A reader who goes by the sobriquet “speduktr” wrote:
I have never really understood the choice mantra. My taxes were not tuition for my children, and they certainly are not intended for someone’s individual use now that I have no children in the system. They were and are meant to support the education of every child in my community. Parents are not entitled to a chunk of that money to be used how they see fit. That money is for the common good. For me, I don’t even have to get into the discussion of charter machinations. They are beside the point.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s exactly the point: Capitalism as it is presently practiced strikes at the very core of community. It transforms community and even family into the principles that govern a Tupperware Party. If you don’t want to buy something (and so offend the host), you are not welcome: don’t come.
To use Kantian terms, it makes everyone and everything into a means to the capitalist’s ends, instead of ends in themselves. CBK
So TRUE. The GREED of these pompous A**** is disgusting.
Public Education and Public School Teachers are two od America’s TREASURES.
I could NEVER teach in a charter school.
Public Schools is for the COMMON GOOD and this is where our young learn about diversity and how to get along with others. Those who attend private preppy schools and charter schools are MISSING OUT on wonderful experiences.
The DEFORMERS are so WRONG and we know they are about JIM CROW.
It turns citizens into consumers.
It has become a philosophy of “Me First, Me Only.”
I pay school taxes, and support publicly-funded education, because it is the proper thing to do. It is better to live in an educated society, with educated and skilled adults, than to live in an uneducated society. Education is a bargain, compared to the costs of prisons and welfare.
Who can dispute this?
I expect to pay for the education of other people’s children through public education. Lots of people without children helped pay for my education and my children’s education. Now it is my turn to pay for other people’s children. It is an investment in our collective future. We pool our resources to build a better, safer society.
I also resent being forced to pay for for charters and/or vouchers in which I have no say. I feels like taxation without representation because all the so-called representatives have been co-opted.
Being forced i.e. “expected to pay” $8,000 -$10,000 per student voucher to a Catholic high school because that’s what billionaire-funded conservatives like Fordham want, should lead to open citizen revolt. This year, Catholic, all-boys high schools sent students to D.C. to take part in a campaign to deny women’s rights.
The voucher program cost in Ohio is estimated at almost $50,000,000 for 2019.
(Statistics from Dayton Daily News)
If tax money is actually personal money to be used as we see fit, I want my share of the military/national surveillance budget back. I’ll even donate it to Amnesty International or Medicins Sans Frontiers.
I’m sure the right-winger, “free market” types will be fine with that, right?
Many of the 1% only want government to pay for strong military and police forces — to protect them from the rest of us. Pure self-interest with an ignorant lack of understanding of how constitutional democracy works.
GOOD comment and very wisely spoken. Our taxes should go for the common good. Too much is wasted in Indiana on politicians who have ‘all the answers’ and none work. Nothing ever seems to change.
Beto O’Rourke Built His Career on Driving Out Low-Income Mexican Communities
https://truthout.org/articles/beto-orourke-built-his-career-on-driving-out-low-income-mexican-communities/
One section of this article shows how a very new, well-attended school in El Paso, Texas is being inexplicably closed, and its students, mostly of Mexican background, are being transferred to two older schools near pollution sites, resulting in overcrowded classrooms.
Ed: I don’t understand why people who have power are so blasted mean…and even worse, I don’t understand why people keep voting these miscreants in power.
One of those stories that should have a national audience.
DeVos is sending a boatload of money to El Paso to monetize these Latino students. She will have some of the “strivers” placed in IDEA private charters. I guess the “untouchables” will stay at their school on the dump site. However, there will be a lot less money for the neediest students due to charter drain.
El Paso will soon have a large number of new IDEA charters, financed by the federal government. Beto’s wife works for the organization paving the way for charters.
A few years ago I had an “encounter” with a libertarian knucklehead in the comments section of Hank Kalet’s (NJ poet, writer, professor, part time journalist) Channel Surfing blog (which is more or less defunct now). The libertarian said that he should not have to pay for the education of other people’s children, each parent should be responsible for their kid’s education; they should either home school or send their children to a private school, PERIOD! What about poor parents, single parent homes in which the mother/father is working at two or three jobs. Tough luck, not his problem. These parents made bad decisions and so they will have to live with them. At that point, I was in a red hot rage and was yelling at the computer screen at the rantings of this libertarian idiot. He was not a billionaire, just some fool who had adopted an extreme form of libertarianism. He was even for privatizing the police, fire departments and public roads! This fool would be the first to be adversely affected by his own deplorable cult. Libertarianism works for the billionaires not the average person. How do you reason with such nincompoops. Oh, and he kept referring to the government as the “gooferment,” over and over; I guess he thought it was clever.
