Harry
Targ
The
political economy of public sector failure is wholly ignored when schools are
declared failing and threatened with closure. Further, parents, guardians,
community members, educators, and youth are systematically excluded from
decisions to close schools and plans to redesign their replacements. The cover
story about saving communities from educational crisis grows a bit suspect when
the very communities presumably being saved are kept out of the process--and
their children are often denied admission to the replacement schools. (Michael
Fabricant and Michelle Fine, Charter
Schools and the Corporate Makeover of Public Education, Teachers College,
Columbia University, 2012, p. 98. These comments were made about New York but
are relevant almost everywhere. ht).
In a prior essay, I discussed the connections
between the neoliberal agenda characteristic of the changing political economy
since the 1980s, the move toward privatization of public institutions, and the
threat to public schools. www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2015/11/neoliberalism-privatization-and-crisis.html
In this essay I discuss some impacts of these policy
changes in the United States and proposals for mobilizing for policy change in
Indiana.
First, the shift of scarce state budget funds from
public to charter schools has meant a significant decline in resources to
maintain and improve public schools. If funds for new charter schools and
increased money for vouchers are transferred from adequately performing public
schools to under-performing charter or religious schools the changes in
educational policy would lead to a decline in the quality of education provided
to all students. For example, in the 2014-2015 Indiana budget, $115 million was
diverted by the state legislature from public education to the growing voucher
program.
Therefore, as money is withdrawn from K-12 public
education the traditional schools have reduced resources with which to do their
job. This leads to declining performance. Then privatization advocates call for
further reduction as well as school closings, rather than increasing resource
allocation to public schools.
Second, a high percentage of school closings occur
in poor and Black communities. These closings create what the Journey for
Justice Alliance calls “education deserts.” Parents have to find adequate,
affordable schools elsewhere in the cities in which they live. Oftentimes
charter schools refuse to admit particular students because of biased estimates
of their probability of success, disabilities they may have, insufficient
English language proficiency or other reasons. “Charter schools use a variety
of selective admissions techniques, such as targeted marketing strategies,
burdensome application processes, imposing academic prerequisites, and the
active discouragement of less-desirable candidates.” (Journey for Justice
Alliance, Death By a Thousand Cuts,
May, 2014, pp.11-12). In some cases parents cannot find adequate schools for
their children anywhere near their community.
The closing of schools, the struggle for admission
to new schools, the increased class sizes of new schools, the adjustment to a
new school culture, along with the inexperience of new teachers, all impact in
negative ways on the educational experience of children. Education writer,
Scott Elliott reported that of the 18 charter schools operating in Indianapolis
in 2015, half of them had test scores in 2014 that registered a “fail” in state
examination of their children. The failing charter schools served children from
poorer backgrounds and/or were children with special needs such as language
training. Several of these failing charter schools had been operating for
several years and some had been part of national charter networks.
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability summed
up studies of the impacts of voucher programs on educational performance: ‘None
of the independent studies performed of the most lauded and long standing
voucher programs extant in the U.S.--Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio, and
Washington, D.C.--found any statistical evidence that children who utilized
vouchers performed better than children who did not and remained in public
schools.”
Third, as parent and student protests in Chicago, in
various cities and towns in Indiana, and elsewhere suggest, there is an inverse
relationship between the spread of charter schools and voucher systems and
citizen input into educational policy-making. Historically, while many parents
chose not to participate in school board decision- making, the prerogative
existed for parents, and even students, to provide input into educational policy.
It was assumed that members of communities had the right and the responsibility
to communicate their concerns to school administrators, elected school boards,
and teachers. Most school districts have active parent organizations.
The documentary Education
Inc. demonstrated cases in which the frequency of public school board
hearings was reduced and meetings were summarily adjourned to avoid debate on
controversial issues. And legislatures, such as in Indiana, have prohibited
state executive or legislative bodies from regulating the “curriculum content”
of private schools that accept vouchers.
Fourth, the neoliberal design referred to in the
prior essay is based upon the proposition that institutional and policy success
is best measured by the profit accrued to the corporate bodies involved. In the
field of education, neoliberal policies seek to shift accountability from the
public to the private sector; from professional skills to market skills; and
from participation by the professional and union organizations of teachers,
parent groups, and engaged students to corporate executives of private
corporations. The neoliberal design regards educational professionalism and
training and teachers advocacy
associations as impediments.
Therefore the full force of state educational policy
includes transferring status, respect, adequate remuneration from long time
public school teachers to marginalized, under-trained new workers in charter
schools. Also the charter school movement is avowedly an anti-teachers union movement.
Documentaries on education such as Rise Above the Mark and Education Inc. illustrate that career
teachers find demoralizing the repeated and dysfunctional testing of children,
declining resources for their schools, and repeated public statements devaluing
and demeaning teachers. Educational spokespersons in these films speak in the
most glowing terms about the passion to teach, commitment to children, and
talent of staffs under their leadership. School superintendents in these
documentaries also speak about the contributions which teachers unions make to
the enhancement of school performance.
The sum total of the thirty year effort to transform
the educational system under the guise of “reform” are the following: the
tradition of public education is being destroyed; access to quality education
is becoming more difficult and more unequal; transparency and parent input into
policy making is becoming more difficult; and the attack on professionalism and
teachers unions is making it more difficult to teach.
How
to respond?
The November 14, 2015 essay and this one only begin
to tell the story about the attacks on the educational process and quality
education. Other issues need to be discussed including testing, evaluations
based on dubious metrics, charging parents for text books, inequitable access
to school supplies by district and by public versus private schools, inadequate
funding, the development of curricula appropriate for a twenty-first century
educational agenda, and the need to combat the “school to prison pipeline” that
seems to undergird much of urban education. Responses to protect and enhance
the quality of educational life for children require the following:
Creating an educational movement in the state of
Indiana that says “enough is enough” to those advocates of so-called education
“reform.” That means developing inside
strategies that include running and electing legislators and executives who
believe in public education. It means lobbying at the State House during the
legislative season. It means launching litigation when politicians and
educational privateers violate the Indiana constitution’s guarantee that all
children have a right to a quality education.
The educational movement must also embrace an outside strategy, building a social
movement. It should include education, agitation, and organization. Pamphlets,
speakers, videos, and other public fora need to be organized all around the
state. Educators and their supporters need to rally and protest so that the
issue of quality education is discussed in communities and the media.
And organizationally, an educational movement should
draw upon the militancy, passion, and expertise of educational organizations
around the state that are already engaged in this work. Strengthening the
movement for quality education is more about bringing existing groups together
than creating new ones. That is the vision of Indiana Moral Mondays and the
idea of “fusion politics.” Assemble those who share common values and a vision
and build a mass movement such that as the old slogan says: “The People United
Shall Never Be Defeated.”
What
Specific Policies and Programs to Support?
1.Increasing, not decreasing, federal, state, and
local funding of public education.
2.Prioritizing the funding of traditionally
under-funded schools in economically disadvantaged communities. Resources
should include salaries to encourage experienced teachers to remain in
disadvantaged communities. Funds should provide equal technologies, including
libraries, computers, and other tools, for schools in lower income communities
equal to those provided for wealthier communities. Resources should provide for
language training, math education, and programs in the arts.
3.Policy-making bodies in all branches of government
should be open and transparent so that parents, teachers, and students can
observe and participate in decision-making.
4.In school districts where teachers choose to form
unions or other professional associations these organizations should be
recognized partners in the policy-making process.
5.Assessments of school performance should be
determined by teachers, school administrators, and parents, not politicians or
educational corporations. Teachers should not be forced to “teach to the tests.”
6.The goal of the educational process should be the
full development of the potential of each and every student irrespective of
race, gender, class or other forms of discrimination.
