As
part of its “Race to the Top” initiative, the Obama administration is making
close to $3.5 billion available for school districts to “overhaul” failing
schools. This is a sharp increase from 2007 when the federal government only
made around $125 million available for the same purpose. However, what on the
surface may appear as a positive development is actually a ploy to further
privatize public education.
|
|
Rather
than asking school communities what would be needed in order to make their
institutions successful, the government is contracting out this important task
to private companies, often with little experience or track record in improving
schools. Some of the companies seeking federal money include the giant British
textbook corporation Pearson, a life coaching company called the Center for
Evocative Coaching (with a recently changed, strategically titled Web site, schooltransformation.com), and a charter
school management group, Mosaica Education, which currently has 50 percent of
the schools under its management in “academic emergency.” (New York Times, Aug.
9)
Why
is the task of overhauling so-called failing schools being contracted out to
private companies with little experience in accomplishing that task? Why aren’t
teachers being asked, “What would you need to make your classroom effective?”
Why aren’t parents being asked, “What do you think your child’s school needs
most?” The federal government is not attempting to pose these questions to
school communities, because the answers would expose the fundamental flaw in
school reform initiatives under capitalism.
If
public-school parents, teachers and even administrators were asked these
questions, they would probably list a series of proven, effective education
methods, which are often already in practice in the nation’s top private
schools and wealthiest public-school districts. Among these requests would be
consistent access to technology, arts and enrichment programming, constructive
discipline programs that teach children positive behavior rather than
penalizing them, and giving teachers more time to plan and develop to be as
effective as possible when they are in the classroom, not to mention limiting
class sizes to 20 students or less. All these programs require an increase in
funding.
In
contrast, school reform as it stands right now involves shifting around the use
of a shrinking pool of resources, leveraging these funds to promote the
privatization of public education. The bottom line is that a capitalist
government will not make public education a financial priority. It is unlikely
that the federal government will shift its funding priority from war and
foreign occupation to the education of the people. It is much easier to provide
a small dose of hope to working-class families with children in the public-school
system that things will improve by contracting out the responsibility to
private entities, allowing these groups to make a profit.
While
any increase in funding public education is welcomed, funneling that money to
for-profit entities is not. Unproven initiatives spearheaded by entrepreneurs
can make no fundamental change to the root of the problem. We demand the full
funding of public education from pre-K through college, and the empowerment of
communities to decide for themselves what their children need most.
