Emma Brown has an informative article today in the Washington Post about education lingo and its misuses.
Advocates of vouchers call them “opportunity scholarships” or “education savings accounts” or something else, because the American public doesn’t like vouchers. There have been many referenda on vouchers, and they have been defeated every time. When Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick sponsored a referendum on vouchers in Michigan in 2000, it was rejected by 69-31%. The most recent referendum was in Florida in 2012, when Jeb Bush tried to pull the wool over the eyes of voters by calling his voucher amendment the “Religious Liberty Amendment,” hoping the public was dumb enough to be deceived, and it was defeated by 58-42%. Maybe had it been called “the Education Voucher Amendment,” it would have gone down by 70-30%.
Thus, privatizers use a different term: school choice.
“School choice” was long tainted because of its origins with segregationist white southerners.
Reform is now a tainted word as well because it is a cover for privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Promoting vouchers isn’t based on “evidence” or “equity” or any of that. It’s pure ideology.
Ed reformers know this. Their own studies of the voucher programs they’ve pushed in states indicate that public school outperform private schools:
“Competitive effects: EdChoice modestly improved the achievement of the public-school students who were eligible for a voucher but did not use it. The competition associated with the introduction of EdChoice appears to have spurred these public-school improvements.
Participant effects: The students who used vouchers to attend private schools fared worse on state exams compared to their closely matched peers remaining in public schools. Only voucher students assigned to relatively high-performing EdChoice eligible public schools could be credibly studied.”
They were so desperate to claim a “success” in Ohio they had to claim the voucher program improved PUBLIC schools. They invented causation.
Yet they’re all backing Trump’s backpack voucher plan. So much for “evidence”.
In fact, I have yet to see any ed reform program ended or deemed a failure. Apparently they have a 100% success rate for these experiments, which is ludicrous. They should stop claiming their ideological and personal beliefs are “science”- they’re discrediting the whole concept.
https://edexcellence.net/publications/evaluation-of-ohio%E2%80%99s-edchoice-scholarship-program-selection-competition-and-performance
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“It’s pure ideology.”
Actually it’s pure “idiology”
Idiology (n.) 1. A belief system based on lies, error and falsehoods foisted upon others by liars, scoundrels and thieves. ex: School choice funded by tax incentive scholarships will solve all of America’s problems except those caused by the Russkies and make Her great again. 2. The ideology of idiots. (archaic)
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In health care politics, opponents of universal health care uses the term “physician choice.” I’m working on an article linking rhetorical uses of school and physician choice. What parents and patients want is not physician choice but access to competence. If anyone out there has other examples in other issues of how “choice” is used in the tactics of political misdirection, I’d appreciate your input.
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GregB,
I do not know if this helps. I had a huge fight with Aetna over this issue. My doctor ran routine blood tests. Lab Corp sent me a bill for $400. I instructed them to send the bill to Aetna. Aetna refused to pay because unbeknownst to me, Lab Corp is not in their network. I was new to Aetna and I was unaware that a lab could be out of network. I e-mailed CEO and Aetna finally paid because they were thoroughly sick of me. As I later discovered, the in-network labs are listed on their website. Apparently, laboratory choice may be added to your list.
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Abigail, this is very helpful. I realize now that it’s really “consumer” choice that I want to highlight. Physician choice and the example you provide are subsets of the larger picture; school choice is another way of implying consumer choice, the consumer audience being targeted in this case are parents. All underscore my argument about access and competence.
The simple political behavior example is that of an airline pilot. The passengers don’t vote on who their pilot will be nor do they have the expertise to make an informed decision to decide who is competent to the fly the plane. We leave that experts who train and supervise the profession. And not having a choice doesn’t make the passengers less free; indeed, by being safe and secure, they have more freedom.
The same analogy holds true for schools (strong principals and leaders, teacher autonomy, respect for the profession) and health care (I may like my doctor, but I prefer a competent, effective one). Thanks Abigail, you pointed out something that I’ve long known about and was right in front of me but I didn’t see it.
