Oh, those wild and crazy legislators in North Carolina! What will they dream up next to promote privatization?
As Rob Schofield reports in “Progressive Pulse”:
“A lot of people are justifiably outraged at the House budget provision that gives $1 million (and delegates public duties) to the conservative school privatization lobby group, Parents for Educational Freedom of North Carolina (PEFNC). As Rep. Rick Glazier — who tried to amend the budget to shift the money to fund teacher assistants — said yesterday (as reported by Raleigh’s News & Observer):
“This is the first time that I believe in the history of the legislature that we’ve done what this is asking. We’re giving $1 million of taxpayers’ money to an entity to then choose the charter schools to fund. … It is not our job to take away public funds and give them to a private entity to make public decisions.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sadly it is not only in North Carolina that this kind of thing happens.
Indiana is not far behind besides other money talks dominated states.
AND
for me, the worst part is that it is not only in education that this is true.
Narrow minded myopic, a lack of intelligent understanding and “to the victors belong the spoils” attitude is killing us, quite literally.
This is a distinct escalation of the private war on public education. We need to be escalating our offense as well to counter such advances.
Isn’t that illegal?
The awarding of money and public duties to the private sector is a real slide away from the idea of a democratically elected government.
The administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership is a gargantuan model of that transfer of power from representative govt to multinational corporations, and I truly hope will be defeated.
And that pernicious model is mirrored in education, heaven help us.
They’re really making themselves irrelevant. If they’re planning on outsourcing their entire job to contractors, why do they bother working in government?
I also love this:
“In 2010, Allison received $107,889 for his work running the non-profit; in 2012, Allison reported an income of $156,582—a 45 percent pay increase in just two years.”
One can now just invent a job for oneself on the public dime. Why are we replicating positions? North Carolina doesn’t have a dept of ed and a legislature? They need another tranche of “executives”?
Ridiculous. This person wasn’t elected or appointed by anyone to fill a publicly-paid role. Start a non-profit, appoint yourself CEO and you’re in business!
Does anyone in ed reform ever do anything for public schools? These people are on the public payroll, right?
I know public schools are unfashionable, but one would think they’d feel some duty to do their jobs, despite their ideology and clear distaste for our schools.
The inevitable result of a government that has been bought from top to bottom by one guy, Art Pope, with enough money. These are the same folks who wanted, and may have succeeded, in removing accreditation from UNC’s Medical School because it teaches about abortion. Pray it doesn’t start happening in other states.
FYI Department of Education organizes a panel to review the Common Core. Everyone must read.
http://theadvocate.com/news/12477147-123/nominees-for-common-core-review
I was thinking about how we’re taking the “hedge fund” approach (roughly) when we unleash charter activity. What I mean is, a public school (which is supposed to be a community school and IS paid for by tax payers in the community) now has to compete against OTHER schools also paid for by the tax payers in the community. So. . .is the tax payer hedging its bets on success in the schools, or foolishly stretching resources in a myriad of directions? Or are the lawmakers deciding they will have a charter in their community so far removed from the community that they don’t really care? Perhaps we need better legislation that communities need to approve charters—not just the state approving them.
I believe that with the federal government involved (initially over integration and special ed services) and the state involved (initially over equity) people have forgotten that public schools are the community schools. (I even hear of private schools being referred to as “community schools.”) Are we so jaded to hedging bets that we don’t notice? Is this the result of a generation who grew up with blended and divorced families—such that we don’t really care much if we are hedging?
Is it because Wall Street doesn’t care about community, but this is the next best thing to caring (charter schools?) Parker Palmer says that by seeking community we seek abundance. . .and that in fact, community IS abundance. But that mindset is not prevailing here. I wonder if it is prevailing anywhere.
I heard of a 5th-6th grade public school having its staff come up with a marketing plan. This is not how it should be with public service. “Let me tell you how I can help you be part of a community best. . .” It doesn’t make any sense in terms of the lens of frugal spending and getting bang for the buck. But if hedging your bets is the lens, then I guess we’re right on track.
