Nancy Bailey is an experienced classroom teacher who is now retired. She and I co-authored a glossary to explain the duplicity of today’s phony school “reforms,” called Edspeak and Doublespeak. We discovered that we shared the same disdain for hypocrisy and hype.
Nancy posted a letter here by a teacher in a suburban school about how corporate reform is ruining education in her district.
Here is an excerpt from her essay.
Who remembers when elementary age children’s schedules included daily periods of recess, English, social studies, science & math, with a rotation of daily enriching specials, such as art, music, gym, library, etc.?
Who remembers when change was slow and steady in school districts, because they knew children needed stability and predictability?
Who remembers when there were no charter schools siphoning public school money away from public schools?
Who remembers when public schools were a valued public service for the greater good of the country?
Who remembers school before corporate education reform? Not sure what that is?
She goes on to e plain how the misguided and failed ideas of “corporate reform” have changed schools for the worse, even on the best districts.
The ever-present theme of corporate reform is DISRUPTION. Not better education: disruption. That’s why in my new book SLAYING GOLIATH, I refer to the faux reformers as DISRUPTERS. I don’t allow them to corrupt and appropriate the honorable term “reform” or to call themselves “reformers.” They are not. They are DISRUPTERS.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Reform” has resulted in a spillage of bad ideas, some of which have oozed into suburban districts. This is unfortunate as many suburban school districts are some of the best systems in the country. Many suburban districts have no need of an overhaul. While change is part of evolution, unneeded disruption is not good for students, teachers or systems. Frankly, business strategies are not appropriate in education where the main goal is to serve the needs of students, not the profit motive.
Ed reform lobbyists had an absolute field day in Ohio the last legislative session. In addition to their massive expansion of the voucher program, they also established a huge new slush fund for charter schools:
“East Academy, Cleveland Preparatory Academy and West Park Academy charter schools each scored an F on their latest state report cards.
But school leaders are claiming they are “quality” schools, so they can receive new bonus tax money of up to $1,750 per enrolled student from the state.
Officials of the F-rated OhDELA online charter school of nearly 2,000 students are making the same claim.”
Nothing for public schools. Zero accomplished on behalf of 90% of students in the state but huge new funding for charters and vouchers jammed thru.
Does anyone in Columbus lift a finger on behalf of public school students in this state, or are they all utterly captured by this lobby? Why are we paying these people? They do no work at all for 90% of students and families.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/01/loophole-could-give-f-rated-charter-schools-millions-meant-for-better-schools.html
F-rated charter schools are called “high-quality”? Madness.
Stopping by School on a Disruptive Afternoon
Whose schools these are, I think I know.
His house is near Seattle though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch what kids now undergo.
My better angels think it queer
To see a place so void of cheer
What with the tests and data chats,
The data walls with children’s stats.
Where are the joys of yesterday—
When kids would draw and sing and play?
The only sound I hear’s defeat
And pencils on the bubble sheets.
Disrupters say, unflappable.
“We’re building Human Capital,”
Such word goes out from their think tanks,
As they their profits build and bank.
“Music, stories, art, and play
Won’t teach Prole children to obey
With servile, certain, gritful grace
And know their rightful, lowly place.”
But I keep promises to creeps
And mils to go before I sleep
Millions to make before I sleep
Oh my Lord. That’s wonderful, Roy!
sometimes even a blind hog can find an acorn
Roy, may I add a riff on your addition to this to the poem on my website? I will credit you as co-author, of course!
There is nothi g I ever wrote I would not be happy for you to use.
Updated version:
I decided, Roy, to go with a different ending, though yours, I think, is best. Wonderful!
“It seeks to eliminate the geographically based system of public education as we have known it for the past 150 years,” meaning that kids from white neighborhood go to their school, and kids from black ghetto go to their school? “…and replace it with a competitive market- based system of school choice,” meaning that parents and their kids can choose a school in another neighborhood? And this is bad why?
If you were following this site regularly, you would be able to answer your own question and point out why the disrupters of public education are only in it for the public money they are stealing.
It has already been proven that market-based competition does not work when it comes to educating all of our children from K – 12.
