The reformers don’t use such ugly words. They call it “choice” and they call those of us fighting to preserve education as a public right, the “status quo.” Clever … if you pay no attention to the man behind the curtain that is. The corporate reformers, er, uh, I mean the “choice” advocates at the very top, the ones turning the wheels and playing on the fear and hopes of parents who want nothing more than the best for their children, have been digging away at the pillars of public education in order to turn a profit, and to turn the socio-political tides of American power relationships between the 1% and the remaining 99.
It’s brilliant propaganda. The word “choice”-I mean, who doesn’t like choice? To say you don’t is simply, well, un-American right? There are several other brilliant slogans that have washed over our national lexicon: No Child Left Behind (who wants children left behind, right?) and see how that turned out! Or, “The Patriot Act” … more aptly named “Brave New World.” The key is to look at the actions, and the real players, behind the labels. This political rhetoric isn’t about any parents individual right to choose what’s best for their own children. This word is being launched about to build (often unknowingly on behalf of many parents) the stamina of the conservative ideology to privatize public education as part of its measure to eliminate many other social institutions in order to “cut the budget”-mind you they never advocate to cut spending that may affect them or their million dollar golden parachutes. These are the same folks executing measures to “reform” educational policy in schools (as Peg Robertson points out) that their own children don’t even have to attend.
In fact, next week is National School Choice Week. Wouldn’t it be really ironic if public schools had the day off as a national holiday? Never mind, the reformers will close them for good soon enough. If I counted correctly only about 41 of their listed partners are faith-based organizations. A handful of them are private schools that are sectarian-based. I have no issue with faith-based or sectarian private schools nor their desire to attract students. I have no issue with parents who choose to educate their children as they see fit if that choice excludes a public education. Somehow I don’t think it’s in the agenda of such organizations or schools to eliminate public education as their final goal. They simply want the right to have a seat at the table. Therefore I am leaving their association with this School Choice effort out of this critique.
But somewhere along the lines of our current political agenda, war has been declared against public education’s right to exist, and flourish, as well.
I have no issue either with charter schools (or at least as they were originally conceived decades ago) as community-based opportunities to provide creative alternatives with unique approaches. But the corporate-led reformers must have gotten wind that there were billions of dollars to be made by funneling federal dollars through these schools, and have since taken the lead to legislate policies to their benefit. For example, according the a New York Times article, Agora, an online charter school has been found to be failing in its promises to its students and yet “by Wall Street standards … Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.”
This takes me to an examination of other partners listed as supporters of School Choice Week. The organizations listed below have direct connections with, or strong ties to, a right-wing agenda to privatize many American institutions including education. The first and foremost, and a listed partner of the School Choice Week, is The American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC).According to ALEC Exposed, "Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights…Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a ‘unique,’ ‘unparalleled’ and ‘unmatched’ organization.” Their largest contributing members include the tobacco industry and big oil.
The 2011 ALEC Annual Conference Substantive Agenda on Education shows their current interests: "...the Task Force voted on several proposed bills and resolutions, with topics including: digital learning, the Common Core State Standards, charter schools, curriculum on free enterprise, taxpayers' savings grants, amendments to the existing model legislation on higher education accountability, and a comprehensive bill that incorporates many components of the landmark school reforms Indiana passed this legislative session.
Additional partners with School Choice Week include:
Goldwater Institute: Is a member of ALEC. Founded in 1988 with the blessing of the late Senator Barry Goldwater, the Goldwater Institute’s mission is to advance freedom and protect the Constitution.
Friedman Foundation: Is a member of ALEC and funds Michelle Rhee’s brain child Students First. Additionally Friedman is an Indiana-based nonprofit devoted to the privatization of schools through the promotion of an educational voucher system. It is regarded as one of the most influential proponents of neo-liberal market economics.
Heartland Institute: According to ALEC Exposed it “is a nonprofit ‘think tank’ that questions the reality and import of climate change, second-hand smoke health hazards, and a host of other issues that might seem to require government regulation.”
Connections Academy: An online charter school company that serves as the current co-chair for the ALEC Educational Taskforce
The New Jersey Teat Party Caucus
The Heritage Foundation: Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a New Right think tank. Its stated mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of "free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." It is widely considered one of the world's most influential public policy research institutes. Heritage is also a member of ALEC.
