Mitchell Robinson, chairman of the music department at Michigan State University in East Lansing, read the story about the decision by the Justice Department to stop sending inmates to privately-managed prisons, and it occurred to him that private prisons are similar to privately managed charter schools.
Here are comparisons:
Consider the following chilling parallels between charters and private prisons:
Private prisons house 12% of inmates nationally
Charter schools enroll 6% of students nationally
Private prisons are not locally managed or controlled
Charter schools are not locally managed or controlled
Private prisons do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs and resources as government-managed correctional facilities
Charter schools do not provide the same level of educational services, programs and resources (i.e., special education, music, art, library, social workers, school psychologists, school nurses) as public schools
Private prisons are not subject to the same level or degree of regulation and oversight as government correctional facilities
Charter schools are not subject to the same level or degree of regulation and oversight as public schools
Privately contracted prisons reported more incidents of inmate contraband, higher rates of assaults and more uses of force than facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Charter schools, like Success Academy and KIPP, have been reported as having more incidents of student suspensions, higher rates of student misbehavior due to draconian behavior policies and expectations, and troubling incidents of teacher abuse (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/nyregion/success-academy-teacher-rips-up-student-paper.html?_r=0) than the public schools in their communities
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So, how do charter schools get away with being categorized as “public?”
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They are worse than prisons. Smithsonian magazine’s July-August 2016 issue has a piece with photos called “Two Nations” by Luci Tapahonso with photos by Daniella Zalcman. The only difference is that the corporate charters aren’t forced boarding schools, yet, and shaving the children bald.
Here’s the intro paragraph.
“For more than a century the U.S. Forced Navajo Students Into Western Schools. The Damage Is Still Felt Today.”
When you read this piece, those schools sound exactly like the corporate charter schools and their no nonsense policies.
‘The schools followed military structure and discipline: Children were divided into “companies,” issued uniforms and marched to and from activities. Their hair was cut or shaved. Because speaking Navajo was forbidden, many children did not speak at all. Some disappeared or ran away; many never returned home.’
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/decades-us-government-forcibly-placed-native-students-western-schools-effects-felt-today-180959502/#KZKpp2ZkzMMTqBtj.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
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http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/decades-us-government-forcibly-placed-native-students-western-schools-effects-felt-today-180959502/?no-ist
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The private prison industry was brought down in part by an expose by investigative reporter Shane Bauer in Mother Jones magazine. Bauer went undercover and worked for four months inside a private prison.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer
More charter school teachers and administrators need to tell their stories. They KNOW what is happening isn’t right. For every TFA teacher who leaves teaching to become an ed consultant or political operative, there are many more who leave teaching mid-year or after one or two years, disillusioned of their idealistic blackboard jungle dreams and wise to the pitfalls of the ed reform movement.
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Very clever wording! “Do not provide the same level”!
Could be more, could be less?
In respect to, for example, music and art, for example, I am a little curious as to what the data does show.
Chess too for that matter. Anyone have figures.
FWIW, I had the pleasure of attending a delightful performance last night of “Roxbury Strong” by the students of “Boston Arts Academy”. Hugely impressive bunch of kids.
That’s a traditional school:
“Although admission is academic-blind, eighth graders must audition to be accepted to the performing arts program. In 2007, only 27% of the dance applicants were accepted, just 6% were accepted to the drumming program; and just 25 of the 81 theater applicants. BAA had 800 applicants for 150 slots in 2011.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Arts_Academy
Fortunately for kids who, as I did, utterly lack talent, we have a Conservatory Lab Charter school here with open admission by lottery: “Conservatory Lab does not require potential students or their families to attend interviews or informational meetings as a condition of enrollment. Conservatory Lab does not administer tests to potential applicants or predicate enrollment on results from any test of ability or achievement. ”
Click to access Conservatory-Lab-Charter-School-Enrollment-Policy-2015-2016.pdf
BTW, it might be noted in passing, that while:
“Private prisons house 12% of inmates nationally
Charter schools enroll 6% of students nationally”
I find even more persuasive the near coincidence that Thai restaurants serve 11.7% of public school (incl. charter school) parents.
OK, I made that up.
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Not just prisons… Privatization of other services is causing pain. Here’s a pertinent article from NYT about care for the elderly:
Without a doubt there are services that members of a free society must provide for themselves, for equity, quality, accountability, and even lowest cost. And by “provide for themselves”, I mean through democratic control, not the marketplace. Schools are definitely on that list. So are police and prisons. Perhaps, as our society evolves or just matures, elderly care will get added to that list. That’s okay. There will always be plenty of products and services to shop around for and prove the worth of a free market.
