A reader who identifies as “Retired Teacher” sees the school choice juggernaut as a deliberate plan to destroy our common good: public schools. Thomas Jefferson proposed the first public schools. The Northwest Ordinances, written by the founding fathers, set aside a plot of land in every town for a public school.
The origin of the school choice movement was the backlash to the Brown Decision of 1954. Segregationists created publicly-funded academies (charters) for white flight and publicly-funded vouchers to escape desegregation.
What replaces public schools will not be better for students, and it will be far worse for our society.
So much reckless “choice” will make the public schools the schools of last resort for those that have nowhere else to go. Choice is a means to defund what should be our common good. How are the schools supposed to fund the neediest, most vulnerable and most expensive students when so much funding is transferred to private interests? How will public schools be able to pay to maintain the buildings, hire qualified teachers and pay for all the fixed costs like insurance, transportation and utilities?
The billionaires and religious groups behind so-called choice would like to see public schools collapse. Choice benefits the ultra-wealthy and segregationists. Choice empowers the schools that do the choosing, not the families trying to find a school for their child. If public schools become the bottom tier of choice, they will become like the insane asylums of the 19th century where the unfortunate were warehoused, ignored and abused. This dystopian outcome would be the opposite of what the founding fathers envisioned. Their vision was one of inclusion where all are welcome, a place serves the interests of the nation, communities and individuals with civil, social and individual benefits. A tiered system of schools is neither ‘thorough or efficient.’ It is a nightmare, and nothing any proponents of democracy should be supporting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on dean ramser.
The battle of the anti-revolutionists against Brown v. Board continues almost unabated. The forces supposedly supportive of the common school do little to stop the reactionary elements who show disdain for opportunity. Jim Crow and John Birch play the long game while the majority pretend they went away.
And the Jim Crow and John Birch fanatics also take voting more seriously! Where is the determination and dedication of the Montgomery Bus Boycotters?
At the time, the “bus boycotters” basically couldn’t vote. Birchers and evangelists actually had mixed views about voting. The Church of Christ actually discouraged voting. It was the realization by such despot wannabes as Jerry Falwell that voting encouraged through “pro life” propaganda was a good tool for resegregation. Then corporatist found that funding such efforts ended accountability for economic malfeasance. A very confounding alliance that eventually resulted in Trump and corrupt state legislatures. A lot of work ahead to end all of this.
Public schools are destroying themselves. There wouldn’t have to be CHOICE if public schools ditched the deforms (testing, CC, data collection, bad SEL etc) and returned to their former glory pre NCLB. I can tell you with certainty that in my state, MD, the private (most Independent faith based/Catholic….not parochial/Archdiocese) schools started filling up when the CC/testing nightmare started. The private schools are now filled with former public school students and former public school teachers. FILLED! The schools all raised tuition considerably this year….making hay while the sun shines.
Parents don’t care that their children may have to say a few “Amens” and attend a monthly watered down religious service. All of these schools make it clear that a child can be of any religion. Parents want their children to be educated in wholistic surroundings and treated as human beings as opposed to being forced into the herd mentality of CC drill and kill and it’s continuous need for data collection via testing/test prep curriculum. Parents shouldn’t have to pay twice (high taxes then out of pocket) for their children to receive a decent education and they are angry.
“There wouldn’t have to be CHOICE if public schools ditched the deforms (testing, CC, data collection, bad SEL etc) and returned to their former glory pre NCLB.”
You can’t blame that on “public schools” without acknowledging it was imposed on them. And in my experience, it’s not teachers, but administrators and board members who are complicit. Lashing out is not a policy prescription unless you’re in the cult.
I know it was imposed on them from Fed and State mandates but it IS the system for all public schools. I don’t blame teachers one little bit as they are affected just as much as the children and “admin” are just “following the mandates”(give me a break!). It’s a cop out! Get rid of what parents don’t like (and I’m not talking about the parents of the far rt. or the MAGAs)
and they will have no reason to seek a “Choice” or a “voucher”. Get rid of the testing/CC and the nightmare will subside and some normalcy will return.
I keep hoping some District or state will engage in massive disobedience. Defy the federal mandates that destroy the joy of learning and disrupt real education.
I agree, but blanket accusations don’t help.
It may have been “imposed on them,” but public school constituencies do little to advocate otherwise, whether parents, teachers, administrators, or the public.
