In school, when we study history and civics, we learn about the principles of democracy. We learn about government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” We learn about how important it is for citizens to be informed and to participate in decision-making because the government is their servant, not their master, and we choose our leaders to represent us, not to rule us.
Except for school reform. Now the fashion is to say that the needs are so urgent, that we can’t wait for discussion and debate. Decisions must be made now, without consultation, and they must be imposed without delay, without evidence.
David Sirota of Denver asks why the school reform movement has decided its answers are beyond question. Are we teaching kids to disdain democracy? Are the reformers so wise that we must do as they say at once, without stopping to think about it? Why is the anti-democratic impulse so deeply embedded in the reform movement? Why do they never acknowledge error? What will be left of public education when they are done with their passion for privatization and move on to the next big thing?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sirota is one of the few mainstream writers (to the extent Salon is mainstream) who truly gets it. He caught on when his wife tried to run for the local school board. They were blindsided by a well-funded carpetbagger, the likes of which we’ve heard so much about lately. I wasn’t too keen on his book, but I’m glad to have him on our side.
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Re: “we choose our leaders to represent us, not to rue us.&rdqquo;
There will come a day that they will rue … and rule no longer …
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I don’t see the opposite of “corporate reform” as democracy where the public makes decisions or has discussions, just as I wouldn’t expect to weigh in on surgeon general warnings. The problem in question with corporate reformers is that not enough folks with appropriate background and experience are involved, which is very different from the process being democratic.
Where does the idea come from that all citizens must be afforded the opportunity to weigh in on government action simply because it’s the government? Are we allowed to weigh in on military decisions, FDA approvals?
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Are we allowed to weigh in on military decisions, FDA approvals?
YES!
Democracy is not voteocracy (as some towns in Massachusetts would like to think) and “weighing in” is a lot different than the extremes we face today: 1) gridlock at the federal and state level, 2) representatives who represent themselves, their party line, and the lobbyists who own them, and 3) unchecked behind-the-curtain smoke-and-mirror wizardry of the Michelle Rhee’s.
We do get to weigh in. We just don’t get to decide everything; but we do weigh in on the norms, the standards, the expectations, the policies, the tolerance level. Does that always work? No because there are always others who weigh in (tobacco lobby and others) with a lot more money and who own our “representatives.”
We don’t (nor should we) weigh in for decisions directing the troops doing the life and death work or the decision that a drug is not ready for market – but we protest, we vote, we write editorials – and have and can influence direction – except it seems in education where boards are bought, charters are owned, and quick (but not lasting) results can be touted.
(I know, I know. There are those at the local level who claim they have no voice because of administrators like me who make some daily or annual decisions they don’t like – but we’re talking outrageous, uniformed, flawed, untested massive reform issues here.)
Reform 2013 is no different than that tobacco lobby. But unlike the scripted lessons for the TFAers and their standardized tests, only cigarettes have a warning label.
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I think this makes sense, and I’m certainly supportive of folks expressing their opinions. However, aren’t we doing that here? I guess I’m confused then as to what level of input Diane thinks we should have in deciding how to address issues struggling schools face.
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Democracy doesn’t mean that we vote on whether evolution or global warming is true. It is a matter of research to discover what is true in reality, and that means letting researchers do their jobs unfettered by the profits that some hope to make by selling us lies.
Democracy means that the people’s representatives are charged to represent the people’s concerns and interests. It is in the people’s interest to know what is true in reality, to act on the best available information, and to convey that knowledge to the next generation. Universal free public education is one of the greatest inventions ever devised for ensuring that form of cultural transmission, for sustaining the way of life that gave it birth on this continent.
But something has gone wrong, some force with short-sighted aims of its own has prostituted the people’s representatives and is warring to destroy our way of life — and the people are beginning to see it.
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I agree that there are often private interests that influence public decisions, as there are in every sector from medicine to defense. Still, I’m not sure the answer is public democratic control over those processes. What if the public is wrong too. For example, my understanding is that the charter school approval rate is near 70% (http://www.pdkintl.org/poll/index.htm). If this is true, but charter schools are still a poor choice, should we allow the public to decide (if it will hurt our kids), or should we strive for more accurate decision-making? Do you compromise educational quality for the sake of democratic control by the people?
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Great insight into what’s behind this whole, multifaceted attack on American institutions!
