Mitchell Robinson, a professor of Music at Michigan State, has travelled the world and discovered that others do not share our obsession with charters and standardized testing. The so-called reform movement has blithely closed hundreds or thousands of public schools and replaced many of them with charter schools. In the rush to privatization, reformers forgot about the purpose of public Ed ivatuion, which is not to make students ready for college and careers but ready to lead a good life.
Robinson writes:
“The charter school “debate” is no longer about charter schools vs. public schools (charters are not public schools — that myth has been exploded), or even about “for profit” vs. “not for profit” charters (the evidence HERE suggests this is really a difference without a distinction).”
No, the real issue here is about the true purpose of education, and whether continuing to support two separate but unequal, and inequitable, school systems is doing anything to improve education for all children. By any objective measure, the answer is a resounding “NO!”
The charter lobby has attempted, through spending millions of dollars on PR and marketing, to redefine the purpose of education from one about producing well-rounded citizens who are capable of making valuable contributions to our society and leading fulfilling lives, to a business-driven agenda of producing workers for corporate America. The latter “purpose” now drives much of our state and federal education legislation, which is rife with references to “21st Century Skills,” and insuring that high school graduates are stamped as being “college and career-ready”.
What the charter chains overlook is that the purpose of education is to prepare young people for lives of caring, compassion, and responsility.
“This is a radical repurposing of a public goal to meet the needs of private corporations, and is echoed in the mission and “vision” statements of the leading charter school management companies zzz.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Corporate Oligarchy who really rule the U.S. do not give a damn about preparing young people for lives of caring, compassion, and social responsibility.
Their only “responsibility” is to their own selfish bottom line and how to increase their wealth and power, and most U.S. politicians from the White House through Congress and the courts willingly and greedily facilitate this pernicious, destructive agenda.
From the Wall Street fraudster/banksters who crashed the economy in 2008 to the war-profiteering corporations making blood money since 9/11 on the absurd War OF Terror, with its illegal U.S. drone attacks and illegal U.S. invasions of foreign countries, the 1% Parasite Class only wants unquestioning Corporate Cogs to be indoctrinated in school, from 1st grade through college, so they can perpetuate the bloody U.S. global Empire for corporate/Wall Street profit, regardless of the lives of other people, or the principles of democracy (long since dead), or the U.S. Constitution.
Neither Hillary nor Trump will be any different.
Ed, I wholeheartedly agree. The debate, as I see it, has long since been over. This is the agenda and there’s no turning back, there’s just 1.) too much money at stake to not enrich the 1% with our tax dollars without oversight, and 2.) a political need to create uncritical, barely-literate, obedient workers who are just smart enough to shuffle the paper and run the machines but dumb enough to continually accept a miserable lot in life. The influential bribe money to set up this new system is just too entrenched into the political lifeblood. It is also part and parcel of the new form of government that has arisen since 9/11, a plutocratic oligarchy with its tentacles attached to the Deep State (see Peter Dale Scott and Mike Lofgren). It is the totalization of capitalism as predicted by Orwell.
There is so much money behind this failed movement that they continue their hostile takeover of public education despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Most policymakers are afraid to open their mouths in support of authentic public education. The only recent support I have heard came from Tim Kaine. I guess the hedge funds don’t have a foothold in Virginia. The government helps clear a path for the takeover. They allow Gates to essentially write policy. Our whole public policy is turning into a grotesque “pay to play.” Evidence does not deter the greedy.
Not only “pay to play,” but sit in a jail cell if you haven’t the wherewithal to stay in our game.
Many parents have caught on to the ruse perpetrated by billionaires and various foundations. Charters have lost their “new car smell.” Charter proponents have tried to mislead the public and “market” charters as public schools. Many parents now understand that attending a charter equals turning your children over to a corporation that will always put profit above the interests of their children. They realize that public schools represent the central hub of the community. They want their children to have opportunities in many different aspects of learning, not just reading and math. Parents want a voice in their children’s education, and they want their children to attend a school that aspires to equality and celebrates good citizenship. Parents are tired of unreasonable amounts of standardized tests forced on children in the name of “accountability.” Parents want prepared, qualified teachers, not teaching temps, for their children. Parents are tired of being misled by their government about the so called “value” of charters, and they don’t want to play the bait and switch game that is part of so called “reform.” They want the government to support strong, well funded, public education.
There’s a huge difference between Hillary and Trump. Trump is gathering a far right wing economic team which is salivating at the chance to undo all the social programs which we take for granted. He will appoint far right wing operatives to the supreme court. This is significant because he might possibly be able to replace 4 justices who will be on the court for decades. Hillary will appoint justices similar to Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan or Sotomayor. Hillary will not have as her goal the destruction of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and unemployment insurance but Trump will work to destroy these crucial social programs. Hillary is not a vicious demagogue fomenting racism, misogny and intolerance. It’s almost criminal to claim that there is no difference between HRC and DT. This from a Bernie supporter and voter. Bernie is supporting Hillary, I’m with Bernie.
