We, the People, call upon Jim Hightower and Diane Ravitch to discuss how “Even red-state Republicans don’t want for-profit chains and religious zealots grabbing for tax dollars to indoctrinate school children.”
[note Hightowers’s words are from his Progressive Populist December 15, 2023 article]
Hightower: “If you’re trying to enact an extremist right-wing policy, but the public keeps rejecting it, what would you do?” You could try blatant deception, giving the same old policy..a euphemistic name and a multimillion dollar political shove. That’s the dark path..taken by the clique of plutocrats and theocrats..determined to privatize America’s public schools.”
Hightower: ‘..Texas Gov. Greg Abbott..[has].. been pushing to make taxpayers fund private schools. But his own right-wing legislature has consistently rejected his power play.”
“So this year, Abbott & Company rebranded their scheme as “school choice” and “parental empowerment.”…While some families might want exclusive private schools, their claim they have no choice is a fraud. As one GOP legislator put it, his rural county as “private schools, a parochial school, a charter school, and a large home school community. That is choice,” he rightly notes.
Hightower: “Who are the privatizers? National billionaires like the Koch brothers – and in Texas..Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks..who double as proselytizers of a toxic theology of Christian nationalism. They are the Money Gods of school privatization..the governor, more than half of Texas House members, and every Republican state senator is financially hooked on their oil money.”
{note: in the same issue, Hightower also had a section describing “How Humanities Humanize Our Society. So ‘Kill ‘Em,’ Say Right Wingers.” The right-wing in North Carolina, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Mississippi “and elsewhere” is pushing to cancel humanities classes [history, languages, music, civics, literature, economics, theology “and other courses..that explore ideas, foster free thinking and expand enlightenment”]
A Mississippi Republican explained state spending on college degree programs will require they match the needs of the economy. Hightower’s incredulous response: “What? Is America nothing but its economy? Is the value of students measured only by the size of their future paychecks? Is public spending only worthy if it serves corporate interests?”]
we, the People call Diane Ravitch to testify on “The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”
[note, Ravitch’s words are from her 2013 book, “Reign of Error’}
Ravitch: “Public education is not broken…Public education is in a crisis only so far as society is…The solutions proposed by..self-proclaimed reformers..have failed by their own most highly valued measure..test scores.”
Ravitch: “With the distance of nearly a dozen years, we can see the damage done by NCLB to the nation’s educational system. Race to the Top actually doubled down on the wrongheaded assumptions of NCLB…NCLB centralized control of public education in Washington to an extent that was unimaginable when the U.S. Department of Education was established in 1979..”
“Today..thanks to the philosophical and political alignment of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, federalism has been all but abandoned.”
Ravitch: “The Common Core State Standards are an example of the Department of Education’s muscular use of federal funds to push a policy on the states that may or may not be wise.>’…….
In short order, almost every state agreed to adopt them, even with clearly superior standards like Massachusetts and Indiana, despite the fact ..these new standards had never been field-tested anywhere.”
Ravitch: NClB created the unrealistic expectation..all students should be proficient, as judged by state tests, and Race to the Top built on that assumption – while encouraging a shift to “value-added” measures to rate schools and teachers…an equally unrealistic measure: students must improve their test scores every year. If they don’t, then someone must be “held accountable.” Someone must be blamed and punished…Some students will not be proficient on the standardized tests no matter how hard they try, no matter how talented their teachers…There is no way..schools and their staffs can control for all the external factors that contribute to test results.”
Ravitch: “NCLB created- and Race to the Top sustained – the unwarranted belief..standardized tests are an accurate, scientific gauge of educational achievement. They are not..”
Ravitch: “Test scores provide a way to rank children, but the labeling in and of itself serves no valid educational purpose. The tests do not measure the many dimensions of intelligence, judgment, creativity, and character that may be even more consequential for the student’s future than his or her test score.”
Ravitch: “NCLB validated the patently false narrative..American education was failing. Year after year, the number of “failing schools” increased in every state as more and more schools failed to meet the unreachable goal of 100% proficiency..NCLB demanded.”
