The New York Times just posted an outstanding article on the privatization of public services. Except for one. Public schools. The article includes descriptions of what happens when hedge funds and equity investors take over communication, emergency services, and more. But not public schools.
What happens when private investors need to make more money: they slash costs and services.
Please leave comments on the article and urge the reporters to turn their attention to public education.
Privatization, the hedge funders say, is “the civil rights issue of our time.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I didn’t see an opportunity to leave comments online. You may have to write a letter to the editor for this particular article.
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It is at the very end of the article. If you don’t see it, you may need to sign into the NYT.
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Yes, when I returned to the article again, there was a link to comments so I added my thoughts.
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I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but you might like some of the links in the LA Times article –
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-roza-charter-fiscal-impact-public-20160519-snap-story.html
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The kind of funding described in this article ignores the function of neighborhood schools as hubs of community. When a school’s enrollment declines, does it only need half a nurse and half a librarian and a half a principal? Which half does it get? The brains or the feet?
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The main reason this issue surfaced in the ‘NY Times’ is that the examples of failed privatization come from life and death emergency services. If you want to read an excellent analysis of why privatization of education is harmful to schools, students and teachers, I found a recent post in Peter Greene’s blog very insightful. He writes that considering education a consumer good removes it from the community responsibility. It diminishes public education’s value. As a result, policymakers can ignore and reject adequately funding schools which has occurred in state after state. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/attacking-public-in-public-education.html
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Sickening look inside the private prison industry:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-executive-summary
This isn’t the half of it. either. They privatize services to jails and prisons now and charge inmates rip-off rates. It’s really disgusting how this entire business model has grown up around ripping off poor people.
It doesn’t make me despair for the public sector. It makes me despair for the private sector – they are out of ideas- the only way they can keep making money is to take a cut of the public sector. They’re almost parasites on the public sector. It’s appalling.
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True Chiara, but such a successful, deadly parasite is a thing not to pity, but to fear.
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I also had a hard time finding a way to comment. I hope that this works… it is tied to the NY Time article. I followed Diane’s suggestion on expanding the series.
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The media are always careful to describe charter schools as “independently managed”, not as privately managed. They want you to think regulation is the enemy, not deregulation and privatization. They want the public to crave independence from what we know to be quality control. They do not want the public to know that charter schools are privatized schools, at least not until they have their monopoly and school choice means choosing a corporate service provider. Then they will shake their heads and say, “What a shame,” like they are now doing with already privatized communication, emergency services, etc. during this election year. “What a shame. Too bad. Oh, well. Move on. Lean forward. Hope and change…”
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Why is it that reporters are using the term “the civil rights issue of our time” so often?
The civil rights issue of our time is still very much alive–– we still don’t have equitable education for all students, and we still don’t have equitable treatment for all races and classes. The civil rights issue of our time has existed longer than the neoliberal economic policies to which America is currently clinging, and unfortunately, we are still violating the tenets of the civil rights movement.
We are segregating students (and monies) to help those deemed “worthy” by the corporate establishment, which seems to “want” to help, but doesn’t ask those they serve what they actually need.
Yes, privatization is a huge, huge issue in every facet of America, but it’s thriving off of the backs of children of color (black children, especially) and the poor.
Privatization is just the mode by which the money men stay in control.
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I saw the article and wrote a comment on this blog, but for a different post (https://dianeravitch.net/2016/06/25/north-carolina-the-ongoing-destruction-of-public-education). I’m going to copy here because it’s more relevant. Sorry for the repeat.
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It’s time to connect the dots… to private equity. An article in today’s NYT explains how private equity firms are hurting fire departments, ambulance companies, 911 centers, etc., which cities used to finance and manage but are now outsourcing:
The article provides a great analogy to what’s happening with public schools: they’re being replaced by charters whose funding comes from the same private equity firms. The only difference is that the charters hide under a guise of parental choice or “no excuses” and pretend to do better for kids. But ultimately, for the the investors, it’s about the money, not the kids.
The NYT article contains the following paragraph, to which readers of this blog might shout foul:
“While private equity firms have always invested in a diverse array of companies, including hospitals and nursing homes, their movement into emergency services raises broader questions about the administering of public services. Cities and towns are constitutionally required to offer citizens a free education, and they generally provide a police force, but almost everything else is fair game for privatization.”
Notice how the authors use the term “free education”? A big mistake. Free to the consumer is only part of what states’ constitutions mandate. Substitute the word “free” with “public” and other vital components emerge: quality, equity and local control. If citizens’ voices are not being heard through local school boards, and if there’s no oversight of hiring, spending, quality of services, etc., then it’s not public!
Charter networks seize on the words “free” and “choice” as if education were to be doled out, like a “free lunch”. They emphasize (in an Orwellian manner) the free part of what they’re doing with names like XYZ Public Charter. No matter that the schools aren’t really free—they’re taxpayer funded! In actuality, for charter schools, the word free means “free of local control”, or not being accountable to anyone but their financiers. Like fire departments, ambulance companies, and 911 centers, they’re a public service that’s being privately run. And the “non profit” veneer should fool no one. The private equity firms that are backing charter schools are in it for their own good, for the acquisition of public property, for the winning of no-bid contracts, for the self-dealing that is possible when there’s no taxpayer or citizen oversight.
The NYT article includes this quote about the danger of outsourcing:
“Private equity has, in this case, threatened public safety,” said Richard Thomas, the mayor of Mount Vernon, N.Y, which relied on TransCare. “It’s not the way to treat the public.”
The article also includes this quote, which could just as easily be applied to schools:
“We’re reaching new lows in the public safety services we will help provide, especially in very poor cities,” said Michelle Wilde Anderson, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in state and local government. Private equity firms, she said, “are not philanthropists.”
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Well stated. Our public services morph into privatized companies, and no one is the wiser, until an incident of mortal danger occurs. That is what the Third Way is about, a hostile takeover of public schools. The barbarians are no longer at the gate; they are breaking down the front door. Wait for our effete leaders to get their hands on Medicare and Social Security. Ryan has already proposed turning Medicare into a voucher, and we know how well vouchers work.
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I wonder which constitution the authors refer to. It’s not the federal one. It’s also not New Hampshire’s.
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Robert Reich just posted this article on Facebook too. He constantly addresses the issues of income inequality but rarely discusses education. Dr. Ravitch, if you haven’t reached out to him, I think he would be a very receptive audience.
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Isn’t this really about capitalism?
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Unfettered at its best!!
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Cross posted http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-NY-Times-on-the-Danger-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Attention_Communication_Democracy_Education-160625-404.html
withthsi comment which has links back to Posts a this site
Quicklink: Take Action NOW to Oppose Legislation that Will Harm Public Schools and Working People in NY! | OpEdNews
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Take-Action-NOW-to-Oppose-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Public-Actions_Public-Education_Public-Interest-160615-706.html#comment602148
It will be too late when the public wakes up.
The defunding of public education, and their replacement by charter schools, is ongoing across the United States, as the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, which OWNS all the media — works behind the scenes to take-over the schools and end THE INSTITUTION of PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Tell others to go there and watch THE END of our public schools, the ONLY way for our people to achieveincome equality and the American dream
There are 15,880 school systems, and the media is hiding there reality that schools are being systematically privatized, state by state. Put ‘PRIViTIZATION’into the search field at the Ravitch blog, and see for yourself.
Put Legislaturein the search field, and see how many states have already handed over the public schools to charter schools. Put charter school failure in the search field and judge for yourself what is happening.
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