The public schools of Katy, Texas, are overcrowded. The district needs a new elementary school, but it can’t afford to build one.
But the city officials know what really matters in Texas: they are spending $71 million for a new football stadium.
Please, let us not hear any rhetoric from Texas elected officials about how they love the children, how they want the state to attract new businesses by having great schools, how they are planning for the future. The legislature never fully restored the $5 billion in cuts to public schools that they extracted in 2011.
The only investment the politicians are willing to make is in charter schools–and if Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has his way–vouchers. That, of course, is not new money. Charters and vouchers take money from existing public schools and transfer it to entrepreneurs and home schoolers and those who prefer a religious education. There is no new money.
Texans are being scammed. There is no investment in children. There is no investment in public schools.
But there will be a super stadium in Katy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is not surprising since Texas has a serious case of “Friday night lights” syndrome. They also generate a lot of revenue from football. Sadly, Texas also has a serious case of “reform” at the top of state leadership which has led them to slash budgets. Many in the government want public education to fail. Concerned parents and community members need to stand up and fight for more funding. If their representatives do not represent their interests, work together to vote them out.
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Many in the government want public education to fail.
May be true but the most eager to see schools fail are venture/vulture capitalists, other for-profits, and bloated foundations who want to scale up really bad ideas at the expense, literally, of citizens who pay taxes for publc schools.
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But then we’re talking about Texas. If the football team isn’t winning then the school is failing. 😉
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cross posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Texas-high-school-stadium-in-General_News-Children_Diane-Ravitch_Money_Politicians-161101-849.html#comment626370
with this comment
Look at what money and reform is doing. Tom Ultican https://tultican.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/charter-school-scourge-invading-sweetwater/
teaches high school math and physics in California. He has watched the arrival of charter schools in his district with growing alarm. He knows that their growth is a result of political connections. Nothing they do is innovative. They duplicate existing administrations. They add nothing of value. He concludes they are a scourge and a failed experiment. Their time has come and gone.
What he and most people do not know is how venture capitalism money is pouring into the legislatures which declare PUBLIC SCHOOLS as failures,and replace them with Charter schools, which do nothing for most children, and which have no transparency or regulations.
Diane Ravitch posts scores of reports on how EduProfiteers See a Big Market in Education. https://dianeravitch.net/2015/04/14/confidential-report-eduprofiteers-see-a-big-market-in-education/
She introduced us to California: Meet the Billionaires Who Are Financing the Spread of School Privatization | Diane Ravitch’s blog https://dianeravitch.net/2016/09/01/california-meet-the-billionaires-who-are-financing-the-spread-of-school-privatization/
and warns us to be aware that this is a worldwide takeover of education by the oligarchs who KNOW that getting people as kids, wins the battle to take over any nation.
Anya Kamenetz wrote an illuminating and actually frightening article https://www.wired.com/2016/04/apec-schools/
about Pearson’s ambitious plans to introduce for-profit education around the world. I quote the article at length because it is so important. I urge you to read it in full. It appears in “Wired” magazine.
See my series http://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
on privatization https://dianeravitch.net/?s=PRIVITIZATION
, using information thatDiane Ravitch provides about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, https://dianeravitch.net/?s=legislature
with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption . https://dianeravitch.net/?s=corruption
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don’t miss John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight episode on the insanity of stadium spending
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