Linda Lyon is the president of the Arizona School Boards Association. She is a retired officer in the U.S. Air Force. She served her country in the military and continues to serve it by her participation in defense of public schools.
Colonel Lyon made this stirring video about democracy and public education. It is short and powerful. Please watch and share with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Show it to your PTA, the school board, the town council, the League of Women Voters, and every other group committed to strengthening the common good.
This video was sponsored by the Network for Public Education and produced, directed, and edited by Michael Elliott, a professional cinematigher
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The video froze for me, but I had already seen it on the NPE Facebook page. Ms. Lyon speaks the truth, and she understands the pitfalls of privatization from all the wasteful privatization in the military.
Local communities should understand that their public schools are under attack. In many cases the government is working with privateers to destroy their public schools, a valuable community asset. Local public schools are the essence of democracy in action. The corporate privateers want to remove this asset from the community and move its value into their pockets. They want to force communities to adopt corporate education.
To stop them communities need to organize and create an action plan. Students should be encouraged to opt out. Local citizens should hold their representatives accountable by calling and visiting them to let them know your community is watching them. Complicit politicians in corporate pockets should be targeted for removal. Communities that fail to protect their public schools will be easier targets for privatization.
Her being able to draw on her experience with private contractors in the military really made her presentation more powerful. I wish we could find some doctors to speak out for public education drawing on their experience with the for profit takeover of medicine. The same with the postal service; it certainly has not improved with the push to privatize. My mail carrier changes probably on a monthly basis now that they are no longer coming from our town. Some days the mail doesn’t come at all. Other days we have to search all the possible places to leave it OTHER than the mailbox! I find it amusing that the private carriers use the public postal system to deliver to remote locations where it isn’t “cost effective” for them to deliver. How are the privatizers going to make it “cost effective” to deliver education to Nebraskans. Somehow the needs of the students never seem to be top of the list even within their own handpicked coterie of students. If they can’t make enough of a profit leeching off the public schools, They just close and move on to greener pastures. Somehow the concept of common good has gotten lost in this equation.
I watched that video. The word “democracy” was never mentioned. The woman posed some points, which are odd. She mentioned childhood poverty. School choice/vouchers will not, in themselves, address childhood poverty. Keeping poor children in dysfunctional government-run schools, with no hope of escape, only perpetuates poverty.
She mentioned that school choice will “siphon” money from the public schools. This is true, they will. She did mention, that school choice/vouchers will also “siphon” students from the public schools. You should always mention both sides of that coin.
I am a veteran, and a contractor at the pentagon. The US military could not function without the private sector. Private firms, like the Electric Boat Company, build submarines for the US Navy. The US Army does not build their own tanks, or rifles, these items are all manufactured by private enterprises. The Air Force has never built an airplane, ever since the Wright Brothers sold a flying machine to the Army Air Corps, all US air craft were built privately.
The future of education in the USA, is going to be built on a “mix” of public, private, and parochial schools, with more parental involvement, and more choices. As school choice programs grow, and prove up, parents will demand choices for their own children.
Wait and see.
Yes Charles, you are correct that the military industrial complex does provide a valuable service to our military mission. There are many functions that are not a core competency of the military (such as building airplanes) that have made sense to be outsourced. But, outsourcing the defense of our nation is not one of those functions. Where we’ve done that, as with Blackwater, it has not ended well.
Of course education is “built” on a mix of public and private. After all, our public district schools don’t publish their own textbooks, or build their own buses or computers. But, as with the military, the core mission of our districts — to educate ALL our children, should not be outsourced. I maintain this function, to ensure it remains a common good, should not be privatized.
I believe you intimate that when private schools siphon funding away from our district schools, it doesn’t matter because the student (and presumably the cost to educate them) goes with them. Unfortunately, all the costs don’t follow. Research shows that about 19% of the fixed costs (utilities, facility maintenance, administration, teachers, etc.) remain.
Ultimately, your “tell” about your perspective is that you used the term “government run schools.” This tells me that you believe government is the problem and that privatizing our schools is the answer to reducing the size of our government. I believe our public district schools, are critical to the good functioning of our democratic Republic in that they are the only schools that truly take all comers, are totally transparent and accountable, and represent their communities through locally elected governing boards. I believe that anyone’s right to “choose” where they send their child to school, should not be more important than my right to know how my tax dollars should be spent and what the return on investment is. I believe in REAL fiscal responsibility…that we get what we pay for.
You make some interesting points. Comparisons of education to the military are imprecise, and can be misleading. Diane always gets upset, when I quote Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli.
Our nation has a Defense Department, and the responsibility to provide for the common defense, rests with the government. The Defense department could not function, without the private sector.
I believe sincerely, that children can be educated in a diversity of environments. Rich, liberal elites, often put their own children in exclusive private schools. People who can afford it, often do not wish to hand over their children to government-publicly-operated schools. Strange how people like former senator Al Franken, fight for publicly-operated schools, and then do not send their own children to them. This is why I have pushed for a “slumlord” law, to force all politicians who claim to champion public schools, send their own children to the schools that they claim to love so much.