The Reason Foundation: The Reason Foundation is a self-described liberatarian " think tank. The Reason Foundation's projects include NewEnvironmentalism.org and Privatization.org, as well as Reason Magazine It is part of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation network. The Reason Foundation is funded, in part, by what are known as the "Koch Family Foundations," and David Koch serves as a Reason trustee
Freedom Foundation: A non-profit organization that is member of ALEC. Media Transparency, as cited in ALEC Exposed state: "In fact, foundation tax records show that more than one-third of Evergreen’s support comes from out-of-state foundations -- most of them financed by advocates of anti-public education efforts, including school vouchers, or anti-labor activity including ‘paycheck protection.’ Several Evergreen contributors have strong ties to the State Policy Network, the national string of smaller think tanks that promote conservative agendas in their respective states
Institute for Justice: Is a member of ALEC. According to its website, “The Institute for Justice has a long history of successfully defending school choice from legal attacks.”
Foundation for Excellence in Education: Is a member of ALEC. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Jeb Bush.
Atlas Network: According to their own website, “Atlas is coordinating essay contests and summer schools to encourage students to go beyond the anti-market biases of their professors and grapple with the moral issues surrounding respect for property, achievement, and free exchange.”
Citizens for Educational Freedom: According to their website, “Long opposed by teachers unions, state bureaucrats, and local public school boards who struggle to maintain their monopoly control, CEF can claim many victories, as state legislators and concerned citizens move ahead with voucher and tax credit programs. But far too many parents still see their educational choices limited to the local government-run school.”
Veridus: According to their website: "Veridus is a full spectrum public affairs and government relations firm providing every client with an experienced team of results-driven individuals. Veridus is prepared to help your business or organization navigate the complexities of the legislative process, to succeed in an election or public relations campaign, or to assist with a
state procurement." Some of their clients include Pearson and Teach for America.
Students First: The school choice initiative that was the brain child of Michelle Rhee and is funded largely by other members of ALEC such as the Walton Foundation and the Friedman Foundation.
Liberty on the Rocks: Has as its three key educational focuses- free market economics, private property rights and/or individual liberty.
Center for Educational Reform: Is a member of ALEC. Defines itself as “the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S.” since 1993.
K12Reboot: According to its website, “In any functioning market for services, there will be successful providers who grow, and unsuccessful providers who fail. But this dynamic supports a fundamental point: no system is likely to show sustainably good results if the end users (customers) cannot exercise choice. Much attention has been given to ‘accountability’ in K-12 education, and throughout this site you will see discussions on how to achieve better accountability — better results — in education. But the bottom line for us is that choice drives improvement.”
Evergreen Freedom Foundation: Defines their mission as “to advance individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited, accountable government.”
American Federation for Children: A member of ALEC. Chairman of the Board is Betsy Devos. On a related note, “In 1993, ALEC gave its first ‘Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award’ to school privatization advocate and funder Richard DeVos. In the early 1990s, under the leadership of longtime ALEC member Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to implement a voucher program using public funds to send children to private schools.” Betsy DeVos, the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, has a little known connection to war profiteering and private security forces in Iraq." Her younger brother, Erik D. Prince, is "the founder of Blackwater USA, a private security firm currently working in Iraq."
Alliance for School Choice: This group has as its core supporters four ALEC associated groups included those listed above: The American Federation for Children, Students First, The Foundation for Educational Choice, and The Institute for Justice.
Strangely enough those of us dedicated to ending high-stakes testing to save public education have some values in common with those who are supportive of the “choice” efforts. We both agree that high stakes testing have a destructive stranglehold on children and educational possibilities. Many of us on both sides would agree that federally mandated Common Core is destructive and limits student-centered meaningful learning. Here’s what we also have in common-corporate ownership. Both the measures to reform public education, and the alternatives being promoted by school choice backers are both being manipulated behind the scenes by corporations. We might all agree that a child’s educational opportunities should not hinge on his or her zip code. We both concede that something needs to be done to transform education. The conversations around these issues leave most people left to navigate a complicated terrain of competing ideologies.
But it is the solutions for which we advocate where we differ greatly! As is evidenced by many if not most of the promoters of School Choice Week (whom I have outlined here), school choice initiatives are largely grounded in an ideology of free-market enterprise and privatizing social systems into the hands of corporations. When has the free-market approach ever benefitted the most disenfranchised in a society? We are now, in this era of free market, closer to the disparities between rich and poor harkening back to the Age of the Robber Barons in the early 20th century. The civil rights movements advocating for the rights of workers, people of color, women, and the GLBT community (among others not listed here) have all been built on the pillars of Constitutional rights preserved by our democracy.
