In district after district, budget cuts are decimating the curriculum. Teachers are laid off, programs are cut, class sizes are rising, libraries are closing.
This is insane. We are supposed to be in the midst of a great education “reform” movement, but for reasons that are not obvious, the alleged reformers never say anything about budget cuts. They don’t care if the public schools are devastated. They claim to care about education, but budget cuts don’t seem to cross their radar screen.
The more they are silent, the more it demonstrates that they don’t care about education; they don’t even care about children. They care about power. They care about gaining control of public schools and of the funding stream that goes to public schools.
So, those who are silent reveal their fundamental beliefs. The more that public schools are impaired, the better the case for privatization.
In fact, we can discern a train of events. First, the reformers’ favorite experts assure us that we spend way too much on education. Second, the message is amplified by public figures like Bill Gates, even Arne Duncan (remember his claim at the conservative American Enterprise Institute that reduced budgets are “the new normal”?). Third, public schools feel the devastation of the budget cuts as class sizes rise to 35 then 40 or more; as the arts are eliminated; as libraries close; as facilities are untended because custodians were dismissed. In the final act of this play, the reformers step forward to save the children from their “failing” schools.
Those who claim to be reformers should speak out against the budget cuts or lose all credibility. If they do not, we will know them for what they are and we will know what they want.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This truly is the thing that ticks me off the most about these “reformers”: whenever they suggest one of their brilliant ideas (longer school day, longer school year, various unfunded mandates) they say “this might cost a bit more but we need to do it.” What a criminally disingenuous thing to say given the extreme cutbacks we’re seeing on the local and state level to education funding. This post highlights this fact and shows that they really don’t evencare about schools having the resources to follow through on all their “improvements”.
Thus far I don’t think we’ve seen as many federal cutbacks, but those funds seem to be devoted exclusively to an entrenched bureaucracy that exists to administer BS like NCLB.
I am from a county (Fluvanna County, VA) in which we’ve seen nothing but cuts the last five years. The most recent indignity is the fact that I will be expected to pay one fourth of my salary for my family’s health care premiums. And these reformers are talking about a longer school year?????
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Isn’t it strange how when money is even uttered, the first thing that pops into mind and out of policy makers and reformers’ mouths is that all teachers want is more money? Do they really think it’s for a salary increase? In some cases, maybe so, when you take a look at salary freezes that have been in place in many areas for years. However, can’t they see there are more important concerns when supplies and resources are not available to help teach their kids? How do they expect to see improvements when the money that is there seems to go for testing materials, first?
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At the district I last worked at, we’ve had to take salary cuts in all different ways. We’re looking at losing 15 instructional days in CA if the millionaires’ tax initiative doesn’t pass. We have very limited $$ for supplies, field trips, transportation, NEW CURRICULUM. We’ve had to start asking parents to “donate” because we have no budget. If I get my job back (laid off for the 5th year now) I will not be spending any of my money on my class because I may end up losing 15 days of pay (which is a lot out of 180 days) and I can’t afford it. As you know, we pay for a lot of the materials in our classroom. What will happen now? We educators are caught in a bad situation where we either accept the cutbacks and keep our jobs, or leave the profession altogether. Will the new generation of teachers coming out of college be gullible and accept these conditions because there will be no other choice? And of course, will they be able to deal with the many growing demands due to the cutbacks in funding? We are no longer just teachers. We are custodians, secretaries, nurses, counselors, and any of the other classified jobs that have been eliminated due to cutbacks. For all the $$ we’ve spent preparing to become teachers, even the most committed teacher has to ask him/herself, “Is this worth it?”
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Pardon me for restating the obvious:
as a long-term teacher what I value the most is
a) less-than-incorrigible students
b) parents who will return my calls without belligerence
c) principals who focus on the big picture
d) textbooks, functioning copy machine in the office, wifi in the classroom.
I will find a way to live on my salary when I can look upon my students with a reasonable amount of optimism.
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What I especially love are the school critics who rail about the fact that school spending has gone up even after cuts. They claim these are “make-believe” cuts, not “hard” cuts. (Except now we’re actually going negative in current dollar terms, too.)
In fact, they are cuts from what it would cost to provide the same services next year. Does any business assume that its operating costs are immune from inflation? Don’t intelligent managers know that to hold total spending flat is to effectively cut spending on every area, from energy to personnel? (Unless inflation is negative, which it was for only one year even in the Great Recession.)
They say they can help education get better and cheaper. But when push comes to shove, cheaper wins out over better every time. And that’s intentional.
In my state, we’re trying to navigate our way out of the collapse of the manufacturing economy. You’d think everyone would be interested in investing in education. Most of our legislators talk about being competitive – but they appear to mean being competitive with low-tax, low-wage countries and states. If you see the world that way, it helps explain why so many of them view high-quality public education as a “luxury” we can’t afford. In fact, it’s a lifeline we cannot afford to do without.
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I think these “reformers” will use any advantage to take down the public schools. In Indiana, about two or three years ago, they IDOE made a rule that schools could no longer hold parent teacher conferences. The IDOE said the time should be spent on instruction instead of meeting with parents. At the time, nobody could understand why the IDOE would make such a rule, but I said, and continue to believe that if they could keep parents and teachers apart and not communicating, that it would keep parents from feeling vested in their community public school and would keep parents for advocating for their schools. I know this post was about money, but the ‘reformers’ have sneaky ways to push through their agenda to destroy our public schools and hurt our children and communities in the process, all for the sake of greed…. Shameful!
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You are correct regarding their motivation.
The more you “starve” the regular public schools, the more attractive charters and vouchers become.
Those parents who believe in neighborhood public schools have worked hard to fill in previously lost funds. But, there’s just so much money bake sales and silent auctions will raise. The money gap keeps widening – quite intentionally.
The “reformers,” with their corporate and hedge fund contributors, first figured how to capture the education funds in order to “close the achievement gap”. Now they are focused on expanding their charter schools in middle class neighborhoods and siphoning off even more money from the regular public schools.
With reduced budgets School Boards are forced to cut spending. So they get rid of teacher tenure, hire people with little or no teaching experience or preparation at lower salaries, do away with health and retirement benefits for the school personnel. Librarians, counselors, art, music, drama and sports programs are eliminated. Maintenance continues to be deferred resulting in dirty, run-down facilities.
Who wants to send their children to such schools when suddenly there is are seemingly better alternatives? And it won’t cost the parents anything (monetarily)!
Isn’t it interesting that charter schools usually have funds to completely renovate old schools and provide bright, clean and fully equipped classrooms.
The “reformers” know exactly what they are doing!
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Shock doctrine.
Budget cuts, or austerity, is at the heart of the reformers’ agenda. Without destabilizing public education, there is no crisis driving the need for “reform”. In the absence of a legitimate crisis (e.g. Katrina), one must be manufactured to warrant the extreme measures they propose to undertake.
Public schools are the largest taxpayer funded sector behind health care. This is a trillion dollar industry largely untapped by private interests. So while on the one hand budget cuts are needed to create the instability for a market takeover, schools cannot be de-funded entirely, or the market evaporates.
Hence: Silence.
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