A reader noted the similarity between Governor Chris Christie’s plan to privatize low-performing public schools, and Governor Rick Snyder’s reform plan in Michigan. Other readers have commented on the irony of conservative Republican governors–allegedly committed to small government–aggressively using the powers of government to undermine local control and privatize schools.
The similarity goes beyond Christie and Snyder. The same ideas–privatize low-performng schools, close low-performing schools–are embedded in Race to the Top, also in the Boston Consulting Group’s plan for Philadelphia, the Mind Trust plan for Indianapolis, the Bloomberg reforms in New York City, Mayor Frank Jackson’s plan for Cleveland. None of these plans ever works, other than by pushing out the low-performing kids and sending them to other struggling schools. It makes you wish that these guys would take a peek at evidence or actually care about the kids. And it also makes you wonder why none of them ever has an original idea. They just copy one another ad infinitum. And the more they copy stale, failed ideas, the more they praise themselves as “innovators.”
When you see how popular these ideas are among conservative Republicans, it shows how far to the right the Republican party has gone, when the principle of profit trumps the principle of local control and respect for tradition:
| This sounds very eerily the same as what Gov Rick Snyder has already done here in Michigan. The Educational Achievement Authority (EAA) is set to operate the lowest performing 5% of Michigan schools starting in the 12-13 school year. Here is a quote from the michigan.gov website explaining the EAA ” It (EAA) will first apply to underperforming schools in Detroit in the 2012-2013 school year and then be expanded to cover the entire state.” Is this not a state takeover? |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Unfortunately, these plans work all too well: having nothing whatsoever to do with meeting the needs of children living in poverty, they are solely intended to monetize the schools and the kids, down to the last data point.
Smash and grab: that’s the plan.
And of course it’s hardly any coincidence that the same mushrooms are popping up all over, since ALEC is minding the spore-store.
Jon: I need to be following your comments and postings more often. A most remarkable alliteration, “minding the spore-store.” And, of course, the point is well taken.
The privatization of public education is the new corporate frontier.
Betsy: Not sure it’s so new. I wrote about it in an editorial in June of 1992. It’s been around for some time, but is gaining more traction of late.
How is this “reform” movement affecting the students that have to go through this chaos? We may be throwing away at least one generation if not two. The reform leaders really are not looking at the bigger picture. They refuse to see the glass as half full and that much has been and is being accomplished in the public schools. Their inability to do this is causing them to throw out the baby with the bath water. How is the TFA training better? I question the REAL goal of the reformers.
Speaking of the Governerd, here’s a bit of breaking news …
• Michigan Supreme Court Says Emergency Manager Repeal Must Go On November Ballot
These governors like Christie and Snyder are not the least bit concerned with the educational outcome(s) of privatization. Rather their modus operandi(sp) is to break the our teachers’ unions.