We know the formula by now for destroying public education and handing it off to entrepreneurs who can cut costs, package it, extract a profit (or remain nonprofit while paying exorbitant executive salaries):
Cry “crisis.” Set impossible targets (100% success on tests normed on a bell curve). Demoralize teachers. Fire the most experienced teachers. Hire low-wage temporary teachers who will leave within three years, thus eliminating future pension obligations. Close schools and disrupt communities. Turn schools over to entrepreneurs, to amateurs, to non-educators, to sports stars, to charter chains. Watch as public schools are dissolved and disappear. Watch as people become consumers, not citizens.
But now others get it, even if most of our major editorial boards do not.
Robert Freeman writes here about the public theft that is underway.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Points that really struck me from Freeman’s piece:
“Real education, real intelligence, real character are agonizingly slow, dazzlingly complex, maddeningly difficult things to create.”
“If America wants better education, it needs to fix the greatest force undermining education, which is poverty. But poverty is a hard and expensive problem to fix. We prefer easy, painless fixes, or even better, vapid clichés about the “magic of the market” and such.”
And your warning: “Watch as people become consumers, not citizens.”
It is apparent that not all Americans share the same view of the future.
Here’s one of the responses to the Freeman article, which appeared in April, 2012.
sigeptendo • 2 years ago
Sir, I formally invite you to come visit my classroom in a charter school in Memphis, TN. I assure you, you will not see any of the “drilling students in mindless memorization and robotic repetition” that you are so willing to accuse me of.
I am not arguing that all charter schools everywhere are succeeding or that the public system needs to be done away with, but you write as if traditional public education is the bee’s knees – it isn’t. The charter school movement has at LEAST attempted to address a growing pandemic found in public education. Compare charter schools’ growth and progress with students with Memphis City Schools: charters are succeeding here.
You accuse charter schools of complacency… how many teachers are in traditional public schools that no longer go the extra mile for their kids because they are tenured? Charter schools and their teachers are held to higher standards than normal public schools. If we don’t perform, we are fired or the school is closed. If charters aren’t pushing their students, then they rightfully deserve to close because they are not helping their students.
You’ve written this article from a very angry, sarcastic, and bitter point of view. When you do that, you discredit the argument you originally intended to make. I am willing to do anything I need to help my students succeed. Before you accuse people like me of being robots, please back up some of the claims you made with no factual basis.
Sincerely,A Charter School “monitor”
And millions of public school teachers across the country could easily write a similar response to all of the false claims being made about “lazy, over-paid babysitters” and the “failing schools” that they work in. This charter teacher picked the wrong group to cry foul.
Fortunately there are some NY city public school educators who have inspired other educators by their efforts to create new options within districts – such as Urban Academy, Central Park East, Rochester School without Walls, El Puente, and on and on.
As Al Shanker pointed out many years ago, people trying to create new options in public education, educators trying to create such options often “were treated like traitors and outlaws for daring to move outside the lockstep.”
There is an alliance in some parts of the country between those inside districts & those in charters who believe many youngsters need different kinds of public schools, beyond the traditional neighborhood school in order to succeed.
For more than 40 years, as Shanker points out, who have opposed and resisted anything beyond neighborhood assigned schools. Fortunately some districts & some states have seen the value of offering public school options.
Joe, post an article about a great traditional public school and their work or do you just pimp for Gates? Please don’t tell us about your years of service.
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2013/10/sen-franken-students-educators-agree-act-on-important-needs-joe-nathans-column/
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2013/11/good-news-about-progress-for-all-kinds-of-young-people-joe-nathans-column/
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2013/10/honoring-educators-who-have-profound-impact/
How are public schools in Memphis doing, Joe? The schools that were there?
Have they been abandoned by ed reformers in government who are pushing charters?
Why do ed reformers who are running whole school systems and states talk only about charter schools? How does ed reform benefit existing public schools?
This was sold to the public as “improving” public schools, not replacing them with an entirely different system.
