The Minister of Education Nicky Morgan has proposed turning all British schools into “academies,” akin to our charter schools. She has decided that removing all schools from local control will improve them.
The British National Union of Teachers has threatened a one-day strike to protest this step towards mass privatization. Morgan, however, says she won’t change course.
“The Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has told teachers she has no intention of backing down, warning another teachers’ union, the NASUWT, that there is no “reverse gear” on the proposed reforms.
“Mrs Morgan was heckled and faced shouts of “rubbish” from delegates during her speech arguing that the compulsory academy policy would raise standards.
“The National Union of Teachers is no stranger to challenging government education policies – and a call for strike action might also have been as predictable as bad weather over a bank holiday weekend.
“But on the issue of the government forcing all schools to become academies, regardless of the views of parents, the NUT clearly feels it is tapping into a much wider sense of unease.
The union’s leadership thinks the government has wrong-footed itself over this, antagonising grassroots Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, as well as its more traditional left-wing supporters.
“Town hall Tories are a much trickier target for the government than what they would see as conference hall Trots [Trotskyites]. And there are murmurings of concern about what academy chains would mean for village schools and faith schools.
“The element of compulsion could aggravate parents and there might be difficult questions about the merits of successful local schools being handed over to an unfamiliar academy chain….
“The NUT annual conference in Brighton has supported calls for a sustained campaign against compelling schools to be academies, including a ballot for a one-day strike.
“The union’s treasurer Ian Murch said it would see schools being “stolen” from local communities by “arrogant ministers”.
“He challenged the handing over of schools to academy chains, saying that it would be a step towards privatisation.
“Mr Murch said schools should be seen as a “public service and not a business opportunity”
“Hazel Danson from the union’s executive said the policy of making all schools academies would cause “absolute chaos” at a time when there were more pressing priorities such as teacher shortages.
“She said the plans would “remove parental voice as well as parental choice”.
“The NUT wants to build a wider coalition of opposition to the academy policy.
“A number of Conservative party representatives in local government have spoken out against the plans which would remove the role of local councils.”
Indeed, the plan faces opposition from more than the teachers’ union.
A group of officials from all three national parties–Conservative, Labor, and Liberal–spoke out against the plan in a letter to The a Observer.
“The Observer letter, signed by Conservative councillors as well as those from opposition parties, says:
“There is no evidence that academies perform better than council maintained schools.
“Where a school is failing, there is no question that action must be taken – but converting every school, regardless of performance, to an academy will not tackle those issues.”
It goes on: “Schools value the option to become academies – and the support they receive from their local councils to do so – where they believe this is in the best interests of their students and communities.
“Forcing the change upon every school goes against, in many cases, what parents and teachers want, and there will be a large financial implication for local authorities at a time when communities are already suffering the impact of significant budget cuts.”
This is happening in schools in England and Wales. Scotland has a separate school system that didn’t sign on to these wasteful and problematic tests.
Here’s another article alone the same lines:
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/03/21/breaking-governments-forced-privatisation-schools-just-hit-serious-turbulence/
Notice how the pro-privatization spokesman channels Reed Hastings, and condemns “the shackles of bureaucracy” represented by democratically-elected local school boards. These citizen boards manage schools — the schools that are currently are under public control — and prevents from being forcibly put under private corporate control.
Damn that democracy!
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/03/21/breaking-governments-forced-privatisation-schools-just-hit-serious-turbulence/
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BREAKING:
The government’s forced privatisation of schools just hit some serious turbulence
by James Wright
March 21st, 2016 News and Politics
In just four days, two petitions calling for the government to halt its forced privatisation of all schools in England have reached over 100,000 signatures.
Including both petitions, that’s a rate of over 2,000 signatures an hour, counting the time most British people are sleeping. Both petitions reaching 100,000 signatures means there will be double the mandate for this policy to be debated in parliament. It is government policy that all petitions reaching 100,000 signatures must be ‘considered’ for debate.
And the pressure is mounting.
These petitions are accelerating exponentially following an uproar on Twitter, strong condemnation from the Labour party, and the UK’s teachers and pupils themselves. This unrest is spreading like wildfire, and coalescing within the Anti Academies Alliance – a campaign group made up of parents, pupils, teachers, MPs, councillors, and trade unions.