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I read this today, and I wondered who would protect the elderly against the corporate vultures. Silicon Valley is joining in “investing in the elderly by cutting costs so that the elderly can be diagnosed at home using video medicine. This seems to be another Wall St. scheme to gain access to public funds. In this case they have targeted Medicare and Medicaid. According to NYT, this is a promising investment that should yield a 12% return. This at home approach has been tried only in Colorado and California so far, and there is lots of room for expansion and profit. Let the horror stories begin!
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Privatization of public functions like prisons, eldercare, water, schools has one fundamental goal: opening that great spigot of government funding to private profit.
What’s necessary is rejecting the Reagan mantra that government is always the problem and never the solution. That’s the ideology of market fundamentalism, and it’s as damaging to democratic institutions as other forms of fundamentalism.
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There’s more than just profits at stake. The U.S. Constitution was written to protect the people from their own government but not billionaires and private sector corporations. With tort reform and corporate client agreements where the customer won’t get served unless the customer agrees to only arbitration, selected by the corporations, Americans are giving up their due process rights to go to court.
Every time you sign up for a service be it telephone or internet, there is an agreement where you sign away your right to go to court and sue the corporation no matter what happens. And if you refuse to sign, you will be rejected by the corporations. This should have been challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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I don’t think public school advocates should compare schools to prisons.
I didn’t like it when ed reformer Rauner compared public schools to prisons in Illinois and I don’t like it when “our side” does it.
There are lots and lots of other privatized entities to use.
For example- the federal government won’t fund privatized water systems. Why do they fund privatized school systems?
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Chiara,
The example that Albert Shanker used was the public swimming pool, which many communities have.
If you don’t want to use the public pool, should the government pay for you to have a private pool in your backyard?
Should it be required to be open to everyone since it is financed by the public?
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Investors in private prisons root and lobby for incarceration. Charter School proponents root and lobby for conditions leading to the perception of for public school failure. Both are parasites.
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Egging this rooting and lobbying on is the “quota” funding which drives so much of the incarcerating/policing abuse.
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“At press time, the residents of Delaware, OH, were considering a plan that would hand over the management of all its recreation programming to the local YMCA.
[…]
“UTILIZING EACH OTHER’S STRENGTHS
“In Nevada, one of the states hit hardest by the recession, the city of North Las Vegas recently awarded the YMCA of Southern Nevada a contract to manage its 36,000-square-foot SkyView Multi-Generational Center. SkyView, which features a 5,000-square-foot fitness center, an indoor swimming pool and several group exercise studios… The center opened under Y management this month.”
“‘Nonprofit organizations are more business-focused,’ Beckner says. ‘The public parks and recreation departments tend to see themselves as being service oriented rather than revenue oriented. In a successful organization, these aren’t mutually exclusive.'”
http://clubindustry.com/nonprofits/public-private-partnerships-recreation-facilities-offer-advantages-each-group
Yikes… next think you know they’ll be making people line up in a row to get off the diving board.
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“non-profits are more business focused”?
Government services are not about how to make a profit. They are about serving the most people when serving some citizens will be expensive and some will be very cheap. It is about sharing the costs of those services so that poor people have their needs met.
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“Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther is sending his 6-year-old daughter to the Wellington School, an elite private academy in Upper Arlington, Columbus Monthly reported Monday.”
Ridiculous. Our political leaders feel it’s perfectly acceptable that they be completely and utterly isolated from their decisions.
We should open a special gated community so they don’t accidentally run into any below average riff-raff.
Throw the bums out. All of them. Start over.
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I love the analogy to public swimming pools. I hadn’t heard that one!
I’ve been suggesting that public education advocates ask candidates “If you agree that social security and the VA should not be privatized, can you see that public schools should not be?”
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“Charter schools do not provide the same level of educational services, programs and resources (i.e., special education, music, art, library, social workers, school psychologists, school nurses) as public schools”
Having been educated in the Netherlands, none of the above are offered in public schools, nor are sports etc.
But like many other countries outside the US, where those things are not offered either, the absence does not seem to hinder performance when looking at international test scores.
Having worked in the US public school system for the past 20 years, I would not consider the presence of such as a help. What I do see is that the majority of school funding goes to the two extremes of TAG and SPED.
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As a fan of Orange is the New Black, I couldn’t help but think of the movement to privatize schools as I watched the prison’s privatization horror of this season.
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Struggles49,
I thought of the corporate takeover of prison in Orange is the New Black but hesitated to say that I found the series fascinating
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Hi Diane
If you have not seen it or already been alerted to it, you should watch (and then post a link to) John Oliver’s show last night. His segment on the mis- and mal- feasance of the charter school industry and state regulators is excellent.
Best
Harry Feder
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Harry, it will be posted at 11 am.
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Charter Prisons. Issue each convict a voucher and let them choose their own approved incarceration option. Allow companies to tailor services and features (at a cost) to attract prisoners to their facility. State maintains standards, market drives competition.
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