as he taught, but he didn’t walk around collecting data to see if he was being a good teacher and neither did his boss. He taught his followers how to judge for themselves as to whether or not they were doing a good job. He didn’t ask skill and drill questions. He engaged in dialogue and fostered learning through discussion and self-actualization. When his students asked questions, he often used one of his favorite methods of responding with a question and refrained from giving an answer. The story of his methods and lessons were so powerful that some 2000 years later are still with many of us today.
So, this teacher worked for free, didn’t mandate people to be taught by him and when questioned by the authorities about his God being a king readily proclaimed that his followers should still give to Ceasar what was due to him financially. This guy is the modern day reformer’s dream teacher from a business, for profit standpoint. However, we know how the story goes. The church, the government, the people crucified him in place of a murderer. Why? He encouraged free, independent thinking which threatened the power and control of the very foundations of the ruling class. Of course he never directly threatened it, but it is always in the ruling class’s best interest to suppress free, independent thinking if their goal is to remain as the ruling class.
This of course leads me to my assertion that pulbic schools are products of the societies in which they exist. If you want to fix education, fix society, but you don’t do that by starting inside the schools. If you want to fix society, you have to address the ruling class. So, I’m not too surprised that teachers are being crucified (figuratively speaking of course…for now) while Barabbas of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve have been set free.
This is too easy considering. . .
WDJCD to ameliorate the suffering of the innocents at the hands of the powers that be (whether educational, financial, religious or any other)?
Actually my reply might come off a little snarky but was intended to be humorous while at the same time serious.
Being a free thinker and all, I do appreciate and enjoy, though, when those, who happen to believe that a god can be born through a virgin, i.e., Jesus of (supposedly Nazareth) come down on the side of liberation theology and not prosperity theology.
Duane, maybe I didn’t make it clear that I wasn’t trying to promote/refute the teachings of the man known as jesus christ nor did I intend to start a discussion of the merits of the message he intended to spread. Also, is it written in the bible that Jesus actually talked himself about his mother being a virgin? Either way it is quite irrelevant to my point. Perhaps it would be useful for you to know that I have my doubts as do you about the “story” told to us in this modern day of religion. Further your definition of prosperity could be different than mine, but I might add just as valuable and valid.
Duane, what answer are you looking for?
WDJCD = What does James Cooper Do?
I was just trying to play on the WWJD riff. And I understand that you were not “proselytysing”. That’s why I commented that you seem to come more from the “liberation” (Jesus’s message being cast away your wealth, help the poor and down trodden, etc. . . ) theology rather than the “prosperity” type (you deserve all the wealth you can get as long as you are “one in Jesus) so common in America today.
When a public good is privatized or made into a for-profit entity, it NEVER works. I am appalled to hear business jargon used for education such as “customer service” as something teachers provide and kids and parents are “consumers.” None of this is true.
When I taught in an affluent community, I felt like many parents forgot that a customer service person’s job is to satisfy the consumer, but an educator’s job is to make sure a child learns. They aren’t the same thing. Just because a child is unhappy about having to write a research paper, it doesn’t mean the teacher isn’t doing his/her job.
Suzie,
Thank you for stating this! The system here locally is very very sensitive to parents who feel that if their child is unhappy then the teacher is doing something bad. Hours are lost justifying classroom management or the purpose of an assignment which to me gives the parents the perception that the teacher DID so something wrong since the administration is holding an official meeting.
There are valid reasons for parents to demand a conference with a teacher and the principal. Many parent complaints are not at that level and should be handled differently. If every and any parent complaint is giving validity then no teacher will be able to teach for fear of making a child unhappy. A child who is unhappy or doesn’t want to do something isn’t a sign of educator incompetence.
Many of our parents think the school should be fun and exciting and their child praised and rewarded every single day. That is not the purpose of school, it can be all of those things at times but those things aren’t the markers that education is occurring any more then getting all A’s is.
Another question around the concept of “choice” is “who gets the choices?” “The market” follows profits, and as a result the people who are profitable for businesses to serve tend to get a plethora of choices, while those who are less profitable to serve get few or now choices.
I teach Education classes in the 4-corners region in the southwest U.S. I illustrate this concept to one of my intro classes by asking them to write down where they live and how many choices they had for where to buy groceries. I have students volunteer to share this information with the class and list the choices on the board, along with dollar signs for the socio-economic level of the community ($$$=rich, $$ = middle, $= poor). For example, I share that when I lived near Santa Barbara, CA, I had access to three Trader Joes, a Costco, a yuppie Vons, a cheaper Albertson’s, a 7-day/week local organic fruit and vegetable stand, plus a farmer’s market almost every day of the week, specialty ethnic stores, etc. Then I ask a student from Shiprock, NM (which is in the Navajo Nation), and they list a City Market Grocery store, fast food, and maybe flea markets. Students from even more rural areas sometimes only have access to a convenience store, and have to drive for an hour to get to a grocery store. Then I ask students whether everyone has equal choices about what kind of food they can buy, and whether the market is serving everyone equally well.
Great exercise. Glad to know that at least some of our teacher prep teachers are bringing up that point!
duane, thanks for clarifying. i understand your post far better. james cooper would like to have the freedom to do what is best for my students by sticking to my own personal code of ethics that respects the needs of students and parents. i’d like the autonomy to do that. instead of autonomy, we have accountability that serves the needs
oops….hit post too soon…serves the needs of the ruling class which may or may not serve the needs of students and parents.
Actually folks shop for schools all the time when deciding where to live. My parents did it, I did it, I expect that my children will do it. Education in the US is a local public good, and people vote with their feet.
“. . . people vote with their feet.”
That is true to a degree. But there are very many people, whether in urban and/or rural poverty environments that do not have the financial capabilities to move. Not to mention that some just prefer/are more comfortable in their “home” environments. Nothing wrong with that. We should be providing all with the type of public school environments that the wealthiest of districts provide.
No disagreement about wanting everyone to have access to the type of schools that wealthy districts provide. Now only the relativity wealthy have the choice of which district to enroll in. Is there some way to give the poor the choice without them having to move?
Yes, fund the “poor” schools adequately so that they can serve the “higher” needs population of students.
Why should “we give the poor” a choice? What does “choice” in this situation mean? Shouldn’t it be that there is no choice because we adequately fund the schools in which the poor attend? Instead of the disparities in funding between the “rich” districts and the “poor” districts shouldn’t we be looking to increase the funding in those areas most in need?
I meant the choice of which school or school district to attend. Obviously would not work in areas like where I live, a relatively isolated university town, but it might well be applicable in more densely populated areas.
I think you give the poor choice for ethical reasons. They may not be able to move out of the company town, but that does not mean they should have to go to the company store.
The Gates Foundation and Pearson’s have made education a business matter. I recently came across this blog which after reading a Guardian UK article regarding Pearson’s involvement in education policy, now world wide involvement, concerns me.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html?intc=mvs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/16/pearson-multinational-influence-education-poliy?INTCMP=SRCH
Time to make a buck, or should I say billions of bucks off the backs of children, not to mention the average Joe taxpayer since that’s who are providing most of the funding for public education in this country.