“Why the ‘market theory’ of education reform doesn’t work”
“Modern education reform is being driven by people who believe that competition, privatization and other elements of a market economy will improve public schools. In this post, Mark Tucker, president of the non-profit National Center on Education and the Economy and an internationally known expert on reform, explains why this approach is actually harming rather than helping schools. …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2012/10/12/why-the-market-theory-of-education-reform-doesnt-work/
“Free Market for Education? Economists Generally Don’t Buy it”
“Here’s Why Competition Doesn’t Work in Public Education”
… “But make no mistake about it: The entrepreneurs developing schools for “those people in the poor section of town” will take Joe’s approach to making a buck. Their buildings will be stocked with cheap supplies and unqualified teachers. The only thing spilling out of their classrooms will be kids. Like the good businessmen that they are, they’ll stick worn out Kenmores into poor communities — cutting their expenses to the quick regardless of the quality of the product they are producing because they know full well that the marketplace they are serving can’t afford anything better.” …
https://blog.williamferriter.com/2013/08/03/heres-why-competition-doesnt-work-in-education/
“Can competition really improve schools?”
… “But the theory of choice has faced some difficult reality checks of late. Studies don’t necessarily support the claims that students will perform better either in charter schools or in private schools made accessible by vouchers. At the same time, the idea that students should be free to leave failing public schools is bumping up against the simple reality that there are not enough seats in good schools to go around. It’s causing some to ask if the growth of the choice movement may not be outpacing evidence of its efficacy.
“While choice is not bad for the individual kids or parents, our experience in New York is that it has done little or nothing to improve neighborhood schools,” says Clara Hemphill, director of http://www.insideschools.org and author of several guides to the city’s best public schools. If anything, she says, “it has drained some of the vitality and excitement from neighborhood schools.” …
https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0907/p12s01-legn.html
And, who do we blame for the DISRUPTER movement?
“If you’re sick of hearing about disruption, blame Clayton Christensen, who introduced the concept into business jargon.
“Christensen is possibly the most influential management thinker in Silicon Valley. His 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, was embraced by Intel’s Andy Grove, quoted by Steve Jobs, and called one of the six best business books ever by The Economist. In it, Christensen introduced his theory of disruption, which explains how established, successful companies leave themselves vulnerable to competition from upstarts by abandoning the lower end of the market. …”
https://qz.com/801706/innovation-guru-clayton-christensens-new-theory-will-help-protect-you-from-disruption/
Unfortunately, it will likely take corporate reformers bring havoc upon suburban schools in order for there to be a significant oppositional blow to the movement. The reality is that many of its supporters view these reforms as something for “those city kids.” A former Florida state senator who is now the president of one of the state’s major universities was a champion of charter schools while in office. That is until one chain wanted to open a school in his legislative district of St. Johns County (St. Augustine). That county, which sits south of Jacksonville, is typically rated as the best district in the state.
It’s kind of how the War on Drugs has changed to compassion and rehabilitation verses “lock ’em up” now that so many suburban moms are just as susceptible to abusing prescriptions as the city youth are/were to street drugs in the 1990s and backward.
tl;dr: When middle to upper class white people are negatively impacted, then real change will happen.
That’s what is happening in Ohio. When vouchers disrupted urban districts, the suburban parents sat back and watched. Now vouchers are coming to some of the best districts in the state, so suburban parents are paying attention.
Those supporting traditional public ed like me must realize historically public ed was not created to educate all children, and especially love and educate Black children. Public ed is not broken the way reformers say. From the start, public ed has been colonial–confusing education with assimilation making public ed colonial (think “The white architects of Blacl education). The colonial aspects of ed have driven Black families to charters. Yet, charters are neo-colonial. Their standardized tests just see how White students are. As well, their private boards disenfranchise the very communities of color charters claim to help. Consequently, we need to de-colonize traditional public ed. See http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/What-is-a-high-quality-education-for-urban-students.pdf and democratize public schools–making each school a democracy where communities, families, and students help run the school. See http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/A-Civic-Literacy-What-does-a-constitutional-democratic-republic-require-of-its-schools.pdf