Mark NAISON writes here about the Obama administration’s determination to destroy public education in urban centers.
In city after city, public education is dying, replaced by privately-managed schools that do not get higher test scores except by excluding or kicking out low-scoring students. Many urban schools have been taken over by for-profit chains.
In education, this will be the legacy of Arne Duncan and the Obama administration: the death of public schools in Detroit, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Indianapolis, and many other cities.
The greatest hope for the survival of public education is the election of Bill de Blasio in New York City, who will quietly reverse the damaging policies imposed by Bloomberg and favored by Duncan, and the election of a new school board in Pittsburgh, which canceled a contract to bring in inexperienced temps as teachers (TFA).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let me say that this nefarious policy makes me and many other public school teachers not want to donate anything at all to the Democratic Party….
Guy Brandenburg Sent from my iPhone so full of hilarious errors… ;-€}}
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So true!
We have needed a third party for the last 20 years. . . . One that will truly stand in its core mission to represent the average ordinary every day working person and his/her family. . . . .
In the realm of being a truism. I wish such would come to fruition. At the same moment, you know, as well as I, the fate of third parties: Peace and Freedom, American Labor Party and the ongoing failure of
The Socialist Party, despite winning millions of votes. What remains of the Middle Class, the 1%, including linguistic, ethnic and racial minorities and women! seemingly ripe for actual, meaningful representation! you would expect to support a third party or insurgents in the Democratic Party. History, at least up until now, gives the lie to such expectations. I wish it was not the case. Our realistic hope is to energize coherent local alliances and grow slowly, moving among communities and building state coalitions.
It’s extraordinary that so many people — I’m talking about you, Democrats — can’t see how bad Obama is on this. “Well, at least he’s not a Republican. They’re REALLY bad,” they say. Much better to have public education dismantled by a Democrat, I suppose.
I saw right through this faker when the media peddled him over more qualified presidential candidates back before the 2008 elections. I knew he was Wall Street’s baby, and that he is beholden ONLY to those interests. He has utterly tarnished the Democratic Party brand.
Stirs memories of a book I read a few years ago predicting this very outcome. Something about The Death and Life of the Great American School System.
(scratches head)… hmmm… yes, sounds familiar, doesn’t it???
I believe too that de Blasio, as a public figure, can initiate the campaign movement to saving public schools. He needs public supporters though to continutally stand behind his beliefs.
Or, we can realize that we, the people, initiated the campaign, and he is standing behind us.
The campaign we helped initiate all across the country is still accelerating, as far as I can tell. There are more electoral battles out here to win.
So, the big news that’s rattling money-politics-as-usual is that we elected him. Yes, we absolutely have to stand behind him (and watch who tries to hand him a few $$$ under the table, as well).
“…and watch who tries to hand him a few $$$ under the table, as well).” It will be interesting to see how much it takes to make a man to become a hypocrite or how much should I say it takes to ignore temptation.
It’s not republican or democratic. It’s Americian corporations and big oil money that is running our country. We can’t sit back and do nothing any more. Although, I am afraid people will sit there and do nothing. No education equals more jails and more money for corporations. These people should be in jail themselves for what they have done. Obama is just another puppet no less, no more. It’s sad for us as a country!!! Remember Obama was awarded the Peace prize ,I think, what a JOKE!!!!
ZenQi.. I was just thinking the same thing about “the Peace Prize” and I totally agree that it is neither democrat or republicans in office anymore.. it is corporations and which corporations support one party or the other basically. Scary!
I recommend Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine:
“The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock”
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
The next thoughts are from a post by Marty Bottari to prwatch.org awhile back. He would give credit to what is happening to Milton Friedman and his friend ALEC.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10903/alec-exposed-milton-friedmans-little-shop-horrors
“The master of disaster? Privatization and free market guru Milton Friedman. Friedman advised governments in economic crisis to follow strict austerity measures, combining radical cuts in social services with the full-scale privatization of their more lucrative assets. Many countries in Latin America auctioned off everything standing — from energy and water utilities to Social Security — to for profit multinational firms, crushing unions and other dissenters along the way.”
“Milton Friedman famously said: “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real changes. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.” Think of ALEC as Milton Friedman’s little shop of horrors where legislators across the country can easily access the “ideas lying around.”