Let’s be honest here. If ed reformers HAD sold this as replacing public schools, there would have been a lot more pushback and debate.
Why don’t you sell this honestly? I’m a public school parent. Why in the heck would I hire a local, state or federal leader who doesn’t support public schools?
Chiara, I’m also a urban public school parent, former PTA president. Some families chose both district & charter public schools for their youngsters.
There are differences of opinion about how to judge progress, and test scores unquestionably are not the only way to do this. How would you judge progress?
“Compare charter schools’ growth and progress with students with Memphis City Schools: charters are succeeding here.”
How much of that “growth or success” is due to ed reformers in government promoting charters over public schools with preferential treatment?
How are students in Memphis City Schools being treated under ed reformers?
If Memphis is anything like the state of Ohio under ed reformers, the kids in the public schools are getting robbed.
There’s also the selective factor – charters aren’t educating the same kids. Charters and their supporters have gone from denying this fact to arguing that it’s a good thing.
Many people involved in the charter movement strongly oppose using admissions tests, and have said so. That includes me.
Dienne, do you oppose allowing charters and district schools to use admissions tests?
I’m already on record as opposing selective enrollment public schools, Joe. I’m ambivalent about magnet schools that focus on specific areas like arts or science or language. Theoretically, I think they could be a good thing, as long as every kid who wants to go to such a school has equal opportunity to attend, but I think more often than not slots at such schools go to more wealthy/connected/savvy/engaged families. Standardized testing should definitely not be part of selection at such schools, but performance selection possibly (a musical or dance audition or an art portfolio presentation to get into an arts school, for instance).
Dienne, we agree about not permitting tests to be used to determine which students should be admitted to public schools.
I also oppose permitting auditions or other performance measures to be used to admit youngsters to a school (and have testified in Congress about this). NYC and other cities should expand the number of arts high schools they have to meet the # of youngsters who want to attend.
We’ve agreed that the arts have enormous value. Very few people will be able to earn a living by being a Broadway performer. But many, many youngsters can benefit from being part of a play, or an orchestra, or other forms of musical expression. We should be expanding artistic opportunities for youngsters, in conventional schools and special schools.
Here’s one of the columns I wrote this year that drew the most comment about the value of music for a student whose voice was changing and really could not sing:
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2013/09/mr-hardy-and-a-student-who-couldnt-sing-joe-nathans-column/
Even without “admission” requirements, public charters are still self-selecting. It takes a concerned and knowledgeable parent to make such a choice. And do public charters retain all students regardless of effort and/or behavior issues?
Actually, it does not take a “concerned & knowledgeable parent” to make a choice. Many youngsters end up in schools of choice because a social service agency person told them about the option, or a friend told them.
And sometimes they like their neighborhood schools and teachers.
Joe
“Many youngsters end up in schools of choice because a social service agency person told them about the option, or a friend told them.”
That’s still self-selecting.
And your preference is? Giving wealthy people school choice via suburbs, and eliminating it for low/moderate income families?
Do you have children, and if so, where do they go to school? Do you live and teach in a city?
I do not begrudge any parent advocating for their children. If a charter school affords the best opportunities – they should take full advantage. My only objection is the comparison between non-selective public schools and at least semi-selective charter schools.
The playing fields are far from level.
I agree that playing fields are not equal
http://centerforschoolchange.org/2013/11/congratulations-and-concerns-about-school-referendum-victories-joe-nathans-column/
That’s true among many public schools within most states (except Hawaii) that rely extensively on property taxes. It’s unfortunate and I’m hoping some of the people who post here will join efforts in their states to change this.
Coalitions in some places are making progress on this.
Paulo Freire states that “The oppressors do not perceive their control and monopoly on having as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have.”
One of the central opportunities democracy provides is the opportunity to help create new institutions that have the potential to be more effective. Some of us have been trying to create such institutions both within districts, as as charters, for decades. We see this as important parts of the broader expansion of opportunity.
Traditionalists sometimes insist that no new institutions are needed in public education..that reducing poverty must come before public education can be improved.