It’s no wonder many who support public schools are looking for other options for their own children.
It is also a corporate culture that has discovered a cash cow comparable to the military industrial complex. Many among the political elite saw involvement from such actors as Bill Gates found this to be a way for government to disinvest and allow corporate interests to take on schooling through efficiency and technology. What they failed to acknowledge is that learning has never been efficient.
Sadly the corporations & consulting firms making a buck on this over the last 20+ yrs have become as entrenched as any other deep-pocketed lobby dictating legislation counter to the will of the voters.
I’m not throwing my hands in the air, but I do think it’s like many similar issues caused by the same underlying problem: slow & steady, inch by inch is the way to go– build public consensus/ public pressure. I think of ACA as a parallel— flawed, somewhat dysfunctional, didn’t change much except one important thing: many more Americans today view affordable healthcare as a no-brainer for a huge economy, or even a right. So the issue is still on the front burner.
Gun control might be on the horizon sooner if we just had some small measures even NRA members agree with [like universal background checks & red flag laws] in place for a decade.
As for the testing regime, one change could make a huge difference: dump the part of the law that puts the “bottom” 5% or 10% schools in danger of state takeover/ replacement by charter/ closure. Get them help instead.
There was a ban on the sale of assault weapons from 1994-2004. Bush 2 let it lapse.
Influenced by a Republican Party owned by the IRA. According to Gallup, 32% of Americans owned guns as of 2020 (that is probably up with our current level of paranoia). There are only 5 million members of the NRA that is currently struggling to survive because of it’s grifting. I have never understood why the Democratic Party is unwilling to take the gun lobby head on, except that this same lobby has its grips on “moderate” democrats in congress as well.
Blaming teachers is an abdication of responsibility by leadership to end the systemic racism of biased standardized testing and of privatization. So-called reformers are racists. They cause systemic racism and blame working individuals for the problems that are completely out of our control. Corporate reformers are racists.
It is inaccurate to say that “public schools are destroying themselves” because of testing, data collection, NCLB requirements, etc. The schools themselves are only spending time, money and effort on those things because they are REQUIRED to by State or Federal mandates. Public schools themselves are desperately trying to deliver an excellent education to ALL students while also meeting ever-increasing student needs, governmental mandates and parent/community demands. It is imperative that schools provide a high quality education so children, our very future, may have opportunity and success as they grow and the economy of our cities, states and nation will continue to prosper over time. Schools do all this, while being underfunded for decades (State provided revenue has lagged behind inflation for 20 years or more in MN). Public Schools are expected to provide far more services than ever before, while their effective revenue decreases each year with no ability to raise revenue (can’t raise prices as public education is “free”) or cut costs (every year there are increased mandates, increased student needs and increased public demands). This is a very complex challenge that must be solved and I fear the general citizenry has no clue and will mourn the loss of a well-functioning public education system only when it is far too late.
This argument sounds like the one that is given every time there is another shooting….thoughts and prayers, nothing we can do because there are already too many guns on the streets, State gov’t can’t do anything because the Feds….blah blah blah! It’s a big cop out! The government (both sides!!!) is invested in private education businesses making bank! Get rid of the testing monster and there are billions of dollars to invest in real education and real learning. Give teachers some basic curriculum standards and let them have the autonomy to teach students using best practices. Covid and online learning gave parents an insight into what is really going in public schools.
Kids aren’t happy in public schools…..look at the % of kids on meds or suicide rates or the poor behavior problems. Teachers aren’t happy teaching in public schools. I walk in my local park and there are so many families/parents that are homeschooling and using the outdoors as science classrooms. Parents want choice because they are tired of testing/CC/test prep curriculum/data collection/awful SEL etc. When will our elected officials finally do something instead of just using education as a political talking point at election/re-election time? Even the big teacher’s unions can’t/won’t/don’t see the big picture and that they are complicit in the dirty deed. Improve public education and parents won’t go looking for a Choice!
Lisa M chooses to paint a pretty picture of homeschoolers.
Before the right wing began its campaign to sanitize and repackage homeschooling for public consumption, objective research informed us of far higher incidents of child abuse in homeschooling families. In 2015, The New Republic described the percentage of homeschoolers who were doing it to offer religious and/or moral alternatives, as an overwhelming majority (64-77%).
I’d place a sizable bet that a substantial number of homeschooling families are patriarchies and that fear is employed to gain compliance, as described recently by one of the Duggar daughters.