As The Canary reported, this forced move away from local government and local accountability amounts to widespread privatisation of schools nationwide:
When schools become academies the property deeds are handed over at no cost to unaccountable academy chains. Often, the ownership of the public land, institutions and school equipment is entirely transferred to the private sector.
This wholesale move to academies amounts to a sweeping privatisation of our schools.
Academies are directly funded by central government but may be topped up by corporate sponsors. Whereas comprehensive public schools are funded by and made accountable to local government.
While academies may be funded by the state, they are now owned by private sector interest.
The petition reads:
“The government has announced that every school in England will become an academy. This was not in their manifesto and is therefore a completely undemocratic move.
“In a representative democracy, the government should not be allowed to force nationwide privatisation of our schools without a mandate from the citizens.
“This move to academies means some of our schools will be controlled and owned by unaccountable ‘academy chains’- which call themselves ‘nonprofit charities’. However, companies such as arms manufacturers can gain control of our schools. Last year, BAE Systems took over the Furness Academy in Cumbria”.
The latter petition continues:
“There is growing evidence that academies underperform & serious questions about their financial oversight. Buildings & land are being handed over to unaccountable orgs. Once they are transferred there is no legal mechanism to get them back.
“Before all schools become academies we demand the government holds a full public inquiry – that takes into account educational research and the views of teachers, parents and students – followed by a referendum in order to show that they have a mandate.”
The government’s own Schools Minister said, only last September:
“This government does not believe that all academies and free schools are necessarily better than maintained schools [which are mostly local authority schools].”
Yet Osborne thinks academies are the ticket:
“It is simply unacceptable that Britain continues to sit too low down the global league tables for education. So I’m going to get on with finishing the job we started five years ago, to drive up standards and set schools free from the shackles of local bureaucracy.”
In Osborne’s view, it is the “shackles” of local “bureaucracy” that is holding back Britain’s education system. Not 25% cuts by his own government.
The government will maintain that academies cannot make a profit, but this is disingenuous. Academy chains can milk profits from our education system through huge executive and administrative salaries of up to £370,000 per year. They can profiteer through using central government funding to buy equipment and services from companies they also own. Like Aurora Academies Trust, which demands all of its schools use the American ‘Paragon curriculum’ at a cost of £100,000 per year. This is the very same curriculum patented by its parent company Mosaica Education Inc. Bosses are also known to exploit expenses claims on the back of the taxpayer.
It seems Osborne may be more concerned about the “shackles” of local democracy inhibiting profit.
In 2010, the government exploited a procedure normally reserved for counter-terrorism laws to rush through the ‘Academies Act’. This act circumvented resistance from teachers, schools and pupils through ‘academy orders’, which made it an imperative for the Education Secretary to turn ‘eligible’ schools into academies. This is despite there being no evidence academies perform better. Now this imperative is going nationwide.
The standard lease from the government to these academy chain ‘charities’ is 125 years for peppercorn rent. For everyone who is alive today this represents a permanent transfer of public assets to private hands. Taking the average cost of primary schools at £3,700,000 each, and applying that to the 16,839 primary schools in England (excluding special schools) shines a light on this wholesale move to academies. It means we will lose an estimated £62.3bn worth of assets for the next 125 years, for little or no return. And this is only the primary schools.
To add insult to injury, George Osborne is to spend a whopping £1.5bn of taxpayer money on merely making the transition to academies.
The legal side of this transition is worrying. How much does it cement privatisation? Would it be easy for another government to return schools to local government control?
The Anti-Academy Alliance told The Canary:
Local democracy has gone out the window – local input into schools has disappeared. They are even doing away with parent governors and overall it will lead to a break up of a national system of education.
Pressure is mounting for the Conservatives to U-turn on core budget policies. An array of Tory backbenchers have already revolted over the cruel disability cuts contained within the budget. They were joined by a 50-year-strong Conservative voter who resigned and sabotaged his own website in a defiant act of protest. IDS’ public resignation and condemnation of austerity policies has set a precedent for further uprisings from within the Tory ranks.