Now, U.S. states are in crisis.
Disaster Capitalism in the States
“In December of 2008, while the economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, one group was treating the catastrophe as a terrific opportunity. Governor Mitch Daniels reminded an ALEC gathering that the collapse of the U.S. economy was “a terrific time to shrink government!”
“Starving State Government of Revenue to Make It Dysfunctional and Despised: ALEC members are introducing hundreds of bills to grant tax breaks to big corporations and cripple state’s ability to raise revenue, including new constitutional rules to limiting state taxing powers. Grover Norquist would love these lethal proposals.”
“Privatizing Schools and Other Government Services: ALEC bills encompass over 20 years of effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding school voucher system, to turn Medicare and Medicaid into voucher programs, and to privatize almost all aspects of government including toll roads and bridges, pensions, foster care and prisons. Foreign firms like Maquarie and Cintra, which are snapping up U.S. roads and bridges, are also using ALEC to push model bills.”
“Race to the Bottom in Wages for Americans: ALEC bills would repeal state or local laws that boost workers’ wages such as “living wage” and prevailing wage laws. ALEC bills call a starting minimum wage an “unfunded mandate,” but think that prison labor is just terrific. ALEC also supports a radical “free trade” agenda that sends U.S. manufacturing and an increasing number of service-sector jobs overseas.”
“Defunding Traditional Supporters of the Democratic Party: ALEC purports to be nonpartisan, but only 1 of 104 legislators in ALEC’s leadership is a Democrat. ALECexposed.org contains dozens of bills to defund public sector and private sector unions, and to make it harder for trial lawyers to bring cases when consumers are injured or killed by dangerous products.”
We are just beginning to feel the impact of “Shock and Awe” now that it has used here at home.
American corporations?
I’m not convinced his policy is limited to urban schools – that was just the easiest place to start. More and more middle class and even upscale communities have begun to feel the first flickers of Obama’s flame now too. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty hot fire and it burns quickly.
Dienne, you are so right. My school and district are anything but urban yet as No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and CCSS rollout play out to their desired conclusions my school system is on the verge of collapse and complete destruction.
I knew last year that the end was coming when our new, ex-military superintendent (not a teacher) declared his admiration for Paul Vallas and his love of trendy business self-help hogwash.
He has laid waste to our district and fired well over 300 seasoned employees and replaced them with reformy-minded business types. The few that remain have been placed in untenable positions to ensure that they quit — people who once ran an educationally focused department for 20 years now teaching a Kindergarten class or supervising truck deliveries.
This is happening all over Florida and is spreading throughout states in the South where ALEC controls the legislatures and governor’s mansions.
Eighteen elementary and middle schools were labelled as failing this past year. That is all but 6 elementary/middle schools in the whole district.
Curiously enough, something close to 80% of elementary and middle schools were made to fail through raising the FCAT cut scores last year while almost all high schools were given A’s and B’s because they have a different way of calculating school grades that doesn’t rely entirely on test scores like the elementary and middle school grades do.
My guess is that it is an election year and angry parents whose children are denied diplomas and graduation tend not to vote to retain the status quo so they were given grades to make them happy. Apparently they don’t think elementary and middle school parents vote or care when their child’s teachers are about to be fired and the schools closed.
This evil is far more widespread and entrenched than many here realize. Outside of the NYC/Chicago/Boston bubble public education is on life support and it is dying a horribly ugly death and teachers are about to become the first casualties in the quest for high profits.
And the national teacher organizations play on, inviting the architects of this evil destruction to speak and sell things through their venues while their members slowly drown and lose their careers.
It is past time for a national response in solidarity.
Very well said, even though your post makes me simultaneously cry and swear.
Dienne,
The hostile takeover of public education is certainly not limited to urban schools – the so-called reformers want EVERYTHING – but they were the initial beachhead, since it was easier to tout the Big Lie (“All public schools are failing and it’s their teachers’ fault!”) and ignore the destructive effects.
In a large, urban district, the negative impacts are easier to disguise from all but those directly affected, whereas in suburban and rural districts, people can more easily see how the money is coming from their children’s schools.