However, for some of us, it’s not about one or the other. Improving public schools can help reduce poverty, and reducing poverty can help improve public schools.
The “central opportunity” of democracy is to recognize humanity in all individuals. That also happens to be the “central opportunity” of education.
Yes, I’d agree that recognizing humanity in all individuals is a central opportunity in a democracy and in education. It’s striking how often on this list serve there are personal attacks on individuals who post.
But along with that, there is a sharing of information, which I find useful. Hope you do too.
So, Joe, you are opposed to those charters that deny students’ humanity? Those like KIPP and Success Academy and other “no excuses” standardized testing mills that expect exact conformity and punish and deviation?
Having spent a lot of time in more than 30 Kipp schools, I don’t see them as denying humanity. In fact, I see them as celebrating what individuals can accomplish, despite poverty.
That doesn’t mean they are perfect. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to work on poverty too.
Rubber rooms, Joe. ‘Nuff said.
They hide the rubber rooms, white shirts, slanting, chanting and finger snapping when Joe comes.
Linda: anyone with good sense and experience knows that when visitors come through school administrators like to put on a show.
And remember the conservative “Cold Warriors” of old and their scathing take-downs of the pageantry put on by Potemkin Villages for [often] clueless foreign visitors? Times change, criticism becomes envy and emulation. Visits and comments by leaders of the “new civil rights movements” to charters often remind me of those Potemkin Village spectacles of yesteryear.
What’s old is new again.
😎
This is a good piece on how public schools in Ohio are treated inequitably by ed reformers in government in this state.
Ed reform doesn’t just promote charters and private schools. It damages existing public schools.
Kids who attend public school in this state have no advocates in state (or, actually federal) government. The entire focus of ed reformers is on private schools and privatized schools. The only people who are acting as advocates for kids in public schools are local school boards and teachers unions. To listen to ed reformers in government in this state one would not know that public schools (or the kids who attend public schools) even exist.
http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/2013/12/17/ohios-dual-system-of-publicly-funded-schools
We worked with wonderful “ed reformers” in the Cincinnati public schools. This included both teachers and the head of the teachers union.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/11150746.html
Unfortunately the article doesn’t really make its case that a dual & inequitable system is in place. She chose her own district for the numbers: only 6.6% of total enrollment is in charters; if you do the math per published budgets etc, her district is taking 5% of regular per-pupil $ to run an ‘experiment’ for 6.6% of the kids, providing them w/nearly twice the per-pupil amount to try out ‘innovations’. It’s pretty much exactly what the original idea for public charter schools was about.
From what you report about the situation in Ohio, I’ll bet somebody could put together some really eye-opening numbers, working on a larger scale– put it together w/the mediocre results charters get, how how they really are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
I agree with the Robert Freeman article, he is spot on about the true intentions of the so called reform movement and the school privatizers. But I’m just wondering how he arrived at the trillion dollar figure for how much is spent on education annually in the US. I thought the amount was more like $600 billion annually? Charter schools drain funds and resources from the real public schools though the so called reformers claim otherwise. Hey, since choice is so great, let’s have charter police departments to compete with the regular police departments, all funded with tax payer dollars. The charter police departments could be filled with Police for America recruits who will only be in the force for a couple of years and therefore will be cheaper. Whoopee, what could possibly go wrong with such a set up.
Some educators and parents recognize that there is no single best kind of school for all students.
But I understand there are many traditionalists posting here who are fine with the idea that wealthy families will be able to send their children to urban or suburban districts.
There are other traditionalists here who apparently are fine with some district schools having admissions tests, and others having to take all kinds of kids.
Fortunately a lot of the country sees value in public k-12 school options, while wisely rejecting public funds to private and parochial k-12 schools.
http://pdkintl.org/programs-resources/poll/
Many charters are private except for the public money.
Charter schools are NOT public schools and need to be abolished.
You have NO clue the purpose of public education; you just make excuses for its abolition.
Your passive aggressive act doesn’t work around here.
