All those in favor of promoting and improving free, public, integrated, comprehensive, universal public education are fighting against a very well-organized, heavily funded, and powerful opposition.
We have all of the right-wing think tanks and major media editorial boards against us. (Don’t believe me? See an article by the late Milton Friedman, in the Washington Post, from 15 years ago. ) NCLB was planned and implemented precisely to destroy the public schools, and is working quite well. We have both the national Republican and Democratic parties vilifying teachers and trying to eliminate free, comprehensive, universal, public education. Public schools appear to be more and more racially segregated, and the charter schools are even worse. We have “philanthopists” representing untold billions in private wealth (essentially stolen from the public) who are trying to privatize public education, and to eliminate some of the few remaining areas of union organization left in the US.
But what are WE going to do about it?
Well, we can do some research to point out the lies and distortions put out by the pro-privatization side. My blogs have mostly been research articles, in which I have been attempting to use facts and statistics to refute the lies peddled by the pro-privatization, anti-public-education, anti-union crowd that is exemplified by Rhee. I have used data from the websites of NAEP, OSSE/DCPS/NCLB, S.H.A.P.P.E. and the 21st Century School Fund among others. The American Federation of Teachers employs some well-intentioned professional researchers and statisticians who have come up with some very interesting and useful data over the last decade or so.
But don’t expect any union leadership these days to actually be on the side of the rank-and-file. The term “sellout” is still a correct description of the vast majority of union leaders. For example, the current and past leadership of the Washington Teachers Union have been a pretty sorry lot. Some of them have been too busy lining their own pockets (and hiding this from the teachers) to fight for reform, no matter what they proclaimed publicly.
The trouble is the opposition has had a head start of some decades.
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1 comment:
I tried to organize for various things for quite a long time. Spent a lot of energy on it. Walked a lot of picket lines (sometimes my own union's). Occupied buildings on campus to help stop the war in Vietnam (small success; got ROTC removed from campus, at the price of 50 of us in jail for a month with $250 fines [or thereabouts]. It's hard, hard, work, and the rate of success can e quite discouraging.
As you say, the opposition has had a head start. Plus, they own the media, the corporations, and the government, and the courts, and military. And they run the schools. And they send their own kids to special, exclusive private schools where they learn to network with each other and never have to rub shoulders with the rest of us...
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