 “Race to the Top” is accelerating the trend toward the dismantling of public education. Teachers, students and parents are the ones paying the price. |
The author is a teacher in Boston, Mass.
The Massachusetts legislature stepped up its attack on public education by approving a new education reform bill. This law will double the number of charter schools in the “lowest-performing districts” in the state and give more options to school authorities to “overhaul their worst schools,” including more options to fire teachers and lengthen the work day without union approval. (Boston Globe, Jan. 15)
Passing the bill was a step in Massachusetts’ desperate scramble, along with dozens of other states, to receive federal stimulus money from the so-called “Race to the Top.” The program, initiated by President Obama, is nothing more than an attack on public education and unionized educators. It calls for states to reward “top” teachers by linking teacher pay with student performance, to dismiss teachers in “underperforming” schools, and to remove any caps on charter schools.
States are in a mad dash to compete for millions of dollars in what is actually a race to the bottom, leaving public schools bracing for more cutbacks and budget shortfalls. The program will disburse funds only to those states that enact the deepest reforms. Many will not receive a penny, but legislatures are seizing the opportunity to cut state expenditures at the expense of public education. Teachers, students and parents only stand to lose.
Officials of the struggling districts in Massachusetts claim that they have cut everything they can out of their budgets, and with the upcoming expected shortfalls for the next school year, they will have no choice but to lay off more teachers. (Boston Globe, Jan. 13)
The district of Westwood, for instance, has proposed a budget that will prevent teachers from receiving a cost-of-living increase in their salaries for the second year in a row. Many other districts are facing similar predicaments. (Boston Globe, Jan. 13)
Neither the federal government nor the state government can guarantee teachers that their jobs are safe, nor can they guarantee parents that their children will have books, supplies or an adequate number of educators in their schools. Teachers are often the ones who have to make up for budget cuts out of their own pockets, spending their own money to purchase supplies for their students.
Teachers are not to blame!
Yet despite their self-sacrifice, teachers face the fiercest attacks for the chronic problems of the public education system. School closures and overcrowded classrooms, lack of resources, poverty—all these factors go a long way to explain why students are struggling, but it is much more politically convenient to blame teachers. A representative of the Boston Teachers’ Union stated that the bill that just passed virtually destroys collective bargaining rights for teachers in 15 to 20 schools, and this may spread to other schools.
Perhaps Massachusetts’ legislators do not understand that decent pay and stable jobs for teachers are crucial to ensuring that students receive the best education possible. But in all likelihood, the majority of legislators simply do not care.
Another component of the reform bill calls for “doubling the number of charter school seats in districts with the lowest MCAS scores” (Boston Globe, Jan. 7). The MCAS is the state test that all high school students in Massachusetts must pass in order to graduate. Defenders of this provision argue that charter schools will help to close the so-called achievement gap and allow more students to have access to a quality education.
However, advocates of charter schools conveniently ignore the many studies that show that charter schools do not provide a better education than public schools, and that many, in fact, provide a worse education. (New York Times, Jan. 11)
A huge number of charter schools do not meet the needs of special education students, or those of students not fluent in English. Districts with many charter schools resemble a market: Parents “shop around” among dozens of charter schools to then submit applications; children are not guaranteed admission to any charter schools.
Fight back against the anti-union offensive
The real driving force behind the charter school movement is the dismantling of teachers’ unions. The great majority of charter schools are non-union and have little or no safeguards in place to protect the rights of teachers.
Legislators have shown disregard for the root causes of the problems facing education, simply letting charter schools drain money from the public system. Solutions require the examination of the inherent inequities in public education, such as the severely skewed distribution of resources and the racism and segregation within the public school system. Enacting punitive measures against supposedly “underperforming” schools will only further deprive them of the very resources they need to succeed.
This is not how our education system should work. We cannot let education be reduced to a commodity. Free, quality public education should be available to everyone. Parents should not have to struggle to provide their children with education, yet that is what Massachusetts legislators and others all over the country are allowing to happen.
Pentagon officials have never had to race for federal money. Our capitalist government prioritizes money for war and occupation over money for education.
This has to change. We can fight back!
The Coalition for Equal Quality Education in Boston, of which the Party for Socialism and Liberation is an active participant, fought back and defeated a proposal by the Boston School Committee to rezone Boston Public Schools in the summer of 2009. The coalition has mobilized again in the fight against the charter school movement and the fight against attacks on teachers’ rights.
The PSL will continue to fight along with the Coalition for Equal Quality Education. We stand with all teachers, students, parents, community members and school staff members to demand that quality education is a right for all.