“I’m simply stating that parents are fed up with the tax funded public education system as it is today and they want different .”
So much to unravel, so little time, so not worth it. You buy into every stereotype, perpetuate it, and then claim it to be some so of insight and actually say nothing. If you can’t see the idiocy in that sentence, you really haven’t read a word of Diane’s books or writings or listened to one of her many public appearances. You are simply stating the world from your point of view and expand it to everything.
I can’t think of a blanket statement about public schools today that is universally true.
LisaM— I inserted a comment above that shows a general approach that might work in this & other seemingly-intractible issues [baby steps]. I would add parental activism against the annual tests – hopefully OptOut will revive now that covid is receding.
IMHO the activism around pubsch ed is gearing up way beyond the silence we all used to hear, or the just-at-election/reelection-time jawboning of 2010-2020. Yes this is about the nutty, anti-pubsch [anti-govt!] red-state laws triggered by covid shutdowns. But it seems like the opportune time for a countermovement [such as we see countering Dobbs & draconian red-state sequels]. Perhaps it’s time for the liberal answer to Moms for Liberty, “Parents’ Rights,” et al. Funded by Dem party operatives!
Moms4Liberty have one big advantage over Moms4PubkicSchiols. The former are funded by Charles Koch.
Lisa’s in a tribe whose leaders pontificate without empathy. Those leaders make no attempt to understand beyond their narrow ideology. When Lisa does the same, she feels as if she has righteous authority.
Any reputation for goodness was destroyed when the right wing religious used God and Jesus as point men for their cons and grifting.
Lisa’s point-
“Can be of any religion” and, be heterosexual with heterosexual parents or, be in the closet?
“Parents don’t care if children have to say a few amens.” As a taxpayer I don’t want to fund schools with links to religions that overtly discriminate against women. The Revolutionary War was fought to establish democratic governance. My country advanced into a developed nation. As a citizen, I don’t want to fund schools that promote authoritarianism and that have clergy using their influence to get Republican votes for backwards people who promote fascism, men like Trump and DeSantis.
Anyone who expects me to fund those schools deserves utter contempt.
MY POINT-
If public schools returned to pre NCLB days, parents wouldn’t need/want to look elsewhere for their children to be educated. I’m not advocating for vouchers or choice…..I paid out of pocket for my 2nd child’s private HS education. I’m simply stating that parents are fed up with the tax funded public education system as it is today and they want different . Most parents really aren’t aware (some don’t care) of how public schools are funded….they just know that their children aren’t happy, their children aren’t really learning and they want what is best for their children. It used to be that homeschooled children were the weird, unsocial kids and the catholic school kids were the unhappy, guilty feeling kids…..but go into a public school today and that is what you will find, while the kids being homeschooled or going to private schools are happy and thriving.
You ALWAYS have to turn every post into some deep, dark church conspiracy theory. IT GETS OLD! Maybe you should change the channel. or better yet, go out and live in the real world and see that most people aren’t wicked and vile with evil intent.
Lisa,
Pare down your gaslighting. Brevity would have made it less obvious.
Anyone who reads or listens to info about national events knows that Roe v Wade was overturned by Leonard Leo’s judges who deceived senators like Susan Collins during confirmation hearings. The lies may have been conspiracy, the covert moves to get a majority conservative Catholic court may have been conspiracy, what Charles Koch’s network does for the right wing may be a conspiracy and, the process by which taxpayers made Catholic organizations the nation’s 3rd largest employer may have been conspiracy. But, the state Catholic Conferences’ campaign to privatize common goods and services and, their successes have been boldly announced at their sites.
Susan Collins is easily fooled.
It’s a convenient excuse she uses.
LisaM says this:
“Most parents really aren’t aware (some don’t care) of how public schools are funded….they just know that their children aren’t happy, their children aren’t really learning…”
Where is the evidence to back up this broad criticism of public education?
Democracy
The perspective Lisa M cites is from a network that includes the political apparatus of the Catholic church.
Some of the state Catholic Conferences co-host with the Koch’s AFP, school choice rallies in state capitols. In some states, the state Catholic Conferences have taken credit for the initiation and passage of school choice legislation.