Public education is a positive good from which everyone benefits, even if you have no children or your children are now adults.
Joe Jersey: “How do you reason with such nincompoops?”
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no reasoning with some people. Facts don’t matter because their mind is made up. Faux thrives on people like this.
carolmalaysia It’s not only ME-FIRST, it’s ME-ONLY. CBK
ask him if he has ever heard of medieval Europe. Anarchy is so close to libertarian ideas. They claim Locke, but they are really more kin to the nihilists, who believe nothing. In actuality, they would have a fit if the hated government allowed someone to harm them.
“He was not a billionaire, just some fool who had adopted an extreme form of libertarianism. He was even for privatizing the police, fire departments and public roads! This fool would be the first to be adversely affected by his own deplorable cult.”
Well, yes, but when he becomes a billionaire….
That’s the power of the “American Dream”. Nitwits like your acquaintance think that they’re going to become rich, and when they do, they don’t want it all going to poor, stupid schmucks (nevermind that he must be a poor, stupid schmuck if he’s not already rich, right?)
dienne77: Some people, not the brightest ones, believe that they are ‘soon to have money’, and they don’t want their future earnings being given away to ‘those’ people. Not many actually do ever get rich, and the wealthy continue to enjoy putting their money in the Cayman Islands for safe keeping.
The irony is that a lot of these freedom loving libertarian types are military contractors. They will openly reject paying for education for other people’s children, a living wage and pension for teachers. They sometimes assert that teachers are taking advantage of public money. They are mega-hypocrites. If anyone rides on the “public dole,” it is military contractors that charge $125 dollars for a screw. It is the tax payer that is getting screwed by profiteering contractors. At least teachers do an honest job by making an investment in the future. It is unfortunate that much of what they do goes unnoticed.
Libertarianism is simply rule by strongman. It’s “‘Do as thou wilt’ is the sum of the law. Survive if you can.” https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/18/the-most-astonishing-anthropological-fact-that-i-know/
I should add that Hank Kalet is a good progressive and not libertarian in any way shape or form. He is very tolerant and allowed the libertarian nudnik/troll to spew his ridiculous comments. This particular libertarian makes Harlan Underhill look like a bleeding heart liberal.
To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre: “L’enfer c’est les libertaires.” I hope libertaires is French for libertarians.
You’re correct on the French. I was a French major in college and taught it for four years.
Democracy (community) is about WE….Competition (capitalism/free market) is about ME. Most people want to live in a Democracy, but they don’t want to pay the price of that privilege…… Money and the power of ME (and mine) rules the day. Everyone, including big business needs to pay their taxes. PERIOD!
My view is that choice allows students to choose the approach to education that mosts suits them, and in tern allows teachers more freedom to teach in a way that is different from other teachers in the district.
If a school board is going to tell the students on the 500 block of Oak Street that they must attend school A and the children on the 600 block of Oak Street that they must attend School B, the school board must make every effort that school A and school B are identical. If children on both blocks could choose from either school, School A could be a Montessori school and B could be a Waldorf school.
Even in public schools with the same curriculum, there is a difference among the teaching style of various teachers. Some teachers are more authoritarian, and others are more laid back. Some teachers do a lot board work, technology, writing. etc. Other teachers have students work in small groups. I have visited many classrooms in public schools. Please do not assume they are “all the same.” They are not. Real teachers are trained professionals that can be quite inventive and distinct in how they approach content. Many teachers are inventive and creative. Some teachers use music, and others use drama. Public schools are not “one size fits all” despite the efforts of so-called reform to turn them into test prep factories.
Well said and correct, rt.
Retired teacher,
I certainly agree that there is some difference between teaching styles. It is politically tolerable as long as the differences are not large and not generally known by the families in the community.
Zoned public schools are most certainly one size fits all because they must do the best they can for however lives in the catchment area. As has been said here in the past, a school that does very well for Peter hurts Paul. I think the general opinion here is that it is better to have a school that is mediocre for all students than one that is especially good for sime students and poor for others.
Teachingeconomist: “I think the general opinion here is that it is better to have a school that is mediocre for all students than one that is especially good for some students and poor for others.”