Now, however, the process is reaching critical mass, and people are beginning to wake up to the fact that the privateers literally intend to loot everything in sight.
I hope that the new administration will awaken to the critical importance of school library programs and revitalize this essential opportunity for students to explore subjects outside of the narrow curriculum and read a wide range of literature. Thanks, Stephen Krashen and others, for leadership here and for continual reminders of research that reveals school librarians’ value.
As a school librarian, I say “Amen” to that. I see librarians being replaced in surrounding districts with tech people. Somehow the administration thinks that this is appropriate. I think they have all lost their minds.
This is the goal. To create chaos and fear by turning all ethics and American priorities upside-down. Public education for all is not good enough. Violence and bullying is bad, but violent video games proliferate the social fabric from small children to grown adults. It’s irresponsible to be unemployed, but smoking marijuana is akin to smoking cigarettes…they’re almost the same. We have a war on poverty, but suppress the poor’s voice in government. We want a more educated society, but we drown society in “reality” shows that give us the feeling we live in a giant Roman arena, and we watch people “go at it” to entertain us. Where is the humanity in any of this? Where is the higher thought? What is the purpose? The purpose is to simply create an entire nation of dependent beings on the rich and powerful. We spend our lives watching theirs, and we forget that we better wake up and live before we turn around and figure that we’ve spent 50 years watching others live. This is the goal. Eradicate any academic thought or intelligence from “non-deserving, poor individuals.” One major goal? Start a real war on teachers, so that they learn that the only way they keep their jobs is to deliver “scripted lessons” that have been “pre-approved” by the proletariat to deliver to the bourgeois. Teachers are the last bastion of free thought in the United States. If we are removed of influence, generations to follow will be DEPENDENT. This is the goal. Get it?
Liberal and left of center voters voted for Obama on the basis of what they wanted to hear, and after suffering through Republican Party hegemony, the desire to win-back the White House was understandably overwhelming. We listened to his political rhetoric and expected a Democratic Party president with traditional party values . What we didn’t hear was Obama’s centrist values. He is President who is beholden to corporate interests and in creating a illusionsry alliance of disaffected and marginalized electorate with those interests. The education policy that emerged under Obama, Duncan and the ‘reformers’ is a direct consequence of his attempt at this unholy alliance. Why does Obama stick with failed educational policies? Why does he ‘double down’ on Duncan? Does he really believe that the ‘reformers’ are on the right educational path? There is really no way to make this determination. Obama appears to be locked in to this education policy path due to his own elite private educational history, his misalliance with corporate and foundation interests and, perhaps, having too many other items on his ‘plate’. Somehow, I believe that we ‘bought’ a centrist out of our own desperation with too many years of Republican rule. Now the public schools are deep into a destructive process. There are a few light beams in urban areas and sprinkled in non urban areas. The research and required publicity debunking ‘reform’ needs to continue to flow to parents and educators. We can’t expect any chairs on the federal level or, apparently the state level. Any hope and optimism resides on the local level. But that will be insufficient if we do not contest every the ‘reformers’ at every opportunity. We simply have to be tougher, better organized and more resolute than the ‘reformers’.
What you are saying is true, but even as a centrist Obama made the fatal mistake of winning the presidency while black, and so no matter what his policies were, he was doomed to fail even though he is very accommodating to the corporations.
The profoundly perverse racism confronts and obstructs any Obama proposed policies that may positively impact the lives of the 99%. Yet, at the same moment, his education policies remain class based, in the best interests of the ‘reformers’ not students, schools, educators, or communities. There are class contradictions that oppose the compulsion to rely purely on obstructive, racist ideology. For the foreseeable future, on the federal level, we remain stuck in the muck
This was an interesting article. See link below:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4588033?utm_hp_ref=email_share.
Tammy DempsEveryone has a chapter. Write your remaining chapters in the eyes and face of hope.http://prayers.prayercentral.net/?page_id=5
Its like one of those movies where the protagonist, about half way through, has a sudden, dread filled realization that no one is on his side. Even the ‘good guys’ are in on it.
We are politically orphaned as a previous poster once wrote.
I didn’t get what I voted for, Mr. Obama. I can’t believe the Democrats have dropped the ball on this one. Teachers unite!
