Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty-(Rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
We often hear the term “school reform” used often by politicians of all stripes. Chicago’s politicians are no different when it comes to talking about and taking action on so-called school reform. Recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is a big fan of the charter school program and a former investment banker, decided that the best way to “reform” Chicago Public Schools was to close 49 schools and terminate 550 teachers and another 300 school staff employees!
“On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers. The layoffs will hit hardest at those teachers working in African-American and Latino communities. These are the communities that were targeted in the system’s recent decision to close 49 schools – the largest single school closure in US history.” Truth-out What is interesting to me is that while Mayor Emanuel has hammered the Chicago Public School teachers union and Chicago Public schools, he has made sure that Charter schools will be a big player in the City of Chicago.
“Emanuel, a former Congressman and investment banker, has become a darling of the US education reform lobby by implementing its demands for privatizing the public education system through establishing charter schools – privately owned, for-profit schools that receive public financing – by attacking the CTU, and most recently, by pushing forward the huge school closure.
The number of charter schools – which receive public money while being freed of many work and collective-bargaining rules – has doubled in Chicago since 2005, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. There are now about 100 of them in the city. The Emanuel administration has called for 60 new charter schools by 2017. ” Truth-Out
While no one will argue that the Chicago Public Schools do not need improvements, why is it that politicians insist that educating our children should be done by for-profit corporations? Mayor Emanuel is actually continuing a “reform” program first initiated by Mayor Richard Daley and now Education Secretary, Arne Duncan.
“Daley began the privatization of the school system by closing so-called “underperforming” schools, mostly in black and Latino neighborhoods, and firing large numbers of teachers. Between 2001 and last year, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district closed about 100 schools. Arne Duncan, the CEO of CPS during many of those years, was appointed Secretary of Education by President Barack Obama, who himself rose out of the Chicago political system.” Truth-Out
Is it just a coincidence that most of the schools closed by the last two Mayoral administration’s were in black and Latino neighborhoods? Are the charter schools a way of attacking the Chicago Teachers Union? The problems that the CTU and Mayor Emanuel had during the last strike were well documented. The Teachers Union now has 550 fewer members and there may be more terminations to come. Round 1 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Why are charter schools the latest rage in the education arena? Why would alderman and mayors around the country be sold on the idea of for profit education, paid for by taxpayer money? What facts did the Emanuel administration use to make its claim that Chicago needed to engage in the largest single school closure in history?
“Critics accused the board of using false and misleading claims to justify the closures. They say 46,000 students, not 30,000, will be affected. The board claims public schools had lost 145,000 students. In reality, enrollment had declined by 75,000, and 47,000 of those students had gone to charter schools, making the real figure 28,000. Most of Chicago’s student losses occurred 30-40 years ago at the height of deindustrialization. The school district claimed what it said was a $1 billion deficit made closures necessary, but in fact, since students don’t disappear and other schools will require more funding, there will be no cost savings from the closures.” Truth-Out
If I understand the numbers correctly, the Mayor may have used bogus numbers to make his claim that public schools needed to be closed en mass while Charter schools are increasing in number. Could the lower average teacher salaries at charter schools be part of the reason Emanuel and other politicians are fawning over the alleged promise of charter schools?
At least one study provided numbers that seems to claim that charter school’s promise of improvement is all wet. Especially when you compare apples to apples. “Research on charter schools paints a mixed picture. A number of recent national studies have reached the same conclusion: charter schools do not, on average, show greater levels of student achievement, typically measured by standardized test scores, than public schools, and may even perform worse.
The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found in a 2009 report that 17% of charter schools outperformed their public school equivalents, while 37% of charter schools performed worse than regular local schools, and the rest were about the same. A 2010 study by Mathematica Policy Research found that, on average, charter middle schools that held lotteries were neither more nor less successful than regular middle schools in improving student achievement, behavior, or school progress. Among the charter schools considered in the study, more had statistically significant negative effects on student achievement than statistically significant positive effects. These findings are echoed in a number of other studies.” Education Justice
If for profit charter schools are not performing better than public schools why would politicians be in favor of them? The best answer I have to that question is to repeat the statement made by the infamous “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame. “Follow the Money”!
Mayor Emanuel, have you no shame?
