Private interests vs. school reform: It’s time to fight
LAST WEEK, the Philadelphia School District announced plans to completely overhaul itself and close more than 40 public schools next year. By closing the schools, for what it describes as considerable financial, academic, and safety concerns, the district claims that it will be able to restructure in ways that are more effective and efficient.
While not surprising, given our city’s consistent bungling of education reform over the past two decades, this move was nonetheless disturbing for many reasons.
It’s difficult to imagine how the district can justify such a sweeping change without consulting parents, teachers, community groups, leaders or outside educational experts. While none of these parties truly matters within the current age of educational entrepreneurialism, the fact that the district didn’t even pretend to care is an index of the city’s growing indifference to anything or anyone that doesn’t generate profit.
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Also, given the absence of a permanent superintendent, this move seems hasty and completely unrelated to legitimate academic concerns.
But, of course, the dismantling of public education in Philadelphia has nothing to do with academic achievement. It has to do with satisfying the motives of corporate profiteers and shameless