This came to my email. I thought you might want to know that the battle against privatization of public schools is international.
The Association of Women Head of Families (AFCF), the Coalition of Mauritanian Education Organisations (COMEDUC) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), are publicly releasing today their report submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in August 2018, concerning the growth of privatisation and commercialisation of education in Mauritania.
Following the submission of the report to the CRC and Mauritania’s later examination, the Committee expressed deep concern regarding ‘the recent closure with no apparent replacement of six public schools in Nouakchott’ as well as ‘the limited availability of preschool education and primary schools, and the proliferation of private schools’.
Mauritanian civil society calls for support in denouncing the closure of public schools in Mauritania and in appealing for the Mauritanian Government to uphold the right to education.
The report in English, French and Arabic, as well as its summary are available here.
More information on the research project on privatisation and commercialisation of education in Mauritania available here.
Information on privatisation of education in the Francophone area available here.
We hope that you will share the report and its findings widely.
Best,
The Association of Women Head of Families (AFCF), the Coalition of Mauritanian Education Organisations (COMEDUC) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can it be that so many people are against public ed? The real problems with any schools are the kids who come from families that do not care about education. People who do not work in schools or who have never worked in a school just do not realize that the core problems are not with the schools but rather the homes from which the kids come from
You-all probably already know this, but the battle over privatization isn’t limited to public education.
It encompasses water and other public utilities too. There are huge battles being conducted in the United States right now over the privatization of water systems and water itself- the resource.
I expect the water battles will (no pun intended) heat up considerably as global warming increases and fresh water supply becomes an issue.
Ed reform is within a larger privatization context, and the same people on the Right who support the privatization of water systems also support the privatization of public schools.
Watch your municipal systems for essential services- they’re up for sale, too.
I was really struck by the current effort on career and technical education in the Trump Administration and the US Congress.
The only people they’re speaking to are CEO’s. Do they really believe the only people who have any skin in the game on workplace issues are CEO’s?
There’s no employee voice at all. They’re designing career and technical education exclusively from the standpoint of CEO’s. It’s just breathtaking how out of touch they are with reality. It’s as if every student who learns a skill or trade will be a CEO or an owner.
They’re utterly ignoring 99.999999% of working people, designing systems FOR working people.
We only hear what public schools do wrong from the ed reform chorus, so I thought I’d mention something my son’s school is doing that he really loves.
They bring in younger kids to be tutored by the older kids. They do it a lot now, so it must be considered a success. He was the math tutor for one group and one of the younger kids gave him a Christmas gift- he was REALLY flattered. I don’t recall a thing that has happened at school that pleased him as much as this gift did.
Anyway- whoever came up with this- good job. I’m sure people have been doing it for 200 years or whatever, but I hadn’t seen it before.
This brings back memories. I was privileged in ’50’ to attend the last 1-room schoolhouse [K-3] in my region– a little old 1823 yellow-painted clapboard square topped by a belfry [bell pulled by rope at school start & beg/ end of recess]. There were about 30 kids total, ranging in ability from professors’ kids to somebody’s cousins who just moved North from Appalachia.
Veteran teacher managed w/aplomb: e.g., in early pm, K would be post-prandial napping, while she led a lesson w/1st-gr, while 2nd-gr did wkbk hw from a.m. lesson, while 3rd-gr readingding circle was led by a professor’s kid.
Elder students leading younger students was an intrinsic part of what made it all work.
GERM is everywhere! This is an epidemic that is spreading worldwide. All communities and countries must fight this plague. Otherwise, you will lose education as a public common good. The global 1% wants to monetize education, and offer a cheap electronic gimmick as a substitute for legitimate education. Fight and defend your public schools!
Big Tech thinkers so ruthlessly eliminating the world of human social interaction: all computers all the time
The privatization of public schools is a form of colonialism, but instead of European countries, this form of colonialism is being led by autocratic, extremist US billionaires attempting to impose their views and thinking on the world and not just the US.
If there is a “Deep State” that wants to globalize the word under one order and/or religion, these autocratic billionaires are the ones behind it — not Obama, the Clintons or liberals as The Trump wants us to think.
That last para sounds like conspiracy theory, but I think I know what you mean.
It’s one of those chaotic periods that is the wake of new global developments. Power has been shifting and lurching from too-rapid tech advance [Toffler!]: the old “3rd world” industrializes, industrial powerhouses bleed jobs to automation, digitalization extends the reach and concentration of finance lickety-split, leaving natl/ regional/ global govtl orgs to lamely play catch-up. Not a lot different from power-grabs consequent to opening new continents to trade, revolutions, discovery of vast resources in weakly-governed regions.
Sadly, US has responded to these shifts by weakening its own govt w/ 40 yrs of dereg/ free-market policies, spawning billionaire predators clashing for power w/n our own borders.
This is one of the most recent stories that helped fuel my comment that allegedly reveals a conspiracy theory.
As Chase Koch is replacing his father Charles Koch he says he wants to change the focus of the Koch brothers political machine and if you read the piece you will see that some of the older members of ALEC aren’t happy with what Chase is saying he is going to do with its (destructive and manipulating) political machine once he takes over Koch industries. The reaction of one or more of those extremist Alt Right racist billionaires is the evidence that the conspiracy led by David and Charles Koch is real.
David, in his 70s, is dying of pancreatic cancer and Charles is in his 80s and old age is slowing him up. Charles is also proud of Chase stepping up to take over.
When you reach the part about Chase (and his sister) as a 12-year old being indoctrinated, brainwashed, programmed by his father, you might experience chills.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/14/koch-brothers-chase-charles-next-generation-223099
“Privatization” is the corporate/Wall Street code word for “Profitization”. Corporations are all about PROFIT, so you know what would happen to cost and the curriculum if they took over: If public schools are ever profitized, education will eventually be only for the wealthy and the wealthy kids curriculum will teach how great corporations are and how the world is meant to be ruled by the privileged class, not mere commoners, even though commoners will still pay the taxes that go to profitized “public” schools that are for the upper class only…which is just what the rich elite want — they don’t want commoners becoming educated and perhaps challenging them. “Privatization” is really Class Warfare.
This is about France Yellow Vest Protests Include Resistance to School Corporatization.
I dunno what’s behind it exactly.