The original piece where these quotes are from is here: http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/09/the-charter-school-debate-is-over.html
Yes!!!!!! The true purpose of education seems to have gotten lost……..
And what may that “true purpose” be and where may it be found?
I am partial to posts which refuse to get into the elaborate details of the reformers’ claims and actions, and instead they question the very foundation of the reform program.
This post is one of these I can easily relate to. It says
“Before you tell me about your supposedly wonderful plans to change our education system, could you explain what the changes aim to achieve in terms of the well known purpose of education, namely to prepare young people for lives of caring, compassion, inquiry, joy and responsibility.”
As soon as reformers then respond by talking about jobs and the economy, we need to interrupt them, and say
“Why are you changing the subject from the purpose of education to job preparation?”.
If they insist on still talking about jobs and the economy, we can listen to them for 2 more minutes and say rather impatiently
“Yeah, the ultra pragmatic view that equates education with job preparation has been found inadequate again and again in history, starting with the ancient Greeks and Romans. So can you tell me why you are trying to repeat history by attempting to redefine the purpose of education according to some ultra-pragmatic and antidemocratic philosophy that was outdated and superseded more than 2000 years ago?”
Indeed, even without these ultra pragmatist attempts to redefine education and change the curriculum, our educational system may be too controlling though its “hidden curriculum”:
1) school rules, detentions and rewards teach people to conform to society whether you like it or not!
2) school assemblies teach respect for dominant ideas
3) boys and girls to accept different roles in society with boys learning to be masculine and girls feminine
4) follow teachers’ instructions without question in the same way you have to follow a bosses orders
5) being punctual as your time belongs to your teacher/school and not you. This again replicates the way a future boss owns your time and so you’re being prepared for the world of work!
https://sociologytwynham.com/2008/12/20/hidden-curriculum-3/
…and the cruel punchline of it all just may be the 20/30 somethings who are well educated, with college degrees and saddled with college debt, who still live at home with their parents because they can’t afford the high rents and costs of living, and are either underemployed or unemployed or working as wait staff, baristas, receptionists, proof readers, day care workers, and/or part time workers at corporations like Fed Ex, UPS, Amazon who will not hire full time workers or provide sufficient benefits. Not to mention … Walmart…whose employees are often on government assistance.
Yes, there charter cheerleaders sell that all children should be college and career ready – they forget to add they mean for a job at Walmart, McDonalds, and the like.
“I am partial to posts which refuse to get into the elaborate details of the reformers’ claims and actions, and instead they question the very foundation of the reform program.”
YEP!
Thanks for stating that, Máté!
I cringe every time anyone mentions “21st Century Skills” as if these are written in stone. The mishmash of ideas in this meme came from Ken Kay a lobbyist for the tech industry. Kay was the founding Executive Director of the premier CEO advocacy group in the U.S. computer industry.
Kay twice tried to get his invented and illogical list of skills into federal legislation. That failed, but the meme has survived along with Kay’s work in education built by feeding on corporate personnel manuals as if these offer wisdom for educators and slapping a trademark on ideas that have been in circulation for a long time.
Kay is now the CEO of EdLeader21, offering consulting services and products to states and districts. Among the products are “vetted rubrics” arranged by selected grade spans (3-4, 7-8 11-12) for Kay’s 4C’s—critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. There is nothing new in the rubrics, but the last I checked they came with Common Core crosswalks, lesson plans, and more. These copyrighted materials are free to members of EdLeader21 but they can also be purchased by a site license. The district license included an implementation guide ($300) with $99 per school for the rubrics. A school license for a single grade set of rubrics sold for $249 and included a guide.
You can see Kay’s failed legislative attempts at S. 1483—110th Congress: 21st Century Skills Incentive Fund Act. (2007). In http://www.GovTrack.us. Retrieved April 13, 2014, from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/s1483
and
S. 1029–111th Congress: 21st Century Skills Incentive Fund Act. (2009). In http://www.GovTrack.us. Retrieved April 13, 2014, from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/s1029
Elsewhere I have posted about the fiasco called EdSteps (2011), created by the CCSSO because, at the height of marketing the Common Core. Ken Kay had succeeded in popularizing his meme–an unwanted distraction from the Common Core–with a few terms that educators loved and had not heard for a while, especially “creativity.”
The EdSteps website was supposed to provide a “test” of creativity based on a convoluted system of rating of submissions from anyone in the world, in any form, and blah, blah. see EdSteps. Creativity launches. Retrieved from http://www.edsteps.org/ccsso/ManageContent.aspx?system_name=nP6iGdNaft7MEwLG6uDXXA==andselected_system_name=DRkDdjiObdU=
In any case, it certainly is time for more discussion of the purposes of education, with the civic importance of public education given priority over economic justifications and faith in market-based education.
The use of public schools to meet the needs of the business community is far from a new phenomenon.
True, it is not new. What’s is new is the sustained effort to destroy public schools.
A great place to start to understand just how long businessmen have been trying to influence public education to suit there own ends (more profits, less expense) see the classic education text by Raymond Callahan “Education and the Cult of Efficiency”