All day long, I have posted about the free-market reform of the schools in New Orleans. I have done so because the mainstream media has been touting the success of privatization for almost ten years. States and districts have declared their intention to copy the New Orleans model, believing it was a great success. I just heard a CNN news report stating that the elimination of public schools was controversial, but test scores are up, and the city is investing in its children’s futures. The same report said that 50% of black men are unemployed and 50% of black children live in poverty.
As this report from the National Education Policy Center shows, the test score gains have disproportionately benefited the most advantaged students.
The rhetoric of corporate reform is always about “saving poor black kids.” In New Orleans, they have not yet been saved.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What more can be said here than has already been said. America, the world, will bear the consequences of this myopic, misguided catastrophe. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is NOT conducive to a productive society.
Until groups that are truly advocating for minority kids to get a fair chance look at the reality of corporate type school reform, we are never going to be able to pry the democrats away from their misguided support of these measures. In Los Angeles I was shocked at the groups supporting Deasy until you see these groups are heavily funded by foundations like Broad. Keep getting the word out there!!!
It’s just a crazy shot in the dark, but could the racial disparities in the data be less than a coincidence?
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/871841.
No, seriously, it’s a ridiculously insane argument I’m making: (viewer discretion advised)
http://whitehonor.com/white-power/national-socialist-stance-on-the-issues-education/.
No, really. This is stupid. There is no place for conspiracy theories like this. I must be paranoid, a lunatic. Don’t listen to crazy wing nuts like me.
http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/frau01.htm
Sure gives ‘Race’ to the Top a new meaning when I look at that ANP article!
Dear Diane,
I’m thinking twice. I wish I had an undo button to press.
What do you want to undo? If you want to delete your last comment, let me know.
Yeah, I don’t want to make the wrong enemies. I visited some pretty sketchy websites doing research for that post and I’m afraid I left a data trail. I don’t want Arne Duncan to see that post and use his power to look me up. My hands are shaking now. Could you please remove all this. Thank you thank you thank you.
I guess I’ll just have to take deep breaths and remind myself that it’s not against the law to be a Jewish teacher in this country. Yet.
LCT – I understand your concerns about the data trail. But for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re paranoid and certainly not a lunatic. I think you’re dangerously close to the truth.
Thank you. I hope I am wrong about the dangers of the data-rnet, though. I’ve spent too long in fear of the shadowy powerful reformsters. I am so weary. “Paranoia strikes deep/ Into your life it will creep/ It starts when you’re always afraid/ Step out of line, the Man come and take you away.”
Hey, what’s that sound?
LCT — FWIW, I’ve been reading my book club selection [Dueñas, ‘The Time In-Between’], & googling to learn more about the Spanish Civil War… it’s not that well-written (wordy, rather soapy)– but it provides a slant, other-cultured view of the early Nazi movement.
What struck me was the similarity to our own time. We are so accustomed to the idea that Hitler was a devil, & his machinations over the top. But what I’ve gleaned is that it was ‘immer das’, typical of so many times in history. When economic times are tough for an extended period, folks tend to regress to tribal values & look to expel ‘outsiders’ in their desperation to hang on to their shrinking piece of the pie.
Hitler, the SS, etc, are a stand-in for those who swoop in when there’s a vacuum of power caused by a major change in the status-quo. It is in essence an attempt to command and control the populace during the transition– usually accompanied by some ideological, utopian view of how things ‘should be.’ You can see the same thing operative, eg, during France’s ‘Reign of Terror’ (when the French Revolution failed to provide food for the populace), & during China’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ & during Pol Pot’s wholesale removal of urbans to farms.
So. Yes, I get why you feel paranoia. But I do not credit those links to KKK etc. Keep in mind, neo-Nazis have been popping up all over Scanianavian countries for 20 yrs: the cops have been doing an admirable job of popping them in jail. The US is more complex, but note how ready the country was to excoriate the SC multiple-murderer who wore Klan & Confederate signia.
All we need to do is promote democracy. We are teachers: there’s only so much we can do. If you can: teach the way you know how despite administration. As a parent, I promote Opt-Out, and I try to educate my friends.
New Orleans is a example of how the theory of disruptive innovation operates in education, except for faith in “breakthrough results” by the pushers of this theory.
New Orleans is a perfected case of voter disenfranchisement. Charters in this city and state, and in most states, are not functioning as public schools. In New Orleans “Voters … have lost control over the majority of their public schools, and have almost no say in whether they will get those schools back.”
In New Orleans….”local actors, parents and community members are concerned about their inability to participate in school decisions, the diminished local control, and the lack of transparency. Charter-school boards have been criticized for violating open-meetings laws, and the public does not elect charter board members, even though these boards hold authority over publicly funded schools.”
“Segregation now and forever” lives on in the South without George Wallace. And this is perfectly fine with all politicians and others who pontificate about saving the schools and working on behalf of the children trapped in them. The fixation on scores and strictly academic learning is part of the problem.
The NEPC report ends with this statement: “It is … important to ask how much local, democratic oversight the public is willing, or should be willing, to trade for somewhat higher test scores.”
So far, “the public” response has been insufficient. The use of “public funds with no public oversight possible” is not yet recognized as a civil rights issue and a blatant case of voter suppression.
New Orleans is not the only example of this thoroughly anti-democratic activity It is fueled by the largess and arrogance of groups who pretend to care about education.
It is appalling that some of todays “civil rights leaders” are perfectly fine with this form of voter suppression. Their eyes are not on the prize but on the almighty test score–a pathetic indicator of being well educated, a wondrous human being, an engaged citizen.
Insightful! Combined with a Valerie Strauss post I just read, I wonder if FOIA could be used to shed light on the private goings on of charter school boards across the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/26/sound-familiar-two-university-leaders-resign-after-using-personal-e-mails-for-business/
Using the Katrina 10th year anniversary to falsely claim that corporate ed reform has been a success in New Orleans has irked me as well. Where are Special Ed Administrators, Special Ed attorneys, and Special Ed powers that be?! Do Special Ed laws not apply to independent charter schools? How can they keep getting away not servicing students under Free Appropriate Public Education?
I so agree.Where is the ACLU? Has IDEA law been stricken down while I wasn’t watching? Can we please keep in mind that SpEd law is the only thing that provided a pit stop on 20thc. assembly-line mainstream ed for those who didn’t fit the mold– but had something to offer society? The current bent of repub-gov’d states to slash SpEd budgets can only result in turning the clock back to the days when those w/ talents not uncovered by stdzd tests are doomed to spend their days unemployed collecting welfare.
And considering that most “turn around” schools are given one or two years to “turn around” before they are taken over, you’d expect to see better results after ten years!
Worth a read and worth sharing, especially on this anniversary of the catastrophe of Katrina:
“The Systematic Disenfranchisement of African American and Latino Communities through School Takeovers”
Click to access out-of-control-takeover-report.pdf
Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
Diane Ravitch and the National Education Policy Center have offered a counterweight to the politicians and mainstream media who repeat the “feel good” story about how NOLA schools are evidence of the rebirth of the city. 50% unemployment and poverty rates are hardly evidence of a renaissance.