If you are looking for a book that explains why public schools are foundational to democracy, Jan Resseger writes, read Derek Black’s Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy.
Resseger writes:
On Monday, this blog examined Derek Black’s important new book, Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy. Black, a professor of constitutional law at the University of South Carolina, threads together the history of an idea first articulated in the Northwest Ordinances of 1785 and 1787, threatened again and again throughout our nation’s history, but persistently revived: that our system of public schools, where all children are welcome and where their fundamental right to education is protected by law, is the one institution most essential for preserving our democratic society…
Derek Black names several problems at the heart of today’s threat to public education: the expansion of school privatization via charters and vouchers, massive fortunes invested by far-right libertarians to attack so-called ‘government schools,’ attacks on school teachers and their unions, and persistent tax cutting by state legislatures and the consequent ratcheting down of state funding for public education: “Before the recession of 2008, the trend in public school funding remained generally positive… Then the recession hit. Nearly every state in the country made large cuts to public education. Annual cuts of more than $1,000 per student were routine.” But the recession wasn’t the only cause of money troubles for public schools: “(I)n retrospect…. the recession offered a convenient excuse for states to redefine their commitment to public education… By 2012, state revenues rebounded to pre-recession levels, and a few years later, the economy was in the midst of its longest winning streak in history. Yet during this period of rising wealth, states refused to give back what they took from education. In 2014, for instance, more than thirty states still funded education at a lower level than they did before the recession—some funded education 20 percent to 30 percent below pre-recession levels.” (Schoolhouse Burning, pp. 31-33) Black cites research demonstrating that states have reneged on their public education promise particularly in areas where the public schools serve poor children: “(W)hen it comes to districts serving primarily middle-income students, most states provide those districts with the resources they need to achieve average outcomes… But only a couple states provide districts serving predominantly poor students what they need. The average state provides districts serving predominantly poor students $6,239 less per pupil than they need.” (Schoolhouse Burning, p. 241)..
All during the recent decade, the federal government’s education policy has also promoted school privatization. During the Trump administration, Betsy DeVos’s efforts to promote vouchers, her lifelong cause, have been well known. But the effort has been bipartisan: “Obama… tapped Arne Duncan… someone whose track record in Chicago involved substantially expanding charters… For the next several years, the federal government promoted and sometimes forced charter school expansion… The Obama administration basically condoned everything states were doing with school funding and made it a little worse. Federal funding for public schools remained flat while the federal budget for charter schools increased by nearly 20 percent between 2008 and 2013. President Obama called for another 50 percent increase for charters on top of that in 2016 (though he didn’t get it). The real surprise, though, is how much Duncan managed to accomplish through administrative action… His biggest coup was the process he set up for doling out innovation funds during the recession. As part of the economic recovery legislation, Congress had set aside a substantial chunk of money for education innovation but didn’t specify exactly what schools could spend it on. Duncan, however, told states that if they wanted access to the money, charter schools had to be part of the mix. States that ‘put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools,’ he said, ‘will jeopardize their grant applications.’… The overall result of these state and federal actions was stark—nearly 40 percent growth in the number of charter schools and 200 percent growth in their enrollment.” (Schoolhouse Burning, pp. 36-37)
Black reminds us that an attack on public schools is an attack on democracy.
This is quite unfair. The first post of Jan’s on this book was enticing, but I kept telling myself, “your pile of unread books is just getting too big.” Now you do this. Uncle. Will order now. If Jan is this enthusiastic, it must be quite good. Thanks a lot (to be read with thick sarcasm)!
We need to look at fairer ways to fund public education. Funding through property taxes results in the uneven distribution of funds. More affluent areas spend more on education than poor areas. This skewed funding creates greater inequity for the poor that often have greater needs than wealthier public schools. Title 1 helps somewhat to compensate for the differences, but perhaps it is time to reexamine how public education is funded.
I’m hoping with maybe a new administration we get some people who value public schools and public school students to set policy for public schools.
I don’t know how it happened that policy for public schools is set by people who didn’t and don’t attend them, don’t support them, and work every day to replace them.That was never going to go well for public school students and in fact it hasn’t gone well for them.
blame is so much easier than looking at — and trying to honestly address — reality
” the recession offered a convenient excuse for states to redefine their commitment to public education”
Where “Redefine their commitment ” means to “cut funding”.
Never let a crisis go to waste”
A crisis gone to waste
Is really such a shame
So, when it comes, make haste
Or have yourself to blame
While Black names several problems at the heart of today’s threat to public education,
he seems to avoid the clash between reality and fantasy.
IF equality, under the law, is the hallmark of “democracy”, privilege sanctioned
by “law”, is the hallmark of aristocracy.
The “privilege” for states to redefine their commitment to public education…
The “privilege” to enact large cuts to public education…
The “privilege” to promote and sometimes force charter school expansion…
The “privilege” for doling out innovation funds during the recession…
The “privilege” to pith the minds of children, with bureaucratic standardization,
AKA testing…
The “privilege” to appoint dictators of policy, a cabal of unelected “officials”
credentialed by family histories, elite schools, and unique career experiencies.
Jay Naidoo (South Africa trade union coalition) advises:
“It was NOT about how brilliant our argument was…No one cedes power
because of a great powerpoint. Winning the fight against inequality
involves shifting norms.”
So when reality clashes with the fantasy, reducing the issue to
“an attack on public schools, is an attack on democracy”, begs the question,
Is it simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken?
I called “reform” a hoax in my 2013 book “Reign of Error.”
I think Black well understands that the public has been hoaxed by “reformers” and venture philanthropists like Broad, Gates, and Walton.
Not only did funding change in 2008 with the recessions n, but expectations rocketed with things like the diploma project and Race to the Puke. As a result of these failed ideas, we have children who do not understand the fractions necessary to pass the entrance exam to be an LPN, but are expected to pass Algebra II (their failure to do so brings opprobrium down upon the heads of the educators). All this against the backdrop of rising class loads and increased student need due to the advance of poverty.