My View: How and Why Philanthropists Should Support Public Schools

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1. retired teacher says:

   June 26, 2019 at 1:10 pm

   Thanks for the great interview and for reaching out to others that may not be that well informed.

   “Equitable public education has long been a civil rights issue.” Civil rights are a false pretense of privatization. Instead of equitably funding urban schools or working to integrate them, the scheming profiteers launched private charter schools under the banner of civil rights. They got a lot of traction under this false narrative, and a lot of well connected people have made fortunes on the backs of poor, minority students. The entrenched charter lobby wants to ever continue expansion instead of confronting the real problems of poverty and dysfunction. Evidence and democratic rights are no longer a priority, just market expansion. Any system that creates a tiered system of separate and unequal access is a danger to democratic principles. As Diane mentions in the interview, private charters pave the way for useless vouchers. We need to invest in our democratically operated, locally controlled public schools as they present the most effective and efficient option for diverse students. We need to improve them, not abandon them.

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2. dienne77 says:

   June 26, 2019 at 1:47 pm

   I can’t watch the interview right now, but here’s the biggest way “philanthropists” [sic] can support public schools (and public everything): pay your @#$%&!!! taxes!!!

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   • Duane E Swacker says:

     June 26, 2019 at 3:36 pm

     YEP!

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     June 27, 2019 at 12:59 pm

     They do pay taxes.

     In fact, they pay less taxes than ever since Trump was elected.

     What we need to do is raise their taxes so that they are paying what they should be paying.

     It’s a shame that Trump’s new pro-gerrymandering Supreme Court will make it hard to enact any progressive legislation for decades to come.

     If Bernie doesn’t win the primary, some people will decide that that Trump appointing even more right wing Justices will bring us a more progressive future.

     I still imagine what would have happened if we had Supreme Court decisions that made it easier for progressives to be empowered in the country.

     We might even have legislation that raised taxes on the rich that weren’t struck down by the right wing Supreme Court.

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3. Charles says:

   June 26, 2019 at 2:19 pm

   I am opposed to equity in public school financing. I support spending additional resources in the economically depressed areas. Inner-city schools need additional resources for nutritional programs, after-school activities, counseling, pregnancy prevention, and other such programs. There is a great deal of support from all across the political spectrum, for increasing investment in these types of expenditures.

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   • dienne77 says:

     June 26, 2019 at 3:36 pm

     “I am opposed to equity in public school financing. I support spending additional resources in the economically depressed areas.”

     And thereby Chuck demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the difference between equity and equality. Thanks for the chuckle, Chuck.

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   • dienne77 says:

     June 27, 2019 at 8:10 am

     For your reading pleasure, Chuck, this is actually a very good discussion on equity vs. equality (vs. justice): http://culturalorganizing.org/the-problem-with-that-equity-vs-equality-graphic/

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4. Linda says:

   June 26, 2019 at 10:12 pm

   Thank you for taking the issue of America’s most important common good to the source of its threat- villanthropists. Bill Gates and the Waltons have given education philanthropy a bad reputation
   Six years ago, the Watons handed over $600,000 of the $160+ million they spent on education to NPR presumably to influence those who listen to its programming. Nice to know that going forward a contributor to NPR, Ms. Travers, will have knowledge provided by the most important person in the education field to share with NPR.

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5. flos56 says:

   July 1, 2019 at 4:17 pm

   I know of a similar tale.

   A high school science teacher in the Buffalo Public Schools was kicked out of a high poverty-high minority inner city high school due to low test scores. Somehow she ended up at City Honors, one of the top high schools in the state and low and behold – overnight she became a stellar teacher with all her students passing the Regents, many with exemplary scores. She went from being the worst teacher ever to one of the best in only one year. A miracle or an example of the worthlessness of evaluating a teacher’s ability based on their students’ score on a single test.

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