Additional References: Edudemic.com; Washington Post;
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Setting aside the fact that there are as many good/bad, selfless/selfish, competent/incompetent people in public schools as there are in charter schools, charter schools don’t matter. Vouchers don’t matter. Teachers’ unions don’t matter. Textbooks don’t matter.
The reason none of these things matter is that they all are part of the paradigm in which students have no say in a system that many, if not most, of them truly hate. And then they are judged by a system designed to measure temporary memorization, as opposed to real learning.
Until kids (and parents) have real choices about education – a decision as personal as love and faith – nothing will change.
We need a revolution in education more than reform.
RWL: “What ever happened to receiving a voucher to attend a private, religious school,…”
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It’s being implemented all over the country to our country’s detriment.
Whatever happened to the establishment clause? Whatever happened to teaching kids real stuff instead of (corporate and) religious-based BS? When did people stop laughing at ‘people rode dinosaurs to work’ and demand that I fund that a**-hattery with tax dollars?
“The new anti-science assault on US schools
In a disturbing trend, anti-evolution campaigners are combining with climate change deniers to undermine public education”
“The other significant twist has to do with the fact that the new anti-evolution – make that anti-science – bills are emerging in the context of the most vigorous assault on public education in recent history. In Oklahoma, for example, while Senator Brecheen fights the forces of evolution and materialism, the funding for schools is being cut, educational attainments are falling, and conservative leaders are agitating for school voucher systems, which, in the name of “choice”, would divert money from public schools to private schools – many of them religious. The sponsor of Indiana’s anti-science bill, Dennis Kruse, who happens to be chairman of the Senate education committee, is also fighting the two battles at once.
The Heartland Institute – which has received funding in the past from oil companies and is a leading source of climate science skepticism – also lobbies strongly for school vouchers and other forms of “school transformation” that are broadly aimed at undermining the current public school system. The Discovery Institute – a leading voice for intelligent design – has indicated its support of exactly the same “school reform” initiatives.
If you can’t shut down the science, the new science-deniers appear to be saying, you should shut down the schools. It would be a shame if they succeeded in replacing the teaching of science with indoctrination. It would be worse if they were to close the public school house doors altogether.” continues
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/12/new-anti-science-assault-us-schools
I’ve said at least 50 times I’m for charter schools..good ones.
I keep it civil, and merely ask questions and I’m accused of an Oliver Stone plot. It’s getting REALLY creepy now. Yes Darren, I’m recruiting a band of guerilla fighters known as “The Quixotics.”
Guess he’s not running for relection
If the results are approximately the same.
Seems to me the Mayor’s just screwing the Chicago Teachers Union
Brad S:
The problem with profit oriented organizations is their motive; profit. Profit is computed as the gap between revenue and expenses, so there are two ways to widen that gap: Increase prices, and decrease expenses.
Increasing prices will price some people out of the service. The real evil is in decreasing expenses; and for a private industry, that can mean corner cutting and shoddy performance that, in something like education, cannot be addressed in any effective manner.
Government agencies are NOT profit motivated. Nobody in the hierarchy (unless they are taking illegal and corrupt action) stands to earn more money by increasing the prices or decreasing the costs to the point of harming ‘customers’ or the environment. A government agency has the official motivation of doing the most good it can with the budget it is granted; nobody stands to become a billionaire, or even a millionaire, by hiring sub-standard teachers, using cheaper books, providing less security or transportation, refusing to teach kids with cognitive deficits or other disabilities, packing kids into ever larger classrooms, teaching by film clip, and so on.
There are many ills in the public school system, but their mission remains the same: Do what they can with the budget they are given for all kids. That is a fundamentally different motive than a for-profit company, which is simply to maximize the gap between revenue and expenses, and simple pricing mechanics ensures the maximum revenue point will not include all kids, and will not be focused on education at all, but ways of increasing the gap: Doing less work, providing less value, and getting more money.
Bad idea…. And to think he’s a DINO….. Cut union contact…. Get rid of other things… Pay these teachers less…. Administrative expenses exceeding other similarly situated schools…. Where do I sign up….
Nick:
It seems from your writings on this thread (that is those addressed to Brad and Larry) that you are trying to recruit people for something. what’s up with this?
I guess it depends upon where one lives. If I had children, I wouldn’t have a problem with them going to the public schools around where I live. But if I lived in a problem area I would do whatever it took to pay for mine to go elsewhere. It’s not worth them having to go through all that drama just to get an education.
Justice Holmes said: “Truly public education is the only way to go.”