When a family chooses to opt-out of publicly-operated schools, and exercise choice, (and receive a voucher), the funds that would have been disbursed in the public school, are then disbursed in the alternate school. The student is “siphoned off” as well.
Of course, there are “sunk costs”. It costs the same to heat a classroom with 21 students, as it does to heat a classroom with 20 students. But as the school population decreases, the number of teachers, administrators, staff, etc. will also have to decrease. The same phenomenon occurs when a student’s family moves across the state, or across the nation. Fixed costs are irrelevant in the long run. In a choice environment, schools that do not “cut the mustard” will have to down-size. The smaller, more efficient public schools will likely improve, now that students who do not wish to be there, are gone.
When digital photography killed off Kodak, and Rochester NY lost population, the school system downsized. No one suggested keeping empty schools open, and paying teachers that had no students. School choice merely accelerates the dynamic.
I often use the term “government-run schools”. This is exactly what they are. If you find this term disparaging, then fine. I do not necessarily believe that government is the problem. Permitting parents the ability to “opt-out” of publicly-operated schools, and enroll their children in alternate schools, will not reduce the size of government. Government still has to issue the voucher to the family. The costs of government-provided education will not diminish. Only the location of the expenditure changes.
School choice may even increase the amount that this nation spends on education. When parents are given choices, and see the improvements in non-public schools, and the public schools feel the spur of competition, education is certainly going to improve. Citizens may be inclined to increase public expenditures on education, when they have more control over the expenditures.
In fact, in Arizona. the ESA is equivalent to 90% of the per-pupil expenditure, currently in the publicly-operated school. The state retains the 10%, and provides no educational services to the families which exercise choice.
I still cannot fathom the connection between publicly-operated schools and our democratic republic. Many(not all) of our government leaders were privately educated. Many (not all) of our government leaders, send their children to non-public schools, while mouthing support for publicly-operated schools.
Non-public schools do not have to accept all applicants. West Point is a publicly-operated institution, and accepts only about one applicant in a thousand.
Non-public schools can be held accountable, as well. Legislation can be enacted, whereby school vouchers can only be redeemed at schools which meet accreditation by an independent accrediting agency.
Government regulates many aspects of our lives. There is no reason to believe that school choice will result in non-public schools running amok, and failing to deliver quality education to their students. Legislation can be enacted to ensure accountability, and transparency. Such is the case at the vocational/technical school level, and at the university level. It can be accomplished at the K-12 level, as well.
Thank you, Linda for saying it so well.
Wow.
Reblogged this on Restore Reason and commented:
If you believe in REAL fiscal responsibility, where we get what we pay for, watch this quick video about school privatization and then share it far and wide.
Dear Charles,
You’ve obviously given a lot of thought to your position on school privatization. At 666 words, you covered a lot of ground. I do though, agree with some of your points.
Yes, children can be educated in a diversity of environments and yes, some rich liberals send their children to exclusive private schools. So do, rich conservatives. I believe that anyone has the right to send their child to any school they want, (provided the education is adequate), as long as they pay for it. When my tax dollars are paying for it, I want full accountability, transparency and to know the return on investment. Yes, legislation could be enacted to provide more accountability and transparency, but that isn’t the direction our state legislatures and now, the federal government are headed.
Yes, when the number of students in a school decrease, the fixed costs also eventually decrease. The problem is, the decrease happens over time and the costs are not scaled back with each student that leaves. That means remaining costs must be spread out over fewer students which means larger class sizes, outdated curriculum, older technology and buses and inadequately maintained facilities.
But, you start to lose me when you say that privatizing our schools will not reduce the size of our government. In Arizona alone, we have 60,000 public school teachers. These are government employees. If every public district school is outsourced, that would result in 60,000 fewer government jobs. The goal of the privatizers isn’t though, to save taxpayers money, or to produce better education for our children. In my opinion, it is to increase profits and reduce our ability to self-govern.
You also say you, “cannot fathom the connection between publicly-operated schools and our democratic republic.” Are you really serious? America’s system of public education, where all children are educated (not just the elite), played an important role in creating the greatest middle class in the world and was critical to making the American Dream possible. As for pointing to our current government leaders, (who you infer went to private schools), as proof of the superiority of that option, current events tell me that’s not a real strong argument.
You are correct that non-public (that would be private) schools do not have to accept all applicants. Therein lies the rub! Just as with our military, our public schools provide for the common good. That means, as John Dewey said, “What the best and wisest parent wants for his child, that must we want for all the children of the community. Anything less is unlovely, and left unchecked, destroys our democracy.” I believe the relentless effort to privatize our public schools reduces the opportunity for EVERY child to be all they can be. This ultimately robs our nation of potential and is in the end, unpatriotic.
Linda M. Lyon, Colonel (ret.), USAF