Free-market, privatizing policy makers see government as intrusive in their rights. Maybe that's because these are the same people who already have their rights preserved in a cloud of privilege (take a look at the demographic breakdown of the far right neoliberals by socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and religion).
Conversely, those of us fighting to preserve the right for ALL children to a free and public education see how government has abused its role as the over-bearing intrusive body (i.e. NCLB). But rather than dismantling this relationship between schools and government we seek to transform it, perhaps into something it has never been ... yet but could, and should be. As Grace Lee Boggs says in her book The Next American Revolution, that "revolutions are made not to prove the correctness of ideas but to begin anew."
Don’t sever the relationship between OUR government (which is "we the people") and education. Take control over it- as the people who are supposed to be in charge of our government. “They” are us. It’s our job to use the rights and privileges afforded to us as owners of the government to take back the task of educating our children-snatch it back from the hands of corporations who seem to be willing to do it for us, in order to make our children into profits for their portfolios.
It is clear that ALEC has a big investment in promoting school choice. But if one looks at the record of other legislative efforts that have put forward it is clear that their larger agenda is to promote corporate profit-bearing interests over broader social, economic or environmental good. Their interests in education cannot be detached from their larger ideological, political, and economic aspirations. Education is one facet of the bigger puzzle. They are waging war on public education not for the sakes of under- served children and in the name of equity and social justice. But they are brilliant marketers with gazillions of dollars to promote their agenda onto an unknowing public-especially parents. These are the same power players who continuously institute policies that have broadened the gap between the rich and the poor in this country-who legislate special tax breaks and other business measures to line their own pockets. The policy makers in camp with right wing free market ideologues of ALEC are fraught with their own contradictions as well, leaving one to wonder many things. For example, ALEC has stated its interest in promoting full scale educational reform including the Common Core, and new forms of teacher accountability. Yet the corporate backers of these measures share their financial wealth in funding choice measures such as vouchers for public school alternatives on the grounds that government is too intrusive and that public education is too restrictive.
This conservative right are the same folks who shut down the Ethnic Studies program is Tucson AZ, claiming that “that the program was ethnically divisive and violated a state law restricting ethnic-studies courses.”
John Huppenthal (R-Senate) and the school board that shut them down also banned books in those classrooms. Sounds like government intrusion to me. Maybe the real problem was that here was a public school program that worked-that really created successful learning experiences for its students. And if you want to privatize public education on the grounds that it refuses to be innovative, that it fails to individualize programs to the unique needs of the students, and is failing to produce high achievement (their reasons for why school choice must exist in the first place) then you cannot allow successful programs in public schools like that one to continue to exist. According to Lemons, “In today's Arizona -- at least among some Republicans -- bashing Mexicans and Hispanic Americans is a tried and true way to achieve and maintain political office.”
As Tim Slekar writes:
Our public school system is by no means perfect but it rests on a perfect foundational ideal -- a free and equitable education for all! However, instead of being committed to making this ideal a reality, corporate education reform foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation and Walton Foundation and individuals like Vahan Gureghian and Betsy DeVos have decided that this little experiment in equality needs to be ended. No more! Instead, through the smokescreen of NCLB, these reformers have convinced many Americans that our public school system is failing.
We must be able to discern the difference between publicly funded and publicly owned opportunities for education. Any efforts to “innovate” or “reform” public education that do not have at their central core advocacy for a viable, equitable, and publicly available and publicly “owned” educational system, is simply undemocratic. We must remain public--detached from the agendas of businesses disguised as reformers who push for new curriculum and evaluations, and conveniently find themselves the recipients of billions of dollars to enact those reform measures; billions of dollars that could be spent in building successful equitable meaningful learning spaces for all children (instead of simply testing them more often and with greater punishments for their failures) where they wouldn’t have to find alternatives-because their public schools would have everything another “choice” could offer, and more. In simplest terms I see the free market corporate model legislation and policy reform organizations as a group bent on drilling holes in a ship so it will sink and then selling life rafts to the people jumping out. If we don’t preserve education as a publicly owned right and responsibility, lest our democracy becomes a corp-ocracy.
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