Ed Johnson: Will the Citizens of Atlanta Allow Their Public Schools to be Transformed into a Business?
Ed Johnson, a close observer and frequent critic of the Atlanta public schools, writes here about the superintendent’s plans to adopt models developed by Eli Broad and the Waltons to transform the public schools into a business.
Johnson is a believer in the collaborative philosophy of W. Edwards Deming.
December 2019
Journey of Transformation: Atlanta schools to “buy” teachers by “price tag”
- “Thinking about human beings as interchangeable commodities for sale, or abstract units of labor power, would lead merchants and planters to see human capital in much the same way that they saw animals. And, by the time a young apprentice became a partner, he would feel ‘no more remorse in fitting out a ship for the purpose of trading in human flesh, than he would have done in sending her to catch whales or seals.’”
- —Caitlin Rosenthal. Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management. Kindle Edition, location 1153.
Last month, Atlanta superintendent Meria Carstarphen, Ed.D., gave a presentation to the Atlanta Board of Education Budget Commission on FY 2021 budgeting for what she calls “Student Success Funding,” or SSF. The Budget Commission is a standing committee of the Board that meets monthly.
At one point during the presentation, Dr. Carstarphen invited the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Atlanta Public Schools system (APS) to more adequately explain a matter that see, Dr. Carstarphen, suggested to enquiring commission members she had already explained well enough (my insertions):
- (50:30-51:00) “… the way the schools purchase back their positions … we allocate the dollars and they buy their teachers back. The price tag we put on those teachers is an average salary … and all schools buy back [teachers] at that rate. What we know, what we’ve seen is that the schools that have the highest needs … have teachers that have either less experience or they don’t have the high degrees and, for whatever reason, they are ‘cheaper.’ … So what we would like to propose is … allowing those schools to buy their positions back at the actual average [value of the price tags we put on teachers] for their school.”
Despite the Board’s decision to non-renew her employment contract beyond the current school year, Carstarphen, by CONTINUE READING: Ed Johnson: Will the Citizens of Atlanta Allow Their Public Schools to be Transformed into a Business? | Diane Ravitch's blog
