Think Globally, Privatize Locally: Public Education Is Under Attack Around the World

[Hannah Bell]

NEOLIBERAL REFORMS

Known outside the United States as neoliberalism’s project in education, this package of “market-friendly” reforms includes privatization of schools and services; charter schools, public-school closings, fragmentation of the school system’s administrative apparatus; budget cuts, high-stakes standardized testing and the destruction of the teacher unions as a significant player in education. Given the state of the financial system, it’s ironic that the economic crisis has accelerated and intensified efforts in the United States to push this package of reforms.

In developing countries, the architects of these reforms are quite explicit that they aim to make education produce workers who are minimally educated and will compete for jobs that require no more than a seventh or eighth grade education. This new educational system will better serve transnational corporations and their quest for increased profits. A small number of workers will require the ability to think and be the new leaders of finance, industry and technology. They’ll receive a high-quality education, in expensive private schools or in privately-run public schools — that is, charter schools.

But in neoliberalism’s educational plan, most workers do not need much schooling, so they do not require teachers who are well educated. In fact, teachers with lots of formal education and experience are a problem because they will ask for higher wages, which is a waste of government money. Teachers for most kids need only be “good enough,” to follow scripted materials that prepare students for standardized tests, and these teachers can be put into schools through “fast track” programs, like Teach For America.

ENDING PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

The other key element of this package is privatizing and commercializing schools. Education is the last sector of the economy that is still mainly “owned” by the public, and this “monopoly” as it’s called by the architects of this reform package, has to be broken so that for-profit companies have access to the education “market.” Education is also the last sector of the economy that is heavily unionized, and the teacher unions can be a stubborn opponent of the reforms, so they too must be eliminated, or at least housebroken enough. When I speak to audiences of teachers and teacher unionists about my research about this package of reforms, already implemented by the World Bank in Africa, Asia and South America, invariably someone argues that I’m portraying a conspiracy. Not at all. A conspiracy is secret. This project is quite public, if you look for information about it in the right places...

http://www.indypendent.org/2010/05/13/education-under-attack/

[Hannah Bell]

1. kik

[blondeatlast]

2. They've found the perfect time to launch an assault on quality

public education.

With all the other turmoil hitting right at home, who notices the demise of schools?

:puke:

[leftstreet]

3. Good point. No one is talking about this

No one.

K&R

[peopleb4money]

4. That's the shock doctrine for you.

[TBF]

5. Recommended. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

6. our future: education officer in nambibia: "control of our ed system lies with int'l bodies"

We can see our future — if we fail to stop these initiatives — in what’s occurred throughout the developing world. John Nyambe, chief education officer of the National Institute for Educational Development in Namibia, observes that the fate of his country’s educational system now lies outside its people’s control and that government bodies have little control. Instead, control is in the hands of international bodies that are “driven and propelled by the insatiable demand for profit. In policy formulation, profit, instead of public welfare, occupies the center stage.”

http://www.indypendent.org/2010/05/13/education-under-attack/