The New American Privateers
Privatization for Profit
The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers: Cowen, Josh: 9781682539101: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/Privateers-Billionaires-Created-Culture-Vouchers/dp/1682539105/ref=sr_1_1?
josh-cowen.com Josh Cowen @joshcowenMSU on X
Josh Cowen's book The Privateers is coming out this week. I've already got my copy, and you should get a copy of your own, because the book has a lot of insights into the voucher debates as they currently stand. Peter Greene Curmudgucation
In the early days of the United States, the government had a cunning plan to deal with enemy vessels: commission privateers to attack and plunder them. These privateers were essentially legalized pirates, operating under the auspices of the state and corporate investors. The government didn't have to spend a dime, and the investors were hoping to make a tidy profit from the spoils of maritime warfare. It was a win-win situation, unless you happened to be on the receiving end of a privateer's cannon fire.
Privateering was the ultimate in cost-effective warfare. Instead of footing the bill for naval officers and ships, the government simply handed out letters of marque to corporate entities, essentially outsourcing piracy to the private sector. The investors were in it for the money, not for any sense of patriotism. Many of these privateers were nothing more than glorified pirates, with a fancy letter of marque as their get-out-of-jail-free card.
Fast forward to modern times, and the spirit of privateering lives on in a new form. No longer do we see ships laden with cannons and cutlasses; instead, we have corporate entities armed with spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. These modern-day privateers are not raiding ships or donning eye patches, but they are just as ruthless in their pursuit of profit. Their target? Public institutions. It's called privatization, and it's the 21st-century version of plundering.
Privatization is the act of putting public services into private hands, all in the name of free-market regulation. The New American Privateers have set their sights on every aspect of public life, from safety and education to parks and public buildings. They swoop in, take control, and either run these services for profit or simply let them wither away.
Take, for example, the recent headline about firefighters in rural Tennessee standing idly by as a home burned to the ground because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. This is privatization in action: if you can't pay, you don't get the service. It's the ultimate "user pays" system, where everything comes with a price tag, even your safety.
The argument put forth by these modern-day privateers is that user fees are necessary to keep taxes low. But what they conveniently forget to mention is that when you add up all these user fees, you end up paying a whole lot more than you would have in taxes. It's a classic bait-and-switch, and we're all left holding the bag.
In the realm of education, the privateers have launched a full-scale assault on "failing schools" and "bad teachers." Their corporate leaders and venture philanthropists are on a mission to dismantle public education and teachers' unions in favor of applying the free market principles that have worked so well in firefighting (or so they claim).
Back in 1856, the Declaration of Paris declared that "Privateering is and remains abolished." But the United States decided not to sign on the dotted line. Fast forward to today, and it's clear why: the New American Privateers are alive and well, privatizing America for the benefit of their corporate overlords.
The big question is: who's going to stop them? It's a battle between profit and public good, and right now, it seems like profit is winning. But history has shown us that even the most formidable privateers can be defeated. It just takes a concerted effort and a willingness to stand up for what's right.
So let's raise our metaphorical Jolly Roger and set sail against these modern-day privateers. Let's fight for public services that benefit everyone, not just those who can afford to pay. It's time to send these profiteers packing and reclaim what's rightfully ours: a society that values the common good over corporate gain.
The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers: Cowen, Josh: 9781682539101: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/Privateers-Billionaires-Created-Culture-Vouchers/dp/1682539105/ref=sr_1_1?
#1 New Release in Education Reform & Policy
The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers: Cowen, Josh: 9781682539101: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/Privateers-Billionaires-Created-Culture-Vouchers/dp/1682539105/ref=sr_1_1?
A deep-dive investigation of education privatization that reveals voucher programs as the faulty products of decades of work by wealthy patrons and influential conservatives
In The Privateers, Josh Cowen lays bare the surprising history of tax-funded school choice programs in the United States and warns of the dangers of education privatization. A former evaluator of state and local school voucher programs, Cowen demonstrates how, as such programs have expanded in the United States, so too has the evidence-informed case against them.
This thought-provoking work traces the origins of voucher-based education reform to mid-twentieth-century fears over school desegregation. It shows how, in the intervening decades, a cabal of billionaire conservatives supporting a host of special political interests—including economic libertarianism, religious choice, and parental rights—have converged around the issue of education freedom in an ongoing culture war. Through deliberate policymaking, legislation, and litigation, Cowen reveals, an insular advocacy network has enacted a flawed system for education finance driven largely by dogma.
Far from realizing the purported goal of educational equity, privatization is failing students and exacerbating income inequality, Cowen finds. He cites multiple research studies that conclude that voucher programs return poorer academic outcomes, including lower test scores on state exams, especially among students who are at greater academic risk because of their race, their religion, their gender identity, or their family’s income. Continued advancement of these policies, Cowen argues, is an assault on public education as a defining American institution.
The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers: Cowen, Josh: 9781682539101: Amazon.com: Books https://www.amazon.com/Privateers-Billionaires-Created-Culture-Vouchers/dp/1682539105/ref=sr_1_1?
OTHER GREAT BOOKS ON PRIVATIZATION
BY THE GREAT DIANE RAVITCH
