Public Education is the 99%

It has been about five months since I last made a post.  During that time, my online presence has been more focused on the comment sections of news websites where there is active discussion on education topics and a variety of viewpoints being expressed.  These comment sections provide a thermometer for the state of the education reform debate.

One thing I have noticed is that the pseudo-reformer platform (ending teacher tenure, supporting charter schools over traditional, and instituting teacher evaluations based on testing) is losing popular interest.  While many states have instituted reforms over the last year, an equal number have probably failed to materialize.  Wherever pseudo-reformer poster child Michelle Rhee goes, she is followed by a mass of criticism and general pleas for her to leave whatever state in whose business she is meddling.  The voices of opposition, such as Diane Ravitch, are being heard more loudly in the mainstream media.

Furthermore, the data are not supporting the claims.  Charter school effectiveness is being questioned.  States are having a hard time enacting the reforms required of federal Race To The Top funds.  In all, the policies are failing, or at least not producing real and viable improvement in the American education system.

These last five months also saw the growth of the Occupy movement and the distinction between the 99% and the 1%.  The billionaire pseudo-reformers and political power-elite land squarely in the 1%, and the Occupy movement has helped to shine a light on the questionable motives of education reform - does the 1% really have the interest of the 99% in mind? 

The Occupy movement has forced the public to reevaluate.  No longer is it the public versus the teacher and unions, which is what the billionaire funded movie Waiting for Superman instigated, but now it is the public versus the 1%.  It has been a welcome diversion and time will tell if it is a more fruitful one.

Despite these changes in the flow of opinion, the pseudo-reformers are still at it and senseless education reform is still being signed into law.  Perhaps, though, the biggest threat to education at this time is not the destruction of public education through the pseudo-reformer platform, but the destruction of education through de-funding.  While the 1% continue to increase their wealth and send their children to private schools, the 99% struggle to make ends meet, as do the public schools their children attend.

The irony is that any reform passed now is likely to go unfunded.  From Common Core Standards to Race To The Top (ironic because it is a grant) to state legislation, where will the money come from to institute the changes required? California's transportation budget is in danger of being completely slashed.  How can we educated the future of America if the children can't even get to school?

Don't let the 1% ruin education in America.  Reclaim public education for the 99%!

What are you willing to do?

How important is eduction to us?  For educators in Wisconsin, it was important enough to occupy the state capitol for days and weeks on end.  For a few thousand educators, it was important enough that they travelled to Washington D.C. for the Save our Schools rally this summer.  As legislators continue to push an agenda of pseudo-reform, educators continue to push back.  But, how hard are we willing to push?  Are we willing to push this hard?  Education reform, Chilean style...


photo: msnbc

High school and college students are rioting in Chile because of the lack of government funding for education and because of tax-exempt private universities that do not put their profits back into education as they are required.  Sounds familiar doesn't it? A lack of funding and a push towards privatized, marginalized for-profit education is happening right here in the good ol' USA.

Stand up against harmful education reform, reclaim public education!