Nobody here is saying that. What makes you think that a school that discriminates is better? You are playing the race card. Keep the wealthy and good students in one school and the poor in another. Each will get what they deserve.
TE is a snob and an elitist. He must be uncomfortable teaching at the U of Kansas.
teachingeconomist Carolmalaysia is correct–your statement below harbors a false dichotomy, as there are ONLY two choices, and both apparently are set in stone.
You say: “I think the general opinion here is that it is better to have a school that is mediocre for all students than one that is especially good for some students and poor for others.”
Those on this site have LONG explored the different foundational meanings that underpin the PUBLIC vs. PRIVATE, and the DEMOCRATIC vs. CAPITALIST/CORPORATE establishments of educational institutions. Your “thinking” is not only over-generalized, it’s completely wrong.
Also, there is NOTHING about public education in a democratic political milieu that necessarily invites or ensures “mediocrity,” except perhaps the bad motivations constantly coming from the snobs and racists among us who are themselves contemptuous of democracy itself.
From that powerful but wrong-headed view, the draining of financial and other supports from public education (and from its democratic roots) only paves the way for their self-fulfilling prophesy of public-education’s mediocrity or failure to become a reality and, in the end, fascism while the oligarchs link-arms with the strong man in charge of governmental power. Good luck with that, and with all of your over-simplified, half-baked, ideological-only thinking. CBK
I wonder if you are really as clueless as you sound or are just amused by people trying to answer your nonsense seriously.
Carolmalysia,
When i wrote that I was thinking about the general opposition here to the kind of curriculum offered by schools like Stuyvesant High School, general opposition here to AP courses, and support for large traditional zoned high schools that would not find it worthwhile to spend resources on classes that only a handful of students in each catchment area would be interested in taking.
I am not sure why you think anything I have said has anything to do with race or income levels.
Catherine,
My post here has nothing to do with who runs a school. It is about how students are admitted to a school.
If we eliminate “choice” so that schools admit all and only students living within their catchment area, publicly run schools like Stuyvesant High School and Thomas Jefferson High School would cease to exist. Eliminating “choice” would, I think, eliminate the ability of any high school student to access the curriculum and community of students that these choice schools provide. Do you think that a traditional catchment based high school could provide a student with a class full of students studying differential equations?
I fully agree that we need more variety within public school systems. In order to achieve that, we need to lift the burden of universal “standards” and tests off public school systems and allow them to run more alternative schools, vocational schools, and teacher-run experimental schools-within-schools, all with unionized teachers and district oversight. What we don’t need are the scandal-prone charter schools in which the incentives are to provide the minimum in services to kids in order to maximize management profiteering.
I did a puzzle today & the answer was Johnny Carson. The question was, who said “People spend more money on entertainment than for education?”
I would include sports events within that “entertainment,” & I would add material possessions, as well.
Nothing is more important than education. Not.One.Thing.
I’m picturing that question in its hermetically sealed envelope, & Johnny Carson a/k/a Carnac the Magnificent divining the answer 😀
Exactly what I was thinking!\, bethree5!
Retired-
Evidently, education ranks lower in importance in Ohio than doling out welfare to Catholic schools through vouchers. Fordham’s study, to its dismay, found vouchers had no positive effect on outcome. Even Ohio’s senate committee chair for education, who never met a common good she liked, questioned spending an estimated $50,000,000 taxpayer dollars on vouchers (the money goes mostly to Catholic schools).
No doubt Fordham thinks its doing God’s work.
Tax payers need to start challenging how money is spent. Vouchers provide no value, and they harm the schools that most students attend. It makes no sense to do something that costs a lot of money, but provides no benefit to students.
Florida’s governor DeSantis is also a Catholic and supportive of vouchers. A lot of the vouchers in Florida go to right wing Christian academies that teach fake science. Business types offer “scholarships” while they reduce their tax burden. It’s a scam.
Theocracy is the tool the oligarchs use in the U.S. to undercut workers rights and democracy.
Linda:What bothers me is that many of these workers don’t see the destruction. It is just like the farmers who are in danger of losing their farms but still support the Orange Swamp Monster.
I guess there is a hatred for those who are weaker and poorer. It gives some people someone to look down upon and as long as those people ‘keep their place’ as an underdog life is good.