Don’t people see what’s right in front of their faces? Ryan’s ruthless attack on social safety nets and, at the same time, pushing for MORE wealth transfer to the elite? Union busting with no holds barred. Privatize everything from prisons, schools, and the new target, the postal service? Connect the dots and the philosophy behind all these attacks is NOT democratic, but the exact opposite: rule by the corporate conglomerate!
I’d say they seem to have anesthetized the public to their obvious goals, which have been aided by media enabling or, at the very least, apathy. WE are the ones who are suffering, and will suffer more as these greedy billionaires keep making inroads on every institution and ideal we hold dear, or USED TO!
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It sounds like an issue in western democracies that has been ongoing since the 80s. A range of tactics used. Here in New Zealand we are getting our version of charter schools. Before the parliament has even finished their committee hearings on the bill bringing them into law the minister responsible for bringing them in is already appointing people to the board that will issue licenses to run them.
The other thing reformers like to do is hide their unpopular policies until after they are elected. The charter schools policy only surfaced AFTER the last election. I am certain it would have turned into a major election issue here if they had published it pre-election. Instead it was snuck in as part of a coalition deal between the ruling party (our GOP) and a minor right wing party.
And they wonder why engagement in the democratic process is dying and voter turnout is plummeting. Voters won’t participate if they constantly see political decisions being made that are not “of the elite, by the elite, for the elite.”
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unfortunately the “reformers” do not intend to wait for discussion. They are closing schools, selling off school buildings, giving corporations access to student info supposed to be protected under FERPA, bashing anyone who criticizes them, transferring control of schools and education to corporate interests and individuals seeking to profit with little oversight from government and none from the public. They will dump millions into elections to try control, and even when they lose, as when their favorite Tony Bennett was handily turned out by the people of Indiana, they ignore the voters and impose their agenda by removing the power of the person elected to replace Bennett.
Voters are beginning to get wise – in Indiana, in Los Angeles, in West Sacramento. Now is the time for everyone to get on board.
Join and support The Network for Public Education now!
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I know from school board orientation sessions that folks who work in the corporate world are stunned when they find out that they need to face and answer to those who are affected by their decisions. When distant corporate HQs decided to close the mills in New England over the past several years they never asked the local government for permission…. but when corporate HQs wanted to build a new mill in a town they ALWAYS asked the local government for some kind of tax break. What we’re witnessing with the school privatization movement is a workaround. The privatizers know that if they pass enabling legislation at the state level or work “collaboratively” with mayors who appoint school boards they can circumvent the longstanding democratic local control of schools. In this way pro-privatizers who secure a majority on local school boards are empowered and close down “inefficient schools” the same way the CEOs in the private sector closed down “inefficient mills”… and instead of seeking tax breaks for their new schools, the privatizers seek waivers from existing regulations making it possible for them to operate schools at a lower cost. The entrepreneurs who are doing this make no apologies: they see it as the forces of “creative destruction” being brought to bear on the monopolistic government run schools.
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I wish they would tear the wheels off of there cars. There has to be a better answer than the wheel. Who wants to look at a tired old status quo wheel?
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The senate in WA State just passed a series of bills that will dismantle public education and devastate teachers and students. More are on the horizon. The House is more friendly to education, but I have pretty much lost hope. And it is worse in other states. I fear that we have lost the war. I will keep fighting, but if feels like an exercise in futility. My brain is already trying to fathom how I will provide for my family without a the career I have spent 28 years building. I am trying to fathom how I will educate my 1st grade son when public education is gone and I do not have an income to pay for a private school or a charter school. I think that time is coming sooner than we want to believe. I am devastated. I see no hope. Does anyone see any hope? Where?
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Ellen, here is a column about a book you and others might find useful as you look for hope. This book is about teachers around the country, including some in your state of Washington, have been given the opportunity to create new public schools, open to all, no admissions tests, that carry out the ideas of the teachers who created them. Some of these are district public schools (such as the one in Washington State, some are chartered). The book has been endorsed by a variety of people including Deborah Meier, Linda Darling Hammond, the president of the NEA, and others.
http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/ed-opponents-agree-we-should-trust-teachers-more/
Seems to me (as a person involved in this as a public school teacher and administrator, parent of 3 kids all of whom attended and graduated from urban public schools, and served as a PTA president) that there is
a. Considerably more diversity in thought among those trying to help improve public education than is sometimes acknowledged here
b. There are some very encouraging efforts to empower public school educators. Hope you’ll read the column and respond. Thanks.
