The Education Wars III: Neoliberalism and the Attack on Public Education

This attorney makes many excellent points about the relentless neoliberal assault on public education, which tells me neoliberalism isn't remotely connected with real liberalism but is nothing more than Friedmanism, a completely discredited economic philosophy:

With all due respect, lawsuits simply are not enough. They can act as platforms for forthright organizing and education but what is needed now is bold direct action on behalf of teachers, students, citizens and communities looking to safeguard their neighborhoods and public institutions from the locusts of privatization. If we are to secure the educational commons and seal if off from the crass entrepreneurs and privatizers that seek to parcel it out based on race, gender and social class for profit; if we are to protect our children from a loss of childhood under siege by ‘measureable outcomes’ and ‘efficiency targets’ begot by standardized tests linked to bankrupt federal policy; if we are to shed any attempts at merit pay and assure decent wages and working conditions for teachers, along with real and secure pensions and adequate and affordable health care; if we are to put forth an educational reform plan based on what we know works (lower class size, teacher collaboration, participatory democracy, preparation time for teachers to develop creative lesson plans, pre-schooling, etc.); if we are to educate the public about the urgency and exigency of public education with an emphasis on learning to think critically and developing the values and dispositions necessary for citizenship education to advance participatory democracy so we might confront the daily horrors of inequality, a lower standard of living, lack of participation in power, and divisiveness honed by racism, sexism, class, gender discrimination and gender inequality, then we must seek active coalitions for social change. These coalitions must grow and they must involve more and more public and private workers who see nothing in the future but growing inequality, tightening economic hardship, and the further destruction of childhood, promoted and fostered by the neo-liberal politics of late stage capitalism.