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…being targeted in this case are parents and voters…
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Consumer choice is good. I am free to go to Nordstrom. If I cannot afford it, Walmart will welcome me. The example is overly simplistic. I am constrained in my choices by my SES. We travel in a viscious intellectual circle.
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Abigail, we can certainly choose to shop at Walmart, or at yard sales for that matter, as opposed to Nordstroms, or buy a cheap frozen pizza rather than go to a nice Italian restaurant with a wood-fired oven.
But health care is different. When people are sick, they should not be expected to shop around, find out exactly what their new health plan covers or not, etc. It’s not like buying a new dress, or a pizza. We need universal health care, for the common good and the general welfare.
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Zorba,
All of the services we access are tiered. One insurance company is only allowing patients to go to certain pre-approved hospitals. My friend who has Medicaid was repeatedly turned down for a crown on his tooth because the cavity was not deep enough. I am not advocating for differentiated health care, differentiated dress purchasing, or differentiated pizza consumption. I am merely pointing out the reality.
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I fully understand, Abigail.
I was just pointing out that health care should not be left to insurance companies.
Just as education should not be left to for-profit (or even non-profit but unaccountable) charter schools.
Education is another thing that “promotes the general welfare.”
As do, for that matter, decent roads and bridges, national and state parks and monuments, healthy air to breathe and water to drink, and many other things.
We are all citizens together, and these all should be paid for with taxes and citizens working together.
Unfortunately, it appears that, at least for the next four years, we will be subjected to more and more privatization, all for the profits of businesses and the already wealthy.
😥
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Thank you Abigail and Zorba, your dialogue helped me sort out parts of my piece.
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So my libertarian Doctor dealing with his “Democratic Socialist ” leaning patient (me)turns to me and says who is going to pay for my loans, In your system. Duh!! Bernie has a solution for that one as well.
And when you get the results of that Blood test ,one would assume that if needed like everyone else your doctor might prescribe medications. A medication that you or your insurance company will pay ten to a hundred times + more than what is worth, if it is still under patent protection . How does one say free market and patent protection in the same sentence. Only when the Pharmaceutical industry owns congress. We already spend 30 billion through the NIH on drug research double it and eliminate Pharma or pay for their research and the payback is 300 billion +. oops.
And back to that lab Abigail, your insurer was absolutely right to insist that you go to his preferred lab but why does he have a preferred diagnostic facility? Do we really need MRI and Cat scan machines on every corner or would we be better served with having less facilities operating more efficiently. If we were paying these costs directly and were given the choice to show up at 11pm or even for a lower rate 3 am or driving 5 miles extra that would be just fine .
So when we talk about those wait times in Canada ,which have been rectified, understand the people least concerned about it are Canadians because they were overwhelmingly for elective or non emergency treatment.
Choice is highly overrated and most of us are not in the position to judge a quality item. The worst rated car I had is 13 years old ,never had more than a brake job. My much, much newer highly rated car has been a headache. It took me 20 years to appreciate my seventh grade science teacher, who we all thought was senile when he accidentally burnt the Delaney cards once a week. Mr Sherman knew exactly when to wake his sleeping class. While at the same time putting a cog in the ridiculous system.
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GregB,
Will we get to read the article?
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When we were asking voters about charter schools in 2011 for an Ohio ballot referendum we found a lot of people believed charters were selective public schools, like magnet schools. When we told them many Ohio charters are for-profits they were shocked.
People make assumptions when they hear the word “public” and those assumptions include “nonprofit”.
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Tricky frauds and/or con-men.
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The voucherfication of public education and public services reminds me of rationing during World War II. Families recieved booklets with vouchers for specific purchases–gasoline, shoes, ladies hose, lard.
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That analogy is false. During WW2 there were shortages of consumer goods, so the government rationed items. People still had to pay for their items.
A voucher program will enable people to have more choice, not less.
I would not put too much stock in referenda. In 1969, in Bowling Green KY, the city held a referendum on whether to permit a cable TV company to set up in the city. The people voted it down.
In 1981, the town council permitted a franchise to set up cable TV, and now Bowling Green KY has cable TV.
Remember what it was like when there was only one phone company? Monopolies have no incentive to innovate.
