Gary Rubinstein reviews Thomas Sowell’s recent book about charter schools and their enemies.
Thomas Sowell is an economist and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution. He is African American and has long been highly critical of affirmative action and anything that smacks of lowered standards for black students. He is a hard-right libertarian. Many years ago, we were friends, and I invited him to lecture at Teachers College, where his views were not well received. He is 90 years old and still fighting, which I respect.
Rubinstein writes that the first four chapters of his six chapter book are a rehash of “Waiting for ‘Superman’” myths, such as the long discredited claim that the children in charters are precisely the same as those who are not in a charter. He loathes teachers’ unions and thinks that their opposition to charters is purely greed and self-interest. He identifies Mayor Bill DeBlasio as a fierce enemy of charters, which is absurd, since he gave up fighting them in 2014, after Governor Cuomo and the hedge funders defeated DeBlasio’s efforts to limit their expansion.
I gather from Gary’s review that Sowell singles me out as a critic, appropriately, but I have no idea what motive he attributes to me since I have no financial interest or self-interest in opposing charter growth.
After the first four chapters, he segues into a different mode, acknowledging that students who enter charters are more motivated than those who are not.
Gary concludes:
Chapter 6, the final chapter, is called ‘Dangers’ and it is about other ways that politicians and teacher’s unions undermine charter school growth. There are unfair charter caps. There are people who want charters to teach social justice to their students which he calls ‘indoctrination.’ He also does not like charters having to teach ‘sex education’ or ‘ethnic studies.’ Finally, he resents that some charter critics want the charters to have their meetings open to the public and to have their records open to public scrutiny. He says that this will make the board members targets of smear campaigns and have their homes vandalized.
All in all, this was quite a strange read. I don’t imagine that many reformers want to be identified with his arguments from the last two chapters and since the first four chapters have already been done in 2010 with “Waiting For Superman”, this book is not one that I imagine will be remembered for being very relevant.
Still it is interesting to see how little is left in the reform defender’s arsenal.
It is interesting too that this most recent defense of charter schools comes from an economist who has long been recognized as a hard-edged rightwinger.
In addition to repeating the same old assumptions and misrepresentations about those that serve in public schools, I have no idea how Sowell could conclude that integration has negative social impact on students. After teaching in a diverse, integrated school district for more than three and a half decades, all I have ever witnessed is positive academic, social and emotional benefits from attending integrated schools. Research on integration confirms the same academic and social benefits https://tcf.org/content/facts/the-benefits-of-socioeconomically-and-racially-integrated-schools-and-classrooms/?agreed=1
I will not read the book or rant about the absurd echoes of right-wing ideology.
a highly useful stance
I got a good chuckle out of this: “…he resents that some charter critics want the charters to have their meetings open to the public and to have their records open to public scrutiny. He says that this will make the board members targets of smear campaigns and have their homes vandalized.” What are the charter boards saying in private that would make the public want to attack them? Imagine all the possibilities.
How absurd to expect transparency and accountability from corporations getting public dollars!
Ugh, libertarianism is such unmitigated TOXIC garbage. Libertarians love using straw men, red herrings and other phony baloney arguments to justify greed, selfishness and a sort of moral depravity. They claim to be for individual freedom, limited government and free enterprise and yet they are anti-union. So workers don’t have the freedom to form unions, no free speech at the work place? Libertarians are such hypocrites that it’s breathtaking.
What if?
What if red were blue?
What if night were day?
What if economists knew
About the things they say?
What if loose were tight?
What if belch were fart?
What if Right were right?
What if Hoover smart?
What if Libertarians
Thought like smart librarians?
What if Thomas Sowell
Analyzed so well?
Perhaps the only good thing about Sowell is that he is who he says he is. The real danger these days is that Ed Reform, especially after the devastating defeat of the Massachusetts charter expansion ballot initiative in 2016, has gone underground, masquerading as social justice advocacy. Watch out for state takeover solutions eager to distance themselves from charters but just as hostile toward unions and publicly elected school boards.
Laurie,
The watchdogs in MASS are also watching out for the Walton-funded “National Parents Union.” Same cast of characters that pushed charter expansion in 2016 and failed. The Waltons never take no for an answer.
Good! I am equally concerned with a new wave of DFER activity as well as New Schools Venture Fund.
I want to mention the August 2020 Costco Connection Back to School issue. Starting on page 38 to page 43, there were several brief pieces pointing out successes in education and none of them mentioned Charter Schools, vouchers, on-line education, or testing. If you read them and I am wrong, let me know.
http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/202008/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=1605004#articleId1605004
I read through them, and most of them are community based outreach programs that help under served communities. Some are led by retired teachers. There was no mention of any charter schools in any of the programs.
Lloyd, thank you so much for sharing these uplifting Costco stories with us. The deformers believe they can do a better job than American public schools of educating our children by stealing public funds and local district resources, cherry picking students and hiring poorly trained instructors, and make a profit doing so! Real Americans that want to truly help children work WITH , not against schools, teachers and parents . This is the kinds of things that authors, like our beloved Dr Ravitch, should be writing education books about. Please all stay safe -each of you are like family to me.
Thank you, Joanne.
Your comment is important.
Bad news from the primaries in the state of Washington. The two women Democrats advancing to the general election in the 10th district both support charter schools. The underdog, Beth Doglio, is from the LBGTQ community. You’d think she could find her way to supporting a union with mostly women members- teachers. (She already has the support of the food services union.)
Washington has the most regressive tax system in the nation and Bill Gates is one of its richest libertarians.
Bill Gates’ name was all over the NIH website before Covid, where’s his accountability for what wasn’t done? He avoided taxes for his charitable” public health funding. What did Americans get in return?
That’s a shame about Washington State. It has a tiny number of charters. Several have already failed due to low enrollment. All funded by Bill Gates.
The shame will be the education votes that Marylin Strickland casts in the U.S. House and the appointee she supports for Secretary of Education..
Aug. 10, Daleville, Ind.
“State auditors determined a central Indiana school district improperly supervised two on-line charter schools accused of padding their enrollment by 14,000 students over 8 years.” Both schools have closed.
The Indiana situation has been described as one of the nation’s largest virtual school scandals. The school district administrators acting as authorizers said they were thwarted at every turn from getting data.
If there are conflicts of interest, it’s not surprising. Privatized public schools invite corruption
” The school district administrators acting as authorizers said they were thwarted at every turn from getting data.”
And it took eight years for them to decide they had been “thwarted” long enough?!
GOP state legislators, particularly those who are members of the Koch’s ALEC, thwart with impunity. School administrators have no leverage and voters in Indiana continue to elect those who facilitate corruption, just like the government in Ohio where the speaker of the house and his predecessor are under FBI investigation.