I received the following fascinating email from Ed Johnson, who advocates for quality education in Atlanta, Georgia.
“We have drifted [the past three decades] from having a market economy to being a market society.”
–Michal Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University
In his talk at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, Michael Sandel offers insight useful for seeing how market-driven “Choice,” vouchers, charter schools and organizations such as Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst contribute to our country drifting from having a market economy to being a market society and the consequences likely to continue disrupting and undermining democratic ideals in service to the common or public good.
Sandel speaks for about 30 minutes then does a Q&A for the remaining 18 minutes or so. The statement above is from his talk; keep it in mind as you watch and listen and reflect.
You will, watch, listen, and reflect, won’t you?
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
(404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We agree CT Vivian is a civil rights legend. Perhaps more details are available about the school for which he advocated.
What some on this list serve see as markets, others see as more democracy, and expanded opportunity. As noted earlier, the first African American elected to the St. Paul City Council, and the first to be elected St. Paul City COuncil president, also former Minnesota state Human Rights Commissioner has founded and directs a St. Paul Charter. This is a school open to all, that has been named “Beat the Odds” by Minnesota’s largest daily paper, been on the US News & World Report list of best schools in the country and has a long waiting list.
But it’s criticized by some because 100% of its students (all of them there voluntarily) are students of color. For the families, it’s democracy and opportunity. For opponents, its “privatization.”
So the decision in Brown v. Board was wrong? “Separate but equal” is not fundamentally damaging to the minority?
Brown v. Board was about state-imposed segregation, not the value of diversity.
Did we “drift” – notice the lack of agency in the use of this word – into a market society, has one been consciously imposed?
I don’t think Gates, Broad, the Walton family, Murdoch, et. al. are spending their many millions to see the public schools “drift” into a state of omni-monetization: they’re using their money to create a forced march, where many will be left in ditches on the side of the road.