The education reform money grab

The following article was taken from PSLweb.org (click here).

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.