On Question Time last week, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan hinted that the government may retreat on the disability cuts, rebranding them as “suggestions”.
We could see the same backtracking with the forced nationwide move to academies. It would gain the IDS Brexit camp political capital to side with public opinion and project the blame onto the Cameron leadership.
A so-called democracy that denies the public a referendum on widespread privatisation of its children’s schools is beyond a joke.
These two soaring high petitions show that the public is demanding a say in their children’s futures.
Get involved!
-If you’re sleeping at the wheel and haven’t done it yet, SIGN the petition calling for a referendum.
– Sign the other one, too.
–Join the demonstration on Wednesday 23rd March
–Support The Canary so we can continue to bring you the stories that matter.
–Write to your MP, and tell them what you think about this wholesale move to academies.
wow. They’re running this scam internationally.
Is this The New World Order? http://www.threeworldwars.com/nwo-timeline1.htm#70
Novus ordo seclorum confirmed.
And what makes it appear to be more and more a scam, is that districts in the USA bring in (pay for and support) school “reformers” from the UK while the UK brings in (pays for and supports) school “reformers” from the USA…
For Ivonne,
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-vaccine-empire-on-trial-in-india/
Annuit coeptis.
Thanks, LeftCoastTeacher. I’m glad someone is wise to BMGF and is doing something about them.
“Schools value the option to become academies – and the support they receive from their local councils to do so – where they believe this is in the best interests of their students and communities.
“Forcing the change upon every school goes against, in many cases, what parents and teachers want, and there will be a large financial implication for local authorities at a time when communities are already suffering the impact of significant budget cuts.”
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Regarding the objections and arguments of parents, tax-paying community members, students, etc., remember this always …
Privatizers. Do. Not. Care.
They are going to shove school privatization down the throats of unwilling stakeholders every time.
Unless there is a mass… and I mean a MASS MOVEMENT of people who possess the will and the fortitude to stop them.
Privatization is a way for opportunistic people to make money in aging economies that have been damaged by the global market. It is easier and cheaper to cannibalize public services than undertake a new, risky venture, especially if the taxpayers are underwriting the investment. This is coerced corporate welfare providing a reliable stream of cash to corporations while it hijacks democracy and bypasses citizens’ input. I hope the citizens of Wales and England understand what it at stake and act accordingly to protect their rights.
It is interesting to note that both the US and Great Britain have a huge income inequality gaps. As vast amount of cash are in the hands of few, the wealthy can influence policymakers to make the government work for them rather than the common good, and privatization is a perfect example of this.
Oh, there it is, the word I’ve been looking for: Truly, they are “cannibalizing” public services.
It is super disheartening to hear about this issue now being an international problem. Privatization is only destroying public education and allows for big business to run our schools. This makes it so that these people who are funding the schools have a hand in the way in which our children are educated which is not alright. I fear that this push for privatization will continue and thus will continue to destroy our public schools which should be our most valuable public asset.
The takeaway- union members are champions for democracy. They are foot soldiers who, with hope, can build a grassroots movement that acts as a counterweight to the oligarchs’ manipulative politicians, the plutocratic media and, the richest 0.1%’s conniving,
through astroturf groups, lobbying, venture “philanthropy” grants, etc.
I am equally grateful for all the comments here.
This is unreal. Spreading like the plague. I don’t know what can be done. People everywhere are desperate for work and their choices are diminishing day by day.
All Corporate, All Greed, All the Time. Brits and their children might decide to run in the streets and let the academies and the economy collapse instead.
Yesterday I spoke with my friend who lives in Miami, Florida. She was utterly disgusted by the practice State Test her 3rd grader took. She’s been trying to convince her ‘obedient’ (compliant0 8 yr old to break the seal of the test (given this morning) and push it away because in FL there is no opt out available.
The essays on the practice test included one about a talking dog talking about how happy he was with his job which consisted of having to bark at people from time to time. The dog thought it was a good deal in exchange for 2 meals a day. The other animal asked why fur was missing from around the dog’s neck. The dog said that was from the chain his MASTER makes him wear. The other animal questioned further, having been appalled by this information but the dog said he didn’t mind and that he had a good life. This indoctrination has got to end!