Business Culture and the Death of Public Education: The Triumph of Management Over Leadership
Friday 12 November 2010
by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Photo: Angela Radulescu / Flickr)
The recent news that Mayor Bloomberg has anointed Cathleen P. Black, the chairwomen of Hearst Magazines, as the new chancellor of the New York City school system is another high profile example of how much business elites in the United States despise public education and its traditional role as a guardian of civic values, democratic politics and public culture. It appears that Black's only suitability for the job is that she has "extraordinary qualifications as a manager," has "marketing prowess" and has participated "in a mentor day with Michelle Obama at a Detroit public school and, several years ago, [served] as 'principle for a day' in a school in the south Bronx."(1) This appointment could provide fodder for a skit for "Saturday Night Live" if it were not both true and tragic. Of course, there is a larger script here that points to the increasing power of