Yesterday I wrote a blog about a tiny rural district in Idaho where the community did everything possible to support their school but it wasn’t good enough. The tax base was so meager that the school was in deficit, and budget cuts were putting the school in peril.
A reader commented that this was an instance where the district might benefit by abandoning its public school and turning it into a charter school. This, the reader said, would make It possible to leverage funds from corporate sponsors.
Another reader responded to the first one and wrote:
“If you turn your tax supported schools over to corporate sponsors, in the process you lose your local representative government. The corporate sponsors control all aspects of your public school/s-plus they will train your children for whatever the global economy dictates. I suggest, there will be no upward mobility for your children in that area of Kansas or anywhere else in the USA. These charter schools destroy the “American Dream”. There is an old song that goes something like this: “I owe my soul to the company store”. Don’t allow the multi national corporations to do this to our children and destroy their American Dream! We must, if we are to prevail as a nation, at least give every child the equal opportunity to achieve in the American Dream.”
“Charter/Choice/Voucher schools destroy the American Dream. Not only that- they destroy representative government e. g. local school boards and local representation. This is taxation without representation. We fought a war of independence for that principle. Why have Americans forgotten that?”
I agree with this response. I have come to believe that there is a vital connection between the community and the school. If public policy severs that connection, it is an abandonment of democracy. And in the case of charters, now the fad du jour, it hands children over to wealthy benefactors or corporate interests. I don’t mean to suggest that either wealthy benefactors or corporate interests have evil intent, but that their interests may not coincide with those of parents and the community. Public schools are an instrument of democracy to the extent that they maintain a vital connection with families and their community.
In the past decade, there has been a strong effort to hand schools over to some powerful figure or authority to “fix” them. So we have seen mayoral control in some cities, where the mayor has (in New York City, for example) unlimited authority to do as he wishes without regard to community wishes. This is nothing more nor less than the elimination of representative government. The purpose is to establish autocratic rule, in which the voices of the community don’t count. Schools are closed no matter what their communities say. We have also seen state takeovers (as in Philadelphia and St. Louis) where the state is so ineffective that the public schools are made worse than before the state intervened.
Democracy is hard, but it is still the best form of government that we know. We destroy the notion of public education at our peril.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why do we constantly recycle failed ideas? Yes, the charter school is a ‘company store,’ and the company store proved only of value to… the company.
As often happens, Diane Ravitch, you sparked my own post: http://audsandens.blogspot.com/2012/05/sixteen-tons.html.
“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”
— John Adams 1785
Public education is one of the pillars of a democratic society where the People are the ultimate rulers, where they afford themselves the capacity to rule with knowledge of reality, humane wisdom, freedom of faith, and tolerance for the diversity of their fellow citizens.
What has brought about the current crisis of public disinvestment in public education, an investment so critical to the survival of a democratic society?
Who’s been pushing that bill of goods for the last half century?
Who’s been brainwashing and water-boarding the Public with continuous, relentless propaganda, preaching the gospel that the Public Good is dead, that it never existed, that there is nothing to be had but one private commodity after another, to be grabbed off the übermarket shelves before your fellow man, your competitor, has an even break to bid?
The answer is simply this — Public education is being sold down the river because the agenda of corporate feudalism does not allow for the existence of democratic societies within its business models.
I continue to marvel at the lack of foresight of charter school proponents. Agree with all said here but beyond, as vouchers drive more to charter schools, charter schools will become overcrowded too. As dedicated poor families find ways to get their children into far away charter schools a quasi-integration will continue – which I believe is anathema to charter school advocates.
The quest for teachers will likely allow for non-certified teachers, some of whom may be excellent but some of whom may be mediocre at best. Given that it takes time to determine a specific teacher is inadequate to the task, many children could suffer the loss of a year or more of good education with the chance that lack will follow them in the usual K-12 sojourn. Each year of education is not mutually exclusive from the next or the last.
As happens in any for-profit industry, some charter schools established as for-profit will fail. Non-profits offer no guarantee of escaping financial failure. Even if others start up as replacements the segue will cause havoc for many families and the children will suffer. Corporate financing would certainly dampen this effect but that brings us back to the excellent arguments presented here.