Ravitch: ‘..federal programs have fueled and accelerated the privatization movement. The constant barrage of bad news, based on unrealistic goals, was used to justify takeovers, profiteering, mass layoffs, and a death sentence for too many schools, in an effort to convince the public..this was the only way to address low achievement.”
Ravitch: “The media, always suckers for “miracle” claims, retailed stories of charter schools or so-called turnaround schools where everyone succeeded, without bothering to examine even the most obvious evidence suggesting exclusionary policies, expulsions, or attrition rates.”
Ravitch: “The charter movement paved the way for the resurgence of the voucher movement, as its advocates insisted “choice” was far more important than investing in public education. This was precisely what the far-right wing of the Republican Party had been saying for decades, without winning public support. When the evidence for the superiority of charter schools or voucher schools was scant, shaky, or even nonexistent, the champions of the free market insisted that choice itself was an important value.”
Ravitch: “The free-market reform movement had more than federal mandates on its side. It had big money. The billions dangled before cash-hungry states by Obama’s Race to the Top made states compete to accept market-based, test-driven policies. The nation’s largest foundations..used their billions as well to reinforce the free-market agenda…They funded think tanks..to put out reports and host conferences, spinning the benefits of such programs, despite..lack of any solid research evidence…privateers produced slick movies..found willing supporters in..mass media..”
Ravitch: “The corporate reform movement has capitalized on the American public’s infatuation with consumerism…why not shop for their children’s schools?”
Ravitch: “The advance of privatization depends on high-stakes testing..[which].. generates the data to grade not only students and teachers but schools. Given unrealistic goals, a school can easily fail…but the odds of success are small, especially after the most ambitious parents and students flee the school. the federal regulations are like quicksand..”
Ravitch: “Public education is an essential part of the democratic fabric of American society .”..
“The goal of our public educational system, evolved over many decades, is equality of opportunity…Choice does not produce equality; choice exacerbates inequality, as a free market produces winners and losers.”
Ravitch: “Conservatives should be at the forefront of the effort to oppose privatization because the public school is a source of community, stability, and local values. Conservatives do not tear down established institutions and hand them over to..vagaries of the free market or..whims of financial and political elites. Conservatives do not destroy communities. What we are witnessing today is the Walmartization of American education, an effort to uproot neighborhood schools and Main Street business and outsource..management to chain schools and chain stores run by anonymous corporations.”
Ravitch: “Public education has enlarged our democracy since the mid-nineteenth century…assimilated millions of immigrant children..by teaching them how to speak English and how to participate in American democracy.”
{note; Ravitch was preceded by Deborah Meier” book, “Will Standards Save Publication?? The answer was no.}
[note: consider the depth of the campaign to eliminate public education, with these quotes:
Robert Simonds, president of “Citizens for Excellence in Education” and National Association of Christian Educators”: “Our job is to evangelize..schools are the battleground. The goal of 500,000 born-again Christians working inside the ‘system is to bring public education back under..control of the Christian community.” [1991]
Evangelist Franklin Graham: “I want to see at least one child in every public school in America who is trained as a witness for Jesus Christ. Let’s don’t surrender public schools. Let’s take them back..”
The Far Right has declared war on the rest of America. Their words and intent have been, are being spoken publicly. there is no mystery on what they intend: a theological plutocracy – run by the “right’ people, the “real” Americans like them. This site has, continues to make that information available to YOU. They intent to undo much of what made America a true “democracy” during the 20th century.
YOU may end up one of the “winners” if the Far Right succeeds – but YOU haver to live in a country full of distrust, hatred, poverty, exclusion. That is NOT what the American Revolution was about, NOT what Lincoln meant by a government of – by – and for the people, not what King meant in his “I have a Dream” speech, NOT what the trajectory of American history from 1789 to 1980 had tried to achieve.
If the Far Right succeeds, America will cease to be an exceptional nation, will cease to have any real “democratic” content for the lower 95% of its population. Do. YOU. care??? ooo
With Justice For All 