??
I honestly think people who went to private schools have trouble understanding the “public” part. They consider schools service providers- I mean, sometimes there’s some talk about the “school community” but they’re talking about within the school.
My husband went to private schools and he had difficulty getting it early on, when our kids started. He didn’t know why the whole town gets to weigh in on school decisions. He’d say things like “they don’t even have kids at the school!”
Yeah, but it’s a PUBLIC school. That means you get The Public (both good and bad parts of that) It’s baked into the idea 🙂
Which is exactly why the local public should have a say about whether or not charters can come in to compete with where they are putting their money, being that the charter is another entity also paid for by their money. Mostly, it’s the public getting taken for a ride. But like I said, I guess hedging bets is the way to go. And do we really have enough money as a state to toss it around on wagers that compete with one another?
I think it’s the result of the blended family mindset. I really do. Not judging it—I have a blended family and I’m from several. But, who’d have thought that would trickle into how the public allocates its money (and actually right now I think it’s because the decision to allow charters is too far removed from the communities they effect—-I think there should be laws on who approves them at a local level).
You are a perceptive commenter, Chiara; I always enjoy reading your comments.
by “the way to go,” I meant the way things are going.
“or foolishly stretching resources in a myriad of directions?” This is the point I try to bring home to ‘school choice’ folks. How could it ever make economic sense to replace geographically-central public schools with a myriad of smaller schools, all supported by the same tax base?
It doesn’t. make economic sense. It’s llke comparing box-store costs to a village full of mom-& pop boutiques, each paying the going property tax on his building. Yes we are for the public good, but no, we don’t imagine the tax base we can afford for education can support many small schools; we must have some economy of scale.
That conservatives support the ‘many small schools’ idea reveals the sub-text of this political movement. It’s not about saving tax expenditure, ‘small-gov’ etc. That’s a subterfuge. The ed-reform movement plays the conservative belief-set like a violin: “free-market principles will make ‘many small schools’ work (ignoring that the choice is between for-profit schools which must make an ever-increasing profit at the expense of ed quality and non-profit religious schools whose low income requires low-quality personnel/ ed.) “Large-scale schools have too much fed power/$ so they will always tell us how to ed our kids & waste our $ w/bureaucracy (encouraging those at the bottom of the heap to wink at removal of democratic rights, as they’ve always believed they get rooked & their vote counts for nothing.)
I think there are more than just those two categories for charters. The charters we have in western NC are secular, non-profit.
We’re shifting from a planned meal approach (so to speak) to a pot luck supper approach. One cover charge. . .all you can eat. Eat at your own risk.
Everything about education politics in NC is a disaster. Here’s more bad news:
http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2015/05/board-of-governors-eliminates-46-degree-programs-across-unc-system
OMG, I hadn’t read that yet. This is crazy. Take a look at the list of discontinued degree programs–education all over the place, particularly secondary ed. I keep praying that I can get my own children through the system down here before it implodes.
From the above article: Board member Steven Long, who is the vice chairman of the academic planning committee, said it best:
“We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand.”
This is all about money and the economy. When the economy went bad, the rich looked to where they could still make money in that bad economy. They looked at the budgets of the state and local governments, and saw that education was getting lots of funds in those budgets.
They then went about “reforming education” with a slew of new untested programs, all designed to funnel as much of those funds into their pockets as possible. When people questioned their tactics, they responded with “it’s all for the children.” However, as Mr. Long so eloquently said above, it’s not at all about the education of the children of our country. We’re capitalists, and we want to make money even in a bad economy.
There’s a good reason greed is one of the seven deadly sins.
Good statement, mathcs. Why do we let that happen? I don’t think Americans have ever felt so helpless. There are some very good populist leaders, but not nearly enough. The current administration has extended privatization in education.