The destruction of the public school system and the failure of the reform/privatization movement will be President Obama’s legacy and if this happens he’ll be looking back fondly on the computer glitches of his healthcare roll-out. Shame on them!
I imagine his legacy will be 6 figure speaking fees for the foreseeable future as has happened to the Clintons and Bushes and Reagans and all the functionaries of the plutocracy.
I seriously doubt that Obama cares one whit about his “legacy”. He is convinced he has done remarkable bipartisan things and that will be the story told in his bubble to the end of his days.
Again, well said.
Alright. I’m going to talk frankly here.
Poor and black.
Right?
That’s what is being attempted at being disrupted. My guess is Obama does not like a culture that is poor and black. He wants to distance himself from it, and even help it go away.
???
Can there be frank conversations about better ways to help large pockets of poor, black people?
Are we being bold enough in our conversations?
The justification for seeing disruption as a civil rights issue is that the goal is to kill poor, black culture, which holds people back (prison destinies and unfortunate trajectories), if you look at things in a very general sense.
???
Joanna, I would argue that the use of the “poor and black” communities has simply been a way to enter the door to corporate reform, vouchers, charters, and the eventual rent-taking form of education we are seeing being birthed right now.
See the work of Susan Ohanian who has published several books and articles documenting the nefarious activities of corporate America attempting to take over public education, Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report who has written extensively about how the corporate political parties have used and abused black organizations to divide and conquer, the late Dr. Gerry Bracey who decimated the reformers with real research interpretation, George Schmidt of Substance News, and so many others who tried to sound the alarm for the last decade and a half and were ridiculed, ignored, and ostracized by the national teacher organizations for opposing the popular reforms such as standardization, high-stakes testing, and failed ideas like VAM and merit pay. Diane has joined this group of public education defenders and she uses her powerful knowledge of history to debunk and challenge the status quo. They are too few though.
The only culture Obama and the US Congress of Millionaires cares about at this point is the plutocracy of 1%ers and their billionaire corporate funders. That is the root of the destruction of the middle and lower classes and the promise of the American Dream. It has happened many times before in history and there have been many responses attempting to right the ship of state, none of which were pretty or easy.
We do need to have honest and open conversations but we need to stop using the dichotomous choices that our enemies push on us because that is just a smokescreen to prevent us from questioning why it is OK for a CEO to earn 400 times more than his workers and why the Koch brothers, Bill Gates, and Eli Broad get to run the world just because they built vast fortunes upon deception, dishonesty, cheating, and lawbreaking.
Until we address the class war that we are losing we have no hope of stopping the reform juggernaut. They are spending billions on media, politicians, legislation, and judicial appointments to get their way and we are just talking to others like ourselves in a closed loop. They don’t fear our displeasure near enough and we have little to bargain with other than empty gestures such as boycotts, withheld votes in rigged elections, and petitions that go in the trash. See how the US Congress, the NY Dept. of Education, the Wisconsin and Indiana legislatures, etc. are completely ignoring their constituents and the overwhelming results of polls that show opposition to everything they do.
We need a new strategy and a new way of responding because we are nearly powerless right now outside of our superior numbers.
Chris–thanks for responding.
I get all that (I’ve been reading this blog along time). But what I am saying is that while the poor, black argument is certainly fueling entitlement mentalities and excuse-making for some very short-sighted gestures, the generational poverty we see in places like Detroit, LA, New Orleans can and should be addresses by education as part of the equation (not the only part). I stand with you in that I believe public schools are the logical and fair way to pool community resources and ground democratic and civic values, but how to enable public education to address poverty is a fair question. It obviously has not propelled as many as we would have hoped out of poverty in the last thirty years, so asking ourselves why and trying to bring about situations where public education does do that is one of those “not easy” points you mention.
Could it be that teachers often do isolate themselves from the whole too much? That teachers marrying teachers has sort of bred a class of teachers who see themselves set apart from other community people? (I am not saying teachers shouldn’t marry whomever they wish, but that somewhere over the course of the teaching profession becoming more inclusive of men, that a culture of isolated teachers has resulted)? And that this is why it has to be a fight anyway?
