Public Schools for Sale

[AthenaAwakened]

Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an “emerging market.” As Rupert Murdoch put it after purchasing an education technology company, “When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the US alone.”

Education historian Diane Ravitch says the privatization of public education has to stop. As assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, she was an advocate of school choice and charter schools; under George W. Bush, she supported the No Child Left Behind initiative. But after careful investigation, she changed her mind, and has become, according to Salon, “the nation’s highest profile opponent” of charter-based education.

On this week’s Moyers & Company, she tells Bill Moyers, ”I think what’s at stake is the future of American public education. I believe it is one of the foundation stones of our democracy: So an attack on public education is an attack on democracy.”

http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/

Public schools are being eyed as yet another government contract for privatizers to bid.

 

[dockeen]

I have often wondered how one can believe that a "for profit" institution can succeed in an endeavor, in this case where the payoff function is a quality education, when an institution that only has to focus on the payoff function, the government, can not. It looks to me like they don't care if the payoff function is good, they simply want it cheap.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

I have often wondered how one can believe that a "for profit" institution can succeed in an endeavor, in this case where the payoff function is a quality education, when an institution that only has to focus on the payoff function, the government, can not. It looks to me like they don't care if the payoff function is good, they simply want it cheap.

Understand, the privatizers understand and know everything you just stated. And they know if you can flash test scores in front of the American public, that will fascinate them enough to believe that actual education is happening so their tax dollars are actually working and not simply lining some mountebank's pockets.

 

[Bronzeage]

There is a long standing right wing urban myth that no government enterprise can be efficient and any private enterprise will be.

The real problem here is that it is the state which promises an adequate education to every child. If someone takes the money and does not deliver the education, the state is still obligated. If a charter school closes in mid semester, the public school in that district must absorb those students on Monday morning.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

And exactly what is efficiency?

Wouldn't that be determined by the goals of an enterprise and whether or not those goals are met?

The goal of high stakes testing is higher and higher test scores, not retention of knowledge not the internalization of skills.

The goal is charter schools is what? To wrest control of public education from the public and give it businessmen?

The goal of vouchers is take money out of public education and pay it to private concerns, all in the name of choice for the parents, who once they put their children in private schools, have little to no say in even whether or not the child gets to stay there?

Where is the efficiency in all of this?

 

[pegasus8]

The Blood Sucking Greedy " Job Creators" Want That Big Fat Education Dollar To Pocket Their Bottom Line.

Basically the assholes, please insert GOP/free market types here please, want to get their greedy paws on that huge fed/state and local educational money. All this BS about giving the kids a better education,IMO, is just smoke screens to get some of that fed/state money. They want to pull off what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan in " privatizing" parts of the service. The reality is that they contract out their services. For every charter school that opens I would say half go belly up within a few years because they can not meet the criteria and or meet the quota of kids in the seats to cover the cost for the grants or state monies. I have seen this a lot in northern California for the last 10 years. And up here in Hick's ville Green Acres there are charter schools popping up and going down all the time.

And after being a substitute teacher in my local school district I do not see how these charter schools think that they can pull of teaching the kids while being a for profits entity. Private/parochial schools can do it because they charge high fees for a good to superior product. And they can put out a good product because they pay for the good teachers. And after spending all that money and time for that teaching credential a teacher will get a decent livable salary in a thankless, coming from all angles blind side job. You try to teach and reach the kids while you get it from both the parent and the administration.

This fabricated post Reagan obsession with hating all things from the government and the private sector can do better and cheaper is one of the biggest lies of our generation. Teachers will not work for peanuts because of all the $$$ and time invested. And without good teachers trying to juggle being a teacher, a parent, a life coach, a mentor, etc., to this kids privatization of the public school system will only put out an inferior product while it shows a profit on the balance sheet.

Also this privatization is directed at taking the teachers and monies out of the inner city or poorer sections of the community where it is needed and putting it back in the suburban/rural and or better off communities. And of course the real kick in the face is that these private charter schools, paid by Joe taxpayer, can now teach wonderful religious cult themes like how Jesus and the dinosaurs walked hand in hand walking on water and feeding a butt load of folks with a couple of fish and some bread.

From a utilitarian perspective we see what is the most good for the most people as in the contract to society; you know as in " We The People." They see profits being squandered where it could go into better causes. You know like their own corporations and companies owned and controlled with their interest in mind. "F"'n greedy son of a "B"'s! They want it all. You know their learned if they can pull off this crap in Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Katrina then what is to stop them for going for the big bucks in education?

Oh yeh it is all about the kids. Yeh see. It is for the children,see! Yeh it is all about the $$$$$, oops I mean kids see.

Peace

Pegasus

 

[ksen]

I have often wondered how one can believe that a "for profit" institution can succeed in an endeavor, in this case where the payoff function is a quality education, when an institution that only has to focus on the payoff function, the government, can not. It looks to me like they don't care if the payoff function is good, they simply want it cheap.

The funny thing is that it's not cheaper.