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I remember, CEMAb4y. When AT&T was a regulated monopoly, my monthly bill was $5. Now it is $200.
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(Telecommunications is my profession). AT&T bought the patents for cell phone service in 1946, and sat on them for decades. I remember paying for each long-distance call. I remember when all there was, was one style of phone a Western Electric 36. AT&T developed touch-tone dialing in the 1960’s and it decades before it was available widely. It was illegal to plug your own phone, into an AT&T line, and forget about answering machines, they were prohibited, too. Believe me, no one wants to go back to the “good old days” of monopoly phone service.
Now, I pay $99 per month, for bundled local service, internet, unlimited long-distance, etc. And remember air travel, in the days of regulation. The Civil Aeronautics Board told the airlines what they could charge for a plane ticket.
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I liked the regulated air fares, too. Way better than now. Last time I looked, a round trip ticket to Cinn from NYC was more than RT to London.
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There’s no “monopoly” in public education. There are thousands of districts in this country. That’s a huge difference when compared to only one phone company for the entire nation. Many have “school choice” already, in the form of open enrollment in any school in the district.
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dianeravitch
Showing your age my first bill was 19 a month .
As I sat on my last uncomfortable flight that I booked 4 months in advance. I thought back to when I used go up to the counter of a competing airline and hand them my ticket if they had a seat a half hr earlier. Nor do I remember having to hop on a scale with my wife and my luggage to make sure one was not over weight.
Like the interstate highway system that never would have reached those taker States if not for the Federal Government’s, taxation and regulation . The national air traffic grid served less lucrative routes with a bidding system that insured that each carrier got a mix
keeping less lucrative flights affordable.
So we gave the titans of American Industry exactly what they wanted the Government off their back . They sure showed us how to profit.
Pan Am, TWA, Eastern , North West , Continental. National,
defunct.
US Air and American bankrupted .
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cemab4y
Your 99 dollar phone line is a VOIP connection essentially eliminating hard wired switching stations. The fact that all three services are now delivered over the same usually fiber optic network is rather unremarkable . We are talking technological advances not the power of markets . Most people have one or two choices of internet / phone carrier.Who market similar packages.
http://cepr.net/blogs/cepr-blog/broadband-in-the-us-is-slower-more-expensive-than-in-most-oecd-countries
But yes that patent that you referred to is why there is no free market is the most blatant example of Government interference in markets. So if ATT was not able to buy that patent, we would have had cell phone service decades before. Very informative and a good reason to question our notions of how markets really work.
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Diane,
Here’s another deceitful term.
“Lifelong Learning”
It seems pretty innocuous. Sure, there is always more to learn in our professions or occupations as well as in civic life and the expanding universe of knowledge.
Then, I listened to a presentation by Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse (R). I was curious since he had not endorsed Trump. Sasse has a background in history. I was cautiously hopeful.
Well, it turns out that his is an extreme libertarian vision of “lifelong learning,” which is probably what that term has meant all along: that the future won’t have long-term jobs. People should learn to be adaptable and that most jobs will have a short life as a result of continual change. That’s a prescription for an expanding lower class of part-time workers, deceptively called “contractors.”
Erich
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Yes, Erich, and many jobs will also continue to disappear with increasing automation.
At the same time, the Republicans seem to be determined to cut or privatize any and all benefits for the lower class (and the elderly, too).
So, as the lower class expands and expands, who do businesses think will be left to buy their products and purchase their services?
I’ve never understood that one. The rich can and will only buy so much. And yes, many companies sell stuff overseas, but not all do.
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Also lifelong learning can be an excuse for excessive professional learning that is actually all about implementation of predetermined policy, not discussion, development, reviewing research, etc.
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I believe you are talking about teachers being “professionally developed” so that they will implement said (sad?) policies.
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Professional development at my school: The administrator looks at the spam in his email box, finds a tech product he likes, and spends an hour a week trying to get all the teachers to sign on the dotted line for it.
