“Valuable” Is NOT The Same As “Profitable”
The Opt Out Orlando (OOO) Facebook membership climbs steadily as the message spreads across Florida! We welcome your participation in this exciting movement. And more importantly, we welcome this precious opportunity to share information and perspectives about public education. The new school year begins in just over two weeks. As district test schedules are released for the upcoming year, there is growing anxiety in our communities. Through Opt Out Florida, we are supporting parents in local districts across the state as they start their own opt out groups in order to push back against the onslaught of all the new testing to come. We’re growing, so now is the time to clarify the purpose of OOO.
We fight for public schools.
Why? Because public schools are worth fighting for. One of the most crucial points – all too often neglected in mainstream discussions about education – is that public schools belong to the public. They belong to us. You and I, our neighbors, parents, grandparents – all of us – have paid for them. We sustain them with our tax dollars. For the last thirty years, an assault on this public institution has been waged, and the assault has come in the form of privatization.
So, what does the privatization of public schools mean to your children and you? It can be described in two ways:
We fight for public schools.
Why? Because public schools are worth fighting for. One of the most crucial points – all too often neglected in mainstream discussions about education – is that public schools belong to the public. They belong to us. You and I, our neighbors, parents, grandparents – all of us – have paid for them. We sustain them with our tax dollars. For the last thirty years, an assault on this public institution has been waged, and the assault has come in the form of privatization.
So, what does the privatization of public schools mean to your children and you? It can be described in two ways:
- “…importing of ideas, techniques and practices from the private sector in order to make the public sector more like businesses and more business-like” (Ball & Youdell, 2008, p. 9).
- “…opening up of public education services to private sector participation on a for-profit basis and using the private sector to design, manage or deliver aspects of public education” (Ball & Youdell, 2008, p. 10).