Carol-
I talked with a young guy, two children, striving to put food on the table. He was still repeating the mantra he grew up with- shouldn’t expect nor take help from the government. He lives in a rigged economic system as did the 1,000,000 Irish who died of starvation. He can’t afford the medical care his family needs because the oligarchs’ politicians take care of the insurance companies and big Pharma.
His taxes go to the grifters of charter schools who fund the state’s political party.
He grew up in the rural, white, Catholic community that now votes for Jim Jordan. A school board member made overtly racist statements without a thought to its harm.
I presume that in the guy’s community, the only perceived dignity left is camaraderie over values of the past that no longer work in an America where the 99% are one medical emergency away from bankruptcy and one paycheck away from hunger, cold and eviction. The greed of men like Bill Gates, Charles Koch, etc. bought them the American political system.
The same story must apply to women who vote Republican. Out of 197 House Representatives, only 13, going down to 11 in Nov., will be both GOP and female.
Bob Shepherd said something a while back that I never forgot. The gist of it was that no one could take from him what he learned. Words to live by. Bob, you will always be a rich man.
“My taxes were not tuition for my children, and they certainly are not intended for someone’s individual use now that I have no children in the system.”
Simple, direct & to the point. Common sense is such a breath of fresh air these days: thank you speduktr. The whole per-pupil-allotment in the backpack, used for the school of one’s choice, is a sham concept. “School choice” is a tautology whose only logic lies in its own, narrow, self-defined terms. It does not stand the test of economic reality.
“The failure of educational and ecclesial leadership to uphold (social justice) teachings as it applies to Catholic high schools…the majority of Catholic schools are non-union…”
Chesnavage (Fordham University, 2012)
Well, Linda, you’re giving me an education on Catholic schools! RE: the Cleveland voucher schools you mentioned in an above post, I read up & had to correct my assumption that the huge # of religious voucher schools in Ohio were mostly non-Catholic Christian. You can’t get a bkdn due to privacy regs, but clearly Cath hischs are the big winners in Cleveland. And I’ll bet that would be true of any large northern city if that went to vouchers in the ‘90’s… trying to patch the pattern together from remote observation of changes in Cathsch pop (NYC): That was a time when suburban Cathschs were beginning to close for lack of enrollment [most are gone near me in NJ], but less of that in cities. They were the only private schs w/lower tuition serving lower-mid/ wkg-class / scholarships for poor kids — & publicsch nbhds were suffering in the crack epidemic; they kept it together by taking large #s of non-Cath studs– so the network was there to slide right into position for vouchers.
Excellent cite here, thanks. The Diocesan anti-teachers-union position sucks, runs counter to doctrine, & no doubt descends straight from decades of cheap religious-order staffing. (AND misogyny, as nuns did the lion’s share of elem-level teaching).
Happening today- 10 fold increase in funding over the recent 9 year period. It’s Catholic schools that benefit in Dayton (south of Columbus) as reported by the Dayton Daily News and likely Cincinnati, which has a higher percentage of Catholics than Dayton.
The role that the Gates-funded Bellwether (founded by Pahara’s founder) is playing would provide interesting reading. But that would require a press that wasn’t owned by oligarchs.
I don’t remember in what context I wrote the original comment, but the discussion here just reinforces my position.
Thank you for this comment. You can see it generated lots of discussion, also many tweets.
Chester Finn of Fordham (2014) “There’s opportunity ahead for Catholic schools…weakening of teacher unions”.
Bethree,
A second look at the definition of outlier is warranted.
Finn is so gag-inducing. Catholic schools must learn to compete! Take stdzd tests, gather data & monitor it! “Innovate” with flipped classrooms! Close the dying schools! & to paraphrase his suggested mktg plan: change everything, while simultaneously advertising you still do all the good stuff you’re known for! This speech (including the anti-union bit) encapsulates his limited views on schooling, a collection of ed-deform memes.
Yes, Finn is a Catholic (I assume Petrilli & Pondiscio as well), but I see TBF & its spinoffs– as well as those 3 TBF leaders– as simply conservative [free-market variety] ed-deformers. Not representatives of some dark oligarchical Catholic-establishment-supported political movers & shakers.
Look at Pew on Catholic ideology: conservatives & moderates tied at 37/36%, 22% liberal [5% “don’t know”]. Those are overall averages heavily weighted by the preponderance of old folks; w/younger groups increasingly liberal: 30-49yo’s are evenly divided among cons, mod, lib; among 18-29yo’s libs are ahead of the tied mods & “don’t knows,” w/cons at back end.
Checker Finn is not Catholic. He is Jewish. Petrilli is Catholic. His children go to excellent suburban public schools. Don’t Know about Pondiscio.
The power of Finn et al. is from the right side of the aisle, regardless of his religion, similar to Trump. Votes for Republicans have to be marshaled. Congregants of authoritarian religions are the logical feeding ground.
What we need to know about Finn is explained by the NonPartisan Education Review’s Fordham research and his involvement in the Hoover Institute with which Hanushek is also involved.
“Client/Project List” of 70 organizations including TFA, Relay, TNTP, Stand for Children,…and one religious organization, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Superintendent of Education (Bellwether Education Partners, Bellwether Exec. Search)
This just in: Trump raves incoherently. Republicans say that he is speaking in tongues.
How does Trump find such people? One spokesman after another lies to cover up Trump’s lack of intelligence. Here is another one blaming everything on the press. “He doesn’t lie.” BS he doesn’t. [Remember CNN is a ‘fake news’ outlet. I saw a man wearing a “CNN sucks” tee shirt.]
……………..
Trump spokesperson says ‘I don’t think this president has lied’
CNN host Chris Cuomo and Kayleigh McEnany, a spokesperson for President Trump’s reelection campaign, got into a heated exchange late Wednesday over whether Trump lies, with McEnany repeatedly insisting that he doesn’t.
The contentious back-and-forth came as Cuomo accused the president of consistently lying and demonizing people for being different.
“He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t lie,” McEnany retorted. “The press lies.”
Saying that one “have never really understood the choice mantra” is the sign of weakness, basically throwing a towel. Instead of discussing an idea speduktr simply says that there is nothing to discuss, end of story. This does not improve the image of public schools, which until recently only accepted kids from their catchment area (and this concept of locality was bizarrely broken by mandatory busing). Nowadays, my local school district allows selecting a school that is not in one’s neighborhood, but to switch to a school in a different district one needs an interdistrict transfer, which is granted only if one has presence in the chosen district (lives or works there).
I am personally for choice, the problem is there are very few good choices, and charters do not solve the choice problem if the criteria is good education.
I think it was pretty clear that the original comment was written in relation to the charter choice phenomena. I have never understood why public funds should be diverted to private institutions. “Choice” within a public system is a legitimate discussion and may be and has been discussed and implemented in a myriad of ways on local and state levels.
Now Trump will really need a huge fourth of July parade next year. He has to compete with Kim Jong Un and President Xi.
…………………..
China to showcase advanced weapons in biggest military parade for 70th anniversary..Straights Times Singapore
BEIJING – China will put its military might on show in the biggest parade of its weaponry on Oct 1 when the country celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party taking power.
The occasion will be an opportunity for President Xi Jinping to flaunt his military modernisation efforts and send a message to the world, particularly the US, that it should not be trifled with.
The celebrations are set against a sobering backdrop of a deepening trade war with the US which has shaken the Chinese economy, and the worst political crisis in Hong Kong since it was handed over in 1997…
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-to-showcase-advanced-weapons-in-biggest-military-parade-for-70th-anniversary?utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ST_Newsletter_AM&utm_term=China+to+showcase+advanced+weapons+in+biggest+military+parade+for+70th+anniversary&utm_content=30%2F08%2F2019&utm_source=google_gmail&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany
The deficit is huge and growing but now we have money for US Space Command.We must have domination of the space domain. How about spending money to stop wind mills from causing cancer. OR how about funding nukes to blow up hurricanes?
…………………….
Just in from the WH:
Establishing the U.S. Space Command
This afternoon, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the Secretary of Defense established the United States Space Command to ensure America’s continued dominance in space. President Trump announced the news from the Rose Garden.
“The dangers to our country constantly evolve, and so must we,” the President said. “Now, those who wish to harm the United States, who seek to challenge us in the ultimate high ground of space—it’s going to be a whole different ballgame.”
The United States is reliant on space for everything from the vital military systems that protect us to widely used consumer systems that fuel our economy. While America has the strongest military in the world, failure to act now could allow our adversaries to overcome that competitive advantage and deny us access to the space domain.
🎬 Watch: President Trump establishes the U.S. Space Command
Last week, at the sixth meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence spoke at length about America’s next great mission to lead the world once again in human space exploration. “As we lead in American innovation and entrepreneurship in space, we also must lead in security,” the Vice President said.