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I chuckled once when a woman said “opportunity to take a nap” to the kiddo in day care… it hit me how the “lingo” gets to be very controlling…., we are also taught to offer a special education child a “choice” with a meal” do you want Peas or carrots with your lunch?” Problem comes when the professional in the administrative chair starts turning the same logic on to the other professionals in the room…. it is usually about imposing or controlling … it is not authentic communication between two adults (there is another TV lingo you her in a jocular fashion when the husband says to the wife “do you want to be right? or do you want to be happy?” ( I sense a threat is being imposed.) So do you choose a voucher (which will give you 600 towards the expensive private school tuition) or do you choose the charter or the ESA? (BECAUSE that is what the Walton Foundation says is all you deserve.
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Here is how I introduced at Oped News, Emma’s essay:
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Education-Lingo-and-How-It-in-General_News-Education_Education-Costs_Education-For-All_Education-Funding-170102-926.html#comment637560
“The education world has been feuding for years across this semantic divide which provides the equivalent of FAKE NEWS to anyone trying to grasp school issues and the privatization movement called “education REFORM.”
“This ‘Orwellian’ movement toward choice — or privatization — has accelerated during the past decade, giving rise to charter schools and voucher programs nationwide.nd now the battle is headed toward political center stage:
“School choice has gained perhaps its most powerful proponent ever in Trump, who has called it “the civil rights issue of our time” and pledged to spend $20 billion to push for an expansion of charters and vouchers.”A semantic divide exists about education.“School choice is a code for ‘privatization.’ Vouchers are called ‘opportunity scholarships’ or ‘education savings accounts’ or something else, because the American public doesn’t like vouchers.”
I also added this comment, which has embedded links if you go to it at Oped.
Folks, listen…there are 15,880 school systems, and the media is hiding there reality that schools are being systematically privatized, state by state.
While the election circus is hiding this American tragedy there are sites where you can get the TRUTH; Living in Dialogue is a great site, like that of Diane Ravitch or the Network for Public Education(NPE), to learn how fast YOUR PUBLIC EDUCATION is being usurped by the plutocrats of the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Put ‘PRIVATIZATION’ into the search field at the Ravitch blog, and see for yourself, or Put charter school failurein the search field and judge for yourself what is happening.
Tell others to go there and watch THE END of our INSTITUTION of public schools, the ONLY way for our people to achieve income equality and the American dream”
“Look at this example happening under ur noses! “Massachusetts: Billionaires Ready to Pour Up to $18 Million into Charter Referendum
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In the age of fake news is is often what has been omitted which spreads the lie. While “true,” this headline should read: Billionaires Ready to Pour Up to $18 Million as Means to Lower Public School Value with Charter School Referendum.
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You got it, ciedie!
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The people who brought us the bogus “civil rights issue of our times” have helped precipitate the real civil rights issue of our times, the presidency of Donald J. Trump. These people are so obviously utter hypocrites. Choice is a joke. It is a tool to break the system, continue the hypocrisy, avoid responsibility and continue to live out their sick overblown dreams on the backs of others.
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I wish more people realized the veracity of your statement. They often get misled by the rhetoric that is repeated ad nauseam. Some believe “reform” will improve education. In reality it is a way for corporations to mislead the public and gain access to public dollars.
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All of this discussion about labeling and lingo, reminds me of an old joke. “What is the difference between rape and seduction?” – Answer: “Marketing”
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My daughter earned her degree in lying, oops, I mean marketing.
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Cemab4y,
That’d be a rape joke. Interesting choice of metaphors. What if people don’t want to be raped or seduced?
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OK, I can see why the blog site put my last comment in moderation. Questionable word choice. Touchy subject. Maybe we can avoid it in the future.
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LCT, WordPress arbitrarily put your comment in moderation. I did not.
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Yep, I know Diane. No problemo. This time, I think I know why. It was probably because I used the r-word.
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Or Bill Gates hacking with a laptop in his basement.
