Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two
As I wrote last week, these are dire times for public education. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education leading the charge for big budget cuts, charter schools, and a radical privatization agenda, the possibility that free quality public education for all in America could soon be a thing of the past is real.
One would think that such clear and present danger to a cornerstone of our democracy coming from the right would unite Democrats behind the mantle of defending public education.
Sadly, however, that is not the case as even now, in the face of this assault, we see Democrats lining up with the billionaire-funded charter school lobby to wage holy war on teachers’ unions in name of making it easier to get rid of “bad teachers” to save the children.
This is not good news for American education or our democracy.
This week, again, I cede my column space to my wife and comrade in arms in the battle to defend public education to explain why this is the case.
Part Two: Why We Need to Protect Public Education:How Demonizing Teachers and Unchecked Charterization Hurts Kids—and Our Democracy
By Kelly Mayhew
In last week’s column, I outlined the general issues facing public education and teachers, and noted that many systemic issues are sidestepped in order to promote charter schools (http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/06/are-we-witnessing-end-of-public.html).
This is how the privatization story goes: demonize public schools and their teachers, hold charter schools up as excellent alternatives, create corporate charters and charter chains that use management companies to do the daily operations and siphon public tax money for schools into private businesses, employ non-union teachers who you can hire and fire at will. That’s how it works in a nutshell.
As an Alternet piece on the NAACP’s resolution calling for a moratorium on charter expansion and more oversight for charter schools reported (insert link: ):
In a move increasingly typical of the K-12 privatization industry, the charter industry slammed the Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part Two: