How Turning the Public School System into a Market Undermines Democracy

[PETRUS]

by Elizabeth Stokes

<snip>

...the real problem with championing marketized models in education and other areas is the damage it does to democracy. We should not be upholding a model based on turning citizens into consumers. Democratic citizenship does not simply involve an individual’s choice from a platter of options. Rather, it requires active participation in collective decisionmaking.

The problem with marketized models is that in the process of providing individuals with private “choice,” citizens are necessarily deprived of public choice – that is, the opportunity to discuss, deliberate, and act in concert with others. While advocates of marketization claim that it eliminates many of the protracted disputes that currently impede the effectiveness of schools, disputes aren’t always such a bad thing from the standpoint of democracy – especially when they deal with matters of genuine common concern like the education of future generations. Even if conflicts do arise, the opportunity to debate and engage in a democratic give-and-take with neighbors is a vital aspect of political education and empowerment. As Alexis de Tocqueville observed in the 1830s, it is only through participation in the exercise of power over collective outcomes, and the practice of thinking about and acting on public issues in public arenas, that people can develop the skills and commitments necessary to be citizens. Removing public education as a site for political education simultaneously removes yet another stake citizens have in our democracy.

<snip>

http://www.nextnewdeal.net/millennial-pulse/how-turning-public-school-system-market-undermines-democracy

More at the link.

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[bvar22]

2. Things that should NEVER be "Privatized" in a Democracy:

*Vote Counting Machines or Tabulators

*Prisons

*Armed Military "Contractors" (Mercenaries)

*Administration of Public Lands & Resources

*Public Schools ("Charter" Schools ARE Private Schools!)

*Police & Fire Departments

*National Security Intelligence Collection and Compiling

*[font size=3]Health Insurance[/font]

NONE of the above should EVER be trusted to "private" hands.
They are ALL part of our Collective Responsibility,
and should always be 100% transparent and accountable to The Public.




You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[woo me with science]

4. [phone]

[limpyhobbler]

5. +yep

All correct.

[Scuba]

8. Ding, ding, ding, a Winner! Deserves a post of its own!!!

[woo me with science]

3. DU Rec

[limpyhobbler]

6. k+r

No privatizing schools. I'm OK with letting parents choose a different public school if theirs is too crappy.

[Brigid]

7. Yes, but I have a better idea.

Make ALL our public schools good ones. We have not been making this a priority for years, and it is costing us dearly.

[bvar22]

9. The way to FIX our Public Schools:

Require every American who is employed by Uncle Sam to send their kids to the nearest Public School. This includes EVERY SINGLE Government employee, especially elected politicians.
The quality of our Public Schools would improve dramatically overnight
IF the people responsible for our schools had to send their children to Public Schools.

This would also weed out those scum bags who see Politics as
the Fast Lane to Easy Street instead of Public Service.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[Igel]

12. I'd quit.

My district's buildings are mostly less than 8 years old. Lots of technology. Teachers are qualified. Most care.

It's not so much the kids, although the ones in this district cause the teachers to have frequent melt downs and spend a lot of time controlling their classrooms. All wasted time. The kids learn behavior and attitudes at home. They study--or not--at home.

I moved my kid to a public school built in the '60s. Funding's the same. Teachers are more experienced, but many of them got that experience in the district I live in. It's a much better school.

Money matters slightly. Most teachers these days are trained well enough that increased training won't help. School buildings don't matter much. We're testing to the curriculum (and the test is based on the curriculum, so "teaching to the test" is roughly the same thing as teaching to the curriculum, with some biases).

Ultimately half of what predicts academic success is the parents. Forcing politicians' kids to go to bad schools won't change the parents. Most other things that can be done have been done. What's helped the most in the last 8 years where I live are parent classes: They get the parents to come in so they can train the parents, even a little, on how to raise kids that are at least moderate achievers. Most parents find this humiliating.

As though having failed kids is a point of honor. Well, the parents do blame everybody else, so I guess they duck blame.

[Igel]

11. Excuse me?

Obviously we have different ideas as to how to operationalize "make this a priority."

More money. New schools. New equipment. Increasing standards for teachers. Revising curriculum. Instituting standards. Basing standardized tests on new revised standards.

Average class size 24, in a new school with wifi and lots of tech everywhere. Before school programs, after school programs, weekend programs, programs for parents and weekend SAT/ACT tutoring. AP classes and relaxed requirements to ensure that a mistake doesn't get in the way of a student.

Starting salary for new teacher in math or science $47k/year, required to pass certain tests with certain college course requirements and attend set trainings to keep everybody on the same page. Frequent visits by the assist. principal, main principal, curriculum specialists, and district coordinator to the classroom.

And still, after 2 years, the damned school is deemed failing as test scores continue to drop. This is a fairly frequent pattern. The only people that really believe that these things work are those where it hasn't been tried. Three years later things are up slightly, but perfectly predictable given demographics. What saved the school? The foreclosure crisis. Those kids moved to another school and its scores dropped.

If you keep repeating the same thing and getting the same results, I don't understand why people are so convinced that if we try it the same way just one more time in *their* school it'll be so different.

[Igel]

10. That's what some charters are.

They're public but specialized in some way. Varies by state.

As for the rest ... it's kind of you to allow parents to make some sort of decision when it comes to their kids' futures.