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yes, it is rationing; in the schools they are now using tests to decide who deserves education …. I recall rationing in W W II all too well. as I have told people here before my father was gassed by the Germans when he was an ambulance driver in France during W W I so his heart and lungs didn’t work properly. We did receive books of stamps for meat etc. and with 8 kids there were a lot of “stamps” but the problem was you also needed money to go with the stamp to accomplish a “purchase” and since my dad couldn’t work with his health condition we had only what money my mom could raise (and she would hang wallpaper and do other chores)… so then she would go to the store with her stamps and a few quarters…. had a lot of stamps left over after leaving the store (the money always ran out first) there were wealthy families who would “trade ” her for food stamps; it was probably illegal but what did I know , I was 4 or 5)… so they would take her meat stamps and give her fruit cake (something they got for Christmas I guess that they didn’t like. I was the only kid I ever knew who actually liked fruit cake).
I am not telling this in bitterness but just to describe what a “voucher” will buy… The family will receive a “school voucher” for say $600 and the private schools charge $15,000 and up…. then after a year or two the government (under Trump ) will say “that voucher is really welfare so we are not going to give it to you any more’ we are sending you the full bill. ” The charter schools are fulfilling the rationing lists by creaming off “the top” off the families and they force the teachers to commit malpractice to give the tests so they can make up their rosters. The next thing you know Trump will come in to pick up the rosters and deport the kids on the lowest end of the test score ranks….You saw him mock the disabled children. . you can see why I am losing friends because I describe this and my friend for 40 years says I have to be “moderate” and he is the Prez and I have to go along with his policies. One can learn from experience and still not feel “bitter” but I don’t feel very hopeful for the next generation living in Trump’s world. I have also told my friends that i refuse to use the term Asperger’s because Dr. Asperger cooperated with the Nazis in signing children off to the “hospitals” where they were poisoned and the death certificate said “pneumonia”. My friends tell me I am “extreme” and trump can’t do those things. I put this one on Schumer’s Facebook page and someone wrote “stop trying to be politically correct” and someone else wrote that Dr. Asperger was never a Nazi (he didn’t have to be — in order to do their work all he had to do was fill out a health condition as “infirm” or something. He didn’t sign the death certificate so he could deny it…. I told my friends I will use high functioning autism and autism spectrum but two of them are still calling it asperger’s.
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cx. disabled journalist not child (p.s. they taught us to mock our parents and even psychology was used as “treatment” to tell you that your parents were bad because they couldn’t afford the food. Just like today when they shoot up a school yard full of children and then assign “counseling” for your anger at the murder and the slaughtering. How many newscasts now end with “and grief counselors will be available at the school tomorrow for the children who witnessed the murders”…
when my friend says be “moderate” I will hold on to my mournful rage at the election of trump by know nothings and by people who just want tax cuts… and people who tell me “i’m a nurse and there are too many getting free health care” ….
McConnell was set to obstruct Obama on every move and that is what I saw for 8 years and we even lost the right to appoint a supreme court justice ; whereas others say be moderate: “get 48 democrats and then go after Susan Collins and Jeff Fake and one other practicing the art of the possible.
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In spite of all the rhetoric, I am not yet convinced that any serious school reform is going to take place in the short term. Trump has come up with a proposal, and a proposal is a long way from a reality.
Does anyone think, that the congress is really going to allocate $20 Billion dollars to the states, to set up a school choice program? And even if, the money is allocated, will the states spend the balance required to establish school choice? I just do not see it.
One topic, that no one seems to notice is: term limits for congress. During the campaign, Trump spoke some about enacting term limits. After the election, Trump had some meetings with Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and one topic discussed was term limits.
McConnell explained the facts of life to the President-elect, and told him in no uncertain language, that term limits for congress were “dead on arrival”, and there would be no placing of any such proposal on the congressional calendar.
“It is better to stop bad bills, than to pass good ones”- Calvin Coolidge.
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CEMAb4y,
Trump is not proposing new spending on education. He is proposing to turn existing expenditures for poor kids and for other purposes, maybe kids with disabilities, into a voucher. Congress might well say, have at it.
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I have no crystal ball, to predict the future. The Pres-elect may submit a proposal to the congress, along the lines you suggest. The congress might consider it. It is still a long way from reality. It is going to be an interesting debate.
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Diane, your voice is needed now more than ever.