To that end, President Trump installed four-star General John “Jay” Raymond today as the first leader of the revived U.S. Space Command. The newest of 11 unified commands within the Department of Defense, USSPACECOM will employ assigned forces from every branch of the military to achieve vital victories in space.
There’s no better person to lead this charge than Gen. Raymond. As the current commander of the Air Force Space Command, Gen. Raymond leads an incredible team of about 26,000 space professionals worldwide. His deep experience in the field includes serving in the United States Air Force for more than 34 years, and in June, the Senate unanimously confirmed him as our first Commander of the U.S. Space Command.
Every day it’s something. One ridiculous pronouncement after another.
It was one thing as a tv game show–we could turn it off.
Get out the vote (GOTV), & vote on Election Day–paper is safer, & tell that to everyone you know.
This has to stop in November 2020.
retiredbutmissthekids: “Everyday its something.” Try these goodies.
Without notice, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services eliminated a program this month that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment. Called “deferred action,” the program had provided a form of humanitarian relief from deportation for at least 1,000 applicants every year.
House Democratic aides were blocked from spot visits to 11 detention facilities on the Mexican border, but even with the inspections they got, they heard complaints of toddlers and an infant eating age-inappropriate burritos, eating soup off the floor and living in soiled diapers.
Teachingeconomist A red herring:
This and other problems can be fixed without damaging the intimate relationship between democracy and public education–or any other public institution, for that matter–where the aim is serving the public good . . . and not private or “semi-private” corporations, governed by the principles of an errant capitalism, with funding channels born of their tacit and ill-directed motivations.
The whole idea of “choice,” as presently promoted by the charter industry, is itself a term hinting at the spirit of democracy, but used as coded propaganda, qualified to be called “doublespeak,” to fool unsuspecting and trusting parents who only want what is best for their children, hearing the bells and whistles and seeing the razzle-dazzle, think they’ll get it by signing on the dotted line; but who don’t understand how privatizers are striking at the core of everything they hold dear about living in a democracy itself.
If you didn’t understand the above already, then reading this site should clear up your ignorance; but if you do understand the above, x x x x and the horse you rode in on. CBK
Catherine,
My apologies for the late response. I did not see it here down at the end of the comments.
Once again, my position has nothing to do with who is running the school. Perhaps my indifference comes from having taught at the university level for three decades. My colleagues at private universities do not really differ from my colleagues at public universities where I teach. I am sure Dr. Ravitch has the same opinion, though I do not believe she has ever taught at a public institution.
Having taught at a “choice” institution, I have come to appreciate the value of having to compete for students. I must be able to explain to a student why they should attend my institution rather than a different one or my major rather than a different major. I think this is a useful exercise. Can you give any reason that students should attend the institution where you teach, rather then another school in the district or in another district? If you can give no reason other then the law requires you to go to school and this is the only school you are entitled to attend because of your street address, it is not especially persuasive
Teachingeconomist I think you are still missing the point–a different level of thinking. Two things:
First, it’s not about “WHO is running the school.” A charter’s principals and teachers can be excellent in every way; but if the school’s ground is in a corporation based in capitalism, or “owners” like the Kochs, the Gates, or whomever, rather than in the public order (democratic, in our case) then the FOUNDATIONS of the school as an institution becomes wide-open to capitalistic mindsets and motivations . . . where commitments THERE commonly come BEFORE their commitment to the common good (for all, and not only for some) and ultimately to all of their students.
Also, ultimately, all of the “we’re better” competitive talk becomes just that–just talk–that turns out to be he means of manipulative profiteers and sophist salespeople who want to sell something to the public (whom they view as stooges . . . their trust makes them easy-marks).
Second, your second point is, again, a red herring.
You say: “Can you give any reason that students should attend the institution where you teach, rather then another school in the district or in another district? If you can give no reason other then the law requires you to go to school and this is the only school you are entitled to attend because of your street address, it is not especially persuasive.”
Who said teachers cannot give good reasons? And when do we start paying students and parents to come to OUR school? or provide more bells and whistles that have little or nothing to do with education. But that’s far from the point anyway:
Qualified education is not the singular purview of private or charter schools in the either/or situation reformers like to chant about. It’s up to all of us in a democracy to make sure our public schools are qualified. If they are not, then we need to improve them–but not by tearing up the foundations of what needs to remain PUBLIC about education in a democracy. . . .
