Today, voters in Douglas County, Colorado, will decide the future of public education for the children of their county. In response to an earlier post about the election battle for control of the schools in Douglas County, where the school board is eager to privatize the schools, this reader made the following comment:
We should be courageous and move in the opposite direction from the so-called corporate reformers, the for-profit charter schoolmasters, and the naysayers of American public education. Administrators, teachers, staff, parents, students and concerned citizens should follow what is happening to American education. It is a violent, destructive force against public education.
The landscape is changing; on the horizon, we do not see public schools or parish schools. We see a disproportionate number of for-profit charter schools and schools serving segregated populations. The closure of neighborhood public and parochial schools widen the gaps, decreasing opportunities to grow and prosper. The demise of neighborhood schools adversely impacts the community life and spirit.
We see the end of public school funding and with that, the end of the significant role public schools play in democratizing our young citizens. In this model, the for-profit schools control the market place and the market values.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think the bigger vote in Colorado today is the vote on amendment 66. Mayor Bloomberg and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation each contributed a million dollars supporting the campaign to pass the amendment.
I think Bill and Melinda Gates have too much control over US public ed policy. This of course is not really their fault, but the fault of elected officials who have either outsourced education policy to the Gates Foundation or been captured by the Gates Foundation.
If I understand 66, it would fund charter schools through the same sources that public schools are funded. Ed reformers are pushing this all over the country. Further, it would create a fund for preschool.
While I do support preschool for all (I have seen the benefits of Head Start in this rural county, benefits that have absolutely nothing to do with test scores) I don’t support the Gates Foundation and the politicians they have captured creating the policy.
So if I were in Colorado, I would vote no on 66, because my fear is it’s another ed reform that will follow the lock-step, no excuses, standardized testing, privatization model reformers prefer.
I hope Duncan doesn’t receive federal funding for a preschool program, too. He has a terrible track record. Why would I want him to extend his reforms to younger children?
I know what ed reform looks like. It’s been more than a decade. I want politicians to break from the Gates and Broad Foundations and get another opinion.
I do not think preschool is part of the package of proposed additions, it is an expansion of Kindergarten to full days at schools, but I may be mistaken.
Early returns suggest that the good citizens of Colorado agree with you and are not willing to increase state taxes in order to fund public education in the state. No doubt many who post here will be pleased that Mayor Bloomberg and the Gates foundation were on the loosing side of this vote, but I think it is the students of Colorado, especially the poor, who have lost. The extra billion dollars a year that was going to be used to fund full day kindergarten in poor school districts, expand education for English language learners, and make funding for schools more equal across districts would have benifited the students in Colorado.
Douglas County CO is the present. In order to avoid this as our future path, the present must be resisted today. No one wants to believe that “It Can Happen Here” but it can and it is happening and not just in Douglas County. Amendment 66 will help fund Common Core in CO and here is what one future-minded Colorado voter had to say about the Gates and Bloomberg power play.
“The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has spent at least $150 million on Common Core which is essentially standardizing (read federalizing) education. The standards are so lowered that school districts and states in the know are opting out of Common Core so they can get back to the business of properly educating students.
All this ultimately is such an Orwellian scheme that even old George Orwell himself couldn’t have imagined it. Eventually, no more pencils, no more books, just big brother watching your kid study through the big Internet in the sky. Each child will have a laptop complete with camera to monitor facial expressions and mouse pressure. And when the child disagrees with the social agenda, he will need to be re-educated, along with his parents, after all to disagree constitutes bullying.”
The future minded Colorado voter you quote seems to take a very different view of the CCSS than the typical position here that the standards are unreasonably high, not the concern of your voter that “The standards are so lowered that school…..”
I am not sure that CCSS lead inevitably (or at all) to the Orwellian world you describe any more than a state constructed standard would. In fact, without the interference of the federal government and courts, my state public school system would likely be very “christian” in content and approach to education and likely pay little or no attention to students with special needs.
As a teacher in Colorado my experience has been that there is little to no conversation about the changes that have been coming our way. I take that back, there is discussion among my fellow teachers but nothing on an official, district or state-wide level. Since many of the reformers seem to base their suggestions on the business model or the market a fair question might be: How often does a business implement sweeping changes without any studies or analysis about the long term effects of those changes?
My take on my experience here in Douglas County is that those who support our current board very much believe this is about choice for their children. That as parents they know their children the best and should have the ultimate choices as to who should educate their child.
My thinking, as well as many others here fighting corporate reform, is that when one lives in a community we need to do what’s best for the common good.
Just finished the book Arcadia and there is a scene in there that has stuck with me.
A member of the Amish community has just returned from experiencing the world on the “outside.”
When asked why she returned, she said because of community. She stated like this “You can either have freedom or community, and I am choosing community.”
This idea is intriguing to me. While there is no doubt the reform leadership here is about power and privatization, those who support them seem to be looking out for their so called freedoms, which may be tough to have when one lives in a community!