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Please remember, too, that, overwhelmingly these euphemisms are being used to refer to education programs for the lower middle class and the poor. In the Chicago suburb I live in, which includes mostly upper middle-class and the 1%(and a few real middle-class people like myself), believe it or not, they have this crazy system where the kids go to the school closest to their house!! So, most of the kids can actually walk to their school! And, guess what, most people, including a few very well-known 1%ers, actually send their kids to the public schools! The village, incredibly, actually funds the schools, so teachers can afford to live in or near the community. Teachers often stay for decades at the same school. There are excellent class offerings and a ton of quality after school programs for kids from kindergarten to high school. Imagine that!!! Mmm…kind of interesting how these fantastic schools are simply not available to the overwhelming majority of Chicagoans. But wait, I DO have friends who live in certain neighborhoods( mostly on the north side) that Rahm has decided to favor. Like me in the ‘burbs, these friends are actually able to send their kids to…the thriving neighborhood schools. Again, mmm…why is life fabulous and easy for myself and these friends and not for the impoverished majority who could really use a break. I shouldn’t use such a sarcastic tone-sorry-this is truly a tragic situation.
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Kirtley said DeVos is redefining the idea of public education.
“Today public education means district magnets, charters, virtual schooling, dual enrollment with colleges, and even scholarships to private schools,” he said.
“I know Gov. Bush shares Betsy’s belief in this new definition of public education,” Kirtley said.”
The “new definition of public education” is private schools. Public now means absolutely nothing- it can include private and for-profit, really whatever these people say it means.
Words have no meaning in ed reform.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/jeb-bushs-consolation-prize-233097
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The most misleading concept/term in education is “measuring student achievement” or “measuring student learning”. The concept has been misleading educators into deluding themselves that the teaching and learning process can be analyzed/assessed using “scientific” methods which are actually pseudo-scientific at best and at worst a complete bastardization of rationo-logical thinking and language usage.
There never has been and never will be any “measuring” of the teaching and learning process and what each individual student learns in their schooling. There is and always has been assessing, evaluating, judging of what students learn but never a true “measuring” of it.
But, but, but, you’re trying to tell me that the supposedly august and venerable APA, AERA and/or the NCME have been wrong for more than the last 50 years, disseminating falsehoods and chimeras??
Who are you to question the authorities in testing???
Yes, they have been wrong and I (and many others, Wilson, Hoffman etc. . . ) question those authorities and challenge them (or any of you other advocates of the malpractices that are standards and testing) to answer to the following onto-epistemological analysis:
The TESTS MEASURE NOTHING, quite literally when you realize what is actually happening with them. Richard Phelps, a staunch standardized test proponent (he has written at least two books defending the standardized testing malpractices) in the introduction to “Correcting Fallacies About Educational and Psychological Testing” unwittingly lets the cat out of the bag with this statement:
“Physical tests, such as those conducted by engineers, can be standardized, of course [why of course of course], but in this volume , we focus on the measurement of latent (i.e., nonobservable) mental, and not physical, traits.” [my addition]
Notice how he is trying to assert by proximity that educational standardized testing and the testing done by engineers are basically the same, in other words a “truly scientific endeavor”. The same by proximity is not a good rhetorical/debating technique.
Since there is no agreement on a standard unit of learning, there is no exemplar of that standard unit and there is no measuring device calibrated against said non-existent standard unit, how is it possible to “measure the nonobservable”?
THE TESTS MEASURE NOTHING for how is it possible to “measure” the nonobservable with a non-existing measuring device that is not calibrated against a non-existing standard unit of learning?????
PURE LOGICAL INSANITY!
The basic fallacy of this is the confusing and conflating metrological (metrology is the scientific study of measurement) measuring and measuring that connotes assessing, evaluating and judging. The two meanings are not the same and confusing and conflating them is a very easy way to make it appear that standards and standardized testing are “scientific endeavors”-objective and not subjective like assessing, evaluating and judging.
That supposedly objective results are used to justify discrimination against many students for their life circumstances and inherent intellectual traits.
C’mon test supporters, have at the analysis, poke holes in it, tell me where I’m wrong!
I’m expecting that I’ll still be hearing the crickets and cicadas of tinnitus instead of reading any rebuttal or refutation.
Because there is no rebuttal/refutation!
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