In net, we will end up with exactly the same problems we face now in public education but we will have damaged a generation or so before reality proves the folly.
Reblogged this on Class[room]-Conscious.
I love reading your blog. Thank you for speaking the truth. I can’t wait to come here and read what you have written. Thank you.
I have been saying to my friends and colleagues in Northwest Indiana that the lack of community in a Charter School is it’s major downfall. Even religious schools, have their church community to support them. But Charters fragment community, because they draw from a larger base. In Indiana, anyone can apply to any charter school, so the student population often has no commonality. Because I have worked in schools all over the county I am from, I have witnessed the chaos that exists in our charter schools, and have thought who in their right mind would choose to send their children here? I have also witnessed great public schools, in areas of extreme poverty, that are full of hard working teachers and students.
And there was something else about Charter schools that bothered me that I just couldn’t put my finger on, and yes, it must be that lack of local control “that is nothing more nor less than the elimination of representative government.”
Did you know that in Indiana and also in other states there was legislation introduced that would take away our right to elect our representatives to the United States Congress (they would be appointed by our governor or state legislature)? Luckily it didn’t pass out of committee, but I am seeing that once something is introduced that seems controversial that it isn’t long before that controversial item is spun to make the public embrace it. It might take 5, 10, even 20-30 years, but this will resurface.
What is happening to our country? And why aren’t more people questioning the rhetoric that we are being fed as truth?
We elect our Superintendent of Public Schools. A bill was introduced last year that would have had the position appointed by the governor. Luckily, it was not passed into law. In November, Tony Bennett will be on the ballot. I read reports that he has raised $700,000 (many from out of state contributors) to fight for his campaign. Right now, there are two opponents that I know of. One is a teacher that has been campaigning since last winter. His name is Justin Oakley. The other is a candidate that our Union and Democratic Governor Candidate has endorsed and recently introduced. If this continues, I am afraid that the vote from people who support public schools may be divided and we might end up with another 4 years of Tony Bennett.
In Indiana, there was also a law that was introduced that would have eliminated local school boards. Again, it didn’t pass. I fear that there is something more sinister going on that we just don’t have a clear picture of the ultimate goal.
You will hear more about this. The corporate reformers don’t like school boards. They don’t like democratic decision-making. They love mayoral control and State Commissioner control.
Oh Betty! Here in Texas, people simply don’t believe that what is happening is really happening. We have a definite movement against public schools. I belong to Save Texas Schools and we are working very hard to make the public aware of how important their vote is. We have Michael Sullivan who is Grover Norquist’s Right hand man in Texas. All about pledges etc. We are doomed.
Last I checked Mayors are elected and state commissioners are appointed by elected officials…..isn’t that the democratic process?
Honestly, I am just trying to understand your POV
Here is the way it works in New York City. The mayor is elected; he then appoints 8 of 13 members of the board of education. The board is a rubber-stamp. No matter what parents or community members say, the board always votes to do whatever mayor wants. There are no checks or balances. Democracy usually involves checks and balances. The president is elected but he can’t do anything he wants. He must win the approval of the Congress. The Supreme Court may decided to invalidate laws passed by Congress. Under mayoral control as now practiced in NYC, the mayor is the only official who makes decisions. No one else’s voice matters.
In the next year or so, you will hear a rising chorus from the think tanks and various groups “demanding” an end to local school boards, so power may be concentrated at the state level or in the mayor’s office. All of this will be called “streamlining,” but in fact it is an effort to end democratic participation in the control of public schools.
Diane
When I spoke with a friend of mine (who is a professor of education) about the public purpose in public education, his first response was that teachers, administrators and teacher educators would not normally think of education in that way.
But I believe we must. Public schools do not exist solely to enhance the long-term private benefit of the students who attend. Public schools exist for a public purpose: to foster an educated and thoughtful citizenry and to ensure (as far as possible) that every child grows to become a productive member of their community.
It’s this public purpose – public education as a public rather than private good – that we are losing in the appeals to “choice” and turning our backs on community-governed public schools.