I don’t know about that. So many public schools are doing a horrendous job educating our low-income youths.
Brad S, Paul, & Nick S., et Al
Solution: What ever happened to receiving a voucher to attend a private, religious school, of the parent’s choice, if the public system is not living up to its’ standards? Read the article below about the benefits of receiving a private religious and non-religious education?
http://www.privateschoolreview.com/articles/1
Mencken was huge fan of Nietzsche, by the way.
“No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness…Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Wythe, dated August 13, 1786.
“The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.”
― H.L. Mencken
OS,
“I also have a bone to pick with mandated high stakes testing and teaching to the test.”
Yep. Teaching to standardized tests – often used to determine funding levels – has done huge damage to public education all across the country.
What Justice Holmes said.
Any money diverted to profits is money taken from resources for students.
Not everything society does needs to done on a for profit basis.
Private, for profit schools are all well and good. They survive on their merits or they don’t but they are voluntary and their profits come from parents willing and able to pay extra for a perceived but not always actual change in quality. Some of the best schools I attended were private. Some of the worst schools I attended were private. Same can be said of the public schools I attended. But the raw business reality of the situation is every dollar taken as profit is not spent on the students. An educated workforce, especially a well educated workforce, is a boon to all of society. Improving the quality of education is a matter of getting the right resources to the students; from quality instructors who should be paid a good wage regardless of the business model the school operates on to having up to date equipment and textbooks. All things that profit taking steals purchasing dollars from. Charter schools do the same thing but on the tax payers dime instead of the tuition paid to traditional private for profit schools.
It’s fundamentally the same problem as running healthcare insurance as a for profit business. Profits take money away from patient care. And just like for profit insurance health care insurance, eventually the pursuit of profits will trump providing for the students.
BradS, I agree w/ everything you said. But, please realize there will be some people who will be vehemently opposed to your views. Don’t let them intimidate you. Keep your sense of humor. And feel free to ask me any questions about the folks who come at you. Welcome to the jungle. Otteray Scribe is a reasonable man. But, he is one of those super rich pilots who flies his fancy planes wherever and whenever he wants[this is a ballbust on OS, he is a pilot and we share the incredulity that so many people think private pilots are all billionaires]. Here’s an important rule for you to know. The rich are greedy, evil, bad people, according to a very vocal minority here. I will do anything I can to keep a man of your intellect and philosophy commenting here on a regular basis. “The more the merrier.” and “To each their own.” Buckle up and where a helmet.
Wow Nick you really know how to contribute to the discussion. Are you for or against Emmanuels school plans? Are you for or against charter schools? Or is it that your contributions are just ball-busting? Stay classy PA man. I think Brad S. is someone capable of fighting his own battles unlike some PI’s I’ve heard from.
Brad S. what’s the difference PROFIT! Our tax $ will be swept up in an ever continuing search for profits and the schools will decline and the curriculum will be come more pro corporate and less democratic. The corporations have been fighting democracy since right after the Civil War and it kicked into really high gear with the New Deal. They hated workers having rights, schools or a voice, they resent workers having a vote. Corporate charter schools are the end of education as we know it. Remember that old reframe– you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone! Well we are starting to see that the end of unions resulted in the end of upward mobility, the end of the middle class, the end of banking regulations lead to a bubble and bust economy were the workers and the middle class always lose. Truly public education is the only way to go.
Sorry Otteray, perhaps my statement was a bit oblique.
Why is it that “monopoly” – as long as it’s associated with health, education or welfare, is only acceptable when it’s run by the state (irrespective of the target of those public funds), but heinous when it’s some private institution that is also a monopoly? Because you know the results as a consumer of services provided by private monopolies: Poor service, high prices, feeling of being trapped, lack of innovation, and knowledge that said monopolies are protected by politicians and bureaucrats.
How is that ANY different from public monopolies? You *always* get the same results: Poor service (education), high prices ($10,000/student/year average), trapped in public school system (unless you can afford private, or homeschool alternatives), lack of innovation, and public unions funding (almost exclusively) Democrat elections of politicians who will persist the whole broken system, with bureaucrats that pretend at reform, but kowtow to the unions as well.
You can’t *reform* monopoly. You can only break them up – or you get the same results – every time.
Bogus numbers, say it ain’t so.
Bean counters are running the roost. If you are a rooster, make sure your metrics are in order or you are out.