TO PRIVATIZE IS TO DESTROY EDUCATION

Of course, the motive for privatization of educations is profit and not to educate the children. This relationship seems to be so simple that people fail to see the trend or that we bury it so deeply in detail we do not recognize what is happening. The tragedy is that the privatization trend seems to be going in the favor of privatization. Public education is steadily improving day by day despite all efforts by Governors in Republican controlled states to undermine it.  

We ask why are the “everything has to have a profit motive crowd” winning. They are using multiple strategies but two stand out. The K-12 approach is to have the Government cut public school budgets: closing schools, enlarging class size, firing teachers, refusing to pay hire wages for teachers that are more educated, etc. However, taxes for schools are not going down because the cost of education per student is going up due to privatizing auxiliary services; special education needs, cafeteria, security, protection. The other side of the tax coin is that the cost of private schools is going up, which cost the taxpayers money but benefits the entrepreneur.

A major area were parents aid and abet the right wing is with their understanding of unions. We (teachers) allow teachers unions to defend poor teachers and turn tenure protection into sonority protection rather than focus on wages, working conditions and the student welfare. This misguided effort, although small, provides a major focus of anti public school sentiment. Every Republican Governor has destroyed public worker collective bargaining rights—and did it with the blessings of the public that is these parents.

At the university level, the right wing is applying the opposite strategy. State legislatures are cutting funding to Universities and university administrators are increasing tuition. In addition, university administrators have opened their doors to corporate exploitation of their research capabilities. This is a complex strategy, but in essence, it is a way of funneling state tax dollars into the pockets of industries while shifting the cost of public education to the students. In addition, the financial industry is reaping the reward of creating a greater demand for student loans by charging higher interest rates. The result is $50,000 to $60,000 per year tuitions and students graduating with life long crippling debt.

In the sense of an editorial we, “we” have allowed these people to create the situation in which we find our selves. We are struggling to improve education and succeeding but the process is painfully slow. Nevertheless, more and more of our children are suffering because of our unwillingness to cooperate with the government economically. Unfortunately, that number of children is increasing especially in poorer neighborhoods targeted by charter schools. We want to live in a democracy but seem unwilling to allow the government to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, which is to educate all children. Not only will public education fail but also social order, as we know it, will fail in a right wing profit driven culture. The power to privatize is the prower to destroy public education. 

URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated