General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Any time you hear the word "privatization", you should be scared [View all]
Any time the word "public" is used in a negative way, you should be worried.
You are being played. Privatizing things that are public is 100% a money making scheme. It has nothing to do with making schools better, or making anything better. It is only about some private corporation raiding public land, public money, and making a killing.
Here's how it goes with schools:
1. Make it illegal or very difficult to not put your children in accredited schools. Get public opinion on your side. (Note: My kids are in public schools and I'm a huge supporter, but this is a necessary ingredient in the scheme.)
2. Underfund public schools. Get rid of unions. Pay teachers so little that it isn't an attractive job. Create policies where you can to make public schools as bad as possible. Claim that class size doesn't matter so as many kids as possible will get stuck in one class. Create as many test requirements as possible, and make it difficult for school districts to meet goals.
3. Now that you have made public schools weaker, start putting in a few charter schools. Use public money, take over public land, and your corporation will make a lot of money! Have fewer rules for the charter schools than you have for the public schools so that you can make some comparisons and the charter schools will look better. (At least on paper - some charter schools are pretty horrible.)
4. Use those comparisons to get to your ultimate goal - dismantling public school completely. Take over school buildings wherever you can, and offer vouchers to put toward the schools, but you can make more money if you have costs above that. At this point the only other alternative is public schools, which you've destroyed, and it's difficult to illegal to not put your kids in any school, so you have a pretty captive market. There is tons of money available in the charter schools market! Only people with no choices at all due to economics will keep their kids in public schools. And you can pick and choose which kids you'll take anyway. Don't take kids who cost too much to educate, and keep the extra money!
(edited due to stupid spelling error - not enough coffee yet this morning. edited again later due to two typos.)