You tell me it is will not be an easy fight, and yet you have the lines of who is “good” (teachers) and who is “bad” (corporations) so clearly drawn that I think you actually have made the situation simpler than it is.
And there still remains the question of what to do with large pockets of poor, black people living in generational poverty.
I believe in public school. I do. And I also know that very real energy has stated loud and clear “let’s try something else.” So we have to consider WHY a large wave of “human capital” is working for that something else. Money? Maybe. Corruption? I really wouldn’t know.
To be in on the conversation and not just in a closed loop of conversation means being willing to talk to those pushing for other ideas, to help influence a better outcome.
As public school supporters, we have to do that. We have to engage. So we can say, ” I see where you are, but how about this?” Or, “no, I think that’s a really silly idea, so how about this?”
If public school supporters want to not be a closed loop without influence, they (we) have to engage those who are not teachers.
I would like to see the black community stand in outrage at how adversely Obama’s “Arne Duncan approved” policies are destroying the lives of economically disadvantaged children and adults (many of whom are black). It was exciting to have a president who was biracial and the black community had every right to be excited about this. But, what has Obama done for underserved populations???? I wonder what the black community is thinking now? I know a good number of black teachers I work with that are none too happy about public education policy right now and how it segregates communities, destroys joy in learning and destroys their love of teaching etc…. But where is the outrage that Obama continues to support and encourage this???? Does Obama ever wonder what MLK would REALLY say to him if he could “talk from the grave”???? It would be a day of reflection for Obama (espcially as a father) if a nation of black citizens stood up in anger and asked how their president has represented and improved the lot of the underserved through his policies. Even his healthcare may wind up being just a way for the eroding middle class population to pick up the high cost of medical care in this country when the nation’s youth don’t “buy into” the health plans ( like they were “supposed to” do)! Sounds a little Ponzi here… where an entire health care system depends on yet to be received funds from a rather volatile population to begin with – youth. I would also like to know which black leader (if the black community were totally free to choose) they think DESERVES to hold the highest position in the land if they COULD CHOOSE any black leader! Obama still has time left in his term to make right choices and I hope he does.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
I thought this was a good response to Duncan’s op ed on how he’s a brave truth teller and the implication that people running public schools are “lying” to parents:
“Joshua Starr @mcpssuper
Follow
The truth helps http://wapo.st/1eHx6M7 via @washingtonpost. I resent implication that we lifelong public educators are liars.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/24/starr-to-duncan-i-resent-implication-that-we-lifelong-public-educators-are-liars/
It’s about time someone called them on this stuff.
In 2008 we had the audacity to hope that after eight years of Bush-Cheney things would be better. There is no Superman. We have to join together to take back our country and build the the kind of society where everyone is treated as a human being.
And we have to do it by not seeing teachers as set apart from everyone else.
It’s all about taking the public institutions of democracy and pilfering them for private gain.
Our country has been run by and for sociopaths and crooks for the past thirty years. People need to wake up or we will lose everything.
“Greatest hope” may lead to great disappointments. Remember the audacious hopiness of November 2008 — election night one month before the world learned that the fatuous Harvard liar Arne Duncan would be the best qualified person to be U.S. Secretary of Education?
DiBlasio may help, as may others…
But for the past four years, we have also provided hope out of Chicago through the Chicago Teachers Union and our allies across the city. While dramatic moments like the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 may be poignant, as was the DiBlaio election, the gritty infantry war across each city under attack from the Obama administration is equally important.
When our leaders think that the best thing that can happen to an urban school system (and the people it serves) is to be hit head on by a massively destructive hurricane, something is really, really wrong.
What happened was that we never had data from across a full district comparing it’s scores before Charters come in, to several years after they have come in.. The answer is in positives and negatives. When you add all of them up, how do they total out?
Well the numbers were crunched in Philly, and across the district, the total average score dropped considerably on all students, both public and charter. Some schools did better, more did worse. But with the advent of Charters, through all the dynamics, more schools do poorer and that pulls down the average for all of Philly’s students…..
Charters are the kiss of death for underfunded school district. We have the statistical proof.
“Charters are the kiss of death for underfunded school districts.”
It’s nothing personal, kavips, it’s just business, like in the Mafia.