“Passive aggressive”? I very aggressive about the value of terrific public schools. Our 3 children attended and graduated from urban public schools. Parent, student and professional groups have given me awards for the work we’ve done with urban public schools.
I’ve been a urban PTA president and member of the state PTA board. And we’ve raised millions of dollars to help improve urban public schools. I’ve written hundreds of newspaper columns describing what outstanding district and public school teachers do to help young people.
Aggressive. Yes. Passive? I don’t think so.
http://hechingerreport.org/content/schools-gear-up-for-trial-run-of-new-online-exams_14226/#.UrhGgKNlSnd.twitter
Here’s how Mississippi schools, which are underfunded by one BILLION dollars, must comply with ed reform mandates and purchase expensive new online testing systems, the same systems that failed miserably in state after state last year.
Kids in Indiana spent weeks of classroom time trying to navigate the cheap, rushed-out online testing program that was foisted on them by ed reformer Bennett. Bennett is now working for a testing company.
My own public school district has lost 1.4 million a year in funding under ed reformers. We’ll have to comply with these stupid, faddish tech gimmicks too.
Does anyone else besides me suspect that capitalistic-driven economic “reform” is INTENDED to produce a mindless proletariat? A proletariat that is used to drill-and-kill, dressing up in uniforms and conforming to orders, tests, and physical obedience?
In short, a new form of totalitarian fascism?
If you think I’m joking, watch videos of KIPPS academy — and other very similar charter schools — videos. The chanting and hand-raising are straight out of Mussolini’s Italy, and modern totalitarian China.
That topic has been discussed at length around here. You will find many who agree with you, including me.
When I watch them I think a Seaworld is missing a trainer. If not for the minnows, the water tank and a bucket, what is the difference?
I’m guessing that SeaWorld trainers are a lot more sensitive to their dolphins and orcas than KIPP schools are to their students. Shamu wouldn’t perform under KIPP-type training.
Sadly, I don’t think a conspiracy or even general intent is necessary. Once you replace common social good– bill footed by everyone– with the competitive for-profit paradigm [educated student as widget], the inevitable result is assembly-line conformism, with those who cannot conform left to their own devices. Such a model requires an elite to define market & design implementation; when the product is intellectual, you attract powerful ideologues to the elite. Current law allows money from private enterprise to override the vote; therefore the powerful are simply the rich, whatever their ideology. Today’s wealthy, unlike the Carnegies etc of a century ago, have short-sighted bottom lines; not unlike chop shops, they drive tomorrow’s business into the ground to get today’s profit. We have set the stage for them with our laws, & they will run tomorrow’s public good– whether it be education, public transportation, post office, you name it– into the ground to grab the profit today. Without blinking.
We need to have a repeat of the 1960s, when the world watched the US in protest. Technology has made us too passive.
Technology hasn’t slowed down protesters in Europe. There has to be another reason. I would point to consumerism and expectations of convenience myself.
I don’t know what you mean by blaming lack of protest on ‘technology’ or ‘consumerism’. The difference between now & the ’60’s: people marched because it was very clear their backs were to the wall: they had no future unless they could grab it back from society. Blacks marched because even in the heyday of a booming economy, they could not gain entrance to decent schools, nor expect more than the servant-class jobs of their parents & grandparents. Whites marched because they were being drafted to die in an obscure & distant war.
But there is something else at work as well, more insidious and wider-reaching. It is cynicism. In the ’60’s, we were only 1 generation removed from those who believed what their govt told them– & generally believed that those in govt had all the info & knew better than the average voter. The ’60’s & ’70’s were an era which educated the voter: the govt may have an agenda which is not in the interest of the general populace. The current generation is well-aware that its govt does not operate in its best interests. A decade ago my own then-teenaged kids told me they considered moving to Canada as a probable option.
I agree that what’s needed today is widespread protest against govt action in the education arena. But we will need to teach people that WE are the govt– WE have allowed laws to change so that the rich can dictate to the rest, & WE need to elect people who will change the laws.
S & FF — you’re in charge. Let’s get er done.