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I read the article. I may even read the book. But I don’t think that will fix the problems. I absolutely believe to the core of my being that the ultimate goal here is to destroy public education and re-create a serf class. I know that most people reading this are now going to blow me off as a nutjob, but the systematic thoroughness of the attacks on public ed and other social programs seem pretty clear to me – and mind-boggling in their ruthless advance. I have taught history, but this is the first time that I truly feel like I am witnessing a significant piece of history as it occurs.
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Finally we get to the real issue–the survival of our republic.
Frankly, I believe this reform business had as its genesis the public school district administrators who have scapegoated teachers to cloak their skimming from the top to hire layers of consultants and more administrators on the friends and family plan.
The privateers saw how the district admins in conjunction with many local teacher’s union’s management were inflating municipal budgets without a corresponding increase in positive student outcomes.
It was a short distance to continuing to blame we hapless teachers and elbow the bureaucrats aside for a place at the public school fund feeding trow. Now we have the testing compainies, the book companies, the computer program companies, the online video learning companies, the private charter school companies, et al all lining up to get in on the public fund feeding frenzy.
And of course, it is all about teacher effectiveness and teacher tenure and teacher this and teacher that–incredible!
Can’t make this stuff up.
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No.
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In the world of George Orwell’s doublespeak reform means destruction and destruction is just what they mean when they use the word “REFORM.”
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In education we’ve fought the math wars, the evolution wars, the prayer wars, and many others as well as the annual debates and disagreements that exist in any public system. That’s the way it is supposed to work. And, sometimes “bad” but popular ideas get through like Charters. As Radar said, “Wait for it.” (They are just like small businesses with the same failure rate). But – this is why we do public engagement, public opinion surveys, and citizen committees. It is democratic.
And, yes, at some point decisions by administrators or Boards get made that are not 100% welcomed. I have certainly ticked off my share of people and except for the handful of toxic “on a vendetta” few, the majority of dissenters are willing to listen to the other side, learn, and then still disagree civilly. And, sometimes (often) they are right! Either way – we get through them without decimating systems or individual hit and run acts like D.C.
We have checks and balances. We have Boards of Education that work (until “bought” by the same boys buying up everything else). We have administrators – not all perfect and we come and go – but all on a sincere mission for children and learning. And, we have a Supreme Court (state and local) who protects those with disabilities, civil rights, and the oppressed. And, the free press.
But, then usurping the whole democratic struggle – there’s the Michelle Rhee’s and the profiteers and those who drink their kool aid. They think parents and educators and Boards are too stupid or distracted – so they convince a few high rollers that if they let the “reformers” write their scripts, sell out to publishers, hire script readers (Teach for Ahwhilers), put uniforms on kids, drill and kill, and sell out again to test publishers to measure a day’s worth of improvement to tout. They hide behind podiums and full page adds claiming they will cure poverty, make everyone college and career ready (so they can get re-elected or a good consulting gig).
There’s democracy and there’s democracy.
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“Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die.” And that is exactly what they hope we and the public will do with our critical thinking facilities, the democratic process, and our right to free speech as regards the so-called “reform” movement.
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I was reminded through the concerns expressed by others in the early 90’s of where we could be heading and now have arrived. Paul Gannon who was at that time at the U. of Massachusetts, Boston, wrote something I think you will find of interest and spoke then to the dismantling of public education:
“Whenever curriculum in history, literature and ideas is truncated or optional, schools violate their student’s right to know, and democratic education is betrayed. There is something wrong when the learning thought necessary for the university bound “leader” is treated as unnecessary for the great number, that soverign people whose education Jerfferson said should be “chiefly historical: so that everyone can “judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom.”
“We have offered equal access to drastically unequal education, to an endless array of “life adjustment” courses that do nothing for student’s development as critical competent citizens. In the name of free choice, we have played the old game of “different but equal”, and left the mass of young people unarmed for public discourse”.
“The quicker the pace of change, the higher the flood of ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’ and the more ciritical it will be for all of us to understand the ideas, institutions and events that have shaped us and the world”.
We cheat the masses and squander our human capitol by ignoring and deliberately diverting them from their inherited potential and their rights as citizens and as possible
leaders. This deliberate plan filled with arrogance, intellectual elitism, crafty and
greedy purpose for power and wealth for the few, is a travesty and betrayal of our
Democracy. Brilliantly crafted and executed and with the diabolical belief that is for the
good of the little people and the country. Shame on the architects and those that would perpetrate this onto the children.
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