The following is an edited transcript of a presentation given at the PSL Socialism Conference in Washington, D.C., on April 10. The speaker is a public school teacher in New York City.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of a politician who did not have “school reform” somewhere on his agenda. For Democrats and Republicans, education is a common campaign point because it is safe and easy. Who doesn’t think their children should have the best schools? In a capitalist country where housing, income and health care are never guaranteed, the notion that education can level the playing field and somehow make all this exploitation fair is an attractive one to the ruling class.
The most recent wave of education reform has been evolving since 2001 when Congress passed “No Child Left Behind.” Under the guise of wanting to close “the achievement gap,” the bill financially rewarded schools that increased their students’ test scores and penalized schools that did not show similar progress.
Interestingly, a recent study released by the University of Florida confirmed that the wealthier the student’s family, the better the student does on the state standardized test. No Child Left Behind very conveniently rewarded schools with wealthier families, while punishing schools who already had to battle poverty, all under the pretense of closing the racial achievement gap.
In addition to penalizing already struggling schools, the focus on standardized tests was used to blame teachers for students’ failures. See, if the focus is standardized tests, which teachers are technically responsible for, and not factors outside that impact student achievement like having a home, food and health care, which is a government’s responsibility, then who becomes responsible for the inequalities in society? Not the capitalist system. The teachers!
Amidst all this school reform, the capitalist parties have somehow been able to scapegoat teachers saying we are responsible for the shortcomings in the public school system. Conveniently, this moves the debate from increasing funding or ensuring housing and health care for all families to the question of how hard the teachers are working.
This way of thinking has most recently manifested itself in the “Race to the Top” initiative, the portion of the economic stimulus package set aside for education. In order to have a chance at the money, states need to remove limits on charter school creation and lift laws that prohibit teacher pay and job security from being tied to standardized tests.
These two poisonous carrot sticks have already started to affect school districts across the country. In Los Angeles, it has inspired a series of layoffs, school closings and “school reconstitutions” where the entire staff is dismissed and forced to reapply for their jobs.
In New York City, where I teach, it has meant underhanded and downright sneaky attempts to close public schools so that charter schools can open in the valuable school real estate where public schools now stand.
This is exactly what’s happening in my school building. My school shares our decrepit five-story building on the East River with two other schools. In December, we found out that the high school in our building, along with 19 other public high schools across the city would be closed down. The staff would be laid off, and it would reopen as a charter school
In January, a month after the first notice, the mayor-appointed panel for education policy voted to proceed with closing these 20 high schools, despite public outrage.
Then, just two days after that decision was handed down, my principal received a phone call that–surprise!—our school and the other middle school in the building would be moved out of our building, to squeeze in with an already existing elementary school in the neighborhood, clearing the two floors we occupy for what? That’s right, a charter school.
So now, in addition to the everyday challenges of teaching, we’re fighting to save our school.
Why are these charter schools so thirsty to get my run-down old school building? One word—profit.
You might be thinking—whoa, people want to make a profit off educating kids? I thought these charter schools were all about excellence and educational innovation?
They might be … for now.
But profit is all about flattening your competition and reducing your operating costs. So charter schools have to break down the public school system so that they become the only option for working-class families. Once charter schools no longer have to compete with public schools, it’s free-market time for education. The corporate entities that manage these schools will be able to cut teachers’ salaries, reduce spending on the classroom and basically do whatever they want. What they don’t spend on the kids and teachers is money back in the investors’ pockets.
What it comes down to is profit
While in the short run, policy makers and politicians may frame the charter schools movement as educational innovation, in the long run, what it really comes down to is profit.
In addition, students at the public colleges and the state, city and community schools are also being held up from every angle. In California, the state university system voted to criminally increase tuition by over 30 percent! In Illinois, they’re trying to force 11,000 state university employees to take unpaid furlough days, cut student organizations and raise tuition by 20 percent or more. In Maryland, the governor has set aside $300 million to build new juvenile detention centers, while Baltimore schools continue to suffer from chronic underfunding. In my home state, New York, they’re proposing $320 million in cuts to the state and city university systems.
On March 4, thousands of students, teachers and parents across the country hit the streets to fight back against this attack on public education, but it is just the beginning.
Education is a right. The United States, with its vast resources could afford to educate its people all the way through medical school if that was the priority. The stimulus package set aside $4 billion for education, but that was out of $700 billion! Where did the other $696 billion go?
While the United States continues to de-fund education, Cuba, that tiny socialist island with a blockaded economy, ensures that all levels of education are free to the entire population. Cuba has the highest literacy rate in the world, has capped class size at 20 students and made medical school free.
Now, is Cuba richer than the United States? Are Cuban babies smarter than babies born in the United States? Are the teachers just better? No, the difference is in the priorities of the government. We could have a fantastic school system and a highly educated population if we put our people’s needs first.
So back to us, here in the belly of the beast. The public education system is under attack, period. In opposition to the budget cuts, union-busting and privatization, we have to demand our right to a free quality education.
Working-class parents, students and teachers are united in this fight. The media may try to divide us saying the teachers don’t work hard enough, or the parents just don’t have it together, or the students don’t care, and we can’t let them do that. A united front of parents, students and teachers will be unstoppable. Stop the attacks on public education. Free quality education for all!