It’s been the covert intention of privateers to systematically bad mouth public education and teacher unions (and all unions on principle), so much so as to make the denigration of teachers and public education a part of the cultural ethos. It’s a false narrative put forth to starve the beast, so to speak, before everyone finally drowns it . . . because it looks so bad because it’s starving. We should not sell the farm; and getting rid of public education IS a version of selling the farm. We only should keep growing good things in it.
You sound like you might be an intelligent person. However, apparently, you bought what they are selling. We have to look deeper than what you are saying in order to understand what’s going on politically at present. CBK
A page titled Bellwether Exec. Search, Client/Project List at the Bellwether Education Partners site has a list of about 70 organizations, mainly the usual, Relay, Chiefs for Change, TFA, KIPP, DQC, NSVF, Stand for Children, TNTP… But, standing out as the only religious organization listed was, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Superintendent of Education.
Gates-funded Bellwether was founded by the founder/co-founder of TFA, New Schools Venture Fund and Pahara. In 2018, the superintendent of the Los Angeles diocese of Catholic schools became a fellow of Pahara.
Teachingeconomist I think you are still missing the point–a different level of thinking. Two things:
First, it’s not about “WHO is running the school.” A charter’s principals and teachers can be excellent in every way; but if the school’s ground is in a corporation based in capitalism, or “owners” like the Kochs, the Gates, or whomever, rather than in the public order (democratic, in our case) then the FOUNDATIONS of the school as an institution becomes wide-open to capitalistic mindsets and motivations . . . where commitments THERE commonly come BEFORE their commitment to the common good (for all, and not only for some) and ultimately to all of their students.
Also, ultimately, all of the “we’re better” competitive talk becomes just that–just talk–that turns out to be he means of manipulative profiteers and sophist salespeople who want to sell something to the public (whom they view as stooges . . . their trust makes them easy-marks).
Second, your second point is, again, a red herring.
You say: “Can you give any reason that students should attend the institution where you teach, rather then another school in the district or in another district? If you can give no reason other then the law requires you to go to school and this is the only school you are entitled to attend because of your street address, it is not especially persuasive.”
Who said teachers cannot give good reasons? And when do we start paying students and parents to come to OUR school? or provide more bells and whistles that have little or nothing to do with education. But that’s far from the point anyway:
Qualified education is not the singular purview of private or charter schools in the either/or situation reformers like to chant about. It’s up to all of us in a democracy to make sure our public schools are qualified. If they are not, then we need to improve them–but not by tearing up the foundations of what needs to remain PUBLIC about education in a democracy. . . .
It’s been the covert intention of privateers to systematically bad mouth public education and teacher unions (and all unions on principle), so much so as to make the denigration of teachers and public education a part of the cultural ethos. It’s a false narrative put forth to starve the beast, so to speak, before everyone finally drowns it . . . because it looks so bad because it’s starving. We should not sell the farm; and getting rid of public education IS a version of selling the farm. We only should keep growing good things in it.
You sound like you might be an intelligent person. However, apparently, you bought what they are selling. We have to look deeper than what you are saying in order to understand what’s going on politically at present. CBK
Teachingeconomist An addendum: Then there is how private or corporate ownership is embedded with “strings” that include a potential conflict in the development of curricula itself. It’s about the very core of education: of being able to raise questions about anything, by both students and teachers.
For example, a school funded by the Waltons would be “beholden” to the company; and would be hard-pressed to provide an open and critical education to students who wanted to raise questions about the plethora of issues that concern the company, corporation, owners, methods, or products, political leanings, etc. And it would leave teachers in a conflicted position with regard to their own standards of teaching.
Privatization is an open invitation for powerful and wealthy people to influence curriculum in an arbitrary way with any number of the owners’ or shareholders’ biases, lack of education, and self-serving whims. (That’s why they abhor regulation.)
It’s also what separates secular from religious schools in a democracy–the potential for teaching to specific ideologies and doctrines, as opposed to other doctrines (the Betsy factor)–and as distinct from teaching ABOUT different religions, say, in a history class in a public school.
Nor is public education in a democracy “anti-religious.” Rather, it prepares the way for students to live a life guided by their own family’s religion in a public space that is not governed by the ideologies and practices of one and only-one religion. It’s where the idea of freedom OF religion can flourish in the hearts of students and faculty alike. CBK