Perhaps parents of public school students should start suing the states that are actively trying to dismantle public education, particularly those states that have a constitutional mandate. Dr. Fenwick alluded to many states with such mandates in her talk yesterday. However, the partisan divide in this country has shown that justice is not blind. It is clearly influenced by partisan politics all the way up to the Supreme Court. These dramatically different court decisions in various states highlight our great divide.
Absolutely right. And the neo-fascist right–which includes these extremists who push privatization in all its forms–does not want schools that teach our children to think for themselves. They want little robots and puppets who salute the corporate state, the military-industrial complex, and the chosen God or whichever group is in charge. In Ohio, the next phase of the attack on children has been revealed, as Republicans have introduced legislation to weaken labor standards for kids–lower ages at which they can work, etc. That direction takes us back to kids in coalmines, etc. We’re only a couple of generations removed from the era when people like my parents couldn’t go to high school, but instead had to work to help support the family. My dad fired a river boat in Kentucky, and my mom cleaned houses in Ohio. Born in the ’30’s–during the New Deal–my brother and I became the first generation in our family to be able to finish high school.
Thank you, Diane, and all your supporting bloggers, for helping us fight for education for our grandchildren–and for the survival of any kind of democracy in America.
I am 74. My father who grew up poor and had to quit school in 7th grade to help support his family. He went on to get a GED and even a degree in textiles later in life. I remember his account of being a child worker so it pains me to hear that some states are trying to return to child labor.
!!!!
Sorry to hear Ohio is heading down that path. And just one month ago, AR govr Sarah Sanders put her state on the same train. No more Labor Dept permits required for hiring 14& 15yo’s, nor even a reqt to verify their age! New bills in Iowa allow some teenagers to work in meatpacking plants, in Minnesota in construction.
Even my own dear blue state of NJ passed a law relaxing child labor laws last summer. Now— when not in school [i.e. during summer/ other vacation/ day off for holiday]—14 & 15yo’s may work 8hr shifts [/40hr wks], and 16-17yo’s may work 10hr shifts [/50 hr wks]. Teens 14-17 get a break after 6 instead of 5 hrs. They tried to bypass parental consent altogether, but thanks to press publicity, backed off on the pertinent section [50-hr workweek for 16-17yo’s]. Now, parents will be advised by email that their kids registered, but if they do not opt out within 2 wks, kids will get the permit.
The NJ bill was fast-tracked, meaning no input was allowed for labor, education or parent advocates.
This sudden expansion of demand for child workers is a direct consequence of our exclusion of immigrants. The teens are taking low-wage jobs that immigrants used to take.
We need more unskilled immigrants so that our children don’t have to work such awful jobs.
“This dystopian outcome would be the opposite of what the founding fathers envisioned. Their vision was one of inclusion where all are welcome, a place serves the interests of the nation, communities and individuals … It is a nightmare, and nothing any proponents of democracy should be supporting.”
No, this “dystopian outcome” is EXACTLY what many of the founders envisioned, and to say otherwise is an extreme over-simplification of history. Many of the founders were slave owners who did NOT include slaves and their descendants in their vision of public education and public life.
George Washington pursued one of his escaped slaves for years. Thomas Jefferson impregnated one of his slaves; I’d call it rape and you can add whatever adjectives or adverbs you like. Then there are the other, more run-of-the-mill Southern founders–the ones who forced the phrase “three fifths of a person” into the Constitution.
Question: does Justice Clarence Thomas think he is 3/5 of a person? He is an Originalist.
Mark,
What you write is accurate.
However the Founding Fatgers did have a vision of public schools in every town. In the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, they recommended that every town in the new territories be laid out with 36 plots. One of the 36 was designated as a public school. No plot was designated for a church school or a private school.
Forgive me for being cynical, but many had no need to qualify what kind of school. They were talking about schools for whites, not black or native people, and the lessons would include bible readings.
Never-the-less, Mark, Jefferson warned, in every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot.
Jane Mayer focused on Charles Koch in her book, Dark Money. All who read that book should fear for democracy.
Read the bio of the Colorado Catholic Conference Executive Director.
They do tie themselves in knots, don’t they?
Note: this comment applies to Clarence Thomas the Originalist.
Thomas is an originalist flim-flam man.
Retired teacher is brilliant and thoughtful and compassionate. Always a pleasure to read.
Agree!
Avg customer is better informed than avg voter.
Qualifying it a little, research showed Fox viewers are less well informed than if they listened to no news. The demographic group with the most resistant attitude toward information that is inconsistent with their bias is older White, males.